Chapter 1937 - Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1937. There’s No Need to Understand. (2)

It hurts. It hurt so much it was enough to drive one mad.

Had so many people not been watching, he would have clutched his face and rolled across the ground. That is how much it hurt.

“Keuugh...”

They said that when pain became too great, even a scream would no longer come out. At this moment, the Phantom Divine Lord was realizing that saying was true.

Why did this pain feel so unfamiliar?

Just then, Cheong Myeong’s voice pierced his ears.

“It hurts, doesn’t it?”

There was unmistakable mockery in his voice.

“What was it you said again? How many years did you spend in closed-door cultivation? Since you were already someone who used to swagger around like a big shot even before that, let’s see... Then it must’ve been at least thirty years since you last had a proper fight.”

“.....”

“I suppose that’s long enough to forget what pain feels like.”

The pain remained as intense as ever. But after hearing words like that in front of everyone, he couldn’t remain sprawled there.

Thud.

The Phantom Divine Lord forcibly gathered strength into his body. His back trembled as he struggled upright, then he planted a hand against the ground so hard it looked as though he meant to crush it before finally forcing himself to his feet.

“Y-You brat...”

“You look like someone who cares an awful lot about appearances. Before you get angry, why don’t you wipe your face first?”

The Phantom Divine Lord reflexively covered his face. When he felt around, bright-red blood stained his fingers. Whether his nose had been broken or his lip split, he couldn’t tell.

The instant he saw the blood with his own eyes, the pain seemed to vanish.

Not because it had disappeared, but because he no longer had the spare attention to concern himself with it.

That blood revived his memory.

For a single instant, while his own world had been racing forward at maximum speed, that sword had appeared before him. What if that sword hadn’t still been sheathed?

A chilling cold ran down the Phantom Divine Lord’s spine.

“You... kept up... with my speed? You?”

His eyes filled with disbelief.

“Impossible. It’s impossible! It can’t be! It absolutely can’t be possible!”

The Phantom Divine Lord shouted almost like a man in the middle of a fit.

Watching someone deny something that had already happened was hardly the behavior of a rational man.

Yet at the same time, it wasn’t impossible to understand.

Whether the Phantom Divine Lord had truly remained in continuous closed-door cultivation, just as he had always claimed, no one could know. But there was no doubt that he had continued training throughout the years he had lived in seclusion.

For more than twenty years, that long period of training had been devoted to one thing alone, to obtain that speed. And yet, the very first person he encountered after emerging from seclusion had matched it as though it were nothing.

If that was the case... Then what, exactly, had the last twenty years of the Phantom Divine Lord’s life been for?

“Impossible.....”

“Ah, you can’t make sense of it?”

“.....”

Cheong Myeong grinned.

“There’s no need to understand.”

Cheong Myeong flicked his sword through the air twice before resting it once more across his shoulder.

“What are you trying so hard to understand something you can’t understand for? That’s not what’s important right now, is it?”

The Phantom Divine Lord’s eyes wavered violently.

The person standing before him was his enemy.

Of course, he was neither as hateful as those against whom he had accumulated grudges while roaming the jianghu, nor as loathsome as those whose lives he himself had ended.

But this young Taoist was the most dangerous enemy he had ever faced. Perhaps he would destroy not only the Phantom Divine Lord’s life, but also both his past and his future.

And yet, those words alone were unquestionably correct. Right now, what mattered was not ‘how’.

“Hoo...”

The Phantom Divine Lord bit down hard on his lip and slipped a hand into his sleeve.

“...You’re right. That’s not what matters.”

“Hngh?”

“It’s no longer the time to cling to something like appearances.”

He drew out a long object from inside his sleeve.

“Oh?”

Cheong Myeong watched with obvious interest. What emerged from the Phantom Divine Lord’s robe was a blade of bizarre shape.

“Uh... what was that thing called again? I remember hearing about it before.”

“Yuanyang Yue.”

[Yuanyang Yue. wonangwol. 원앙월(鴛鴦鉞). Literally “Mandarin Duck Yue.” Yuanyang (鴛鴦) refers to a pair of mandarin ducks, a traditional symbol of pairing. Yue (鉞) is an ancient Chinese poleaxe. Despite the name, the weapon used in martial arts is a paired crescent-shaped exotic weapon rather than a true poleaxe.]

“Oh, right. That was its name.”

Looking at the bizarre short blade fitted over the Phantom Divine Lord’s hand, Cheong Myeong grinned.

