Chapter 1608: Even When I Open My Eyes, It's The Same (Part 3)

He didn't really have the thought of needing to chase after anyone. He was just looking for a place to avoid the pouring attention.

Thinking of a place less touched by human eyes than the lodges everyone knew, he suddenly remembered this place. The place where Chung Myung often climbed alone.

Only when facing the same gazes and walking the same path didBaek Cheon came to know.

The belief that one isn't wrong, the belief that one is doing the right thing, doesn't necessarily provide comfort.

Baek Cheon turned his head slightly and looked at Chung Myung.

Perhaps this guy has been in such gazes for several years.

Honestly, at times, Baek Cheon envied Chung Myung.

The insight to see what others couldn't see, the courage to discuss what others couldn't discuss.

But now, he knew. How great a weight that must be borne and endured.

Chung Myung asked.

"How is Shaolin?"

"If you're asking about the matter with the Blood Palace, fortunately, there was no major conflict. They withdrew without any hesitations. And the Shaolin folks said they would protect Song Mountain."

Chung Myung nodded slowly. He didn't ask further, but Baek Cheon elaborated anyways.

"I asked Hye Bang Sunim for help with cleaning up the remnants of the Su Lo Chae. He allowed it, so within a few days, those remaining guys should be out of there and come over to Shaanxi."

"I see."

Chung Myung nodded calmly again. This time, Baek Cheon asked.

"How is Hye Yeon Sunim?"

For a moment, Chung Myung's gaze shifted towards Mount Hua. To the section of Mount Hua where no one was staying.

"As soon as he returned, it seems he's been holed up in his room."

Baek Cheon's face was tinged with concern.

"...I see. Well, then go and talk to him at least..."

"Leave him be."

Chung Myung cut in sharply. A curt but firm voice.

"For now... it's better to leave him alone. Since he won't listen to anything anyways."

A short sigh escaped from Baek Cheon's lips.

"...Yeah."

For Baek Cheon, it was hard to imagine what Hye Yeon was feeling right now. If Baek Cheon had experienced the same thing, he wouldn't be in his right mind either.

So now, all he could do was wait for Hye Yeon to get up on his own.

Staring into the distance, Chung Myung said.

"He'll get up. Because he's that guy."

Baek Cheon just looked at Chung Myung in silence.

Although he pretended not to care, it seemed that he was quite concerned. Judging by the way he spoke, he seemed to have glanced towards Hye Yeon's locked room several times.

Baek Cheon breathed out a long sigh and said.

"He'll be fine."

A gentle yet strong person. That was Hye Yeon.

"How is Bangjang?"

At Baek Cheon's question, without taking his gaze off the horizon, Chung Myung answered.

"Well, he'll probably... return to Shaolin."

"To Shaolin?"

Chung Myung nodded faintly. Baek Cheon asked with a puzzled expression.

"Wait, is that possible? What face can he turn back to the people who he buried in cold ground? If it were me, I wouldn't easily be able to return, fearing to face those who remain in Shaolin."

"Still, he'll go back."

Chung Myung said quietly, as if whispering.

"There's nowhere else to go."

Somehow, there was a lingering bitterness. Baek Cheon couldn't figure out where this bitterness came from.

"Then, Shaolin..."

"He won't be able to act for a while."

Even if the power of Shaolin still remained in Song Mountain, Beopjeong wouldn't have the power to move Shaolin. Those who remained in Shaolin were the ones who resisted against Beopjeong in the first place.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the remnants of Shaolin wouldn't have the strength to drive away Beopjeong. Because Hye Bang hadn't yet established a position to replace Beopjeong.

In the end, an uncomfortable coexistence would continue for a while.

Until time melted the frozen grudges between them, until the patched-up scars naturally fell off.

Baek Cheon sighed quietly.

"What do you think Bangjang is thinking?"

"...I don't know."

"What if he... just a little..."

Baek Cheon sighed while looking at the distant sky, then shook his head.

If only he had known how to listen to others' words a little more... all those lives might not have felt so futile.

But for some reason, he couldn't let those words slip out of my mouth. It was as if something was caught in his throat.

Baek Cheon unknowingly touched his own neck. It was an action that came out involuntarily, as if responding to the faint discomfort.

Observing this, Chung Myung leaned forward a little, putting some weight on his arms, and opened his mouth.

"He believed it, didn't he?"

"..."

"That he wasn't wrong. That he was on the right path, and no matter what others said, it was an unquestionable path that everyone would eventually come to recognize."

The moment Baek Cheon heard those words, he could understand what the discomfort he felt was.

"That's..."

Chung Myung nodded, asking.

"Right. Is that really wrong?"

An unknown chill touched the tips of Baek Cheon's fingers.

It was wrong. There no other way to say it. It had already been proven by the results. If one were to discuss the wrongs he committed, it would take all day.

However, Baek Cheon couldn't decisively answer Chung Myung's question.

It was unknown.

No one knows until the results are confirmed. No one has a way to know if the path they choose is truly right or wrong.

It is easy for those who stand aside and watch to say, but the person involved cannot easily come to a conclusion.

So, in the end, he had to endure it.

Believing that the path he was taking was right, hoping that what he was doing was not wrong, having no choice but to silently move forward.

As if...

"He probably realized it at some point."

"..."

"But by then, it was already irreversible. He'll regret it over and over again. He'll keep replaying the already finished and irreversible events in his mind. Desperately and relentlessly."

However, no matter how one empathized, one could not sympathize with Beopjeong. It would be the same for Chung Myung.

The reason why even someone without a trace of empathy could not easily criticize him was because Baek Cheon now knew it.

The world in which the lives of thousands, even tens of thousands, are at stake with a single choice. The feelings of those who must walk silently on a cliff made of blades.

