This Is What Makes the World Interesting (3)
The Namgung Clan’s household, having recovered Namgung Hwang’s body, broke down in wails and collapsed from sheer exhaustion. They had already been driven beyond their limits; after all, no one could keep standing after this much grief.
And the Tang Family took care of them with everything they had.
“How are they?”
Dang Gun-ak turned his calm gaze toward Hyun Jong.
“Many are seriously injured, but thankfully, I don’t think we’ll lose any more lives.”
“...That is a relief, at least.”
A sigh slipped from Hyun Jong’s lips.
He called it a relief, but even he wondered whether this could truly be called fortunate.
The Namgung Clan has paid too high a price.
They had lost their clan leader and their elders all at once. Worse still, only a third of those who had entered Plum Blossom Island had survived. Considering that nearly all of the Namgung Clan’s strength had come here, this was a wound that would be hard to mend.
Hyun Jong looked at Namgung Dowi, who had fallen unconscious. He looked terribly worn and battered, yet even with his eyes closed, it was obvious how very young he was.
The burden on him is far too heavy.
He probably could not think that far right now. But once his grief had passed and he regained his composure, reality would come crashing down on him.
Above all, the greatest problem was that nearly all the elders and senior figures who should have formed the backbone of the clan were gone. Namgung Myeong still remained, but he was not enough to assume the role of patriarch.
And that was not the only problem.
Even if Namgung Dowi was a prodigy of the highest caliber and could lead the Namgung Clan again, he was still far too young. No matter how generously one estimated it, it would take more than ten years before he could fully replace Namgung Hwang.
The wolves of Jianghu won’t leave the Namgung Clan alone until then.
Hadn’t Mount Hua already lived through that lesson?
A sect without strength only found its glorious reputation becoming a burden. The more famous it was, the more eyes would turn toward it, hungry to tear it down.
So much devastation, and such a clean break from the past.
It was almost as if...
Hyun Jong, deep in thought, shook his head hard.
That must not happen.
He could not simply stand by and let them suffer as Mount Hua had once suffered.
“In any case, I ask that you take good care of them.”
“Do not worry.”
Dang Gun-ak gave a small smile.
The way he spoke sounded almost like a father entrusting his disciple to a physician. There was so much concern and gentleness in his eyes. To Hyun Jong, the connection between him and the Namgung Clan ought to have been little more than a thin thread, and yet how could he show such genuine feeling?
The more I see him, the more remarkable he becomes.
No, Hyun Jong was not the only remarkable one.
Dang Gun-ak glanced toward Mount Hua’s disciples, who were standing by the railing and looking out over the Yangtze River.
These are the truly astonishing ones.
He had, of course, known that Mount Hua had grown stronger.
If those whom the Mount Hua Sword Saint had trained for three full years had not become stronger, that would have been the strange thing. But the sight of them with swords in hand was enough to surprise even Dang Gun-ak, who had already formed some idea of what to expect.
What sort of training could make someone grow this much, this quickly?
It was only natural for internal energy to deepen and for forms to become more refined. All martial artists devoted their lives to that end.
But their strength could not be explained by that alone.
Still, they really are extraordinary people.
Dang Gun-ak smiled a little bitterly, then turned his attention back to the patient he had been tending. To him, it was all simply astonishing and strange. And at the same time, it was something that made him proud.
But that was only because Dang Gun-ak understood Mount Hua as a sect, at least to some extent. For Jao-gae, who had ended up traveling all the way to Plum Blossom Island with Mount Hua by accident, this situation was not so easy to understand.
Was Mount Hua really this strong?
From his eyes, there had been little difference between when they entered Plum Blossom Island and now. Mount Hua and the Tang Family had, in the most literal sense, rescued the Namgung Clan from Plum Blossom Island with almost no losses of their own.
“...There’s going to be quite a stir.”
The leader of the Heavenly Friends Alliance was Mount Hua, that much was certain. But that did not mean Mount Hua was the strongest sect in the alliance. Everyone had thought so. At least until now.
