Then, let’s check this out. (2)
“There’s no need to scream like that. He’s not even dead yet.”
Furrowing his brow, Jang Ilso glanced at the child who had collapsed beside him.
“It’s just a bit of blood. If you get this agitated over something like that, how am I supposed to enjoy teasing you?”
Bursted veins appeared in Jin Songwon’s eyes.
The child’s sunken chest was faintly rising and falling. As Jang Ilso had said, he hadn’t stopped breathing yet. But what meaning did that have?
This move made it clear. He’s a demon who can take the life of a helpless child with a smile.
No, perhaps a demon who kills with a smile would be better. That might be less terrifying.
The reason Jin Songwon was now gripped by uncontrollable fear wasn’t because Jang Ilso enjoyed killing the child. Rather, it was because he showed not even a trace of emotion as he crushed the child’s chest.
As if swatting away a bug on his arm, as naturally as a farmer reaping rice with a sickle. He had swung his hand so indifferently.
So he realized. To this man, such situations weren’t particularly special. Therefore, he could do anything.
“Since it seems you understand the situation… shall we begin?”
Jang Ilso smiled softly. But to Jin Songwon, the expression shadowed on that face no longer looked like a smile.
A brief silence fell between them.
Jin Songwon stared blankly at Jang Ilso, and Jang Ilso met his gaze with a gentle smile. When Jin Songwon stood frozen, unable to say anything, irritation quickly surfaced on Jang Ilso’s face.
“What are you doing? I’m not such a free person, you know.”
Hearing those words, Jin Songwon’s eyes wavered greatly.
Was he saying that the one who should start this conversation wasn’t Jang Ilso, but himself?
“Being this foolish…”
Jang Ilso let out a deep sigh. Then he gestured slowly.
Jang Ilso’s subordinates brought forward another young disciple. Having clearly witnessed what had happened to the previous child, his face was pale with fear.
“Ah… Ah…”
Jang Ilso slowly grasped the child’s hand, who was so terrified he couldn’t even speak properly.
“If you were watching, you’d know this isn’t my fault. Direct your resentment towards your proud Sect Leader.”
Just as Jang Ilso was about to twist and break the child’s arm, Jin Songwon hurriedly shouted.
“W-Wait! Stop! Stop it immediately!”
“Hmm?”
Still holding the child’s arm, Jang Ilso turned his gaze. Jin Songwon’s face was drenched in cold sweat.
He had stopped him in a hurry, but… what could he possibly say now? What could he possibly do in such a situation?
“I… I…”
There was nothing he could do. But he had to do at least something.
Jin Songwon wasn’t cold-hearted enough to turn away from his young disciples, who were trembling in the fear of death.
“P-please, spare the disciples!”
“…”
“The children haven’t fought against Saparyeon. No, they’re just kids who don’t even know what it means to oppose Sapaeryeon! There’s no need to kill such children, is there?!”
“Hmm.”
Jang Ilso stared silently at Jin Songwon with an expression that was impossible to read. Jin Songwon pleaded even more earnestly.
“The children have done nothing wrong. So please…”
“Tsk.”
Jang Ilso clicked his tongue in disapproval.
That small sound cut off Jin Songwon’s words.
“You just don’t get it at all.”
Crack!
“Jang Ilsoooo! Yemyeong-aaaaaaaah!”
It was the child whose initiation ceremony he had personally overseen.
Dan Yemyeong, who used to greet him with the brightest smile whenever they met at the sect, now had his arm twisted in a grotesque angle. The face that was once full of smiles was now contorted in pain.
Each time Jin Songwon screamed, the blood he had swallowed surged up and spilled out. It was a truly pitiful sight.
But Jang Ilso paid him no mind, leisurely stroking the head of the sobbing child.
“There, there. You need to stop now. You shouldn’t cry.”
“Ah… uh…”
“Strangely enough, I get angry when I hear a child cry. Do you want me to get angry?”
The child shook his head desperately, trembling. Tears were streaming down, but no more sobs escaped. He had clamped his mouth shut as tightly as possible.
Seeing this, Jang IIso smiled faintly. Then, as if praising him, he gently patted the child’s head.
“Good boy. Yes, I like you. But… it seems your Sect Leader still doesn’t get it at all, which is a big problem.”
Jang Ilso spread his hand into the air, examined his fingertips, and glanced at Jin Songwon.
“Words like that just don’t pique my interest.”
Eventually, Jang Ilso quietly grasped the neck of the child who was barely holding back his sobs. The child’s body shuddered suddenly, as if touched by fire.
