Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1602. I can't even laugh (7)
Editor: Hoamz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
|Note
So I was sure that Red Hounds refer to a unit or group. But this chapter clearly stated that it was actually a person. I thought it was a typo when the previous chapter referred to him as such. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Also, below note doesn’t affect my schedule, so rest assured.
Crack.
“....”
The heavily lowered eyelids trembled finely.
As if forcing open eyes that couldn't bear to open, the eyelids struggled to part. Revealed then were black irises whose depth and edges were hard to fathom.
In those eyes was reflected the Vajra Bell (금강종(金剛鍾)) placed before them.
The Vajra Bell was cracked with a long fissure.
"Om mani..."
A trembling voice came out.
"Padme... hum."
A voice on the verge of breaking barely completed the six-syllable mantra. A still-youthful hand carefully traced the cracked Vajra Bell.
"...Dharma King."
The boy, the Dalai Lama, raised his head. The face of the Golden Buddha looking down at him was dyed with indescribable sorrow.
After gazing at that Buddha statue for a long while, the Dalai Lama closed his eyes again.
“It is unavoidable.”
Bansol Lama watched the back of the Dalai Lama with a hardened expression.
Sometimes, the Dalai Lama would repeat incomprehensible words to himself. It must be what happens when one tries to translate words filled with Dharma, which imperfect beings of the secular world cannot understand, into the crude language of man.
“Because it couldn’t be avoided, people cannot be freed from suffering.”
These were words directed at Bansol Lama, yet not addressed to Bansol Lama.
"But just..."
A single tear ran down Bansol Lama’s cheek as he opened his eyes again.
"May that suffering not be too deep."
❀ ❀ ❀
...Horrific. Could that word explain this scene?
Ho Gamyeong had been through countless battlefields, had seen numerous deaths, and had witnessed the profound misery soaked within them.
On the contrary, that was why he couldn't readily understand.
That such a single scene had drawn his master, Jang Ilso, all the way to this distant place in one breath. Yet on the other hand, he could understand.
The sight before his eyes was certainly catastrophic and also bizarre.
All that met the eye was a somewhat large pool. More precisely, the earth about twenty zhang in diameter, dyed dark red against the surrounding yellowish-brown ground.
No trace of human presence remains. Only the occasional scrap of clothing or scattered bits of flesh hinted that many had once been here.
Ho Gamyeong suddenly felt as if his throat were burning.
'How....'
Swallowing dry saliva didn't make a difference. It felt as if thorns had sunk into his throat and kept scratching it sharply.
'How could this...'
Even the tongue in his mouth felt like it had turned into a lump of sand, making his mouth feel gritty.
He recognized the distinctive pattern of Red Hound’s cloak even though it had been torn to shreds and lost its original form.
They were here. They were definitely here.
It was unbelievable, but clearly here, the Red Hounds they had sent had existed. The detached force, squeezed out and dispatched to turn that Huayin into hell.
How could that special detachment possibly have been dealt with like this?
How?
No, in fact, even the word 'dealt with' doesn't fit.
To use the word ‘dealt with’, there should at least be traces of collision and fierce fighting before defeat. No matter how one-sided, you could only use such words when there had been at least some resistance.
But here there were no such traces at all.
Among the countless words that appeared and disappeared in his mind, the only one that could even awkwardly describe this scene was ‘evaporated’. Only that.
They literally evaporated. The elites he and Jang Ilso had painstakingly nurtured.
Who in the world could have made this possible?
Even if Shaolin had faced them with its full strength, it wouldn’t have come to this. Perhaps even if the entire Ten Great Sects had charged at them, it would be impossible.
To surround, corner, and kill them would be possible. That would not be difficult, even with just the power of Myriad Man Manor, let alone Ten Great Sects.
But to make elite martial artists simply burst apart and die without so much as a sign of resistance like this… cannot be considered the work of human strength.
So this scene, though small, was overwhelming.
Jang Ilso, standing before Ho Gamyeong, remained silent for a long while.
He defeated the Shaolin and ended the reign of Ten Great Sects.
The Paegun who boasts a presence unmatched by anyone in the world, placing the current world in his palm and literally toying with it.
His shoulders were trembling faintly. The shoulders of none other than Jang Ilso.
“Ryeonju-nim....”
“Ha....”
A bitter laugh flowed from the mouth that had been silent all along.
Ho Gamyeong was only looking at Jang Ilso's back, but he could easily imagine his expression.
The hollow laugh that had briefly leaked out could not become a full laugh and scattered emptily. That awkward voice, neither laughter nor cry, simply faded.
Jang Ilso soon muttered in a dry voice.
“...I can’t even laugh.”
The hand hanging from his sleeve trembled so visibly that Ho Gamyeong could see it.
Ho Gamyeong could not bring himself to sneer at or encourage such Jang Ilso.
A person sees as much as they know.
The more someone comprehends the greatness of a god, the more they revere it. The better one understood this scene, the more crushed they would be by this tremendous power.
This suffocating fear Ho Gamyeong was feeling would be nothing before the tremendous pressure Jang Ilso must be feeling.
“Is he a demon? No… rather, he should be called a god.”
An incomplete laugh became a groan and flowed out.
“...What a bad joke.”
There was none of the usual composure or the characteristic humor in Jang Ilso’s voice.
Evil Tyrant Alliance's leader, an existence that should now be called Grand Master of Evil Path (사도대종사(邪道大宗師)). The one who should be intoxicated with endless joy, using the achievements he has accomplished as a feast.
But there was no such great being here. There was only one human who had keenly felt an inescapable limit and had fallen into despair.
