Chapter 25
an hour earlier.
Hyeokryeon Eung and Baek Jeon-cheon climbed to the top of the sheer stone mountain.
They had designated everything except the vicinity of the stone mountain as a restricted zone, so that they could see all the remaining trainees at a glance.
"Hm."
Hyeokryeon Eung spotted two shadows running from afar and let out a low hum.
"That brat... he was alive after all."
Having discovered Bu Eun-seol sprinting at full speed with wounds large and small covering his entire body, he furrowed his brow.
"A boy who hadn't even properly learned martial arts before coming to Hell Island—are you telling me he's survived this long, outlasting the prodigies of renowned clans?"
"They say he learned the Way of the Beast as soon as he arrived on Hell Island."
"You're making a strange joke."
Hyeokryeon Eung snorted and spoke with a disinterested expression.
"He probably just got beaten senseless or skimmed the surface. Is the Way of the Beast something one can master in just two months of study?"
"No. They say he mastered the Way of the Beast in fifteen days."
"What?"
"And he's been studying sword arts at the Fire Rain Sword Sect the entire time since. Moreover, however he managed to talk his way into it, they say he learned the True Body Supreme Art—the Peerless Thunderbolt Form—of Instructor Cheon, known as Killing Sword Breaks Heaven."
Hyeokryeon Eung, who had been listening quietly to Baek Jeon-cheon's explanation, doubted his own ears.
"Does that even make sense?"
"I didn't believe it at first either, but upon investigation, it turned out to be true."
"Why on earth."
Why on earth.
Those few words contained a multitude of meanings.
Baek Jeon-cheon gave a bitter smile and continued his explanation.
"The instructors who taught him all said the same thing: 'His bone and muscle structure isn't particularly good, but he possesses terrifying persistence and tenacity.'"
"Persistence and tenacity?"
"That's right. And besides... they say that once you teach him, he's so passionate that you can't endure it without giving him everything you've got."
Baek Jeon-cheon spoke playfully, as if trying to lighten the stiffened mood.
But Hyeokryeon Eung's face only grew more rigid.
"Then he must be a spy from the Righteous Faction. One with a clear goal."
"No."
"Then are you saying that brat is a heaven-sent martial talent?"
"I don't know if he's a heaven-sent martial talent, but he is absolutely not a spy from the Righteous Faction."
"How can you be so certain?"
At Hyeokryeon Eung's question, Baek Jeon-cheon wore an awkward smile.
"Because he was an undertaker affiliated with the Magistrate's Office—one who prepared the bodies of those who died away from home."
"That brat... was actually an undertaker?"
"Yes. Though he's young, they say his skill in preparing the dead was the finest in the Bu Estate. He'd been following his grandfather around since childhood, learning the undertaker's trade."
Hyeokryeon Eung's eyes went wide.
A man who wasn't even a murim practitioner, who'd been working as an undertaker—how did he come to participate in the Ten Demonic Heirs Tournament?
How could someone who hadn't learned a single martial art survive on Hell Island, where the greatest prodigies under heaven had gathered?
Just as countless questions were flooding his mind, Baek Jeon-cheon continued in a calm tone.
"If they'd intended to raise him as a spy, there's no way he would have done undertaker's work from childhood—work that even beggars refuse."
"Indeed... having the profession of an undertaker makes one far too conspicuous."
Spies of the Righteous Faction craft perfect backgrounds so as to never invite suspicion.
But Bu Eun-seol had far too many elements that invited suspicion, from his origins to his martial arts.
"Even if you don't want to believe it, when the situation is like this, you have no choice but to believe."
"Pardon?"
Hyeokryeon Eung, who had been looking down below the stone mountain, let out a deep sigh.
There, seventeen boys were surrounding Bu Eun-seol and Seo Jin-ha—who had their backs to the Killing Ghost—in a semicircle.
"Because now, all that's left for him is to die."
Those surrounding Bu Eun-seol were all heaven-sent prodigies with the finest talent and bone and muscle structure.
If he could hold off those nineteen prodigies, Bu Eun-seol wouldn't be a candidate for the Ten Demonic Heir—he'd already be a renowned master of the Demonic Path.
"It's a shame. He seems to have held out well so far."
Baek Jeon-cheon, who had been watching Bu Eun-seol, let out a sigh.
"He wandered around like a loner, and it seems he only grouped up belatedly."
To survive in the murim, one must not only be strong in martial arts, but also accurately read the situation and the tides.
"Judgment is also part of talent. In the end, that brat's vessel is only about this much."
"Is that so."
As Baek Jeon-cheon murmured quietly, Hyeokryeon Eung nodded firmly.
"It's over now."
