Chapter 392
However, Bu Eun-seol was deeply shocked for another reason.
'A Martial Alliance member using Demonic Sword Arts...?'
The sword technique the Masked Man employed to shake off Xiao Yao was none other than the overwhelmingly powerful and tyrannical Demonic Sword Arts.
'Hmm.'
An old tale he'd once heard surfaced in Bu Eun-seol's mind—a story about a mysterious master within the Martial Alliance who was not only versed in orthodox martial arts but also profoundly skilled in Demonic Path Martial Arts, even understanding their counter techniques.
"Move aside!"
Upon spotting Bu Eun-seol, the Masked Man let out an impatient Great Roar before unleashing a flurry of Sword Strokes to push Xiao Yao back.
His obvious intention was to seize any opening to escape. But that was a futile endeavor.
Swish—!
Xiao Yao's Movement Technique was akin to a Lightning Flash.
Anticipating the Masked Man's every move, she pursued him like a specter, sealing off all escape routes.
Eventually, a groan escaped the Masked Man's lips as he swung his sword.
He had already suffered a deep sword wound near his right shoulder from Bu Eun-seol's single strike.
But the flesh wound wasn't the real problem.
The overwhelming Internal Energy imbued in Bu Eun-seol's Ink Sword had inflicted severe internal injuries, disrupting his entire meridian system.
And as Xiao Yao relentlessly circled him, his body grew heavier, his internal injuries worsening.
There was simply no way to break free.
"Drop your sword."
Shing—!
Bu Eun-seol, who had been silently observing, drew his Ink Sword in one fluid motion and unleashed the Meteor Chasing Moon technique.
"Hmph!"
As the lightning-fast slash aimed for his throat, the Masked Man—still retaining some strength—let out a derisive snort and staggered into an evasive footwork.
Sssk—!
But when the blade abruptly changed trajectory mid-air, veering toward his left shoulder instead, he had no choice but to raise his sword in defense.
Clang—!
A clear Metallic Sound rang out as the Masked Man's sword was sent flying into the sky.
Unable to withstand the sheer force behind Meteor Chasing Moon, his grip had been torn apart.
Snap—!
In that instant, Xiao Yao flicked her fingers, sending a Finger Wind to strike the Yang Mound acupoint above the Masked Man's knee.
Thud—!
His leg stiffening instantly, the Masked Man collapsed to his knees.
Without pause, she struck again—this time targeting his Shoulder Well acupoint, paralyzing both arms.
Swish—!
Xiao Yao closed the distance in a flash and tore off his mask in one swift motion.
Rip—!
Beneath the mask was revealed the strikingly handsome face of a golden-haired, blue-eyed man.
Perhaps due to his deepened Internal Energy, a radiant light—brighter than the one Bu Eun-seol had seen in the Underground Castle—lingered in his Upper Dantian.
But having lost too much blood and suffering severe internal injuries, his pale skin was gradually turning ashen.
"...So you were from the Martial Alliance."
Only now did Bu Eun-seol fully grasp who had been sending Martial Alliance assassins after him all along.
This blue-eyed man had dispatched killers relentlessly—right up until Bu Eun-seol's confrontation with Jo Cheon-wang.
"You blocked off Chengdu and the villages to set up this ambush. All to lure me into your hiding place."
"Haa..."
The blue-eyed man exhaled deeply, as if conceding.
"To think you survived under Hall Master Jo's blade."
The Seven Great Leaders of the Martial Alliance.
The Alliance Leader was chosen from among these seven.
In other words, they were superlative martial experts who had long mastered peerless techniques to earn their positions—candidates for Alliance Leader.
However, the selection prioritized achievements within the Alliance over reputation in the Martial World.
Thus, once becoming a Leader, they avoided unnecessary entanglements in the Martial World.
Had they not remained within the Alliance, focusing solely on commanding their units?
They would have wielded immense influence across the Martial World, clashing with other masters to build legendary reputations...
And the hierarchy of the Four Gods and Seven Kings might have been entirely different.
Though inactive in the Martial World, the Seven Great Leaders had long been considered on par with the Four Gods and Seven Kings.
