Chapter 1264
From the very beginning, Seok U-haeng had noticed that Nan Seong-wang's attack was aimed at A-wan.
Like lightning, he threw his body forward to intercept the strike in her stead.
"Kgh—"
Even though his heart had been pierced—
Astoundingly, he let out only a low groan before straightening his posture.
Fssshhh—
At that moment, the hem of A-wan's robe near her lower abdomen crumbled into dust and scattered into the wind.
Nan Seong-wang's method of unleashing his Steel Threads was so unfathomably intricate and powerful that even after passing through Seok U-haeng's body, it still wreaked havoc on the fabric of her robe from a distance.
"Got you!"
Nan Seong-wang let out a triumphant cry.
He had been worried that Seok U-haeng might charge at him in a final act of Mutual Destruction, resolved to take him down as well.
But the moment he discerned that Seok U-haeng's true objective was to protect A-wan, he found an easy way to deal with him.
"Since you're not dying immediately, I suppose your heart is positioned slightly differently from most."
Thwip-thwip-thwip-thwip!
With a flick of Nan Seong-wang's wrist, translucent Steel Threads embedded themselves into Seok U-haeng's thirty-six major acupoints, bristling like a porcupine's quills.
Even after piercing his heart, Seok U-haeng refused to die—so, wary of a potential counterattack, Nan Seong-wang struck again.
"This is the end."
Just as Nan Seong-wang was about to rip the Steel Threads from Seok U-haeng's body—
"Wait!"
A-wan screamed, throwing herself in front of Seok U-haeng.
"Spare the Great Hero!"
"Step aside."
"I'll go with you! Isn't that enough?"
Nan Seong-wang scoffed at her words.
"Why leave behind a future threat when I can kill him now and capture you with ease?"
"Then I'll kill myself."
"Go ahead."
Nan Seong-wang grinned ominously.
"As long as I unleash the Bone-Dissolving Fragrance Extraction within a quarter-hour of your death, I can still absorb every last trace of the Sacred Artifact's energy from your corpse."
Licking his lips, he chuckled darkly.
"It's a shame I won't get to claim a living body, but what can you do?"
"Move."
Then, Seok U-haeng spoke to A-wan.
"You're being a nuisance."
"No!"
Tears welled in A-wan's large eyes as she shook her head violently.
This was all her fault.
She had gotten the warriors of her tribe killed, and now she had dragged even her friend from Huizhou to the brink of death.
"If we live, we live together—if we die, we die together!"
"After just a few days of hardship?"
"Isn't that the duty owed to one who saved my life? How could I live while leaving you behind?"
Her naive answer nearly made Seok U-haeng burst into laughter.
"Do I really seem so pathetic that an old man like him could finish me?"
"Huh?"
"The moment that geezer realized I was protecting you, my defeat was already decided."
With great effort, Seok U-haeng lifted his head and gazed at the distant sky.
"I was merely feigning weakness to set up a decisive strike..."
His eyes remained fixed on the cloudless expanse above.
"Guess I'll have to postpone dying on the battlefield."
"What do you—"
KRRRUMBLE—!
Before A-wan could finish her question, a thunderous roar shook the earth to its core.
At the same time, a black speck in the far sky began hurtling toward them like a comet, trailing a blazing tail.
GOOOOOOO—!
Amidst the tearing Sound of Breaking Air, a shadowy figure split the heavens in two, radiating a dazzling array of colors.
"Young Master...!"
A-wan's eyes trembled as she recognized it.
That resplendent Movement Technique—
She had witnessed it countless times in India, had even dreamed of it in longing.
Was it not the Lightness Study of her beloved, the one she cherished most?
KWA-BOOOM—!
Like a meteor descending from the heavens, the figure crashed into the space between Seok U-haeng and Nan Seong-wang.
RRRUMBLE—
A violent shockwave sent a mountain of dust erupting into the air before it was swept away by a fierce gust of wind.
And standing tall in its wake was a figure emanating three mystical rays of light.
A peerlessly handsome man whose overwhelming aura made the world seem as though it lay beneath his feet.
