Plum Blossom Sword Saint? Not Me (5)
A bundle of snowy white fur spun in a little circle, flopped onto its back, then darted in again to rub its face against him.
“Heh-heh-heh. This little guy’s pretty cute.”
“…….”
Anyone who didn’t know the situation would have called it a heartwarming scene.
But to the Mount Hua disciples who did know, it was painfully pitiful.
“……Yeah, that’s definitely a spiritual beast.”
“I thought so last time too, but that thing is seriously a spiritual beast.”
“It knows exactly what it has to do if it doesn’t want to die.”
Maybe it was just their imagination that the face hidden beneath that white fur looked strangely pale and blue?
Watching Baek Ah desperately trying to curry favor with Chung Myung made the Mount Hua disciples feel oddly sad.
“……Does it really have to go that far?”
“Better than ending up as a scarf after it dies, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes, but…….”
Yet Chung Myung only laughed, apparently not seeing Baek Ah’s desperate struggle at all.
“So fluffy.”
When Chung Myung reached out a hand and petted it, Baek Ah immediately pressed itself against his palm and rubbed its face there with all its might. Chung Myung smiled in satisfaction.
“Hmph. For a beast, it sure can tell who’s a good person.”
The Mount Hua disciples’ faces twisted.
It figured out who the most vicious bastard was!
Well, can you blame it? Can you?
At that moment, Baek Ah climbed onto Chung Myung’s shoulder and gently coiled itself around his neck. As if to say it could be a scarf without needing to shed any fur at all.
“This one does have some use…….”
Chung Myung muttered in a pleased voice, then turned his head to look at the tiger sitting behind him.
The tiger sat coiled up as neatly as if the word “mountain-sized” had been made for it.
“Wow. So there really is a tiger this big in the world.”
Hong Dae-gwang approached it with obvious fascination.
“Heh-heh-heh. If those Beggars saw this, they’d wet themselves……”
KRRRROOOAAR!
The moment Hong Dae-gwang drew near, the tiger, which had been quiet until then, suddenly roared and lunged.
“H-Hiiiiiik?”
He yelped and threw himself sideways. Thankfully, he didn’t spill any blood, but the patched-up backside of his ragged clothes tore wide open with a rip.
“Aaaagh! My clothes!”
As Hong Dae-gwang fled in panic, Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
“How did that idiot survive this long with no sense at all? I swear.”
The tiger spat out the rag it had clamped in its mouth and then snapped its head around toward Chung Myung. It bared fangs that could tear a man apart.
Grrrrrrr.
A normal tiger could freeze a person’s soul if met up close; how much more fearsome was the momentum pouring off one this huge?
Chung Myung narrowed his eyes in displeasure.
“This one’s a little annoying…….”
And then, in that very instant—
FWOOSH!
Baek Ah shot out like lightning from Chung Myung’s shoulder, landed on the tiger’s face, and swung its forepaw like a bolt of thunder.
WHAM!
At the same time, the Mount Hua disciples’ eyes nearly popped out of their heads.
The tiger, struck by Baek Ah, flew backward and rolled on the floor.
A marten just hit a tiger?
That smack sounded way too satisfying?
They’d heard all sorts of things about spiritual beasts, but no matter how you looked at it, the size difference felt like a hundred to one. Who would’ve thought that tiny marten could actually slap a tiger across the face?
The tiger rolled once across the floor, then jumped up in alarm and immediately flattened itself against the ground. It looked exactly like a child being scolded by an older sibling, begging forgiveness for its mistake.
Kya-r-r-r-r-r-r!
Baek Ah raised its fur, still looking angry, and let out a sharp cry as though it hadn’t cooled down at all.
The tiger then pressed its face to the floor and made a miserable sound.
Whimper.
“…….”
Baek Cheon, only just realizing for the first time that a tiger could make that kind of noise, stared blankly with his mouth hanging open. But Baek Ah still didn’t seem satisfied; it bared its teeth again, and Chung Myung flicked his fingers lightly.
“Enough, enough. It didn’t know any better.”
FWOOSH!
The moment he spoke, Baek Ah leaped again, climbed onto Chung Myung’s lap, and rolled onto its back.
Watching the tiger that had been so fierce a moment ago now lying belly-up like a surrendered cat, Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
“Tch. I thought the fur looked nice and figured it’d be useful. Now the justification’s gone.”
It was a mutter so low it was barely audible. And yet the Mount Hua disciples clearly saw Baek Ah break out in a cold sweat.
That thing definitely understands human speech.
Can a marten even sweat? A marten? Really?
Everything they had accepted as common sense their whole lives was being overturned one after another.
“Hahaha! I knew it, this little Baek Ah really does like you. Bringing it along was the right call.”
