Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1735 – What is Right? (5)
Editor: Hoamzz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Cleaning up after a battle was harder than one might think.
Especially when that battle ended in a way that couldn’t escape the label of 'defeat', the one commanding the army was bound to face numerous problems.
Fallen morale, cut supply lines, enemies who might attack again at any moment...
And above all, the anxiety that the next battle might lead to another defeat.
Fixing all of that was no different from trying to restore a completely shapeless rag back into its perfect original form.
Nevertheless, Malice Rakshasa Ho Gamyeong, who was in charge of Evil Tyrant Alliance's chief strategist, was surprisingly managing everything without too much difficulty.
He was even a person who could fully understand and accept that such work wouldn't be possible with his abilities alone.
Just like right now.
The hastily erected tent was rather crude to be called splendid or luxurious. Rather, desolate would be a more fitting description. Yet, anyone who had set foot here never dared to utter such words.
Because of the large chair placed in the center inside of the tent and the one person leaning lazily against it.
Despite not emitting any particular aura or doing anything grand, the man completely dominated the inside of this large tent with his presence alone.
"So?"
Jang Ilso, leaning crookedly against the wide chair, asked while casting an indifferent glance.
"I don't really like beating around the bush. What do you want to say?"
Sun Palace Master Jin Pyeong bit his lip.
Throb.
The wound inflicted by that brat from Mount Hua in the previous battle still throbbed. It was an injury that could have easily threatened his life. Of course, the physical scar from that battle no longer remained, but the memory of that moment could neither be erased nor burned away.
But the pain that now truly tormented the Sun Palace Master was not left by that brat. The Sun Palace Master spoke as if chewing his words.
"Thousand-Faced Gentleman... What do you intend to do about that bastard?"
The Sun Palace Master's eyes, boiling with rage, seemed about to pierce through Jang Ilso.
"Ryeonju must have clearly heard that he attacked me! Yet why is he strutting around here alive and well! Why!"
The enraged shout reverberated loudly inside the tent.
In fact, saying that the Thousand-Faced Gentleman was strutting around this place was a lie. He had gone into seclusion since the last battle.
But everyone knew what the Sun Palace Master wanted to say.
“Answer me, Ryeonju! Is this how Evil Tyrant Alliance does things?”
What enraged the Sun Palace Master, who had wandered on the brink of death for days before barely regaining consciousness, wasn’t the defeat. Nor was it the lives of the palace warriors that had disappeared.
It was the fact that the one who had assaulted him and brought about this entire situation had received no punishment whatsoever.
He found it incredibly difficult to tolerate this complacent handling.
“I’m not asking right now!”
Jang Ilso did not so much as twitch, merely gazing at the Sun Palace Master before him with narrowed eyes. Then he said in an indifferent voice.
"I'm telling you for the second time. I hate beating around the bush. Just state your conclusion."
Jang Ilso slowly leaned his body forward from its reclined position. Then he thrust his head towards the Sun Palace Master and asked in a hushed tone.
"What do you want? Tell me. What do you want?"
“...That bastard’s neck.”
“...Mm.”
"At the very least, an arm. No, I must have at least one leg. Otherwise, my anger won't subside!"
Jang Ilso tapped his cheek somewhat exaggeratedly with his long fingers as if deep in thought.
"If this matter isn’t settled, our Sun Palace will return to the Southern Sea right now. This is..."
"A warning? Or a threat? Which is it?"
The Sun Palace Master couldn't continue and closed his mouth. Jang Ilso's eyes, smiling with his chin resting on his hand, felt infinitely cold.
"It's not difficult. Yes, it's not difficult. If you commit a crime, you deserve to be punished. Isn't that so?"
Just as the Sun Palace Master was about to quickly nod his head.
"However... then it would be a bit unfair, wouldn't it?"
“...Unfair?”
"Thousand-Faced Gentleman committed a sin. He attacked a comrade. However... if that is a sin worthy of having an arm cut off, then what kind of punishment should the one who became the direct cause of our defeat by failing to stop those mere brats receive?"
