Recovery Is Not Enough (4)
The disciples of Mount Hua clashed with the Red Bear Bandit Band, and a strange feeling welled up on Hyun Sang’s face as he watched their backs.
I always dreamed of a sight like this.
The image of them raising their shining plum blossom swords and driving back evil men. Of them defending righteousness in Mount Hua’s name and spreading the sect’s reputation far and wide.
The scene he had longed to see even in his dreams was unfolding right before his eyes.
Of course, it wasn’t quite the same as what he had imagined, but what did that matter?
“Sahyeong.”
“I know.”
At Hyun Young’s voice, Hyun Sang answered with a firm expression.
I’ve gone soft.
This was no time to get sentimental.
Clang!
Hyun Sang drew his sword. At once, the Un generation disciples guarding around him also drew theirs in unison.
“Let’s go. Even if these are old hands, there’s no trouble with lending one arm.”
“It’s a bit awkward swinging a sword in front of the children.”
He sounded as if he were groaning, but the eyes of the Un generation disciples were brighter than ever.
Some of those children had already surpassed them. No—judging by the swordplay those youngsters were displaying today, more of them had become stronger than they had thought.
But there was nothing shameful about that.
A disciple growing stronger than his master was every teacher’s hope and pride, and that only made it a point of honor.
“Still, we’re the adults of Mount Hua! Show them that we’re not so easily left behind by the next generation!”
“Yes, Sasuk!”
With Hyun Sang at their head, the Un generation disciples sprinted forward and joined the battlefield.
It was a magnificent sight.
And only two people were left behind, unable to join that historic scene.
Chung Myung and Hyun Young kept sneaking glances at each other from the corners of their eyes.
“…….”
“…….”
After an awkward, miserable silence, it was Hyun Young who finally spoke first.
“……What are you doing here?”
“No, I think that’s my question here…….”
Receiving Chung Myung’s strange look, Hyun Young gave a low cough.
“My martial prowess is obvious enough, isn’t it? If I went flailing around to save face and got myself cut down, I’d only cause trouble. It’s better to watch from behind and not interfere.”
“If I jumped in half-baked, I’d just be stealing the prey these guys are supposed to catch, so watching is better for me too.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm.”
Hyun Young nodded and reached into his robes.
“Would you like some pan-fried rice cakes?”
“Hehe. As expected, you really are thorough when it comes to preparation.”
Chung Myung took the rice cake Hyun Young offered and crunched into it while watching the battlefield.
“Well, they’re fighting nice and hard.”
Indeed, Mount Hua now felt slightly different from the past. Even when the same sword art was used, there would inevitably be individual variation depending on the person. And the swords of Mount Hua had now changed from the time when he had been the Plum Blossom Sword Saint, becoming faster and a little more practical.
To put it kindly, they were practical. To put it badly, they carried a little more murderous intent and a little more of a rogue sect’s flavor.
Well, can’t be helped.
What else could he expect when he was the one teaching them?
Chung Myung had fought more battles than anyone in Mount Hua’s history and soaked himself in more blood than anyone else. Since he had waged war with the Demonic Sect so many times, it was only natural that his sword had grown darker and sharper with killing intent.
Of course, from the point of view of the ones facing that sword, they’d be cursing their heads off, but that was no concern of Chung Myung’s.
Screw tradition. I am the tradition.
Blindly copying the past was not the truth. Even if things changed a little, or became different, as long as Mount Hua’s spirit lived on, it was still Mount Hua’s sword.
Chung Myung chewed on the rice cake, the corners of his mouth curling upward. Even so, his eyes remained razor-sharp, tracking the situation with unrelenting focus.
Too slow.
A fierce light entered Gwak Hoe’s eyes.
He had heard the name Green Forest countless times. And he had also heard the name Red Bear Bandit Band more than once.
The leaders of the evil sects that ruled over countless mountains across the Middle Kingdom.
The ones called one of the Five Hegemons of the Jianghu.
