Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1355. It's just how it was born. (5)
Editor: Hoamzz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
"Huuk! Huuk! Huuk! Huuk!"
Sweat poured down like rain. His clothes were already drenched as if he had been caught in a sudden downpour, and with every pounding step, droplets of sweat dripped from his soaked hair.
His lungs feel like they might burst out through his mouth.
'How much further must I go?'
His vision blurred and the road ahead stretched endlessly, but stopping wasn’t an option. The moment he fails to fulfill his role, it won't be just him who's disposed of.
Ho Gamyeong has never made any real threats.
Unlike typical Evil Sects people, he hasn't pressed a blade against him while jabbing threats, nor has he snarled about flaying flesh while making intimidations.
And that made it all the more terrifying.
Because he knows that for this man, erasing an entire village of commoners would be no different than stepping on ants beneath his feet.
It wasn’t just about strength. What was terrifying was that Ho Gamyeong could commit such atrocities without feeling even a shred of guilt.
So he must run. The lives of those he left behind in Hainan Sect hang by none other than that of Ho Gamyeong's hand.
"Huuk! Huuk! Huuk! Keuk!"
Yoo Gong, who had been forcing himself forward with all his might, suddenly tumbled and rolled across the ground. His eyes had been searching for markings above, and he had missed a rock protruding into the ground.
It was such a ridiculous mistake for a martial artist that he almost wanted to laugh, but Yoo Gong was just that exhausted.
“Cough.”
Even his coughing lacked strength. His arms and legs had lost their strength long ago. But still, he gritted his teeth and forced his trembling hands to press against the dirt. There was no way they would ever care about his condition.
"Ugh..."
Yoo Gong trembled violently and tried to somehow raise his body. But all he could see before him was a mess of overgrown weeds, and his gaze refused to rise any higher.
And then.
Step.
A pair of feet appeared before his eyes. Flinching, he raised his head to find Malice Rakshasa Ho Gamyeong looking down at him indifferently.
At those eyes that lacked even a hint of warmth, Yoo Gong’s ragged breathing stopped for a moment. After a pause, Ho Gamyeong's lips parted.
"We rest here."
"Yes!"
The adjutants quickly moved swiftly at the command.
Step. Step.
With that command, Ho Gamyeong walked away from Yoo Gong without saying anything else. Staring at his retreating back as if in a trance, Yoo Gong clenched his fists tightly.
"Here."
Yoo Gong turned his head blankly at the sudden voice. A dew-covered water flask was abruptly thrust toward him as he lay slumped against a tree trunk like a dead man.
"Please drink."
Yoo Gong stared at the flask for a moment before slowly raising his gaze. It was Go Hong. His expression was somewhat peculiar.
"What are you doing, not taking it?"
Instead of answering, Yoo Gong reached out and took the water flask.
It was cold. He must have drawn fresh water from a nearby stream. Not necessarily just for him, but still.
Yoo Gong stared at the water bottle with complicated eyes before finally taking a slow drink. Go Hong, watching him intently, plopped down a short distance away.
Neither of them spoke. The distance between them seemed to reflect the distance between their hearts.
“How much further do you think we have to go?”
Yoo Gong took the water flask from his mouth and tilted his head back.
The night sky stretched above him, studded with stars like scattered jewels. He almost felt like laughing.
The night sky over Hainan Sect he had grown tired of seeing was probably much more beautiful than this. But he had never really felt anything while looking at it back then.
It was only after things had become like this that he realized how beautiful the night sky was. What a magnificent sky they had been living under.
"I don't know."
When Yoo Gong gave his belated answer, Go Hong quietly sighed.
"Whatever the case, they'll get further ahead while we rest like this."
"Maybe."
In truth, who could know? They too couldn't run forever. Being human, they too would eventually need to rest.
In the end, it all came down to who could cover the most ground in the same amount of time. That's what pursuit is all about.
But Yoo Gong didn’t bother saying that out loud.
Go Hong likely knew this already. He was choosing to ignore it despite knowing.
"Sahyung."
“...Don’t call me that.”
Go Hong let out a small chuckle.
"Why? Feeling guilty?"
"…There’s nothing to feel guilty about when I’m simply stating the truth. You and I are not sahyungje (brother disciple) anymore, are we?”
“That’s true… We’re not sahyungje anymore, nor are we disciples of Hainan Sect.”
Yoo Gong leaned his head back against the tree trunk and closed his eyes weakly.
In fact, what he really wanted to do wasn’t close his eyes but block his ears. But since I didn't have the strength to raise my hands, I had no choice but to close my eyes.
"But, Sahyung… It doesn’t seem like something that ends so easily."
"...What do you mean?"
"Did you see them? In the gorge."
Yoo Gong squeezed his eyes shut even tighter. This was why he wanted to cover his ears. Because he already knew what Go Hong was going to say. Because he didn’t want to hear it.
"I saw Myeongho Sahyung there. I saw Jaun Saje too. And Elder Gangmyeong..."
“....”
As if he hadn't seen them himself?
He had seen it with his own two eyes. The sight of people he had known for decades died a miserable death.
But he could do nothing. All he could do was desperately run, leaping over their decaying corpses.
