Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1582. So who is it? (2)
Editor: Hoamz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Something was wrong.
It was at that very moment that Bop Kye realized.
What caught his eye was the sight of Peng Family and Kongtong, who were actually one step ahead of Shaolin.
Bop Kye’s face hardened.
'Isn't this different from what we agreed?'
This was the battlefield they had chosen. They had already come to an agreement on how to fight Evil Tyrant Alliance before even arriving here.
Shaolin would take the lead and break through, while Kongtong and Peng Family support its left and right flanks. That's how they would naturally form a wedge formation to break through to the enemy's center.
A simple, rock-solid strategy possible only because they trusted the strength of Shaolin.
But now it was clearly visible to Bop Kye's eyes.
According to the strategy, the two sects that should be supporting Shaolin from behind and blocking attacks pouring from the flanks and rear were instead advancing ahead of Shaolin.
Because of this, the current formation had changed from the intended wedge shape to something like a trident.
“Gaju-nim! Sect Leader!”
The flustered Bop Kye shouted at them.
But it was useless.
In the heat of this battle, could orders be carried and the lines properly reformed? There was no way to control a great fire that had once begun to blaze.
"Th- This..."
Bop Kye's eyes wavered. He tried to appear calm, but inside he was deeply unsettled.
'Why!'
Could they possibly have lost control in such a short time? Or have they too become intoxicated by this madness?
Even those who were the patriarch and the leader of a sect?
While Shaolin at the vanguard had to desperately control their speed and pace like walking a tightrope, shouldn't the followers merely need to match Shaolin's pace? It wasn't a difficult task.
Then why were they over there? Why!
“Don’t stop, Bop Kye!”
A thunderous voice suddenly reached his ears. When he looked back, he saw the deeply sunken eyes of Bop Jeong.
“Ba- Bangjang!”
“Advance! Nothing changes!”
Bop Kye bit his lower lip hard.
Advance. If that was Bop Jeong's command, then Bop Kye needed only to follow.
“Ooooooooooooh!”
Bop Kye let out a booming battle cry.
Nothing change. Yes, nothing will change. Bop Jeong had clearly said so.
But Bop Kye knew deep down. That the meaning contained in that ‘nothing changes’ was not just one.
Bop Kye's face hardened fiercely.
It was no different.
That it would be none other than Shaolin who would sever Jang Ilso's head. That Shaolin would be the sect to end this war.
Therefore, the one grasping the brilliant glory at the end of this war and reestablishing Kangho's order under the name of Dharma will also be Shaolin!
Nothing will change. No, he would not allow anything to change.
Uuuuuung!
The Thousand Buddha Hands (천불수(千佛手)), which were Bop Kye's very symbol, unfolded to their extreme.
The sky, already losing the last of the sunset and quickly darkening, was covered with the shapes of golden hands.
“Haaaaaap!”
Those countless hand-shadows (수영(手影)) swept away the obstructions blocking Bop Kye’s path in an instant.
The hands of Buddha who had set aside compassion were more fearsome than anything. The enemies struck by the palm force were sent flying, spewing blood from all their orifices.
No one here could remain rational. Such was the heat of the place.
But the eyes of Bop Jeong that had encouraged this situation were terribly heavy and cold. His gaze was directed at the front, at Jongni Hyeong and Peng Ye, who were cutting down the enemy as if in a last struggle.
‘Foolish.’
Rage briefly crossed Bop Jeong's eyes.
He saw plainly what was dominating those two.
A petty desire for fame and glory, and a petty inferiority complex. Was this war so small a matter as to be swayed by such things?
“Ami-ta-bha!”
Bop Jeong shouted a wrathful chant as he glared coldly at Jang Ilso.
Nothing changes. This was not a precarious situation that could be shaken by a minor variable.
The snare Bop Jeong had patiently cast would seize the beast called Paegun and finally cut his throat.
“Shaolin, follow me!”
Bop Jeong broke his silence and began to move in earnest.
“Amitabha!”
"Follow behind Bangjang!"
Shaolin disciples, seized with renewed courage, fell in behind Bop Jeong.
A golden army, like a spear of heavenly gods, flew toward targeting just one person's neck.
No, it wasn't just one spear.
Three spears called Shaolin, Kongtong, and Peng Family mercilessly pierced through the beast called Evil Tyrant Alliance. The cries that the bleeding beast let out in anguish were shaking this desolate land.
