No One Can Stop Me! (1)
Hyun Jong quietly closed his eyes.
Water Bandits.
They were not an easy opponent to deal with. As Hyun Sang had said, the Water Bandit Sect was, in some ways, an even more troublesome enemy than the Green Forest.
There was a reason so many factions in the world knew how vile the Water Bandits were, yet still could not easily move against them.
Fighting on land and fighting on water were entirely different things. The other sects knew that too, which was why none of them dared provoke the Water Bandit Sect without careful thought.
If possible, we must avoid broadening this conflict.
If trouble arose with the Water Bandit Sect, the ones who would suffer were Mount Hua’s innocent disciples. A sect’s honor and pride were important, yes, but should he accept injuries on his disciples’ bodies just to preserve them?
It isn’t worth even a scratch.
It would be best to resolve this as smoothly as possible.
And to do that…
“Sect Leaadeeer!”
At the shrill cry, Hyun Jong squeezed his eyes shut.
Does that brat never sleep?
The voice wasn’t coming from beyond a tightly shut door. It was ringing out from the roof of his quarters, a howl like that of a ghost from the underworld.
“No, I’m telling you, if I go, I can really handle it properly!”
Hyun Jong rolled over with an unhappy expression.
“Sect Leaaaader!”
“You little punk, for heaven’s sake, go to sleep! Sleep!”
It was already nearly the second watch of the night, yet that damned disciple showed no sign of retreating, nor even the slightest hint of exhaustion.
“Think about it! How am I supposed to sleep when something this ridiculous is happening? You sleep well when your stomach’s at ease, and then you can—”
Hyun Jong clamped both hands over his ears.
That damn brat had been yammering nonstop since the end of the meeting, and now a full day had passed. No matter how talkative a person was, he ought to have run out of steam by now—but Chung Myung showed no sign of tiring at all.
“Sect Leaaaader! Sect Leaaaader!”
“Agh!”
Hyun Jong finally threw the blanket over his head.
Absolutely not!
If it were any other matter, he would never have left Chung Myung out of it. To be honest, sending the disciples anywhere without Chung Myung still felt burdensome to him.
But not this time.
Of course Chung Myung was the sort of person who solved problems. When he stepped in, matters did get cleaned up quickly.
Unfortunately, one had to be prepared for the fact that the process would also make the entire affair explode into something far bigger.
That was how Chung Myung handled things: he would stir up every possible issue, important or not, inflate the problem to the maximum, and then blow the whole thing apart in one go, sweeping everything away.
This matter absolutely could not be solved that way. It had to be approached carefully, with the background first examined and the smoothest possible solution chosen.
“No, Sect Leader! I have to go! If I go and start poking around, those guilty bastards will confess on their own because they’ll get scared!”
“That’s exactly why you can’t go, you little idiot! Exactly why! Ugh, damn you!”
In the end, Hyun Jong’s frustration boiled over, and he kicked the blanket furiously.
“Sect Leaaaader!”
“Be quiet! I won’t send you—not before dirt gets in my eyes… no, no! Even if dirt gets in my eyes, I still won’t send you!”
He had almost said, “not before dirt gets in my eyes,” and immediately panicked, fearing Chung Myung might actually scoop up dirt and shove it into his eyes, so he hastily changed his words.
“I’m telling you, I have to go, Sect Leader! Let me go and dump those water bandit bastards into the river! No, we need to find out just how good they are at diving if they’re going around calling themselves bandits in the first place!”
“…….”
The more one tried to persuade Chung Myung, the more he seemed to make things worse. That, too, was a talent of his.
“In any case, no! Absolutely not!”
“Sect Leaaaader!”
Hyun Jong squeezed his eyes shut and silently covered his ears again.
“Nooooooo!”
Perched atop the roof of Hyun Jong’s quarters, Chung Myung howled like a wolf baying at the moon.
Not far away, the Five Swords watched the scene with expressions that were a complicated mix of amusement and disbelief.
“He never gets tired, does he?”
“If you think about it, it’s honestly impressive. He’s been at that since morning.”