His gaze was fixed once more on Bu Eun-seol, who was fighting a bloody battle below Stone Mountain.
Whik! Whik!
With a sharp sound of breaking air, the White Horse Whip and the Fire Rain Sword's keen strikes pierced toward both of Bu Eun-seol's sides at angles impossible to evade.
"Uwaaak!"
A wretched scream rang out above the heavens.
At the same time, Hyeokryeon Eung, who had been watching the bloody struggle with his hands clasped behind his back, opened his eyes wide.
"That is..."
Unable to evade, Bu Eun-seol had suddenly cut down the two attackers like lightning with a bizarre sword form.
"It's the Peerless Thunderbolt."
"So that child truly did learn the Peerless Thunderbolt."
As Baek Jeon-cheon let out an exclamation, Hyeokryeon Eung shook his head.
"But his internal energy is lacking, and his fundamentals in the sword are lacking."
"That is true."
Having unleashed the Peerless Thunderbolt, Bu Eun-seol was vomiting blood, having sustained severe internal injuries.
"He may have somehow learned the sword technique, but he lacks the ability to use it."
Hyeokryeon Eung let out a scoff.
"He forcibly used a sword technique that could be called the pinnacle of the Killing Sword, and inflicted fatal internal injuries upon himself."
"Now the mob will land the finishing blow."
Just as Baek Jeon-cheon said, three members of the mob approached the wounded Bu Eun-seol.
They were boys who had learned the Fire Rain Sword, the Bloodflame Blade, and the Evil Spirit Spear.
"To die by three martial arts of the Demonic Path Ten Gates—he will have no lingering regrets."
The three streaks of light shot toward Bu Eun-seol burst forth with a brilliance like firecrackers.
Just as the three supreme martial arts of the Demonic Path Ten Gates were about to coil around Bu Eun-seol's body,
Whiiiiik!
A whistle-like sound that seemed to tear at the ears rang out from the tip of Bu Eun-seol's sword.
At the same time, he began to precisely strike at the extreme points of the light created by the three weapons.
Clang! Ting! Clang!
Having blocked all the pouring attacks, Bu Eun-seol's black sword unleashed a wide curtain of light like the ribs of a folding fan.
Paaaah.
Tens of thousands of rays of light lightly swept over the bodies of the three who had been attacking Bu Eun-seol.
"..."
There was not even a groan.
The three boys, who had been standing blankly, collapsed like straw stalks, their hearts all pierced through.
"That is..."
Hyeokryeon Eung's eyes, who had been watching the scene, grew wide as if they would split.
Having fought countless battles, he had discerned that the single move Bu Eun-seol had displayed was Practical Combat Martial Arts.
'That bastard... he was the real thing!'
Hyeokryeon Eung let out a great exclamation in his heart.
He had thought the boy was a strange youth who had survived all along by sheer luck, without any martial arts.
But now that he looked, wasn't the boy, in a state of severe internal injury, predicting every single path of the forms unleashed by three martial arts prodigies?
'On top of that, he used the pouring force to unleash a ferocious killing move. And not because someone taught him—instinctively!'
"What is going on? Chief Instructor."
Baek Jeon-cheon, who had been watching the scene, let out an exclamation.
"No matter how much I think about it, there doesn't seem to be such a sword technique in the Fire Rain Sword Sect..."
"It's Practical Sword Art."
"Pardon?"
Hyeokryeon Eung, his fist clenched tight, spoke in a low voice.
"In a fraction of a moment, he predicted all the points of change in the three forms, and created a killing move to counter them."
Thump thump.
Hyeokryeon Eung's heart pounded.
For a long time, he had searched for a prodigy to inherit his Practical Combat Martial Arts, until his iron shoes wore out.
But to find someone with beast-like reflexes, killing intent that seemed to tear the heavens apart, and an Immovable Mind that would not waver in any situation... it was as difficult as finding a person born with Extreme Yin Severed Meridians.
'Could it be that I could not find one because he was fated to become a Ten Demonic Heir?'
Hyeokryeon Eung held a bitter smile.
The prodigy he had sought so desperately, unable to find, was right before his eyes.
But Bu Eun-seol was fated to become a Ten Demonic Heir, not his disciple.
"Bu Eun-seol! Run away, quickly!"
At that moment, Seo Jin-ha's shout rang out.
Bu Eun-seol, caught in a sudden ambush, had been pushed back to the very feet of a Killing Ghost.
Swish.
The Killing Ghost's eyes flashed like a hawk that had spotted its prey, and it slowly raised its hand.
'No!'
The number of people who should have been left was twelve.
But Hyeokryeon Eung, without even a moment to think, let out a thunderous shout.
