Chapter 1224: Is This Even Allowed? (4)

“Hey, you damn bastards! Is this the sort of thing to do while hiding behind masks? You’ll be punished by heaven!”

“Wow... in all my life I never thought I’d hear an Evil Sect brat preaching about heavenly punishment.”

Jo Gul mercilessly dragged the Evil Sect bastard who was spouting nonsense.

“Let go! Let me go! Aaaaargh!”

“Sahyung! This bastard’s resisting!”

Yoon Jong glanced into the gaping cave. Even in the bright daylight, hardly any light seeped in, and the interior was chillingly dark.

“Hmm. Of course they’d be scared to be locked in such a pitch-black cave. Can you blame them for that?”

“...What should we do?”

“How—you’re asking something so obvious.”

Yoon Jong answered with a gentle smile.

“Compassion should be shown to both people and beasts alike. Humans are born good by nature; do we hate them just because they erred once?”

At those words, Jo Gul looked at Yoon Jong as if he had realized something.

“Then...”

Yoon Jong nodded with an exceptionally mild expression, as if to confirm Jo Gul’s unspoken thought.

“Yes. Put them in the cave at once.”

“...Sahyung, something about that doesn’t add up.”

“No, it does make sense. Those who follow the Tao must feel compassion even for small creatures. But those Evil Sect bastards aren’t even beasts; they’re worse than vermin, aren’t they?”

Yoon Jong drove the point home with his gentle face.

“So there’s no reason to hesitate.”

“...”

Before Jo Gul could react, Hae Yeon kicked the bandit bastards and shoved them en masse into the cave.

Watching him cram people into a cave where not a speck of light entered while chanting “Amitabha,” fundamental questions like “What is Buddhism really?” rose up.

“You, you damn bastards!”

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

The Evil Sect men tossed into the cave rolled their eyes and thrashed desperately.

Jo Gul involuntarily shook his head.

Black Ghost Fort was notorious among the Evil Sect for cruelty. Still, nobody expected them to thrash like that even after having their dantian shattered and limb meridians severed.

‘Well, they’re so vicious that’s probably why they joined the Evil Sect.’

If their malice weren’t extreme, they couldn’t slaughter ordinary civilians like flies.

“Do you think the Four Sects Alliance will stand idly by!”

“Soon your whole bodies will be torn to pieces to feed some beasts’ bellies! You merciless scum!”

“Oh, really?”

Jo Gul smirked, grabbed the boulder they had brought next to the cave.

“Huh?”

“Then keep cursing us there until that happens.”

Rumble...

The house-sized boulder began sealing off the cave entrance. The faces of those trapped inside turned pale.

“W-wait...”

“No, don’t!”

“What are you doing, you lunatics!”

Rumble!

The entrance was almost closed. Having lost their internal qi and with severed meridians in their bodies, the Evil Sect members had no way to move the boulder; it was certain they’d soon starve to death in the pitch-black darkness.

By then they changed their tune.

“P-please spare us!”

“We were wrong! We’ll never do it again!”

“P-please!”

But...

Thud!

The boulder ultimately sealed the cave completely.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

“You are worse than the Evil Sect people!”

“I’ll curse you even as a ghost! Aaaaaaaah!”

Those left in the utter darkness screamed in despair until their voices were hoarse and gone.

“Let’s go back.”

“Yes.”

Yoon Jong, Jo Gul, and Hae Yeon stared at the boulder that had swallowed the cave, then turned to go. Before they had taken a few steps, Hae Yeon’s voice, slightly heavy, came out.

“Taoist.”

“Yes?”

“They’re going to die, right?”

Yoon Jong’s expression hardened slightly. Hae Yeon shook his head.

“No, Taoist. I’m not saying this choice was wrong. They should indeed be punished. With such natures, they’ve probably taken countless lives already. Therefore it’s only natural.”

Hae Yeon, speaking as the leader, continued.

“Amitabha... yet still, my heart doesn’t feel clear about it.”

“...You seemed rather pleased pushing them in, didn’t you?”

“Ahem. W-what do you mean by that, Taoist Jo Gul?”

“No. Isn’t that actually the case...”

“K-k-k! It’s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!”

Yoon Jong snickered as Hae Yeon’s face slowly reddened.

“Honestly, I’m not as serene as the monk. If anything, I would have felt less uneasy if they had been a bit stronger—it feels somewhat like they’re bullying the weak.”

“Amitabha. Indeed.”

“But... well, I still think there’s no need to hesitate. The punishment we gave them was only to strip their martial arts and let them starve for a while.”

“What? They...”

Hae Yeon turned back with puzzled eyes. With their limb meridians cut, they couldn’t move the boulder nor dig through the cave wall.

So the only outcome left for them would be a painful death inside...

Yoon Jong spoke.

“They won’t be able to get out on their own, but there are people who can pull them out, aren’t there?”

“...You mean the villagers?”

“Yes. The boulder is large, but if everyone joins forces, it’s not impossible to roll it aside. So if the villagers choose to, they can save them at any time.”

Hae Yeon nodded as if he understood. Indeed, if the villagers united, that boulder would be moved easily enough.

