If You Die, You Can Rest All You Want! (1)
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
“W-what was that sound?”
“Is it a landslide or something?”
The people who had been bent over their waists, tilling the fields all at once lifted their heads in alarm. A roar like boulders rolling down a steep mountain echoed thunderously from far above.
“I-it sounds like it’s over there?”
“Huh?”
Turning toward the direction someone pointed, they saw it: a huge cloud of dust blooming up at the end of the road.
“W-what is that?!”
“Could it be invaders?”
“No, you idiot! Where do you think we are that invaders would come here? Even wokou pirates can’t get this far in.”
“Then why the hell would I say that? What on earth is that…?”
Faced with a bizarre sight none of them had ever seen before, the farmers who had been working the fields could only stand there gripping their tools and stare, dumbfounded at the scale of it.
“……Isn’t it getting closer?”
“Huh? Oh… yeah.”
Now that they looked again, the dust cloud really was surging toward them. Once they realized that, the speed at which it was advancing was truly incredible.
“Sh-shouldn’t we run?”
“Run from what? We don’t even know what it is.”
While they hesitated, unable to decide what to do, the dust cloud came charging toward them in the blink of an eye.
A moment later, when they finally made out the source of the commotion, the farmers’ mouths fell open.
“People?”
“S-something like carts, maybe?”
A crowd of people in black clothes were hauling several carts and tearing down the road at terrifying speed.
And standing on top of the lead cart, which looked like it would fall apart at any second, was some lunatic with the nerve to point and shout.
“Oh? Slowing down, are you? So? Now that you’ve even beaten Wudang, training’s easy, huh? Fine! Then let’s see if we can run until the sky turns yellow today!”
“Aaaaaaaaaah! You son of a bitch!”
“Kill me! Just kill me, you bastard!”
“Why kill you? There’s nothing easier than dying in this world! Quit spouting nonsense and run! Anyone who falls behind today gets hung upside down from a tree all night, so go on and try to lag behind!”
“Aaaaaaaaaagh!”
Like mad oxen, they all charged forward, froth at their mouths and bloodshot fury in their eyes.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
The thunderous clatter of cartwheels swept past. A heartbeat later, the vast, pale cloud of dust they kicked up swallowed the farmers, who still stood there staring blankly after them.
“…….”
“…….”
Someone quietly muttered while watching the backs of the carts vanish into the distance.
“What kind of sorcery is this…?”
“Not invaders, but still…”
Then another person tilted his head.
“But didn’t I just see flower embroidery on those men’s chests?”
“Now that you mention it, I think I did.”
“Tsk. What sort of shameless men wear flower embroidery?”
“N-no, that’s not what I mean… If they’ve got flower embroidery on their chests, wouldn’t that be that Mount Hua or whatever sect people have been talking about lately? The one from Wuhan that beat Wudang in a martial contest, and even won against one of Wudang’s elders?”
“Huh?”
Everyone slowly turned to stare in the direction the group had disappeared. The dust cloud was already settling now.
But…
“No way.”
“Come on now, think before you speak. Those lofty Daoists would drag carts like beasts of burden? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“That’s asking for divine punishment!”
“R-right?”
Everyone frowned.
“If they beat Wudang, shouldn’t they be riding home in triumph? Even a carriage wouldn’t be too good for them, so how could it make sense for them to haul carts instead of horses?”
“Exactly! Mount Hua isn’t some poor, penniless sect, is it?”
“……Now that you put it that way, that does sound right. Then who the hell were those people?”
“How should I know? Probably some lowlife criminals running after committing a crime.”
“Just looking at them, they had the faces of bandits, didn’t they? We were lucky not to get caught up in that.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“I wonder what the government officials are doing. Why don’t they go arrest people like that?”
“Hey! What government officials? If you’re talking about bandits, you’re talking about Mount Hua! Those guys would be smashed to pieces if they ever crossed Mount Hua Sect.”
“Not Wudang?”
“Bandits are Mount Hua’s problem! Mount Hua!”
