Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1598. I can't even laugh (3)
Editor: Hoamz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Whether it was nausea, anger, or sadness, Chung Myung just pressed down whatever was surging up and stubbornly looked ahead again.
“A... mi... tabha....”
Hye Yeon, unable to handle his swelling emotions, kept whispering the chant in a trembling voice.
Each and every one of them dug into Chung Myung's ears.
Even Yoo Iseol, who rarely showed much outward agitation, was tightly gripping her sword.
Whose fault was this carnage?
“Chung Myung-ah....”
Hyun Jong sighed and placed his hand on Chung Myung's shoulder. But after hesitating to say more, he ended up just shaking his head.
Even he found it difficult to calm his heart in such a situation, what more words could he add?
“The air is cold.”
Hyun Jong ended up saying something a little vague.
Chung Myung glanced up at the sky. It was still before dawn. The morning air brushed coldly against his face.
Cold enough to make his body shiver.
At that moment, Yoo Iseol silently walked forward.
Schwiiing.
The sword that had been sleeping in its sheath, having nowhere to swing, was drawn and cut through the dawn air.
She quietly knelt and thrust the sword deep into the ground.
Thwack.
With a sound as sharp as severing an enemy's head, the sword dug into the earth. Holding the sword's handle with one hand and grasping the blade with the other, she silently dug the soil.
“....”
Chung Myung couldn't say anything and just watched the sight.
Hye Yeon, who had been chanting out of uncontrollable anger and sorrow, also staggered forward and knelt down, beginning to dig the earth with his hands.
Step. Step.
Isong Baek, who had approached at some point, also went to their side without a single word and dug the ground with his sword.
Though their robes differed, they were making a grave for the dead with hands no different from each other.
These were people who had once thought they could never stand looking in the same direction forever.
Chung Myung let out a small hollow laugh and looked up at the sky again. It seemed the world's sorrow had not yet reached up there.
It was chilling. It must be even more so for them.
Just as Chung Myung exhaled a short breath and was about to take a heavy step.
“Ah....”
A faint groan came from behind him. In an instant, Chung Myung's chilled gaze turned in that direction.
"Aah..."
Bop Jeong, who had barely managed to rise and was now half-crawling forward, was trembling.
In that instant, everyone’s gaze was directed at him.
Truly varied emotions were contained within them. Resentment, hatred, pity, and even complex feelings of not knowing what kind of look to give him.
Within all that, Bop Jeong tried somehow to assume a half-bow position with hands so pitifully trembling.
“Ah... mi....”
Chung Myung's teeth clenched sharply.
“...Shut up.”
“...ta....”
“Shut your mouth!”
The wrinkled hands trembled and the face was pale. His body still wouldn't properly obey him, so he couldn't even open his eyes properly as he groped ahead.
The monk's robe that had once shone golden was torn and soaked in blood, becoming rags, and the body revealed between them was riddled with wounds. Like a rotten old tree, it wouldn't be strange if he collapsed at any moment.
It was just a shabby appearance with no longer a trace of the dignified bangjang of Shaolin to be found.
There was no sign of a devout Buddhist obeying the Buddha's will, nor of the leader who once commanded the powerful force of Ten Great Sects beyond Shaolin.
What was here was just one pitiful human being, groaning under his own sins.
And to Chung Myung, even that sight... Yes, even that sight was simply detestable.
Chung Myung strode towards Bop Jeong.
“...Chung Myung-ah.”
Hyun Jong grabbed his shoulder and hurriedly stopped him. But Chung Myung, who had always respected Hyun Jong’s words, pushed the hand away and did not halt.
Step.
Step.
Each time those cold feet set down firmly, Bop Jeong’s body trembled faintly.
Finally, Chung Myung approached right in front of Bop Jeong and glared at him coldly with a face more chilling than an ice cave.
At that moment, no one knew what Chung Myung was thinking.
With that face that seemed to bear all the world's anguish, what thoughts was he having?
Dolsseok.
Chung Myung grabbed Bop Jeong’s collar. He yanked Bop Jeong forward in one motion and forced him face toward the terrible scene.
“Look.”
Bop Jeong's gaze was forcibly fixed.
“Don’t close your eyes. Look.”
