CLS-Chapter 671

Chapter 671:

“Have you ever been swept away by rapids?”

Gwanggushingae’s voice had sunk darkly.

“Rapids, you say?”

“Yes, rapids. Swiftly flowing water.”

“I have never experienced such a thing.”

“Being swept away by rapids is an experience one should avoid at all costs. It’s like stepping foot on death’s threshold. An ordinary stream where children play and splash around becomes a dragon that devours everything when it meets pouring rain.”

Gwanggushingae shook his head.

“The blackened water strips away all vision, and the debris swept along with the rapids batters a person’s body. What’s even more terrifying is the pressure of the water itself. Swollen water cannot be handled by human strength.”

“Indeed.”

“Do you know why rapids are frightening?”

Sagan tilted his head.

Why ask again when he had already explained why rapids were frightening?

“Isn’t it because humans cannot withstand that force?”

“No.”

“…Pardon?”

Gwanggushingae harbored a bitter smile.

“There are far too many things humans cannot withstand. In this world, what is there besides rapids that humans cannot handle? Rather, there are fewer things humans can actually do.”

“…”

Gwanggushingae took a sip of liquor from his gourd.

“Rapids are frightening because… normally, calm water flows there. It’s terrifying because a place where you would coolly dip your ankles and wash your face suddenly opens its black maw and swallows people whole.”

“Ah…”

“Life is the same way.”

Gwanggushingae’s voice was incredibly solemn.

“Living is like dipping your ankles in calm water. Sometimes that water feels refreshingly cool, but sometimes it’s so cold you want to run away. But that’s something you can somehow endure while living. The problem is that sometimes those calm places overturn and rapids come rushing in. Rapids that humans cannot handle.”

Gwanggushingae shook his head.

“Most people, the moment they’re swept away by those rapids, let go. It’s not that they lack will. It’s because they know it’s beyond human power, so they cannot resist. But occasionally, humans emerge who resist those rapids. And in the end, they overcome those rapids. We call such people heroes.”

Sagan’s eyes grew heavy.

“Then…”

He understood what Gwanggushingae was saying. If so, there was only one thing Sagan needed to ask.

“Was Gwang-hWei Mu-jon a hero?”

“…”

The answer did not come immediately.

Sagan did not press and waited for Gwanggushingae to organize his thoughts. Every time Wei Yan-ho was mentioned, Gwanggushingae’s evaluation kept rising and falling.

Perhaps right now, Gwanggushingae might not have an answer to this question.

“I don’t know what to say.”

After pondering for a long while, Gwanggushingae shook his head.

“No, he wouldn’t be. Wei Yan-ho is not a hero.”

“…As expected.”

He had thought that answer would come.

“Wei Yan-ho could be called a hero. But even if Wei Yan-ho walked the path of a hero, he was not someone who tried to become a hero himself. He rather wanted a life quietly buried in the countryside. For such a person, the title of hero is far too harsh.”

Gwanggushingae smiled bitterly.

“Heaven bestowed upon him the path of a hero, but Wei Yan-ho detested the hero’s path. That was the beginning of all misfortune. One who wishes to become a hero must have unshakable steadfastness that wavers before nothing… but Wei Yan-ho was too tender.”

Sagan quietly spoke.

Now he too could understand. The story that would emerge from Gwanggushingae’s lips would be the most important story in judging Wei Yan-ho.

“What happened?”

“An encounter. Yes, it should be called an encounter. Wei Yan-ho met them. The person he had to meet, and the fate he had to experience.”

Gwanggushingae’s expression was strange.

That expression could not be defined by any single emotion.

“Yes, I should tell this story.”

A gloomy wind seemed to blow into the hut.

“Fate is sometimes far too cruel.”

Gwanggushingae muttered bitterly.

“Well, perhaps it cannot be expressed with the word fate. That was rather part of a flow that had already been determined.”

“…”

Sagan felt something chilling.

“But that flow was far too extreme and sudden. So much that humans could not endure it.”

***

What do you think sustained Wei Yan-ho?

Wei Yan-ho experienced things that people cannot handle. No matter how superhuman his mental strength, there could be no lack of shock.

And the Wei Yan-ho I saw did not have particularly strong mental fortitude.

Hm?

How did someone with weak mental strength endure all that?

That’s precisely the misconception ordinary people have.

People think that to achieve great deeds, that person must also have something extraordinary. But that’s wrong. Wei Yan-ho wasn’t exceptionally strong mentally—he was just strong, period.

A strong person inevitably receives less shock compared to ordinary people. Because they can easily resolve the same incidents.

But Wei Yan-ho was more tender than expected.

Even with that tremendous power, he never once thought to use it for himself. Honestly speaking, if I had been in Wei Yan-ho’s position, I would have been rolling in a field of gold coins by then.

But Wei Yan-ho did not do that.

Not because he was virtuous or had a strong sense of duty. Wei Yan-ho simply disliked that situation. He wanted to escape from Kang-ho as quickly as possible.

What sustained such a Wei Yan-ho?

I think it was family.

