My Work Starts Now! (5)
Startled, Mu Jin took a step back and voiced his confusion.
"You mean you’re still planning to keep going here?"
"No. I’m not planning to keep going. I’m planning to beat you up."
Beat him up?
Him?
No matter how he looked at it, that was the face of a man carrying a grudge. Mu Jin, unable to make sense of the situation, asked again in a rush.
"I shouldn’t have done anything to earn your resentment, should I?"
"Huh?"
Chung Myung stopped walking. Then he cocked his head sharply to one side.
"You don't?"
"……"
"You don't have a grudge?"
Chung Myung stared at him as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
"Are you an idiot?"
A dry laugh escaped him.
"You people took some harmless outside branch sect that had been living just fine—no, not even mine to begin with, Mount Hua’s outside branch sect—and beat them down however you pleased until even the sect leader was knocked flat on the ground!"
Ah…
That had definitely happened.
"Not content with that, you bullied the ones who’d been getting by just fine until they were told to get the hell out on the spot! And you’re asking me if I hold a grudge?"
Bloodshot veins shot into Chung Myung’s eyes.
"This is exactly why the bastards from big sects are the worst. They never think about what they’ve done, only about blaming everyone else! You’re the ones who started shit, so what the hell are you talking about?"
Chung Myung almost spit into his hand before freezing.
Ah, right. I’m wearing a mask.
That would’ve been bad.
Chung Myung pointed at the second-generation disciples and said,
"I’ll let these guys off as just the lackeys doing what they’re told. Fine, sure. What crime do they even have?"
In an instant, the second-generation disciples, reduced to children who merely followed orders from above, glared back in indignation. But Chung Myung didn’t care in the slightest and went on.
"But you’re different. If you’re a first-generation disciple, then you’ve got to take responsibility for what your sect does."
Chung Myung looked at the second-generation disciples with strange eyes.
"Don’t tell me you thought I let you off because I’m a nice guy?"
"……"
No. But aren’t you supposed to be a Mount Hua disciple and not a bandit? You should maybe settle your identity first…
"You lunatics! You took the last truly decent man left in this age—the one who’d sent tribute for thirty years—beat him up, wounded him internally, and bullied him until what? I’m supposed to have no grudge? No grudge, you say?"
Chung Myung’s eyes bulged.
Of course, he didn’t really have any personal grudge against them.
But a sect was a sect!
A disciple’s grudge was the sect’s grudge, and the branch sect’s grudge was the main sect’s grudge!
Right now, Chung Myung was carrying the resentment of Hwayeongmun, not Mount Hua itself.
"Come here, bastard. I’m going to beat you senseless and then hit you once more for good measure. If they sent you up here, that means you were involved in this to some degree, right? I’ll teach you exactly what happens when you lay a hand on Mount Hua’s branch sect."
From Mu Jin’s point of view, it was enough to make him want to scream. How much had he even been involved in this matter? The decision had been made by those above him. Of course Mu Jin had influenced it somewhat, but he had never been involved enough to shoulder all the blame like this.
"What? You think that’s unfair?"
"……"
"Unfair my ass! You entered Wudang, took everything good that was offered, learned all the best martial arts, and lived comfortably without a care in the world. And now you want to shove the responsibility onto someone else?"
Mu Jin flinched.
"Wake up and get your head straight. A sect is not some pretty little toy. If a brat screws up, those above him take the blame; if those above shit the bed, the ones below clean it up. That’s what a sect is."
Just as Chung Myung was doing now.
Ah, so this is something I shit out?
Anyway!
"If you’ve committed a crime, you get punished. That’s the way of the world. I’m going to punish you now, so take it nicely."
"N-no…"
The moment Chung Myung looked ready to leap, Mu Jin grabbed his sword. Chung Myung gave him a slanted look and cracked his neck with an audible pop.
"And I told you before, didn’t I? If you don’t talk nicely, I won’t let you walk out of here. Hoo. I may not look it, but I’m a man who keeps his promises."
Mu Jin bit his lip hard.