[Short blade. sodo. 소도(小刀). Literally “small blade.” Here it refers generally to a compact bladed weapon rather than a knife in the modern sense.]

The Yuanyang Yue was an unusual exotic weapon formed from two intersecting crescent moons. One crescent was sharpened into a blade, while the opposite crescent was wrapped in leather to serve as the grip. In other words, when held by the handle, the semicircular blade covered the back of the hand, while the pointed tip of the crescent projected past the thumb and index finger.

It was a weapon that allowed a simple punch to produce the effect of a slash from a blade.

“You chose your weapon well. If you’d pulled out some oversized saber instead, I was planning to laugh at you again. At least you’re not completely stupid.”

The Phantom Divine Lord answered not with words but by glaring at Cheong Myeong with killing intent. Faced with that ominous aura, the watching sect leaders swallowed dryly.

“Um...”

“Divine Lord, what exactly are you trying to do?”

Anyone with even the slightest understanding of martial arts could not help but realize it.

The Phantom Divine Lord’s speed existed in a realm they had never experienced before. If that was the case, could someone who had reached such a realm truly maintain complete control over his martial arts while moving at that insane speed?

Could he truly race forward at that speed while accurately driving his weapon into his opponent without striking a vital point?

‘That’s absurd. It’s absolutely impossible.’

No matter that it was the Phantom Divine Lord, something like that simply couldn’t be possible. Which meant that, in a single careless instant, it wouldn’t be surprising if Cheong Myeong’s head were severed.

This was no longer merely a matter of using killing techniques. At this point, it truly had become a fight that would end only when one of the two died. How did he intend to bear the consequences afterward?

“You aren’t about to say you’re scared now, are you?”

At the Phantom Divine Lord’s question, Cheong Myeong smiled.

“I didn’t even say anything, yet you’re already panicking because of your own guilty conscience.”

[tl note: 제 발 저리다. “One’s own feet grow sore” is a Korean idiom referring to someone revealing their own guilt or anxiety without being accused directly. It describes a person reacting defensively because they already know they have something to hide.

“.....”

“You know, there’s a saying. People attack others using their own weakness. To hide their own weakness, that is. If you look at it that way...”

The corner of Cheong Myeong’s mouth twisted upward ever so slightly.

“...Isn’t the one who’s actually afraid not me, but you?”

The Phantom Divine Lord flinched as he stared at Cheong Myeong.

“What nonsense are you spouting, you brat? Afraid?!”

“The truth is...”

Cheong Myeong sneered, lifting one corner of his mouth.

“You’ve hardly ever fought with your life on the line.”

Cheong Myeong spoke calmly. That calmness only made his words all the colder.

“So while people were dying all around you, you tucked your head in and did everything you could just to keep yourself alive.”

[tl note: 목을 움츠리다. “To draw in one’s neck” is a Korean idiom describing someone shrinking back out of fear, avoiding danger, or making themselves inconspicuous to protect themselves.]

“I most certainly....”

“Even most cowards don’t go that far. They avoid those stronger than themselves, sure. But even if it meant seeking out someone weaker than themselves to fight instead, they’d still try to be of at least some help. That’s simply the natural duty of a human being. But you... what was it you said again? You didn’t even know there was a war?”

Cheong Myeong chuckled as though he found it utterly ridiculous.

“I’ve got to hand it to you. That’s really something.”

“Y-You bastard... who do you think you’re calling a coward...!”

“Don’t get the wrong idea.”

Cheong Myeong cut him off, his voice utterly devoid of inflection.

“The fact that you’re a coward isn’t something worth mocking. I don’t even think it’s wrong. Life is precious to everyone. It’s smarter to survive, even if you have to crawl and grovel, than to act brave without a shred of fear and throw your life away.”

Those were Cheong Myeong’s sincere feelings.

To stake one’s life in battle. To protect something through doing so.

That might well be something worthy of praise. But it should never become a weapon used to condemn those who could not do the same. After all, everyone’s own life is precious to them.

“It’s what comes after that that’s disgusting.”

Cheong Myeong bared his teeth savagely.

“If you managed to save your life, then you should’ve just gone on living, you son of a bitch. You should’ve lived with gratitude toward those who died so that you could protect yours. But now that you think the danger’s gone, you’ve come swaggering back with your chin in the air, expecting everyone to treat you like some honored elder?”

The Phantom Divine Lord’s hand, still gripping the Yuanyang Yue, trembled faintly.

 “You pathetic idiot. If you were actually worthy of being treated that way, you wouldn’t have spent the war hiding with your head buried somewhere. You know it yourself. You’re not even half the man you pretend to be.”

