Fighting Yuan Li

Eun-hyun's head does not burst immediately due to the Five Elements Blood Curse Banner implanted in him by Yuan Li. He attempts to free his consciousness, and succeeds in gaining 70% mobility. The fox senses him and attempts to thrash him, but Eun-hyun beats him and seizes the demon core. Mad Lord senses his fight and arrives. Eun-hyun sees his heart essence is a withered, rotting tree with a pulse of pink light. He suddenly realises Mad Lord can see his heart essence as well. Mad Lord is overjoyed and attempts to subdue Eun-hyun, when he senses the Blood Curse Banner. He then attempts to extract Yuan Li’s soul. This attracts Seo Hweol, who stops Mad Lord. Eun-hyun vomits when he sees Seo Hweol’s heart essence. Seo Hweol and Mad Lord begin an intense battle, which attracts the masters of the sects in the Head Realm. They pacify Mad Lord. Eun-hyun’s colleagues are once again kidnapped by the fated masters, except for Kim Yeon, who goes with the Righteous Path Alliance leader. Eun-hyun attempts to tell them about Yuan Li, but Seo Hweol stops him. He then gives Eun-hyun Summoning Wind, Dragon Transformation and the space-breaking bead with instructions to go to Seo Ran. Eun-hyun and Kim Young-hoon remain on Ascension Path for six months, during which Eun-hyun uses the Demon Core to reach Qi Building. Young-hoon is at Three Flowers. They leave Ascension Path and stop by Cheon-sak city, where they get water and a change of clothes. Eun-hyun leaves Young-hoon in Yanguo and goes to meet Seo Ran. Song Jin and Eun-hyun converse, at the end of which Song Jin gives them permission to search for the jade slip. Seo Ran and Song Jin bond over the former’s mother, and Song Jin takes Seo Ran as a disciple. He grants Eun-hyun three requests, which include the One Emotion Method and Silica Great Earth Secrets. Eun-hyun decides to use the Earth Secrets to help the Longevity Tree grow, and decides to seek out Cheongmun Ryeong for help. They decide to ask for an artisan in Cheon-sak city. They arrive at Four-Pattern Law Talent Buk Hyang-hwa’s shop, where a bet is taking place; the person who can bring out sixty percent or more out of her artifacts, will get to take a trip with her. None of the cultivators manage to reach sixty percent. Eun-hyun, disgusted by their amateur handling of the sword artifacts, displays 120% power, and thereby wins the contest. Hyang-hwa tries to get Eun-hyun to accept a magical artifact, but Eun-hyun refuses. Buk Hyang-hwa promises to make him an artifact he can’t refuse while working on the formation for the Longevity Tree.

Eun-hyun asks Song Jin for the Nether Crossing Ship to travel to the Serving Command Palace. Song Jin gives them three days. The head of the Cheongmun Clan, Cheongmun Jung-jin, accompanies them. Buk Hyang-hwa tells Eun-hyun about her norigae, and how she is betrothed to the one who carries it. Inside the Palace, Hyang-hwa admires the inlaid circuits. Jung-jin explores the upper floors, while Ryeong and Eun-hyun set the formation down. As Eun-hyun is to set down to external formation, Hyang-hwa follows him around, fiddling with the Palace’s circuits. He shows her one of Mad Lord’s mostly intact puppets. In her excitement, Hyang-hwa accidentally activates a golden order that lowers everyone’s cultivation by one realm and also activates guardian puppets. Hyang-hwa quickly deactivates the golder order. Jung-jin comes down and asks Hyang-hwa to reactivate the order as he noticed a barrier appear when it was active. They go to the top floor, but Jung-jin fails to break through. He tells them to go back down while he gathers enough strength.

Eun-hyun encounters Jung-jin and displays his strength, winning the right to participate in the attack on Yuan Li. All the Core Formation cultivators gather and manage to seal Yuan Li within his dharma treasure, which is a black castle. Yuan Li mocks them and says he will be free in two-hundred years as then the Serving Command Palace will appear over his castle, breaking all seals near it. The entire continent prepare for the final battle with Yuan Li. While leaving the scene, Eun-hyun talks to Wolryang, the great-grandfather of Hyang-hwa’s original betrothed, whom Yuan Li killed ten years ago. Eun-hyun returns to Cheon-sak city, to collect the remains of his loved ones. He discovers Young-hoon’s Inner Core is gone. He collapses in grief, emitting more than three thousand curses. He opens Hyang-hwa’s gift, which is a blueprint for a flying sword artifact called the Colourless Glass Sword. He then leaves to attend Ryeong’s funeral.