At that growling voice, Bop Jeong struggled to push open his nearly closed eyes. The eyes that had opened with a tremble were soon squeezed shut again.
“A- Ami.... Ami... tabha....”
Tears flowed from Bop Jeong’s eyes before he could even stop them.
“Is there a Buddha here?”
A cold voice pierced Bop Jeong’s ears.
“Don’t look for the Buddha. This is what you have done. You, not the Buddha!”
The strength left Bop Jeong's legs.
But Chung Myung's hand grabbing his collar didn't even allow him to collapse.
"Look."
Chung Myung forcibly pushed Bop Jeong's head toward another direction.
"Look."
It filled Bop Jeong's eyes completely. The sin he could never escape from.
Deep, deep karma that could never be fully repaid even through eons of penance. Its weight felt as if it would crush and burst Bop Jeong at any moment.
Bop Jeong went limp. As if his very soul had escaped.
Watching the sight, Chung Myung bit his lip.
“Is this what you wanted to get?”
Why repeat it?
"This?"
Faced with such a painful outcome, why repeat the same actions? What does that mere name matter, what does that mere fame matter? Things that become nothing when you die.
"Just! Just something like this?"
Udeudeuk.
The hem of Bop Jeong’s robe held in Chung Myung's grip finally tore away.
“Say something! Anything!”
His chest felt as if it would burst.
If it was going to be like this, he should have succeeded. He should have obtained everything he wanted and mocked those who couldn't.
If so, if so, then at least...!
At that moment, someone gripped the hand of Chung Myung, who was swept up in a storm of emotion.
Chung Myung stared blankly at the face of the one who had grabbed him.
Hye Yeon, his face soaked with tears, was quietly holding Chung Myung's arm that gripped Bop Jeong's collar.
He slowly shook his head. Without any words of persuasion.
“....”
When he met those eyes filled with sorrow, Chung Myung's resolve completely melted away. The power drained from the hand that was holding Bop Jeong's collar.
Thud.
Bop Jeong collapsed on the spot.
Chung Myung glared coldly at Bop Jeong who lay slumped like someone who had lost his soul and then turned his body sharply.
There is no Bop Jeong here. What remained was just an empty shell. One who had lost himself to inescapable sin and self-reproach.
Chung Myung could not tell whether what he felt in that moment was pity, a sense of kinship, or sheer revulsion. Even without knowing, he spoke in a chill voice.
"You must have had one too."
Bop Jeong showed no reaction, as if he hadn't heard.
“At least... one person.”
Someone who would acknowledge him as he was, even if he gained no honor, even if he grasped no brilliant thing.
Just then, black clouds rolled in and covered the moon. It felt as if the world was submerged in deep darkness. Like his frustrated inner feelings that had no way to be resolved.
It was the moment Chung Myung let out a weary sigh and was about to move his feet.
“Ugh....”
The sound of wailing came from behind.
"Eueueueu..."
It was not being squeezed out. It was a sob so full it overflowed, spilling out despite desperate efforts to hold it back.
"Eu... Eu... Euaaaaaa..."
Chung Myung felt this wail somehow familiar. It was unfamiliar yet similar.
When he looked back, Bop Jeong was crawling unsteadily on the ground.
After a long and painful movement, Bop Jeong's hand finally touched something. The pale face of a corpse that had already grown cold.
“...Kye....”
It was the corpse of Bop Kye, whom Hye Yeon had personally carried and moved.
Bop Jeong touched with trembling hands the face that could no longer make any expression.
“Bop... Kye. Bop Kye....”
Bop Jeong's back heaved. It was an endlessly pathetic and sorrowful movement.
Bop Jeong had probably seen what he had done and realized it.
His deep sin. But even after seeing it all, he struggled to save him until the very end.
A hollow laugh escaped Chung Myung's lips.
'Why always....'
Do people only learn after they lose something?
Why do they fail to see the meaning of what they already have, and throw themselves at things they need not grasp?
Why were they so foolish?
"Uheu... Uheuheu. Ah... Aaaaaaaah!"
The wail burst forth miserably.
“Aaaaaa! Bop Kye! Kye! Aaaaaah!”
