What’s Opening? (4)
The Cheong-generation and Baek-generation disciples stared at Chung Myung with dark, miserable eyes.
Hadn’t they already suffered through him long enough?
If they lost to disciples from another sect, they could imagine all too well what would happen afterward.
“The problem is that I can imagine it too vividly.”
“I’d rather die.”
As the disciples let out one sigh after another, Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
“No confidence?”
“N-no, it’s not that we don’t have confidence—”
“Right? It’s not, is it?”
Baek Sang’s face went a little pale.
Does this bastard actually mean to do it?
Just as he was wondering what in the world he was supposed to say, a voice came from the side.
“Hey, Chung Myung.”
“Hm?”
One of the third-generation disciples, Yeom Jin, who had kept his mouth shut until now, finally spoke up carefully.
“I’m not doubting you or anything, but—”
“Why’re you talking all timid like some stingy old man? Just say it straight. Do I look like the kind of guy who jumps on every little word?”
“Yeah.”
“……I do?”
Was that true?
Weird.
“……Then I won’t nitpick this time, so just tell me.”
Yeom Jin thought for a moment with a peculiar expression, then opened his mouth.
“Can we really beat the disciples of the Nine Great Sects?”
Chung Myung frowned.
“You see me telling lies?”
“Yeah.”
“……Really?”
How strange…….
He didn’t think he’d ever done that.
“This time I’m serious. You can win.”
“Hmm.”
Yeom Jin wore a conflicted look.
“What’s there to be scared of? We already smashed those Zhongnan bastards, didn’t we?”
“That’s true, but…….”
Even after hearing a clear answer, Yeom Jin still hesitated, and Baek Sang gave a bitter smile before speaking in his place.
“The ones who won were the third-generation disciples and you. All the second-generation disciples lost.”
“In the end, it was still a win. That’s all that matters.”
“That may be a comforting way to look at it, but I can’t help thinking otherwise. If those third-generation disciples had instead been at the level of second-generation disciples and had properly learned Zhongnan’s superior martial arts, could we really have won?”
Meeting Chung Myung’s sullen stare, Baek Sang continued, “Just because you beat people who hadn’t even properly tasted the Southern Edge's Thirty-Six Sword Technique doesn’t mean you can say you defeated Zhongnan. It was you who beat Zhongnan, not us.”
“So…….”
After hearing Baek Sang out, Chung Myung summed it up in one line.
“You don’t think you can beat the disciples of the Nine Great Sects or the Five Great Families if they’ve properly learned martial arts?”
“You could put it that way.”
Chung Myung snorted.
“Hearing it like that, it sounds kind of weird. Didn’t that pale-faced guy over there already prove it by beating that Dragon whatever? That Mount Hua is stronger than Wudang.”
“……Don’t point at your martial uncle like that.”
And don’t call him pale-faced either, you brat!
Seeing Baek Cheon’s face flush red, Baek Sang gave a low laugh and said, “Baek Cheon sahyung is a special person, isn’t he?”
“…….”
Slowly, very slowly, Chung Myung turned to look at Baek Cheon.
The moment their eyes met, Baek Cheon’s cheek twitched.
Relax your face, you bastard.
Even so, was that any way to show your face to your martial uncle?
“And Yoon Jong, Jo Gul, and Yu Sago are special as well. Everyone recognizes their talent. But our talent is plain ordinary.”
“So you don’t have confidence?”
Baek Sang shook his head.
“Chung Myung, don’t misunderstand. Until you came, we were people for whom defeat was ordinary. We’re not saying this because we’re afraid of losing. We’re just scared.”
“Hm?”
They weren’t afraid of losing, but they were scared? What kind of nonsense was that?
Under Chung Myung’s puzzled gaze, Baek Sang gave a wry smile.
“Mount Hua is rapidly recovering its former glory. I’m afraid that I’ll become an obstacle to that Mount Hua. That people will say Mount Hua is nothing but the five of you and everyone else is meaningless. That’s what I’m scared of.”
Huuuuum.
Chung Myung’s brow furrowed.
A heavy silence settled for a moment.
Normally, he would’ve had something to say, but as Chung Myung went quiet, Baek Cheon grew a little anxious and spoke up.
“What is there to fear so much? Mount Hua has recovered its lost martial arts, and haven’t you all taken the Jaso-dan? If you can absorb its power over the time remaining and master the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art, what is there to be afraid of?”
“Sahyung. Your opponents are carefully selected prodigies from the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families. Even if we’ve taken Jaso-dan, their foundations are still stronger than ours.”
“That’s—!”
