I’m Looking Forward to That Day (3)
"Then I wish your esteemed sect safe travels!"
"We will come calling again whenever the opportunity arises, Alliance Leader!"
"Please convey my regards to the Family Head as well!"
Standing at the mountain gate, Hyun Jong saw off everyone leaving Mount Hua one by one.
Watching from a distance, the Mount Hua Five Swords murmured with faces that looked half-dead.
"It's over."
"...It’s finally over."
"I thought I was going to die, seriously..."
Their expressions were so drained that no words could quite capture the exhaustion written across them.
"Honestly, fighting enemies would’ve been easier.... I had no idea dealing with people could be this exhausting."
"If Chung Myung hadn’t been around, I probably would’ve been more at ease."
"Next time something like this happens, let’s just send that bastard far away first and get on with it."
"...My head says that’s not right, but my heart is violently agreeing."
At the same time, a collective sigh escaped their lips. It seemed their life spans had been shaved down quite a bit over the past few days.
Jo Gul twisted his face into a grimace.
"If that crazy bastard hadn’t come, I wouldn’t be this worn out."
"Exactly!"
At the mention of Jang Il-so, everyone’s faces stiffened. Breaking the silence that had fallen, Baek Cheon muttered in a low voice.
"...Paegun, huh...."
Jang Il-so’s first impression was nothing like what they had expected. For all the weight carried by the title Paegun and the position of Leader of Maninbang, his clothing and ornaments were outrageously extravagant.
And yet... his presence was truly immense.
Jang Il-so had stayed at Mount Hua for only a very short time. It would not have been strange to call it only a few moments. But in that brief span, he had left an indelible mark on the hearts of Mount Hua’s disciples.
Proof of that was how, by the time he left, no one could take their eyes off his back. Jang Il-so was clearly different from the enemies they had faced until now. It was hard to say exactly how, but....
"Honestly, if we're talking sheer strength, the Demonic Sect's Bishop was several times more impressive."
"Yes, definitely."
There was no way to tell whether Jang Il-so or the Bishop was stronger.
At their level, it was impossible to judge the martial prowess of someone like Jang Il-so just by looking at him.
"But... that man has something beyond martial skill."
"Yeah. I felt that too."
Baek Cheon nodded at Yoon Jong’s words. This was not simply a matter of being strong or not.
A monster, huh....
Chung Myung had called Jang Il-so a monster.
Usually in the Jianghu, labels like monster or genius were used to speak of a person’s martial skill and talent. But Chung Myung had not seemed to be talking about martial skill at all.
He must have meant that Jang Il-so himself is a monster.
In a way, that was the highest possible praise.
And Baek Cheon had no choice but to agree. He had also, from a distance, seen the sect leaders of the Orthodox Sects, the family heads of the Five Great Families, and even people like Maeng So, the absolute rulers of the outer regions. But none of them had ever pressed down on him with presence alone the way Jang Il-so had.
Baek Cheon bit his lip. Just then, Yoon Jong added quietly, as if slipping in another thought.
"It wasn't only Jang Il-so, Sasuk."
"Hm?"
"The Maninbang brutes in red behind him were terrifying too."
At that, Baek Cheon nodded in agreement.
The Maninbang martial artists in their White-Red Robe uniforms.
They had been overshadowed by the absurdly overwhelming presence of Jang Il-so, but the aura rolling off those men was enough to make the flesh crawl.
Strong.
Once again, he could feel just how formidable a place Maninbang truly was.
Mount Hua had fought and defeated Maninbang’s combat force. So if they met right now, he had been confident they might not win, but at the very least they would not be crushed unilaterally.
But after facing Jang Il-so and the people of Maninbang directly, he realized how reckless that thought had been.
"So the Maninbang we saw was only the tip of the iceberg."
"...Yes."
"And now."
Baek Cheon said it through clenched teeth.
"Now we have to deal with people like that."
