Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1356

“Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!” Heavy breaths echoed in the night.

Sweat poured down his face, stinging his eyes like rain in a storm. His clothes were soaked with sweat, as if he’d been caught in heavy rain. With each push of his legs against the ground, drops of sweat flew from his hair.

His lungs burned, feeling like they would explode.

*How much further?* he thought, his mind foggy.

The path ahead blurred, seeming to stretch on forever. But he couldn’t stop. He had to keep running. If he failed, others would suffer too, not just him.

Hogamyeong had never made any proper threats.

Hogamyeong didn’t threaten them with swords or cruel words, like some evil people might.

But that was what made him even more terrifying.

Because he knew that erasing a village where ordinary people lived was no different to that man than crushing an ant under his foot.

It wasn’t just that he was strong. It was frightening that he was the kind of person who wouldn’t feel even a bit guilty after doing such a thing.

So he had to run. The lives of those he left behind in their village of Hainan were in Hogamyeong’s hands.

“Huff! Huff! Huff! Cough!”

Yugong, who had been running with all his might, suddenly stumbled forward and sprawled out. He had been looking for the marker above and missed a rock in the ground.

It was a silly mistake for a martial artist to make, laughable even, but Yugong was simply that exhausted.

“Cough.”

Even his cough was weak. He felt weak all over. But he somehow managed to push himself up from the ground. There was no way they would take his exhaustion into consideration.

“Ugh…”

Yugong trembled, struggling to lift himself. But all he could see were weeds growing wildly on the ground; his gaze simply wouldn’t rise.

And at that moment…

Thud.

He saw someone’s feet in front of him. He flinched and looked up to see Hogamyeong, the Heart-Piercing Rakshasa, staring down at him indifferently.

Yugong’s ragged breathing hitched in his throat at the sight of those eyes, without any warmth. After a moment, Hogamyeong spoke.

“We’ll rest here.”

“Yes, sir!”

The adjutants began to move quickly at his command.

Thud. Thud.

With that order, Hogamyeong moved away from Yugong without another word. Yugong watched Hogamyeong walk away, his fist clenched tight. Then, a voice startled him.

“Here.”

Yugong turned his head, dazed, at the sudden voice. A dewy water bottle was thrust out beside him, next to where Gohong was slumped against a tree trunk, looking half-dead.

“Drink.”

Yugong stared silently at the water bottle before raising his gaze a little higher. It was Gohong. His expression was rather strange.

“What are you doing? Take it.”

Yugong reached out and took the water bottle instead of answering.

It was cold. He must have gone to a nearby stream to fetch fresh water. Though not necessarily just for him.

Yugong looked at the water bottle with complicated eyes and eventually slowly drank from it. Gohong watched him closely before plopping down a short distance away.

They were silent for a while. The distance between them seemed to reflect the distance in their hearts.

“How much further do you think we have to go?”

Yugong took the water bottle from his lips and tilted his head back.

The night sky was a vast, dark cloth, scattered with stars that glittered like diamonds on velvet. He felt like he might laugh.

The night sky he had seen so often in Hainan was probably much more beautiful than this. But back then, he hadn’t felt any particular emotion when he looked at it.

It was only after things had turned out this way that he realized how beautiful the night sky was when you were alive to see it. How wonderful it was that they were living under such an amazing sky.

“I don’t know.”

Gohong sighed softly at Yugong’s late reply.

“Anyway, the more we rest like this, the further behind we’ll fall.”

Yugong: “Maybe…”

*Who knows? We can’t run forever.*

Gohong: “We’re all going to collapse if we don’t stop soon.”

In the end, all that mattered was who covered more distance in the same amount of time. That was what chasing was all about.

But Yugong didn’t bother to say it out loud.

Gohong probably already knew it. He was just choosing to ignore it.

Gohong: “Senior Brother…”

Yugong: “Don’t call me that.”

Gohong chuckled softly. “Why not? Feeling guilty?”

Yugong: “I said I’m not. So drop it. We’re not brothers anymore.”

“That’s right… We’re not brothers, nor are we disciples of Hainan anymore.”

Yugong leaned his head against the tree trunk and closed his eyes weakly.

What he really wanted to do was not close his eyes, but block his ears. But he didn’t have the strength to raise his hands, so he had no choice but to close his eyes.

“But, Senior Brother… it seems it’s not that easy to end things.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“Did you see it? In that canyon.”

Yugong squeezed his eyes shut even tighter. This was why he wanted to block his ears. Because he knew what Gohong was going to say. Because he didn’t want to hear it.

“Senior Brother Myeongho was there. I saw Disciple Jaun too. Elder Gangmyeong as well…”

“…”

How could he not have seen them?

He had seen it clearly with his own eyes. The sight of those who had been with him for decades, lying dead in a miserable state.

But there was nothing he could do. He had simply desperately chased after them, stepping over their rotting corpses.

