We Can Even Flatten a Mountain Now (4)
“Thank you so much.”
“I don’t know how we’ll ever repay this kindness……”
Watching the people keep thanking them over and over, Yoon Jong’s face turned red.
“If you keep saying that, I’ll be embarrassed. We didn’t really do anything……”
“No.”
The man at the front took Yoon Jong’s hand and tears welled in his eyes.
“This little bit of rest and warm food may not mean much to someone else, but to us, it is more than enough to be grateful for.”
Yoon Jong let out a quiet sigh.
The hand clasped in his was so rough. Hard as bark from years of forced labor, it made his chest ache.
“Thank you, truly…… cough! Cough!”
The man expressing his gratitude covered his mouth and suddenly broke into a violent fit of coughing.
“……I’m sorry. It seems it’s because something warm finally went into my stomach after so long…… cough!”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes…… we’re fine.”
Yoon Jong frowned slightly as he watched him with concern.
They’ve been weakened badly by the yin cold.
If even a healthy martial artist were exposed to this kind of environment for long enough, he would eventually fall ill. How much worse must it be for people whose inner energy had been sealed?
“Drink some warmed liquor and rest properly today.”
“Truly…… truly, thank you.”
Yoon Jong watched the man bow repeatedly as he returned to his place, then let out another sigh.
Just then, Jo Gul’s voice rang out.
“Sahyung.”
“Hmm?”
“That brat Chung Myung says to bring you too.”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“How should I know? Who can figure out what’s in that guy’s head?”
Yoon Jong found himself nodding before he even realized it.
Even though they had spent quite a long time with Chung Myung by now, he was still impossible to predict. Even when they had first arrived here, who could have imagined that the brat would try to give prisoners alcohol and food?
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
The two of them headed toward one of the caves opened throughout the valley. The entrance looked a little narrow, but once they stepped inside, the space opened up wider than expected.
It did not look like a place fit for human beings to live, but at least the wind could not blow straight in here, which made it better than the center of the valley.
Inside, the disciples of Mount Hua were already seated around Chung Myung, with several prisoners gathered before them.
“If you’re here, sit down.”
“What’s going on?”
“I thought we could talk a little.”
At Chung Myung’s words, Yoon Jong tilted his head, but he sat down without asking further. It would be rude to keep talking among themselves while leaving others standing there.
“First……”
As soon as Yoon Jong sat, the old man across from Chung Myung hurriedly bowed low and began to speak.
“Once again, thank you for your grace.”
Yoon Jong started to stop him in alarm, but Chung Myung beat him to it by a hair.
“If you’re thankful, then cut out the useless manners. We’re busy people.”
“Understood.”
The old man looked at Chung Myung calmly and continued,
“You honorable benefactors came from the Central Plains, did you not?”
“Yep. We’re from Mount Hua Sect.”
“Mount Hua. Mount Hua……”
The old man frowned and tried hard to remember something. But it seemed the name Mount Hua meant nothing to him.
These days, Mount Hua’s reputation was beginning to spread even to the North Sea, but for people who had been imprisoned and forced into labor here for years, the name was only natural to be unfamiliar.
Back then, Mount Hua had already lost its fame and fallen into ruin.
Baek Cheon helped the old man out.
“It’s not a particularly famous sect, so please don’t……”
“What? Mount Hua isn’t famous?”
If Chung Myung hadn’t cut in so sharply, that might have been the end of it. Baek Cheon turned toward him with a sour face.
“……Mount Hua was famous a very long time ago.”
“I know that.”
“Then why?”
“Because it pisses me off when people say things like that.”
“……”
Baek Cheon’s cheek twitched faintly with irritation.
I swear, I can never figure this bastard out.
No, that wasn’t right. He had never understood him before, and he still didn’t.
“Anyway, if you don’t know Mount Hua, remember it from now on. You’ll be hearing a lot about it in the future.”
“……I’ll keep that in mind. But……”
The old man gave a bitter smile.
“I don’t know how often people like us, stuck in this place, will ever get to hear anything from the outside.”
The disciples of Mount Hua all glared at Chung Myung at once.
But……
“Then why did you commit a crime?”
“……”
Expecting Chung Myung to read the room was a pointless dream.
At the word crime, the old man shook his head.
“We are criminals, but we have never committed a crime.”
