Return of the Mount Hua Sect Chapter 1384: Of Course, That Would Never Happen. (4)

“Damn it, he’s even going to show up in my dreams now! That cursed bastard!”

Jo Gul spat out harsh words. Now, just seeing Ho Ga-Myung’s face made his legs go numb. If asked to name the person he hated most in the world, he would have answered Jang Ilso without a second’s hesitation... no, Beop Jeong? Uh....

Anyway, if someone asked, he’d pick Jang Ilso or Beop Jeong, but if asked who the most terrifying person in the world was, he was now sure he could shout Ho Ga-Myung’s name without hesitation.

Even Chung Myung, who barged into his quarters in the dead of night, wasn’t as loathsome as that man.

And though he made sobbing noises with his mouth, the situation was far more serious than his cries suggested. A real enemy, not the riffraff blocking their way, had reappeared.

‘Already?’

Baek Cheon’s situation was the same.

They had expected those bastards to follow them eventually, but they hadn’t thought it would be this fast. He had assumed it would be at least after they’d almost reached Nanjing.

But there was no time now to retrace where his prediction had gone wrong and analyze it.

“Break through at full speed!”

“Yes!”

This place was adjacent to the Yangtze River, a wide plain. They wouldn’t be forced into unfavorable terrain as before, but conversely, there was nowhere to hide.

So the only option left was a straight force-on-force breakthrough.

“Hae...”

Baek Cheon urgently tried to call Hae Yeon and Namgung Do-Wei, but they had already thrown themselves backward. They seemed to know what needed to be done without orders.

Somewhat relieved, Baek Cheon set about doing what he had to do.

Kwahng!

With force that nearly crushed the ground, Baek Cheon charged past Gwak Hwan-So and surged forward.

“Yiseol, Jo Gul, Soso! Cover the rear!”

“Yes!”

“Acting Sect Leader! We’ll help too!”

“Follow us!”

Without looking back, Baek Cheon shouted at Gwak Hwan-So and shot red sword qi from his sword in torrents.

“Aaaaaaah!”

The violently released Plum Blossom surged at the Evil Sect members ahead like flood-swollen stream water. The Evil Sect fighters turned green with fear.

“Ge-get out of the way...”

Before they could even finish screaming, the Evil Sect members were swept away by the incoming sword qi. Baek Cheon cried out.

“It’s a short run to the Yangtze River. Let’s go in one push!”

“Yes!”

Ho Ga-Myung’s mouth twitched slightly as he watched.

“Not too late, then.”

Logically, a few with greater martial prowess shouldn’t be catchable by many with lower skill. Yet that impossible thing was possible because of the stupid choices they had made.

Ho Ga-Myung narrowed his eyes; he could clearly see the injured people they had carried.

‘If they’re carrying the wounded, no matter how fast they are, they can’t reach their full speed.’

And having to hide now and then to avoid detection would mean they couldn’t even manage half their normal speed. Catching up to them wasn’t that difficult.

“Stupid bastards.”

If it were him, he’d have mercilessly abandoned the wounded. Even if they could become fighters later, no one should risk total annihilation for those who weren’t combat effective at the moment.

But Ho Ga-Myung knew—and so did they—that they could never make that choice. The two characters ‘benevolence and righteousness’ they’d shouted countless times had shackled them; no matter how they struggled, they couldn’t cast them off.

“Every choice has a price. Execute them. Leave not a single one of them alive.”

The Ten Thousand People Clan members surged forward without answering.

A vicious malice filled their eyes.

Ho Ga-Myung wasn’t the only one who bore hatred for those Justice faction bastards. Even if comradeship among the Evil Sect was thin, to be toyed with by much fewer and weaker people and not bear a grudge would make them no martial men at all.

Moreover, they were members of the Ten Thousand People Clan, those who might forget favors but never forget grudges. They poured out murderous intent like predators who’d rediscovered the prey that had bitten them and escaped.

“Ahhaaaat!”

Of course, the ones who stood in the path of their red wave were the gatekeepers of the Heavenly Friends Alliance.

“Monk!”

“I know, Taoist!”

Hae Yeon and Namgung Do-Wei, who stood before the onrushing men, exchanged looks.

One was the top prodigy of the millennium Shaolin, likely representing Shaolin, leader of the Nine Great Sects. The other was the Young lord who had inherited the Namgung name, thought to walk only the path of glory as the heir of the world’s foremost clan.

Those who should have walked the most blessed paths in the world stood side by side in one of the most dangerous and weighty places in the current central plains.

But there was not a hint of hesitation in their eyes. They stood there by their own will, not by anyone else’s.

“Oooooooo!”

“Taaaaaaap!”

The power and sword qi they unleashed blasted ferociously at the charging enemies.

Kwahaaang!

Shaolin’s flaming brilliance and Namgung’s sword qi exploded like bombs, lighting up the world for a moment. It was a truly powerful strike. The charging Ten Thousand People Clan members were literally shattered by a single blow.

‘Brutal.’

Ho Ga-Myung watched the scene without blinking and unconsciously bit his lip.

Logically, they should have been exhausted by now. Their power should have weakened and their swords dulled.

