Shaolin or Whatever (5)
"It's the finals."
"Damn. It really is the finals."
"...No, if you think about it, it was obvious enough, but still...."
The Mount Hua disciples shook their heads as they looked over at Chung Myung, who was dozing off in a corner.
"That guy really doesn't seem human."
Come to think of it, everyone who had talked about winning the tournament before it even began had already been knocked out.
Namgung Do-wi of the Namgung Family had been smashed to pieces by Chung Myung’s hand, and Jin Geum-ryong of Southern Edge had even lost to Baek Cheon and been eliminated.
Wudang had done fairly well, but in the end they had failed to break into the top eight, and even the Pang Family, who had been expected to go far, had ended up losing to Yu I-seol and staining their own reputation.
That was how martial arts tournaments usually went.
If the people everyone rated as strong simply advanced smoothly and won, who would ever care about a tournament?
A martial arts tournament always had to come with surprises and the appearance of new powerhouses.
That was why the people of the martial world were so obsessed with them.
In the end, the two who remained at the final were Chung Myung, who had long been called the greatest of the younger generation while still suffering from a strange kind of underestimation, and Hye Yeon, who had been virtually unknown before the tournament began.
Who in the world could have imagined such an outcome?
"He's a real monster."
"Every now and then, I really wonder if that thing is even a person."
The Mount Hua disciples shivered, but strangely enough, every face among them was full of pride.
And why wouldn't they be?
The monster of Mount Hua was becoming a monster of the entire world.
"The people out there should suffer under him for once."
"Then maybe they'll understand how we feel, even a little."
Baek Cheon, who had been listening to that conversation, let out a faint laugh. But in truth, his own feelings were no different.
He really is pulling this off.
Doing what everyone assumed was inevitable, and doing it as if it were the most natural thing in the world, was surprisingly difficult.
And yet Chung Myung had done exactly that, all the way to this point, without even the slightest real crisis, and had finally reached the finals.
How much had changed in that time?
Before entering Shaolin, Mount Hua had been treated as nothing more than a fallen sect.
Even after defeating Southern Edge at the Hwajong Jihoe, they had received a silver plaque instead of a gold one.
And even after arriving at Shaolin, they had never once been expected to perform well or been looked upon kindly before the tournament began.
But now every sect in the world was watching Mount Hua.
At this very moment, gifts were piled high in front of their quarters, and whenever they walked down the road, those who recognized Mount Hua's robes looked at them with admiration.
Sometimes they felt awkward under those unfamiliar gazes, but if he were being honest, they often felt rather pleased too.
Just having earned a reputation changes things this much.
Now he could understand why martial artists were willing to draw their blades over the smallest scraps of fame.
In the martial world, reputation was not just something that made you straighten your shoulders a little.
It brought you a voice. It made others yield.
Just as they themselves had once felt crushed by the name Shaolin when they first came here, those who now looked at Mount Hua were feeling the pressure of that name.
"Sister-in-law. Are you feeling any better?"
At Baek Cheon's question, Yu I-seol gave a slight nod.
"I'm fine."
Bandages were wrapped thickly beneath the hem of her clothing, but Yu I-seol looked as calm and unconcerned as ever.
However, Dang Soso seemed rather dissatisfied with that answer.
"Fine? The physician said you need a full month of rest!"
"Quack."
"He's the Shaolin head of medicine!"
"Headless quack."
"...."
Uh....
Could it be that Sister Isseol had developed some subtle hostility toward Shaolin after her duel with Hye Yeon?
While Dang Soso was privately wondering about that, Baek Cheon nodded and said,
"If you say you're fine, then that's good enough. Still, don't push yourself. Injuries have to be treated properly. If you can't endure a little discomfort now, you'll suffer for a long time later. That wouldn't be what you want, would it?"
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Good."
With that, Baek Cheon rose to his feet.
"Everyone, listen for a moment."
Everyone gathered in the hall lifted their heads and looked at him. Once all eyes were on him, he spoke with quiet seriousness.
"You've all worked hard."
His voice was gentle, but there was weight behind it.
"Perhaps these are words that should be spoken after the finals are over. But whether we win or not, I think it's best to say this now. You've all truly worked hard."
"Not at all, Sasuk."
"You worked hard too, Sasuk!"
"Yes."
Baek Cheon smiled lightly and continued.
"We came here and gained much. The finals are still ahead of us, but the result of that match doesn't matter. What matters is what we've learned through this tournament. Let's keep striving. If we can use what we've gained here to become stronger, Mount Hua may truly recover its former glory."
"Yes!"
"We'll keep it in mind."
The Mount Hua disciples nodded with determined faces.
Just then, Hyun Jong and the elders, who had been coming down the stairs below, stopped in their tracks. Then they quietly turned and began going back upstairs, whispering among themselves.
"It seems there is no need for us to say anything."
"Indeed."
Hyun Jong smiled warmly.
They've grown.
Of course, the Mount Hua disciples had always had ambition even in the past. But it had never felt like they were walking forward with a clear sense of where they themselves needed to go.
A warm current passed through Hyun Jong's chest.
Through this tournament, they had all grown by a great deal. Now, instead of needing to be dragged along from above, they had begun to find their own path and walk it themselves.
He discreetly wiped the corner of his eye.
I have no regrets.
They had recovered, they had struggled, and now they had proven themselves.
If the ancestors of Mount Hua were watching from heaven, wouldn't they be smiling and praising them for doing well?
So now, with a proud heart....
"What're you on about?"
At that very moment, a voice came and shattered the mood cleanly in half.
"...."
The elders, who had just been warming each other with the most tender looks, glanced downward with awkward expressions.
"What? Whether we win or not? Whether we do or don'tooo?"
The moment they heard Chung Myung's growling voice, the elders looked at one another again and smiled with renewed warmth.
