Chapter 740
Thud.
As the leader's body fell like a felled log and collapsed,
Bu Eun-seol finally spat out the blood he had been holding back in his mouth.
Sizzle—
When the blood mixed with Extreme Poison hit the ground, it released a pungent, acrid smoke.
'The Numbing Spirit Pills should still be working.'
With trembling hands, Bu Eun-seol swallowed the last remaining Numbing Spirit Pill he had.
He couldn't die yet.
He absolutely had to reach the Martial Venerable's hideout and recover his body.
Crunch—
Meanwhile, the wanderers disbanded their battle formation and swarmed inside.
"Hey! Are you alright?"
Ye Eo-ryeong rushed toward Bu Eun-seol, who was barely standing, using his Ink Soul Sword as a cane.
"Quick, someone treat his—"
"I'm fine."
Gurgle—
Bu Eun-seol coughed up another mouthful of black blood, but his complexion brightened slightly.
Fortunately, the Numbing Spirit Pills were still taking effect.
Stagger—
With great effort, he took another step forward.
"Where are you going?"
"I have somewhere I must be."
"Then let the wanderers accompany you!"
Ye Eo-ryeong gestured toward them urgently.
"I risked my life going to the Wanderers' Market and paid to hire them. Let them go with you!"
"It's unnecessary."
She clenched her fists, voice trembling.
"You... you fought those assassins to save me, didn't you? You even took my clothes to draw them away!"
Her eyes shimmered, as if she might burst into tears at any moment.
A complete stranger—a man whose body was already broken beyond recognition—
had willingly become bait and fought those killers for her sake.
Deeply moved, she had returned, risking her own life to protect him in turn.
'A kind-hearted woman indeed.'
Bu Eun-seol looked at her and spoke in an uncharacteristically warm voice.
"Truly, you needn't concern yourself. Go back."
She knew how to be grateful for kindness and had returned here, staking her life to repay it.
That alone made her worthy of his goodwill.
"But your injuries—!"
After a brief pause, Bu Eun-seol replied,
"Since you've already hired these wanderers for my sake... have them disguise themselves as me and scatter in all directions."
Wiping away the blood trickling from his lips, he spoke in a low voice.
"That alone will be help enough."
"But your wounds—!"
There was scarcely an inch of Bu Eun-seol's body left unharmed, and his robes were drenched in blood.
"I'll be fine. I've taken spirit medicine."
No trial, no wound or pain, could bend his will.
Though his internal energy was completely depleted, though his body was a mass of injuries,
Bu Eun-seol took one slow, deliberate step after another—steadfast and unyielding.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Then, the bandages binding his wounds loosened and unraveled.
The tightly wrapped cloth, grazed by the Toad-Joining Art, had come undone.
"Ah—"
Ye Eo-ryeong's lips parted in shock.
Beneath the bloodstains and the shadow of his bamboo hat—
she caught sight of eyes as sorrowful and beautiful as the pale moonlight, paired with a finely sculpted nose.
The face of a peerlessly handsome man.
"You—"
Seeing that face, suffused with an almost ethereal glow, she finally realized who he was.
The young Grandmaster who had shaken the world—
the successor destined to rule the Demon Hall,
the Righteous Man within the Demonic Path,
the Demonic Path's Chivalrous Hero,
a man whose beauty and presence surpassed all others under heaven—
Martial Soul Lord Bu Eun-seol.
Swish—
Bu Eun-seol adjusted his bamboo hat,
then offered her a faint, kind smile.
"May the Dragon Splendor Merchant Guild prosper henceforth."
"My Lord—!"
"Worry not."
With calm detachment, he turned away.
But Ye Eo-ryeong couldn't bring herself to stop him.
She was merely a merchant's daughter.
He was a Grandmaster of the Demonic Path, walking the path of an Asura.
Their destinies were too different... She dared not obstruct his path.
"But I—!"
Yet, mustering every ounce of her courage, she shouted after him.
"It doesn't matter if our paths diverge!"
"..."
"Please—visit our guild someday!"
Bu Eun-seol gave a faint nod.
Even if he had shown kindness to the Dragon Splendor Merchant Guild,
he hadn't yet fully repaid his debt to Ye Eo-ryeong.
He intended to uncover exactly why the Blood Claw Sect and the Ten Thousand Lives Sect had tried to abduct her—
and ensure her safety once more.
That was why he nodded.
And then he turned away.
Step. Step.
Watching Bu Eun-seol walk off, battered but unbroken,
the wanderers instinctively bowed in solemn respect.
In the Murim, even the mere possession of extraordinary martial arts could earn the reverence of many.
All the more so for one who possesses an indomitable spirit and the Warrior's Soul.
