Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1601

The Blood Demon Cult Leader’s red eyes shone brightly with anger.

At first, he looked like he might attack at any second, but now he seemed more careful.

The Blood Demon Cultists, without any command from their leader, stopped looking ready to fight and became still and quiet again, like dead bodies.

Hye-bang, a little calmer now, asked, “H-How did you find us?”

Baek Cheon kept his eyes on the Blood Demon Cult Leader and said, “It’s okay. We are here to help. We remember Shaolin helping us before.”

Behind Baek Cheon, Jo Gul and Yoon Jong whispered.

“If the Sect Leader was here, things would be different, right?” Jo Gul asked.

“Of course,” Yoon Jong replied. “He would be here to help.”

“Really?” Jo Gul sounded doubtful.

“Maybe he’s just very tired and will come later,” Yoon Jong guessed.

“But it will be too late by then!” Jo Gul muttered, “This place will be destroyed, just like Mount Hua was long ago.”

Baek Cheon heard Jo Gul and coughed lightly, looking a little embarrassed.

Hye-bang, still confused, asked more directly, “So, did the Mount Heaven Alliance know they would attack Shaolin?”

Baek Cheon didn’t answer right away. Instead, he glanced behind Hye-bang, towards Yoon Jong’s neck.

“Brother,” Yoon Jong said calmly, “He’s falling off.”

“Oh, he is slipping down,” Yoon Jong replied. “Does anyone have a string?”

Yoon Jong gently caught Baek Ah, who was hanging loosely, and put him back around his neck. Baek Ah was completely still and asleep, even when Yoon Jong moved. He was so tired he didn’t even react.

Baek Ah was so tired he didn’t even react when Jo Gul poked him – usually, Baek Ah would ignore Jo Gul completely.

Baek Cheon was very surprised when Baek Ah had rushed to them earlier, crying, while they were helping people escape from the Water Moon Faction.

“He told us to come to Shaolin,” Baek Ah had said.

Baek Cheon chuckled softly and said to Hye-bang, “You are partly right, I guess.”

“Yes?” Hye-bang asked, still confused.

Hye-bang looked even more confused. “That’s it?” he asked.

The situation was serious, but also unbelievable.

Hye-bang thought, ‘They came all the way here, bringing so many people quickly, just because this animal told them to go to Shaolin? Without knowing why? Is that even possible?’

He couldn’t imagine it in Shaolin, where even the Abbot had trouble getting everyone to agree.

“D-Did the Alliance Leader tell you to do this?” Hye-bang asked.

Baek Cheon sighed heavily. “If he did,” Baek Cheon said, “you wouldn’t be angry, would you?”

Hye-bang immediately thought of one person: the Plum Blossom Sword Saint.

‘He predicted this,’ Hye-bang realized. ‘But how?’

No one else knew it was coming. Not even the Beggars’ Sect, who were said to know everything, or Shaolin itself, who were being attacked, had seen it coming until it was happening.

How could the Plum Blossom Sword Saint know? He wasn’t all-seeing.

“Th-That…” Hye-bang started to say, but Baek Cheon raised a hand to stop him.

Baek Cheon understood Hye-bang’s confusion. Even people from Mount Hua, who were used to Chung Myung, often found him strange. So, it was even harder for Hye-bang, who was just meeting them, to understand.

“You must have many questions,” Baek Cheon said, his voice becoming serious, “but we can’t talk now.”

Seeing Baek Cheon’s serious face, Hye-bang also became serious and looked sharply at the Blood Demon Cult Leader.

Baek Cheon said, “Let’s sort these guys out first, and then we can talk.”

Hye-bang nodded in agreement.

Even as the two men exchanged brief words, the Blood Demon Cult Leader had been silently watching Baek Cheon and his group without any particular reaction.

Finally, he spoke again. “Not as many as I thought… have come.”

As far as he could tell, this wasn’t the full strength of Mount Hua and the Namgung Clan. Only these few had arrived here. Just a small fraction.

“Ah.” Hearing those words, Baek Cheon chuckled.

“We came with exactly the right number of people for the job.”

The truth was closer to the fact that they couldn’t pull everyone scattered around dealing with the remnants of the Water Moon Faction, but there was no need to tell the enemy that.

The Blood Demon Cult Leader glared at Baek Cheon without a word.

Baek Cheon’s heart began to fill with tension.

As the Blood Demon Cult Leader said, the number of people Baek Cheon had brought was not that large. Moreover, they were exhausted from fighting and rushing here in one breath.

If they fought as they were, it would be difficult to guarantee the outcome, even with Shaolin’s help.

Even if they won… they would have to be prepared for great losses.

‘If only my condition were a little better….’

Baek Cheon suppressed his weakening resolve. Just as he was trying to steel himself, the Blood Demon Cult Leader muttered quietly.

“Shaolin, Mount Hua… and the Namgung Clan.”

A red light, like blood, glowed around the Blood Demon Cult Leader.

“If we wipe them all out here… perhaps the cult alone will achieve a victory greater than Hubei.”

The corners of his mouth, covered in bandages, twitched. Baek Cheon gripped the sword in his hand tightly.

But at that moment, “But this is different.”

The Blood Demon Cult Leader turned his body. Without a shred of regret.

“We’re going back.”

No sooner had the low, metallic voice fallen than every Blood Demon Cultist in Shaolin immediately turned around.

“……Huh?”

