Chapter 1923 - Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1923. What Is It That You Desire? (3)

The warriors of the Frozen Land were strong.

Every single day, they faced the sharp claws of beasts and battled against cold that flayed the flesh itself. They had been raised in a land where one could not survive without wagering one’s life day after day. Because of that, they had lived with pride, believing themselves harder and more steadfast than anyone else in the world.

But as they faced the beings now approaching them, the warriors of the Frozen Land thought…

Perhaps the strength they had always believed in was nothing more than snow atop a mountain that had never once seen spring or summer.

“Heuuuuuuuuaaaak!”

Shriveled invaders, so small they barely reached the warriors’ shoulders, charged forward with hideous shrieks.

The hands gripping their spears trembled on their own. Yet before they could even suppress the trembling, the evil ghosts descended upon them with crimson-lit eyes.

“KIAAAAAAAAK!”

Kagagang!

Bodies tempered through countless years of battle reacted instinctively, thrusting spears toward the shriveled forms of the enemies. However, the spears that had pierced bears the size of houses and split apart even the ice of the Frozen Land in deepest winter absurdly managed to leave nothing more than shallow scratches upon those bodies like withered old trees.

And then…..

Kwadeudeudeuk!

A flying hand tore an entire human head free.

“Huh?”

The sight was so nonsensical it bordered on comedy, and that very absurdity momentarily swept away the terror rising in everyone’s hearts.

Kwadudeudeuk!

An arm was ripped away.

Udeuk!

A leg thrust forward was torn apart, and the spear driven out snapped in two.

The defensive formation the warriors of the Frozen Land had established while gritting their teeth failed to halt the enemy’s advance for even a single moment.

And thus only one thing remained. One-sided slaughter.

“EUAAAAAAAGH!”

Bodies torn apart scattered through the air, and hot blood sprayed in all directions.

But for those dying with their flesh ripped apart, the true despair before them was not the death immediately at hand.

Through their dimming vision came a sight… between the trees of the Frozen Land rising like spears stabbing into the sky, black evil ghosts were pouring forth without end.

“Uugh…”

More terrifying than the death before their eyes was that sight itself. A black tide made of people was swallowing the land of the Frozen Land whole in an instant.

Anyone would instinctively realize it. Nothing could survive.

If that scene, painted like the destruction of the world itself, spread across all lands, then every living being would sooner pray for death instead.

“AAAAAAH!”

A demonic human rushed forward, thrust its bare hand through a man’s chest, and crushed his heart in its grip. As though even that did not satisfy it, it seized the cooling corpse with both hands and violently tore it apart left and right.

“KUHAAAA!”

As though something savage buried deep within had exploded forth, the demonic human released a tremendous howl. And at that very moment, a spear carrying ferocious force rammed straight into its gaping mouth.

Kwadudeudeuk!

“Keuk……”

The spearhead burst out through the back of the demonic human’s neck. The pierced creature trembled violently before collapsing, but before its body could even touch the ground, the spear that tore free from its throat swept out once more like a storm.

Kwakwakwakwakwa!

The demonic humans struck by the spear carrying immense internal qi were flung in all directions like pebbles kicked aside.

“HRAAAAAAP!”

Elder Jan. No, Jang Gogyeong let out a furious roar.

[Jang Gogyeong. 장고경(長膏耕).]

Although his body had grown so old that barely enough strength remained to continue living, the immense internal qi he had refined over an entire lifetime still lived and breathed within him.

“Everyone, do not fight them! Run!”

“E-Elder……”

“Quickly! They are not opponents you can face!”

Jang Gogyeong’s spear thrust forth violently once more.

It was impossible to tell whether his heart was pounding as if it would burst due to his frail body or the fear he could not shake off to the very end. Only one thing was certain, at this moment, he could not think about what lay behind him.

Perhaps the reason he had continued ceaselessly training in martial arts and accumulating internal qi ever since that day was for this single moment alone.

To overcome the self within him that instinctively shrank back in fear, Jang Gogyeong once again unleashed a furious roar.