Could Baek Cheon say he was not like that? Was he really on the right path now?

It wasn't a completely unrelated story. Just a while ago, he deliberately brought up a story that everyone wanted to avoid.

What if it was just a coincidence? If it was just something that looked right because the situation aligned?

Then what Baek Cheon did was nothing more than breaking apart an alliance that might not even be formed. A mutual gnawing away at each other caused by doubt and suspicion.

Was that really the right thing to do? Baek Cheon's fingertips trembled slightly.

'Courage...'

He used to believe that. That pushing forward what one believed to be right was courage. That standing firm in 'righteousness' even at the cost of one's life was courage.

But who was the one deciding what was 'right'?

Like Baek Cheon just now, Beopjeong must have believed. That after much deliberation and thought, there was no doubt in the conclusion he came to.

Regardless of numerous worries, he couldn't abandon the 'justice' he had obtained.

How did the Beopjeong feel when that justice dragged not only himself but everyone into hell?

Empathy was not allowed. There was no worth in sympathy. Nevertheless...

"Are you scared now?"

Chung Myung's voice came. When Baek Cheon looked at him, Chung Myung was smiling faintly, shadows cast by the sunset across his face.

The smile was different from one he often gave when he saw Baek Cheon struggling.

Baek Cheon replied quietly.

"Rather than being scared... it's just acceptance. There's no such thing as a perfect choice in the world. No matter how hard I try and grasp, in the end, I'll lose something."

Chung Myung looked at Baek Cheon in silence. Baek Cheon continued.

"There will be regrets. There will be days when I lament that it would have been better if I had made a slightly better choice. But... It's better than not choosing at all."

He didn't explain the reasons.

But both Baek Cheon and Chung Myung knew.

In the end, someone had to choose and take responsibility. Postponing the choice ultimately meant shifting the responsibility to someone else.

That was why one couldn't resist taking that step.

Even if they became another Beopjeong someday, even if they were cursed by themselves to suffer, it was still better than others being thrown into that pain.

"So I won't step back."

Chung Myung quietly stared at Baek Cheon. Now the sun had hidden beyond the western mountains, and only the lingering light spread around them.

Baek Cheon looked directly at Chung Myung and spoke.

"So, it's not your fault."

Chung Myung's lips twitched slightly. But Baek Cheon was faster.

"It might have been somewhere. You might have had a way to stop Bangjang's choice from the beginning."

"..."

"You're probably still looking for that. You're that kind of guy. You probably think that if you had chosen correctly, you could have found that path and they wouldn't have died like that."

Chung Myung's face stiffened.

"I..."

"You're really not a funny guy."

"Huh?"

Caught off guard by the sudden criticism, Chung Myung's expression wavered slightly. Baek Cheon looked at him and twisted the corner of his mouth.

"How extraordinary do you have to consider yourself to entertain such thoughts? Aren't you a bit weird?"

Chung Myung's lips curled up subtly.

"No..."

The shocking part wasn't the content of the words but the fact that he heard them from none other than Baek CHeon.

"Don't dismiss people."

"..."

"Even if the choice was made by Bangjang, everyone present decided to follow it. And even if you make a mistake, it is us who choose to follow that mistake."

Chung Myung tightly shut his mouth.

"So, don't entertain such petty thoughts that you're carrying everyone's lives. It feels unpleasant."

"Sasuk."

Baek Cheon abruptly stood up.

"The one deciding the way I live is me, not you."

Then, he gazed at the sky. The night was pushing away the sunset. Eventually, the sunset would disappear, but it wouldn't lose its color until the end.

"So, don't make such an unbecoming expression while daydreaming."

"..."

"I won't wait for long."

With those words, Baek Cheon turned away and began to descend the mountain.

Watching his back blankly, Chung Myung shifted his gaze to the dimming sky.

Thud.

And soon, he lay down on the spot.

"...They've grown up now, those little brats."

He seemed lost for a moment, then burst into laughter.

Did Cheon Mun feel this way sometime in the past?

No, probably not. Cheon Mun likely never saw him in such a light until the end.

Chung Myung led the way.

Believing that he had to somehow revive the collapsed Mount Hua with his own hands, he dragged him along. But since when did they start leading him willingly? No, it was more like they were urging him to do so. Telling him not to fall behind, not to collapse.

"...Sahyung."

As he closed his eyes, the image of Cheon Mun came to mind. It wasn't a gentle smile. It was a hardened expression.

That appearance was undoubtedly...

- I will not accept this decision until I die.

Cheon Myung's eyelashes trembled slightly as he closed his eyes.

It was what Chung Myung said to Cheon Mun in the past, who prevented him from going to save Cheon Jin.

A phrase he repeated countless times, a phrase he regretted just as many times. Yet, it was a phrase he could never completely erase from his heart.

Perhaps he still remained a ghost of the past.

A pathetic existence that knows he must move forward but is afraid to step forward, entangled in the past. A pitiful being who only knows how to cling tenaciously to what is in his hands.

A sly smile escaped from Chung Myung's mouth.

"Anyway... he won't get a moment's rest."

He got up.

Wasn't it enough to know?

Even if he was an insignificant human who couldn't release himself from the past, it didn't matter. Because there were those who were living lives different from that mud-caked world.

That was why it was brilliant, and that was why it hurt.

The current sky had the same brightness as when he confronted Cheon Mun in the past.

But now, Chung Myung was standing where Cheon Mun used to be. So now, he had to answer differently.

The answer that Cheon Mun wanted to hear the most at that time.

The appearance of Cheon Mun closing his eyes and smiling kindly did not come to mind.

Chung Myung, with a wry smile, finally stepped forwards.

The Cheon Mun, frozen in the illusion, finally sent a gentle smile to Chung Myung.