“……Sometimes that level of obsession scares me.”
Baek Cheon let out a long sigh.
“The Sect Leader is impressive in his own way too. That brat is flailing around like a leech, and he still hasn’t opened the door once.”
“……And what do you think he’d get for opening it? A disaster?”
“Fair point.”
Everyone shook their heads.
But in the middle of all that, Yoon Jong seemed troubled by a different issue.
“But, Sasuk.”
“Hm?”
“Are we really leaving Chung Myung behind?”
“…….”
Baek Cheon couldn’t answer right away. At that moment, Jo Gul snorted and looked at Yoon Jong.
“What, Sahyung? You scared… no, I’m just asking. Sahyung, Sahyung, put that fist down first and then talk.”
Yoon Jong glared sidelong at Jo Gul, then silently lowered his fist. Only then did he turn back to Baek Cheon.
“Of course, if we bring Chung Myung along, and consider what kind of chaos will follow… I mean, if we think about it… uh…”
Yoon Jong couldn’t finish and shut his eyes tightly.
- Wahahahaha! You water bandit bastardssss!
- Die! Dieee! Die!
- What? You’re good at splashing around? Then get in, you bastards! Go on, show me your head just once! Let’s see what happens!
The image of what would happen was so clear it was as if they had already seen it once before. No matter how positively one tried to think about it, all that came to mind was a Yangtze River dyed red with blood.
“W-Well, yes. Of course it would be… rather brutal.”
“Rather?”
“……Very brutal.”
Everyone shook their heads again.
Chung Myung’s greatest virtue was that he treated everyone equally, and his most horrifying trait was also that he treated everyone equally. Wasn’t the most remarkable thing about him that it didn’t matter whether the opponent was Wudang, Mount Zhongnan, Maninbang, or the eighteen Water Bandit factions of the Yangtze—he’d beat them all the same?
If such a man was taken to the Yangtze under the pretext of investigating something, the result was obvious. It would become an “investigation” in name only and actual violence in practice, and there might even be the unprecedented event of the Yangtze’s current reversing direction.
“Anyway, I understand why it’s troublesome to take Chung Myung along when he’s liable to cause trouble. But isn’t this a matter of investigating the Water Bandit Sect, one of the Five Hegemons of the Jianghu?”
“……That’s true.”
“Can we really go without Chung Myung for something like this…?”
Yoon Jong trailed off, concern flickering across his face.
Of course it was true that Chung Myung caused trouble. But if some unforeseen crisis arose, the person they could rely on most was also Chung Myung.
The Five Swords, who had crossed countless dangers with him, knew that better than anyone. So Yoon Jong’s words were entirely understandable.
“I understand what you mean, but wasn’t this already decided by the Sect Leader?”
“Sasuk….”
Baek Cheon let out a low sigh.
“I’m worried too, that’s the truth. But Yoon Jong, think about it.”
“Yes?”
“If we think like that, then we’re basically saying we can’t do anything without Chung Myung.”
Yoon Jong’s face stiffened slightly. Baek Cheon was right.
Baek Cheon rubbed his face and sighed.
“I don’t want to admit it, but… no, I really don’t want to admit it. Hngh. I hate saying this.”
“…….”
“It’s true that things feel safer with Chung Myung around. But we can’t keep relying on him forever, can we?”
“Still, Sasuk—”
“I know what you mean. Since this is the Yangtze Water Bandit Sect, one of the Five Hegemons of the Jianghu, we can’t treat it the same as ordinary matters.”
“That’s right.”
“Yoon Jong. The enemies Mount Hua will face in the future will only grow stronger. Are you going to keep staring at Chung Myung every time that happens?”
Having asked the question, Baek Cheon exhaled a long breath with a heavy expression.
He had sounded composed enough, but he was just as uneasy as the others.
Come to think of it, we really did depend on that brat more than I realized.
But there was no helping it.
Chung Myung’s skill and judgment were on a level no ordinary junior disciple could even compare to. In fact, he was the sort of person who could toy with experienced veterans of the martial world in the palm of his hand.
