Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1698
Editor: Hoamz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Tak.
An emptied liquor cup was placed on the table.
How many rounds have passed already? Though empty bottles were increasing one by one, the two looked at each other with cold eyes without a single change in complexion.
It was quiet, yet it couldn’t be condemned or belittled as peaceful.
It wasn’t a battle fought risking lives with blades clashing against one another, but the current flowing between the two sitting face-to-face was even sharper than that.
“Did you say it was a delusion?”
"Yes."
Jang Ilso's eyebrows twitch slightly.
"Hm, well. What's the delusion? I don't think I said anything wrong."
"That's why you can't understand me."
Chung Myung said with an emotionless face.
"Knowing well and understanding are similar but different realms. You may know me well, but you cannot understand me. Probably never."
Jang Ilso curled up the corners of his mouth as if amused.
"Hmm. That's rather a sad thing to say. But... weren't we discussing something else? What is it you think I'm mistaken about?"
“That they think the same way I do, and that what I intend to do is being carried out through them.”
Chung Myung smirked as if he found it funny even after saying it.
“That’s not even funny.”
“...Are you saying it isn't?”
"You'd have no choice but to think so. Because that’s who you are.”
Jang Ilso narrowed his eyes. An unpleasant expression was evident. But Chung Myung paid no mind and continued.
"To you, the world would be something imperfect composed only of imperfect things."
Chung Myung's gaze was fixed not on Jang Ilso but on the sky. He stared at the stars that had not lost their light even amidst the hazy smoke.
“So you can’t trust them. People who are lacking and pathetic compared to you, not a single one of them.”
Jang Ilso's bright red lips parted slightly. Soon, he revealed his white teeth and smiled brightly.
"My, my. You said I couldn't understand, yet you seem to understand quite well?”
Jang Ilso slowly rose to his tall stature. Then he looked down at Chung Myung sitting before him. Simultaneously, he picked up a liquor bottle placed on the table.
“Let me ask you the reverse. Then in your eyes, are these people so trustworthy?”
He turned his body and began to walk slowly. It was in the direction where Heo Dojin-in lay fallen.
“Look.”
Standing directly in front of Heo Dojin, who was barely sustaining his breath, Jang Ilso looked down at him with eyes mixed with contempt and mockery. No, he looked at Chung Myung.
“This is reality.”
“....”
“He must have believed it himself. That he had improved, that he was different from the past, that with his present self, he could do anything."
Chung Myung's face turned cold.
“Whether it be a sense of duty, or Chivalrousness… whatever the basis was. But..."
Jang Ilso slowly tilted the liquor bottle.
Drip, drip, drip.
The flowing liquor poured down on Heo Do Jin-in's head. His blood-soaked head soaked with the clear liquor.
Chung Myung's eyes glaring at Jang Ilso became even colder. Jang Ilso smiled as if he were trying to hide his true feelings.
“And this is the result, isn’t it? Sad and pitiful, but this is reality. This is the result of that great belief."
Drip, drip, drip.
"And so there's no choice but to mourn. Those alive, yet dead..."
Chaeaeng!
At that moment, the liquor bottle Jang Ilso was holding shattered into pieces. The liquor that hadn't fully poured out soaked Jang Ilso’s sleeve and trousers.
The Red Hounds that had been silently guarding Jang Ilso’s side bristled.
“You dare...!”
“Tsk.”
But Jang Ilso silenced them with a single click of his tongue, then quietly gazed at his wet clothes before picking up the bottle, which was now bare except for its neck. He even shook it like a child’s toy.
"Oh my, will this do? What you really want to cut is my neck, right?"
His powdered face began to be tinged with eeriness.
"Instead of spouting nonsense about trusting those people and just making noise, why don't you..."
Jang Ilso's long nails slowly drew across his neck horizontally.
“How about trying it yourself?”
Chung Myung's eyes sank coldly.
“You must think that’s the more certain method as well. Isn’t that right?”
He stared piercingly at Jang Ilso's white neck. He could cut it. Just as Jang Ilso said.
Even with countless enemies here, it was possible.
If he risked all dangers, if he resolved to offer his life, perhaps he could create an instant where his sword touches Jang Ilso's throat.
But instead of gripping his sword, Chung Myung picked up his cup.
"The liquor's empty."
Jang Ilso, who had fallen silent as if speechless for a moment, let out a deep sigh as if he had never emitted that eeriness.
“So it doesn’t work.”
Then he trudged back and sat opposite Chung Myung again. Propping his chin and staring at Chung Myung, he asked.
"Then what?"
"What?"
"Is the world you see different from the world I see? Is the world in your eyes exceedingly beautiful and perfect?"
Even as he asked, his mockery only deepened. As if he were ready to mock whatever answer came out.
But Chung Myung didn’t blink an eye, let alone change his expression.
“No way.”
"...Hm?"
"Same for me. The world is still absurd, those filling that absurd world are unreliable, pathetic even."
Jang Ilso frowned as if he hadn’t expected this. Chung Myung continued.