“So delicate. Feels like it would snap with just a slight squeeze.”
“Stop! Please stop! I beg you!”
Jin Songwon wailed with a face that showed him being utterly lost.
“What do you want?! What do you want me to do?!”
“No, that’s not it.”
Jang Ilso yet once again shook his head coldly.
“It’s not me who should be making proposals, but you. I only decide whether your terms satisfy me or not.”
“…And if they’re not satisfactory?”
“You ask even though you know the answer.”
Jang Ilso smiled brightly. It was an impeccably pure smile.
“The death I grant isn’t particularly different, no matter who the opponent is. I’ve already shown you, haven’t I? Isn’t that right?”
Jin Songwon, who had been listening blankly, looked around as if entranced.
Everywhere his eyes fell, gruesome corpses were scattered. Bodies mutilated so that not a single part remained intact. Jin Songwon’s eyes began to fill with even greater terror.
“Oh, I haven’t told you this.”
“Uh…”
“By the way, your turn comes last. You’ll get to watch everything. Without missing a single thing.”
Jin Songwon began to tremble uncontrollably like an aspen before a storm.
Was he to watch?
To watch with his own eyes as his young disciples were mutilated?
That cannot be. It’s not a torment a sane person can endure. It would be better to gouge out his own eyes.
“Now, speak up. I’m a busy man.”
“I, I…”
“Do you want an easy ending?”
Jin Songwon groped at the blood-soaked ground like a man whose soul had left him and wailed.
“We… we won’t resist.”
“Hmm?”
“N-None of us will resist! If you spare the children, you can kill us all without any harm to yourselves.”
“My, my.”
Jang Ilso sighed with a somewhat weary expression.
“I can’t fathom why those so-called Just Sects always overestimate themselves. Think about it. That’s something we can do without your cooperation.”
At that moment, Jin Songwon saw it clearly – the sight of Jang Ilso tightening his grip on the child’s neck.
Jin Songwon’s reason evaporated in an instant.
“W-Wait, wait! Then, then!”
Even in his dazed state, Jin Songwon mustered everything he could.
“I’ll give you everything Diancang has! The Sect’s Secrets that outsiders could never find – everything!”
“You can keep that trash to yourselves.”
“We’ll take our own lives! We’ll all die by our own hands! So you won’t have to dirty yours!”
“Hmm, that would certainly be an amusing spectacle. But it’s not what I desire.”
Crack!
A horrifying sound echoed indifferently.
“Ah…”
Thud.
A child fell to the ground like a petal.
“Ugh… Uaaaaaaah!”
Jin Songwon, nearly going insane, clawed wildly at his own face. He didn’t realize he was injuring himself, nor did he feel any pain. He was already half-mad. No, he wanted to go mad.
Watching him, Jang Ilso clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, tsk. He’s not dead. I told you, I don’t kill them like this. It’s just that he’ll never be able to walk on his own again. It’s nothing much, is it?”
As his fingernails dug in, red blood streamed down from his torn eyelids. It looked like tears of blood.
“Now, make your decision.”
Jang Ilso smiled faintly.
“You knew from the beginning, didn’t you? That you only have two choices.”
Jin Songwon silently raised his head.
Countless things came into his reddened field of vision.
Jang Ilso, wearing a radiant smile; his subordinates glaring this way as if they might slaughter everything around them at any moment; the children driven between them, pale as sheets, holding back their tears; the burning pavilions…
But what Jin Songwon truly wanted to see was not in front of him, but behind.
He slowly turned around.
What kind of expressions were they wearing?
And what kind of face was he showing them?
“…Sahyeong.”
His Saje called out to him, lips trembling and turning blue with fear.
He swore he had never seen such an expression on Hyeon Yeonbaek’s face. And Jin Songwon’s own expression was probably not much different now.
The other disciples were the same.
Some couldn’t suppress their anger, some were in a daze, and others were biting down hard on their own hands to suppress their grief.
But none among them dared to make a choice.
If they step forward and fight, they may preserve their pride, but they will have to watch those children being toyed with and brutally killed by the hands of the Sapas.
If they bow their heads, they can save the children, but they will forever be pointed at by the world.
What is right? What choice is truly right?
“I… ask you.”
“…”
“Should I overlook death in the name of pride?”
“Sect Leader…”
“I can gladly accept my own death for the sake of pride. But should I also accept the deaths of others for this pride?”
From the eyes of the disciples, tears finally began to flow.
