What Kind of Wealth and Glory Do I Think I’m Chasing? (4)
“Cheong Myeong.”
“Yeah?”
Hyun Jong looked steadily at Cheong Myeong for a moment before speaking. “I’ve heard you say things somewhat like this before. But today… I think you mean something a little different from usual.”
The Sect Leader of Mount Hua, Hyun Jong, posed the question with deep gravity.
“To my eyes, it seems as though you think the conversation we’re about to have should be different from all the ones we’ve had before. Am I wrong?”
“No, Sect Leader. You’re right.”
“Then.”
He paused, and only after a moment did he continue.
“Is there a reason you think it should be different from before?”
The reason Hyun Jong asked was to make it clear, even to those who didn’t yet understand the situation, that the conversation from here on out mattered.
And that was, truly, a reasonable decision.
…If the clapping hands had been normal, that is.
“A reason?”
“That’s right.”
“...You mean why?”
“……”
Sensing that something was off, Hyun Jong carefully studied Cheong Myeong’s expression. Then he squeezed his eyes shut. Cheong Myeong’s head was tilting crookedly to one side.
Why is he suddenly going into one of his fits again?
What exactly had Hyun Jong done now?
“Sect Leader.”
“...R-right.”
“Honestly, I don’t even know where to start explaining this.”
“U-uh?”
Hyun Jong wanted to say, If you don’t know how to explain it, there’s no need to force yourself. He really did.
But he had enough sense to know that he could not bring himself to say that out loud.
“You might’ve thought I was some kind of lunatic all this time.”
“...Could you tell?”
“……”
Realizing he’d misspoken, Hyun Jong hurriedly backtracked. “N-no! That’s not what I meant! There’s no way I’d think of you like that. No, no, of course not! You’re saying something strange.”
“...Cough.”
Cheong Myeong gave a small cough as if to say he’d let that one go. But Hyun Jong did not miss the faint twitch beneath Cheong Myeong’s eyes.
“Sect Leader.”
“R-right.”
“When I came to Mount Hua, what was Mount Hua like?”
“...Hm?”
“Plainly put, wasn’t it a sect that was even worse than the Beggars’ Union, with nothing but a bunch of beggars swarming all over the place?”
“Th-that’s a little much...”
“No, that’s actually pretty accurate.”
Hyun Jong’s timid objection was instantly crushed by Hyun Young.
“The Beggars’ Union had more money than Mount Hua. The beggars ate better too.”
“……”
Well... that wasn’t entirely wrong, but still.
“Depending on how you hear it, that makes Mount Hua sound worse than beggars...”
“And what part of that is wrong? Beggars at least don’t have debts.”
“……”
Hyun Jong, left speechless, could only clear his throat awkwardly.
“Anyway!”
Cheong Myeong glared.
“Now that I think about it, was Mount Hua even the kind of sect where people could live like human beings?”
“……”
“I joined and the martial arts were all gone, sold off somewhere!”
Un Geom and Hyun Sang both flinched and turned their heads away.
“The sect had no money and nothing but debt!”
Hyun Jong and Hyun Young both stared up at the distant ceiling.
“The brats weren’t training—they were off playing gangsters with each other!”
“W-why are you bringing that up now?”
“Jo Geol, shut your mouth.”
“...Yes, Saje.”
Cheong Myeong snorted and shouted, “In a situation like that, what? Direction? Discussion?”
“……”
The harder his eyes rolled, the more diligently everyone else avoided looking at him.
“You think we had the luxury to discuss anything? We were one step away from getting beaten senseless by those dogshits from Zhongnan! That was the first thing we had to fix!”
“Y-yes, yes.”
“And after we dealt with the Zhongnan bastards, the Wudang bastards started picking fights. Then after we sorted that out, it was the Shaolin bastards and the Evil Tyrant Alliance!”
“C-calm down a bit, Cheong Myeong.”
Hyun Jong, frightened by the blood-red face that looked ready to burst, tried to stop him.
Thinking about it, it wasn’t wrong. It was a memory now, but had Mount Hua been a normal sect when Cheong Myeong first entered it? If Cheong Myeong hadn’t discovered Mount Hua’s ledger back then, they would’ve been chased out of their own main grounds and had the plaque taken down for good.
