Return of the Mount Hua Sect Chapter 1370: Do You Know What Shame Is? (5)
Previously on Return of the Mount Hua Sect...
The one at the head of the approaching group looked utterly menacing.
Of course, the old man who had lived long knew that judging a person by their face alone was futile.
But he also knew that while one person might not mean much, a whole group giving off the same air made the outcome obvious.
The group entering the village exuded a dangerous aura, one you couldn’t sense from ordinary peasants. It was the dangerous stench only someone who’d stained their hands with human blood countless times could give off.
Apparently the old man wasn’t the only one to sense it. The villagers all fell silent at once.
What filled the old man’s eyes was resignation, but the villagers’ eyes were thick with despair. They knew these people hadn’t merely passed through; they had come with a clear purpose. Having spent their lives watching for others’ reactions, they could sense it from the way the group approached.
‘In the end... this was bound to happen.’
The old man let out a hollow laugh.
If mere compliance wouldn’t change anything and this was the inevitable end, he wished he had at least raised his voice in defiance.
Then he wouldn’t have felt shame before the child who had gone before him.
The strange men who had swept through the village turned their gaze toward those gathered at the grave mound.
“There they are.”
The leader strode toward them.
A rabbit might flee when faced with a tiger, but ordinary people couldn’t do that before a warrior. The old man meekly accepted the fate about to befall them.
But others were not the same. Those who hadn’t lost a child and who still possessed a stronger will to live couldn’t resign themselves as easily as the old man.
“P-please spare us!”
The man who had just been shouting excuses for selling out Hyung Euk prostrated himself as the strange men approached.
“Didn’t I tell you everything? There’s nothing left to give. If you spare us, we’ll keep silent for life, warriors!”
The man knew it was pointless, but he couldn’t just lie down and die. He’d sold everything he could to preserve that life—how could he let it go easily?
“W-wait, now that I think about it, those bastards definitely went north! Up there! I saw them going up! It’s north over there, s-so if you search the north, you’ll find the Justice faction hypocrites’ trail!”
The strange men who had reached them narrowed their eyes and muttered.
“...The Justice faction are hypocrites?”
The man hushed, feeling his scalp prickle as if he’d blurted out a mistake while flustered.
“A rare thing to hear—music to my ears.”
Luckily, the answer he hoped for came. Bolstered with sudden courage, he cried out louder.
“Yes! Yes! I mean those selfish Justice faction bastards! How could they compare to the heroes of the Evil Sect! If you spare us, we’ll help. We— we can recognize their faces, warriors!”
“Their faces...”
The strange man let out a peculiar smile and asked.
“Are you saying that if we take you along, you’ll recognize those faces and betray them?”
“Yes! Yes! If not, we can at least make a picture! One of us is good at drawing, so we’ll definitely help! Please, just spare us!”
“First, one question. Is this Hyung village?”
“Y-yes...”
Taken aback by the odd question, the man stammered. Why would those who had just passed through yesterday ask this?
At that moment, one of those scanning the village shouted.
“Leader! There are signs someone passed through here.”
“Many. At least several hundred, it seems.”
Hearing that, the strange man’s brows twitched.
He inspected the prostrating man, the grave mound, and all traces left by the Ten Thousand People Clan members, then curled his lip in derision.
“It’s true the Justice faction are hypocrites.”
“Yes, yes! Of course!”
“But... our boss is in that Justice faction group. From the looks of it, you seem to have sold our boss to the Four Sects Alliance.”
“...What?”
The strange man’s face turned cold.
“The thought that we risked our lives crossing the Yangtze to save trash like this makes my stomach turn.”
The man was dumbfounded, not understanding what the stranger meant.
The stranger spat out his words.
“We came under the Green Forest King’s orders to take you north. And yet... you repay kindness with treachery? You beasts are worse than animals!”
Not only the speaker but the whole group bristled with a cold, murderous aura.
They were the Green Forest King’s direct Green Contingent, devotion to the Green Forest King unmatched anywhere. Hearing that someone would sell out their king naturally provoked that reaction.
Under the menacing pressure, the man scrambled to rise but fell flat on his rear.
“I, I...”
Why were these people here?
The villagers had refused the Heavenly Friends Alliance’s plea for help. They believed the promise was impossible from the start and that refusal had ended it completely.
Who would show kindness to those who coldly betrayed a favor? Yet absurdly, those who had come to help the villagers arrived at that moment, and the man babbled what he shouldn’t.
Realizing what he’d done, the man stood aghast as if he’d tumbled into a valley of despair.
“Filthy worms...”
Gwak Min, known as Black Night Tiger, the Green Forest King’s close retainer and one of the Ten Shadows of the Green Forest, twisted his face. Those watching from behind muttered among themselves.
“It seems the Green Forest King misjudged people this time.”
