Good-Bye, My Friends (1)
After stepping down from the martial stage, Chung Myung strode over to his fellow disciples and spread both arms wide.
“Haha. What’s with those faces? What, did I—… huh?”
His fellow disciples were inching away from him.
“What’re you doing?”
“N-no.”
Baek Cheon gave an awkward smile, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
“Hm?”
At that strange reaction, Chung Myung frowned.
“No, I mean…”
Then he suddenly made a quick move toward them.
Whoosh.
“……”
Seeing them retreat just as fast as he advanced, Chung Myung twisted his face in annoyance.
They’re backing away?
And not just that—every one of them looked terrible. Their expressions were like they were staring at someone stricken with the plague.
“Hey, what is this, are you all sick or something? Why are you dodging me like I’m some sort of freakin’ disease?”
“You little punk! At least think before you come close to people! You’re covered head to toe in poison, and you’re sneaking up on us like nothing’s wrong! If we get poisoned, we die on the spot!”
“Huh?”
Come to think of it, yeah.
Chung Myung glanced down at himself.
Of course, he wasn’t poisoned, but his whole body was still drenched in the poison Tang Oe had sprayed everywhere.
For Chung Myung, his body would automatically neutralize it. But for his fellow disciples, the moment that poison touched them, they’d have to go to the King of the Underworld and say,
Our stupid junior got us killed because he accidentally smeared poison all over us.
What a ridiculous way to die.
Chung Myung scratched his head and looked around.
“You bastards!”
Come to think of it, not only his fellow disciples but everyone else had also backed away and was just watching him from a distance.
Seriously, what was this? Did they think he was some kind of pest god or something?
“Hm?”
“Tang Family Lord?”
“……”
Why are you standing so far away?
You’re the Lord of the Sichuan Tang Family, for heaven’s sake.
“Ahem.”
Tang Gun-ak let out a low cough and slowly, very slowly, approached Chung Myung.
As soon as Chung Myung took a sudden step toward him, Tang Gun-ak started and jerked back.
“J-just stay still!”
“……”
Ah.
This felt familiar.
Now that he thought about it, hadn’t his fellow disciples always reacted like this whenever he moved to do something in the past?
What kind of life did I live, exactly?
Chung Myung finally realized just how much of a complete disaster the Plum Blossom Sword Saint had been, and without thinking, he wiped at the corners of his eyes, which had grown a little stingy.
I’m sorry, fellow disciples.
This senior brother was the one who’d been wrong.
While Chung Myung was sighing and repenting, Tang Gun-ak took from someone who had run up behind him a dozen small bottles. Then, without hesitation, he started flinging them at Chung Myung.
“A-achoo!”
“Stay still! Stay still! Don’t even cough!”
Hey! These people!
Even after evenly scattering over a dozen powders and over a dozen medicines, Tang Gun-ak still didn’t seem at ease. With a complicated expression, he looked at Chung Myung.
“Can you feel any lingering poison?”
“……”
“I’m thinking we may need to quarantine you for about a week. I’d appreciate your coope—”
“Damn it! You old bastard!”
At that moment, flames engulfed Chung Myung’s entire body.
The poison aura around him was completely burned away by the Samadhi True Fire. Gasping, Chung Myung collapsed onto the spot and grumbled.
“Ugh, seriously, this thing eats up my internal energy like crazy.”
Calling up a small flame with his fingertips was easy enough to cover with ordinary internal energy. But summoning fire on this scale was not something normal internal energy could pull off.
Worse, after the fierce battle, his internal energy was already half depleted, so there was no helping the drain on his strength.
“All right. You handle the rest from here.”
Tang Gun-ak nodded.
Then he slowly climbed up onto the martial stage.
“Elder Council Head Tang Oe, hear me.”
Tang Oe laboriously lifted his head. But apparently he no longer had the strength left, because his body remained sprawled where it had fallen on the stage.
Tang Gun-ak infused his voice with internal energy.
His words boomed across the yard.
“Do you understand your crime?”
Tang Oe’s eyes bloodshot, he glared back.
“……W-what crime! What crime have I committed!”
Though Tang Oe’s dantian had been destroyed and he had no strength left in his body, the venom in him was still intact. Judging by the fury in his voice, he looked as if he might leap at Tang Gun-ak any second and bite out his throat.
“If I’m guilty of anything, it’s losing to that monster! But isn’t the family head guilty of the same thing as well?”
Seeing Tang Oe scream himself hoarse, practically coughing blood with rage, Tang Gun-ak shook his head.
“Victory and defeat cannot in themselves be called a crime. The crime I speak of is something else entirely.”
“……”
“Bring him here!”
Tang Gun-ak turned his gaze to one side.
