Chapter 1291: This Is Just The Beginning. (1)

Geum Yang-Baek snapped his eyes wide open.

Another disciple was being mercilessly skewered by an enemy’s sword.

He tried to leap up at once, but a heavy weight pressed down on his fingertips. Looking down, Geum Yang-Baek let out an involuntary groan.

“Ugh...”

The warmth still lingered in the body of the dead Jin Gwan. No, only a few breaths had passed since his life ended.

“Ugh... Aaaaah!”

But in the end, Geum Yang-Baek threw aside Jin Gwan’s lifeless body and had no choice but to run toward his disciples. The dead mattered, but could not compare to the living.

“You dirty Evil Sect bastards!”

Geum Yang-Baek’s savage sword qi swept over two enemies at once.

“Kraaah!”

The enemy whose body was torn screamed and collapsed where he stood.

It was a murderous blade-style too fierce for the Sect leader of the prestigious Justice faction’s Southern Island to display. Yet no one here blamed Geum Yang-Baek.

Even after severing two lives in an instant, what filled Geum Yang-Baek’s chest was not excitement or embarrassment, but an immense sorrow hard to put into words.

‘Is this it?’

He had braced for death. He had come to Southern Lands expecting not only his own death but that of his disciples. So he had no desire now to speak of grief; there would be many more deaths ahead.

Yet the reason he could not hold back the tide of sorrow was the battlefield’s cruelty that would not even allow time to mourn those deaths.

It felt unbearably light and petty.

Death should always be weighty, sorrowful and heart-wrenching. But here, though it was the same death, it no longer bore the same weight. It had been that way the moment he set foot on the battlefield. That fact made Geum Yang-Baek unable to bear it.

“Ack-ho, are you all right?”

Ack-ho, his shoulder pierced, nodded with effort. Geum Yang-Baek noticed the student’s lips turning bluish. His own face went pale.

“Damn it, it’s poison! You must not allow an enemy strike! You must not get wounded!”

He shouted, but it sounded absurd. What nonsense was that?

Who would willingly want to be struck by a blade, such that one must be told not to allow it?

It was an utterly meaningless order. But it was all Geum Yang-Baek could do now. No matter how hard he and the elders tried, it was impossible to block every poisoned blade flying at their disciples.

“Kill them!”

“The rear! Aim for the rear!!”

A hyena clings persistently to wounded prey. The Evil Sect members did not miss that the rear was faltering. Thinking they had the advantage, they attacked the rear even more fiercely.

“Blo-block them!”

“Do not permit any attacks.”

The spirit of the Southern Island Sect’s elders resisting that onslaught could not be the same as before.

A poison coating doesn’t make the blade sharper, nor does it increase the wielder’s inner strength. If fought as usual, it would be a crude attack that’s actually harder to be injured by.

But the moment one realized the dark sheen on the blade was poison, their bodies instinctively recoiled. Their hands wouldn’t reach out as they intended.

“Kraaaah!”

“Elder Jo!”

At the sight of the elder collapsing while spewing blood from his chest, Geum Yang-Baek let out a harrowing scream.

It shouldn’t have happened. Those attacking were at best second- or third-rate. And the one who had just sprayed blood was none other than an elder of Southern Island Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects.

Normally, even ten attackers would never have overwhelmed them. But Geum Yang-Baek’s warning, the battlefield’s chaotic entanglement, and malice surging from all sides produced results unrelated to skill.

‘What have I done...’

If only he had not known, none of this would have happened!

Geum Yang-Baek realized his mistake too late; it was already beyond remedy.

“Aaaaaaah!”

Another scream rang out. Southern Island’s disciples were cut and pierced one after another. They were helpless. Just as the confusion and despair overwhelmed Geum Yang-Baek and he nearly lost himself, it happened.

“Haaaaaap!”

A fierce roar sounded overhead, then a storm of red petals swept into his field of vision.

“Kraaaah!”

“Aaaaah!”

The enemies who had been surging forward were swept away by that petal storm, screaming in agony. Those riddled with dozens of holes convulsed in pain and soon collapsed.

Geum Yang-Baek stared blankly at the back of the one who had appeared before him.

“Well then, Acting Sect Le...”

“Sect leader!”

Baek Cheon called out, his face set hard, turning to Geum Yang-Baek. He, who had been at the front, had rushed here in a single dash.

“You must leave!”

“Acting Sect Leader?”

“The gap with the vanguard is widening. If we fall behind like this, everyone here will die!”

That agitated voice snapped Geum Yang-Baek back to reality.

Looking around, he saw that the distance between his rear and the main force had already widened. If it opened any further, the Evil Sect would fill the gap, and their fate would be sealed.

‘No, this can’t be.’

Even if this was his first proper battlefield, he was the Sect leader of Southern Island Sect. He was not so dull as to not know what to do now.

“Everyone, run! Catch up to those ahead!”

