Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1311

THWOOOOOM! The sound slammed into Lee Ja-yang like a physical blow. The ground vibrated under his feet, and the air itself seemed to crack. He stumbled, heart leaping into his throat.

*Hye-yeon?* Fear twisted in his gut. His eyes darted towards the front, heart hammering against his ribs. *It has to be Hye-yeon. Who else could make a sound like that?*

Lee Ja-yang’s breath hitched. He knew Hye-yeon was strong. No, *strong* wasn’t the right word. *Monstrous.* Hye-yeon and Namgung Dowi… they were in a different league altogether.

All he could do in the face of their power was shudder.

The difference was so great that he couldn’t even feel jealous.

Of course, they were the ones who had been praised as being in a different class from the many promising disciples from the start, and who had received the expectations of the world.

He knew he couldn’t compare himself to them.

But what shocked him so much was that they had become so strong in just a few years. It was most surprising that the gap had widened so much in such a short time.

‘They weren’t this strong at the Later Disciples Martial Arts Competition.’

They were definitely strong back then, too. So strong that he couldn’t even dream of winning. But the difference was definitely not this great. He could at least have hoped that he could face them someday if he worked hard over time.

But the martial prowess that Hye-yeon and Namgung Dowi showed now shattered Lee Ja-yang’s thoughts without mercy. While he worked hard to improve, they had become incredibly powerful and left him far behind.

‘What the hell happened in those few years?’

It wasn’t enough to explain it by saying that they had different innate talents.

“Run faster!”

“Get inside!”

Lee Ja-yang bit his lip and ran, hearing the shouts pouring out from behind him.

He didn’t have time to be shocked by this.

The entrance to the canyon was absurdly narrow. Hye-yeon was diligently clearing the way, but it would take time for all the people who had gathered to enter completely.

The disciples of the Mount Hua Sect and the elders of Hainan were blocking those who were trying to attack in that gap.

“Move faster! Stop waving your swords around! Put them away and get inside the canyon, you fools!”

Lee Ja-yang screamed as if he were about to spit blood. His voice was filled with resentment, annoyance, disappointment in himself, and powerlessness.

“Yes!”

The disciples of Hainan squeezed their bodies and pushed into the canyon.

“Okay!”

“Move it! You humans!”

Then, Im So-byeong shouted loudly. As soon as the order was given, the disciples of Mount Hua ran like flying squirrels over the heads of the Hainan disciples and ran forward.

“Elders, go to the middle! Attacks may come from above, so be prepared!”

“Got it!”

The elders, led by Geum Yang-baek, answered loudly and moved into the canyon like lightning. Those who were camped outside the canyon tried to grab their ankles, but it was impossible in the first place with their strength, having lost more than half of their forces to Namgung Dowi and Hye-yeon.

‘Is it done?’

Once they succeeded in entering, it could be said that they were halfway there. Lee Ja-yang looked back and clenched his fist tightly. A small spark of hope began to grow within him.

But then.

‘Huh?’

His eyes widened.

Because of the cliffs rising to the left and right, his vision was narrow, but he could see it clearly. The dense, dark forest they had passed through was shaking as if it were convulsing.

“T, there…”

At the end of the violently shaking bushes, countless assassins with red masks covering their faces rushed out. The Bloodied Ones, who ran out of the dense forest, rushed straight to the canyon.

A chill ran down Lee Ja-yang’s spine.

“T, they’re coming! Behind us! It’s behind us!”

He screamed like a scream.

“Damn it, it’s behind us!”

His voice was desperate, almost desperate.

Lee Ja-yang was one of the Hainan disciples who could be proud of his deep knowledge of strategy. That was why he couldn’t help but know how terrible it was to be surrounded on both sides in this narrow canyon.

Moreover, the force of those rushing in from behind was extraordinary at a glance. They seemed to be the same kind of people who had attacked them before.

“Elders, it’s behind us! We have to block the rear! Damn it, elders!”

Lee Ja-yang screamed and tried to inform them of the situation, but his voice was buried in the noise of the battlefield.

‘Ah, no!’

Lee Ja-yang’s eyes shook greatly.

The disciples and elders of Mount Hua had already moved forward. Then, those Bloodied Ones would grab the backs of the ordinary Hainan disciples.

Hadn’t they already confirmed what the result would be?

“Damn it!”

Lee Ja-yang hurriedly kicked off the ground and floated up.

If the elders couldn’t move right away, he had to go. He wasn’t confident that he could stop them, but he would be better than his fellow disciples.

As he floated up, he could see at a glance the Bloodied Ones who had rushed to the entrance of the canyon in an instant. His heart was pounding as if it would burst, and his stomach seemed to be twisted.

The Bloodied Ones were rushing into the canyon faster than Lee Ja-yang could make up his mind.

‘I, I have to stop them…’

It was at that moment.

BOOM! BOOM! Explosions ripped through the canyon entrance. Black smoke billowed outwards, thick and choking, smelling of burnt almonds and something else, something acrid and unnatural.

‘What is it?’

Suddenly.

Almost at the same time, someone reached out and grabbed Lee Ja-yang’s foot in the air and pulled him down.

“Ugh!”

“Don’t go in front of me. You’ll get poisoned.”

“…Yes?”

The man who pulled Lee Ja-yang to the ground put his hands into his wide sleeves.

“A pincer attack… Obvious, but a good move. But you missed one thing.”

It was Dang Pae, who was at the rear of the force.

