Did You Say Mount Hua? (6)
For a moment, Chung Myung seemed to behave himself and go along quietly, but then he slyly poked his head back out again.
"Old man. I’ve got one more question."
"……What the hell kind of brat are you?"
The beast palace warriors let out incredulous snorts as they looked at Chung Myung.
"Didn’t you say you’d never seen guys like us before?"
"No. I said I’d never seen a guy like you before."
"……."
No, seriously. This man’s mouth was too much for someone he’d only just met.
"……Anyway. So there were Central Plains people captured by the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace before us too?"
"You’re asking the obvious."
"What happened to them?"
The beast palace disciple wore a faint, peculiar smile.
"Have you ever heard, in the Central Plains, of someone being captured by the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace and then released?"
"Nope."
"See? You know the answer already. So why ask?"
Chung Myung pulled his head back in, then turned to look behind him and shrugged.
"Sounds like they all died."
……Please.
Please just shut that mouth, Chung Myung. Please.
The Mount Hua disciples were now at the point where they would honestly rather get to the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace as quickly as possible. Being trapped in such a narrow space with that bastard Chung Myung was a punishment beyond all reason.
And thankfully, their wish was granted before long.
"Open the gates!"
The doors of the hall swung wide, left and right, and the ox cart carrying the Mount Hua disciples rolled slowly inside.
"Wow……."
Without realizing it, the Mount Hua disciples let out gasps of awe.
The sight before them inside the hall far surpassed anything they had imagined.
In the vast square, countless martial artists stood lined up on both sides. And around those warriors, beasts that looked extraordinary even at a glance prowled lazily to and fro.
The sight of humans and beasts living together in such harmony was so strange that it gave them a feeling they had never experienced before.
"Is that a tiger?"
"No, why is a tiger sitting next to a person?"
"That looks like a giant snake."
"……Why is he wearing a snake around his neck?"
Baek Cheon blinked.
He had heard that the warriors of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace commanded beasts, but he had never imagined they truly lived alongside them.
More than that, the beasts here were easily twice as large as the ones he knew.
"There’s no need to be surprised."
One of their escorts said coldly.
"Soon enough, you’ll be feeding those little ones until they’re stuffed."
That sounded a little weird, didn’t it?
We’re going to feed them…… ah, we’re the ones feeding them. Then they’ll be full. Right.
Chung Myung snickered.
This is an interesting sight. If I’d known it would be like this, I should’ve come to the Beast Palace before.
Maybe he really had spent too much of his previous life wandering only the Central Plains.
While they looked around, more and more beast palace warriors gathered. Just the ones visible at a glance numbered in the hundreds. And the group that had escorted them here also easily exceeded a hundred.
There was no way all the disciples of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace responsible for watching over all of Yunnan were gathered here.
Which meant the people assembled here were not even the full force of the Beast Palace.
Taking that into account, one could begin to grasp just how enormous the Beast Palace truly was.
So this is one of the Outer Palaces.
Baek Cheon’s face stiffened with tension.
Never mind how strong each of the martial artists here was; the fact that there were so many who had trained in martial arts was astonishing in itself.
Even Shaolin, under heaven, probably could not boast so many monks.
The huge beasts in front of them made the cart’s ox stop in fright on its own.
Then the beast palace warriors opened the locked door and dragged the Mount Hua disciples out. They hauled them to the center of the square.
"Hey, be careful. You’ll rip my wrist clean off!"
As soon as Chung Myung glared fiercely, the man dragging him looked at him in disbelief.
"I’ve lived a long time, and I’ve never seen someone this clueless. If you keep acting like this, I swear I’ll just—"
"What? You’ll just what? Want to know what my temper is like?"
It’d probably be better if you didn’t.
"Tsk!"
Just as the beast palace disciple was about to explode, another man standing behind him snapped coldly.
"Enough. The Palace Lord will be out soon!"
At the mention of the Palace Lord, the beast palace disciple visibly shrank back. Even from that reaction alone, it was easy to see how terrifying the Beast Palace Lord must be.
They dragged Chung Myung’s group into the center of the square and then returned to their own places, leaving them standing there.
They had truly just left them standing there.
They didn’t even take their weapons, nor did they try to bind them.
"What are they thinking, leaving us like this?"
