Chapter 1980 - Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1980. Things Are Different from Before. (5)

“Kaaaaaaaaaah!”

“Waaaaaah!”

At the roars coming from behind them, the disciples of Mount Hua ran in terror.

Of course, until just a little while ago, they had been pushing back those Demonic Cultists charging at them. But the situation was different now. In their battered state after being beaten by Heavenly Executioner, they had no way of holding out any longer.

If they were swept up by that many Demonic Cultists in their current condition, they would literally be trampled to death without even being able to squeak.

“Run faster!”

“We know that already!”

The disciples of Mount Hua gritted their teeth and ran.

“This is terrifying, seriously!”

Jo Geol shouted, tears welling in his eyes.

Of course, the Demonic Cultists had always looked vicious enough that one wouldn’t want to run into them in the middle of the night. Moreover, encountering them when one still had the strength to fight and encountering them when one had no strength left felt completely different.

If they had felt like stray dogs surrounding them a moment ago, now it was closer to watching a rabid tiger rampage right before their eyes.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaak!”

“Argh! Why are you doing this to me?!”

So everyone had no choice but to run with all their might.

But there was another unfortunate thing. Not every disciple of Mount Hua had enough strength saved up to flee after this fight.

“Haha. Amitabha.”

Hye Yeon smiled faintly with his smooth, shining face. The sight of blood continually spurting from his mouth, stretched wide in a bright smile, was nothing short of bizarre.

“Forget Amitabha! You’re still uttering Buddhist invocations in this situation?”

“It’s precisely at a time like this that I chant the Buddha’s name. More importantly, there’s something I need to say.”

“Something you need to say?”

Hye Yeon smiled serenely with a face that looked as though he had attained liberation.

“This humble monk can’t go on any longer.”

Thud.

With those words, Hye Yeon pitched forward and collapsed flat on his face. Yoon Jong was horrified and swiftly caught him, hoisting him onto his back.

“Hey, you old monk! At least give me some warning...!”

“......Life and death are as one, so there is nothing to fear...................”

[Yeori. 여일(如一). Literally ‘as one,’ expressing that life and death are fundamentally one and not separate.]

“I’m telling you to get a hold of yourself!”

“This humble monk does not fear death. I cannot cause you all trouble, so leave me here and......”

“What the hell are you babbling about, you fake-ass monk!”

“Cough!”

Perhaps the word fake-ass had shocked him more than the wounds to his body, because Hye Yeon spat out a large amount of blood.

“S-siju. Do you have no humanity?”

Hye Yeon’s voice trembled with tears. Yoon Jong ignored him, adjusted Hye Yeon on his back, and shouted.

“Yes. But at least I have hair! Unlike someone!”

“......You truly are fellow disciples of Cheong Myeong siju.”

Damn Mount Hua bastards.

As for Hye Yeon, Yoon Jong could somehow manage to carry him on his back and run. But the problem was that he wasn’t the only injured one.

“Mm.”

Yoo Iseol, who had been running silently, pitched forward and fell flat like a picture falling over.

“Sagoooo!”

Seeing her lying in such a strange position, like a wooden puppet with its strings cut, Tang Soso let out a scream.

“Sago, please come to your senses!”

“......I’m fine.”

“What do you mean, you’re fine?! You just lost consciousness!”

“I’m fine. I just saw a river. For a moment.”

“That’s the River of the Three Crossings!”

[tl note: 삼도 (三途) refers to the three paths of the afterlife, and 천 (川) means river. Saying someone "saw the Samdo River" implies they were on the brink of death.]

Tang Soso hurriedly hoisted Yoo Iseol onto her back, having returned from seeing something she shouldn’t have seen. In her haste, she began running in a fluster, but for some reason Yoo Iseol’s upper body swung wildly from side to side and was tossed about like a scarecrow roughly loaded onto a cart.

“......She’s going to die like that.”

“Looks like she’s never carried anyone on her back before.”

“I didn’t know Soso held a grudge against Samae.”

“What the hell are you people talking about?”

“Carry her properly! On your back! Think of it as carrying her with your back, not lifting her with your arms! Right now, you’re just holding her behind you! That’s what you’re doing!”

“What’s the difference?”

“Ah......”

Behind them, the Demonic Cultists drew alarmingly closer.

“Argh! Shut up and just run first!”

