Chapter 72
The Martial Refinement Tournament was progressing steadily.
Bu Eun-seol effortlessly dispatched his next opponent, the Spirit-Snatching Sword Hong Gi-san.
Though this swordsman of the Demonic Path was a master of the Killing Sword, his skills fell far short of the Peerless Thunderbolt Form that Bu Eun-seol had mastered.
Before long, the quarterfinals loomed ahead. Those who remained were all figures who had earned great renown throughout the murim.
The Spiritual Subtlety Divine Sword.
In the martial world, there existed divine swords whose fame had been passed down through generations, and those who wielded them had made their names alongside these blades.
With one such treasure—the Spiritual Subtlety Divine Sword—offered as the tournament's grand prize, even legendary masters who typically remained aloof from fame and profit had come pouring in.
"The next opponent... is going to be troublesome."
Heuk-pyo, standing beside Bu Eun-seol as they examined the tournament bracket, rubbed his forehead with a sigh.
"It's none other than Seomun Gyeong of the Seomun Clan—one of the top contenders predicted to win."
The Seomun Clan.
Renowned for their mastery of Mechanism Study, the Seomun Clan was a place martial artists avoided as much as they did the Sichuan Tang Family.
They employed bizarre and grotesque illusion arts and the Art of Concealment—techniques that no martial skill could fully defend against. Moreover, if you made an enemy of them, they would relentlessly send clan members to exact vengeance.
Which made it all the stranger. Why would the Seomun Clan, famous for their Mechanism Study, participate in the Martial Refinement Tournament?
"Though it's not yet widely known in the murim, Seomun Gyeong is a sword prodigy. From childhood, his talent for swordsmanship was so exceptional that they even assigned him a dedicated sword master."
"A sword prodigy unknown to the murim..."
Bu Eun-seol, still gazing at the bracket, allowed a faint smile to touch his lips.
"This should be fun."
He had grown weary of facing masters whose reputations preceded them.
But now, he would cross blades with a hidden master—one from the Seomun Clan's direct lineage, no less. How could he not be thrilled?
"Hoho."
Bu Eun-seol, who usually maintained an expressionless demeanor, now had vitality flickering in his eyes and a breeze-like smile playing at their corners.
To an outsider, he might have looked like a man about to meet his beloved.
"Young Master... you truly do love fighting, don't you?"
"Love it or not, that's hardly the point."
Bu Eun-seol's lips curled upward, his eyes gleaming.
"It's simply the way of the martial world."
"Y-yes, of course."
Heuk-pyo forced a trembling smile.
At this rate, it wasn't Bu Eun-seol who would have the headache—it would be Seomun Gyeong.
***
On the day of the duel.
By the quarterfinals, the stands had swelled with even more spectators.
In truth, this was where the real Martial Refinement Tournament began.
"Today's match features Bu Eun-seol, Young Hero Bu, versus Seomun Gyeong, the Young Hero of the Seomun Clan!"
At Cho Mun-cheon's announcement, a slender figure slowly emerged onto the martial stage.
A young man with an unnaturally pale complexion and a gaunt frame so pitifully thin he seemed fragile. His towering height and the yellow robe draped over him made him look like a scarecrow wrapped in swaddling cloth.
This was Seomun Gyeong, the third son of the Seomun Clan's patriarch.
—Ooh!
The murim spectators gasped as they watched Seomun Gyeong ascend the stairs with his movement technique.
Without visibly moving his feet, he glided upward as smoothly as a boat cutting through water.
'An impressive movement technique.'
The technique Seomun Gyeong displayed was not only highly unorthodox but bore an eerie, almost unorthodox-path-like quality to it.
Thud.
Once atop the stage, Seomun Gyeong fixed his gaze squarely on Bu Eun-seol.
His pupils, unnaturally dilated, exuded a sinister energy, and an indistinct heat haze seemed to rise from his entire body.
Smirk.
Rather than unsettled, Bu Eun-seol's lips curled into a delighted smile at Seomun Gyeong's ghostly presence.
From the aura alone, it was clear Seomun Gyeong wielded a swordsmanship unlike any Bu Eun-seol had faced before.
"Now then—let the match begin!"
At Cho Mun-cheon's shout, Seomun Gyeong slowly began drawing his sword from his waist.
Though it was clearly a sharp treasured blade unsheathed from a metal scabbard, not even the faintest shing of steel could be heard.
When fully revealed, the sword was an odd-shaped weapon—narrow in width and nearly five feet in length.