Green Forest had been the sort of place he would never even have dared imagine confronting in the past. But now that he was facing Green Forest bandits directly, they were neither as strong nor as refined as he had thought.
It’s not that they’re weak.
Mount Hua was strong.
There’s no way we could have realized that in ordinary times.
They had always been grinding themselves against that monster Chung Myung’s sword, and had constantly been crushed beneath the pressure of the Mount Hua Five Swords, who had shot ahead of them in an instant.
Even after training again and again until they reached the limits of their stamina, even after honing themselves relentlessly through stubbornness and sheer grit, the distance between them and the ones ahead never narrowed. If anything, it only grew wider.
So how could they possibly have felt themselves becoming strong?
Strength was, in the end, a relative concept. To truly feel strength, one needed a benchmark. But until now, their benchmark had been far too high—and far too brutal.
Whoosh!
The sword Gwak Hoe thrust out cut ruthlessly into the opening of the blade that was lunging toward him.
Thud!
His sword neatly pierced his opponent’s shoulder, then was swiftly withdrawn. And immediately afterward, it slashed toward the man’s chest.
So damn slow.
Compared to Jo Gul’s sword, this blade might as well have been standing still.
Compared to Yoon Jong’s precision, it was nothing more than a thrashing that couldn’t even properly keep up with the form. And compared to the grandeur of Baek Cheon’s sword, it wavered like a reed in the wind.
So no matter how much he thought about it, he could not shake the same conclusion.
There’s no way we can lose!
And apparently he was not the only one thinking that way.
Whoosh!
Bit by bit, confidence began to seep into the swords of the martial siblings fighting beside him as well. The tips of their blades steadied more and more, and their expressions hardened with certainty.
We’re strong!
Something they had never once been able to convince themselves of over all those years.
Mount Hua’s reputation had risen, and it was becoming a place unlike the one they had once known, but that credit belonged to Chung Myung and the Five Swords—not to them.
While Mount Hua changed day by day, all they had done was endure their training and hold the mountain. They had kept back Maninbang, but who among them didn’t know that, in the end, even that had been the achievement of the Five Swords and not theirs?
All the emptiness that had piled up inside them, all the self-disgust they had been unable to do anything about, was melting away at this very moment as though it had never existed.
Our training wasn’t for nothing!
The moment doubt became conviction, and conviction became confidence, their plum blossoms bloomed all the more vividly.
“Push harder!”
Baek Sang shouted at the top of his lungs.
The hand gripping his sword was stronger and steadier than ever before. Of course, he had long since set aside the idea of seeing the very tip of the sword’s path himself. But he, too, was a swordsman of Mount Hua. Not a single day had passed when he neglected the sword.
“Prove that Mount Hua isn’t only the Five Swords! We are part of Mount Hua too!”
“Yes, Sahyung!”
“Yes, Sasuk!”
The moment everyone shook their swords as one, countless plum blossoms burst into bloom. It was as if a single stretch of Mount Hua’s scenery had been transplanted here.
Mount Hua Sect existed not because it was on Mount Hua.
They were proving with their swords that wherever Mount Hua Sect stood, that place could become Mount Hua.
“Keep your hearts cold, your sword tips firm. And never forget the basics.”
As if strolling through a garden, the one-armed swordsman wandered between the disciples swinging their blades and muttered with a truly cool expression.
“Don’t forget. Flowers bloom on the branches, but it is the roots that make them bloom in the first place.”
“Yes, Hall Leader!”
And a smile slowly appeared at the corner of his previously ice-hard mouth.
Then the sword hanging at his right side was drawn in a flash.
“It’s not neat enough to serve as an example, but I can’t just stand around and watch either.”
Un Geom’s sword cut toward the bandits with swift, sharp precision.
Sasuk!
Sagae!
The disciples of Mount Hua bit their lips hard at the sight.
