Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1042

Nausea kept hitting Tang Soso, wave after wave. She squeezed her eyes shut and held her mouth tight, trying not to be sick.

*This is too much…*

She couldn’t look. The sight in front of her was awful. Before she could stop herself from throwing up, tears already filled her eyes. The smell of blood was thick and heavy, making her stomach churn.

Someone grabbed her other hand tightly. She hadn’t even noticed where it was. When she looked up, Yoo Iseol was staring down at her, face hard.

“Accident….”

“……”

Yoo Iseol’s face was blank as usual.

But Tang Soso could see the cold fury in her eyes. *They will pay for this,* Yoo Iseol seemed to say without words.

The other Five Swords were just as shocked.

“Senior Brother.”

“……”

Even Yoon Jong, who always answered Jo Gul, couldn’t speak.

They had seen the Demonic Sect in the Northern Sea and knew how crazy and mean they could be. But seeing the result of their cruelty with their own eyes was new.

Goo-ook.

Yoon Jong clenched his fist, knuckles white. He bit his lip so hard it bled.

Jo Gul didn’t know what to do with Yoon Jong. He couldn’t say anything and looked down.

There was too much death here.

Martial artists lived on the edge of a sword, used to death. But even for them, the death here was too much to bear.

Eudeudeuk.

Baek Cheon gritted his teeth, eyes bloodshot with anger.

“How could… ….”

Baek Cheon couldn’t finish the sentence. He trembled, not from fear, but from the rage boiling inside him.

“How could they do this… ….”

Even if this was a crowd of living people, the sheer number would be overwhelming. But these were not living people. How could they not be angry when so many lay dead, their lives ended so horribly?

But what made Baek Cheon angriest was how they died.

“People… ….”

Baek Cheon spat out the word.

“…even show minimal respect for the death of an enemy.”

Even in the worst wars, people usually don’t kill so cruelly and leave bodies like this.

If it wasn’t a battlefield where they were too busy trying to survive, they would at least bury the dead as a minimum courtesy.

That’s what people are, and that’s what morality is.

No.

Even people who didn’t know morality wouldn’t openly display such an outrageous act under the sky.

But there is nothing here.

No compassion, no pity, no hesitation, no respect for human beings. Nothing that should be kept because they are human exists here.

That made Baek Cheon unable to bear it.

Jo Gul murmured, barely audible.

“They’re people… ….”

His voice was weak, unlike his usual cheerful self.

“How can people do this to people… … How can they do this? How… ….”

Just as everyone was becoming serious, a low chuckle broke the silence. Baek Cheon’s anger hung in the air, heavy and thick. Then, Jo Gul’s quiet voice broke the silence.

Jo Gul turned to the laughter. Jang Ilso was laughing, covering his mouth as if he couldn’t help it.

Instantly, Jo Gul’s anger flared, and he growled.

“What’s so funny… … What’s so funny?”

“No, no.”

Jang Ilso shook his head.

“I just thought that since you’re the young masters of the good sect, you’re seriously telling funny stories.”

“What?”

“It’s not about how people can do this.”

A strange energy swirled around Jang Ilso’s face.

“It’s because they are people that they do this. Only people do this.”

“……”

“That’s what people are. Remember that, young master.”

Jo Gul’s face twisted horribly.

He felt suppressed, but Jo Gul retorted anyway.

“You don’t look so good either, considering you’re saying that? Why? Does even the Demonic Sect get angry when they see this?”

After speaking, he swallowed hard. He had lashed out in anger, but it was still difficult to face Jang Ilso alone.

But Jang Ilso’s reaction was surprisingly calm.

“You think I’m not angry? Of course I am! What do you expect?”

“……What?”

Jo Gul’s eyes widened slightly at that answer. He never thought Jang Ilso would say that.

Jang Ilso turned his head and looked at the pile of corpses. His expression was chillingly cold.

“I’m not going to say the obvious things like people died or whatever. People are going to die someday anyway.”

“……”

“What makes me angry is… that these were mine.”

Jang Ilso raised his hand and grabbed his face. His eyes, revealed between his fingers, gleamed with a dark light.

“The right to kill those in my territory belongs only to me. But… some mangy bastards I don’t even know where they crawled out from dare to… ….”

He muttered lowly and gritted his teeth.

Then Chung Myung glared at him with cold eyes.

“You probably didn’t care about them anyway, but are you upset because you were deprived of them?”

“Of course.”

Jang Ilso glared at Chung Myung.

