If You Mess With Mount Hua, I’ll Show You What Happens! (4)
Malko.
A crude slur for Taoist priests, coined from the fact that the daegwan they wore on their heads looked as long as a horse’s nose.
In short…
A curse?
It was an insult aimed at Taoist priests.
Of course, Jin Hyeon knew such a word existed, but in all his life he had never once heard it with his own ears.
That was only natural.
There was no reason for anyone in Wudang to use a slur against Taoist priests, and even when walking the jianghu, he could never have heard it. Who in the world would dare insult a Wudang Taoist?
Unless they had about ten lives to throw away, no one would dare say something like that.
What kind of place was Wudang?
It stood alongside Shaolin as one of the two great pillars of the Nine Sects and One Gang. There were countless sects under heaven, but only Shaolin could even be mentioned as Wudang’s equal.
And yet someone had just called a Wudang disciple malko?
Was he insane?
That was the only conclusion he could reach.
But the man who had walked inside did not look like a madman. His behavior was not strange, and his eyes were rather sharp.
No, if anything, his appearance was actually handsome.
His slightly swaggering posture and the look on his face that seemed to say the whole world was nothing but a nuisance were irritating, but that could still be explained as a personality trait, couldn’t it?
“Who are you?”
“Why do you care?”
“…….”
Was he really insane?
Jin Hyeon had no choice but to seriously consider the identity of the man before him.
There was an old saying that the best medicine for a madman was a cudgel, but that was only a saying. In truth, beating someone was medicine for a sane man, not for a madman.
“Th-”
Just as Jin Hyeon was about to say something more, a stir arose behind him.
“Coming through. We need to get through.”
“Hey, why is everyone blocking the door?”
“Jo Gul. Quiet down.”
Several people came through the gate and into Hwayeongmun.
Huh?
Was that how people usually walked in?
Even if they didn’t know the ones blocking the way were Wudang disciples, no one would normally try to shove past broad-shouldered armed men to get inside.
But those people were casually nudging Wudang disciples aside as though they were just neighborhood uncles and making their way into Hwayeongmun.
What the—?
Then it happened.
“Father!”
The last person to enter ran toward Wi Lip-san, and Wi Lip-san cried out with delight.
“Sohaeng!”
“Father! I’ve brought Mount Hua’s people!”
“Ah!”
Everyone with ears heard that clearly.
Mount Hua?
Jin Hyeon’s face stiffened. So the people standing before him were from Mount Hua?
Come to think of it…
Only then did he notice the plum blossom patterns embroidered on their chests.
Because their entrance had been so overwhelming, he had momentarily forgotten to look at their robes.
“Ah, from Mount Hua!”
Wi Lip-san’s voice, trembling with emotion, grated on his ears.
It was all the more irritating because only moments ago, Jin Hyeon had firmly declared that Mount Hua would never come to help them.
No, wait. Mount Hua?
Jin Hyeon studied the people who had appeared.
There was a swordsman in white robes who was impossible not to be wary of at a glance, and beside him stood two men with softer and sharper impressions respectively, like attendants flanking him.
And then…
With all reverence.
There was a beauty with eyes that seemed to compel one to speak the honorific without thinking.
That much was fine. That much was fine.
Then…
Jin Hyeon’s gaze landed on the one still swaggering about as if he owned the place.
What the hell is this guy?
No matter how much Mount Hua had fallen, it had once been one of the pillars of the Nine Sects and a place renowned as a great orthodox sect. How could a scoundrel like this possibly come from there?
He was so out of place compared with the others standing behind him that it was almost offensive.
“You’re from Mount Hua?”
“Then do you think we came from Shaolin?”
“…….”
Jin Hyeon opened his mouth as though to say something, then shut it again.
At that moment, the white-robed man who had been watching the situation stepped forward and clasped his hands to Wi Lip-san—not to Jin Hyeon, but to the man behind him.
“We greet the Lord of Hwayeong Gate. We heard from the sect leader that something had happened to Hwayeongmun, so he sent us.”
“Ah… the sect leader did?”
With a face that looked sickly pale, Wi Lip-san closed his eyes tightly.
Emotion surged up from deep in his chest.
He had sent Wi So-haeng to Mount Hua as a desperate gamble, clutching at even a stalk of straw, but he had never truly believed Mount Hua would come to help. What he had told Yeo Pyeong had been nothing more than an escape from an impossible reality.
