Chapter 668
Cheon-ung tilted his head as he stared at So Ok-rim, now left alone.
"Aaah."
Then, with a low groan, the children inside the coffins began walking out.
Thud. Thud.
The children's pupils were unfocused.
And the crimson heat haze flowing from Cheon-ung's body was being injected into them.
They were close to the perfected Demon-Binding Purgatory Beings that the Infinite Realm had so desperately desired—yet had become failures incapable of moving on their own.
In the end, after extensive research, the Return-to-One Realm had used a mysterious Great Art to turn Cheon-ung into a host capable of controlling the children, issuing commands through him.
Sssuuu.
The children, who had been walking slowly, soon began gliding across the ground, surrounding So Ok-rim.
Their movements were so swift and natural that it was hard to believe they were Demon-Binding Purgatory Beings.
Fwooosh!
As if bound by some unspoken agreement, the children unleashed powerful Palm Energy in perfect unison.
The Palm Energy radiated an intense crimson brilliance, moving with such speed that evasion was impossible.
Kwaaauuu!
Before So Ok-rim knew it, her entire vision was flooded with red light.
Bu Eun-seol sprinted relentlessly in the direction where the boy-like figure from the Return-to-One Realm had vanished.
As he raced down the long passageway, he spotted a wide-open door in the distance.
The boy had likely fled through it.
Tsuuuu!
Unleashing the Ultimate Speed Shadowless, Bu Eun-seol instantly dashed through the open door.
Inside, a colossal Great Hall stretched before him, its ceiling towering hundreds of feet high.
"That is—"
Beneath the ceiling densely embedded with Night Luminous Pearls, a massive glass cylinder stood, half-filled with a bloody liquid.
Above the blood-filled cylinder loomed the figure of a towering man with grayish skin.
In that instant, one of Bu Eun-seol's eyebrows shot upward.
The man inside the cylinder—
Wasn't he the Blood Emperor, whom he had encountered not long ago at Seo-ryeong Mountain?
Flash!
The moment Bu Eun-seol stepped into the hall, the Blood Emperor's eyes inside the cylinder snapped open.
Crack! Thud!
The glass shattered instantly,
Splaaash!
and the bloody liquid spilled in all directions.
Thud. Thud.
Stepping out of the broken cylinder, the Blood Emperor strode toward Bu Eun-seol with heavy steps.
Grin.
Staring down at Bu Eun-seol with eyes filled only with white sclera, the Blood Emperor curled his lips upward.
Having fully recovered through the blood, the wound on his neck—half-severed by the Transcendent Meteor Chasing Moon Form—had completely healed.
"I was just looking for you. How fortunate."
A flash of light exploded in Bu Eun-seol's eyes.
Back then, shocked by the resurrection of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars and fearing for Man-wol's safety,
he hadn't been able to fight at full strength.
This time, even if it meant the blood evaporating entirely and his own death, he was determined to fight the Blood Emperor in a Life-and-Death Duel.
Srrring.
As Bu Eun-seol drew Ink Soul Sword, dark Sword Qi surged outward in all directions.
There was no need for probing.
Having already gauged each other's strength, he intended to unleash the True Void from the very beginning.
Swish! Swiiish!
Black Sword Qi, shaped like lightning, scattered in all directions before pouring down like rain.
From his previous battle with the Blood Emperor,
Bu Eun-seol had realized that the Bloody Tears Seven Forms took time to fully manifest—a critical weakness.
Since then, he had relentlessly trained only the first form, Life Returns to Death.
The result was not just an increase in the speed of executing the Life-Return Death-Return Form, but also the ability to freely alter its variations.
This single move was a variation technique that amplified the power of Life Returns to Death into the overwhelming, one-sided ferocity of the True Life-and-Death Ghost.
Sssshhhhlack!
Unleashing the flawless Heavenly Robe Without Seams sword strokes—leaving no opening to exploit—
the Blood Emperor failed to evade completely, and several strands of Sword Qi struck his body.
Hiiisss.
In that instant, white smoke rose from the Blood Emperor's body.
