Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1218

“Enough!” Elder Ziyang slammed his hand on the wooden table, the sound sharp in the heavy silence.

He glared around the hall, his face flushed. “No, tell me I’m wrong!”

He didn’t wait for an answer, his voice rising with each word, no longer bothering to choose them carefully. “Frankly speaking, if it were the Cheonwu Alliance, things wouldn’t have turned out like this. Even if they couldn’t come to our rescue here, they wouldn’t have ignored us for over a year, treating us as if we didn’t exist!”

“Watch your words,” another elder cautioned. “Is it because they lack the will? The Jiangnan Non-Aggression Pact⋯⋯.”

“We must speak the truth, even if it’s difficult!” Ziyang retorted. “Did someone force them to make that Jiangnan Non-Aggression Pact? If they had thought of us in Hainan even a little, would they have been able to make such a pact? Isn’t this proof that the Shaolin Sect doesn’t care about us at all!”

“I said, enough,” the elder repeated, his voice firm.

“Isn’t that what everyone else is thinking!” Ziyang exclaimed.

His words fell like a bomb in the hall, the tension palpable.

“Even if they can’t say it, aren’t they all thinking the same thing in their hearts? Shaolin has abandoned us. No, perhaps they abandoned us not now, but years ago!”

Silence descended, heavy with unspoken truths.

“In the meantime, what good does it do to keep calling out to Shaolin, who won’t even come!”

Heavy sighs filled the hall, each one a small cloud of despair in the tense silence. The air itself seemed to thicken with their unspoken fears.

No one dared to voice their thoughts openly, fearing the unbearable weight of those words. They had simply suppressed their fears.

The elder who had been speaking bit his lip, his voice strained. “If this is the case, we should have joined the Cheonwu Alliance before we were completely cut off and lost.”

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up!” someone roared, the shout echoing thunderously. And what followed was an even greater roar.

“Who doesn’t know that, that they remained silent? You should at least say something that makes sense! Do you really not know where the real leader of the Cheonwu Alliance is?”

“But⋯⋯,” the elder stammered.

“Hwasan! Yes, Hwasan! The original owners of this place we occupy!”

Silence fell again, heavier than before.

“What did Hainan do when Hwasan fell? Did we help them? Did we fight for them? No! Rather, didn’t we rejoice that the opportunity had finally come!”

Faces flushed crimson, some elders avoided eye contact, shame hanging heavy in the air.

It was a thing of the past, but they knew they couldn’t escape it. Only those who hadn’t benefited from the past could claim it was truly over. For them, who had enjoyed the glory of being one of the Nine Great Sects, there was no way to avoid responsibility for their past choices.

It would have been different if they had at least acknowledged the unfairness of their gain. Those who are silent when they should speak forfeit their right to speak when the time comes.

“That Hwasan!” The elder who had been pouring out his intense emotions, gritted his teeth.

“Hwasan would not have good feelings for us. We didn’t help them when they were in trouble. We even took their place. Why would they accept us into their alliance and come to save us now?”

The silence stretched, thick with regret.

“If you were the disciples of Hwasan now, would you be saddened by our current state? No! If it were us, we would be scheming to take the place of Hainan, taking advantage of this opportunity. Just like Hainan did in the past!”

Several elders lowered their heads, keenly aware of their past actions. What must Hwasan have thought as they looked at them? What resentment must they have swallowed as they watched Hainan take their place and prosper, while they shed tears of blood as they fell?

“If a person has any decency⋯⋯,” the elder stopped, clamping his mouth shut. He knew these were not words he, as an elder of Hainan, should say.

A soft sigh escaped from Geum Yang-baek’s mouth, who had been weighed down by the chilling atmosphere.

“What’s done is done⋯⋯ There’s no use in regretting it.”

Complex thoughts lingered in his mind.

“What Ziyang said is not without merit. If we had bowed our heads to the Cheonwu Alliance before things came to this, it might have turned out that way.”

The image of Hwasan that Geum Yang-baek saw at the martial arts competition still remained vivid in his mind.

The young disciples didn’t know any better and revealed their animosity towards Hwasan, but the older sect leader and elders were busy avoiding Hwasan’s gaze.

Because that gaze was so uncomfortable.

‘Even back then⋯⋯.’

The words ‘begging for forgiveness’ might be too much, but at least they could have lowered their heads. They could have offered even empty words, saying that they were truly sorry for what had happened.

But Geum Yang-baek couldn’t do that. So, he couldn’t even insist that all of this was the sin of their predecessors.

Someone who helps by doing nothing might be worse than someone who actively participates. Those who want to avoid sin but still reap the benefits become silent helpers.

“Yes. In the end, it’s all karma.”

They were just paying the price for that deed now. Even though they were a righteous sect that should uphold justice, they couldn’t think of righting the wrongs of others, and they took advantage of that opportunity to gain benefits⋯⋯ Perhaps it would be more reasonable for them to be annihilated like this.

He was the sect leader of Hainan, so he couldn’t bring himself to say that it was only natural.