"Do not lose! First! We must advance further! More!”
Kongtong’s sect head, Jongni Hyeong, screamed viciously.
Shaolin seemed to have noticed something and was increasing their speed. At this rate, Kongtong would inevitably fall behind. They had to reach Jang Ilso before Shaolin exerted its full strength.
“Faster...”
"Aaaaaaaak!"
At that moment, a piercing scream burrowed into his ears. It was a different kind of sound from what he had been hearing until now.
Instinctively turning his head, he saw one of Kongtong’s disciples in the sect robe collapse while bleeding profusely.
“Gwanmyeong-ah!”
Jongni Hyeong unconsciously wailed his disciple's name.
It was an inevitable result, predetermined even.
Those who charge only forward cannot look to the side or behind. Trying to watch everywhere and gain everything is excessive greed.
If you do not wish to shed blood, you must stop your feet. Give up what you seek and protect your disciples.
"Aaaaaaaak!"
Jongni Hyeong's face instantly turned pale at the desperate scream erupting once more. It was a mark of agony.
Advance, or protect.
It was the agony of one who tried to grasp both incompatible things.
Should he truly stop? Here?
The deliberation was not long. No, it could not be long.
Because he saw it.
The patriarch of Hebei Peng Family, Peng Ye, advancing only forward while abandoning his subordinates who fell spraying blood.
Jongni Hyeong's eyes grew bloodshot. He had already lost a disciple. If he stopped now, would not that fallen life be for nothing?
"Sect Leader! Behind us...!"
"Advance!"
Jongni Hyeong shouted without listening further. It was a voice so full of malice that it was utterly unbefitting of his usual self.
“Go forward! The moment we stop, everything is over! Go forward!”
An arrow once loosed cannot stop, cannot turn back. It can only continue accelerating, hoping to reach its target.
What might have been a small greed at first was no longer so. The greed, spreading like wildfire, now began to consume not only Jongni Hyeong but all of Kongong as well.
The fire of desire. (욕화(慾火))
Those who were blinded by the light called glory did not know. That a flame rougher than the light they were looking at was burning them.
---
A faint tension crossed Ho Gamyeong's face as he looked ahead.
The momentum they were creating was like a storm, enough to make even Ho Gamyeong tense. The pressure was so intense that it felt like my heart was being crushed.
'Were they always this strong?'
Perhaps he had been complacent. Believing too easily that the victories so easily won before would repeat again.
Even Ho Gamyeong, who had always thoroughly guarded against his own overconfidence.
But facing them like this, the strength of Ten Great Sects was beyond what he had imagined. Enough to be fearful of confronting them.
The army of Myriad Man Manor that he had created by dedicating his everything, Myriad Man Manor martial artists he had molded one by one with his own hands, melted away like snow meeting spring sunlight.
Three blazing spears charged toward this place.
'Ryeonju-nim!'
Naturally, Ho Gamyeong was concerned for Jang Ilso's state of mind. Just because he stood there so calmly, could his inner self be composed as well?
It was when Ho Gamyeong was about to say something to Jang Ilso.
"Ha... haha..."
A faint laugh flowed from Jang Ilso. An awkward laugh that seemed forcibly, desperately crafted into existence.
“Ryeonju-nim...”
“Haha… ha. Hahahahahahat! Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahat!”
Soon, Jang Ilso opened his mouth wide and burst into tremendous mad laughter. Ho Gamyeong’s eyes widened as he looked at his lord.
Jang Ilso’s laughter was always sinister enough to chill one’s spine, but the mad laugh of now was incomparable.
Jang Ilso was... laughing as if he had literally gone insane.
“Ryeonju...”
Dolsseok.
At that moment, Jang Ilso reached out his large hand and violently grabbed the back of Ho Gamyeong’s head. And with an irresistible force, he pulled Ho Gamyeong to his side.
Forcing Ho Gamyeong’s gaze to be fixed on the battlefield, Jang Ilso whispered in his ear.
“Can you see it?”
“Rye- Ryeonju-nim?”
“I asked if you see it!”
Ho Gamyeong, grown somewhat pale, tried to look back at Jang Ilso but his fingers gripping Ho Gamyeong’s head did not permit him to move.
"Hahahahahaha! Look, Gamyeong! It's right there! Right there!"
Madness swirled in Jang Ilso’s two eyes.
