Chapter 1982 - Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1982. Because I’m Here. (2)

“Whoa.........”

Jo Geol’s mouth fell open.

Sword qi that resembled Mount Hua’s plum blossoms, yet was different from them. Unlike the plum blossoms that fluttered and surged upward, the pure-white Snow Blossoms fluttered and poured down toward the Demonic Cultists like a blizzard.

It was an overwhelming sight.

Even Yoo Iseol, whose pride in Mount Hua’s martial arts was so great that it bordered on the unusual, now had no choice but to acknowledge it. Though they might have begun from the same root due to an unfortunate incident, what that sword now brought into bloom differed in character from Mount Hua’s martial arts.

‘Heavy.’

It would be strange to look at snow and describe it as heavy. Even more so when that snow wasn’t piling up until it collapsed, but was instead scattering through the air.

And yet that sword unquestionably carried weight. No, rather than weight......

“You crazy bastard! What the hell do you think you’re doing, rushing out ahead like that?! Seriously, what the hell......!”

At that moment, Baek Cheon shattered Yoo Iseol’s concentration, unleashing a rapid-fire stream of curses.

Normally, by this point, Yoon Jong or someone else would have stepped in to say something like, ‘Now, think about it. You are Mount Hua’s head disciple, and you will soon become its sect leader. No matter how unhinged those Demonic Cultists are, they still have ears, don’t they? Isn’t it a bit much to curse like that while everyone is listening?’ They would have informed him of this politely.

But this time, no one blamed Baek Cheon. Instead, they joined him in hurling curses.

The Demonic Cultists Jin Geumryong had ignored and leapt over were now rushing at Mount Hua’s disciples without even sparing him a glance. If anything, with Jin Geumryong’s sword qi raining down from behind them, they seemed to have been provoked into charging even more frenziedly.

“Seriously, is this supposed to be helping? Is it?!”

“......It looks like he’s instinctively doing whatever draws the most attention.”

“Is this really the time for that? He looks perfectly normal, so why the hell is that man acting like this?”

“......They’re brothers, after all. Of course he’d resemble sasuk.”

“Ah.”

“Don’t go along with that, you bastards! I’m different from that man!”

Baek Cheon shouted in a surge of indignation, as though merely being treated the same as Jin Geumryong were enough to send his blood pressure soaring. Naturally, no one responded to his anger. To be precise, they didn’t have the strength to respond. The Demonic Cultists were pouring in right before their eyes.

Kagak! Kagagagak!

The long strands of Demonic qi growing from the Demonic Cultists’ fingertips resembled the claws of beasts. They came slashing toward Yoon Jong with enough ferocity to rake across his face. Yoon Jong’s complexion turned deathly pale as he stretched his sword out as far as he could to hold back the Demonic qi.

Wasn’t it human nature to prefer having a blade driven into one’s throat over dying with one’s face slashed to pieces?

“S-save me! Save......”

“No, we’re at our limit over here, too!”

“W-why don’t you do something, monk?! Don’t just lie there like that......”

“......Life and death cannot be separated......”

“Then just hurry up and fucking die, you fake-ass monk!”

Desperation filled Yoon Jong’s eyes.

‘No?’

Dying couldn’t be helped. Hadn’t he lived with the mindset that, just as that bastard Cheong Myeong kept going on about whenever the mood struck him, from the moment he took a sword in his hand and swung it at another person, whenever and wherever he croaked, it would count as a natural death?

“But this isn’t even a natural death!”

To die because the idiot who came as reinforcements was stupid. What on earth was he supposed to call this cause of death? Death by stupidity?

The strength was gradually draining from Yoon Jong’s arms. He had held out as long as he could, but now it was truly impossible.

“I-I’ll curse you! You damned Zhongnan bastards!”

At the very moment Yoon Jong, having painfully realized why their ancestors had treated those bastards like sworn enemies, was gasping his last breaths, a sword suddenly thrust out right beside his head.

“Huh?”

The sword thrust forward split into a dozen blades in an instant, spreading across every direction in front of him and blocking the advancing Demonic Cultists like an iron wall.

