Chapter 549
"This is no dream."
Bu Eun-seol rubbed his eyes.
His mind was perfectly clear—this was neither the Mind-Seizing Art nor some grand ritual at work. He hadn't been dreaming either. He had definitely been fighting Hyeokryeon Eung.
Yet everything had vanished.
Not a trace of their fierce battle remained. Even Hyeokryeon Eung himself had disappeared.
'Could it be...?'
Suddenly, Bu Eun-seol recalled the time he had fallen into a trap on Nine-Bend Mountain with Gongson Dan-a.
—I don't know. The rocks just... disappeared.
Back then, too, Bu Eun-seol had mustered all his strength and unleashed Harmonization. But Gongson Dan-gyeong hadn't said he shattered the rocks—she said he made them disappear.
"So even back then, had I simply erased them instead of breaking them?"
A strange thought flickered through his mind.
What if the Power of Harmony hadn't destroyed his body?
What if, from the very beginning, it had erased the existence of Hyeokryeon Eung from Hell Island itself?
It was a bizarre and terrifying notion.
"Could I have... altered reality?"
He wanted to deny it, but there was no other way to describe what had happened.
'Then is this the true function of Harmonization?'
He had never before unleashed Harmonization directly on a person.
But if it worked the same way it had with the rocks back then...
Had he aligned all the forces within his body, poured out Harmonization, and erased Hyeokryeon Eung from existence?
If so, did that mean he had finally reached the Martial Extreme Realm?
'No.'
If this phenomenon had occurred due to an enhancement of his martial prowess, he would never have witnessed such illusions in the first place.
An uncontrolled, unintended power could not be called martial advancement.
"Ugh..."
Suddenly, Bu Eun-seol let out a pained groan.
Stars danced before his eyes as an excruciating pain, as though his skull were splitting open, flared near the Jade Pillow acupoint at the base of his head.
"Ghk—!"
With a ragged gasp, he staggered and dropped to one knee.
The world spun violently around him. For a moment, he hallucinated the whole world being swallowed by darkness.
—A fitting end for a fool who doesn't even know who he is... or what power he wields.
The voice from his vision—the other him—echoed relentlessly in his mind.
"That..."
The other version of himself had taken the form of an endless, pitch-black shadow.
"That's not me!"
BOOM!
A surge of energy erupted from Bu Eun-seol's body, shooting straight into the heavens.
His head felt like it was about to explode, and without realizing it, he had unleashed his full combat power in desperation.
WHUMM!
The conflicting energies within him collided violently the moment they were released.
Zzzzt—!
But strangely, the pain radiating from his Jade Pillow acupoint began to fade.
Even without activating the Prajna Great Power, the energies within his body stabilized on their own.
"I can't make sense of this."
As his mind cleared, Bu Eun-seol checked his condition once more.
The forces residing in his body now defied all martial logic.
By all rights, he should never have been able to contain—let alone wield—the combined powers of the Orthodox, Unorthodox, Demonic, and Buddhist Arts simultaneously.
On top of that, he now possessed two of the Four Divine Energies, forces that were said to be usable only by those blessed by heaven.
—Can one alter reality without reaching the Martial Extreme Realm?
There was no one in the Murim who could answer that question.
No one in its long history had ever contained such a chaotic convergence of powers within their body.
No grandmaster of any martial school had ever even attempted it.
"So that's why the Pavilion Lord said what he did."
The current master of Langya Pavilion, the Human Demon Ak Mu-ryeong—a man versed in every martial art scattered across the Murim, capable of grasping the underlying principles of any technique in an instant—had been unable to fix Bu Eun-seol's body.
Instead, he had urged him to enter the Supreme Demon Path.
Not only had Ak Mu-ryeong been unable to comprehend Bu Eun-seol's condition, but he also couldn't predict what realm of martial arts Bu Eun-seol would ultimately reach.
A path no one had walked before.
Bu Eun-seol was treading it alone.
And as for what consequences this chaotic fusion of powers would bring—what kind of ending awaited him—
No one could possibly know.
"Hyeokryeon Eung... If he had used this method from the start, I'd be dead without a fight."
Bu Eun-seol let out a deep sigh as he stared at the empty space where Hyeokryeon Eung had once stood.
Hyeokryeon Eung had been a Special Divine Rank of the Three Realms, trained in external martial arts akin to the Vajra Indestructible Body, and had two of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars' martial arts forcibly implanted within him.
The final mutual destruction technique he had unleashed—the Demon-Mixing Explosive Dragon—had displayed power beyond imagination.