It was none other than Bu Eun-seol.
"Fast."
Seok U-haeng snorted.
"Faster than I expected."
Even with countless subordinates at his disposal, Nan Seong-wang had taken over three days to find him at this distance—
Yet Bu Eun-seol had arrived two full days ahead of his estimate.
Thud.
Maintaining an expression of cold fury, Bu Eun-seol strode forward like a wrathful deity and stopped before Nan Seong-wang.
Frowning, Nan Seong-wang tilted his head in confusion.
"Martial Soul Lord?"
Recognizing Bu Eun-seol's face, Nan Seong-wang wore a look of utter bewilderment.
"Why are you interfering?"
Ignoring the question entirely, Bu Eun-seol tossed a Soul-Soothing Divine Pill to Seok U-haeng.
"Eat it."
Snap.
Seok U-haeng caught the pill—then threw it right back.
"Don't need this crap."
Crrrk—
As Seok U-haeng channeled his Internal Power—
The Steel Threads embedded in his body began popping out one by one with the sound of grinding bone, and his wounds slowly began to close.
Those who mastered the Vajra Body Refinement Art could not only resist pressure point suppression—they could naturally regenerate their bodies as long as neither their heart nor brain was destroyed.
He had deliberately feigned weakness to deliver a decisive strike.
"What a troublesome bastard."
Nan Seong-wang, who had been observing the scene, narrowed his eyes.
Only then did he realize that Seok U-haeng had been pretending to be unable to move freely—all to prepare for a final, lethal blow.
Just that assassin alone won't be easy to kill.
And now, with the Martial Soul Lord joining the fray... the situation was already beyond salvage.
After a brief moment of contemplation, he forced a smile and spoke.
"To think I'd encounter a grandmaster of the Central Plains in a place like this. What an honor."
Nan Seong-wang clasped his hands together, his expression deceptively amiable.
"What wisdom brings you to grace us with your presence?"
"Nan Seong-wang, that man—!"
At that moment, A-wan, unable to contain her fury, pointed at him and shouted.
"He slaughtered the warriors of my tribe and sought the jewel that could locate the Sacred Artifact!"
"That is a misunderstanding."
Nan Seong-wang waved his hand, flashing a bright, toothy grin.
"Didn't your escort panic and attack me first? You were the one who fled like a madwoman at the mere sight of me."
"What did you say?!"
"My subordinates were merely approaching when your guards attacked without hesitation. I simply retaliated—nothing more."
A-wan's voice trembled with barely suppressed rage.
"The escort clearly warned them to retreat, but your men struck first!"
She jabbed a finger toward Seok U-haeng.
"Then why did you chase him and me? For three days, you hunted us like prey!"
"If you attack first, you must be rooted out completely. That's only natural."
"What kind of nonsense—!"
As their argument escalated, Bu Eun-seol cut in sharply.
"Nan Seong-wang."
His eyes gleamed sharper than the edge of a blade.
"Disputes in the martial world are settled not with words, but with strength. Have you not learned that by your age?"
The words were deliberately insulting, dripping with contempt.
At this point, Nan Seong-wang should have abandoned pretenses and acted.
Yet instead, he clasped his hands and bowed slightly.
"My, how unjust. Could you not reconsider?"
An astonishing statement.
No matter how dire the odds—
For one of the Eight Overlords of India, a supreme ruler who had ascended to an unrivaled throne, to bow and plead like a cowardly street thug afraid of death?
"...Is it almost complete now?"
Then, still bowing, Nan Seong-wang muttered under his breath with a sinister smile.
KRRRRUMBLE.
Suddenly, a distant thunderclap reverberated faintly across the sky—
SHWAAAAA!
—before hundreds, thousands, millions of radiant spears cascaded down like a torrential downpour.
Nan Seong-wang's Limitless Power, said to annihilate all life within its range the moment it strikes.
Annihilation had been unleashed.
"My Limitless Power does not merely kill a single person—it erases everything within a designated space. It just... takes a little time."
As Nan Seong-wang raised his head, the corners of his lips stretched nearly to his ears—
FWOOOOOSH!