Yet Bu Eun-seol had only defeated the Beggar King—the lowest-ranked among them—and was known to have trained for a remarkably short time.
Who could have predicted he'd possess strength enough to face Jo Cheon-wang, leader of the Martial Heaven Unit, head-on?
For a brief moment, the blue-eyed man's expression flickered with surprise.
Then, without another word, he simply glared at Bu Eun-seol.
'Like No Bong, he might have been a Spy planted from the start. Or like Sim Wol, bribed by them.'
Bu Eun-seol's gaze darkened as he studied the man.
The Martial Alliance wouldn't slaughter innocents to manufacture Human Blossoms.
Which meant this man belonged to the very Shadow Force that had been destabilizing the Martial World all along.
"Shall we... torture him?"
Xiao Yao asked Bu Eun-seol casually then.
As a skilled assassin, she undoubtedly had mastered interrogation techniques.
"Unnecessary."
Bu Eun-seol replied flatly, looking down at the blue-eyed man.
"The Shadow Force has always manipulated their pawns by fulfilling long-held desires or ambitions."
"Tell me everything you know. Then I'll spare you."
Bu Eun-seol's voice was calm.
There was no need for threats or torture.
Young men who possess much tend to cling fiercely to life.
With the power to shake the world, who would want to die without ever seizing that opportunity?
The blue-eyed man had striking features and formidable martial prowess. He would never wish to die meaninglessly in these woods.
"Hmm."
Beads of sweat trickled down the blue-eyed man's forehead.
He had already mastered the long-lost exceptional martial arts of both the orthodox and demonic factions, though his training had been too brief to fully refine them.
If he had just three more years to cultivate, he could reach the Seventh or Eighth Star realm, and this arrogant bastard before him would no longer be a match.
So how could he possibly resign himself to dying like this?
"Hmm."
After a moment of apparent deliberation, the blue-eyed man looked up at Bu Eun-seol and spoke in a desperate voice.
"Will you truly spare me?"
"If you speak honestly."
At Bu Eun-seol's firm reply, the blue-eyed man nodded.
"Then, release the pressure points so I can treat myself. I've suffered severe internal injuries."
"Answers first."
"You'll keep your word?"
The blue-eyed man exhaled sharply before speaking.
"The word of the Martial Soul Lord, successor of the Demon Hall, is renowned for its weight in the martial world."
Bu Eun-seol nodded.
Judging by the blue-eyed man's martial arts and his conduct in the Underground Castle, he was no mere pawn.
From Bu Eun-seol's perspective, extracting information about the Shadow Force was far more valuable than killing him.
"However."
A crimson light flickered in Bu Eun-seol's eyes as he paused briefly.
"If you utter even a single falsehood, I will sever your breath immediately."
"Fine."
The blue-eyed man replied smoothly.
"I'll tell you everything I know."
Bu Eun-seol remained silent for a moment before speaking.
"Who ordered my death?"
"The Martial Alliance's Chief Secretary, Tae Sa-hyeon."
"Reason?"
"He anticipated you would challenge the Jo Hall Master to a decisive duel. And he wanted that duel to be certain."
In an instant, Bu Eun-seol recalled the martial artists who had ambushed him during his time as the Ten Demonic Heir.
Back then, Elder Baek mentioned they seemed like warriors directly under the Martial Alliance's Chief Secretary.
There was not a flicker of hesitation in the blue-eyed man's eyes.
Bu Eun-seol sensed his honesty and pressed further.
"Name of the organization you belong to."
"If I say the Martial Alliance... that wouldn't suffice, would it?"
After a brief hesitation, the blue-eyed man answered without reservation.
"First Heaven."
Bu Eun-seol had expected the name Three Realms to surface.
But when an entirely unexpected name came out, he raised an eyebrow.
So, they're not the Three Realms, but another secret faction within the Martial Alliance?
However, the blue-eyed man's next words softened Bu Eun-seol's hardened expression.
"Or, you could call it the Infinite Realm."
Using two interchangeable names was common among clandestine organizations.
Bu Eun-seol nodded and continued questioning.
