Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1708

The resounding shout made everyone stop.

The Huashan swordsmen, who were struggling to break through the elites of the Solar Palace, and even the desperate members of the Four Evil Sects, all paused.

Was it because of wounded pride, or trampled honor? The Solar Palace Lord’s cry seemed more desperate than the Huashan disciples, who were cornered.

“You lowly bastards! How dare you! Even if dozens, no, hundreds of you come at me, you cannot make me budge! You will all die here. You will be thrown into a bottomless abyss for daring to oppose me and wield your swords! Not even your corpses will remain in this world!”

Amidst the collapsing cliff and desperate screams, the Solar Palace Lord’s shout, like a declaration, erupted.

“Regret and regret again! Your audacity to dare oppose me, you insignificant beings! Your foolishness to set foot on this mountain without knowing your place!”

His voice now boomed with confidence, something they hadn’t heard before. This new confidence, because he was winning, made the Huashan disciples feel uneasy.

Suddenly, a soft chuckle broke the tense silence. It was a strange sound in such a dangerous moment, and everyone turned to look.

The chuckle came from Jo Gul, the curly-haired swordsman still sprawled on the ground. His quiet laugh carried as clearly as the Solar Palace Lord’s loud shout.

“This bastard……” The Solar Palace Lord’s face flushed with anger. At that moment, Jo Gul raised himself up.

“Having fun? You’re just scared and using explosives.”

“What?”

“Did I say something wrong?” Casually wiping the blood from his mouth, Jo Gul bared his teeth at the Solar Palace Lord.

“Everyone here clearly saw you whining like a scared little dog to hurry up and detonate the explosives. Who’s going to acknowledge you trying to act dignified now? Isn’t that right, Senior Brother?”

“Indeed… it is disappointing. Especially from someone so important.”

“Yes.” Yoon Jong, agreeing and smirking, stood beside Jo Gul.

Hae Yeon and Yoo Iseol approached next to him, and the Solar Palace Lord spat fire from his eyes.

“You bastards… are you so stupid that you don’t even know what situation you’re in?”

“That’s why we’re doing this, you moron. Because we know it well.”

“What?” Jo Gul raised his sword and held it in reverse grip. And he sneered inwardly.

‘What a mess.’

Just touching that bastard’s inner strength felt like fire burning through his guts. His head spun, and his legs felt like they would buckle.

But instead of collapsing, Jo Gul glanced back. The cliff was collapsing even at this moment, swallowing the members of the Four Evil Sects who were struggling to survive.

The desperate look in their eyes as they were swallowed into the abyss seemed to be forcibly engraved in his mind.

‘It’ll be soon now.’

That terrifying collapse will soon reach this place.

But no one is willing to step forward. Even the members of the Four Evil Sects, who had come all the way here in a rage and slashed at the Solar Palace instead of Huashan, only fidget in their spots, unable to rush in.

The Solar Palace Lord’s power was that overwhelming. At least at this moment, it was nothing short of despair.

‘Despair.’

Their gazes, filled with unfamiliar emotions, converged on one place. Everyone, even those who didn’t know Jo Gul, felt the same fear.

Maybe Jo Gul had looked at someone with that same fear before.

Rumble!

An unavoidable fate approached loudly from behind.

Jo Gul took a short, deep breath and opened his mouth, fixing his gaze on the Solar Palace Lord.

“One time, right?”

“Probably.”

“If it’s twice?”

“We’ll all die.”

“Damn it……. Couldn’t you say something nicer? Always so cold.”

He can’t slowly weaken the shield to break it. He needs one strong hit. He must break it with a single strike. Even a single step back would mean failure, and that failure would lead to the death of not only Jo Gul, but the entire Huashan and Wudang.

“What are the chances?”

“……Slim, isn’t it?”

“Then is this the last conversation we’ll have in our lives?”

“It’s highly likely that’s the case, wouldn’t you say?”

“Hmm……. Then there’s something I’ve always wanted to say.”

“If you’re going to spout nonsense, just don’t.”

“…….”

Jo Gul decided not to. Instead, he clicked his tongue.

If he can’t break through that needle’s eye, he’ll die…….

‘Nothing new, is it.’

The path they’ve walked has always been like this. It’s just that Chung Myung and Baek Cheon’s backs aren’t in front of him now. He, and they, just have to open the path that the two had been leading the way on until now.

Jo Gul lowered his stance heavily. Every muscle, every nerve, entered battle mode.

Jo Gul’s eyes closed slightly.

‘To be honest…… it’s still too early for me.’

As if knowing its master’s inner thoughts, the Plum Blossom Sword emitted a humming sound. Soon, a thick, pulsing red aura blazed from his sword, like a living flame. His half-opened eyes, like those of a meditating high priest, sank even deeper.

Ooooooong!

Jo Gul’s sword cried out even louder. Everything he had learned was imbued in the Plum Blossom Sword, as if it were one with his body. Everything he had honed throughout his life.

‘I am…….’

The hand holding the sword trembled slightly.

Even with everything contained within, a trace of hesitation and burden remained. An emotion difficult to shake off clung to his ankles like glue.

Can I do it? Really?

He felt suffocated.