“It’s a saying in the Jianghu. Don’t chase after the Dang family. It seems your master didn’t teach you that?”

Dang Pae took out a poison bottle and poison pellets from his sleeve and raised the corners of his mouth.

Soon, the thick poisonous smoke cleared, and the figures covered in it slowly revealed themselves.

“G, grrrk…”

The Bloodied Ones were clutching their necks and shaking greatly. The pain seemed to be extreme, and some even dropped their weapons and convulsed.

This is why poison is so scary.

In a one-on-one match, you can pay enough attention, so poison can’t exert its power. And even if you get poisoned, you can suppress it to some extent with your inner strength.

But that’s impossible on the battlefield.

It doesn’t make sense to be constantly wary of poison that might erupt at any time in a battlefield where every moment is urgent. And of course, you don’t have the luxury of treating the poisoning.

“Kuk!”

“That damn bastard!”

Even though they saw their comrades in front of them being poisoned and collapsing, those who followed behind couldn’t do anything. The poisonous smoke was still clearly visible, so how could they jump into it?

“Take the antidote!”

“Yes!”

The Bloodied Ones all put something in their mouths. Dang Pae sneered at the sight.

“An antidote. Not a bad response.”

That is, if the person in front of them wasn’t the heir of the Dang family.

‘People don’t know the Dang family well.’

Even Mount Hua probably doesn’t completely understand the Dang family.

Dang Pae thinks that the direction Tang Gunak has taken is right. He also thinks that Chung Myung’s criticism that he is too engrossed in poison and lacks fighting skill is not wrong. That’s why he’s putting all his effort into training in the Twelve Flying Daggers, isn’t he?

But at the same time, he doesn’t think that criticism is the only right one.

The Dang family is a prestigious family in the Jianghu, on par with the Namgung family. Would those Dang family members really be so stupid and foolish as to bet everything on poison, which has clear limitations?

Poison has a perfect advantage that hidden weapons don’t have. A perfect advantage that has supported the Dang family until now.

“He’s just a weakling! I’ll cut him down in an instant!”

Dang Pae smirked.

That’s certainly true. He was weak. His fighting skill didn’t even reach the toes of Hye-yeon or Namgung Dowi. Not to mention the Mount Hua Sword Master or the Mount Hua Divine Dragon.

But that doesn’t mean that Dang Pae is less useful than them. He was none other than a member of the Dang family.

“Charge!”

As the poisonous smoke subsided, the Bloodied Ones rushed at Dang Pae in an instant, stepping over the bodies of their fallen comrades. Perhaps because they had seen their comrades die, or perhaps to be wary of the poison, their force was wilder than ever.

But Dang Pae calmly opened the lid of the poison bottle in his hand, without any sign of urgency.

“Is it that hard to understand?”

The moment the lid was opened, a terrifying poison flowed out of the bottle, so much so that even he, who had been handling poison all his life, flinched.

“The Dang family’s strength isn’t just about fighting skills.”

Kaaang!

He floated the poison bottle in the air and struck it with his palm.

Hwaaaak!

As the bottle broke, the poison inside mixed with Dang Pae’s palm strength and spread out like a fan.

The Dang family’s unique palm strength to occupy the range, not the power.

What that palm strength carries is not intense inner strength, nor is it formidable power. It is refined poison.

“Ugh!”

The rushing men gasped without realizing it.

You can block an attack. You can clash with inner strength.

But isn’t there no way to block the poison that pours out mixed with palm strength?

“Eup!”

The palm strength rushed in like the high-temperature dust spewed out when a volcano erupts. In the end, they raised their inner strength as much as possible and confronted the palm strength. They didn’t forget to close their eyes and stop breathing.

The power contained in the palm strength itself is not strong. If you don’t inhale the poison, you can withstand that much with your bare body.

But… unfortunately, that wasn’t a good response.

Something like hot steam swept through their bodies. Those who were about to open their closed eyes were momentarily embarrassed.

An extreme itch that was hard to explain covered their entire bodies.

“Kuk…”

That was just the beginning. In a short moment, just enough to take a breath, the itch turned into an unbearable itch. The itch soon turned into a stinging pain, and eventually into intense pain.

“Kkeueuaaa…”

“Aaaaaaack!”

Terrible screams began to erupt.

Extreme pain as if their entire bodies were being burned with a branding iron.

No, that’s not the extent of it. The poison that stuck to their skin was actually melting their skin.

“Kkureureureuk…”

Those who spat out black blood from their seven orifices collapsed on the spot one by one. More than ten people died with their skin melted black. It really happened in an instant.

“T, this bastard…”

Those who saw their comrades half-melted and dying stared at Dang Pae with pale faces.

Dang Pae was calmly applying poison to the twelve flying daggers in his hand. An emerald-colored liquid stained the daggers.

A cold chill ran down the spines of those who saw this.

“Of course, I’m weak. But…”

Dang Pae slowly lowered the hand holding the daggers.

“The poison I use has nothing to do with the user’s skill. That’s what makes the Dang family so scary.”

The hand that wasn’t holding the daggers came out of his sleeve. The moment the Bloodied Ones saw the poison pellet in his hand, they took a step back without realizing it.

“I guess I’m really a Dang after all.”

“It seems that he found more joy in poison than regret in killing. Come. I’ll give you plenty of the poison that the head of the family has personally given.”

A glittering murderous intent flowed from the eyes of Dang Pae, the heir of the Sichuan Dang family.