I Am Mount Hua’s Third-Generation Disciple, Chung Myung (3)
"Krrk……."
After getting thoroughly trampled, Hyunbeop finally foamed at the mouth and passed out.
"Tsk."
Chung Myung, having dealt with Hyunbeop so neatly(?), snapped his head around and looked at the one man left standing: Hyun Dang.
Hyun Dang flinched and stumbled back a step, his face draining of all color.
"Y-you’re outrageously lawless!"
"Lawless?"
"That’s right!"
Hyun Dang’s eyes darted helplessly about, unable to settle anywhere. Even so, his voice was every bit as fierce as before.
"Even if we acted too far, are you not a Daoist? How can a Daoist do something so lawless? Aren’t you ashamed to stand before Mount Hua’s ancestors?"
Chung Myung snorted.
Seeing that reaction, Hyun Dang raised his voice even higher.
"This is the great crime of betraying one’s master and destroying one’s lineage! Mount Hua……"
"Old man, sounds like you know Mount Hua pretty well?"
"……What?"
"Doesn’t seem like you do. Mount Hua was never exactly big on hierarchy in the first place."
"Y-you bastard, even now……!"
"You should be grateful you ran into me."
Hyun Dang’s face twisted at the incomprehensible remark.
But Chung Myung’s words were entirely sincere.
If you’d ended up in front of Senior Brother of the Sect Leader, you wouldn’t even be standing on both legs right now.
The Great Sage Sword, Chung Mun.
He had made his name as a man of unmatched virtue and excellence, but how could anyone who led a great sect like Mount Hua have been virtuous and nothing else?
"You’ve been babbling about ancestors all this time, but if those ancestors were alive right now, old man, they’d have chopped your limbs off and thrown you into the cave of repentance."
"……"
"You asked if I wasn’t ashamed to face the ancestors?"
Like hell he would be ashamed.
Even now, it almost sounded as though he could hear the elders above them foaming at the mouth in a fit of rage.
"Fine, whatever. I’ll grant you that. People can be greedy, and they can throw their weight around. That’s just human nature. But……"
Chung Myung’s face gradually flushed red.
"I can swallow all that. But you dare look down on our Sect Leader?"
What kind of man was Hyun Jong?
He was the one who had borne the shattered remains of Mount Hua with his own body, upheld it, and protected it until now. If not for Hyun Jong, by the time Chung Myung returned, Mount Hua would not even have had a single foundation stone left.
And yet these bastards had bullied him?
That was unforgivable.
"Come here. I’m going to beat you until you’re dead, then beat you some more."
Hyun Dang bit down hard on his lip.
Reason was useless here.
Then he would have to get out of this somehow.
No matter how much of a prodigy that brat is……
Srrrrk.
Hyun Dang slowly drew his sword.
At the same time, a sharp murderous aura began to pour from his body, proof that the title he had once carried—Mount Hua’s greatest prodigy—had not been a lie.
"Oh?"
Chung Myung watched him with keen interest.
Hyun Dang clenched his teeth and thought, He’s only ever trained and sparred. He’s never really fought for his life before.
No matter how outstanding a genius he might be, a body would still stiffen before a real battle where life and death were on the line.
If he could seize that moment, Hyun Dang still had a chance.
"You’re looking down on me too much. While you lot have been training peacefully in these deep mountains, I’ve survived countless brushes with death in the cruel outside world."
"Ah. Is that so?"
Chung Myung chuckled and flicked the tip of his sword.
"Then prove it."
"You little—!"
At that instant, Hyun Dang charged at Chung Myung with terrifying speed and thrust his sword forward.
The blade, aimed precisely at Chung Myung’s center, reached his chest in the blink of an eye.
Fool! He’s exposed……
But then, in that very instant—
Twist.
Chung Myung shifted his body just enough to let the incoming blade slip past him.
What?
One step.
With just one movement, Hyun Dang’s sword had been utterly rendered useless.
Because he’d thrown in too much force, he couldn’t pull the sword back in time. Hyun Dang’s face was a picture of panic as his eyes shot up in a hurry.
And then he saw it.
Chung Myung, wearing a triumphant smile.
Chung Myung’s shoulder rotated back. His waist drew tight like a bowstring, and his foot planted into the ground as though gripping it. Every one of those motions was laid bare before Hyun Dang’s eyes.
And then—
Like an arrow loosed from a bow whose string had just been cut, Chung Myung’s fist shot straight at Hyun Dang’s face.
