Why Should I Apologize When I’m the Host? (2)
Thud!
Yang Gyeong’s body crashed to the ground, and he lay there twitching as blood poured from his nose like a fountain.
For a long while, everyone stared at the scene in a daze. Slowly, their wits began to return.
What did I just see?
...Good heavens.
Yang Gyeong, the Iron-Hearted Hero.
He wasn’t exactly famous across the whole world of the martial arts, but in Hunan he still had a decent reputation. The Cheong-baek Sect, where he served as sect leader, was by no means a pitiful little sect that could be brushed aside.
And yet...
One shot?
No, wait—he just kicked a man in the face, didn't he?
The Iron-Hearted Hero got taken down that easily?
I-Is this really okay?
When people saw something so absurd that their brains simply couldn’t process it, they couldn’t even work up the energy to judge whether it was right or wrong.
The fact that Chung Myung had crushed the Iron-Hearted Hero in a single blow, and that the Mount Hua Divine Dragon—whose name was now all but synonymous with Mount Hua’s most notorious Taoist lunatic—had kicked a guest in the face without hesitation, had blown the spectators’ sense of reason clean out of their heads.
“H-hey... hey, you insane—”
Jo Gul stammered, barely able to string his words together.
The Mount Hua disciples standing behind him said nothing either. They just stared at Chung Myung, their pupils trembling wildly.
That crazy bastard.
Yep. That's Chung Myung all right. He really did charge in without even looking back.
What the hell did he eat growing up to turn out like that?
The other disciples could at least stop at shock, but Jo Gul couldn’t.
“I-I... this crazy bastard... wow... seriously...”
As Jo Gul wheezed for breath, Chung Myung said airily,
“Senior Brother.”
“Huh? Y-yeah?”
“Kick that bastard out right now and sprinkle salt on him.”
“... ”
“He ruined the mood at a banquet. Tsk.”
Yes, Chung Myung, I completely understand how you feel.
But—!
“You can’t just throw out a guest like that, you lunatic!”
“Guest my ass! I never accepted trash like that as a guest!”
“At least figure out what’s going on before you start beating people! You bastard, why the hell do your feet always move before your brain?”
“He clearly said something stupid. Why the hell would I sit there and listen to that garbage? It'd hurt my ears.”
He wasn’t wrong. That bastard had definitely been spouting nonsense.
But still, to go this far... Wow...
“J-just apologize already!”
“Why?”
“You hit a guest, so of course you should apologize! If you’re the host, that’s only natural!”
Chung Myung stared at Jo Gul like he had just heard the stupidest thing in the world.
“No, why should I apologize when I’m the boss?”
“They came to congratulate us on the founding of the Heavenly Alliance!”
“Exactly. That old man came to congratulate us, and I’m the host, so why the hell should I apologize?”
“...”
Jo Gul had no idea where to even begin explaining. In the end, he could only stand there dumbly with his mouth shut. Chung Myung spoke again, utterly unbothered.
“Guest or whatever, if they run their mouth with bullshit, they should get hit.”
Honestly, Jo Gul wanted to applaud. A clear mountain stream seemed to be flowing through his throat.
But he wasn’t supposed to be enjoying this situation. He was supposed to fix it.
“T-this isn’t the way to do things anymore!”
“Huh?”
With his face deathly pale, he said,
“Aren’t they the people who came to celebrate the formation of the alliance? Then we should treat them well and send them back properly so the alliance’s—”
“What?”
Chung Myung tilted his head, genuinely puzzled.
“Senior Brother, are you an idiot?”
“...Huh?”
“We’re the ones in charge, so why the hell should we watch their faces?”
“... ”
Chung Myung’s expression twisted fiercely.
“If we were going to worry about what other people think, we wouldn’t have made the alliance in the first place! In that case, we should’ve just stayed in Mount Hua and done whatever the hell we wanted. I made the alliance so we’d have more power, so why the hell should I worry about other people’s opinions? We made this alliance so we could smash the heads of anyone we don’t like!”
What? That was really why you made it?
No, even if that were the reason, why would you say it out loud in front of all these people, you lunatic?
“If they act up, just beat them! Kill them all!”
“...”
Jo Gul thought he had already known. No, he thought he had known plenty.
But every now and then—actually, more often than that—he was reminded of the truth.
This bastard is crazier than I ever imagined. He's completely gone.
Whether this had been thought through first or he’d just thought afterward was impossible to tell. The frightening part was that either way, it was terrifying.
“Ghh... gghhh...”
Just then, Yang Gyeong, who had been slammed into the floor, trembled and pushed himself back up.
No matter how small or middling a sect might be, it made no sense for a sect leader to be kicked flying by a third-generation disciple. But by now, not only Mount Hua’s disciples but everyone else had stopped being particularly shocked by that fact.
After all, the Mount Hua Divine Dragon was the same lunatic who had beaten down a Wudang elder.
“Y-you—!”
Yang Gyeong clutched his nose, from which blood was still streaming in an utterly disgraceful sight, and groaned.
At least he couldn’t see his own face. If he had been able to see the huge footprint-shaped bruise stamped across it, he might have fainted on the spot.
“You... damn it all!”
With bloodshot eyes, he glared at Chung Myung. The vicious killing intent pouring off him made the people around him swallow hard.
But the one receiving that glare didn’t seem to think much of it.
“What’re you glaring at? Open your eyes pretty. Go on, I dare you!”
Heavenly Venerated One, this bastard is clearly not a Taoist.
Please do something about him!
Yang Gyeong clenched his teeth and forced down his rising rage. Anyone could tell how much fury he was swallowing by looking at the fist trembling by his side.
“You!”
He shouted as if vomiting blood with his words.
“Is this how Mount Hua treats other sects? Is it?!”
