Let’s Play Until We’re Dead (2)
“Mount Hua…….”
Wudang Sect Leader Heo Do-jin-in’s face turned cold, as though a sheet of black ice had formed over it.
Having finished his report, Heo Sanja swallowed dryly under the chill that rolled off him.
Heo Do-jin-in gripped the tea table so tightly it seemed as if he were forcing down his anger.
Even after suffering a crushing defeat in the last martial exchange, he had not changed much from before. If something was lacking, one simply filled it in; that was all there was to it. So he had only shaken his head and moved on.
But there seemed to be one word alone that he simply could not remain calm over.
“You never stay still, do you? Mount Hua…… Mount Hua!”
Heo Do-jin-in spat the words out and glared at Heo Sanja.
“They’ve crushed the Water Bandit Sect?”
“Yes. Thanks to that, the people around the Yangtze are praising Mount Hua, and…….”
“They’re cursing us, no doubt.”
“……That isn’t entirely Mount Hua’s fault. Those bastards stirred things up, and the Water Bandits have been going wild ever since.”
“The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is the result. In the end, Mount Hua is being praised again, and we’re the ones taking the blame, yes?”
“……Yes.”
After a brief silence, Heo Do-jin-in spoke again.
“Prepare the disciples.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m going myself. I need to crush at least one Water Bandit nest. If we have the spare strength, perhaps two.”
Shocked, Heo Sanja blurted out, “S-Sect Leader. You mean to go to the Yangtze?”
“Yes.”
“How could…… Sect Leader, those who are talking will forget it soon enough, given time. Is it really necessary to waste our strength over this?”
“People will forget, yes.”
“……Pardon?”
Heo Do-jin-in snapped coldly, “But Mount Hua is there, isn’t it? Have you forgotten? In that short time, Mount Hua seized the fame that rose around it and knows how to turn it to profit.”
“…….”
“If we leave them alone again, they’ll pull off some more absurd stunt and try to take the Yangtze for themselves too.”
“B-but…….”
Bang!
Heo Do-jin-in slammed the tea table.
“After being humiliated like that, and still dismissing Mount Hua? Isn’t that even more foolish?”
“…….”
“If this were the old Mount Hua, I wouldn’t go this far. But this isn’t the old Mount Hua anymore. Their strength has increased, yes, but that isn’t the real issue. The real issue is that Mount Hua has created a force called the Heavenly Alliance.”
“…….”
“No fool would choose Mount Hua over the Gupailbang. But if it’s the Heavenly Alliance instead of the Gupailbang, that changes things. Let them give up a handspan here and another there, and before long their position will be reversed.”
“How could they possibly compare to the Gupailbang?”
“Not yet. Not yet.”
“…….”
“But I said the same thing the first time I heard Mount Hua’s name again.”
Heo Sanja slowly pressed his lips together.
“And look at it now. Mount Hua, which once would have been laughable to face directly, is now holding a sharp knife under our throat. Do you still think it’s more important to cling to face after coming to this?”
“…….”
“Enough. Prepare everything. We’re going to the Yangtze. They may have stolen the lead, but it isn’t too late yet.”
Heo Sanja knew there was nothing wrong with Heo Do-jin-in’s words. Heo Do-jin-in’s mind simply worked on a deeper level; naturally, he saw further and more profoundly.
And yet Heo Sanja still could not shake his hesitation.
He could not easily tell whether this command from Heo Do-jin-in came from true insight—or from his deep-seated resentment toward Mount Hua.
“Sect Leader. I…….”
Then—
“Sect Leader!”
A loud voice rang in from outside.
“I’m in the middle of an important matter. Come back later.”
“Sect Leader…… well, a letter has arrived.”
“I’ll look at it later.”
“It’s from the Shaolin Abbot.”
“……Bring it in.”
“Yes.”
The door opened, someone came in, handed over the letter, and withdrew again. After tearing open the envelope and unfolding the paper, the corner of Heo Do-jin-in’s mouth twisted strangely a moment later.
Watching him, Heo Sanja asked cautiously, “May I ask what it says?”
“Shaolin is sending disciples to the Yangtze.”
“……Pardon?”
“They intend to suppress the Water Bandits. So much for acting lofty—they couldn’t endure this one after all.”