“Just because it’s a toy I didn’t like and left alone doesn’t mean someone else can break it as they please. Even if I’m not interested, it’s still mine.”

“……You’re like a kid.”

“Is that wrong?”

A sneer appeared in Jang Ilso’s eyes.

“Adults are just children who have learned to pretend. I’m just being a little more honest about my desires.”

Jang Ilso looked straight at Chung Myung and chuckled.

“Unlike someone else.”

Chung Myung shook his head. He didn’t want to argue with Jang Ilso. Even he felt disgusted by the scene.

Familiar.

It would be unfamiliar and shocking to them, but it was just familiar to Chung Myung.

That’s why he felt even more disgusted. It was as if that terrible past had come to life.

Baek Cheon stared at a slender hand sticking out from the pile of corpses, then looked away as if he couldn’t bear it.

“Don’t look away.”

Chung Myung’s cold voice pierced Baek Cheon’s ears.

“This is the world where the Demonic Sect is dominant.”

“……”

“Right now, it’s just Hangzhou. But if the Demonic Sect swallows the entire Central Plains, you’ll see this everywhere.”

They need to know why they had to fight so desperately.

Why the ancestors of the past had to throw their lives away to stop them, without even thinking about what would happen after.

“So we have to stop them here.”

Just as Chung Myung bit his lip tightly, a group of people rapidly approached from a distance.

“Senior Brother!”

“……I know.”

The disciples of Mount Hua watched them with nervous eyes. There were quite a few… no, a lot of them.

‘Are they enemies?’

Everyone instinctively reached for their swords.

But Man Geumdaebu, who had been silent, stepped forward and greeted them.

“Greetings, Master!”

As soon as they got close, some of the leaders of the group knelt down and paid their respects to Man Geumdaebu.

“What’s the situation?”

“They are still deep in Hangzhou.”

“I see.”

“However.”

“Hmm?”

The person reporting raised his head, eyes shaking slightly.

“Recently, unidentified people have appeared and joined them. Nearly three hundred.”

Man Geumdaebu’s face hardened.

“Three hundred?”

“Yes!”

His mind raced.

Breaking the Black Ghost Fortress was the High Priest’s doing, but the Demonic Sect followers around him were unusual.

‘Three hundred of those guys?’

The situation inside Hangzhou is almost unknown. Assuming there are a lot of Demonic Sect followers, he brought all available forces of the Black Ghost Fortress… ….

“This is unexpected.”

He never thought more people would join them.

If he thought about it, it made sense. If they were planning to use this place as a base, adding more people was natural.

He missed that because he wasn’t calm.

Man Geumdaebu quickly admitted his mistake. He scanned the five hundred soldiers and turned to Jang Ilso.

“……There seems to be a problem, Lord.”

“Problem?”

“The number of enemies is greater than we thought.”

“Hmm. So?”

“……I think we should retreat for now. We can’t recklessly rush in and deal with them.”

Jang Ilso’s eyes narrowed.

“This is… disappointing. I know you lost an arm, but I didn’t know Man Geumdaebu would become such a coward.”

“I am very calm right now.”

Man Geumdaebu gritted his teeth.

“It’s because you haven’t met that monster yet. I’m not even sure all these people could catch that monster even if they rushed in. If the ‘sword’ you mentioned doesn’t work, we might get hurt.”

Jang Ilso frowned slightly, unsure if it was because of disappointment or because he was taking Man Geumdaebu seriously.

Man Geumdaebu looked straight at Jang Ilso.

“Life is only one. You can never be too prepared.”

Jang Ilso was about to answer.

“You’re talking nonsense.”

A cold voice shut him up. Jang Ilso, lips twitching, turned to Chung Myung.

“What else do you want to say?”

“You still don’t know.”

“……”

“Where this is. Who we’re dealing with.”

Jang Ilso’s gaze slowly returned to the corpses and beyond.

Chung Myung’s clear voice rang out.

“Know this well, you stupid Demonic Sect bastards.”

A ferocious smile spread across his cold face.

“That’s the Demonic Sect. From the moment you face them, there’s only one choice. Either die. Or… ….”

His voice, full of murderous intent, was more ominous than ever. Chung Myung looked like a cornered beast, full of old scars and ready to fight.

“Kill.”

Soon, a dark group appeared where Jang Ilso was staring.

The crazy Demonic Sect followers, giving off a scary feeling that made their fingertips tingle, were rushing in, along with the thick darkness covering the eastern sky.