As the energy of the Bloody Tears Seven Forms, which delivered equal death to all living beings, penetrated his flesh,
even the Blood Emperor—whose life force was sustained by blood—began to feel his essence draining.
"How does it feel?"
Bu Eun-seol spoke coldly.
"After a lifetime of sucking others' blood, to have yours drained instead?"
"Haa."
The Blood Emperor's white eyes flickered.
He seemed both startled and enraged by Bu Eun-seol's move.
"Huhuhu."
Suddenly, the Blood Emperor let out a low chuckle, then thrust out both palms.
Immediately, a crimson mist swirled around them, enveloping the space once more.
At the same time, a surge of Palm Energy, swift as lightning, shot toward Bu Eun-seol.
It was a strike infused with the Blood Emperor's Qi, capable of evaporating blood upon contact.
Flash!
But Bu Eun-seol chose an unexpected tactic.
Instead of evading the mist-like Blood Emperor's Qi, he met the Palm Energy head-on.
Then something miraculous happened.
The power of the Blood Emperor's energy, which had been impossible to block or intercept, was now failing to evaporate his blood at all.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The Obsidian Soul Sword flashed ceaselessly through the air, yet not even the faintest trace of Sword Qi or True Qi shockwaves emerged.
Upon closer inspection, Bu Eun-seol wasn't using his Internal Energy—he was wielding the sword purely with the strength of his physical body.
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
As the Obsidian Soul Sword cleaved through the void at hyper speed, its inky afterimages completely obscured Bu Eun-seol's figure, and a fierce whirlwind filled the Grand Hall.
Whoooosh.
Eventually, the Blood Emperor's energy dispersed like mist.
Yet, barely any blood had been drained from Bu Eun-seol's body.
"As expected."
Bu Eun-seol clicked his tongue as he observed the lingering remnants of the crimson mist spreading around him.
"It makes no sense for there to exist a martial art in this world that cannot be defended against."
During their previous battle, when he had been unable to block the Blood Emperor's energy by any means, Bu Eun-seol had relentlessly pondered the reason.
―If it truly were impossible to defend against by any method, then the Blood Emperor would have been invincible in his time.
Yet, back then, he had not been the strongest in the world—in fact, among the Eight Emperors and Three Stars, he had been ranked at the very bottom.
Which meant that the Blood Emperor's martial arts...
While they might have been capable of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the supreme masters of that era, they were not an absolute martial art that could not be guarded against.
As he endlessly searched for the answer, a subtle thought abruptly flashed through his mind.
―What if the Blood Emperor's energy doesn't evaporate blood because it's unblockable, but rather because it reacts violently when blocked?
The ultimate principles of martial theory contained within the Sword Sovereign's Myriad Forms One Style—
Neither Above Nor Below, Move Heaven Exchange Force—could materialize and deflect any force.
If even the profound sword principles devised by the current Foremost Sword of the Righteous Faction couldn't block the Blood Emperor's energy at all...
Then there was only one possible reason.
He realized—there was a high probability that the very method of defense itself was flawed.
―In terms of martial principles, mere exposure to an intangible force shouldn't be enough to evaporate blood.
After endless contemplation, Bu Eun-seol finally arrived at one conclusion:
The Blood Emperor's energy reacts violently to the defender's True Qi—
And it is because of that reaction that the conditions for blood evaporation are created.
In other words, the Blood Emperor's martial arts...
Were fundamentally aligned with the techniques used by the Abyssal Forces or the Return-to-One Realm—methods that suppressed Internal Energy.
And Bu Eun-seol's hypothesis had struck true.
By suppressing his Internal Energy and executing his sword techniques purely through physical means, he had unexpectedly found it far easier to repel the Blood Emperor's energy.
"Hmph."
Even as Bu Eun-seol deciphered the method to counter the Blood Emperor's energy, the Blood Emperor's lips instead curled upward.
With a sharp exhalation, he thrust out both palms once more—
Whoooosh!
In an instant, Bu Eun-seol's vision was engulfed in a crimson mist.
CRACK!
Piercing through the scarlet haze, the Blood Emperor's overwhelming Palm Energy surged toward Bu Eun-seol.
Ssskkt!
