Everyone Is Here (5)
“We’re short on liquor here!”
“I’m coming!”
“More meat! We need more meat too!”
“There aren’t enough hands in the kitchen! You, run to the dining hall!”
“Yes, sir!”
After the opening ceremony ended with a brevity rarely seen in the world, the banquet began at once.
Those who had witnessed the founding of the Heavenly Alliance with their own eyes gathered in twos and threes at the prepared tables, chewing over what had happened today and talking excitedly about the days ahead.
“Now that I’m here and seeing it for myself, isn’t it a little different from what I expected?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. I thought the Heavenly Alliance would proudly declare itself the ruler of the western Central Plains.”
“Nonsense! Since when was the Heavenly Alliance the only power in the west? Qingcheng and Emei are right there with their eyes wide open, aren’t they? Kunlun and Wudang are there too! And if you think about it, Mount Kongtong is part of the west as well!”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Besides, even though it’s sealed off, Mount Zhongnan is still there! It’s not like the Heavenly Alliance can just sweep everything away!”
“That’s true enough…… though……”
Those who were about to answer exchanged glances and then fell silent with strange expressions.
If they had heard those words before attending the opening ceremony, they would have nodded without a second thought.
Qingcheng, Emei, Kongtong, Mount Heng, and Zhongnan.
It meant that five of the Nine Sects and One Gang were still remaining in the western Central Plains, unjoined to the Heavenly Alliance.
But……
“Kunlun and Kongtong are so far away that they hardly ever come into the Central Plains unless they have a real reason to.”
More to the point, those two sects were so distant that calling them sects of the outer regions would not have been much of an exaggeration. Though they were counted among the Nine Sects and One Gang, their influence did not truly reach the Central Plains.
“And Qingcheng and Emei are a little weak compared to the others among the Nine Sects.”
If they had not seen the opening ceremony, they would never have placed Qingcheng and Emei beneath the Heavenly Alliance. But now, they had begun to wonder whether Qingcheng and Emei could even stand against it at all.
Of course, if one looked only at the raw strength of the sects, Qingcheng and Emei might have been stronger than the four core sects of the Heavenly Alliance. Even if they weren’t, they would not lag far behind.
But the Nine Sects and One Gang were a loose coalition, while the Heavenly Alliance was bound together like one body. No one here could fail to understand how enormous that difference was.
“In any case, it’s strange.”
“It is.”
The crowd held back the thoughts they could not quite voice aloud, each locking them away inside themselves. A faintly peculiar mood settled over the banquet.
They had gathered convinced that the Heavenly Alliance would blow new winds through the Central Plains, but the change they had expected was something that would begin ten years down the line. Or maybe twenty.
No one had imagined that the alliance would exert such powerful influence over the western Central Plains the very moment it was founded. But judging by the look of things, it was proving to be far more radical and far more disruptive than anyone had thought.
The opening declaration had been gentle to a fault, and the ceremony itself had been brief beyond reason.
Yet the will hidden beneath that surface had been firmer and straighter than anyone had expected.
“……Even if they put it politely, if you think about it, this is basically no different from declaring dominance.”
“That’s a bit too much, isn’t it……? The Sichuan Tang Family, a great household of the Central Plains, and Mount Hua, a Daoist sect, are at the center. How could that be called a declaration of tyranny?”
“Don’t look at it so narrowly. This is……”
But just as he was about to continue, he glanced around and shut his mouth again. It was not the sort of thing to say in a place where the Heavenly Alliance’s disciples were moving about everywhere.
Stupid people. So complacent……
He clicked his tongue while looking at the others, who were lost in their carefree assumptions.
They don’t understand at all what it means to become brothers.
It was unlikely to happen often, but if, for instance, the Kunlun Sect—one of the Nine Sects—were to run into trouble with the surrounding sects and go to war, would the other sects of the Nine Sects rush in to help?
Not a chance.
None of them would move to support Kunlun. Each sect’s affairs were its own. In the end, the Nine Sects and One Gang were nothing more than a loose alliance that moved under one name when some major event shook the world of martial arts.
But if the same thing happened to the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace?
The Sichuan Tang Family and Mount Hua would rush to its aid at once, and even the far-off North Sea Ice Palace would surely grit its teeth and come running.