“……”
“If protecting the palace lord against rebellion is called a crime, then there is nothing to be done. But how can that truly be a crime?”
Baek Cheon nodded with a heavy expression.
As I thought.
He had only heard bits and pieces, but it seemed certain that these men had been retainers of the former palace lord.
They had likely resisted Seol Cheon-sang, the current palace lord, and been subdued and dragged here.
“A criminal who isn’t a criminal……”
Chung Myung muttered under his breath, scratching his cheek, then asked,
“How many people are here right now?”
“Around a hundred.”
The old man added something unnecessary at the end.
“At first, there were more than twice that.”
That meant this many people had died here. More serious than expected, Baek Cheon’s face hardened.
“Isn’t that too much……”
But before he could say more, Chung Myung cut in first.
“Then why are you telling us this?”
“……”
“Do you want us to help? Get you out of here?”
The old man shook his head calmly.
“That is impossible.”
“Why?”
A bitter smile settled at the corners of his wrinkled mouth.
“To explain that, I suppose I should introduce myself first. My name is Yeo Sa-hon. In the past, I served the palace lord as the First Elder of the North Sea Ice Palace.”
“What?”
Baek Cheon was startled and looked at the old man again.
The ragged-looking old man had been the First Elder of the Ice Palace?
Every sect was a little different, but the title of First Elder referred to someone who was at least among the top five in the sect’s hierarchy.
In Mount Hua’s terms, that would make Hyun Sang the First Elder. He was the highest-ranking among the elders.
And yet even someone with such a high status had become a prisoner, oppressed by guards in this way……
“That was long ago.”
His tone was calm, but unmistakable regret lay on Yeo Sa-hon’s face.
“And everyone here used to be martial artists of the Ice Palace. But after having their meridians sealed, they became people who could no longer use inner energy.”
Yeo Sa-hon shook his head.
“If it were an ordinary seal, we would at least have been able to spend time breaking it somehow, but the ones who sealed us were none other than those……”
“The Demonic Sect?”
Yeo Sa-hon, who had stopped speaking, snapped his eyes wide open.
“You knew?”
“Well, it’s not exactly a huge secret.”
Chung Myung shrugged, and Yeo Sa-hon nodded.
“Yes. Them. Their martial system is different from ours. We spent years trying to break the seal, but no matter what we did, it simply would not come off.”
“Haa……”
Baek Cheon let out a groan, feeling stifled.
“We can’t use inner energy, so we’re no different from baggage. It’s not something we can even attempt.”
“Then what do you want from us?”
Yeo Sa-hon looked at Chung Myung with a hardened face and said,
“……Tell others what’s happening here.”
“What?”
“Tell the Central Plains that there are North Sea people being oppressed here. Let them help us.”
For a moment, Chung Myung stared at him blankly, then let out a sound like air leaking from a pipe.
“……What would that even change?”
“The current palace lord is a devil.”
Yeo Sa-hon’s battered, scarred hands trembled.
“He has erected barriers around the Ice Palace. The Ice Palace in the past was not a place that built walls and divided the North Sea people. It was a place that embraced and cared for the entire vast North Sea. But the current palace lord only allows those who follow him inside those walls, and casts out everyone beyond them.”
Baek Cheon’s face hardened as he recalled the scenery he had seen on the way here.
Those towering walls……
Who would have thought they served such a purpose?
“He gives a comfortable life to those who follow him, while mercilessly exploiting those who do not, and even leaves them to fall into the hands of the Demonic Sect. Anyone who resists is dragged here and worked to death through brutal labor. How can such a man be the palace lord of the Ice Palace?”
Chung Myung nodded.
“That’s pretty damn bad.”
“Yes. So please, tell them. Tell the Central Plains about the situation here in the North Sea! Shaolin, Wudang, anyone will do. If they know, they should be able to help us.”
At the man’s final words, Chung Myung actually snorted.
“One thing is clear.”
“……Yes?”
“Why you lost.”
Yeo Sa-hon’s wrinkled eyes widened.
“What would change if we told the Central Plains?”
“I’ve heard the Central Plains is full of righteous heroes! No, even if not righteous heroes, the people of the Central Plains who fought that great war against the Demonic Sect wouldn’t just sit by if they knew the Demonic Sect was here.”
“You really think that?”