"They probably mean it wouldn’t matter if we ran. Do you think we could cross this vast land of Yunnan, avoid their eyes, and make it all the way back to Sichuan?"
"……I guess not."
It would take at least ten days just to retrace the route they had already taken. Escaping in Yunnan, a land that could practically be called the domain of the Beast Palace, would not be easy.
"And it probably won’t be easy to flee right now either. Everyone here is…… stronger than I expected."
The Mount Hua disciples looked around with tense eyes.
It was oppressive.
The bronze bodies of the lined-up warriors were packed with dense, powerful muscle. Their eyes were all fierce and sharp. Unlike the sense of freedom one associated with the name Beast Palace, they looked more like highly disciplined soldiers.
That alone was intimidating enough, and between them, beasts roamed freely, now and then baring their teeth in threat toward the Mount Hua group.
The tiger snarling in their direction showed fangs sharp enough to be chilling.
"……If you brought that tiger to the Central Plains, people would probably start calling it a mountain spirit right away."
"At this point, isn’t that thing basically not even a tiger anymore?"
"A bird the size of a person has been flying over our heads since a moment ago."
"……I still don’t get it. Why is there a snake around his neck? Why?"
A cold shiver ran down their spines.
They were not unnerved simply because the enemy was strong. What scared them was confronting something unknown, something they had never experienced even once before.
The sense of strangeness they had felt in Yunnan and Kunming was nothing compared to what they felt now inside the Beast Palace.
It was as if this place belonged to another world.
And then, at that very moment—
Kyaaaaaa!
With a piercing cry, a streak of white lightning shot straight toward them.
"W-What the hell!"
Kyaaaaaa!
The streaking flash stopped just a step away. It was a mink, its whole body covered in pure white fur. Raising its fur and baring its threat, it looked like……
"Huh, I think it’s a spirit beast?"
"A cat?"
What?
Everyone turned to Chung Myung.
Did this bastard not have eyes?
"Ch-ch-ch-ch. Come here. Ch-ch!"
"Don’t! You’ll lose a finger!"
As Chung Myung crouched down and held out his hand toward the bristling mink, Yoon Jong and Jo Gul panicked and rushed to stop him.
But Chung Myung remained utterly unfazed.
"Why? It listens well. It’s a good one."
"……Huh?"
Jo Gul and Yoon Jong rubbed their eyes.
The white mink, which had been bristling furiously just moments ago, was now half-buried in Chung Myung’s arms, licking his hand.
And every now and then it even seemed to act cute.
"It’s desperate."
"……Did it sense something?"
The way it kept wagging its tail so earnestly looked less adorable than pleading.
"……It really is a spirit beast, huh."
"It knows a precious head when it sees one. If it knows not to get hit, then yeah, definitely a spirit beast."
They said animals could instinctively tell whether a person was good or bad.
If even a spirit beast had to wag its tail that hard, then just how rotten was Chung Myung’s personality?
Still, thanks to that, some of their tension seemed to ease.
Chung Myung even lifted the mink up and thrust it toward Baek Cheon, snickering.
"Bite him. Bite him!"
"Stop it!"
"Huzz mingr!"
Baek Cheon gritted his teeth.
Even at a time like this, he was joking around. Was he incredible or just completely insane? He couldn’t tell anymore.
And then, at that moment—
Bang!
The massive doors of the grand hall at the top of the stone steps flew open. And from within, a man strode out with magnificent confidence.
"Whoa……."
"Oh……."
At once, every Mount Hua disciple was overwhelmed by the sight.
The thick arms and legs of the man, like pillars carved from stone, bulged with coiled muscle ready to burst. The chest muscles visible through the gaps in the beast skin wrapped around his body looked harder than steel.
The long hair hanging below his shoulders was coarse and wiry, like iron wire, revealing his explosive beast-like ferocity without restraint.
T-This man is…….
Walking slowly like a tiger, the man stopped atop the steps and glared at the Mount Hua disciples with blazing eyes.
"Central Plains people!"
At the booming shout, Baek Cheon squeezed his eyes shut.
Sometimes the tone of a voice revealed more than the words themselves. In the Beast Palace Lord’s short cry, his hostility toward people of the Central Plains was laid bare.
I underestimated this from the start.