Yoon Jong’s eyes widened at that truly unyielding sword qi.

“Uh.....”

“....I’m sorry I’m late.”

Yoon Jong slowly turned around.

He saw a face he had seen many times, one that he could no longer quite call unfamiliar, yet couldn’t quite call familiar either. The man smiled gently and spoke.

“The damned Zhongnan bastard, Lee Songbaek, has just arrived after receiving the request for reinforcements.”

“......”

“It seems our sahyung has caused trouble again in the meantime. I don’t know how I should apologize.”

“Th-that.... no. Our sasuk causes trouble all the time, too.....”

“.....What the hell are you two doing right now?”

At the heartfelt exchange of sympathy between the victims of the Jin family, the man who had abandoned the Jin family bristled and spoke up.

“Demonic Cultists....”

Lee Songbaek’s expression immediately turned serious. The strength of the enemy was reaching him from beyond the sword qi he had unleashed upon his arrival. He could feel a vicious pressure that seemed ready to shatter the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven he had executed with all his might at any moment.

Facing that surging force, Lee Songbaek gave a small nod.

“To have held out this long against opponents like these. As expected of the people of Mount Hua.”

“....If you’d arrived just a little earlier, I don’t think we’d have had to hold out this long.”

“That’s true. Haha.”

Lee Songbaek let out an awkward laugh.

But Yoon Jong couldn’t bring himself to laugh along. More than anyone, he knew what it meant to converse and even smile while using sword qi to fend off the Demonic Cultists charging at them without regard for anything else.

‘He has this much composure?’

Cheong Myeong had once said something about this.

If the time ever came when Zhongnan once again set its sights on Mount Hua, the one they would have to be most wary of wouldn’t be Jin Geumryong, but Lee Songbaek.

— I’m not going to spout some obvious nonsense about how deep-rooted trees are this and that, but...... those who temper themselves desperately from the very bottom can climb to an absolutely ridiculous height.

‘But he was talking about the distant future.’

Wasn’t it far too soon?

As though answering that question, Lee Songbaek moved forward past Yoon Jong, keeping his extended sword in place.

“Uh... be caref......”

Yoon Jong had been about to tell him to be careful, but his legs suddenly gave way, and he slumped to the ground. It seemed his body had reached its limit even more thoroughly than he had realized.

Without even turning his gaze, Lee Songbaek sensed his condition and spoke.

“I’ll buy you some time.”

Yoon Jong started to answer, but soon gave up and let out a ragged breath.

‘Damn it.’

He couldn’t put any strength into his legs. At this rate, even if Lee Songbaek bought him time, he wouldn’t be able to escape properly.

For now, he needed to circulate his internal energy, even if only in a makeshift manner, to muster enough strength to flee.

‘But can he really hold out?’

Yoon Jong looked at Lee Songbaek with concern. From where he was now, all he could see was Lee Songbaek’s back. But after watching him for a brief moment, Yoon Jong quickly realized that his worry had been nothing more than needless anxiety.

Unyielding.

Yes, that was the only word that suited him.

Looking at Lee Songbaek, Yoon Jong felt he understood what the weight he had sensed in Jin Geumryong’s sword a moment ago truly was. Jin Geumryong, too, had in the meantime succeeded in embodying in his sword the very unyieldingness that was almost a symbol of Zhongnan.

“......I’m sick of this. Seriously.”

A hollow laugh escaped Yoon Jong’s lips.

That bastard Cheong Myeong had made Mount Hua strong. Anyone who denied this had to be out of their mind.

Then what had made Mount Hua strong after that bastard Cheong Myeong?

Some would say it was Jang Ilso and the Evil Tyrant Alliance, while others might answer Shaolin.

But Yoon Jong was certain. Among the sects, rather than individuals, the one that had provoked Mount Hua the most was, without a doubt, Zhongnan.

And yet.....

“So the reverse is true, too.”

Looking at those two now, everything became clear.

