Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1755. Because I, too, am a person who failed to uphold moral principles (5)
Editor: Hoamzz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Red.
Everything in the world was dyed dark red.
The path leading to the summit of the peak that seemed to pierce the heavens was entirely covered with corpses.
...His fingertips trembled. So much he couldn't control them at all.
Nausea and intense rage surge. Seething hatred swirls in his chest.
“...Myeongjo.”
Calling out to the sajil who died with eyes wide open, his hand trembles like that. No matter how hard he tried to hold it in, it was impossible.
Countless eyes that couldn't close were looking at him.
Eyes that had once held warmth, sometimes jealousy, and at other times fear or joy. Now, they held nothing. From amidst those hollow eyes, Chung Myung’s gaze shifted upward.
He loathed it beyond measure.
If he could sell his soul to a demon to cut off that hateful evil’s head, Chung Myung would do so without a moment's hesitation.
But what brings Chung Myung the greatest pain now wasn’t this intense hatred.
"So..."
Udeudeuk.
The lips he had been biting hard finally tore and red blood trickled down. He didn't feel anything like pain.
"Sahyung...."
He struggles to take a step forward.
He could see it. The figure of the one he missed more than anything. Yet, it was the sight of the one he never wished to see like this.
“Cheon Mun Sahyung....”
Something like tears didn't come. Such things dried up long ago.
"So I..."
He reached out his hand. The gesture was pitiful.
Lost forever. Irretrievable.
Even if he cut down the hated enemy, tore that body into thousands upon thousands of pieces and chewed its flesh, those who had already died would never return.
Nothing left.
Those he had looked at. Those who had looked at him. Those who had let him live, those who had made him live. Not a single one of them was there.
"Uh..."
Then what had he fought for?
He knew the cause, the sacrifice, the Righteousness of those who had fallen. And that it was so great he could never deny it.
But if the price was ultimately this mess, what meaning could it possibly hold?
A groan close to wailing flowed out.
If they truly accepted even such an ending. Why are the faces of the dead so pained? Did they truly desire such a death?
"Ugh..."
Chung Myung's hand stumbles as it continues to reach forward.
It was then.
"Do you regret it?"
At the sudden voice, the blood-soaked Chung Myung slowly turned his head. At some point, one person stood beside him. Well-dressed man unsuited to this terrible battlefield.
"Tang...."
Chung Myung's eyes wavered.
"...Bo."
The one whose name was called wore a cold smile.
“I asked if you were feeling regret.”
……He knew. Tang Bo was dead. There was no way he could be here.
"What right do you have, Hyung-nim?"
“....”
"These people died as they wished. My death would have been the same. Sahyung-nim bear no responsibility for that. Failing to stop it cannot be called a responsibility.”
“...Bo-ya.” (-ya. A suffix used to refer to someone close to you, such as a friend, younger sibling, or child. It is informal.)
"Nevertheless, feeling responsible for their deaths is mere arrogance. You are not a god. You cannot do everything."
Chung Myung just stared blankly at Tang Bo.
Tang Bo’s face looked truly emotionless as he spat out cold words. Not a trace of the warmth of the past existed in his eyes.
No, his gaze was rather sharply cutting through Chung Myung.
“Don't you know well? Regret is something you feel when you didn't do what you could have done. Regret is not a word that suits you, Hyung-nim. So..."
Tang Bo slowly turned his head. He carefully yet coldly observed the wretched summit of the great mountain.
"This is not regret, but fear."
“....”
"Fear of losing. Isn't that right?"
It changes.
The moment Tang Bo finished speaking, the familiar faces around began to slowly change into unfamiliar ones. No, rather, it would be more accurate to say they were changing into forms that were now more familiar.
The figure of the deceased Cheon Mun Sahyung shifted into the form of someone he knew well.
“...Sasuk.”
Baek Cheon lay fallen, his eyes wide open as if he had died before his agonizing pain could even fade. He was stained with dried blood and a chilling frost.
Such a scene was too familiar, but he had hoped Baek Cheon alone would never become like that. However, now Baek Cheon lay collapsed in precisely that state.
"...Sago."
Yoo Iseol lay collapsed beside him.
“Yoon Jong.... Jo-Gol, Soso, Hye Yeon....”
Everyone he knew was filling this place.
"Sect Leader... Namgung Dowi, So-baek..."
Everyone from Mount Hua, from Heavenly Comrade Alliance. Furthermore, everyone he had ever known was there.
His entire world lay fallen in this place.
"Ah...."
His whole body began to shake like an aspen leaf. But Tang Bo still sneers in a cool voice.
"See? You're not regretting, Hyung-nim. You're just afraid. Just trembling with fear of losing."
"I am...."
Tang Bo let out a low, mocking chuckle.
"How ridiculous. The world-renowned Plum Blossom Sword Sovereign, trembling like a coward in a corner. If the Magyo bastards saw this, they would laugh themselves to death."
Chung Myung’s eyes snapped open fiercely. Red veins began to bulge in the whites of his eyes.
"What... do you know?"
“....”
"What does a bastard who died comfortably know!"
Rage and fear burst out in a scream.
“You, who never even lost anything! Bastard who left me alone and died so easily! How could you possibly know the feelings of someone losing, one by one, what they should never lose?"
“So you got scared?”
"You...!"
Chung Myung clenched his trembling hands into fists.
He had steeled his heart countless times.
This was the right path, what he had to do, what he could only do. There was no such thing as second best. He had to fight and win even accepting any sacrifice. Only then could he avoid losing more.
Right, knowing that, he had pushed himself, forcing his collapsing self to endure, step by agonizing step.