Had he feigned combat from the beginning and attempted such a method?
Bu Eun-seol would never have predicted such an attack and would have either lost his life or suffered grave injuries.
"I was truly fortunate."
Hyeokryeon Eung had revealed his emotions in an attempt to sway him.
And when executing the Divine Great Art, he had expressed all joys and sorrows like an ordinary martial artist.
Because of that, Bu Eun-seol had been able to predict his actions to some extent—and even hear his final words.
"Baekri Mu-ha."
As he recalled Hyeokryeon Eung's last words, Bu Eun-seol's gaze grew transparent.
"The mysterious figure once called the Murim's First Beauty... was my father."
He had always found it strange.
Back when he first heard that name from the Supreme Cult Commander, his heart had pounded.
He had dismissed it as just a peculiar phenomenon—but now, to think that man was his father. That he was the roots he had been desperately searching for all this time.
"Father..."
Bu Eun-seol murmured softly.
Just uttering that single word made him feel as if tears would burst forth.
It was a word he had never once spoken aloud before.
But before losing his memories, he must have called it out countless times...
To him, the word father—
Brought a different kind of joy and pain than when he thought of his grandfather, Bu Jan-yang.
Perhaps it was because of those memories from his days as a rootless wanderer, drifting like tumbleweed wherever the wind blew.
Those bitter, unbearably bitter days as a vagrant.
"I had always hoped my lost memories would return, that the sealed ones would unravel."
And now, thanks to Hyeokryeon Eung, he had found a clue to his origins.
"Of course, it could still be a lie. But..."
Hyeokryeon Eung was a man who lied as easily as breathing.
There was a high probability he had spouted nonsense even in his final moments.
Though further investigation was needed to confirm the truth... Bu Eun-seol felt his words were genuine.
"But given that he was a mysterious figure known as the Murim's First Beauty, tracking his traces won't be easy."
Bu Eun-seol took a deep breath.
Then he needed to start his investigation as soon as possible.
Tap.
With a swift movement technique, Bu Eun-seol boarded the ship anchored by the shore.
Now, in addition to hunting down the murderer—
He had gained another goal.
Xi'an Prefecture, Secret Chamber of the Demon Hall's safehouse.
Having returned from Hell Island, Bu Eun-seol discreetly summoned No Trace, leader of the Death Soul Squad, through Xiao Yao.
'The possibility that Baekri Mu-ha is my father must not be revealed to anyone.'
As he waited for No Trace in the secret chamber, his gaze deepened.
'Not even to No Trace or Xiao Yao.'
Though Baekri Mu-ha was a figure of mystery, he was known to have walked the orthodox martial path.
Moreover, Bu Eun-seol had already made it abundantly clear to the demonic factions—by wiping out the Blood Sea Demon Well and the Soulless Ones hidden there—that he had no intention of pursuing demonic hegemony.
But if word spread through the demonic intelligence network that he was searching for Baekri Mu-ha?
Not only would it invite rumors—
At worst, it could rally those who opposed him.
'There's another problem.'
Even uncovering the traces of the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade, who once shook the Murim, had taken considerable time.
Let alone tracking the movements of Baekri Mu-ha—the Murim's First Beauty—whose origins and martial lineage remained entirely unknown.
It would be several times harder than tracing his grandfather, the former Seven Fingers Demonic Blade.
The very reason he had been called the Murim's First Beauty was that his background was utterly untraceable—as if he had fallen from the heavens.
So Bu Eun-seol chose a slightly easier method.
"My Lord, you summoned me?"
As No Trace, leader of the Death Soul Squad, entered the chamber and respectfully clasped his hands, Bu Eun-seol issued his command.
"Mobilize the intelligence network to find the Divine Calculator's disciple."
"The Divine Calculator's... disciple?"
No Trace blinked.
"He has a disciple?"
The Divine Calculator—the Foremost Diviner of the Murim, revered as a sage—had a disciple?
This was unheard of, a revelation that had never once circulated in the Murim.
"The Divine Calculator has been concealing his movements perfectly by mobilizing an enormous faction and intelligence network."
Bu Eun-seol continued calmly.
"And the reason that was possible... is because he has an exceptional disciple acting as a False Divine Calculator in his stead."
"I see."
"Indeed. However, he wouldn't have exerted his full effort to erase even his disciple's traces."
Bu Eun-seol spoke with absolute conviction in his voice.
"No one in the murim knows of his disciple's existence."
The Divine Calculator's true identity remained largely unknown to the martial world.
