Recovery Is Not Enough (2)
“Let’s go, you bandit bastard!”
At the voice, Dong Ung stared down the mountain path ahead of him through eyes gone hazy and unfocused.
Whatever else he was, he was still a bandit in name.
Of course, this wasn’t Mount Dae-byeol, the mountain that had once been his own backyard, but still—if he was a bandit, then the moment he set foot on a mountain, he should have been feeling energized.
Instead, he was facing a kind of sorrow he had never experienced in his entire life.
Crack!
The rope binding his body tightened viciously.
Dong Ung, now reduced to the role of guide while wrapped head to toe in a thick hemp rope, looked back with miserable eyes.
“Why?”
“……”
Chung Myung snapped back, his expression saying what’s the problem?
“……Nothing.”
Of course, he had plenty to say. Far too much.
But not a single word of it seemed like it would work on this bastard. He hadn’t known Chung Myung for long, but the brief time had been more than enough to understand exactly what kind of creature he was.
“Why do you keep looking back at me?”
“Ah, n-no, sir.”
“You bandit bastard. I ought to be dropping to my knees and thanking you for sparing your life for three whole lifetimes, and yet you keep rolling your eyeballs around? What, the rope uncomfortable? Want me to cut off your arms so you don’t need it?”
“I-I’m not uncomfortable at all! It feels as natural as if I was born tied up!”
Dong Ung answered desperately.
It wasn’t as if he couldn’t break this rope. But he knew. This rope was the lifeline of his life right now. The instant he put force into it and snapped it, that demon bastard would surely lunge forward and cut his throat on the spot.
How did I end up in a place like this…
He swore that if he could just survive this and get out alive, he’d never again so much as piss in the direction of Mount Hua for the rest of his life.
“You’re walking awfully slow. Are you rebelling?”
“T-the path is a bit rough here. I was worried someone might fall behind if we go too fast….”
“What?”
“I-I’m not insulting the Mount Hua disciples or anything….”
“No, before that. What did you say?”
“Huh? T-this path is a bit rough….”
Chung Myung glanced back at the Mount Hua disciples with a sulky look.
Sure enough, after hearing Dong Ung’s words, the other disciples were all tilting their heads in confusion.
“So this is the mountain path?”
“I’ve been yawning this whole time waiting to actually get into the mountain.”
“Surely he doesn’t mean this road is rough? Isn’t he saying the rough part comes later?”
“……”
Dong Ung’s cheeks twitched.
That doesn’t look like they’re bluffing.
Looking at their faces, it really seemed like they didn’t understand what he was saying.
Then a realization flashed through his head.
Ah, right. These people are from Mount Hua, aren’t they?
The Mount Hua Sect was a sect on that mountain, Mount Hua.
Among the Five Great Mountains, famous even in the Central Plains for their rugged terrain, Mount Hua was the steepest and most forbidding of them all.
People said even birds needed to stop and rest there. These were people who had spent their entire lives on Mount Hua; it wouldn’t have been strange if Mount Heng looked to them like a back hill good only for an afternoon stroll.
Then why do these guys look even more like bandits than I do?
No matter how he thought about it, it seemed more fitting for him to become a Taoist and for these bastards to be the bandits.
“Rough?”
“……No, sir. I thought poorly. I’ll move as quickly as possible.”
“Don’t just say it—move!”
“Yes!”
As Dong Ung hastily started up the slope, Chung Myung clicked his tongue and followed behind him.
“Chung Myung.”
“Yeah?”
“Can we really trust this man and keep going?”
“It’s fine.”
At Baek Cheon’s question, Chung Myung smiled faintly.
“He doesn’t look smart enough to be pulling any tricks.”
“True. He does seem that way.”
Whether Dong Ung was bleeding tears of blood up front or not, the two of them continued their conversation without paying him the slightest attention.
“And I hear Dae-byeol Bandit Band is at the top, with the others scattered below us. So there won’t be any tricks anyway.”
“Why not?”
“Why else? You think bandit bastards who have no loyalty even within the same fort are going to risk their lives for some other bandit fort? If they had that kind of loyalty, they wouldn’t be bandits.”
