Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1561

Baek Sang’s face turned white as a ghost.

Standing before him were none other than Baek Cheon and Yoon Jong.

The Treasury Pavilion managed Mount Hua’s money. But people decided how to use it. Someone had to choose where to spend the limited funds.

Therefore, Baek Sang knew.

He knew who had the greatest influence within Mount Hua, where everyone seemed equal under the Wise One and Chung Myung. He knew who the heart of Mount Hua was.

‘Why…?’

Baek Sang sometimes felt fortunate about the relationship between the two most important people in Mount Hua. At other times, he felt relieved. They seemed like each other’s only confidants.

But now, right before his eyes, they were clashing, not even trying to hide their anger towards each other.

“Now, just a moment. Yoon Jong, you…”

“Don’t interfere, Baek Sang.”

Before Baek Sang could say anything to stop him, Baek Cheon coldly cut him off. Baek Sang turned to his martial brother with surprised eyes and held his breath at the coldness in Baek Cheon’s voice.

Baek Cheon glared at Yoon Jong again.

“Keep going. So, what are you going to do about it?”

“Martial Uncle.”

“Are you going to stop me by force?”

Yoon Jong sighed, looking a little weary. His shoulders slumping. He rubbed his tired eyes, looking older than his years.

“You know yourself that your actions aren’t right, Martial Uncle.”

“And you think your actions are right, I suppose.”

“…It’s not like that.”

“Is it really not?”

Baek Sang saw it.

Yoon Jong’s face, which had seemed relatively calm, was subtly distorting as if cracking.

“Why would I…”

“Don’t overstep, Yoon Jong.”

At Baek Cheon’s words, Yoon Jong’s shoulders twitched for a moment.

“It’s not that I don’t know why you’re doing this. But it’s not right either. Don’t force your thoughts on me.”

“Martial Uncle!”

“Step aside.”

“……”

“Step aside.”

Baek Cheon’s aura was endlessly cold, and Yoon Jong bit his lip tightly.

“Wasn’t it for Mount Hua?”

Baek Cheon, who was about to step forward, ignoring Yoon Jong, paused.

“…What do you mean?”

“I’m saying, isn’t the reason you’re pushing yourself so hard for the sake of Mount Hua? Isn’t it to fulfill your duty as the acting sect leader of Mount Hua?”

Baek Cheon chose silence.

“You certainly told me that, Martial Uncle.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m asking if what you’re about to do is really for the sake of the disciples of Mount Hua.”

“Yoon Jong.”

“The Namgung isn’t Mount Hua!”

Silence fell. Baek Cheon stared blankly at Yoon Jong, as if he had been struck hard.

“It’s not that risking your life for the Namgung is bad. If you told me to do it, I would do it as many times as you want. A hundred times! A thousand times! But you… Isn’t there no need for you to do that? Do you really not know what kind of existence you are in Mount Hua?”

Baek Sang, not understanding at all, looked back and forth between the two.

The two’s conversation was subtly misaligned. Their own implications were melted into every word.

“You mean I’m that important in Mount Hua?”

“Of course…”

Baek Cheon cut off Yoon Jong’s words.

“Or do you mean I’m someone who can no longer handle all of that?”

“Martial Uncle!”

Yoon Jong, unable to bear it any longer, shouted. His voice cracked at the end, seemingly filled with bitterness. It meant that his intention was never that, but there was clearly a subtle complaint in it as well.

However, Baek Cheon’s eyes were endlessly cold.

“If that’s not the case, then step aside. I am your Martial Uncle, and the acting sect leader of Mount Hua.”

“It’s the order of the sect leader, and the order of the grand elder!”

“So?”

So? Yoon Jong’s face visibly distorted.

This wasn’t the Baek Cheon he knew. If it were the Baek Cheon he knew, even if he presented an opposing opinion, he wouldn’t react this way in front of the names of the sect leader and the grand elder.

What on earth made this person so stubborn, so narrow-minded? Sharp words were thrown out of Yoon Jong’s mouth.

“Are you rushing to your death?”

“Hey!”

Baek Sang couldn’t stand it and shouted.

But Yoon Jong didn’t even give Baek Sang a glance, only glaring at Baek Cheon.

“Why are you in such a hurry? Is someone going to die if you don’t go! Even if you go, what on earth…”

Yoon Jong, who was speaking, closed his mouth as if realizing something.

Baek Cheon could easily guess the words he couldn’t bring himself to say.

“You mean, what can I do?”

“…No. I…”

Yoon Jong couldn’t bring himself to finish his words. Because he couldn’t deny that he had thought so, even for a moment.

Yoon Jong thought. No matter how he looked back on it, he wasn’t wrong.

He could never allow Baek Cheon, whose body wasn’t in good condition, to jump into a dangerous battlefield and die like a dog.

Baek Cheon wasn’t Baek Cheon because he was strong.

Even if he lost all his martial arts and couldn’t kill even an ant with his own hands, he would still be Baek Cheon, Yoon Jong’s Martial Uncle, and the next sect leader of Mount Hua.

He couldn’t lose such a Baek Cheon over something like this. Absolutely not.

Looking at Yoon Jong, who was exuding a determination that went beyond resolution, Baek Cheon said bitterly.

“You can’t step back just because you lack ability. That’s just an excuse.”

“……”

“That’s what you often say, isn’t it?”

Yoon Jong bit his lip.

The situation was different. He wanted to say that. Even if it meant becoming someone who spoke with a forked tongue.

But…

“I’ll say it one last time. Step aside. If you still think of me as your Martial Uncle, and consider me the acting sect leader of Mount Hua.”

