Chapter 247
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 247
Chapter Title: What Hyunjin Will Protect
“Kraaaang!”
The blade tore a long gash along its flank.
Just as it moved to press the attack again, the sacred flame cloaking the sword flickered out. Seeing this, Mu Yeopja clicked his tongue briefly and pulled back.
The Mountain King, caught utterly off guard by the sudden ambush, hurriedly broke off its clash of strength with Cheong and swiftly created distance.
Mu Yeopja sneered at the blood pouring from its side like a waterfall.
“Heh, serves you right.”
Hyunjin let out a sigh of relief at the sight of him standing tall, apparently without any serious injury.
Cheong, who had received his aid, expressed her thanks.
“Thank you for the help. But what about the other two...?”
Mu Yeopja instantly grasped whom she meant and shook his head with a bitter expression.
“My two seniors probably can’t continue fighting. They were struck right in front of it, so their injuries are quite severe. They won’t be able to move for a while.”
“...I see.”
Cheong and Hyunjin’s faces visibly darkened.
Most of the Wudang disciples had already fallen, and now even Mu Heo-ja and Mu Jin-ja were out.
“It seems like it’s just the three of us left.”
Mu Yeopja’s bitter mutter.
The overwhelming disadvantage they were in hit them anew.
With just three of them, even forming a sword formation would be impossible—could they really take it down?
“It’s not three.”
“...!”
Right then, a third voice contradicted Mu Yeopja.
Turning his head, he saw several shadows approaching them.
As the distance closed, familiar faces came into view one by one.
Hyunjin’s eyes widened at the sight.
“You guys...!”
Hyeoncheong, Hyeonho, Hyeonseong.
As if by some twist of fate, the three junior brothers whom Hyeonun had saved with his life now stood before him.
“...We have a debt to settle with that thing too.”
The other two nodded at Hyeoncheong’s quiet words.
Their faces were set with resolve to lend their strength to avenging their senior brother.
Hyunjin faced them speechless for a moment.
Truth be told, just moments ago when he had briefly fallen into heart demon, his heart had been filled with resentment toward these three.
What were you doing while Senior Hyeonun was dying?
Why aren’t you furious about Senior Hyeonun’s death?
Irrational, one-sided blame born of abandoning reason.
A lump of frustration and anger had sharpened its blade toward them.
But...
‘It was all my misunderstanding.’
He could tell just from their expressions.
Inside them burned anger, sorrow, and guilt as great as his own—if not greater.
How could he not have seen it, lost in his own emotions and rampaging?
A fresh wave of shame washed over him.
“Senior Hyunjin. Let’s fight together. This time, we’ll avenge Senior Hyeonun properly. All of us together.”
Hyunjin nodded heavily at the words of Hyeonseong, the youngest junior brother he had always seen as a child.
And so, five Wudang Taoists gathered.
The five-man suicide squad that would stand against the monstrous tiger to the very end.
Mu Yeopja looked over their faces and asked Cheong.
“Little sister. Could you perhaps infuse that sacred flame into all our swords?”
“...I’m sorry. I don’t have much strength left, so I don’t think I can do all of them.”
“I see.”
Mu Yeopja smacked his lips in disappointment.
At that moment, a shrill voice rang in their ears.
“Then I’ll do it!”
“Hong?”
Cheong’s eyes widened at the sight of Hong running toward them from the direction of the Upper Purity Palace.
Come to think of it, the golden mist that had surrounded them had vanished at some point.
Had she stopped the grand spell?
Why?
“There’s only that one left anyway. Directly supporting you is a hundred times better than a spell they don’t even listen to properly. Am I wrong?”
“...Well, you’ve always been like that.”
Cheong let out a small sigh as Hong, having read her mind, poured out her thoughts.
“Come on, everyone gather quickly.”
Ignoring Cheong’s reaction, Hong rallied the suicide squad, ignited the sacred flame, and infused it into all their swords.
Now clutching swords blazing pure white, the squad faced off against their final foe.
The Mountain King had recovered enough that the waterfall of blood had stopped.
Seeing all their swords glowing white, it let out an enraged roar.
“Kroooargh!”
But having already suffered badly from the sacred flame before, it stayed highly wary and didn’t approach rashly.
Seizing the opening, Cheong issued instructions to the squad.
“That tiger’s energy isn’t infinite. Plus, it just unleashed a massive burst, so it probably doesn’t have much left.”
“If we force it to exhaust all its energy, we can definitely finish it off.”
“Yes. But don’t get careless. From its actions, it’s extremely cunning.”
Mu Yeopja nodded at Cheong’s warning and addressed the squad.
“We’ll form the Taiji Five Elements Sword Formation once more. With fewer people, surrounding it from five directions is impossible, so I’ll take the front alone. Understand?”
“Yes.”
In simple terms, he would block the Mountain King’s attacks with his Taiji Sword, allowing them to use him as a shield and strike at its openings from the flanks.