"Who is its leader?"
"There is no single leader. Only those who deliver orders and those who carry them out."
"An organization without a leader cannot exist. If there isn't one, then there must be a core faction pulling the strings."
"A fair point."
The blue-eyed man nodded.
"From that perspective, I suppose you could call me a pawn."
Then, with a bitter expression, he added,
"After all, I was never formally registered in the Martial Alliance's records. I knew I could be discarded at any moment, so I struggled desperately to prove my worth."
Bu Eun-seol narrowed his eyes.
This man had held enough authority in Sichuan's Underground Castle to issue orders to those cultivating Human Blossoms.
Yet he knew nothing of the Infinite Realm's core figures?
"But I've been honest with you."
The blue-eyed man grinned faintly.
"You won't break your promise, will you?"
Only then did Bu Eun-seol realize why this man had so boldly declared he would reveal everything.
He was merely an unregistered spy for the Martial Alliance—a disposable piece in a shadowy game.
In the end, the information he could provide would be limited.
No matter.
Bu Eun-seol knew far too little about the Three Realms or the Infinite Realm.
Even if this man was just a pawn, he could still offer valuable insights.
"Then who holds the command authority over you?"
"The First Envoy."
"The First Envoy?"
"All orders from our realm are delivered directly by envoys. The one who gave me my directives was the First Envoy."
In an instant, Bu Eun-seol recalled the mysterious masked figures he had encountered during his travels through the martial world.
"Do these envoys wear masks with a strange, shimmering luster?"
The blue-eyed man's expression flickered with surprise before he nodded.
"Yes. So you've met them before."
Only then did Bu Eun-seol feel the scattered fragments in his mind clicking into place.
All those masked figures he had encountered in the martial world—they had been envoys of the Infinite Realm.
So that's it.
Now, at last, he understood why those enigmatic masked individuals had displayed such overwhelming martial prowess.
"Why are you cultivating Human Blossoms and creating Artificial Dantians?"
Bu Eun-seol's gaze turned ice-cold as he spoke.
"With such overwhelming power and wealth at your disposal—why? Why create Human Blossoms and Artificial Dantians?"
"Hohoho."
The blue-eyed man responded with a faint smile.
"You assume it's to sow chaos in the martial world or to fulfill selfish desires."
"You two deliberately spread the plague and manufactured Human Blossoms. And that wasn't enough—you even crafted Dantians that turn people into Murder Fiends."
"Great endeavors require small sacrifices. It was unavoidable."
Those were the exact same words No Bong, the former Beggars' Sect's spy, had once uttered.
"And don't misunderstand."
Perhaps due to his worsening internal injuries, the blue-eyed man winced slightly before continuing.
"The Artificial Dantians were never meant for the likes of you to concern yourselves with."
He stared directly at Bu Eun-seol and enunciated each word clearly.
"They were originally created for the Main Realm's own use."
A shocking revelation.
Bu Eun-seol had assumed the Artificial Dantians were made solely to disrupt or control the martial world.
But to think they were intended for the Three Realms—for their own people?
"So even the Three Realms need Artificial Dantians?"
At Bu Eun-seol's question, the blue-eyed man drew a deep breath.
"The Three Realms, as the name suggests, is divided into three factions."
Another astonishing disclosure.
In the end, the Artificial Dantians—
Were they not tools created for the Three Realms' factions to suppress one another—or even wage war among themselves?
"Your words contradict themselves."
Bu Eun-seol furrowed his brow, deep in thought.
"You've consistently recruited outsiders unrelated to the Three Realms and delivered Artificial Dantians to them. You even targeted a disciple of the Myriad Erudition Hall."
His gaze sharpened to a razor's edge as he continued.
"And now you claim they were meant for the Three Realms all along?"
"Didn't I tell you?"
The blue-eyed man smirked mockingly.
"The Main Realm is split into three factions."
Understanding dawned in Bu Eun-seol's widening eyes.
The Three Realms, true to its name, was fractured into three opposing forces—each locked in strife.
'So the factions ruling the martial world are secretly at war with each other?'
It defied all logic.
