Chapter 295
'Something is wrong.'
Dong Yeo-rip's eyes widened in shock.
What he had expected was the sight of Bu Eun-seol consumed by rage as he watched Seo Jin-ha's life flicker away.
A beast-like howl, a mindless charge—
Even if not that extreme,
having fought through countless obstacles only to fail in saving a close friend whose breath was fading... at the very least, there should have been a minute crack in his spirit and mind.
But Bu Eun-seol's pupils had instead frozen over like the glaciers of the North Sea.
And within that rage and despair, he was weaving his sword techniques—terrifyingly, ruthlessly calm.
Flash!
Purple lightning bloomed in rapid succession within the stone chamber.
Dong Yeo-rip swiftly deployed his footwork technique.
Yet the ones who burst apart in sprays of blood were the Soulless Ones standing to his left and right.
'Is this bastard unleashing Killing Swords one after another?'
Bewilderment rose in Dong Yeo-rip's eyes.
The Killing Sword was a sword doctrine that fused the intangible energy of killing intent into sword strokes.
It awakened the body, granting explosive might and blistering speed.
However, killing intent was not infinite.
Thus, no matter how vicious a Killing Ghost one was, slaughtering people in succession would inevitably deplete one's innate killing intent.
—The Killing Sword may seem like a path leading to boundless heights, but in truth, it is an obstacle blocking an endless road. You must discard the heart of slaughter moving forward.
Cheon Un-gwang, who had imparted the Peerless Thunderbolt Form, had once spoken these words.
Though he had created the Peerless Thunderbolt Form and attained invincibility, he ultimately failed to reach the pinnacle of the Fire Rain Sword Art.
Human killing intent had its limits.
Even Cheon Un-gwang, who had reached the apex of the Killing Sword, could not unleash the Peerless Thunderbolt Form more than four times.
But for Bu Eun-seol, such limits did not exist.
Flash!
Another streak of purple lightning descended, severing a Soulless One's head.
To Dong Yeo-rip, it was as if a demon stood before him, pouring forth infinite killing intent.
'Unbelievable!'
Dong Yeo-rip had been confident in facing Bu Eun-seol alone.
Through the trials thus far, he had discerned that Bu Eun-seol's martial prowess had only just reached the threshold of the Extreme Heaven Realm.
Had he not himself entered the Extreme Heaven Realm long ago?
Not only that, but he also possessed the Thousand Stripe Wheel Eye, which allowed him to predict an opponent's next move just by observing their motions.
'I thought I could handle this bastard even blindfolded.'
Yet Dong Yeo-rip found himself unable to counter Bu Eun-seol, only dodging his sword strikes.
Because Bu Eun-seol stood rooted in place, unleashing violet lightning-like Killing Swords without end.
Moreover, resisting when an enemy's killing intent was at its peak was suicidal.
Regardless of martial skill, the opponent might resort to mutual destruction.
Thud. Thud.
Bu Eun-seol, having halted his sword strikes, slowly advanced toward Dong Yeo-rip.
His pupils were dyed redder than blood.
'Now!'
The instant Dong Yeo-rip spotted an opening in Bu Eun-seol's stance as he walked, he swung his Life-Severing Blade—
Whish!
Another lightning-fast Killing Sword pierced his uvula.
"Ghk—"
He stifled a groan, aborted his counterattack, and deployed his footwork technique once more.
Bu Eun-seol's Killing Sword lacked even the slightest preparatory motion—no movement at all.
And its speed...
Even Dong Yeo-rip, who had roamed the murim for decades, had never witnessed anything like it.
The utmost limit of killing intent.
Bu Eun-seol had been born with an immense reservoir of killing intent.
Yet he had never once channeled that killing intent into martial arts before.
But now, pouring that overwhelming killing intent into the Peerless Thunderbolt Form had amplified its might several times over.
'I can't just keep dodging.'
Dong Yeo-rip swallowed dryly.
Bu Eun-seol's momentum showed no signs of waning—it only grew stronger.
If left unchecked, he would be defeated without ever landing a single strike.
"Die!"
Dong Yeo-rip gathered his internal power and thrust out not the Life-Severing Blade, but his five fingers.
An invisible, razor-sharp energy surged toward Bu Eun-seol's body.
Finger Sword.
Swinging the Life-Severing Blade would be useless against that lightning-flame-like Killing Sword.
In an instant, Dong Yeo-rip unleashed the Finger Sword—a technique only a master with three sixty-year cycles of internal energy could perform, one whose trajectory was impossible to detect at close range.
Thud.
