Chapter 751
Crunch. Rustle.
The slender legs, unable to bear the weight, began shattering like brittle cookies.
Just by directing his gaze, Bu Eun-seol was causing the legs and torsos of the masked men filling the Reed Field to break apart.
"This can't be..."
Earth Yi Star, who had been watching the scene, widened his eyes in disbelief.
"He didn't break the suggestion—he used it to collapse the formation?"
It was utterly unbelievable.
Until now, Earth Yi Star had dealt with countless formidable opponents using his ant-based suggestion technique.
Never once had his illusions been broken.
Yet this young man had taken that very suggestion and hyper-realized it, shattering the supposedly unbreakable Demon Insect Loyalty Formation.
"You—!"
Stunned, Earth Yi Star summoned another swarm of human-sized ants and sent them charging at Bu Eun-seol.
But it was futile.
The moment they formed, their legs shattered before his eyes, leaving them flailing helplessly.
If giant ants the size of humans existed in reality, this is exactly how they would collapse.
"The limits of a power that must be rationalized, I see."
Bu Eun-seol, observing Earth Yi Star, spoke with an intrigued expression.
"That means you can only cast suggestions within the bounds of what a person can logically accept as imaginable."
If suggestion could magnify anything or conjure any existence at will—
Be it a tiger the size of a fortress,
or a legendary dragon letting its creator wield godlike power—
then creating creatures of impossible sizes or beings no one had ever seen would be trivial.
But no matter how strong the suggestion, the human mind would struggle to accept such things as real.
That was why Earth Yi Star had always relied on plausible illusions—
like enlarging small insects to human size—to overwhelm his enemies.
Clack.
Raising the Ink Soul Sword, Bu Eun-seol addressed Earth Yi Star.
"That bizarre power of yours can't be all you have. Show me something else."
But Earth Yi Star couldn't respond.
In truth, about half of those blessed with the power of the One Hundred and Eight Stars never bothered to learn martial arts.
Why would they, when their innate abilities could crush martial artists in an instant?
They saw no need to waste time training when they could instead hone their celestial gifts.
But then—
"Impressive. To dismantle Earth Yi Star so effortlessly."
From behind Earth Yi Star, a middle-aged man in a flame-patterned robe emerged.
His white-frosted sideburns and immortal bearing marked him as anything but ordinary.
"With skills like that, no wonder you became Man-wol's Key."
"Key?"
"You don't know?"
Seeing Bu Eun-seol's puzzled expression, the middle-aged man chuckled.
"Don't tell me you actually believed that witch would help a complete stranger without expecting something in return."
Bu Eun-seol's eyes narrowed.
It had always puzzled him why Man-wol, despite being pursued, wandered the martial world alone.
But judging by the middle-aged man's words, it seemed she had approached him with a hidden agenda.
"So you truly had no idea."
Observing Bu Eun-seol's reaction, the middle-aged man clucked his tongue in amusement.
"That witch specializes in dragging young talents like you straight into hell."
"And do old men like you prefer to personally step forward and slaughter the young yourselves?"
"Hohoho. You have a sharp tongue."
The middle-aged man waved his hand dismissively.
"Regardless, the Keys she selects must be eliminated. Otherwise, the martial world will fall into ruin again."
"What are you talking about?"
"No time for lengthy explanations."
The middle-aged man smiled faintly.
"Death ends everything. Everything."
Then he extended his right hand.
Whoom.
The world's scenery rippled like waves, and Bu Eun-seol's body grew leaden.
Phase.
Suddenly, the middle-aged man wasn't using the power of the One Hundred and Eight Stars—
but the Mindscape technique employed by Neither-Human-Nor-Beast.
'Is this man also a Neither-Human-Nor-Beast?'
Despite the pain, doubt surged in Bu Eun-seol's mind—but he couldn't voice it.
Seon-u Jin had no known ties to Neither-Human-Nor-Beast.
An ill-timed question might expose his true identity.
"Do you know what happens when the creator of a Mindscape dies...?"
The middle-aged man gazed at Bu Eun-seol with a faint smile.
"Those trapped inside perish alongside them."
Thud.
Without warning, he thrust his right hand straight through Earth Yi Star's abdomen.
Tremble tremble.
Unable to even scream, Earth Yi Star collapsed, his body convulsing as blood pooled beneath him.
Swoosh.
With a casual motion, the middle-aged man retrieved a small, translucent orb from Earth Yi Star's robes.
The Boundary-Prosperity Jade.
"He was unworthy of being Earth Yi Star. To tremble in fear just because his suggestion was broken..."
Sighing, the man clutched the jade and turned back to Bu Eun-seol.
"Now, fall into hell together."
Swoosh—
A crimson energy surged from Ji I-seong's body, and with a sharp crack, tiny fissures split open in the sky.
