Taking a deep breath, Seok Song scanned the gathered figures. When he spoke, his voice was a low rumble, heavy with gravity.
“That man is a demon.”
Demon.
It was a word tossed around cheaply by the superstitious. But when Seok Song uttered it, the atmosphere in the stone chamber darkened, as if a thunderhead had suddenly blotted out the sun.
“He began as a disciple of the First Seat. A prodigy,” Seok Song rasped, exhaling a breath thick with regret. “Eventually, even the Society Leader taught him personally. Watching him absorb every technique we possessed, the Society was certain he would become the Number One Under the Heavens.”
Seok Song bit his lip, the words catching in his throat like bile. “But that demon was a spy. Once he had drained the Thousand Sword Society of its arts, he didn’t just leave. He slaughtered our masters. One by one.”
The revelation struck the listeners like a physical blow.
So that was the truth of the Thousand Sword Society.
They hadn’t been acting secretly like a divine dragon biding its time; they had been paralyzed, their leadership butchered, their strength hollowed out from within.
“I will ask one thing.”
After a heavy silence, the man wearing the Golden Dragon Mask spoke, his voice vibrating from behind the gold metal. “Did he truly massacre the Society Leader and the swordsmen of the Thousand Sword Society single-handedly?”
“That is correct.”
A silence like death reclaimed the hall.
Just looking at the single sword move Seok Song had demonstrated earlier, one could guess his martial prowess touched the peak of the Murim. To think a monster existed capable of assassinating such swordsmen and their Society Leader alone?
“The calculation doesn’t add up.”
The person wearing the Ox Mask shook his head slowly. “How can we deal with such a master if your entire sect failed?”
“That is why our Society is transmitting the sword art.”
Seok Song clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. “So that you can definitely defeat him!”
Only then did Bu Eunseol grasp the full picture.
The Thousand Sword Society had created a sword art specifically to kill a great enemy, but they lacked the capacity to wield it themselves. Their solution was to transmit this vengeance-forged art to outstanding geniuses already filled with killing intent, turning them into proxy executioners.
“Even if we learn an outstanding sword art, there is no guarantee we can kill such a master,” the Ox Mask argued.
Seok Song nodded. “Of course. But there is a fatal weakness in his swordsmanship.”
“Weakness?”
“Because he learned exotic arts like the Flexibility Art, his joints and muscles are overly soft and distended. While such a body allows him to learn any supreme sword art easily, it leaves a flaw.”
Behind the Rabbit Mask, Bu Eunseol’s eyes flared like dying embers stoked to sudden life.
“Flexibility Art? What kind of Flexibility Art do you mean?”
At the sudden, intense question, Seok Song frowned. “I cannot know precisely. If not the Tianzhu Flexibility Art, it would be the Wheel Entwining Flexibility Art of the Central Plains.”
“Age? What is his age?”
“He was a young man in his late twenties at the time… he would be around forty now.”
“Sword art? What sword art did he use?” Bu Eunseol pressed frantically.
“He used the sword arts taught by our Society. As if mocking us.”
As Bu Eunseol opened his mouth to ask again, Seok Song held up a hand. “Let us stop the questions here.” He looked around the circle of masked figures. “Can you swear?”
The Ox Mask, who had been analyzing the situation with cold logic, answered first. “I refuse.”
“I do not force you. Leave immediately.”
“Then.”
Clasping his hands, the Ox Mask turned without lingering attachment and exited the chamber.
Watching him leave, Seok Song took a deep breath. “I ask those remaining again. Instead of simply receiving the sword art, will you swear to kill one person?”
“I also have a question.” The Golden Dragon Mask stepped forward, his bearing massive and imposing. “Is this ‘demon’ a figure belonging to the Orthodox Faction?”
“That is unknown. All I can say is that he was a spy who entered to investigate the internal affairs of our Society.”
The Golden Dragon Mask nodded slowly. “Then it won’t do.” His tone turned bitter. “You call him a demon, but we do not know the circumstances. Even if your words are truth without an inch of falsehood, if he is a figure of the Orthodox Faction, this body cannot kill him.”
“I understand your position.”
“Then I will go.”
Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed as he watched the burly man depart.
He is likely a Master of Great Righteousness from the Mount Hua Sect.
The Golden Dragon Mask’s presence was like a mountain—impressive enough to draw Bu Eunseol’s admiration. Furthermore, the kick he had displayed in the second trial bore a striking resemblance to the Thirty-Six Ways of Mount Tai Three Clarities Kick Technique.
“If you cannot tell us whether he is Orthodox or Unorthodox… fine.” The man wearing the Tiger Mask spoke up. “Then where is he? Can we kill him right now?”
Seok Song shook his head. “Our Society is doing its best to find his whereabouts… but we haven’t found him yet. We are tracking him constantly by mobilizing all our intelligence networks.”
“Then it won’t work.” The Tiger Mask sighed, shaking his head. “I have many things to do. If you appear suddenly when I am handling important matters and ask me to drop everything to kill someone… that is difficult.”
Judging by his tone, the Tiger Mask was likely middle-aged and held a position of considerable responsibility.
“That is understandable,” Seok Song conceded.
The Tiger Mask turned to Bu Eunseol and Tang Gon. “Seeing you earlier, you two are truly strong. If we meet in the Gangho next time, let’s take off our masks and have a proper bout.”
