There Are Losses More Precious Than Victory (5)
“Who is that?”
“……Doesn’t look like one of the first-generation disciples, does he?”
The Mount Hua disciples stared at Heo Gong as he stepped onto the training platform, their faces full of confusion.
Just by his age and clothing, he was obviously different from the first-generation disciples they had been facing until now.
Even if he hadn’t looked so different, they would have known something was off.
Something’s different.
The easy grace and strange, hollow composure that clung to him seemed to prick at the nerves of everyone watching.
“An elder?”
“Weren’t there only supposed to be one elder?”
“He doesn’t look like a first-generation disciple either.”
Just as the confusion deepened, Heo Gong, standing on the platform, slowly opened his mouth.
“I……”
It was a remarkably weighty voice.
The moment those first words fell, they carried enough presence to seize the attention of every Mount Hua disciple there.
“I am Heo Gong, elder of Wudang.”
An elder?
With another elder suddenly appearing, the Mount Hua disciples’ eyes filled with suspicion.
Heo Gong, drawing everyone’s attention, continued with a faint smile.
“I watched the contest between Mount Hua and Wudang quite carefully. It was a fine occasion, one that showed clearly just how exceptional Mount Hua’s disciples are. Our Wudang disciples must have learned much as well. As an elder of Wudang, I offer my deepest thanks for Mount Hua’s instruction.”
Bringing his hands together at his center, Heo Gong gave a leisurely salute.
Baek Cheon tilted his head and muttered to Chung Myung, “……He’s more normal than I expected.”
“Him?”
“Isn’t he?”
Compared with the scruffy martial robe and his hair tied back in a lazy knot, he looked so unlike the picture of neat severity that was Heo Sanja it was hard to believe they came from the same sect. Baek Cheon had assumed his personality would be just as strange, but the words coming out of his mouth were perfectly polite.
“Keep watching,” Chung Myung said.
“Huh?”
But Chung Myung only curled one corner of his mouth upward.
“You’ll see if you keep watching.”
Baek Cheon narrowed his eyes and looked back at Heo Gong. Just then, the man lowered his salute and spoke again.
“If one has received a favor, the proper thing is to repay it. However, Wudang has nothing particular to offer Mount Hua.”
Heo Gong made a show of thinking it over, letting out a soft hum before continuing.
“So perhaps we should do it this way?”
A sluggish smile spread across his lips.
“It seems the first-generation disciples of Wudang were unable to give Mount Hua’s disciples proper instruction, so it might be best if I, an elder of Wudang, stepped in and offered that instruction myself. Wouldn’t that be beneficial for both sides?”
The faces of the Mount Hua disciples hardened, cold as iron.
What truly provoked them was the word “instruction.”
Just moments ago, Heo Gong had spoken of having received Mount Hua’s instruction, but that was the kind of thing one said only to lower oneself.
To claim that one would instruct a different sect was a thing no one with even a shred of courtesy should ever say. It was far more insulting than a direct slight.
“Instruction?”
“That…….”
The sound of teeth grinding echoed from all around. They could endure being looked down on themselves if they had to. But no one in Mount Hua could bear to see Mount Hua itself looked down upon.
Still, there were two reasons they could not recklessly explode. First, the one spouting such outrageous nonsense was, after all, an elder of Wudang. Second, and more importantly, the one who needed to answer those words was not them.
“What did you say……”
Hyun Sang spoke quietly.
“Instruction, was it?”
His voice had sunk low and heavy. But Heo Gong, still wearing that effortless expression, asked in return, “May I ask who you are?”
“……Hyun Sang, elder of Mount Hua.”
“Ah, so you are the elder.”
He gave Hyun Sang a light salute.
That, too, was not exactly rude. But there was no chance the people watching him would take it kindly.
Heo Gong smiled faintly.
“Tao begins with casting off unnecessary formality, does it not? I hardly think it is so wrong for me, an elder of Wudang, to teach Mount Hua’s disciples.”
A sheet of coldness settled over Hyun Sang’s face.
Hyun Young, standing beside him, also glared at Heo Gong with anger in his eyes. Hyun Sang held to his manners to the very end and said firmly, “Mount Hua is not such a weak place that it would seek instruction from another sect.”
Heo Gong simply stared at him without answering.
“Even if instruction were needed, it would be for Mount Hua to ask for it, not for Wudang to bestow it.”
“Hmm.”
As though that made sense, Heo Gong nodded.
“That is true.”
“…….”
“If this were an ordinary sect, that is.”
“……What do you mean?”
“I say it out of pity.”
Heo Gong swept his gaze across the Mount Hua disciples.
“Mount Hua’s young disciples are all outstanding. Their talent is enough to make anyone covet them.”
Hyun Sang waited calmly for the next words. No one there failed to understand that whatever came next would be the point.
“However……”
Just as expected, a sneer touched Heo Gong’s lips.
“No matter how remarkable their talent may be, if there is no one to polish it, how can it ever truly shine? In my view, Mount Hua still seems unable to properly handle these disciples’ talents.”
“You……!”
Surprisingly, Hyun Sang didn’t seem especially angered by the words.
The ones who actually bristled were the Baek generation and the Cheong generation.
“That damn…….”
“Be quiet.”
“But Elder!”
“I said be quiet.”
Hyun Young’s cold voice cut them off before they could act rashly.
The Mount Hua disciples bit their lips hard. Having just seen Un Geom’s brilliant performance with their own eyes, they could not possibly tolerate anyone insulting Mount Hua’s senior generation—especially not with the claim that the senior generation was insufficient to teach them.
But Hyun Young could not let them boil over either.
