To say it again.

No, not to say it again, but to keep saying it endlessly, Gun Mugyeol was absolutely not an ordinary man.

It was not merely a matter of being good at self-justification.

He sought legitimacy in everything, and if legitimacy did not exist, he would create it and force it into place.

If people were sacrificed in that process, he was the sort of man who considered those sacrifices natural, and ordinarily, if a man like that became the king of a nation, he would either unite the world under one rule, or plunge it into chaos and bring about disaster.

Unhwi slowly sat down across from Gun Mugyeol, and Namgung Wonyang stood behind Unhwi.

Gun Mugyeol poured liquor into Unhwi’s cup.

"Drink."

Unhwi stared at the cup for a moment, then let out a faint laugh.

"I would wager my life that there is poison in this."

Gun Mugyeol laughed.

"You truly are not an easy one."

Without a word, Unhwi picked up the cup and simply overturned it toward the floor.

It all spilled onto the ground.

"I did not drink it, but it seems to be fine liquor."

"Liquor is something one can only appreciate by drinking it. How can spilled liquor be called good liquor?"

Still holding the overturned empty cup, Unhwi looked straight at Gun Mugyeol.

"Is there something you are curious about?"

"There certainly is."

"Then ask."

"Very well. Then I will ask without reserve."

Gun Mugyeol’s eyes sharpened.

"The chances are high that you and I will become enemies, so why are you saying you will raise my realm?"

"Because it was a promise."

"A promise, yes, that promise is the problem. In all my life, I have seen countless fools bound by such things as promises, but I have never seen one who kept it when his own life was on the line."

"In other words, you doubt my true intent."

"True intent... yes, I suppose that is an acceptable way to put it."

Unhwi quietly set the overturned cup upright again.

"Pour me another."

"Are you going to spill it again?"

When Unhwi shook his head, Gun Mugyeol poured liquor into his cup.

Unhwi looked down at it for a moment, then spoke in a quiet voice.

"It is not simply because of a promise with Senior."

"...Not?"

"This is a promise with myself."

"Yourself?"

"There are truly many paths one can walk as a martial artist. The path I walk is a path only I create, and in carrying that path through, the most important thing is my own will."

"..."

"If a martial artist who wishes to protect that will does not respect the will of another martial artist, then from the outset it is absurd. It would amount to nothing more than a foolish act of mulling over something dreamlike, a path one thought was real but that in truth had only been an illusion."

"Is that so."

"That is why I respect the resolve of other martial artists. I respect the very path that martial artist has chosen to walk. But in carrying out that path, what sort of state of mind they possess, that is what matters most."

"So because you apply such a standard to those you look upon, you also apply that same standard to yourself?"

"Yes. Only then can the path I walk become a righteous one."

Gun Mugyeol stroked his chin.

This.

He was not merely a genius, but a heaven-sent genius.

To respect one’s own resolve, one must also respect the resolve of the other. If, in that process, one loses one’s life, then that too is one branch of that respect.

What one accepts and what one cannot accept.

The difference arises there.

If one accepts it, weight gathers upon that path, and ordinarily, a ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) figure of this caliber is bound one day to shake the martial world.

This was on an entirely different level from what Unhwi was doing now.

Clearly.

Gun Mugyeol was able to be certain.

The scale of the resolve possessed by Seol Unhwi before his eyes was truly that of the supreme ruler of the martial world.

That was right. This man was someone who could in the future become the supreme ruler of the martial world and make the entire martial world and every nation kneel beneath his feet without the least contradiction.

Because he possessed a heart of that degree.

"...How astonishing. Truly astonishing."

Without a word, Unhwi lifted the cup and brought it to his lips.

And it was then.

Gun Mugyeol extended his hand.

At once, Unhwi’s cup stopped dead in midair.

"...Enough. Do not drink it."

With a flick of Gun Mugyeol’s hand, the cup fell straight to the floor. It shattered, and liquor splashed everywhere.

"I had a true martial artist before my very eyes and still failed to recognize him."

"You flatter me."

"No, it is not flattery. I mean it."

Gun Mugyeol’s eyes softened further.

"Let us begin."

"Understood."

Unhwi took something out of his dusk pouch.

It was a Go board.

"...Go?"

"Yes."

Unhwi also took out pouches of Go stones.

Black and white.

"The principles of martial arts resemble Go."

"..."

"Would you like to play?"

Gun Mugyeol hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"Very well."

Unhwi handed the black stones to Gun Mugyeol and took the white stones for himself.

"Please place the first move."

Gun Mugyeol picked up a black stone.

Tap.

He placed the first move.

A flower point.

It was a standard opening.

Unhwi placed a white stone as well.

Tap.

Unhwi asked,

"Do you know the Limitless?"

"...The Limitless?"

"It is emptiness. A state in which there is nothing."

Unhwi pointed at the empty Go board.

"This Go board is the Limitless. There is nothing on it."

"...I see."

"But you, Leader, placed the first move."

Unhwi pointed at Gun Mugyeol’s black stone.

"From the Limitless, the Supreme Ultimate was born."

"..."

"Being was born from non-being."

Gun Mugyeol’s gaze changed.

"Go on."

"What do you think is the core of the Northern Abyss Divine Art?"

"Mutual generation, is it not?"

"It is the Limitless."

"...The Limitless?"

"Yes. A sea that accepts all things. Emptying oneself and receiving the qi of heaven and earth."