“You vicious Demonic Cult bastards! Today, I will finally repay the resentment of the past!”

Jang Gogyeong’s spear pierced through a Demonic Cult follower in a single strike.

A strike he had failed to unleash in the past. The pitiful image of himself who could do nothing but throw everything away and flee.

The resentment layered and layered within him exploded from the spear’s tip.

At this moment, it even felt as though his body had regained the youth of the past. No matter how many enemies came, it felt as though he could continue fighting like this forever.

But this, too, was merely Jang Gogyeong’s illusion.

“How insignificant.”

Jang Gogyeong’s wrinkled eyes suddenly widened as though they would split apart.

KWAAAAAAA!

Together with a short, irritated voice, black fist-force came flying toward the front of Jang Gogyeong. What had been no larger than a small fist instantly swelled in size and engulfed Jang Gogyeong whole in a single sweep.

[Gwonryeok. 권력(拳力). Martial force projected through a strike; literally “fist power.”]

Jang Gogyeong reflexively thrust out his spear to defend himself, but the incoming force rendered his long years of training meaningless, shattering the spear instantly and crushing his body apart.

“KEUAAAAAAAGH!”

Letting out a desperate scream, Jang Gogyeong was flung through the air and slammed into the ground.

“Keo… keheok….”

A single blow. Just a single blow. Every bone in his body had been crushed, and all the meridians around his heart had burst apart.

And yet the reason he had not died instantly even after suffering such horrific injuries was because the internal qi Jang Gogyeong had accumulated over long years within this pristine land was just that deep and profound.

“Kkeuuh…..”

With limp, barely responsive arms, Jang Gogyeong somehow tried to push his upper body upright. Then, through his heavily blurred vision, he saw someone slowly approaching.

Step.

A rough voice growled down from above.

“Old man. You must be a man from the Central Plains. A survivor of the Holy War?”

[Holy War. Seongjeon. 성전(聖戰). Literally “sacred war” or “holy war.”]

“Keuhuk……”

Jang Gogyeong could not even answer. He merely raised his head with all the strength he had left. More than a desire to see the opponent’s face, it was stubborn defiance—he did not wish to bow his head before that man even in death.

“Bi…shop….”

Even though he could not properly see the other’s face, even though his clothing was not greatly different from the others, he simply knew what rank the approaching man possessed.

And after confirming even the existence of a Bishop, he could no longer deny it. Those demonic beings had truly returned to this world once again.

Step. Step.

The Bishop, Heavenly Executioner, approached until he stood directly before him, then reached down, seized Jang Gogyeong by the collar, and lifted him into the air.

Then he spat words toward the dying Jang Gogyeong.

“A Central Plains man in this distant frozen land. So this is where you arrived after scurrying away like a rat? Cowardly bastard.”

“……”

“You thought you could escape us by doing this? Foolish child. We are death itself, and at the same time, the end. You people will never escape us.”

“Keuhuk……”

Jang Gogyeong coughed painfully, then grinned through blood-soaked teeth.

The one more terrifying than ghosts held his very lifeline in hand, but what did that matter now? He already stood with one foot over the threshold of the underworld.

“Wasn’t it…. you people…. who hid like rats?”

“Eum?”

Heavenly Executioner’s expression twisted faintly. Jang Gogyeong continued.

“Keuheu… How laughable, demonic human. If the Jin Clan had known…. that the ones truly consumed by fear were not me, hiding in this distant frozen land… but you bastards instead… they would have known.”

[Jin Clan. Jinjok. 진족(眞族).]

“Nonsense. We were not afraid. We merely endured while waiting for the proper time.”

“So… I’m sure… you did. Keuheuheu.”

Jang Gogyeong mocked him with every ounce of strength he had left.

Heavenly Executioner stared at him silently for a moment before tearing off his head without another word.

Udeudeuk.

Heavenly Executioner looked unpleasantly at the severed head of Jang Gogyeong, who still retained a faint smile even in death, before tossing it aside.

“A dead rat still finds the energy to yap.”