The reason Mount Hua could lead had been that it was the alliance’s center, the sect that embodied the values the Heavenly Friends Alliance pursued. In other words, for all this time, the alliance’s actual military strength had rested with the Sichuan Tang Family.
But...
Not anymore.
Once word of what had happened on the Yangtze River spread, no one would be able to think that way again.
Mount Hua had now, in name and in fact, become the true spearhead of the Heavenly Friends Alliance. It had become a great sect in the fullest sense, one that could stand shoulder to shoulder with the leaders of the Ten Great Sects.
How will they take this?
Jao-gae’s gaze drifted toward the riverbank.
There, Shaolin, Kongtong, and a handful of Beggars’ Union members still remained, holding their positions.
* * *
Beop Jeong stared blankly at the two ships approaching the shore. His eyelids twitched faintly.
What in the world is going on?
Those who had walked into the pit of death with their own feet were now gliding back out of the island as if nothing had happened. What was even more incomprehensible was that the Water Bandits’ ships—the ones that should have been blocking their path—were instead opening a way for them to leave.
Just what...
Beop Jeong’s lips trembled.
It was not as though he had intended to set up camp here forever.
The moment Mount Hua and the Tang Family stepped onto Plum Blossom Island, there had only ever been two possible outcomes.
Either they all perished together with the Namgung Clan on Plum Blossom Island, or they managed to escape the island after great hardship only to be picked off one by one by the Water Bandits and the Thousand Men Gang in the freezing Yangtze River.
If it had been the former, there would have been nothing he could do. But if the latter had happened, even if the chance were one in a thousand or one in ten thousand, he would naturally have thrown himself into the Yangtze River to help them. He could not leave this place with the world knowing that he had merely watched them die to the last man.
But the situation had gone completely against everything he had expected.
“How...”
His eyes, once sharp with conviction, were now complex and clouded.
How am I supposed to... how am I supposed to...
The judgment he had made while standing here had never been wrong. No matter how many times he retraced it, there was not a single mistake. Entering that Plum Blossom Island had been no different from suicide.
But now all of that meant nothing.
If Mount Hua and the Tang Family, the Heavenly Friends Alliance, had leapt into Plum Blossom Island of their own accord and brought the Namgung Clan back out alive, then his cool-headed judgment would become the blunder of a fool, and the patience he had endured until the end would become the coward’s retreat.
There would be no way to prevent the entire Ten Great Sects from being pointed at and mocked by the world. No, the Ten Great Sects were no longer even the main problem.
“...”
Beop Jeong quietly glanced behind him. The monks of Shaolin standing in formation at his back were staring expressionlessly at the two ships approaching shore. They did not even spare him a look.
He found himself clenching his fists.
These were the same monks who had stayed behind when Hye Bang defected. That meant that even then, they had not abandoned their trust in him. And yet, at this very moment, even they were turning away from Beop Jeong.
These fools!
Just as Beop Jeong was silently chanting the Buddha’s name again and again to suppress the boiling rage inside him, someone spoke beside him.
“...Abbot.”
Jong Ri-hyeong, who had been watching the situation unfold at his side, turned to Beop Jeong with trembling eyes. He, too, was the leader of a sect. He was not so foolish that he could not see how the situation was unfolding.
“W-what should we do now?”
“...”
Beop Jeong shut his mouth like a clam. The saying that even with ten mouths one would have nothing to say must have been made for this very moment.
“If this was how it was going to end, wouldn’t it have been better to join Mount Hua when they headed for Plum Blossom Island? If we go back like this, what will the world think of us?”
Even as Jong Ri-hyeong’s reproaches came pouring down, Beop Jeong kept silent, and at last Jong Ri-hyeong raised his voice in frustration.
“Abbot!”
“Calm yourself!”
Beop Jeong turned to him with a face full of anger. Jong Ri-hyeong flinched at that sharp glare.
Beop Jeong bit his lip lightly, then said,
“...They will arrive shortly. Must we make noise among ourselves?”
“But...”
“Wait.”
The ships were just about to reach the riverbank.
