Why Don’t You People Know That? (4)
Hyaaaaaaagh!
Hyaaaaaaagh!
Seeing the marten in front of him puff up every last hair on its body, Chung Myung let out a snort of laughter.
"Sit."
Snap!
The marten, which had been bristling with its fur standing on end in a show of threat, slammed its rump to the ground the moment his words fell and froze stiffly in place.
"Come here."
Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle.
"Tsk."
He scooped the marten up with one hand. Immediately, the little creature began desperately trying to charm him, waving its front paws about, twisting its body this way and that, even flipping its belly up to show off in every possible way.
It was unbearably cute, yes.
Poor thing.
At this point, doesn’t that little guy see Chung Myung as the grim reaper or something?
If you want to live, you’ve gotta go all out. That’s right.
And yet, it was so desperate that it almost felt sad.
Just then, the Beast Palace Lord, who had finished vomiting his guts out and was only now gathering himself, looked over and said, "Hmm. Curious. Baek Ah doesn’t usually take to outsiders."
"Baek Ah?"
"That is this marten’s name. It means white lightning, so I named it Baekjeon."
"Baek Cheon?"
"Baekjeon."
"Baek Cheon?"
Enough, you damn bastard!
Baek Cheon’s face turned bright red.
"It doesn’t care much for people, and its temperament is vicious."
"Ah. Right. Absolutely."
"Despite that, it’s terribly picky. Sometimes I don’t understand what it’s thinking either."
"Krrr. You really do know it well."
Yoon Jong and Jo Gul were quick to seize Baek Cheon’s twitching arms before he could leap up and start a scene. If they hadn’t, he would have charged off any second and caused a ruckus.
"Calm down, Sasuk!"
"He wasn’t talking about you, was he!"
"Krrrrrrrng."
Baek Cheon trembled all over.
The Beast Palace Lord? Fine, maybe not. But that bastard over there clearly was!
Now he was even dragging in a marten just to take potshots at people!
Chung Myung grabbed the back of Baek Jeon’s neck and set him back down on the ground. Baekjeon glanced at him cautiously, then crept a little farther back.
The Beast Palace Lord looked sincerely impressed.
"Hoho. Even the beasts of the palace seem to take to you well. They say animals recognize human goodness. Seeing that, you must be a rather kind person."
"I’m a Daoist."
At that utterly natural exchange, the Mount Hua disciples’ jaws dropped.
Should they be shocked by Chung Myung’s shamelessness in declaring himself good because he was a Daoist, or by the Beast Palace Lord’s complete acceptance of it?
Either way, both of them are weird.
I want to go home.
"But if it’s a troublesome little thing with a nasty temper, why bother raising it?"
"Even so, that thing is the rarest of rare spiritual beasts. Even a tiger as large as a house won’t dare move in front of it."
"That tiny thing?"
"Size isn’t everything."
The Beast Palace Lord spoke words that did not match his own enormous frame at all. By now, the Mount Hua disciples were too exhausted to keep being surprised.
"All right, let’s be off."
"Yes."
Chung Myung turned to follow the Beast Palace Lord. Then he glanced back and called out, "Let’s go, Baek Ah!"
"That bastard…!"
"Please, hold it in, Sasuk!"
"I’m pretty sure he wasn’t talking to his Sasuk!"
"Krrrngngng!"
With a pained groan, Baek Cheon shuffled after the Beast Palace Lord and Chung Myung.
Even if they hadn’t stopped him, what could he have done in front of the Beast Palace Lord anyway? All that was left was frustration.
As they left the room and crossed the plaza, guards rushed over in a crowd and bowed deeply to the Beast Palace Lord.
"Palace Lord!"
"Palace Lord, where are you headed?"
The Beast Palace Lord answered lazily, "To the Divine Pond."
"T-the Divine Pond, you say?"
The guards’ gazes sharpened as they shot toward the Mount Hua disciples following behind him.
At that abruptly changed look, Baek Cheon’s expression stiffened slightly.