Shaking his head to clear the confusion, Bu Eun-seol pressed further.
"If you're the Infinite Realm, what are the other two called?"
"Because they seek a deep, empty world..."
Mid-sentence, the blue-eyed man's eyes bulged as he stared at Bu Eun-seol.
His expression twisted as if he had committed a grave mistake—or been caught in one.
"Ugh—kgh—!"
Suddenly, he clutched his throat, a low groan escaping him.
Pop!
A crisp bursting sound came from his mouth. Simultaneously, his eyeballs expanded grotesquely, thick veins of blood spreading across his entire body.
Thud. Thud.
His face began swelling like a balloon, turning crimson as it heated up.
'He can't die yet!'
Bu Eun-seol immediately channeled Reverse Polarity True Qi into the man's Dazhui Acupoint.
The pure energy surged through his meridians, pushing back the toxins—but his face only swelled further.
"GAAAH—!"
The blue-eyed man let out a bloodcurdling scream before—
SPLAT!
—his head exploded, viscous fluids and byproducts splattering in all directions.
Plop. Plop.
Xiao Yao, who had been silently observing the falling debris, finally spoke.
"Heart-Exhaustion Ashen Destruction... Soul-Severing Grand Art."
She pointed at the black-tinged remnants among the mess.
"They fed him a Black Prison Brain Worm to devour his mind, then seized complete control of his body and spirit."
Heart-Exhaustion Ashen Destruction—Soul-Severing Grand Art.
A forbidden spell technique long sealed away by the Worship Sect.
Capable of annihilating entire sects or rebuilding them at will. Restoring such a forbidden art would have been trivial for them.
"So this was their method."
Only now did Bu Eun-seol understand how the colossal entity known as the Three Realms had remained hidden from the martial world.
They had preserved their secrecy all this time through these bizarre and brutal spell techniques.
"The roots run too deep. Impossible to gauge how far they've spread... or where they even end."
Bu Eun-seol exhaled heavily.
The Three Realms was no upstart faction. They had dominated the martial world for generations, concealing their true nature all the while.
But their ultimate goal—why these factions fought among themselves—remained a mystery.
Still, if they could eliminate every embedded spy and unite the martial world's forces...
Perhaps they could expose—or even eradicate—this shadow organization.
Sigh.
Bu Eun-seol inhaled deeply.
The blue-eyed man had provided more information than expected.
Since the Three Realms had already extended its reach into the martial world, uncovering their truth was inevitable.
"Let's go."
Bu Eun-seol nodded at Xiao Yao.
Now, they had to head to Grave Village—to meet the Divine Calculator and unravel the secrets behind his grandfather's death.
Grave Village.
Originally, this was a small vagrant settlement in Guangdong.
Here, any food obtained was shared among all. As a result, the village became a refuge for the elderly and the sick—those too frail even to beg.
Under these circumstances, the younger vagrants gradually left Grave Village one by one, until only the elderly vagrants remained.
As time passed, Grave Village transformed into a place where the aged, who could no longer even beg, gathered to await their final days.
A graveyard for old drifters.
Before anyone realized it, the village had earned this grim epithet.
Bu Eun-seol and So-yo finally arrived at Grave Village.
Like any vagrant settlement, ramshackle huts and half-collapsed abandoned houses clustered together haphazardly.
Around them, elderly vagrants—utterly drained of vitality—leaned against walls or lay sprawled on the ground with lifeless expressions.
Even as Bu Eun-seol and So-yo arrived, they showed no particular reaction.
Ordinary vagrants would have begged or cast hopeful glances for aid.
But these people had lost not just their strength, but the very will to live.
"If it's a place like this, no wonder he couldn't be found."
The Divine Calculator was indeed an extraordinary figure.
No matter how skilled an intelligence network might be, who would have expected the Foremost Sage of the Murim to be holed up in a den of destitute old men?
Thud. Thud.
So-yo took the lead as if she were their guide, stepping into Grave Village.
Her gaze frequently dropped to the ground. The Divine Calculator was no decrepit vagrant.
Unlike the others, she was searching for traces of footsteps—clear and deliberate—left behind by someone different.