“Also, we’re only just beginning to learn the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art, while they’ve likely been practicing their sects’ superior martial arts since they were children.”
Baek Cheon hesitated for a moment, then closed his mouth in the end.
He knew very well that Baek Sang wasn’t wrong.
“So…….”
“Aah, enough!”
At that moment, Chung Myung cut Baek Sang off.
“I hate listening to whining.”
He clapped his hands over his ears and shook his head back and forth before straightening his shoulders.
“So, to put it simply, you don’t have the confidence to win against the elites of the other sects?”
“……It’s not that I don’t have confidence, just that I’m worried…….”
“You’d be able to beat a guy like Baek Cheon sahyung, but not the martial uncles?”
“U-um.”
Seeing Baek Sang unable to answer, Chung Myung snapped his fingers lightly.
“Then it’s settled.”
“……Huh?”
Grinning, Chung Myung pointed at Baek Cheon.
“Then all you have to do is get as strong as that pale bastard within the next six months. The ones who can do that can go to the tournament, right?”
Baek Sang’s eyes bulged.
“N-no, you punk. That’s…….”
“Ahh. Enough. It’s not even that hard.”
“…….”
Not hard?
Baek Sang turned his head slightly and looked at Baek Cheon. Baek Cheon was staring at the distant sky with an expression of half-enlightened resignation.
“Chung Myung. That’s not exactly…….”
“I said enough.”
“No.”
“It’s fine. It’s fine.”
“I mean…….”
“It’s nothing, really.”
“No…….”
“Enough! Enough!”
Listen to me, you little punk!
Baek Sang clutched his aching chest, feeling as though his heart might burst from frustration. Every time he talked to this bastard, it felt like he was becoming a Daoist through sheer suffering.
Chung Myung looked at him and let out a snort.
“Sahyung sure does love inventing worries for himself.”
“Hm?”
“Do you think I’d just let the martial uncles lose to a bunch of trash like that?”
“…….”
Chung Myung’s eyes went wide.
“Go ahead, try losing if you can.”
“…….”
Baek Sang, now looking as if the sky had fallen, stammered, “C-Chung Myung. I meant…….”
“Don’t worry, sahyung. I know exactly why you’re worried. I understand perfectly.”
“Hm?”
Chung Myung glared.
“It’s because you haven’t worked hard enough! Hard enough! If you’d really worked your ass off until you were practically dead, you wouldn’t be thinking like that. You’d only be thinking about smashing the heads of every bastard in sight.”
Chung Myung.
Think about it carefully. That’s not effort. That’s a personality problem.
Normal people don’t think like that no matter how hard they work, Chung Myung.
“You only start thinking like that once things get a little too bearable. This is all my fault. If I’d made the martial uncles work harder, by now they’d be full of confidence and practically flying around! It’s because I was lazy! I was lazy!”
“…….”
As Chung Myung screamed like a madman, bloodshot with insanity, the disciples’ faces gradually turned ashen.
And soon all of their gazes gathered on Baek Sang.
Why the hell did you have to say something unnecessary!
Didn’t you know this would happen? Why poke the hornet’s nest?
Damn it! Damn it! Damn iiiit!
Feeling the fierce stabs of those looks in his back, Baek Sang shuddered.
It wasn’t just me thinking that, you idiots!
Baek Cheon, who had been watching the flustered man helplessly, stepped forward with a faint smile.
“Don’t be so alarmed.”
“Sahyung!”
Baek Sang looked at Baek Cheon as if he’d met the Buddha in hell.
Right. The one person who could stop this lunatic was…….
“I agree with Chung Myung. I know because I’ve done it myself—if you truly train until you’re ready to die, fear disappears. All you can think is that there’s no way you can lose after coming this far.”
“……What?”
“So you can do it too! I’ll work hard to support you as well, so that none of you ever have to harbor the fear that you might lose!”
“…….”
Baek Cheon clenched his fist with firm resolve. Baek Sang stared at his sahyung with a soul that had clearly left his body.
He’d thought the Buddha had appeared in hell, but it had been Asura.
No, but seriously, what in the world did these people do and come back from the Yunnan trip like this?
Why were there so many Chung Myungs now?
It was already hell as it was!
“He’s not wrong.”
To make matters worse, Yu I-seol joined in to support Baek Cheon.
“Confidence comes from what you’ve built yourself.”
“Exactly.”
Baek Cheon nodded in satisfaction.
“Saying you’re scared is something you can only think about after you’ve really gone through hell. You’re not qualified to say that yet.”
“……Sahyung, you say that like you’ve actually been through it?”