“What should I do? I…”
This was the most earnest plea Jin Songwon had ever made in his life to others. But no one gave him an answer. No, they couldn’t give him an answer.
After staring at them intently for a moment, Jin Songwon turned his gaze forward again. What came into his sight were only the young disciples trembling in terror.
‘For what purpose was it all?’
Why did he wield the sword and continue living? What was he trying to achieve?
“…Listen.”
Jin Songwon shouted without turning back. Perhaps he didn’t have the courage to face them.
“Yes, Sect Leader…..”
“From now on, Diancang no longer exists.”
“S-Sect Leader!”
The horrified disciples shouted. Uproar erupted from behind, but Jin Songwon only clenched his fists tightly and did not look back.
“It’s not that the sect had collapsed. From this moment on, Diancang no longer exists in this world. I am no longer your Sect Leader either. From here, only two kinds will remain: those who die preserving their pride, and those who live as dogs!”
Jin Songwon glared at Jang Ilso with bloodshot eyes.
As he bit down on his lips, which had just barely healed, they split open again, and a stream of dark red blood flowed down.
“So decide for yourselves. Will you become a cowardly dog, or die as a warrior?”
And Jin Songwon had already made his decision.
Thud!
Jin Songwon’s knees slammed into the ground.
“Stop! Please stop, Sect Leader!”
Thud!
Jin Songwon placed both hands on the ground.
“Please! Please, Sect Leader! Please…”
Full prostration*? No. Jin Songwon, lying face down on the ground, slowly extended his hand. He began to crawl towards Jang IIso.
Like a dog with its tail between its legs.
“Sect Leadeeeeer!”
“Please, stop!”
He pressed his face, smeared with blood and tears, firmly against the ground. He didn’t have the courage to look at the sky. He didn’t have the confidence to face anyone else.
Because now, he was less than a human being.
“Ugh, uaaaaah!”
A few disciples, unable to bear the shame and boiling anger, grabbed their swords and charged at Jang Ilso. But before their blades could even reach him, countless spears flew in. The bodies of the charging disciples were mercilessly pierced and slashed.
Blood sprayed in all directions. And their faces twisted in sorrow even in their final moments..
Jin Songwon couldn’t see anything. Because he was now a man who could never again look up at the sky with his bare face.
Swish. Swish.
The sound of Jin Songwon’s dragging robes slowly spread out.
Crossing a distance that was so short yet felt like an eternity to him, what he faced were Jang Ilso’s motionless feet. He stared at them, right in front of his nose.
As he slowly lifted his gaze, Jang Ilso was smiling brightly, as if he found this extremely interesting and amusing. In contrast, Jin Songwon looked as if he bore all the sufferings of the world.
One was standing proudly; the other was groveling. One was composed; the other was desperate.
“The promise must be…”
“Of course.”
Jin Songwon thought no more. Forcing open his trembling lips, he stuck out his tongue.
He heard the screams of several disciples who, unable to suppress their rage, were dying as they cried out, but he did not look back.
“Sect Leadeeeeer!”
He closed his eyes and shut out the sounds.
He licked Jang Ilso’s shoe. At the same time, Jin Songwon did not know what was flowing from his eyes. He did not know what had collapsed inside him.
He could no longer comprehend what was going on.
Everything was over. Compared to the reality he had to face, even the most miserable ending he had imagined was a paradise.
“I will become a dog. I will do anything. So at least, please spare the children…”
But suddenly, Jang Ilso brought his index finger to his lips. Then he whispered.
“No.”
“…”
“It seems you’ve seen a dog that can talk?”
Jin Songwon blankly looked up at Jang Ilso. No longer did even a trace of hostility flicker in his eyes. What he saw was Jang Ilso, but all that filled his gaze were the images of the crying children.
“…Woof.”
Eventually, a sound flowed from Jin Songwon’s mouth.
“Woof! Woof!”
He barked. He lowered his head and submitted. Like a dog.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
Hearing the spreading sound, Jang Ilso burst into manic laughter.
“Hahahahahahaha! Yes, that’s how it should be!”
He patted Jin Songwon’s head with an exceedingly gentle touch.
“Good dog. Don’t forget – you must live as a good dog forever.”
The eyes Jin Songwon faced that day were not those of a human. They were those of a devil.
No, even a devil would turn its back and flee before that gaze.
________
*This is what I found: 오체투지(五體投地) – prostration with five body parts touching the ground (hands, feet, head).
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Return of the Mount Hua 
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