Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1071

Para-ra-ra-rak!

Red petals scattered everywhere.

To someone who didn’t know better, it might have looked beautiful. Red petals danced in the wind, rising into the sky. They looked beautiful, like a warm peach blossom garden.

But those who knew the truth saw danger.

Even someone new to martial arts would be shocked to see that each of those countless petals was a sword aura filled with deadly intent.

However, those who truly understood martial arts would focus on something else.

The eyes of the Great General Wang Geum grew cold.

‘Hwasan…’

Scattering that much sword energy was hard. But controlling that energy exactly how you wanted was even harder.

Think about it.

Five people were sending out sword energy.

All five were scattering strange and unpredictable sword auras, but they moved through the air without hitting or fighting each other.

Normally, sword energies flying everywhere should crash into each other. But the Hwasan disciples’ energies moved together perfectly, like they were controlled by one mind.

It showed how carefully they had practiced together.

But the people facing the sword energies were not weak.

“Heuaaah!”

The Black Ghost Squad’s best fighters screamed and charged into the wave of petals.

Clang! Clang!

Scritch scritch!

The sound of sword energy and blades hitting each other mixed with the awful sound of flesh being cut. They knew they couldn’t block all the sword energies, so they tried to protect their heads and chests, ignoring everything else.

They made a tough choice to let their own bodies get hurt so they could reach the enemy.

In a normal fight, that would be dumb. But in this situation, where they were much stronger and could win with one attack, that dumb choice became perfect.

“Keeeugh!”

They gritted their teeth as the sword energies cut into their arms and legs.

“Taa-hat!”

But they broke through the sword energies with that simple plan. Hwasan swordsmanship looked impressive and distracting, but the Black Ghost Squad knew it lacked strong, direct power. They had found the weakness.

Baek Cheon’s face hardened.

‘They didn’t even hesitate?’

It would be normal if one or two people made that choice. Maybe one or two people could quickly figure out the weakness of the swordsmanship.

But everyone who charged forward did the same thing without even looking at each other. That meant one thing.

They had studied Hwasan’s swordsmanship and knew how to fight it.

This was the first time Baek Cheon and the Hwasan disciples had experienced this.

Hwasan’s swordsmanship was different from other traditional groups. It used illusion, which was rare in those groups because they thought it was evil. Because of that, people were always confused when they first saw Hwasan’s sword energy.

But the Hwasan disciples now understood.

In the martial world, Hwasan was no longer strange and mysterious. Everyone was watching Hwasan and being careful.

Everyone in Hwasan had worked hard to become strong. And like everything else, that higher position came with dangers. Groups that were worried about Hwasan had started to study their swordsmanship and find ways to beat it.

This showed two things. First, Hwasan was now seen as a strong group in the martial world. Second, their future challenges would be even harder.

“Kraaah!”

The Black Ghost Squad’s fighters, who had broken through the sword energy, charged at the Hwasan disciples with angry eyes. They were bleeding from many cuts, but they didn’t slow down.

“Dieeee!”

Kwaaaaaah!

Besides being strong-willed, their attacks were fast but not powerful.

‘Keuk!’

Clang!

Baek Cheon quickly raised his sword to block the attack.

‘Fast!’

They weren’t trying to overpower him. They wanted to keep attacking and defending quickly, to keep him busy. They were trying to stop Hwasan’s flashy sword moves from hurting them.

Each attack showed they had studied Hwasan carefully.

Baek Cheon clenched his teeth, feeling the heavy force of the blade.

‘I was too confident.’

Hwasan was the enemy group’s biggest threat.

Baek Cheon knew this, and sometimes he was proud of it. But he never thought it would come back like this, at this moment.

But it was enough to know it now.

“Taat!”

Baek Cheon swung his sword hard, pushing the blade away.

At the same time, a powerful fist went past his ear.

Wham!

Hae Yeon’s fist hit the enemy in the chest. Baek Cheon paused, ready to chase the falling enemy. But then he stopped himself, taking a strong step back instead.

‘Protect!’

They shouldn’t try to finish off the enemy. Even if it meant letting the enemy go, they had to hold on.