The squad nodded with grim faces at Mu Yeopja’s words.
Thus, they threw themselves into what might be their final battle.
“Krung!”
With a savage cry, the Mountain King’s whisker blades surged toward the vanguard, Mu Yeopja.
“Hup!”
Mu Yeopja deflected the attack with his Taiji Sword.
The Mountain King’s head twisted unnaturally, and Hyunjin and his junior brothers seized the gap to move.
Four men burst out from behind Mu Yeopja and charged straight at the Mountain King.
Blood energy shot toward them without fail.
But unlike before, Hyunjin and his junior brothers’ swords bore the sacred flame, and this white fire enabled them to repel the blood energy effectively.
Moreover, Cheong and Hong fired sacred flames from behind to support them.
Thanks to this, the four easily pierced into the Mountain King’s flank and raised their swords.
“Shaaak! Stab!”
“Krooargh!”
Four swords slashed and stabbed the Mountain King’s body without mercy.
It howled in agony repeatedly.
Yet even as it writhed in pain, it showed no sign of unleashing waves of blood energy.
‘Does it really have almost no energy left?’
Mu Yeopja eyed the Mountain King suspiciously for a moment.
But seeing it refuse to release blood energy even with a deep slash across its throat, he had no choice but to acknowledge it.
‘It seems that massive burst was its final trump card.’
Nodding inwardly, Mu Yeopja still didn’t let his guard down and kept forcing the Mountain King to expend its blood energy.
“Kuhargh!”
Each time it roared in fury, the blood energy it released visibly diminished as time passed.
Finally, when even faint traces stopped appearing, Mu Yeopja sensed the awaited chance had come and shouted loudly.
“That’s it! Press the attack!”
At his cry, the entire squad charged the Mountain King.
“Hah!”
“Hup!”
Heavy kiais accompanied sword strikes raining from all directions.
Before the blades blazing pure white, the Mountain King’s death seemed all but sealed.
Until the moment he bared one fang in a grin.
“A chill ran down his spine—
Along with an alarm bell ringing in his mind.
Realizing something was wrong, Mu Yeopja tried to pull the entire squad back—just as dozens of blood energy blasts erupted from the Mountain King’s body.
‘This bastard was hiding its reserves...?’
Cheong and Hong couldn’t hide their shock at the sight.
To conceal its remaining strength even while suffering a near-decapitating wound.
It was boldness and cunning beyond any mere beast.
“Stab! Stab!”
The blood energy blasts naturally targeted Mu Yeopja, Hyunjin, and the rest of the squad.
The attacks concentrated on Mu Yeopja, the most dangerous foe.
“Keuk!”
Mu Yeopja screamed as blood energy pierced his body in multiple places and sent him flying.
Hyeonho and Hyeoncheong followed, vomiting blood as they were flung back.
Only two remained.
Thanks to the long sensory link with Goon Ja-seong, Hyunjin instinctively minimized his injuries, while Hyeonseong was lucky enough to take only a shoulder wound.
“Krrrng!?”
The Mountain King’s eyes widened in surprise that its killing blow hadn’t felled everyone.
Seeing this, Hyunjin instinctively knew it truly had no blood energy left now.
Crisis turned to opportunity.
Hyunjin let out a sharp kiai and swung his sword.
‘I’ll behead you right here!’
Surely even it couldn’t recover from having its head severed.
Thinking he could finally avenge his senior brother, in that instant, the Mountain King twisted its head and whipped its whisker blade around.
Straight toward Hyeonseong, right in front of him.
“Ah...!”
Hyeonseong, unable to properly grip his sword with his right shoulder pierced, could do nothing as the sharp blade bore down on him.
The moment Hyunjin saw it, the entire world reflected in his eyes slowed to a crawl.
It felt like watching a lantern slide show.
He instinctively realized he stood at a crossroads of choice.
If he severed the Mountain King’s head now, he could avenge Senior Hyeonun.
But doing so would mean Hyeonseong’s death.
Rescuing Hyeonseong, however, would mean missing this golden opportunity.
An unavoidable dilemma.
As he hesitated in the slowing world, words from Goon Ja-seong he had once heard resurfaced.
—Don’t abandon your own life for revenge. Think about what comes after revenge. For the sect you cherish, and the people you cherish.
Think about what comes after revenge.
Don’t abandon your own life.
Why did those words come to mind now?
“......”
No, he already knew.
The answer to what choice he must make lay within those words.
Don’t abandon your own life for revenge.
The one now in mortal peril at that tiger’s hand was none other than his junior brother, Hyeonseong.
Someone who had been part of his life since long ago, the brother Senior Hyeonun had protected with his life.
Abandoning him for revenge would mean discarding part of his own life—and betraying Senior Hyeonun’s dying will.
‘I absolutely cannot allow that.’
Thus, the choice he would make was already set in stone.