Bu Eun-seol twisted his body aside in a swift evasion, but the fabric near his chest was cleanly sliced open.
Seizing the advantage, the Blood Emperor—
Closed the distance in an instant and began unleashing a flurry of Claw Art techniques, as if intent on rending Bu Eun-seol's flesh from bone.
Swish! Slash!
The Blood Emperor's nails were as sharp as treasured swords, each strike saturated with vicious energy.
If Bu Eun-seol were to even slightly raise his Internal Power to counter—
The Blood Emperor's energy would react instantly, evaporating his blood on the spot.
No matter how he looked at it, the situation was disadvantageous for Bu Eun-seol.
Fwoooosh!
As the Blood Emperor unleashed a frenzied barrage of attacks at point-blank range, his strikes spread like a single mass of fog—
Coiling around Bu Eun-seol's body.
Slash! Ssskkt!
Yet Bu Eun-seol remained composed, wielding his sword with rapid precision—dispelling each attack one by one without relying on Internal Energy.
But fighting against a master like the Blood Emperor without Internal Energy...
Was akin to a child throwing punches at an adult, hoping to knock them down.
Ssskkt. Ssskkt.
As the battle raged on, Bu Eun-seol's body was gradually forced back, and sharp energy began seeping into his meridians.
CRACK!
The instant the Blood Emperor spotted an opening, he unleashed Blood Emperor Qi over a radius of around a hundred feet.
Simultaneously, as if deploying the Blood Wall of Rosky Clouds, a crimson barrier formed within a 300-foot radius around Bu Eun-seol.
The Blood Emperor's intent was clear—restrict Bu Eun-seol's movement within 300 feet, sealing off his retreat to force a decisive confrontation.
Ssskkt!
Under the relentless assault, Bu Eun-seol was pushed back another 100 feet.
CRACK!
Then, the Blood King descended like lightning, delivering three palm strikes in succession.
Not a single gap existed in his movements—each strike precisely targeted Bu Eun-seol's vital pressure points.
THUD!
Bu Eun-seol blocked every attack with the Obsidian Soul Sword, but the impact still sent him flying back another fifty feet.
A searing pain, as if his meridians were about to snap, radiated from where the palm energy had struck.
Fortunately, though he couldn't wield his internal energy, his formidable Body Protection True Qi enveloped his body, allowing him to narrowly escape death.
'This method isn't a perfect solution either.'
There was a clear limitation to this tactic.
By not using internal energy, he could prevent his blood from evaporating under the Blood Emperor's influence—but in exchange, his meridians could rupture from the sheer force of those relentless attacks, or he could simply be beaten to death.
"Huhuh."
The Blood Emperor bared his yellowed teeth in a grin.
His expression seemed to mock, "Let's see how long you can last."
"Does suppressing my True Qi make you happy?"
And yet, for someone hailed as the Blood Emperor of four hundred years ago, Bu Eun-seol had expected to witness an absolute martial presence, a pinnacle of overwhelming prowess.
But upon closer analysis, wasn't he just employing an extremely crude and restrictive martial secret?
"Now I understand why they relegated the Blood Emperor to the lowest rank."
"Kghaat!"
Unwilling to let the opportunity slip, the Blood Emperor pressed his assault once more.
If these attacks continued, even Bu Eun-seol wouldn't be able to hold out for long.
Yet, standing at the crossroads of life and death, his mind grew sharper, time itself seeming to slow.
And within that clarity, a single question bloomed:
'Does that mean this True Qi-suppressing technique has been in use since the era of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars?'
In the end, the Blood Emperor's martial arts resembled the very methods the Three Realms and the Three Clans had employed—techniques that diminished the power of murim warriors and suppressed their True Qi.
Then, a strange thought struck him:
'Is that why Mu-gyeol, the Divine Calculator's disciple, used such tactics?'
Mu-gyeol, the disciple of the Divine Calculator.
He had wielded the Heavenly Robe Mind Art, a secret technique of the Orthodox Heavenly Emperor, to neutralize his opponents' formidable internal energy, rendering their martial prowess useless.
At the time, Bu Eun-seol hadn't understood.
