Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1704
Editor: Hoamz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Yoon Jong's two eyes shook.
“Sasuk…?”
He was beginning to doubt whether Baek Cheon was in his right mind.
The enemy was formidable.
Martial prowess wasn't determined solely by power and internal strength, but even so, the Sun Palace Master's strength was at a level they had rarely ever experienced before.
Yet he intends to face such a person? The current Baek Cheon, who couldn't even display half his usual strength?
"Uh...."
Jo-Gol unconsciously reached out to Baek Cheon's back. It felt like Baek Cheon's body might melt away at any moment.
Yet, despite everyone's concerns, Baek Cheon remains unshaken. Like a single old pine tree rooted alone on a cliff.
Though his heart wished to step forward together, Jo-Gol hesitated for a moment. His body instinctively shrank from the heat surging from ahead.
That was why he couldn't help but marvel even more.
How could that person step forward?
This was a situation where even Mount Hua’s swordsmen, who had always charged ahead without fear on any battlefield, couldn’t rashly advance. Yet, how could Baek Cheon step forward like that?
Complex emotions swirled in Jo-Gol's eyes as he looked at Baek Cheon.
Jo-Gol blankly watched that back, which was infinitely confident yet also infinitely precarious.
Hot.
It felt like his skin was boiling. Each breath brought pain as if his lungs were being scorched.
He wanted to retreat right now.
He knows. Even if he retreats now, no one will blame him. No, they will rather defend him saying it was a wise decision.
But Baek Cheon didn't retreat.
Even if it meant melting away in this spot without leaving a single strand of hair, he has no intention of retreating at all.
Anyone can speak righteous words. Anyone can spout lofty talk as if they are something special. What was truly difficult was whether one could uphold the words they had spouted.
He puts strength into his feet. Not to move forward, but to not retreat. He pushes strength into the hand gripping the sword. Not to cut the enemy, but to not be broken.
This was a different fight from what Baek Cheon has done until now.
Everything was shaking. The hand holding the sword, the legs supporting his body. His sturdy body, even his long hair.
But his two eyes alone didn’t waver and stared straight at the Sun Palace Master opposite him.
The Sun Palace Master couldn't hide his absurd expression.
“...Are you trying to stop me now?”
This was a strangeness Sun Palace Master Jin Pyeong had never felt before.
Of course, there had been insolent bastards who dared to resist him. It was inevitable there would be those who didn't know their place.
But no one dared face him like this. They might discuss resistance where he wasn't present, but in his presence, they were busy trembling and prostrating themselves flat.
Those called strongmen (역사(力士)), those called heroes, even those who perhaps were called hope to someone. All were the same.
Yet here, a lowly person from the distant Jungwon was standing before him with dignity. It was different from Jang Ilso. This was a gaze the Sun Palace Master had never seen before.
"Looks like you'll lose consciousness any moment?"
He could tell at a glance.
That man’s condition wasn’t normal. It wasn't simply that he was weak.
At one time, he must have been far stronger than he was now. But what remained in that body was nothing more than the remnants of past glory.
“Yet you still won’t back down?”
A hollow laugh escaped the Sun Palace Master's mouth.
But even amidst that, he did not fail to notice. That those who had been retreating in fear of his power had stopped in their tracks the moment this man stepped forward.
It was funny.
No one would think this person could possibly block the Sun Palace Master. No one would hold any expectation that a man who has become a cripple could defeat him.
Yet they had stopped retreating. As if something had changed, even though nothing had.
That point grated on Sun Palace Master Jin Pyeong's nerves. A blazing golden light surged in his eyes.
"How dare a lowly bastard!"
Wooooooong!
Scorching Yang palm forces stretching from both hands split the air toward Baek Cheon's front.
The Sun Palace Master was certain that this palm force would either turn that person into a black charcoal lump or shatter his flimsy confidence and send him rolling on the ground.
However, the scene that unfolded a moment later was vastly different from his expectations.
Parararak.
A sound like something swaying was faintly heard gradually growing, and red sword energy bloomed from the swordsman's sword tip.
'...Flowers?'
It was sword energy resembling frail flower petals. It wasn't even complete. Lacking and imperfect like crushed and crumpled petals.
He intends to block this with such sword energy?
Even if it were complete, such frail sword energy could not possibly stand against his immense palm force, yet with such things not even fully bloomed... No, with already withered petals, what can be done?
Wooooong!
Sure enough, the petals shattered and melted away without a trace the moment they touched the Scorching Yang palm force.
But... they bloomed again.
Again. And again. Over and over again.
The Sun Palace Master opened his eyes slightly. The petals were blooming in full profusion, creating a massive forest of plum blossoms.
‘Such a sword exists?’
To him, it seemed truly bizarre to the extreme.
But so what?
"You who don't know your place!"
The Sun Palace Master doubled the power in his palm force. The palm force struck head-on, blowing away the entire plum blossom forest Baek Cheon had created.
Kwaaaaaaa!
The plum blossom sword energy was engulfed in crimson flames. The Sun Palace Master snorted as he looked at the spot where the sword energy subsided.
Then his eyes widened.
Baek Cheon was still standing there.
He hadn’t turned into a blackened lump of charcoal, nor was he pitifully rolling on the ground.
“This punk....”
Of course, it wasn't that his palm force had been completely ineffective.
Baek Cheon's sword was glowing red-hot as if pulled from a furnace, and the hand holding it was burned with his skin sticking to the hilt. The shoulders of his martial robe were charred and tattered, and the arm holding the sword was scorched in places, its condition clearly terrible at a glance.
