Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1736. Can You Hold On? (1)
Editor: Hoamzz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Reading people's minds is a difficult task.
Ho Gamyeong thought so. Even without bringing up that saying about ten feet deep in water or whatever.
Among them, the one standing before him now was particularly difficult to fathom. Perhaps it was because of the red bandages wrapping that face, or perhaps it was because of those red eyes that made it impossible to know what he was thinking at all.
However, Ho Gamyeong believed the biggest reason he couldn't guess their intentions lay precisely in their 'origin'.
The Blood Palace.
They were an anomaly. Extremely so.
Though they were a martial sect, they didn't follow the rules of martial sects, and though they were from the outer land, they lived lives completely different from those of other outer palaces. What frustrated Ho Gamyeong the most was that he couldn't figure out what goal they were living for.
As far as he knew, the Blood Palace was a religion. Weren't they called the Blood Cult rather than the Blood Palace in the past?
That made it even harder to understand.
Most religions that exist in the world have two common goals. One was to follow and understand the will of the one they serve, the other was precisely to spread that will.
This was precisely what Ho Gamyeong failed to understand about the Blood Palace. Though they wore the guise of religion, they didn't proselytize. They simply lived in places untouched by human footsteps, following only their own doctrines.
Thus, he couldn't know. What goal did the leader of a non-proselytizing religion live for. Where all his breathing, walking, and thinking were ultimately headed.
Someone might think there's nothing strange about this, that such a religion could exist. But if so, one question inevitably arose anew.
That question was, 'Then why did they step back into the world?'
But there was no way to resolve that question. The Blood Palace Master, standing like a withered and twisted old tree, showed not even the slightest room for communication.
'Can I figure it out?'
Could even Jang Ilso, his master, fathom that man's inner thoughts?
Just as Ho Gamyeong was harboring such doubts, Jang Ilso opened his mouth. Along with his characteristic nasal tone.
“Hmm.”
Jang Ilso looked at the Blood Palace Master. Deep interest was in his eyes.
“How is it?”
“…….”
"Is the world you've seen after crawling out of that dark and dirty cave so enjoyable?"
At those words, the bandages wrapped around the Blood Palace Master's face twitched slightly.
"It might be. However... If so, shouldn’t you rather know? That you may one day return to that filthy cave again.”
A subtle glow of bloodlust welled up in the Blood Palace Master’s eyes as he gazed at Jang Ilso. However, Jang Ilso continued speaking without stopping.
“You know.”
Jang Ilso chuckles.
"There's no other path anyway. Because now even that filthy cave has become a world that's no longer safe for you."
"I know. Just as you say."
At that moment, a voice like scraping metal flowed from the Blood Palace Master. It was a voice slightly deeper and heavier than before.
"That there’s no other path."
The Blood Palace Master's eyes, emitting a red glow, stared at Jang Ilso who was laughing as if amused.
"I admit we haven't been of help so far."
"How straightforward."
"From now on, it will be different."
“….”
Jang Ilso looked at the Blood Palace Master without saying a word.
Jang Ilso, who hadn't taken his eyes off the Blood Palace Master for a long while, soon nodded.
"I'll try believing you."
“….”
"You may go."
The Blood Palace Master turned around and left the tent without a moment's hesitation.
“….”
Then Ho Gamyeong looked at Jang Ilso with a somewhat bewildered face.
“Rye- Ryeonju-nim.”
Hadn't he clearly called him here to figure out the Blood Palace Master's intentions? But what could he have possibly learned from such a short exchange?
“Hmm.”
Before Ho Gamyeong could even fully express his bewilderment, Jang Ilso leaned back against his chair and slumped.
"How amusing."
"Ryeonju-nim, what on earth...."
"Hm?"
Jang Ilso tilted his head back and looked at Ho Gamyeong. His particularly red lips curved strangely.
“Why is it? Gamyeong-ah.”
"Weren't you trying to understand that man's intentions?"
"I was."
“But why….”
“Tsk, tsk. Gamyeong-ah, Gamyeong-ah. Why are you saying such obvious things?"
Jang Ilso raised his tilted head again and lightly grasped the cup placed before him.
"Words are meaningless. Things that can be fabricated are bound to contain falsehoods."
Jang Ilso quietly stared at the sloshing liquor cup. A strong scent of liquor wafted over.
"But there are also things that can never be hidden. Even if liquor looks as clear as water on the outside, the scent it gives off cannot be concealed.”
"...What did you see?"
“It disappeared.”
“What disappeared?”
Jang Ilso chuckled. It was difficult to explain in words.
"Well. Should I call it fear, or unease? Such shallow words can't fully convey it, but there was something like the despair a person shows when trapped in a swamp. Within them."
“….”
"But that's gone."
"Are you saying the problem they had was resolved?"
"Well."
An ominous light flowed in Jang Ilso's eyes. It was a gaze as if mocking everyone in the world.
"Do you know when a person tormented by fear finally casts off that fear?"
"...I don't know."
"There are two instances. One is when the source of that fear disappears."
“….”
"The other is... when they no longer need to be afraid."
Jang Ilso's eyes sank gloomily.
"There's no need to worry. It seems they don't harbor different thoughts. No... to be precise, what they intend to do doesn't seem to conflict with what we're doing."
Ho Gamyeong's face hardened slightly.
Interpreting it, it meant that the person clearly harbored different intentions, but let's just cover it up for now. But Ho Gamyeong knew. Things left like this were bound to fester.
“Don’t you know?”
“….”
