Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 497

Splash.

A sound echoed, like stepping through shallow water.

Splash.

Each step made the sound thicker and heavier.

Even though the Plum Blossom Sword Saint had trained for many years, people still thought he was not good at staying calm.

But at this moment, no one could blame him for being nervous.

He was not stepping in water. It was blood.

His face twisted in a terrible look.

Corpses were piled high like mountains, and the flowing blood had become a river. When he stopped, he felt the blood soak his feet. It went up to his ankles.

He didn’t want to believe any of this.

“Th-this…”

A mountain of corpses, a sea of blood.

How else could he describe the scene in front of him?

His fingertips trembled.

“How could a human being…”

Of course, he knew.

This was war.

War was just killing the enemy.

But he couldn’t stop feeling sick and angry. It felt like it was coming from deep inside him. The cruelty here was too much for him to understand.

How could one person kill another like this?

This was crueler than even stepping on ants.

Crack!

The sound of bones breaking came from his tight fist. His face became very pale. Even the blue veins on the back of his hand shook.

And then…

“…Uncle.”

A very quiet voice barely reached his ear.

Chung Myung quickly turned his head. Before he could even think, his body moved fast towards one place, like a flash of light.

He quickly dug through the corpses and grabbed the hand of Sa-jil, who was still awake.

“Myeongdo! Myeongdo!”

He put his energy into Myeongdo’s cold hand.

Chung Myung’s voice shook, not like his usual self.

“Myeongdo… Myeongdo. It’s alright. Huh? I… I…”

But Chung Myung’s eyes filled with despair as he looked at Myeongdo’s lower body.

Crack.

Blood ran down from his torn, tight lips.

Myeongdo’s body was missing from the waist down.

Even the greatest healer in the world could not save him now.

But how could he say those words?

“It’s alright. It’s alright, Myeongdo. I’ll heal you. Myeongdo, you rascal. Huh? Don’t worry.”

“…Grand Uncle.”

“Yes! Yes, Myeongdo!”

Life started to leave Myeongdo’s face quickly. As he faced death, he tried hard to breathe, trying to say something.

“…Ten… Thousand… Mount… ains… Save… Grand… Uncle.”

“…Myeongdo?”

Myeongdo’s face, as he struggled to speak, slowly filled with fear.

“R-run… Run away… Save…”

Chung Myung looked confused as he tried hard to hear.

Who was he?

He was Chung Myung, the Plum Blossom Sword Saint, one of the best swordsmen in the world.

Actually, he was so good, he could have been called the *best* in the world, maybe even the greatest person. Everyone in Mount Hua knew this.

But run away?

Him?

‘From what, exactly?’

He couldn’t think about the question for long.

“C-Celestial… Demon…”

The hand holding Myeongdo’s tightened.

“…Grand… Uncle. Please run… Run away…”

Myeongdo’s words stopped as he barely breathed. His eyes, filled with pain, relaxed.

Feeling the strength leave the hand he held, Chung Myung lowered his head.

He tasted blood in his mouth.

Blood flowed from his torn lips, dripping onto his chin.

“…Celestial Demon.”

The one who caused this terrible scene.

The one who killed his Sa-jil.

The master of the Demonic Sect who ruled the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, and the evil spirit shaking the world.

“Celestial Demon!”

Chung Myung gripped his sword tightly and stood up.

“You son of a bitch. I will definitely kill you…”

That’s when it happened.

Chung Myung stopped talking without meaning to. At the same time, he stopped moving completely.

‘What is this?’

It was strange. Chung Myung didn’t understand why he had stopped speaking and moving.

This wasn’t what he wanted.

Chung Myung’s body wasn’t doing what he wanted and had stopped everything on its own.

It didn’t stop there.

His head started to turn slowly to one side, as if it was forced, even though he didn’t want it to. Like old gears grinding, Chung Myung’s head turned to one side.

And…

His eyes slowly got bigger.

A person.

Yes, it was a person.

But…

Could that even be called a person?

The sky was red from the sunset. The ground was red with blood.

In this place of death, filled with the strong smell of blood, making it hard to breathe, a person was walking slowly.

Chung Myung’s body started to twitch a little.

He felt sick.

His stomach hurt, and even breathing became hard.

A feeling of unease washed over him like a flood, making his head spin and his vision blurry.

That is…

That’s not something you can call a person.

That is…

It was a feeling of pressure stronger than anything Chung Myung had ever felt.

‘That’ didn’t fit in with anything.

Heaven and earth. The human between them.

Something strange, that didn’t fit in with the world. It was like it was fighting against everything around it.

Alone, completely.

More powerful than anything he could imagine.

He could tell. He had to know.

Even if no one told him, even if it was the first time he had seen that being, how could he not know?

If something like that existed, there was only one name for it.

“…Celestial Demon.”

The ancestor of demons. And the head of the sect.

The only ruler of the Demonic Sect that destroyed the world, and the greatest evil of all time.

Chung Myung stared at the Celestial Demon, as if he was under a spell.

His strange black hair grew wildly, almost reaching his thighs, and his face was pale.