Because he had to live. Because he had to survive.

“The dead are just dead.”

“That’s probably true… But… they were alive.”

“What?”

Gohong’s eyes stared blankly into space.

“When I passed through there… at least Disciple Jaun was still alive. Even in that state, his eyes moved, as if he recognized us. Even as he was dying, his waist half-severed…”

Yugong’s shoulders twitched.

Jaun was a disciple that Gohong was particularly fond of. Just as Gohong had followed Yugong around, Jaun had been especially close to Gohong.

“He seemed to be trying to say something. I couldn’t hear him, and I couldn’t understand him… but he was definitely trying to say something.”

“…”

“Senior Brother. What did Disciple Jaun want to say…”

“If you’re going to talk nonsense, get lost. I want to rest.”

The sharp voice cut Gohong off. But Gohong didn’t flinch; instead, he sneered.

“Can you rest if I move aside?”

Yugong glared fiercely at Gohong.

“Isn’t it you who can’t rest?”

“You…”

Yugong’s eyes twisted like a demon’s.

“So what?”

He clenched his teeth and raised his head stiffly.

“So, should I have become a corpse there too? Should I have died a dog’s death there and filled the bellies of beasts with my flesh? Would that have been the right way to die? To become a maggot-infested, fly-covered mess in that desolate canyon?”

“Senior Brother!”

“Stop talking like a dog! Didn’t you see it too? What did those bastards, who claimed to protect us with all their fancy reasons, actually protect? What did they protect while dying like dogs there? What did they achieve?”

His voice grew increasingly agitated.

“What was he trying to say? What meaning is there in that? All I know is one thing. No matter how much a dead man babbles, you can’t hear him, and you can’t understand him! He’s dead, and we survived!”

“…”

“Guilt? That’s utter rubbish. I will survive. I will never die such a dog’s death. I will survive, no matter what! And I will return to my hometown in one piece!”

A fierce light flickered in Yugong’s eyes. He looked ready to tear Gohong apart.

“What’s… what’s so wrong with that? Is it such a big mistake?”

Gohong couldn’t say anything. He just lowered his head and trembled slightly.

Yugong nervously gulped down the water. It was just plain water, not even alcohol, but it felt like his insides were burning.

In fact, he knew it too. Everything was wrong. He was wrong, and they were right. According to what he had learned and knew, that would be correct.

But what was the result?

Those who pursued goodness had become food for beasts there. And he, who had chosen the wrong path, was still alive, somehow.

*Tell me to take the right path?*

He kept chuckling in vain.

For what? For what reason should he maintain goodness? For what? To satisfy that small sense of unity and self-satisfaction?

It was all useless and doggone nonsense.

“Don’t think useless thoughts and rest.”

Eventually, Gohong shook himself and stood up. Whether he was listening to Yugong or simply didn’t want to be near him anymore, he didn’t know.

But where could he go?

There was no place for them to rest comfortably here. From the moment they left Hainan, they had become people who could not lie down on their backs.

Gohong looked down at Yugong with unfocused eyes.

It was so easy to be angry. It wasn’t difficult to be angry and curse him, saying that it was all Yugong’s fault. It would be much easier than being troubled by the guilt that was constantly choking him, realizing that he was also responsible.

But Gohong couldn’t do that.

Was it because he still had a conscience?

No. It was because he knew that turning his anger towards Yugong wouldn’t make him feel any better.

He was just curious now.

“What was different?”

Yugong raised his head at the quiet question.

“We came from the same place, learned the same things, and lived the same lives. But why are we here, and they are there? What was the difference between them and us?”

Yugong’s lips moved.

It was an obvious question, but it wasn’t easy to answer. Countless answers floated to the surface of his mind and then sank again. None of them could be a complete answer.

In the end, Yugong gave an answer that even he found silly. A sad smile faintly appeared on his face.

“It’s just… that’s how we were born.”

“…”

“That’s all there is to it.”

Gohong stared silently at Yugong.

Yugong somehow found it hard to bear that gaze. He couldn’t glare back with the same angry eyes as before.

That indifferent gaze, which wasn’t blaming or, even less so, criticizing, was unbearably painful.

So, in the end, he avoided his gaze. Even though he knew that he couldn’t avoid anything by doing so.

Thud. Thud.

Even after hearing Gohong’s footsteps fade away, he couldn’t turn his head back for a long time. It felt like that gaze would remain there, standing still.

Only after a long time did Yugong weakly tilt his head back. There were so many stars that it felt like they would pour down. He resented the sky for simply looking down on this hellish world.

*What was different?*

A hollow laugh escaped his lips.

“How would I know…”

He covered his eyes with both hands.

The sky simply looked at him, never changing. It was not the sky that was changing, but only the person looking at it.

“How could I…”

That sad voice couldn’t even spread far and scattered from his lips.