“Hmm. That makes sense.”
At Chung Myung’s steady stream of bandit insults, Im So-byeong gave a low cough.
“Daoist. It is a little embarrassing to say this myself, but even among bandits, there is such a thing as loyalty….”
“You got stabbed in the back by your own subordinates and got kicked out, so keep quiet.”
“……Yes.”
Im So-byeong wilted and closed his mouth. Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
“Anyway, those bandit bastards are trying to keep track of every little thing. Don’t know their own place.”
Listening to Chung Myung grumble, the Hyeon generation and Un generation both shook their heads at once.
They were headed to wipe out some of the strongest bandit forts in the Green Forest. This was the sort of situation where even seasoned veterans of the jianghu would be sweating with tension.
Doesn’t that kid get nervous at all?
Well, a born bastard is a born bastard.
Chung Myung looked as relaxed as a man out to buy liquor from the village below. And he wasn’t the only one.
Hyun Sang’s head turned slightly to the rear.
He saw the Mount Hua disciples following behind with hard, steady faces. They were visibly different from when they had first entered Changsha.
They’ve gained confidence.
Position shapes people, and reputation lifts their shoulders.
The cheers that had poured out in Changsha must have been the first real encouragement they had ever received. Of course, a few of them—including Chung Myung and his companions—had already experienced the roar of the world at the Heavenly Martial Alliance Tournament, but hadn’t the vast majority of them never once known what it felt like to be so fervently respected by others?
Depending on how you looked at it, it was nothing at all. And yet, in the end, human beings drew confidence and self-assurance from those very small things.
Hyun Sang looked at Chung Myung and thought, He really is impossible to understand.
The guy who usually ignored everything trivial and charged ahead blindly, caring only about the result, was now the one carefully tending to every little detail and planting confidence in his disciples.
The brat who acted like he had no respect for his age sometimes showed a shrewdness even he, with all his years, could not match.
However many years he had spent with Chung Myung, Hyun Sang was still discovering new sides to him.
Still…
For those who would soon have to fight a proper battle, having confidence in their hearts was an extremely positive thing.
Just looking at the disciples who hadn’t been cowed despite heading into enemy territory said as much.
Whether Chung Myung had planned that much in advance was impossible to say.
“Heh heh.”
Watching his disciples grow was always gratifying. Once this was over, maybe it would be time for him to step back from the front lines and support them from behind….
“Agh, can you hurry up already? What are you dawdling for?”
“……”
His thoughts were dragged back to reality by Hyun Young, who was wearing a displeased expression and jabbing at his back with a finger. Hyun Sang looked at him and smiled with quiet fondness.
Absolutely not. Not until this one retires.
There was no doubt the sect would turn into a total disaster! Absolutely no doubt!
“Chung Myung.”
“Yes?”
Chung Myung looked back.
Hyun Sang said with a slightly stiff face, “I hear that if we keep going this way, the first place we’ll come to is the Red Bear Bandit Band.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Once we arrive, we’ll need to fight immediately. What do you intend to do?”
“What do you mean, what do I intend to do?”
“You must have some strategy.”
“Ah, strategy.”
Chung Myung grinned as if he’d only just understood.
“Elder. Have you heard this saying before?”
“What saying?”
“Know your enemy and know yourself, and you’ll never be in peril in a hundred battles!”
“Exactly, exactly. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you won’t be in danger!”
As though Chung Myung had finally said something sensible for once, Hyun Sang nodded repeatedly. It felt oddly refreshing to hear something so normal coming out of that bastard’s mouth.
“If you understand the enemy properly and can build your forces accordingly without any gaps, then there’s no difficulty in dealing with them.”
“Right! Right! Our Chung Myung really does know a thing or two about military strategy!”
If scholars of warfare had heard that, they would have clutched their heads and collapsed on the spot, but this was Hyun Sang’s honest feeling.
But Chung Myung’s next words shattered that expectation without mercy.
“But we don’t know the enemy.”
“……Huh?”
“What are Red Bear Bandit Band or Blood Wolf Bandit Band supposed to tell us? We don’t know them, so how would we know anything about them?”