—and the pouring light began to swallow not only Bu Eun-seol but the entire surrounding area, dozens of zhang in radius.
KRKKKKK—!
As the endless rain of light continued,
Bu Eun-seol, Seok U-haeng, A-wan... all of them gradually vanished beneath the dazzling radiance.
WHOOSH!
When the storm of light finally ceased,
every living being within dozens of zhang—even Nan Seong-wang's own subordinates—had disappeared.
"Heh... kehkeh. Hahahahaha!"
Nan Seong-wang burst into mad laughter.
"Lucky upstarts who've made a name for themselves always delude themselves. They think they've reached invincibility at a young age."
He clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"They never realize that longevity is what makes one truly strong."
But then—
"I agree."
A low voice echoed from above.
Nan Seong-wang looked up—and there, floating midair, were Bu Eun-seol, A-wan, and Seok U-haeng.
"How—?"
It was utterly incomprehensible.
He had just erased all life within dozens of zhang—so how could they be hovering there, completely unharmed?
"Exposure to Annihilation vaporizes all vitality."
As if to prove his words, the corpses of his subordinates in the Secluded Valley had been reduced to empty husks, their clothes the only remnants.
And yet, those three had clearly vanished within the light—
How could they have deceived his senses and escaped unscathed?
"You unleashed a crude imitation of Harmonization, flaunting it like some grand technique."
Nan Seong-wang's Limitless Power, Annihilation,
bore an eerie resemblance to the Limitless Power Bu Eun-seol had gathered and unleashed in an instant.
Witnessing the world turn completely white,
Bu Eun-seol had released an even more potent Harmonization,
dissolving the cascading radiance before soaring into the sky with A-wan and Seok U-haeng in tow.
"Standing there, oblivious to your own death."
As Seok U-haeng's murmur faded,
Crackle.
Nan Seong-wang's skin began crumbling like a dry biscuit.
He had already been completely exposed to the Harmonization unleashed by Bu Eun-seol.
"How."
Nan Seong-wang's eyes widened as he stared down at his own body, fissured like shattered porcelain.
"...This can't be!"
That brief, solitary scream became his final words to the world.
Fsssh—
His body turned to dust, scattering in all directions.
Thus came the end of the most cowardly of the Eight Overlords of India—
A despotic ruler who had clawed his way to power by relentlessly exploiting his enemies' weaknesses to secure victory after victory.
"Young Master."
A-wan knelt before Bu Eun-seol, as if she had no right to face him.
"Forgive me. Because of me..."
"It's fine."
Bu Eun-seol reassured her.
A-wan was on the verge of collapsing from sheer guilt.
"Are you unharmed?"
"Thanks to that warrior..."
She gestured toward Seok U-haeng, but he had already vanished.
"Who... was he?"
"A friend."
Bu Eun-seol's voice was low.
"From the moment he came to save you."
Strictly speaking, Seok U-haeng wasn't someone he would normally call a friend.
But from the instant he had risked his life to rescue A-wan... he had become an irreplaceable one.
"Young Master. This jewel is said to be the Treasure Map that can locate the Earth's Sacred Artifact."
A-wan carefully retrieved the jewel she had been safeguarding in her robes.
"They say that if someone worthy of obtaining the Earth's Sacred Artifact channels their power into it, it will emit light to reveal the artifact's location."
The reason she had personally sought to deliver this to Bu Eun-seol—
Because this, too, was a Sacred Artifact of the Four Sacred Tribes.
She feared that if a martial artist from the Central Plains were to handle it, it might be tainted, so she, as the Holy Maiden, had resolved to deliver it directly to him.
But as she held the jewel out, her pupils trembled.
The intricate patterns on its surface had been wiped clean, and spiderweb-like cracks now spread across its exterior.
"This is..."
A-wan's face fell as realization struck her.
Earlier, when Seok U-haeng had shielded her from Nan Seong-wang's ambush—
Though his body had blocked the Steel Threads, their force had pierced through him, reducing even the hem of her robes to dust.
At that moment, the jewel had been damaged by the immense shockwave.