No, no…….
BOOOOM!
Chung Myung’s fist sent Hyun Dang’s jaw spinning.
Hyun Dang’s broken teeth sprayed in every direction, and his head snapped back so hard it looked like his neck would break.
"Gk, ngh……."
Thud.
Hyun Dang’s body crashed to the ground like a sack of straw. Watching him, Chung Myung smiled faintly and lifted his sheathed sword.
"You can’t even hold a sword properly, and you’re talking about death-defying trials? Survived a brush with death?"
Who the hell was he trying to bluff?
Did he know anything about the Demonic Sect?
Chung Myung’s eyes flashed an icy blue.
"Fine! I’ll teach you what a real brush with death looks like! Die! You bastard! Die!"
Thwack! Thump! Thud! Thwack-thwack-thwack!
Chung Myung’s sword danced as it crashed over Hyun Dang’s whole body. Hyun Dang screamed and twisted wildly, but Chung Myung’s sword knew nothing of mercy.
"Aaaagh! Ahh! Aaaaaagh!"
"And where do you think you’re screaming like that, in a sacred Daoist temple? Shut your damn mouth! Fine, I’ll teach you what manners are today!"
Excuse me.
You’re currently beating a man in a sacred Daoist temple, you know?
There were so many things one could object to, but no one could bring themselves to correct Chung Myung as he pounded Hyun Dang with lunatic eyes.
"……Uncle-disciple."
"Mm?"
"……Shouldn’t we really stop him?"
"Uh……."
Actually, maybe they really should.
Just as Baek Cheon swallowed dryly and took a step forward, someone beside him stuck their head out and peered into the courtyard.
"Don’t come out— Elder?"
Baek Cheon jumped and hurriedly stepped aside when he realized the person was Hyun Young.
Hyun Young clicked his tongue with obvious dissatisfaction and frowned.
"Tsk tsk tsk. What’s all this in a temple?"
"……Should we stop him?"
"Tsk tsk tsk tsk."
Hyun Young shook his head and turned away.
"E-Elder?"
"Tsk tsk. It’s come to this. Tsk tsk tsk tsk."
Then, as if nothing had happened, he ambled off and disappeared from the Plum Blossom Hall. Was it Baek Cheon’s imagination that the departing footsteps looked strangely cheerful?
"Uncle-disciple?"
"……"
Baek Cheon, having effectively been told to let it go, thought for a moment and then smiled faintly.
"I don’t even know anymore."
"……Yes, senior brother."
They probably wouldn’t kill him.
Probably.
Chung Myung brushed his hands off and turned around with a still-unsatisfied look on his face.
"Tch. I’ve gotten too nice. If this were the old days, I’d have really……"
At the very least, he would’ve cut off their arms and legs before thinking about it.
Training the kids really had made him this soft. Tsk tsk.
If Senior Brother Sect Leader had seen this, he probably would’ve cried and said I’d finally turned into a human being.
Or would he have been angry that he’d only beaten them this little?
Tsk.
Chung Myung strolled out and jerked his chin back.
"Clear those things out."
"……How?"
"What do you mean how? Throw them out."
"In front of the mountain gate?"
"If possible, toss them off the cliff."
"……Never mind. I’ll take care of it properly."
"Tsk."
Chung Myung shoved his disciples aside and stepped out of the Plum Blossom Hall.
Baek Cheon looked at the now utterly ruined(?) Hyun Dang and the others and shook his head.
"Even if barbarians attacked, they wouldn’t be this bad."
"……Compared to Chung Myung, barbarians are practically immortals."
"I never thought I’d hear that kind of thing in a Daoist sect."
What made it even sadder was that the remark wasn’t even that wrong.
"Anyway, those old men need to be thrown outside the mountain gate……"
Then it happened.
"No! The more I think about it, the angrier I get! You bastards, what? Who’s Mount Hua’s rightful Sect Leader? You cowards who ran away and abandoned the sect!"
"Stop him!"
"Grab him!"
Seeing Chung Myung charge back in like a bolt of lightning, the Baek generation and the Cheong generation all panicked and rushed to block him. One after another, they latched onto the legs of his trousers and hung on.
"Chung Myung! Calm down!"
"If you hit them any more, they’ll really die! Calm down, calm down!"
"Why is this brat never moderate about anything?"
"Dang! Somebody go get some danggwa candy!"
