Chapter 1944 - Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1944. Just Like Back Then In The Past. (4)

Everyone gathered inside the room stared at Cheong Myeong with grave expressions.

“A preemptive strike...”

After remaining deep in thought for a long while, Hyeon Jong finally nodded. Then he asked.

“Sect Leader. What do you think?”

In response, Un Am opened his mouth with a solemn expression.

“Sabu-nim. To be frank, I am not someone capable enough to contribute to devising a strategy for this matter.”

[Sabu-nim. 사부님. Honorific form of sabu (“master” or “teacher”), used when respectfully addressing one’s martial master.]

“Why would you say such a thing? You are the Sect Leader of Mount Hua.”

Un Am smiled faintly at what was more admonishment than rebuke.

“There’s no need for the Sect Leader to be the most outstanding person in the sect. Isn’t it enough if he knows how to listen to the one who is?”

“You mean....”

“Yes.”

Un Am nodded.

“Cheong Myeong has always been a child who knew an uncanny amount about the Demonic Cult. Not only that, whenever calamity befell Jianghu, that child’s predictions were almost never wrong. So is there really any need to deliberate? Unless there’s a compelling reason to oppose him, I believe it would be best to do as Cheong Myeong says.”

Those seated around them unconsciously nodded. Un Am’s words had voiced what all of them were thinking.

Cheong Myeong had already proven himself more than enough. To demand still more proof from him now would be nothing more than another way of exposing one’s own foolishness.

“Then we’ll have to gather our forces as quickly as possible and head north.”

“Hmm. Certainly... if the Beggar Union lends its aid, things will become much easier. Our Nokrim will help as well.”

Just as Hong Daegwang and Im Sobyeong exchanged glances—

“What are you talking about? The north?”

At the voice that suddenly cut in, the two of them turned toward Cheong Myeong at the same time.

“Wasn’t the plan until now to attack the Demonic Cult’s vanguard in the north, dojang?”

Cheong Myeong nodded. The statement itself wasn’t wrong.

“It was.”

“But?”

“I did say we’d attack them. But did I ever say we had to go north?”

Confusion filled Hong Daegwang’s eyes.

“What are you talking about, Mount Hua Divine Dragon? Aren’t they in the north right now?”

“Right now, yes. But only right now.”

“ ‘Right now’ or not... Huh? Don’t tell me...”

Hong Daegwang’s eyes trembled slightly. But before he could finish his question, Cheong Myeong spoke.

“Where is the Northern Army positioned at the moment?”

“Ah, uh... they’re probably massed at the Great Wall north of Beijing. It’s the final bastion protecting the Central Plains.”

Hong Daegwang even added details Cheong Myeong hadn’t asked for.

“No matter how much it’s the Demonic Cult, they won’t break through the Great Wall of the north so easily. If that wall falls, Beijing is next. The Northern Army will fight with every ounce of strength to hold it.”

There was certainly merit to Hong Daegwang’s reasoning. Cheong Myeong acknowledged as much.

“Certainly. No matter how much they’re members of the Demonic Cult, breaking through walls defended by gathered elites won’t be easy.”

“Exactly what I’m saying. Even if they can’t win, they can at least buy us some time—”

“If there are only members of the Demonic Cult there.”

“...Huh?”

Hong Daegwang stared at Cheong Myeong with eyes widened in bewilderment.

A strange smile spread across Cheong Myeong’s lips. A smile so chilling that anyone who saw it would shudder with an inexplicable sense of dread.

“He’ll be there.”

Deep resentment and venom seeped from Cheong Myeong’s voice.

[Resentment and venom. Wondok. 원독(怨毒). Literally “resentment” and “poison.” A compound expressing deep, bitter hatred imbued with malice.]

“Because that’s the kind of man he is.”

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“Th-they’re coming.”

The speaker unconsciously stammered before swallowing dryly.

It was a night so dark that the barren plain of nothing but dirt and stone appeared bright by comparison. And through that darkness, something blacker than the darkness itself was slowly approaching from beyond.

“Th-those bastards...”

“Stop making a fuss.”

The man who barked the rebuke through clenched teeth immediately raised his voice.

“Order every division to hold its assigned position without fail! Anyone who retreats will be punished severely under military law!”

“Yes!”

Standing atop the endless wall and looking down below, the commander struggled to keep the rigidity from showing on his face.

How could he not be afraid? Their opponents were monsters that had shattered tens of thousands of soldiers guarding the Yellow Waters in a single stroke.

Seeing the men who had fled all the way from the Yellow Waters still screaming in terror, unable even now to recover themselves, was enough to understand how horrifying those beings were.

But even if everyone else faltered, the one in command could not. No, at the very least, he could never allow his subordinates to see that fear.

“Hu, huu...”

“We’re... we’re all going to die...”

If he did... those barely holding themselves together would collapse in an instant.

“There’s nothing to fear!”

The commander, with the great general’s banner planted behind him, shouted until his voice nearly burst. It was a cry directed at everyone. And at himself as well.

“It doesn’t matter how strong they are! What matters is that no one has ever crossed this Great Wall!”

Hearing those words, the soldiers slowly raised their heads and looked toward him.

“Even those beast-like barbarians! Even the one who was once called the Iron Man of the North! No one, not a single one of them, ever crossed this Great Wall! These bastards will be no different! Whatever they may be, they will never cross this wall!”

Those standing at the edge of the wall reflexively looked down below.

It was unimaginably high.

A wall far too steep and too tall for anyone who had not prepared siege equipment to climb with nothing but their bare bodies.

So, perhaps it might be possible? Even if crushing them in open battle was impossible, perhaps simply holding out....