The one who had first suggested it might be Mount Hua looked a little embarrassed and went back to gripping his farming tool properly.
But didn’t those people look exactly like Mount Hua Sect disciples?
But of course, he couldn’t bring himself to say that aloud.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The moment the carts stopped, the disciples of Mount Hua collapsed where they stood without even the strength to groan. Half of them had froth at the corners of their mouths; the other half looked like they didn’t even have the strength for that.
“You useless sacks of crap!”
Chung Myung, who had ridden this far seated comfortably and with not the slightest discomfort on someone else’s cart, glared with wide eyes.
“What do you mean, ‘just a little’?! Back in my day, huh? I crossed the whole of the Central Plains in three days with a thousand-pound burden on my back!”
If they had been in any condition at all, they would have answered that nonsense with a fresh round of curses. But right now, none of them even had the strength to open their mouths.
How can it be this hard?
I’m going to die. I really am going to die.
Great Jade Emperor, this is not my time yet!
Looking at the sprawled-out disciples of Mount Hua, Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
“You beat up with Wudang guys a little and suddenly think you’re something special?”
“…….”
“Fine, confidence is good. But the moment confidence turns into arrogance, it becomes worse than useless.”
As he spoke, Chung Myung casually looked back over his shoulder, as if gazing at the path they had already traveled.
“The martial nephews are probably celebrating because they won, but Wudang’s bastards are grinding their teeth over this loss. Starting today… no, they’re probably already training their asses off, gnashing their teeth the whole time. Meanwhile, you sahyungs got drunk on that tiny victory and started getting loose. So who’s going to win next time?”
Then Jo Gul, who had been lying facedown on the ground and panting, abruptly shot upright and raised his hand.
“What? Say it.”
“I didn’t get drunk on anything!”
“Get down.”
“……Damn it.”
Jo Gul flopped down again.
“When people praise you for doing well, that’s when you need to grit your teeth even harder! As soon as you get a little praise and start relaxing and playing around, all the work you built up vanishes in a second! You feel good because you beat people you couldn’t beat before? Then when you lose to people you used to beat, you’ll want to jump off a cliff!”
“We’re already jumping off one, you bastard!”
“And it’s not just once, you bastard!”
“Oh? You want to talk back?”
The disciples of Mount Hua looked up at the sky with tears in their eyes.
That rotten bastard’s spouting nothing but the truth, damn him.
So that’s why the people who spoke the truth in olden times died young!
It was a fresh realization of historical truth for Mount Hua’s disciples.
Honestly, after putting up a decent showing against Wudang’s first-generation disciples, they’d earned the right to push back a little. But that demon of a man had gone and beaten Wudang’s elder into the ground. They had seen it with their own eyes, and there was simply no way to talk back after that.
They had all been forced to painfully realize that the scariest thing in the world wasn’t personality, and it wasn’t rank—it was results.
Besides…
“Ugh. Damn bastard.”
“Why don’t you just fall backward and crack your skull open?”
“If you do, I’ll go hammer a silver needle into the back of your head!”
Baek Cheon, the Five Swords, Dang Soso, and even Hye Yeon were all glaring at Chung Myung with eyes full of resentment. It made sense; the ones assigned to each cart had to bear the weight while enduring a pace that was already brutal just from running.
“…….”
And with those people running right beside them, the rest of the disciples didn’t even dare complain.
Chung Myung received all that hatred with a grin on his face.
“Humans are all the same, you know. No matter how impressive they look, they’re not much. If you sprint at full speed, you can’t last even an hour. What, you think training gets easier just because your level goes up? That only happens because you keep doing the same damn training!”
His eyes gradually began to gleam more and more wildly.
“Training should be hard, that’s what training is! If it isn’t hard, is that even training? Rest’s over! Everyone up and run!”
“Aagh! You damned bastard!”
“One day I’m really going to kill you!”
At that moment, Un Geom, who had been watching from behind with a look of awe, slowly nodded.
