We Can Make This a Little Bigger. (1)
“So…,” Hyun Jong said, his eyes sweeping over the people seated before him. “You talked to them properly, and they just went back?”
His voice was thick with disbelief. Yet the ones facing him answered with absolute confidence, as if they hadn’t a shred of guilt between them.
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“That’s right.”
In order, those were Chung Myung, Hyun Sang, and Hyun Young.
Since ancient times, when three men spoke with one voice, even the rumor that a tiger had appeared in the middle of the village was supposed to be believed, wasn’t it?
“...Those brutes just quietly went back?”
“Heh heh. They do say the human heart is like reeds in the wind.”
“...”
Hyun Jong’s eye twitched at Hyun Young’s sly reply. At last, his gaze drifted to Baek Cheon, who had been shrinking into a corner and trying to read the room.
“Baek Cheon.”
“...Yes, Sect Leader.”
“Is it true?”
“Well… uh….”
When Baek Cheon hesitated and couldn’t bring himself to answer, Hyun Young, Hyun Sang, and Chung Myung all narrowed their eyes and glared at him. In the end, Baek Cheon squeezed his eyes shut and blurted out, “I-it’s true. It’s true!”
“...”
Hyun Jong stared at him, and Baek Cheon simply turned his head away to avoid that gaze altogether.
There had been a great many things Hyun Jong wanted to say as he looked at that sight, but in the end, he swallowed them all.
Enough.
What was the point of tormenting that boy?
The real culprits were the three sitting right in front of him.
“Tch!”
Hyun Jong clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Those rascals were going straight to hell.
How had they plotted together like this and tried to make a fool of him?
No, this wasn’t even fooling him. It was like setting a crow down and insisting it was a white heron.
Chung Myung, seeing Hyun Jong at a loss for words, shrugged. “We just talked them out of it, and they went home happy.”
Yes, they must have talked them out of it.
The problem was that he’d likely done the “talking” with his fists, not his mouth! With his fists!
No, wait.
He might actually have used his mouth too.
For all Hyun Jong knew, this brat would’ve happily bitten them to death if that was what it took.
“Haaah.”
With a pained sound, Hyun Jong let out a long sigh and finally asked, “Chung Myung.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“...I’m asking this out of concern, truly.”
“Yes. Ask away.”
“...You didn’t bury anyone anywhere, did you?”
“Come on, Sect Leader. Do you really think I’d go that far? I may be a Taoist in name, but even I wouldn’t do something like that.”
Uh.
You absolutely seemed like the kind who would.
“Don’t worry. They walked back out with both feet just fine.... Uh… maybe they crawled? Hmm….”
As Chung Myung tilted his head and let his sentence trail off, Hyun Jong shut his eyes tight.
Let it go.
Dragging up what was already over would only exhaust everyone.
And hadn’t he, from the moment those old men dragged him here and effectively held him captive, already expected some version of this ending?
If he had truly wanted to stop them, he would have kicked down the door and stormed out somehow. But Hyun Jong hadn’t done that.
“...Yes. You’ve all worked hard.”
“Not at all. Hehe.”
“...”
Right. Especially you. You worked particularly hard, didn’t you….
Hyun Jong gave up on everything.
“Sect Leader.”
Just then, Hyun Sang spoke in a slightly lower voice.
“Hmm?”
“This matter isn’t something we can simply laugh off.”
At his solemn expression, Hyun Jong also hardened his face and frowned slightly.
“To be honest, this affair ended more or less without any major problems, but there’s no guarantee it will stay that way in the future.”
“What do you mean?”
“The root of this matter is that Mount Hua has become a place desirable enough to tempt outsiders.”
At that, everyone nodded.
If Mount Hua had not risen to fame in this Heavenly Martial Alliance Tournament, would Hyun Dang and his family have even bothered climbing the mountain to covet it?
“In Ha U-ryang’s case, he simply believed he had every right to come to Mount Hua, so he bared his fangs early. Put another way, that means there are countless others out there right now with bloodshot eyes, looking for a chance to use Mount Hua. They’ve just been more careful than Ha U-ryang about showing their intentions.”
Hyun Jong nodded heavily.
Then Hyun Young, who had been listening quietly, added, almost idly, “Still, it is a little strange. A sect growing in fame means it has grown stronger, but compared to the past, there are more people trying to target it.”
Chung Myung answered for him.
“Because we look easy to push around.”
“...Huh?”
Everyone turned toward the source of that flat reply.
Chung Myung wore a sullen expression. “You can’t lay a hand on Wudang or Shaolin, but Mount Hua looks like something you might be able to mess with.”
“...Hmm.”