The old man had probably intended to provoke him somehow, but Heavenly Executioner did not particularly mind. Because meeting one of the rare survivors of the Holy War now, as they advanced toward Central Plains, felt rather meaningful.

“So this merely means the unfinished war is continuing on.”

He liked that thought.

Yes. The Cult had not been defeated. They had merely waited. And from this moment onward, it would begin again. The war they had failed to finish before.

Heavenly Executioner turned his head.

The cultists. Those who had endured within that land of brutal cold by tearing flesh from their own bodies to eat were finally moving.

To the south, and further south. Leaving behind the land that flayed flesh apart with cold, and heading toward the fertile Central Plains overflowing with abundance. To turn that Central Plains into a barren wasteland no different from this place.

Yes. That was what would happen. It could only become so.

“The Second Coming of the Heavenly Demon. All Demons Kneel in Submission.”

[Cheonma Jaerim. Manma Angbok. 천마재림(天魔再臨). 만마앙복(萬魔仰伏).]

Because their god had finally returned.

Because their god had commanded it so.

Having completely cast away the confusion that once filled his heart, Heavenly Executioner gazed toward the distant south with a smile overflowing with ecstasy.

“The Second Coming of the Heavenly Demon. All Demons Kneel in Submission.”

The entire world would come to know it.

That at last, their end had arrived.

✿ ✿ ✿

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

Harhan ran. He ran and ran again.

His heart pounded as though it would burst out through his throat, yet he did not stop for even a single instant.

“AAAAAAAH!”

Even when screams rang out from behind him, he did not look back.

Because he knew. Even if he turned around, even if he wheeled back to face them, nothing would change. To turn back now and attempt to fight them would be nothing more than a fleeting, shallow comfort. If he truly wished to change something, then he had to keep running until his final breath.

“Hheup.”

Tears had not stopped flowing the entire time.

Every scream reaching his ears now was the dying cry of his own people. The sounds of the villagers he had lived alongside all his life as they died.

Even Harhan, who had once believed he was not particularly close to them, understood now. That even without sharing some profound bond, even without exchanging warm words, people could rely on one another simply by being there. That was how they lived together.

And those people, the ones who had supported his life merely through their existence, were now falling beneath the enemy’s claws.

That was why Harhan ran.

“AAAAAAAH!”

At yet another scream echoing out, Harhan clamped his mouth shut with his wrist. He bit down so hard his teeth sank into flesh, swallowing back the sobs bursting forth.

‘Please.’

Cold wind brushed against his tear-soaked face.

Harhan twisted his face in anguish as he screamed soundlessly.

‘Please, somebody help us, please….’

✿ ✿ ✿

Cheong Myeong suddenly whipped his head around.

 “…..What’s wrong?”

Startled by the abrupt movement, Baek Cheon asked in confusion.

But without answering, Cheong Myeong merely stared fixedly toward the distant north. When he remained motionless for quite some time, Baek Cheon called out to him again.

“Cheong Myeong-ah?”

“……”

“Why are you acting like that all of a sudden?”

“No…..”

Cheong Myeong muttered blankly.

“I thought I heard something.”

“A sound?”

Tilting his head, Baek Cheon asked back.

“What kind of sound?”

“…..Something like a scream.”

Frowning slightly, Baek Cheon followed Cheong Myeong’s gaze and looked north as well. But soon, he slowly shook his head.

“I didn’t hear anything.”

Cheong Myeong let out a long breath and nodded. It seemed he had imagined it. Lately, he had been on edge, his nerves stretched taut.

“The sunset’s already coming.”

Baek Cheon muttered as he looked up at the sky dyed crimson. Not long ago, it would still have been broad daylight at this hour, yet before they realized it, night was already approaching. Feeling just how much shorter the days had become, Cheong Myeong murmured quietly.

“Winter, huh.”

Now that he thought about it, the wind brushing against his fingertips carried quite a chill. The cold had arrived a little earlier than last year. Cheong Myeong closed his eyes.

“Feels like it’ll be a long winter.”

A vicious season was approaching.

Perhaps the harshest winter there had ever been.

Next Chapter

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