It was Baek Cheon who was taken aback by the absurd sight.

“What……”

“Are you going to stop us?” The Blood Demon Cult Leader glanced at Baek Cheon and asked.

Baek Cheon’s answer was naturally ‘no.’ It was better not to fight them now. As time passed, more members of the Four Evil Sects would join, making things much more advantageous for the enemies.

“……Neat.” The Blood Demon Cult Leader gave a bitter sneer.

“The basic rule is to renegotiate the contract when the conditions change. We can just say we ran away. We’re used to infamy.”

The Blood Demon Cult Leader was about to turn around.

Baek Cheon called out to him in a cold voice, “However.”

“……Hmm?”

“If you’re going to retreat, you’d better retreat quietly. If you lay a hand on the civilians, I’ll chase you to the ends of hell and cut off your head.”

The Blood Demon Cult Leader stared at Baek Cheon with emotionless eyes. A deep silence fell between them.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” The Blood Demon Cult Leader spoke sharply and turned his body.

“Baek Cheon, was it? Let’s meet again, young swordsman of Mount Hua. If you’re still alive by then.”

The Blood Demon Cult Leader left Shaolin’s north gate, followed by the Blood Demon Cultists like living corpses.

Cold sweat belatedly ran down Baek Cheon’s forehead.

‘The Blood Demon Cult….’

Although young, Baek Cheon’s experience was by no means small.

But these Blood Demon Cult people, especially the Blood Demon Cult Leader, felt completely different from the orthodox sects he had faced so far.

‘It’s different from the Demonic Sect too… I don’t know what to call this feeling.’

If the Demonic Sect made people sick with their blind fanaticism, these people were cold and eerie in a different way.

“Are we just going to let them go like this, Martial Uncle?”

“Yes.” Baek Cheon nodded heavily and added one word, “For now.”

“After coming all this way?” Jo Gul tilted his head with a slightly strange expression.

Then Yoon Jong snapped back instead of Baek Cheon, “We are protectors, Geol. If we can protect without fighting, that’s a good thing.”

“Of course, I know that, but……” Jo Gul stared at the Blood Demon Cult leaving Shaolin with a displeased look.

“I don’t like this. I have a bad feeling about meeting them again later.”

This time, Yoon Jong didn’t retort. He agreed with those words.

Just meeting them briefly like this made him feel an indescribable unpleasantness. It wasn’t just because of their appearance, but because of the energy they exuded.

‘An evil cult….’

Yoon Jong’s heart sank heavily.

Thud. Thud.

The Blood Demon Cult Leader, who was slowly descending Mount Song, turned his head and looked up at Shaolin.

“……Cult Leader. The leader of the Four Evil Sects will not simply let this go.”

“I suppose not……” Jang Il-so. He was an unfathomable man, but it wasn’t difficult to guess what he wanted. The best outcome for him would be for the Blood Demon Cult and Shaolin to destroy each other here.

“But that’s all. He can’t afford to antagonize us right now either.”

“Do you trust him?”

The Blood Demon Cult Leader’s eyes grew even colder.

“The word ‘trust’ doesn’t suit a faithless Central Plains person.”

With those words, he resumed his descent.

It had been a wasted trip from Zhangjiajie to here… but in any case, it wasn’t particularly bad for them or the Four Evil Sects.

Because, from the beginning, they were……

“It’s not?” At the question mixed with bewilderment, Chung Myung bit his lip.

“W-What are you talking about, Chung Myung? You mean the ones aiming for us aren’t Shaolin?”

Chung Myung’s gaze turned to the devastated battlefield.

Yoo Iseol’s words were accurate. The enemies’ damage was greater than expected.

A bait? A defeat?

He could guess the scheme Jang Il-so had used here just from the scattered corpses, but that alone didn’t explain everything.

Putting Jang Il-so aside, would the warriors of the Myriad Man Manor or the Black Ghost Fortress have readily given up their lives to complete the strategy?

Which meant, “The ones gathered here from the start weren’t the Myriad Man Manor’s full force.”

“……What?”

It wasn’t difficult.

They had been stationed in Zhangjiajie, out of the Beggars’ Sect’s sight, for a long time. Yes. For longer than necessary.

Taking out a large number of troops at once would naturally be noticeable. But taking them out little by little over time wasn’t that difficult.

Especially considering the mobility of martial artists.

“Why would they deliberately court such danger?”

“……That’s not it. Sect… Grand Sect Leader.”

“Hmm?”

“The important thing isn’t why they took out the troops, but where the ones they took out went.”

Tang Gunak clenched his fist tightly, as if he immediately understood the meaning of Chung Myung’s words.

‘In any case, the troops that could be taken out in secret wouldn’t have exceeded 70%.’

Then they would have selected the elite. A small group of elite that was taken out. What could they possibly do?

Let’s think.

If Jang Il-so had predicted everything that would happen here from the beginning to the end? If there were troops left over after achieving that plan, where would he have sent them?

“Hwa……” Bang!

Chung Myung kicked off the ground.

“Ch-Chung Myung! Chung Myung!” Hyun Jong called out desperately, but he began to sprint north without a word.

‘No!’

Chung Myung’s lips were chewed until they bled.

From far behind, Tang Gunak’s voice could be heard shouting that they had to go to Mount Hua.

‘Please!’

Chung Myung’s body, a streak of light, cut through the world.

To the land he had left behind, Mount Hua.