Chapter 1984 - Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1984. Because I’m Here. (4)

“Urgh.”

His mouth tasted sweet, and the sky was beginning to turn yellow. It was a sight he often saw whenever he reached his limit, but the reason it felt particularly special today was probably that one person’s place was empty.

“S-sasuk.”

“Hm?”

“What about that bastard Cheong Myeong? Doesn’t this mean he’ll be left behind?”

“Pungyeong Singae is protecting that bastard as though his life depends on it. He’s twice as fast as us, so don’t worry.”

“Ah....”

Yoon Jong nodded quickly.

In a world where the Demonic Cult had invaded, it was hard to imagine any place being safe. Even so, riding on Pungyeong Singae’s back was undoubtedly the safest option among those available.

“Ah, seriously, you worry about the strangest things! Do you think that man is someone who’d go down easily? Even if you threw him into hell, he’d smash the King of Yama’s head and come right back! Worry about ourselves first, will you? Worry about ourselves!”

“....You’re so right that I can’t even think of a way to argue with you.”

His language was rough, but when you listened to him, he usually hit the nail on the head.

“Could you just hurry up and lift it properly?”

“A-all right.”

After thoroughly dressing down her sahyung and sasuk, Tang Soso fixed her eyes on the path ahead, her eyes blazing. Humans had taken the place of wheels, carrying the cart as they ran alongside the horse. Even so, they couldn’t pick up speed as much as she wanted because the two bastards at the front were so pathetically weak that they couldn’t put any strength into it.

Baek Cheon? He had an excuse. She had seen with her own two eyes just how battered that man had become after fighting that freak with the bizarre number for a name and then Heavenly Executioner.

The problem was....

“Can’t you lift it properly? What have you done to get so weak? You useless unorthodox sect bastard!”

“C-cough. That’s not it. I’ve always been frail by nature....”

“Frail? Don’t give me that frail nonsense. How dare you bring up being frail in front of a physician!”

“....What kind of logic is that?”

“Shut up and lift it properly. Before I stick a large acupuncture needle into your head.”

Im Sobyeong wiped away his tears.

Even Tang Soso’s father, the late Tang Gun-ak, had never treated him with such contempt. How could he be suffering this much indignity?

Only now did Im Sobyeong understand why the older bandits of Nokrim would keep repeating whenever they saw him, “Even your father was respectful toward me, you useless bastard who couldn’t even make a proper bandit.”

“Aaaaaaaaaagh!”

“N-no, I’m lifting it as high as I can, so why are you....?”

“I’m so exhausted I could die! When are we ever going to get a break?!”

“....”

“Just you wait! I’ll grind those Demonic Cult bastards’ bones and flesh into pulp and swallow them! I’m so exhausted I could fucking die! Aagh! Why is this damn cart so heavy, anyway?!”

It was then, as Tang Soso glared with bloodshot eyes and spewed curses, that a voice called out.

“A-are you all right?”

“Huh?”

Tang Soso’s head snapped upward.

Several pairs of eyes gazed down at her, frightened, yet still retaining the characteristic sparkle of young children.

“Huh?”

Only then did Tang Soso realize that the people loaded onto this cart were elderly people and children. The moment she thought of how the children had been listening to all the harsh shouting she had let loose until now, her face suddenly grew hot.

The children on the cart must have at least vaguely understood how much danger they were in. Yet rather than crying or throwing tantrums, they were frightened and kept anxiously watching Tang Soso’s face.

Facing those children’s eyes, Tang Soso felt like squeezing her own eyes shut.

“Um.....”

“Aagh! N-no, no!”

Tang Soso immediately shouted, almost as though she were yelling at them.

“It’s not that you’re heavy! I’m just exhausted! I don’t have enough strength! You haven’t done anything wrong!”

“....”

“It’s all right. It’s fine, so don’t think about anything and just rest. Hurry!”

Overwhelmed by her forceful tone, the children nodded faintly. Even so, the fear in their faces remained.

Tang Soso unconsciously bit down hard on her lip.

‘Damn it.’

They were risking their lives to fight for people they had never even met. Yet the very people they were trying to protect had abandoned these children and elderly people and fled, looking after nothing but their own lives. It was only natural for questions to arise.

