Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1700

“Master Uncle!” Yoon Jong shouted, his voice full of worry. “Did you feel that? Something big is happening below!”

Baek Cheon nodded, his face grim. “Yes, I felt it too!”

Baek Cheon gritted his teeth, his knuckles white as he gripped his sword. Even with all the noise and confusion around them – the shouts of men, the crumbling stone, the whistling wind – he could sense it: the ground shaking from a fight below. Someone was fighting for them, below that dangerous cliff!

‘Everyone!’

They were climbing that cliff. Dust and small stones rained down as pieces of the cliff broke away. The air was thick with the smell of dirt and smoke. They were risking their lives to save them.

Baek Cheon’s hand trembled faintly. He knew the risk they were taking. It was a brave and selfless act.

If it were Mount Hua, they would have climbed the cliff without a second thought.

But precisely because of that, he knew all too well how much resolve, how much determination, that action required.

“Shall we join them?” Yoon Jong asked, his voice hesitant. Baek Cheon glanced back. He wanted to say yes, to turn around and fight with them. But he knew they had another duty.

“No!”

But the decision was swift. He clenched his jaw. He knew what they had to do. Mount Hua was currently escorting Wudang. To head back into the middle of a crumbling cliff with them was not a good choice.

Moreover, that was not what those who climbed the cliff to protect Mount Hua and Wudang would want.

“We move forward! Don’t waste the time they’ve bought us!”

“Yes!”

Thud!

The swordsmen of Mount Hua shot forward ahead of Baek Cheon. Their backs were unyielding.

Baek Cheon clenched his fist without realizing it.

‘We’re not alone.’

He always thought they had to lead the way. Because they were Mount Hua. Because Mount Hua was that kind of sect.

But that wasn’t all there was to it.

Just as his fellow disciples pushed him forward, now the disciples of the Heavenly Union were protecting the backs of Mount Hua.

“No wonder…”

Baek Cheon gripped Moo-jin tightly and extended his sword with all his might.

“I feel invigorated!”

He wasn’t the only one feeling this way.

The other swordsmen of Mount Hua, wielding their swords to clear the path, seemed lighter than before. Just knowing that someone was watching their backs made their swords feel so much lighter.

But the situation was still far from easy.

“A—mi—ta—buddha! Step aside, benefactor!”

Hearing Hye-yeon’s cry, Baek Cheon instinctively twisted his body to the side.

“Oooooooooh!”

Instantly, a terrifying force passed by, almost hitting him. The air vibrated with the force of the blow, and the ground shook under their feet. Hye-yeon’s signature move, a massive, golden-sculpted fist-like force, literally pulverized the enemies blocking their path, clearing the way.

“Jo Gul!”

“I’m on it!”

A sharp, blue light erupted from Jo Gul’s eyes.

‘These guys are nothing!’

The strongest enemies were waiting at the top of the slope. They were blocking the way to the summit. These were not ordinary fighters. They stood tall and their eyes were cold, promising a hard fight. It was probably the true move that Ho Gamyeong had prepared.

Certainly, even at a glance, their aura was extraordinary.

But looking at it differently…!

“We just need to break through those bastards!”

Wham!

Jo Gul stomped his foot with all his might.

Fwoosh!

A flash of blue light, as fast as lightning, he moved through the enemy ranks. The faces of the startled enemies brushed past his collar, and the instinctively swung swords grazed the very top of Jo Gul’s head, cutting the ends of his hair as they flew by.

The searing energy, the wind pressure hitting his face.

In the midst of the intensely vivid sensations, everything that made up Jo Gul was honed even sharper.

Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

The swords, swung without waste, cleanly severed the vitals of those who passed by. The wounds were so perfectly cut that they left no scars.

Only when the enemies tried to look back at Jo Gul, who had already passed them, did their wounds open and they vomited blood.

Jo Gul moved forward, further forward.

‘Faster!’

He could go.

‘Stronger.’

He could do it.

The sword became Jo Gul, and Jo Gul became the sword. Divided, yet connected. As if it had always been so.

Unity.

Beyond swiftness, beyond strength, the sword became Jo Gul’s will, or perhaps Jo Gul became the sword’s will, and he shot forward.

“How insolent…!”

Kwaaaaah!

At that moment, a massive wave of fiery energy engulfed Jo Gul’s vision. It was a wall of orange and red flames, crackling and roaring like a hungry beast. The heat hit his face like a furnace. An explosive wave of fiery energy, like a wildfire erupting in an instant, or a scorching heatwave, seemed ready to incinerate Jo Gul in an instant.

“Jo Gul!”

Yoon Jong, who couldn’t keep up with Jo Gul’s speed, screamed. It was impossible for a human body to withstand that terrifying fire…!

But at that moment.

Fwoosh!

The fiery energy suddenly split in two. It wasn’t cut. It split as if it had always existed that way from the beginning.

‘What?’

Yoon Jong’s eyes widened.

And then.

Jo Gul’s sword, piercing through the fiery energy, was embedded in the neck of the old man at the front.

Crack!

“Guh…”

Unspeakable horror washed over the old man’s eyes.

“Gu…”

The sword’s blade protruded from the back of his neck.

But the old man couldn’t see the sword that pierced his neck. All he could see was the cold expression of the swordsman who had stabbed him.

“I’ve always been a little cocky,” Jo Gul said, looking down at the fallen old man. “Maybe too cocky. But not today.”

“Keuk…”

Fwoosh!

The sword was pulled out in an instant, and the old man’s body fell backward.

Thud!

Immediately, Jo Gul, readjusting his grip on the sword, unleashed a lightning-like sword strike towards the elders of the Sun Palace, who were still bewildered and unable to grasp the situation.