Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1790

The Four Seas Alliance is attacking!

“Push them back!”

“We’ve gained the upper hand! Push them back now!”

The shouts from all directions were deafening, but Baek Cheon felt like his skin was being crushed by the powerful energy coming from the Four Seas Alliance warriors.

“Uh….”

Thud!

Baek Cheon stumbled and fell as someone kicked off the ground behind him and ran into him. The person didn’t even glance back as they charged forward, seemingly unaware that they had pushed Baek Cheon at all.

“Kuh.”

With stiff hands, Baek Cheon barely managed to push himself up from the ground and looked ahead with a heavy heart.

‘So, this is what it’s like.’

Those blocking the way and those charging forward. People gathered, forming a wave, crushing each other. Before this immense tide, Baek Cheon was nothing more than a speck of dust.

‘Watching a war from behind, huh….’

Until now, Baek Cheon had always been at the front, leading the way, with others following behind. He hadn’t known what a war looked like from behind the lines.

He didn’t realize it, but he used to feel like he was better than others.

He thought he was enduring greater pain by fighting at the front and was qualified to lead others.

But now, having gone from leading the battlefield to being a crippled warrior, he could bitterly feel the truth.

The tragedy of war experienced by those who couldn’t decide anything for themselves. How cruel and terrible a war that merely swept them away and consumed them was for such people.

However, there was no time to feel sorry for himself. He had something he needed to do.

Baek Cheon put strength into his legs and moved forward.

‘I have to stop them!’

He didn’t have the power to stop this war or change its course. Perhaps he once had such power, but the current Baek Cheon had lost it all.

But there was still something he could do.

It wasn’t easy to push forward, cutting through the frenzied warriors, but even so, Baek Cheon moved forward, extending his arms.

“Wait!”

He resisted those who pushed past him like moths to a flame. He wasn’t strong enough to stop them with his hurt arms and weak energy, but he still had to try.

“Get out of the way! You cripple!”

Then, someone, annoyed, kicked Baek Cheon in the stomach.

“Ugh!”

The sound of air escaping leaked from Baek Cheon’s mouth. Even though it wasn’t a particularly forceful attack, the impact was considerable enough to momentarily stop his breath.

But instead of collapsing, Baek Cheon gritted his teeth and continued forward.

“Sect….”

Baek Cheon’s gaze was fixed on the back of one person. A man who still showed a cold back in the midst of the raging chaos. A man who perhaps no longer had anything left to boil over.

“Sect Leader!”

Baek Cheon shouted until his throat was raw.

The sound might have been swept away and buried by the surrounding noise, but whether his will was conveyed, the man who had been standing alone turned around.

He showed no emotion at all. Baek Cheon opened his mouth.

“Sect….”

Jin Songwon waved his hand without energy. Then, those who had been pushing Baek Cheon from the left and right moved aside, and a narrow path was opened for Baek Cheon.

“Cough!”

However, Baek Cheon collapsed there before he could even walk properly. Jin Songwon looked down at him as if he were pathetic.

“You’re a fool, Baek Cheon. You could have run. You had your chance.”

“Hoo….”

Baek Cheon let out a rough breath. Then, he covered his mouth and struggled to raise his body.

“Run away. There’s still a chance. If you’re alive, you can do anything.”

The calm voice felt strangely out of place in this terrible battlefield. Jin Songwon seemed like he didn’t care about living or dying anymore, so he wouldn’t care even if this place was hell.

But Baek Cheon couldn’t do that.

“Are you really going to keep going with this?”

“…….”

“Are you really going to make the disciples attack the Cheonwoo Alliance? You know! If you do that….”

“If I do that?”

When Baek Cheon couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence, Jin Songwon completed it for him.

“Ah, it cannot be changed back?”

“…….”

“You seem to be mistaken, but it’s been like that for a long time now. It cannot be changed back.”

“But….”

Jin Songwon’s eyes flashed darkly.

“Enough games. This is serious now.”

He came closer and grabbed Baek Cheon by the scruff of his neck. It was truly a cold look, but Jin Songwon hesitated for a moment before snickering.

“Try to survive as best you can. If you can.”

He lifted Baek Cheon as he was and threw him far back. Baek Cheon, who had no strength to resist, flew helplessly through the air and crashed to the ground.

Boom!

A shock that felt like his back was breaking washed over him.

“Ugh….”

The world flickered black and white. Clutching his chest, where a pain like being stabbed with an awl spread, Baek Cheon struggled to raise his body.

“Huff.”

He knew it too. This was arrogance.

They had already thrown everything away. There was no way he could change their minds with just a few words.

‘Still… I have to do something.’

Even if it was nothing more than a meaningless struggle, he couldn’t stand by and let the situation spiral further into catastrophe.

Baek Cheon staggered, moving his heavy legs again.

“Hmm.”

Jang Il-So gazed at the unfolding scene as if enjoying it.

People stabbing each other with blades, cursing each other with utter hatred. Curses, resentment, and madness overflowed. The most primal depths of humanity were on display here.

How many people could leisurely watch such a sight?

Even when looking back at the history of ‘villains’ who had repeatedly fought, struggled, stole, and robbed, how many others had created such a scene?

“Hahaha! Isn’t it amusing, Ga-Myung?”

Jang Il-So laughed as if watching an enjoyable performance and pointed forward.

“Look closely.”