One’s own life was the most important thing to anyone. But if those people had yielded just a little of the space they had reserved for their belongings, would these people really have been left so dangerously far behind?

‘No. The fact that I’m even thinking this way proves how immature I am.’

Those who practiced righteousness must not judge whether those they wished to help were themselves righteous. Otherwise, her righteousness would become a reward bestowed only upon the righteous.

Even knowing this, she couldn’t help feeling troubled and heavy-hearted. Just as her expression began to darken, someone shouted at her.

“Weren’t you the one who said we should worry about ourselves first?!”

“Ah, right.”

Snapping back to her senses, Tang Soso hurriedly nodded.

“It’s all right, it’s all right! Even if someone comes after us, there’s nothing to worry about.”

The children, who had pulled their heads back inside, cautiously poked them out again.

“Don’t worry! The people holding the rear are much more incredible than you think. So the enemies absolutely won’t be able to catch up! Isn’t that right, sasuk?”

“Huh?”

“Right?”

Baek Cheon’s face twisted hideously. Was she telling him to praise those Zhongnan bastards with his own mouth? No matter how things stood, that was impossible....

“Sasuk.”

Tang Soso gritted her teeth and glared at him with wide-open eyes. If he failed to play along with the mood here, she looked ready to grind up Baek Cheon and swallow him before she did anything about the Demonic Cult or any other damn thing.

Baek Cheon briefly considered whether he could handle an enraged Tang Soso, then slowly opened his mouth. The muscles in his face twitched grotesquely. He seemed to be trying to force a smile somehow, but the result left much to be desired.

“Th-then. They’re very.... impressive.... Yes, very im-pre-sive people.”

“Right?”

Baek Cheon’s head bobbed in a bizarre, broken-puppet fashion.

“Uh… thaaat’s.... right.”

“You heard that, didn’t you?”

Tang Soso smiled brightly at the children, then whispered toward Baek Cheon.

“Can’t you do it properly?”

“....Just kill me instead.”

“Those people came all this way to help us, and you can’t even praise them once? Wow, you’re really such a petty little man, aren’t you?”

“Grrr....”

Baek Cheon’s body trembled before he clenched his teeth.

“They may be terrible as people, but I can’t deny their skill. Especially one of them is a decent human being and a proper swordman, so there’s no need to worry.”

“Ah....”

“They’ll protect our rear without fail. That’s the kind of sect Zhongnan is!”

The children’s expressions brightened a little, and they nodded. Seeing them like that, Baek Cheon also felt somewhat relieved. Tang Soso grinned.

“How about that? You could’ve just acknowledged it from the beginning.”

“....You’re right.”

Baek Cheon let out a deep sigh.

“I can’t deny their skill. And the fact that they came all this way to help us is something we should be grateful for, too.”

“What’s gotten into you, sasuk?”

“Just as you said, I can’t go on acting like such a petty little man forever. When we meet again, I’ll sincerely thank them....”

Baek Cheon had been speaking solemnly when he suddenly fell silent. Then, without warning, he turned around.

“What’s wrong, sasuk?”

“No.... I thought I heard something just now.”

“A sound? I didn’t hear anything.”

After thinking for a moment, Baek Cheon withdrew his gaze and looked ahead.

“Have my nerves gotten too frayed.....?”

Muttering to himself, he abruptly turned around again.

“No, sasuk. Why do you keep acting like this? You’re scaring me, too!”

“Th-there! Over there!”

“Huh?”

Tang Soso hurriedly turned around as well. But all she could see was the broad field they had passed through.

‘What’s he making such a fuss about?’

Tang Soso narrowed her eyes and looked for a moment. Then her eyes flew wide open. Something pale was approaching from far away.

“Huh? Huh.... Huhhh?”

That something was running.

The reason she called it ‘something’ was that she couldn’t think of a suitable word to describe its shape. What she could see was something black as soot, like a cloud, with two white specks ahead of it....

“Th-that....?”

The two white specks rapidly drew closer and took shape. They became two men running toward them with deathly pale faces.

Tang Soso let out a shrill scream from deep in her abdomen.

