What Is Happening? (2)

Ho Ga-Myung repeatedly clenched his fists tightly and loosened them. His fingertips tingled.

After a moment, he opened his closed eyes.

‘Any variables?’

No matter how many times he checked—ten times, twenty times—there were no remaining variables. Yet he, unfatigued, kept searching for any possibility that a variable might exist.

‘None.’

No matter how he thought about it, nothing came to mind. Even if those trapped inside were Shaolin instead of Mount Hua, there would be no way out.

“At last…”

A long sigh escaped Ho Ga-Myung’s mouth.

After a long hunt from Southern Island to here, they had finally driven them into a dead end. Only after so many sacrifices.

“Commander!”

The aides’ faces were flushed as well.

It was a natural reaction—they knew they had finally put a blade to their throats. Having cast them into a swamp with no escape left, only slaughter remained.

But Ho Ga-Myung’s expression, after doing all this, had not changed at all. He only watched the path between the mountains with calm eyes.

‘Green Forest King.’

The Green Forest King must have thought he could manipulate and toy with the situation.

He had never truly experienced defeat. He may have lost before due to lack of resources or numbers, but he was certain he would never lose a battle of wits.

What Ho Ga-Myung exploited was precisely that arrogance of Im So-Byeong.

‘This is what fighting on enemy ground looks like.’

The Green Forest is used to mountains. Im So-Byeong, in particular, was oddly knowledgeable about mountainous terrain—so much so one might suspect he carried the layouts of all the world’s mountains in his head.

But even he would not have the terrain of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains in his mind. The Green Forest did not set foot there.

The Green Forest is not composed of mountain dwellers. They live where people pass through. So there was no reason for them to care about the uninhabited Ten-Thousand Great Mountains.

But Ho Ga-Myung was not like that.

This place was Guangdong, where the Ten Thousand People Clan had fought countless battles. Even if he did not know the interior of the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains, he knew the routes from Guangdong into the great range as if in the palm of his hand.

So there was only one thing Ho Ga-Myung had to do.

Make them believe they were choosing everything of their own accord.

“Commander! Give the order.”

“Wait.”

“…What…?”

Ho Ga-Myung watched ahead with an emotionless gaze and said.

“We must wait until we are certain everyone has fallen into the trap. If they do not know that fact that they are trapped, it will be no different from a frontal charge and fight.”

Ho Ga-Myung slowly and lightly clenched and unclenched his fist.

“Once they fully realize they’ve fallen into a trap, the situation will change. People typically fall into despair at such times.”

“Ha, but couldn’t they also make a desperate stand?”

“Fighting with your back to a cliff and being unexpectedly driven to a cliff are entirely different. In the end, they won’t be able to handle the rising despair. Any forced fervor cools quickly at the slightest breeze.”

“Ah…”

“Just wait a little. Not a long time.”

The aide’s fingertips trembled slightly.

They had finally driven the enemy—who had slipped through their grasp like a mouse—into that place. Yet even in this situation Ho Ga-Myung showed no excitement and observed the situation coolly.

A composure they would not dare to imitate. This must be why Mind-Probing Inquisitor Ho Ga-Myung had become famous across the land.

“If they try to flee, that would be fine too.”

“Yes.”

Then they only needed to stab the backs of those halfway up the cliff and kill them.

“Could it be… Commander, did you have this place in mind from the start?”

Ho Ga-Myung slightly frowned. He looked displeased by the question. But the aide, elated, did not notice his expression.

Ho Ga-Myung answered with a light sigh.

“…If I were the Alliance lord, I would have.”

“What do you mean by that…”

“The Alliance lord could. Driving them from the Southern Island all the way to here—such an absurd feat.”

“…”

“But I am not the Alliance lord. No, I cannot be the Alliance lord. I am merely a commoner. So not the same process, only the same result.”

The aide tilted his head. He did not fully understand what Ho Ga-Myung meant.

How can the result be the same if the process is different?

“The same result?”

“There are more than ten terrains capable of channeling them off Guangdong’s roads.”

“…”

“This is only one of them. If they had chosen another route, I’d have driven them there instead.”

The aide stared at Ho Ga-Myung blankly.

Ho Ga-Myung said he chose this method because he couldn’t measure up to Jang Ilso, but to the aide it was impossible to tell which was more remarkable.

In truth, this was only natural for Ho Ga-Myung.

If a commoner wanted to enter a contest bearing the great name ‘the world’, he had to struggle until his nails broke and rage relentlessly.

If he could not, he would be unworthy to stand beside Jang Ilso.

‘Im So-Byeong is still too much.’

Of course the Green Forest King was great. But even Im So-Byeong could not escape the realm of prodigy.

Ho Ga-Myung had long admitted he was a commoner, but Im So-Byeong still brimmed with confidence that his intellect would rival anyone’s.

That difference produced the present result. The convinced do not doubt their own victory.

“The time has come.”

Ho Ga-Myung slowly unclenched his tightly held fist.

“Attack. Leave not a single one alive—kill them all.”

“Yes!”