Such a person could command respect from anyone, transcending age and seniority.
With the mercenaries scattering to cover his tracks, Bu Eun-seol could now make his way toward the Dabie Mountains with far greater ease.
He stopped by Chengdu to change into clean clothes and boarded a carriage.
Yet his condition only worsened with time, and now he had reached a point where he could no longer wield even a shred of Internal Energy.
Up until now, Bu Eun-seol had been unable to unify all the energies within his body—only through Harmonization could he briefly align them.
Because of this, the lord of Langya Pavilion, Ak Mu-ryeong, had warned him long ago:
If Bu Eun-seol refused to choose a single power and continued maintaining them like this, he would eventually face Body and Spirit Annihilation—his flesh shattered into pieces, his soul plummeting into an abyss from which there would be no return.
But as Bu Eun-seol journeyed through the martial world, he had obtained the Two Spirit Energies, buying himself time through their power.
Now, however, having lost all his strength—down to the last thread of his Internal Energy—his body felt strangely lighter.
As if he had cast off the heavy, rigid armor that had been weighing him down.
'If I fully harmonize all the powers I possess, will my body feel this light one day?'
The thought struck him suddenly, unbidden.
But to achieve that, he would first need to obtain all Four Spirit Energies—a journey that would be long and fraught with peril.
"We've arrived."
Just then, the carriage came to a halt.
They had finally reached the foothills of the Dabie Mountains.
"You've worked hard."
Though he had already paid the fare, Bu Eun-seol handed over another generous silver tael.
Stepping down from the carriage, he walked toward the deep woods of the Dabie Mountains.
Even as he moved forward, he repeated a series of seemingly meaningless actions—pressing his ear to the ground, bowing his head, spinning in place, picking up a stone at the entrance and shaping it into a peculiar form.
Each of these actions was a key to entering the Martial Venerable's Treasury.
A few more actions, and a faint gate would materialize within the forest.
But then—
Thud.
Bu Eun-seol froze mid-motion.
A strange sensation had prickled at his senses.
Without the ability to release True Qi shockwaves, his Extrasensory Perception was limited to a little over thirty meters.
Yet Bu Eun-seol possessed an intuition honed through years of wandering the martial world.
After staring intently at the distant sky for a long moment, he suddenly tensed his lower abdomen and spoke.
"How amusing."
Truthfully, he had sensed nothing.
But shouting like this wouldn't cost him anything—if no one was there, it would just be a soliloquy.
"..."
Still no reaction.
A faint sneer curled at the corners of Bu Eun-seol's lips as he gazed at the sky.
"Cowering like a rat, hiding so well. If you won't come out, I'll just leave."
The moment he hurled the insult—
Whoosh!
A white gust of wind swept before Bu Eun-seol's eyes, and a shadow clad in a Treasured Sword at the waist materialized.
It was none other than Seo Muk, the deputy commander of the Star Guard Corps.
"A master with remarkable perception, I see."
Seo Muk seemed deeply offended that this bizarre, bandaged man had detected his presence.
"And a foul mouth to match."
'Seo Muk?'
Bu Eun-seol was inwardly stunned.
He had only thrown out a random taunt to test the waters—yet here was the deputy commander of the Star Guard Corps, of all people?
'If this man stands guard here, I'll never be able to enter the Martial Venerable's Treasury.'
Bu Eun-seol had to enter the treasury to restore his body.
But if the Star Guard Corps' elite were stationed here...
Without fully recovering his strength, there was no way he could drive out a master of this caliber like some stray dog.
"This area of the Dabie Mountains is under our corps' investigation for a certain mission."
Seo Muk produced a silver plaque engraved with the character for Star and spoke firmly.
"This is a Martial Alliance affair. Leave quietly."
Seo Muk was treating Bu Eun-seol with a measure of courtesy—likely because he believed him to be a formidable master for having detected his presence, despite his pitiful state.
Clench.
Bu Eun-seol tightened his fist.
There was no telling when these men would withdraw. Nor could he afford to wait indefinitely.
Even if, by some stroke of luck, the Star Guard Corps did retreat—
The Martial Venerable, sensing the danger of their presence, might seal the Secret Vault.
Or worse—change the method of entry entirely.
'Even if I turn back now, they'll surely try to verify my identity.'
The bigger problem was Seo Muk's personality.
As the right-hand man of Baekri Mu-jo, he was a man who pursued perfection in all things.
Even if Bu Eun-seol pretended to leave, Seo Muk would undoubtedly dig into his exact identity and background.
And sure enough—
"I have disclosed my rank. Now it is your turn to reveal yourself."
Seo Muk began meticulously probing into Bu Eun-seol's identity.
"You clearly appear to be a martial artist, so why do you wrap those filthy bandages around your face?"