Why would Mu-gyeol, a disciple of the Orthodox Heavenly Emperor—one who had mastered countless orthodox martial arts—bother learning such a method?
Why would he use the Orthodox Heavenly Emperor's secret art in such a crude way?
But now, the answer seemed twofold:
Either the Orthodox Heavenly Emperor was aligned with them—
Or he had taught Mu-gyeol countermeasures against their techniques, leading him to naturally employ them in battle.
After all, to dismantle an enemy's martial arts, one must first understand them.
'Right. That could be the key.'
In that moment of realization, Bu Eun-seol's vision seemed to brighten.
He had grasped one of the profound applications of the Heavenly Robe Mind Art.
Whoosh!Swiish!
Meanwhile, the Blood Emperor's palm energy surged forth like a violent gale, crashing down upon Bu Eun-seol.
Each strike unleashed explosive shockwaves, forcing him back and sending waves of excruciating pain through his meridians, as though they were being torn apart.
Tchik!Splat!
Ignoring the agony, Bu Eun-seol continued to wield his sword techniques. Yet with every clash, blood sprayed from his body.
Despite the desperate struggle—
He refused to retreat even a single step.
Zzziiing.
Then, at some point—
A faint, mist-like energy began to seep from Bu Eun-seol's body.
Even as he endured the Blood Emperor's terrifying attacks without using internal energy, the distance he was pushed back gradually lessened.
The Heavenly Robe Mind Art.
By utilizing this secret technique of the Orthodox Heavenly Emperor, he was deciphering and synchronizing with the flow of the Blood Emperor's True Qi Circulation, diminishing the destructive power of his martial arts.
'He's dispersed his True Qi across the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.'
Rather than gathering his internal energy in his dantian and releasing it as needed, the Blood Emperor had distributed it evenly across all eight meridians.
Even so, the sheer volume of internal energy stored within his body was staggering, allowing each palm strike to unleash devastating force.
But now that Bu Eun-seol had used the Heavenly Robe Mind Art to mimic the source of that internal energy—
He could withstand the Blood Emperor's True Qi without sustaining further injury.
This was an adaptation of the very method Mu-gyeol had used against him in their internal energy clash.
"Huuuh!"
As his relentless attacks failed to inflict damage, the Blood Emperor's face began to twist in frustration.
His emotional state was finally betraying itself on his features.
'In the end, he's not truly complete.'
If the Blood Emperor—a Grandmaster—had been perfectly reborn and restored to life, he would never have revealed emotions like anger or joy, no matter how cornered he was.
Instead, he would have adapted instantly, devising new techniques to counter Bu Eun-seol's tactics.
The ultimate principle of martial arts was this:
To consider the enemy, the environment, and the compatibility of techniques—then deploy the most suitable martial art at the most opportune moment.
But the figure before him had only inherited the Blood Emperor's martial prowess—
Not the profound enlightenment or improvisational genius they had once achieved.
Flash!
A crimson Blood Light flared in the Blood Emperor's eyes.
Seeing Bu Eun-seol reduce the damage by mimicking his internal energy's source had enraged him beyond measure.
Zzziiing. Zzziiing.
The Blood Emperor seemed to have drawn forth his internal power at full strength in his fury.
His entire body flickered crimson, pulsing like a warning beacon—as if heralding the unleashing of an Otherworldly Peerless Art of unimaginable might.
That technique from back then.
Bu Eun-seol could sense it.
The Blood Emperor's supreme ultimate art—capable of hardening into a solid object or erupting into a storm of lethal projectiles.
The Blood Emperor's Secret Soul Energy was about to be unleashed.
When the Blood Emperor first appeared, he had released murderous rays in all directions.
And any living being exposed to them would be bisected in an instant.
I've been waiting for this!
A flash erupted in Bu Eun-seol's pupils.
He had been biding his time for this very moment.
Because while that supreme ultimate art was devastatingly powerful, it did not contain the Blood Emperor's signature blood-evaporating qi.
Splaaash!
A sound like cascading water echoed as a crimson radiance surged from the Blood Emperor's body, shooting toward the heavens.