The man seemed to possess a bellicose and cheerful nature. Clasping his hands to the hosts, he finally left.
Now, only Tang Gon and Bu Eunseol remained.
“I will refuse as well.” The Fox Mask, Tang Gon, shook his head. “I have unfinished business. To get entangled in another sect’s grudges just to learn a sword art…”
Seok Song and Woo Hak’s expressions darkened visible.
“Understood.”
“Then.” Tang Gon clasped his hands, nodded lightly to Bu Eunseol, and turned to leave without hesitation.
“Are you the same?”
At Seok Song’s question, Bu Eunseol spoke calmly. “I will do it.”
“You will do it? You mean you will swear?”
“Correct.”
Because the answer came so easily, Seok Song and Woo Hak exchanged suspicious glances.
“Think carefully before answering.” Woo Hak stepped forward solemnly. “If you do not keep the promise after receiving the sword art, we will mobilize all the forces of our Society to deal with you first.”
He seemed to believe Bu Eunseol was swearing lightly just to steal the technique.
“Although key figures have met their deaths, the power of our Society is still intact. Even if you are a Sect Leader of the Nine Great Sects and One Faction, you cannot avoid our Society’s assassination—”
“I know.”
When Bu Eunseol cut him off, Woo Hak raised an eyebrow. “What do you know?”
“Being able to construct mechanisms and buildings of this level on Golden Well Mountain… your financial power alone would be no less than the Nine Great Sects and One Faction or the Eight Great Families. No?”
Woo Hak nodded slowly, impressed by the deduction. “Exactly so. So I tell you to decide carefully. This is an oath your life depends on.”
“I will swear.”
Bu Eunseol answered without a tremor of hesitation.
“I will kill that murderer who annihilated the swordsmen of the Thousand Sword Society with my own hands. But… it is not because of the sword art.”
Realizing a truth he had forgotten for a long time, Bu Eunseol looked at the two elders.
“Because perhaps… that murderer might be the person I am looking for.”
Inside the rabbit mask, Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed blood-red. A killing intent intense enough to tear the sky radiated from his small frame.
It was the very aptitude Seok Song and Woo Hak had dreamed of finding.
***
Woo Hak led Bu Eunseol to the wide clearing where the first trial had been conducted.
“Are you ready to learn the sword art?”
At Seok Song’s question, Bu Eunseol nodded. The two elders exchanged glances and stomped their feet simultaneously.
Rumble.
Accompanying the grinding of internal mechanisms, a wall rose in the center of the clearing.
Bu Eunseol’s eyes widened. This structure was five times larger than the wall from the first trial. Standing nearly three jang high, it resembled a giant cliff thrusting up from the earth.
So this was the original.
The sense of incongruity he had felt earlier vanished. The image of the tiger on the snowy mountain was merely a fragment of this larger panorama.
“Correct. The picture that rose earlier was a cut-off end of this wall.” Woo Hak wore a strange smile, as if reading Bu Eunseol’s mind. “And this is the complete original.”
He stared at Bu Eunseol’s face for a moment before offering a dry smile. “The Society Leader drew this picture.”
“Society Leader…”
“Indeed. A picture completed fifteen years ago.”
Bu Eunseol looked up, awestruck. The wall was roughly six jang wide and two jang high—the size of a two-story pavilion’s facade.
The artwork engraved on the stone was divided into four sections, all depicting battles between humans and beasts. Next to the woman and tiger from the first trial, a boy slinging stones at a flying hawk was visible. Beside that, an old man holding a staff stood surrounded by wolves. The final section depicted a swordsman confronting a bizarre beast painted entirely in black.
This is…
The longer he looked, the more it felt as if his soul were being sucked into the stone. Hidden throughout the four tableaus were unknown shapes and lines.
It’s a sword art.
Bu Eunseol realized that following those abstract shapes and lines would form a single, continuous sword move. As he traced the move hidden in the picture within his mind, cold sweat trickled down his spine.
A sword move… without openings.
The technique concealed in the artwork contained every variation and speed a long sword could command. It was absolute; it could not be blocked or dodged. One had no choice but to clash head-on.
“Seems you’ve already discovered the sword move.” Woo Hak nodded calmly at Bu Eunseol’s reaction. “This sword move is the one the Society Leader transmitted to that demon.”
“He transmitted only one move?”
“How could that be?” Woo Hak made a pained expression. “Not only the Society Leader, but from the First Seat to the Tenth Seat… they each transmitted one sword move containing the essence of their technique to that bastard.”
In short, the murderer had received eleven supreme sword moves.
“The move in this picture contains the Seamless Heavenly Robe, transmitted by the Society Leader.”
Seamless Heavenly Robe.
Flawless perfection. The sword move on the stone wall was exquisite enough to fully justify the name.
“And the sword art we will teach you is capable of countering an outstanding sword move that cannot be broken in a short time.”
Bu Eunseol looked puzzled. A sword art was a sword art; what did it mean to counter a move that couldn’t be broken?
Woo Hak spoke calmly to resolve the confusion. “For example, before showing you this picture, if I had unfolded the move of Seamless Heavenly Robe against you… you wouldn’t have been able to block it perfectly.”
Bu Eunseol nodded. The move was too exquisite to dismantle in a single breath.
At that moment, a sharp, cold gleam exploded from Woo Hak’s eyes.
“However, there is a secret method to block the sword move without breaking it.”