I Am Mount Hua’s Third-Generation Disciple, Chung Myung (1)
A little while earlier.
“Wasn’t that a little too easy, senior brother?”
At Hyun-beop’s words, Hyun Dang smiled faintly.
“A perfect victory sounds nice enough. But a victory that leaves the enemy no room at all only creates trouble after the fact.”
“Hmm. That’s true enough…”
“Of course, if I had pushed Hyun Jong a little harder there, we might have gained more. But didn’t you see it? The disciples were practically clinging to Hyun Jong. Do you really think the gains we made would have stayed gains?”
Hyun-beop had seen it clearly, of course.
The sight of Mount Hua’s disciples openly revealing their hostility.
So Mount Hua is turning upside down.
Something they could never have imagined back when they had been in Mount Hua.
No matter what sins they had committed, they had once been senior men of the sect. And yet how could their own disciples show such blatant hostility?
“That was the time to step back. Thanks to that, Hyun Jong also backed off, didn’t he?”
“I suppose the fact that he lacks legitimacy was fatal.”
“It must have been.”
Hyun Dang let out a thin, sharp smile.
In the end, the position of sect leader was inherited from the previous generation. For the time being, Hyun Jong had simply been calling himself the sect leader, but now, strictly speaking, there was no one in Mount Hua who could claim that title except Hyun Dang.
After all, Hyun Dang had merely left the sect. He had never relinquished the position of sect leader.
“That stubborn bastard even gave ground in the end. He must know himself that he’s in the wrong.”
At Hyun-beop’s words, Hyun Dang said nothing, only wearing that strange smile.
“But looking at what he did today, it doesn’t seem like he’s planning to retreat so easily.”
“People don’t give up what they have easily. Mount Hua isn’t the Mount Hua of old, is it? Of course he’d be greedy.”
Hyun Dang’s lips curled.
“But that is precisely why he’s easy to deal with. A lofty Daoist hermit buried in the mountains, refining himself, cannot be handled by the laws of the world—but someone with greed can be predicted.”
Hyun-beop smiled as he looked at Hyun Dang.
Whatever the case, they had practically won today. They had evaded Hyun Jong’s attempt to drive them out, and even secured the right to remain in Mount Hua.
If time continued to pass like this, Hyun Jong’s position would only weaken further, and naturally, theirs would grow stronger day by day.
“So.”
Hyun Dang rose from his seat and spoke to the retainers.
“Until now, we were the ones taking the lead. From this point on, you will have much to do. The disciples of Mount Hua are all tightly clustered around the sect leader right now. You must seep into their midst if things are to go smoothly later. Understand?”
“Don’t worry, Grandfather!”
“Getting those mountain-dwelling martial fanatics to open up is nothing.”
“We’ll handle it perfectly.”
At the energetic replies, Hyun Dang nodded. Then he slowly curled his lips into a sinister smile.
Hyun Jong… what an arrogant bastard.
He had tried to appear as calm as possible, but Hyun Jong’s expression as he had pressured him still would not leave his mind.
The same man who once could not even meet his eyes now dared to raise his chin and oppose him.
You’re not the old Hyun Jong anymore.
But he would soon learn.
Just as Hyun Jong was no longer the Hyun Jong of the past, neither was he the Hyun Dang of the past.
At that moment, Hyun-beop, his face slightly stiffened, spoke up.
“There’s something that bothers me, senior brother.”
“Hmm?”
“One of Hyun Jong’s words. That part where he said for us to leave Mount Hua… that he said it for our sake.”
Then he tilted his head, still unable to make sense of it.
“I don’t understand it. Considering Hyun Jong’s personality, it doesn’t seem like he would have said something like that for no reason…”
“...Bluffing, probably.”
Hyun Dang merely snorted and brushed it aside.
“What could possibly happen just because we’re in Mount Hua? It’s not as if our ancestors will grow angry and descend from the heavens.”
“That’s true enough. Hahaha!”
It was right then, as Hyun-beop laughed heartily, that—
KWAAAANG!
With a thunderous crash, the doors of Cheongmaegwan were blown apart and splintered inward.
“W-what the hell!”
“Who the hell is that!”
Hyun Dang, startled, turned toward the door.
Through the gaping entrance where the doors had been shattered, some bastard was strolling in as if he owned the place.
Who…?
From the clothing, he was clearly a Mount Hua disciple, but the face was unfamiliar. It was someone Hyun Dang had never seen since arriving at Mount Hua.
