Chapter 1987 - Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1987. It Would Have Been Nice If You’d Seen It. (2)

Fear clouded the bishop’s eyes.

It was hard to believe, but impossible to deny.

The pinnacle of the Demonic Cult, bowing their heads to no one except the Heavenly Demon. Monsters who had proven the might of the cult by turning all the renowned masters of the Central Plains into wandering souls.

The fact that even those who were called demons who had sold their souls to the Heavenly Demon, even the bishops of the Demonic Cult who had plunged the entire Central Plains into terror, were ultimately no more than human.

Blood spurted into the air from the places where his fingers had been cut off.

He didn’t even feel any pain. Was it because someone of a bishop’s caliber could disregard even the sensation of pain? What a load of bullshit.

It was simply because, with his neck about to be severed at any moment, he had no time to spare a thought for mere fingers.

A sword enveloped in crimson energy swept past the neck he’d barely managed to twist out of its path with all his might.

Jjeoeok.

It had barely even grazed him as it passed, yet the keen force carried by the sword cleaved his body, saturated with demonic qi, like tofu.

The hair on his body stood on end.

But he wasn’t even given the time to fully feel the fear. The sword that had cut the skin of his neck twisted in midair, changing direction, then plunged vertically toward his body.

“Haaaaaaah!”

The bishop struck Cheong Myeong’s sword blade with his hand, putting every ounce of strength into it.

KAAAAANG!

Along with a metallic clang so loud it seemed his eardrums might burst at any moment, Cheong Myeong’s sword was knocked backward.

Having gained this brief opening, the bishop drew in the breath he’d been holding, filling his lungs.

That’s right. There’s no need to be afraid.

It was true that the man before his eyes was a demon of the Central Plains who had already cut down several bishops. And it was true that among the bishops this man had cut down with such ease, there had been even those whose strength he himself wouldn’t dare challenge……

Even so, the advantage lay with his side.

He had cultists here whose numbers and strength were more than enough to slaughter every enemy present. If he could just hold out against this man for a little while, the cultists who finished dealing with those damned taoists would join the fight and cut this bastard’s lifeline.

‘No matter how strong you are.’

He, too, was someone who had attained the exalted position of bishop.

No matter who his opponent was, if he couldn’t even manage to buy time, then the position of bishop would become utterly meaningless.

The bishop ground his teeth, then unleashed a violent torrent of demonic qi.

An unbearably vicious close-quarters battle unfolded, so close that even calling it close-range hardly did it justice. At a distance where either man’s outstretched hand could touch the other’s body, he poured powerful demonic qi from his entire being.

It was a move scarcely different from a decisive killing blow. Yet it was blocked, as though this were only natural, by sword images that surged explosively upward. The force could advance no further, instead twisting away and shooting wildly in every direction.

But it didn’t matter.

He had never expected to defeat this man with an attack of this level. He had no choice but to acknowledge it. Even throughout the entire cult, there would be only a handful who could defeat this man head-on.

So what he needed to do now wasn’t defeat him, but hold him back and cling to him until he could no longer move freely.

Fwoooooosh!

For an instant, the bishop’s hands drew dozens of hand images through the air. The dozens multiplied into hundreds in the blink of an eye, gathering into layer upon layer before pouring down upon Cheong Myeong.

A spectacle of pure speed and overwhelming demonic qi, heedless of any set forms or techniques.

Yet those who had witnessed this martial art in the past had all said the same thing. It was as though every demon in the world descended upon them in a single instant.

And so, the world gave it a name.

Mamacheongeopsu!

[Mamacheongeopsu. 마마천겁수(魔魔千劫手). A named hand technique of the Demonic Cult. Literally, “Demon-Demon Thousand Calamities Hand.” The description compares the technique’s overwhelming barrage of strikes to all the demons in the world descending upon an opponent at once.]

He drew out and fired off every last grain of demonic qi remaining inside his body, again and again.

It was at that very moment that he noticed something amiss.

‘Now?’

The bishop suddenly realized that, without his being conscious of it, one of his feet had moved one step forward. Which meant that the demon before his eyes had retreated.

And this anomaly soon brought about a crack in his composure.

Thud!

A sensation reached his fingertips.

He couldn’t tell exactly where or how he’d struck, but he could vividly feel the force he’d sent out thudding against his opponent’s body. That man’s sword wasn’t managing to block all the palm strikes raining down upon him.

Then, could it be?

At that instant, the bishop had to exercise superhuman patience. He desperately forced down his shoulders, which threatened to heave with the excitement surging explosively through him. Though he had reached a level at which he could escape the temptations of demonic nature, he still couldn’t become completely free from the violent temperament of demonic qi. Suppressing the blood rushing through him was no easy feat.

Even so, the bishop ultimately succeeded in suppressing his own impatient murderous intent. His single-minded determination to survive, together with the terror inspired by the opponent before his eyes, had overcome even the instincts of a demonic practitioner.

‘It’s done……’

But at that moment.

Crack!

An unfamiliar sensation jolted through his hand. The startled bishop opened his eyes wide.

‘What……?’

