Wouldn’t It Be Better Than Dying of Frustration? (1)
Baek Sang let out a low sigh as he walked around the pavilions of Mount Hua.
Something feels off around here lately.
To be exact, it wasn’t so much that the atmosphere was off as that everything felt oddly buoyant, almost as if the whole sect were floating a little above the ground.
Come to think of it, things had always been strange ever since that Chung Myung brat joined Mount Hua, but it had gotten even worse after Chung Myung and the others returned from Namyang not long ago.
Now, it was obvious even the elders were excited.
They must’ve done something ridiculous, no doubt about it.
By now, not a single second-generation disciple still doubted Chung Myung’s greatness. After enduring him for two years, they had no choice but to recognize it, whether they liked it or not.
Besides, he had personally given Baek Sang something too.
To put it bluntly, how could anyone compare the old days, when he had lived on nothing but weeds and worn-out clothes, to now, when he could tear into meat until he was sick of it and walk around in fine robes?
However much of a Daoist he was supposed to be, no one could live on dew alone. Compared to the days when the entire sect had been drowning in financial ruin, this was a hundred times better.
Still.
Sometimes Baek Sang found himself missing the quiet old Mount Hua.
The Mount Hua of those days, when its pure and tranquil air had still remained intact.
“Maybe I’m thinking too much...”
Rumble.
At the sudden sound in his ears, Baek Sang tipped his head up.
“Is it going to rain?”
Thunder all of a sudden...
Rumble.
Huh?
That just came from right beside him, didn’t it?
Well, this place was high up in the mountains, so it wouldn’t be strange if thunder sounded close even when it wasn’t really—
Rurururumble!
Baek Sang snapped his head around.
No. That didn’t sound like thunder at all...
Searching for the source, his eyes suddenly went wide.
“W-what is going on over there?”
Dust was billowing up from the Sect Leader’s quarters.
Not figuratively, either. Dust was literally pouring into the air.
“T-this is...”
When the thunderous rumbling sounded again, the entire pavilion began to shake.
Huh? That definitely wasn’t supposed to happen, was it?
That was the Sect Leader’s residence. Surely that meant—?
And then.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“No, what the hell is happening!”
“Please! Please, enough already! Please!”
Baek Cheon, the junior disciples, the senior disciples, the Sect Leader, and even the elders burst out of the pavilion at lightning speed. Baek Sang went slack-jawed at the sight.
“...What now.”
He didn’t have long to think.
Kwarururururung!
As though lightning had struck, the entire pavilion finally collapsed. Roof tiles flew everywhere, and the pillars came crashing down.
“What the—...”
That was one of the places that absolutely should not have collapsed. That place...
It was the Sect Leader’s residence. An important place...
Baek Sang stared blankly at the wreckage before muttering without realizing it,
“...This sect really is in a sorry state.”
It’s a mess. A complete mess...
“...”
Hyun Jong’s brow twitched nonstop as he stared at the pavilion that had collapsed into a heap.
“Th-...”
He had nothing to say.
“Ahem! Cough! Cough! Ahem!”
Hyun Young, who had been coughing nonstop beside him, waved a hand and frowned.
“What kind of pavilion collapses over something like this?”
Hey, you!
My house just collapsed, and that’s all you’ve got to say?
“Tsk tsk. Looks like we’ll have to build a new one, whether we like it or not.”
Hyun Jong, who had been just a little irritated, suddenly twitched at the words.
New house?
Uh... that was good, wasn’t it?
He should be happy that he’d gotten a new house. Or sad that the old one had collapsed.
“N-no, that’s not what matters right now!”
Shaking his head violently, Hyun Jong stretched his neck.
“What happened to Chung Myung?”
“He’s over there.”
“Hm? Where?”
“Have you gone senile? Over there. There.”
Hyun Jong narrowed his eyes at where Hyun Young pointed.
The rubble of the collapsed pavilion trembled twice, and someone crawled out from beneath it in a little scurry.
“What the hell collapsed for! Who was it! Which bastard was it?!”
