Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1707

The ground shook. It felt like the world was crying.

The ground should be solid under your feet. But now it was shaking. This shaking made everyone feel very, very scared.

This shaking was not just an earthquake. It was a sign of something much worse. How could anyone explain how scary that was?

“Ah…” Yoon Jong gasped.

His eyes went wide with fear, shaking like leaves in a storm. He had never seen anything like this.

Then, it happened again.

**Rumble!** A deep growl ripped through the earth, a sound that shook your bones. The ground jumped beneath their feet, even harder than before.

Yoon Jong stared. He could barely breathe.

*That… that thing…*

At the edge of the cliff, where the land met the sky, strange black lines cracked across the ground. It looked like black lightning was cutting the earth, not the sky. Dust puffed up from the cracks.

“Uh… What?”

“Th-this……!”

The members of the Four Seas Alliance who filled the clifftop were aghast.

Rumble!

The edge of the cliff slowly began to crumble. No, it was more accurate to say it was ‘turning to dust’.

Rumble! Rumble!

The fragmented and crushed earth began to plummet into a deep hole. At first, the collapse was slow, but it gradually increased in speed.

The collapse overtook the Four Seas Alliance members at the rear of the group even before they could fully grasp the situation. Their footing gave way before they could react, and those who witnessed it screamed in desperation.

“It’s collapsing!”

“Aaaaargh!” Help me!”

These screams were directed downwards, not upwards. Bodies were being sucked into the black hole of the cliff below, like a gate to hell.

“Aaaaargh!”

One, another… and another.

The collapsing cliff devoured the Four Seas Alliance members like a ravenous demon, determined to leave none behind.

Those who had overcome countless crises, those who had steeled themselves with firm resolve, and those who had armed themselves with unwavering faith all froze in terror.

They had to acknowledge and accept, at this moment, that they were nothing more than insignificant specks, trivial beings about to be swept away and crushed by this colossal collapse.

“Aaaaaaaaaargh!”

“N-nooooo!”

With desperate screams, the already exhausted Four Seas Alliance members plummeted downwards.

They reached out desperately, grabbing onto any part of the cliff that remained intact, and tried to find purchase with their feet, but it was all in vain. Nowhere on this cliff would allow them to survive.

“The cliff is collapsing!”

The Four Seas Alliance members retreated frantically, screaming.

But was there anywhere on this cliff where they could escape?

“Get out of the way!”

Those who had been pressuring Mount Hua near the slopes on either side didn’t even look back as they threw themselves towards those paths. Or rather, tried to.

“Get out of the way, you bastard!”

“Get lost! Move aside now! Before I kill you!”

But in the first place, those slopes were narrow, which was why they were advantageous for blocking enemies. As such, it was impossible for the numerous people who had climbed the cliff to safely escape through those narrow passages at once.

“Get out of here!”

“Aaaaargh!”

A sword swung in desperation struck an ally. Someone shoved a face, eyes wide with disbelief at their situation, aside with a rough hand.

No words had any meaning here. The only thing that mattered was survival. Just staying alive.

Swords were swung wildly, and hands crackling with energy tore apart anyone in their path. They trampled over the fallen, climbed over the backs of those ahead, and everyone struggled desperately.

“Aaaaargh! Get out of the way! Move, you sons of bitches!”

“Kuh-heok!”

The eyes of a Four Seas Alliance member, stabbed and trampled, flickered with pain. Then, the last sight he saw was… the wave of collapse.

Rumble!

“Ah, n-no……”

Those who had already fallen and those who had failed to break through the wall of people were ultimately swallowed by the torrent of collapse.

Death, neither fast nor slow, but never ceasing, slowly tightened its grip on everyone.

If Strategist Ho’s plan had succeeded perfectly and the cliff had collapsed in an instant, they would have died without even having time to feel despair or pain.

But now, they were being dragged slowly into the clutches of death, like rabbits being driven into a snare.

“F-from the beginning! You planned this from the start, you son of a bitch Strategist Ho!”

“Jang Il-So! You devil! May your name be mud! May crows pick at your bones!”

Those who now realized the situation poured out their anger and curses on Ho Ga-Myung and Jang Il-So, but it was all in vain. All those words failed to leave the cliff and scattered into the void.

“Aaaaaaaaaargh!”

Some, unable to overcome their fear, gave up on escaping through the slopes and threw themselves off the cliff.

It might have seemed like a better choice than helplessly falling with the collapsing cliff, but it did not save their lives.

Thud! Thud!

The sound of bodies breaking echoed eerily from all directions. The moans that seemed to flow from the hell below constantly brushed against their ears, driving those on the cliff even madder.

Everyone must have felt the same, seeing the only path to survival in that chaos.

The Four Seas Alliance members who had given up on both going to the slopes and jumping off desperately rushed towards the place where Mount Hua and the Sun Palace were clashing.

Not to bring down Mount Hua, but to trample over and surpass the Sun Palace that stood in their way.

“They’re coming!”

It was the Wudang who first discovered and greeted them.

The swordsmen of Wudang, whom Mount Hua had temporarily set aside to fight the Sun Palace, warily raised their swords, guarding against the Four Seas Alliance members who were rushing towards them like ghosts.

However, the Four Seas Alliance members didn’t even glance at the Wudang, who had lost all their strength and were like easy prey. Instead, they bypassed the Wudang swordsmen.

“Open it! Open the path! Damn it!”

Clang!