Ten years later, Eun-hyun goes to a meeting of Core Formation Cultivators. He learns Wolryang is the great-grandfather of Hyang-hwa’s original betrothed, whom Yuan Li killed ten years ago. Cheongmun Jung-jin proposes the plan of fighting within the Serving Comamand Palace. The cultivators agree to meet again in two hundred years.

One Last Dance

Over two months later, he reaches his destination. He places the head down and goes to Hyang-hwa’s workshop. He meets her remnant spirit. They dance together one last time. They tell each other they love them. The Blood Curse Banners Eun-hyun left behind turn into the White Orchid Blessing Incantation. Hyang-hwa passes on. As Eun-hyun dies, the Colourless Glass Swords return to him.

Eun-hyun realises the Colourless Glass Swords have returned with him. He realises the White-Red wine helped attach the Swords to his soul. He rushes the fox and defeats it extremely flashily to get the Mad Lord’s attention. He tells the Mad Lord how he and Buk Hyang-hwa killed the centipede demon, and her subsequent death. The Mad Lord tells Eun-hyun to lead the way to Yuan Li. He breaks the defensive barrier on Yuan Li’s black castle. Seo Hweol senses this and rushes to the spot. The Mad Lord and Seo Hweol engage in battle while Eun-hyun goes to kill Yuan Li. During the one-sided smack-down, Eun-hyun asks Yuan Li if he thinks life is a blessing, to which Yuan Li agrees. Eun-hyun tells him he believes life is neither a blessing nor a curse, and kills him. He shows Yuan Li’s head to Seo Hweol and the Mad Lord. Seo Hweol is initially disappointed, but later praises Eun-hyun for having killed a massacrer. He then leaves. Eun-hyun attempts to slip away, but the Mad Lord senses him and attempts to catch him to turn him into a puppet. Eun-hyun flees, hoping the Mad Lord will let him go in order to participate in the Ascension. Eun-hyun manages to stay free for ten days, before Mad Lord unleashes [Her], a puppet at the Four-Axis Stage. Eun-hyun contemplates suicide, but decides to drink White-Red wine to make sure the Swords remain with him. Eun-hyun breaks into the Nether-Crossing Ship, takes control of it, breaks into the Serving Command Palace, and drinks the wine. However, the attraction force from [Her] is overwhelming. Eun-hyun mimics the Surpassing Radiant Saber and ‘cuts’ through space to reach Song Jin. He gets Song Jin to attach a ghost to his soul and promptly commits suicide

Upon awakening, Eun-hyun realises the ghost attached by Song Jin had been torn away. Instead of hitting his companions’ pressure points, he lets them wake up and leads them to the cave. Once they fall asleep, he meets the fox and forces it to give up its Demon Core. He keeps the now tiny fox and returns with it to the cave. He does not take any action as all his colleagues are snatched up while the Mad Lord throws him, the fox and Young-hoon into a spatial rift. They teleport underground. Eun-hyun digs them out. While Young-hoon is asleep, he rapidly arranges all the necessities for the world. He returns the fox’s Demon Core and orders it to protect Young-hoon. He then leaves with the intention to study the Ascension Gate. On the way, he looks in on his disciples, exterminates the Makli Clan, introduces Song Jin to Seo Ran, guides Seo Ran to Jeon Hyang’s diary, and attacks Yuan Li. Overpowered, Yuan Li swears on the Nether Crossing Ship to follow Eun-hyun’s commands. He discovers the remnant warning that was on the stele near Ascension Path. [4]

On interrogating Yuan Li, Eun-hyun learns the black castle was a shrine to Yang Su-jin, and Yuan Li is descended from the shrine keepers. He also reveals the names of the Middle Realms; Blood Yin(which he intended to ascend to), True Devil, Ancient Force, Nether Ghost, Purple Gold, and Bright Cold(connected to the Ascension Gate). On Eun-hyun’s further questioning, he reveals he has yet to ‘synthesize’ his cultivation into the Blood Body. Song Jin shifts through Yuan Li’s mind and reveals all information related to Seo Hweol has been ‘erased’. Eun-hyun then kills Yuan Li. He claims the Blood Body as spoils of war. He returns Wolryang’s norigae. When he goes to meet Hyang-hwa, he realises she is now a completely different person. Their norigaes merge into one. He leaves the strengthened norigae with Hyang-hwa. Back on the Ship, Eun-hyun asks Song Jin for the Devil Legion Terracotta Scroll.