Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1721 – I Can't Help Losing It (2)
Editor: Hoamzz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
"Hyung!"
The child runs with all their might.
“Hyuuuuuuung!”
Small hands stretch out pitifully toward a back that remains out of reach. Unlike the child's very small hand, the back was broad. In the child's eyes, the back that seems endlessly strong grows increasingly distant.
"Let's go together! Together, Hyung!"
The child raises their voice with all their strength, but that back just kept getting farther and farther away. No matter how desperately the child runs, the distance doesn't narrow at all.
"Hyuuuuuuuuuung!"
The child, sensing they can no longer catch up to the one ahead, lets out a scream that seems to tear their throat.
At that moment, the one who had become far away slowly turned his head.
The child running at full speed flinched and stopped. Because the eyes of the one who turned around seemed too indifferent.
- Go back.
A voice that seemed to echo resoundingly. Not even a fragment of emotion could be felt within.
- It is beyond you.
The child's tightly clenched fist trembles.
"W- Why?"
Resentment fills the child's eyes.
"Me too... I might be able to do it too! If I try! If I try harder..."
- It is beyond you.
But even at the child's desperate cry, the man's gaze didn't change in the slightest.
- Go back. Desires beyond your station will only make you unhappy.
The child, grinding their teeth, tried to shout once more. However, the figure visible in the distance had already disappeared like a mirage.
"Ah..."
The child's eyes shake greatly.
"Hyung!"
Why? Why won't you even give me a chance? I only wished for a chance to stand in the same place.
The child didn't want to be ahead. They didn't want to surpass and prove their worth. What the child wanted was simply to be by his side. Just a place to walk together.
Then why won't he grant even that?
"Ah..."
So, was that why the child couldn't have it?
No. They had it.
"You?"
Other people appear before the child's eyes.
Black martial robes and the plum blossom pattern engraved on their chests. The place 'where he should be,' finally found after crossing a very long road.
“Samae… Yoon Jong-ah, Gol-ah!”
It didn't have to be Jin Geumryong's side. Now he had people to walk the path with.
However….
"Why are you looking at me like that…?"
The gazes directed at him were unfamiliar. Those who always gave him warm looks were now casting only icy stares, as if a blizzard were raging.
“Guys?”
When he carefully called out, the three people watching him turned around all at once and showed their backs. At the same time, they too vanished like a mirage.
"G- Guys! Where.... Where are you going!"
The child instinctively reached out his hand in desperation.
But nothing was caught in that hand. In the place where those who walked together disappeared, only empty space remained.
"Why…?"
Why are they leaving him behind? Why?
The child looked around vacantly. Nothing was visible. A desolate and barren space. The only one standing in this place where even light was faint was him alone.
“Where did everyone go!”
Fear began to cloud the child's face. No, perhaps it wasn't fear but sorrow.
"Why…."
The child frantically scanned his surroundings. But no matter how he looked, there was nothing to see.
"Ah!"
But then, a faint light was visible in the distance. Though it seemed ready to go out at any moment, it was certainly light.
The child ran toward that light as if there was no need to think further.
"Heuk! Heuk!"
His breath came in ragged gasps, and his body felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.
Even so, he ran until his body felt like it might break apart. He called out the name of the one wrapped in faint light until his throat was hoarse.
“Chung Myuuuung-aaaaaaaaaaaahh!”
The owner of that back, familiar yet somehow strange, slowly turned his gaze to meet the child’s eyes.
“Chu- Chung Myung. Me too… Let me go with you too! Me too!"
Chung Myung’s mouth, which had been motionless as if soaked in indifference, slowly opened.
- Can you come?
"What...?"
- I'm asking if you can come.
The child’s face twisted horribly.
"I can go! I can do it too!"
But Chung Myung's gaze remained unchanged. Those eyes, which looked more inorganic than alive, pierced through the child.
- How?
"…What?"
- Can you really come? It seems you have nothing left now.
"What does that mean..."
The child's eyes, tinged with doubt, wavered. Then, a sneer he had never seen before spread across Chung Myung's face.
- You really don't know?
It was then.
"Huh?"
The surroundings instantly blurred. No, in fact, it was the child who was breaking apart.
As if pitch-black ink was spreading from his feet to his entire body, the child's body literally began to crumble.
"Ah, ahhh..."
Looking down at his body being consumed by pitch-black darkness, the child finally let out a tearing scream.
"Ugh... Aaaaaaaagh!"
* * *
The hazy and blurry vision gradually became clearer.
Following the sensation of having sunk deep underwater, a creeping sense of buoyancy brought a slimy discomfort that seemed to strangle him.
'Where...?'
It was unfamiliar. The scent brushing his nose was familiar, but his still-blurry vision took in only strange sights.
Baek Cheon, barely managing to lift his eyelids that felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, slowly turned his gaze to the side.
He saw familiar curly hair.
'Jo-Gol....'
And beside him was a somewhat unfamiliar… No, more precisely, someone whose appearance sleeping face-down by the bed felt unfamiliar.
'Samae.'
After quietly looking at them, Baek Cheon slowly raised his gaze to the ceiling once more.
He survived.
‘I really did survive. I really did.’
A light cough leaked out. As soon as he became aware that he still had breath, tingling pain surged throughout his entire body.
'How long was I unconscious?'
It felt like a thick fog had settled in his head. His thoughts were sluggish. Sure enough, drowsiness began to weigh him down again.
Just as Baek Cheon couldn't handle the sleep that kept surging and was in a half-dreaming state, one side of the curtain surrounding the bed was drawn back and someone walked inside.