Baek Cheon clutched at Chung Myung’s waist, his face drained white as he shouted.
"Hey! Quickly haul those bastards away! Think of it as saving a life and throw them out fast! Hurry!"
"Yes, senior brother!"
The remaining disciples hurriedly hoisted the fallen men onto their shoulders. Then they sprinted for the mountain gate, sweating through their feet.
On the surface, it looked ruthlessly cold, but in truth they were practicing the Dao of saving lives, exactly as it was meant to be. If the Primordial Heavenly Lord had seen this scene, he would have smiled in approval.
Of course, he probably would have turned around after seeing one particular bastard.
"Come on, Chung Myung! Calm down now."
"They’re gone. All of them."
At that, Chung Myung finally quieted a little, though he still frowned in obvious dissatisfaction.
"Should’ve thrown them off the cliff."
"……Let’s try to live like decent people, okay? Human beings. Let’s be human beings."
"Tsk."
Chung Myung shot Baek Cheon a pure-white glare.
"The senior brothers aren’t innocent either. What, you just stood there and watched those pathetic excuses for men strut around in Mount Hua? The Sect Leader was being insulted!"
"……I’m sorry."
"If something like this happens again, don’t think. Just take the beating. Got it?"
"Ah, I got it."
"Tsk. I’m hungry. Is there any food left in the dining hall?"
Shaking off the hands that held him, Chung Myung started strolling toward the dining hall.
Everyone watching him let out deep sighs.
"……Did that actually get resolved properly?"
In terms of the outcome, yes—it could be called resolved. But the process had blown straight past Baek Cheon’s imagination.
"Either way, I feel better."
"Agreed."
At Yoon Jong and Jo Gul’s words, Baek Cheon shook his head.
"I do feel better, yes. No, really, I do. But still……"
Then it happened.
"They’re gone?"
"Huh? I thought he went to his room after that yesterday?"
"He didn’t even come out for dawn training."
"What? He wasn’t in his room."
Unease began to creep across the disciples’ faces.
Chung Myung rarely ever skipped training. Wasn’t he exactly the kind of lunatic who would still show up at the training grounds and lie down there even if he himself was skipping practice, just to make sure nobody else slacked off?
And yet he was nowhere to be seen from morning onward? That was definitely strange.
"Just where did he go……"
"Senior brother! Over there, Chung Myung’s coming!"
"Hm?"
Baek Cheon turned his gaze toward where Jo Gul was pointing.
"Huh?"
Then he tilted his head.
It wouldn’t have been strange for Chung Myung to appear anywhere on Mount Hua. But the fact that the brat who had returned yesterday was now walking back in through the mountain gate again was definitely strange.
And on top of that, he had a bottle of liquor in one hand.
Given that it was different from the bottle he’d brought yesterday, it was clear he’d gone all the way down the mountain and come back.
Unable to suppress his curiosity, Baek Cheon quickly ran over to Chung Myung.
"Where did you go?"
"Hm?"
At the question, Chung Myung shrugged.
"Nowhere. Just had some business down the mountain."
Baek Cheon frowned.
"Chung Myung. Don’t tell me you……"
"What, do you think I’m a butcher? Go beat them up again and again?"
"……Right? You didn’t, did you?"
Baek Cheon let out a breath of relief.
He had thought Chung Myung might not be able to rein in his temper and charge back to those men again.
But even as he felt relieved that Chung Myung hadn’t gone there, he also felt a strange mix of unease and comfort.
"Will it be all right?"
"What will?"
"……They were, after all, men who once belonged to the sect. Of course, there’s no problem with the sect punishing those who abandoned it, but the manner of it……"
They’d been beaten by the third-generation disciple.
If things went badly, it could turn into a scandal that damaged Mount Hua’s honor. Not just Mount Hua’s—Chung Myung’s reputation could take a hit too.
"Ah, that?"
"Yes. I just don’t……"
"Ah. Don’t worry about it."
"Hm?"
Chung Myung gave a light snort.
"I just came back from visiting the kind of guys who specialize in that sort of thing. You won’t have to worry about it again."
"……"
"Let’s go."
"……Oh."
As Chung Myung strolled toward the training grounds, Baek Cheon followed behind with a puzzled tilt of his head.
The kind of guys who specialize in that sort of thing?
Who was he talking about?
No matter how much he tried to think it through while staring at Chung Myung’s back, nothing came to mind at all.
Baek Cheon subtly turned his head and looked beyond the mountain gate.