"After all that hardship to obtain it..."
Plip. Plip.
Large teardrops rolled down her cheeks.
When she had first discovered the treasure, she had been so overjoyed she could hardly contain herself.
Because it was something her beloved had yearned for so deeply.
Yet in her attempt to deliver it, countless lives had been lost, and irreversible destruction had been wrought.
Had she at least been able to deliver the jewel intact, those sacrifices might have held meaning.
But in the end, she had failed to protect it—rendering everything that had transpired utterly futile.
"......"
Bu Eun-seol gazed down at the fractured jewel.
Like the mysterious orb Baekri Ye-ha had once given him—
It seemed to be an object that, when infused with a specific energy, would emit light to guide its bearer to a predetermined location.
"I'm so sorry."
"No, it's alright."
Bu Eun-seol, who had been studying the jewel, shook his head with a faint smile.
"Perhaps this is heaven's will."
"Huh?"
"Not long ago, I pioneered a new martial realm called the Void Extremity—a state where all things are naturally restored to their original forms. Without needing the Divine Artifacts, I achieved a power akin to theirs through martial attainment alone."
He continued.
"But if I were to obtain the Heaven and Earth Divine Artifact now and grasp the perfect power of nature, the Void Extremity would collapse—and I might even lose control over the Four Divine Artifacts' perfect power."
Though Bu Eun-seol had only just stepped into the threshold of the Void Extremity, he had already felled even the Buddhist Venerable—an opponent he could never have faced in the past.
Yet he still didn't fully comprehend the Void Extremity's true function, nor did he understand why phenomena like the Twin Annihilation had occurred.
In other words, the Void Extremity held infinite potential for growth—its final form still unpredictable.
If he were to abandon this path and instead pursue the unification of the Divine Artifacts—granting him transcendent power through perfect harmony with nature—
It would be like handing the world's most powerful sword to a five-year-old child.
The sheer magnitude of such power could destroy not only his body but the very foundation of his martial arts.
"Is that... truly the case?"
"It is."
"What a relief. Ah, but still..."
A-wan exhaled in relief, brushing a hand over her chest—but then her head drooped again.
"Still, it would have been better if we'd secured the Sacred Artifact in advance."
Bu Eun-seol studied her dejected face before smiling faintly.
"There's no need to worry."
As if struck by inspiration, he gazed at the shattered jewel with renewed interest.
"Even broken things have their uses."
"Huh?"
"For now, let's leave this place."
Bu Eun-seol cast a fleeting glance at where Seok U-haeng had stood before smiling again.
"The sooner we vacate the area, the sooner they'll be able to breathe."
With those words, he lifted A-wan into the air and soared into the distant sky.
How much time had passed?
Crash.
The earth trembled, then split open with a deep rumble, and a faint shadow surged up from the ground.
It was Seok U-haeng.
Though he had helped Bu Eun-seol, it was only to repay a debt—nothing more.
He had no intention of listening to empty pleasantries or engaging in friendly conversation after all that had happened.
So he had used the Earth Escape Art to slip away, avoiding an awkward encounter.
"Where should I go now?"
Now that he had left, he realized he had nowhere to go.
If he went Beyond the Frontier, it would be too chaotic. If he returned to the Central Plains, there was no place that would welcome him.
After a long moment of contemplation, he suddenly remembered the place where he had caught the snake for A-wan.
"It's south of the Great Wall—too rugged to be called the Central Plains, yet not quite Beyond the Frontier either, still holding traces of its roots."
A faint smile touched Seok U-haeng's lips.
That land, a mix of desert, grasslands, and mountains, didn't seem like a bad place to scrape by.
Whoosh.
Activating his Movement Technique, he headed toward the mountainous region where he and A-wan had fled.
There, he found a suitable spot, built a small Thatched Cottage, and settled in.
With plenty of roots, tree bark, and game to hunt, survival wasn't an issue.
And so, his peaceful days passed—until one day...
BOOM!
A crimson figure carrying something massive descended from the distant sky, slowly landing near Seok U-haeng's cottage.