“Sasuk? Have you regained consciousness?”
"Uh, huh?"
At those words, Jo-Gol, who had been dozing off, jerked his head up in surprise. Then, as soon as he saw Baek Cheon with his eyes open, he leaped and came right up to the bedside.
"Y- You're really awake? No, Sahyung! I wasn't sleeping..."
"Shh."
Yoon Jong, who gently pushed Jo-Gol aside, asked Baek Cheon with a tense face.
"Are you alright?"
Baek Cheon's half-closed eyes opened with difficulty again. As he parted his lips to speak, his parched lips cracked open.
"Water! Gol-ah, bring some water!"
"Here it is, Sahyung."
Jo-Gol was already quick-wittedly pouring the water from the kettle into a bowl. Taking the bowl, Yoon Jong carefully trickled the water into Baek Cheon’s mouth.
“Cough.”
Baek Cheon coughed again.
The foreign sensation was extreme, as if swallowing thorns rather than water. Yet, thanks to that pain, his fading consciousness actually cleared up a bit.
"Sasuk."
"Sit..."
The words wouldn't come out well. Baek Cheon bit his lips and opened them forcefully again.
"Sit... me up..."
“Gol-ah.”
"Yep!"
Jo-Gol quickly moved to Yoon Jong's opposite side. Together, they carefully supported Baek Cheon and helped him sit up.
"Can you stay sitting?"
Baek Cheon nodded with difficulty. A hoarse voice leaked out sporadically from his swollen lips.
“How long… was I… unconscious…?”
Yoon Jong hesitated briefly before speaking.
"Sasuk was unconscious for five days."
"That long..."
“Yes, it was really dangerous.”
Baek Cheon nodded faintly and opened his mouth again.
“Here?”
"Wudang."
“What about… Evil Tyrant Alliance?”
"They have retreated. There has been no significant movement since then."
Baek Cheon stared intently at Yoon Jong. Under his gaze, Yoon Jong began explaining things he hadn’t even been asked.
"Don't worry, Sasuk. A few are injured, but they'll recover quickly."
“….”
"And... Wudang suffered significant damage, but at least the worst was avoided. If Wudang's disciples work hard, they'll be able to continue the sect's lineage. This is all thanks to Sasuk."
Baek Cheon's gaze slowly sank deeper.
"Yes, Sasuk. You really did something great. Really."
Even that rascal Jo-Gol started singing praise he never normally made. His expression was incredibly awkward.
“….”
Baek Cheon, who had been blankly looking at the two, slowly moved his gaze.
Yoo Iseol. Unlike the previous two, his samae was silently watching him from the foot of the bed. Not with her usual indifferent eyes, but with strangely melancholic eyes.
Yoon Jong said.
"Right now... your body must feel heavy, but that is because your injuries were so severe. We’ve been told the treatment went well, so you should recover soon.”
Instead of answering that question, Baek Cheon asked a different question.
“What about Chung Myung?”
“Ah… That punk… That jerk, where did he go when Sasuk just woke up!"
Jo-Gol suddenly burst into anger.
To Baek Cheon's eyes, all of this scene looked bizarre. It was as if everyone were putting on a play wearing ill-fitting clothes.
"You guys..."
Seureureureuk.
The moment Baek Cheon moved his body slightly, the cloth covering his upper body slid down. Looking down inadvertently, Baek Cheon was rendered speechless and clamped his mouth shut.
Even wrapped in bandages, the shape of the body was revealed. The two arms hidden beneath the tight wrappings were wretchedly thin, unlike in his memories.
“Huh.”
Jo-Gol hurriedly grabbed the cloth and pulled it up to Baek Cheon's neck again.
“Your condition isn’t good right now, so you need to rest a bit more.”
"Gol-ah."
“After you sleep a little more….”
"Remove it."
“Sasuk.”
"Hurry."
Though lacking strength, the voice was firm. At the repeated urging, Jo-Gol's eyes begged for help to Yoon Jong.
But did Yoon Jong have any better solution? Yoon Jong too soon nodded while tightly closing his eyes as if resigned.
Jo-Gol sighed briefly and reluctantly lowered the cloth covering Baek Cheon's body.
In the silence, Baek Cheon's eyes darkened.
Withered branches.
That was the first thing that came to Baek Cheon's mind. His arms wrapped in bandages were no longer what was in his memory.
Yoon Jong said while struggling to hide his devastation.
“It’s because the injuries were deep, Sasuk. Since Tang Gaju-nim is doing his best, soon..."
"Unwrap the bandages."
“Sasuk. Right now….”
“Yoon Jong-ah.”
“….”
"Unwrap them."
Yoon Jong bit his lower lip. Then, as if bracing himself, he took hold of the bandages on Baek Cheon's arm. The motion of unwrapping the bandages was slow, as if unwilling.
Silence flowed.
Finally, Baek Cheon's arm was revealed.
A skeletal arm with parts blackened and discolored. Like that of a hundred-year-old man, only skin and bones remained. That sight was painfully etched into Baek Cheon's eyes.
“Sasuk.”
“….”
Even at Yoon Jong's call, Baek Cheon looked down at his arm silently for a long while. Then he slowly raised his head.
Yoo Iseol silently pulled back the curtains surrounding the bed. Beyond the wide-open window, a clear blue sky spread out.
Baek Cheon fixed his gaze on the sky.
'So that's how it is…'
Not even his fingertips trembled. His will no longer resided in his arm.
'So it is....'
- It seems you have nothing left now.
These were the broken and snapped wings of a bird, and the bars confining a bird that could never fly into the sky again.
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