"That festering wound could someday become a great noose tightening around your neck, Ryeonju-nim."
“I know.”
Jang Ilso slowly drank the liquor in his cup.
“Very well.”
The strong scent of liquor flooded his mouth. It was hot and dizzying, as if he had swallowed poison.
"Rather…."
“You know, Gamyeong-ah.”
“…….”
"Even if a poisoned arrow is stuck in your arm, if there's an enemy before your eyes, there's no time to leisurely pull it out and treat it. Even if you must later cut off that arm, first you must fight.”
"Isn't there a way to cut it off in advance?"
"Then the enemy would kill me. A cripple missing one arm would be an easy target."
A short sigh escaped Ho Gamyeong's lips.
As Jang Ilso said, he knew too.
It was a total mess.
The Hao Sect, the Sun Palace, and the Blood Palace all have their own different thoughts. Though he had bound them together under the name alliance, this loose connection could break at any time.
But Ho Gamyeong also knew.
This was what war was from the start. That as victories and defeats pile up, only animosity toward one another fills up. War was something that had to move forward while devouring all of that.
But….
"Isn't it such a relief that we have liquor?"
“…Ryeonju-nim.”
Ho Gamyeong tried to comfort Jang Ilso. Because Ho Gamyeong alone knew that although he seemed more relaxed and leisurely than anyone, the burden he carried in this situation was by no means light.
But the words that flowed from Jang Ilso's mouth at that moment deviated slightly even from Ho Gamyeong's expectations.
“It somewhat masks the nauseating stench those swarming pig bastards give off.”
“….”
Ho Gamyeong looked at Jang Ilso blankly.
He hasn't changed.
This man, even in this situation... to the point where Ho Gamyeong felt ashamed for having briefly harbored a moment of weakness himself.
“But, Gamyeong-ah."
"...Yes, Ryeonju-nim."
"Isn't it familiar?"
Jang Ilso smiles gently and looks at Ho Gamyeong.
“…….”
Ho Gamyeong, staring at that gaze for a long while, couldn't help but let out a short laugh.
"...You're right."
Right. He was used to it.
The sight of base ghosts making a fuss for a fingernail's worth of gain. The sight of them biding their time, watching for an opportunity to plant a knife in the back of a comrade they were fighting alongside. And the way to laugh and fight amidst those seething with hostility.
For those who had crawled up from the deepest bottom of Evil Sects, it wasn't particularly unfamiliar. It was just funny that such things happened the same even in the midst of all this.
However, he could also understand.
He didn't know the reason, but it had been like that in the past, too. The more intense the war became, the more base people became.
"There's nothing new about it. Whether they're shaking up Kangho or are masters of some sect, in the end, they're just slightly bigger piglets."
“….”
"As long as you hold their leashes... they won't bare their teeth until the moment the war ends."
He was right.
But Ho Gamyeong wasn't unaware of the other side of those words. Just how much it ate away at a person to wage a war of this scale while holding their leashes and controlling them.
The rare shadows faintly visible on Jang Ilso's pale face proved that fact.
But he had to endure. War was about moving forward while swallowing filth. The side that cannot endure until the end loses. Both Jang Ilso and Ho Gamyeong knew that fact.
"Don't worry so much."
"Yes?"
Before he knew it, Jang Ilso was looking at him with a broad smile.
"Of course, I'm not exactly in a position to bluff either. It's a situation where a blade could pierce my neck at any time, any place."
Jang Ilso downed the liquor in his cup in one go.
Several poison-coated blades were already thrust toward his back. If he showed even the slightest opening, those blades would inevitably pierce through his back.
However, he couldn't remove them either. The moment he pushed away those blades, what he desired would never come into his hands.
Moving forward.
Moving forward as if the blades aimed at him from behind didn't exist was the path those who aspired to become the world's overlord had to walk.
"However... It's not something to worry about so much."
“….”
"War is simple. It doesn't need to be perfect. Just being slightly better than the enemy is enough."
Jang Ilso's eyes sank gloomily.
"The swamp of war is fair to everyone, isn't it?"
They were trapped in the swamp of reality and desire. A quagmire where the more they struggled, the deeper they sank.
But what about them?
They, too, would be in a swamp right now. Not the swamp Jang Ilso was stuck in, but the swamp of ideals.
"Do you think they will collapse on their own?"
"Well."
Jang Ilso smiled broadly.
"It won't be that easy."
“….”
"But remember this. What destroys people like that isn't a blade of reality. They can die smiling even with a sword at their throat. However..."
Jang Ilso's eyes gleamed chillingly.
"When they realize that the ideals they believed in are nothing... they collapse surprisingly easily."
“….”
"Even from a very trivial trigger."
Jang Ilso's eyes simultaneously held deep emptiness and heat.
"Can they escape it? That contradiction they created themselves? Can they endure it? The symbol of that contradiction crumbling?"
Jang Ilso chuckled.
“It’s a shame. It would be much more enjoyable if we could sit face-to-face and share a drink."
Jang Ilso raised his cup. Then slowly downed the liquor. In that drink lingered the excitement from when he had faced the Mount Hua Chivalrous Sword.
* * *
And at that very moment.
Emptiness and passion. A man with eyes strangely similar to what had been contained in Jang Ilso's eyes looked at those seated before him.
Baek Cheon.
His mouth slowly opened.
“Baek Cheon, the eldest second-class disciple of Mount Hua.”
“….”
"I greet Grand Sect Leader."
Suffocating tension settled in the wide great hall.
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