“We don’t even have to hold out to the end!”

As though he had read everyone’s thoughts, the commander’s voice rang out once more.

“Three days. Three days will be enough. No, perhaps even two. If we endure just a little longer, reinforcements will arrive. And once they do, we won’t be defending this Great Wall anymore. We’ll throw open its gates and go out to hunt those beasts!”

“Oh...”

“Waaaaah!”

Voices strained almost by force mixed with roused shouts, filling the length of the wall.

Some believed those words. Others desperately tried to believe them. After all, there was no other choice.

“Believe! And endure! In the end, they’re nothing more than savages!”

The commander wasn’t saying those things merely to encourage his men.

‘It won’t be breached so easily.’

He knew well enough that jianghu’s martial artists could cross rivers in a single bound and shatter boulders with their bare hands. But even so, the enemy were few in number.

‘Even jianghu’s martial artists are no different in the end. Pierce them with a spear, and they’ll bleed. Drive an arrow through them, and their bones will shatter.’

No matter how uncanny and elusive they might be, they couldn’t evade a rain of arrows forever. Even if they somehow did, if the arrows kept coming, volley after volley, sooner or later they would fall.

“Come, then. Even if a hundred of us die, if the price is taking the life of even one of them, the victory will ultimately be ours. This wall will make that possible.”

He hadn’t spoken expecting an answer. Rather, he had spoken precisely because he knew no one in a position to answer stood nearby.

And yet, an unexpected answer came. Right beside the commander’s ear.

“Not bad.”

In that instant, every hair on the commander’s body stood on end. He froze where he stood.

Was it because a voice had come from where none should have been?

No. He froze because the voice at his ear was unbearably coarse and violent.

“Sacrificing a hundred to claim one... An admirable resolve. That is what war is. It doesn’t matter who suffers the greater losses. What matters is only who achieves their objective.”

He couldn’t even breathe.

The mere presence of the man standing behind him seemed enough to crush his very soul. A terror and dread beyond anything he had ever imagined stole away his senses.

“I am curious. Whether your words will truly prove correct. Whether your pitiful little wall can truly stop the disciples of our cultist.”

The man let out a low snickering laugh.

“But unfortunately, as I am now, I’m in no position to be swept away by such curiosity. So let’s do this. Let’s change the conditions just a little.”

At that instant, the commander abruptly spun around. It wasn’t because the invisible pressure pouring from the man had weakened.

Something was coming.

An instinct that something would happen at this very moment overwhelmed even his instinct for survival. But the instant he turned his head, the commander realized.

It would’ve been better had he never looked.

Whoosh...

A man draped in black robes. At the fingertips of a man who looked as though the very word domination had been gathered together and given form, something swirled. Something that resembled a black shadow. Or perhaps brilliantly flickering flames.

[Domination. Paedo. 패도(覇道). Literally “the Way of Domination” or “the Tyrant’s Path.” In East Asian political and philosophical thought, it denotes rule through overwhelming force and conquest, as opposed to Wangdo (왕도, 王道), “the Kingly Way,” which rules through virtue. Here, the narration likens the man to the embodiment of Paedo itself.]

Before the commander could even begin to comprehend the nature of that aura, the man slowly extended that hand to the side. At the same time, the power resting upon his fingertips slowly sliced through the empty air. Descending toward the top of the wall upon which countless people stood.

The rest happened in an instant.

KWAAAAAAAANG!

It surged. A darkness blacker than the night of the new moon rampaged across the Great Wall like a black dragon before soaring into the heavens. Devouring everything that existed in its path.

Thud.

The commander collapsed onto the spot.

He couldn’t utter a word.

Just as though what he had just witnessed had been nothing more than a fleeting illusion, when he came to his senses, both the black tempest and the black dragon had vanished.

But it wasn’t an illusion. It couldn’t have been. Because undeniable proof lay before his eyes.

“Ah... ahh...”

The center of the wall had vanished as if an enormous blade had carved it away.

Along with the dozens of lives that had filled its summit. Without even leaving behind a single scream.

Before a sight that transcended fear itself, the commander forgot even how to breathe.

Could this truly have been wrought by a human being?

The man who had created that unbelievable scene, however, spoke in the very same unchanging voice.

“Well? Isn’t this a much better set of conditions? One both sides should find perfectly satisfactory.”

“Urgh...”

As despair descended upon him, the commander instinctively curled into himself.

Better conditions? They hadn’t been able to guarantee they could stop the enemy even with the wall intact. Now the wall had been breached like this, how could they possibly stop them?

“Ugh...”

A despair too deep to become words crawled up his throat. At last, just as anger, overcoming even fear, was about to erupt into a scream—

“Ah. I almost forgot to mention this.”

Crunch.

At that moment, the man seized the commander’s head in one hand. The scream that had been rising caught in his throat, suddenly constricted.

“That doesn’t mean I intend to let you live. Filthy unbeliever.”

Crack.

As the commander tried to lift his head, it burst apart where it was. His headless body staggered for a moment before collapsing to the ground in a pitiful heap.

The man’s, or rather, Heavenly Executioner’s gaze settled upon the headless corpse. As though some lingering attachment remained, the body twitched in its final spasms. Heavenly Executioner watched it without the slightest trace of emotion. Then the corner of his mouth slowly curled upward into a chilling smile.

“There’s no need to feel wronged.”

He then slowly turned his body.

His gaze shifted beyond the Great Wall. Toward the land the world called the Central Plains.

“Soon enough, everyone will follow you.”

Living darkness surged toward the gap where not even the wall’s ruins remained.

As though foretelling the fate soon to descend upon the land beyond...

The darkness poured forth without end.

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