But the five Finger Swords merely pierced his skin—they failed to penetrate deeper.
Blocked by the killing intent enveloping Bu Eun-seol's body.
"He's materialized killing intent like True Qi?"
Dong Yeo-rip's eyes bulged as if they might tear.
Only then did he realize he had provoked something he should never have touched.
Flash!
Another violet radiance bloomed from Bu Eun-seol's Ink Sword.
It was like the unseen claw of a Death God.
Dong Yeo-rip barely evaded, but the Soulless Ones beside him could not.
Thump. Thump.
In an instant, the remaining Soulless Ones' heads rolled across the floor.
'Is this bastard... truly this strong?'
Terror blossomed in Dong Yeo-rip's eyes as he watched.
Where had his calculations gone wrong? At what point had things spiraled out of control?
Even a master of the Extreme Heaven Realm would see their martial arts regress if consumed by rage and despair.
Yet how had this man sublimated his fury and killing intent into sword techniques?
'Could it be... he's been deliberately suppressing his martial prowess all this time?'
But that was Dong Yeo-rip's delusion.
Until now, Bu Eun-seol's spirit and mind had been suspended between the Demonic Path and the Righteous Path.
Because of this, neither the Demonic Path Martial Arts nor the Demonic Heavenly Emperor's Emotion Severing Secret Art, nor the orthodox martial techniques like the Martial Emperor's Enlightenment and Thirteenfold Qi Induction—
None of them could exhibit their original might in full.
And though they had used Seo Jin-ha to plunge Bu Eun-seol into grief and despair, seeking to shatter his Spirit and Mind...
Contrary to expectations, Bu Eun-seol's heart only froze over further, and the overwhelming Killing Intent buried within him erupted forth.
As a result, his Spirit and Mind had fully entered the Demonic Path, and the Demonic Path Martial Arts he wielded now regained their original destructive power.
But to Dong Yeo-rip, who remained oblivious to this truth even in his wildest dreams, it merely seemed as though Bu Eun-seol's martial prowess had suddenly surged.
"Don't move."
In the end, Dong Yeo-rip formed a Finger Sword and pressed it against Seo Jin-ha's heart.
For a master who had risen to the position of aide to one of the Ten Demonic Paragons, this was an act too crude and desperate.
But he was far too terrified.
'That bastard won't kill me quickly.'
The thought of what kind of torment Bu Eun-seol would inflict, what method he would use to end him—it was utterly horrifying.
'This bastard is still breathing! But if I take even a single step—'
Before he could finish his thought, the sword in Dong Yeo-rip's hand vanished in an instant.
Unbeknownst to him, his right wrist had already been cleanly severed by the Ink Sword.
"GAAAH!"
Startled, Dong Yeo-rip lost all composure, clutching his wrist as a pained groan escaped him.
In that moment, Bu Eun-seol seized him by the collar, pulling him close until their faces nearly touched, and whispered:
"Having fun?"
"Peeling off flesh, severing tendons and muscles—"
"Ugh—AAAH!"
Dong Yeo-rip, now dangling helplessly in the air, let out a wretched scream.
Unnoticed, Bu Eun-seol had unleashed a surge of razor-sharp True Qi, gouging out a chunk of flesh from his chest.
"Laugh."
Bu Eun-seol's icy gaze bore into him as he spoke.
"I won't kill you while you're laughing."
"Ghk—!"
Every time Bu Eun-seol's sharp True Qi raked across his body, Dong Yeo-rip shrieked in agony.
Because with each touch, the True Qi slowly melted away his meridians.
Sssss—
Before long, Dong Yeo-rip's hair had turned white, his skin blackened and withered.
Bu Eun-seol had used his Internal Energy to forcibly expel all of Dong Yeo-rip's own Internal Energy from his body.
"Kill me... just kill me..."
Now aged beyond recognition, Dong Yeo-rip mumbled with unfocused eyes.
"Please, kill me."
"Who planned this?"
At Bu Eun-seol's question, Dong Yeo-rip stammered:
"I—I don't know. I was just following orders from the Four Flames Alliance..."
The Four Flames Alliance—much like the Twelve Branches in the past—was an underworld syndicate that handled all manner of dirty work for merchants and the wealthy.
So they were the ones who kidnapped Seo Jin-ha and orchestrated this?
"A mere pawn. You and the Four Flames Alliance both."
Having grasped the truth in an instant, Bu Eun-seol saw no further need for Dong Yeo-rip. With a single, effortless motion, he slit his throat.
Thud.