You, you bastard.
You did it! You!
Chung Myung stormed out in a fit of irritation, then clicked his tongue as he looked at the collapsed pavilion.
“How cheap did they build this thing for it to collapse? Who skimmed off the materials?”
“...”
As Hyun Jong was about to sigh as if he had no answer left for this world—
“Sect Leader Senior Brother. Wasn’t that Five Qi Returning to the Origin?”
“Well...”
At Hyun Young’s words, Hyun Jong gave a low hum.
“It was a little different from the Five Qi Returning to the Origin I know. Those who achieve it are said to produce five colored rings when circulating their energy. But there were no rings, only a five-colored radiance, weren’t there?”
“...Then would it still count as something similar?”
“That, too, I’m not sure.”
Hyun Jong let out a wry smile.
“In any case, it seems feeding him the Honwon Dan was effective.”
And he laughed heartily at Chung Myung.
He had circulated his energy, floated in the air, and burst forth in five-colored radiance. At this point, it looked less like martial cultivation and more like ascension.
“Then, Sect Leader,” Hyun Young said,
“what exactly got stronger?”
“...”
Hyun Jong shut his mouth.
How much stronger had he gotten?
Uh...
As Hyun Jong faltered without answering, Hyun Young narrowed his eyes.
“Sect Leader, you don’t actually know, do you?”
“Cough. How could that be?”
“Then why can’t you answer?”
“...”
No, you idiot! How am I supposed to know that?
He had never seen anything like this in his life. To put it bluntly, the brat had been trading blows with a Wudang elder, then eaten a spiritual medicine and become even stronger—how was Hyun Jong supposed to measure that?
It wasn’t like they could spar to find out.
“Very... um, very strong... perhaps?”
“...”
“So, um... hahahaha. It’s difficult to explain to you.”
“...”
Don’t look at me like that.
Hyun Jong averted his eyes, and Hyun Young let out a sigh.
“Still, stronger is stronger, so that’s a good thing.”
“Yes. It is a good thing.”
Though he wasn’t entirely sure if this was really just a good thing... Well, the pavilion had been blown apart, for one thing.
While everyone was still buzzing, Chung Myung was looking down at his own hand.
This was unexpected...
There was a limit to the energy he could draw out of a pill. The energy accumulated in his body was the purest in the world. No matter how refined the spiritual medicine was, no matter how carefully its essence had been collected, it couldn’t be compared to Chung Myung’s own qi.
That was why Seolmaedan had not done much for him in the past, wasn’t it?
But this Honwon Dan was different from the spiritual medicine Chung Myung had imagined.
The amount of qi it contained wasn’t especially high compared to Jaso-dan. Instead, it held purity several times greater than Jaso-dan.
Maybe...
This is exactly the kind of thing I need.
Of course, he hadn’t been able to absorb even two tenths of the energy he’d taken in, and had to expel the rest, but wasn’t two tenths still something?
The last time he’d taken Seolmaedan, he had only managed to absorb a tiny pinch of that pitiful amount of energy!
Thanks to it...
Chung Myung clenched and unclenched his fist.
His body was brimming with vitality.
I’ve still got a long way to go, though.
Recovering the power he had once possessed was still a distant goal. But thanks to the Honwon Dan, it felt like that moment had come a great deal sooner.
“Hmmm.”
With a satisfied smile, Chung Myung turned his head slightly. His senior brothers stood there with deathly pale faces.
That monstrous bastard!
Of course he got stronger!
Look at that, look at the light coming out of his eyes. Is that really a person? Is it?
His senior brothers, who were accustomed to Chung Myung, could tell from the pressure pouring out of his body alone that he had become much stronger than before.
“Heaven sure is merciless. Why is it that we all ate the same thing...”
At this point, it was hard not to feel cheated.
Spiritual medicine didn’t choose people, did it? One person eats it and cheers that his energy has improved, while another floats into the air and blows apart a pavilion. Wasn’t that far too unfair?
Hyun Young hurried over to Chung Myung.
