Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1674. Isn't this what you wanted? (4)
Editor: Hoamz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Kaaaaang!
As he blocked the incoming palm force, Jin Hyeon’s body was pushed back helplessly.
“Ugh!”
His loose hair sizzled with a crackling sound as it burned away.
Each time they exchanged moves, unbearable heat burned his clothing and cooked his skin crimson red. As if he had fallen into the midst of flames.
‘Southern Sea Sun Palace!’
It was said that in the art of Scorching Yang Internal Arts alone, none of the renowned Righteous Sects of Jungwon dared claim to surpass the Southern Sea Sun Palace.
This heat made him keenly realize why its reputation had spread from distant lands all the way to Jungwon.
Chiiiiik!
"Keuh …."
Moreover, what was even more unbearable was that the more he faced that Scorching Yang Internal Art head-on, the more his sword heated up. Had he not been suppressing the heat with his drawn internal strength, his Pine-Patterned Ancient Sword would have already turned red-hot like forged iron.
But as if this method alone had its limits, it was becoming increasingly difficult to even hold the sword as time passed.
This was a matter of internal strength before even discussing the superiority of martial arts. The immense internal strength those old masters had accumulated over their entire lives was difficult for Jin Hyeon to withstand even with his refined internal arts.
‘A- Any more…!’
Just as a scream of pain was about to burst from Jin Hyeon's mouth.
“Aaaaargh!”
The sight of someone rolling while engulfed in flames entered his vision.
“Sajeeeee!”
A shout poured out from Jin Hyeon’s mouth instead of a scream. A voice surging with resentment, fury, and sorrow thundered across the burning mountain.
"Ah!"
The moment Jin Hyeon tried to throw himself forward in rage, a hand shot out like lightning and blocked his path.
Teong!
As sword's flat face and palm collided, Jin Hyeon's body was pushed back roughly once more.
“Huh!”
“You insignificant wretch, how dare you take your eyes off me while I stand before you?”
The guardian of the Sun Palace, shrouding his body in crimson Yang energy, was approaching Jin Hyeon with a face like a vicious demon.
"Not knowing your place."
“Keuhak!”
As the heat surged up and stole his breath, Jin Hyeon coughed harshly. The guardian spoke in a voice filled with wrath.
“To match my level, at the very least an elder should come. And yet a mere ordinary swordsman like you thinks to block my path? Did those high-and-mighty old bones of Moodang all get scared and run away?”
"Ugh, don't babble recklessly! They're not people who should be insulted by the likes of you!"
“You still don’t know your place!”
Rage flared in the guardian’s eyes.
Wooooong.
A crimson energy gushed out from his hands like lava.
"It doesn't matter. After I kill you all, those cowardly old men will have no choice but to show their heads."
The energy soaring from the guardian’s hands raged like a storm and rushed toward Jin Hyeon.
A martial art existing at the complete opposite pole to the Ice White Divine Palm (빙백신장(氷白神掌)) of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, said to be at the pinnacle of extreme Yin. The exclusive supreme technique of the Southern Sea Sun Palace, the Sun Fire Divine Palm (태양화신장(太陽火神掌)), was now being unleashed here at Wudang.
Jin Hyeon desperately pulled himself together and rolled his body to avoid the flying palm force. The Scorching Yang palm strike that barely missed him slammed into the ground, instantly burning away the grass and even heating the soil until it glowed red.
“You dodge well like a rat!”
This was different from an ordinary palm force strike that strikes ((내는(打))) through internal strength. It also differs in nature from Wudang's Cotton Palm (면장(綿掌)) that pushes away opponents.
It was the extreme of Scorching Yang palm force that melts opponents with just the heat dwelling in the palm force. Moreover, being terrible heat rather than fire, before it Jin Hyeon couldn't easily find a way to counter.
'Keuk!'
Softness can overcome strength. But can softness suppress the very heat itself?
The world was far too vast to face with just the subtle principles of softness (유(柔)). And his sword had not yet reached the level to discuss Harmony (조화(調和)).
Merely dealing with the incoming palm force was not the end of it. Because of the vicious heat radiating from the Scorching Yang energy, even breathing was difficult. Each breath felt as though his lungs were being charred black.
It was said that martial arts from beyond the outer borders developed along a different path from Jungwon, and indeed, the unfamiliarity was not easy to adapt to. It was excruciatingly agonizing.
Was he the only one experiencing this?
"Aaaaah!"
“Jin Hwa!”
"My arm! My arm...!"