Their cries were directed at none other than the Sun Palace disciples.

To the Sun Palace disciples who were thoroughly blocking the path to life, the place made of earth and trees, not the cliff that jutted out towards the outside of the mountain at the innermost end of the cliff.

Hwaaaah!

But as if they had anticipated this situation, the Sun Palace disciples unleashed their Scorching Yang Energy without the slightest hesitation, literally burning the Four Seas Alliance members.

“Aaaaargh!”

Dozens of Four Seas Alliance members screamed as they were engulfed in crimson flames. Their writhing, unable to bear the searing pain, looked grotesque, like a dance. Then, they screamed and rolled on the ground. The flames that surged up, burning their bodies, became another wall, blocking those who sought to live.

“Aaaaargh! You bastards!”

Desperate attacks poured down on those who had been allies until just moments ago.

And that wasn’t all. Hands wrapped in scorching heat were also swung at those who had been fighting together until recently.

A living hell.

At the crossroads of life and death, the boundaries between enemy and ally, between sects, and even between justice and evil, crumbled.

All that remained were those who sought to survive and those who would not allow it.

“D-do something! Damn it, you’re Mount Hua!”

“We’ll all die like this! Please!”

The Four Seas Alliance members, realizing they couldn’t break through the Sun Palace with their own strength, screamed and clung to Mount Hua.

Baek Cheon clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

He had expected them to resort to such measures. He knew they would sacrifice even the lives of their own subordinates here.

But watching it unfold, wasn’t it too cruel? His anger boiled to the point of turning his stomach.

But he had no time to feel sympathy now. No matter how wide the top of the cliff was, if it continued to collapse at this rate, it was only a matter of time before their own footing gave way.

Baek Cheon glared at the Sun Palace Lord. His face, filled with boundless, vile pleasure, was utterly repulsive.

He could feel it from that face.

The place where the Sun Palace Lord stood was a terrain that led to the summit of the mountain. It would not collapse even in this destruction.

It was only a few steps difference, but they stood on life, and the rest belonged to death. Could there be a greater power than seizing the path of survival at this crossroads?

That was why Baek Cheon could never forgive that man.

A cruel man who forcibly blocked those who wanted to live, those who were alive before his very eyes, and relentlessly pushed them into the abyss of death. A vile and vulgar man who reveled in his superiority through that heinous act.

“This……!”

The moment his pounding heart was stained with rage, Baek Cheon tried to rush forward. But Jo Gul and Yoon Jong’s swords flew towards the Sun Palace Lord a step ahead.

“Get out of the way! You damned bastard!”

Jo Gul’s outstretched sword split into dozens, pouring down on the Sun Palace Lord’s entire body. But the Lord, as if he had expected it, immediately countered with an eruption of Scorching Yang Energy.

The instantaneous pressure and heat crushed the sword energy.

“Kuh!”

A rough groan escaped from Jo Gul’s mouth.

‘Damn it!’

But he couldn’t back down now. Behind him was only death.

“Aaaaargh!”

The moment Jo Gul tried to ram into him with his bare body, not even looking back, the Scorching Yang Energy that had surged up like an iron wall exploded and scattered, engulfing his body.

“Aaaaargh!”

“Geol!”

Yoon Jong desperately swung his sword, barely managing to create a sword barrier in front of Jo Gul. But he couldn’t fully withstand the recoil. Yoon Jong, too, stumbled backward, entangled with Jo Gul.

Hye-Yeon, clad in a black monk’s robe, immediately charged in.

“Ooooooh!”

Pah!

Hye-Yeon’s fist drew dozens of afterimages in the air. The ultimate state of the Arhat Fist. It wasn’t the heavy fist he usually unleashed. It was a fist focused on speed and destructive power, and therefore, a fist that could be described as somewhat ‘urgent.’

“Hmph!”

The Sun Palace Lord scoffed and swung his fist. Dozens of fist shadows spread in the air. Each one was imbued with formidable inner strength.

The fist that had completely shattered Hye-Yeon’s attacks eventually struck Hye-Yeon’s body.

Wham!

“Kuh-heok!”

Hye-Yeon spat out blood and was pushed back.

If Yoo I-Seol’s sword hadn’t flown like an arrow towards the Sun Palace Lord’s neck at that moment, he might have suffered serious injuries from the ensuing pursuit.

Clang!

But even Yoo I-Seol’s sword, which had saved Hye-Yeon, could not bring down the Sun Palace Lord. Her swift and precise swordsmanship left deep scars on the Sun Palace Lord’s precious hands, but it was impossible to make him retreat with such minor wounds on his skin.

Wham!

Yoo I-Seol, who had taken the Sun Palace Lord’s energy in the air, was ultimately thrown backward.

“Die!”

The Four Seas Alliance members, who had been desperately looking for an opening, rushed towards the Sun Palace Lord all at once, with the mindset that they would die if they didn’t defeat him.

“How dare you!”

But the Sun Palace Lord’s one fist became a giant vortex of flames, surrounding them. Desperate screams erupted, and dozens of Four Seas Alliance members were instantly turned into charcoal and collapsed.

Thud!

At the same time, corpses were shattered and scattered.

The Sun Palace Lord unleashed a tremendous roar.

“Did I look so easy to you, you insignificant things!”

The Sun Palace Lord, standing like a mountain, filled with venom and malice, glared with bloodshot eyes. And he looked down on everyone despairing before him.