“Tsk, tsk, this…”
As he came closer, Hyun Dang’s brow furrowed and his tongue clicked in disgust at the sight.
His robes were a mess, thrown on any old how.
His long hair was completely unkempt, tied up haphazardly on top of his head, and the way he walked was loose and insolent to the point of looking improper.
And dangling from that loose hand was a wine bottle.
Just what the hell happened to Mount Hua?
Such a thing would only be possible if the sect’s discipline had truly rotted away.
As if sensing his displeasure, one of the retainers seated near the front sprang to his feet and blocked the way of the approaching Mount Hua disciple.
And then…
CRAAACK!
“...!”
Thud.
“...Huh?”
He had been struck in the head with a wine bottle.
Hyun Dang’s mouth fell open as he watched the retainer crumple straight to the floor.
W-what is happening?
Something was clearly happening right before his eyes, but his mind refused to make sense of the process.
So then.
Did that Mount Hua disciple just smash a wine bottle over his retainer’s head?
Huh?
Not only Hyun Dang, but Hyun-beop as well stood there blankly, unable to close their mouths.
What in the world…?
Then it happened.
“I came from hell, you bastards!”
The Mount Hua disciple roared and charged forward without a second thought.
“W-what the hell is this!”
“Stop him! Stop him!”
Startled by that murderous momentum, the retainers hurriedly rushed to block his path.
But it did not take long for them to realize just how badly they had chosen.
WHACK!
“Aagh!”
WHACK!
“Aaagh!”
“You bastards! Who the hell do you think you’re blocking!”
Everyone who stood in his way was sent flying left and right.
The ones who were merely flung aside counted among the fortunate.
WHAAAAAAAAACK!
One man, too startled to run or attack, was kicked squarely in the jaw and shot clean through the ceiling of Cheongmaegwan.
CRACK!
“...”
Dangling there, with his head embedded in the ceiling and swaying back and forth, the man left Hyun Dang standing motionless, too stunned to move.
He didn’t even know what words could possibly describe this situation.
Am I dreaming?
No, impossible.
Of course not.
But wasn’t this too absurd to be real?
The Mount Hua disciple who had literally nailed a man into the ceiling now tilted his head from side to side and began walking toward Hyun Dang and Hyun-beop.
Only then did Hyun-beop finally come to his senses. There was an obvious question he should have asked the moment the man entered.
“Y-you! Who are you?”
“Haa… seriously, you bastards…”
“...Hm?”
“You got eyes?”
The Mount Hua disciple pointed at the plum blossom embroidered on his chest.
Plum blossom?
And what of it?
Hyun-beop’s face tightened slightly in confusion, and the disciple’s own face twisted with irritation.
“If you’ve got eyes, you should be able to tell I’m with Mount Hua. You come into someone else’s house and sit around like you own the place, then ask the owner, what? Who? Whooo?”
...
At that moment, Hyun-beop had a terrible premonition.
This bastard is insane.
It wasn’t just because of what he was saying. His manner of speaking, every facial expression that accompanied it, every hand gesture—everything about him was bizarre.
“And who the hell are you bastards? If you see the owner in his own house, the polite thing is to introduce yourselves first! Kids these days have no manners, I swear!”
“...”
Hyun Dang felt his mind go fuzzy at being called “kids these days” by some blue-and-green brat.
“Y-you insolent little—!”
“Why, you old fossil!!”
“Ugh...”
In the end, Hyun Dang clutched the back of his neck.
“S-senior brother!”
“Father! Are you all right?”
The people around him rushed over in a flurry and supported him.
Hyun Dang exhaled harshly, trying to force down the churning in his stomach. But even then, he did not forget to glare at the strange creature before him, a man unlike anything he had ever seen in his life.
“J-just who are you?”
“You really can’t understand human speech, can you? Have you gone senile?”
“Grrk…”
“Senior brother! Senior brother, pull yourself together!”
Hyun Dang seized Hyun-beop’s shoulder with trembling fingers.
At that pitiful sight, Hyun-beop gritted his teeth and shouted, “You’re clearly a Mount Hua disciple, so how can you be this disrespectful after seeing the senior men of the sect?”
“Senior men?”
“That’s right!”
“Hah?”
The Mount Hua disciple—Chung Myung—let out a snort and swept his gaze across the people inside Cheongmaegwan.