At last, the Blood Emperor's Secret Soul Energy was primed for release.
But at the same time, an eerie glow began seeping from Bu Eun-seol's eyes.
Zzzziiing.
Before he knew it, a pale golden light flickered within his irises.
The Langya Mind's Eye.
A state that allowed instantaneous dismantling of an enemy's martial arts—or even mastery of their secrets.
The pinnacle of Langya Pavilion's martial arts was now unfolding within Bu Eun-seol.
So this is it.
With the Langya Mind's Eye active,
as he watched the Blood Emperor's Secret Soul Energy surge skyward, Bu Eun-seol felt both exhilaration and dread.
The joy came from the realization that, with the Mind's Eye awakened,
the nature of the Blood Emperor's rays, the type of martial art they belonged to, and the methods to dismantle or shatter them—
all these secrets flooded into his body and mind in an instant.
But the fear...
was the uncanny sensation that he might lose his very self to the Langya Mind's Eye.
If he were to be consumed by its power, his ego erased—
would he not become a maddened Great Demon, utterly lost to martial obsession,
bereft of reason, craving only slaughter?
KWAOOO! KWAOOO!
The Blood Emperor's Secret Soul Energy, having reached the heavens, finally poured down in a straight line toward Bu Eun-seol's brow.
Tzzzt!
Bu Eun-seol swiftly dodged the searing light, but the murderous rays pursued him relentlessly.
Shwaak! Shwaak!
The single beam split into hundreds of crimson threads,
at times morphing into a vast net seeking to swallow him whole.
Yet, to Bu Eun-seol's eyes—which now dominated time and space within this battlefield—
the trajectory of the Secret Soul Energy was predictable, its martial weaknesses glaringly obvious.
The method to dismantle even this overwhelming Heaven-Shattering Form—
It only appears as beams of light. In truth, it's a fusion of internal power and the Blood Emperor's qi, materialized into tangible true qi, much like the Willful True Binding.
A brilliant idea flashed through his mind, and a smile curled at the corners of his lips.
What if he forced the technique to halt mid-execution?
The backlash would send the energy surging backward, inflicting fatal internal injuries.
Srrrring.
Having grasped the countermeasure, Bu Eun-seol drew Ink Soul Sword once more.
Black sword qi erupted outward, dispersing into hundreds—no, thousands—of energy streams that latched onto the Blood Emperor's Secret Soul Energy.
This was the second form of the Bloody Tears Seven Forms—Seeking Life Amidst Death—but altered.
Rather than cutting down the enemy, it forcibly severed the flow of the Blood Emperor's power mid-release.
Oooom.
The instant the Secret Soul Energy was disrupted, the Blood Emperor's face twisted in agony as his meridians were violently blocked.
Bu Eun-seol seized the opening and unleashed a flurry of sword techniques.
These were neither the Formless Heavenly Flow nor the Bloody Tears Seven Forms.
They were instinctive, ruthlessly efficient killing moves—executed through the Langya Mind's Eye to exploit every gap in the enemy's defenses.
Clang! Clang!
The Blood Emperor frantically swung his arms, deflecting Bu Eun-seol's sword strokes.
With every clash of blade and palm, razor-sharp sword force and gale-like energy currents exploded outward.
KWAOOO!
A shockwave rippled out in concentric circles, engulfing both combatants in a storm of dust.
Whoooosh.
As the wind cleared, their figures slowly emerged.
Bu Eun-seol stood firm,
but the Blood Emperor had been forced back two steps, pale energy leaking from his body.
He had suffered no light injuries in this exchange.
"Huuuuuh."
Rage poured from the Blood Emperor's eyes.
His unstoppable Blood Emperor Qi had been rendered useless.
Which meant, ultimately, that Bu Eun-seol's mastery of martial principles surpassed his own.
"Heh... heh... heh... Aaaaah."
The Blood Emperor, who had been groaning, suddenly let out a thunderous roar.
"HRAAAAAGH!"
To him, this humiliation was unbearable.
He would pour forth every ounce of his strength—even wield the secrets of martial arts himself—to annihilate Bu Eun-seol in a single strike.