The sword hilt, which had been so familiar that he hadn’t even felt like he was ‘holding’ it for some time, felt distinctly clear. It should have been familiar, but suddenly his fingertips trembled at the unfamiliar sensation.

Can I do it? Can I really…….

Jo Gul unknowingly looked back. No, he tried to look back.

With the thought that ‘he’ might be nearby.

Because whenever this happened, he would rush in like the wind and break down the wall blocking their path. He had opened the way for them to go, and also the way to survive.

But before his head could even turn, a calm voice brushed past his ear.

“Not behind you. In front of you.”

“…….”

It wasn’t who Jo Gul had been expecting. But the owner of this voice was someone who was always by his side, even if he didn’t have to look for them.

“Don’t look back. Just go forward.” It wasn’t a loud voice, but it reached Jo Gul clearly.

“I’ll take responsibility. I’ll definitely open it. Even if I have to throw my life away.”

Jo Gul looked at Yoon Jong.

He was calm, as if nothing was wrong. His face didn’t show any determined resolve or firm conviction.

Even though he knew he might be facing the last moment of his life, he didn’t seem to waver even an inch.

The trembling that hadn’t left Jo Gul’s hand gradually stopped. After a moment of silence, Jo Gul chuckled.

“You weakling.”

“Keep that up and you’ll get a beating.”

The tension gradually faded from Jo Gul’s hardened face. He shook his head and stared at the Solar Palace Lord.

Firmly.

He pressed down on the ground with his foot.

Actually, he didn’t know.

The future that Chung Myung spoke of, the conviction that Baek Cheon spoke of, the *ideas* that Yoon Jong talked about… it all felt a little distant to him. Yoo Iseol’s strong belief and Hae Yeon’s steady nature were just admirable, but Jo Gul didn’t feel them himself.

But he knew one thing. The world they saw was probably much clearer than the world Jo Gul saw. Compared to their world, Jo Gul’s was nothing more than a hazy world covered in fog.

While everyone was finding and opening their own path, only his path was always blurry.

It must be because he was lacking. Lacking in resolve, conviction, a sense of justice, and warmth.

That’s why he can’t decide anything on his own. He had just been trying to protect his place. Perhaps he was the only half-wit in this Huashan.

But there was one thing…….

“It’s a promise.”

Even so, there was. A lamp that quietly illuminated his dark path.

Jo Gul just believed. In the one man standing behind him now. Even if he couldn’t find the right path in this blurry world, this man would definitely find the ‘right’ that he believed in.

‘So that’s what it was.’

Jo Gul murmured. Words he had heard sometime, perhaps without even realizing it.

“I am…… a sword.”

I cannot be sure that I am right. I cannot be sure of the path I am walking. But I can believe that those standing with me are right.

That’s why I am a sword. A sword that does not cut anything on its own, but is sharper than anything else when held in hand.

Abandoning a hesitant heart is only possible under unwavering belief.

‘So this is what it was.’

A small dot appeared in the middle of Jo Gul’s world, which had been scattered and difficult to gather.

Weak and insignificant. It was still just something small.

But the moment this tiny center was created, the world Jo Gul saw began to be colored in the same color. No, it wasn’t just the world. His body, his mind, and even the sword in his hand were soon dyed in the same color.

“You bastard!”

Was it because he instinctively felt something? Or was it just a coincidence?

Suddenly, a huge force erupted from the Solar Palace Lord’s hands. A storm-like force swirled towards Jo Gul.

He felt an even more terrible heat and intense pressure. It was clear that he couldn’t do anything with just a sword.

At that moment, a clear light flickered in Jo Gul’s loosened eyes.

Wham!

He wasn’t even aware that he had kicked off the ground.

It was the moment when his body, mind, and energy became one. Jo Gul became a sword and stretched out towards the raging force, towards the Solar Palace Lord standing beyond it.

‘I am…….’

Moving forward is confronting, and confronting is facing.

The world around him became very clear, but Jo Gul wasn’t focused on that.

There were only two things his consciousness was chasing now.

One was the enemy behind this terrible fire.

The other was the steady breathing coming from right behind him. The person who believed in him and jumped into that terrible fire without hesitation.

‘A sword is…….’

Jo Gul’s eyes stood on the boundary between ambiguity and clarity, deeply submerged somewhere.

‘Just cutting.’

Faaaah.

His sword is swung. His hand is swung. No, he is swung.

The line he drew was not clean. It was rough and clumsy, hardly what a skilled swordsman would draw with all his might.

But the line silently cut through.

What had been blocking him, threatening him, and was a wall that he couldn’t dare to cut down.

The center of the fiercely boiling crimson flames split as if flowing water was divided into two paths. It was so effortless that it seemed like it was the originally intended procedure.

It was impossible.

Between the split flames, Jo Gul’s half-opened eyes and the Solar Palace Lord’s eyes, which were filled with astonishment, met.

And at that moment, Jo Gul’s sword…….

No, Jo Gul pierced through. The wall of despair that stood in his way.

A dull, sickening crack echoed through the air, like bones breaking.

Crack.

Under the name of an iron sword, Jo Gul was embedded in the Solar Palace Lord’s chest.