Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1396. Where you should be (1)
Editor: Hoamzz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Though he rarely showed his emotions on his face, even he couldn't help it in front of the tragedy before his eyes.
Everywhere he looked, there were only corpses.
The sight of bodies strewn about in disarray and the dark crimson blood staining the ground was nothing short of a bloodbath—a scene that could only be described as a ‘path of blood’.
'The person who actually did this....'
Before anger, he felt awe. This was not a scene that could be created by sheer strength alone.
Who else in the world could create such a scene like this besides Plum Blossom Sword Demon? Against Myriad Man Manor, no less.
Seeing this carnage firsthand, he finally understood why killing a single man had proven so difficult.
Even if it weren’t Ho Gamyeong, anyone witnessing this would come to the same conclusion. That was how utterly shocking this scene was.
How many people had that one person cut down to create this carnage? How countless times had he swung his sword?
‘But there’s no way he escaped unharmed.’
As long as he’s human… No, even if he’s a monster, no one could do something like this and remain unharmed.
"Hurry."
"Yes!"
Ho Gamyeong has increased his lightness art. That bastard must also be standing at the crossroads of life and death. This time, he absolutely must cut off his breath.
❀ ❀ ❀
"We've cornered him! Don't let him escape!"
Sogok!
He had never once felt regret.
The sense of loss for his diminished martial prowess? Compared to all the things he hadn't wanted to lose but had no choice but to lose, what he had built up in his body was utterly insignificant.
"Surround him! Don't give him a chance to escape!"
Sogok!
But if he still had that strength, he could have blocked the sword that now slashed his shoulder. He could have evaded the sword that dug into his side. He could have calmly sneered while facing these many opponents.
Had he dedicated himself solely to regaining his strength after returning... No, if he had at least been a little more self-centered, he could have still been the Sword Sovereign here. He could have stood tall as a lofty and indomitable martial artist.
Was that why regret suddenly surfaced?
Well....
Paaaaat!
His sword flashed out like lightning and pierced his enemy’s throat mercilessly. A look of disbelief crossed the enemy's face in his final moments. Soon, red blood gushed from their mouth.
“Cough....”
A heavy weight settled on the tip of the piercing sword. The weight of a whole person. A weight that would normally feel light, but in this moment, it felt unbearably heavy.
Was he simply exhausted? Or had the weight of life itself become heavier than before?
“This damn....”
Chung Myung seemed about to collapse but didn't, and the enemy, thoroughly disgusted, appeared to hesitate momentarily. Seizing the brief respite, Chung Myung forced his lowered head with great effort.
The world blurred and then sharpened again, repeating in a cycle.
How many was that? He didn’t know. He had given up counting a long time ago.
'It's hot....'
His body felt like a ball of fire. No, it also felt like endlessly cold ice. Perhaps it was both.
His internal strength had revealed its bottom long ago, and his crushed wounds were eating away at his flesh at will.
For having killed so many, the price he was paying wasn’t exactly steep. But the aftermath… was clearly driving Chung Myung toward one definite outcome.
His eyelids felt unbearably heavy. He scanned his surroundings with half-closed eyes. No matter where he looked, all he saw were enemies clad in red.
At one time, such scenes were all too familiar to him. Breathing in this environment had felt natural. B But why did it feel foreign now? Had Chung Myung grown weak? Or…
Seureureuk.
The lifeless corpse of an enemy slid off his sword and crumpled to the ground. Though the weight it carried was gone, the sword was still heavy. So heavy it was difficult to lift.
The world continued losing its edges.
It felt like nothing but enemies remained in the world. But why couldn’t he look away? Why couldn’t he let go of what he was holding onto and find peace?
Did he still have lingering attachments?
Those who have never been truly understood by others often have no choice but to mock everything. Even themselves. It was like a habit. After all, it’s better to be met with hostility than to be looked at like some incomprehensible anomaly. At least hostility is a form of recognition.
This time too, he tried to somehow twist up the corners of his mouth, but his face didn't even twitch. His lips no longer held either confidence or menace.
'Even my pretense is gone....'
A hollow laugh escaped him. Not a sneer meant to intimidate, but a self-deprecating chuckle.