“The more I think about it, the more pissed off I get. What kind of damn sect was—”
Everyone lowered their heads. It wasn’t really their fault, but somehow they still felt embarrassed.
“Huff! Hoo...”
After taking a long breath and barely forcing his agitation down, Cheong Myeong looked around at them all.
“Anyway, up until now, we were just scrambling to deal with whatever was right in front of us. If we didn’t, the sect would’ve gone under.”
“Yes, yes.”
Hyun Young nodded as if he understood perfectly.
“Of course! A person has to have something in their belly before they can do anything at all. What can you do when you’re about to go hungry tomorrow?”
“Hah. As expected, Elder, you understand everything.”
“Ahem. Of course I do. You did something truly remarkable.”
“Hehe. What did I even do?”
Cheong Myeong chuckled foolishly and scratched the back of his head.
This time, though, no one shot resentful looks at Hyun Young for favoring him so shamelessly. After all, the fact that Cheong Myeong had calmed down was itself a blessing.
Cheong Myeong lifted his head and looked at them.
“Until now, everything was just reaction. But from here on out, it’s different. As you all know, Mount Hua’s become a pretty decent sect now.”
If another sect had heard that, they might even have thought Cheong Myeong was being modest. That was how enormous Mount Hua’s standing had become in the Jianghu.
Of course, there were still weaknesses—most notably, a lack of senior figures and top experts to carry the weight of the sect—but Mount Hua had already built enough reputation and prestige to more than make up for that.
“That’s why I want to ask, Sect Leader.”
Cheong Myeong looked straight at Hyun Jong and asked, “What do you think, Sect Leader? What kind of relationship do you want to have with the Ten Great Sects?”
“Hmm.”
Hyun Jong let out a low, heavy murmur.
Though he had taken the long way around, the meaning behind Cheong Myeong’s words was simple.
Until now, Mount Hua had had no room to choose. Most of what Mount Hua had done had been desperate struggle for survival, all for the sake of dealing with immediate crises.
But now...
He’s saying that’s no longer the case.
The true meaning behind Cheong Myeong’s words was this: Mount Hua now had some breathing room. A sliver of it, yes, but enough to pause and catch its breath for a while.
Which meant they could now discuss things. Negotiate things.
About the direction Mount Hua should take.
Hyun Jong quietly looked around at everyone. All of them were watching him, waiting for what he would say.
“This is merely my own thought, but...”
That was why Hyun Jong prefaced his words that way. Cheong Myeong had once told him that he was Mount Hua’s sword. And the one who would wield that sword was Hyun Jong alone.
But that was only Cheong Myeong’s will.
Hyun Jong did not want that. He did not want to be the one swinging the sword known as Cheong Myeong. No, he wanted to be someone who moved forward together with Cheong Myeong. More than that—he wanted to be someone who walked beside everyone in Mount Hua.
Because Mount Hua is the kind of sect that came this far that way.
Having steeled his resolve, Hyun Jong spoke.
“Cheong Myeong.”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to remain with the orthodox sects any longer.”
Cheong Myeong asked back with a blank face, “Why?”
After a moment of thought, Hyun Jong replied, “In truth, keeping our distance from the Ten Great Sects until now was never really my intention. As Mount Hua’s Sect Leader, what I most wished for was to restore the sect to its former glory and become a descendant worthy of facing our predecessors with pride.”
“Yes.”
“So, in my heart, I did hope for a return to the Ten Great Sects. Even though our relationship had grown strained to a degree, I thought that if they extended a hand first, returning to a good relationship would not be a bad thing.”
Cheong Myeong nodded.
It was a perfectly understandable thought. Cheong Myeong himself was so extreme that he would grind his teeth at it, but if Chung Mun had been the Sect Leader right now, wouldn’t he have thought the same as Hyun Jong?
“But after going through this matter, I realized something. The path they want to walk is far too different from ours.”
A hint of sorrow crossed Hyun Jong’s face. He must have felt no small amount of disappointment through this affair as well. And yet his tone remained endlessly gentle and cautious.