Now that he thought about it, he was sure he had heard something like that. Back then, he had dismissed it as the ravings of an arrogant fool speaking as he pleased.
Confirming there was no room left for compromise, Mu Jin’s face hardened.
Then Jin Hyeon and Mu Jin exchanged a glance.
Conflict surged through them.
No one else was here. In that case, it might actually be better to attack together. Honor and all that aside, this man didn’t seem interested in letting them go peacefully.
So perhaps…
It happened in that instant.
As Mu Jin hesitated between practicality and conscience, Chung Myung charged at him like a bolt of lightning.
"How can you!"
Chung Myung brought the sword in his hand crashing down from above.
The sword energy Mu Jin had failed to fully extend scattered in all directions under Chung Myung’s blow.
"It’s been this long!"
Chung Myung planted his right foot forward in a huge step!
"And you still haven’t improved, you bastards!"
BOOOOM!
"Ghhhhh…"
Taking the full weight of Chung Myung’s sword as it came down with overwhelming force, Mu Jin coughed up blood from his nose.
At the same time, his back bent far too much to the rear.
M-my back…
It felt like his spine might snap.
But somehow, he was still holding on…
"You can block that? You can block that?"
CRACK!
No, this didn’t feel like holding on at all.
Chung Myung brought his sword down again.
"You Wudang bastards! You don’t know how to let it flow, do you?"
CRASH!
"You’re blocking that with brute force? That?"
CRACK!
Mu Jin’s feet began to sink into the ground. It looked as though someone were hammering a nail into the earth.
His body, struck by Chung Myung’s sword, bored straight through the floor.
"What a load of shit this so-called yielding overcomes hardness is! All you’ve got is your mouth!"
BOOOOM!
"Kuh…"
A harsh crack echoed from his waist.
The pain in his back and the arms that felt as though they would tear apart from blocking the sword left his mind blank.
And then, at that moment, he heard the most spiteful voice in the world—irritation and fury twisted together.
"Your head! Your head! Your head! Your head, you bastard! I told you to watch your head!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Mu Jin was somehow still blocking the sword as it came crashing down again and again, but he couldn’t withstand the force packed into Chung Myung’s strikes; his own sword kept slamming into his head and rebounding upward.
"Kgh! Ugh!"
Every time the flat of the blade struck his head and bounced up, it felt as if a giant iron hammer had smashed into his skull.
Still, it was fortunate he was blocking with the flat of the blade; if he had tried to block with the edge, there would already be several clear lines carved into his head by now.
But the real problem wasn’t his head.
My, my back…
The sound coming from his waist was anything but normal.
Thinking he might actually fold backward and die, Mu Jin clenched his teeth.
I-I have to counter somehow…!
The enemy was overwhelmingly strong.
Mount Hua Divine Dragon or not, that wasn’t what mattered right now. Sect hierarchy? Damn sect hierarchy, what did that even mean at a moment like this?
First, survive!
Fortunately, this bastard in front of him had been targeting only his head since earlier. As if he didn’t care even though Mu Jin was blocking with his sword.
J-just once!
All he had to do was slip that sword aside once.
If he could land an unexpected counter, there would definitely be an opening, and Mu Jin had the ability to exploit it. No, even if he didn’t have the ability, he had to make it happen. If he didn’t, his back would snap before then.
"Your head!"
The sword flashed upward.
Now!
Mu Jin gathered every bit of internal energy he had and drove it into his lower body. Having built a sturdy foundation beneath him, he then let all the strength in his upper body go slack.
Deflect it!
The foundation of Wudang was softness.
Any force, no matter how overwhelming, could be rendered meaningless if only it could be let away.
He clenched his teeth and watched the sword rise high into the air. When that blade came down, he would angle his own sword just so and deflect it…
Huh?
Then why wasn’t it coming down?
Was I concentrating so hard that time’s slowing down…?
Just then, something black entered Mu Jin’s field of vision. He looked up reflexively, and something was rushing straight toward his face.
The moment he realized that dark blur was Chung Myung’s fist flying right at his nose, Mu Jin couldn’t help but smile faintly.