And yet Mount Hua had really sent disciples.
Watching Baek Cheon salute him, Wi Lip-san shuddered before he even realized it.
What a noble bearing.
Even standing beside Jin Hyeon, known as the Geomryong of Wudang, he looked no less impressive.
Then perhaps…
“Th-then could you be the legendary Mount Hua Div—”
“No.”
Before the sentence could even finish, Baek Cheon cut Wi Lip-san off. Wi Lip-san did not miss the slight twitch in Baek Cheon’s expression before it quickly smoothed over.
“I am Baek Cheon, a second-generation disciple of Mount Hua.”
“Ah! The Righteous Sword of Mount Hua! I have long heard of your renown!”
They had sent the Righteous Sword of Mount Hua!
His gratitude toward the sect leader was almost bursting out of his body and flying into the heavens.
Ah, no. Then…
Could it be that the Mount Hua Divine Dragon had not come?
At that moment—
“Kheuuu!”
The scoundrel who had been doing incomprehensible things since earlier walked up to Wi Lip-san with an expression of admiration and suddenly grabbed his hand.
“Kheuuu. So you’re the lord of the gate.”
“…….”
“I’ve heard so much about you! For a full thirty years! You’ve consistently sent tribute money without fail! Is that right?”
“W-well, yes, but….”
“Kheuuuu!”
The man stared at Wi Lip-san as though deeply moved. His eyes were actually moist, so he seemed genuinely touched.
No, but how?
“To think such a magnificent person existed. To keep sending money to a sect that even a beggar would turn his back on. People say all the good ones are dead, but it seems one of them was still alive here.”
“…….”
Wi Lip-san had plenty of experience under his belt.
He had defended Hwayeongmun for decades, and the number of people he had met during that time easily ran into the hundreds, perhaps even the thousands.
But even among those thousands, there had never been anyone like this.
H-he looks like a disciple from Mount Hua’s main sect, but how can someone like this exist?
Wi Lip-san gently extracted his hand from the man’s grip and asked,
“And who might you be?”
“Ah, I’m called Chung Myung. The sect leader sent me.”
“Ah. Then Chung Myung would mean a Cheong-generation disciple—wait, Chung Myung?”
“Yes. Please call me that! Hahaha. What does it matter what you call me? We’re your prized customers, after all.”
Chung Myung?
Chung Myung?
Wi Lip-san’s eyes flew wide open.
As far as he knew, there was only one person in Mount Hua who bore the name Chung Myung.
No, wait. It’s possible I’m mistaken.
Wi Lip-san snapped his head toward Wi So-haeng. Under his gaze, Wi So-haeng wore a face that seemed to say he couldn’t possibly comment on it, but still gave a reluctant nod.
So it is him?
Then the scoundrel from the neighborhood standing before him now could really be…?
“Chung Myung?”
It seemed Wi Lip-san was not the only one taken aback. A slightly flustered voice slipped out of Jin Hyeon’s mouth as he quietly observed the Mount Hua disciples.
Chung Myung turned his head a little.
“……Then could you be the Chung Myung called the Mount Hua Divine Dragon?”
“I don’t know about the Mount Hua part, but yeah, I’m Chung Myung.”
“You are?”
Jin Hyeon stared at Chung Myung with clear disbelief.
At once, Chung Myung’s gaze turned crooked.
“What? You want me to show you an ID or something?”
“…….”
Then, as though losing interest, he looked away from Jin Hyeon and smiled brightly at Wi Lip-san again. The difference in his attitude was so blatant it was almost ridiculous.
“Don’t worry. We’ll take care of it from here. The sect leader said Hwayeongmun was the finest among the secular branches.”
That was true enough.
Because this was the only place left that could even be called a secular branch.
Chung Myung grinned and turned around. Then he looked at Baek Cheon with a tilt of his head.
“What’s taking so long, Sasuk?”
“……Is it over?”
“Yep.”
Baek Cheon let out a sigh and looked at Jin Hyeon.
“I am Baek Cheon of Mount Hua.”
“I am Jin Hyeon of Wudang.”
“We came because we heard there was a problem between secular branches. It seems you spoke directly with the lord of the gate, but from here on, you can speak through me.”
“So Mount Hua intends to get involved in this matter?”
“And why would that be a problem?”
