Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1641

The trembling wouldn’t stop. Maybe it was from excitement, or maybe from guilt.

His hands were completely covered in dirty blood.

But Ho Gamyung didn’t feel any regret. What he did was too right to feel sorry. He felt it was wrong to even feel a little guilty.

Ho Gamyung breathed hard, trying to calm himself. He looked down at what was left of Wangsa. It was just a broken mess of flesh now.

Ho Gamyung’s anger had hit Wangsa’s body hard. It was now a horrible sight, barely describable with the word ‘miserable’.

He felt a tingle in his fingers, his breath came faster, and he smelled the sharp scent of blood.

Revenge didn’t taste like he thought it would. It wasn’t as good as he hoped, or as bad as he worried. It was a quiet feeling, like finishing a job he should have done a long time ago. He felt a little empty, a little happy, and a little sad.

Whatever the case, his revenge was done. He couldn’t change what happened, whether he liked how it turned out or not.

All that was left…

Ho Gamyung looked to the side. Jang Il-So was standing there, watching everything silently.

Jang Il-So looked at Ho Gamyung with a crescent-moon smile. It was hard to guess what he was thinking.

“How does it feel?”

Jang Il-So’s voice sounded strange and deep.

“I mean, how does it feel to get the revenge you wanted so badly?”

Ho Gamyung looked down at his bloody hand without meaning to. Even the strange feeling of the red hand had faded. He took it all in and calmly answered.

“I thought you would know. If it were you.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say.”

Jang Il-So smirked.

“Believe it or not, I’ve never bothered with revenge.”

“…Is that so?”

“Revenge is something that only people who have something to lose can do.”

It was easy to believe him.

Jang Il-So was right. Someone who has nothing to lose… No, someone who doesn’t care about what they’ve lost might never think about revenge.

That made Ho Gamyung realize something else.

‘Me too…’

Maybe he was someone who could never take revenge again. Because he had nothing left to lose.

“Can I ask you something?”

Jang Il-So moved his eyebrows without saying anything. Ho Gamyung took that as a yes and spoke.

“Why did you help me?”

There was no answer. So Ho Gamyung asked a different question.

“If I had taken that man’s offer, what would you have done?”

“Hmm?”

Jang Il-So looked more interested now.

He tried to look tough, but if you looked closely, you could see something strange in his young face.

“You said it would be better for me, but I’m not stupid. I know that wasn’t your real reason. Wealth, power, comfort… None of the things that man could offer would interest you.”

Ho Gamyung stared right at Jang Il-So.

“So, were you going to take my head as payment? As a price for disappointing you?”

“…Head?”

Jang Il-So’s face changed in that moment. He looked at Ho Gamyung with wide eyes and started laughing.

“Haha! Head? You mean your head?”

Jang Il-So shook with laughter and looked at Ho Gamyung with deep laughter and contempt.

“I thought you were smart… I guess not. You fool. Your cheap head isn’t worth anything.”

Ho Gamyung closed his mouth.

“You still think you’re some fancy scholar from the Hallimwon?”

Ho Gamyung looked down at his hands without thinking.

He laughed at himself.

Jang Il-So was right. He wasn’t a scholar anymore, and he wasn’t going to become an official.

Just a murderer who had killed a man.

The country would see him as trash that needed to be caught and killed. He had become the kind of person he used to hate.

What would Jang Il-So want with his head?

“That was a stupid question.”

Ho Gamyung nodded slowly.

He realized it again. The reason didn’t matter. What mattered was that he owed Jang Il-So, and now he had to pay him back.

“Now it’s your turn to get the price.”

Ho Gamyung took a deep breath and faced Jang Il-So.

It didn’t matter how hard the price was. Because Ho Gamyung had nothing to lose.

“Whatever you want from me…”

Ho Gamyung said, his face as cold as iron armor.

“I will do my best.”

His voice was strong, without any doubt. Jang Il-So’s long eyes curved into a full smile.

“…That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard in a while.”

He was a strange man. That’s what Ho Gamyung thought.

The first time he saw him, he was a rough wandering fighter, but the Jang Il-So he was seeing now was different.

His slow way of speaking was overwhelming, even without trying to scare him. Even Ho Gamyung, who had seen many powerful and noble people in the palace.

For a moment, he wondered.

Was this man really worse than those he thought were great? Was this man the one who could truly be great?

It was strange. The person he had wanted to meet the most was in the dirtiest part of the world, someone he didn’t even want to look at.

That’s why Ho Gamyung couldn’t help but wonder.

“What do you want from me?”

What would this man want? How would he look in Jang Il-So’s eyes?

The answer was a little different from what Ho Gamyung expected.

“What I want from you…”

Jang Il-So’s lips twisted.

“There’s no way I want anything from you.”

Ho Gamyung stared at Jang Il-So, speechless.