Wei Jeong-han, and Wei San-ho, Wei Su-ryeon, and Han Sang-a…

If those people had not been staying in Kang-ho, the moment Wei Yan-ho realized that Baek Mu-han’s absurd threats were lies, he would have run away from Kang-ho without looking back. I guarantee it.

But he could not do that.

Wei San-ho and Wei Jeong-han were people with too strong a sense of duty to leave Kang-ho together with Wei Yan-ho.

Do you understand what I mean?

Wei Yan-ho never once tried to protect Kang-ho. What he tried to protect was his family. To put it a bit extreme, Wei Yan-ho fought the Demon Cult to protect the Guangdong Wei Family. It was the same with other things.

What would be the most terrible thing for such a Wei Yan-ho?

Yes… that’s right.

Wei Yan-ho came to experience exactly that.

***

He could not breathe.

His body would not move.

Wei Yan-ho stared at the man climbing the mountain like a stone statue.

Step.

Step.

Steps that were by no means fast.

A man was climbing the mountain with leisurely steps as if taking a stroll.

It was a composure that could never be thought of as walking through a battlefield.

Dissonance.

It was a scene that should be accompanied by serious dissonance. But the man’s steps appeared natural to anyone watching. Natural enough that one could not feel anything strange about it.

But those footsteps contained an eerie power.

The gazes of all who had climbed Mount Hua focused on the man.

“…”

Silence descended upon Mount Hua.

Despite the presence of countless people, not even a breath could be heard. In the stillness where even the sound of a falling needle seemed audible, no one could open their mouth.

Those who did not know who the approaching man was remained silent, overwhelmed by the atmosphere, while those who knew who the approaching man was could not speak for different reasons.

An unbearable groan flowed from Wei Jeong-han’s mouth.

It was visible.

The form of the approaching man.

So familiar, yet so awkward.

The figure of a man in black martial robes, his long hair flowing as he walked slowly.

“…San-ho.”

Wei Jeong-han could not help but let slip that single word.

Wei San-ho.

His son was walking toward the battlefield.

But that was all Wei Jeong-han could say.

His gaze followed Wei Yan-ho’s back.

Wei Yan-ho’s frozen form.

It was as if time had stopped only around Wei Yan-ho.

Those who knew Wei San-ho and knew Wei Yan-ho could only swallow their dry saliva.

How would Wei Yan-ho unravel this twisted fate?

Jang Il looked between the two with trembling eyes.

‘What is this?’

The feeling was strange.

It was not a sensation felt simply because Wei San-ho was climbing this mountain, or because these tragic two brothers, Wei Yan-ho and Wei San-ho, were encountering each other.

A feeling of something fundamentally askew.

Jang Il’s gaze turned toward Wei San-ho.

Nothing was different.

The Wei San-ho now climbing the mountain was not different in the slightest from the Wei San-ho he knew.

That face, that expression… If not for the fact that his hair, once neatly combed back, was now flowing wildly, it was perfectly identical to the Wei San-ho image he remembered.

But then…

But what exactly was this sense of disharmony?

‘Ah…’

Jang Il realized what the identity of that disharmony was.

“…It’s gone.”

“Indeed.”

Paeng Do-geuk also nodded.

It could not be felt.

“There is no internal energy.”

Mu San also chimed in.

Not even the slightest energy could be felt from Wei San-ho now. Neither the tremendous internal energy Wei San-ho had possessed, nor the intense demonic energy felt when they encountered him at the Tang Family.

Just emptied, as if hollow.

‘Can a person be like that?’

Ordinary people have no internal energy. But having no internal energy is not the same as having no energy at all. Even if not artificially gathered internal energy, all people naturally possess energy to sustain life.

But not even such energy could be felt from Wei San-ho now.

How should one put it…

‘It’s like a corpse walking.’

It was a terrifying sight.

It felt as if a known truth of the world was crumbling.

What on earth had happened to Wei San-ho?

Jang Il’s gaze followed Wei Yan-ho. If they felt it, Wei Yan-ho must have felt it too. Then what was Wei Yan-ho thinking now?

Step.

Step.

Finally, Wei San-ho climbed to the summit of Mount Hua. Then he slowly looked around his surroundings.

Emptiness.

Wei San-ho’s utterly vacant gaze turned toward Wei Yan-ho.

“…”

Wei Yan-ho’s body trembled.

Everyone paid attention.

What would Wei Yan-ho say?

But the words Wei Yan-ho uttered completely exceeded everyone’s expectations.

What Wei Yan-ho showed was neither affection for his brother, nor hatred for the twisted situation, nor resentment toward wrong choices.

Just doubt.

Doubt about a situation he could not understand.

“You…”

Wei Yan-ho’s face contorted.

Wei Yan-ho, with a monstrous expression, spat out each word as if chewing them.

“You… who are you?”

The heads of those who knew the two turned violently toward Wei Yan-ho.

Who?

What did he mean, who?

Wasn’t that Wei San-ho?

No matter who looked, the one standing before Wei Yan-ho now was Wei San-ho. But what was Wei Yan-ho saying now?

“Who are you, you bastard!”

Wei Yan-ho’s voice burst forth.

And watching that scene, an unknowable smile appeared at the corners of Wei San-ho’s mouth.