The tips of his hair were singed, and blisters had risen from burns stretching from his left jaw to below his cheekbone.
So, it can be said that the Sun Palace Master's palm force was indeed punishing the insolent man before his eyes. But precisely because of that, an even greater wrath (노화(怒火)) welled up.
He won't back down? Even after being reduced to that state?
Unlike before, Baek Cheon’s body was now covered in wounds, yet his eyes weren’t the slightest bit different from before. Even while coughing up blood, his eyes stared straight at the Sun Palace Master with unwavering clarity.
“You insolent....”
A thousand fires raged inside the Sun Palace Master.
"How dare you look down on me as well!"
Kwaaaaaaaaaaah!
A terrifying palm force erupted. This time, he was determined to turn Baek Cheon into charcoal. The Scorching Yang palm force, imbued with immense internal strength, surged onward menacingly.
The moment Baek Cheon gripped his sword tightly with his half-melted hand.
“You lunatic!”
“Damn it!”
Two people flew in front of him. Including above his head, three... No, all four including the one supporting his back. Perhaps even more.
“Euaaaaaaap!”
Jo-Gol, Yoon Jong, and Yoo Iseol's swords unleashed red sword energy in streams.
"Ooooh!"
Soon Hye Yeon's fist force supporting Baek Cheon's shoulder harmonized with petals spreading in all directions and collided head-on with Sun Palace Master's Scorching Yang palm force.
Kwaaaaaaa!
A terrible heat burst out in all directions.
Their entire bodies instantly glowed red-hot, but the four people surrounding Baek Cheon as if to protect him didn’t retreat a single step.
“Keuk....”
A groan Yoon Jong ultimately couldn't endure squeezed out from his mouth.
‘To take this on alone….’
It felt as though every liquid in his body was boiling. Sweat vaporized into white steam the moment it emerged, unable to withstand the heat.
“Euaaaaaaap!”
But he clenched his teeth. Instead, he snarled and put more force into his sword strike.
Toooong!
The Sun Palace Master's palm force scattered and dispersed. Yoon Jong’s knees buckled after blocking the terrible blow.
“Ghk!”
Yoon Jong stabbed his sword into the ground to deal with the sudden loss of strength, then gritted his teeth and turned toward Baek Cheon.
"Did you decide to just die?”
“....”
"A man whose body isn't even whole, what on earth are you...!"
“Here.”
"What?"
“...You guys are here.”
Yoon Jong’s eyes trembled violently as he was left speechless.
But the surprise soon turned into an even greater anger.
Not anger toward the reckless Baek Cheon.
It was anger toward himself, who had failed to step forward before Baek Cheon, yet had still thought he could surpass him.
"If something really goes wrong because of this..."
"I've just realized."
Baek Cheon put strength into his mangled grip and lifted his sword. Its tip once again aimed at the Sun Palace Master. As if to say that even though his sahyungs had come to protect him, he had absolutely no intention of retreating from the vanguard.
"If I back down here, I'm truly just all talk."
Yoon Jong’s wavering eyes soon settled coldly. The killing intent that grazed his eyes was directed at the Sun Palace Master standing in their way.
Tak.
Whether they understood his feelings or had all already come to share the same feeling, Jo-Gol and Yoo Iseol stood beside Yoon Jong and together pointed their swords.
Yoon Jong glared at the Sun Palace Lord and opened his mouth.
“Jo-Gol.”
“Yes, Sahyung.”
"Kill him and open the path."
Jo-Gol didn't answer. There was no need. His heart was already pounding, yearning to charge forward this very moment.
Looking at these Mount Hua swordsmen, the Sun Palace Master's face contorted hideously with rage.
'Those bastards...'
Those who just moments ago were looking for a way to flee were now baring their teeth at him like beasts that had found prey. No, it was as if they were looking at a sworn enemy with whom they couldn’t share the same sky.
‘Remnants….’ (재(殘滓))
The one standing in front was clearly nothing more than what remained after everything had burned away. And yet….
'Could there be an ember within that?'
An ember to ignite something again?
“These… insignificant things dare!”
The Sun Palace Master's voice was filled with great rage. The rage that had been piling up all along now overflowed beyond restraint. Even those bastards lower than insects…
Paaaaat!
But that fury couldn't fully burst out, for before his voice could resonate through the heavens and earth, a torrent of red-hot swords surged toward him.
"Open the path!"
Like a fully drawn bow being released, Mount Hua's swordsmen became dozens of arrows and charged.
Bearing self-reproach and shame, rage and will.
They hadn't exchanged their intentions with words, but there was no need. They simply ran. Straight toward the blazing path opened by the one standing in front.
Kaaaaang!
The Sun Palace Master's hand struck down Jo-Gol's sword.
"This...!"
Pararak!
At that moment, hundreds of plum blossom petals drawn by Yoon Jong and Yoo Iseol wrapped around the Sun Palace Master’s entire body.
“You twerp!”
Pahat!
The moment Sun Palace Master, whose vision was blocked, gritted his teeth trying to move, plum blossom petals before his eyes stirred. And through them, someone flew in a straight line toward him.
'You...?'
Baek Cheon's face, with about half of one cheek cooked by burn,s rapidly approached.
The moment he saw the gaze that still hadn't changed even in this chaos, the Sun Palace Master's rage finally exploded like a volcano.
“Euaaaaaaaaak!”
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