Chapter 324

That was how it was.

Just as Wi Jeong-guk had suspected, they were the martial warriors of the Six-Combination Sword Technique—Pa Cheonjo—specifically, the Pa Cheon Three Clans that Seon Woo-jin had once possessed.

The very same ones Wi Jeong-guk had sent to deal with the Inparang in Haenam long ago…

Those who had been reported dead at the hands of the Saintess had now appeared here, alive and well.

Wi Jeong-guk couldn’t make sense of the situation at all.

Not only that those who were supposed to be dead had returned alive, but also the way they were executing the sword technique was beyond his understanding.

He muttered in disbelief, dazed.

“Five of them? How…?”

Normally, the Demon-Slaying Six-Combination Sword Technique required a central core swordsman to control the other five ‘real souls’ like extensions of their own limbs.

But these guys were missing that central core, yet all six moved as one seamless body.

How was that even possible?

Thud!

“Ugh!”

Before he could process it, another master from the Hyeongsan Sect fell victim to the Six-Combination Sword Technique.

Only then did Wi Jeong-guk snap back to reality.

This was no time to be curious about them.

But by the time he realized that, the balance had already collapsed.

With two dead from the Six-Combination Sword Technique, the tide of battle had instantly turned.

“Ha ha ha ha!”

Smack!

“Ugh!”

In an instant, one of the Hyeongsan warriors was pierced through the chest by Gamjak-hyung’s trident.

Without the support of his partner, he couldn’t withstand Gamjak-hyung alone.

And that was just the beginning.

Whoosh!

Pfft!

At the same time, on the other side, Baek Gi-ryang’s swift blade severed a neck.

Elsewhere, another elder was skewered by the Six-Combination swordsmen.

Wi Jeong-guk was utterly stunned.

Once the balance broke, his side’s masters were falling too quickly.

The formation was the same as he had imagined, only the arrangement had changed.

He muttered in despair.

“Th-this can’t be…”

At that moment, he saw Seol Poong slowly approaching.

A calm smile now graced Seol Poong’s face.

Wi Jeong-guk frantically scanned his surroundings.

But there was no one left to support him.

The elders who had been fed the Bloodlust Pill were all helplessly dying.

It was an utterly impossible situation.

He gritted his teeth.

Grit!

Then, Seol Poong suddenly spoke to him.

“How does it feel? To be falling because of your own wicked deeds?”

Wi Jeong-guk snapped back, shouting wildly.

“Don’t be ridiculous! You accuse me of creating ‘real souls,’ but aren’t you the ones who used them?! Look at the disciples of Hyeongsan! They are the real souls of the Six-Combination…!”

Pointing at the Pa Cheon Three Clans’ Six-Combination swordsmen, he raged, trying to rally the Hyeongsan warriors once more.

But his words were cut short.

Unbelievably, one of the Six-Combination swordsmen—whom he had thought were ‘real souls’—shouted back with fury.

“Who are you calling ‘real souls,’ Wi Jeong-guk?!”

Wi Jeong-guk was so shocked he could only gape in silence.

There was no way the swordsmen he had turned into ‘real souls’ would speak with such anger.

But the swordsman wasn’t finished.

With a voice full of rage, he continued.

“We cooperated with you out of love for Hyeongsan, yet you branded us as ‘real souls’! If not for the salvation we received, even the close friends I persuaded would have become real souls forever! And I, who once believed you were a true master…!”

At that moment, another Six-Combination swordsman beside him placed a hand on his shoulder warmly.

“It’s not your fault, Ja-seong. Stop blaming yourself.”

The swordsman who had been about to shout sighed and lowered his head.

Others approached, gently patting his shoulder.

In truth, they weren’t fully recovered yet.

They still had the poison inside them, and because of that poison, Seon Woo-jin could still control them through the Six-Combination Sword Technique.

But unlike the previous Pa Cheonjo, where false memories had to be implanted, Seon Woo-jin chose to restore their actual memories this time.

He judged it was acceptable since Wi Jeong-guk’s evil deeds had been fully exposed.

Wi Jeong-guk had no way of knowing they weren’t fully healed.

To him, they appeared completely restored, which meant more witnesses to testify against his crimes.

The chance of turning the tide was gone.