Yet Bu Eun-seol had not only deduced the Divine Calculator's true identity—he had also personally met his disciple.
The Divine Calculator's true identity was none other than the Martial Alliance Leader, Jeong Cheon-je.
Thus, whenever assuming the Divine Calculator's guise, extreme caution would be taken to conceal all traces of activity.
In fact, most of the deeds attributed to the Divine Calculator might have been handled not by him—
but by the disciple he had positioned as the False Divine Calculator.
No Trace tilted his head in puzzlement.
"Are you certain it's a disciple? Could it not be some other subordinate?"
"You're right. If it were merely a retainer or subordinate, there'd be no need to disguise a young man as an elder."
"A young man?"
As No Trace wore a perplexed expression,
Bu Eun-seol reluctantly recounted his past encounter with the old man who had posed as the False Divine Calculator.
At the time, the False Divine Calculator claimed he'd been paid by an old man to play this role—
but Bu Eun-seol had instantly discerned that the "old man" was actually a young person in disguise, someone intimately connected to the true Divine Calculator.
The proof lay in how swiftly—so fast Bu Eun-seol couldn't even perceive it—the man had swapped the Gratitude Coin.
To find the Divine Calculator,
Bu Eun-seol now sought to locate that False Divine Calculator again.
"The probability it's his disciple does seem higher."
After hearing the full account, No Trace nodded.
"No one would go through the trouble of disguising a young person as an elder unless there was a compelling reason."
Lost in thought for a moment, he added,
"Even if we can't locate the Divine Calculator himself, tracking down his disciple shouldn't be impossible."
With the combined intelligence networks of the Demon Hall's Death Soul Squad and the Martial Alliance's Peak Realm Unit—
while finding the Divine Calculator might be hopeless,
locating his disciple would be within reach.
"But why seek the Divine Calculator's disciple?"
"There are matters I must confirm."
Until now, Bu Eun-seol had always provided detailed explanations for his orders.
Yet this curt reply made No Trace instinctively sense there was more to the story.
"Understood. I'll begin searching for the disciple's whereabouts immediately."
But he bowed without pressing for details.
His trust in Bu Eun-seol was absolute.
Reasons were irrelevant.
Huijing Prefecture, Mihyeon Village.
The marketplace bustled with people, peddlers lining every path with their bundles of wares.
And in such a lively district, one type of figure was always present:
fortune-tellers.
Beneath a large tree slightly removed from the market, a banner stood bearing the words "Nothing Is Unknown."
An elderly diviner had set up shop there.
With no customers and the weather warm, the old man sat hunched, nodding off.
Tap, tap.
Footsteps approached, and a young man stopped before the drowsy fortune-teller.
"Will you divine for me?"
The man's frame was slender, his features delicate and almost feminine.
Roused from sleep, the diviner pointed languidly to the space beside the banner, unenthused despite the rare customer.
"Payment upfront."
The youth drew something silver from his sleeve—
a Command Plaque engraved with the characters "Peak Realm."
"What is this?"
As the diviner blinked in confusion, the young man smiled.
"Your fee."
Then he added:
"The fee to locate the Divine Calculator."
At the mention of "Divine Calculator," the fortune-teller's eyes flashed—then filled with dread.
"How did you find me?"
The young man was Bu Eun-seol, disguised as Seon-u Jin.
The elderly diviner was the very disciple of the Divine Calculator who had once posed as the False Divine Calculator.
"Enough acting."
Bu Eun-seol, in Seon-u Jin's form, spoke coldly.
"I knew you were the Divine Calculator's disciple from our first meeting."
The diviner stared into Bu Eun-seol's frozen gaze, then heaved a great sigh.
Shaking his head, he finally spoke:
"It was inevitable."
The fortune-teller's aged, rasping voice transformed—
into the clear, resonant tone of a young man in his prime.
"The Master suddenly changed his plans and ordered me to engrave the Scripture Pavilion's Mechanism-Disabling Method onto the Gratitude Coin," the Copyist said.
From the moment he'd inscribed numbers on the Gratitude Coin, he had known Bu Eun-seol would see through his identity.
"But to attempt contacting me like this..."
A sharp glint flashed through the Copyist's eyes.
"You could lose your status as the Martial Alliance's commander."
"It was never truly mine to begin with, so I've nothing to regret."
Bu Eun-seol, still in the guise of Seon-u Jin, snorted coldly, his voice resolute.
"Where is the Divine Calculator?"
Instead of answering, the Copyist said something unexpected.
