Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1690. Even if it Fades with Ridicule (5)
Editor: Hoamz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Enters vision dyed red soaked in blood.
The blade that threatens life, the enemy's face filled with malice and murderous intent, the darkness of the night that threatens to blacken even the screams of the dead.
Beyond that, beyond that despair, the figure of a tall young man in a black martial uniform.
"Ah…."
A groan escaped Mu Jin's lips involuntarily. It was a deep sigh, a groan that might also have been the utmost joy.
Baek Cheon and Mount Hua had finally reached the summit of White Face Rock.
How on earth should this feeling be expressed?
Emotions so intense they could not be fully explained by human language surged like a great tempest through the chests of Wudang disciples who had endured and endured.
But looking at them, Baek Cheon felt something entirely different.
The enemies filled the narrow cliff top, and the Wudang swordsmen were surrounded among them.
'Is this all of them?'
Baek Cheon bit his lips tightly.
Wudang was a sect that vied for the position of the Northern Star of the world alongside Shaolin. However, the number of Wudang swordsmen visible today was far too meager to match that status.
Where was everyone else?
Baekcheon's gaze lowered slightly.
He saw blood thoroughly soaking the cliff summit. Blood crushed and blackened under the muddy feet of Evil Tyrant Alliance.
The tip of the sword he held trembled faintly.
A hand jutted out from the feet of Evil Tyrant Alliance martial artists glaring at him. The calloused palm was pale and drained of blood, clearly revealing the end the owner of that hand had met.
How many had fallen beneath those blades?
Of course, it wasn't too late to the point of no return. Some were still alive.
And Heavenly Comrade Alliance, including Mount Hua, had also done their absolute best.
But this… this was just too…
It was precisely then that a hateful voice reached Baek Cheon's ears as he struggled to suppress rising self-reproach.
“How is it?”
Baek Cheon turned his head.
Thousand-Faced Gentleman, having dodged Tang Gun-ak’s throwing knife and retreated far back from the edge of the summit, was staring at Baek Cheon.
“Is it quite different from what you expected?”
…Baek Cheon couldn't dare denying it.
He had hoped for a few more survivors. He had hoped their efforts could save more.
But the reality he faced was simply brutal.
“At times, foolishness may coincidentally produce good results. However, the ending that awaits a fool is usually obvious.”
Thousand-Faced Gentleman cast a cynical glance to the side. Wudang’s disciples stood leaning against one another.
"If they had fled without regard for face, most would have survived. If they had chosen practicality instead of spouting nonsense about justification or whatever, they might have rebuilt a mere pavilion at any time.”
“...”
“This is the result brought about by trivial pride and a laughable sense of chivalry. Your hardships, reduced to emptiness.”
Wudang's disciples' eyes shook slightly at those biting words.
Those remaining were half. No, not even a third. Having fallen for the enemy's scheme, more people had died under their dao than those who survived.
Of course, they filled the summit of this White Face Rock, Wudang's Taoist sacred mountain, with enemies' corpses. But that did not lessen the number Wudang had lost.
Perhaps they themselves severed Wudang's lineage they tried so hard to protect.
That fact, that reality, was so horrifying that even upon seeing Baek Cheon arrive at last as their savior, Wudang disciples couldn’t cheer wholeheartedly.
And Baek Cheon could guess what they felt.
Their tightly clenched lips and trembling eyes speak volumes. Facing faces filled with self-reproach and sadness, Baek Cheon too gritted his teeth.
“Illusions are sweet, aren’t they?”
“...”
“Living in a dream might be better than a grim reality. But those who fail to wake from the dream in time end up facing an even harsher reality. Like these here now, and like you from now on."
Seureureung.
Just then, Baek Cheon suddenly pushed his sword back into its sheath. Everyone was taken aback for a moment at the sight of him looking at Wudang disciples with both hands empty.
"Hm?"
Thousand-Faced Gentleman looked at Baek Cheon as if puzzled.
Baek Cheon politely cupped his fists to Wudang's disciples surrounded by enemies.
Without a single word, it was a simple and concise gesture of courtesy.
Yet no one could take their eyes off him. Not even Evil Tyrant Alliance who was threatening Wudang at that very moment, nor Thousand-Faced Gentleman who had been sneering at Baek Cheon.
Thousand-Faced Gentleman sneered.
“What meaningless...”
“Shut your mouth.”
As Baek Cheon cut him off, Thousand-Faced Gentleman's face twisted with rage. No matter that he was Evil Sects and the other was a rising star of Righteous Sects, these were not words he should hear from a young brat who hadn't lived even half his years.
However, Baek Cheon did not even glance at Thousand-Faced Gentleman and only stared earnestly at Wudang.
“You wouldn’t understand. No, you wouldn't want to understand. But... listen well."
Baek Cheon looked straight at Wudang's disciples and said.
"There's no such thing as worthless will in the world."
For an instant, the shoulders of the Wudang disciples trembled faintly.
"Be it belief, duty, or the chivalry held in one's heart. Whatever the reason, we fight. Even if we must pay a sacrifice, even if we lose what we must not lose. Even if!"
Baek Cheon pressed his lips together briefly, then spoke again.
“Even if it fades under ridicule.”
Amidst a silence that didn't fit the battlefield, Baek Cheon confirmed.
That the eyes of Wudang disciples shaking with despair and self-reproach calmly settled, then soon filled again with firm will.