Even those who hated and despised Bop Jeong couldn't say any words before that wailing that seemed to tear out and crush the heart.
No matter how much someone might be beyond even sympathy, everyone could understand that grief.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Chung Myung, who had been watching such Bop Jeong with dark eyes, turned his head.
There was no sympathy to waste on the living.
“Chung Myung-ah.”
Chung Myung met Hyun Jong's gaze and nodded.
"Grand Sect Leader... A memorial service."
"Yes."
Hyun Jong also nods slowly.
“Let’s do that.”
There was nothing the living could do for the dead. Whether it was a memorial service or Buddhist prayers, in the end it was to comfort those who remain.
Knowing this, people still cling to such futile acts, hoping that these earnest prayers and comforts might reach, even a little.
It was just as Chung Myung was taking a feeble step toward the corpses lying on the cold ground.
"Sajil. Grand Sect Leader."
Yoo Iseol, who had quietly surveyed the surroundings, approached with a stiff face.
"Sago?"
"...Many."
When Chung Myung looked at her with a questioning gaze, Yoo Iseol added in a low voice.
"Enemy corpses."
Hyun Jong frowned. It was natural for there to be many enemy corpses on a battlefield, so why would she say it so gravely?
But Chung Myung's face hardened noticeably. He immediately grasped the meaning behind Yoo Iseol's words.
“…Many?”
That meant Ten Great Sects who died here were stronger than expected.
If not that....
‘The enemies were weaker than I thought.’
Could that be possible? Really?
Suddenly, Chung Myung's eyes widened as he sharply turned his gaze toward one direction.
"Don't tell me...!"
The clouds drifted and the moon was revealed again. Under that light, Chung Myung's eyes shook violently.
❀ ❀ ❀
"There's no pursuit, Ryeonju-nim. They say the bastards have begun to bury the corpses.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Jang Ilso gave a strange smile.
“My, my. How affectionate. To put such effort into mere chunks of meat. Shouldn't we learn something like that too, Gamyeong-ah?"
It was a question he couldn't even begin to answer. Ho Gamyeong, of course, remained silent.
Perhaps it wasn't a question thrown expecting an answer, as Jang Ilso opened his mouth again.
“Just.”
“...Yes?”
“If they think the war is over, don’t you think that’s a little too complacent?”
One corner of Jang Ilso’s mouth twisted.
"War isn't about inflicting wounds. It's about gouging out those wounds."
His gaze turned to the east. It was the same direction Chung Myung had looked.
❀ ❀ ❀
“So this place is…”
Cold eyes devoid of any warmth stared at the mountain rising before them.
Among the famous Five Sacred Mountains under heaven, this mountain called the Central Peak (중악(中嶽)) was actually much more famous for something other than its beautiful scenery or mountain terrain.
It was home to the most famous temple under the heaven, located north of the towering Shaoshi Peak.
Mount Song, home to the world's most renowned temple under the heaven, Shaolin.
A gaunt hand slipped off the blood-stained outer robe that had covered the head. When the brown cloak fell to the ground, red garments underneath were fully revealed.
The figure in the center had even wrapped his body outside the robes in red bandages.
When he opened his mouth, an ominous voice that seemed to flow from hell leaked out.
"So this is Shaolin."
“Gyoju-nim.”
"Yes. I know. To avoid Ryeonju's nagging, we must hurry."
A fierce blood-red light flowed from the man's eyes.
"Though I'm not pleased with a mission that's just cleaning up remnants... since we've put our hand to it, we must be thorough."
They began advancing toward the path leading to Shaoshi Peak.
“Let’s go. We’ll erase Shaolin today.”
The Blood Palace bared its bloody fangs toward Shaolin.
|Note
In Chinese tradition, there are Five Sacred Mountains (五嶽/오악) known as:
- 東嶽 (East Peak): Mount Tai (泰山)
- 西嶽 (West Peak): Mount Hua (華山)
- 南嶽 (South Peak): Mount Heng (衡山)
- 北嶽 (North Peak): Mount Heng (恆山)
- 中嶽 (Central Peak): Mount Song (嵩山)
I’m still not sure about whether to use Blood Palace or Blood Cult. Also, turn out Mount Tai is truly a name. All this time, I thought it meant great mountain.
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