Because he had to live. Because he had to survive.
"The dead are just the dead."
"That’s true… But… he was still alive."
"What?"
Go Hong stared blankly into the empty air.
When I passed through there… at least Jaun Saje was still alive. Even then, his eyes moved as if he recognized us. Even while dying with his waist half-severed…”
Yoo Gong's shoulders trembled.
Jaun was the saje Go Hong had particularly cherished. Just as Go Hong had once followed Yoo Gong around, Jaun had followed Go Hong.
"He seemed to be trying to say something. I couldn’t hear it, and I couldn’t make out what it was… but he definitely wanted to say something.”
“....”
“Sahyung. What do you think Junior Brother Jaun wanted to say…?"
“If you’re going to spout useless crap, get lost. I want to rest.”
A sharp voice cut off Go Hong mid-sentence. But rather than flinching, Go Hong let out a mocking laugh.
"Can you actually rest if I move away?"
Yoo Gong suddenly glared fiercely at Go Hong.
"Isn't it Sahyung who can't truly rest?"
“You....”
Yoo Gong's eyes twisted like those of a malevolent ghost.
“So what?”
Clenching his teeth, he lifted his head high.
“Are you saying I should have become a corpse along them? That it would have been a righteous death to die a dog’s death there and let my flesh fill some beast's stomach? That it would’ve been the right thing to let my corpse rot in that godforsaken gorge, feeding the maggots and the flies?”
"Sahyung!"
"Stop talking like a dog! Didn’t you see it? What did those guys who stepped forward to protect things and spout all sorts of grand causes actually protect? What did they protect while dying like that? What did they manage to protect!"
His voice grew increasingly agitated.
“What do you think he was trying to say? What meaning could it have! I know only one thing: No matter how much a dead man babbles, you can't hear it, can't understand it! That he died and we survived!"
“....”
“Guilt? What a load of shit. I will survive. I absolutely won't have such a dog's death. I will survive, somehow! And I will go home in one piece!”
There was killing intent flashing in Yoo Gong's eyes. He looked ready to tear Go Hong apart at any moment.
“What… What the hell is so wrong about that? Is that such a grave sin?"
Go Hong said nothing. He just hung his head low, his shoulders trembling finely.
Yoo Gong irritably gulped down his water. It was nothing but plain water, yet it burned as if it were liquor.
In truth, he knows too. He was wrong, and they were right. Everything he had been taught and believed in said so.
But what was the result?
Those who had pursued righteousness had died like beasts. And he who chose the wrong path was still alive.
If Hainan Sect was unable to escape Gangnam and eventually annihilated, only the most wretched Yoo Gong will survive and return to his hometown.
'Follow the right path?'
Bitter laughter kept escaping him.
For what? What exactly was he supposed to uphold righteousness for? For what purpose? To fill that paltry sense of camaraderie and achieve self-satisfaction?
It was all meaningless, a dog's talk.
"Stop thinking useless thoughts and rest."
In the end, Go Hong brushed off the dust and stood up. Whether he was acknowledging Yoo Gong’s words or simply no longer wanting to stay by his side, it was hard to tell.
But where could he go anyway?
There was no place for them to rest comfortably here. From the moment they left Hainan, they had become people who could no longer lay their backs against the ground.
Go Hong looked down at Yoo Gong with vacant eyes.
Resentment was truly easy. It would be effortless to resent Yoo Gong for all of this, to curse him and hold him responsible. Compared to the suffocating guilt of knowing he himself bore a share of the blame, shifting it onto someone else would be far easier.
But Go Hong couldn't do that.
Because he still had a conscience?
No. Because he knew that directing his resentment towards Yoo Gong wouldn't ease his heart.
Now he was simply curious.
"What was different?"
Yoo Gong raised his head at that small question.
“We were born in the same place, learned the same things, lived the same lives. So why are we here, while they are there? What makes us different from them?"
Yoo Gong's lips twitched slightly.
It was such an obvious question, yet answering it was difficult. Countless answers rose and sank in his mind. None of them could be called the absolute truth.
Finally, Yoo Gong gave an answer that even he found absurd. A self-deprecating smile flickered across his face.
"That's just… the way we were made."
“....”
“That’s all there is to it.”
Go Hong stared at Yoo Gong without saying a word.
For some reason, Yoo Gong found that gaze unbearable. He couldn’t glare back with the same malice as before.
That indifferent gaze, neither accusatory nor condemning, was unbearably painful.
So he ended up looking away, even knowing that nothing could be avoided by doing so.
Step. Step.
The sound of Go Hong walking away faded into the distance, yet Yoo Gong couldn’t bring himself to turn his head back. He felt like those gazes would stay in that same spot for a long time.
Only after a long time did Yoo Gong weakly tilt his head back. The sky was filled with stars, as if it might overflow and spill down at any moment. The sky seemed cruel, merely looking down upon this hell-like world.
'What was different, huh?'
A hollow laugh escaped.
“How would I know....”
He covered his eyes with both hands.
The sky just looks at him and never wavers. What wavers wasn’t the sky, but only the person gazing at it.
"How... would I..."
His self-mocking tone scattered at his lips, unable to spread far.
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