A Sect Even Beggars Wouldn’t Pick Up On the Way
“……”
Gong Mun-yeon quickly composed his expression. If you’re dragged into a tiger’s den, don’t you survive as long as you keep your wits about you?
“I-I don’t know what you mean.”
“Hah? Look at this bastard.”
Chung Myung let out a scoff.
“What, do you think my eyes are made of knots? You think I wouldn’t recognize Taeul Shinsu when I see it?”
“……”
Chung Myung’s mouth twisted in a cruel grin.
“What a coincidence. Really, what a coincidence. The man running a tavern in Hwameum, the man who came to Mount Hua demanding we repay our debts, just happens to have learned the martial arts of Southern Edge? And Taeul Shinsu, too, and so well, at that?”
Cold sweat rolled down Gong Mun-yeon’s forehead. He was so shaken that he could no longer feel the pain from the places Chung Myung had struck.
Damn it.
He should have held back.
Even if it meant having his throat cut, he should never have used Taeul Shinsu. Not in front of someone from Mount Hua, of all people.
A fatal mistake.
But could it really be called a mistake?
If that bastard hadn’t driven him into a corner like this, and if he hadn’t suddenly drawn his sword and struck while Gong Mun-yeon was still reeling from the beating, then Gong Mun-yeon would never have used Taeul Shinsu, even if it cost him his life.
If it was a coincidence, then it was the worst possible coincidence. If it had been deliberate, then the depth of that bastard’s scheming was beyond frightening.
“So Southern Edge sent you?”
“……”
Gong Mun-yeon shut his mouth tightly.
Nothing he said now could serve as an excuse. If he could salvage the situation with some pathetic lie, he would gladly do it, but that was no longer possible.
In that case, it was better to stay silent than to blurt out something half-baked and reveal even more.
“Oh? So you’re clamming up.”
Chung Myung cracked his neck and walked toward Gong Mun-yeon.
“Fine. That’s loyal of you. A decent choice, in its own way. But you’ve got one thing wrong.”
“……?”
“You know what that is?”
“……What?”
“I’m not telling you.”
“……”
Southern Edge was not some easy target. The sect had long been Mount Hua’s sworn rival, so there was no reason to think highly of them, but at the very least, no one could deny that Southern Edge was a major sect among the Gupailbang.
A sect of that caliber would never handle matters carelessly. That was Chung Myung’s assessment. Whatever information Gong Mun-yeon knew would be extremely limited, and even if he knew more, there was no guarantee it was accurate.
It was enough to know that Southern Edge was involved. Anything beyond that was for Chung Myung and Mount Hua to figure out themselves.
Of course, there was no need to tell Gong Mun-yeon that.
“Damn it. The old martial world may have been harsh, but at least it wasn’t this damn petty. A bunch of Gupailbang bastards trying to wreck another sect with money instead of martial arts? And fraud, too? You guys are really something.”
Gong Mun-yeon could no longer keep his composure and shouted back.
“Hmph. From Mount Hua’s point of view, wouldn’t that actually be better?”
“Huh?”
“You should know this already! Mount Hua is finished. Wealth? Money? Things like that are just extras to a sect. A Mount Hua that has lost its martial arts can never become the Mount Hua of the past again. The difference is only whether it dies a little faster or a little later!”
“Oh?”
Chung Myung listened with apparent amusement.
“I was only trying to cut short the breath of a dying Mount Hua. You should be grateful for that, in fact. A man like you ought to understand, shouldn’t you? Mount Hua can’t come back. A sect whose lineage in martial arts has been severed is nothing but a tree that withers away and dies.”
“Says who?”
“Are you not understanding me?”
“No. I’m asking who said Mount Hua’s martial arts lineage was severed.”
“……”
Gong Mun-yeon stared at Chung Myung, dumbfounded.
If anyone else had said that, he would have scoffed and dismissed it. But when those words came out of Chung Myung’s mouth, they carried a different weight entirely.
