Better to Die Than Fail to Obtain It (5)
"Hmm."
Chung Myung let out a long breath and lightly scratched his cheek.
"...I was thinking of just loafing around and doing nothing for a while."
"Quit kidding around."
"I'm serious."
"...."
When Baek Cheon looked at him with a level of contempt that was almost impossible to put into words, Chung Myung waved a hand with an irritated look.
"Why're you staring at me like that? It's not like I get to decide that."
"Huh?"
"It's those bastards who decide."
There wasn't a single person present who didn't know exactly whom Chung Myung meant by "those bastards."
"...Saperyeon."
"Right."
As Baek Cheon groaned the words, Chung Myung gave a light nod.
"That's certainly true, but...."
Yoon Jong tilted his head and said, "But if we go by what Hall Master Hong said, isn't it possible Saperyeon won't be able to move because of internal strife as well?"
"That won't happen."
"Huh?"
Chung Myung shrugged.
"Sure, there could be infighting. But that won't make them drag their feet. Those guys aren't the type to get tripped up by something like that."
Everyone nodded before they realized it.
They knew the leaders of the Five Hegemons of the Jianghu were no ordinary men. Hadn't they already seen with their own eyes the power those men wielded on the Yangtze?
They were the ones who had stood their ground without yielding even an inch against the leaders of the Gupailbang and the Five Great Families, who ruled the world. No, in some respects, they had even overwhelmed them.
But....
Would that Jang Il-so be delayed by them?
Even if he were delayed, he wasn't the sort of man who would waste time there. Jang Il-so was the kind of man who would cut off his own ankle and keep walking.
As Baek Cheon thought it through, his expression hardened.
This wasn't a conclusion born of underestimating the leaders of the Five Hegemons. It was because Jang Il-so's presence was simply too overwhelming by comparison.
"If it's Jang Il-so, then certainly...."
Chung Myung nodded and said indifferently, "And think about it. If we know it, if the Beggars' Union knows it, if every righteous sect knows it, then you think that bastard Jang Il-so doesn't know it too?"
"...Of course he would."
"Exactly. He knows. And if he knows, he'll prepare. There's no way he wouldn't do the same thing I would."
Baek Cheon looked at Chung Myung with a fresh pair of eyes.
It was true that Chung Myung hated Jang Il-so more than anyone else in the jianghu. But listening to him like this, one couldn't help wondering whether Jang Il-so might be the one man Chung Myung acknowledged most in the world.
That's almost annoying.
Who could possibly make that damn bastard say something like that?
"And he's already made a move."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
When Jo Gul asked with widened eyes, Chung Myung snorted.
"Do you really think those demonic bastards coming into Shaanxi this time was just a coincidence?"
"...You mean Jang Il-so planned that too?"
Yoon Jong shook his head.
"That seems like going too far. We interrogated those guys from the Gangseo-chilsal, and Gal Cheon-lip had nothing to do with Saperyeon. Besides, that bastard isn't the kind of man who'd listen to Jang Il-so anyway."
Chung Myung stared at Yoon Jong for a long moment before shaking his head.
"Senior Brother."
"Hm?"
"You're nice in every way, but you're way too kind. That's the problem."
"...That's an insult, isn't it?"
Given who this man was, there was absolutely no way that was a compliment. Absolutely not.
"Forcing them to move with your own hand is amateur work. A real master creates the situation so things happen on their own without me lifting a finger."
After reaching for a fresh bottle and taking a swig, Chung Myung went on, "No matter how big southern China is, if Jang Il-so had really wanted to, he could've cut down those nobodies before they ever got north of the Yangtze. He's already got the Yangtze under his thumb, so missing them would be the weird part."
"...Then Jang Il-so sent them into Shaanxi on purpose?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
Baek Cheon asked with a puzzled expression. Chung Myung merely shrugged.
"No idea."
"...."
At that, everyone narrowed their eyes. A faint, subtle contempt hung in the air. Noticing their reaction, Chung Myung's face twisted in irritation.
"What, do you think I'm some kind of mind reader? How the hell would I know what that psycho's thinking?"
"I thought you would."
"Isn't it said that crazy bastards understand each other?"
"Even if nobody else in the world knows, you should know."
"...Damn idiots."
Chung Myung tilted his head back and gulped down the liquor as though his throat were parched.
He brushed it from the corner of his mouth and spoke again, the joke now stripped away, his gaze darker than before, as though words he hadn't said had sunk to the bottom of his eyes.