"But I've just realized something now."
"What is it?"
"That I, who believed myself more complete, failed thoroughly."
“....”
“I failed to protect what I wished to protect, and I failed to strike down what I wished to strike down. The goal I tried to achieve by staking everything collapsed, leaving nothing but wounds.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Discomfort began to cloud Jang Ilso's eyes.
Not the bewilderment felt because he couldn't understand, but a deep, rising displeasure from within.
"So aren't you trying to achieve through them?"
"Wrong, you idiot."
Chung Myung gritted his teeth. Anger and hostility flashed in his eyes as he looked at Jang Ilso.
“They are not my tools. Nor are they something that will fulfill my dreams. They're merely themselves."
“....”
“What I know is merely the fact that they can achieve the goal that I, who thought myself better, could not.”
Jang Ilso tried to say something, but Chung Myung sharply cut him off.
"Not knowing that is your limit. A bastard like you becomes helpless the moment you hit an insurmountable wall, and eventually throws even himself away. You don't dare to challenge what cannot be gained through effort and struggle alone.”
Jang Ilso's face hardened for a moment.
“But I am different. Even if I face what I can't overcome, I don't despair. Though sometimes frustrated and painful, I believe in one part of my heart. That even what can't be overcome with just my power ultimately has a way to overcome."
The expression on Jang Ilso's face vanished as if scattering. There was silence for a moment.
But soon, his eyes curved softly again.
"So that's them..."
He sighed deeply and shook his head.
"If jokes are that messy, it's hard to laugh even out of courtesy. Hm?"
Chung Myung closed his eyes.
The words he was about to speak were not his own.
It belonged to the one who had conveyed this meaning to him. A person greater than anyone, and stronger than anyone.
"Only those who know they are lacking can move forward."
“....”
"Words my sahyung said."
At that moment, Jang Ilso’s complexion was tinged with a strange light. It was an indescribable emotion mixed with disgust and bewilderment.
Jang Ilso, who gazed at Chung Myung strangely like that for a while, muttered languidly.
"Quite... a pathetic person it seems. To spout such meaningless nonsense."
Chung Myung chuckled.
It felt like facing a mirror.
Not meaning they were the same or similar. Because none of his words reach Jang Ilso. They probably never will, not until the moment this man’s breath stops.
It was like conversing with someone in a mirror you face but can never touch.
What meaning could his words have to this man?
"You asked. What I'd do if they betray my belief."
“I did.”
"I'll answer. No, I'll promise."
The corners of Chung Myung's previously still lips twitched upwards, a chilling smirk that would have even the world-renowned Jang Ilso hold his breath for a moment.
Paaaaat!
Instantly, a sword was drawn from Chung Myung's scabbard like lightning. It was such terrifying speed that the Red Hounds, who had been guarding their master in high tension the whole time, couldn’t even react.
Kaaaaaaaang!
The blade met Jang Ilso's outstretched hand right in front of his face.
Geugeuegeuk!
The rings adorning his fingers screamed. With the sword and the hand between them, Chung Myung met Jang Ilso’s gaze at close range, bared his snow-white teeth and growled.
"Then you... die here."
"Ha... Hahaha! Hahahaha!"
Loud laughter rang out thunderously. Jang Ilso's wide-open eyes were gleaming with a maddening light.
* * *
Snowflakes suddenly began falling over the cliff soaked in blood.
The sight of white flakes drifting elegantly through the air was truly beautiful. A scene naturally making one think the word ‘elegance’ (운치(韻致)) should be used for such times.
However, the moment one realizes that the identity of that delicate-looking snow was actually scattered sword energy, the poetic scene transforms into a scene of terrifying slaughter.
Sogeok! Sogeok!
“Keuk!”
The snow-like white sword energy mercilessly cut and pierced Sun Palace warriors' bodies.
"Damn it!"
As they began to crumble helplessly before the enemy who appeared out of nowhere, one Sun Palace warrior let out a roar and raised his Scorching Yang Internal Art even more fiercely.
But no matter how much energy he raised to protect his body, it was impossible to block all the sword energy raining down as if from the sky.
"Th-that sword..."
"Compose yourself first."
Muttering in shock, Namgung Dowi snapped back to his senses at the strong grip seizing his shoulder. He clenched the cliff hard and fixed his body more firmly in place.
Even if luck wasn't an option, he was given time to catch his breath. And that alone was a huge help to him now.
But he couldn't hide all his doubts.
“Plum blossoms….”
"It's a sword with quite a complicated backstory."
While infusing true energy into Namgung Dowi's body, Isong Baek wore a bitter smile.
‘The Twelve Snowfall Forms.’
A sword incomparably painful to Southern Edge Sect.
Once believed to open the future for Southern Edge Sect, now a symbol of the utmost shame.
However, while those who learned all circumstances were busy turning away and hiding that sword, Jin Geumryong wasn't. He didn't discard that sword.
He sneered coldly.
- Does it disappear if you turn away? That would be convenient.
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