Chapter 1973 - Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1973. That’s Not How the Story Went. (3)

It felt as though everything had been crushed. Both body and soul.

“Huh......”

And yet what escaped his lips wasn’t a groan of pain, but a hollow, breathless laugh.

‘This is fucking ridiculous.’

It was so overwhelming that he couldn’t even feel fear.

Humiliation at being sent flying by the enemy’s attack? There wasn’t even room for something like that to intrude. It was already astonishing that he was still alive, so where would he find the time to think about humiliation?

Baek Cheon staggered as he rose to his feet.

‘This is fucking impossible.’

He couldn’t even begin to grasp it. How was he supposed to fight a monster like that?

No matter how much a mosquito buzzed around, it couldn’t bite a person to death. That wasn’t even something worth reasoning about. So the best thing a mosquito could do was flee to somewhere beyond the reach of a person’s hand. Naturally, that was the right choice.

And yet Baek Cheon was standing up now. With the tip of his sword pointed at the enemy.

It wasn’t an action taken after thinking it through. He was simply moving as his body had been carved to move.

Throb. Throb. Throb.

Even the simple act of rising made his entire body scream. And he hadn’t even been struck directly by that man’s attack. He had only been caught in its aftermath.

If he had taken it head-on...... then perhaps the existence known as Baek Cheon would’ve literally disappeared in that instant. Without leaving behind a single strand of hair, not even a shred of cloth.

“Hah......”

The more he thought about it, the more absurd that power was.

‘The problem is...... I can actually understand it.’

That bastard had already reached the realm of ascending to immortality a hundred years ago, if one were to speak in terms of the Orthodox path. And yet, because he was a demonic person, he couldn’t cast off the shell of his physical body, and all that power had instead festered within him.

So just how much power must have accumulated inside that man over all this time?

‘At this point, can we even call him a human anymore?’

He had known it. But between “knowing” something and “feeling” it, there was a gulf greater than the passage of billions upon billions of kalpas.

[Kalpa refers to an immeasurably long span of time in Buddhist cosmology; 억만 겁 literally evokes countless, immeasurable ages.]

‘What am I supposed to do?’

There was no answer. No matter how desperately he racked his brain and thought it over again and again, he couldn’t figure out how they were supposed to fight him.

To make matters worse, the enemy didn’t seem inclined to wait until he finished thinking.

“Why do you stand there?”

“.......”

Baek Cheon gave no answer.

It wasn’t because he didn’t want to exchange words with Heavenly Executioner. In truth, if he could, he wanted to hold that man’s feet back for even a single moment by bringing up whatever conversation he could.

Even so, the reason he didn’t open his mouth was because he instinctively realized that the man’s words weren’t directed at him.

“Petty sense of justice? Hope that you can accomplish it? Confidence in yourselves?”

Heavenly Executioner’s expression as he looked at Baek Cheon seemed devoid of emotion.

“It doesn’t matter what it is. You have your reasons, too. But......”

Kwadeudeuk.

Strength gathered in Heavenly Executioner’s foot as he stepped forward.

“Whatever it may be……”

Heavenly Executioner ground his teeth, then began to emit a violent energy.

“It won’t be greater than this hatred boiling within us.”

A chill ran down Baek Cheon’s back. Heavenly Executioner continued coldly.

“You won’t lose in spirit alone. That’s what you always went around saying. Yes. If it had been back then, those words might not have been wrong.”

The final battle that had taken place at Great Mountain.

Heavenly Executioner hadn’t been there. He hadn’t been able to predict Cheong Mun’s final strike, something little short of suicide, painstakingly devised in his final moment. He hadn’t anticipated that desperate struggle.

Yes. He couldn’t have predicted it.

He hadn’t known that those who were no different from insects would throw away their own lives just to bite at a god, nor had he known that, in the end, the god would be bitten to death by insects.

He had been complacent. He had let his guard down. He had lacked desperation.

“But not anymore.”

Heavenly Executioner once again took a step as mighty as Mount Tai.

“Because of that one mistake, we lived through a long hell. Therefore, how dare...... How dare the likes of you speak of will before us.”

Heavenly Executioner roared.

“I’ll prove that fact with your lives!”