Naturally, the Tang Family members who had been listening closely followed his gaze and looked that way as well.
“That…”
“The young lord?”
“What is the young lord doing?”
Tang Pae, the Tang Family’s young lord, was dragging a bound man over.
Everyone’s eyes fixed on Tang Pae. But there was one person—only one—who stared hard at the man being dragged in.
“H-how could…”
Tang Pae threw the bound man onto the martial stage.
“I brought him, Family Lord.”
“Mm.”
Tang Gun-ak gave a cold command.
“Tang Hwa!”
“F-Family Lord……”
The man called Tang Hwa trembled violently and flattened himself on the ground.
“If you confess all your sins here and now, I will spare your life.”
At those words, Tang Hwa bit his lip hard.
It’s over anyway.
The Tang Oe who had sheltered him had already lost his power and was lying there in disgrace.
Even if he tried to cling to loyalty here, all that awaited him was a miserable death—or a lifetime in the underground prison.
Why would he choose that road?
“I… I…”
“You bastard, Tang Hwa! What are you trying to say!”
Tang Oe cried out desperately, but Tang Hwa spoke on as though he couldn’t hear him.
“Under Tang Oe’s orders… I mixed Thousand-Day Drunkenness into the liquor and food meant for the Mount Hua Divine Dragon.”
The crowd around them erupted into murmurs.
Using a deadly poison in a duel?
That was a horrific act.
Defying the family head?
That, too, was something that could be debated.
But even if you added both together, they were nothing compared to the crime of poisoning the one who was about to fight. This struck at the very identity of the Tang Family itself.
For a family of poison users, this was the one thing they must never do.
“Thousand-Day Drunkenness? Such a vile thing!”
“Wait. If he was poisoned by Thousand-Day Drunkenness, how did he still fight?”
“Wouldn’t it be stranger if Thousand-Day Drunkenness worked on someone who even Ghost King’s Order couldn’t affect?”
“……Fair enough.”
The people whispering among themselves turned back to Chung Myung with fresh eyes.
They had finally grasped just what a monster that Mount Hua Divine Dragon truly was.
Waiting until the murmurs settled, Tang Gun-ak coldly spoke again.
“Are you certain the order came from Elder Council Head Tang Oe?”
“Yes.”
Tang Gun-ak’s icy gaze dropped onto Tang Oe.
“Any defense?”
“……”
Tang Oe squeezed his eyes shut.
It’s over.
Everything was over.
He would never again be treated as an elder of the Tang Family. And because they had formed a faction around him, all the grand elders of the Elder Council would lose their power and be forced into retirement in their side chambers.
With this one incident, Tang Gun-ak had seized complete and unchallenged power, and the Tang Family would now bend entirely to his will.
“Family head… I truly acted for the good of the Tang Family…”
“It is not enough to do anything at all, if the result is all you care about.”
Tang Gun-ak’s voice was devoid of feeling.
“Sincerity can only be judged when it walks hand in hand with the right process. Say no more. Your voice is beginning to dirty my ears.”
“……”
Tang Gun-ak looked away from Tang Oe and swept his gaze across the entire household before speaking.
“As the Lord of the Sichuan Tang Family, I command this!”
“Yes!”
The Tang Family’s retainers and servants all dropped to their knees.
“Tang Oe, who has committed monstrous crimes, is hereby stripped of his seat as Elder Council Head and imprisoned. Until the investigation is complete, the Elder Council shall be suspended in its function, and the grand elders of the council are not to leave their homes! Until the full truth of this matter has been made crystal clear, all members of the Tang Family must act with caution!”
“We obey the Family Lord’s command!”
“And also!”
Tang Gun-ak turned his head and looked at Chung Myung.
“Mount Hua Divine Dragon Chung Myung!”
“Yes, sir!”
This time, Chung Myung didn’t make a joke. He straightened and met Tang Gun-ak’s gaze squarely.
“Thanks to your efforts and devotion, we were given the chance to learn of the disgraceful things happening within the Tang Family and to set them right. As the Lord of the Sichuan Tang Family, I formally express my gratitude to you, your fellow disciples, and the Mount Hua Sect!”
Tang Gun-ak clasped both hands together tightly, held them out, and bowed to Chung Myung.
A formal fist-and-palm salute.
The highest courtesy a family head could show.
The Tang Family members responded in kind.
“Thank you, Mount Hua!”
“Thank you, Mount Hua Divine Dragon!”
“Thank you, disciples of Mount Hua!”
All at once, everyone bowed and returned the salute.
The Mount Hua disciples receiving the gesture felt a warmth rise in their chests before they even realized it.
We’ve been acknowledged by the Tang Family.