No matter how outrageous the man’s words were, he was still an elder of Wudang. He was not someone the younger disciples could afford to address carelessly.
Besides, the other side’s intention was plainly to provoke them. There was no reason to walk straight into it.
But Heo Gong clearly had no intention of stopping there. In his same leisurely voice, he said, “It is a shame. Who would be pleased to watch talent that could bloom beautifully end up withering away because it never found the right environment?”
“…….”
“Perhaps it would be different with another sect, but this is Mount Hua we’re talking about, a sect that walks the same path of Tao. Is it not only natural to want to help?”
Hyun Sang’s lips trembled faintly.
What tormented him was not the nonsense coming out of that man’s mouth. It was not even the disdain aimed at Mount Hua, nor the present situation that made it difficult to refute those words.
What truly troubled him was the thought that had flashed through his mind: that enduring this humiliation and asking Wudang’s elder for instruction might, perhaps, actually help the disciples.
Because there was nothing outright wrong in those words.
Mount Hua’s disciples had shown themselves to be extraordinary. The winners needed no praise, and even the losers had struggled with a kind of effort that could bring tears to the eye.
They had gone so far that it no longer seemed impossible to imagine them catching up to Wudang.
And yet, as Heo Gong had said, without someone above them to guide them, they would eventually hit a wall. Even if they somehow broke through that wall, Mount Hua’s disciples would suffer hardships in the process that could not even be compared with those of other prestigious sects.
Because the older generation could no longer guide them.
Is my pathetic little pride really what matters here?
Hyun Sang was just about to open his mouth, swallowing the bitter emotion in his chest, when Hyun Young, who had been watching the situation from the side, spoke first, faster by half a beat.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Please do.”
“This is a contest meant to determine victory and defeat. If an elder appears here, then what happens to the outcome?”
“The outcome, you say?”
“That’s right.”
Hyun Young took a shallow breath and continued, “For Wudang to win, two more victories are still needed. Surely you’re not saying you intend to fight personally, are you?”
At this sharp question, Heo Gong smiled with the hint of a sneer.
“Victory and defeat…… victory and defeat…… What does that really matter?”
“…….”
“A contest is, in the end, only a matter of comparing martial ways and learning from one another. If both sides have gained something, then what difference does victory or defeat make?”
Hyun Young’s face stiffened. Heo Gong smiled and drove the stake home.
“If you absolutely must divide things into winners and losers to feel satisfied, then you may call it Mount Hua’s victory.”
Hyun Young clenched his fists beneath his sleeves.
This bastard…….
Before everyone’s eyes, he was acting as if he didn’t care about victory or defeat. It was a ploy to strip the contest itself of meaning.
And it was also the best possible move for Wudang, which had already lost much even if it won. This was Hyun Young’s mistake—he had never imagined that it would be an elder, not Heo Sanja, who would prove so skillful with words, and he had steered the conversation right into that trap.
As expected, the crowd began to murmur.
“Wasn’t Wudang winning? Then why say Mount Hua’s victory?”
“Doesn’t he just mean victory and defeat don’t matter? That it was merely a friendly exchange.”
“Then does that mean Wudang wasn’t fighting with full strength all this time?”
“Well……”
The spectators looked genuinely confused as well. Then someone shouted in a voice full of conviction, “Of course! If Wudang had been serious, would they really have lost to Mount Hua’s second-generation disciples?”
“What nonsense! You saw the contest with your own eyes, and you still say that? Was that fighting as if they were taking it easy?”
“Tsk tsk. What do you know? Did you really think Wudang’s first-generation disciples would lose to Mount Hua’s second-generation disciples? They must have deliberately held back for Mount Hua’s sake, then taken the later matches in a row!”
“Hah! That one’s just fitting the facts however he likes!”
The audience began to argue in earnest, each person pushing their own opinion. Naturally, there were many who still sided with Mount Hua. But until just a moment ago, the overwhelming consensus had been that this was a victory Mount Hua could still claim even in defeat; the fact that opinions were now splitting apart showed just how much the entire board was being shaken.
Damn it.
Hyun Young bit his lip hard in rising fury.
If the other side sent out an elder, then Mount Hua needed to answer with an elder of its own. But neither he nor Hyun Sang could possibly defeat that Heo Gong.
That meant they had to step back, but if they showed even the slightest sign of retreat now, it would amount to admitting that Mount Hua’s senior generation was powerless before Wudang’s elder.
What are we supposed to do……?
Hyun Young glanced at Hyun Sang’s expression. Hyun Sang, too, had no answer.
But Hyun Young knew something else. He knew who always found the answer when they could not.
Chung Myung……
“No!”
“…….”
That damned bastard, always one step ahead.
Every Mount Hua disciple turned at once toward Chung Myung. Squatting shamelessly on the ground, Chung Myung looked up at Heo Gong and spoke in a lazy drawl.
“Don’t try to slither around it and just say it straight. So what, you’re saying you lost or what?”
“……Hm?”
“We won, right?”
“Hah.”
Heo Gong burst out laughing.
“You may think of it that way.”
“No, it sounds like you’re really not getting what I’m saying.”
“……What did you say?”
Chung Myung slowly pushed himself up from where he sat.
“So, Wudang lost. Is that it?”
“…….”
“Why can’t you answer? You were talking a mile a minute just a second ago.”
Heo Gong’s smile faded as he narrowed his eyes and asked, “And who might you be?”
“Chung Myung.”
Chung Myung bared his teeth in a grin.
“A little childish, but people call me the Mount Hua Divine Dragon.”
All of Mount Hua, Wudang, and everyone gathered there turned their eyes to Chung Myung at once.