Un Geom had lost an arm in the fierce battle with Maninbang. For a swordsman to lose the arm that wielded his sword was a bigger calamity than a common man losing both legs. He must have suffered under an overwhelming sense of loss.
And yet now he stood before them, leading them once more. Even though he held a sword with the arm he was not accustomed to, there was not the slightest hint of imbalance in him.
How much hardship had he endured to reach this point?
The expressions of the disciples, who could barely grasp the weight of the time he had spent, changed all at once.
“Follow Hall Leader!”
Especially the disciples around Un Geom only grew fiercer, pressing down on the bandits with even greater momentum. The sound of swords and blades colliding violently rang out everywhere.
“Good!”
From another side, Hyun Sang rushed forward and swung his sword with elegant grace.
It was a sword slightly different from the children’s, a sword carrying the scent of Mount Hua from the past.
“Show them that Mount Hua’s righteousness still lives!”
“Yes, Elder!”
Just seeing Hyun Sang’s back filled everyone with boundless courage.
To the disciples of Mount Hua, the Hyun generation were not merely the sect’s elders. They were the roots that had endured that long and brutal hardship with their whole bodies and created the Mount Hua of today.
How could they not draw courage from seeing such people lead the way with their swords?
The same was true of the other Un generation disciples.
The Un generation members began to fill the space beside the Five Swords at the front.
This was not momentum born solely from individual strength.
Everyone was proving together that not only Chung Myung, not only the Five Swords, but Mount Hua Sect itself had grown stronger.
Of course……
“Amitabha!”
BOOOOM!
There was one strange thing mixed in the middle, but still.
There was no other way to describe this situation except as one-sided. The Green Forest bandits were left panicked by Mount Hua’s swordsmanship, which combined precision and brilliance, and their will was broken by the sharpness that had nothing to do with orthodoxy.
“N-no!”
“We can’t beat this!”
One by one, the startled Green Forest bandits began to retreat.
They had neither the will nor the reason to fight a stronger opponent to the death.
There was only one reason.
“Aaagh! You worthless bastards!”
Slash!
The agitated Won Gang chopped down a retreating bandit and screeched like a madman.
“The ones who run die by my hand! Don’t retreat! They’re just a bunch of brats!”
That furious roar made the retreating bandits flinch and plant their feet again.
He had barely managed to stop the entire line from losing heart and fleeing, but in truth Won Gang already knew the situation was far from easy.
By his common sense, it was utterly incomprehensible.
However great Mount Hua had been in the past, however imposing its current momentum might be, the majority of them were still little more than soft-faced brats who had barely lost their baby fat.
But to the bandits of the Red Bear Bandit Band, it felt as if they were facing veteran swordsmen who had drunk their fill of the Jianghu. Especially that sharpness and precision were beyond belief.
What was least believable of all was their internal energy.
Inner power rises with time. That was why those who had not trained for long could only be considered junior talents, no matter how wildly they acted.
But these people weren’t one or two individuals—most of them possessed enough inner power to deflect heavy sabers with their swords.
Unless they all underwent some group Rejuvenation and Youthfulness, how the hell…….
But there was no leisure to figure things out at his own pace.
If he didn’t take action right now, the line they were barely holding together would collapse in an instant. And if that happened, the only thing left would be a one-sided slaughter.
Grinding his teeth, Won Gang’s eyes locked onto Hyun Sang, who was swinging his sword near the front line.
First, I’ll kill that old man and crush their momentum!
One of the hallmarks of the inexperienced was that they were easily swept away by the atmosphere. If a reversal happened in which someone high-ranking was taken down, perhaps he could change the situation far more easily than expected.
“Move!”
Won Gang shoved aside the men blocking his way and charged at Hyun Sang.
But at that very moment, someone slipped out of the formation and flew softly to stand before him.
Tap.
The figure landed lightly on the ground and raised a sword, pointing it directly at him.
“……Who are you?”
“Yu I-seol of Mount Hua.”
Yu I-seol’s cold gaze tightened around Won Gang’s throat like a noose.