‘This… can’t be…’

Wi Jeong-guk stared at them with trembling eyes.

It was truly the end.

But even though everything was over, he didn’t stop.

His eyes filled with murderous intent once more as he turned to look behind him.

Toward Seon Mu-woo-hee, Woo Nan-seol.

He chuckled darkly, muttering.

“In the end, I’ll become the doomed tyrant who dies alongside Woo-hee. Maybe it was decided the moment she became mine.”

Like Woo-hee, who had died in the arms of the fallen King Hangwu, it seemed his fate and Woo Nan-seol’s were sealed the same way.

With that thought, Wi Jeong-guk suddenly lunged toward her.

“Come with me, Woo-hee!”

His sword thrust toward Woo Nan-seol.

They were at a distance and facing opposite directions, so even Seol Poong couldn’t intervene.

And at this early stage of her peak, she couldn’t dodge Wi Jeong-guk’s blade.

The startled onlookers shouted in alarm.

“Ah?!”

“No!”

Helpless, everyone watched as Wi Jeong-guk’s sword shot like lightning toward Woo Nan-seol’s chest.

---

Woo Nan-seol stared expressionlessly at Wi Jeong-guk’s sword piercing toward her.

And she thought,

“It’s okay. I expected this.”

In truth, from the moment she decided to become Wi Jeong-guk’s woman, she had already prepared herself to die.

Her mission was to infiltrate the enemy’s heart, gather information, and relay it—something impossible without risking her life.

That was why she could endure sharing a bed with a man she hated.

Because she believed she was already doomed.

Still, every day was hell.

No matter how much she tried to convince herself she had given up, accepting being a hated man’s plaything while sober was unbearably cruel for a woman.

So if she died here, it meant she could finally escape that hell.

Somehow, that thought brought a strange sense of relief.

She closed her eyes gently and thought,

“At least I’m lucky to die after seeing his downfall.”

Then she thought of her sworn sister.

“We’ll meet again soon, Ryeong-mae.”

At that moment—

The sensation of the sword piercing her body she had been waiting for was replaced by a very different sound.

Ching!

“Huh?”

Startled by the unexpected noise, she opened her eyes.

What she saw was the back of a man dressed in black.

Someone had stepped in front of her and deflected Wi Jeong-guk’s sword.

Beyond that broad back, Wi Jeong-guk’s shocked face was visible, staring this way.

She didn’t know who he was, but it seemed this black-clad man had just parried the sword of Wi Jeong-guk—the renowned Thirty-Six Heavenly Stars.

Woo Nan-seol suddenly thought,

“Maybe… I can survive after all.”

Maybe she didn’t have to die carrying only those filthy memories.

Looking at the broad back shielding her, she felt tears threatening to fall.

---

Seon Woo-jin had actually been watching Woo Nan-seol from the start.

He had heard from her maid, Jung Mi-hee, about Wi Jeong-guk’s obsession with her.

Jung Mi-hee, tearful, had begged Seon Woo-jin,

“Please save Lady Woo. Don’t let her be sacrificed to that man.”

So from the moment the battle between the supreme masters began, Seon Woo-jin had been observing Wi Jeong-guk’s state.

When the moment came that the Six-Combination swordsmen he controlled shattered Wi Jeong-guk’s composure, he stealthily approached Woo Nan-seol’s side.

Wi Jeong-guk shouted with furious eyes.

“You bastard! Step aside from my woman!”

He wanted nothing more than to rush forward and cut down the man blocking him.

But he couldn’t move recklessly.

The unknown technique that had suddenly appeared before his eyes, the impossible swift sword that easily deflected his blade—it was no easy opponent.

He instinctively sensed that this man was no inferior.

At that moment, Seon Woo-jin smirked and replied.

“You’re a fool to the very end. Who is your woman? Lady Woo has never been yours, not even for a moment.”

Wi Jeong-guk’s face twisted in rage.

How dare he say she wasn’t his woman? That was nonsense.

Woo Nan-seol was his, perfect and only.

Enraged, Wi Jeong-guk shouted.

“What nonsense is that?! She’s my woman! Mine alone!”

Seon Woo-jin shook his head and sneered coldly.