"...Who was it? Who discovered this place?"
As Jang Ilso asked, the men who had been trembling, unable to approach, forced their unwilling feet forward.
"Speak."
"W- We... are those who came along to t-tend the horses."
"Horses?"
"Yes! To ch- change horses..."
Jang Ilso's eyes sank.
“Just the main point.”
Frightened by that chilling gaze, the one addressed hastily nodded. Then, not even knowing what he was babbling, he poured out words like a rapid-fire cannon.
“Wh- When we arrived here late, it was already… already like this. We almost just passed by without feeling anything pa- particularly special either..."
Their gazes turned to one side as if making an excuse. There, one person sat staring blankly into space like an idiot.
Jang Ilso unconsciously clenched his fist tightly.
Because the clothing of that vacant-eyed man was all too familiar.
“T- That person…”
“Bring him.”
"Yes?"
In place of the men who were flustered and unsure of what to do, Ho Gamyeong moved himself. The soul-lost Red Hound was dragged over. Though it was a rough handling, the Red Hound showed no reaction. It was as if his soul had been burned white.
Thud.
The Red Hound was made to sit before him. Jang Ilso, who was staring intently down at him, bent his waist and met his gaze.
“Look at me.”
“....”
“Look at me.”
The vacant pupils became a tiny bit clearer.
“What happened?”
The dull, unfocused pupils began to move erratically, as if trying to recall something.
“Die…”
"What?"
“Die…d. All… All di…ed…”
“....”
"Die. All die. All die. A- All will die. All! Die. Die. Die. All will die! Aaaaaaaaaaah!”
Red Hound rolled his eyes and went into a fit. Flailing both hands like a drowning person, he screamed until his throat was torn. Then, he suddenly grabbed his own neck and convulsed.
"Ggrrruuuggg... Ggug! Gguuuu..."
Foaming at the mouth and with his eyes rolled back, he violently scratched at his own face and neck as if to tear them off. His face was soon covered in wounds and drenched in blood.
Jang Ilso watched the scene without a single word.
"Grk."
The man finally fainted and went limp. A heavy silence came. Ho Gamyeong’s hands were damp with cold sweat.
Jang Ilso, who had been staring intently at the Red Hound twitching intermittently even while unconscious, spoke.
"Are you two and this man the only ones who saw this place?"
"Y- Yes..."
Paaaaat!
Before the answer could even finish, the heads of the two men and the convulsing Red Hound burst apart.
The startled Ho Gamyeong bit his lip hard.
Thinking about it, it was a natural measure. This must not be known. No one should know about this.
Fear of something you cannot cope with has a way of bringing everything down.
Jang Ilso, who was silently staring at the three bleeding corpses and the dark red puddle, finally let out a chuckle that was like a laugh.
“They spared them.”
“....”
"Like how a person stepping on an ant colony doesn't bother to chase down and crush the one ant that squirmed out to the side."
Though it was nothing more than a weak, hollow laugh.
"A mirage..."
Jang Ilso chuckled.
“No matter how I struggle and thrash… the outcome is decided anyway? That what I obtain is something I can neither have nor protect in the end?”
Terrible hatred and rage, and tremendous emptiness were carried in his voice.
Jang Ilso bit his red lips.
Power that cannot be resisted. A tremendous existence one cannot even dare to oppose. This was a 'disaster'. Not something humans could do anything about.
Before this being, the great fire wrought by man are nothing more than a laughably trivial jest.
In this moment, no one felt that fact more keenly than Jang Ilso.
“Ha.... Hahaha.”
Suppressed laughter leaked out.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Explosive mad laughter. However, the feeling was quite different from the laughter he usually poured out.
“...Let’s go back, Gamyeong.”
“Yes....”
Jang Ilso turned his body, his red long robe fluttering.
The vast expanse of the world filled his vision.
The world that had been so vivid just moments ago now felt illusory and precarious like a mirage ready to disappear at any moment.
'...Don't make me laugh.'
Jang Ilso’s two eyes held a sharp, blue demonic fire.
‘If it’s going to disappear anyway… then I’ll be the one to destroy it. That is my... no, that is humanity's final pride.'
Jang Ilso's heavy steps moved forward.
Leaving a mark upon the earth, one that would someday too be erased.
❀ ❀ ❀
Rustle.
Rustle.
Bare white feet pressed slowly through the short-grown brush.
His pace was by no means fast. Not a single sign of haste.
The face half-covered by a rag-like cloak had not yet fully matured. Only the eyes were empty as if containing nothing.
Rustle.
The feet stepped forward.
Not knowing precisely where he was going, the awakened one moved his steps solely according to his instinct.
But he would find it eventually.
Walking and walking more, he would come to know. When the moment arrived that he reached the place he should be, the place he must reach.
Rustle.
The one who had been placing his feet down as if on a pilgrimage slowly turned his gaze somewhere.
A great mountain range touches the southern sky. And rising at its center, a tall peak full of rock.
Though so far away that human eyes couldn't see it, the man saw it all clearly as if within his grasp. With his two empty eyes.
After silently staring at the mountain, he soon turned his gaze away as if losing interest.
He remembered.
Even though he had never heard or learned of it, the man knew what he had just seen.
“Mount Hua....”
Humming that short phrase like a song, he continued his walk.
One step. One step.
Steps that seemed like they would never end forever, yet would also soon end like a lie.
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Hello. This is Biga.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to the readers who are always with Return of Mount Hua Sect.
As this marks the end of a volume, I will be taking a 10-day break to prepare for future serialization.
I will prepare well and strive to return with better content.
I will return with serialization on October 16th.
Thank you.
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