“Why are you back already?! You damn idiots!”

“Ruuuuuuun!”

The Zhongnan disciples came charging like lightning and caught up with the cart in an instant. Then, as though they had rehearsed it beforehand, they lifted the cart together and began running alongside it.

“Ah, what is this?! What the hell is going on?! You were so confident!”

“.....There’s no beating sheer numbers.”

“You didn’t know that?!”

“I knew it, but they were stronger than I expected.”

The two men subtly avoided Tang Soso’s gaze.

“Honestly, you Zhongnan bastards! You’re absolutely no help at all!”

The Sichuan Tang Family coexisted with Qingcheng and Emei within the small territory of Sichuan, yet the three were not particularly hostile toward one another. For that reason, Tang Soso had never fully understood Mount Hua’s deep-seated enmity toward Zhongnan.

But at this moment, she felt she finally understood perfectly why Mount Hua’s disciples’ eyes seemed to shoot flames whenever someone mentioned Zhongnan. If she could, she wanted to stick a dagger into their skulls instead of an acupuncture needle.

Tang Soso quickly looked behind them. The Demonic Cultists were pursuing them like mad. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but they looked filled with a viciousness that was difficult to compare with what she had seen before.

No, it probably wasn’t her imagination. They only looked like soul-lost people. They weren’t completely soul-lost. Because they obeyed the Cult’s orders absolutely, it was easy to forget sometimes, but those people undeniably still possessed consciousness.

“You could’ve at least gone in a different directionnnnnnn!”

At Tang Soso’s furious shout, Jin Geumryong flinched.

“Ah....”

“Ah?”

“....I didn’t think of that.”

“....”

Tang Soso made up her mind.

If she survived and made it out of here, she would make absolutely certain to meet these damn brothers’ father in person. She had to find out just what kind of state their family was in for both brothers to have turned out like this.

“Th.... I’m sorry.”

“Sorry, my ass!”

Tang Soso cut off Lee Songbaek’s apology and snapped at Baek Cheon.

“Say something, will you?! Why do you go silent precisely when you ought to be angry?!”

“Angry?”

Baek Cheon tilted his head as though he had heard something strange.

“You’re saying something strange, Soso-ya. Be angry? What do you mean by that?”

“....Huh?”

“It’s wrong to get angry over something that happened because you lack skill. You can simply think, ‘So they’re pathetically weak,’ and leave it at that. What on earth were you expecting?”

“Have you finished speaking, Jin Dongryong?”

“I told you not to call me by that name!”

At this point, the brothers had started quarrelling outright. Tang Soso watched them quietly for a moment, then suddenly looked up at the sky.

Wouldn’t she feel better if she just stuck a needle into each of these bastards’ death points? Looking at them, they were going to die here anyway. Wouldn’t it be a better deal to die with her heart at least feeling a little more at ease?

“P-please wait a moment. Something seems to be getting the wrong reaction here, but we didn’t run away without any plan.”

“What?”

Perhaps he had sensed something ominous in Tang Soso’s expression, because Lee Songbaek hurriedly tried to explain.

“Think about it. The orders we were originally given weren’t to block them and hold out, were they?”

“Then what were they?”

“To surround and annihilate them!”

“Huh?”

Tang Soso tilted her head slightly. Now that he mentioned it, that did sound right....

“So our task wasn’t to stop them, but to draw them as deep in as possible and annihilate them before their main force arrived.”

Baek Cheon shouted furiously.

“That’s right! But now that the rallying point has changed, it’s meaningless, isn’t it? There are no troops here to surround them, so what’s the point? Everyone stayed away from this place because it was dangerous.”

“Yes. Of course, the rallying point has changed. But, Baek Cheon dojang....”

Lee Songbaek grinned.

“Do you really think those people, who came running all the way to this distant place at a single word asking for help, would just wait in the rear because it’s dangerous?”

At that meaningful question, Baek Cheon’s eyes widened.

“That means....”

“You’re asking where the troops are?”

Lee Songbaek pointed ahead.

“They seem to be right over there.”

At that moment.

“Ooooooooooh!”

Along with a roar that shook the world, something began to surge violently up ahead.

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