“Even those pretentious monk bastards! And the prestigious family bastards who swaggered around as if they were kings! Even the Taoist bastards who pretended to be detached from the world as if they had no lingering attachments to the mundane world, they're all rolling in the mud together! Casting aside all their lofty dignity!"
Ho Gamyeong looked again at the scene before him. Right.
The realm of hungry ghosts. This was literally the realm of hungry ghosts.
Those who had preached Buddhist law were trampling and crushing people, those who had discussed moral principles were extracting human hearts with swords, and those who had valued selflessness (무욕(無慾)) were swinging swords with eyes seething with desire.
What filled their eyes was neither nobleness nor righteousness.
“I’m asking if you can see it too, that fire of hell of their base desires, Gamyeong-ah! Hahahahahat! Ahahahahahahahahahat!”
Jang Ilso laughed like a madman. As if this sight delighted him beyond endurance.
Even Ho Gamyeong, who had followed Jang Ilso all these long years, felt distant from him at this moment. He could only be daunted by that emotion, which could not be fully expressed even with the word ‘madness’.
“This is what a human is! This is the beast called human! Peel back one thin layer and toss something tempting before them, every last one of them fails to overcome their base nature and charges in like a dog in heat. That's what humans are!"
“Rye- Ryeonju-nim!”
“Don’t turn your head and look properly!”
Jang Ilso's grip was painfully tight on Ho Gamyeong’s head.
In that instant, Ho Gamyeong saw it.
In the thick darkness, the eyes of those unable to resist their own desires gleamed brightly like countless distant stars in the sky.
It was a sight both infinitely wondrous and infinitely disgusting.
Hungry ghosts charging forth to tear off even a piece of Jang Ilso's flesh.
The world Ho Gamyeong knew was being shaken. The unveiled face of mankind was more blatant, more horrifying than anything he had imagined.
Was this the world Jang Ilso saw?
“Is it not beautiful?”
“Ryeonju-nim...”
Ho Gamyeong, who had finally gained the freedom to turn his gaze, turned his head.
On Jang Ilso’s face, half-shrouded in darkness, his lips curved into a vivid red line. Those lips resembled the moon, and thus Jang Ilso himself resembled the sky.
“Here!”
A voice carrying a tremendous internal energy burst from Jang Ilso’s mouth.
As he drew up his terrifying momentum, his red robes fluttered madly as if struck by a typhoon.
“I am right here!”
Jang Ilso took a step forward. Far from retreating from the hungry ghosts who were charging with vicious screams, he instead advanced.
"Aaaaaah!"
Those who saw that spectacle shouted and screamed frantically in uproar. They mixed together, creating a terrible noise not meant for the human world.
With eyes flashing with blue flames of desire, they clung together and coveted Jang Ilso. Like a mass formed from coagulated desire.
“Hahahahat! Ahahahahahahahahat! Ahahahahahahahahahahat!”
Jang Ilso threw back his head and laughed until his throat might burst. He laughed so much that tears even welled up in his gleaming eyes.
Now darkness had almost completely descended. Gazing softly at the scene, Jang Ilso exhaled a long breath, then spoke slowly in a tone different from before.
"Yes. How ugly they are."
It was merely a monologue, words that no one could hear.
But they were clearly words meant for someone.
"How very much so..."
Soon, a chillingly blue flame bloomed in both of Jang Ilso’s hands.
Clad in the Blue Flames (청염(靑炎)) that symbolized him, Zhang Yixiao looked down at the hungry ghosts charging toward him.
"And I too am no different."
A demonic energy as chilling as his flames appeared in his eyes. At the same time, the bright blue flames in his hands swelled violently. (두 눈에 그의 불꽃만큼이나 시린 귀기가 어렸다. 동시에 양손의 새파란 불꽃이 격하게 부풀어 올랐다.)
The red robes and blue flame steel (염강(炎鋼)) created a strange harmony unseen anywhere else in the world.
"So let us struggle together. Right here."
Jang Ilso, letting out a sneer, fluttered his robe and rushed out toward those charging at him.
“Ryeonju-niiiiiiiiiiiim!”
Ho Gamyeong let out a scream at that unexpected action.
But that scream was buried as if crumbling beneath Jang Ilso's mad laughter that burst forth simultaneously.
The sunset that had dyed the western sky was finally completely swallowed by darkness, and only the moon that was revealed above it let out a sneer.
|Note
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