Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1313

Baek Cheon stopped, ready to help. He looked behind him, surprised.

He saw Dangpae in his green robes. The poison powder, venom, and hidden weapons he used covered the entire rear.

“Was he always this good?”

Baek Cheon had put Dangpae in charge of the rear because his poison and hidden weapons were good for defense and for stopping anyone chasing them.

Baek Cheon wanted to slow the enemies down, not completely destroy them.

‘Young Lord…’

Baek Cheon felt a mix of emotions.

He respected Dangpae, but he didn’t think Dangpae was this strong. To be honest, Baek Cheon didn’t think Dangpae was strong enough to beat the Cheonwoo Alliance members. They looked very tough.

But Dangpae was now proving that Baek Cheon had underestimated him.

‘Could I get through that?’

That wave of poison?

‘I couldn’t.’

He could force his way through. But he wasn’t sure he could avoid being poisoned.

Baek Cheon knew what it meant to be poisoned by such strong poison on the battlefield.

So, he had two choices.

He could wait for Dangpae to run out of poison, or wait until they left the narrow canyon and the poison became less effective.

‘But that’s not a real victory.’

By then, Dangpae would have already achieved his goal. Even if Baek Cheon could easily win the next fight, what would be the point?

That would be winning a small fight but losing the overall war.

Baek Cheon’s eyes narrowed, watching the poison bottle in Dangpae’s hand. *That poison is causing all this chaos,* he thought.

“What *is* that poison?” Baek Cheon muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

“Uncle’s going too far,” a voice said beside him.

Baek Cheon turned. Chung Myung stood there, his usual bored expression gone. Now, a strange smile played on his lips. It was a smile that made Baek Cheon uneasy.

“Are you going to bring down the sky with that stuff?” Chung Myung asked, his voice light but sharp. “You’re always so generous with the poison.”

“What do you mean?” Baek Cheon asked, confused.

Chung Myung nodded towards Dangpae. “That poison. Look at it closely.”

Chung Myung continued, “They say the Dang family can’t show their true skills in a duel. That’s because you never know what kind of accident the hidden weapons will cause, or when the poisoned person will get sick. Right?”

Everyone knew that.

“But that’s only half true.”

“Huh?”

Chung Myung chuckled. “The other fighter has to deal with the poison and hidden weapons too. Saying their true skills don’t come out in a duel is just a complaint the Dang family likes to make.”

Baek Cheon nodded. From that point of view, Chung Myung wasn’t wrong.

Dealing with swords and sabers was different from dealing with poison and hidden weapons. The opponent had to face unfamiliar fighting methods.

“The real problem for the Dang family isn’t that. It’s this.”

“This?”

“That poison can’t be used in duels.”

“Why?”

“There’s no antidote.”

Baek Cheon’s eyes flickered.

“Half the Dang family focuses on poison, and half focuses on hidden weapons. The hidden weapons that are too dangerous to use are locked away as Geumyong hidden weapons, so even the Dang family can’t use them.”

“That’s common knowledge.”

“Think about how strange that is. If they won’t use them, why lock them away instead of throwing them away?”

“Uh…”

Baek Cheon closed his mouth, surprised.

“They don’t throw them away because they plan to use them someday. If there’s a real crisis, they’ll use all the forbidden techniques of the Jianghu.”

“……”

“And that’s not just hidden weapons. The deadliest poisons in the Dang family, the ones with no cure, are locked away. The poisons that would cause other sects to attack them are kept hidden.”

“That’s…”

Suddenly, Dangpae released more poison smoke. The poison palm pushed back the Blood Clan warriors who were trying to break through.

Chung Myung stared at the scene.

When they fight people who don’t need to worry about an antidote, the Dang family’s true power appears.

The Dang family is different from other sects.

In other sects, only a few people study martial arts. Most people focus on learning and improving. But in the Dang family, many people spend their lives studying poison and hidden weapons.

The reason is simple.

Creating great martial arts doesn’t make the sect stronger. The sect’s power comes from the martial skill of its members.

That’s the problem with martial arts.

Advanced martial arts can make people strong, but they are hard to learn and require talent, training, and time.

Does Shaolin lack martial arts?

Doesn’t Wudang have martial arts that can make its members the best in the world?