The Beast Palace Lord laughed heartily and gave Chung Myung’s shoulder a few light thumps with a palm like a pot lid.
RATTLE-RATTLE.
At once, the chair Chung Myung was sitting on groaned and twisted in protest.
“Ah, that hurts!”
Chung Myung grimaced and squirmed once in his seat, then asked the Beast Palace Lord,
“But why did you bring so many beasts? It can’t have been easy getting them here.”
The Beast Palace Lord chuckled.
“Is this not my first visit to the Sichuan Tang Family? When visiting the Tang Family, the overlords of Sichuan, of course I should bring a special gift.”
“……These are the gift?”
Chung Myung glanced around.
A giant elephant, a tiger, a python thicker around than most men, white leopards, black leopards…….
At a glance, it looks like they brought an army to attack.
Otherwise, perhaps the age of humanity had finally come to an end.
“There are plenty of beasts, but hardly any people. Didn’t you bring any elders? They must’ve felt left out.”
“If I brought those old geezers, all they’d do is nag.”
The Beast Palace Lord waved a hand as if merely thinking about it exhausted him.
“The moment I say I’m just making a quick stop in the Central Plains, they start yammering on and on. Dangerous this, risky that! Look at this body of mine! How on earth would I be in danger?”
Under his clothes, the Beast Palace Lord’s massive chest flexed with a presence all its own.
Seeing that explosive musculature, Chung Myung muttered before he could stop himself,
“……Did they maybe mean other people would be in danger?”
That muscle was definitely dangerous.
Just brushing against it might kill you.
“Kwahahahahahaha!”
The Beast Palace Lord laughed so hard his head nearly snapped backward, then pounded Chung Myung’s shoulder again.
“This is why I like you! You get me. You really get me!”
“Ow, ow! I said it hurts!”
Baek Cheon and the other disciples who had been listening all nodded as if bewitched.
Yes, that made sense.
They could’ve been brothers. If only Chung Myung were two or three times bigger than he was now.
Then Jo Gul tilted his head and spoke.
“But, Sasuk.”
“Hmm?”
“Did you know the Beast Palace Lord was visiting the Tang Family?”
“……I didn’t know.”
“If you think about it, isn’t this a pretty huge event?”
Baek Cheon frowned slightly at Jo Gul’s words.
Well, it is.
Strictly speaking, it was a major incident.
Maeng So was the Palace Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, one of the Outer Palaces. And the Outer Palaces were effectively enemies of the Central Plains now, completely estranged from it.
For such a palace lord to enter the Central Plains and visit the Sichuan Tang Family, one of the Five Great Noble Families?
If this became known, it was certain to shake countless places to their core.
Come to think of it, this really is strange.
Baek Cheon gazed at the three people seated across from him.
One was the lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, which ruled the outer regions.
Another was the lord of the Sichuan Tang Family, one of the greatest among the Central Plains’ prestigious houses.
And the last was Chung Myung, the Mount Hua Divine Dragon—arguably one of the most famous people in the Central Plains right now.
The Outer Palaces, the Five Great Families, and the old Nine Sects. These people, who looked as though they should never mix, were sitting together as if it were the most natural thing in the world, chatting away.
This bastard’s ability to get along with people is seriously weird.
At this point, it was no longer something that could be explained by mere sociability.
“Hahahahahaha! I brought this especially for you, Mount Hua Divine Dragon!”
The Beast Palace Lord opened the chest beside him and pulled out a stack of white flask-like bottles.
“Oh? This is the Tao Yuan Fragrance we drank in Yunnan last time, right?”
“Indeed it is. You seemed to like it, so I made sure to bring some!”
“Krrr! As expected of the Palace Lord!”
“Hahahahaha! Then let’s drink until our noses are crooked today!”
“Hehehehehehehe!”
As if they had rehearsed it, the two of them each took a bottle of Tao Yuan Fragrance and started guzzling it down at the same time.
Gulp. Gulp! Gulp, gulp!
Their throats bobbed in cheerful rhythm.
“Krrrrrrrr!”
“Kaaaaaah!”
“Another bottle?”
“Why not!”
And just like that, a proper drinking bout erupted.
There was nothing surprising about those two drunks starting a booze-fueled rampage. The problem wasn’t those two—it was Tang Gun-ak, who was caught between them.
He must be having a rough time.
Baek Cheon sent Tang Gun-ak a look of sympathy.
Seeing Tang Gun-ak staring blankly at the ceiling with the color of a man whose soul had been threshed right out of him, an inexplicable sadness rose in Baek Cheon’s chest. When there are two fools on either side, the sane man ends up with nothing to do. Baek Cheon knew that better than anyone.
Ahem.
Baek Cheon cleared his throat softly.