In just a few short years, Mount Hua—once little more than a pitiful sect cast out by the Orthodox Sects—had become a force acknowledged by the ruling family of Sichuan.
Who could have imagined a day like this would come?
Then Chung Myung stepped forward.
“As Mount Hua’s third-generation disciple, Chung Myung, I accept the Tang Family’s gratitude on behalf of Mount Hua.”
Chung Myung returned Tang Gun-ak’s salute.
“And… uh…”
He suddenly tilted his head, released the salute, and stepped back.
“Sasuk.”
“Huh?”
“You’re the one who should do this.”
“……”
“What’re you doing?”
“Ahem.”
Baek Cheon, coughing awkwardly, stepped forward.
Then he returned Tang Gun-ak’s salute and spoke.
“As Mount Hua’s second-generation disciple, Baek Cheon, I express Mount Hua’s gratitude to the Tang Family. Through this matter, I hope the friendship between our two sects will deepen further, allowing us to share our sincerity in truth.”
“Of course!”
Tang Gun-ak smiled lightly.
“That will, of course, be the case.”
“Wooooooaahhhhhhh!”
“Long live the Sichuan Tang Family!”
“Long live Mount Hua!”
The moment the family head finished speaking, cheers erupted from all directions.
It was the instant Tang Gun-ak crushed the Elder Council and seized perfect authority, and also the instant Mount Hua, with the Mount Hua Divine Dragon who had brought down Tang Oe, formally forged an alliance with them.
Because everything had unfolded so quickly, it was hard for everyone to fully grasp the situation. But even just by looking at the family head’s attitude and the Mount Hua disciples’ response, anyone could tell this was a gain for the Tang Family.
Cheers kept pouring down.
Amid that noise, Chung Myung rolled his shoulders.
“What’s there to cheer about? It’s not that big a deal.”
“Chung Myung.”
At that, Baek Cheon turned to him with a stiff expression. His voice, too, was unusually serious.
“Huh?”
“You did something incredible.”
“Hehe. Well, obviously…”
“But!”
“Huh?”
Baek Cheon glared at him, his face filled with fury.
“If you’re going to pull something like this again, tell us first!”
“No, I mean, was there really any need to—”
“You must!”
“……”
Chung Myung, who had been about to say something, flinched at Baek Cheon’s eyes. They were, quite rarely, truly angry.
“You may not have cared at all about that poison, but we thought you were dead, you damn bastard!”
Then Yoon Jong spoke up from behind him.
“……Honestly, that’s a bit much.”
“Right?”
When Baek Cheon snapped around to glare, Yoon Jong and Jo Gul both shrank back and lowered their eyes. Baek Cheon turned back to Chung Myung and said once more,
“Remember what I’m telling you. If you ever do something like this again without telling us, I won’t hold back next time.”
Chung Myung opened his mouth as though to argue, then shut it again.
His face twitched a little before he finally let out a long sigh.
“Fine, fine. I get it. Next time, I’ll tell you.”
“You damned bastard.”
Baek Cheon sighed and shook his head.
“Now turn around properly!”
“Huh?”
Baek Cheon grabbed Chung Myung by the shoulder and turned him around. Then the cheering Tang Family filled Chung Myung’s view.
“That’s the cheer they’re sending you.”
“……”
Chung Myung stared at the tidal wave of cheers with a dazed expression.
Have I ever gotten applause like this outside of Mount Hua?
Well.
Back when he had been the Plum Blossom Sword Saint, he had accomplished things far greater than this countless times, but he had never once received applause this pure.
“At least wave back.”
A smile touched Chung Myung’s mouth.
Well.
What did it matter!
“Oh, my goodness! Thank you! Seriously, why are you making such a fuss over something like this? Hahaha! Yes, yes! Thank you, thank you.”
Watching Chung Myung acting shamelessly as ever, the Mount Hua disciples all burst into soft laughter.
“Wow… that really was amazing.”
Tang Jan shivered as he stared at Chung Myung from afar.
I really did try to pick a fight with that person.
It was a miracle he still had his head attached.
“Sister, wasn’t that really amazing?”
“……It was.”
“The Mount Hua Divine Dragon really is the finest young master in all the world. He’s incredible.”
“Not him.”
“Huh?”
Tang Jan looked at his sister in confusion.
Tang Soso’s gaze was locked on one place alone. Following that gaze, Tang Jan found an unexpected person and frowned.
“Yu I-seol?”
“Jan-ah.”
“Yes, Sister.”
“I’ve decided.”
“Decided what?”
As though she could never look away, Tang Soso stared at Yu I-seol without blinking.
“I…”
She bit her lip slightly, then said with unwavering resolve,
“I’m going to join Mount Hua.”