Chapter 1967 - Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1967. He Was Really This Strong? (2)

Kwaaaang.

Baek Cheon’s gaze grew somewhat darker as he saw the golden Buddha-light soaring into the heavens.

‘Monk……’

There was no way he couldn’t know.

How could he not know how the intention (心意) within that Buddha-light had changed?

[Simui. 심의(心意). “Mind-intent” or “intention of the heart.” In martial arts, it refers to the intent or inner will embodied in a person’s actions and techniques.]

A small ache settled over his heart. Of course, it was presumptuous of him to feel sorry for Hye Yeon’s change. Hye Yeon was more than capable of deciding his own path and his own martial way. There was no doubt that everything was a choice he had made for himself.

But even knowing that, Baek Cheon couldn’t shake away the thread of bitterness that came over him.

If the world weren’t like this, if there were no Demonic Cult rampaging about to bring the world down...... would Hye Yeon truly have chosen to walk that path of his own accord?

Baek Cheon quietly closed his eyes.

This wasn’t merely a feeling toward Hye Yeon alone. Even before Hye Yeon and Baek Cheon, countless people must already have chosen this path. Perhaps some of them had been swept into a path they never wanted, only to wither away without ever even having the chance to walk it properly.

And things like this would continue to happen from now on.

Baek Cheon opened his closed eyes again.

Pity alone could change nothing. He had to do what he could with the time he had. He had to take up his sword so that no one would ever again be forced to choose a path they never wanted, as though they had been pushed into it.

Baek Cheon stared at 491 approaching him. He looked at the man whose face was twisted like a malevolent spirit, vile killing intent pouring from him, but, well. He didn’t particularly feel threatened.

Rather, if anything…….

“First, it’s you.”

With his sword hanging loosely at his side, Baek Cheon slowly walked toward 491.

“Keu......”

Perhaps he had read Baek Cheon’s reaction. 491 exuded a savage aura.

“This…… this fucking…… bastard!”

The physical damage on his body wasn’t significant. From the beginning, Baek Cheon’s sword was closer to using the enemy’s strength to push them away than to crushing them, so that was only natural.

But there was no way something like that would remain in 491’s mind. What now dominated his thoughts were only the overwhelming despair and terrible helplessness he had felt when countless plum blossom petals descended upon him and pushed him away.

As though showing 491’s rage, pitch-black demonic energy boiled and writhed wildly.

A stark contrast could be felt between the two facing each other on the dry earth, with 491 burning with fury and Baek Cheon calmly settled.

“Keu......”

His anger surged up and pressed against him.

He wanted to surrender everything to the torrent of emotion and let go of his reason. Veins stood out across his entire face, as though revealing that desire.

Even so, 491 didn’t recklessly unleash an attack toward Baek Cheon. No, it would be more accurate to say he couldn’t bring himself to charge.

One of the side effects of demonic art was that it paralyzed the reason. The desire to tear Baek Cheon’s body apart right then and drink his blood was trying to swallow his mind whole.

Even while tormented by a desire that seemed to set his entire body ablaze, 491 desperately held on to both his reason and his body.

‘No.’

The reason he had been able to reach Extreme Demon wasn’t because he possessed greater talent than others. There were countless people in the Demonic Cult more talented than him, and countless who were stronger.

And yet 491 had surpassed them and reached Extreme Demon. Among those who had reached the same realm, he had even managed to survive until now.

The reason was simple. He possessed the self-restraint to endure at moments like this.

Dangerous. That is definitely dangerous.

Just a moment ago, that man had accomplished something he couldn’t understand. In the Demonic Cult, a momentary lapse in judgment could get your head cut off. 491, who had survived in such a place, knew all too well what “something he couldn’t understand” meant.

Watching 491 hesitate, despite being furious enough to have his blood boil, unable to bring himself to charge, Baek Cheon twisted the corner of his mouth.

“Even if he’s like a beast, does that mean he isn’t a real beast?”

It would’ve been easier to deal with him if he’d simply charged without thinking. Baek Cheon’s sword was specialized in dealing with people like that, after all.