Geum Yang-Baek raised his voice urgently to command. Regretting his mistake and mourning the dead would have to wait until they survived.

Southern Island Sect’s disciples, fighting desperately, answered.

“Yes! Sect leader!”

“Elders, do everything you can to protect the disciples!”

“Yes!”

At that moment, some disciples could be seen trying to hoist the bodies of the fallen disciples lying cooling on the ground. Geum Yang-Baek bit his lips until they bled, then called out coldly.

“Stop it!”

“S-Sect leader.”

He glared with bloodshot eyes at the disciples who looked to him.

He did not misunderstand their feelings. Who would want to leave behind the body of someone like family in this far-off Southern land? Especially with what the Evil Sect scoundrels might do to the bodies.

The one who most wanted to tend to the bodies was Geum Yang-Baek himself. He couldn’t take them back to his homeland of the Southern Island, but he wanted at least to bury them in a sunny spot.

But it was greed, a desire he must not indulge.

“Do not worry about the dead! Save the living first!”

“Sect leader! How can you say such a thing...!”

“Will you shut up!”

When Geum Yang-Baek roared, the disciples pressed their lips together. Their eyes were not entirely obedient, but none dared openly defy him.

“Words come later! Go! Now!”

“...Yes.”

Though lingering with regret and glancing back many times, they ultimately ran forward leaving the bodies behind. Among the fallen was Jin Gwan, who had died in Geum Yang-Baek’s arms.

“Damn it!”

One of the disciples cursed roughly. Whether that anger was aimed at the situation or at Geum Yang-Baek was unclear; perhaps it was a mix of both.

Pushing his disciples forward, Geum Yang-Baek simply clenched his fist and looked at the cooling bodies of the disciples.

‘Forgive me.’

With that benediction, he too wiped his tears roughly and ran.

Whatever he did here would be only self-comfort. Any consolation would mean nothing to those already dead.

There was only one way to unleash the rage swelling in his chest.

“Oooooooo!”

With a roar that seemed to boil from within, Geum Yang-Baek’s body shot forward like a beam of light. He drove his sword straight into the body of an Evil Sect man who rushed to block him.

Kwang!

The pierced Evil Sect man’s body shattered and scattered as if hit by a shell. Covered in warm, briny blood, Geum Yang-Baek roared like a wounded tiger.

Because of that. Because of his mistake.

If he had been just a little stronger, just a little calmer, these people might not have been lost. Why must they die so miserably here?

‘This wasn’t how it was supposed to be!’

Blood and tears poured from his heart.

He had imagined their deaths as more heroic, more sacred, not this degrading end like a fleeing deer whose leg is clamped by a wolf until it dies.

And yet he had made it so.

His incompetence had delivered them worthless deaths. Because the Sect leader of the Southern Island Sect was incompetent!

How could it be so heavy, so overwhelming, so unbearable? Who would have imagined that bearing someone’s death on your shoulders would be this agonizing?

“All of you!”

Geum Yang-Baek drew up his internal qi as if he had lost his senses. He unleashed a rough, wave-like sword qi against the Evil Sect men brandishing poisoned blades.

“I’ll kill every last one of you! You dogs worse than beasts!”

They had taken his disciples. They had sent his sahyung, brothers by oath, to die screaming.

“Dieeeee!”

“Sect leader.”

“I’ll fucking...”

“Sect leader!”

At that moment, a harsh shout charged with inner strength cut into Geum Yang-Baek’s ears.

Geum Yang-Baek, whose sword qi had been pouring like a typhoon-born tidal wave, whipped his bloodshot eyes toward Baek Cheon.

What does he know?

How could the Acting Sect Leader of Mount Hua possibly understand the heart of someone who’d lost disciples like children and sahyung like brothers? How could the young man, with more life ahead than behind him, know the feelings of one who has nothing left but loss? If he meant to flap that presumptuous mouth and offer comfort...!

“Do you intend to make the same mistake again?”

In that moment, Baek Cheon’s cold voice sliced Geum Yang-Baek’s fury like an icy dagger.

“If the Sect leader loses his reason, more people will die!”

Reason slowly returned. A complex, indescribable expression crossed Geum Yang-Baek’s face. Staring blankly at Baek Cheon in this urgent battlefield, he soon let out a short, bitter laugh.

Baek Cheon was right. So very right. And so he had to accept it.

‘I don’t even have the freedom to be angry.’

No, it’s not that Geum Yang-Baek lacks the freedom to be angry. It’s that one who bears the title ‘Sect leader’ has no freedom to rage.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Baek Cheon spoke first.

“I’m sorry. I was slow to grasp the situation and my support was late.”

“...Acting Sect Leader.”

“But Sect leader! Please do not forget what you must do now.”

Geum Yang-Baek nodded weakly. Baek Cheon spoke in a grave tone.

“Steel your resolve.”

And he added.

“Now... this is only just the beginning.”

At those words, everyone realized anew.

That they had already entered hell.