Baek Cheon gritted his teeth as he ran.

His own physical condition was terrible, too, but as a sasuk, he couldn’t let those damn sajil carry him. He’d rather drop dead. Whatever happened, he had to avoid being a burden.

Even in the midst of all this, the demons kept roaring behind them without pause. The sound was utterly chilling.

People were truly strange. When they charged in, staking their lives, they had felt as though they wouldn’t have any regrets even if they were crushed to death by those monstrous hands. But if they died while fleeing like this, they felt they wouldn’t even be able to close their eyes because of how unfair it was.

So they had to survive and escape by any means necessary..... but perhaps it was just their imagination. The Demonic Cultists chasing them seemed to be getting faster and faster.

“.....Ah. We’re the ones slowing down, aren’t we?”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“No. That...... you’re better off not knowing.”

Even if you found out, it’d only make you feel worse. Geol-ah.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!”

“Uryaaaaah!”

Yoon Jong, horrified, swung his sword at the Demonic Cultists who had come right up behind them. Seeing him slash about as though wildly waving his sword around, Jo Geol lit up both eyes with fury.

“What are you doing?! What about that thing from earlier?”

“That thing from earlier? What?”

“The one that punched a hole through Heavenly Executioner’s body!”

“You crazy bastard! It’s not something I can use just because I want to!”

“No, does that even make any sense? You used it, sahyung!”

“Argh.”

He couldn’t exactly grab a man who was half-dead and start arguing with him.

“If you’ve got time to spout bullshit, run!”

“I’m really going to die, seriously!”

Jo Geol groaned and put even more strength into his legs.

But the ones chasing them were Demonic Cultists. At a glance, they looked like soulless corpses, but each and every one of them was a master who had learned Demonic Arts that couldn’t be taken lightly. In other words, they weren’t opponents they could easily shake off while carrying extra weight on their backs, too.

“They’re coming again!”

“Soso-ya, help!”

“Yes, sahyung!”

Tang Soso and Yoon Jong turned around in an instant and exchanged glances. Each carrying someone on their back, the two unleashed their swords with all their strength. Plum Blossom Sword qi blossomed magnificently from their sword tips, forming a wall that blocked the charging Demonic Cultists.

“Did that do it?”

“Th-that!”

But it was only for an instant.

The Demonic Cultists slammed into the wall of plum blossoms with the same momentum with which they had charged forward.

“Eek!”

The lofty exchange of blows at that supreme realm they had traded with Heavenly Executioner was nowhere to be seen, no matter how hard one searched. And that was only natural. The Demonic Cultists giving chase were surging forward purely on instinct, in the simplest yet most effective way possible.

Numerous strands of Plum Blossom Sword qi pierced into the bodies of the Demonic Cultists who charged in first, and several who had been perfectly intact turned into bloody lumps in an instant. But in exchange for that, those following behind charged forward without any trouble at all.

KAAAAAA!

The even more frenzied Demonic Cultists charged at them ferociously like bulls with their tails on fire.

As their carefully prepared strike was rendered useless in the blink of an eye, Tang Soso and Yoon Jong literally turned around and began running again without looking back.

“Are those bastards fucking insane or what?!”

“It is efficient, though.”

“Nobody calls grinding up human beings ‘efficient’! And what the hell are you saying, you damn Taoist?!”

“Do something about this, sasuk!”

“......I told you all I can do is run.”

As Yoon Jong tore at his hair, a terrifying roar erupted right behind him. He instinctively turned his head, only to see a dozen or so Demonic Cultists hurling themselves through the air and pouncing on them.

‘Damn it!’

Of course, he wouldn’t be helpless against just this much. But if he counterattacked, his feet would be held up.

Just as Yoon Jong was about to thrust out his sword, with no other way out of the situation,

“Honestly, you people.”

“Huh?”

Something entered Yoon Jong’s field of vision. A faded green scholar’s robe, a completely crushed hat atop his head, a hand protruding from his wide sleeve, and even a fan.

“How unsightly.”

TUUUUNG!

The charging Demonic Cultists were instantly flung backward, as though they had been struck by something intangible.

Then Im Sobyeong landed lightly in front of Yoon Jong.

Yoon Jong brightened as though he had encountered a Buddha in hell.

“N-Nokrim King!”

“You came to help us!”

“Hmm, you people.....”