There's only one way anyway.
There was no room for choice.
Sssrrrk.
Bu Eun-seol slowly unwound the bandages covering his face.
Then, an impossibly beautiful visage was gradually unveiled beneath the midday sun.
"You—!"
Seo Muk's face stiffened.
He had already guessed this wasn't an ordinary person.
But to think the one hiding beneath those filthy bandages was none other than the Heir of the Demon Hall—
And the Martial Soul Lord, a prodigious Grandmaster even acknowledged by his superior, Baekri Mu-jo?
"What business brings you here?"
Seo Muk raised his eyebrows as he spoke.
"Dressed in such shabby attire—are you here on some covert mission?"
Despite his words, the tension on Seo Muk's face was unmistakable.
Bu Eun-seol was a monstrously skilled master who had once fought Baekri Mu-jo on equal footing.
Moreover, this was the Martial Alliance's territory.
If he dared to appear here so boldly, there had to be a reason—either he had some hidden motive, or he had secretly brought forces with him.
"A covert mission? Don't be absurd."
Bu Eun-seol clasped his hands behind his back and sauntered forward with leisurely steps.
"I merely stopped by because the scenery here is quite pleasant."
Seo Muk furrowed his brow.
A man like Bu Eun-seol wouldn't wander the mountains and rivers alone for leisure.
Besides, he commanded a vast intelligence network—there was no way he wouldn't know the Star Guard Corps had gathered in the Great Bie Mountains.
In the end, he had to conclude that Bu Eun-seol had deliberately come to pick a fight, fully aware of Seo Muk and the Star Guard Corps' presence.
"You expect me to believe you're sightseeing with those filthy rags wrapped around your face?"
Seo Muk's expression hardened further, convinced Bu Eun-seol was mocking him.
"Are you trying to provoke me right now?"
"Provoke you?"
"Who would believe you're just wandering the martial world looking like that?"
Bu Eun-seol met Seo Muk's gaze with icy eyes.
"Don't tell me you're going to insist the entire Great Bie Mountains belong to the Martial Alliance."
"Don't twist my words. Our alliance arrived here first to carry out our mission."
Seo Muk retorted sharply.
"If you truly wish to sightsee, go elsewhere."
Then he added one final warning.
"And don't forget—this is our alliance's territory."
"How strange. The Star Guard Corps, tasked with protecting the Martial Alliance's key figures, is here of all places."
Bu Eun-seol tilted his head slightly.
"Since when did the Star Guard Corps become the alliance's investigation unit?"
In truth, Bu Eun-seol knew exactly why Seo Muk and the Star Guard Corps were here.
After all, Baekri Mu-jo had found nothing in this place before.
A master of his caliber would have sensed something—yet he had discovered nothing.
It was obvious he had ordered his subordinates to scour the area thoroughly.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Seo Muk feigned ignorance.
"Our corps has the authority to investigate any matter concerning the safety of the alliance's key figures. And—"
A dangerous glint flickered in Seo Muk's eyes.
"Let me remind you once more—be mindful that this is our alliance's domain."
"Hohoho."
Bu Eun-seol smiled faintly and clasped his hands behind his back.
"I'll consider it."
Though not a single strand of internal power remained in his body, his expression was utterly composed.
"I might drop by again if I'm bored. That is—unless you keep insisting the Great Bie Mountains belong to the Martial Alliance."
With that cold smile still lingering, he slowly turned away.
Seo Muk glared fiercely but made no move to stop him.
Without Baekri Mu-jo present—
Even if he mobilized every soldier stationed in the Great Bie Mountains, it was uncertain whether they could handle Bu Eun-seol.
Thud. Thud.
As Bu Eun-seol walked away at a leisurely pace, Seo Muk's eyebrows twitched upward.
He assumed Bu Eun-seol was deliberately refraining from using movement techniques just to provoke him.
Go ahead and act smug while you can.
Seo Muk gritted his teeth so hard they nearly cracked.
Soon enough, your head will roll too.
Whoosh.
But then—
A desolate late-autumn wind swept through the forest.
In that instant, Seo Muk's eyes widened as he watched Bu Eun-seol's retreating figure.
Highly skilled masters naturally exude energy from their bodies even without actively using internal power, leaving almost no footprints behind.
Moreover, they possess exceptional balance.
Yet right now, Bu Eun-seol's gait was unsteady, leaving deep footprints in the muddy ground.
And—
Upon closer inspection, his ankles were caked with dust and dirt.
That could only mean one thing—when climbing these Great Bie Mountains,
he had trudged up step by arduous step like an ordinary person.
'Unless one takes pleasure in staining their clothes with dirt, there's no way that would happen.'
"Hold on."