Pitch-black Demonic qi began to gather thickly in Heavenly Executioner’s hand. It looked almost as though the entrance to hell itself were opening.

‘No.’

The moment his mind came to its senses, Baek Cheon was already charging toward Heavenly Executioner.

It wasn’t a movement calculated rationally. Nor was it instinct.

The moment that hand reached out, someone would certainly die.

One of his fellow disciples who still hadn’t recovered from the aftermath of the previous attack.

He didn’t know whether realizing that fact had come first, or whether his foot striking against the ground had come first. Either way, Baek Cheon charged toward Heavenly Executioner at a speed he had never once displayed in his entire life.

The closer he got to Heavenly Executioner, the more his paralyzed reason came back to life, and the fear that had been dulled surged up again.

But no matter what was happening inside his head and heart, Baek Cheon’s sword thoroughly carried out what it had to do.

Kaaaaang!

Baek Cheon’s sword thrust straight into the very center of the gathering Demonic qi.

Heavenly Executioner let out a derisive laugh. A mantis trying to block a chariot. There was no way the power contained in that sword could break through his Demonic qi.

[Danglang-geocheol. 당랑거철(螳螂拒轍). Literally “a mantis resisting a cart wheel,” an idiom describing someone attempting to oppose an overwhelmingly stronger force.]

But at that moment, Baek Cheon’s sword, thrust toward the center of the gathering Demonic qi, twisted ever so slightly.

‘Hm?’

The corner of Heavenly Executioner’s eye twitched.

It wasn’t deceiving it, nor was it piercing straight through it. Baek Cheon’s sword dug into some part of the Demonic qi he had drawn up, as though cutting it away. As though riding over the grain of the Demonic qi, even one that Heavenly Executioner himself didn’t know existed.

By the time Heavenly Executioner realized this, Baek Cheon’s sword had already reached his elbow.

Tuuung!

Heavenly Executioner reflexively knocked away the incoming sword. Then his eyes widened in surprise at his own response.

He hadn’t needed to block it. A sword containing power like that couldn’t even leave a scratch on his flesh.

Then why had he knocked that sword away?

Fwoosh!

As though determined not to let the opening he’d seized slip away, Baek Cheon fiercely thrust his sword toward Heavenly Executioner’s throat.

Heavenly Executioner paid it no mind and swung his fist toward Baek Cheon’s abdomen, as though intending to pierce straight through him with a single blow.

If Baek Cheon twisted his body with all his strength, he might survive. If he took the blow to his side rather than his solar plexus, he might still be able to fight on afterward.

But at that moment, Baek Cheon chose another method instead of dodging.

He changed the trajectory of the sword he’d thrust toward Heavenly Executioner’s throat. Straight toward Heavenly Executioner’s eye.

Heavenly Executioner reflexively jerked his head backward.

At the same time, he sharply swung the hand he’d thrust out and struck Baek Cheon.

Kwaaaang!

Baek Cheon was blown into the air, spraying blood.

“This......”

When the attack he’d planned was disrupted, Heavenly Executioner’s face twisted with vicious fury. As he glared at Baek Cheon, who had been slammed into the ground, his face looked like that of an evil spirit.

“You mosquito-like bastard...... Playing little tricks, are you?”

Kuung.

The sky entered Baek Cheon’s field of vision as he lay slammed into the ground. Dark-red blood gushed from his mouth.

But only for a moment. Baek Cheon abruptly shot his upper body upright. Then, with his mouth soaked in blood, he let out a crooked grin.

“In the end……”

Kagak.

He drove his sword into the ground and used his weight to pull himself upright.

“In the end, no matter how strong you are, you’re still human.”

Strong. Unbelievably strong.

But that was all.

‘You’re not a god?’

A human who feared being cut, who was reluctant to be wounded. Heavenly Executioner still hadn’t escaped the confines of being human.

That tiny opening. No, it was almost laughable to call it an opening at all. That threadlike crack was nevertheless casting a faint light of hope toward Baek Cheon.

Heavenly Executioner, on the other hand, didn’t seem to like Baek Cheon’s reaction one bit.

“What is that look in your eyes?”

Heavenly Executioner glared at Baek Cheon as though he wanted to kill him, his face twisted.

