If You’re Going to Do It, Do It Right (5)
“Here you are.”
“Oh dear, how can I ever thank you……”
Seeing the old woman clutch Yoon Jong’s hands with both of hers, Yoon Jong smiled faintly.
“Please don’t mention it. This was all stolen from us by bandits.”
“Even so……”
As the old woman wiped at the wrinkles around her eyes, Jo Gul poked his head out and said, “Hehe. Granny! Please remember this is a gift from Mount Hua Sect!”
“You keep your mouth shut.”
“……Y-yes, sir.”
Yoon Jong shot Jo Gul a sharp glance, then turned back and gently squeezed the old woman’s hands again.
“Then we’ll be on our way.”
“Oh! At least let me make you a meal……”
“No, really, it’s fine.”
He kept refusing even as she tried to offer them something, and the two of them backed away out of the house.
Even after they turned and walked far off, the old woman kept waving from the doorway for a long time without going back inside.
“Where to next?”
“They said it’s up ahead. About another five ri.”
“Hmm.”
Yoon Jong casually turned his head to study Jo Gul’s face.
Following Chung Myung’s order that the people’s hearts had to be won from the ground up, they were now going around the houses outside Wuhan, distributing grain instead of working within the city itself.
Not only the two of them, but the other Mount Hua disciples had also paired up, each dragging a grain cart while they toured the small villages around Wuhan.
“That said.”
“Yes?”
Yoon Jong gave a snort of laughter. “For once, you’re doing your work without complaining. Normally you’d have your lip stuck out a foot and be asking whether you really had to do something like this.”
“Hey. I’m not Chung Myung or anything.”
Jo Gul scratched the back of his head awkwardly, then glanced back toward the old woman’s house, now already far behind them.
“Actually……”
“Hmm?”
“I still don’t really get it. What righteousness is supposed to be, or why we have to do things like this.”
“……”
“I mean, this so-called righteousness is just Chung Myung trying to make Wudang eat shit and earn some fame, isn’t it? It’s only doing Mount Hua a favor.”
Yoon Jong gave a small nod instead of answering.
“So it’s not like I think I’m doing some huge, noble deed……”
Jo Gul looked ahead again and muttered, a little embarrassed, “It’s just… when we hand out grain and see the looks on people’s faces, it gets kind of ticklish, you know?”
Even the way he gave a low, awkward cough afterward made it clear he still wasn’t used to this sort of thing.
“……That’s not bad.”
A faint smile touched Yoon Jong’s lips as he picked up his pace again.
“That’s enough.”
“……Huh?”
“I don’t believe righteousness has to take only one form.”
“……”
“As you said, righteousness that assumes sacrifice is certainly righteousness. But even if one does not sacrifice oneself for others, that does not make it any less righteous.”
“That’s too hard to follow.”
Jo Gul tilted his head, unable to grasp Yoon Jong’s meaning. Yoon Jong decided to put it more plainly.
“You said this is only doing Mount Hua a favor?”
“Yes. That’s what I think, at least……”
“Then isn’t that better?”
“Huh?”
Yoon Jong smiled softly.
“If it benefits us and it benefits others too, what could be better? Did Mount Hua gain from this at the expense of the common people?”
“No, of course not.”
Of course not. If anything, sharing grain could only have helped the people of Hubei, not harmed them.
“Righteousness accomplished through sacrifice may shine with unmatched brilliance and value. But sacrifice, by its very nature, cannot go on forever. If you keep sacrificing yourself endlessly, then the things you can do will eventually shrink.”
Yoon Jong’s gentle face was like a spring breeze.
“The righteous path I believe in is one where my gain becomes someone else’s gain. Then isn’t it possible to keep acting righteously for longer, and for more people?”
“Ah……”
Jo Gul looked at Yoon Jong with fresh eyes.
Now that he thought about it, those words were not so different from what Yoon Jong had once said before the Beast Palace Lord.