Only then did Baek Cheon's gaze turn to Thousand-Faced Gentleman. Unlike before, it was as merciless and sharp as a sharpened blade.
“Know this, Evil Sects.”
“...”
“We do not fight solely to survive. We fight to protect, and we fight to leave something behind. The death of one who fights only to survive may be worthless, but the death of one who fights to leave something behind never loses its value. With that life, what had to be protected was protected.”
Thousand-Faced Gentleman twisted his lips in a sneer.
“What had to be protected?”
"Yes."
"Then... if even that which had been protected is trampled, does it really become a dog's death?"
"No. You won't have that chance."
Seureureung.
Baek Cheon drew again the sword he had sheathed and leveled it at Thousand-Faced Gentleman.
“Because we’ve arrived.”
No sooner had those words ended than a person soared up from the cliff like a flying bird.
Tak.
The one who leaped high to atop the cliff landed lightly beside Baek Cheon as light as a feather.
“Late.”
“Right, Samae.”
And following that, two more shadows soared up the cliff, and again two people climbed the cliff and filled the space behind Baek Cheon.
“Damn it! Wudang people…!”
“There are still survivors. Calm down.”
"This..."
While Jo-Gol bit his lip until it bled to suppress his soaring anger, Yoon Jong also quietly chewed on his rage.
Hye Yeon, who walked behind, let out Buddha's roar with a heavy face, and Tang Gun-ak standing behind Baek Cheon glared at Thousand-Faced Gentleman with gravely sunken eyes.
Baek Cheon spoke in a straight voice without the slightest wavering.
"Because we won't let that happen."
Thousand-Faced Gentleman’s gaze, which had been glaring silently at Baek Cheon, slid back to Wudang disciples. Even Thousand-Faced Gentlemen could feel that the eyes of the bastards whose will had been extinguished had come back to life.
'Damn it. These half-dead bastards.'
Those bastards who barely opened frozen eyes and waited only for time to die were now preparing to fight to the very end.
'An hour... No.'
If he had held them off for just seven minutes more, he could have finished off all the exhausted Wudang bastards. Then he could have taken his time trampling the ones hanging from the cliff and those who had reached the summit only to gape in despair.
However, dwelling on regret for too long was a waste.
As Thousand-Faced Gentleman lightly clenched and unclenched his hand, blood trickled down from the wound inflicted by Tang Gun-ak. The throbbing pain only stoked his anger further.
Letting them climb all the way up here was clearly something that should be called a failure. Getting injured while rashly trying to stop those bastards was also foolish.
But he hasn't yet lost his advantageous position.
'Rather... Right, this is good.'
Since they have climbed this far, there will be no retreat for them either. If he wiped out even Mount Hua here, he would achieve a greater feat than merely erasing Wudang.
And at that moment, he saw Mount Hua disciples who broke through the cliff surging one by one to the summit. He couldn’t let them establish a foothold any further.
"Babbling so much with just that meager number. This is why Righteous Sects bastards."
The eyes of flustered Evil Tyrant Alliance martial artists regained composure at the word 'numbers.'
Right. Even if the situation had changed slightly, the fact that they held the absolute advantage remained unchanged.
“Kill them all!”
Thousand-Faced Gentleman shouted unlike himself, even loading internal strength.
“Tear them to shreds and make them realize clearly that they have rolled right into a tiger’s maw! Make this place their grave today!”
“Ooooooooh!”
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
The excited Evil Tyrant Alliance martial artists charged toward Mount Hua disciples standing at the edge of the cliff.
"They're coming, Sasuk!"
At Yoon Jong's shout, Baek Cheon aimed his sword forward.
Before his eyes were countless enemies, and Wudang disciples still surrounded amidst them.
Could he save them?
'No need to think.'
Doing what was possible wasn’t desperation.
What was important was that they ran here for their sake. And behind him were none other than his sahyungs.
"Mount Hua!"
"Yes!"
Mount Hua swordsmen who had climbed the cliff answered thunderously at the top of their lungs.
“Break through the enemy and save Wudang!”
“Taaaaaaat!”
No sooner had Baek Cheon's words ended than Yoon Jong and Jo-Gol shot forward like beams of light. Right behind them followed the other Mount Hua disciples.
Like lightning striking into the surging waves.
The hem of Tang Gun-ak’s robe fluttered as he kicked off the ground, and the demon-like faces of the rushing Evil Tyrant Alliance martial artists drew closer. Each other's energy sweeps, and twisted air pushes out as if to burst.
Beyond that intense space, Baek Cheon's gaze met Mu Jin's gaze in the air.
In a world flowing slowly as if time were warped, Mu Jin’s one remaining eye formed an arc utterly out of place in this brutal situation.
The meaning of that smile did not matter.
Imprinting a silent nod of acknowledgment in his heart, Baek Cheon kicked off the ground and charged with his sword aimed.
'Right.'
Why must we fight?
Why must we volunteer for sacrifice?
Why can't we retreat even knowing clearly it’s foolish?
The answer is here.
It's not about surviving. Even if powerless, even if lacking.
'It's about protecting.'
If only it could be achieved, it could surely be left behind. His will, his life. They can pass it on to those who will protect his back and to those who will advance forward.
"Mount Hua's Baek Cheon is here! Come at me, all of you!”
His thunderous voice, his sword energy, and his expression radiated light with one single will.
As if never to be extinguished.
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