“But will those people actually rescue them?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“...What?”

Yoon Jong let out a small laugh.

“Considering Chung Myung’s temperament from the start, those people shouldn’t still be considered living ones at all.”

At that, Hae Yeon nodded. Indeed, Chung Myung’s instruction to lock them up was surprising even to him.

Hae Yeon considered Chung Myung unexpectedly sentimental at times, but he’d never seen him show mercy when it came to the Evil Sect or wrongdoers.

“Still, there must be one reason he chose this troublesome method: we don’t have the right to judge him for this. The ones qualified to pass judgment are the villagers whose lives those men nearly took.”

“Ah...”

“That’s why Chung Myung left their fate to the villagers. Even if they’re released later, he arranged it so they wouldn’t be able to take revenge.”

“To go that far...”

Yoon Jong shook his head at Hae Yeon’s words.

“These are people who had to lick their enemies’ feet because they had no power. If we told them we used our strength to avenge their grievances, would they truly be satisfied at heart?”

Hae Yeon nodded, seeming to understand what he meant.

“Taoist Chung Myung...”

“Sometimes he does think things through deeply, doesn’t he?”

Yoon Jong smiled faintly. Then Jo Gul gruffly interjected.

“Sahyung. Snap out of it. Do you really think Chung Myung would think like that?”

“Huh?”

“From my view, that bastard was just pissed off and wanted to make them suffer instead of a clean death.”

“...”

“Honestly, if you just cut their throats and kill them it would be quick and ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) done, right?”

“...”

“If you’re going to kill them, make them die penitent. They committed crimes, so how can they expect an easy death!”

For a moment, Yoon Jong found Jo Gul’s point rather convincing and squeezed his eyes shut.

Dog eyes see only dogs; Buddha’s eyes see only Buddha, indeed.

After a few more steps, Jo Gul cautiously spoke.

“Sahyung.”

“Hmm?”

“Did you see earlier?”

It was an abrupt question, but Yoon Jong immediately understood what Jo Gul meant.

“You’re talking about the villagers’ reaction just now.”

“Yes.”

Uncharacteristically, Jo Gul hesitated and held back his words.

“I don’t know how to put it... honestly, it was kind of...”

“I know what you mean.”

Yoon Jong let out a short sigh. Jo Gul had probably been quite shocked.

Their sword was intended solely to help the weak and punish the wicked—to better the world through agreement.

But the weak feared even the sword in their hands. To those unable to wield a blade, a sword in the Evil Sect’s hand and a sword in the Justice faction’s hand both appear as the same weapon.

“This is something we must understand.”

“But...”

“People cannot display their hearts. Goodwill is something you can only guess at and believe in.”

“...”

“If those who cannot resist fear a sliver of malice hidden within goodwill, can we call that wrong? Isn’t that only natural?”

Jo Gul exhaled deeply. As Yoon Jong said, he couldn’t blame them.

“I’m not saying those people are wrong. It’s just... it makes me a bit sad. If carrying out our righteousness and harmony still inspires fear... then what are we...”

At that moment, a firm voice struck Jo Gul’s ears.

“Do not be mistaken, Gul.”

“Yes?”

“Righteousness by itself holds no value.”

“...”

“We are not striving to create a world full of agreements.”

A question flashed in Jo Gul’s eyes for a moment, but Yoon Jong’s following words naturally dispelled it.

“Righteousness only matters when there are those to be helped. A truly good world isn’t filled with people eager to help one another; it’s a world where everyone can live without needing to help each other.”

“Ah...”

“Righteousness without force accompanying it is merely goodwill. In other words, righteousness is something ultimately enforced by force. But, Gul, a world that can only be achieved through force is not a good place. Someday, the world our descendants live in should be one where the word ‘righteousness’ is regarded as a romantic relic of the past.”

Yoon Jong glanced quietly at the sword at his waist.

“The day Mount Hua truly becomes Mount Hua again will be the day the swords fall from the waists of its members. A world where we no longer need to swing swords. A world where no one needs to be protected by a blade.”

Jo Gul’s expression as he looked at him was stunned, as if he’d been smacked in the back of the head.

Yoon Jong smiled faintly.

“Had I been born into such a world, I might have lived quietly in a solitary hall chanting meditations. In that world, those people might have shared even cold rice with me and smiled.”

“...”

“It’s not those people’s fault. Let’s think of it as our own insufficiency.”

“...Sahyung.”

Jo Gul spoke in a slightly pained tone, scratching the back of his head.

“Talking with you, Sahyung, sometimes I feel like a fool.”

“It shouldn’t be ‘sometimes’...”

“Yes?”

“No.”

Yoon Jong snorted and quickened his pace; Jo Gul hurried after him.

“Sahyung! Let’s go together, Sahyung!”

Watching the two run, one ahead and one behind, Hae Yeon smiled softly.

‘A world without the need for righteousness to fight...’

Well. I don’t know. Whether such a day can ever come.

But if that day does come, the world will be a much better place to live than it is now.

“Amitabha.”

The lone chant quietly echoed through the silent mountain.