Chapter 1230

Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1230. I Don't Know (5)

Editor: Hoamzz

Co-Translator: Xoxo

'Enemy?'

If someone had spotted Heavenly Comrade Alliance group, what should they do?

If it was a commoner, they might be able to quietly convince them to keep quiet. But what if it was Evil Tyrant Alliance or Magyo remnants?

'Eliminate!'

They would have to be killed without fail. His body tensed instinctively.

It was then.

"...What am I supposed to look at?"

"There, right there."

"...What?"

"Ah!"

As if frustrated, Jo-Gol quickly walked to one side and pointed to something protruding from the ground.

"This, this! Can't you see it?"

"Hey, you..."

The tension on Yoon Jong’s face crumpled all at once.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

What Jo-Gol found wasn't a person, but a sword half-buried in the ground with only its hilt protruding.

"Isn't this amazing? It’s been over a hundred years, but the sword’s still here.”

Jo-Gol pulled at the sword handle stuck in the ground. But it didn’t come out as easily as he expected, and he frowned.

"What's it caught on... Nnnngh!"

"Hey, you'll break it that way!"

"No, just a little more and it’ll…!”

The moment Jo-Gol put his full strength into the grip, the earth around it heaved, and something massive suddenly rose from the ground.

"Huh?"

"...What’s this?"

For a moment, everyone just stared blankly at the scene.

Silence hung over them.

It wasn't anything special. They hadn’t stumbled upon some priceless treasure.

What revealed itself was just a mass of completely rusted metal. Once swords, once sabers, maybe even spears—now just scraps of metal.

They were entangled in a nine-section whip (九節鞭/a weapon made by connecting several pieces of metal together to form a whip) and then they were pulled up together in one haul.

The faded, rusted weapons were so heavily corroded and dull that their original shapes were almost unrecognizable, making them worthless as weapons. However, they strangely caught everyone's attention and wouldn't let go.

“…What are these weapons…?”

Jo-Gol scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Jo-Gol glanced down, thinking that perhaps these were weapons that had been stored here and forgotten.

But the moment he looked at the hole from which the weapons had come, his face froze.

"Uh..."

Yoon Jong asked with a slightly tense voice.

"What is it, again!"

"...Sahyung, here...."

"What?"

Yoon Jong approached and peered down at the misshapen hole Jo-Gol had been staring at. Yoon Jong’s reaction wasn't much different from Jo-Gol’s.

"This..."

With a groan as if in pain, Yoon Jong reached out his hand and began carefully scraping away the dirt around the hole.

Not deeper down, but wider around.

Those watching in bewilderment soon understood what Yoon Jong intended to do. A heavy silence descended.

As the hole widened, it became more and more visible.

Buried just beneath the surface, under layers of dust from the passage of time, were weapons—along with scattered human bones.

No matter how wide he dug, more weapons and bones continued to appear without end.

"...Terrible."

When Tang Soso's hands trembled faintly, Yoo Iseol silently gripped her shoulder firmly.

After digging around for a long while, Yoon Jong's hand finally stopped.

He realized there was no end to it. He couldn't even begin to guess how much more they would need to dig to find all the bones here.

With a dazed expression, Yoon Jong looked around at the area he had dug up.

The hole, large enough to fit more than ten people, was densely packed with weapons and human bones.

"This...."

As he took in the sight, a shiver ran down his spine.

Moments ago, this had merely seemed like an open field surrounded by jagged peaks. If they hadn't known this was Magyo's headquarters, they might have thought it was an incomparably peaceful and tranquil place.

But now that he knew what lay beneath the soil and the deceptively green grass, they could no longer look upon this place with the same sentiment.

Everyone was at a loss for words.

How many had died? How many people had killed each other here?

“There must have been a battle.”

An indifferent voice drifted into their ears as they stared blankly at the bones.

“Or one of many such places, at least. It’s nothing surprising, really. This is the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.”

Those short words pierced everyone's hearts.

Ten Thousand Great Mountains. The place where the final fierce battle took place. The place where everything was at stake between Righteous Sects and Magyo. And the place where the final desperate force to cut off the head of Heavenly Demon died.

Right. This was truly Ten Thousand Great Mountains.

"No matter what...."

While everyone was silent, Yoon Jong broke the silence and spoke through his gritted teeth.

"Shouldn't they have at least collected the remains?"

"....."

"It's not just Magyo cultists buried here... These people... these people fought to protect the world..."

"Who?"

"...What?"

“Who would do it?”

But Chung Myung's tone was as indifferent as ever.

"In a situation where your head might roll tomorrow, how can you afford to waste time collecting the corpses of those already dead? You could be the one lying on top of them tomorrow.”

"But even after the war ended..."

"You're saying they should have collected thousands, tens of thousands of corpses, and carried them all the way to Gangbuk?"

"....."