“This is not over yet.”
Blue light flashed in Beop Jeong’s eyes.
And in that instant, the ship carrying the Heavenly Friends Alliance finally touched the shore.
Thud.
The sound of the ship’s prow catching lightly on the sandbar rang out like thunder.
Gulp.
In the silence—so quiet that even swallowing could be heard—every eye turned toward the ship.
“Careful! Carry the wounded!”
“Yes!”
The Tang Family warriors in green robes leaped down from the ship, cradling the Namgung survivors in their arms.
Jong Ri-hyeong squeezed his eyes shut.
They really did rescue them.
From far away, it had been impossible to tell. There had been no way to know whether the Namgung Clan was truly on that ship. But at this moment, it had become an undeniable fact: the Heavenly Friends Alliance had brought the Namgung Clan out alive.
What are we supposed to do now?
It was something to rejoice over. Something to celebrate without reserve, something to praise to the heavens.
But Jong Ri-hyeong could not bring himself to do it. His chest twisted with shame at his own inability to feel simple joy that people who had suffered had returned alive from the jaws of death.
Perhaps the disciples of Kongtong standing behind him felt the same way.
Even then, the survivors of the Namgung Clan kept coming down from the ship one after another. The Tang Family members found a flat stretch of ground, laid the unconscious household members down there, and checked their condition once more.
And then, finally, Mount Hua’s swordsmen appeared.
They wore black martial robes and poured off the ship in a rush, taking their places in a neat line. None of them spoke. None of them turned their heads.
Perhaps that was no different from outright ignoring everyone here. No matter how heroic their achievements, the fact remained that they had returned without so much as a glance for Shaolin or Kongtong, and that was certainly a breach of etiquette.
But the people standing here were almost grateful for it. They had no confidence that they could meet those eyes.
And then, just as Hyun Jong, Mount Hua’s sect leader, finally stepped into view behind them...
Tap.
Beop Jeong, who had silently watched the whole thing unfold, was the first to move.
He walked toward Mount Hua with meaningful, measured steps, then stopped before Hyun Jong and bowed deeply with clasped hands.
“You have worked hard, Sect Leader.”
Hyun Jong smiled faintly.
Though the two had experienced a conflict so severe it could fairly be called extreme before coming to the Yangtze River, not a trace of the bitter feelings from that incident showed on either of their faces now.
“Not at all. I merely did what had to be done.”
Beop Jeong lost his words for a moment and bit his lower lip.
What Hyun Jong had said was a common expression of modesty.
But the words “what had to be done” scraped harshly at Beop Jeong’s insides. Did that not mean Shaolin had not even done what had to be done?
Of course, Hyun Jong likely meant no malice. The Hyun Jong Beop Jeong knew was not the sort of man who deliberately mocked others to their faces. But that lack of malice only made Beop Jeong feel more humiliatingly small.
Cold light slipped into Beop Jeong’s eyes.
“However.”
Slowly straightening his back, he swept his gaze over Mount Hua and the Tang Family with an implied meaning behind his eyes. Then he looked toward the Water Bandits’ fleet still occupying the Yangtze.
“There is something you will need to explain.”
Hyun Jong’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Explain, you say?”
“Yes, Sect Leader. It may be a small matter, but it is also an important one.”
“...And what might that be?”
Beop Jeong shot him a cold look.
“If I am not mistaken, it seemed as though the Water Bandits and the Thousand Men Gang voluntarily opened a path for the Heavenly Friends Alliance to escape. Would that not be correct?”
Hyun Jong fell silent.
It was not because of the question itself. It was because he sensed the sharp edge hidden in Beop Jeong’s words.
“By my understanding, it makes no sense for such a thing to be possible.”
“Abbot, what are you...”
“So you will need to explain, Sect Leader.”
Beop Jeong said with force, his eyes twisted with cold intent.
“I am speaking of my suspicion that the Heavenly Friends Alliance may have colluded with the demonic sect on that Plum Blossom Island.”
For a single instant, the air along the riverbank froze solid.