A Wudang swordsman whose one arm was covered in crimson flames screamed a harrowing scream and writhed. He had prepared himself for death for Wudang, but the searing pain (작열통(灼熱痛)) of his body burning was not something that could be endured by willpower alone.
"Aaaaaah!"
That wasn't all.
If it were swordsmanship, they could somehow face it, and if it were a fist fight, they could hold out somehow. But facing opponents who pressed forward with raw internal strength head-on was a matter of incompatible matchups.
Especially since that internal strength manifested in the form of Scorching Yang Energy that Wudang's swordsmen had never faced before.
“Mu Ryang-ah!”
Mujin rushed over urgently and held up his saje whose entire body had burned black.
He could tell at a glance that there was no hope.
No matter how excellent Wudang's medical arts, no matter how great their miraculous elixirs, they could not bring back someone burnt black.
Nevertheless, Mu Jin had no choice but to say this.
"Are you okay? Don't worry! Okay? Right now..."
"Sahyung…."
“Just a little! Hold on just a little longer!”
"Wu….dang…."
Mu Ryang's head fell limp with a soft thud.
The heat that had scorched his body still lingered, but within it seeped an inescapable thread of cold. Mu Jin bit down on his lower lip until it bled.
Sadness? There was no time to even feel that. Sensing the presence of flying palm force, Mu Jin rolled his body without even collecting Mu Ryang's corpse.
Kwaaang!
“Sasuk!”
Despite reacting quickly, burning pain spread through his toes.
‘Damn it!’
After the elders of the Southern Sun Palace came to the forefront, the narrow terrain that had allowed Wudang to hold out until now was acting as a shackle instead.
Wudang's plan to block the narrow terrain with their stronger disciples fundamentally collapsed with the appearance of those possessing internal strength superior to theirs.
'The elders?'
The best way to deal with such people was, quite obviously, for people with equal skill to step forward.
“Reinforcements! Request reinforcements immediately from the elders who went to the other side!”
"We already sent a messenger! But there's still no...!"
Eudeudeuk.
Mu Jin couldn't help but feel devastated.
He couldn't understand it at all.
A messenger? Was that really necessary? Even if there was some distance to the opposite slope, if they were Wudang elders whose level of martial prowess far surpassed Mu Jin’s, they should have been able to sense what was happening here through energy perception alone.
Then why are they not coming to help? Was the enemy pouring their full offensive onto the opposite slope instead? Into that narrow terrain?
The absence of the strong was shattering the balance here, so what in the world were the Wudang elders doing?
But despair did not end there. Someone shouted.
"Sa- Sahyung! The cliffside! You must look at the cliff side!"
Mu Jin's head snapped toward the direction. And soon his eyes widened greatly.
He saw the scene of Evil Tyrant Alliance martial artists clinging to the center of the cliff and climbing up quickly.
'When did they get this far?'
It wasn't that he had lowered his head. He had merely turned it sideways. But the figures of Evil Tyrant Alliance martial artists, which were completely unseen just moments ago, were now visible. That meant they had climbed more than halfway up the cliff.
“Climb up tighter, more! We are almost there!”
The clamor of Evil Secst bastards, which hadn't been heard until now, echoed in Mu Jin's ears. If they climb atop the cliff like this, Wudang disciples currently blocking the slope will have no choice but to receive a pincer attack from Sun Palace and those bastards. From both sides at that.
'Sasuk!'
Mu Jin's head unconsciously turned toward one person.
Kuuuung!
Right then, a massive explosive sound from above rang in Mu Jin's ears. His body was on the verge of trembling from the aftermath of the strong energy.
White Face Rock stands tall amidst the deep darkness. At its summit, white and black energies and countless palm shadows were colliding in chaos. It was a banquet of transcendent martial arts he could not even begin to imagine.
At this moment, Heo Gong was fighting on equal footing with Thousand-Faced Gentleman, who possesses a fame incomparably greater than his own.
It was a remarkable feat. Something worthy of endless admiration. But seen from another angle, it also meant that Heo Gong, who had been blocking the center cliff all this time, was now tied down by Thousand-Faced Gentleman.
Mu Jin couldn't help but sense it.
Just as a firmly built dam collapses starting from a single small crack, cracks were appearing little by little in the defensive line they had constructed on this cliff.
At this rate, it will collapse. This White Face Rock defending Wudang.
'What should we do?'
His head screams, ‘This place is hopeless now’.
And it seemed he wasn't the only one thinking this way.
“Sasuk, we must retreat for now! This place is difficult!"
Outnumbered and overmatched. Would they call it cowardly to retreat knowing strength was insufficient, or call it wise?
"Sasuk!"