Hyun Jong let out a sigh.
It was obvious, but that very obviousness cut straight to the heart of Mount Hua’s weakness.
It’s my fault.
Coldly speaking, every bit of fame Mount Hua had won came from the exploits of its younger disciples.
Of course, every other sect had also earned its renown through the achievements of its younger generation, but….
Those sects have first-generation disciples standing above the younger ones.
By nature, the strength of a younger disciple was a measure of the strength of the generation above them.
If Wudang’s second- and third-generation disciples made a name for themselves, then Wudang’s first-generation disciples were effectively proving their strength without having to display it directly.
But Mount Hua was desperately lacking in first-generation disciples and elders.
And their actual ability is lacking too.
They weren’t neglecting their training, of course.
The elders of the Un generation were also rebuilding their martial arts by grinding their teeth through endless effort to master the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art. But because they were older, they naturally learned new martial arts more slowly.
Compared with the promising second- and third-generation disciples, the first-generation disciples and elders who should be the backbone of the sect are too weak. So we look like an easy target.
The ones who ought to hold real power were frail, and the ones who represented the future were still young. So how could the sect not look like a place ripe for exploitation?
Hyun Jong sighed deeply.
That was the fundamental limit of a Mount Hua that had once fallen into ruin.
The Hyun generation elders, having grasped the meaning behind Chung Myung’s words, each stiffened and let out low sighs.
Those with a bit of sense all understood the situation and fell silent.
“...I feel ashamed before all of you…”
“But why do we look easy to push around? We’ve built up some fame of our own.”
Unfortunately, Yoon Jong, who lacked that same degree of insight, asked the one question he shouldn’t have.
Chung Myung stared at him for a moment before speaking.
“Sahyung.”
“Hm?”
“What are we?”
“...What are we? We’re Taoists.”
“Exactly, Taoists. Taoists who do nothing but practice martial arts on this blasted mountain peak. So what do people think of Taoists who hole up in the mountains and just polish their martial arts?”
“That would be….”
Before Yoon Jong could answer, Jo Gul jumped in first.
“A bunch of easy marks who don’t know anything about the world.”
“...That’s a little too blunt, isn’t it?”
Yoon Jong looked mildly shocked, but Jo Gul firmly shook his head.
“That’s the reality, sahyung. In fact, merchants especially like doing business with temples or monasteries in remote places. They don’t know the market and try to haggle the price down.”
“...Really?”
As if pleased that Jo Gul had said what he himself wanted to say, Chung Myung nodded vigorously.
“That’s exactly why those old men came up to Mount Hua this time too. They thought they could fool a bunch of Taoists who don’t know a thing about the world.”
“Hmmm.”
Hyun Jong stroked his beard.
This is a problem I hadn’t considered.
Hyun Young, who had been listening quietly beside him, turned to Chung Myung in curiosity. Then, with a faint smile playing at his lips, he asked, “Then what do you think we should do?”
“We need to expand our influence.”
“Influence?”
“Yes.”
Chung Myung took a small breath and said firmly, “There are plenty of sects that just sit in the mountains and practice martial arts. But the people of the world think of Wudang as a sect they can’t dare to touch, while Mount Hua or Kunlun are seen as places they can still push around a little. That has nothing to do with how strong the sect’s martial power actually is.”
“You mean it’s a matter of perception?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“Hmm.”
Hyun Young nodded as if it were certainly worth thinking about.
“Then what should we do to change that perception?”
“We need to spread the word.”
“...Spread what?”
“Yes.”
Chung Myung looked around at everyone.
“The reason Wudang or Shaolin could become sects that lead the world isn’t just because they’re strong. It’s because their influence reaches the whole world. The same was true with the temple hall incident a while back.”
“...They even tried to establish a martial hall in that tiny Namyang place.”
“Exactly. They understand something important: no matter how strong people say you are, if you’re a sect stuck up on a mountain, sulking in your own little corner, that’s the kind of treatment you’ll get.”
Jo Gul, listening to all this, said with growing frustration, “So stop circling around the point and just say it. What do you want us to do?”
Chung Myung scowled. “You’ve been listening to all that and you still need to ask? We need to do what Wudang does!”
“Huh?”
“We need branch sects! Branch sects! Compared to some Taoist up on a faraway mountain, the fists—no, the branch sects closer to the ground have far more influence. Do you even know how many branch sects Wudang and Shaolin have throughout the land?”
“...An enormous number.”
“Right. If a branch sect of Shaolin is set up next door to our house, people naturally start feeling more familiar with Shaolin and pay more attention to it. And if they even half-learn a move or two there, they start feeling like they’re practically Shaolin disciples themselves, so when something happens, they end up defending Shaolin.”