A long, hollow sigh escaped from Yoon Jong’s mouth.

He wished he hadn’t said those words…

“I understand.”

In the end, Yoon Jong took a step back.

“Instead, I’ll follow you. You won’t stop me from that, will you?”

Baek Cheon silently glanced at Yoon Jong, who had stepped aside, and slowly nodded. He couldn’t stop that. After all, Yoon Jong wasn’t maliciously blocking him.

But… a resentment sprouted in a corner of his heart.

Why couldn’t he understand? That all of Yoon Jong’s actions were only making Baek Cheon miserable.

‘It’s difficult.’

Baek Cheon closed his eyes tightly.

But when his eyes reopened, all hesitation had vanished as if washed away.

“Move out. Right now!”

“Yes!”

Baek Cheon led the Baek disciples and rushed forward first.

Baek Sang didn’t immediately follow behind him, but stared intently at Yoon Jong. Unlike before, his gaze was filled with some discomfort.

“There must have been a reason, of course. Because it’s you, Yoon Jong.”

“……”

“But he’s your Martial Uncle. I wonder if it was right for you to show such an attitude. You can’t always justify the means with the end.”

At those words, Yoon Jong lowered his head.

“I’m sorry.”

Baek Sang, staring at Yoon Jong in silence for a moment, turned his body with a chilling wind and followed after Baek Cheon.

Yoon Jong, gazing at the receding Baek disciples with complicated eyes, let out a long sigh and said.

“Let’s go too.”

“…Yes, Senior Brother.”

Some of the Jo disciples who answered had eyes that guessed something, and some had uncomfortable faces, as if they couldn’t understand Yoon Jong at all.

For some reason, something welled up from within. But Yoon Jong, who had opened his mouth as if to pour something out, soon suppressed it and only shook his head.

‘Wasn’t it not to be understood?’

“…Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Yoon Jong bit his lip tightly as he kicked off the ground.

‘I’m not wrong.’

Never.

Two people descended to the place they had left.

“…Why did you stop them, Sahyung?”

Jo Gul asked Yoo Iseol as if he couldn’t understand.

Then Yoo Iseol said in a voice that didn’t betray any emotion.

“What are you trying to do?”

“The two of them were fighting unnecessarily? Of course, I should have stopped them…”

“How?”

“Yes?”

“How?”

Jo Gul was momentarily speechless.

Yoo Iseol wasn’t just asking to be contrary. Jo Gul knew that too.

“Well… of course, the two of them have their own thoughts, but Yoon Jong Sahyung was being too excessive. He’s still a Martial Uncle.”

“You?”

“Yes?”

Yoo Iseol stared intently at Jo Gul. It was a transparent gaze.

“Do you want to send Sahyung? To the battlefield?”

He couldn’t answer rashly.

If he had to pick… Jo Gul was closer to siding with Baek Cheon.

If he were in the same situation as Baek Cheon, Jo Gul wouldn’t have been able to stand it either. He couldn’t deny everything he had lived for, holding a sword.

Even if the result wasn’t good, shouldn’t he struggle as much as he could?

“I think that…”

“Then you’ll see Sahyung’s corpse. Can you say you did well, then?”

“No, Sahyung.”

“It’s all over when you die.”

Jo Gul flinched. It was a calm and quiet voice, strangely more eerie.

“Even if you have good intentions, even if you have a reason you can’t give up… it’s all over when you die. It only makes the burden on those left behind bigger.”

“Sahyung.”

“Is Yoon Jong wrong?”

“That’s…”

Jo Gul tried to agree and step back as usual.

But one thing caught in his heart like a lump in his throat.

If it were normal, he would have told Yoo Iseol everything in his heart and wouldn’t have bothered to build a wall…

“Just because death makes everything meaningless doesn’t mean it’s okay to just stay alive, does it?”

“…What?”

Jo Gul said a little awkwardly.

“That’s right. We can’t tell Sahyuk to step back and just watch. That’s not kindness. Isn’t that killing a person while they’re still alive?”

Yoo Iseol stared at Jo Gul with a blank face.

Silence descended.

Before the silence became too heavy and crushed the two, Yoo Iseol turned her body and walked away.

“You can say that because you haven’t lost anything, you.”

“Sahyung.”

“I’ll go first. I left Jo behind.”

Tsk.

Yoo Iseol disappeared like the wind. Jo Gul, left alone, rubbed his face roughly with his rough hands.

“Damn it!”

What’s the point of asking if you’re not going to listen anyway?

In the end, they decide on their own, treating his thoughts as worthless.

“Damn it.”

Jo Gul, who spat out another curse, scratched his head roughly and sighed.

When he raised his eyes, the sky was clear and blue.

His chest felt even more stuffy. It was as if the world was saying that nothing had changed, only they were wavering.

“…Why is it so complicated?”

It didn’t seem like this until now.

No matter how difficult things were, their world was simple, and therefore, they only had to carry out their methods.

But since when have those methods not matched each other and become twisted?

“Sahyung.”

“I know.”

Jo Gul, who glanced back at the Jo disciples approaching from behind, nodded heavily.

“Let’s follow them for now. Things will work out somehow.”

“Is that really okay? The instructions we received…”

“I’ll take responsi…”

Jo Gul couldn’t finish his words and closed his mouth tightly.

The word responsibility felt too heavy to say easily.

“Let’s do that for now. I’m asking you.”

“…Okay, I understand, Sahyung.”

Jo Gul, who took a step weakly, forcibly put strength into his feet.

‘What would that guy have done?’

For some reason, he wanted to see that damn bastard’s face.

The guy who would have kicked both of their asses without even thinking about it.