Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1039

“S-Save me…”

Crack!

A hard foot crushed a person’s head, splattering blood and brains everywhere.

Danja Gang, having killed someone without caring, stepped forward through the mess. Then, he glanced back.

Only dead bodies marked where he had walked.

The government soldiers saw what was happening and ran in. Normal people feared these soldiers. Even strong fighters were careful around them. But to Danja Gang, they were just like annoying flies.

It was a terrible scene, like a war had just ended.

But even this scene didn’t bother Danja Gang much. He was just erasing those who deserved to be erased.

He felt no small amount of pity or doubt. He simply and quietly erased everything he saw.

Yes. They look like people, but they are not really people.

They might look the same as the cult members, but they were just worthless creatures who had thrown away their chance to believe.

The Heavenly Demon had already given them a chance: the chance to know he existed and to obey him.

But they had rejected that chance. They had rejected the Heavenly Demon, so only death and punishment forever remained.

‘In the end, they chose this.’

Danja Gang, who had been staring at the blood-red ground without interest, was about to turn his head when he heard something.

Danja Gang suddenly looked to the side.

He faintly heard a child crying. He frowned slightly.

He seemed to have missed the small presence hidden among the dead and dying.

He moved his feet, thinking that he didn’t have much experience with this kind of killing.

“P-Please… Please.”

Soon, he saw something strange.

Under a pile of dead bodies, a woman was covering a child with her whole body. Danja Gang watched as the woman tried to quiet the crying child with one hand, shaking as she did so.

“Please…”

The woman, who was trying to stop the child from crying no matter what, flinched as if she felt Danja Gang nearby. Soon, her terrified eyes looked up at Danja Gang.

As soon as they looked at each other, the woman sobbed and trembled as if she had met death itself.

“P-Please…”

She kept saying the same word.

But who she was talking to had clearly changed. The first ‘please’ was to the child, but now it was to Danja Gang.

“Please, just this child… Please!”

Danja Gang still stared at the woman and the child in her arms without any expression.

Foolish. So foolish.

Why didn’t she know that all of this was because of her own choices? And why didn’t she know that Danja Gang was not the one she should be begging?

Danja Gang raised his hand without caring.

But just then, the child in the woman’s arms cried loudly, as if it couldn’t breathe.

“Hak-ah… Hak-ah… Please. Hak-ah.”

The woman hugged the child tightly to her chest, hiding it, and closed her eyes.

Danja Gang stared at the scene, his hand still raised.

And then…

His hand slowly lowered. He stared at the woman and child with an unreadable look, then turned and walked away from the woman.

It wasn’t really kindness.

After all, everyone in this area would die. There was no way for a weak woman and child to live in a place like this. Even if he did nothing, they were going to die anyway.

Since they would die soon enough without him, he just didn’t want to get his hands dirty with the blood of non-believers. Yes. That was all.

Splash.

As he walked, stepping on the blood on the ground, Jeokil came up to him quickly.

“Reporting!”

Jeokil, who bowed down on the blood-soaked ground as if it were nothing, was about to start his report when he suddenly looked up. His eyes twisted horribly as if he had sensed someone behind Danja Gang.

“Listen as we go.”

But Danja Gang’s words stopped him from acting without thinking.

“Yes!”

In the end, Jeokil quietly stood up and followed behind Danja Gang.

“More than 90% of the cleanup is done.”

“Too slow.”

“I apologize. Because the city is a city… There are too many who have hidden underground.”

“Excuses are a good way to hide that you’re not good enough. But they cannot hide a lack of belief.”

Jeokil’s face turned pale at those words.

“I will finish it within three days no matter what!”

“Two days.”

“…”

“I give you two days. Erase everything that exists here within that time.”

“Understood!”

Jeokil bowed deeply.

Whether it was possible or not didn’t matter. What mattered was that he had received an order. The Bishop’s order had to be done no matter what. That was the rule of the Order.

As Jeokil got ready, Danja Gang’s voice was heard.

“Jeokil.”

“Yes, Bishop.”

“I have one question.”

Jeokil lowered his head without answering, waiting for Danja Gang’s question.

“Their deaths are just the price of their sins.”

“That is correct.”

“They rejected the chance for salvation offered by the Great One. They knew the Heavenly Demon existed, but they didn’t join the Order, and they dared to go against the Heavenly Demon.”

“That is correct.”

“Those who knew the Great One existed but didn’t choose him have no chance of being saved. Even those who didn’t choose because they didn’t know can’t escape their sins.”