At the very least, to Gong Mun-yeon’s eyes, Chung Myung looked like nothing less than one of Mount Hua’s senior masters.
“You bastards are trying to cut off the lineage of a perfectly healthy Mount Hua. And! Whether Mount Hua lives or dies, it’s Mount Hua that lives and dies, so what gives you the right to bury a living Mount Hua? Who gave you that authority?”
“……”
“Honestly, the windbags who love talking all have the same pathetic logic. Just say Mount Hua pissed you off so much you wanted to beat it to death. If it were Southern Edge bastards saying that, I might even give you some credit.”
He had beaten them down plenty, after all.
The closer the neighbors, the more likely they were to clash. Just as containment through distant alliance and nearby pressure was basic diplomacy, adjacent sects were bound to end up in trouble. Mount Hua and Southern Edge shared many traits, most notably that they were both Taoist sects with a strong secular influence, and even their primary use of the sword was the same.
When two major sects of similar lineage stood right next to each other, one of them was inevitably going to get chewed up.
Because of that, Chung Myung had, in the past, beaten up Southern Edge whenever he felt like it. More precisely, Southern Edge had picked fights and then been thoroughly crushed by Chung Myung.
“I am not a Southern Edge man!”
“Obviously.”
“You seem to have misunderstood, but that technique was simply something I happened to learn by chance.”
“Sure, sure. That’s what you’d say. Want me to tell you something amazing?”
“……What is it?”
“I’m not a Mount Hua man either.”
“……”
“That’s nonsense……”
“You little shit!”
“……”
Chung Myung almost spat on the ground, then froze.
Ah, the mask. That was close.
“Anyway, in return for showing me Taeul Shinsu, I’ll show you something interesting. If you recognize it, that’ll be hilarious. If you don’t, well, too bad.”
Slowly, Chung Myung extended his sword.
“Tell the man who sent you this very clearly.”
Chung Myung’s aura changed all at once.
The playful air vanished. His back, which had been bent and slouched, straightened rigidly, and his drooping shoulders snapped back into place.
It was the posture of a painting, perfect in every line.
Seeing it, Gong Mun-yeon found his mouth parting before he knew it.
It felt as if a wind had begun to blow from somewhere.
With that clear breeze came the faint, lingering scent of plum blossoms, blooming like a dream.
“Plum blossoms give off their deepest fragrance when they bloom in the snow. Though it is winter now, Mount Hua’s spirit does not break. When spring comes, plum blossoms will blanket the mountains in full bloom.”
Gong Mun-yeon saw it.
The tip of Chung Myung’s sword moved slowly.
Tremble.
What began as the slightest quiver soon became a great ripple, and that ripple transformed into a sword path so vast it seemed to paint the sky itself.
The sword tip spread outward as though it would cover the heavens.
From that point, vivid plum petals bloomed one after another.
As if winter’s desolation had passed and a warm spring were announcing itself, the plum blossoms drawn by Chung Myung’s sword blanketed the world.
This is an illusion.
The wind blew.
Plum blossoms covering the sky, as though swept along by a spring breeze, began to scatter all at once. Then the petals drifted upward like they were swimming through the air before softly settling on Gong Mun-yeon’s forehead.
The petals brushed past him as lightly as a caress, carrying his consciousness away like the wind. Even to the very end, he still could not understand what he was seeing.
Thud.
Only the sound of Gong Mun-yeon collapsing to the floor echoed emptily through the room. The plum blossoms that had covered the sky were gone before anyone knew it, vanished like a mirage.
Chung Myung sheathed his sword and spun around.
“Ptooey!”
Too much force had been used in the flow of qi, and blood surged back up into his mouth. Taking off his mask, Chung Myung spat out the blood and twisted his face.
I’m really going to die at this rate.
The body was ruined, sure, but his inner power was still lacking. If it had been the him of the past, that sword would have been nothing more than a joke to draw—but now it felt as though every last bit of energy in his body had been drained dry.