"St—op——!"
Descending from the Stone Mountain like a bolt of lightning using the movement technique of the Thunder Spirit Body Flip, Hyeokryeon Eung shouted once more in a booming voice.
"That's enough!"
With tiger-like eyes, he examined the fallen Bu Eun-seol, then shouted again.
"Summon the Mad Doctor."
At that moment, Baek Jeon-cheon, who had belatedly followed Hyeokryeon Eung down from the Stone Mountain, asked in surprise.
"The Mad Doctor?"
"Quickly."
Hyeokryeon Eung, who had been staring at Bu Eun-seol's pale complexion, let out a lion-like roar.
"Before this brat dies, quickly!"
Fourteen.
That was the number of Ten Demonic Heir candidates who survived on Hell Island.
Originally, ten prodigies were to enter the Demonic Path Ten Gates. And according to the orders of the Secret Shadow Pavilion master, two prodigies were to be left to serve as the eyes and ears of the Ten Demonic Heir.
But due to Hyeokryeon Eung's sudden intervention, fourteen people remained after the Third Trial.
"Chief Instructor. What in the world are you thinking? We worked so hard to set up the Three Gates, and you deliberately left two more."
At the words of Hwa Wi-myeong, an elder of the Demon Hall, Hyeokryeon Eung, who was sitting at the table opposite him, answered with an impassive expression.
"He is a prodigy we absolutely must obtain."
"Outstanding prodigies are already overflowing. Did you break the rules of this momentous competition just to leave a mere two more?"
Hyeokryeon Eung spoke with a resolute expression.
"He is a super-special-grade prodigy that the Main Hall absolutely must obtain."
"Hmph."
Hwa Wi-myeong let out a displeased sigh and spoke again.
"The envoys of the Demonic Path Ten Gates will arrive soon. I do not know how they will take the overturning of what they had decided."
At that, Baek Jeon-cheon, who was standing at attention beside Hyeokryeon Eung, folded his long, narrow, slitted eyes.
"You need not worry about that."
"Why is that?"
"Because the discernment of the Killing Ghosts dispatched from the Demonic Path Ten Gates cannot possibly be lower than that of the Chief Instructor."
"Hmph."
Hwa Wi-myeong let out a lament and faintly shook his head.
"If even you say so, I shall trust it for now. However..."
And with a grave face, he stared directly at Hyeokryeon Eung.
"Since you broke the rules that were set together with the High Command of the Demonic Path Ten Gates, a punishment befitting that will be handed down."
Hyeokryeon Eung spoke calmly, as if he had expected it.
"I am already prepared for that."
Inside the bedchamber of the hall built at the center of Hell Island.
Sunlight streamed through the open window, and birds were chirping.
Bu Eun-seol, who had been lying on the hard wooden bed, slowly opened his eyes, feeling the pouring sunlight.
"...If this had been the Murim, I would have died."
For the first time since learning the Way of the Beast, he had fallen asleep completely unconscious.
Sitting up calmly and checking the state of his body, a strange thought occurred to him. His limbs seemed to have become a little thinner.
'Is it because the only thing I ate for ten days was pieces of dried meat?'
Rising from the bed, he looked at his reflection in the Copper Mirror across from him and nodded.
'So a physician of outstanding skill was stationed here after all.'
At the time, Bu Eun-seol had been in a state of exhausted stamina and injury. Despite that, he had executed the Peerless Thunderbolt, which inflicts fatal internal injuries.
Not only that, but at the moment of death, he had gained a sudden realization and had even imitated and unfolded the Practical Sword Study.
As a result of consecutively executing the Advanced Sword Studies, which he could not yet perform, Bu Eun-seol's qi vessels had become completely tangled, and he had been dying from fatal internal injuries.
But now, as if that had never happened, his entire body was brimming with vitality, and his skin was overflowing with elasticity.
'I truly never thought I would survive.'
The Demonic Path Ten Gates were originally ten.
From the start, Bu Eun-seol had thought that if he did not make it into the top ten, he would not survive.
But the Third Trial had ended even though fourteen people, including himself, remained. This was truly unexpected.
"Seeing that they selected as many as fourteen... could there possibly be a Fourth Trial as well?"
Creeeak.
Stepping out of the room, Bu Eun-seol could not help but open his eyes wide.
A long, connected corridor, doors placed here and there, and stairs leading downward. It was because the scene closely resembled the corridor of any ordinary guest inn lined with rooms.
'Was there a place like this on Hell Island?'
Descending the stairs, he saw that it truly was the interior of a two-story guest inn.
Servants in neat clothes were carrying food or taking orders, and on some tables, luxurious dishes had been laid out.