Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1686

The dagger flashed with cold light as it stabbed into the Sage’s chest. The sound was sickening, like tearing cloth.

“Kuh-heok…” The Sage gasped, blood bubbling at his lips.

“Sage!” someone screamed, the sound raw with pain.

Even in the gloom, you could see so much blood spraying everywhere. It was impossible to miss. He wished his eyes weren’t so sharp. Even in the dim light of the battlefield, he could see the light dying in the Sage’s eyes.

“Ugh… Hngh…”

The others were sad to see their friend fall. But under that sadness, they were also very scared.

“S, Sage…”

One of the shaman’s disciples reached out towards the fallen figure in the distance, as if his soul had left his body. Tears blurred his vision.

He started to step forward without thinking, but someone grabbed him by the back of his neck, like an animal catching its prey.

“Get a grip!”

“S… Senior Uncle?”

“Look ahead! Don’t take your eyes off the enemy!”

“B, but…”

“You fool! Do you want to die too?”

“Ugh…”

The man covered in blood was Mu-jin. His one remaining eye gleamed with desperation.

“The dead are dead! If you have time to be sad, focus on surviving! Tears for the dead are a waste now!”

Those words sounded too harsh for a Taoist. No, they sounded desperate. But he couldn’t say anything else.

“Understood?”

He growled again, and the junior disciple nodded, terrified. Mu-jin shoved him behind him and pointed his sword forward.

The battlefield in front of him was brutally clear.

Enemies and more enemies. They seemed endless, no matter how many he killed.

And now, under their feet, were the bodies of their friends, who had lived and breathed on this mountain with them, being trampled.

Half, or maybe more, were dead.

Even if they killed many more enemies, even twice as many, by losing so many of their own… could this death really be worth it?

Sorrow for the dead? Heartbreak for their suffering?

Surely, even now, someone was burning inside with those feelings.

But now, Mu-jin’s mind wasn’t filled with sadness for the dead, but only with protecting even one more of those still alive.

That desperation drove Mu-jin forward.

“Senior Uncle! Ahead!”

Suddenly, a hurried voice shouted, and a spear flew towards Mu-jin’s side.

Mu-jin swung his sword wildly, but he wasn’t as fast as he used to be. If he was in good shape, the sword would have easily cut through the air and blocked the spear, but it moved slowly, barely hitting the side of the spear.

Clang!

“Senior Uncle!”

The spear pierced Mu-jin’s side at an angle. Mu-jin gritted his teeth and screamed, striking the spearman’s neck.

Spurt!

Hot blood poured from the severed neck. The enemy’s blood covered the blood Mu-jin had spilled. Here, the meaning of spilled blood was lost. It would soon be trampled and dirtied.

“Senior Uncle!”

“I’m fine!”

Mu-jin held out his hand strongly, stopping those who were trying to help.

He was grinding his teeth from the terrible pain and the fear beyond that pain, but strangely, he started to laugh.

His mind was so desperate, but his body couldn’t keep up. How naive he had been to think he could fight to the end as long as he didn’t give up.

Turning to the side, he saw the disciples of the Wudang Sect, also covered in blood, struggling to block the enemy’s blades, which were like the fangs of demons. They all looked exhausted.

Snikt!

“Senior Brother!”

Even Jin-hyun’s body spurted blood.

An attack that he would have ignored in his usual state, but Jin-hyun was already at his limit. Everyone here had reached their limit.

The blood running down his forehead kept getting into his eyes. The dark world was turning red. It was like the situation they were in now.

“Aaaaaaargh!”

Mu-jin roared like a beast and charged at the enemy in front of him.

Thwack!

The tip of the sword pierced the enemy’s neck accurately and fiercely. It tore through flesh and bone. But even that felt faint and blurry now.

Twisting the sword, he swung it horizontally.

His inner energy was completely used up and his body hurt badly, like it was going to break. But Mu-jin used all the remaining energy without stopping.

Fwoooosh!

The sword energy swept away the enemy in an instant.

“This corpse-like bastard!”

But the enemy no longer retreated from his sword energy. The enemy, like a pack of wild dogs, saw that Mu-jin was weak.

The Sahe Guild rushed in to sink their foul-smelling teeth into the neck of the large prey driven to its limit.

“Mu-jin!”

Seeing Mu-jin’s danger, a fast palm strike flew towards Heo Gong’s face, who flinched.

Clang!

His sword was pushed back.

“Still have time to look away?”

“…”

Mu-jin pulled back his sword.

His body was a wreck. His clothes were so torn that you couldn’t tell what they used to be, and the parts of his body hit by the Thousand-Faced Scholar’s palm strike were swollen.