His eyes, which had been mocking everything in the world and shining strangely, were now very happy.

“Those who pretended to be clever, those who pretended to be noble, in the end, they’re all like that.”

Forgetting their grand cause, they desperately struggled only to kill those who approached. Forgetting the chivalry they had so loudly proclaimed, they fled from the enemy. They pushed their comrades aside to avoid death. Some sat down, pale with fear.

Their true faces were truly pathetic.

“Hahaha! It’s a wonderful sight! Ahahahaha!”

While Jang Il-So laughed gleefully, Ho Ga-Myung’s expression stiffened with considerable seriousness.

The effect was better than expected. Even Ho Ga-Myung hadn’t anticipated that they would be pushed back so easily.

‘Their strategy? No, there was no time for that.’

A strategy only has meaning if it is executed. No matter how great a strategy is devised, if the troops don’t move as desired, it will only be an empty echo. He could confidently say that the Cheonwoo Alliance didn’t have time to prepare in advance.

So, were they really collapsing like a sandcastle?

“Their strength….”

“Surely that can’t be the case.”

Ho Ga-Myung turned to Jang Il-So. Jang Il-So wore a meaningful smile.

“People change their minds easily. Yesterday is different from today, and the front is different from the back.”

“I find it difficult to understand.”

“Is the chivalry they proclaim fake?”

“…….”

“No, it’s probably real. There are probably many who truly care about that chivalry and the greater good. But there’s a hidden phrase behind that chivalry and the greater good. It’s the phrase ‘as much as I can handle.’”

Ho Ga-Myung swallowed hard.

‘In the end, they want to achieve their goals but don’t want to pay the price of sacrifice?’

In fact, there was nothing to laugh at. Everyone would be the same. Could Ho Ga-Myung himself confidently say that he wasn’t like that?

‘If that’s the case, then there’s only one reason for this.’

Ho Ga-Myung carefully examined the long, stretched-out front line.

‘The number of people at the front is excessively large.’

How many of these people were truly prepared to risk their lives for the sake of the Central Plains?

If they were soldiers who are forced to join the army, it wouldn’t matter whether they were prepared or not. After all, even in wars fought by ordinary soldiers, there wouldn’t be many soldiers who fought for victory and glory at the risk of their lives.

But there was one decisive difference between a battlefield where armies fought and this battlefield.

“……They can run away.”

Ho Ga-Myung muttered to himself, unknowingly speaking his thoughts aloud.

Soldiers have no way to escape. Even if they were terrified and looked for a breakthrough, all they would see were countless allies rushing towards the enemy, and enemies rushing towards them. If they could break through that force and run away, they wouldn’t be mere soldiers in the first place.

But martial artists were different. Martial artists could always step over the heads of their allies behind them and run away forever if they wanted to.

Unless there were supervisors like the Four Seas Alliance, who would stab knives into the hearts of those who ran away.

Of course, since they were martial artists, they wouldn’t hesitate from the start about whether to run away or not.

But the mere possibility of being able to run away was enough. The desire to live. The thought that they might be able to win without risking their lives. The doubt about whether this death was truly worth it. And thus, a moment of hesitation arose.

All of this would come together to make the tip of their swords dull. In this battlefield, that alone was meaningful enough.

And what created this was….

Ho Ga-Myung’s gaze turned to Jang Il-So.

The frontal charge seemed too reckless at first glance. There was no tactic or strategy visible, it seemed like a terribly exhausting war where they just keep fighting until one side is too tired to go on. Even Ho Ga-Myung had momentarily harbored doubts. But was this a move chosen after considering all of that?

“Alliance Leader….”

“No. No, Ga-Myung. Not yet.”

“……Yes?”

Jang Il-So smiled mysteriously.

“The other side wouldn’t be just this much either. If they were, there would have been no reason for us to struggle so far. You know.”

“…….”

“How they’ve been fighting. Why we haven’t been able to defeat them so far. At least, it wasn’t because of those incompetent and pathetic fools who couldn’t even manage their own subordinates and were messing things up.”

Ho Ga-Myung’s gaze turned to the battlefield.

‘Right.’

He had been momentarily caught up in the excitement of the battle and had forgotten.

Who was leading the Cheonwoo Alliance.

What exerted power on the battlefield wasn’t a grand position or a great reputation. Even orders became insignificant on a battlefield where lives were at stake.

Just as Jang Il-So did, the only thing that could lead people on the battlefield was one thing.

Kwaaaaang!

A great roar erupted from one corner of the front line that had been pushing the enemy like an angry wave. Jang Il-So’s eyes flashed.

“That’s right.”

He smiled brightly as if it was a scene he had expected. Excitement filled his pale eyes.

“I think I’ve gone mad, Ga-Myung. Seeing that I find this interesting.”

His face twisted like a demon as his laughter spread excessively. His gaze was fixed precisely on one spot. Before he knew it, the vast battlefield had been completely erased from his sight.

Jang Il-So filled his vision with only one person, his enemy.

“Now it begins. Yes, now finally.”

As the scattered dust settled, one person stood tall in that spot.

Black Mount Hua uniform and a red plum blossom embroidered on his chest.

“That’s right, Plum Blossom Sword Demon?”

It was Mount Hua Sword Immortal, Chung Myung. His cold gaze pierced through countless people and accurately targeted Jang Il-So.

Hero and Villain.

The battlefield surrounding them began to blaze fiercely.