Feeling something profoundly amiss, Seo Muk called out to Bu Eun-seol as he turned away.
"Are you truly in any condition to leave like this?"
"What do you mean?"
When Bu Eun-seol's crimson-flared eyes bore down at him, Seo Muk felt a prickle of unease.
'Am I just picking a fight for no reason?'
But he quickly shook his head.
After years of leading the Star Guard Corps, his instincts were razor-sharp.
'There's no harm in confirming.'
Straightening his posture, Seo Muk spoke with deliberate confidence.
"If I let you go like this, the Leader will have my head. At the very least, show me some proof of your skill—then I'll have something to say in my defense."
"Skill?"
Bu Eun-seol glanced down at the silent Mourning Blade in his grip.
"You want me to behead the Star Guard operatives hiding in the trees?"
"Must you go that far?"
Seo Muk took a step forward.
"Just show me one move. Then I'll let you pass without another word."
And in that instant, Seo Muk unleashed a shockwave of internal energy.
After all, Bu Eun-seol should be far above his own level. He had gathered every ounce of his power to withstand whatever opening strike might come.
—Stagger.
But then, something astonishing happened.
As the shockwave of his energy swept past, Bu Eun-seol's body swayed—just slightly.
And that subtle tremor did not escape Seo Muk's keen eyes.
"Hahahaha—!"
Unable to contain himself, Seo Muk threw his head back and laughed, a coarse, grating sound.
"This is amusing."
His laughter cut off abruptly, replaced by a chilling smile curling at his lips.
He had finally sensed it—Bu Eun-seol's body was far from whole.
—Whoosh.
As Seo Muk raised his hand, thirty swordsmen materialized from the air, surrounding Bu Eun-seol in an instant.
"I knew something was off."
Seo Muk's sharp gaze swept over Bu Eun-seol's form as he smirked.
"Why would someone like you come here in such a wretched state?"
"..."
"But it seems your body is already in ruins."
Even in this hair-trigger standoff, Bu Eun-seol's expression remained utterly calm, his lips sealed tight.
Seo Muk was certain of his injury—and he wouldn't let this opportunity slip away.
Further words were meaningless now.
'Thirty of them.'
These swordsmen, likely elites personally trained by Baekri Mu-jo, surpassed even the Martial Alliance's first-grade commanders in skill.
And with Deputy Commander Seo Muk joining them? Even in peak condition, this wouldn't be an easy fight.
'Can I defeat them with nothing but a body devoid of internal energy?'
—Shhhk.
Swallowing the doubt rising in his mind, Bu Eun-seol drew the Mourning Blade.
These were no ordinary foes—they eclipsed even the assassins of the Blood Claw Sect and the Short Life Sect.
And now, he had lost all his strength, every thread of internal energy gone.
Yet his body felt light, his spirit as still and serene as standing upon a frozen lake.
—Swish. Swish. Swish.
Bu Eun-seol immediately unleashed his swordplay.
With his internal energy completely depleted, he had to strike first—before Seo Muk and the swordsmen could properly form their battle formation.
—Slash!
As the Mourning Blade arced toward Seo Muk's throat in a crescent strike—
—BOOM!
The thirty swordsmen suddenly unleashed their internal energy in unison.
True to his position as deputy commander, Seo Muk had instantly pinpointed Bu Eun-seol's weakness.
Through voice transmission, he had ordered his men to flood the battlefield with raw power.
—RUMBLE.
The combined energy of thirty-one masters was like the force of nature itself.
Under the crushing pressure, as if the heavens were collapsing, Bu Eun-seol's body felt as though it had turned to solid iron—weighing tens of thousands of pounds.
'Strange.'
Even as the suffocating pressure robbed him of breath, his mind grew oddly tranquil.
At the same time, his vision darkened, swallowed by an abyss.
Death itself seemed to veil his sight—only perfect blackness remained.
His consciousness faded endlessly, his breath stolen.
—How disappointing.
A whisper slithered through the darkness.
—Why do you keep defying fate?
Bu Eun-seol couldn't answer.
His iron-heavy body felt as though it were sinking into a bottomless pit.
—Take my hand. Then you can solve everything.
A black hand stretched toward him in the void.
—Revenge. Truth. Everything you desire—achieved at once.
Bu Eun-seol hesitated.
Because the darkness's words didn't sound like a lie.
If he took that hand, he might gain power surpassing even death itself.
'I'm tired now.'
Bu Eun-seol clenched his fists.
If he grasped that hand, he could fulfill all his vengeance. Perhaps even uncover the truth behind his parents' deaths.
And in the Underworld, he could meet his grandfather with a smile.
—Shhh.
Slowly, he raised his hand.
And without hesitation, he reached toward the black shadow.