Looks like the Divine Pond isn’t some ordinary place.
That was why they were looking at them like that, wasn’t it? If it were a place closed to outsiders…
"Have these guests committed some grave offense? The Divine Pond, you say?"
Huh?
What?
Suspicion and doubt filled the guards’ eyes. The Mount Hua disciples shot them equally incredulous looks, asking with their eyes what kind of nonsense this was.
The Beast Palace Lord bellowed, "What offense? I’m just going there because I have business at the Divine Pond!"
"B-but, Palace Lord! The Divine Pond is…"
"Do you think I wouldn’t know something like that?"
As the Beast Palace Lord glared with his bulging eyes, the guards immediately bent at the waist.
"Forgive us, Palace Lord! We were foolish!"
"Tsk!"
He clicked his tongue in obvious displeasure, and the guards, not knowing what else to do, quietly stepped back.
Wow.
Incredible.
Only now could they truly feel how much power the Beast Palace Lord held within the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
Those guards seemed to hold a status comparable to elders in Mount Hua, and yet they could barely even speak properly to the Palace Lord.
Of course, Mount Hua’s sect leader, Hyun Jong, was respected by the elders in his own way, but compared to the Beast Palace, to say he was treated like a back-room old man would not have been an exaggeration.
Even the Tang Family wasn’t this extreme.
Whether it was a trait of the Beast Palace or of Yunnan itself, the authority wielded by the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace’s Palace Lord seemed to vastly exceed even the authority sect leaders held in the Central Plains.
"Move aside!"
The moment the Beast Palace Lord stepped forward, the guards startled and hurried out of the way. The escorts at the main gate quickly opened the doors in time with his stride.
"Long live the Palace Lord!"
"Please return safely!"
Watching the palace warriors prostrate themselves where they stood, Yoon Jong let out an admiring breath. "So the rumors were true. They say the Beast Palace Lord is practically king in Yunnan."
"Hmm, I see. I had no idea the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace had such a system. The hierarchy is even clearer than in the Central Plains."
That was Baek Cheon’s answer.
Then a blasé voice sounded beside them.
"You think so?"
"Hm?"
With both hands laced behind his head, Chung Myung said with a bored face, "I’ve never heard that the Beast Palace gives special treatment to its Palace Lord. If anything, I’ve heard the Palace Lord changes pretty often."
"…Then why?"
"What do you mean, why? Do you feel like mouthing off to those muscles over there?"
Baek Cheon’s gaze shifted to the Beast Palace Lord walking ahead.
He thought he understood what it meant to carry a mountain on one’s back… no, wait, wasn’t that the wrong phrase for this?
Still, it really did look like a moving mountain. Thanks to his upper body being mostly bare, every step made the muscles in his back ripple with forceful life.
And if one factored in the Beast Palace Lord’s notoriously explosive temper…
"…No."
"No way."
"Wouldn’t hanging ourselves be faster?"
Only then did everyone understand that absurd level of loyalty.
Chung Myung, too, kept his eyes fixed on the Palace Lord’s back as he said, "Tch. Mount Hua ought to be like this too."
"Don’t say weird stuff!"
"Don’t try to ruin my Mount Hua!"
"That’s a disaster waiting to happen!"
But no matter what the Mount Hua disciples said, Chung Myung looked thoroughly moved as he nodded at the Beast Palace Lord.
Seeing that, the Mount Hua disciples all trembled. These days, their worries about Mount Hua’s future only kept growing.
"Come along!"
"Yes."
At the Beast Palace Lord’s words, everyone quickened their steps. He led them toward the vast forest spreading behind the Beast Palace.
"This is enough to call it a jungle."
"The trees really are packed in tight. It’s a sight you rarely see in the Central Plains."
"So we have to pass through here to reach that Divine Pond, huh? But what kind of place is it for those people to have reacted like that earlier?"
The Beast Palace Lord, who had been walking ahead, must have heard him, because he answered.