Even if he had not been the strongest among them, everyone would still have naturally come to rely on him.
But that can’t go on forever. If anything, we need to lighten that brat’s burden.
Baek Cheon subtly turned his gaze and looked at Yu I-seol.
“What do you think, Sago?”
She glanced at Chung Myung with an expressionless face, then said casually, “The Sect Leader’s decision.”
“…….”
“We must follow it.”
Simple, and to the point.
Yu I-seol was right. Whatever their thoughts, this had been Hyun Jong’s decision as Sect Leader. As Mount Hua disciples, they were all meant to obey that command.
“Sasuk. Aren’t you going to ask my opinion?”
“Mm. Sago is right. This is the Sect Leader’s decision.”
“Sasuk? I have an opinion too, you know.”
“Then there’s nothing to argue about. It’s simply our duty as disciples to follow.”
“Sasuuuuuk?”
Jo Gul kept hovering at his side, and in the end, a vein popped on Baek Cheon’s forehead. Unable to endure the annoyance any longer, Baek Cheon turned his gaze to him.
“……Do you really have to say it?”
“Are you discriminating against me right now?”
“Yeah.”
“…….”
Jo Gul drooped his shoulders like a rain-soaked puppy. Baek Cheon made his dislike abundantly clear as he said, “Fine, go on then, speak! I’ll listen!”
“Never mind. I don’t want to be the kind of person who has to be coaxed into talking by getting stabbed in the side… ha ha!”
At that moment, Jo Gul suddenly rolled his body to the side. Thanks to that, Yoon Jong’s hand, which had been reaching to grab Jo Gul by the collar, cut only through empty air.
“Oh, really?”
“Did you think I’d just keep getting beaten forever? I’m Jo Gul! The beast of Mount Hua!”
“The beast of Mount Hua is Baek Ah.”
“……Huh?”
Come to think of it, that was true.
Jo Gul gave an awkward laugh, got to his feet, and casually brushed the dust from his clothes.
“Anyway, I think everyone here is worrying about something unnecessary.”
“Hm? How so?”
“Do you really think that brat will stay behind just because the Sect Leader tells him not to go?”
At those words, everyone’s gaze shifted at once toward the roof of the quarters. More precisely, toward Chung Myung, who was still howling away up there.
“Sect Leeeeaaader! Aaaaaahhh!”
Jo Gul snickered.
“The Chung Myung I know is the kind of bastard who, if there’s a mountain in front of him, will blast straight through it, and if there’s a river, he’ll dig the whole damn channel up and force it to change course. Do you really think someone like that would obediently listen just because the Sect Leader says no? Aren’t you all underestimating him a little too much?”
“I see….”
“That does make sense.”
Everyone was nodding in agreement when—
“Well, I think differently.”
“Hm?”
Dang Soso, who had been listening quietly the whole time, spoke with a sour look on her face.
“Everyone’s focusing too much on Sahyung, but the Sect Leader isn’t someone to underestimate either. Do you think the Sect Leader doesn’t know that? He’ll come up with every possible countermeasure to make sure Sahyung can’t follow this time.”
Come to think of it, that was true as well. How could Hyun Jong not know what they knew?
“It’s a showdown between Mount Hua’s greatest spear and shield, then. We’ll just have to wait and see who wins.”
Dang Soso’s voice carried a rather loaded implication.
But within Baek Cheon’s chest, an inexplicable sorrow welled up.
It sounds so dramatic when she says it.
The greatest spear and shield of Mount Hua—wasn’t that the kind of line one would hear in a story? It sounded as though the greatest experts of Mount Hua were going to stake everything in a formal match. At least, if one only heard the words!
“Why is that phrase being used in a situation like this, damn it!”
“Sect Leeeaaaader! Are you listening?!”
“Be quiet!”
“Ah, shut up, you punk!”
Hyun Jong and Baek Cheon’s shouts rang out at the same time, loud enough to shake the night.
As the night in Mount Hua dragged on in all its stubborn unrest, the one before the dispatch of the investigation team to the Yangtze somehow deepened, one sleepless hour at a time.