The middle-aged man was using the dying Ji I-seong to collapse the mindscape.
'A suggestion? Or is this truly a mindscape?'
Bu Eun-seol, staring at the sky webbed with cracks, immediately attempted to unleash his sword technique to strike the middle-aged man.
But his body was no longer merely leaden—it had stiffened so completely that he couldn't move at all.
"Huhuhu. Savor your death slowly."
The middle-aged man, looking down at Bu Eun-seol's paralyzed form, smirked before turning away.
Whoosh—
As the man vanished, the fractured sky began to crumble.
Like shattered glass, fragments of the heavens fell piece by piece, while the ground melted into a thick, viscous liquid.
If this entire world collapsed completely—
Whether illusion or mindscape—
Bu Eun-seol, trapped here, would meet his end.
'Not a chance.'
Zzzzing—
A five-colored radiance began to bloom from Bu Eun-seol's entire body.
He had already experienced reconstructing a collapsing mindscape once before, through Yeon-wol.
'If this power is a mindscape, then all the better. Because I can rebuild it.'
Zzzzing—
As Bu Eun-seol exerted his full strength, time itself seemed to reverse.
The crumbling world began to repair itself.
The liquefied ground solidified, and the shattered sky slowly regained its original form.
'Just a little more.'
A little more, and the collapsing world would be fully restored.
Then, Bu Eun-seol could escape this mindscape at once.
Zzzzing—
But then, an odd sensation crept over him.
As he reconstructed the disintegrating world, unfamiliar memories began flooding into his mind.
'These memories...'
Surprisingly, they weren't the memories of the dying Ji I-seong—
But those of the mysterious middle-aged man who had created this mindscape.
'So he really did seize another's spirit and forge a mindscape.'
The middle-aged man had retrieved the Boundary-Prosperity Jade from Ji I-seong's possession.
Then, using its power, he cast a powerful suggestion on Bu Eun-seol before unfolding this mindscape.
The man had killed Ji I-seong—Bu Eun-seol had witnessed it with his own eyes.
That was why he had fully believed the claim that the mindscape was being projected through Ji I-seong's dying form.
—Aaaah!
But suddenly, his vision blurred, and screams erupted from all directions.
In an instant, the weight crushing his body lifted, and his hazy sight sharpened.
Then, the blazing image of Saha Manor came into view.
Black shadows darted swiftly through the manor, and endless screams echoed around him.
The memory of Saha Manor.
It was unfolding before his eyes once more.
'Why?'
Bu Eun-seol couldn't understand.
He had recognized the suggestion and was breaking free of it—so why had the memory of Saha Manor resurfaced?
Thud. Thud.
Though he didn't know the reason—
Instinctively, Bu Eun-seol slowly walked toward the center of the manor, as if drawn into the depths of Hell Island itself.
At the heart of the front courtyard stood a massive wooden pillar, beneath which raged a roaring inferno.
'Mother.'
Bound tightly to that pillar, her eyes tightly shut, was a woman of breathtaking beauty—
His mother.
Mutter. Mutter.
Strange incantations whispered around him.
Looking around, he recognized the scenery—it was the same as what he had seen in Yeon-wol's mindscape.
'Am I recalling the memory I saw in Yeon-wol's mindscape again?'
Around his mother, tied to the pillar, stood robed figures in black—
Mysterious priests, their hands forming eerie seals as they chanted their incantations.
'Wait.'
Suddenly, Bu Eun-seol sensed something off.
The angle from which he was viewing his mother—
It wasn't the same perspective he had seen through Yeon-wol's eyes before.
Instead, it was from a distance, as if seen through the gaze of another group entirely.
'Could this be the middle-aged man's memory?'
If so, then walking into the burning Saha Manor wasn't his own will—
He had been transferred into the middle-aged man's point of view.
'Then this man was also at Saha Manor.'
If true, it confirmed that not only had Neither-Human-Nor-Beast been present during Saha Manor's Blood Incident—
But the Jungson Clan as well.
Fwoosh!
At that moment, a brilliant light erupted from his mother's burning body, shooting straight into the heavens.
Because he was much farther away than Yeon-wol had been when chanting—
Bu Eun-seol could see the soaring radiance even more clearly.
—Waaah! Waaah!
Then, the faint cry of a baby echoed through the air.
Turning his head, Bu Eun-seol saw a large metal chest not far away—
Inside it lay an impossibly adorable newborn infant.
'Why a child?'
The metal box was inscribed with strange characters written in blood, and Dharma Instruments and treasures were densely packed upon its surface.
Even the metal box itself was no ordinary object—it seemed to be a treasure imbued with some kind of power.
Whoosh!
Astonishingly, the colossal beam of light that had shot into the sky was now descending back to the earth.