In the end, if one sect of theirs became an enemy, the other three would have to be faced at the same time. No one could easily bring themselves to attempt something like that.
Nothing changed, and yet everything changed.
The instant the leaders of the four western sects raised their brotherhood cups, the meaning of this opening ceremony changed completely.
For one sect to share a brotherhood cup with another was something unheard of. The world was a place where no one could tell how things might change by the very next day. In the Jianghu, it was no surprise for today’s friend to become tomorrow’s enemy and stab you in the back.
The heads of great sects, who understood that better than anyone, had forged brotherhood ties? In ordinary circumstances, that simply would never happen.
But no matter how he thought about it, he could not figure out what had caused it. However much gratitude they might owe, the sects of the outer regions were not naive enough to call themselves brothers for that alone……
“What on earth are you thinking about so hard?”
“Hm? Ah, no. Nothing.”
“Drink! For now, just drink! Think later. Isn’t today a good day?”
“Th-That’s right! Hahaha! That’s how it should be!”
The noisy drinking resumed.
Those who had no deep thoughts simply celebrated the Heavenly Alliance’s founding, while those who had some measure of insight continued to drink even as they watched the atmosphere around them and the disciples’ movements closely.
And those with too many thoughts could not blend into the boisterous surroundings at all, their faces stiff as they sank into deep contemplation.
Meanwhile, the root cause of all this mess—the one who had twisted the situation into something so bizarre—was throwing a fit with a face full of irritation.
“No, did I say something wrong?!”
“……”
“If you’ve seen what you came to see, then go home already. Why are you flopping around here like it’s your own living room, guzzling drink after drink? It’s making my head hurt!”
“……Fine, fine, so shut up already, Chung Myung. Someone might hear you.”
“I’m saying it so they’ll hear it! These old bastards came here to have fun……”
Then, all at once, Chung Myung stopped and gaped.
His eyes were shining brightly as they fixed on a pure white porcelain flask thrust right up to his face.
“……Take this and go up there and pour drinks for them.”
“I-I can do that?”
“……Please go away. I’m begging you.”
“Hehe. Well, all right then.”
Chung Myung snatched the flask Baek Cheon had offered. Baek Cheon let out a long, heavy sigh.
“Is that really all right, Sasuk? This is a sect banquet, after all.”
“……Then why don’t you go follow him around and stop him?”
“You have made a most wise and enlightened decision, Sasuk.”
“……”
Just then, as Chung Myung stared at the flask and practically drooled, he suddenly turned his sulky face toward Baek Cheon and asked, “Anyway, when are those old men leaving?”
“For a grand event like this, the banquet usually lasts three days and three nights.”
“What? Th-three days? Are they possessed by the ghost of some bastard who died because he couldn’t get enough to drink? They’re gonna drink nonstop for three whole days?”
“……That’s a very accurate thing to say, but coming from your mouth, I don’t even know how to express how miserable I feel.”
“Hehe. Don’t feel miserable, though. It’s a good day.”
“……”
Should I just kill him?
Baek Cheon exhaled with empty eyes and continued, “Anyway…… it’s supposed to last three days and three nights, but the Sect Leader thought it wouldn’t be proper to hold a feast at the sect for too long, so he decided to keep the banquet to today only.”
“Hah! That’s our Sect Leader for you. I was already getting sick just watching those strangers sit in our house and drink our booze.”
“……They came to congratulate us.”
“Congratulate us my ass. They came to mooch drinks, obviously. Sasuk, have you ever gone to a gathering like this and sincerely congratulated anyone?”
“Of course.”
“Huh? You have?”
Chung Myung stared at Baek Cheon with a blank expression, as though he’d taken a blow to the head.
Watching that face, as if he were seriously wondering, Then am I the weird one?, made Baek Cheon want to scream.
What the hell went wrong with this bastard’s humanity?
What on earth had he gone through before coming to Mount Hua that his very foundation had become so warped? No, was it just something he was born with?
“Anyway, hurry up and—”
Just as Chung Myung was about to complain again, a hand suddenly appeared from somewhere and cut between them.
“Huh?”
A graceful young nobleman in splendid silk clothes and an equally magnificent hat smiled warmly at the two of them.