"A sword has no eyes."
As Seomun Gyeong spoke in a gloomy voice, Bu Eun-seol nodded indifferently.
"Agreed."
At Bu Eun-seol's calm reply, the sharpness in Seomun Gyeong's gaze intensified.
"Hmph."
With a disdainful snort, Seomun Gyeong swiftly swung the drawn Odd-shaped Sword.
Swish—
As the blade sliced through the air, a frigid chill surged forth, accompanied by a whirlwind that coiled around Bu Eun-seol's body.
—What kind of sword technique is that?
Murmurs rose from the audience of Murim warriors.
He had merely swung his sword lightly, yet sword winds blew in from all directions.
Every time Seomun Gyeong's blade cleaved through the air, an icy coldness poured out, as though the very sky were darkening.
'Not a sword art of the Righteous Faction.'
Bu Eun-seol's eyes narrowed slightly as he deftly evaded the barrage of Sword Strokes.
Seomun Gyeong's swordsmanship was not only deeply sinister—it was also nearly impossible to predict its Sword Trajectory.
Whoosh—
Using the Extrasensory Perception of the Beast Path, Bu Eun-seol dodged each Sword Flower conjured by the Odd-shaped Sword.
Yet, every time he avoided a stroke, Seomun Gyeong's blade trembled lightly, shifting its movements like a living creature.
"Good."
Bu Eun-seol, who had been continuously evading the strokes, suddenly drew his sword like lightning and blocked the Odd-shaped Sword.
Clang!
A sharp metallic sound rang out as Seomun Gyeong took a step back.
"Your Internal Energy is considerable."
Seomun Gyeong raised an eyebrow.
From the force he felt at his fingertips, he could tell Bu Eun-seol's level of Internal Energy surpassed his own by a significant degree.
"Hmph."
With a low snort, Seomun Gyeong altered his sword technique once more.
This time, he employed a ghostly Movement Technique, spinning rapidly around Bu Eun-seol before thrusting his sword in a flurry.
Stab-stab-stab-stab!
Each strike unleashed hundreds of needle-like Sword Strokes.
Rather than blocking with his sword, Bu Eun-seol relied on agility, slipping past each razor-sharp stroke with precision.
Swipe— Hiss!
The Sword Strokes grazed past him by the width of a single strand of hair.
As Seomun Gyeong watched Bu Eun-seol's elusive movements, a dark glint swirled in his eyes.
Fwoosh!
The Sword Strokes transformed again.
The needle-like thrusts spread wide before suddenly raining down from above like a storm of falling droplets.
'Fire Rain Sword?'
Bu Eun-seol's eyebrows lifted.
The technique Seomun Gyeong had just executed bore an uncanny resemblance to the Fire Rain Sword Sect's defensive stance, Mystery Upon Mystery, repurposed into an offensive strike.
"Did one of your sword masters hail from the Fire Rain Sword Sect?"
Bu Eun-seol smirked before swinging his longsword upward.
Whoooosh—!
In response, Sword Strokes strikingly similar to Seomun Gyeong's own shot up into the sky.
Bu Eun-seol, too, had unleashed the Fire Rain Sword's Mystery Upon Mystery.
Seomun Gyeong abruptly halted, his movements freezing as he spoke.
"Which sword sect do you belong to?"
Bu Eun-seol did not answer, merely staring back at him intently.
Seemingly irritated by his silence, a sinister light flickered in Seomun Gyeong's pupils.
"It's too early to grow arrogant."
Hssss—
With a low murmur, Seomun Gyeong's entire body began to blur.
Slash!
The sound of splitting air preceded a razor-sharp sword thrust aimed straight at Bu Eun-seol's forehead.
Had he employed a Movement Technique of Extreme Speed to close the distance in an instant? Despite being about thirty feet away mere moments ago, it now felt as though he were striking from point-blank range.
Swish—
Bu Eun-seol narrowly dodged, but several strands of his hair were severed by the blade's edge.
'Fast...'
Before his inner admiration could fully form—
Stab-stab-stab-stab!
In that instant, Seomun Gyeong's Sword Strokes transformed yet again.
Though Bu Eun-seol retreated to create distance, Seomun Gyeong remained like a ghost, pressing his attack right before his eyes.
'Strange.'
A spark of realization lit in Bu Eun-seol's gaze.
This wasn't just about speed. It was as if, with every Sword Stroke, Seomun Gyeong shattered the constraints of space, closing the gap in an instant.
'Then.'
