These were truths he had not known.

They were being revealed little by little.

Qingcheng Sect’s martial arts.

Then this person must have been someone from Qingcheng Sect during the era of the Thousand-Year Chaos, and even among them, at least someone at elder level or higher.

Martial arts at the level of Unity of Heaven and Man. Or, if they had been degraded, his original realm had been above that.

A fundamental question arose.

Could it really be that no one knew this?

Absolutely not.

Martial artists at the pinnacle.

Among them, there were exactly four people who had a hobby of collecting martial arts like Unhwi.

One was the Immortal Maitreya.

One was the Sect Master of Heaven’s Gate.

Another was Yu Cheong.

And the last.

Heaven’s Chosen One.

After thinking for a moment, Unhwi considered why he had been able to notice this.

There was a reason for that as well.

Two reasons.

First.

He had been a master who reached the pinnacle in his previous life.

And not just the pinnacle, but a master who had reached the very end of that realm.

His discernment was different.

Unhwi could see what ordinary martial artists could not.

And second.

There were countless martial arts of the past that Unhwi knew. That was why, within the rough movements of a Chaotic Heaven One, he could catch traces of martial arts instinctively bursting out in an instant.

Lost martial arts were an unknown territory.

Researching them had been a joy to Unhwi in his previous life.

That joy had guided him to the answer.

Above all, had he not learned all of Qingcheng Sect’s martial arts not long ago?

All of this was a hypothesis, but it was closer to certainty than uncertainty.

At this point, he now had to define it clearly.

Who were the Chaotic Heaven Ones?

During the Thousand-Year Chaos, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of martial artists had vanished from the world.

The greatest disaster in the Central Plains.

All of them died, and not even their corpses were found.

There had been sufficient reason why everyone had accepted that part as natural.

In the present, the Three Innate Realms had become a term that was almost nonexistent, but it had not been so in the past.

There had been masters who reached that realm.

Not just one or two. The “Three Realms” of the Innate.

In other words, there were three internal stages within it.

Two people had reached the final stage.

The Cult Leader of the Thousand-Year Demonic Cult, Heavenly Demon Won Geukcheon.

The Leader of the Murim Alliance, Venerable Goseung.

Even thinking simply, the answer was obvious.

Even the martial artists at the pinnacle now could raise seas and change the weather.

One person who had reached the pinnacle was more than enough to destroy an entire nation.

But before the Thousand-Year Chaos, such people had been everywhere.

And there were more than twenty martial artists of the Three Innate Realms beyond them, at least among those recorded. That was why everyone had accepted that hundreds of thousands of martial artists could leave not even corpses behind.

He did not know the exact process.

He did not know what principle was behind it either.

But what was certain was that the Chaotic Heaven Ones he was facing now were the hundreds of thousands of martial artists who had vanished during the Thousand-Year Chaos.

That much was certain.

He touched his chin as he stood there.

Then what exactly was the Chaotic Heaven Gate, from which the Chaotic Heaven Ones appeared?

A place from which hundreds of thousands of martial artists, and martial artists from hundreds of years ago at that, appeared after losing reason and becoming monsters.

That meant there had to be a space beyond the gate where they stayed......

No, that was not it.

He shook his head.

He could not approach it this way. This was an assumption where even speculation was meaningless.

There was only one thing he had to speculate about now.

Why had the timing of the Chaotic Heaven Gate changed?

Something came to mind.

In truth, rather than something coming to mind, the answer was as good as already fixed.

“......Heavenly energy.”

All roots ultimately came down to one thing. The heavenly energy spoken of earlier.

If heavenly energy was disturbed and tangled, problems inevitably occurred.

Unhwi had been able to return to the past because of the Heavenly Earth Origin Spirit, the divine relic of the Thousand-Year Demonic Cult.

But was this really the past?

What if everything had been reconstructed?

No matter how extraordinary the Heavenly Earth Origin Spirit was, it surely could not reconstruct everything.

There would be things that could become exceptions to that reconstruction......

It was then.

Lightning struck inside Unhwi’s mind.

Ah.

When Venerable Goseung of Shaolin Temple first saw Unhwi, he had felt that something was different.

That existence, clearly one who had reached the Three Innate Realms, had read it.

The fact that Unhwi had returned to the past through the Heavenly Earth Origin Spirit.

The substance of it was gradually taking shape.

But the more it did, the more another problem arose within the hypothesis.

The Thousand-Year Chaos had ended seven hundred years ago.

But the Chaotic Heaven Gate had appeared five hundred years ago.

There was a difference of two hundred years between them.

......I am at least the second one to have twisted heavenly energy.

It was simple.

If it had been twisted because of Unhwi’s existence, then who had it started from?

Who had caused the Chaotic Heaven Gate to appear?

Was it the unknown person who had controlled this Chaotic Heaven King from behind?

He ran a hand down his face.

He had reversed time through the Heavenly Earth Origin Spirit, and that had twisted the world.

A little more.

He needed clues.

“Chief Seong.”

“......Yes, Young Master.”

“Let us go a little farther.”

“......Will you be all right?”

Unhwi lifted his hand and looked at it.

There was not a single wound.

It was a fine hand.

A hand that could never be seen as belonging to someone who held a sword.

It was like that of a scholar.

Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Crystal.

Until its effect ended, Unhwi could do anything.

Even if he unfolded everything, starting with martial arts that had side effects, there would be no problem.

“I am fine.”

Unhwi reached his hand toward the corpse.

Then, with a roar of flame, the corpse caught fire.

Black smoke rose.

Today.

He intended to find out clearly about this thing called the Chaotic Heaven Gate.

