Return of the Mount Hua Sect Chapter 1368: Do You Know What Shame Is? (3)

“Which side? Again.”

When he heard Ho Ga-Myung’s voice, Hyung Euk desperately tried to clutch at the consciousness that was slipping away.

‘Why was I holding on?’

Why resist? A sudden question arose. Not that so much time had passed, yet he couldn’t remember. Why was he enduring this cruel torture?

What on earth did he want to protect? Was the man’s claim wrong?

No. There was nothing wrong with it. Hyung Euk knew that too.

Even if he honored his loyalty here, those who left would not know. They wouldn’t know whether he died here or betrayed them and enjoyed wealth and glory.

To them, Hyung Euk would be nothing but a trivial connection who passed by for a moment. People will readily give a coin or two to a pitiable beggar, but they don’t remember the beggar.

Isn’t it human to throw a coin and turn away and immediately forget? Perhaps Hyung Euk’s name has long since been erased from the minds of those Mount Hua people.

So Ho Ga-Myung was right. If he were even slightly wise, it would be better to feign defeat here and sell them out.

He only had to close his eyes once. It’s not that hard, is it? Compared to the mistakes he’d made in life, it was a small thing.

He wasn’t a saint, and he certainly wasn’t a man of great spirit. He was a dullard struggling day by day to survive. Wouldn’t this be enough?

If he stubbornly held out to the end, everyone here might suffer misfortune.

Is that really the right thing? Is that really the path he should take? The answer was decided. What he had to do was far too clear.

He only had to open his closed mouth and utter the two syllables ‘Nanjing.’ Then everything would be eased.

And just live on.

Even if he didn’t receive the vast wealth the author promised, as long as he could live as before. Plow the fields, raise the children, endure physical toil but have somewhere to lean his heart—isn’t that ordinary life enough?

Hyung Euk’s mouth slowly opened. Nanjing. Just Nanjing. He only had to say those two syllables.

No one would blame him. In fact, they wouldn’t even know he’d done something blameworthy. After all, the villagers had all abandoned the Mount Hua party, so no one could judge Hyung Euk’s conscience.

So he could just utter the two syllables and everyone would regain ordinary lives. What’s wrong with that?

“Say it exactly. Hurry.”

Ho Ga-Myung even offered the courtesy of bringing his mouth close to his ear. So that Hyung Euk wouldn’t have to endure all the shame and convulse—just a whisper would suffice.

Hyung Euk’s father had said that only those with power can keep their conscience. He now understood the meaning of those words. So there was nothing more to hesitate about.

Hyung Euk opened his mouth weakly.

He forced his throat and let the two syllables ‘Nanjing’ slip from his mouth.

“...Go...f...yourself...”

But what actually came out wasn’t those two syllables.

Ho Ga-Myung’s face twisted like a demon.

‘I don’t know.’

Hyung Euk couldn’t explain the reason for this choice. Even if he were torn apart and died and received the villagers’ condemnation in the afterlife, he would only bow his head.

Yet why was it that one part of his heart felt strangely relieved and refreshed.

Even as Ho Ga-Myung’s hand shot up and something glowing blue appeared, Hyung Euk snorted and laughed.

‘Chivalrous men.’

That hand came down toward Hyung Euk.

‘I suppose I had more shame than I thought.’

KRAAAANG!

A huge blast roared out. Dust shot up and the surroundings were enveloped in a cloud of dirt.

The villagers who had been watching Hyung Euk and Ho Ga-Myung couldn’t even breathe and squeezed their eyes shut. The torture they’d inflicted had already been horrific, but they absolutely did not want to see the final sight of a head bursting open.

But when the dust cloud slowly cleared, a slightly different scene unfolded than expected.

Crack.

Ho Ga-Myung was holding only the clump of earth that had sunk into his hand. Then he pulled his hand out from the hole next to Hyung Euk’s head.

His subordinates widened their eyes in slight surprise.

“Commander!”

“What a waste of time.”

Ho Ga-Myung straightened up. He looked down coldly at Hyung Euk, who still had a breath in him.

Baek Bi immediately ran up and bowed his head.

“Commander, I’ll take care of him.”

“Leave him.”

Ho Ga-Myung cut him off with an indifferent voice.

“Anyway, if he doesn’t receive proper treatment he won’t last another day. No need to make his passing comfortable on the way out, right?”

“...Yes, Commander.”

There was not a speck of mercy in Ho Ga-Myung’s eyes.

If they killed Hyung Euk here and now, it would only result in a man who failed to achieve his aims losing control and lashing out at a civilian unable to use martial arts.

“In the end, a dullard is just a dullard.”

Leaving that cold, malicious remark, Ho Ga-Myung spun his body around.

“Commander, then what about those people...?”

Baek Bi glanced at the villagers and asked. Ho Ga-Myung waved his hand irritably.

“Leave them be.”

“But...”

Baek Bi, who rarely spoke up, trailed off. He meant that since things had gone wrong, meting out punishment might at least save face.

If it were during the Ten Thousand People Clan days, Ho Ga-Myung would have wiped them all out without pity. But now his judgment had to be different.