“A stupid scholar like you doesn’t know anything about the world or people. I can’t even use trash like you as fertilizer.”

Ho Gamyung’s face twitched.

“Then…”

“What I want and the price I’ll get are different. I said you have to pay a high price, but I didn’t say I wanted anything from you.”

It might sound confusing, but Ho Gamyung understood the difference right away.

“Then what price do I have to pay?”

When Ho Gamyung asked, Jang Il-So stared at him before turning his head. He saw the burning manor. The firelight painted his eyes blood-red.

“Become my dog.”

“……”

“I’m tired of this. This dirty back alley and trying to hold onto it.”

Ho Gamyung swallowed hard.

Jang Il-So had agreed to kill Wangsa.

Even if the royal family’s power didn’t reach every part of the land, he would be hunted for a while.

And that meant losing everything Jang Il-So had.

But Jang Il-So didn’t say anything about it.

‘…A person with nothing to lose.’

Wasn’t that the same as saying he had nothing?

“I want something bigger. Not just burning down a manor like this. If you’re going to burn something, you have to burn something bigger.”

Jang Il-So looked at the burning manor, then quickly lost interest and looked at Ho Gamyung.

Maybe it was his imagination, but Ho Gamyung felt the same heat in Jang Il-So’s eyes as he had when he first saw the manor.

“But I can’t do it with those idiots. I need someone who can think.”

Jang Il-So’s eyes moved quickly.

“Roll around in the dirty swamp with me. Live through hell. And push me higher. That’s the high price you have to pay.”

“……”

“I won’t let you say no. You’ve already paid for your life.”

Ho Gamyung laughed.

He doesn’t want anything. Yes, he wouldn’t want anything.

Jang Il-So probably thought Ho Gamyung was just a naive scholar who didn’t know anything about the world.

But he must have earned some respect with the blood on his hands. If he struggled in the swamp Jang Il-So was talking about, someday he would become someone Jang Il-So needed.

He doesn’t want anything, but the price he has to pay must mean that.

“Do you understand?”

His voice was rough and angry.

But Ho Gamyung felt a little worry in it. It was so small that only Ho Gamyung might have noticed it.

Ho Gamyung realized that Jang Il-So might want him more than he seemed to.

Ho Gamyung stared at Jang Il-So and then spoke after a long silence.

“What do you want from me?”

“To survive.”

Jang Il-So answered right away. Like he had already planned it.

“And to be cold-blooded. Always, everywhere, all the time.”

Ho Gamyung nodded slowly.

“…Then I have one condition too.”

Jang Il-So’s eyes became as fierce as an angry animal.

“A condition? You think you can talk about conditions?”

He looked like he would grab his neck and tear it off. A scary feeling went down Ho Gamyung’s spine, but he looked right at him and said.

“Calm down.”

Jang Il-So stopped moving. The anger disappeared like it was never there.

Jang Il-So narrowed his eyes and looked at Ho Gamyung. Ho Gamyung said calmly.

“People don’t fear those who show their anger. They think that’s all they have. But they fear those who smile even when things are bad. Because they think they have a secret plan.”

“……”

“If you want to be better than others, start by being calm. Smile more, look down more, be more arrogant. Act like you already have everything, not like you’re trying to get it.”

Ho Gamyung knelt down on one knee in front of Jang Il-So.

“Then you will always get what you want.”

Ho Gamyung’s eyes shone.

“To survive, and to be cold-blooded. I will remember.”

Ho Gamyung bowed his head. Jang Il-So looked down at him kneeling, then looked away at the burning manor, the black sky, and the man kneeling before him.

“Ha……”

His lips were red with excitement.

“Haha… Haha. Hahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahahaha!”

He laughed loudly.

It was different than before. It was a scary and relaxed laugh, mocking the world.

The laughter stopped after a long time. Jang Il-So repeated.

“Not like someone who’s trying to get it, but like someone who already has it…”

Jang Il-So’s eyes calmed down. Instead of anger, his eyes were calm, and he smiled softly.

“I’ll remember that. Until I die.”

Ho Gamyung smiled a little too.

This was the price he had to pay and the deal they had to make.

But maybe it didn’t matter.

Ho Gamyung stared at the burning world and the man standing alone in front of it. He was so distant and dangerous that he couldn’t look away.

He stood up slowly.

His past, his life, everything he knew was gone in the flames. It turned to ashes and disappeared.

But it didn’t matter now.

“Be ready. It’s going to be terrible.”

“I don’t think it will be easy. But also…”

“Hmm?”

“It will be fun.”

Jang Il-So looked at Ho Gamyung without saying anything. Ho Gamyung looked back at him. In the dark night, the burning embers fell around them.

Jang Il-So spoke.

“Let’s go, Gamyung.”

“Yes, Chieftain.”

He took a step. It was the start of a long journey.