“I’ll say it again: this is only my own thought. Of course, I am the Sect Leader of Mount Hua. But Mount Hua is not a sect where the Sect Leader decides everything. No, it must never be such a sect.”
In a voice as still as water, Hyun Jong asked, “What do you all think?”
Hyun Young snorted.
“After all this time, if we say we want to get along, do you really think that old fool Beop Jeong would accept it?”
“...Old fool is a bit much...”
“Aren’t the two pillars of the Ten Great Sects Shaolin and Wudang?”
“They are.”
“The Shaolin Abbot openly butted heads with us in front of everyone, and the Wudang Sect Leader jumped on him and beat him down in front of everyone! Why the hell would those bastards want to get along with us?”
“……”
All eyes turned to Cheong Myeong.
“What? What!”
But Cheong Myeong thrust out his chest proudly, as if he had done nothing wrong at all.
“So don’t waste your time trying for no reason. From the start, there’s no way those geezers even had the idea of getting along with us. So why should we?”
“Hmm.”
Un Geom, who had listened quietly the entire time, smiled faintly.
“Your words are a little rough, but I think the same. We’ve already come too far to turn back now.”
“……”
“And even if they did want that, as the Sect Leader said, their path is different from Mount Hua’s.”
“Yes!”
“That’s right, Sect Leader!”
Words of agreement burst out from here and there. Hyun Jong simply nodded.
This wasn’t a statement born because Mount Hua had grown strong. Mount Hua was a sect that understood better than anyone else the grievances of the weak. That was precisely why they did not want to walk the wrong path.
“Then.”
This time, Hyun Jong asked everyone, “What kind of sect do you think Mount Hua should become?”
“……”
This time, no one answered easily. It was too deep a question to reply to lightly.
Then Hyun Jong’s gaze fell on none other than Yoon Jong.
“Yoon Jong.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“Answer me. What kind of place do you want Mount Hua to be?”
At Hyun Jong’s question, Yoon Jong’s gaze grew distant and profound.
“Sect Leader. I’m sorry, but... I don’t know anything so grand as that.”
“Hmm. Is that so?”
Hyun Jong asked back, disappointed, but Yoon Jong spoke again.
“But I think I know what I should do.”
His voice carried conviction. All eyes turned to Yoon Jong.
“When Young Master Namgung asked for help this time, I wanted to help him more than anyone else. And I was truly proud of Mount Hua for running to the Yangtze River in order to help him. I’ve experienced many things in Mount Hua until now. But never once have I felt prouder to be a disciple of Mount Hua than I did then.”
“...You felt that way?”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
Yoon Jong nodded slowly.
“That’s why I want to do what I felt there. No matter how difficult or exhausting it may be, I don’t want to turn away from those who ask me for help. As Mount Hua once suffered hardship, I don’t want to refuse to help those who are tired and struggling.”
A quiet smile bloomed at the corners of Hyun Jong’s mouth.
“A place that listens to what conscience says, and simply acts upon it. That is what I believe Mount Hua should be.”
When Yoon Jong finished speaking, Hyun Jong nodded.
“I have my own Mount Hua, and Yoon Jong has Yoon Jong’s Mount Hua.”
He met the eyes of every disciple in Mount Hua, one by one.
“But all of that need not be gathered into a single opinion. If each of you builds the Mount Hua you seek to create, then in the end it may become a place better than any one person’s idea of it...”
Hyun Jong let his words trail off slightly before closing his eyes and muttering, “I believe that.”
A heavy silence settled over the room.
The deep resonance in Hyun Jong’s words sank into everyone’s hearts.
Yes. That would be enough.
They would still face countless hardships in the future. But if they refused to turn away from what they already knew and kept to it, then even those innumerable difficulties could, one day, be overcome.
And when that day came, they—and the world—would all understand what kind of sect Mount Hua was.
Just as Hyun Jong was about to speak again—
“Can we do that?”
“……”
When he opened his eyes slightly, Cheong Myeong was staring at him with a meaningful expression, his eyes gleaming.
“Each of us building the Mount Hua we want?”
“……”
“Really? Then I don’t have to hold myself back either, right?”
“……”
No.
Let’s find another way, Cheong Myeong.