However....
“It is scary, still. Because fighting is the same as losing.”
“....”
"But what Hyung-nim fears is the process of losing. Like a child on a sandy beach who grasps sand with both hands full and can't do anything because they don't want to lose even a single grain."
So he fought. At the forefront, most fiercely. So that he wouldn't have to lose.
But at some point, he came to realize the truth. The path he was walking was not so different from the one in the past.
The longer he stood on blood-stained battlefields, the more he repeated the act of cutting down people, the one standing there was no longer himself but Plum Blossom Sword Sovereign.
So he was afraid. Even if the process and method were different, he couldn't shake the fear that the end might ultimately be the same.
“Hyung-nim, you are a selfish person. You don't know about great causes, you only know yourself."
Tang Bo raised one corner of his mouth.
"You must have been proud at first. Watching the trees you raised make a name for themselves in the world, carrying on the will of the past.”
“....”
"But at some point, you realized it. That someday, they..."
Tang Bo's gaze turned again to the peak of the mountain. Countless bodies lay in Mount Hua's martial robes.
"...are in the most dangerous place. Even now when you're not there."
Chung Myung clutched his face. In that moment, the sword still gripped in his hand sliced his cheek. Blood began to drip, tap-tap, onto the ground.
Chung Myung’s eyes visible between his fingers trembled anxiously, not knowing where to look.
"Just like... the Mount Hua of the past."
"Shut up..."
“Proud, isn’t it. It’s admirable. Great. Right… just like them in the past.”
"I said shut up!"
"But don't you know, Hyung-nim?"
Tang Bo's face contorts and turns demon-like.
"Where that end lies."
Kwang!
Chung Myung swung his sword with all his might. Tang Bo's body was sliced diagonally. Yet even as his body split, Tang Bo continued speaking calmly.
“You’ve been lucky so far. But eventually, that luck will run out, and the moment your strength fails to reach far enough... Taoist Hyung-nim will face a scene like this again. Don't you know well? Others may not know, but you should know."
"You...! Shut that damn mouth!"
"I wonder what expression you'll wear then. You won’t even have anyone left to resent.”
Chung Myung gritted his teeth and asked. Blood vessels burst in his bloodshot eyes and the whites turned red.
"What was I supposed to do? What! What exactly was I supposed to do!"
"Why are you asking me?"
"...What?"
"If you want to ask, ask them."
Chung Myung flinched at Tang Bo's chilling words. He forced his stiff neck to turn slowly.
The corpses that had been lying in a gruesome heap were now all standing. Not a single trace of life remained in them, making the sight utterly grotesque.
“You should have just left us alone.”
“...Jo-Gol.”
“Then I wouldn’t have died. I could have gone back to Sichuan and lived a somewhat happy life.”
The other bodies also opened their mouths with sorrowful voices.
"I would have walked the path of a Taoist alone in the destroyed Mount Hua."
“Even if I stayed in Tang Family, I wouldn't have died if Sahyung wasn't there.”
"I would not have been expelled from Shaolin. And Bangjang would not have lost himself either."
They all slowly raised their bowed heads.
"Euh...."
Where his eyes should have been, there were gaping holes. Those hollow cavities stared at Chung Myung.
For a long while, they stood there, before each of them began to stagger toward him, step by agonizing step.
Chung Myung unconsciously flinched and retreated a pace.
“Because of you.”
“Because of Sahyung.”
"If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have died like this."
Stepping backward, Chung Myung gritted his teeth.
“You! You’re the ones who wanted this! You said this is what you wished for! I… I never wanted this. I…!”
“Because of you.”
Someone's hand grabbed his sleeve. Another's hand grabbed his foot.
Hands. Hands. Hands. Hands. Hands.
Countless hands covered his entire body.
Among them, one particularly emaciated, strikingly noticeable hand covered his face as if grasping it.
"Sa..."
“Because of you.”
In that mangled face with hollowed eyes, not a trace remained of the noble figure he once was. With skeletal fingers laden with visceral hatred, the figure tore at Chung Myung’s face.
"No... You're not dead! No one's dead yet! I... I!"
"But you'll lose them soon, won't you?"
Chung Myung turned his head sharply.
Amidst the dark red despair covering the world, Tang Bo alone stood aloof while sneering at him.
“Unfortunately.”
“You….”
That place is hell, too.
* * *
In the midst of thick darkness, Chung Myung, who had been burying his face in his knees in a corner of the room, opened his eyes. Then slowly raised his head.
Drip, drip.
Black blood dripped stickily from his lips. A look of self-ridicule flickered in his pupils.
He knew enough that Tang Bo was dead. The Tang Bo he had seen just before wasn't the one he knew.
But that made it even more laughable.
If that wasn't Tang Bo, then it was Chung Myung himself. Perhaps all those cold words Tang Bo had poured out were things Chung Myung wanted to say to himself.
A terrible nightmare that came when he closed his eyes.
A terrible sense of alienation, to the point where it feels like he wasn't himself.
And... a growing sense of loss. Though he's done nothing yet, the feeling of losing things little by little.
Chung Myung knows what all of this was called.
He had to overcome it. He had to win. Just as he always had.
But he couldn't. Since some point, his body had been betraying him. It was as if his flesh, even before his mind, had been consumed by an inexplicable terror.
The only thing he could do now was grit his teeth and endure while pretending to be fine.
Because if he couldn't even do this properly, everything would collapse in an instant.
“Cheon Mun Sahyung....”
Chung Myung buried his face back into his knees, now soaked with black blood.
“…Help me.”
Everything was eating away at him.
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