“Why, you little...”

Just as the Phantom Divine Lord was about to hurl another curse, he reflexively threw up both hands.

Kaaaanng!

The crossed Yuanyang Yue caught Cheong Myeong’s descending sword like a bolt of lightning.

“Keughk...”

Kagak. Kagagagak.

Cheong Myeong’s sheathed sword pressed downward like the fangs of a snarling beast. The force behind it was so immense that it was impossible to believe it had come from someone with a body smaller than his opponent’s. That overwhelming strength bore down on the Phantom Divine Lord as though it would crush him on the spot.

In an instant, the Phantom Divine Lord’s entire body was drenched in sweat.

Had he been even a single instant, even the briefest fraction of a moment, slower.... his head would already have burst apart like a smashed watermelon. This young bastard had swung his sword fully prepared for the possibility that the Phantom Divine Lord might die.

“Y-You lunatic...”

“Why?”

“Weren’t you the one who drew a blade first?”

“.....”

“If you were that afraid of dying, you should never have shown your face in the world again.”

Just then, the force with which Cheong Myeong had been pressing down on the Phantom Divine Lord suddenly vanished. With his scabbard hooked around the Phantom Divine Lord’s Yuanyang Yue, Cheong Myeong drew his sword with nothing more than a simple pull of his hand.

Sensing danger, the Phantom Divine Lord retreated with all his strength. But by then, Cheong Myeong’s sword had already swept across both of his legs.

Slash! Slash!

The Phantom Divine Lord staggered violently. Bright-red blood gushed from the deep cuts carved across both of his calves.

“Kughk!”

The Phantom Divine Lord grabbed at his calves, and in an instant his hands were soaked crimson.

“What are you going to do now? I don’t think you’ll be able to use that precious speed of yours anymore.”

The corner of Cheong Myeong’s mouth twisted upward. The Phantom Divine Lord could tell. Cheong Myeong was still smiling. But the look in his eyes as he watched him... its temperature had unmistakably changed from what it had been at the beginning.

[tl note : The expression 눈빛의 온도 (“the temperature of his gaze”) is figurative. It describes a change in emotional intensity or attitude rather than a literal physical temperature. Cheong Myeong’s smile remains, but the warmth has disappeared from his eyes.]

“So what now? Going back into closed-door cultivation? Until the day I die?”

The Phantom Divine Lord ground his teeth together.

“Don’t speak as though you’ve already won.”

He removed his hand from the wounds on his calves. Then he gripped the Yuanyang Yue once more.

“Gaining a few cuts isn’t enough to stop me from running. Ever since a time when you didn’t even exist in your mother’s womb... I have roamed the jianghu, staking my life on every step.”

“Ah, is that so?”

Cheong Myeong replied as casually as ever, his voice once again dripping with mockery.

“Then what are you waiting for? Prove it.”

No sooner had Cheong Myeong finished speaking than an immense surge of qi erupted from the Phantom Divine Lord’s entire body. It was entirely different from before. As his qi churned like a raging storm, the robes wrapped around his body billowed violently, as though they would be torn apart at any moment.

“Sasuk.”

“...So he still had another move in reserve.”

Holding down his hair as it whipped in the violent current of qi, Baek Cheon murmured.

Time is granted equally to the brave and to the coward. No matter what anyone might say, the internal power accumulated by that veteran of the jianghu over countless years was terrifying. There was no denying it.

Gush.

Blood burst forth once more from the Phantom Divine Lord’s calves, where he had only temporarily stemmed the bleeding. Swept up by the raging qi, droplets of blood scattered in every direction, swirling through the air like a crimson sandstorm.

Kaaang!

The Phantom Divine Lord slammed the Yuanyang Yue against the ground and shouted,

“Because I was just about...”

Wooooooooong!

Drawing his internal power to its absolute limit, the Phantom Divine Lord roared as he kicked off the ground.

“...to show you!”

Kwaaaaaang!

Converting every last bit of his internal power into speed, he transformed into a single streak of light and shot straight toward Cheong Myeong.

At that same moment, Cheong Myeong’s eyes quietly settled.

Srrng.

Pushing the drawn sword back into its scabbard, Cheong Myeong lowered his stance and grasped the hilt. Between his crooked lips, rows of snow-white teeth showed.

“Even so... it’s nothing more than the desperate flailing of a brat.”

Thud.

Planting a heavy step forward, Cheong Myeong tightened his grip on the sword’s hilt and, at last, hurled himself straight toward the incoming streak of light.

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