"...Come to think of it, I don't think I've finished sorting the documents yet."
"Ah, I happen to have something to do as well."
"Mm. Now that you mention it, so do I."
Hyun Jong and the elders exchanged glances, then, as if they'd all agreed in advance, quietly shuffled away from the stairs and headed off to their rooms one by one.
Sorry, kids.
Hyun Jong's gaze drifted downward with obvious regret, but his legs were already marching briskly and decisively toward his room.
Downstairs, Chung Myung, who had somehow already woken up, was glaring.
"What kind of idiotic nonsense are you spouting with such sincerity?! If we've come this far, we need to win by any means necessary! What, you think we'd go through all this just to hand the prize to some dog?"
Baek Cheon looked at Chung Myung and quietly smiled.
So much had changed in Mount Hua through this tournament. Compared with how they had been when they first arrived, it was no exaggeration to say that everything was different.
But that personality of his hasn't changed one bit.
At this point, he was practically an evergreen of the personality world. The only problem was that his consistency was heading in the wrong direction from start to finish.
"Chung Myung."
"What?"
"I'm not saying I doubt you'll win, but what I mean is that even if we don't, we won't be losing all that much. Runner-up is still an excellent achievement, isn't it? We don't want to put pressure on you...."
"What kind of nonsense are you dragging out like that?"
"...Huh?"
Chung Myung's brows drew together.
"The world doesn't remember second place! It only remembers first! You haven't forgotten what happened to Southern Edge when they took second at the Hwajong Jihoe, have you?"
"...Should that even count as second place?"
There were only two participants.
"Either way, second place means nothing! At this point, we have to win, no questions asked. The people in this world think second place is basically the same as dead last!"
It was the kind of thing that, if Wudang's sect leader Heo Do-jin-in, the perennial second-place finisher of the martial world, heard it, he would probably clutch the back of his neck and collapse on the spot. Chung Myung said it without the slightest hesitation.
"And!"
"Yeah?"
"If those damned bald asses win, they’ll no doubt laugh like smug little bastards and say,
'Well done.'
There's no way I can watch that. I'd rather rip my own eyes out than see that happen!"
Baek Cheon looked around at the other disciples.
Everyone was smiling at Chung Myung with expressions that clearly said,
Well, of course.
After giving a low cough, Baek Cheon looked straight at Chung Myung and spoke.
"Then let me ask you this."
"Yeah?"
"Do you have confidence that you'll win?"
"...."
Chung Myung's brow creased slightly.
"Hey, Sasuk."
"What?"
"I think you're misunderstanding something."
Then he ran a hand roughly through his tousled hair and said,
"You don't seriously think winning here means we've accomplished something amazing, do you?"
"...."
"This is just a tournament for the younger disciples, plain and simple. A sect's true strength lies in its first-generation disciples and its elders. Even if we win here, all we get is a little fame. It still doesn't put us anywhere near the lower ranks of the great sects."
Baek Cheon closed his mouth.
Chung Myung's cold words dragged him back to reality in an instant.
"The strongest younger disciples? That only means the sect has potential to become stronger later. It doesn't guarantee anything about the future. This is just a step along the way. If the senior disciples don't become stronger based on this tournament, it'll just become a joke later on."
It felt like a slackened string had been pulled tight again.
"This tournament is just Mount Hua's starting point. I'm the kind of person who doesn't leave a single thing on the table, so I'll take everything I can and climb even higher."
"...Right. You'll probably even snatch the wine jar from under the table."
"Hehe. If you praise me like that, I'm actually a little embarrassed."
"That wasn't praise, idiot."
At the sight of Chung Myung looking genuinely bashful, Baek Cheon couldn't help but laugh.
"Yes. It's only a midpoint, then."
There was so much still to be done.
Their wish was to make Mount Hua the greatest sect under heaven. If so, this was only the beginning.
But....
Baek Cheon couldn't shake the unease that had taken root in his chest.
Can Chung Myung really beat Hye Yeon?
If this had been before, he would never have had such doubts.
Chung Myung was a monster. He was simply too strong.
But after seeing Hye Yeon's Supreme Great Power, a fundamental question had arisen.
Can Mount Hua's martial arts really hold up against Shaolin's Seventy-Two Supreme Arts?
This was a matter separate from the strength of the individual.
Imagine one person holding a long straight sword while the other held a short paper knife. In such a case, victory and defeat might be decided regardless of actual skill.
No matter how strong Chung Myung was, if Shaolin's martial arts truly surpassed Mount Hua's, then wasn't there still a definite chance that he could lose to Hye Yeon?
Baek Cheon's mind once again recalled the sight of Yu I-seol's sword aura melting away like snow before Hye Yeon's Supreme Great Power.
"Chung Myung, this is...."
Just then—
Bang!
The door was thrown open violently, and Baek Sang rushed in with a face drained of all color. He looked around wildly as if he'd lost his soul, then spotted Baek Cheon and screamed as though he'd seen a ghost.
"S-sahyung!"
Sensing that something was wrong, Baek Cheon's face hardened.
"What is it?"
"A gu-guest! We have guests!"
"Huh?"
Baek Cheon tilted his head.
He had burst in as if he'd seen a ghost, only to say that guests had arrived. Who in the world could possibly have caused such a commotion?
"Who?"
"W-well...."
At that moment, through the wide-open door, two people slowly stepped inside.
Upon confirming who they were, Baek Cheon gaped.
"A-Abbot?"
If his eyes had not deceived him, the one who had just entered was Beop Jeong, the abbot of Shaolin.
And....
"Hye Yeon?"
The one standing beside him was unmistakably Hye Yeon.
Chung Myung's eyes also widened a little.
Huh?
Why the hell are you two suddenly showing up here?
Huh?