Chapter 1432: You Will Have To Kill Me First. (2)

“Distance! How far are they!”

“I‑I can’t measure it precisely, but they’re not far!”

“Damn!”

Tang Wei bit his lip.

If his martial arts hadn’t been sealed, he could have gauged the enemies’ skill and distance, but now he was as blind as one with open eyes and no sight.

“Hurry! We must put distance between us!”

“G-great Elder!”

The Elders looked at Tang Wei with alarmed faces.

“Elder! We have people with us who haven’t trained in martial arts. How do you expect to put distance between us and them? They’ll catch up soon!”

“So? Do you have any other plan?”

Tang Wei shouted at the top of his lungs.

“We are the Sichuan Tang Family! We resist and fight to the very end! Do you not know that?”

The Elders bit their lips. Tang Wei’s gaze turned icy in an instant as he noticed their lack of resolve.

“Why? You’re all old now and suddenly value your lives? Will you abandon the family and just run away yourselves?”

“W‑what are you saying? Great Elder, that’s not it…”

“If it’s not that then what?”

One of the Elders hesitated, then spoke.

“Wouldn’t surrendering be better?”

“…What?”

Tang Wei’s face went blank as if he’d been struck.

Surrender, a word he’d never once considered in his life. Now it had come from the mouth of a Tang Family Elder.

“What did you say just now?”

One of the Elders who’d taken Tang Wei’s rising fury head‑on averted his eyes slightly and continued.

“As far as I know, Hegemony Lord is cruel, but he doesn’t harm those who haven’t trained in martial arts. Would he really slaughter us?”

“…”

“If we fight a half‑hearted battle here, we’ll give them an excuse to kill. It’s better to surrender…”

“Have you finished spouting nonsense?”

“…Great Elder.”

“You idiot!”

Tang Wei’s face flushed crimson.

“Is that what an Elder of the Tang Family should say?”

But this time the Elder did not cower at Tang Wei’s rebuke.

“I say it as an Elder of the Tang Family! You know as well as I do, Chief Elder, that we cannot stop them with only us!”

“W‑well…”

“If there is something to protect, we’ll fight with our lives! But there’s nothing left to protect in the Tang Family, is there? Why risk lives? Shouldn’t we try to save at least one who carries the Tang name?”

Tang Wei, who had been staring at the Elder, suddenly felt his strength drain.

It wasn’t anger or disappointment. The words—that there was nothing left to protect in the Tang Family—struck his core.

If they’d fought within the Tang Family before, there’d have been a just cause. But now, as was said… there is no reason. Do women and children who never trained have any reason to risk their lives?

If the point is to survive, shouldn’t one choose the path with the highest chance of survival?

“Hegemony Lord is cruel, true… but he is distinctly different from the Evil Sect men we’ve known. So perhaps he’ll spare them…”

“No!”

At that moment, Tang Sobu—who had been supporting Tang Wei—spoke firmly.

“That cannot be, Elder.”

“How dare you!”

For a moment a flash of anger crossed the Elder’s face. How dare a nameless girl interrupt his conversation with Tang Wei? That was unacceptable in the Tang Family.

“What do you know to dare open your mouth?”

“I know nothing. But I know one thing: there is a life worse than death.”

“What did you say?”

“If we surrender to them, what about the Family Lord? Those who have left the family—how could they fight them?”

The Elder was momentarily at a loss and stared at Tang Sobu in bewilderment.

“The Sichuan Tang Family would rather die miserably than live meekly. Isn’t that what you Elders said? How can you tell us to become hostages now?”

Tang Sobu’s cry filled the eyes of those around her with killing intent.

They had left their own families to become part of the Tang Family. Someday they might have to leave again; because of that they had never been fully accepted as true Tang, yet they remained as people of the Sichuan Tang Family.

“Then what of the children? Can you decide the fate of those who haven’t even been taught a thing?”

Tang Sobu faltered for a moment at the Elder’s question. The Elder then turned to Tang Wei and spoke.

“If it’s that difficult, then at least take the children and run…”

“Enough!”

“Great Elder! Think carefully! If the Tang Family’s women are taken like this…”

“Didn’t I tell you to stop!”

At that instant Tang Wei shouted and cut the Elder off.

“Those who wish to leave should go. The Tang Family will not call you back. Who can blame you for saving your own lives?”

“Great Elder! How can you take my words like that?”

“Ha… hah.”

A hollow laugh escaped Tang Wei’s lips.

The Elder’s eyes were certain his words were not wrong. It was the same look Tang Wei had seen in his past.

“The young… they cannot be trusted.”

“…Yes?”

“What can those who haven’t lived long know? I believed only those who’d endured life’s hardships deserved to lead the family.”

“Great Elder?”

“Yes, I thought that. I believed that women who never trained in the Tang Family’s martial arts, or those young and naive about the world, should simply endure and bear it.”

Tang Wei looked down at Tang Sobu. Though she showed clear signs of exhaustion, her eyes remained bright and clear.

“…I’ve wasted my life.”

“G-great Elder.”

“Growing old doesn’t make one wise, and being young doesn’t make one foolish. I thought I must somehow lead those childish ones. The real fool was me all along though.”

“I…”

Tang Wei shook his head.

“There is no more time for words. Those who will leave, leave now! And those Elders of the Tang Family who choose to die, hold the rear and stop the Ten Thousand People Clan! The Tang Family fights to the very end. That is the duty of those who bear the Tang name!”

