Chapter 19
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: The Departed Must Return (2)
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Seonwoyong merely lifted his head while seated to exchange greetings, then gestured for Hyeonjin to join him by the campfire.
Hyeonjin sat down naturally across from Seonwoyong and picked up the gourd flask on the ground, sniffing its aroma first.
“Haa… Musang. Isn’t this the famed ivory spring wine from Zhejiang? How long has it been since I last savored this bouquet… haha.”
Hyeonjin sipped from the nearly empty flask sparingly, as if tasting some precious nectar.
“Why didn’t you show up sooner, then? You just watched while these two flasks got almost drained?”
“Indeed. My cultivation is still lacking, so I ended up drawn out by the scent in the end. Haha…”
“What cultivation for a wretched monk…”
“U Cult Leader, your sharp tongue hasn’t dulled. So what wind blew you all the way here? That old pact still stands, yet it seems you couldn’t care less.”
Their face-to-face meeting and ensuing conversation were far from cordial.
Baek Musang had been standing frozen since Hyeonjin’s arrival, listening to their exchange without even sitting.
“If Martial Uncle desires, I’ll head down at dawn and fetch as much fine liquor as you wish.”
“No need. This much is plenty. Who drinks by quantity? Besides, if we drank our fill, could you even handle it?”
“Yet Martial Uncle seems to have made a pact of his own, achieving shedding bones and rebirth or ascension by transformation alongside Great Senior U.”
“You brat. What does a temple runaway who scarfed down plenty of temple rice know of ascension? It’s just failing nirvana and ending up with a ridiculous tail, isn’t it? Haha…”
“I’ve come to see that child.”
Hyeonjin, who had been bantering with Baek Musang, stiffened at U Cheonso’s abrupt words.
He asked in a somber tone.
“Those who meet must part, so the departed must return—is that it?”
The two men sat facing each other across the campfire, staring in silence thereafter.
Baek Musang watched them for a while before turning away, attuning his ears to the loudly rushing valley stream even in the thick darkness.
He had known this would happen.
Long ago, the fact that Ming Cult’s Supreme Cult Leader U Cheonso had come here meant he was determined to break that oath from over sixty years past—and Smiling Buddha Hyeonjin would never allow it.
“So, is the child well?”
“I cannot give you any answer. I trust you understand.”
“It’s been a full cycle of sixty years and four more. The child must be well over a century old now. I believe that more than repays the sins of that time—what do you think?”
“That’s your view, Cult Leader U. But our pact back then wasn’t like that, was it?”
Hyeonjin gazed at Seonwoyong with serene eyes as he spoke.
“We agreed that the man would be forever severed from the world and entrusted to me… and in exchange, we’d bury the remaining sins without question. As a result, all those heroes gathered in those mountains came down unharmed, didn’t they?”
Seonwoyong conceded the point.
“True. Even now, I look back on that time with satisfaction. But I’m human, after all—I can’t fully sever my blood ties. And at this age, I do regret the cruelty I inflicted on that child.”
Yet he could not back down.
“That pact was between you and me alone, so reversing it now should be our decision alone, no?”
Smiling Buddha was unyielding.
“Amitabha. I’m sorry. As a father pitying his child, I fully understand your heart as a Buddhist. But that pact was no light matter. On a small scale, it concerned the martial world; on a grand one, all the people of this land and rivers.”
“How could I not know that?”
“If I break that pact now, who knows what chaos might follow? I trust you understand. Please, at dawn, leave Mount Song this way and spend your remaining years in peace.”
Hyeonjin spoke as if issuing an order to depart.
Seonwoyong’s gaze intensified.
“I often wonder what might have happened if, back then, I’d rejected your proposal, sided with that child, and led our cult’s heroes east through the Taihang Mountains.”
“Amitabha…”
“Of course, it would have forsaken Lord Ming’s teachings for the peace of countless beings, and rivers of blood would have soaked the land. But our father and son might have reveled in glory and splendor within the crimson and ochre walls of that Yan capital, happy as could be.”
Indeed.
A secret history unknown to nearly all in the jianghu was unfolding now.
Over sixty years ago, the suicide squad that struck the Blood Cloud Cult’s leadership in the Taihang Mountains wasn’t composed solely of orthodox experts.
High masters from Great Cloud Bright Religion, led by Blood Heaven Emperor U Cheonso, had joined them. Together with the orthodox forces, they ended that bloody turmoil.
This was an absolute secret known only to those who took part that day.
They had all sworn to carry it to their graves, and that oath still held.
Even in Great Cloud Bright Religion, many followers upheld the three great edicts prioritizing world peace, led by former cult leader Blood Heaven Emperor U Cheonso.
In the end, for the greater good, they had joined hands with orthodox experts to strike down fellow believers and once-close comrades.