With a swish, Im Sobyeong opened his fan and covered half his face. His mouth was hidden, but his eyes were still visible, so he couldn’t quite conceal his smile. He drawled on with a sly grin.

“Without me. Yes, without this Im Sobyeong, you can’t seem to get anything done properly. Haha. I knew it would turn out like this, but still.”

“.......”

“Don’t worry. Now that I’m here. The symbol of competence. The apostle of salvation. Im Sobyeong has arrived. Everyone, applause.”

A brief silence followed. Then a fierce wave of protest poured forth.

“What the hell, you bastard?”

“You didn’t show your damn face when we were risking our lives fighting, and now that you show up, that’s what you have to say?! You bandit bastard with no loyalty or anything!”

“You really want to fucking die?”

“Huh?”

Im Sobyeong tilted his head to one side.

“Oops. Did I lose my mind? I had urgent business at the back. Well then, I’ll be taking my leave first....”

“Thank you for coming to help us!”

“We were counting on you!”

“Please save us!”

“Long live the Nokrim!”

“.....Right. This is how it should be.”

Im Sobyeong nodded, finally seeming satisfied. In any case, not knowing how to be grateful was a characteristic unique to those ignorant Taoist bastards. Wasn’t this how people learned to behave, by occasionally being taught how to show gratitude?

“Now then, leave the rest to me. A few dozen Demonic Cultists are nothing. I’ll take care of them in an instant......”

Im Sobyeong poured his energy into the fan in his hand and looked ahead.

The Demonic Cultists were surging into view. One horde, two hordes. Then three, four, uh....... five. Six......

“Uh..... Excuse me, this is....?”

When Im Sobyeong cautiously glanced back, the Mount Hua bastards had already abandoned him and were fleeing as fast as their legs could carry them. Even Jo Geol, at the very back, was looking back at him and clapping for him.

Was that their way of thanking him for dying in their place?

The moment he understood the situation, Im Sobyeong’s feet moved faster than lightning. He sprinted with all his might and quickly caught up with the disciples of Mount Hua.

“No, what are you doing?”

“There are too many of them!”

“You saw them all before you came over!”

“N-no. When I’d just arrived, the plum blossoms were still flying everywhere. I couldn’t see them all.”

“You were acting like you were going to do something for us!”

“I-I specialize in one-on-one combat, so large-scale battles are a bit... Ahem.”

“Is that something the Nokrim King should be saying? You’re the man whose specialty is gang fights between bandits!”

Im Sobyeong clamped his mouth shut.

As befitted someone who had come from a Confucian scholar’s background, he had enough to say to fill an entire book. But whatever he said now would only make him look pathetic.

“What did you even do in the first place that you couldn’t reduce their numbers in the slightest?”

“I fought a bishop! Heavenly Executioner, the one you said absolutely couldn’t come because he was laid up with injuries, came walking right up and started throwing punches at us! Huh?!”

“......All things in this world always come with unforeseen variables.”

“Why are there always so many variables in the things you guarantee?!”

Even Im Sobyeong, with his silver tongue, was running a little short on excuses this time.

Heavenly Executioner might be a demon straight out of hell, but as far as Im Sobyeong knew, Cheong Myeong was no pushover either. No, looking at it dispassionately, if someone asked which of them looked more like they had crawled up from hell, wouldn’t the honest answer be to turn one’s head slightly toward Cheong Myeong?

And yet, after fighting that lunatic to the death, they had come back to fight again. Were there nothing but monsters in the Demonic Cult?

“Ah, forget it. Just do something!”

“W-what am I supposed to do?”

“You said you studied the art of war! The art of war!”

“That’s meant to be used against people!”

“You useless bandit bastard!”

“AAAAH! Behind us! Behind us!”

Im Sobyeong whipped around. Before he knew it, dozens more Demonic Cultists were coming at them like waves, climbing over one another in layer after layer as they swarmed toward them.

“Huh?”

At that moment, Baek Cheon decisively thrust out his foot. The movement was as swift as a flash of lightning.

PPAAAK!

“KKWAAAK!”

Kicking Im Sobyeong squarely in the back and sending him flying toward the Demonic Cultists, Baek Cheon turned around again as though nothing had happened.

“What are you doing? Run!”

“.....Then who’s the bandit now?”

It was a question no one could bring themselves to answer frankly.

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