“The Green Forest King wouldn’t do that! Surely those Mount Hua fellows pushed him into it.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to just deal with them all? Why bring scum like this to the north?”
“Still, it was the Green Forest King’s order.”
“Who would know if the Four Sects Alliance had come and killed them already?”
Frankly, betrayal wasn’t unfamiliar to the Green Forest disciples. Abandoning favors wasn’t uncommon either.
But precisely because of that, punishment for such people was harsher. They knew from experience that half-hearted mercy would shake the sect’s foundations.
Black Night Tiger narrowed his eyes at his subordinates’ words. His thoughts weren’t much different from theirs.
The Green Forest King’s orders were solemn. Yet lately he seemed too swayed by Mount Hua people. A past Green Forest King would never have given an order to save these people.
“...Answer me.”
“Yes?”
“Where did the Four Sects Alliance go?”
“W-we don’t know that...”
Black Night Tiger snorted.
“You sold off your benefactor easily, but you won’t sell out the Four Sects Alliance?”
“I-it’s not like that...”
The man’s face went pale; the Black Night Tiger now radiated blatant killing intent.
“Spit.”
“Need I say more?”
Ssshh—
The Green Forest disciples drew the large swords at their hips. There was no more need for a pretense of kindness; their rough Green Forest aura flowed out unabashedly.
Thinking it was over, the man squeezed his eyes shut.
But then one of the Green Forest disciples at the rear spoke up.
“Wait a moment. What’s with that grave mound?”
“...Yes?”
“Who is buried there?”
It looked like someone recently dead had been buried there. The villagers glanced at the mound; their looks toward each other were complicated.
Black Night Tiger made a quiet sound and stared at the mound with a grim face.
“Did you check?”
The man who approached nodded at his question.
“Yes. There were definite signs of torture in the village center. The smell of blood hasn’t washed away yet, so it seems they endured very brutal torture.”
“...”
“If it was one person, they might have bled them dry of all the blood in their body...”
Black Night Tiger was from the Evil Sect too. He could hardly be unaware of tales about the Ten Thousand People Clan’s unimaginably cruel tortures. If Ho Ga-Myung himself had been present here, the severity would have far exceeded normal levels.
‘They endured that...’
It was hard to believe an ordinary peasant, not a warrior, had withstood such torture and kept silent to the end, but the traces here and the villagers’ faces proved it.
Even without digging up the mound to confirm the body.
“Hah...”
With a slightly startled face, Black Night Tiger shook his head and scanned the villagers who looked at him with fearful eyes.
After a long silence, Black Night Tiger slowly nodded.
“Sheathe your weapons.”
“...Yes.”
The subordinates sheathed their weapons without protest. Their ill will toward the villagers hadn’t vanished, but they could not lay hands on them now. Even if ordered to, the unease already formed wouldn’t disappear.
The Green Forest disciples were of the Evil Sect, prone to betrayal and indifferent to benevolence, yet they understood true resolve better than anyone.
“Old man.”
“Yes...?”
“Prepare yourself. We will escort you to the north.”
“W-who, us?”
“Yes.”
The old Hyung blinked in bewilderment.
“B-but we...”
He should have immediately nodded, but a peculiar unease made him hesitate, an unease he wouldn’t have felt without everything that had happened that day.
But Black Night Tiger simply shook his head and spoke firmly.
“We only follow orders. Choose: stay here or come north with us. If you choose the latter, I guarantee you’ll reach northern lands alive.”
The old man glanced back.
The villagers gazed at him desperately, but his eyes fell on the mound where his son was buried.
After staring silently for a long time, the old man’s eyes welled with tears.
‘You bastard...’
In the end, it was Hyung Euk who saved this village.
Had Hyung Euk sold them out too, everyone might have survived briefly but could have faced massacre at these men’s hands. Even if luck spared them that, the villagers would never have been saved.
Because his son remained loyal to the Heavenly Friends Alliance to the end, the villagers found a way to live.
“The sooner you choose, the better. The Ten Thousand People Clan could return at any time.”
“...We’ll go.”
The old man nodded with difficulty.
“We must live... somehow we must live.”
“Then prepare. Travel light. No need to take useless grain; the north is full of provisions.”
Those words stabbed the old man’s heart even more painfully. If only he’d known he’d hear that sooner...
“I-I will.”
Black Night Tiger nodded. The villagers, who had only been watching for cues, hurried back to their homes one by one.
Watching them scatter, Black Night Tiger gave a bitter smile.
‘The world is...’
The one who kept his honor to the end was buried in cold earth, while the betrayers lived on at the cost of those lives.
Perhaps this is why goodness rarely spreads in the world.
But...
Black Night Tiger murmured as he looked at the red mound where grass had not yet sprouted.
“...At least you won’t have regrets.”
He felt as if someone he’d never seen before was smiling at him.