Kwaaa—
The radiance, vast enough to swallow the entire land, plunged into the metal box. Simultaneously, the inscribed characters and treasures began to emit a mysterious glow.
Huuuung.
That light seeped into the infant's body.
'So that's what it was.'
At last, Bu Eun-seol understood the full picture.
They hadn't intended to burn his mother alive.
They had been extracting the energy from within her body—to infuse it into this newborn child.
'Miss Man-wol.'
Bu Eun-seol felt as though he had been struck in the back of the head, reeling from the shock.
'She inherited my mother's abilities.'
Only now did he realize why his mother, in his memories, had been capable of wielding such mystical powers.
Why she had spoken to his father as if foreseeing the future.
'Then Mother was also a Shrine Maiden.'
In her conversation with his father, his mother had confidently declared that she would wield the Ink Soul Sword herself.
And the reason that had been possible was because she was a Shrine Maiden.
'Was she a Shrine Maiden of Neither-Human-Nor-Beast? Or did they steal her power?'
Neither-Human-Nor-Beast was a heretical sect that caused all manner of harm throughout the world.
Had his mother been one of their Shrine Maidens?
Or had she been stripped of her power before meeting her death?
If neither...
'Could it be that she grew weary of Neither-Human-Nor-Beast's tyranny, fled, and was caught?'
As Bu Eun-seol sank deep into thought—
Kurung— Waaarrr—
The landscape of the Saha Manor began to crumble around him.
'No.'
Snapping back to his senses, Bu Eun-seol exerted his strength to restore the collapsing scenery.
He had to reconstruct it—only then could he escape this layered Mindscape.
Uurrr—
But the Saha Manor's landscape continued to collapse uncontrollably.
If this continued, Bu Eun-seol's Spirit and Mind would be dragged into the abyss alongside the Mindscape's collapse—
Never to return.
Tchk— Tchk— Tchk—
Thick veins burst from Bu Eun-seol's body.
At the same time, a white energy began to envelop him.
'There's no other way.'
A five-colored radiance bloomed from Bu Eun-seol's entire being.
He would unleash Harmonization—
To completely erase this layered Mindscape and attempt an escape.
Crack.
As he drew upon every ounce of his strength, the disguise of Seon-u Jin unraveled, and his true form as Bu Eun-seol returned.
Whoooing—
The light radiating from his body grew even more intense.
This was a gamble.
Even he didn't know what would happen if he unleashed Harmonization within a Mindscape.
But since a Phase was not an illusion—but rather, a construct based on reality—
He had no choice but to try.
Zzziiing—
But then, the entire world trembled faintly, and an eerily familiar energy brushed against him from an impossibly close distance.
'What is this?'
Just as Bu Eun-seol inwardly startled—
Goooooo—
A sphere of crimson radiance suddenly began swirling violently before his eyes.
[Escape through there.]
At the same time, a peculiar resonance spread through his mind.
It wasn't a voice he heard—rather, it felt as though someone's Will had been transmitted to him.
Had Bu Eun-seol been an ordinary person, he would have hurled himself into the sphere without a second thought.
'If I can't escape on my own, how can I ever hope to face them in the future?'
Tchk— Tchk— Tchk—
Perhaps because this Mindscape was an illusion overlaid upon reality, his energy refused to align perfectly.
His bones creaked, and his skin began to split like dry pastry.
Zzziiing— Zzziiing—
Then, suddenly, his body flickered like a star, and streams of blue and black light began to surge forth.
As his physical body neared destruction, an unknown power abruptly erupted from within him.
But to Bu Eun-seol, that power only felt like an annoyance.
"If I wanted some unknown, dubious power like this—"
Flash!
A fierce yellow light exploded from his eyes.
"I wouldn't have risked my life honing my Martial Arts!"
Flash!
Finally, his energy aligned perfectly—and Harmonization surged forth.
Hwaak!
For an instant, he felt as though his skull had split in two.
Hwaak— Hwaaaaak—!
Countless points of light poured before his eyes, and his entire body seemed to be sucked toward a distant, tiny gap.
Flash!
The world turned white—and then, the tranquil scenery of the Reed Field unfolded once more.
'It worked.'
He had staked his life on unleashing Harmonization—and fortunately, it had succeeded.
Bu Eun-seol had employed the Martial Art of Harmonization to escape the collapsing Mindscape.
As he glanced around, his eyes widened.
To the left lay the corpse of Earth Yi Star, who had breathed his last, and beside it stood a masked woman clad in red, her demeanor eerily composed.
"You."
Bu Eun-seol realized she was the one who had aided him and respectfully clasped his hands together.
"Young Heroine..."
"Just what did you do?"
The woman's voice was peculiar.
Though her natural tone seemed quite youthful, she deliberately spoke in a low, solemn manner, as if forcing gravity into her words.
"What exactly did you do to make the Phase materialize and then vanish?"