After walking for some time, they came upon a small wooden plank propped in front of the entrance of a nearly collapsing hut.
On it, crooked characters were scrawled:
Nothing Is Unknown.
It meant that there was nothing he did not know—a phrase often written in place of a signboard at fortune-tellers' stalls.
But given that the Divine Calculator resided here, those words seemed to carry an almost tangible weight.
Bu Eun-seol stared at the plank for a moment before stepping inside without hesitation.
The interior was cramped, and another tightly shut wooden door stood before them.
Beneath it was a small hole, just large enough for a hand to slip through.
"I've come for a reading."
As soon as So-yo spoke, a hoarse voice rasped from behind the door.
"Payment first."
So-yo hesitated briefly before retrieving a Gratitude Coin from her robes and sliding it through the hole.
The old man's voice spoke again.
"One question per coin."
So-yo fixed her gaze on the door and asked in a low voice:
"What is the cure for Greater Yin Severed Meridians?"
To this day, no known method existed to treat Greater Yin Severed Meridians.
Yet from inside the hut came an immediate answer:
"Gather five Masters with more than three sixty-year cycles of internal energy. Have them simultaneously infuse their power to purge the yin energy from the body in one go."
Then, a small slip of paper fluttered out from the hole.
"Read it, then burn it."
So-yo unfolded the paper. Written upon it were the Six Qi—specifically, the Three Yins (Greater Yin, Lesser Yin, and Fading Yin) and the Three Yangs (Greater Yang, Lesser Yang, and Bright Yang)—explained in terms of the Five Elements.
It detailed exactly how the internal energy infusion should be performed.
"Fading Yin as Wind-Wood, Lesser Yin as Sovereign Fire, Greater Yin as Damp-Earth, Lesser Yang as Minister Fire, Greater Yang as Cold-Water, Bright Yang as Dry-Metal..."
So-yo began reciting the incantations written on the paper.
Before long, she nodded and reduced the slip to ashes in an instant with Samadhi True Fire.
'He already knew.'
The characters on the Divine Calculator's paper numbered at least a thousand.
The fact that he produced it immediately upon being asked meant he had already anticipated So-yo's question about a secret cure for Greater Yin Severed Meridians—
And had prepared the cure in advance.
'He knew So-yo was coming. He knew what she would ask.'
Bu Eun-seol exhaled slowly.
His extrasensory perception could envelop a thousand feet in an instant, and with Void-Breaking Mind's Eye, he could perceive what lay beyond walls even with his eyes closed.
Yet now, he couldn't pierce through a single wooden door.
'Either an exceptional martial art... or a battle formation.'
This meant one of two things:
Either the Divine Calculator's martial prowess far surpassed Bu Eun-seol's—
Or he could deploy a formation so formidable it could completely block his senses.
In other words, whether through martial skill or formation mastery, he possessed abilities that eclipsed Bu Eun-seol's own.
Flick.
Lost in thought, Bu Eun-seol retrieved a Gratitude Coin.
Just as he was about to slide it through the hole—
He stopped.
He remembered: one coin, one question.
'What I want is the identity of the killer who murdered Grandfather.'
—Who was the murderer that killed Bu Jan-yang, the undertaker of Huangzhou Prefecture Police Office?
But what if the Divine Calculator didn't know Bu Jan-yang—an undertaker who had spent decades hiding his true identity?
No matter how extraordinary the Divine Calculator was, would he really know of an undertaker who buried vagrants in Huangzhou?
Wouldn't it be better to ask about the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade instead?
"Aren't you going to ask?"
At So-yo's words, Bu Eun-seol snapped back to attention and moved to insert the coin—
When another thought flashed through his mind.
'Is the Divine Calculator truly a man who speaks only the truth?'
What if he lied?
Wouldn't that mean Bu Eun-seol was being manipulated just as blindly?
'The Demonic Heavenly Emperor...'
He bit his lip.
The Demonic Heavenly Emperor had awakened him to a great truth—
But in doing so, he had also made it impossible for Bu Eun-seol to trust anyone's words.