"The Divine Pond is the sacred ground of the Beast Palace."
"Pardon?"
"Exactly as I said. It is sacred ground, and at the same time, forbidden ground. Here, the Divine Pond is revered, and access to it is restricted. No one of the Beast Palace may set foot in it. That includes me, the Palace Lord."
"…Ah. So that’s why?"
"But you are outsiders. Outsiders may enter the Divine Pond."
"…What?"
Baek Cheon tilted his head before he could stop himself.
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
"I mean exactly what I said. The Divine Pond is the sacred ground of the Beast Palace. Therefore, no one from the Beast Palace may carelessly set foot inside it. But you are not palace members, so it hardly matters."
"…Normally, places that are sacred or forbidden don’t let outsiders in, do they?"
"Why would they need to? If access were to be barred, then the animals would have to be barred as well."
"Humans and animals are different, aren’t they?"
"They are not."
The Beast Palace Lord shook his head.
"In the end, humans are nothing more than slightly smarter animals. You Central Plains people seem to think we raise animals out of kindness."
"I’ve heard that quite a few times."
"But strictly speaking, that’s not correct. The Beast Palace does not cherish animals because they are animals. We merely think we are not so different from them. That is why we live together in harmony."
Baek Cheon nodded, a little impressed.
"If we won’t bar animals, then we won’t bar people either. After all, what is a sacred ground except sacred ground for our own people? It is still part of nature. We don’t expect others to accept it as sacred just because we do."
"What if someone damages the sacred ground?"
"Then what changes?"
"…"
The Beast Palace Lord smirked.
"A sacred ground is a sacred ground. In whatever form it takes, it remains sacred ground. If it is damaged, that does not mean it ceases to be sacred. Obsessing over the outer shell is nothing more than the stubbornness of those who do not understand the true meaning of sacredness. If I regard it as sacred ground, then it becomes sacred ground in whatever form it may take."
"Ah…"
Baek Cheon looked at him with widened eyes.
Unexpectedly, there was deep insight hidden in those words.
That’s true enough. You wouldn’t be able to seize the Palace Lord’s seat of the Five Outer Palaces with brute strength alone.
Baek Cheon found himself thinking that this man, unlike what he outwardly appeared to be, might actually possess a very deep and wise mind.
But Chung Myung merely tilted his head, seemingly unmoved by the Beast Palace Lord’s speech, and asked, "Then isn’t there no need to call it sacred ground in the first place?"
"Hm? Is that so? I hadn’t thought about that."
"…"
No. No, he was not.
As they ventured deeper, the forest grew thicker and thicker. By now, not even a single shaft of light seemed able to properly reach the ground. The surroundings turned dark and damp.
Perhaps because they had come so deep into the woods, they occasionally encountered beasts along the way: enormous pythons so long they looked as though five or six men would need to lie end to end to match them, and even tigers that looked twice the size of those seen in the Central Plains.
Hm?
You’re asking if that wasn’t dangerous?
Well.
"Hahahaha! Ho-a, you rascal! You’ve grown big!"
A tiger let out a thunderous roar that made their pores go cold, then charged forward like a bolt from the blue. Before the Beast Palace Lord, it flopped onto its belly and began acting cute.
Yes, you’ve got to survive too.
Everyone is equal before muscles.
Man or beast, the first rule was simply to live.
A giant tiger acting like a house cat was deeply unnatural, but with the Beast Palace Lord beside them, even a tiger looked like a kitten, so it seemed fine enough.
Along the way, the Beast Palace Lord also took time to pat the beasts they passed, then frowned slightly as he looked toward the front.
"The Divine Pond is just ahead."
"Ah, we’ve finally arrived."
Unlike his earlier easygoing manner, the Beast Palace Lord now wore a solemn face.
"The Purple Wood Grass you seek—what Yunnan calls Divine Spirit Grass—was not originally so difficult to gather. There were even vast natural groves of it. But now, almost none of those groves remain."
"Why?"