No sooner had Ho Ga-Myung spoken than the aides ordered the attack. The Ten Thousand People Clan members, like hounds waiting only for their master’s word and baring their teeth, started to run. They poured forward like an avalanche of earth.

Ho Ga-Myung smoothed his already parched lips.

There were clearly no variables. But one possibility remained by which he might fail his objective.

The possibility that the men from the Heavenly Friends Alliance would abandon the Southern Island Sect and climb the cliff among themselves to escape.

If they chose that, it would be difficult to end their lives here.

Normally, given the Heavenly Friends Alliance’s conduct, it wasn’t a variable worth considering, but in this moment he had to consider it.

Because it was Mount Hua’s Sword Saint who had lost consciousness.

Mount Hua’s Sword Saint would certainly not back down, but the others were uncertain. At the very end, people reveal their true natures.

But…

‘If that happens, they would no longer be the Heavenly Friends Alliance.’

Ho Ga-Myung knew: sometimes a person’s value comes from something not measurable by quantity.

That applied not only to them but to Jang Ilso as well.

Could Jang Ilso still be Jang Ilso without his dominance? Could a Jang Ilso who abandoned ambition and chose to be content with reality wield the same influence?

Absolutely impossible.

Even if his force remained the same… no, even if his objective strength grew, Jang Ilso would become someone who could never look beyond that.

Jang Ilso’s value lay in his very dominance.

The same went for them.

If, at the final moment, they abandoned what they tried to protect and barely clung to their lives as they fled, could one still call them the Heavenly Friends Alliance?

They would die in that moment.

They might keep their lives, but the Heavenly Friends Alliance that had matched the Nine Great Sects and even pressured the Four Sects Alliance would cease to exist.

Even if it wasn’t a path Mount Hua’s Sword Saint chose himself, the blame would fall upon him. In that moment, the Justice faction would lose its center.

‘I’m curious.’

What will they choose?

Will they honor the grand talks they boast about each time and die to preserve their name? Or will they save their pitiful lives and bury that name in the dung heap?

Ho Ga-Myung stared forward with cold eyes.

The Ten Thousand People Clan members’ shouts and the sound of their footsteps pierced his ears like music. Soon someone’s scream would start to mix into it.

‘Is what remains damage control?’

In any case, the fact that he disobeyed Jang Ilso’s order remained unchanged. And that he suffered heavy losses at the hands of a small enemy force also remained unchanged.

So naturally he would have to take responsibility.

Even if the price was his life, Ho Ga-Myung would never regret it.

If his life could bring Jang Ilso one step closer to his great work, he would gladly smile from the afterlife.

A faint smile bloomed on Ho Ga-Myung’s lips. It seemed the first genuine smile since meeting those men.

But the expected screams did not come. Instead, a strange sight began to appear.

Some of the Ten Thousand People Clan who had rushed into the canyon of the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains were coming back out and running toward them.

‘What is this?’

A situation report? No, that shouldn’t be necessary now.

“Co-Commander!”

Pale-faced men bowed before him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Th-they’ve disappeared.”

For a moment, Ho Ga-Myung could not understand the words. He had considered every move in his head, and this reported situation was not among them, so he became baffled.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Th-they’ve disappeared!”

Ho Ga-Myung looked blankly at those bowing and asked again.

“Disappeared?”

“Yes!”

“You say they’ve disappeared?”

The bowed men held their breath. They knew how absurd the situation was.

“You mean they climbed the cliff?”

“T-there’s no trace! They’ve literally vanished. Like… like a mirage…”

“Don’t talk nonsense!”

Ho Ga-Myung shouted, enraged. Everyone jumped and looked at him. Truly, they had never seen him raise his voice like that.

“Get out of the way!”

Ho Ga-Myung shoved aside the bowing men as if kicking them away and ran toward the place himself.

‘This is impossible!’

If only the Heavenly Friends Alliance members had vanished while the Southern Island Sect remained, one could understand. But for the Southern Island Sect’s disciples to have disappeared entirely is nonsense.

How could such a thing be possible unless they truly became immortals and worked transformations?

Impossible. Such a thing cannot be!

But shortly after, what Ho Ga-Myung encountered was only the stupid faces of Ten Thousand People Clan members, flustered, bewildered, and looking around.

They were truly gone.

The towering cliffs and steep mountains remained, but there was not a trace of the Southern Island Sect’s men. They had vanished as if rising to the sky.

“Th-this…”

Ho Ga-Myung’s hand began to tremble as if seized by fever.

How? How could this happen? How?

Ho Ga-Myung, always cold and composed, frantically looked around like a madman.

“U… Uu…”

After a moment, he began tearing at his hair. Hair that had been neatly arranged fell loose and disheveled.

When something beyond reason occurs, there’s usually a particular culprit behind it.

“Mount… Hua’s Swooooord…”

A beast-like howl burst from Ho Ga-Myung’s mouth.

“Mount Hua’s Sword Saaaaaaaaaaaint!”

His scream climbed the cliff and rose into the sky, ringing out miserably.