“There’s no need to quarrel like that. Have a drink instead. It’s very fine liquor.”
“Uh……”
“Uh……?”
The two of them, who had been blank for a moment, both opened their mouths at once.
“You…… you! You……”
“No way……”
Even if the sky had collapsed right in front of him, Chung Myung would have clicked his tongue and shouted, “No, what the hell is falling down like that? Annoying bastard!”—but upon seeing the person standing there now, he had no choice but to gape.
“N-no way, you’ve got to be kidding me…… No, seriously, are you insane……”
There was no one who absolutely must not come to Mount Hua. But if they valued their lives, there were certainly some people who should think very carefully before coming. The man standing before them was exactly that kind of person.
“Heh heh. On such a good day, how could I possibly fail to offer my congratulations…… cough! Damn mountain! Why is there so much cold in the air! Cough!”
At the sight of the nobleman coughing violently while covering his mouth and trembling his shoulders, Baek Cheon’s jaw began to twitch.
“Ha ha! I’m deeply moved that you’re so delighted to see me…….”
“No! Has this man truly lost his mind?”
Chung Myung lunged at the nobleman and seized him by the collar.
Instead of shouting at the top of his lungs, though, he whipped his eyes around the surroundings. Fortunately, everyone was too busy drinking and chatting to pay them any attention. Chung Myung yanked the man close and hissed at him under his breath.
“You nearly died and got dragged back from the grave, and now you’ve forgotten what fear is? Why the hell did you come here? Are you crazy?”
“Heh heh! True friends must risk their lives—”
“What are you even talking about, you lunatic!”
The flustered Chung Myung reflexively twisted the man’s jaw.
“Keck! Y-you hit the person who came to congratulate you?”
“I’m hitting you because it’s you! If it were anyone else, I’d have killed them already, you damn madman!”
The man in the splendid clothes was Im So-byeong.
The Green Forest King, Im So-byeong.
“No, what kind of demonic bastard just crawls in here? There are people all over this place practically itching to tear you apart, like ants swarming an anthill!”
Right now, every famed elder of the greatest orthodox sects had gathered at Mount Hua. The Nine Sects, the Five Great Families, and all the people known for wielding blades in the world were swarming over the mountain.
For an orthodox martial artist, this might have been the safest place in the world, but for a member of the unorthodox path, it was no different from the eighteenth layer of the netherworld, far beyond the dragon pond and tiger’s den.
Even those who would normally be unable to make eye contact with Im So-byeong would surely be yelling that they would cut off his head if they knew he was here.
So what kind of nerve had he used to crawl all the way here?
“I’m asking you seriously. Are you crazy?”
“N-no. Just a moment, please don’t get so excited.”
Im So-byeong waved a hand, then smiled with open satisfaction.
“That’s why I even came in disguise!”
“……”
“Heh heh. There are a lot of people here, but who would ever think I’d come in this outfit? If you hear ‘Green Forest King,’ you’d naturally imagine a big, burly man wearing animal pelts.”
“……”
“As proof, I’ve been here since two days ago and no one has recognized me. That’s what you call safety!”
Chung Myung’s pupils trembled violently.
W-well……
It almost sounded reasonable…… no, wait, even if it did, it really shouldn’t…… but then again, it was true that no one had recognized him……
Ha. I don’t know anymore.
In any case, there wasn’t a single normal bastard in sight.
“……So why are you here?”
“Because I had to come, of course.”
At Chung Myung’s faintly resigned question, Im So-byeong replied with a solemn expression.
“It’s only that it couldn’t be declared publicly, but the Green Forest is also a sect that has shared brotherhood ties with Mount Hua, isn’t it?”
“……Who says?”
“The Heavenly Alliance is holding its opening ceremony, so how could our Green Forest, one of the very core members of the Heavenly Alliance, not come?”
“……So who exactly are you talking abou—”
“Heh heh. Don’t worry. I understand Mount Hua’s circumstances perfectly. I’ll just blend in quietly, greet the other sect leaders for a bit, and then head back. Until then, how about one drink? What do you think?”
Chung Myung looked at Im So-byeong, who was cheerfully shaking the flask, and smiled with dark satisfaction.
“Get lost, you demonic bastard!”
Just because you crossed one mountain did not mean life would become easier.