Demonic Sect people usually wear dark clothes. But this person wore pure white clothes that were perfectly clean. The red patterns on the white clothes made it even stranger.

Wasn’t that completely crazy?

The fact that a human who hadn’t spilled a single drop of blood on himself while killing so many people was wearing white clothes with red designs.

Wasn’t that completely crazy?

“Th-this…”

Chung Myung spoke with difficulty, his mouth twisted.

He knew.

That was chaos.

He understood why Myeongdo had told him to run.

A feeling so strong, the Plum Blossom Sword Saint couldn’t look away.

A fear that made his heart suddenly tighten.

His body, which always did what he wanted, was now screaming.

Run away.

Run away from this place right now.

But Chung Myung didn’t run. No, he couldn’t run.

To get revenge for Myeongdo’s death?

Because he finally had the chance to face the Celestial Demon?

Not at all.

That wasn’t why Chung Myung couldn’t move.

Even though he was so scared he wanted to lose his mind, Chung Myung couldn’t run away because of one thing:

“…Look at me.”

Chung Myung’s face twisted like a demon.

Chung Myung stood there.

On the ground where only death remained, he was still alive and breathing.

But the Celestial Demon wasn’t looking at him.

That made Chung Myung angry.

Would a human who crushed a colony of ants to death look at a single ant that was running away?

Maybe he would.

But maybe not.

Because it was so small, he could crush it, or because it was so small, he could just leave it alone.

To the Celestial Demon, Chung Myung was just a tiny ant moving around among dead ants.

That’s why he didn’t look. Because even its life and death were not important.

And… that made Chung Myung angry.

“…Look at me.”

Chung Myung’s eyes were bloodshot.

“Look at me! You son of a bitch!”

Did he hear him?

The Celestial Demon, who had been walking alone in the world covered in blood, slowly turned to Chung Myung.

Even from far away, his eyes looked right at Chung Myung.

“…”

Eyes as black as night, like there was no end to the darkness.

When he looked into those eyes, Chung Myung shook, and his skin got bumps all over.

‘There’s nothing there.’

Those eyes had nothing in them.

No feeling, no will, nothing at all.

How could a person’s eyes be like that?

His eyes were cold and showed nothing, just a deep emptiness.

After a moment, the Celestial Demon seemed to lose interest and turned his head again and started to walk. That quick look was all.

“Huh…”

Chung Myung laughed weakly.

‘I’m not even seen?’

Was he not even important enough to notice?

Crack.

Chung Myung bit his teeth hard enough to break them and pulled out his sword.

“Then I’ll make you remember.”

He was terrified, and his arms and legs shook. But Chung Myung smiled a little.

“I’ll make sure you can’t forget me until the moment you die!”

Chung Myung, gathering a storm-like force, pushed off the ground and charged towards the Celestial Demon.

Towards the source of all this terrible sadness.

And a month later.

A suicide group, gathering all the strength of the Central Plains, went up the Ten Thousand Great Mountains to kill the Celestial Demon.

And none of them returned alive.

“Chung Myung!”

Chung Myung opened his eyes wide and looked ahead.

“Are you alright?”

“Grand Uncle?”

“Why are you sweating so much? Are you not feeling well?”

After a while, he realized it was a dream.

Chung Myung quickly reached up and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. His whole body was wet with sweat.

“…Damn it.”

Chung Myung cursed. Baek Cheon didn’t blame him or ask why, but quietly looked at Chung Myung’s face.

Anyone who saw Chung Myung’s face would have done the same.

After a moment of silence, Chung Myung suddenly stood up.

“…Just a moment.”

“Alright.”

And he went straight outside.

They were in the cold Northern Sea area. They had a simple room built into the ground.

When he went out of the doorway, the cold wind from the Northern Sea cooled his body, which was wet with sweat.

But Chung Myung didn’t even feel the cold and only stared at the dark sky with a hard face.

‘Celestial Demon.’

That was despair.

Despair that took everything away.

Chung Myung gritted his teeth.

Every time he thought of the Celestial Demon, he felt like lava was flowing in his stomach. He felt anger and sadness he couldn’t control. He felt so much hate it made his head spin, and fear that froze his heart. All these feelings mixed together and became stronger and stronger.

The last day his breath was cut off.

That day, the scene of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains still haunted him. Sometimes as a terrible nightmare, and sometimes as a terrible memory.

It was like glue that stuck and wouldn’t come off.

Head Disciple, his fellow disciples, and even his Sa-jil.

Their faces, dying without even being able to close their eyes, would never be forgotten until the day Chung Myung died again.

‘It can’t happen again.’

That was an existence that shouldn’t be in the world.

No one knew.

No one.

What the Celestial Demon was. What kind of being the Celestial Demon was.

It took everything away. Life, existence, and even relationships.

“…Coming back to life, you say?”

Bloodshot veins showed in Chung Myung’s wide eyes.

‘Don’t make me laugh. You son of a bitch.’

Someone like the Celestial Demon should not exist in this world again. Chung Myung would make sure of that.

Never again.

No one in the world could take Mount Hua from his hands.

Never again…