“So you managed to extend your life for a moment with some worthless little trick. Is that really something worth being so proud of?”

Watching Heavenly Executioner openly sneer and mock him, Baek Cheon gave a quiet snort of laughter. Heavenly Executioner’s expression turned cold.

“You’re laughing?”

“You know.”

Baek Cheon grinned with his entire face covered in blood.

“I heard you were injured?”

“Injured?”

Heavenly Executioner’s hand reflexively felt around his chest.

“Do the weaklings of the Central Plains call a mere scratch like this an injury?”

Baek Cheon’s smile deepened.

‘This is more than I thought......’

He didn’t know whether Heavenly Executioner’s wound truly amounted to nothing more than a minor injury, or whether that bastard was simply putting on an unbecoming display of pride. But either way, one thing was certain.

‘The wound that bastard Cheong Myeong left on him seems to be bigger than I thought.’

Not a physical wound, but a psychological one.

Certainly, in Heavenly Executioner’s eyes, the people of the Central Plains were nothing more than insects. The same held true even if everything else was set aside and only the power each side possessed was compared.

And yet Heavenly Executioner continued to speak of something. He knew better than anyone that there was no way for them to communicate, and more than anything, that theirs was a relationship in which neither side needed to acknowledge the other.

What this meant was obvious.

Baek Cheon’s face slowly twisted. It was certainly deliberate. He wanted his expression to convey unmistakable mockery toward Heavenly Executioner.

“It seems what that bastard Cheong Myeong broke...... wasn’t your body, but your pride.”

Sure enough, Heavenly Executioner’s eyebrow twitched faintly. Naturally, Baek Cheon’s sharp gaze didn’t miss that movement.

“What the hell are you babbling……”

“As you said, I suppose this was a fight you had to win.”

“......”

“You had the justification, the will, even the strength on your side. Yes, at least that’s what you thought. Isn’t that right?”

Heavenly Executioner gave no answer.

But who knew? That Demonic qi, flickering like flames, seemed to be conveying Heavenly Executioner’s emotions without the slightest concealment.

“Then why couldn’t you win?”

Udeuk.

The sound of Heavenly Executioner grinding his teeth stabbed into Baek Cheon’s ears. Heavenly Executioner’s eyes had turned red as he glared fiercely at Baek Cheon.

“Yes. I certainly couldn’t finish that bastard off. My pride was torn to shreds. I was enraged, and because of that, I’m filled with hatred.”

At that terrifying force, a chill raced down Baek Cheon’s back.

“But what does that fact...... have to do with a bastard like you, who’s no different from an insect?”

“......”

“Your sword can’t cut me. No matter how much you buzz around me, nothing will change. Nothing will be different. After buzzing around a few times, you think you can run wi......”

“Yeah. Maybe that’s true. I can’t kill you with my sword. But what does that matter?”

Baek Cheon calmly cut Heavenly Executioner off mid-sentence.

“What?”

“Didn’t that bastard tell you?”

Baek Cheon grinned at Heavenly Executioner, who looked slightly dumbfounded.

“We don’t have anything like pride. Pride is a privilege of the strong. So…… if my sword can’t pierce you, then I just have to use a sword that can.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than someone quietly landed beside Baek Cheon.

A sword different from Baek Cheon’s. Another sword capable of cutting even through that demonic person’s flesh.

“I’m late, Sahyung.”

Baek Cheon shook his head.

“No way. You came at exactly the right time, Samae.”

Yoo Iseol slowly nodded. Even so, her eyes never left Heavenly Executioner for even a moment.

“My sword won't work on him.”

“Yes.”

“But if it’s your sword, it’s possible.”

Yoo Iseol silently nodded.

“I’ll make the opening. Let’s do it.”

“What are the chances?”

“A thread’s worth?”

“Yes.”

There were no more questions. Not even a hint of doubt. As though that much possibility was enough.

“Let’s begin.”

After saying it briefly, Yoo Iseol moved toward Heavenly Executioner without waiting for Baek Cheon’s reply. A quietly surging fighting spirit slowly spread outward from her.

[Tugi. 투기(鬪氣). Literally “fighting spirit,” referring to the aura or battle intent emanating from a martial artist.]

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