Most famous sect members struggle to learn the martial arts they already have. So, what’s the point of creating even harder martial arts for them to learn?

Even if they try to create new ones, they can’t. And even if they do, no one can learn them.

‘But poison is different.’

Even if poison is weak in a fight between masters, masters are rare. To most martial artists, the Dang family’s poison is like death.

So, the Dang family can become stronger just by creating poisons that work faster and are easier to use.

“It doesn’t matter how strong you are. At least, not for the Dang family.”

“……”

“What’s more important is what you have in your hand.”

Baek Cheon’s face became serious. Chung Myung smiled slyly. “You thought you could beat someone like Dangpae anytime, right?”

“Wh, what are you talking about…”

“Dongryong. That’s why you’re still Dongryong. The world is big and complicated.”

Baek Cheon wanted to argue, but he didn’t. It would only make him look bad. Chung Myung was right.

Chung Myung looked at Dangpae and muttered, “But he’s overdoing it.”

He was using too much poison.

But he had to. If Danggbo was at the rear, he would have killed everyone with just twelve throwing knives. But Dangpae couldn’t stop them with just knives.

So, he was using up his limited supply of poison.

“He won’t last long…”

“He won’t last long, right?”

Chung Myung and Baek Cheon spoke at the same time. Chung Myung looked surprised. Baek Cheon was already thinking hard. It was familiar, but also new.

Baek Cheon was now talking to Chung Myung. He used to look for answers in Chung Myung’s words, but now he was trying to find the answer himself.

‘I can’t call him a chick anymore.’

Danger makes people stronger, and war makes martial artists better. Baek Cheon was probably growing the most during this chase.

“Chung Myung! You should…”

“You’re wrong.”

Baek Cheon stopped, surprised.

Wrong?

Dangpae would soon be exhausted. And because of the poison, they couldn’t help him. They couldn’t fight in that poison.

So, they had to break through the canyon faster, and only Chung Myung could do that.

“Remember one thing, Martial Uncle.”

Chung Myung smiled cruelly. “Do you know when people die the most in war?”

“What are you talking about?”

“When they think they’ve won.”

“……”

“People get careless. So, remember this. The people we’re fighting are also trying to kill us.”

Chung Myung looked up. The cliffs rose like walls. All they could see was a narrow strip of sky.

“They’re coming.”

Baek Cheon froze.

‘Explosives? Or oil?’

He remembered the horrors of the Black Dragon Band.

‘No! That’s impossible!’

Baek Cheon shook his head.

It wasn’t easy to blow up a cliff. And pouring oil from above required a lot of preparation and manpower.

Jang Il-so could do that because he lured the Nine Great Sects into a trap. That’s what made Jang Il-so so dangerous.

But that wasn’t possible now. Ho Gamyung was chasing them, and he had only recently learned that the Cheonwoo Alliance and Hainan were coming.

In this situation, Ho Gamyung couldn’t have gathered the alliance members to prepare in advance.

‘Then?’

What was coming?

Then, Baek Cheon saw it.

The sky was suddenly covered in darkness.

The thing covering the canyon became clearer.

Baek Cheon’s eyes widened. It wasn’t a cloud.

“From above! They’re coming from above!” he shouted.

The sky was full of people.

Countless Sabae Clan warriors were jumping down.

‘No!’

Baek Cheon felt urgent and worried.

They could break through the canyon because the enemies were only in front and behind. That’s why they could protect the Hainan disciples in the middle.

But what if the attackers from above mixed with the Hainan disciples?

‘It’s over!’

If a fight broke out in such a narrow place, no one could control it. And the result would be terrible.

What should he do?

Go forward? Go backward? He couldn’t retreat!

“I’ll be back.”

“What?”

Chung Myung shot upwards like lightning.

“Chung Myung!”

He drew his Dark Fragrance Plum Blossom Sword and ran up the cliff as if it were flat ground. The red sword energy left a trail, drawing a red line on the white cliff.

Another person ran up next to Chung Myung.

“Sago!”

Tang Soso shouted. Yoo Iseol, with her usual blank expression, followed Chung Myung.

Chung Myung and Yoo Iseol soared towards the falling Sabae Clan warriors.