At that moment, the Sun Palace Master's face visibly hardened.
“Ryeonju, that's..."
"Answer me. What punishment should they receive?"
It wasn't that the Sun Palace Master had nothing to say. He simply couldn't answer. The killing intent filling Jang Ilso's smiling face was visible even to the naked eye.
The fear of Jang Ilso, which he had temporarily forgotten due to his boiling anger, cooled the Sun Palace Master's blood in an instant.
"I..."
But he didn't back down easily. Not because anger came first. Because the Sun Palace's pride was the Sun Palace Master himself. For that reason alone, he couldn't retreat like this.
The Sun Palace Master bit his lip hard.
“If that is Ryeonju’s answer… We'll return to the Southern Sea."
Jang Ilso let out a sigh as if truly regretful and shook his head.
"Tsk, tsk. Why do you act so foolishly the more you go on?"
“...Ryeonju!”
"Don't you understand yet? There is no longer any path for you to return to."
Jin Pyeong, taking Jang Ilso's words as a threat, gritting his teeth. But Jang Ilso's following words were a little different.
"The war will end now. Because neither we nor they have the strength to continue this war. Then what will happen after that?"
For a moment, Jin Pyeong's eyes shook briefly.
To reiterate, Jin Pyeong was by no means a foolish man. So he couldn't fail to understand those words.
After the war ends, the victors and losers would be divided.
With most of their available strength already mobilized, there would be no conclusion where they simply inflict appropriate damage on each other and redraw boundaries. Only a conclusion where one side is completely crushed would exist.
If that happens...
Could the victor who had swallowed all the blood and resentment be satisfied with just the fullness of swallowing the Jungwon land?
When Jin Pyeong couldn't say a word, Jang Ilso chuckled aloud.
"The moment you step into the mud, it's impossible to escape without getting dirty. Either you survive a complete mess... or you die there. Only one of the two exists."
"This..."
"And it's somewhat a pity, but... to survive in that mud, you have to use whatever you can, don't you? Even if it's a son of a dog who drives a dagger into a comrade's chest."
Jin Pyeong's face trembled. Unable to endure the rage and humiliation any longer, he was about to twist his body away when Jang Ilso smiled and spoke again.
"Let's do half. Half of the wealth Hao Sect has accumulated so far. That should be more than sufficient as compensation, don't you think?"
Jin Pyeong stared at Jang Ilso with slightly surprised eyes.
"If it's insufficient, I'll add a bit too. There's some fault of mine for not managing properly. I've set aside some of the treasures the old Black Ghost Fortress had accumulated, so it should be enough to save face. How about it, are you satisfied?"
After a moment's consideration, the Sun Palace Master slowly nodded.
He hadn't actually come expecting compensation or anything, but the wealth Jang Ilso just offered was an amount that would dumbfound even the Sun Palace Master. With that money, he couldn’t only solidify the Sun Palace's position but also quickly stabilize Yunnan, which would fall into their hands after the war.
For that much money, he would endure any amount of anger.
"The promise must be..."
"Of course."
Jang Ilso lifted the liquor bottle before him and tilted it towards an empty cup.
"I've never broken a promise even once until now."
His snake-like eyes stared intently as if piercing through the Sun Palace Master. A smile still lingered on his face.
"Drink. Liquor is good medicine for shaking off stale emotions."
Jin Pyeong reached out and took the cup. Though he hesitated briefly, he soon slowly drank the alcohol.
Jang Ilso watched him with a broad smile.
Jin Pyeong didn't know.
Jang Ilso's chilling gaze leaking between his beautifully curved, languid eyes.
An endlessly cold and deep gaze, like a bottomless abyss, was drawing the Sun Palace Master Jin Pyeong into its distant depths.
After Sun Palace Master left, Jang Ilso, remaining in the tent, lifted the cup filled with liquor and quietly looked down at the liquor rippling as if it would overflow at any moment.