It was a shame, but it was fine.

‘It wouldn’t be enough anyway.’

Baek Cheon had to surpass even the bishops. Otherwise, he’d have to spend his entire life staring at Cheong Myeong’s back.

“Let’s not waste time. I’ve still got a long way to go.”

Whether this quiet provocation worked, or whether the demonic art had finally swallowed 491’s self-restraint, was impossible to tell.

Whatever the reason, 491 finally charged rapidly toward Baek Cheon. He released an aura more savage and vicious than before, while the fierce blood-red light pouring from his eyes was enough to plunge anyone who faced him into despair.

But 491’s opponent now was Baek Cheon, and he was far too accustomed to despair to be frightened by it.

“Heuaaaaaa!”

From above to below, a dao strike came crashing down with tremendous force. It was a strike in which every ounce of strength had been squeezed out, and then squeezed out again, as though he were facing not a single swordsman but a great army of thousands. The obsession embedded in the dao felt even more chilling than the force behind it.

Watching this, Baek Cheon calmly took a single step forward.

‘It’s a strange feeling.’

It wasn’t as though anything in particular had changed. He had merely succeeded in executing a single sword strike, almost by luck, after wringing out everything he had. Honestly, if he were told to perform it again, he wasn’t confident he could reproduce it as perfectly as he had moments ago.

And yet, how should he put it?

‘I can see it.’

It didn’t mean that he could see it clearly with his eyes. If he had to call it something, it was gwan (觀).

[Gwan. 관(觀). Literally “to observe,” “to contemplate,” or “to perceive.” In this martial context, it refers to apprehending the essence, structure, or movement of something through deep perception rather than merely seeing it with the eyes.]

- Martial arts begin with seeing. The reason nothing works is because idiots who can’t even properly see in the first place try to swing their swords.

Baek Cheon felt that he was beginning, if only vaguely, to understand what that bastard Cheong Myeong had been saying over and over again. Simply by looking, he felt as though he could half-understand what lay at the core of that powerful strike flying down over his head.

Then, did Baek Cheon possess a trump card with which to block a strike carrying that much inner force?

Well, there was no way he could have something like that.

He simply realized.

Baek Cheon slowly lowered the tip of his sword. He gathered strength in his lower abdomen and drew up his energy, then decisively swung his sword upward, scattering it as though he were sprinkling it into the air.

KAANG!

His strike was swept away helplessly by the enemy’s force, as though he had swung his sword into a boundless ocean. Yet Baek Cheon swung his sword again as though nothing had happened.

KAANG! KAANG! KAANG!

Even in that fleeting instant that didn’t allow so much as a single blink, Baek Cheon’s sword rose into the air again and again.

As he watched the countless spectacle of sword qi spread out and cover his field of vision, Cheong Myeong’s back suddenly appeared before Baek Cheon’s eyes. That figure of him unleashing a barrage of attacks in an instant against the enemy’s powerful strike.

‘You damn bastard.’

There had been an answer in every place Baek Cheon had walked. And in every place he still had to go…… there was Cheong Myeong’s back.

A trace? No. This wasn’t a trace. It was more properly called a ‘manual’.

A correct and unwavering path, built up over a long period of time for the sake of the person who would one day set foot here.

Baek Cheon swung his sword toward that righteous path.

KWAAAANG!

The layers upon layers of force he had built up collided violently with the enemy’s dao qi. And at that very moment, Baek Cheon’s sword qi shattered into pieces and transformed into countless petals.

‘So this is what it means to be able to see.’

The dense, deep black demonic energy looked practically like an abyss without a bottom. But Baek Cheon could see it. Even within that dense demonic energy, there was undoubtedly a flow. That fiercely whirling movement. The plum blossom sword qi Baek Cheon scattered suddenly concentrated toward that ‘grain’.

[Gyeol. 결. Here, 결 refers to the underlying grain, texture, or pattern of movement within the demonic energy. It is not merely a physical “flow,” but the subtle course along which its force naturally moves.]