“How is it? Does it work?”
“Hah, Elder! This stuff is incredible!”
“...Y-yes. I’m glad.”
Chung Myung licked his lips slightly.
So it works better than I expected?
At the moment, what Chung Myung lacked most was, in the end, internal energy. He had thought that, because the qi was so pure, there was no way to increase his internal power except by waiting for time to pass, but now he had found a way to help speed things along.
This...
Would his internal energy increase if he ate more?
Chung Myung’s eyes flashed as he looked at Hyun Jong.
Hyun Jong immediately clutched the box of Honwon Dan in his arms.
N-no.
That wolfish bastard was definitely after the Honwon Dan. But this was a treasure that represented Mount Hua’s future.
Absolutely not!
Chung Myung smacked his lips and walked toward Hyun Jong.
“Sect Leader.”
“Y-yes?”
“I don’t think a few more would make much difference.”
“T-this?”
Hyun Jong jumped and stepped back.
“No!”
Before Chung Myung could say another word, Hyun Jong was already shouting at the top of his lungs.
“You never know what will happen in the future! Mount Hua’s Medicine Hall still isn’t fully functioning! If someone gets hurt, we’ll need the Honwon Dan to save them! I can’t give away any more of these! You’ll have to step over my dead body if you want to take them!”
“Hah.”
Chung Myung let out a cry of admiration, as if deeply moved.
He had thought the old man was just hoarding them because he was stingy, but who would have thought there was such a profound reason behind it? As expected, no one cared for the disciples of the sect quite like Hyun Jong did.
But Hyun Jong didn’t know.
He didn’t know just how big a mistake he had just made.
“Ah, so you’re saying they should be kept for use in case of injury?”
“Th-that's right?”
Hyun Jong flinched, sensing something suspicious in Chung Myung’s tone. He had definitely said something wrong.
“Sect Leader.”
“Hm?”
“First, thank you.”
Chung Myung bowed at a perfect right angle. But the more polite he became, the more uneasy Hyun Jong felt.
Chung Myung raised his head and grinned.
“For us disciples heading to that dangerous place called Yunnan—an unbelievably dangerous place—this Honwon Dan will be a huge help! Let me say that again: that place is ridiculously dangerous! A place where no one knows what kind of disaster might happen! The land ruled by those terrifying bastards in the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace!”
No, you were just saying you were fine with dying a moment ago...
“Hah, Sect Leader. I’m fine! I, Chung Myung, would gladly throw away my life for Mount Hua.”
“U-um...”
“B-but!”
Chung Myung snapped his head around.
“If my martial uncles and senior brothers go to that dangerous land and get injured, or die, I won’t be able to close my eyes even in death!”
“Uh... wha?”
How had the conversation gone there?
“N-no, that...”
“In such a dangerous situation, if we had just one Honwon Dan... no! Three! No! Five!”
“Why are the numbers increasing...?”
You shameless robber!
“If we just had five, we could keep our lives and come back! Just five! Haa... But that won’t happen, will it? Because the Honwon Dan is for Mount Hua’s future...”
“Th-that’s...”
Chung Myung turned sharply to look at Baek Cheon.
“Martial Uncle! The Sect Leader says you’re not Mount Hua’s future!”
“Why are you dragging me into this, you lunatic!”
“That’s what I’m saying! I’m saying it! Good grief, this damned sect! The disciples are walking into lethal danger with their lives on the line, and you’re worried about some measly scraps of spiritual medicine! People come first, spiritual medicine second! Did spiritual medicine give birth to people, or did people give birth to spiritual medicine?!”
“...”
That was when it happened.
Tap.
Someone placed a hand on Hyun Jong’s shoulder.
He turned and saw Hyun Young smiling faintly with a face full of resignation.
“...Just give it to him.”
“...”
“It’s better than dying of frustration, isn’t it?”
“Grrrgh...”
Hyun Jong grabbed his head.
“Fine, take it! You brigand!”
As time went on, the words Hyun Jong used for Chung Myung only grew rougher and rougher.