Bu Eun-seol abruptly leaned into the barrage of sword strokes.
Swish!
The moment Seomun Gyeong's odd-shaped sword traced a crimson blood line across Bu Eun-seol's cheek—
'Not a movement technique—footwork.'
Bu Eun-seol's gaze locked onto Seomun Gyeong's feet.
Astonishingly, even while executing sword techniques, he was constantly shifting the position of his feet without pause.
Swish! Swish!
Seizing the opening, Seomun Gyeong unleashed a flurry of sword shadows, piercing toward both of Bu Eun-seol's sides.
Shatter!
The instant the razor-sharp blade dug into his flank, Bu Eun-seol's figure blurred—as if passing straight through the encroaching steel—and evaded.
Swift Shadowless.
A divine movement technique from antiquity, capable of shifting one's position dozens of times in a single breath, had finally been unleashed.
Tch.
But as Seomun Gyeong altered his sword strokes again, the hem of Bu Eun-seol's robe near his side tore slightly.
For the first time since mastering Swift Shadowless, he had failed to evade a sword stroke completely.
"Neither footwork nor movement technique."
Yet Bu Eun-seol's lips curled into a faint smile. That single exchange had allowed him to grasp not only the true nature of Seomun Gyeong's bizarre swordplay but also his overall skill level in an instant.
"It was a battle formation."
At those words, the corner of Seomun Gyeong's mouth—his odd-shaped sword resting near his shoulder—twitched upward.
"Quite the sharp eye."
After briefly lowering his sword to the ground, he wore a self-assured expression.
"By skillfully utilizing the flow of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams, one can transcend space itself to alter their position."
Unbelievably, Seomun Gyeong had been employing not just sword techniques but also footwork derived from the Seomun Clan's Mechanism Study.
"Transcending space to alter position..."
Bu Eun-seol shook his head with a disappointed expression.
"The limits of a clan that isn't a sword clan, I suppose."
"What did you say?"
"You've wrapped your sword in unnecessary tricks."
Heh heh heh...
Seomun Gyeong sneered, eyeing the torn fabric of Bu Eun-seol's robe.
"After being forced on the defensive this entire time, you resort to empty words to feign composure?"
"On the defensive?"
Bu Eun-seol let out a soft chuckle.
"I haven't attacked even once."
At that, the cold smile vanished from Seomun Gyeong's face.
Looking back, Bu Eun-seol had only defended—not a single offensive move.
As if he had been observing the sword techniques in detail.
"You wanted a closer look at my swordsmanship."
A sinister violet light flared in Seomun Gyeong's pupils as he glared at Bu Eun-seol.
"Then have a proper look."
Resting his sword horizontally near his cheek, he spoke in a low voice.
"And while you're at it—take a peek at hell too!"
Shatter!
In that instant, Seomun Gyeong's odd-shaped sword was already piercing toward Bu Eun-seol's throat.
The distance between them had been thirty-five feet. Yet, by applying the footwork of the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation, Seomun Gyeong had closed the gap in a flash.
Clang!
But the odd-shaped sword could advance no further—blocked by a longsword.
Bu Eun-seol had raised his blade in perfect sync with Seomun Gyeong's opening move.
"With attacks like these, you won't even get close to hell."
"Don't get cocky just because you blocked one move!"
Seomun Gyeong's feet blurred chaotically as he unleashed his swordplay.
His odd-shaped sword shot out from unpredictable angles, yet Bu Eun-seol defended with languid ease—as if anticipating every sword path.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Seomun Gyeong poured forth ghostly sword techniques in rapid succession, but Bu Eun-seol remained rooted in place, parrying each strike with his blade.
—Bwahahaha!
Suddenly, laughter erupted from the solemn audience seats.
Seomun Gyeong was swinging his sword with all his might, while Bu Eun-seol blocked with the bored demeanor of someone enduring a chore.
The sight was like watching a farcical Beijing Opera performance.
"You—damned—!"
Seomun Gyeong's erratic movements sent his odd-shaped sword lunging unexpectedly from above Bu Eun-seol's head this time.
Yet Bu Eun-seol didn't even glance upward—already predicting the strike—and raised his longsword to block.
"Is this all?"
Bu Eun-seol's face twisted in profound disappointment.
"The so-called hidden Sword Prodigy... should've stayed hidden."
"You bastard!"
Seomun Gyeong, enraged, slammed his sword downward.
"Where did you steal knowledge of our main house's Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation?!"
"What nonsense."
"Don't play dumb!"