Don’t Say It Yet. (4)
The Mount Hua disciples could not calm their pounding hearts even after a day had passed.
"Can your body really change this much?"
"My God... I woke up this morning and smacked my head against the ceiling!"
"Why?"
"I just tried to get up normally, and my body shot right up to the ceiling!"
"I don't even feel like I’m in my own body anymore."
The power of the Jaso-dan was truly incredible.
No, to them, it was nothing short of miraculous. Who would have imagined that swallowing a single elixir could transform the body so completely?
They had thought it would only increase their internal energy, but this felt more like their flesh itself had been replaced with something better.
Especially those who had once eaten the Maehwadan Chung Myung gave them in the past were now keenly aware of just how extraordinary this spiritual medicine was.
"Is the latrine still crowded?"
"Don’t even ask. I spent a full fifteen minutes peeing today."
"Then die, you idiot! What kind of nonsense is that?"
"I’m serious!"
Most of the disciples couldn’t purge the impure energy from their bodies all at once the way Baek Cheon and the others had. But that did not mean the elixir had no effect; over the course of several days, their bodies were steadily expelling the waste.
Purification of the flesh.
They had attained, through a single elixir, the state countless martial artists dreamed of reaching even in their sleep.
Of course, there was a difference between attaining that state through one’s own martial skill and receiving it by external aid, but even so, it was still an astonishing achievement.
Even while eating, everyone could not hide their excitement. The dining hall was in an uproar, but no one had any intention of stopping the others.
Right now, everyone simply wanted to drown in this feeling.
The one thing that quieted the great commotion was a single casual remark from someone.
"At this rate, won’t we actually get stronger than Mount Hua used to be?"
"... "
As though by prior agreement, everyone fell silent at once.
Then they all turned toward the voice.
The Baek-generation disciple who had spoken looked around in embarrassment, as if he had not expected a single comment to provoke such a reaction.
"... "
The reason everyone had gone quiet was not because the statement sounded absurd. It was because, for the first time, it no longer sounded like a joke.
Of course, everyone knew that Sect Leader Hyun Jong’s goal was to restore Mount Hua to its former glory.
But most of the people here had only been minding their own training before Chung Myung had suddenly seized them by the hair and dragged them forward by force.
Lately, it had been the other senior brothers causing chaos rather than Chung Myung...
Still!
What had once seemed like a dream floating in the air was finally beginning to take visible shape.
"...Maybe it’s not impossible?"
"Idiot, watch your mouth..."
"No, seriously. I don’t know how strong Mount Hua used to be, but we’re getting ridiculously strong right now."
"Hmm..."
"We even beat Zhongnan! And Senior Brother even beat that Wudang bastard, didn’t he? Maybe we’re way stronger than we think."
"If Chung Myung hits you once, you’d change your mind."
"Then look at it the other way around—we’re the ones who can take on Chung Myung."
Everyone’s faces grew serious.
The truth was, they did not really know how strong they themselves were. They had rarely had the chance to leave the sect and test their strength against the wider world.
All they had to go on were rough guesses based on what they had heard about Baek Cheon and Chung Myung’s exploits.
Baek Cheon had already been stronger than Oryong before he ever took Jaso-dan. So how much stronger was he now? And what about the rest of them?
"One thing is certain..."
When Baek Sang spoke, everyone turned to look at him.
"That dream no longer seems entirely impossible."
Everyone nodded.
"Remember this, all of you. Remember why Senior Brother Baek Cheon, Yu Sago, and the third-generation disciples went all the way to Yunnan and back. They made that long journey without hesitation to create the elixir for us. We owe it to them to work even harder and repay that kindness!"
"Yes, sir!"
"We’ll do our best, Sasuk!"
Baek Sang quietly nodded.
"Eat as much as you can! Fill yourselves up and train until you drop! Then what we just said today may one day no longer be a dream!"
"Yes!"
At the resounding answer, the Mount Hua disciples began to devour their food with frightening enthusiasm.
And in one corner, Dang Soso—eating her meal there—looked at everyone with a deeply grave expression.
This isn’t a joke.
The power of Jaso-dan, which she had experienced in her own body, was so absurd it was almost offensive.
Even Dang Soso had never imagined that an elixir like this could exist.
Look at them.
At the eyes of the young Mount Hua disciples.
A place with this many people possessing this level of internal energy exists in the martial world?
Even Shaolin would struggle, she thought.