Heo Sanja’s eyes widened.
S-Shaolin too?
Then that meant Shaolin had come to exactly the same conclusion as Heo Do-jin-in.
And that meant two things. First, Heo Do-jin-in’s judgment had not been wrong. And second…….
Has Mount Hua really become a sect capable of moving both Wudang and Shaolin—the two powers one might call the pillars of the Gupailbang?
This was the sort of thing people meant when they said the world had changed beyond recognition.
“If we dawdle, Shaolin will steal the lead too. Prepare everything. I’ll personally lead the disciples to the Yangtze.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
With things having reached this point, Heo Sanja could no longer try to stop him.
“I’ll make the preparations at once.”
Once Heo Sanja hurried out, Heo Do-jin-in was left alone in the room, staring down at the tea table with lowered eyes.
Mount Hua…….
I won’t let them run wild anymore.
Not anymore.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The whole world was beginning to realize how Mount Hua’s standing had changed.
Those living along the Yangtze, those hearing the news from far away, even those who had heard it and were now scrambling into motion—no one could afford to ignore Mount Hua’s movements anymore.
Once a faction’s influence grew, even the smallest gesture could gather meaning it had never possessed before.
What Mount Hua did on the Yangtze spread farther and larger than the facts alone would have allowed, padded out and inflated until it became something even greater.
And yet…….
The disciples of Mount Hua themselves, the very people at the center of it all, felt none of that changed standing at all.
No, they didn’t merely fail to feel it…….
“Uuuuuugh…….”
“D-damn it…….”
“What the hell are we even doing, aaaaaaah!”
Thunk. Gwak Hoe, who had been dragging a cart, finally pitched face-first onto the ground. The cart he had been pulling was piled so high with stones and dirt it looked like a small mountain.
“G-get up quick! Chung Myung might show up!”
“This is crazy! He’ll say we’re out of stamina because we skipped training and make us run around the Yangtze River or something!”
“Say something that makes sense. How are we supposed to run around the Yangtze?”
“When has that bastard ever done anything that made sense?”
……Ah. That was definitely true.
In the end, Gwak Hoe groaned and hauled himself upright. A long procession stretching all the way to the riverside came into view.
“……That lunatic.”
Chung Myung’s orders to them had been absurdly simple.
- “I just need you to do one easy thing. You see that river over there?”
- “Yeah. We see it.”
- “Fill it in.”
- “Huh?”
- “I said fill it in.”
- “W-wha?”
Fill in the river.
Was that really something a human being could think of?
Of course, the disciples of Mount Hua had always been taught that there was nothing humans could not accomplish through effort, that if people truly set their minds to it, they could even remove mountains. So if it were just some ordinary river, they were indeed the sort who could probably fill it without much trouble.
The problem was that the river in front of them was not some ordinary river, but the Yangtze—the widest and longest river under heaven. Even with the island they were on sitting in the middle, its breadth defied all normal common sense.
“W-why the hell are we doing this?”
“……He said that if we fill in a little of the land on the far bank, the shipping route gets shorter, which makes it easier to defend. Also, the cannon range becomes more useful. And what else was it? If the river narrows in the middle, the current gets faster, so it becomes harder to drive ships in for an attack?”
“Who asked because they didn’t know? I’m asking where in the world you’d find lunatics who’d solve it like this!”
“……He apparently didn’t think much of it either.”
“Then why?”
“Apparently Yu Sago just said one thing about the river being too wide, and Chung Myung said then they should just fill it in.”
“Sago…… Sagooooh!”
Why…….
Why on earth are you like this! Why!
Has that bastard ever solved a problem in a normal way?
“But the sadder thing is…….”
“Hm?”
“……if you keep at it, it actually does get filled in?”
“…….”
That was even sadder.
On the land across the island, they had stripped every nearby hill bare. Dirt, rock, anything and everything was hauled over and dumped in until the river, which had once seemed impossibly broad, slowly began to narrow.
Actually do it? Don’t actually do it, you bastards…….
Whether it was the idiot giving the orders or the idiots carrying them out.
If this was how it was going to be, wouldn’t it be better to stop pretending to be Taoists and just take contract work from the state? They could feed three generations easily enough doing civil engineering.
“……At this pace, we might finish within seven days.”