Her expression held something beyond shock—even fear.
Phase.
The term "Phase" had only ever been used by the Three Clans or Neither-Human-Nor-Beast.
Meaning, the woman before him was no ordinary figure from a common martial sect.
"Miss Man-wol. Did she send you?"
Even before the masked woman had transmitted her voice, Bu Eun-seol had sensed an eerily familiar energy.
And it bore a striking resemblance to the aura he had detected whenever Man-wol appeared.
"That's right."
The masked woman admitted it readily.
"I came because she sent me."
It was astonishing.
Until now, Man-wol had always wandered the martial world alone. But to think she had allies?
And this woman's martial arts...
No fluctuations of internal energy, no overwhelming martial prowess radiated from her—yet Bu Eun-seol could instinctively tell.
Among all the young masters he had encountered, she stood at the very peak.
Not to mention, hadn't she just used a method akin to Wisdom-Light Mind Speech to transmit her voice?
—Surely that witch wouldn't help a complete stranger without some benefit in mind?
For a moment, the mutterings of the middle-aged man resurfaced in his thoughts.
Could it be that Man-wol possessed not just formidable power, but an entire faction behind her?
If so, why was she being hunted and subjected to trials by certain forces?
"I have a question."
Suppressing the flood of thoughts, Bu Eun-seol spoke with deliberate courtesy.
"The one who attacked me just now said this."
He took a deep breath before continuing.
"That Miss Man-wol intends to turn me into a Key."
The masked woman's eyes narrowed slightly, but she offered no immediate reply.
"What exactly is a Key?"
"Literally, a key."
Breaking her silence, she answered in a low voice.
"A key that lets you contain... the power of any of the One Hundred and Eight Stars."
"The power of the One Hundred and Eight Stars."
Bu Eun-seol's eyes flashed.
"Including Heavenly Might Star and Heavenly Darkness Star?"
Looking back, Man-wol had traveled four hundred years through time to resurrect the Blood Emperor, one of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars.
If that was the case, then her goal—
Could it be to create the remaining, yet-unmanifested stars? The thought bordered on madness.
"I can't say that much."
As the masked woman turned to leave, Bu Eun-seol called out.
"What of Miss Man-wol? Is she safe?"
The woman, who had maintained an unshakably calm and subdued demeanor until now—
At Bu Eun-seol's concern for Man-wol, a flicker of emotion surfaced in her eyes.
"Yes."
After a brief silence, she exhaled softly before speaking.
"If you're worried for her, then grow stronger. Strong enough that no one in this world can touch you."
Bu Eun-seol's eyes widened.
Her words echoed what Man-wol had once told him in the past.
"Let me offer you one piece of advice."
Her voice regained its composure.
"The Mindscape isn't invincible. Depending on the level of the Heavens, counterattacks are always possible—and it can even be negated by Limitless Power."
"Levels of the Heavens... So there are stages?"
"Correct."
"Just who are you? Where do you come from?"
The masked woman did not answer, instead gazing into the distant sky.
Then, briefly, she said:
"I've said too much already. I'll take my leave."
Her body gradually turned translucent.
By the time the trees behind her became visible through her fading form—
Flick.
With a brief flash of light, she vanished completely.
"Miss Man-wol."
Bu Eun-seol's gaze, fixed on the spot where the masked woman had stood, darkened like the sky before dawn.
Her words from their previous encounter resurfaced in his mind.
—Does it really matter? There are no eternal enemies or allies in this world.
—Everything changes and shifts with time.
"I don't know what your goal is... but I sincerely hope we don't end up as enemies."
He earnestly wished she would not become his foe.
She was undoubtedly connected to his mother. If possible, he wanted to remain on good terms.
For a moment, he stared blankly at the sky—
Whoosh!
Then, with a burst of Qi-Piercing Ascent, he shot into the air, vanishing into the distant heavens in an instant.
The Reed Field, now abandoned by both, was left in a silence as deep as death itself.
Swish.
But then, suddenly, a shadowy figure emerged amidst the reeds.
An elderly man dressed in the robes of the Copyist.
The Martial Venerable, disguised as the Divine Calculator.
"Hmm. Things are taking a complicated turn."
Stroking his chin, his eyes narrowed.
"And it wasn't the power of the Baekri Clan, but martial arts that brought him out."
Even the Martial Venerable could not fathom how Bu Eun-seol had escaped the collapsing Mindscape.
"I tried to save him from danger and build some measure of trust, but—"
The masked woman's sudden appearance had thrown all his plans into disarray.
"One must employ diverse methods, it seems."
The Martial Venerable's gaze sharpened.
Bu Eun-seol wasn't yet ripe, but time was running out.
If neither persuasion nor force worked, then he would have to resort to schemes—even if it meant dragging him into the Hidden Estate by any means necessary.