But the internal injury was worse.

The Thousand-Faced Scholar’s attack had sent bad energy into his body. It was hurting him so much that even his Wudang training couldn’t stop it.

Compared to this, the external wounds seemed small.

The Thousand-Faced Scholar smiled.

“Where did your energy go?”

Thwoom!

The Thousand-Faced Scholar’s hand struck the air, and a palm strike of terrifying speed went towards his side, towards his friends, who were trusting Heo Gong to protect them and desperately blocking the enemy.

Heo Gong stretched out his sword to block the Thousand-Faced Scholar’s palm strike. But in that moment, his waist twisted, exposing his back, and three palm strikes hit him there.

Boom! Boooom!

Dark red blood came out from between his lips. He used as much inner energy as he could to soften the blow, but the shock repeatedly hit his body.

“Cough!”

Heo Gong coughed up blood. He grabbed at the flowing blood with his shaking left hand.

Fwoooosh!

The attack got stronger. The Thousand-Faced Scholar’s palm strikes swelled like clouds and flew towards Heo Gong. This time, Heo Gong didn’t even try to block them and rolled to the ground.

Boom!

The ground where he had been standing exploded.

“Kugh!”

Just as Heo Gong was about to get up, something pierced his side.

Thwack!

Heo Gong’s eyes widened. His ribs broke, and his body bounced up like a ball.

His mind spun. He wanted to give up.

But Heo Gong shook off that feeling and flipped his body over.

Whoosh!

Several palm strikes barely missed him. If he had been a moment slower, he would have died.

Thud.

Heo Gong landed almost face-first and rolled to the side again.

Boom!

The spot where he had been was blown up again. He couldn’t think straight because of the constant attacks.

Heo Gong stood up and pointed his sword at the Thousand-Faced Scholar.

It was the Wudang’s Ready Stance, a posture he had taken many times, but no one would see the strength of the Wudang Sect in his stance now.

The tip of his sword was shaking, and his legs were trembling like they would collapse.

The Thousand-Faced Scholar watched, sneering.

“Why? Didn’t you act like you could beat me easily?”

Blood and sweat dripped from his chin. Heo Gong stared at the Thousand-Faced Scholar with his half-closed eyes.

“Young people think like that. They think if they become strong, they can do anything. They think they can get whatever they want.”

The Thousand-Faced Scholar’s face twisted. It was strange that his mask didn’t fall off.

“Did you think it would be that easy?”

“…”

“Did you think you were the only one who works hard? Did you think that with your talent, you could always be better than others? Or did you think that hard work always pays off?”

Each word hurt Heo Gong.

“If you believed that, then your life was a lie.”

The Thousand-Faced Scholar slowly moved his hands from behind his back.

“Real life is in the worst places. While you live like gods on this mountain, other people are fighting for scraps of food. They have to be very low to survive, even betraying friends to get ahead.”

The Thousand-Faced Scholar smiled sadly.

“Could someone like you ever understand?”

Kwaaaa!

Heo Gong unleashed black and white sword energy that swirled and covered the Thousand-Faced Scholar.

Kwaaaaaaaang!

A huge explosion happened. Even the Thousand-Faced Scholar wouldn’t have survived if he had been caught in it, but he had already moved back to the edge of the cliff.

“Hoo… Hngh.”

Heo Gong struggled to hold his shaking sword.

“…That’s a poor… excuse.”

The Thousand-Faced Scholar shook his head and put his hands behind his back again.

Heo Gong was at his limit. The other Wudang swordsmen were too. There was no need to try harder; they would fall soon. He had seen it many times: the struggles of those at their limit.

These guys would be the same. However…

“Keep talking.”

Fwaat!

The Thousand-Faced Scholar’s hand struck Heo Gong’s chin with terrifying speed.

Kwaang!

Heo Gong flew up into the air and then crashed back down to the ground.

“I promised you that you wouldn’t die easily. Now, I will keep that promise…”

The Thousand-Faced Scholar was about to walk towards Heo Gong when he suddenly flinched.

‘Hmm?’

His back felt cold, like something was targeting him.

But behind him was only a high cliff. Who could dare to target him?

After thinking for a moment, the Thousand-Faced Scholar decided to trust his instincts. He stepped towards the cliff, leaned his head out, and looked down.

His eyes widened.

“…T, This?”

It looked like a black dragon.

A black dragon.

A black dragon with sharp scales was climbing the cliff, which was red with blood.

He realized that the sharp scales were swords stained with flames, and the hair on Thousand-Faced Scholar Dam-yeohae’s head stood on end.

“Hwasan?”

The hated name escaped his lips before he even knew it. Dam-yeohae tightened his hands.