Return of the Mount Hua Sect
Chapter 874: How Do You Want To Die? (3)

Wheeing!

The spear of the Spear Ghost of Mount He, flying in with a whistling sound like the wind, pierced his upper chest. Blood poured from the wound.

Hong Dae-Kwang struck the spear with the club in his hand, but the force he exerted was weaker than that of a child. The light in his eyes was almost gone. It was the sight of someone pushed beyond their limit.

“Kuekuk.”

The Spear Ghost snorted softly and withdrew the spear.

“You stupid beggar!”

It was praiseworthy that this fat man was standing on his own legs despite so many wounds. It was worthy of applause, and this man was swinging his club, too, saying he would fight even if he was close to death.

But even so, it was a meaningless struggle.

“Haah!”

The Spear Ghost’s spear created a dozen or so holes and tore through Hong Dae-Kwang’s chest as if it were a joke. Hong Dae-Kwang flinched back, dancing, unable to resist properly with his body drained of qi.

“It is the end.”

Tired of playing around, the Spear Ghost struck a final blow. His spear, filled with fierce spear qi, aimed at Hong Dae-Kwang’s neck in one swift motion.

Hong Dae-Kwang, who had reached his limit, didn’t react at all, even as he watched the spear flying in to cut him down. The Spear Ghost, not doubting the outcome, glanced around for his next prey.

‘Next will be…’

At that moment.

Kwaang!

An excruciating pain surged through the hand holding the spear, and his body was thrown back.

‘What?’

Thud!

The Spear Ghost, who barely managed to keep his balance by slamming the spear into the ground, looked ahead.

A man had suddenly appeared, blocking the gap between him and Hong Dae-Kwang.

‘Just when?’

He hadn’t even sensed any presence.

The moment he turned his gaze, convinced of his opponent’s death, this man had jumped in and blocked the spear?

This young man?

The Spear Ghost looked at his opponent with cold eyes. His survival instinct, developed through countless battles, was trying to understand the opponent’s capabilities first.

Those black robes.

A thin sword in one hand.

A face befitting the word young.

But what caught his eyes before anything else were the numerous scars on the arms, visible through the slight reveal from the sleeve.

Those scars, drawn horizontally and vertically as if intentionally carved, covered his arms like spider webs.

At that moment, he felt goosebumps rise.

‘That is…’

He had seen that a few times before.

Wanderers who roamed the world looking for fights. Even among them, those who were worthy of the term, simply missed, there were those who survived for an uncanny amount of time, and their hands ended up like that.

Those hands resembled those of people who had been through countless battles and crossed countless lines of death.

The man who had intervened then slowly spoke, taking his eyes off.

“Are you alright?”

Hong Dae-Kwang, who had barely come back from the brink of death, looked at the person standing in front of him as if he had forgotten everything that had happened to him. His expression was like he was in a dream.

“… Gul.”

His dry mouth wouldn’t speak right, so he tried to speak numerous times.

A familiar yet unfamiliar solid back. Hong Dae-Kwang thought of one person he knew.

“… Taoist Jo Gul?”

Jo Gul turned his head slightly and looked at Hong Dae-Kwang with a slight smile.

“It has been a while.”

“Ah…”

Hong Dae-Kwang blinked his eyes several times as if he couldn’t believe it, and finally, his strength gave out, and he collapsed there.

Thud.

His face had collapsed and changed to numerous expressions. He bit his lips in anger and then sighed…

Hong Dae-Kwang, who had been expressing such complicated emotions, finally let out his anger.

“Damn it… should have… come sooner.”

“I am sorry. I came running the moment I heard the news.”

“No… it is good enough that you came now. Even now. Oh my…”

The face of Spear Ghost changed and distorted slowly.

‘These people?’

They were ignoring him and talking normally. How could he endure such humiliation?

“You people are ignoring me now?”

Just as he was about to speak more, Jo Gul turned to him.

Flinch.

The moment he saw those eyes without emotion, the Spear Ghost closed his mouth against his will.

In front of those eerie eyes, his instincts warned him that he shouldn’t speak any longer.

‘Did I just get scared by a kid?’

It was at that moment when he was confused by the sudden and incomprehensible situation.

“This bastard!”

He turned his gaze without realizing it at this animal-like howl coming from the side.

“Are you alright?”

“… Y-Yoon Jong, Taoist!”

Someone was supporting the Hwayoung clan leader, who had been fighting with Iron Ghost just a moment ago. And what happened? Iron Ghost, who was growling, didn’t dash in to fight?

‘Just what…’

Only then did Spear Ghost realize the strange flow happening through the battlefield.

The atmosphere had changed. Strange as it might seem, the entire feel of the battlefield had clearly shifted from a moment ago.

The only unusual thing was that two people, no, at most three people, had joined.