“……”
“You really think the Central Plains is not moving because they don’t know what’s happening here? Really?”
A cold smile touched the corners of Chung Myung’s mouth. Yeo Sa-hon shut his mouth.
And Chung Myung did not press him any further. A drowning man clutches at even a straw. When trapped in a situation utterly beyond one’s control, the urge to try anything at all was something he understood all too well.
But a straw was still just a straw.
“The Central Plains won’t help the North Sea.”
“……”
“They’re not so great that they’d reach out for a matter that gives them no benefit whatsoever.”
Yeo Sa-hon bit his lip and lowered his gaze.
“Do you know why those people went up that cliff so obediently? Even though they knew they could say these things to us?”
“……”
“Because they know there’s nothing we can do even if we hear it.”
Yeo Sa-hon already knew all of that.
He knew it, and yet he still had no choice but to put his final hope there. Being forced to hear from someone else that it had been nothing more than a straw left Yeo Sa-hon utterly devastated. No, even that was not enough to describe it.
“The Central Plains has no reason to help the Ice Palace. No reason to risk their lives to protect it either. Even if everyone learns the Demonic Sect is here, no one will step forward first.”
They had already seen it once.
They had already seen what happened to a sect that stepped forward ahead of everyone else to protect the Central Plains.
They had seen the price of that foolishness.
Those who had seen it would not risk their lives to protect someone else.
Chung Myung bared his teeth and said quietly,
“Remember this clearly.”
“……”
Suddenly struck by the strange force in his voice, Yeo Sa-hon flinched and fell silent.
Even Mount Hua’s disciples were overawed by the pressure and gripped their thighs tightly.
“No one protects you in your place. No one fights in your place. If you want to protect something, you have to seize it with your own hands, and if you want to fight, you have to spill your own blood.”
“……Young hero.”
“If you can’t do that, then nothing changes.”
Yeo Sa-hon stared at Chung Myung in dazed silence before lowering his head weakly.
“……But…… what can we do?”
His voice was filled with despair.
“We’re nothing but cripples who can’t use inner energy. And the other disciples of the Ice Palace will no longer try to help us either. They’re already under the current palace lord’s control.”
Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
“Even if you can’t use your bodies, you still have your eyes and ears, don’t you?”
“……Yes?”
“The Demonic Sect bastards are too impatient to have calmly waited for the Ice Crystals to be moved all the way to the Ice Palace. They must have taken the Ice Crystals from here themselves.”
“……That is correct.”
Just as expected.
Chung Myung’s face twisted slightly as he asked quickly,
“Have you heard anything? Like where they’re taking the Ice Crystals, or what they’re using them for?”
Yeo Sa-hon tilted his head and searched his memory carefully.
“The Ice Crystals…… no, I haven’t heard anything like that.”
The strength drained from Chung Myung’s shoulders all at once. A sigh escaped him on its own.
A dead end?
He’d thought they might at least find one clue…….
“Um, uh, wait.”
That was when it happened.
A man who had been sitting behind Yeo Sa-hon, watching the situation until now, timidly raised his hand.
“I’m not sure whether it has anything to do with it, but I did hear something similar……”
“Something similar?”
“Yes. But it was such an absurd thing that I don’t know if it really has any connection……”
Chung Myung quickly nodded.
“Just say it for now. Anything is fine.”
“Yes. Well…… I was the one transporting the Ice Crystals, so I overheard the Demonic Sect bastards talking, and at that time, they definitely said this.”
“What did they say?”
The man swallowed dryly before speaking slowly.
“With this, the Heavenly Demon’s return had come much closer. At this rate, the Heavenly Demon would descend upon the world again before a month had passed.”
Chung Myung said nothing.
He simply stared at the man without moving.
No, it only seemed that way because he had not shifted from the position in which he had been looking at him. In truth, Chung Myung had gone rigid, like a man frozen in time.
“……Chung Myung?”
Baek Cheon called his name cautiously.
Then.
“……What?”
“Yes?”
“The Heavenly Demon is returning?”
Chung Myung’s face twisted.
His mouth, warped in a strange and grotesque curve, almost looked like it was smiling. It was an expression not even close to enough to describe the hellish demon on his face.
A vicious killing intent unlike anything he had ever felt before began to pour out from Chung Myung’s entire body.