The One Who Broke Mount Hua Was Me? (4)
He could roughly guess what was going on.
The death squad that had climbed Dae Mountain had undoubtedly been wiped out. But among the demons guarding the mountain, there must have been survivors. The Hundred Thousand Great Mountains were, after all, practically their home turf.
So it wouldn’t be strange if someone there had witnessed Chung Myung beheading the Heavenly Demon.
"Damn it all!"
Chung Myung flung the paper he’d been holding to the ground.
All the bastards who actually mattered were dead, so nobody who should’ve seen it had been around to watch, and the bastards who should’ve kept their eyes shut had seen everything instead. What kind of bullshit was that?
Jo Gul took a step back, flinching.
"Why are you suddenly so mad...?"
"Grrrrr..."
Chung Myung scrubbed his face hard with both hands.
Calm down.
There was no reason to blow up at Jo Gul. He could get angry later if he wanted to. Plenty of time for that.
"So the Demonic Sect bastards attacked and basically burned Mount Hua to the ground?"
"I don't think the damage was that catastrophic. Those guys had already spent a lot of strength forcing their way through Sichuan and into Shaanxi. Still, I heard quite a few halls were burned down. And with them, a lot of martial arts manuals were lost."
Well, that made sense. In a way, it was even understandable.
No matter how poorly the teachings were passed down, if the manuals had survived, things wouldn’t have ended up this badly. Training from a manual alone without a master was hellishly difficult, sure, but it was still infinitely better than having nothing at all.
If even those manuals had been lost, then that would explain why Mount Hua had fallen so fast.
"That explains it, but..."
It was a perfectly reasonable explanation. So why did he feel anything but satisfied? Why did it just make his insides boil?
"Ugh. Anyway, I get it."
Chung Myung dragged himself up from his seat.
"Where are you going?"
"...For a walk. I need to clear my head."
"Sasuk is going to come check on us soon. If you get scolded, don’t blame me."
"Yeah, yeah. Thanks."
Watching Chung Myung stagger off, Jo Gul shook his head in utter incomprehension.
He really is a weird one.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Fuck."
He was so furious he could feel fire roaring in his chest.
Hell, damn it to frostbite and rot!
He had risked his life—no, literally thrown it away—to chop off the Heavenly Demon’s head, and yet all the spoils had been gobbled up by other bastards while Mount Hua ended up ruined?
What kind of bullshit ending was that? Did this world even have such a thing as karma?
The more he thought about it, the more his stomach turned.
"Hah..."
By now, even looking at these pitiful idiots’ faces made it hard to work up a proper rage. They all said it had been Chung Myung’s fault—what was there to say to that?
"No, seriously. What kind of loyalty do those demon bastards have?"
Once the Heavenly Demon was dead, they should’ve just curled up somewhere and lived quietly. Instead, they came all the way to Shaanxi for revenge.
If Mount Hua had been based in Sichuan instead of Shaanxi, they’d probably have ripped the sect out by the roots.
"I can’t even call this lucky."
He tore out a handful of hair for no reason at all.
"Haah."
Still, sitting alone on the eaves and staring up at the sky as darkness began to fall did make him feel a little calmer.
That’s just how the world is.
The real reason Chung Myung was so irritated wasn’t because what he’d done had harmed Mount Hua. It was because the price of what he’d done had all been dumped onto the heads of his descendants.
If Chung Myung had still been alive to bear the aftermath himself, he would’ve swallowed it without complaint. Easily.
But he had died, and these young disciples who knew nothing had been forced to shoulder the consequences, hadn’t they? If the current state of Mount Hua was the price of that victory, then it was hard to calm the boiling rage in his gut.
"Tch. What can you do?"
No one could blame Chung Myung.
Because of him, Mount Hua had suffered terribly—but if he hadn’t killed the Heavenly Demon then, not only Mount Hua but the entire Central Plains would have collapsed.
Chung Myung had had no choice. Even if he were sent back to that moment again, he would still cut off the Heavenly Demon’s head without hesitation.
But...
"Somehow I still feel pissed."
Chung Myung let out a long sigh.
"Whatever. What’s past is past. If it’s fallen, then all I have to do is raise it back up!"
Whether he was responsible or not didn’t matter. With or without responsibility, wasn’t the job the same anyway? All he had to do was revive Mount Hua.
"There’s no point thinking about it. As long as the result is good, that’s all that matters!"
All he had to do was restore it to something stronger than it had been before it fell. That might be impossible for others, but for Chung Myung, it was doable.
A little difficult, sure.
No, a lot difficult.
In terms of difficulty, it might even be harder than cutting off the Heavenly Demon’s head, but the important thing was that it could be done, wasn’t it?
I’m getting impatient.
For someone who cultivated, impatience was poison. Moving quickly and wanting to move quickly were not the same thing. He needed to look at himself more carefully, stop rushing, and move forward at his own pace.
"All right. First, calm down."
First he needed to find out what had been ruined besides the lost manuals. And to do that, asking someone was the best way.
"Hey, Sect Leader! Get out here right now!"
Right. First, the Sect Leader...
No, wait, that wasn’t me.
Chung Myung’s eyes went wide, and he turned toward the direction the voice had come from.
The main gate?
Raucous voices were coming from far away at the main gate.
At this hour?
The sun was setting. And yet there were visitors at this time?
No, before that—what had they just said?
"Tell the Sect Leader to come out!"
Ah, right. The Sect Lea...
"The Sect Leader?"
Chung Myung stared blankly and scratched his ear.
"What did I just hear?"
The Sect Leader to come out?
No, what kind of lunatic is that?