As the hand he’d been extending in a state of selflessness came to a halt, the black shadows of his hands naturally disappeared with it. And then, the scene before his eyes was finally revealed.

His right hand was embedded in none other than the right side of the Plum Blossom Sword Saint.

What the bishop felt upon seeing this was neither elation nor pleasure.

It was……an endless terror, surging toward him like waves.

“You……”

Sensing something, the bishop hurriedly tried to pull his hand free, but the Plum Blossom Sword Saint’s muscles clenched around it, refusing to let go. At the same time, the sword held in the Plum Blossom Sword Saint’s hand drew a dizzying arc as it came flying toward the bishop’s neck.

“You did this on purpose……”

Kagagagagak!

A harsh, violent sound followed, like a saw cutting through metal, and before long, the bishop’s head shot into the air. The headless body shuddered with spasms, then slowly collapsed on the spot.

Watching this with dry eyes, Cheong Myeong heard Cheong Jin’s furious shout reach his ears.

“Sahyung!”

“Hmph.”

Cheong Myeong gave a quiet snort.

A bishop was by no means an easy opponent. If he had to fight one properly, even Cheong Myeong would have had to exchange blows for over a hundred moves.

But right now, he didn’t have the luxury of doing that, so he had no choice but to accept the sacrifice.

Cheong Myeong yanked the bishop’s hand out of his flank in one swift motion, then casually pressed the acupoints around the wound. It was an all too familiar movement.

Having roughly stopped the bleeding, Cheong Myeong raised his sword again.

“Cheong Myeong-ah!”

At the sound of Cheong Mun’s vehement voice coming from afar, Cheong Myeong chuckled softly. Honestly, what a noisy old man.

“……I’m going before I have to listen to a lecture. Don’t fall behind. Keep up.”

Without even waiting for a reply, Cheong Myeong surged forward, stepping on the bishop’s head lying on the ground.

❀ ❀ ❀

Fwoooosh.

A group of people was advancing at a pace that wasn’t particularly fast.

One of those at the front glanced discreetly to the side and asked cautiously.

“Shouldn’t we hurry a little?”

Instead of answering, the person standing beside him merely stared into empty space with a peculiar expression. The one who had spoken hesitated, looking anxious, before opening his mouth again.

“If we’re any later, Mount Hua really will be annihilated.”

“……”

“That would be a problem for us, too……”

“Your words are somewhat strange.”

At last, an answer came. He shook his head firmly and replied in a composed manner.

“It’s not as though we’re the ones who deliberately delayed things, is it? We happened to encounter the enemy while on our way to help Mount Hua. That can’t possibly be our fault.”

At the unruffled words of Peng Jaho, the Patriarch of the Hebei Peng Family, the expression of Ma Seunggyeong, an elder of the Kongtong Sect, twisted.

[Peng Jaho. 팽자호(彭紫湖). The name of the Patriarch of the Hebei Peng Family.]

[Ma Seunggyeong. 馬承慶. The name of an elder of the Kongtong Sect.]

What shameless lie was this?

They could have avoided the enemy as much as they wanted. Even if it had been difficult to avoid them, even a child would have known which matter should take priority.

Seeing someone who ought to have known that perfectly well calmly spouting such brazen nonsense made heat rise all the way to the back of his head.

“Why? Have I said anything wrong?”

But Ma Seunggyeong couldn’t utter a single retort.

Because he knew that the intention behind Peng Jaho’s words wasn’t Peng Jaho’s alone. No, even Peng Jaho of the Hebei Peng Family might be nothing more than a mere puppet. The situation unfolding now was the result of a powerful authority at work, something beyond their ability to do anything about.

“Listen, Elder Ma.”

“Yes, Patriarch Peng.”

“I understand what you want to say, but I’m not the person you should be saying it to, am I?”

Peng Jaho crookedly lifted the corners of his mouth.

It was a reprimand, the Sect Leader of Kongtong had agreed with this course of action from the very beginning, and Ma Seunggyeong was merely someone carrying out that decision.

Ma Seunggyeong cleared his throat loudly, as though stifling his frustration, then spoke with some difficulty.

“I only…… If we lose Mount Hua now, a sect of that stature, wouldn’t it become immeasurably more difficult to fight the Demonic Cult? I only wanted to say that…….”

“Certainly, that may be true.”

“Pardon?”

Ma Seunggyeong asked back, his expression bewildered. Peng Jaho once again wore a thin, unpleasant smile before answering.

“But surely you don’t think we set this in motion without knowing that.”

Ma Seunggyeong’s expression stiffened, and he closed his mouth.

Right. There was no way that could be the case. What kind of people were the heads of the Nine Great Sects, One Union and Five Great Families? How could they have failed to consider something that even Ma Seunggyeong knew all too well?

“Then why on earth……?”

“Why, you ask?”

Peng Jaho clicked his tongue as though he found the question pathetic.

“Because Mount Hua must never be allowed to take control of this war.”

“……What exactly do you mean by that?”

Peng Jaho’s eyes darkened.

“Look. Cheong Mun of Mount Hua is a dangerous man.”

