Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 496

The earth shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck.

In the all-white world, a majestic golden light shone brilliantly.

Then…

Woooooo!

It sounded like thousands of bees buzzing all at once. Then, golden light exploded out. It was like a dam breaking and water rushing out.

“Aaaaargh!”

“Aaargh!”

Those swept away by that immense power were sent flying into the distance with desperate screams, like toys thrown in the air.

“…Complete cheat.”

Jo Gul muttered as he watched the scene unfold.

“No!”

Then, he burst out with a look of utter injustice.

“Seventy-seven swings for one move! And he just punches and boom, five guys down! Seriously? If I knew it was going to be like this, I’d have gone to Shaolin! Why Mount Hua, why?”

“What, is this crazy bastard serious?!”

Yoon Jong, who was in the middle of unsheathing his sword, kicked Jo Gul with all his might.

“Kyaaa!”

Jo Gul, struck in the side, tumbled across the ground. Still not satisfied, Yoon Jong glared at him, his eyes blazing.

“We are going to talk later. Are you trying to make us look like fools? Focus on the fight!”

“I-I wouldn’t go that far, Senior Brother…!”

“Shut it!”

“Yes, sir.”

Seeing the very angry look in Yoon Jong’s eyes, Jo Gul quickly shut his mouth. Yoon Jong was someone even Chung Myung couldn’t stop when his eyes went like that.

‘But it’s a little unfair, isn’t it?’

The efficiency is different. The efficiency.

He truly understood why Shaolin’s martial arts were called the best in the world. Of course, it also looked better because of the person using it…

“Anyway, that monk is really something else.”

Jo Gul remembered Hae Yeon always being teased by Chung Myung. He always looked like he was about to cry. But now Jo Gul thought about it. Wasn’t Hae Yeon the most important student in Shaolin? Wasn’t he loved by the Abbot?

If he hadn’t met Chung Myung, he would be on a smooth path in Shaolin right now.

That kind of person…

“Huuup, Amitabha! Perish, benefactor!”

…Is doing that.

Every time Hae Yeon threw a punch, the Ice Sword Squad members went flying like bundles of straw kicked by a horse’s hind legs.

No matter how different the types of martial arts were and how different their levels were, it was impossible not to feel resentful at this point.

“You bastard!”

“Hiiiik!”

Jo Gul, terrified when a sword suddenly flew right in front of his nose, hurriedly rolled away.

“Seriously, is that crazy bastard for real?”

Yoon Jong’s eyes turned bloodshot as he watched the scene. How could someone be so distracted in the middle of a fight? Was there anyone more foolish in the world?

Feeling Yoon Jong’s gaze fixed on his back, Jo Gul broke out in a cold sweat. He quickly began to completely beat the Ice Sword Squad. His sword was twice as fast as before, and his inner strength circulated twice as quickly.

And he sweated twice as much.

Fortunately for Jo Gul, Yoon Jong couldn’t keep an eye on him the whole time, because Hae Yeon had started rampaging like a madman.

“Taaaaaaah!”

Wham!

“Amitabha!”

Boom!

Every time Hae Yeon reached out, golden light flashed. The Ice Sword Squad warriors flew away powerlessly like fallen leaves.

“…It’s really a bit much.”

Who would call that a disciple of Shaolin?

In Shaolin, kindness is supposed to be fundamental. But in Hae Yeon’s methods, there was not a trace of kindness, and his fist was full of powerful force.

Watching Hae Yeon, who was relatively small, rampaging across the battlefield with terrifying power, he looked more like a leader of a demonic sect than a Shaolin monk.

“…This is all Mount Hua’s bad luck.”

To be precise, it’s Chung Myung’s mistake.

“…Amitabha.”

Yoon Jong, reciting the Buddha’s name sorrowfully, shook his head and moved to clean up the Ice Sword Squad, who had completely lost their will to fight.

Bang Pyo’s eyes darted around, constantly scanning his surroundings. His face was growing paler and paler.

Anyone with eyes could see that the battle had changed.

‘How did it come to this?’

It was only natural that the prisoners who had regained their inner strength were overwhelming the guards. They were originally close aides and trusted friends of the former Palace Lord. If they could use their inner strength, ordinary Ice Palace warriors would not be able to handle them.

But the Ice Sword Squad was different.

“T-that, those…”

Hae Yeon was now emitting light from his eyes, bursting into maniacal laughter, and sweeping away the Ice Sword Squad.