Jang Il-so....
He set the bottle down and wiped his mouth again before continuing.
"All we need to know is what's certain."
"What's certain?"
Chung Myung nodded.
"He's moving."
The room fell silent.
It was something everyone already knew. Hadn't they endured that grueling training because they had guessed as much?
Baek Cheon nodded.
"Then we'd better finish our preparations before that. So that we can deal with whatever ridiculous stunt Jang Il-so tries to pull."
"Well...."
At Baek Cheon's words, Chung Myung shot him a sidelong look and grinned.
"We've already prepared so much I'm sick of it. Don't you know?"
"True enough."
"...It's not that it makes me sick. It's that it makes me want to puke."
"Ah, you mean when Senior Brother threw up back then?"
"You puked too, you little punk!"
Yoon Jong kicked Jo Gul in the rear. But Jo Gul had clearly grown over the past three years, because even while getting hit, he now had the guts to talk back.
"I just lost a little! You were throwing up everything you'd eaten for breakfast!"
"When did I ever do that, you brat!"
Yoon Jong protested with a reddened face. But nobody bothered teasing him over it. In fact, during that hellish training, something like that was just a tiny incident they'd laughed off.
"It's less about preparation and more about clearing things up."
"Clearing things up?"
"Yeah. Cleaning house."
Chung Myung's lips curled slightly.
"We need to sort out this whole damn mess so it'll be easier to deal with that bastard Jang Il-so when he comes charging in with his eyes rolled back. More than anything.... we need to do something about those rotten Gupailbang bastards first."
As the conversation turned to the Nine Sects, a boiling, infuriated look returned to Chung Myung's face, and Hye Yeon flinched and quietly averted his gaze.
"So there's no need to start overthinking things right away."
Chung Myung's voice carried absolute certainty.
"The time to fight like dogs is coming soon enough."
Everyone hardened their expressions and nodded.
The mood died in an instant, so Chung Myung lifted the bottle in his hand and gave it a little shake.
"So for today, let's just drink."
"Not a bad idea."
"He even says the right thing once in a while."
The atmosphere quickly warmed again. Watching everyone empty bottle after bottle as though in competition with one another, Chung Myung leaned against the wall and snorted.
They've earned it.
If it had been the old days, he would have cursed at these hatchlings for caring more about playing around than anything else. But now, those words didn't suit them. They were people who had endured three years of training so harsh it couldn't even be described properly, without a single complaint.
Even the Chung Myung of the past would have struggled to survive that training at their age. Of course he would have done it, but....
Who? You? Youuu?
"Damn, that old bastard really...."
"Hm?"
"...No, nothing."
Chung Myung twisted his face in silence.
Anyway.
Anyone driven so mercilessly had every right to a proper rest. It wasn't as though Chung Myung had stolen the liquor from the warehouse because he wanted to drink it so badly....
What, are you making a scene now?
"Damn it, what the hell is up with this old man!"
"Why do you keep doing that?"
"...No."
With nowhere to vent his frustration, Chung Myung let out a heavy sigh.
More than that....
Then, suddenly, a cold glint settled in his eyes.
He's definitely plotting something.
There was no way Jang Il-so would openly cross the Yangtze and start a war. He was the kind of man who would somehow build a battlefield favorable to himself and then swing it around however he pleased.
The fact that Saperyeon had grown quiet recently could only mean he was preparing something. Something decisive that would settle the internal conflict within Saperyeon and lead them to victory in the coming war against the righteous sects.
"...Well, whatever. It's still just that."
Chung Myung muttered under his breath, twisting his lips.
No matter how miraculous the scheme, if the strength wasn't there to back it up, it meant nothing. That was something Chung Myung had learned to his bones on the Yangtze.
Now it would be Chung Myung—no, Mount Hua—who would teach Jang Il-so that lesson.
"...Sasuk. That bastard's smiling in a really nasty way."
"Just leave him be. Looks like his madness is acting up again. Though I suppose it's been getting worse lately."
"If he gets any crazier, he'll be hard to even think of as human."
No, just... let's have Chung Myung tell him.
Yeah.
* * *
"The compensation has all been taken care of."
"Mm."
"The bodies in the villages ravaged by those demonic bastards have all been recovered and given proper funerals, and the survivors have been handed over to the neighboring village. We promised support in the names of Mount Hua and the Eunha Merchant Guild, so they won't be treated poorly."
"I see."