A resolute light filled Tang Wei’s eyes. The Elders, infected by that look, answered firmly.

“Yes, Great Elder!”

Tang Wei turned his body, as if determined not to look back.

“Everyone, hurry! The enemies are pursuing us.”

Having urged the tired people on, Tang Wei gripped Tang Sobu’s arm.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes.”

Tang Sobu supported Tang Wei and led him out.

A rueful smile kept escaping Tang Wei’s lips. Hustle and bustle could be felt from behind. Most Elders would have firmly taken the rear to hold the ground, but perhaps a few were already running away somewhere.

But Tang Wei refused to look back. He did not want to know who stayed and who left. Whoever left, it was ultimately his responsibility, was it not?

‘The Tang Family.’

Who is the enemy of the Tang Family?

Are those who chase them with swords the Tang Family’s enemy?

Or is the enemy the one who divided the Tang Family into martial and non‑martial, men and women, the young and the old, tearing it into pieces?

‘Father…’

The previous Family Lord told Tang Wei he was never fit to be Family Lord. Despite being superior in skill and strategy to his younger brother, he was not to become the Family Lord.

He couldn’t understand it, so he spent his life angry and resentful, devoting himself to proving those words wrong.

But now at last he seemed to understand.

‘I was not fit.’

He should never have been the Tang Family’s Family Lord.

He had divided everything within the Tang Family, strictly categorizing and drawing boundaries.

For a time, that may have seemed efficient and better.

As young Tang Wei once lamented, that decision may have strengthened the Sichuan Tang Family’s name for a while.

But now Tang Wei had seen what that path led to.

‘Family Lord.’

He had long resented Tang Gunak.

He thought that if Tang Gunak hadn’t foolishly allied with Mount Hua, the Tang Family wouldn’t be in this crisis.

But perhaps the one who created the Tang Family’s present crisis was none other than Tang Wei himself.

If he had not interfered and had trusted what Tang Gunak sought to achieve, the Tang Family might have become stronger and greater than it was now.

“Ahem!”

“Now then, Elder. Are you all right?”

Tang Wei turned his head and looked at Tang Sobu.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say that. Stay strong a little longer!”

Tang Wei twisted the corner of his mouth.

‘Too… too late to realize.’

The image of Tang Jo‑Pyeong roaring loudly flashed by. Probably he wanted to say this; his crude speech honed by years of forging steel couldn’t convey it, but he’d expressed it with his gaze and gestures.

Maybe he had been shouting all along, but Tang Wei did not hear. No matter how much they clamored around him, one who plugs his ears hears nothing!

If only he had known this a little sooner…

“They, they’re coming! They’re coming! Great Elder!”

Tang Wei couldn’t help but turn around for a moment. He tried not to look, but he had no choice.

A red host racing in from beyond the distant horizon.

Their red figures spreading across the ochre earth were terrifying in themselves. But Tang Wei did not look at them—he looked at the man at their center.

The man’s red cloak fluttered in the air. A pained voice escaped Tang Wei.

“Hege…mony Lord.”

He had wanted to see him once with his own eyes, but never like this. Not at least like now.

Hegemony Lord Jang Ilso’s eyes seemed to pierce him chillingly even from this distance.

“Alliance lord! They’re here.”

Jang Ilso lightly scratched his brow with a fingernail.

“Hmm, is that all? The Tang Family is finished.”

“There are hardly any who can fight! At most a few old men!”

“So it seems.”

“Take them alive?”

Jeok Ho glanced at Jang Ilso. It was a natural question. Killing them would be trivial, but taking them hostage to pressure Tang Gunak and the Heavenly Friends Alliance would be far more useful.

But only a click of Jang Ilso’s tongue returned.

“Tsk tsk. That’s why the Evil Sect are like this.”

“S‑sorry.”

“Look.”

Jang Ilso gestured forward with his chin. Jeok Ho watched that direction. The Tang Family’s Elders were moving to the rear and radiating momentum, like enraged wildcats.

“What are you looking at? Not there. Look beyond them.”

“…Yes?”

At that, Jeok Ho looked past the Elders to those behind them.

Women and children bursting into tears.

And only craftsmen who hadn’t trained in martial arts, panting as if they might perish at any moment.

“Do you see?”

“…What do you mean?”

“If you want to know whether someone is an enemy, look at their eyes, not their strength. Look—so many eyes are speaking. They say they’ll fight.”

At those words, Jeok Ho couldn’t help but nod.

Ordinarily, those without martial training would be terrified under pursuit by the Ten Thousand People Clan. But the eyes of the women and craftsmen looking this way were filled with murderous intent.

“Strong or weak doesn’t matter. Those who step onto this land with the will to fight are all warriors.”

“…”

“And if the opponent is a warrior, we must show them respect. Understand?”

“Yes, Alliance lord!”

“Good.”

A sly smile curved Jang Ilso’s mouth.

“Kill them all. Leave not a single one.”

“At your command!”

When Jeok Ho gestured, the Ten Thousand People Clan surged forward.

“Hyaaaargh!”

Watching them charge, Jang Ilso murmured softly.

“It seems a bit much for the price of a drink, but… this is the Evil Sect’s arithmetic, so understand it.”

His oily eyes curved like a waning moon.