If the Beast Palace Lord’s hostility toward Central Plains people was that intense, then no matter what they did, things would not go smoothly.
Grit.
The Beast Palace Lord ground his teeth viciously and shouted,
"Who are you! Who dares disguise your identities and enter this sacred land! Speak! And if your reason is not sufficient, I will tear every one of you limb from limb and feed you to the beasts!"
His voice shook the world with immense internal power.
Baek Cheon instinctively tried to cover his ears, then flinched and lowered his hands.
What terrifying power.
Even their family head of the Dang Clan would have been outmatched by it.
Internal energy was not everything in martial arts, but at the very least, the Beast Palace Lord’s power was on a level unmatched by anyone he had seen so far.
"Speak! You cursed Central Plains bastards! If you don’t, I’ll tear you apart right here and now!"
The Beast Palace Lord’s eyes turned bloodshot.
That was not the attitude of someone willing to hear an excuse. It was the attitude of someone looking for a justifiable reason to tear them apart with impunity.
What should we do?
Cold sweat beaded on Baek Cheon’s forehead. One wrong word, and everything could become irreversible…….
That was when—
"We came from Mount Hua."
Everyone from Mount Hua whipped their heads around.
Unbeknownst to them, Chung Myung had already taken a couple of steps forward. Casually scratching the bridge of his nose, he said,
"We came looking for something. Can you help us?"
"……."
"Hey! Hey, you idiot!"
"……Hic."
Even Yu I-seol, who maintained composure no matter where she was, seemed quite shaken this time and let out a hiccup.
H-How could he say that……
"Mount Hua? Did you say Mount Hua?"
"Yes. We’re from Mount Hua."
As expected, an enormous flash of light burst from the Beast Palace Lord’s eyes.
"You mean that Mount Hua, once one of the damned Gupailbang? That Mount Hua of Shaanxi! You are disciples of that Mount Hua!"
The Beast Palace Lord’s face twisted. His voice grew twice as loud, and the internal power behind it doubled as well. The force of his voice, almost like a sonic attack, made the Mount Hua disciples’ knees wobble.
But Chung Myung did not look the least bit intimidated. He puffed out his chest and shouted back with full confidence,
"Yes. That Mount Hua!"
"You……."
The Beast Palace Lord practically kicked off the steps and charged straight toward Chung Myung with terrifying momentum.
Then he stopped like a steadfast boulder directly in front of him.
"……."
The Mount Hua disciples froze where they stood.
When the Beast Palace Lord stood before Chung Myung, they were forced to realize just how enormous he really was. Chung Myung was not short, but his head only came up to the man’s chest.
The aura spilling from that massive body was overwhelming beyond words. Just looking at him made their jaws tense and their bodies stiffen.
And completely unsuited to that aura, the Beast Palace Lord whispered, very softly,
"Mount Hua?"
Low. So low that it sounded even more threatening.
"……."
The Beast Palace Lord, who had been glaring at Chung Myung as though he meant to shred him with his eyes, suddenly flung both arms wide. It was as though he intended to slam those arms down and crush Chung Myung flat.
Baek Cheon reflexively drew his sword. But before he could even begin to attack, the Beast Palace Lord brought his arms down with force.
A scream burst from Baek Cheon’s mouth.
"No!"
Thud!
But the Beast Palace Lord’s huge hands, which had looked as if they might crush Chung Myung on the spot, instead seized both of Chung Myung’s shoulders. Holding him firmly, he spoke with great emphasis.
"Then you are the descendants of the Plum Blossom Sword Saint!"
"……Huh?"
What?
Why was that name coming up here?
"To think that in my lifetime I would meet the descendants of the Plum Blossom Sword Saint! Welcome! The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace welcomes the descendants of the Plum Blossom Sword Saint! If you are his descendants, then you are worthy to be guests of the Beast Palace!"
"……."
Huh?
Why?
"Hahahahahaha! Prepare a feast! We have guests! Guests have arrived!"
Laughing boisterously, the Beast Palace Lord shouted out.
At once, the beast palace warriors let out cheers and began moving with brisk, disciplined efficiency.
Watching the scene, Yoon Jong turned his bewildered face toward Baek Cheon.
"What in the world is going on?"
"……."
How would I know?
How would I know?