Chapter 339
A moment later, Bandaeha, who had been wildly cracking his whip in a frenzy, suddenly stopped, panting heavily.
He hadn’t paced his breathing properly.
Seizing the opportunity, Pyo Seogeuk forced a strained smile and spoke in a hoarse voice.
“Ha ha ha! To think you’d be exhausted after just that much—no wonder you’re nothing but a dog, not a tiger.”
Provoked, Bandaeha clenched his whip tighter.
“You bastard…!”
Then, unexpectedly, Pyo Seogeuk fixed him with a cold glare and asked,
“By the way, is Gyeong Sojeo still alive?”
Bandaeha flinched at the question.
Sensing this, Pyo Seogeuk pressed on, his tone sharp.
“I get it. You do all this because of your inferiority complex. That’s why you don’t force the women—you wait until they break their pride on their own. Like Taesan Sogun, who’s locked away somewhere in this prison.”
Taesan Sogun was the nickname of Wang Yeowon, one of the four great beauties of Sapha.
Pyo Seogeuk was implying that she, too, was trapped somewhere in this dungeon.
He continued relentlessly.
“But tell me—after all that, did you really set them free? What if word got out to the outside world? It’d be a fatal blow to you—people would say the son of the Swordmaster locked up and violated those women.”
Bandaeha’s face went completely blank at those words.
But behind that expressionless mask, a deadly gleam burned in his eyes.
Unaware of this, Pyo Seogeuk went on.
“Of course not. A man like you, drowning in inferiority, would never leave those who could expose his flaws alive. Right? You probably slept with them all, then killed every last one. No one was ever freed. Ha! Sleeping with women and then killing them all—that’s the work of a true lecher, one who would be infamous for an era. Honestly, calling you a dog all this time feels like an insult to dogs. Ha ha ha!”
Watching Pyo Seogeuk’s face light up with amusement, Bandaeha’s voice turned icy.
“Getting old, huh? Looks like you don’t want to live anymore.”
Pyo Seogeuk glanced at him with a ‘huh?’ expression before bursting into laughter again.
“Don’t want to live anymore? When have I ever begged you to spare me? Are you seriously trying to use that as a threat? Ridiculous! Ha ha ha!”
Bandaeha glared coldly and drew his sword.
Clang!
The mood, which had been improving moments ago, plummeted into utter darkness.
Though the desire to subdue one of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Sages still burned within him, he couldn’t let someone who knew him so well live.
With a blank expression, Bandaeha raised his sword high.
Pyo Seogeuk, however, didn’t stop smiling.
If anything, his expression seemed even more relaxed.
With a shout, Bandaeha swung his sword down.
“Die!”
Clang!
Pyo Seogeuk stopped smiling and stared wide-eyed at the blade descending above his head.
But it wasn’t fear of death that held his gaze.
Rather, the sword that was supposed to end his life hung frozen in midair.
In his eyes, he saw a man’s hand gripping Bandaeha’s wrist.
Bandaeha was so shocked by the sudden appearance of the man holding his hand that a chill ran down his spine.
“W-who are you?!”
The man who stopped his sword, Sun Woojin, glared fiercely and asked,
“Is what he said true?”
Bandaeha’s eyes widened in horror as he recognized Sun Woojin’s face emerging from thin air.
How on earth was this man here?
And he’d been listening to everything just now…
But that wasn’t the problem anymore.
He had to find a way out of this situation.
Thinking quickly, Bandaeha stammered,
“W-what nonsense is this?! Who would believe the words of some lowlife from Sapha?! It’s all lies!”
At that moment, Mukrang spoke up.
Then, in a flash of fury, Sun Woojin’s fist slammed into Bandaeha’s stomach.
Thwack!
“Ughhh!”
Bandaeha doubled over in excruciating pain.
It felt as if his insides were being torn apart.
The agony was unlike anything he’d ever experienced.
But Sun Woojin didn’t stop there.
His fist struck Bandaeha’s stomach again, heavy and merciless.
Thwack!
“Ughhh!”
And once more.
Thwack!
“Gahhh!”
Blood and food erupted from Bandaeha’s mouth like a waterfall.
It looked as if even his organs were spilling out.
He was utterly disoriented.
Raised as a noble from childhood, this was unbearable pain.
As he vomited blood and filth, Sun Woojin paused briefly.
Tears streaming, Bandaeha gasped out,
“My… my father is the Swordmaster. If you dare touch me…”
Sun Woojin sneered and struck his stomach again.
Thwack!
“Ughhh!”
Blood, saliva, tears, and snot poured from Bandaeha’s mouth.
He was beyond speaking now.
His mind had completely shut down.
Grabbing the back of his neck, Sun Woojin said,
“Fine. I’ll have to ask your father, the Swordmaster, how he plans to deal with your crimes.”
Then, turning to Pyo Seogeuk, who was staring blankly, he asked,
“Are you Mugeukpae, Senior Pyo Seogeuk?”