"I'm told Wi Lip-san, the Gate Leader who went to Namyang, is also on his way back after delivering the bodies there."
As he listened to the report, Hyun Jong quietly nodded.
With this, Mount Hua's work in Xi'an could be considered finished. They were a little behind schedule compared to what they had expected, but in return, everything had ended more cleanly.
"Guild Leader."
When Hyun Jong addressed him as Guild Leader, Hwang Jong-ui straightened with a faintly tense expression. He had sensed that this would become an official matter.
"Yes, Sect Leader."
Hyun Jong looked at Hwang Jong-ui and spoke.
"You have suffered greatly."
"Ah, n-no."
When Hwang Jong-ui waved his hands in flustered denial, Hyun Jong gave him a warm smile.
"I am not speaking only of this matter. Once I learned how much hardship you endured while Mount Hua was in seclusion, I found it difficult to even lift my head."
"S-Sect Leader."
Hyun Jong bowed his head toward Hwang Jong-ui.
"I am forever grateful that you have stood by our inadequate Mount Hua."
Hwang Jong-ui nearly panicked and hurriedly tried to stop him.
"W-why are you doing this, Sect Leader? Mount Hua is inadequate? How could you say that! Mount Hua is by no means an inadequate place."
At that, Hyun Jong slowly raised his head.
"You say it is not inadequate?"
"W-well, of course."
Hyun Jong turned his gaze somewhere else. Then he stared there intently and asked again.
"...Do you truly think so?"
"...."
Hwang Jong-ui could not bring himself to answer for a moment.
At the end of Hyun Jong's gaze were the Mount Hua disciples, all of them with their heads buried in the ground.
"Ugh...."
"My head...."
"That Jo Gul bastard... who told you to use internal energy? Are you trying to die?"
"...And you're tattling again...."
A lion's roar burst from Hyun Jong's mouth.
"Put your heads down properly, you damn bastards!"
These were not the Mount Hua disciples who had obediently returned to Eunha Merchant Guild at dawn and gotten caught. These were the world's most hopeless delinquents, who had guzzled liquor to their hearts' content, passed out in heaps, and only returned in the morning reeking of alcohol....
Morons!
How can not a single one of them even stand up?
And I called these things my senior and junior brothers.
The wrath-filled voice of Hyun Jong fell over the backs of the Five Swords, who were shooting each other razor-edged looks.
"The crisis isn't even fully resolved yet, and you're drinking? Drinking? And stealing liquor from someone else's warehouse, no less? And you still call yourselves Daoists? You call yourselves Daoists!"
At that moment, with his head still pressed to the floor, Chung Myung suddenly raised a hand behind him.
"What is it?"
"Th-uh... heh heh. We did do wrong, but if you think about it, the Eunha Merchant Guild and we aren't exactly strangers...."
"What did you say, brat?"
Hyun Jong's lid popped open, and as he stared wildly and seemed about to charge, Hyun Young and Hyun Sang hurriedly grabbed him from both sides.
"Sect Leader, please calm down!"
"People are watching, Sect Leader!"
"That's the problem!"
Hyun Jong shouted like thunder and glared as though he might devour the elders alive.
"I'm doing this because people are watching, because people are watching! I can't even live with my face showing itself anymore!"
"Cough."
"In the old days, that bastard was the only one causing trouble, but now...."
At those words, everyone including Baek Cheon flinched and closed their eyes.
"...I thought three years of suffering would have at least made you mature a little, but you've gotten worse than before! Worse! What is Mount Hua even going to become!"
Hyun Jong, exhausted from anger itself, let out a long sigh and turned away. Then he took Hwang Jong-ui's hand and bowed his head.
"Thank you so much for standing by such a useless Mount Hua...."
"...."
Seeing that face smeared with both sorrow and grievance, Hwang Jong-ui couldn't bring himself to say a word. The only option was to keep his mouth shut.
After somehow bundling together an apology for stealing and drinking the liquor and an apology for showing such shameful behavior, Hyun Jong jerked his head up.
"Hyun Sang, Hyun Young."
"Yes, Sect Leader."
"Get ready at once."
"Pardon?"
"We are returning to Mount Hua."
Hyun Sang looked at Hyun Jong with a delighted expression.
"Since everything has now been taken care of, we're returning to Mount Hua...."
"I've got no face left to stay here any longer! Pack up this instant! Now!"
"...."
"Hurry!"
"...Yes."
And so the return of Mount Hua Sect was decided in the most abrupt way possible.