“What are you all doing? Kill him! He’s at his limit!”
"H- Haaaaap!"
Someone frantically thrusts a spear. His sword, swung instinctively, blocked the incoming spear.
Kwadeuk!
The sharp sound of metal and the sound of blades cutting into flesh rang out almost simultaneously. The sound of a chillingly honed blade digging into the body, was transmitted to the head through flesh rather than air.
The one that was deflected at the moment of collision was the soul of Tang Family that had cut down countless people, the sword that had never once betrayed Chung Myung's will.
In truth, the spear itself hadn’t been particularly formidable. But his weakened body could no longer withstand even ordinary strikes.
“Ugh…”
Paaaaat!
Chung Myung gritted his teeth and swung his sword like lightning again. Myriad Man Manor martial artists, who had been taken aback by his accomplishments, had his head torn off from his body.
Chung Myung's knees buckled.
His sword was infinitely powerless powerless, his reactions growing sluggish. It felt as if everything that had accumulated within him was flowing back and spilling out of his body.
“Keuk....”
Blood mixed with every cough. Yet, even as his body swayed on the verge of collapse, he somehow managed to steady himself once more.
“Cough! Cough!”
Strange heat began to surge in the eyes of the enemies who couldn't quite approach and were glaring at Chung Myuing.
That Plum Blossom Sword Demon whose end couldn't be seen was now showing his limits before their eyes. Perhaps... perhaps they could be the ones to sever the neck of this beast with their own hands.
It was unimaginably dangerous, yet an equally irresistible temptation. No one here could remain unmoved by it.
Those who swallowed their dry saliva carefully extended their feet toward Chung Myung. The circle surrounding him began to shrink, little by little.
Kkwaak.
Chung Myung grasped the spear embedded in his chest with his left hand. He tried to pull it out, but the hooked blade was firmly lodged in his flesh and wouldn’t budge.
Udeudeuk.
In the end, he mercilessly snapped the spear shaft and spat out the blood pooling in his mouth.
His narrowed vision showed only enemies. The entire world was filled with enemies. Enemies, enemies, more enemies, and then even more.
‘…Just cut them down.’
Cut and fell them. And open a path. Just as he had done countless times before. Just as he had done until now. Then he could open a path.
‘And after that?’
There would be more enemies. Even if he cut them down, more would appear beyond them.
Cut, cut, and cut again. Then cut again...
What was left at the end of it all?
“Hah…”
A sound that could have been laughter, a groan, or crying flowed through his lips. Nothing would change. It had always been like this.
He had never overestimated his own strength. Nor had he recklessly believed he would return alive from any battle. He had simply managed to survive, one fight after another, even though he could have died at any moment. Even though he hadn’t desperately wished to survive.
It wouldn’t be strange if that luck ran out here.
The ending that everyone had to face. The ending that should have come for him long ago was simply catching up to him now. Terribly slowly, terribly clearly.
Using his sword to barely support himself, Chung Myung forced his crumbling body to stand.
"D- Die!"
Before his opponent could thrust their blade, Chung Myung’s sword moved first. The sword energy emitted from the tip of his sword mercilessly pierced the opponent's chest.
"Keureuk..."
The wounded enemy hesitated for a moment, but that was all. Clutching his wound, he did not fall but stood his ground.
Even his sword energy could no longer exert its full power. It couldn’t even fully pierce the soft flesh of a human.
Did he regret it?
No. There was nothing to regret.
In the past, he had saved the world, yet lost everything he should have held onto.
But this time was different.
'...I protected.'
Long ago... Yes, this is how it should have been long ago.
Because he never wants to experience the pain of being the sole survivor, left to gaze upon the dead, ever again. Because he never wants to suffer the agony of crumbling alone in a world where nothing remains ever again.
Even if everyone pointed their fingers calling it stupid and foolish, from the beginning, this was the only path he could choose.
'Sahyung....'
You wouldn't know. How far the mission you entrusted to me has driven me.
You wouldn’t understand. Because those who died can know nothing.
You could never comprehend what it feels like to be the only one left behind after everyone else has died.