"... "
After the duel with Wudang, Chung Myung had said something like that. The more Mount Hua’s fame rose and the more the world recognized it, the stronger and more terrifying the people they had to face would become.
Now, at last, they understood that meaning in their bones.
"But...."
"Hm?"
Just then, Jo Gul, who had been quiet until now, spoke up. His voice carried an energy that did not match the mood, making everyone turn toward him.
Baek Cheon looked at him, and Jo Gul grinned.
"It’s not like we have to face them alone, is it?"
"... "
Instead of answering, Baek Cheon slowly turned his gaze away.
There, lined up on the other side and talking among themselves, were the people of the North Sea Ice Palace, the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, and the Sichuan Tang Family.
Baek Cheon nodded.
"Right, that’s...."
"Maninbang is impressive, sure. But that doesn’t mean they can take on the Heavenly Alliance by themselves, does it? If things go bad, we just swarm them and beat them down together!"
"... "
"Besides, those bastards have already made enemies all over the place. I doubt anyone would even help them if we all ganged up and beat the hell out of them. We can pay back exactly what Mount Hua suffered from always being outnumbered!"
Baek Cheon smiled faintly.
Why does this bastard’s personality keep getting more and more like Chung Myung’s?
And me too? No, come on.... Surely not....
Shaking off the horrifying thought, Baek Cheon waved his head back and forth.
Yoon Jong wore a somewhat sour expression as he said,
"It really makes me realize how impressive Shaolin and Wudang are."
"What’s that supposed to mean all of a sudden?"
"They’ve been dealing with factions like Maninbang all this time, haven’t they?"
At the unexpected remark, Baek Cheon shut his mouth as if struck. Yoon Jong went on.
"I saw Shaolin at the martial arts tournament, and I faced Wudang personally, but... honestly, I didn’t feel the same oppressive weight from them that I felt from Maninbang. But thinking about it now, maybe it wasn’t that Shaolin or Wudang were weaker than Maninbang. Maybe it was because I was certain they wouldn’t harbor that much hostility toward us."
"...You’re not wrong."
Baek Cheon nodded slowly.
Shaolin and Wudang were certainly no weaker than Maninbang. But when he faced Wudang in a martial contest, it had never felt like this.
Maybe it was because of Jang Il-so’s presence.... Or maybe, as Yoon Jong said, it was because they did not seem like complete enemies.
But....
Now that the Heavenly Alliance has been established, maybe Wudang or Shaolin could one day become enemies of Mount Hua.
Thinking that way made his chest tighten all over again.
Shaolin becoming an enemy.... Shaolin....
"Huh?"
At a sudden thought, Baek Cheon’s eyes shook violently.
"Th-that... Hye, Hye-yeon! Where’s Hye Yeon? Where is that monk?"
"Pardon?"
"I don’t think I’ve seen him even once since the event started! Has anyone seen Monk Hye Yeon?"
"Huh?"
"Now that you mention it....?"
Everyone just looked at one another blankly. No one had any idea.
"I-I’ll go look for him...."
"...I am here, benefactor."
"Eek!"
Startled by the voice suddenly coming from behind him, Jo Gul jerked around. Hye Yeon had appeared without anyone noticing and was standing there with palms together.
"M-Monk!"
"No, hold on, Monk. Why do you look half dead?"
"...Did something happen?"
Amid everyone’s agitated reaction, tears welled faintly at the corners of Hye Yeon’s eyes.
Watching the gleaming head that seemed to shine even more than usual today, the Five Swords also found their own eyes growing hot for no reason.
"Where have you been all this time?"
"...At my lodging."
"Huh? Since when?"
"Since before the event began. All this time."
"... "
Baek Cheon’s mouth fell open blankly.
No, if the event had already started, that meant several days had passed.... He was saying he’d been shut away in his quarters all that time?
"W-Why?"
"Well...."
Hye Yeon opened his mouth with a slightly awkward expression.