Ma Seunggyeong found it exceedingly difficult to understand. After all, wasn’t Cheong Mun, the Great Sage Sword, renowned throughout the world as a great hero of benevolence and righteousness? And now he was being called a dangerous man?

[Great Sage Sword. Daehyeongeom. 대현검(大賢劍). Literally “Great Worthy Sword,” an epithet referring to Cheong Mun.]

“He’s the kind of man who wouldn’t hesitate to throw even his own sect into the jaws of the Demonic Cult if it meant achieving victory. What do you think will happen if a man like that accomplishes a great feat?”

“That…….”

“Next time, it’ll be us who are made to play that role. If he holds full authority and tells Kongtong to serve as bait to lure in the Demonic Cult, what do you intend to do?”

Ma Seunggyeong’s eyes widened.

“Then……”

“That’s right.”

‘That’s exactly it’, Peng Jaho said with a nod.

“If we don’t break him at this point, even if we win the war, we’ll eventually find ourselves looking at our sects reduced to ruins. Surely you don’t want that, Elder?”

“……”

Ma Seunggyeong couldn’t bring himself to answer and chose silence instead. Peng Jaho clicked his tongue briefly, his expression displeased.

‘This is exactly why those elders of the Nine Great Sects are like this.’

Far too many of them had shut themselves away in the mountains and had no idea how the world was turning. Perhaps they should consider themselves fortunate that, at least, the sect leaders understood the situation.

Of course, this wasn’t the only reason the Nine Great Sects and One Union wanted to crush Mount Hua at this point. But Ma Seunggyeong didn’t need to know that much.

‘Let’s see…… It wouldn’t hurt if at least half of them died.’

Certainly, Mount Hua’s strength was still useful for now.

But even if they all died, it wouldn’t matter much. It would be better for them to be annihilated than to have their strength preserved intact.

This war would ultimately end in the Central Plains’ victory, just as it always had. Victory wasn’t what mattered. What mattered was what they would divide up afterward.

‘For that, the fewer people occupying those positions, the better.’

At the very least, no one wanted to see a world in which Mount Hua had become the Big Dipper after the war.

[Big Dipper. Bukdu. 북두(北斗). The seven-star constellation known in Korean as the Northern Dipper. Here, it is used figuratively to suggest Mount Hua rising to a dominant position in the martial world after the war. Usually it’s Shaolin.]

A martial world led by that damn mudskipper and the fellow who kept droning on with self-righteous words until everyone’s ears hurt. Just imagining it was horrifying.

[tl note: 망둥이 literally means “mudskipper,” a small fish. Here, it is used insultingly for someone viewed as an obnoxious upstart. The other man is mocked for constantly spouting morally correct, self-righteous words. Yeah, cmyeong and cmun.]

“So, let’s just hope they manage to hold out well enough.”

Though that was never going to happen.

It was at that very moment, as Peng Jaho once again wore a scornful smile, that someone shouted.

“Patriarch! There’s something up ahead!”

Every muscle in Peng Jaho’s body tensed.

Don’t tell me those Demonic Cult bastards who dealt with Mount Hua have come all the way here? Those damned Mount Hua bastards! They ran their mouths so arrogantly, and they’ve already been wiped out?

“Everyone, stop!”

He halted those following behind him, then lowered his posture. He intended to check only the number of people approaching before immediately turning around and fleeing.

But things didn’t go as he expected.

“Hmm?”

At the unexpected sight, Peng Jaho narrowed his eyes.

The approaching group was smaller than he’d expected. If they were the Demonic Cult, at least ten times that number should have been moving.

“Patriarch! It’s Mount Hua! Mount Hua!”

“What……?”

At those utterly unexpected words, Peng Jaho’s pupils shook violently.

Mount Hua?

No way…… That couldn’t be. Had they broken through an encirclement by Demonic Cult members whose numbers were ten times their own? And that was with them preserving so many of their people?

‘That’s impossible.’

What sect under heaven could accomplish such a feat? Even Shaolin wouldn’t be able to do it.

His confusion didn’t last long. The group that had been visible in the distance rushed up to them in an instant.

The group that had been racing forward like flying tigers gradually slowed down, then finally came to a stop. Looking at the Mount Hua swordsmen standing just one zhang away from him, Peng Jaho felt a chill creep down his back.

They were in a wretched state. Taoists drenched in blood from head to toe were glaring at him, at all of them, with venomous eyes.

There wasn’t a single person among them who wasn’t wounded, and not a single person who wasn’t covered in blood.

Anyone who caught the stench of blood this dreadful would immediately understand just how desperately these people had fought to reach this place. Even a blind man would have been able to tell.

But what truly made Peng Jaho tremble wasn’t their horrific appearance.

At the front of the group stood a single swordsman, his long hair hanging down, soaked in blood. The murderous intent emanating from him tightened around Peng Jaho’s throat.

“W-we…….”

Sensing that the situation had gone completely awry, Peng Jaho tried to say something, anything. But a cold voice flowed from the mouth of the Sword Saint.

“……Is this all?”

Baring his bloodstained teeth, the Plum Blossom Sword Saint approached Peng Jaho.

“Is this all the reinforcements you spoke of?”

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