Then he looked at Woo Nan-seol and asked,

“Lady Woo, would you care to tell him yourself? What is he to you?”

Woo Nan-seol stared blankly at Seon Woo-jin’s face.

He was a stranger.

Yet younger and more handsome than she had expected.

And in his eyes, he was telling her,

“It’s okay now. You can trust me and speak the truth.”

No matter what she said, he would bear it.

For the first time in years, she felt a trust that maybe she could rely on someone.

Her face twisted unbearably.

All the sorrow she had been holding back burst forth in an instant.

Wu Nanseol screamed as if she were losing her mind.

“You say I’m your woman?! Don’t make me laugh! I hate you! No, I despise you! Not for a single moment have I ever stopped hating you! If I could, I would tear you to shreds! Every single day! Not one day, not one moment, have I ever stopped thinking that! Because of you, because of that bastard…!”

Tears streamed down Wu Nanseol’s face.

They were thick, overflowing tears born from the deep well of sorrow she had suppressed for so long.

Sun Woojin, who had been watching her with a tender expression, gently placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

“It’s alright, Lady Wu. It’s all over now. You’ve endured so much. It was all thanks to you that we were able to bring that bastard down.”

At those words, Wu Nanseol finally broke down and cried.

The comfort of “It’s alright,” the words “It’s all over,” and the acknowledgment that it was because of her—those words struck her heart like nothing else could.

“Ugh… sob!”

She buried her face in her hands and wept without restraint.

Sun Woojin softly patted her shoulder.

Meanwhile, Wi Jeongguk stared at Wu Nanseol in stunned disbelief.

He couldn’t believe she had said those things to him.

No, he refused to believe it.

She was his.

She had to be his.

There was no way she would say such things to him.

As that thought crossed his mind, his gaze suddenly shifted to Sun Woojin.

His eyes began to fill with madness.

“Because of that bastard…!”

Wi Jeongguk was convinced that everything was Sun Woojin’s doing.

That it was because of him that Wu Nanseol had spoken those words.

If only he could kill that man, she would surely come back to him.

His eyes now burned with a murderous glare aimed straight at Sun Woojin’s back.

At that moment, Sun Woojin’s gaze was still fixed on Wu Nanseol.

“That bastard!”

Unable to hold back any longer, Wi Jeongguk lunged forward like lightning.

Clang!

His sword thrust toward Sun Woojin’s back.

Shiiik!

The others shouted in alarm.

“No!”

“Stop!”

But without turning around, Sun Woojin’s Mukrang Sword naturally swung, striking Wi Jeongguk’s blade aside.

It was a swift, almost invisible strike—a manifestation of the Jinryong Sword Technique.

Chaeng!

“Ugh!”

Wi Jeongguk’s sword was deflected, and he swallowed hard as he calmly turned his head to meet Sun Woojin’s gaze.

He had been facing away, yet how could he do that? It was beyond comprehension.

Today, nothing made sense to him.

Sun Woojin spoke with an expressionless face.

“Don’t rush. Unfortunately for you, I am not your opponent.”

“…What?”

Wi Jeongguk realized that Sun Woojin’s gaze was now directed behind him.

He turned his head and saw a sturdy young man in a crimson martial uniform approaching.

It was Seol Poong.

Radiating the fierce energy of a tiger, Seol Poong advanced toward Wi Jeongguk.

“Those bastards…”

Wi Jeongguk gritted his teeth.

He instinctively sensed that both Sun Woojin in front and Seol Poong behind were formidable foes.

Now, he had to face them alone.

Despair washed over him.

He clearly understood that everything was truly over.

“Hah, hahaha.”

Drooping his sword, he bowed his head deeply and let out a hollow laugh.

He seemed to have completely lost the will to fight.

Seol Poong paused for a moment at the sight.

Sun Woojin noticed the tension and gave Seol Poong a subtle nod, but Seol Poong shook his head faintly.

“Let him be,” the gesture said.

Then, suddenly, laughter echoed.

“Uhuhuhuhuhu…”

It was Wi Jeongguk.

He began laughing like a madman.

Seol Poong frowned at the bizarre sight.

Without warning, Wi Jeongguk pulled out a small black pill and swallowed it.

The Kwanghyeoldan.