"I... received a message earlier. They said that if I were seen sitting at the Heavenly Alliance’s founding ceremony, people might assume there was some sort of relationship between Shaolin and Mount Hua...."
"Ah...."
"So they told me absolutely not to be seen."
"Ah...."
So he had hidden himself inside Mount Hua, where people were packed so tightly there wasn’t even a gap for water to seep through?
"An elder came by briefly as well. He told me again and again not to step a single foot outside until everyone had left...."
...That made sense.
No, more precisely, it made sense from Shaolin’s perspective. This person wasn’t just any disciple—he was Hye Yeon.
For an ordinary Shaolin monk, they might not have gone this far. But Hye Yeon was not an ordinary monk. He was the rising hope Shaolin was nurturing with its future on the line, the prodigy hailed as the greatest talent in a century, a name already known throughout the world.
They had traveled together until now, but that had been when Mount Hua was not under such intense scrutiny. If it became public knowledge in the current situation that someone as extraordinary as Hye Yeon was staying at Mount Hua, it would inevitably lead to all kinds of rumors.
"No, I mean... yes, I can understand that."
"B-But why do you look half dead?"
"You look like you’ve been fed nothing but water soup."
"Good heavens, look at those cheekbones.... Did you go into seclusion or something?"
At the mention of water soup, Hye Yeon’s face turned pitiful.
"It wasn't like that...."
"Then what was it?"
"...I was stuck in my room, so when it came to meals...."
"What? You didn’t eat anything for five days?"
"My goodness...."
"No, no, I did eat."
"You did?"
Then what was the problem?
"Well... since the Mount Hua people were busy, the Tang Family people brought me meals instead...."
"...They did?"
Hye Yeon’s hesitant eyes darted aimlessly. Looking as though he had committed some petty theft, he kept glancing around before whispering very softly,
"It was all... just vegetables...."
"... "
"... "
"Ah...."
Once they understood, everyone fell silent, unable to find words for what they had just heard. Hye Yeon muttered in a dejected voice,
"How is a person supposed to live on greens alone?"
Ah.... so that was why he looked so hollow.
Then Jo Gul, still the only one who had not fully understood, tilted his head and blurted out without reading the room,
"But don’t monks usually live on greens anyway?"
"Gul-ah."
"Yes, Sasuk."
"Shut up for now."
"... "
Baek Cheon spoke to Yoon Jong with a face that carried a slightly complicated expression.
"Yoon Jong."
"Yes, Sasuk."
"Take the monk to the dining hall and make sure he gets a proper meal."
"Yes."
"Put some boiled eggs in there, and... lay some meat under the rice."
"...Yes."
Yoon Jong patted Hye Yeon’s shoulder and led the way.
"This way, Monk."
"...Thank you."
As Hye Yeon bowed in gratitude, color returned to his face.
His round head seemed somehow even shinier than before. Baek Cheon stared blankly as Hye Yeon walked off with a spring in his step, looking almost pleased just at the thought of food.
"...You do have to eat to survive."
Yu I-seol’s indifferent voice stabbed painfully into Baek Cheon’s ears.
"Ah, come to think of it. Sajae."
"Yes, Sasuk."
"Where’s Chung Myung? I haven’t seen that brat either."
Even if Chung Myung was missing from his sight for only a moment, Baek Cheon’s stomach would start acting up, and he had already begun looking for him out of habit. Yu I-seol silently pointed somewhere.
"He’s over there."
"Where?"
"There."
The place she pointed to was a corner of a distant hall. Baek Cheon’s eyes trembled violently.
In a shadowy spot where it was hard to see clearly, Chung Myung was cornering someone against a wall and pointing a finger at them furiously.
"...Looks like the Green Forest King?"
"It does, doesn’t it?"
"... "
The greatest genius of Shaolin went off to eat meat while avoiding people’s eyes, and the greatest genius of Mount Hua was bullying the Green Forest King.
Is this really okay?
Once again, Baek Cheon felt the future of the Jianghu was terribly, horribly dark.