“Have you forgotten the Alliance lord’s order?”

“Ah...”

Baek Bi turned pale in an instant and hurriedly bowed his head.

Hegemony Lord Jang Ilso had ordered the entire Four Sects Alliance not to lay hands on civilians. One or two might be excused, but touching an entire village would be tantamount to openly disobeying that order.

Others might get away with acting as they pleased if not caught, but Ho Ga-Myung was not one of them.

Jang Ilso was even distributing grain to win the goodwill of the Southern land people. In this situation, it made no sense for Ho Ga-Myung to cling to petty face and oppose that intention. One Hyung Euk was already more than enough.

“It’s not a bad thing to let those who defy the Alliance lord see how they die and engrave that fact into their bones. More than that...”

Ho Ga-Myung said coldly.

“There will surely be traces left behind. Search thoroughly.”

“Yes!”

At Ho Ga-Myung’s command, everyone moved in unison. Ho Ga-Myung’s gaze watching them was dark.

‘Such a stupid act...’

He had wasted time.

Normally, the moment he thought the man was holding out better than expected, he would have issued the next order at once. But this time he couldn’t make that judgment.

Ho Ga-Myung also knew that it was an action born half of stubborn pride.

Ho Ga-Myung’s strength originally came from his cool-headedness. Unlike the fiery Jang Ilso, he was endlessly calm and composed. But in this matter he had lost his composure. He could not help but admit it to himself.

Ho Ga-Myung closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath.

‘Mount Hua...’

If the man had been protecting a sect other than Mount Hua in the name of loyalty, Ho Ga-Myung would have sneered that those stupid peasants didn’t even know how to look after their own bowls.

But the moment the two syllables Mount Hua were involved, a stubborn urge rose in him to see with his own eyes that will be broken.

Truly a foolish bravado. What significance did the breaking of a petty man’s will have?

Ho Ga-Myung, who had worried about the Alliance lord’s excessive obsession with the Mount Hua sect, had himself become even more obsessed with Mount Hua than that Alliance lord.

“Commander! There’s a trace here.”

“Attach pursuers there. Follow that immediately.”

“Yes!”

Ho Ga-Myung slowly lowered his gaze.

Hyung Euk lay collapsed, looking like a lump of blood. Like a worm... no, perhaps worse than a worm.

“So I lost to a worm?”

Ho Ga-Myung muttered self-deprecatingly and strode away. As he left, the Ten Thousand People Clan men who had been waiting with bated breath followed behind.

The Ten Thousand People Clan men who had filled the village drained away like a recession tide. It made the nightmare time they had held over the village seem almost like a lie.

Only Hyung Euk’s desolate, mangled body and the dark red blood soaking around it proved that that time had been real.

“Is he...alive...?”

Those who had thought everyone surely dead muttered in stunned disbelief.

Those who had been staring blankly toward the direction the Ten Thousand People Clan men left slowly regained their senses one by one and turned their eyes to Hyung Euk.

“Hyung Euk!”

“You!”

They rushed over hastily, but none dared to touch him and hesitated.

Because there was nowhere they could touch. There wasn’t a single uninjured spot, so they had no idea where to start helping.

“Hey, you damn fool! You, you stupid idiot!”

But the old man unhesitatingly grabbed Hyung Euk and pulled him into his arms, as if already knowing his child’s fate.

“I...! Didn’t I tell you it was meaningless! Grace, whatever...! I told you people like us only receive harm! You foolish idiot! You! You...!”

The old man’s desperate wails echoed through the village.

Hyung Euk’s wife couldn’t bring herself to look directly at his body and wept as if in a daze, while the young children were too frightened to come near. They all sensed Hyung Euk’s fate.

“To people like us... to beings like us, even that would be greed, I told you... What is so difficult about saying that one word! You stupid... you stupid thing! You foolish man! Sob...”

The tears that streaked the aged face poured straight onto Hyung Euk’s face.

Perhaps because of those tears, Hyung Euk, who briefly regained consciousness, slowly lifted his eyelids.

“Fa... Father...”

“Y-yes! You brat! Yes, it’s me! Your father!”

Hyung Euk weakly raised his hand. The old man quickly grabbed the trembling hand.

“You, pull yourself together! You mustn’t die like this! This is not the time to go! Even this old father is still alive, why are you going? Why!”

Hyung Euk, as if even keeping his eyes open was painful, looked at the old man and lifted the corner of his mouth.

“S-sorry...”

The hoarse voice was barely intelligible and could cut off at any moment.

“I’m... sorry...”

After those words, Hyung Euk’s head dropped with a thud.

When the grip on his hand loosened, the old man hugged his son tighter and wailed at the top of his lungs.

“Hyung Euk! Hey, you bastard! Hyung Euk!!!”

The villagers, unable to leave the spot, began to wail one by one. The village entrance was now filled only with mournful cries.

And in that place, where all the Ten Thousand People Clan men had left, there remained one who had not yet departed.

Yu Gong stood staring blankly at the villagers’ wailing.

Countless inexpressible emotions welled up in his eyes.