“Heuaaah!”

The second and third waves came quickly.

They seemed desperate to stay close and not let Hwasan create any distance, rather than happy to be winning. They were determined not to let the Hwasan swordsmen use their sword energy.

A blade came down towards Baek Cheon’s head. At the same time, sword energy flew towards his legs.

The meaning of this attack was clear. They didn’t want to kill Baek Cheon instantly. They wanted to give him small cuts to slowly weaken him.

Even if it meant hurting themselves, they were trying to injure Baek Cheon and wear him down.

This was the same way the Hwasan disciples had attacked powerful enemies.

Baek Cheon gritted his teeth and quickly swung his sword, hitting the charging enemies three times.

Paaaaat!

Before the blade could reach his head, before the sword energy could reach his legs, Baek Cheon’s fast sword energy hit the charging enemies.

Crack!

But then, the blade grazed Baek Cheon’s cheek. He felt a sudden, burning pain and shouted.

“Stay focused! These guys are different from anyone we’ve faced before!”

The other Hwasan disciples seemed to know this too, and they shouted back, sounding tense.

This was the first time.

They weren’t the weak challengers, but the strong being challenged. They were facing enemies with more numbers and power who were desperately charging, not to win, but to fight.

The battle was different than they expected, and the Hwasan disciples started to be pushed back.

“Hwasan…”

The Great General Wang Geum watched the battle with cold eyes and murmured.

‘Those guys are too dangerous.’

They were different from any other traditional group he knew.

Young martial artists who still looked like kids were very skilled for their age, and they weren’t afraid of real combat.

The Black Ghost Squad’s attacks were based on what they knew about Hwasan and their past actions. They were trying to counter Hwasan’s martial arts, even considering what they had done on Plum Blossom Island recently.

The plan was to surround Hwasan with many people, but it worked even against a small group like this.

To someone who didn’t know better, it might seem like his plan was working, but the Hwasan guys were reacting faster than he thought.

They quickly understood what he was doing and changed their plans. Those young ones.

‘Those guys are not like the pampered flowers of other traditional groups, who die at the first sign of trouble.’

This wasn’t just Wang Geum’s opinion. Hwasan had proven themselves many times. Their actions on Plum Blossom Island were enough.

What if they kept growing stronger?

‘No one in the world will be able to stop the Hwasan sect.’

That’s why they had to be killed. He was here not only to get rid of Jang Il-so, but also to stop Hwasan from becoming a threat.

‘But I don’t understand how such guys appeared.’

Good swordsmanship and combat experience usually don’t go together.

To get experience, you had to fight from a young age, but those people died before they could get good. If you avoided fighting until you were skilled, you would become strong but not know how to fight.

The martial world always made one of two choices. The enemy groups threw people into combat and trained the survivors, while the traditional groups avoided combat and waited for people to get strong.

That’s why the traditional groups had many strong people who had trained for a long time, while the enemy groups had more low-ranking fighters who were stronger than the traditional groups.

But those Hwasan guys were neither.

They had both the good swordsmanship of the traditional groups and the practical skills of the enemy groups.

The word ‘between righteousness and evil’ used to mean those who didn’t belong to either group, but it seemed like it needed to be changed when looking at those guys.

‘How did Hwasan create such guys?’

It was like a perfect fighter who knew both good and evil martial arts had trained his disciples in a new way.

But there was no way such a perfect being existed, and there was no way that being would be in the ruined Hwasan.

‘No, I shouldn’t think about it.’

Because those guys will die here today.

Wang Geum stared at Jang Il-so, who was surrounded by Hong Gyeon, with cold eyes.

‘You shouldn’t have raised a tiger cub, Jang Il-so.’

Jang Il-so’s mistake was thinking he could handle something he couldn’t. Like people who pick up tiger cubs, thinking they are special, even after seeing those who raise tigers get killed by them.

“Tell them not to rush and to slowly trap them. The damage doesn’t matter. But don’t let any of them survive.”

“Yes!”

Wang Geum frowned and slowly moved closer to the battlefield.

He briefly raised his left hand to the sword on his right. But he soon put his hand down.