Mount Hua Seems to Have Changed Somehow (2)
"Tsk. This is a pain in the ass."
Chung Myung climbed the mountain with an expression that said he was deeply displeased with the world.
"At this rate, we'll be here forever."
He let out a long, drawn-out sigh.
He had never raised disciples in his previous life, either.
Even Chung Mun, his senior brother—the one so desperate to squeeze every last ounce of use out of him—had never quite managed to ask him to take in disciples.
When the junior brothers worried that Chung Myung's swordsmanship would die with him and never be passed down, Chung Mun had answered them like this:
- I'm worried about that too. But I'm still human, and there's no way I can stick a disciple under that bastard. That would be an act no decent person with a human face could commit. What crime did those children commit that they should be punished by becoming his disciples? If you truly are Daoists cultivating the Way, then don't put such filthy words in your mouths.
After that, the junior brothers never once suggested that Chung Myung take disciples.
'Thinking about it pisses me off. Those bastards?'
What the hell was wrong with me? I'm raising them just fine!
Of course, they were a royal pain in the ass.
Training Chung Myung's third-generation disciples was no different from taking a full-grown adult and trying to teach them how to walk.
The difference was this: a child, if left alone, would eventually figure out how to walk on their own. Those guys, on the other hand, had to have their feet picked up one by one before they would even begin to understand what walking was.
"Ugh. Better off dead than alive."
Because of that, more time than expected had been consumed, and because time had been consumed, there was less time left for training. At this point, he was nearly at the point of giving up sleep entirely just to make time for it.
Chung Myung exhaled heavily and looked up at the sky.
"Senior Brother. Do I really have to go this far? It'd be easier if I could just drum and bang the cymbals all by myself."
- Then do that, I suppose.
"Ah, come on!"
Chung Myung sighed again and again.
He knew very well that restoring Mount Hua's glory was impossible through his own strength alone.
Making Mount Hua famous?
That much he could do on his own. But Chung Myung wasn't going to live forever, was he? Glory that vanished the moment he died was meaningless.
What he had to build now was Mount Hua's spirit—the kind that would remain even after he was gone.
Glory was like flower petals: dazzling, but gone in a moment. Spirit was like roots—unseen, but what kept the tree alive.
"I know that, but..."
As if that made it easy.
Chung Myung clicked his tongue and continued up the mountain, sorting his thoughts as he went. Before long, he had arrived at Nagan Peak. His gaze swept the area in a flash.
'That woman isn't coming again, right?'
It was already the first watch of the night. More than enough time had passed for everyone to be in bed. No matter how obsessed she was with training, she wouldn't come all the way out here at this hour to practice.
Of course, they'd run into each other late at night that day, but that had been the day she returned to Mount Hua.
"Nothing here, right?"
After searching the area thoroughly, Chung Myung lifted the wooden sword hanging from his waist.
He slowly extended the blade and took an upper stance, and his eyes gradually settled. The playful light he wore when teaching the children vanished, replaced by the gaze of a swordsman who had carved his way through countless battlefields with nothing but a sword.
'Recover the old me?'
No. That wasn't enough.
Chung Myung had shattered every foundation he once built. He had rejected the internal energy he accumulated in his previous life and filled that place with something new.
For the sake of going further.
But even that wasn't enough. He had changed his inner energy, but not his sword. If the sword didn't change, then all his swordsmanship would do was become more ferocious.
A little stronger, a little faster. That changed nothing.
'Did I defeat the Heavenly Demon?'
No.
If the Heavenly Demon had not been exhausted by the combined assault of everyone who had climbed Dae Mountain, Chung Myung would never have been his match.
People called him the number one sword of Mount Hua, the greatest sword under heaven, but Chung Myung was still a loser who had not defeated even a single Heavenly Demon on his own.
'If I could have beaten the Heavenly Demon alone?'
Then no one would have died.
Senior Brother would have returned safely. The junior brothers would have returned safely. Mount Hua would still stand. There would have been peace—Senior Brother chasing Chung Myung around, the junior brothers secretly tattling to their senior brother, that ordinary, peaceful daily life continuing on.
The fact that everyone died on Dae Mountain, the fact that Mount Hua fell—it all would have been avoided if Chung Myung had been stronger.
Regret?
No, that wasn't it.
He didn't have the hobby of clinging to the past and wailing over it.
The problem was the future.
'Where's the guarantee that someone like the Heavenly Demon won't appear again?'
There might even be someone more horrifying than the Heavenly Demon, a monster who would once again set his sights on the martial world.
To protect Mount Hua through every one of those crises, he had to grow stronger. Stronger than anyone in the world, stronger than the Chung Myung of the past, and stronger than even that Heavenly Demon!
To do that...
Chung Myung's sword had already reached something close to perfection in the past. And yet, it still had not been enough to take on the Heavenly Demon.
'Why?'
Because he had not refined his sword far enough?
No.
"No matter how sharp a tiger makes its claws, it still can't catch a bird flying in the sky."
Because he had not surpassed his limits.
The Heavenly Demon's martial arts had shattered everything Chung Myung believed to be right. It mocked him, as if laughing at the notion that simply following the path laid down by saints and sages would ever lead him to the end.
Like someone standing with their feet planted on the ground, staring up at a bird in the sky, he could only look at that unreachable realm.
If he wanted to surpass the Heavenly Demon, then first he had to surpass his former self and learn to fly through the sky.
But how?
Chung Myung's eyes lowered.
'Discard it.'
But not really.
To fill something, it first had to be emptied. But when Chung Myung was reborn, he had already emptied everything away. Then now, he had to fill it again.
So what would he fill it with?