Of course, she had never actually seen Shaolin, so it was only a guess. But no matter how she thought about it, judging by internal energy alone, Mount Hua was now no different from a sect that stood among the very best in the world.
And if Mount Hua’s old martial arts were added to that?
This really isn’t a dream.
Dang Soso bit down hard on her lower lip.
Everyone else was burning with determination; she did not want to be the only one standing aside and staring blankly. She was a disciple of Mount Hua now, too.
I’ve got to do my best too!
She already had more than enough internal energy. If she could match that with training, she might just become a heroine whose name would echo across the world.
She wanted to be known not as Dang Gun-ak’s daughter, but as Dang Soso, the female swordmaster of Mount Hua.
Starting tomorrow, I’ll train like hell!
But Dang Soso did not know what it meant that Chung Myung had returned.
* * *
"Hii... hiiiiik."
Dang Soso broke into a cold sweat at the endless cliff stretching beneath her feet.
"Grrrgh..."
"Ughhhhhhh."
"Sa, save me..."
CRACK!
Where someone had stepped gave way, and rocks rattled down the thousand-foot cliff below.
"Eek!"
"D-Dang Sago! Focus!"
At the shout, Dang Soso barely managed to collect herself and clung to the rock with a deathly pale face.
"Grrrrgh. We didn’t have to do this for a while since that mad bastard wasn’t here!"
"I thought things would be easier now that our bodies were better... Damn it!"
No chance of that!
Dang Soso lifted her trembling arm and gripped the protruding edge of the cliff with all her strength.
"Hngh. Hnghhhh!"
Then she dragged her body upward, inch by painful inch.
Of course, she was a martial artist.
Even if she had not inherited the Dang Family’s secret techniques, she had steadily trained her inner force, and on top of that, she had the power of the Jaso-dan she had taken yesterday.
No matter how steep the cliff was, she should not have been unable to climb something of this level.
That is, if not for the rope tied around her waist.
Dang Soso stole a trembling glance downward.
The rope around her waist was wrapped tightly around a massive boulder.
Dang Soso stared at the rock hanging in midair, then finally exploded.
"Hey! How am I supposed to climb a cliff with this thing attached? Are you crazy?"
"D-Dang Sago! Don’t shout. You’ll fall!"
"Aaaaagh!"
She jerked her head up and looked toward the summit.
Veins bulged red in her eyes.
"That mad bastard!"
He had once even been someone she had considered marrying. But after learning what kind of man he was, she wanted to smash his head in more than anything else.
What kind of sect is this?
Mount Hua was completely beyond the reach of her common sense.
She could accept this ridiculous training, at least.
Every sect had its own methods of training. Even if those methods were absurdly brutal and absurdly dangerous, they were still something to be respected.
That was not the problem.
What sect in the world had third-generation disciples training second-generation disciples?
As far as she knew, Chung Myung was definitely a third-generation Cheong disciple, and among those climbing this cliff were second-generation Baek disciples as well.
So what was happening now was a ridiculous situation in which a third-generation disciple was training the second generation.
No, fine—if she were being generous, she could at least understand that much.
She could try to understand it.
Dang Soso’s eyes drifted down toward the abyss below the cliff.
Why isn’t anyone stopping this?
If something this absurd was happening, the older generation should have intervened.
And yet the Un-generation, the ones who were supposed to do exactly that, had not only failed to stop Chung Myung but had casually said,
"Hohoho. Even so, you mustn’t get hurt. Don’t worry. We’ll guard you from below so that if you fall, you won’t be injured quite as badly."
and then calmly taken their places below the cliff.
Was that not maddening?
"Grrrrrrgh!"
Dang Soso trembled all over and reached out with her hand.
"Sago! Just a little more!"
"Grrrrrrgh!"
If not for the senior brothers shouting encouragement at her, she would have fallen long ago.
The summit, not far away now, entered her view.
She clenched her teeth once more and climbed, and climbed again, toward the top.
"Kuuh!"
At last she reached the summit, but she could not even think about standing up. She collapsed face-first where she had crawled, too exhausted to move.
"Huff! Huff!"
She could feel dirt forcing its way into her mouth, but she did not even have the strength to spit it out.
Until a short while ago, something like this would have been unimaginable.
As the daughter of the Dang Family Lord, she had always been taught to carry herself properly, yet here she was, sprawled across the dirt, twitching.
"Grrrrgh. Damn it!"
Dang Soso planted both hands on the ground and pushed herself upright. At last, the disaster unfolding on the summit came into full view.