Geum Yang-baek, who had been closing his eyes tightly for a while, opened his mouth with difficulty.

“How are the disciples?”

“⋯⋯They don’t say it, but they can’t hide their anxiety.”

“I suppose so⋯⋯.”

The enemy was too strong, and this island was too lonely.

“Ziyang.”

“⋯⋯Yes, Sect Leader.”

“There’s no use in talking about the past. It would be better to focus on what we can do now.”

Ziyang smiled bitterly at those words.

“Who would come?”

Even Geum Yang-baek probably didn’t say those words expecting anything. But Ziyang couldn’t even accept those meaningless words.

“To ask them to fight alongside Hainan now is no different from asking them to die alongside Hainan, so who in the world would break through that Jiangnan land and come all the way here?”

“Ziyang⋯⋯.”

“If there were so many people full of justice in the world⋯⋯ Hainan wouldn’t be in this state in the first place.”

Geum Yang-baek, who sighed briefly, said in a hollow voice, “Still, shouldn’t we look for any possible help?”

“Sect Leader⋯⋯. There isn’t even a straw in the water we’ve fallen into. Even if we wanted to send messages⋯⋯ isn’t there no way to send them?”

In the end, Geum Yang-baek closed his eyes tightly again.

He wanted to scold him for always saying things that drained his energy, but he didn’t even have the strength to say those words. It was already burdensome and difficult just to take care of his body, which was drooping like waterlogged cotton.

“Sect Leader. Wouldn’t it be better to abandon the island and escape⋯⋯.”

But Geum Yang-baek shook his head before he could even hear everything.

“Why don’t you understand? The ones who are most eagerly waiting for us to leave this island are those from the Four Evil Alliances. The Jiangnan Non-Aggression Pact. Yes, that pact that’s tightening us also applies to us.”

Ziyang remained silent, understanding dawning in his eyes.

“The moment we leave the island, they will have the justification to strike us. And⋯⋯ on the island, we are the Hainan Sect, but on the ship, we are just ordinary people. No matter how much martial arts we have learned, what can we do in the vast sea?”

“Sect Leader⋯⋯.”

“Whether we reach Jiangnan or head to the sea, neither outcome is something we can hope for⋯⋯.”

“But we can’t just sit here and wait for the day we die, can we?”

Geum Yang-baek was silent, his frustration evident. But what could he do? Desperate actions now could lead to faster destruction.

“Has the period of the pact already passed?”

“⋯⋯In terms of time, it has. But neither the Four Evil Alliances nor the Nine Sects are saying that fact out loud.”

“Yes⋯⋯. I suppose so.”

There would be no need to explicitly state that they were in a relationship where they could start a war at any moment.

The Nine Sects were ashamed even to mention the Jiangnan Non-Aggression Pact, and the Four Evil Alliances didn’t want to cause immediate conflict by talking about it.

Perhaps the moment the Jiangnan Non-Aggression Pact officially ends will be the day the Four Evil Alliances’ blades invade Hainan.

‘It won’t be long.’

Even if he tried to avoid it, he could feel it. That day was just around the corner.

“Im Gyeom.”

“Yes, Sect Leader.”

“⋯⋯Send the younger disciples, who are still young, out of the sect and back to their families.”

“⋯⋯Sect Leader?”

“I can’t stop those who say they will be buried with Hainan, but I must stop the children who don’t yet know what they are doing. There is no guarantee that their evil hands won’t reach their families, but it will at least be better than here.”

Im Gyeom bit his lip at those words.

Those words were like admitting that Hainan no longer had any way to resist the Four Evil Alliances.

“⋯⋯I will obey your command.”

“And⋯⋯ if there are any disciples who wish to leave the sect, let them do as they wish.”

“Sect Leader! That⋯⋯!”

“Those who want to live must live, mustn’t they?”

Geum Yang-baek shook his head.

“It is enough for me to hold onto the pillars of Hainan and die. There is no need for others to do so.”

There was no need to explain how desperate his resolve was in those words. But Ziyang could only let out a frustrated sigh.

“What good would that do⋯⋯.”

Silence hung heavy in the air.

“The Four Evil Alliances are not people who keep their word. They will not leave any loose ends. After they have dealt with the Hainan Sect, they will search every inch of Hainan and try to uproot all those related to the Hainan Sect. That is the way of the Four Evil Alliances⋯⋯ and also the way of the Myriad Manors.”

Ziyang’s sighing voice fell heavily.

“Where can someone without wings go? They can only go to Hainan. They are just Hainan people⋯⋯.”

Geum Yang-baek’s fingertips trembled slightly.

Annihilation.

Those two words, which he had thought he would never face, came and dug into him so suddenly.

Even though Hainan was so warm, he was now so cold and lonely.

‘Why didn’t I know sooner that the world of martial arts was such a ruthless place?’

Why didn’t he know that even the justice they shouted for was just a game for those who had power?

“Heh heh heh⋯⋯.”

A weak laugh flowed from his mouth.

“Heh heh heh heh⋯⋯.”

A laugh more sorrowful than tears wandered around the main hall like a ghost for a while.