"Oh...."

"But you, Leader, have not yet fully emptied yourself."

"...What?"

Gun Mugyeol’s brow furrowed.

"What are you saying?"

"The realm of Vast-Empty Transcendence."

Unhwi continued.

"A realm that has form, yet is like the formless. That is where you stand."

"...That is true."

"But that is still not the Limitless."

"...Hm...."

"You have drawn close to the formless, yet you are still conscious of form."

Unhwi’s eyes looked at Gun Mugyeol.

"Because the self remains. Yet if you think that the self wearing a mask and the self not wearing one are the same, then how can you still be conscious of form?"

Gun Mugyeol clenched his teeth.

Tap.

Without speaking, Gun Mugyeol placed a stone.

Unhwi answered with one of his own.

Tap.

"To rise to Sole Primordial Mastery."

Unhwi said it while looking at the Go board.

"You must even forget yourself."

"...Forget myself?"

"Yes. You must forget the existence called 'I.'"

"Then what happens?"

"You become one with heaven and earth."

Unhwi stated it with certainty.

"There is no me, and there is no heaven and earth. There is only one."

Gun Mugyeol fell silent.

Tap, tap, tap.

The game continued.

Black and white filled the Go board.

Unhwi asked,

"Do you know the Free-Wandering Step?"

It was Gun Mugyeol’s unique martial art. It was effectively his ultimate technique, so it made no sense for Gun Mugyeol not to know it.

Gun Mugyeol answered firmly.

"To roam freely."

"That is right. But the true Free-Wandering Step."

Unhwi pointed at the empty spaces on the Go board.

"Is it not to wander yet leave no trace behind?"

"..."

"To walk upon water without making ripples, to fly through the sky without stirring the wind."

"Is that what true effortless naturalness means?"

"That is right."

Gun Mugyeol placed another stone.

Tap.

But his hand was trembling.

"...Young Master Seol."

"Yes."

"You."

Gun Mugyeol’s voice lowered.

"Are you deceiving me?"

"Me?"

"This enlightenment of Sole Primordial Mastery."

Killing intent seeped into Gun Mugyeol’s eyes.

"Is it truly possible?"

"It is possible."

"Prove it."

"I am proving it right now."

Unhwi answered calmly.

"...What?"

"I have been proving it all along. It is only that you have not been able to feel it."

In that instant.

Boom!

Gun Mugyeol’s internal power exploded.

The entire room shook.

The force of Vast-Empty Transcendence.

It was overwhelming.

Behind Unhwi, Namgung Wonyang placed a hand on her sword, but her hand was trembling violently.

In contrast, Unhwi did not move in the slightest.

He merely looked at the Go board.

"Young Master Seol."

Gun Mugyeol’s voice sank coldly.

"Are you toying with me now?"

"No." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Then why."

Gun Mugyeol glared at Unhwi.

"Why do I feel nothing at all?"

"You are feeling it."

Unhwi said quietly.

"You simply have not realized it."

"...What?"

"Leader."

Unhwi looked straight at Gun Mugyeol.

"You are angry right now."

"..."

"Why are you angry?"

Gun Mugyeol could not answer. But he knew the answer.

Both Unhwi and Gun Mugyeol did.

"You are afraid that you may not be able to rise to Sole Primordial Mastery."

"..."

"That fear has become anger."

Unhwi’s voice continued evenly.

"But in order to rise to Sole Primordial Mastery."

"..."

"You must let go of fear, anger, and everything else."

Gun Mugyeol’s killing intent gradually subsided.

"...Continue."

"Look at the Go board."

Unhwi pointed at the board.

"Black and white are intermingled."

"...That is true."

"But look."

Unhwi’s finger moved slowly across the board.

"Black is black, and white is white. They have not mixed."

Gun Mugyeol’s gaze turned toward the Go board.

Unhwi continued.

"But if you look at the board as a whole."

Unhwi covered the whole board with his hand.

"It is one."

"...Huh...?"

"This is Primordial Unity."

Gun Mugyeol’s eyes widened.

"Mixed, yet one."

Unhwi kept speaking.

"Black and white have not mixed, yet they form the single whole that is Go."

"..."

"Your Northern Abyss Divine Art and Free-Wandering Step are the same."

"...Oh...?"

"The two martial arts do not mix. The Northern Abyss Divine Art is the Northern Abyss Divine Art, and the Free-Wandering Step is the Free-Wandering Step."

"Then how...."

"But."

Unhwi stated it with certainty.

"They form the single whole that is you, Leader."

Silence flowed.

Gun Mugyeol stared at the Go board.

For a long time.

"...I think I can see it, a little."

"You are still far from it."

"...Hm."

"Seeing and knowing are different."

Unhwi picked up another Go stone.

Tap.

"Let us continue."

The game went on.

The middle game.

Dozens of stones filled the board.

"Leader."

"...Yes."

"Please recite the first line of the incantation formula for the Northern Abyss Divine Art."

"...In the Northern Abyss there is a fish, and its name is Kun."

"And its meaning?"

"In the northern sea there is a fish, and its name is Kun."

"What is that fish like?"

"Its size cannot be known."

"Why can it not be known?"

"...Because the sea is too vast."

"That is right."

Unhwi nodded.

"The core of the Northern Abyss Divine Art is the sea. It is not Kun."

"..."

"All this time, you have focused on Kun."

"...That is true."

"But what you truly need to see is the sea."