"Because a hundred years ago, when the bastards of the Demonic Sect invaded, they set the whole area on fire, thinking to use flame as an attack."
"…"
"I should have seen those bastards burn to death myself."
"So did it work?"
"No. Apparently it barely had any effect at all. They said the martial artists were faster than the spread of the fire, so everyone just avoided it."
Then why did they burn it in the first place?
No, before doing something, shouldn’t you think first? Instead of causing a mess and only then figuring things out later!
"In any case, since then there has only been one place in Yunnan where Divine Spirit Grass can be found. The Divine Pond."
The Beast Palace Lord parted the dense undergrowth before them with his hand.
"Oh?"
"Waaah…"
At the sight that unfolded, the Mount Hua disciples all gaped without realizing it.
Beautiful.
No, beautiful might not even be the right word. Sacred would be more fitting.
In the middle of the thick forest, a vast pond lay nestled there. No, with a size like this, perhaps calling it a lake would be more accurate.
Encircling that lake, filled with water so clear it was almost frighteningly transparent, bloomed flowers of every color and hue—flowers none of them had ever once seen in their lives.
It was a truly magnificent sight, and yet it also filled the heart with fear.
How deep is it?
The water was perfectly clear, and yet they could not see the bottom. As the blue deepened below the surface, it felt as if one wrong step might have them dragged under and swallowed whole.
The Divine Pond.
Did it mean a pond where a god dwelled?
If so, it was an excellently chosen name. If there were truly a god, then surely this would be where such a being would reside.
"This is the Divine Pond. I cannot go any farther from here."
"Then we will…"
"Wait."
The Beast Palace Lord frowned.
"…Are we not allowed to go in?"
"No. You may come and go from the Divine Pond freely. Did I not say as much already?"
"Then why?"
"…There is one very minor problem."
"Yes?"
"Hmm. It would be better if you saw it for yourselves."
After a brief hesitation, the Beast Palace Lord reached out his hand.
Wung.
A rabbit passing by suddenly floated up into the air and was caught in the Beast Palace Lord’s grasp. Slightly startled, the rabbit twitched its nose.
"Huh? Why a rabbit all of a sudden?"
"Hmm. Watch carefully."
The Beast Palace Lord lightly tossed the rabbit toward the lake.
Plip.
The rabbit landed softly at the lake’s edge and, looking around in confusion, flicked its ears.
It was, strangely enough, a scene that made the heart feel at peace.
"What on earth is…"
And then it happened.
KWAAAANG!
Baek Cheon’s eyes bulged.
From somewhere far below the lake, in a place they could not even see, something black suddenly surged up and then burst through the surface.
"W-what is that!"
"Hiiiiiik!"
For an instant, all they could see was a cavernous mouth and the long fangs embedded within it.
That enormous maw immediately bit down on the entire area where the rabbit had been.
KWAAAAANG!
"…"
Whatever it was swallowed the rabbit whole, ground and all, then whipped its massive head around to survey the area before disappearing back into the lake.
"…"
"…"
All that remained where the rabbit had sat was a gigantic crater large enough for a person to lie down in with room to spare.
The Mount Hua disciples stared at the scene with eyes popped wide, unable to say a single word, simply dumbfounded as they watched until the ripples on the lake calmed.
After a long silence, Yu I-seol, rarely the first to speak, finally opened her mouth.
"…J-just now, was that…?"
Only then did the others hurriedly find their voices as well.
"I-it was huge. It was unbelievably huge."
"It looked like it could swallow a person in one bite."
The Beast Palace Lord silently nodded and frowned.
"That thing is called the Ink-Scaled Blood Python. A giant serpent that lives in the Divine Pond."
Huh?
A snake?
At that point, wasn’t that a dragon? A dragon?
It wasn’t that they refused to enter a sacred place because it was sacred; they were being forced to stay out because of that monster, and the place had become sacred by coercion…
"Heh… heh heh heh."
Even from Chung Myung’s mouth, a dumbfounded laugh slipped out.