“W-what on earth are those guys…”

Bang Pyo felt his vision blurring. How could the Ice Sword Squad be so completely beaten?

The Ice Sword Squad was one of the main forces of the Ice Palace. Of course, it wasn’t the best military force representing the Ice Palace. But even so, it was certainly worthy of being called elite.

Such an Ice Sword Squad was being pushed back by those youngsters.

How could he accept this reality?

‘I have to escape.’

Bang Pyo’s mind began to race.

The outcome of this battle had already been decided. If things continued like this, not a single person would escape, and they would all be captured.

Someone had to escape from here and inform the Ice Palace of this fact.

That the prisoners had escaped, and that guests had turned their swords against the Ice Palace.

It was at that moment, just as Bang Pyo was quickly searching for an escape route.

“Another rat-like bastard is rolling his eyes.”

“…”

Yeo Sa-hon, having just finished off the guard blocking his path, slowly approached Bang Pyo, drawing up pure white Extreme Yin energy in both hands.

Seeing the anger filling his eyes, Bang Pyo felt his heart sink.

“Ye-Yeo Sa-hon.”

“You dare speak my name? The world has changed so much since you were always agreeing with me, calling me First Elder, First Elder. Don’t you think so, Bang Pyo?”

Bang Pyo unconsciously took a step back.

“D-do you think you’ll be safe after this? The Palace Lord…”

“If I were afraid of Seol Cheon-sang, I wouldn’t have started this in the first place.”

Yeo Sa-hon’s eyes emitted a blue light.

Anyone who tried to have a conversation after seeing that look was either stupid or thoughtless. Unfortunately, Bang Pyo didn’t consider himself to be in either category.

He extended his hand as if to threaten Yeo Sa-hon and took a step back.

“Elder Yeo… Certainly, if it were you in the past, I wouldn’t be a match for you.”

“You know it well.”

“…But you’re not in a normal state either, are you? No matter how much you’ve regained your inner strength, you can’t easily remove the weakness from being imprisoned for the past few years.”

Yeo Sa-hon frowned slightly.

Bang Pyo’s words were not entirely wrong. He had only regained his inner strength, and without conditioning his body, he had not recovered even half of his past martial prowess. The same was true for the other prisoners here.

“With that body!”

Bang Pyo unleashed his palm strike forward.

The palm strike, filled with chilling Yin energy, flew straight towards Yeo Sa-hon.

“Kugh!”

Yeo Sa-hon, who had directly deflected the incoming palm strike, tried to rush at Bang Pyo. But at that moment, Bang Pyo was already flying far away.

“Damn it!”

Bang Pyo had betrayed them. Yeo Sahon had to stop him from escaping. He chased after Bang Pyo, his face twisted in anger.

“Huh?”

But at that very moment.

“Kwaaaang!”

Suddenly, the ground shook. With a sound that shook the earth, Bang Pyo, who had been soaring like a kite, plummeted straight to the ground.

Crack. Crack crack.

Yeo Sahon stood frozen, blinking his confused eyes. Before him, a huge, like a giant bowl crater had appeared, half-circle shape, as if something huge had smashed into the ground.

“Th-that is…”

Yeo Sahon stared at the crater, his heart pounding. *What has this Taoist done?* he wondered. What dumbfounded him even more was not the crater, but the scene unfolding within it.

Upon Bang Pyo’s convulsing body, twisted in a strange and unnatural way, sat Chung Myung, scratching his head.

“Uh… did I step too hard?”

“……”

Bang Pyo was convulsing, white foam coming from his mouth.

Yeo Sahon’s mouth fell open.

“Chung Myung, I’ve gathered them all.”

At Baek Cheon’s words, Chung Myung turned his head. The Ice Sword Unit and the guards, subdued and dragged over, were gathered in abundance.

Half of them were unconscious, but the remaining half were still awake. Their faces were very embarrassed and upset.

“Tsk.”

Chung Myung clicked his tongue briefly at the sight.

The prisoners behind him, still not having vented their resentment, were constantly fidgeting. Each time they stirred, the guards flinched, cowering in fear.

Eventually, Yeo Sahon stepped forward to calm the prisoners. Yeo Sahon bowed deeply, the cold wind whipping around them in the snowy clearing.

“Everyone, calm down. We all know that the crimes they committed are not small, but the real culprit is Seolcheon Sang.”

“Of course, we know, Elder. But…”

“Why wouldn’t I know how you feel? But if we lay another hand on them, we will become no different from that Seolcheon Sang.”