“No way. It gets deeper the farther in you go. It’ll take ten days at least.”
“Nah, you don’t know Chung Myung. There’s no way he’d let it end there. He’ll definitely say something else about the dirt getting washed away by the current. I’m betting two weeks.”
The disciples had already grown rather skilled at estimating things.
Dragged around for this project and that one, doing manual labor all the time, they had become faster at calculating than most specialists.
“Five days.”
“What? Come on, five days is nonsense. How’s a person supposed to do that?”
“It’s fine. We can do it.”
“Yeah, right. Even so, that’s…… huh?”
The disciples, who had been chatting noisily while looking toward the opposite island, slowly turned their heads back.
A demon. No, Chung Myung was standing there.
“C-Chung Myung…….”
“Yeah, why not? Why wouldn’t it work? You’ve got time to stand around here gossiping, so if you can’t finish within five days, you’re not even people anymore, right? Isn’t that how it works?”
“…….”
“Get back to work.”
“……You won’t hit us?”
“Do I look like I hit people when I’m bored?”
Gwak Hoe almost answered “Yes” on reflex, but with remarkable presence of mind, clamped his mouth shut in a hurry.
“If it isn’t finished in five days, then I’ll beat you twice as hard.”
“…….”
“Keep playing around, then. Go on, play as much as you can. I’ll make sure you learn just how cold the riverbed is.”
“I-I’ll work. Right now.”
“Move it!”
Gwak Hoe and the rest of them yelped, grabbed the cart, and scrambled toward the riverbank as if they were being chased.
“Tch.”
At the sight, two sharply opposed feelings rose at once on the faces of the bandits.
One was a faint sort of joy at the realization that that damned human was not tormenting them just because they were bandits, but because he would torment anyone he caught. The other, from that very same reason, was an unmistakable sorrow.
What a heartless bastard.
A yaksha!
He’s not even human…….
Just then, as Chung Myung dusted off his hands and was about to move again—
“Hwaa-san-Shin-liooooooooong!”
“Agh! My ears!”
At the booming cry that came from far off, Chung Myung whipped his head around. A familiar face was sprinting toward him with all the speed he had.
“Huh? When did that old man get all the way out here again?”
Hong Dae-gwang skidded to a stop in front of him, panting so hard he looked ready to collapse.
“Hah, hah! Oof, I can’t breathe!”
“……What are you doing here again?”
“Can the thread not follow where the needle goes?”
“Who’s the thread? A beggar with no thread to sew his clothes.”
“No, that’s a little too far…… Ah, no! That’s not the point! Mount Hua Divine Dragon! Big trouble!”
“What now? Why are you making such a fuss again?”
“R-right now, Shaolin and Wudang are heading to the Yangtze! They’re going to suppress the Water Bandits!”
“Oh?”
“That’s not all! The Namgung Family of Anhui is moving too! And word just came from Sichuan that Qingcheng has also set out for the Yangtze!”
“Shaolin, Wudang, Qingcheng…… and the Namgung Family.”
Chung Myung’s lips curled.
“Looks like their asses are on fire. Well, I suppose…… they can’t afford to sit around and watch anymore.”
He had expected them to move. They had simply moved twice as fast as he’d thought.
And the fact that even the Namgung Family had joined in meant the Heavenly Alliance’s existence was exerting far more pressure on them than Chung Myung had expected.
“Wh-what are you going to do now?”
“With what?”
“Now that the Gupailbang and the Namgung Family are coming to the Yangtze.”
“So what if they are?”
“Y-you need to make a plan!”
“Why do I?”
“Huh?”
Chung Myung snorted as if he’d just heard something utterly ridiculous.
“They’re not coming to fight me. They’re coming to fight the Water Bandits. So why the hell would I make a plan? The Water Bandits are the ones who need to make a plan.”
“……Huh?”
Right. That was true, wasn’t it?
“I just need to sit back and eat the rice cakes while watching the ritual. I guess I’ll just enjoy seeing those brats tear each other to pieces, lol.”
With a laugh that was rare enough to sound genuinely pleased, Chung Myung swaggered off into the distance.
“……Then why did I even come?”
Hong Dae-gwang, who had run himself half to death just to bring the news, could only let his shoulders sag in helpless defeat.