‘Stronger, more intense……’

The power to force an opponent down beneath you. Baek Cheon, too, had once been seduced by that temptation that any martial artist would inevitably fall into at least once. What had that damn Cheong Myeong bastard said back then?

- Why the hell do you need something like that?

When he heard those words, Baek Cheon had felt his stomach twist more violently than it ever had in his life.

It had felt like a falcon that could fly through the sky casually throwing those words at a mountain beast that wanted desperately to leap higher.

Yes. It had felt like someone who already possessed everything looking at someone who lacked it with genuine incomprehension. That was why he had felt a faint humiliation, anger, and jealousy.

But looking back now, that wasn’t what it had been.

‘Anyway, that damn bastard……’

Cheong Myeong had simply said what he truly thought. He probably genuinely couldn’t understand people who stubbornly struggled to obtain something they didn’t need.

Only after reaching this height did Baek Cheon finally understand.

jjaeaeaeaeaeaeng!

The demonic energy covering the surroundings cracked in an instant.

To meet that powerful demonic energy head-on through sheer force alone, Baek Cheon would need strength of the same magnitude. Otherwise, he would need something enormous enough to match it, just as he had moments ago.

But……

- That’s why I’m asking. Why do you need something like that?

“Yeah, it’s all true. You damn bastard.”

Chaeaeaeaeaeaeng!

A crack appeared in the demonic energy covering the sky, and part of it split wide open. With a lightness of movement like flowing water, Baek Cheon threw himself toward the crack.

There was no need to oppose it. No need to turn it back. No need to destroy it all.

After all, a human is a being that dies when a sword is driven into the flesh. What a person needs to fight another person isn’t some tremendous force that covers the heavens.

In the center of the black, roiling demonic energy, Baek Cheon broke through the small opening he had pierced in an instant. Before his eyes was 491, unable to hide the look of bewilderment on his face.

Yes. This must’ve been the very face Cheong Myeong had always seen when he broke through an enemy’s force and surged forward.

And then…….

Baek Cheon thrust his sword straight into 491’s face in one motion.

Then, as though the brief look of bewilderment had been nothing but a lie, 491 slashed horizontally with a dao stroke as swift as lightning.

It was completely different from the bold, powerful blows he had been throwing out until now. A strike focused solely on speed. It was a strike meant to swallow Baek Cheon in one motion, as though he had dug a trap and waited for this single moment.

The aura of a wild beast now dwelled in 491’s face. There was a sense of the pleasure of biting into his opponent, along with a deep feeling of satisfaction.

But contrary to those expectations, Baek Cheon’s sword had already reached the place where 491’s dao was coming toward.

‘What?’

In a world that seemed to have stopped, sword and dao slowly approached one another.

Just as their sharp tips were about to meet, Baek Cheon’s sword dropped ever so slightly downward.

Ssseut.

The moment the sword and dao touched, 491’s dao slid along the flat of the Plum Blossom Sword. With its speed pushed to the limit, catching such a minute twist would’ve been impossible for anyone, not just 491.

Thus, just as the dao reached roughly the middle of the Plum Blossom Sword’s blade, Baek Cheon raised the Plum Blossom Sword and gently pushed the dao upward.

Tuung.

With a faint sound, 491’s dao shot up into the air. Even at that moment, 491 couldn’t understand.

Why his dao had deviated from his intention and extended upward.

“Because……”

Baek Cheon lightly stepped forward and turned his body.

The sword, rotating as though being drawn toward his body, swept around along his form and shot toward 491’s chest.

Chwaaaaak!

A sword strike like an illusion sliced horizontally across 491’s chest.

Blood poured from his chest, split wide open, as 491 staggered backward in a frenzy.

Tap.

Lightly kicking off the ground and following after 491, Baek Cheon continued speaking.

“It’s because I’m looking at a place higher than you.”

At a perilously close distance where their shoulders were almost touching, the plum blossoms Baek Cheon drew bloomed countless times.

Lethal and splendid.

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