After turning the corpse to ash, Unhwi turned around as he was and moved his feet.

Everyone followed him.

***

They went deeper.

Into the Chaotic Heaven Region.

Farther inside.

The scenery did not change.

Snow and ice.

Desolation.

Endless silence.

But the flow of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth grew more and more twisted.

This meant they were drawing closer to the center.

Unhwi did not stop walking.

He kept walking.

How much time had passed?

Something appeared ahead.

People.

Unhwi slowed his steps.

He drew closer.

They were martial artists.

Dozens.

No, there seemed to be over a hundred.

All of them were wearing armor.

The armor of Windwall.

Seolcheon Guard.

And Baekryeong Guard.

Elite troops of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace.

They were standing in a giant circle.

Surrounding something.

Just then, as Unhwi approached, a martial artist came toward him and was about to ask his identity, when Chief Seong beside him sent him a voice transmission.

The Polar Heir.

The Mysterious Snow Palace Lord.

The martial artist’s eyes widened, and he gave a formal salute on the spot.

“I greet the Mysterious Snow Palace Lord!”

At that cry, all the martial artists forming the circle offered respect. No, they tried to.

“Enough.”

Unhwi raised his hand and stopped them.

“There is no need to offer that level of courtesy.”

“......But.......”

“We are all suffering hardship together, and is this not a battlefield? So stop there.”

The martial artists, who had been looking at each other for a moment, changed their half-formed formal salutes into proper stances and nodded.

Unhwi walked silently.

Through them, toward the center of the circle.

The martial artists watched Unhwi.

He could feel murmuring in various places, but he did not bother speaking.

One martial artist approached Unhwi.

Mid-fifties, white-haired.

Sharp eyes and a sharp atmosphere.

He was Bang Seokun, captain of the Third Unit of the Seolcheon Guard and the one in charge of the Chaotic Heaven Region.

He offered a formal salute.

“I greet the Mysterious Snow Palace Lord.”

Even if he disliked commotion, ignoring someone of this level would not be proper.

“You have worked hard.”

“I am overwhelmed. This lowly one is Bang Seokun, captain of the Third Unit of the Seolcheon Guard.”

“I know. Are you not the pride of the Seolcheon Guard?”

Bang Seokun’s eyes widened.

Unhwi looked around and continued speaking.

“You are someone working in a barren place like this solely for Snow Palace, so of course you are a source of pride. You will become an example to all.”

Bang Seokun was so moved he almost went mad.

Was this not Seol Unhwi, of all people?

“Thank...... thank you.”

Unhwi shook his head and looked toward the center of the circle.

It was empty.

A clearing.

A space with nothing in it but piled snow.

But Unhwi felt it.

That something was there.

The flow of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was excessively strange.

Should he say it was swirling around that clearing, twisted, warped, and tangled?

“Is this where the Chaotic Heaven Gate opens?”

“......Yes. That is correct.”

Bang Seokun pointed to the middle of the clearing.

“It opens exactly there. Like a secret realm.”

“Hmm.......”

“As you know well, the Chaotic Heaven Gate opens without warning. That is why we are always guarding this place.”

“When the gate opens?”

“There is an omen before the gate opens.”

“An omen?”

“First, the ground trembles and internal energy reverses its flow. The time is about one double-hour. The moment that phenomenon is discovered, we send a signal toward Windwall. Then every martial artist in Windwall gathers here.”

“To stop the Chaotic Heaven Ones that come pouring out.”

“That is correct. At fewest, dozens; at most, thousands pour out all at once.”

Unhwi looked at the clearing.

Thousands.......

Among them, there would be Chaotic Heaven Ones at the Heaven and Man realm. And Chaotic Heaven Kings could also emerge.

If all of them fought, pandemonium would unfold, and those with intellect would devise strategies, and if the situation became unfavorable, they would retreat.

There were countless Chaotic Heaven Ones who survived like that.

It would not be wrong to say they were spread throughout this Chaotic Heaven Region.

“.......”

Unhwi said nothing for a moment.

They had blocked this for hundreds of years.

How great had the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace’s sacrifice been?

“May I approach?”

“......Pardon?”

Bang Seokun looked startled.

“It is dangerous. Though the cycle has shortened, an unpredictable situation could happen right now.”

Since a change had already occurred once, it would be arrogance to assume there would not be a second change.

If there was a first time, there was a second, a third, and a fourth. It was only that there was no afterward because matters were settled before reaching that point.

Bang Seokun’s concern was certainly reasonable.

“I know.”

“But.......”

“It is fine.”

Unhwi walked.

Toward the clearing.

Bang Seokun hurried after him.

“Mysterious Snow Palace Lord, it truly is dangerous!”

Unhwi turned his head. He looked at Bang Seokun without a word.

In those eyes, Bang Seokun felt sincerity and felt pressure.

He naturally stopped. He had no choice. Who could face such eyes from Unhwi and defy his words?

Unhwi walked again.

Into the clearing.

Chief Seong, Ju Soa, and Namgung Wonyang also tried to follow, but Unhwi raised his hand and stopped them.

He was alone.

He stepped into the clearing.

He stepped on the snow.

Crunch.

A sound rang out.

One step.

Two steps.

Toward the center.

The closer he came,

the more he felt it.

The distortion of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

It grew stronger, and breathing became difficult.

He looked back for a moment. Something was strange.

This distortion in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, it was this severe?

Only Unhwi himself could feel this?

That was a truly strange phenomenon.

He gestured briefly toward Chief Seong.

Then, as though he had been waiting, Chief Seong quickly approached.

Then he let out a sigh.