It was an openly contemptuous look.
After giving everyone a once-over, Chung Myung tilted his head and asked, “Where’s the senior man?”
“W-what?”
“I don’t see him. Where the hell is this so-called senior man?”
“Y-you little—!”
Hyun-beop barked back in anger.
But Chung Myung only sneered and said, “You old fossils leave your brains down the mountain or something? A bunch of bone-lickers crawl in and start acting all senior-man-ish. I’ll fold your waists backward so cleanly I could toss you straight into Zhongnan Mountain!”
Baek Cheon, who had followed Chung Myung into Cheongmaegwan, briefly wondered, Why Zhongnan Mountain? But right now, there was no chance to ask something so trivial.
Chung Myung’s eyes burned.
“You want to know who I am?”
The hellfire in that stare made everyone flinch.
“I am Mount Hua’s third-generation disciple, Chung Myung, you bastards!”
“C-Chung Myung?”
So this bastard was…?
“Mount Hua Divine Dragon!”
“T-that man!”
Everyone staring at Chung Myung cried out in alarm.
Mount Hua Divine Dragon.
The foremost genius of the younger generation, the one who had effectively won the martial arts tournament and made his name known throughout the world.
The future of Mount Hua, the one many already said had the position of world’s greatest master practically reserved for him.
That was this man?
And yet…
“He’s only a third-generation disciple, and he’s this insolent toward the senior men? Where is Hyun Jong!”
At Hyun-beop’s roar, Chung Myung snorted.
“Have you old men left your brains at the foot of the mountain? Who said you were my senior men?”
“You little shit! Even if we left Mount Hua, the fact remains that we are men who once placed our names on the sect’s register!”
At that thunderous rebuke, Chung Myung scratched his ear as if impressed.
“Who’s barking over there?”
“W-well, this bastard…”
“Wow, you really are quick with the ‘you bastard,’ aren’t you? Hey, old man.”
Chung Myung cocked his head to one side and blew on the finger that had just dug into his ear.
“Fine. Yeah. Good answer. So you’re my senior men?”
“That’s right!”
“Well, saying it doesn’t prove it. I’ll tell you something very simple. A way for you to prove you’re really my senior men. If you can do it, I’ll bow my head and apologize right this second.”
“...A way?”
Chung Myung jerked his chin toward Hyun-beop.
“Old man, can you use the Plum Blossom Sword Art?”
“...”
“No. I won’t even ask that much. What about Chilmaegeom?”
“...”
“Do you remember the Yukhap Sword?”
“I—I do remember that.”
“How impressive.”
“...”
Hyun-beop found himself swallowing his words.
Honestly, could those who had abandoned Mount Hua and become laymen possibly have continued practicing Mount Hua’s sword arts?
“Then…”
Still standing at an angle, Chung Myung swept them with a look of utter disdain.
“These so-called senior men of Mount Hua don’t even know how to use Mount Hua sword arts.”
“...”
“They didn’t even do anything for Mount Hua while they were here.”
“...”
“You ran off when the sect was struggling, lived well, ate well, and now you crawl back in like rats to demand respect?”
Blue madness began to glint in Chung Myung’s eyes.
“Do you bastards think Mount Hua is some joke? You throw it away whenever you want, then come back to pick it up when you need it? I’m getting pissed, you bastards!”
And then he rolled his eyes up as if he might truly fly apart from rage.
Senior men?
Senior men, my ass?
What, a bunch of blue-faced bastards suddenly show up and expect him to bow and scrape just because they say so?
Chung Myung drew the sword at his waist, still in its scabbard.
“Fine. No. That’s fine. There’s still one way to prove it.”
“...”
Hyun Dang and Hyun-beop, pressed down by that terrifying momentum, could not say a word.
They could only watch as Chung Myung tightly wrapped the sword and scabbard together so they would not separate.
“There’s no way those geezers going on about being senior men can’t handle one third-generation disciple. All of you there, come at me at once. If I lose, I’ll acknowledge you as my senior men. But!”
Chung Myung bared his teeth in a white grin.
“If you can’t handle it, you’ll have to crawl your way down Mount Hua. Let’s see who dies first, you bastards!”
Chung Myung flipped his eyes wide and charged forward. Then he smashed the head of the man in front with the sword scabbard without mercy.
The clear, ringing sound of scabbard meeting skull echoed beautifully through the Mount Hua evening.