“……”
Chung Myung shrugged.
“You need to know the enemy to make a strategy, but if you don’t know the enemy, then there’s no strategy to make.”
“……”
Why does that work out like that?
Huh? Why does that work out like that!
“T-then you’re saying we should just go in without any strategy and fight blindly?”
“Come on, Elder.”
“What?”
“Strategy isn’t some huge deal. It’s what the weak do when they’re losing their minds trying to deal with the strong. We’re stronger, so why would we bother with a strategy? We just smash straight through.”
“……”
It was, somehow, complete nonsense when you heard it, and yet if you thought about it, it did make sense….
There was probably no one in the world who could spout utter nonsense so convincingly as Chung Myung.
Still, Hyun Sang tried once more to persuade him.
“No, even so, there should at least be some kind of countermeasure….”
That was when it happened.
“There it is!”
“Holy—”
No. Already…?
But to Hyun Sang’s dismay, a barricade stacked higher than a man’s head now stood before them.
“A bandit fort.”
“A bandit fort indeed.”
“You’d think just by looking at it that this was a bandit nest.”
Chung Myung clapped while staring at the barricade.
“Heh. It’s moving to see them trying so hard to maintain their identity even on someone else’s mountain.”
The thick wooden barricade, made from cutting down giant old trees, was clearly something built only recently. As soon as they had arrived, the bastards had chopped up the trees and thrown together a makeshift fort, as if they had no idea how long they would be staying here.
“Heh-heh.”
“What are you laughing at?”
Im So-byeong, who had somehow drifted up beside them again, laughed with obvious pride, and Chung Myung frowned.
Im So-byeong straightened his chest and said, “As the saying goes, the ruler is ruler, the subject subject; the father is father, the son son. Though they are bandits, seeing them faithful to their roles was so beautiful it made me laugh.”
“So you’re saying bandits being bandits is what makes the world beautiful?”
“……”
“You crazy bastard, are you serious?”
Chung Myung clicked his tongue as if he had just seen the most pathetic thing in the world, then turned his gaze toward everyone else.
“Elder.”
“Hmm.”
Hyun Sang looked back and forth between Chung Myung and the bandit fort with an unwilling expression, then let out a sigh.
There’s no helping it.
They had already pushed in right under the enemy’s nose. What strategy could they possibly make now?
“Mm. Will this be all right?”
“Come on. Elder, your nerves really have gotten soft. What’s there to worry about when dealing with a bunch of bandit riffraff? Just smash them all to bits and that’s that.”
The other disciples also seemed to strongly agree, breathing out hotly with excited faces. Watching the disciples clutch their swords and fidget with impatience gave Hyun Sang a splitting headache.
…Anyone looking at you would think you’re the ones here to rob them.
At last, he fully let go and nodded.
“Be careful that no one gets hurt.”
At Hyun Sang’s gaze, Baek Cheon gave a small nod.
“Yes.”
Baek Cheon’s eyes and Chung Myung’s met in the air.
“Right away?”
“Yeah.”
“Who leads the front?”
“Well, the sāsuk can take the lead, but….”
Chung Myung grinned and strode forward with loose, swaggering steps.
“Might as well start with something flashy, don’t you think?”
Pushing past Dong Ung, he took the very front and stood before the towering barricade.
“Hraaaah!”
Without the slightest hesitation, the kick that shot out swept the entire barricade away.
KWA-AAAAAAANG!
The sound was like thunder. The shattered barricade flew like leaves caught in a typhoon and tore through the bandit fort.
BOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOM!
The giant trees, raining down like a storm, crashed into the huts and tents hastily assembled inside the fort.
“W-what the hell!”
“A raid!”
“Who the hell are you guys?!”
Startled by the monstrous event, the bandits guarding the fort drew their blades and rushed out in a panic.
“What else, you bastards?”
Chung Myung said with a vicious grin.
“Heaven’s punishment. Wipe them out!”
“OOOOOOOHHHHH!”
The Mount Hua disciples, drawing their plum blossom swords in unison, charged straight toward the bandits.