But what they showed now was sharper than before. Even to Ho Ga-Myung, whose martial strength wasn’t particularly high, it was clearly visible.

‘They’re still growing even now?’

He understood it intellectually.

They were the most promising talents in the Central Plains, and they’d had experiences no one else could.

He could guarantee that nowhere in the Justice faction’s murim world would there be people who’d endured harsher real combat than they had.

But what he knew in his head and what he felt watching such talents grow before his eyes were completely different sensations.

Perhaps what Ho Ga-Myung felt now was fear, the fear of watching a predator at arm’s reach grow day by day, something he couldn’t directly control.

Ho Ga-Myung lightly clenched and unclenched his fist. Yet he now had an opportunity to cut off the throat of the predator that hadn’t fully grown.

By taking their lives?

No.

Ho Ga-Myung’s gaze turned to one side, the true lifeline of the Heavenly Friends Alliance’s predator, and the source they were nurturing.

’ Mount Hua’s Sword Saint. No... Plum Blossom Sword Ghost.’

He met eyes with Chung Myung, who glared at him coldly from the group’s center. Murderous intent rippled through Ho Ga-Myung’s gaze.

“Hear this. This is not my order. It is the order of the Alliance Lord—carry it out with your lives!”

“Yes!”

“Whatever sacrifices it takes.”

The moment those words were spoken, the subordinates’ faces hardened as much as they could.

“Do not let the Mount Hua’s Sword Saint escape. Kill him without fail! Even if it costs the lives of everyone else!”

“We obey!”

Hearing the erupting responses, Ho Ga-Myung slowly nodded.

He had suffered a crushing defeat. The mistakes he’d made would probably be irredeemable in his lifetime.

But he could say proudly that it wasn’t a meaningless defeat.

Because that defeat led the Alliance Lord to resolve to take the Plum Blossom Sword Ghost’s head, it wouldn’t be entirely meaningless.

“You will never live, Plum Blossom Sword Ghost.”

Ho Ga-Myung murmured as if making a vow to himself.

“They’re pressing in from both sides!”

“You’ve faced this before, respond!”

Southern Island Sect was no longer the Southern Island Sect of the past. Even without direct orders, he moved on his own to counter. Swift and precise, there was no need to speak.

However....

“This isn’t good.”

It didn’t seem so to Im So-Byeong. He glanced at Chung Myung beside him and asked.

“Wasn’t it earlier than expected?”

“...”

“Then there’s an unexpected variable... In times like this, I usually think of one thing first.”

“There won’t be.”

“You mean it’s not betrayal.”

“No, that won’t happen.”

A strange light crossed Im So-Byeong’s face. He sensed that a lot was contained in that answer.

Chung Myung hadn’t said there would be no traitor. But he wasn’t considering the possibility of one.

Because in this situation, hunting for a traitor would be pointless.

He judged it better to trust each other and move forward, even if that risked throwing them into an abyss.

“You’re still extreme with your thoughts.”

Im So-Byeong nodded with a slightly calm expression.

“But what will you do? You’ve already used up all useful moves, and the enemies are on our tail. Even though the Yangtze River is near, if we fight these and reach the river, only about ten people will remain.”

Around ten people.

Chung Myung knew why Im So-Byeong mentioned the number. He was quietly urging them to abandon the Southern Island Sect.

“Wasn’t that decided from the start?”

He had said it himself—Chung Myung.

If they were ever in an inescapable crisis, he’d abandon the Southern Island Sect. The members of the Heavenly Friends Alliance mattered many times more than they did.

If, in trying to save them, those who came with the Heavenly Friends Alliance lost their lives, Chung Myung himself could never forgive himself.

“Or is the Taoist really more of an exemplary gentleman than I thought?”

Chung Myung sneered, twisting the corner of his mouth.

“I’ve said it every time... I’ve never once thought of myself as a wandering Taoist on the right side. I don’t want to be one, either.”

It was a voice that gave off a strange feeling. Im So-Byeong’s eyes flickered as he looked at Chung Myung for a moment, then nodded.

There was one reason he’d regained composure after exiting the gorge. No matter the failures, unless the enemy blocked their path, the option to cut Southern Island Sect loose and for the Heavenly Friends Alliance to survive by themselves always existed.

“Good answer. Then the conclusion is decided, isn’t it?”

“Of course we’ll do that. But...”

“...Yes?”

A chilling voice whispered in Im So-Byeong’s ear.

“This isn’t a crisis of that level.”

“...Taoist?”

Chung Myung’s eyes were seething.

It was unlike him; recently he’d shown only dark, calm eyes. Im So-Byeong’s heart dropped. He sensed it: Chung Myung was finally letting go of something he’d been suppressing.

“You’re going to come out like this?”

Chung Myung murmured and turned to walk forward.

Im So-Byeong, sensing what he intended, hurriedly reached out to grab his sleeve, but his hand found only empty air. Chung Myung was already running.

“Taoist! Taoooist!”

Im So-Byeong yelled until his throat strained. His eyes reddened. He didn’t know why he was so furious, but it felt like his insides would burst.