Remarkably, it remained in the cup without spilling. Just like Evil Tyrant Alliance now.
“Would he be satisfied?”
At Ho Gamyeong's question, Jang Ilso said while still keeping his gaze on the cup.
"That's not important. What's needed at times like this isn't satisfaction, but acceptance."
"Acceptance..."
"To put it more simply, an acceptable justification, isn't it?"
Jang Ilso smiled brightly.
"Despite how he looks, he's a person of noble status. Such men sometimes value grand justifications more than practical gains."
Ho Gamyeong nodded in agreement.
The wealth wasn't important. What mattered was obtaining that wealth under the name of Hao Sect's apology and Evil Tyrant Alliance’s compensation. For the Sun Palace Master, this would be a sufficient achievement to present to his Palace warriors.
'How pathetic.'
He admitted that from the Sun Palace Master's perspective, there were grounds that felt unfair. Even if the Sun Palace Master tried to hold Ho Gamyeong responsible and strike his neck, it would be understandable.
But the current handling was truly pathetic. If he bore a grudge against Hao Sect Sect Leader, he should simply go find him directly. Though he'd gone into seclusion, he hadn't left the battlefield either. To seek out Jang Ilso to discuss Hao Sect Sect Leader's matter...
'Perhaps he never had any intention of punishing Hao Sect Sect Leader in the first place.'
Or maybe it was a calculation that they couldn't afford to lose such fighting power on the eve of war. Either way, this will keep the Sun Palace Master quiet for the time being.
“It’s always like this.”
"Tes?"
"Always on the edge."
Jang Ilso spoke while quietly gazing at the cup that seemed about to spill.
"Going all out is far from stability. Problems are bound to occur, and things are inevitably bound to shake. As if it'll violently shake and burst at any moment."
Ho Gamyeong nodded unconsciously.
"Being able to handle that would be an ability."
The murmuring Jang Ilso suddenly threw his gaze toward the tent entrance where the Sun Palace Master had exited.
"Young children are rather easy to handle. If you put candy in their mouth, they stop crying."
"Are you worried about Thousand-Faced Gentleman?"
"Even aged ginger is easier to handle than you might think. Those who value their own lives above all else don't take risks. No matter if their grudge is as deep as the sea."
Jang Ilso's eyes sank gloomily.
"The truly hard ones to handle... are those whose desires aren't clear."
Ho Gamyeong realized who Jang Ilso was talking about.
“That time, where were they?”
“They climbed the mountain and entered Wudang.”
"No, no. Gamyeong-ah, what I'm asking is what happened after."
"...Huh?"
"They were untraceable for about a day after that. Then they calmly rejoined the alliance. Isn't that right?"
Ho Gamyeong answered that it was. But inwardly, he was puzzled.
Such a thing could happen at any time, couldn't it? Especially on a battlefield where lives come and go.
It was right after a great defeat. Even if they had spent a day deliberating whether it was right to remain with Evil Tyrant Alliance, there would be little to fault. No one has more than one life.
Yet Jang Ilso, who should know this better than anyone, was making an issue of it.
"Ryeonju-nim. They are..."
"I know, Gamyeong-ah. There's nothing certain in this world."
It seemed they were communicating, yet they were strangely out of sync. But before Ho Gamyeong could even figure out the reason for that gap, Jang Ilso opened his mouth.
"However. Even if I can't make it certain, I can put a blade to their throats, can't I?"
“...”
"Bring the Blood Palace Master."
The corners of Jang Ilso's mouth rose eerily.
"I'm quite curious, you see. Just what exactly he’s thinking."
The eyes that had been quiet as if sunk throughout also began to boil ominously again.
Consider supporting me by subscribing on Patreon for 5$. The Patreon membership for Mount Hua and Infinite Mage is the same. The benefit:
Advance chapters of Mount Hua : 35
Advance chapters of Magic Realm Convenience Store Worker : 144 Chapters
Advance chapters of Got a Gallery in the Wild : 10
Comments Box