They’re all cursing him to death with their mouths, but their bodies are preparing properly.
Could it be that these brats actually enjoyed training?
“Chung Myung.”
“Yes, sir!”
At Un Geom’s call, Chung Myung spun around quickly.
“I don’t especially mean to interfere with your training, but isn’t this a little excessive? They must already be exhausted from the long journey and the successive battles.”
Chung Myung glanced back over his shoulder.
After confirming that everyone else was busy getting ready to run again and not paying attention to them, he lowered his voice so the others couldn’t hear.
“That’s exactly when you need to train.”
“Hm?”
When Un Geom made a questioning sound, Chung Myung shrugged.
“There are lots of ways to train, but you can’t manufacture conditions. Someday, there may really come a time when they have to fight while so weighed down by fatigue that even circulating their energy won’t recover them.”
“Mm. That’s true.”
“What gets them through that kind of thing is experience. Once a person survives something once, the body remembers it.”
Un Geom looked at Chung Myung with renewed admiration.
So it isn’t just physical training.
Un Geom was a man who taught disciples himself. Because of that, there were times when he was startled by the way Chung Myung instructed the disciples.
On the surface, it looked like nothing but merciless torment, but beneath that training there were often deeper intentions even Un Geom couldn’t fully grasp.
How many such trainings have there been until now?
The disciples of Mount Hua weren’t simply getting stronger.
In the past, they had flinched like they had seen a ghost just hearing the name of Zhongnan’s disciples. Now they could stand in front of Wudang’s first-generation disciples without losing heart.
That wasn’t something that could be achieved by results alone.
One line after another from Chung Myung—things that sounded only like relentless harassment—had steadily changed the minds of Mount Hua’s disciples.
This is practically brainwashing.
Whether that had truly been Chung Myung’s intention or not, he couldn’t say.
“Even so, don’t they need rest?”
“They’ll get it soon.”
Chung Myung looked off into the distance. The ridgeline of Mount Hua was now beginning to appear faintly in the far-off distance.
“Once we get back to Mount Hua, things are going to get busy. For a while, I’ll be tied up with this Heavenly Alliance business and won’t be able to properly oversee their training.”
There was a subtle note of concern in his voice. Then Un Geom met Chung Myung’s faintly sidelong gaze and smiled.
“Don’t worry. I won’t neglect the children while I devote myself to training.”
“Hehe. That wasn’t what I meant…”
Chung Myung awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
That boy.
The preparations for the Heavenly Alliance’s founding were now finished. But that only meant the preparations were done—it did not mean the work itself was over.
No matter what anyone said, the Heavenly Alliance was a group being built around Chung Myung. Naturally, there would be many things he himself had to handle directly.
And yet, even with that important task ahead of him, Chung Myung was still the sort of person who worried about his disciples’ training. It was a commendable trait, to be sure, but what was there to say about that…?
Hm.
His words still made sense. They weren’t really all that different from how he’d always been.
Only…
Watching Chung Myung quietly, Un Geom spoke gently.
“Chung Myung. I do not understand everything you are thinking.”
“……Huh?”
When Chung Myung asked back, Un Geom smiled faintly.
“But we are all trying, however lacking we may be, so do not rush ahead too quickly.”
“…….”
Chung Myung awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know.”
Un Geom simply kept smiling. Chung Myung, embarrassed again, scratched the back of his head once more and looked away.
Just then, the disciples of Mount Hua, who had finished preparing, roared in unison.
“Leeeet’s gooooooo!”
“Mount Hua! Once we get to Mount Hua, this damn nonsense is over!”
“Let’s just get there fast!”
Watching Mount Hua’s disciples charge ahead with the wild eyes of mad oxen, Chung Myung gave Un Geom a slightly strange look.
“Looks to me like those old men are even more eager than I am.”
“…….”
Well, that couldn’t be helped now, could it?
Ha…
Once more, with a noisy thunder of feet, the Mount Hua group raced forward, and ahead of them the towering peaks of Mount Hua slowly began to reveal themselves.