The head of the man who had spent decades torturing and slowly killing people rolled limply to the ground.
That was the end of Dong Yeo-rip.
Crash.
Shattering the iron chains embedded in the wall, Bu Eun-seol carefully lowered Seo Jin-ha's body to the floor.
Tap-tap-tap!
After swiftly sealing his pressure points, he retrieved a translucent vial from his robes.
It was the Elixir of Miraculous Revival—Slumbering Demon Divine Pill—that he had taken from the Spirit Medicine vault before coming to the Demon Hall.
"Drink. Seo Jin-ha."
But Seo Jin-ha, unconscious, could not swallow the pill.
Bu Eun-seol's trembling hands pried open his mouth and placed the pill inside.
Then, he channeled his Internal Energy to hasten the absorption of the medicine's effects.
Seo Jin-ha's pulse did not return. There was no reaction. Yet Bu Eun-seol did not stop, continuously infusing him with Reverse Polarity True Qi.
Huuuum...
Even after pouring pure Reverse Polarity True Qi into him for a full quarter hour, Seo Jin-ha's pulse remained still.
"Why...?"
Bu Eun-seol's head drooped as a crimson haze—a swirling mix of Rage and Killing Intent—rose from his entire body.
His Spirit and Mind was sinking into an uncontrollable abyss of grief.
From the moment he had seen Seo Jin-ha's mutilated state, tiny fractures had already formed in his psyche.
He had merely concealed them beneath terrifying self-restraint and Killing Intent.
"Why do those I care for always leave me?!"
BOOM!
The True Qi erupting from Bu Eun-seol's body shook the stone chamber violently.
Grandfather Bu Jan-yang.
The Gong Twin Demons of the Yueyang Branch.
Even Seok U-haeng, with whom he had shared a sense of kinship...
All of them had left his side.
Those he had given his heart to—they always left him behind.
"Why."
As Bu Eun-seol muttered darkly, a black miasma began seeping from his body.
Rage. Despair. Grief. And Killing Intent.
Every negative emotion flooded his Spirit and Mind, saturating it completely.
Crack—
The sound of bones grinding echoed as the crimson glow radiating from him darkened into an endless void.
Rumble...
The stone chamber trembled as if collapsing, the black energy surging from his body growing ever more oppressive.
With each passing moment, Bu Eun-seol's Spirit and Mind was dragged deeper into an unfathomable Abyss.
Sizzle...
Simultaneously, his skin burned red, emitting a faint, eerie glow.
His appearance now resembled that of the Great Demon—Ak Mu-ryeong—when he had unleashed Essence Gathering Spirit Transformation and Illusion Upon Illusion atop Iron Palm Peak.
Unlike the orthodox sects that prioritize qi, the Demonic Path's martial arts are rooted in the mind.
Bu Eun-seol had mastered both the Emotion Severing Secret Art and the Martial Emperor's Enlightenment—two pinnacle mental techniques of the orthodox and demonic paths.
Thus, while his martial prowess had reached the heavens, his spirit and mind had lingered between the Demonic Path and the Righteous Path.
But now, drowned in despair and grief, he had chosen the complete path of the Demonic Dao.
—If I shave away all emotions, sharp and merciless... what could hinder me?
Yes.
Erase sentiment. Erase even the heart itself.
Then there would be no more suffering, would there?
"Uuuuugh—AAAAAH!"
KRUMBLE—!
As an overwhelming surge of energy erupted from Bu Eun-seol's body, the stone chamber's walls crumbled, and the ground split open like jagged spikes.
With his spirit and mind now aligned to the Demonic Path, the Emotion Severing Secret Art's suppressed teachings instantly seized control of his mind and flesh.
Wisp... wisp...
Black fog seeped from his pupils, spreading like ink in water.
At this rate, he would shed all traces of human sentiment and become a Great Demon—one who annihilates everything that defies him.
"Ugh..."
Then, a faint groan escaped Seo Jin-ha's lips as he lay collapsed on the ground.
The Pinnacle Spirit Medicine of the Demonic Path, the Slumbering Demon Divine Pill...
The Reverse Polarity True Qi, infused with Yin-Yang Dual Qi...
And the shockwave of Bu Eun-seol's unleashed power—
All of it had restarted Seo Jin-ha's stilled heart.
"Seo Jin-ha!"
Snapping back to his senses, Bu Eun-seol roared like thunder as he rushed to support him.
"Too... loud..."
Seo Jin-ha's eyes fluttered open, a faint smile on his lips.
"Since when... do you shout like this?"
Was it the will of heaven?