Just as Zhongnan had made Mount Hua stronger, Mount Hua had made them stronger as well. Jin Geumryong and Lee Songbaek were proving the results of that right now.

Kaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

The Demonic Cultists’ howls erupted one after another without end, like echoes resounding through the mountains. Yoon Jong knew better than anyone how violent the pressure pouring forth alongside those monstrous cries was. He also knew how reckless it was to oppose such force with a single sword.

“Watch out!”

That was why he couldn’t help shouting a warning before he even realized it. It wasn’t because he underestimated Lee Songbaek’s skill or feared the enemies. It was simply because the strength of the opponents Yoon Jong had faced until now had been that threatening.

But Lee Songbaek dispelled that concern in an instant.

Kuung!

Lee Songbaek’s stomping step shook the earth.

He wasn’t simply stamping his foot down. The moment Lee Songbaek’s foot touched the ground, Yoon Jong felt as though something were spreading outward through the earth.

It was something that stimulated his sixth sense rather than his perception of qi. Lee Songbaek, who embodied throughout his entire body that very weight absent from Mount Hua, thrust his sword forward in a single stroke.

Wooooooooooong!

A deep and powerful resonance.

The sword qi he had fired out at first had long since shattered, but it didn’t matter. The sword Lee Songbaek had unleashed was once again transforming into countless sword shadows, sealing off the entire front like an iron wall.

The Thirty-Six Directions Under Heaven.

For Lee Songbaek, who had mastered the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, the idea of ‘blocking what lay ahead’ was a matter beyond even needing to discuss whether it was possible.

“......”

Like a man whose soul had been stolen away, Yoon Jong stared blankly at the sword wall Lee Songbaek had created.

To the disciples of Mount Hua in the past, the very concept of a sword wall had been something almost beyond their reach. It was a feat of skill that could prove one’s ability simply by being performed.

But now, there was not a single disciple of Mount Hua who would call a sword wall itself extraordinary. Even Yoon Jong had already reached the level where he could produce one whenever he set his mind to it.

After all, there was no way a sword wall that flawlessly blocked only the front would seem like any particularly remarkable feat to disciples of Mount Hua who could cover the entire world with their sword qi.

But what Yoon Jong felt now was a shudder of awe as everything he had taken for granted was shattered.

Zhongnan’s sky-blue sword qi overlapped without leaving the slightest gap.

So densely packed that even the word ‘layer upon layer’ failed to do it justice. And every single strand of sword qi held a power that could not easily be dismissed. As that mighty sword qi accumulated and coalesced, taking on a deep, water-like blue, an absolute wall unfolded before Yoon Jong, one he could not even imagine trying to break.

‘Good heavens.....’

Could they really be this different?

Could a sword wielded after devoting all one’s time solely to blocking attacks truly become something this different?

KWAAAAAANG!

A tremendous explosion rang out. It must have been the sound of the Demonic Cultists, just as before, throwing themselves at the sword qi spread before them without hesitation or restraint.

Yet unlike Mount Hua’s sword wall, which had been breached in an instant at the cost of only a few sacrifices, the sword wall Lee Songbaek had erected did not even tremble under this tremendous impact.

“This is....”

Yoon Jong momentarily forgot even to look after his own body and stared in a daze.

“This is Zhongnan’s sword.”

Yoon Jong’s gaze remained fixed on the unyielding sword wall, then shifted to the man standing proudly behind it.

‘A giant tree.....’

If they were a forest of plum blossoms, Lee Songbaek was a gigantic tree standing alone in a broad field. The steadfastness displayed by that giant tree sent a shudder through Yoon Jong.

Mount Hua’s sword, which resorted to every means and method to cut down its enemies.

Zhongnan’s sword, which had been relentlessly tempered to block enemy attacks, no matter what it took.

A contradiction. Zhongnan’s sword, which had provoked Mount Hua throughout an immeasurably long stretch of time, now revealed its complete form here.

[Mujung. 모순(矛盾). Literally “spear and shield,” an expression for an inherent contradiction, originating from the tale of a spear said to pierce anything and a shield said to withstand anything].

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