CLS-Chapter 526

Chapter 526:

“So Hundred Sword Castle and the Demonic Cult eventually…….”

“Mm…….”

Guwangqushen nodded heavily.

“Did you see that scene with your own eyes?”

“Yes, I saw it.”

“How was it?”

“How was it…….”

Guwangqushen didn’t answer for a moment and closed his eyes. It wasn’t to heighten the atmosphere. Explaining that feeling in words wasn’t as easy as one might think.

“All I could see was a dust cloud.”

Sagan swallowed dryly as he listened to Guwangqushen’s words.

“Yes, a dust cloud. It was nothing but a dust cloud. But how ominous that dust cloud looked.”

Guwangqushen shook his head.

“Young man, have you been to Xinjiang?”

“No. I haven’t been there.”

“Everyone knows there’s a region called Xinjiang. But they don’t really know what kind of place Xinjiang is. Xinjiang is a land where people cannot live. No, there are people living there, so I can’t exactly say it’s uninhabitable. But to my eyes, it seemed like a land where people absolutely couldn’t survive. All I could see was desolate wasteland and shabby grasslands.”

Sagan nodded quietly.

Guwangqushen was someone who could proudly say he had traveled the world more than anyone else. Coming from such a person, his words carried weight. Even without going there personally, one could understand how barren Xinjiang was.

“But imagine thousands of troops from that land where people seem unable to live, raising dust clouds as they charge toward the Central Plains.”

“…….”

“They didn’t seem like people of this world. It’s really hard to express. It was as if the gates of hell had opened and demons came pouring out. That wouldn’t be too inaccurate an expression either.”

As if the very thought made him shudder, Guwangqushen trembled all over.

“Even if foreign tribes came charging in like that, it would be spine-chilling. But they weren’t even foreign tribes. They weren’t hastily gathered soldiers. These were people who had undergone hellish training for twenty years, determined to take revenge on the Central Plains. So how could it not be terrifying?”

Sagan found himself nodding without realizing it.

Guwangqushen, who had been a Small Beggar of the Beggar’s Sect, would have known better than anyone how frightening the Demonic Cult was. So it was obvious he would have felt intense fear at the Demonic Cult’s movement.

“I’ll never forget the feeling of that moment. Because I saw it beginning with my own eyes. People can concentrate only on the task at hand once it’s upon them. What truly frightens people isn’t when something happens, but when something unbearable approaches. That was exactly how I felt then. I knew too well what would happen when they reached the Central Plains. But there was nothing I could do.”

“It wasn’t a situation where you needed to do something, Divine Beggar.”

“Wouldn’t you want to stop them? Wouldn’t you want to delay them even by a day? But no matter how much I wracked my brain, there was no method.”

Sagan showed his understanding of those feelings.

“What about Great Hero Yan Meng’s plan?”

“It was simple. Plant explosives on both sides of a gorge they had to pass through, and detonate them when they were passing through.”

“That’s classic.”

“Something being classic means it’s been used from ancient times until now. If it didn’t have certain effectiveness, it wouldn’t have been used consistently. Schemes are merely inferior strategies. The reason orthodox methods are orthodox is because they’re the most reliable path. It wasn’t a bad plan.”

“Then why didn’t you join that plan?”

“I would have if the opponent weren’t the Demonic Cult. But the opponent was the Demonic Cult. They’re not people who can be tripped up by such crude tactics. Great Hero Yan Meng did his best, but there were fundamental limitations.”

“……Of course, that operation alone couldn’t stop the Demonic Cult. But if Radiant Martial Sovereign occupied the collapsed valley, couldn’t you have definitely bought time?”

“And then die.”

Guwangqushen said flatly.

“Telling them to hold off the Demonic Cult on a collapsed cliff is the same as telling them to die there. Can you give such an order to someone standing right in front of you?”

“……I couldn’t do it.”

“Right?”

Guwangqushen chuckled.

From Sagan’s perspective, it was naturally something that could be said. Looking at history, one can identify the most efficient tactics available at that time.

But reality is different.

In history, troops are just numbers, but in reality, troops are people. No matter how much efficiency must be pursued, there are things that can be done and things that cannot be done.

Moreover, the person who would receive that order was none other than Wei Yan-ho.

If it were someone with the noble intention of saving the Central Plains, they might choose self-sacrifice after deep consideration. For instance, if Wei Jeong-han received such an order, he would go to his death with a smile.

But not Wei Yan-ho.

Even if the Divine Miracle Scholar gave the order directly, it would be the same. That very day, the Divine Miracle Scholar would have to be prepared to have all his beard plucked out. Because Wei Yan-ho was that kind of bastard.

“But what the Divine Miracle Scholar said wasn’t wrong either. If Hundred Sword Castle and the Demonic Cult simultaneously pressed the Central Plains, there would be no proper way to deal with it. The Central Plains has always focused only on blocking the Demonic Cult. There’s no way they could handle the situation of the Demonic Cult attacking from behind while fighting Hundred Sword Castle.”

“That’s right.”

Guwangqushen clicked his tongue.

“Setting aside why the preparations against Hundred Sword Castle were so inadequate in the first place, the judgment that we needed to trip up the Demonic Cult to buy time to deal with Hundred Sword Castle seems normal, doesn’t it?”