The foundation’s fine, and yet I’m still going to die like this. Damn it.
Thinking he would need to come up with some countermeasure, Chung Myung put his mask back on.
“Well then.”
His gaze moved past Gong Mun-yeon, who was sprawled on the floor, and settled on the merchants.
“……”
The merchants stared at Chung Myung as if they were looking at a ghost.
How could they not?
They had never seen, nor even heard of, a sword technique that could make plum blossoms bloom in the sky. No, they had once heard rumors in passing that some master of the past had supposedly done such a thing in Mount Hua, but they had dismissed it as exaggerated legend.
And now, the human who had torn that legend open stood right before their eyes.
From the perspective of men who had tried to swindle Mount Hua out of its money, Chung Myung was no different from the grim reaper.
“Anyone want to be beaten first?”
“……”
“Anyone want to walk away on their own?”
“Me!”
“I’m leaving right away!”
“Please, just spare me!”
Chung Myung nodded with obvious satisfaction.
“Good. Very cooperative.”
The merchants scrambled to flee to one side. But of course, Chung Myung had no intention of letting them off that easily.
“Hold it.”
“……”
The merchants all froze at once.
“If you all just run off like that, how am I supposed to haul all these carts? Use your heads for once, huh? Use them!”
“……”
The merchants looked at him with faces full of injustice.
Was he really asking them to consider the convenience of the man robbing them? No matter how upside-down the world got, there were limits.
But no one dared voice a protest.
“You lot.”
“Yes!”
“From now on, each of you will check how much wealth is on your own cart. The slowest bastard gets laid down right next to this one.”
No further explanation was needed. The moment he finished speaking, the merchants lunged at their carts and began calculating their wealth like their lives depended on it.
“One thousand eight hundred nyang!”
“Two thousand three hundred nyang!”
“I have eight thousand—”
“What? You had that much money?”
“Is that what matters right now, you idiot?”
They even shoved each other aside, scrambling to report first.
Watching the spectacle, Chung Myung frowned.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“Did you include the value of the carts and horses?”
“……”
“Recalculate.”
“Yes.”
After the counting was finally finished, Chung Myung gave a satisfied nod.
“All right. I’ll lend you one horse, so one of you go to the nearest money exchange and bring back the cash. We’re selling this in cash.”
The merchants stared at him blankly.
They were men who had spent their lives rolling around in money, and yet they had never once seen someone like him.
“Bring the money as bearer notes. Mark them down on the notes, and if you get caught, someone’s dying today. Got it?”
“Yes.”
And on top of that, he was meticulous.
“One of you go.”
“Um, but……”
“What?”
One of the merchants asked,
“What if the one who goes to the exchange runs away?”
Chung Myung snorted.
“Run away to do what?”
“……”
“You have money?”
“No.”
“Your property’s been seized, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then the only thing left here is you lot, so what are you going to do by running away? If you want even a scrap of your cut, you’d better come back.”
“……Then should we report this to the magistrate……”
“Go ahead.”
Chung Myung lifted one leg slightly and brought his foot down on the ground.
Crash!
The floor cracked open in jagged lines.
“But if you report it, don’t ever come back. Run all the way to the end of the continent. Even if I die, I’ll catch that bastard. Don’t ever come back. Not ever.”
“……”
At that moment, the merchants abandoned the idea of reporting it.
Come to think of it, their families were still in Hwameum. There didn’t seem to be any way to escape this lunatic. And it wasn’t as though the authorities could catch him, either.
“Move out.”
“……Yes.”
Mount Hua was a noble righteous sect, compassionate to its own.
And yet the reason these people were unhappy came down to a single fact. Mount Hua might have been compassionate, but not everyone who lived in Mount Hua was.
Before the sun had even set that day, a masked man climbed Mount Hua in high spirits, clutching bearer notes as thick as a book. The wealth forged from the sweat and tears of countless people was thus carefully stored away in the warehouse of that greedy little Taoist bastard.