“If Mount Hua’s glory can make the world a little easier for those who live in it, then all of Mount Hua’s disciples can proudly boast of that glory. But if it remains nothing more than glory for Mount Hua alone, then Mount Hua will be no more than a martial sect that can be replaced by any other at any time!”
The force of that cry still lived vividly in Jo Gul’s memory.
So Sahyung wasn’t just spouting empty words.
He never made a show of the things he did, and he never raised his voice first, demanding that others follow his lead. But Yoon Jong had quietly done what was set before him for a long time, and in doing so, he had also protected the Dao within himself.
The glory of Mount Hua is the glory of the world.
A grand phrase.
Yet when it came from Yoon Jong’s mouth, it didn’t sound grandiose at all. He really would carry out each thing he could do, one by one, and build up the Dao in his heart.
Steadily. Like an ox.
“……You really can’t beat him, huh?”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
Jo Gul snorted.
At the time, he hadn’t understood the words at all, but now he thought he might be starting to get them. Only a little, though. It was still hazy.
Still……
“What bothers me is that the one actually building Mount Hua into something like that is none other than Chung Myung……”
“……”
At that, Yoon Jong’s gentle face twitched into something sour.
“Do you think Chung Myung is doing all this with those kinds of thoughts?”
“……No, I don’t.”
“Then isn’t there something wrong here?”
“W-well, the important thing is the result, isn’t it!”
It was not something a Daoist should have said, but Jo Gul couldn’t quite bring himself to blame Yoon Jong for it.
It’s weird, that’s all.
Everything Chung Myung did was like that.
There was no way that bastard had some warm heart for other people, so everything he did had to be either for Mount Hua’s benefit or to screw over another sect.
And yet, in the end, most of the things he did with that narrow-minded intent wound up helping other people or bringing them benefits.
Of course, if the people he’d stripped down to the bone heard that, they’d probably foam at the mouth.
But still, weren’t the results what mattered?
Chung Myung had solved the poverty of Yunnan, and he had also handled the crisis in the North Sea. And now he was relieving Hubei.
Looking only at his record, it was almost as if……
Huh?
Sensing something off, Jo Gul’s face twisted faintly.
“……Sahyung, if I may ask.”
“Hmm?”
“Suppose a long time passes, and someday far in the future, someone looks back on Mount Hua’s deeds now.”
“Looks back?”
“Wouldn’t Chung Myung end up seeming like some hero with an unmatched sense of righteousness?”
“……”
Yoon Jong’s body stiffened like stone.
“S-surely not……”
“No, no, think about it. How would descendants in the future know how damn awful Chung Myung’s personality really is, or what a shameless bastard he is? In the end, all that’s left are his achievements and his record.”
“……”
“And if you look at only that……”
“Enough. That’s far enough.”
Apparently even the great Yoon Jong found that thought unbearable.
“Let’s just stop with those dreadful… no, pointless ideas and hurry up and finish the work we came to do.”
“……”
Seeing Yoon Jong shake his head as though he didn’t even want to think about it and stride ahead, Jo Gul let out a small sigh.
That bastard a hero?
What kind of world was this coming to……
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
One empty cart after another passed through the front gate of the Geum-seon Merchant Group.
The Mount Hua disciples lined up the carts they had emptied on one side of the compound, then trotted over toward Hyun Sang.
“Elder! We’ve finished distributing everything and returned.”
“Good. You’ve worked hard.”
“We’ve also gone through every village assigned to us.”
“Yes, yes. You’ve all done well.”
As Hyun Sang smiled warmly, Hyun Young grumbled with a sullen look.
“You didn’t skim any off the top and sell it somewhere, did you?”
“Could you be quiet for once?”
“I was just joking……”
“I said be quiet.”
“……Yes, sir.”
Meanwhile, behind the two elders standing with their hands clasped behind their backs as they watched the disciples, Song Tae-ak, the leader of the Geum-seon Merchant Group, was deep in thought.