At his cry, Chung Myung’s eyes flashed again.
“What, does this bastard really want to die?”
“Hold it in, Chung Myung! Enough!”
“You bastard, if you hit him anymore now, it’ll really become irreversible!”
“Grab him! Grab him!”
The disciples rushed in and latched onto Chung Myung.
“Let go! You won’t let go? Huh?”
The Mount Hua Divine Dragon growled like he was about to spring forward at any moment, while the Mount Hua disciples clung to him and held him back.
In Mount Hua, this was perfectly ordinary daily life. But for anyone seeing it for the first time, the sight was so unbelievable they had no choice but to rub their eyes.
Wasn't this a Taoist sect?
At this point, even Grand Supreme Elder Lord would turn away in his grave.
Was the Mount Hua Divine Dragon always this kind of person?
And why is there a weasel hanging onto him too?
In that instant, the true face of Mount Hua—the most famous sect in the world at the moment—and of the Mount Hua Divine Dragon, who had captured all of the martial world’s expectations as the number-one rising star of the younger generation, was laid bare before everyone.
“No, just let go. I won’t hit him. I said I won’t!”
“You’re totally going to hit him!”
“Have I ever said I wouldn’t hit someone and then hit them? When have I ever said one thing and done another?”
“Countless times, you bastard!”
“Oh, really?”
Watching the Mount Hua disciples make a spectacle of themselves, Yang Gyeong finally couldn’t suppress his rage and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Are you making a fool of me right now?”
At that thunderous voice, the Mount Hua disciples turned to look at Yang Gyeong.
“I’ll tell everyone in the martial world exactly what happened today! That Mount Hua bullies the powerless! That you’re so overbearing you’d even oppress guests who came to congratulate you!”
Chung Myung snorted.
“Go ahead.”
“You’ll regret it, but it’ll be too late! I will never accept an apology from you!”
“Then don’t.”
“I’m telling you again, I absolutely—”
“Hey, can’t you understand plain words?”
Chung Myung glared at him.
“Do whatever the hell you want, old man! Who stopped you?”
“...”
Yang Gyeong flinched and fell silent. He had expected Chung Myung to back down at least a little by now, but instead the boy had raised his voice even higher, leaving him flustered.
What the hell is this bastard?
If he had even a scrap of common sense, there was no way he wouldn’t realize what a huge mess he had just made. Once anger had rushed to one’s head and caused a mistake, a person usually came to their senses soon enough and shrank back when they realized the consequences.
But this one had caused a disaster of this magnitude and wasn’t even backing off—he was getting even more aggressive.
“A-Are you prepared to face the fallout?”
“Why are you worrying about that? It’s my problem to handle.”
“...”
“You’re really a kind soul, aren’t you? Why are you so worried about our business? And if you’re such a nice person, why didn’t you act like one from the beginning? Why only now, pretending to be kind? How disgusting. I ought to drain all the blood out of your head!”
Ha.
Our Chung Myung really had become gentler. Says he’ll only drain the blood and not smash the head.
“Anyway, enough of that. Get lost. Go on and do whatever you want.”
Since things were not going at all the way he had expected, Yang Gyeong glanced back, seeking support. He was trying to gauge the mood of the others gathered here.
But everyone who met his eyes quietly looked away, as if they wanted no further part in this mess.
W-why...?
Hadn’t they just been on his side, raising their voices together moments ago? Then why were they refusing to meet his gaze now?
Yang Gyeong had overlooked one crucial fact.
The people gathered here had already experienced Mount Hua’s strength firsthand. And if they had just been able to raise their voices earlier, it was because they had assumed Mount Hua would never pressure them too harshly, if only for the sake of appearances or this event.
But that assumption had been neatly kicked away by one strike of Chung Myung’s foot.
Mount Hua was no longer a minor sect in Shaanxi.
In terms of sheer force, it might still not yet match the level of the Nine Sects and One Gang, but in terms of influence, it had already surpassed most of them by a margin no ordinary sect could hope to rival.
What sect in this world could make the two powers ruling the outlying regions bow their heads?
“Th-then...”
Seeing the situation turning ugly, Yang Gyeong bit down hard and forced himself to continue.
“Then can Mount Hua be taken as supporting the sects of the outlying regions rather than those of the Central Plains?”
And with that, he pulled out his trump card.
If Mount Hua were a sect of the Central Plains, they couldn’t answer that lightly. Once people began saying that a Central Plains sect was supporting a sect from beyond the borders, it could become fatal to their reputation.
But the answer that came next was utterly beyond Yang Gyeong’s expectations.
“Then what are you going to do about it?”
“...”
Yang Gyeong’s eye twitched violently.
“Then, r-right now, Mount Hua is—”
“No, you’ve been asking the most obvious shit over and over and giving me a headache. What the hell have you people ever done for us that I should side with you over the Ice Palace and Beast Palace?”
“...”
“Who cares about the outlying regions or the Central Plains? Say one more word in front of me about barbarians or whatever, and I’ll strip the skin right off you!”
“You... shameless to the core...”
“What, shameless? Ha, nice. You want me to show you what shameless really looks like?”
As the Mount Hua disciples, who had loosened their grip for just a moment, freaked out again and clung to Chung Myung, they cried out in panic.
“Hey! Stop provoking the kid!”
“M-Mister, can’t you see this is exactly the moment when you shouldn’t do that?”
“Run! Get out of here, now!”
By then, the Mount Hua disciples had realized that trying to stop Chung Myung was useless, so they desperately shouted at Yang Gyeong instead.
Just as Yang Gyeong was floundering helplessly, not knowing what to do, another voice cut in.
“What is going on?”
At the low, calm voice, the crowd hurriedly parted left and right. Along the path they opened, Hyun Jong slowly walked forward.