Mount Hua's? Chung Myung's? Or perhaps...
"Whatever. It doesn't matter."
Chung Myung's sword began to move slowly.
Protect Mount Hua's way? Throw away everything Mount Hua had? Or maybe take only Chung Myung's own?
- It's all obsession.
That's right, Senior Brother.
If filling was natural, then discarding was natural too. There was no need to labor over what to keep and what to throw away.
Look.
The sword flowed on its own, didn't it?
He would not draw a line.
The moment he decided what to take and what to discard, the sword would be trapped inside a limit it had created for itself. So he would simply let it go. Let the sword go where it wanted. And where Chung Myung wanted it to go.
Chung Myung's sword traced a soft curve.
At the same time, plum blossoms began to bloom in the sky, one by one.
They were Mount Hua's plum blossoms, but unlike the ones Chung Myung had drawn until now.
A little more alive. A little gentler.
They stretched outward, scattered, and then settled.
From motion to stillness, and then from stillness back to motion.
The plum blossoms began at the tip of the sword and burst into full bloom. Before long, white flowers spread wide enough to cover all of Nagan Peak, calling spring into the late night.
Soft, swift, dazzling, beautiful.
And yet that plum blossom did not last long, fading away in lonely silence.
When Nagan Peak had fallen quiet again, as though everything had been an illusion, only Chung Myung remained, his sword lowered and his eyes gently closed.
'Feels like I'm onto something.'
It hadn't taken root yet. But he had caught hold of a clue.
A sword that belonged to Mount Hua, yet transcended all the swords Mount Hua had ever known until now—Chung Myung's own sword.
A sword that could surpass his limits, surpass Mount Hua's limits, and carry him toward something new.
"Hoo..."
Chung Myung let out a low breath.
'No way it'd be easy.'
This wasn't the creation of a new sword art. It was the opening of a new realm. Even for Chung Myung, it was still an impossible distance away. Just as his internal energy grew alongside him, this sword would grow with him too.
For now, it was nothing more than a plum blossom sprout.
But someday...
"Um..."
"Eek!"
A voice suddenly came from beside him, and Chung Myung jerked violently sideways in alarm.
"Damn it! What the hell!"
Someone else was standing on Nagan Peak with him now. Still reeling, Chung Myung blinked hard and looked over to confirm who it was.
'...It's that woman from before, isn't it?'
Yu... Yu... Yu what was it again?
Ah, right! Yu I-seol! That was her name.
Yu I-seol was looking at Chung Myung with a strange expression. Her eyes were a little unfocused.
'No, but how the hell did she get this close without me noticing?'
Even if he'd drawn his sword in a state of mua, why was his name Chung Myung in the first place? Even in a formless state, Chung Myung could feel the presence of anything within ten-odd jang around him as clearly as if he could grab it with his hand.
But whether it was the fact that she'd noticed his presence the other day, or the fact that she'd approached him without issue this time, something about this woman was definitely strange.
'What, did she learn assassin techniques or something? How is her presence not registering?'
Come to think of it, even standing right in front of him, her sense of presence was oddly faint. If he deliberately tried to focus on it, it was strangely hard to catch.
Anyone who relied on sight to see a person or hearing to catch the sound of their breathing wouldn't have a problem, but Chung Myung was far more accustomed to sensing qi than to his five senses. That was why this was happening.
Watching Yu I-seol stare at him fixedly, Chung Myung thought furiously.
'How do I recover from this? How much did she see?'
For now, just brush it off—
At that moment, Yu I-seol slowly opened her mouth.
"Plum blossom..."
She saw everything.
Shit.
Her head tilted slightly to the side, as if she couldn't make sense of what she'd just witnessed.
Yeah, yeah.
Keep not understanding it.
Chung Myung smiled brightly.
If it were anyone else, they'd probably be flustered, but who was Chung Myung? The biggest troublemaker in Mount Hua's history.
Didn’t Chung Mun once say that since Mount Hua was founded, Chung Myung had caused more trouble after joining than all the accidents that had happened before his arrival combined?
To Chung Myung, something like this was nothing!
First: natural. Be natural, as if nothing had happened at all.
He dipped his head politely toward Yu I-seol.
"Sago. Have you been well?"
As Chung Myung took a step closer, Yu I-seol flinched.
Huh? Why flinch?
Yu I-seol looked at him with suddenly serious eyes.
"Murder concealment?"
"Have you lost your mind?"
"......"
Ah...
So much for being natural.
Without realizing it, Chung Myung had blurted out a string of curses. He raised a hand and clamped it over his mouth.
Other Baek generation disciples were still on their way back to Mount Hua, so why had this woman come here early just to make life such a pain in the ass?
There was only one way now.
Chung Myung waved a hand and quickly retreated from Nagan Peak.
"Well, I'm off!"
"Ah... wait!"
He heard her trying to stop him, but Chung Myung ignored it cleanly. When you couldn't explain things with words, the best answer was always to run.
Yu I-seol's hand reached toward Chung Myung's back, then slowly fell away.
"Plum blossom..."
She stared blankly after him, then slowly clenched her fist.
"That scared the crap out of me!"
This was clearly Chung Myung's mistake.
But if he looked at it another way, even if she'd seen it, nothing much would actually change. If she told everyone what she'd seen, nobody would believe her anyway.
Still, he'd have to be more careful from now on. If there was one witness, people would just say the witness had lost their mind. But if there were three, then you could end up summoning a tiger.
'Once the Baek generation disciples get back, I'll have to be careful even when training.'
Ah...
Not just training?
Chung Myung nodded firmly.
"I’ve got work to do before the Baek generation gets here!"
He started striding quickly back down toward the mountain gate.