“Me?”
Baek Cheon’s lips twisted.
“Well. I’m not sure. I wonder if you can say the same thing after trying to do what I did.”
“…….”
“There’s nothing to worry about. I’ll help you, and so will Yu Sago. Yoon Jong and Jo Gul too. Just as we were helped!”
Sahyung.
Why are you grinding your teeth while saying something so good?
You’re not taking your frustration out on us, are you? You’re not, right, sahyung?
“Yes! We’ll help too!”
“Don’t worry! We’ll do our best.”
In this world, there were always those who simply could not read the room.
Unfortunately for Baek Sang, he had the misfortune of having them as martial younger brothers.
And then—
The greatest misfortune among his many misfortunes opened his mouth with a serious expression.
“There’s something the martial uncles and sahyungs need to understand.”
“Huh?”
Chung Myung looked around at everyone once, then spoke in an unusually low voice.
“There may be times when I lose because I’m weak, but there’s no way Mount Hua’s martial arts are weak. If the sahyungs can properly master the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art, then you won’t need to be afraid of anyone. Not Wudang, not Shaolin.”
His voice was not loud.
It was low and quiet, which somehow made it sound even more sincere.
“Don’t worry. I, and Mount Hua, will make the martial uncles strong. So that no one in the world can dare look down on you.”
Baek Sang found himself nodding without meaning to.
Was it Chung Myung’s words that had done it?
A strange heat began to boil among the disciples.
Chung Myung might spout nonsense often, but he didn’t lie…… no, he did lie sometimes, but when it came to this…….
Well.
At any rate, it didn’t sound like a lie.
Baek Cheon picked up after Chung Myung.
“Never forget this.”
He looked over everyone and spoke with weight.
“The sect leader and the elders will guide us, and the martial uncles will help us, but in the end, the ones who must restore Mount Hua’s glory are us. We must be the main force. So lift your heads. Never forget. You are proud swordsmen of Mount Hua.”
“Yes, sahyung!”
“I’ll keep that in mind, martial uncle!”
Crack. Crack-crack.
Chung Myung rolled his neck from side to side.
“Then I’ll take that as agreement from everyone…….”
“Hm?”
He reached to his waist and drew his sword, scabbard and all.
“Let’s begin.”
“……Already?”
“What, you want to waste time? Time’s precious.”
With a jerk of his chin, Baek Cheon and Yu I-seol moved to stand before the second-generation disciples. Yoon Jong and Jo Gul stepped before the third-generation disciples.
“The basics are more or less in place now, so it’s time to move on to real combat. Three months. Exactly three months. Think of it as dying for three months. If you survive that…….”
Chung Myung grinned.
“You’ll earn the right to be called a Plum Blossom Swordsman.”
Plum Blossom Swordsman.
The moment they heard that name, long forgotten for so many years, all the disciples of Mount Hua shivered.
Once, the name Plum Blossom Swordsman had been Mount Hua’s symbol.
Now, the name that no one dared claim had left Chung Myung’s mouth.
“……But.”
Chung Myung’s eyes turned cold.
“Every name comes with a price. To carry a name means carrying the responsibility that comes with it. Don’t think you can earn that name without seeing hell while still alive.”
The disciples’ eyes hardened.
“We’re already in hell anyway. What’s there to make a fuss about?”
“Let’s start. Like you said, no need to waste time.”
“Oh?”
Chung Myung let out a snort.
So the ones who’d been whining a moment ago were finally getting serious, huh?
“Begin.”
“Understood.”
As Chung Myung stepped back slightly, Baek Cheon shouted, “One by one, from the front! You’ll spar. Those who finish will go to Chung Myung and spar again. Stop dragging your feet and move!”
“Yes!”
The ones standing in front charged forward. Watching them, Chung Myung curled one corner of his mouth.
A bunch of chicks.
Still, feathers seemed to be starting to show little by little.
If he passed down the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art over the remaining time and ran them through hell?
He’d manage it.
The Great Tournament Under Heaven would become the stage announcing Mount Hua’s rebirth.
And while I’m at it, I’ll crack the heads of the Nine Great Sects too.
Grinning, Chung Myung looked up at the sky.
Sahyung.
Senior Brother.
Just wait a little longer!
I’ll make Mount Hua’s name shake the whole world.
Chuckling, Chung Myung tightened his grip on his sword.
Time flows like a river.
Mount Hua’s time, too, flowed on without mercy.
A day.
Two days.
And then a month.
The six months passed in the blink of an eye.
And before anyone knew it, the day of the Great Tournament Under Heaven was right at hand.