Mu Jin's eyes shot open. He shoved aside the one shouting in front of him and thrust his sword forward in a single motion. His sword tip surged toward the throat of a Sun Palace guardian.
"This bastard?"
Kwagak!
The guardian swung his hand to strike the sword aside and drew up his internal strength. The Scorching Yang energy swelled as if to swallow Mu Jin at any moment.
Against this, Mu Jin's sword emitted black and white energy and drew a small Taiji in the air.
Kwaaang!
The Taiji energy, wrapping around and piercing through the incoming force, slammed directly into the Sun Palace guardian’s chest.
“Keuhak!”
Spitting blood, the guardian was flung backward and fell down the slope. All that remained where he had stood were splattered bloodstains.
“Sasuk!”
Of course, Mu Jin wasn't unharmed either. The Scorching Yang Energy's aura had covered Mu Jin's left face and shoulder, melting the flesh. Without even a moment to be horrified at the gruesome wound, Mu Jin stabbed his sword firmly into the ground in front of him.
No words.
No shout to steel resolve, no cry shouting to die together. Mu Jin simply glared at those climbing the slope with his sword planted.
Even while one side of his face was burning and melting from the heat at this very moment. At this, the Wudang disciples who had been looking only for a way to retreat stopped.
"I too..."
Mu Jin's mouth opened with difficulty.
"I too am afraid."
It was a very short phrase. However, Wudang swordsmen soon closed their eyes tightly as if in resignation. They couldn't retreat. They couldn't fall back. Not after seeing that sight. Not after hearing those words.
“Wonsi Cheonjun….”
Someone began to recite the Taoist scriptures. A scripture (경(經)) was something recited with the mouth to steady the heart. Perhaps what they needed now was exactly what they had repeated countless times before.
No further words were needed.
“Waaaaaaaaah!”
A massive shout burst out from down below. Enemies were swarming toward this slope. As if to definitively sever their lives, this Wudang's fate.
Outnumbered and outmatched, or a mantis blocking a chariot.
It does not matter which. Sometimes, there was meaning even in crashing and crumbling.
“Sasuk.”
“…Is it Jin Hyeon?”
Mu Jin, having lost one eye, answered without turning his head.
Perhaps Jin Hyeon was feeling the same despair he felt. All that remained was to adorn the end splendidly.
But then, unexpected words flowed from Jin Hyeon's mouth.
"Softness..."
"Hm?"
"Enduring with all one's might is not the entirety of Wudang."
“…What are you saying?”
Mu Jin asked back, frowning with his one remaining eye. Jin Hyeon spoke slowly.
“They will come. If it’s them.”
Mu Jin slowly turned his head to look at Jin Hyeon. Jin Hyeon's face, stained red by heat and exhaustion, was serious. It seemed without a shred of doubt.
Like a single drop of rain falling on parched land. Meaningless and worthless, yet still carrying the expectation that a heavier downpour would follow.
In other words, something one might call hope.
“Right, Mount Hua….”
“Heavenly Comrade Alliance.”
The names flowed naturally from the mouths of sajes standing nearby.
“…Mount Hua Chivalrous Sword.”
They had sneered and criticized. Sometimes envied, sometimes scorned.
Yet now, that recklessness they had so despised was becoming a ray of light for those standing here.
'So that's how it is.'
The recklessness Wudang had sneered at from this lofty mountain had become hope for those sunk into the deepest despair, just as Mu Jin felt now.
Realizing this, Mu Jin felt both deep relief and unavoidable shame at the name Mount Hua.
'I... what did I even know to judge them so rashly?'
How could one who did not know true desperation dare to speak lightly of loftiness?
“Fighting with the resolve to die is a given. However..."
Jin Hyeon smiled faintly as if he had read Mu Jin's mind.
“If I’m going to survive, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to face it.”
A complex light flashed across Mu Jin's face.
“Will they… try to help us?”
"They will come. Definitely."
Jin Hyeon spoke with conviction.
“Because that’s what kind of people they are.”
It was just then that Mu Jin’s hand trembled slightly without him realizing.
"They're coming! They're coming, Sasuk!"
Mu Jin shouted without realizing it.
"Retreat! We form a second formation atop White Face Rock!"
“Sa- Sasuk?”
And he grabbed the person next to him tight and pushed him back.
"Retreat, now! Survive until the very end! One moment longer!"
"Yes!"
Wudang's swordsmen began to pull themselves out in a flurry. Even while shouting, Mu Jin wasn't certain whether this was truly the right choice.
Now he could only believe.
'Right, they'll definitely come.'
If it was them. If it was the people he knew.
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