This drinking feast was, of course, being led by that rascal Chung Myung—but even so, Baek Cheon was still his senior. If that disciple of his started crossing the line, it was his duty to rein him in.
“Ahem, Chung Myung.”
“Hmm?”
At Baek Cheon’s call, Chung Myung, who had been pounding down liquor, snapped his head around.
“I think maybe this is getting a bit out of hand…….”
“Ah! My bad!”
“Hmm……?”
Chung Myung shot up from his seat, scooped up the bottles laid out in front of him, and then trotted over to the other side.
“You guys like Tao Yuan Fragrance too, right, Sasuk?”
“…….”
“Drink, drink! We should share it! Hehe. I totally forgot.”
“…….”
Chung Myung beamed, gave them a wave, and headed back to his seat.
“No, that’s not what I…….”
Baek Cheon reached out helplessly toward Chung Myung’s back.
No, you fool…… that’s not what I meant…….
“Guys, say something…….”
Baek Cheon turned to his martial nephews, only to gape.
Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.
Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.
In that brief instant, everyone beside him had grabbed a bottle of Tao Yuan Fragrance and begun gulping it down.
“Krrr, this is killer!”
“It tastes just like the one we had in Yunnan!”
“Sasuk! Sasuk! Hurry and try this. The peach aroma is unbelievable!”
“…….”
Not one of them had even touched the side dishes. They were all too busy shoving bottles into their mouths and drinking in long, refreshing pulls.
Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.
“Hehehehehehehe.”
“Kwahahahahahahahaha!”
Looking back and forth between the spot where Chung Myung sat and the Mount Hua disciples, Baek Cheon smiled with satisfaction and gripped the neck of the Tao Yuan Fragrance bottle tightly.
I don’t even know anymore.
Fine. Let’s drink.
Let’s drink ourselves to death, you bastards.
The banquet continued deep into the night.
There were formal moments sprinkled in here and there, such as the Tang Family officially welcoming the Beast Palace Lord and the Tang Family elders coming over to greet him, but the whole thing was, at its core, a drinking bash to end all drinking bashes.
What better way was there to bind people together than alcohol?
At first, even those who had been wary of the Beast Palace Lord’s presence within the Tang Family gradually loosened up as the liquor took hold.
“Hahahahaha! Who would’ve thought I’d ever drink with the men and women of the Sichuan Tang Family like this! The world’s full of surprises! Come on, have a drink!”
“Yes! It is an honor to receive the Palace Lord’s drink.”
“Give me one too!”
“Of course! Of course!”
The Beast Palace Lord didn’t even stay at the honored seat; he mixed right in with the Tang Family people and drank with them freely.
“Hey now! You’re only drinking that much? Take another!”
“Yes!”
Maeng So missed no one in the banquet hall, clinking cups with one person after another.
And eventually…….
“Ugh…… I can’t drink any more…….”
THUD.
At last, the Beast Palace Lord brought down every single Tang Family member. Seeing them all collapsed in ruin, with only Tang Gun-ak left standing, Maeng So clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, tsk. So this is all the stronger you can handle?”
“……It’s the Palace Lord who’s too strong.”
Chung Myung shook his head.
After all, these were the warriors of the Tang Family. It was impossible that they’d be weak against alcohol. Maeng So was simply a monster.
“Hmm. This still leaves me wanting.”
Maeng So scanned the area like a hawk hunting prey, then fixed his gaze on Chung Myung.
“How about it? Shall one of us die tonight?”
“I’d be happ—”
Just as Chung Myung was about to accept readily, Tang Gun-ak spoke quietly.
“More importantly…….”
His gaze, settled on Chung Myung and Maeng So, was unusually serious.
“Since it seems you’ve enjoyed yourselves enough, why don’t we move on to the main topic?”
“The main topic?”
When Chung Myung asked back, Tang Gun-ak nodded.
“Would the Palace Lord have come here merely to drink?”
“Yes.”
At Chung Myung’s calm answer, Tang Gun-ak flinched slightly. Maeng So also turned his head away a little, as though embarrassed.
Tang Gun-ak coughed into his fist.
“……That may be true. Ahem, yes. It may be. But not this time.”
“Kheh, exactly.”
Maeng So nodded as if agreeing with that.
“Mount Hua Divine Dragon.”
“Yes.”
“Come with me. The three of us have something to discuss privately.”
Then Chung Myung said, half-testing him,
“You’re starting this off like it’s some incredibly important conversation.”
“It is important.”
Tang Gun-ak’s eyes shone clearly.
“Very important. It’s a matter concerning the future of the Tang Family, the Beast Palace, and Mount Hua. Wasn’t that the very reason you came all the way here?”
Chung Myung’s lips curled into a grin.
“This is why it’s nice when people can speak the same language.”
“Come.”
The real banquet was about to begin now.