Return of the Mount Hua Sect Chapter 1390: Underestimating People. (5)
Previously on Return of the Mount Hua Sect...
His gaze, following his slowly bowed head, fell upon his own hand.
The hand holding the sword. That hand trembled.
‘Has my stamina run out?’
No. It cannot be.
He had rested enough. No matter how endlessly enemies surged, his endurance wouldn’t be drained so easily.
The purest internal qi he had gathered gave him greater stamina than in the past.
Yet the limit he felt was probably not of the body but of the mind wearing thin and collapsing.
Why?
That was the part he couldn’t understand.
In the past, Chung Myung never broke. Even after facing worse situations many times, he always prevailed and always overcame them.
In that process he had met the body’s limits many times, but he had never once confronted the limits of his spirit.
So why now?
“There!”
Enemies sprang out of the bushes by the dozens. With his gaze cooling like a blade in an instant, Chung Myung actually charged at the attackers.
Stabbing a fleeing man’s back is easiest of all. If you truly want to face an enemy, do something they cannot predict.
Just like now.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Perhaps they never expected Chung Myung to charge them; the floundering attackers screamed and fell. Blood spurted red, and there were harrowing screams.
Those two things would draw more enemies to this place.
Or perhaps they already had.
Chung Myung’s blade-like gaze turned to his rear. He felt enemy forces flanking and encircling his back, more instinct than sense.
Fwoooom!
Chung Myung pushed off the ground and moved toward the rear like lightning.
“Dieeeeee!”
The enemies, as if waiting, covered his entire sight and surged forward.
In the time it took for him to throw off a few slashes, those who could seize his back were predictably skilled.
Razor-sharp attacks flew at his front, intent on slicing his flesh, breaking bones, and slaughtering his soul.
Clang-clang-clang!
Chung Myung’s sword, like lightning, knocked away each incoming weapon. The sparks from countless metal clashes lit the dark forest for a moment.
In that light cut out of the dark, the death-delivering sword sank into an enemy’s neck.
Screee! Screee! Screee!
Chung Myung, who had severed three necks at once, plunged into the fallen without even checking if their foes were dead.
The sword that cloaked Chung Myung’s body swung as if exploding, drawing a blood-red arc around him.
Fwoooaaah!
With an ear-splitting tearing sound, those who had rushed him collapsed to the ground as bodies gutted at the waist.
“Huk!”
A ragged breath escaped Chung Myung’s lips.
But there was no time to catch his breath. He pushed off the ground and surged forward. Spears that had been hurled at where he stood stuck into the earth in quick succession.
Swords and spears. Heavy broadswords and even scythes hung with long chains.
Those countless weapons flew in, aiming only at Chung Myung.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Plum Blossoms burst like an explosion around his body. The red plum blossoms spreading in an instant resembled droplets of blood erupting from wounds more than petals.
Chung Myung’s eyes burned with fury.
What of it? So what am I supposed to do? What does that matter?
Kwaaang!
He slammed the ground as if to break it and surged forward. There was only one life-and-death way: forward. The place that blocked him most thickly.
Without an inch of hesitation, Chung Myung rushed the enemies and brought his sword down with an indescribable fury.
Kaaang!
The heavy broadsword that blocked his strike was severed at once. Before the wielder could fully open his eyes, Chung Myung’s Dark Fragrant Plum Blossom Sword sliced his body vertically.
The body split in two and sprayed blood over Chung Myung. A scorching heat as if flesh were burning. The screams of severed life. All of it piled upon the tip of his sword.
I did not take it without doing anything!
It may look that way to you! But I— at least I!
His sword that cut throats and pierced hearts remained unchanged in a single way.
Just...
The edge of a broken broadsword embedded in his shoulder. The vivid sensation of thick steel cutting into flesh. In that chilling pain, Chung Myung took a step.
‘Sect leader sahyung.’
Chung Myung bit his lip.
Chung Mun was always like that. Chung Myung liked him. But he couldn’t quite grasp what Chung Mun’s words truly meant.
Because they looked toward very different places.
‘You truly wanted me to...’
Paaaah!
Chung Myung’s sword spun like a top and stabbed in all directions.
“Kraaaaagh!”
“Aaaaagh!”
Those charging found wind-holes blown through their bodies and tumbled. Amid blood bursting like fireworks, Chung Myung absentmindedly looked up at the sky.