"Ughhhhhh."
"Grrrrrrgh."
"I-I think I’m going to die... huff."
Jaso-dan had made the Mount Hua disciples stronger.
But strength was always relative. Once they grew stronger, they naturally had to train at the level their new strength demanded.
Dang Soso looked dumbfounded as she watched her senior brothers and sisters repeatedly squat and rise while carrying the boulders tied around their waists.
...Are they insane?
What sect in the world trained like this?
I came here with my own two feet?
Her eyes, shaking with confusion, fear, and shock, soon landed on Chung Myung.
Unlike the others, who were groaning in pain, he was lying there as casually as if he had all the time in the world.
"... "
It was not really a strange sight.
Chung Myung often rested like that.
The only problem was that the place he was lying on was the enormous boulder Baek Cheon was carrying on his back.
"Grrr... grrr... Dammit, dammit, dammit!"
On top of the rock that was rising and falling without pause, Chung Myung sat there chomping on dried meat.
"Your speed’s dropping, Sasuk."
"Aaaagh!"
Baek Cheon let out a beastlike shout and began squatting down and rising up with even more violence.
"Good, good. That’s it!"
Chung Myung laughed uproariously.
Dang Soso’s jaw dropped. What an utterly pitiful sight.
He’s crazy. How can anyone possibly train like this?
No matter how she looked at it, this was the sort of thing that would wreck a body rather than build one. No one in the Dang Family trained this way.
Just as she was about to voice her grievances with a stiff expression—
"What are you doing?"
"Huh?"
Chung Myung turned his head slightly and looked at her.
"You’re not doing it?"
"This kind of training is..."
She was about to say something when Dang Soso suddenly shut her mouth.
Beside Baek Cheon.
Yu I-seol was carrying a boulder nearly the same size as Baek Cheon’s and training at exactly the same speed.
Even her beautiful face—which Dang Soso had once admired in awe—was now a mess of sweat and dirt. But Yu I-seol simply wore an expressionless face and focused silently on going through the training.
Seeing that, Dang Soso slowly clenched her fist.
"Why?"
When Chung Myung asked, Dang Soso looked up at him again.
"There!"
"Not there. Say it properly, Junior Sister."
"Yes, Senior Brother!"
"Why?"
"Can I carry one more rock?"
"Do whatever you want."
"Yes!"
Dang Soso found a suitably sized rock nearby, stacked it on top of the one she already had, hoisted both onto her back, and began training with a groan.
Watching that, Chung Myung secretly snorted to himself.
She’s adapting well.
Having a goal was a good thing. Having someone to follow was a good thing, too.
"Grrrgh..."
"Ughhhhhhh!"
"Grrrgh..."
At the groans coming from all around, Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
"You’re all eating the good stuff I gave you, so why are you whining about it being hard?"
That crazy bastard!
You try it, you bastard!
I want to kill him. Seriously, I want to kill him. If I can’t kill him, I at least want to stick a knife in his back once!
Venomous glares rained down on Chung Myung, but he simply chewed on his dried meat as if nothing were wrong.
"If your bodies have improved, then you need to train that much harder. Right, Sasuk?"
Baek Cheon trembled all over.
Right, this was always going to happen!
What had he expected?
Even if they had grown stronger, in Chung Myung’s eyes it would probably amount to nothing more than a bigger acorn becoming twice as big. What difference did it make if the acorn was larger?
Besides, that bastard was a master at rolling acorns downhill.
Now that the acorns he had to roll had become sturdier, he would probably be the happiest one of all.
Baek Cheon, who had by now become an expert on Chung Myung, let out a sigh as he imagined the hardships still to come.
And above Baek Cheon, Chung Myung watched everyone with a strange look in his eyes.
They’re keeping up?
He had wondered whether this might be a little too much, but it seemed the Jaso-dan’s effects were even better than he had expected.
At this rate, their bodies would surely be fully honed before long.
Then...
"Is it time for the next step?"
He closed his eyes slightly atop the rising and falling boulder, sinking into thought.
Once the body was complete, there was only one thing left.
The sword.
Just as new wine needed a new skin, a new body needed a sword art worthy of it.
He had steadily built their foundations and sharpened their understanding all this time, so now it was about time to pass on the true essence of Mount Hua.
And if one spoke of Mount Hua’s essence, then naturally that meant Mount Hua’s sword art!
The Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art!
But...
How the hell am I supposed to give it to them?
Should he just say he found it on the road?
Hngghhh.
What a headache.