Startled, Pyo Seogeuk snapped back to reality.
“Y-yes, I am Pyo Seogeuk. And you are…?”
Sun Woojin bowed politely.
“I am Sun Woojin, head of the Sunwoo family and chief of the Haenam faction. I apologize, but could you explain how you ended up in this state?”
Pyo Seogeuk stared at the young man in front of him, dazed.
Head of the Sunwoo family? Chief of the Haenam faction?
What kind of nonsense introduction was this?
Frowning, he asked,
“Chief of the Haenam faction? Last I knew, that was Haenamma Sword Jin Taedo…”
Sun Woojin cut him off.
“He’s dead. Killed by me.”
Pyo Seogeuk blinked, stunned.
This handsome young man in his twenties had killed Jin Taedo?
He couldn’t believe it.
Not just that, but the claims of being head of the Sunwoo family and chief of the Haenam faction seemed equally unbelievable.
Each one alone was hard to swallow, but all at once? Ridiculous.
Yet…
Hearing such absurd claims spoken with such confidence made Pyo Seogeuk strangely inclined to believe them.
And honestly, whether it was true or not didn’t matter much.
What mattered was that, after a year, someone other than Bandaeha or his men had appeared before him.
Someone who had just beaten Bandaeha to a pulp.
Pyo Seogeuk looked at Sun Woojin for a moment, then began to explain why he had come here.
“I came here because…”
His words tumbled out in a jumble.
But Sun Woojin had no trouble piecing it together.
“…I woke up here after falling asleep. If you ask why he did this to me… I don’t know either. I’m curious myself. He never told me the reason. Maybe it’s because I’m not really the Swordmaster’s son. Ha ha ha!”
Mukrang confirmed that his story was true.
Suddenly, Sun Woojin snapped his fingers at him.
Pshhh!
The next moment, Pyo Seogeuk’s eyes widened in shock as he saw a broken chain fall to the ground.
The thick iron links had been cleanly sliced through, like a precise cut with a sword.
The reason? A finely controlled energy blast Sun Woojin had fired with a flick of his fingers.
Just enough power to cut the chains, nothing more.
Swallowing hard, Pyo Seogeuk thought,
‘Maybe this young man really did kill Jin Taedo.’
If so, the claim of being chief of the Haenam faction was probably true as well.
While Pyo Seogeuk was lost in thought, Sun Woojin spoke again.
“Senior Pyo, I’ll take care of the warriors in this dungeon as I leave. Could you look after the people trapped here for now?”
“…Me?”
Pyo Seogeuk tried moving his body.
His bones cracked loudly.
Crack, crack!
It was painful, but the pain brought a euphoric smile to his face.
His body was cheering at regaining freedom after a year.
With a face full of joy, he answered Sun Woojin.
“Leave it to me! Even if my energy hasn’t fully returned because of the Mountain Poison, these punks in this mountain lodge are no match for me!”
Then, suddenly, he asked Sun Woojin,
“So then, what about you…?”
Sun Woo-jin glared fiercely at Ban Dae-ha, who was limp and unconscious in one hand, and replied sharply.
“I intend to hold the parents accountable for their child’s crimes.”
With that, Sun Woo-jin hoisted Ban Dae-ha in one arm and began walking toward Bidong again—this time without hiding his presence.
At once, the prison guards and the warriors stationed at the mountain lodge were startled, drawing their swords and aiming them at him.
“W-who are you?!”
“This nobleman!”
But no one could utter more than a single word before collapsing, unconscious, without even realizing what had happened.
Thud!
“Ugh!”
“Gah!”
Sun Woo-jin knocked out every warrior he encountered on the way to Bidong without hesitation.
He figured that anyone who worked under someone like Ban Dae-ha couldn’t be trustworthy.
At that moment, Muk-rang asked quietly.
— Are you planning to break through the wall of Bidong?
“Yes. I intend to break in and confront the Sword Master about this man’s crimes.”
Muk-rang nodded knowingly.
— Hmm. I see. You believe that if the Sword Master is a man of integrity, he won’t turn a blind eye to his son’s misdeeds. If he’s no longer a righteous swordsman, he’ll likely hold his son hostage.
Sun Woo-jin smiled faintly in response.
“You know me too well, sir.”
Muk-rang chuckled heartily.
— How could I not? We’ve been through so much together. In my day, I was considered a genius myself! Ha ha ha ha!
A short while later, Sun Woo-jin finally stood before the wall blocking Bidong.
The warriors guarding the entrance were already sprawled unconscious all around.
Drawing his sword, he unleashed a pale violet aura and took a deep breath.
“Now, shall we go meet the greatest swordsman of our time?”
In the next instant, his blade emitted four radiant beams of light—pure sword energy.
The square-shaped section of the wall began to slowly slide inward and fall away.
Thud!
Beyond the vanished wall lay a pitch-black void, utterly devoid of light.
That was surely where the Sword Master awaited.