‘You wanted me to grow up?’
He seemed to understand. Only now did he understand.
Chung Mun had always told him to see more. To understand more, and to stand where those unlike him stood.
Always. Yes, always.
But only standing there now could Chung Myung know Chung Mun’s true heart.
He always told Chung Myung to understand others, but perhaps he wished that Chung Myung would never stand among them.
Because only Chung Mun knew what burdens someone like Chung Myung would carry if he truly understood others.
Tao is the cutting away of oneself.
Because Chung Mun had walked that path before anyone else and knew how harsh and painful it was, perhaps he wished that Chung Myung would never walk the same path as he did.
Even if that went against the duty of a Taoist.
“Huh...”
A life that puts others before oneself.
Chung Mun walked that path his whole life. Others came before him; he prioritized others over his own sect.
If sacrifice was needed, he sacrificed himself first; if he had to make sacrifices, he sacrificed those he cherished most.
‘With what kind of heart... did you endure that? Sahyung?’
He could not know.
But he felt he might.
“There!”
The entire forest was suddenly covered with murderous intent. Facing that onslaught, Chung Myung’s hand trembled once more.
‘Ah...’
In that moment, Chung Myung understood.
Why his hands kept shaking. Why he faced a limit he hadn’t felt before.
‘Right now I...’
Chung Myung’s gaze cooled, colder than ever.
‘I’m afraid.’
He had never thought himself afraid of death.
He believed that even if he were to die, doing what must be done was enough. Life was not something he held as supremely valuable.
What he feared was not death itself but an unfinished, half-done end, nothing more.
But now, for the first time, Chung Myung keenly felt the fear of dying.
He might never meet them again.
Those he knew.
He couldn’t return to places that were so familiar, couldn’t chuckle at silly jokes. Turning his head, the faces that should have been there would be gone.
A place where everything is unchanged.
Except Chung Myung himself no longer exists there.
Chung Myung clamped his mouth shut.
Suddenly nausea surged. Even though there was nothing in his stomach, his body kept demanding to vomit.
Why did he try to protect everyone?
Yes. He was afraid. Afraid that a void would open in the precious bonds he had created.
The name Baek Cheon, the name Yu Yiseol, the name Yoon Jong and the name Jo Gul, the name Tang Soso, and the name Hae Yeon disappearing from their world.
He was more terrified than anything that, upon suddenly turning his head, an emptiness where they did not exist would face him.
No one could feel more keenly how terrifying the absence of those who once existed could be.
But....
Is that really all right?
Does their existence make everything good? If Chung Myung isn’t there, what meaning would that have?
The moment Chung Myung disappears, it’s as if everything disappears. Shouldn’t he survive for that reason?
Wouldn’t it be preferable that he lose some rather than lose everything himself?
It’s not too late now.
With his current condition, he could break out of this encirclement. If he ran forward without looking back, he could [N O V E L I G H T] survive.
Even if, as a consequence, the majority here chased after Mount Hua and the Southern Island sect, even if the Southern Island Sect were annihilated and some faces he knew were never seen again, he himself would live...
“Uweeeeeeek!”
Rivulets of red blood streamed from Chung Myung’s mouth.
Chung Myung looked with blurred eyes at the blood smeared on the hand that covered his mouth and let out a short, low laugh.
“...The heart demon has come, and it’s come filthy.”
Yes. He’s afraid.
He is terribly afraid of dying.
What terrifies him more is dying alone again with no hand to reach out, feeling once more the vivid loneliness of dying alone on the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains.
Enemies surged at him like a black wave.
“Hey, sahyung. Are you watching?”
Chung Myung looked up toward the sky.
“Come to think of it, I’ve never given you what you wanted, sahyung.”
Chung Myung gripped his sword.
His feet dug into the ground, as if to bind the foot that would naturally fall.
“So... don’t expect anything. That’s how I am by nature.”
The enemies closed in.
His trembling hand remained unsteady, and his heart still howled.
Nevertheless, Chung Myung held his ground.
The deep regret still lodged within him would link to what he protected. It mattered not even if he did not exist where past and future met.
Will is not something stitched together by life alone.
Fwoooaaah!
The cold-bloodedness honed and honed again became a sword and pierced the air.
It was the sword of a Sword Ghost and also the sword of a Sword Saint.