The bastard.
All that talk about truth and promises…
PAAAAAAAAK!
"Your jaw! You bastard!"
Mu Jin’s body, which had been buried in the ground up to his knees, was yanked free and hurled into the air like a nail being ripped from a board.
Whirrrrrr—
As though he had no intention of falling yet, Mu Jin’s body spun like a top for quite a while before finally crashing to the ground.
Unable to withstand the momentum, his body rolled across the floor for a long time even after impact before finally coming to a stop.
"Grrrrr…"
Looking at Mu Jin unconscious and foaming at the mouth, Chung Myung clicked his tongue in pity.
"This is why big sect brats are hopeless. Tsk tsk tsk."
How honest did you have to be to believe your enemy’s words exactly as they were spoken? This was why Mount Hua, Wudang—everyone—had to get out from these mountains. They all just sat buried in the hills reading Daoist texts all day, so of course they ended up this naïve.
"Think of it as a good experience."
Chung Myung clicked his tongue and walked up to Mu Jin, giving the unconscious man a few rough kicks with his foot.
"Hey, wake up. You still haven’t explained it. That sword… what was it again? The sword?"
But Mu Jin showed no sign of regaining consciousness.
After measuring the force in his own fist against the softness of Mu Jin’s jaw, Chung Myung nodded.
No way he’s getting up. He’ll sleep for at least three days.
Did I get a little too worked up?
Well, whatever. There were plenty of others who could tell him.
"Then…"
Chung Myung turned his head slightly.
At that glance, delivered with nothing but a turn of his neck, the second-generation Wudang disciples flinched and stepped back.
"That sword… whatever-it-was. Anyone know what it is?"
"……"
They should just keep their mouths shut.
Everyone knew that much.
But people always responded when a question was thrown at them, and the bastard standing before them was the sort who could sniff out hesitation like a ghost slapping you across the face.
"You! And you!"
Precisely singling out Jin Hyeon and Jin Mu, Chung Myung grinned.
"Come here."
"……"
Jin Hyeon and Jin Mu looked at each other. Then, with clear reluctance, they shuffled toward Chung Myung.
This won’t do.
There’s no way to win.
He was a man who’d sent Mu Jin flying with one punch to the jaw. None of them here could guarantee victory even if they all attacked together. Besides, the momentum had already shifted; there was no way a joint attack would work properly now.
With awkward expressions, the two approached, and Chung Myung gave them a gentle smile.
"That sword… sword what?"
"……Sword Tomb."
"Right! That was it. Sword Tomb. So what is it? Anyone going to explain?"
Jin Hyeon and Jin Mu clamped their mouths shut.
"Oh? Not going to talk?"
They had lost the will to resist, but that didn’t mean they could spit out everything they knew. That was the last shred of pride they had left.
"Well, whatever. Fine. I’ll admit it. The one who promised to talk is this guy. You two never made any promise to me. A promise isn’t something someone else can keep for you, after all."
"……?"
Confusion flickered in Jin Hyeon’s eyes.
Good heavens, could those words actually be coming out of this bastard’s mouth? Words that made sense?
"Then just stand there and watch."
"Pardon?"
"I said watch."
"Watch what…?"
"What do you mean, what?"
Even through the mask, his grin was unmistakable. The two men grew uneasy for no reason at all.
"If you won’t tell me, I’ll just have to wake up someone who will."
Someone who will?
Could he mean Mu Jin?
"H-how?"
How was he planning to wake someone who had already been knocked unconscious…
"Something I’ve learned from living a bit, is that…"
Chung Myung grabbed Mu Jin by the collar where he lay sprawled on the floor.
"You can’t solve everything in this world with violence alone."
Right.
For once, he was saying something that actually sounded sensible…
"But!"
Malice began to glint in Chung Myung’s eyes.
"You can solve most things with it!"
"……"
"If you keep beating someone until they get up, they’ll eventually get up. Or die! So the two of you absolutely do not open your mouths over there! Absolutely do not!"
Jin Hyeon smiled faintly.
It seemed better just to talk.