The one who led that heartbreaking purge was none other than Blood Heaven Emperor U Cheonso—now Seonwoyong—and the orthodox world’s pinnacle, Smiling Buddha Hyeonjin.
The rampant World-Mixing Demon U Gyeongcheon and Blood Cloud Cult’s leadership could handle the sudden orthodox assault.
But seeing Blood Heaven Emperor U Cheonso and the other Ming Cult masters who followed, they could not help but lose heart.
“Amitabha. My will is clear. I have no desire to break that pact.”
“You’re a Buddhist in form but utterly devoid of compassion.”
“Scold me as you will—it matters not. We cannot let the small obscure the great, and the Buddha taught great loving-kindness and great compassion, not petty greed over grand loss.”
“Understood. Then we must settle this with our hands and discern right from wrong. Though our forms differ, aren’t we both jianghu folk who’ve lived by the blade?”
The neglected campfire was now dying out.
The faces of the two seated men grew ever darker.
At that moment, Baek Musang—who had been standing with his back turned, seemingly listening only to the valley stream—suddenly whirled around and knelt before his martial uncle Hyeonjin.
“I know this is presumptuous, but allow this unworthy Baek Musang to humbly make one request of Smiling Buddha Martial Uncle. Please heed Great Senior U’s words and resolve that ancient grudge.”
“What would a child like you know?”
“Though I left the temple, how could I not know the Buddha’s great loving-kindness and compassion? Martial Uncle already shines as a living Buddha with boundless light. If you extend one final, greater mercy, surely the words ‘petty greed over grand loss’ cannot obscure the Buddha’s radiance. Martial Uncle, please show mercy.”
“Stay out of this. You know it’s not your place.”
U Cheonso, who had been silent, also dismissed Baek Musang with a word.
“Musang, I appreciate your intent, but it’s not your affair. Step back.”
Hearing them, Baek Musang rose with a deeply forlorn expression and stepped outside once more.
Seonwoyong’s gaze swept over Hyeonjin.
“Your achievements are intriguing. You showed astonishing talent even back then—what will you reveal now?”
“Cult Leader U was already the supreme under heaven at the time, untouchable. I can’t even gauge your current level.”
“True. It’s absurd for us to stake life and death now… What should we do? Suggest how we should clash.”
“What opinion could this monk have? Let it happen as it will. My whole body itches for a taste of action after so long.”
“Heh… Truly a wretched monk. You’re no fit for monkhood.”
With those words, the duel began.
Still seated, they unleashed their inner energies at each other.
The flickering campfire between them snuffed out in an instant.
The moment their immense energies collided, a perfect vacuum engulfed several zhang around them.
In the sudden pitch black beneath the rock, their figures shot out like beams of light.
The two soared past Baek Musang at the entrance, cleaving the darkness, their bodies radiating brilliance.
Whoooosh!
The glow enveloped them spherically, like auras.
U Cheonso’s form was wrapped in lightning-white radiance, Hyeonjin’s in golden.
Mid-leap through the air, they ceaselessly exchanged strikes, the twin beams hurtling toward Mount Yao’s summit.
Baek Musang hurriedly followed in their wake.
When Baek Musang reached the summit, it no longer resembled any earthly vista—it was like some celestial realm.
Hyeonjin’s perfected Supreme Great Ability cast majestic golden radiance undulating across dozens of zhang in all directions.
U Cheonso’s Northern Sea Divine Art revealed itself after decades.
Northern Sea Divine Art was the absolute divine technique passed only to Great Cloud Bright Religion’s cult leaders.
Gathering all the bright energies of the cosmos to manifest Lord Ming’s might upon the world, its form was a apocalyptic brilliance surpassing the sun’s rays.
The god of fire and light, Lord Ming, descended into this realm through this Northern Sea Divine Art.
Their clash was no ordinary martial exchange.
Both had transcended human limits into the realm of divinities.
Their duel required no physical blows—it was a contest of mind and will to overpower the foe.
Flash!
A massive lightning-shaped white radiance born of U Cheonso’s mind-image arose in the sky, plunging toward Hyeonjin’s dazzling golden curtain.
From within the golden veil, golden vajra energies sporadically surged toward U Cheonso.
Tangible masses of white and gold energy clashed from all sides, scattering meteor-like shards of light that exploded.
Kurrr rumble!
Boom boom crack!
Rocks and trees struck by the fragments were pierced in their shapes or vanished without trace.
It could scarcely be called a fight between men.
Even heavenly generals descending would scarce match this.
“My god…!”
Baek Musang, upon reaching the summit, could only gape in awe at the spectacle.
Though he ranked among the world’s thirty-three absolute masters, the level of martial prowess unfolding before him was beyond his wildest imagination.
“How could a human…!”