As he spoke, Chung Myung nodded repeatedly.
“That’s how you build influence.”
“Ah….”
Hyun Jong, who had been deep in thought, turned his gaze to Hyun Young.
“Hyun Young.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“Isn’t Wi Lip-san, the leader of Hwayeong Gate, staying here right now?”
“He is.”
Though with Hyun Dang’s family having suddenly shown up, he’d become much like a sack of grain laid out uselessly in the corner.
He had probably been too wary of the strange atmosphere inside the sect to even mention leaving.
“I was already thinking it was time we discussed our branch sect matters further with the leader of Hwayeong Gate. So….”
“We can make this a little bigger.”
Hyun Young and Hyun Jong looked at one another and nodded.
“Whether we move Hwayeong Gate or establish a new sect, we need to create a center that will become the heart of Mount Hua’s branch sects in the future. If we can spread Mount Hua’s branch sects across the world with that sect as the hub, then no one in the world will dare look down on Mount Hua again.”
“Hmm.”
The rough direction had been set.
“Then there’s something we should think about first, isn’t there?”
“...What do you mean?”
“Huayin is far too small a place to establish a branch sect. So we need to think of a proper location….”
At that, Chung Myung shrugged and said, “There’s nothing to think about. This is Shaanxi, and there’s only one city big enough to matter here.”
“...That’s true.”
“But then that means….”
One place surfaced in everyone’s minds.
Xi’an.
Xi’an was the capital of Shaanxi, the place where all the province’s goods gathered. Naturally, it had the largest population too.
If Mount Hua aimed to become the greatest sect in Shaanxi, and eventually the greatest sect under heaven, then it would have to begin by taking Xi’an.
“But… this is rather….”
There was, however, one obstacle to establishing a sect there.
“Zhongnan again?”
“...Haaah.”
“I’m already sick of seeing their faces.”
Xi’an was firmly controlled by Zhongnan. So if they wanted to open a branch sect there, they would inevitably come into conflict with Zhongnan.
“We’re not even picking a fight out of some personal grudge, and yet somehow it’s always them.”
Everyone gathered there could once again feel, deep in their bones, why Mount Hua and Zhongnan had snarled at each other for hundreds of years.
When such huge sects were packed into such a narrow place, there was no escaping collisions no matter what one did.
“...There’s no way to avoid a clash, is there?”
“Come on. Why’re you asking something that obvious?”
“...Right.”
At Chung Myung’s crisp reply, Hyun Jong nodded with a sigh.
“Then there’s no help for it. For now—”
Just then—
“Mount Hua Divine Dragon! Are you in there, Mount Hua Divine Dragon? Mount Hua Divine Dragon!”
“Hm?”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward the door.
That voice sounded familiar.
When Chung Myung got up and opened the door, an equally familiar face appeared outside.
“Well, if it isn’t the beggar uncle. What’s the occasion?”
Hong Dae-gwang, who had been calling for him frantically outside, frowned at the sight of Chung Myung.
“I’ve been waiting ages at the mountain gate. Why is there no one outside?”
“If there’s no one to come, there’s no guard to stand there.”
“Anyway, that’s not the important part.”
Hong Dae-gwang cut straight to the point and said urgently, “I came personally because I had some pretty important news to tell you.”
“Yeah? What news?”
“Zhongnan has shut its gates.”
“What?”
“What?”
“Huh?”
Everyone inside the room was startled and surged toward the door in a rush.
“Ow! Don’t push!”
“What are you talking about? Zhongnan shut its gates?”
At Hyun Young’s question, Hong Dae-gwang answered without hesitation, “To be exact, it’s not a full closure, but they’ve suspended outside activity for a while and are managing things internally.”
“...That’s shutting the gates.”
“Exactly.”
At Chung Myung’s remark, Hong Dae-gwang nodded.
“They must’ve felt something serious during this Heavenly Martial Alliance Tournament. Or maybe internal conflict got so bad that they needed time to sort it out. I’d have to investigate further to know for sure.”
“No, no, whatever the reason. So right now Zhongnan is shutting itself away for a while, that’s what you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
After a moment’s thought, a wicked smile spread across Chung Myung’s face.
“Sect Leader!”
“Yes!”
Now Hyun Jong was so used to understanding Chung Myung at a glance that he snapped to attention immediately.
“Go and call the leader of Hwayeong Gate at once! Now!”
“Yes, Sect Leader!”
Watching Mount Hua spring back into frantic motion, Hong Dae-gwang tilted his head.
What are they plotting now?
In any case, it was truly a sect that never knew a moment’s peace.