The moment Seo Jin-ha awoke, the demonic energy surging from Bu Eun-seol's eyes flickered—then cleared, as if washed by light.
Bu Eun-seol's mind, which had been on the verge of fully descending into the Demonic Path, had been pulled back to the Middle Path.
"Are you... alright?"
"Do I... look alright?"
Seo Jin-ha smiled weakly.
"I really... died and came back."
Though the Slumbering Demon Divine Pill had restored his consciousness, his pulse was frail, teetering on the edge of fading.
Without hesitation, Bu Eun-seol channeled a steady stream of Reverse Polarity True Qi into Seo Jin-ha's Life Gate Acupoint.
Gradually, his breathing stabilized—but his eyes grew heavy, his vision dimming.
"I really... died..."
As the warm qi spread through his limbs, Seo Jin-ha drifted into sleep.
"Don't worry."
Bu Eun-seol's eyes, gazing down at the sleeping man, burned crimson.
"This... will never happen again."
A killing intent so intense it could melt iron radiated from his gaze.
No longer did it matter to secretly track Wicked Incense's trail.
No longer did he care why this had been orchestrated.
"From now on... I'll crush them all."
There was no need to investigate.
No need to uncover motives.
From this moment, Bu Eun-seol would mobilize all his authority—
And shatter, again and again, every last person involved—
Until not a single one remained standing.
Chirp... chirp...
The sound of birds roused Seo Jin-ha from sleep.
The first thing he noticed was the pungent scent of medicine.
Blinking, he found himself lying on a bed, his clothes changed into clean garments.
"Where... am I?"
The room was orderly, lined with several other beds—clearly an infirmary.
"You're awake."
The door creaked open, and an elderly man in apothecary robes stepped inside.
It was Gyo Jung-hak, the Hall Leader of the Medicine King Faction.
"Hall Leader!"
Recognizing him, Seo Jin-ha tried to sit up and clasp his hands in respect—but Gyo Jung-hak raised a hand.
"Stay down. Your wounds could reopen."
Then, in a low voice, he asked:
"How do you feel? Any discomfort?"
Dazed, Seo Jin-ha looked down at himself.
Dong Yeo-rip had hacked away chunks of his flesh and muscle.
Even one of his ears had been severed before the torture began.
Yet now?
His body was completely restored—so flawlessly that he could barely recall the injuries. Even his missing ear had been meticulously reattached.
"I'm fully healed. How...?"
"The effects of the Azure Spirit Stone Fluid and the Slumbering Demon Divine Pill."
"The Azure Spirit Stone Fluid... and the Divine Pill?"
The Azure Spirit Stone Fluid was a legendary elixir, formed over tens of thousands of years from the earth's condensed spiritual energy. A single drop could induce Metamorphosis and Bone Renewal.
And the Slumbering Demon Divine Pill?
A supreme treasure granted only once to the Heir of the Demon Hall—a pill that could instantly bestow sixty years of internal energy.
Yet both had been used... on him?
"The Martial Soul Lord expended them to restore you."
"I see."
To save him, Bu Eun-seol had spared nothing.
Swallowing the emotions swelling in his chest, Seo Jin-ha spoke carefully.
"Then... the Azure Spirit Stone Fluid must have come from our Unit Commander."
The Three Great Unit Commanders of the Demon Hall—Heavenly Slaughter, Soul Annihilation, and Dark Heaven—each possessed a life-restoring elixir bestowed by the Demonic Heavenly Emperor.
And Wi Mu-yeom, the Heavenly Slaughter Unit Commander, had been granted the Azure Spirit Stone Fluid—capable of instantly healing even the most grievous wounds.
But Gyo Jung-hak's answer stunned him.
"No. The Martial Soul Lord brought it himself."
"The Martial Soul Lord... did?"
Seo Jin-ha frowned.
Had Bu Eun-seol been granted both the Divine Pill and the Azure Spirit Stone Fluid?
"The Heavenly Slaughter Unit Commander declared that a cripple is no longer a member of the Heavenly Slaughter Corps."
Gyo Jung-hak's expression darkened.
"He refused to provide the elixir."
Wi Mu-yeom was not a man who reversed his decisions.
So how had Bu Eun-seol persuaded him?
"I can't imagine how he convinced our Unit Commander."
"Hohoho. Convinced?"
Gyo Jung-hak's lips curled into a faint, wry smile.
"It was... quite the spectacle."
And as Gyo Jung-hak recalled the incident that had thrown the Demon Hall into complete turmoil not long ago, his hawk-like eyes narrowed to slits.