But the fierce advantage they had was stopped, and those who had been clawing and biting the surroundings without mercy were now growing distant and growling?

It seemed as if the wolves fighting over the land had discovered that a tiger had approached.

On the other hand, the faces of Xi’an warriors who confirmed the arrival of these three people were filled with overwhelming joy and relief. Some were even sobbing.

The Spear Ghost was dumbfounded by this.

There were just three people who joined them. How was he supposed to accept that the entire battlefield, which was boiling like a furnace, had stopped because of them?

“Who the hell are these people?”

“Euh.”

At that moment, the sword of the one standing in front of him moved lightly.

“What?”

By the time he realized it, the sword was already lodged in his shoulder.

“Kuak!”

The Spear Ghost jerked back involuntarily due to the intense pain in his shoulder. He immediately retreated more than a foot, and cold sweat began to flow down his forehead.

When he glanced at his shoulder, blood was gushing from the torn clothes. What he had experienced a moment ago was no illusion.

“…I couldn’t see anything.”

How could a sword swung by a human be so fast?

The Spear Ghost shuddered at the speed of the sword movement he had never seen before. Goosebumps rose from the tips to the crown of his head.

He was surprised that the one who had shown such speed with a sword technique was a young man who hadn’t even lived half as long as he had. He felt an unknown pressure as he faced the young man.

Step. Step.

The man called Yoon Jong, who had saved Wei Lishan, and Jo Gul, who had put a hole through his shoulder, stepped forward.

Under this suffocating force, the Spear Ghost desperately tried to stop himself from stepping back.

The Evil Sect people, who seemed unstoppable and against whom the defenders of Xi’an risked their lives to fight back, all stopped and blankly stared at those who stepped forward.

“These people…”

At that moment, something caught his eye, and his eyes opened in shock.

He belatedly discovered that the person approaching him had a plum blossom pattern engraved on his chest.

“M-Mount Hua…?”

It was the Mount Hua that these people continued to talk about. The Spear Ghost, whose bones went cold for a moment, spat out as if growling.

“Mount Hua Sect?”

The black robe and the red plum blossom pattern engraved on the chest were the symbols of Mount Hua.

But the reason he couldn’t immediately think of the name Mount Hua when he saw them was because the force they held felt too unusual.

Their aura was so different and odd for a Justice faction sect. And what about this suffocating killing intent?

This was why he couldn’t possibly think of them as Mount Hua when he saw them. He couldn’t imagine that a Taoist could exude a killing intent greater than someone from an Evil Sect.

‘Mount Hua? These people are…?’

That was when it happened.

“Stay back. You will get hurt.”

“T-Taoist, I…”

“Let us talk a bit later.”

A single voice resonated calmly and comfortably through the battlefield.

It was a slow voice that didn’t fit the battlefield of blood and death.

Step.

The owner of the voice slowly walked ahead.

Hair that was roughly tied up.

A slightly small body.

A black robe that fluttered with each step.

It wasn’t a particularly impressive sight.

Compared to Jo Gul, who exuded an aura as sharp as a blade, or Yoon Jong, who exuded an intimidating qi that suppressed his own, he seemed too normal.

But.

From the moment he heard the voice, the Spear Ghost couldn’t take his eyes off this one man.

A warning from his instinct. Those who had lived their entire lives in a world where the strong prey on the weak knew who the most dangerous person on the battlefield was.

And now his instinct was telling him:

This man was the most dangerous person there.

Step. Step.

He walked out slowly and then stopped.

Swish.

He slowly took in the dead and fallen people. His gaze didn’t move for a while, as if he was engraving it into his eyes.

None of those watching dared to look away from him.

Swish.

The man’s gaze shifted again. This time, it was to the injured and groaning people.

The time that passed while he silently moved his gaze wasn’t long, but it felt like the entire world had stopped. Like an eon had passed.

This was what they meant when they said it was a gaze that didn’t allow you to breathe.

Gulp.

The small sound of someone gulping was as loud as thunder. A frightened silence weighed down the entire place.

And finally.

The man’s gaze slowly returned.

Nothing had changed. His expression remained the same as before, and his eyes hadn’t altered either.

Yet, the sense of oppression felt by the Evil Sect members under his gaze was unlike anything they had experienced before.

The one who had witnessed the massacre, death, and suffering that had unfolded here, simply with his eyes, slowly opened his mouth.

“Pretty…”

Everyone held their breath, waiting for him to continue. It was as if it had been predetermined that it must be this way.

“…pretty good job you’ve done here.”

The man’s lips curled into a smile.

At that eerie smile, the hearts of the Evil Sect people sank.

“So now…”

He looked at all the Evil Sect members standing before him, scanning from left to right as if he were memorizing each of their faces.

“How do you want to die?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the battlefield turned ice-cold, as if the previous heat had been nothing but an illusion.