It was Wi Cheon-gyeong.
"Wi Cheon-gyeong."
Seok U-haeng's expression twisted instantly.
The Death Soul Squad's intelligence network was frighteningly thorough—they had tracked him down even in this remote wilderness.
"Great Master Seok."
Wi Cheon-gyeong smiled.
"Have you been well?"
"Why are you here?"
Seok U-haeng's gaze was icy.
"Did you come to brag about your vaunted intelligence network, that it can even find a backwater like this?"
"Of course not."
Instead of answering, Wi Cheon-gyeong set down the large bundle he was carrying.
It was a bucket filled with fragrant liquor.
"I figured you'd be craving this out here."
When he unsealed the lid—
Gulp.
Seok U-haeng swallowed dryly without realizing it.
The aroma wafting from the bucket was so intoxicating that his stomach practically screamed at him to drink it immediately.
"Century-aged Fen Wine."
"Since you've already brought it, I suppose I have no choice."
Seok U-haeng turned away as he spoke.
"Leave it and go."
"There's more."
Wi Cheon-gyeong pulled out a large oiled paper from his robes.
Inside was a still-steaming roast duck.
'He knows how to drink properly.'
Century-aged Fen Wine and roast duck—even immortals would envy such a feast.
Seok U-haeng swallowed hard and gave a stiff nod.
"Leave that too."
"There's one last thing."
Seok U-haeng frowned as he watched.
Whoom.
Wi Cheon-gyeong channeled his Internal Energy, pulling a large boulder from a distance to sit on.
"What now?"
"A drinking companion to share these with."
Wi Cheon-gyeong was a man who had spent over a decade eating from the same pot as smooth-talking, shameless figures like Won Se-mun and Jo Nam-cheon.
No matter how cold Seok U-haeng acted, he couldn't withstand that kind of audacity.
Crackle, crackle.
By nightfall, a bonfire burned in front of the cottage, and Seok U-haeng and Wi Cheon-gyeong drank under the moonlight.
Once pleasantly drunk, Wi Cheon-gyeong pulled something from his robes.
A Command Plaque engraved with the character Ambush (Fu—"Ambush").
"Lord said that only those who master survival skills to endure any situation, possess swift Movement Techniques, and can swiftly decipher codes like the Secret Language are fit to lead the Guardian Unit."
Wi Cheon-gyeong grinned.
"Now that the right person has appeared, I can rest easy."
"You think I'll do it?"
"I'm just saying the right person has appeared."
Wi Cheon-gyeong slipped the plaque back into his robes and sniffed.
"Great Leader Yu and Great Leader Myo... they all started as the Lord's debtors too."
"The debt—"
Seok U-haeng almost said, "I've repaid it all."
But he bit his tongue.
Because he hadn't.
Helping A-wan once didn't mean he had repaid everything.
"While serving in the Death Shadow War Unit, I learned one thing—you have to carve out your own place to stand."
Even without Bu Eun-seol by their side...
The warriors of the Death Soul Squad had been taught to be self-reliant, no matter where they were.
Because of that, the warriors of the Death Shadow War Unit trained relentlessly without being told and knew what needed to be done.
"Well, I'm nicely drunk now."
Wi Cheon-gyeong stood, gazing at the bright moon.
"I'll be heading back."
He glanced at Seok U-haeng, who was staring into the fire, and smiled.
"This place is quite peaceful. Perfect for a drink."
"......"
"I'll visit often. With good liquor."
Whoosh.
With those final words, Wi Cheon-gyeong vanished into the distant sky.
And on the spot where he had been sitting...
The Command Plaque symbolizing the leader of the Guardian Unit had quietly been left behind.
Seok U-haeng watched the flames flicker without moving.
Judging by how he acts...
Even if he hid elsewhere, that man would track him down and haul another liquor bucket to him.
"Are all the people around him eccentrics?"
Seok U-haeng sighed—but before he knew it, a faint smile tugged at his lips as he slowly stepped back into the cottage.
He had thought he was alone...
Yet now, there was someone who understood his heart better than he did himself.
And he had even gained a good drinking companion.