“I said it was right.”

“But if the only people who could do that were those who were there at the time, then somehow…….”

“Look here.”

Guwangqushen looked at Sagan with dull eyes.

“So how did the history you know turn out? Did the Demonic Cult arrive on time?”

“Come to think of it…….”

Sagan finished calculating in his head.

The timing didn’t match. If the Demonic Cult had successfully advanced to the Central Plains at this time, they should have reached the Central Plains much faster than in actual history. Then?

“They did do something.”

“Right.”

“Then did they eventually join Great Hero Yan Meng’s plan?”

“As if.”

Guwangqushen packed as much mockery as possible into his expression. Looking at that expression made one’s insides boil with frustration.

“What kind of bastard is Wei Yan-ho to participate in someone else’s plan? The only times that bastard meekly accepts what others offer is when they give him food or provide him with a bed.”

The person speaking was Guwangqushen, but the person hurt by those words was also Guwangqushen. Every time he explained about Wei Yan-ho, Guwangqushen suffered from reviving memories of the past.

“Ugh, thinking about it makes me angry again. Anyway, that bastard didn’t follow Great Hero Yan Meng.”

“Then what?”

“……What do you think he did?”

“I don’t know. It wasn’t passed down in history.”

“Based on the Wei Yan-ho you’ve heard about so far, what method do you think he would have chosen?”

“Well…….”

Sagan fell into thought. The Wei Yan-ho he had heard about so far…….

“I don’t know what it was, but he probably did something ridiculous.”

“Clumsy but exactly right.”

Guwangqushen clicked his tongue and opened his mouth.

“Everything that bastard does is like that. When you look back later, you wonder why you didn’t realize something so obvious, but at the time, it really sounds like crazy talk. This time was the same, this time too.”

Seeing Guwangqushen shake his head, Sagan sent him an expectant look.

***

“Everything is proceeding as you desired.”

Wei San-ho’s voice was sunken low.

Cave.

Inside a dark cave where not a single ray of light entered, Wei San-ho was having a conversation with something. But no matter how much one looked across from Wei San-ho, it was impossible to tell who he was talking with.

Because nothing existed there.

From that space where nothing existed, a low voice echoed.

[It’s only the beginning.]

“All things in the world will submit under your will, Heavenly Demon.”

Listening to the voice that carried a strange leisure, Wei San-ho slightly frowned. For Wei San-ho, who didn’t express much emotion, showing this much reaction was unusual.

“But countless blood will flow.”

[Are you still saying such obvious things?]

“To someone who turns away from obvious facts, there’s nothing to say but obvious things.”

[That may be so.]

Wei San-ho gazed forward with emotionless eyes. At a place where nothing existed.

‘How fitting.’

The one he was speaking to now was an existence just like what he saw with his eyes.

Existing yet not existing.

Unable to find substance anywhere, yet not non-existent.

Someone who couldn’t exist in this world according to common sense. But definitely someone who existed.

Truly the Heavenly Demon.

There would be no one else who fit that name.

[Are you afraid of the blood that will flow?]

“If I were afraid of such things, I wouldn’t have taken your hand in the first place.”

Wei San-ho shook his head firmly.

The world must shed blood. Without shedding blood, they wouldn’t understand. How great a sacrifice they stand upon. If he could teach them that fact, Wei San-ho could become a demon at any time.

“You don’t need to worry about my betrayal, Heavenly Demon.”

[You’re different from your father.]

“Since the environment I grew up in was different, I have no choice but to be different.”

[The blood that flows is that of enemies, but does that mean the blood flowing in your soul is that of the Wei Family?]

“It would be similar.”

[Hehe, quite romantic.]

Wei San-ho continued with cold eyes.

“I know what you’re worried about. But you don’t need to worry about such things. As long as you keep what you promised, I will absolutely never betray you.”

[A promise? What are you talking about?]

“Seeing how you ask as if you don’t know, you’re being uncharacteristically evasive.”

[Hehehehe.]

Laughter flowing out as if amused.

Even while hearing that clear mockery, Wei San-ho’s expression didn’t change. Like someone who had been castrated by emotions, Wei San-ho maintained indifference to everything.

[Don’t worry. I keep my promises.]

“That will be enough.”

Wei San-ho turned his body.

Then a low voice came from behind him.

[You should prepare yourself as well.]

Wei San-ho’s feet stopped.

[The path you must walk is a path of hardship. It’s a thorny path that cannot be walked as a human. Can you really walk that path?]

“It seems more human than the path you walk?”

[Impudent.]

Feeling the Heavenly Demon who didn’t react to his provocation, Wei San-ho turned his body.

‘The world will soon know as well.’

What was sleeping in the world they lived in.

A giant imugi that would swallow the entire world was slowly baring its teeth toward the world. The moment the imugi escaped the cave and roared, even the sun would hide its form, and humans would suffer from their original sin. [TL/N: An imugi is a creature from Korean mythology, like a giant serpent or lesser dragon, believed to become a full dragon after living a thousand years or earning great virtue.]

‘This fight is meaningless.’

How many would know of the crisis that would truly befall the world?

Wei San-ho shook his head and left the cave.

Now he……

No longer had the right to worry about such things.