Jeokil nodded as if it was obvious. That was one of the most basic teachings.

“But, Jeokil.”

Then, Danja Gang spoke with an uncaring face.

“What should be done with a life that doesn’t know the Heavenly Demon exists and hasn’t had a chance to choose yet?”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“I mean exactly that. Should children who are too young to understand also pay the same price for their sins?”

Jeokil’s face twisted strangely.

“…They may not have sins of their own, but isn’t it natural that children bear the sins of their parents?”

“Is that so?”

Danja Gang nodded silently.

‘…Choice.’

Could that really be called a choice?

Danja Gang quietly ran his hand over his face. His rough lips touched his palm.

When he only lived within the Order, there was no need to have such doubts. They all believed in the same things and thought the same things. Anything different was completely shut out.

He could find peace just by believing.

He could feel endless joy just by accepting the Heavenly Demon and the Bishops who preached his holy message without question.

But…

Danja Gang looked up at the cloudy sky.

The world he actually saw was as unclear as that sky. The sky without any doubt that he had seen from the Order didn’t exist here.

“I have one more question.”

“Yes, Bishop.”

“If we achieve all of this…”

Danja Gang stared blankly at the sky for a moment, as if he couldn’t bring himself to continue. Then, he spoke.

“If He doesn’t answer our cries… What will you do?”

“…”

“Will you return to the Order and just wait for Him to come for eternity?”

“I…”

Jeokil hesitated, then lowered his head as if he was sorry.

“I do not know the answer.”

“…Is that so.”

“All I know is one thing. The joy of a cult member is only in following and keeping His words. I believe that any pleasure that comes from disobeying His words is nothing more than a wrong belief.”

Danja Gang nodded as if he was pleased.

“That is a good answer. There is no room for doubt in your belief.”

“Thank you, Bishop.”

“Finish this place.”

“Yes.”

“Ah, and.”

Jeokil stopped at Danja Gang’s firm voice.

“I’m still worried about that one.”

“…Are you talking about the one who came to see you the other day?”

“Yes. I don’t remember his name, though.”

Danja Gang chuckled. He wasn’t worth remembering.

“He doesn’t seem like someone who would give up easily. He will probably try to target us again.”

“Yes.”

“It will just be a useless fight, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. Check if anyone is coming near the area and get ready.”

“The cult members from the Order who were following us have just arrived. I will have them take care of the security.”

“I leave the method to you.”

“Yes, Bishop!”

Jeokil disappeared as quickly as he had come. Danja Gang’s uncaring steps didn’t stop, but they seemed strangely slower than before.

‘The teachings are not perfect.’

Yes, that was natural.

If the teachings were perfect, non-believers couldn’t exist. In the first place, teachings exist not to tell the difference between the foolish and the intelligent, but just to separate those who will believe from those who won’t.

So, teachings must not be perfect. A teaching without any room for doubt can’t test faith.

Believing even when there is room for doubt. Isn’t that true faith?

So, don’t doubt. Just believe.

But why is knowing and doing so different? Even though he knew that all those doubts were eating away at him, there was no way to stop the doubts that had started.

‘Maybe I just want to be sure.’

Danja Gang’s goal wasn’t to see the enlightened world that He would create. It was just to see with his own eyes that the Heavenly Demon existed.

Even if he had to burn in hell forever as the price for this deep doubt, he would be able to laugh forever in the hellfire if he could just be sure that the Heavenly Demon existed.

So… So…

‘Please answer me.’

Tell me. Tell me that all doubts and all suspicions were just useless.

And judge this faithless one.

Please don’t leave these pitiful and unlucky people who only praise the Heavenly Demon on this empty land.

Danja Gang would become a spark.

His existence would become a spark, and his doubts would disappear and turn into belief. And finally, eternal peace would come to this world.

With a face showing joy and disbelief, hatred and love, Danja Gang laughed like he was crazy.

‘I am a mix of opposite ideas.’

He doubted but believed, and believed but doubted. He couldn’t believe without doubting, and he really hoped that everything about him was wrong.

How could this not be funny?

‘Forget it.’

Now was the time to do what he had to do.

Danja Gang, who was about to move his feet that had stopped, suddenly turned his head sharply.

Northwest.

He couldn’t see anything. There was nothing that he could sense.

But what was it? What was the feeling he had felt a moment ago?

Danja Gang slowly clenched and opened his fist.

‘Northwest, huh…’

His eyes darkened.

“I might have to cross the river…”

Danja Gang, who had been staring at the northwest with dark eyes for a while, slowly started walking again.