Only now do I say this… but I was never as great nor as strong as you all thought.
Paaaaat!
Dozens of dao energies flew toward him.
Before his mind could even register it, Chung Myung’s sword cleaved through the air. The instinct engraved in his flesh did not forsake him until the very last.
Kaang!
The dao energies shattered into pieces. Fragments of crushed blade energy pierced through enemies and also embedded themselves in various parts of Chung Myung’s exhausted body.
“Cough!”
Bloody lumps kept stubbornly seeping out. It felt as if all the blood in his body had already dried up, which made it truly strange.
With difficulty, he raised his head to see the day breaking. The red sky of dawn looked down upon him. Just like the unforgettable sky of that day.
Like the last day he remembered on Mount Hua.
If his sahyungs’ greatest wish as they perished had been for Mount Hua to bloom with plum blossoms once again, if what he most desired at that time was to save as many people as possible even at the cost of his life...
Hadn’t Chung Myung fulfilled that role now?
What he had set out to do was done. What his sahyungs wished for had been realized. Of course, they're unreliable, pathetic, and incomparably foolish... but they're good guys.
So wasn’t that enough?
They will overcome. Even without him.
No matter how fierce the winds may blow, they will hold on and carry on. They would continue what those who had fallen in the past had tried so hard to protect, and they would add to that will.
‘Will they resent me for this?’
They will. That's the kind of people they are. They will be mad and curse at me and..... and will probably cry too.
But they will soon forget.
Just like how he had once forgotten Cheong Mun and continued life with these new comrades. Like how he laughed and joked with the new Mount Hua in place of the old one.
His absence might sadden them now, but they will forget him eventually. Like how new flesh grows where the wound was, and new grass resprouts on parched land.
And that fact...... made him resent them a little....... just a little.
"What are you all doing! Kill him! Kill him now! He's at his limit!"
The enemies charged.
His vision blurred, and his arms no longer moved. His senses dulled. To overcome anyone, the current him was far too pitiful and small.
Sogok!
The blood that flowed down the Dark Fragrant Plum Blossom Sword soaked into his fingertips.
He seemed to have cut some part of an enemy, but he couldn't tell. His legs wouldn't listen.
But he must cut down one more.
Every life he took would make it that much safer for those who survived. So one more! Just one more enemy…
Sogok.
'Cheong Mun Sahyung.'
Will he smile at me? Will he praise me and say I did a great job for what I've accomplished since returning?
Or perhaps he will get angry instead. Like how he always did. He might scold me, saying I shouldn't have worked myself this hard.
That would be nice.
'I did my best, Cheong Mun Sahyung.'
So.... so could you please.... feel sorry for me… just a bit.
Finally, his knees gave out. It felt as if the ground was rising to meet him. The world spun in dizzying circles, blurring the line between up and down.
A different kind of death, unlike before, was coming for him.
It was fine. He had left enough behind.
Somewhere in Shaanxi, somewhere in Mount Hua where the plum blossoms blooms, in the hearts of those who will cry for him, at the tip of those swords that have yet to ripen—he had left enough behind.
Therefore, he won't have any more regrets even if this is to be his last. But……
"Cut off his breath!"
"He's spent! Cut off his head!”
But even so..... even so......
Kaaaaang!
An incoming dao collided with a sword that suddenly surged upward.
Stomping the ground, Chung Myung leaped into the midst of his enemies. The desperate sword energy that poured out from him sliced through the enemies in an instant.
"Ah..."
Chung Myung's mouth opened, and a beast-like scream erupted.
"Ah... Aaaaaaaaahh!"
He wanted to live.
The sword energy he wrung from his dying body cut through those who had nothing but malice. His muscles tore, his bones crumbled, but he swung his sword again and again.
He wants to live.
"Aaaaaaaaaaa!"
He wants to survive and laugh again. To survive and go back to Mount Hua.
To the place he left. And is, therefore, the place he had to return to.
The place where everyone is waiting for him.
"Aaaaaaaaaaa!"
Chung Myung’s howl echoed through the forest as he leaped into the midst of the enemies’ daos.
He wants to live.
|Note
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