At Baek Cheon’s reply, Jin Hyeon narrowed his eyes.
How dare they?
A sect that had completely collapsed and was only just beginning to regain its name wanted to interfere in Wudang’s affairs?
That was intolerable.
Besides…
Jin Hyeon’s gaze shifted lightly toward Chung Myung.
That guy is the Mount Hua Divine Dragon?
Absurd.
Chung Myung, the Mount Hua Divine Dragon.
The prodigy of Mount Hua whose name had suddenly shaken the world two years ago.
Even Jin Hyeon’s ears had practically gone numb from hearing it. And there was a reason he remembered that name so clearly.
The Geomryong of Wudang, Jin Hyeon.
And the Divine Dragon of Mount Hua, Chung Myung.
The people of the world grouped the four others with them and called the six of them the Six Dragons. In the present jianghu, the Six Dragons were the name that symbolized the rising generation destined to lead the world.
He had no interest in the gossip-mongers who chattered about the Six Dragons or the Three Dragons. The only thing he cared about was that the evaluation of Mount Hua Divine Dragon Chung Myung among the Six Dragons was higher than the evaluation of Jin Hyeon himself.
That sort of bastard is stronger than me?
Ridiculous.
Of course, those evaluations took age into account. They were probably filled with expectations that Chung Myung would become stronger than Jin Hyeon when he reached Jin Hyeon’s age.
But Jin Hyeon could not accept even that.
And…
The sect leader was right.
Perhaps disciples of Mount Hua will come to Namyang. And if Mount Hua’s disciples do come, then naturally Chung Myung, called the Mount Hua Divine Dragon, will be among them. If that happens, make sure the world clearly understands that a disciple of Mount Hua can never be spoken of before a disciple of Wudang.
Jin Hyeon’s lips curled upward.
“Then in what way do you intend to interfere?”
He looked at Baek Cheon with a faintly arrogant gaze.
Rather than Chung Myung, the one called the Mount Hua Divine Dragon, this man was actually a bit more concerning. The energy he had been letting leak out ever since earlier was no joke.
So the reputation of the Righteous Sword of Mount Hua wasn’t just empty praise.
Unlike the Mount Hua Divine Dragon.
“If we could settle this through pleasant conversation, that would be best, of course….”
Baek Cheon smiled.
“But it doesn’t seem like you intend to.”
“Haha. A misunderstanding. It would be best if we could resolve things through conversation, naturally. But since our positions aren’t narrowing at all, conversation is merely futile.”
“Then it amounts to the same thing, doesn’t it?”
As Baek Cheon pressed him in a sharper tone, a faint, bitter smile surfaced at the corners of Jin Hyeon’s mouth.
“Then what? Would you like to settle it with a martial contest? We wouldn’t refuse.”
“It seems Wudang’s methods are rougher than I expected.”
“Not rougher—simply more efficient. There’s no need to waste each other’s time for no reason….”
Then—
“Ah. You’re dragging this out like hell.”
“…….”
“…….”
Baek Cheon and Jin Hyeon both turned their heads at once. They looked at Chung Myung, the one who had spoken.
But their expressions were completely different.
Baek Cheon was displaying a miraculous expression that clearly said, without words, Please just stay quiet, you damn bastard!
Meanwhile, undisguised anger began to bloom across Jin Hyeon’s face.
As far as the hierarchy went, Chung Myung ranked below him. And yet he was brazenly spouting such insolence to Jin Hyeon, who was above him in rank.
“Does Mount Hua not know manners?”
“Manners?”
Chung Myung snorted.
“What a load of shit.”
“You—!”
“You come barging into someone else’s sect and tell them to get lost if they don’t want to die, and now you want to talk manners? Sounds like your idea of manners only shows up when it’s convenient for you.”
“…….”
Jin Hyeon bit down hard on his lip.
It was difficult to refute him immediately. Jin Hyeon knew very well that those words were not entirely wrong.
“What’s there to talk about? You do whatever the hell you want.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Didn’t you say you’d invade in three shichen?”
“…….”
“Come back in three shichen. Then show off however much strength you want. But in return….”
Chung Myung’s mouth curled upward.
“You’d better come prepared to have your head cracked open when you show up. I warned you in advance.”
The blood drained from Jin Hyeon’s face.
And soon, murderous rage began to rise across his now-pale features.