"If they had the mindset for that, they wouldn't have caused such chaos in the first place. Seems like you’ve forgotten, but Magyo wasn’t annihilated. They retreated after losing the Heavenly Demon. If they had pursued and tried to wipe out every last one of the remnants, it would have been Kangho that was ultimately destroyed. The ones who withdrew after the Heavenly Demon’s death weren’t Magyo cultists but Kangho.”

"...Then even later..."

"Well."

Chung Myung sneered.

“If circumstances had allowed it, maybe they would have.”

They could roughly guess what he meant.

Right after the Heavenly Demon’s death, it would’ve been impossible to enter the Ten Thousand Great Mountains. The remaining cultists, crazed and poisoned by vengeance, would have gone wild. Didn’t they even advance as far as Shaanxi, riding the momentum of that madness?

Furthermore, even though not every sect ended up in complete ruin like Mount Hua, the other sects also suffered near-catastrophic losses. They were barely managing to pull themselves together; sending people all the way down to Gangnam to retrieve bodies wouldn’t have been easy.

As they dealt with urgent matters first and postponed day after day, the bodies would have decomposed, and eventually, it would have become impossible to collect them even if they wanted to.

"Even so..."

“Talk some sense."

Chung Myung cut him off coldly, as if tired of hearing it.

"You speak Ten Thousand Great Mountains this, Ten Thousand Great Mountains that, but it's not just one mountain. It’s an enormous mountain range stretching over five hundred li, from the east of Guangdong to the west of Guangxi, including Guizhou above.”

"....."

"And throughout that long war, battles took place across this entire mountain range. No, not just in the mountain range, but everywhere under heaven. And you want them to go digging through this entire range to find a few corpses? A mountain range where remnants of Magyo might still be hiding?”

Yoon Jong bit his lips. Chung Myung asked.

"Is such a thing doable?"

In the end, Yoon Jong sighed deeply and replied reluctantly.

"...It would be difficult."

Chung Myung added indifferently.

"It's easy for those who haven't experienced it to say from behind what should have been done. But those who actually went through it didn’t just abandon the corpse because they wanted to. They simply had no other choice.”

Yoon Jong didn't say anything. While his head understood, his heart couldn't accept it.

Only then did he truly realize. Of all Mount Hua's ancestors he had been so proud of, only one corpse had eventually made it back to Mount Hua. (H: Cheong Jin…)

The bodies of others were buried so carelessly in this distant land, never having made it back.

Who could dare blame anyone for this?

Even Mount Hua couldn't muster the courage to collect their ancestors' remains. No, they had lived without even remembering they should do so.

Now, who was there left to blame or resent?

"Then these people....."

As he was about to suggest performing rites for at least these remains, Chung Myung cut him off and said,

“Bury them back.”

Yoon Jong was flustered and widened his eyes, staring at Chung Myung. There was a hint of anger in his gaze.

It might be impossible to search the entire mountain to collect all remaining remains. But wasn't it basic human decency to properly handle the remains they had already uncovered?

But Chung Myung showed no particular reaction to his gaze.

"A corpse is just a corpse. A dead body, nothing more, nothing less."

"....."

"Wouldn't it be absurd if a living person died while trying to collect the remains of the dead? We don’t have time for this—just bury it back. We need to get to Hainan.”

"Chung Myung-ah!"

"Sahyung."

Then Chung Myung spoke in a quiet, subdued voice.

"Stop belittling them."

"....."

“The ones who died here—do you think they didn’t know this might be their fate?”

Yoon Jong bit his lips.

"They knew this would happen. They fought anyway. Do you think the people who died here fought expecting some special treatment?"

A bitter smile crossed Chung Myung's face. A faint taste of blood lingered in his mouth.

That's how it was back then. Even when comrades died right beside them, they couldn't even cover them with soil. Though they knew wild beasts would tear at them and they would rot in the rain and wind, they could only leave them be.

But never once did they feel sorry.

Because soon enough, they would fall where their comrade fell, and rot the same way.

So what was there to be sorry about?

'Pointless.'

Chung Myung turned his head away completely.

Thinking about the past made him feel sentimental. And now wasn’t the time for sentiment. What mattered to him wasn't the past that had already gone by, but the present moment.

The dead shouldn’t be pitied. They all fulfilled their mission until their final moment before resting. If anyone deserved pity, it was Chung Myung, who, despite having completed his share of duty, was being dragged back into this hell.

So....

"We don’t have time to waste here."

Chung Myung shook his head.

"Keep your emotions in check. That is, if you truly don't want to see scenes like this vividly before your eyes again."

Just as Chung Myung was about to indifferently cover the remains with soil again.

"Chu- Chung Myung....."

Jo-Gol's trembling voice reached him.

And at that moment, Chung Myung had a gut feeling. That whatever words would follow, it would be better not to hear them.

But Jo-Gol's voice pierced his ears without fail.

"Here...."

Chung Myung turned his gaze. Looking where Jo-Gol pointed, he saw it.

A rusted sword, stuck at an angle.

So old and worn that it barely resembled a sword anymore. But at the end of its hilt, engraved…

"It's plum blossom sword..."

A tiny plum blossom pattern was engraved.