Odd, isn’t it.
The more he watched them, the stranger this sect seemed.
Usually, elders were the kind to involve themselves in every little thing a sect did. Every sect he had seen until now had been like that.
But the elders of Mount Hua were merely watching their disciples’ work quietly and encouraging them.
That’s not easy to do at all.
Song Tae-ak was the head of a merchant group himself, so he knew better than most how hard it was to trust subordinates and watch without interfering.
No, it wasn’t just the elders.
The first-generation disciples standing behind them were also not bossing the younger disciples around or meddling in everything. And they were all at the age when they should have been the most energetic. Instead, that seemed only to make the younger disciples feel even more responsible, and thus work all the harder.
Maybe this is the very force that made Mount Hua famous throughout the world.
Even as Song Tae-ak thought that, the empty carts kept rolling into the compound.
“Hup!”
At last, Jo Gul returned, set his cart in place, and shouted brightly, “Everyone has returned!”
“You’ve done well.”
Hyun Sang smiled warmly.
They all look so proud.
It had been the same when they fought their first real battle and drove off the Green Forest bandits, but the emotion on their faces now was a little different from back then.
How gratifying.
Even after enduring grueling training and brutal real combat, the Mount Hua disciples still held on to a deep joy in helping others.
Hyun Sang found that fact immensely gratifying—and immensely proud.
“So then, is that more or less the end of it?”
At Hyun Sang’s question, Hyun Young nodded.
“We’ve distributed all the grain we prepared. Everything we had to do in Wuhan is finished.”
“Mm.”
Hyun Sang nodded lightly, then turned his gaze to the side.
“Chung Myung.”
“Yes.”
“We can return to Mount Hua now, can’t we?”
“Hmm.”
Chung Myung scratched his cheek and grinned.
“Yes, well. There’s nothing left to do.”
“Then when would be best to leave?”
“Let’s go tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
Hyun Sang tilted his head at the unexpected answer.
Of course, everyone had been worn out by all this work, so resting today and leaving tomorrow would not have been strange. But the Chung Myung he knew was not the kind of person who would spare the disciples that sort of kindness.
That bastard would more likely yell that time was gold, laziness was a sin, and they should sprint all the way to Mount Hua right this instant. Yet now he was saying they should leave tomorrow?
“Do you have some other idea in mind?”
“Well, not exactly……”
Chung Myung smiled with a faintly unreadable expression.
That look, as if he were still hiding something, made Baek Cheon and the others stiffen with unease.
That face…… that’s definitely the face he makes when he’s plotting something.
Now just seeing that expression makes my heart shrink.
What the hell is he planning now?
That’s a bad thought. A really bad thought.
Unaware of their alarm, Chung Myung merely grinned and answered, “I figured I’d stretched the waiting long enough that we might get a visitor.”
“A visitor?”
“Yep.”
Hyun Sang tilted his head. A visitor? Who would come to Mount Hua from a place that wasn’t even Shaanxi?
“Did you call someone?”
“Hmm. I’m not sure whether I should say yes or no.”
“Eh?”
He kept spouting nonsense, and Hyun Sang’s eyes gradually narrowed.
Then someone burst through the front gate in a panic.
“Merchant Leader!”
Song Tae-ak hurriedly asked, “What is it?”
“It’s, it’s terrible!”
“Hmm?”
“A guest…… a guest is coming!”
“A guest? Who are you talking about?”
Song Tae-ak was just about to ask why a guest coming to the merchant group would be such an emergency when the next words made his jaw drop open.
“W-Wudang! It’s Wudang Sect!”
The voice was practically a scream. As if by agreement, everyone’s gaze snapped to Chung Myung.
Chung Myung basked in the stares of everyone present and grinned.
“They’re later than I expected. Hahahahaha. Looks like the Wudang Sect Leader’s ass caught fire or something!”
“……”
No……
What the hell was this bastard about to do now……?
The faces of every Mount Hua disciple went white in an instant.