"The Master told me you'd come looking for me before long."
His voice carried a hint of amusement as he continued,
"He said that even if you couldn't find him, you'd at least find me."
Bu Eun-seol's expression twisted in disgust.
So this was the famed Foremost Sage of the Murim—some self-important know-it-all.
He could tolerate arrogance, but this presumptuous meddling in others' fates was unbearable.
"I asked where the Divine Calculator is."
The moment Bu Eun-seol dropped into informal speech, the Copyist's eyebrows twitched.
"Why don't you go look for him yourself?"
"Do I sound like I'm making a request?"
A crimson blood light flickered in Bu Eun-seol's pupils.
Finding Baekri Mu-ha was a matter of life and death.
If the Copyist refused, it wouldn't matter if he was the Divine Calculator's disciple—or even the Divine Calculator himself. He wouldn't leave this place unscathed.
"You're insane. You'd actually use martial arts here?"
"I was never sane to begin with."
A heat-haze-like energy surged from Bu Eun-seol's body.
"Not since I stepped into the Martial World."
This wasn't an empty boast.
Bu Eun-seol had once been like a reclusive monk, detached from worldly desires.
All he had wanted was to remain at Peaceful Burial House, embalming corpses alongside his grandfather.
He had wished for nothing more than the quiet passage of time.
To the young Bu Eun-seol, his grandfather was the entire world.
But when his grandfather vanished, so did everything else.
Now, all that remained was a seething fury and an unquenchable thirst for vengeance.
"Your killing intent is impressive."
The Copyist smiled faintly, sensing the murderous aura radiating from Bu Eun-seol.
In truth, Bu Eun-seol had been born with boundless killing intent. Had he not ventured into the Martial World and met companions along the way...
He would have become the Great Demon foretold by Hyeokryeon Eung—a destroyer of the Rivers and Lakes.
"I won't ask again."
Bu Eun-seol's overwhelming Internal Energy pressed down on the Copyist like an invisible weight.
"Where. Is. The Divine Calculator?"
The Copyist looked incredulous.
People—including martial artists—were passing by all around them.
If Bu Eun-seol used his power on the main road...
It would be no different from throwing his carefully constructed Seon-u Jin identity into the trash.
"So you're truly resolved."
As the Copyist spoke again—
Crrk—
His neck and waist began bending toward the ground under the crushing pressure.
True to his word, Bu Eun-seol didn't repeat himself—he simply poured more of his terrifying Internal Energy into suppressing the man.
"The Demonic Path truly is the Demonic Path."
Whoosh.
The Copyist activated his Internal Power, conjuring a mysterious wind.
In an instant, Bu Eun-seol's oppressive energy melted away like snow.
"About twenty li past the West Gate, there's a Guan Shrine. Head there..."
The Copyist locked eyes with Bu Eun-seol.
"...and we'll settle this properly."
Though his lips curved into a smile, his pupils flashed with a chilling azure light.
The Divine Calculator was the Martial Alliance's leader—
Meaning this man was the disciple of the Number One of the Righteous Path.
Rather than cower before Bu Eun-seol's martial threat, he was practically daring him to try.
"Fine."
The blood light in Bu Eun-seol's eyes deepened.
"But don't expect this to end peacefully."
"By all means."
Fwip!
The Copyist vanished from Bu Eun-seol's sight in an instant.
It was a movement technique that defied common sense—a transcendent mental cultivation method.
Bu Eun-seol, too, activated his own movement technique, arriving near the Guan Shrine.
There, a young man wearing a face-covering mask stood tall.
It was the Copyist—now having shed his disguise.
"My name is Mu-gyeol (Flawless)," the man said, smiling faintly at Bu Eun-seol.
"As you've guessed, I am indeed the Divine Calculator's disciple."
Behind the mask, his eyes were as clear and transparent as a lake reflecting the autumn sky.
He showed not the slightest fear facing the Martial Soul Lord, a man renowned throughout the world.
Shhhhk—
Without hesitation, Bu Eun-seol drew Ink Soul Sword.
Even as he channeled his Internal Energy into it, the blade released no Demonic Energy, no mysterious power.
Whoosh—
But as Bu Eun-seol poured an unrelenting surge of True Qi into it, the sword began resonating with an eerie hum.
He had no intention of dragging this out.
Bzzzt!
The tip of Ink Soul Sword trembled violently as it shot toward Mu-gyeol's vital points.
If he didn't crush him completely now, this man would crawl back later.
He would seize this opportunity to overwhelm him in a single strike—suppressing his momentum for good.