Yeo Sahon seemed to have a lot of influence. Chung Myung wondered if he was always like this. Or had years of hardship in the valley made the prisoners respect him? In any case, the prisoners soon let out heavy sighs and released their murderous intent one by one.

Chung Myung, who had been watching this scene,’s eyes sparkled.

‘He still has influence.’

“First.”

Yeo Sahon bowed deeply towards Chung Myung and his party.

“I have received a favor that I cannot repay even with my life.”

Baek Cheon immediately returned the gesture with a fist salute. Baek Cheon is presented as very righteous. Maybe a short description of his serious face or determined eyes could show this better. Also, his quick anger at Chung Myung is funny, but maybe show a little bit more of *why* he gets angry so easily.

“We are from the Mount Hua Sect. It’s our duty to help. Don’t worry about thanking us.”

“Ah…”

Indeed, his words and demeanor could only be described as those of a chivalrous man.

Just as Yeo Sahon was about to answer, filled with emotion.

“Ah, get out of the way!”

Chung Myung grabbed Baek Cheon and threw him backwards.

“Ack!”

Chung Myung, having glanced at him rolling through the snow, scowled.

“Why are you acting like it’s finished? It’s just starting! His act will get him killed.”

“Aargh! You little punk!”

Baek Cheon rolled his eyes back and charged, but Yoon Jong and Jo Gul grabbed his arms as if it were only natural.

“Please calm down a bit, Sasuk.”

“He’s not exactly wrong, is he?”

“What, you punk?”

Jo Gul quickly avoided Baek Cheon’s gaze.

Chung Myung paid no attention to what was happening behind him and spoke with Yeo Sahon.

“How is your body?”

“I need a few days of rest. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to regain all of my original strength…”

For a martial artist, not being able to train for several years was a huge problem. It would take a long time just to recover his original martial prowess.

“Well, that can’t be helped.”

But Chung Myung shrugged lightly.

“You know what you have to do, right?”

“Of course.”

Yeo Sahon nodded.

“By the way, how did you know that those who support the former Palace Lord were hiding in the Northern Sea?”

“Uncle Han I-myeong told me before. That they had dug tunnels here and there. It couldn’t have been easy to hide and live with a child in this barren place. I thought there must be someone helping them.”

Yeo Sahon looked at Chung Myung with an admiring face.

Because of his frivolous behavior and tone, it was easy to see him as a dull person, but this Taoist Chung Myung had a sharper side than anyone could imagine.

Of course, even after realizing that, his anxiety still remained.

‘Can I entrust the fate of the Northern Sea to this guy?’

But there was no other way now. If Chung Myung’s words were true, a terrible bloodbath would soon sweep through the Northern Sea.

As a person of the Northern Sea, as a martial artist of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, he had to prevent that at all costs.

Yeo Sahon opened his mouth with a determined face.

“Then, for now…”

“Ah, just a moment.”

At that moment, Chung Myung raised his hand to stop him.

Then, he turned his head slightly and looked at the warriors of the Ice Palace who had been subdued.

“It’s not good to have too many listening ears. Let’s take care of these guys first.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Hmm.”

Chung Myung pondered for a moment, then crossed his arms and muttered.

“To be safe, we should just chop off all their heads, right? Just kidding… mostly.”

“Hieeek.”

“T-Taoist!”

The prisoners, who had been so oppressed by the guards, were instead startled. Chung Myung licked his lips.

“Hmm. It would be nice if we could, but I’m a Taoist, so I can’t just go around killing people so easily.”

“Hoo.”

Yeo Sahon unknowingly let out a sigh of relief.

Anyway, this Taoist is good in many ways, but his excessive playfulness is a flaw…

“Throw them.”

“Yes?”

Chung Myung gestured towards the cliff with his chin and shouted.

“Soso! Feed them the Mountain Collapse Poison!”

“Yes, Sahyung!”

Then he chuckled.

“If we feed them enough Mountain Collapse Poison and throw them down the valley, those who are lucky enough to be found will come out alive, and those who aren’t… well… nothing can be done.”

“……”

“Ah. Remove the rope in advance. It’ll be annoying if they crawl back up.”

“……”

“What are you doing? Throw them quickly. I’m busy.”

Yeo Sahon, looking at Chung Myung speaking so casually, smiled with a blank face.

‘He’s worse than the Demonic Sect.’

At least they let them go down holding onto a rope.

Yeo Sahon firmly resolved never to offend this Taoist Chung Myung.