Who the hell would dare storm Mount Hua’s main gate and call for the Sect Leader so insolently? In the old Mount Hua, that would have been unthinkable.
Their fist would’ve been buried in that mouth before such reckless words could even leave it.
But the bastards at the gate didn’t seem to have any idea what they were doing.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He heard violent pounding on the gate. At the same time, the gate itself—which had somehow just barely been holding together—began to shake as if it might break apart.
"W-w-what?"
KUUUUNG!
With a thunderous crash, the main gate finally toppled backward. As it hit the ground, it shattered into pieces and sent dust blasting in every direction.
Chung Myung stared at the scene with a blank face.
They broke the gate?
Mount Hua’s main gate?
What the hell was happening right now?
"Move in!"
More than a dozen people who had smashed the gate charged inside. Then, in perfect unison, they ran straight toward the Sect Leader’s quarters. Their coordinated movement made it look like this wasn’t the first time they’d done something like this.
At the commotion, the Un generation disciples rushed out in alarm.
"P-please wait!"
"You can’t do this!"
But the intruders were completely unreasonable.
"Get out of the way! Move!"
"Tell the Sect Leader to come out!"
"What, you touched me?"
Chung Myung’s eyes rolled.
What kind of situation is this?
The people who had broken the gate and stormed in didn’t have the slightest trace of martial prowess about them.
And yet the Un generation disciples were flustered, clearly too intimidated to stand in their way. Every time some large-braced brute thrust his belly forward, they were shoved back as if they’d been hit by cannon fire.
It wasn’t that they lacked strength and were being pushed around.
It was a resolve so desperate it could only mean one thing: no matter what happened, they absolutely, under no circumstances, wanted to make physical contact with these people.
"Umm..."
Before Chung Myung could even make sense of the situation, the intruders had pushed past the Un generation and reached the front of the Sect Leader’s quarters.
"Sect Leader! Come out now!"
"Don’t hide in there—get out here!"
"We know you’re inside! We’re not going back empty-handed today, so come out already!"
Chung Myung felt his head spinning.
Is this really happening?
Where was this place?
No matter how much Mount Hua had fallen, it was still the great Mount Hua Sect! And yet these people were making such a racket right in front of the Sect Leader’s own quarters.
"Ugh!"
Veins bulged on his forehead. But Chung Myung had no outlet for the fury surging inside him.
"What are you people doing?"
"Huh?"
One of the Un generation disciples who had been trying to stop them jerked his head around and looked up at Chung Myung.
"You, get inside at once! Why is a third-generation disciple wandering around here at this hour?"
"...Huh."
Chung Myung looked left, then right.
Come to think of it, no one else had come out to look, except him. Even after such a commotion, despite how many people must have heard it.
Is this something that happens often?
When a commotion broke out, it was human nature to stick one’s head out and look. The fact that no one was doing so, as if by prior agreement, meant there was already an established rule for how to respond when this happened.
Chung Myung, who had only recently arrived, had no way of knowing.
"What are you doing!"
Even so, shouldn’t they at least deal with those bastards first instead of nagging him, damn it?
"Sect Leader! Come out right now!"
"We’re not leaving until we get an answer today! Hiding won’t solve anything, so hurry up and come out!"
"Have you no shame!"
Whether the Un generation scolded him or not, the people crowding around the quarters didn’t stop shouting.
The nape of Chung Myung’s neck went stiff.
And then it happened.
Creak.
With a faintly grating sound, the door opened. Mount Hua’s Sect Leader, Hyun Jong, slowly stepped out.
As soon as he appeared, the Un generation disciples who had been trying to restrain the mob all bowed in respect. The Sect Leader waved them back with a small gesture, then spoke.
"What brings you all here at such a late hour?"
As expected.
Even with blood rushing to his head, Chung Myung couldn’t help admiring him.
Even if they were descendants, they had lived long lives in their own right. A person’s dignity didn’t drop just because their generation was lower or they were born later.
Every motion, every word—it all seemed to carry the air of an immortal. Thanks to that, even Chung Myung felt some of his excitement ebb away.
It was truly...
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting when you know damn well why we’re here!"
"Come down here! Right now!"
"Quit acting all calm and collected!"
Yes, he was acting calm and collected...
No, wait. That’s not it!
Hyun Jong’s expression hardened slightly as he descended. Then he let out a low sigh.
"I am neither running away nor hiding. If I leave Mount Hua, where would I even go? So everyone, please calm down and..."
"Calm down, my ass!"
Chung Myung’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Even though Hyun Jong was speaking with all the grace of an immortal, those lunatics weren’t paying him the slightest attention.
What was strange was that Hyun Jong, despite that, couldn’t say a word and was instead utterly flustered.
What exactly had he done to deserve this? It was almost as if...
Huh?
A single word flashed through Chung Myung’s mind.
"Sect Leader!"
The one who seemed to be speaking for the group jabbed an accusing finger through the air as he shouted.
"We’ve waited long enough! We can’t wait any longer!"
...
The immortal aura vanished from Hyun Jong’s face.
T-that...
No way?
"When in the world are you going to repay the money? The due date passed ages ago! We can’t take it anymore either!"
Chung Myung stared at Hyun Jong in a daze.
The image of the radiant Taoist master had turned into that of a debt-ridden man in an instant, and Hyun Jong, awkward and hunched, spoke softly.
"I-if you could just give me a little more time..."
Chung Myung clutched the back of his neck and leaned his head back.
Guh.
They had debt?
The sect had debt, when the only things left were collapsing halls?
No way.
Moisture gathered at the corners of Chung Myung’s eyes. The sky blurred.
They’ve really done it now. Crazy bastards, all of them.