The Heavenly Demon Establishes Mount Hua (1)
The Divine Mount Hua Exam has concluded. Everyone who participated worked hard.
I’m not that familiar with Hwaryong Muin, but are those people supposed to be good?
Hwaryeong only started playing recently, right? So why did they get completely crushed?
After the Mount Hua exam ended, Siyugeom returned to the user Murim Alliance and sat alone in the sect lounge, staring blankly into space. What he kept replaying in his mind was the sight of Hwaryeong, his opponent during the test.
Siyugeom had gone through a lot during the first test. He had been stabbed in the back by Naseol, someone he thought was an ally. After barely escaping the coordinated attack from the Mount Hua users, he was greeted by a forest full of ghosts. He desperately broke out of there only to face a chaotic brawl beneath Hakigi at the very end. No matter how confident he was in his skills, he couldn’t endure being screwed over three times in a row. In the end, Siyugeom failed the first test.
Afterward, he caught Hwaryeong’s eye and was added to the nine additional successful candidates. Even so, up until that point he had felt nothing but resentment toward her. He thought it was ridiculous that she would torment people like this after inviting them to take the test. So when she told them to try taking revenge on her during the second test, he had cheered inwardly. He resolved to land at least one solid hit on her no matter what it took.
Siyugeom had truly given everything he had against Hwaryeong. He used every single thing at his disposal. He charged in with his teeth clenched. That was precisely why he could feel it even more clearly—how impossibly lofty an existence she was.
Nothing reached her. No attack. No method. Nothing could touch her. Even at the end, when he used the Mutual Death Sword with the mindset that they would die together, the result was the same.
The sky. Yes. In that moment, Hwaryeong had become his sky. She stood in a place so high that he couldn’t even imagine reaching her. So high that he couldn’t even begin to guess where her limit might be.
“Siyu.”
At the sound of someone calling his name, he snapped out of it and turned his head. It was Han Seolbing, another executive of the user Murim Alliance and a fellow swordsman ranker.
“Good work. That Mount Hua exam was seriously weird, huh?”
“I never imagined it would be harder than getting into the Murim Alliance.”
“Compared to that, our test is practically civilized.”
The user Murim Alliance, being the number one user sect, naturally had many hurdles to clear in order to join. However, those tests had always stayed within the bounds of common sense. They weren’t as bizarre as the ones Hwaryeong had prepared.
“What did you think after facing Hwaryeong yourself?”
“I can’t win. Against that person.”
“Right? Even watching the stream, it looked that way.”
He had known her skills were good ever since she crushed semi-pro gamers in Apis, but he never expected her strength to completely disregard the very foundation of RPGs—stats and specs.
“That person called Hwaryeong should just go become a pro gamer. There’s no reason for her to be playing around here.”
Siyugeom genuinely believed she was wasting her talent. If she became a pro gamer, she might even be able to reclaim the glory that North America had stolen.
“But if you quit Hwaryong Muin, you won’t be able to learn her principles even if you pass, right?”
“That wouldn’t do at all.”
He had endured all that suffering to enter Mount Hua and learn the principles from Hwaryeong. Giving up on her teachings? That was nonsense. When Siyugeom narrowed his eyes, Han Seolbing chuckled.
“Just between us—user sects don’t allow dual membership, you know.”
“I know.”
“So if you pass, are you going to leave?”
“...It looks like I will.”
To be honest, Siyugeom had been agonizing over this the entire time. He had applied because she offered to teach the principles, and he had come to take the test when told to, but he still hadn’t decided whether to abandon the user Murim Alliance and join the new Mount Hua.
The user Murim Alliance was the top user sect. It had massive influence, was recognized by the Murim NPCs, offered excellent support to its members, and as an executive, Siyugeom held considerable power within Hwaryong Muin. To join the new Mount Hua, he would have to give up all those benefits. He simply wasn’t sure if Hwaryeong’s Mount Hua was worth that much.
But after taking the test today and facing Hwaryeong directly, Siyugeom had made up his mind. If it was Hwaryeong—the one who had shown him the sky—then receiving her teachings from below that sky would be worth abandoning the Murim Alliance and going to Mount Hua.
“Really?”
“I haven’t decided yet, but if an offer comes, I’ll go immediately.”
“Got it. Until you actually pass, don’t tell anyone else.”
“I won’t. It’d be annoying if the alliance leader finds out and marks me.”
“True. That guy can be surprisingly petty.”
*
“So Mount Hua is being rebuilt. And not by one of its original members, but by an outsider with no connection to it.”
“That is correct, Elder.”
After receiving the report from the Beggars’ Sect’s information gatherer, Baek-il took a swig from the liquor bottle at his waist and let out a long sigh.
The reconstruction of Mount Hua itself was welcome news. Despite suffering many storms and declining in power, Mount Hua had once been one of the prestigious righteous sects. The fact that it had fallen after joining hands with the Blood Cult was a tremendous loss for the entire righteous faction. Not only had their forces shrunk, but the little honor the righteous path still possessed had been tarnished as well.
In that situation, someone newly building Mount Hua wasn’t a bad thing in itself.
However, the reason Baek-il found it ominous was precisely because the one rebuilding Mount Hua was an outsider.
Baek-il, a pragmatic reformer, did not dislike outsiders. In fact, he welcomed them. The more of them there were, the more he believed the righteous path could regain its former vitality. That was why he had proposed a policy to the Murim Alliance to actively recruit outsiders.
Even so, an outsider becoming the leader of a major sect like Mount Hua was something he found deeply unsettling. The reason was simple. Outsiders were people whose behavior could not be predicted using the common sense of the Murim.
It was fine for them to create their own sects and live independently. It was also fine for them to join under other sects. But becoming the head of one of the great sects that had originally existed in the Murim was problematic. Who knew what an outsider might do while bearing the name of Mount Hua?
Moreover, this particular outsider had no connection whatsoever to Mount Hua.
“They said her name was something like Ara.”
Seeing how she had single-handedly defeated the former Mount Hua sect leader who had received the Blood Cult’s liquor, her skill was certain. But could that girl truly rebuild the fallen Mount Hua properly? And even if she did rebuild it, would she obediently submit to the righteous path?
When he had asked her before, she had declared that she would join neither the righteous nor the evil path. Imagining that she might still join the righteous path simply because it was Mount Hua was far too optimistic.
“It seems I must visit Mount Hua once more.”
“I will make preparations.”
“Good. Make sure to contact that Murim Choegang fellow in advance as well.”
For now, he would try to persuade her with words. Since she carried the name of Mount Hua, she should join the righteous path. However, if persuasion failed, then… he would have no choice but to use somewhat harsher methods.
*
“You’ve come to register a sect, correct?”
“That is right.”
“If you’re here to create a user sect, please go over there and fill out the necessary details on the documents. The essential fields include the sect’s name, the site that will be used for the sect’s buildings, the sect leader’s full name, at least five people who will belong to the sect, and…”
I quietly listened to the woman’s explanation before lowering my gaze to the paper she had handed me. Seeing the countless blank spaces on the white sheet, I felt my head begin to spin.
A sect, you say. Wasn’t it supposed to be that once you made one, hung up a signboard, and declared “This is the place!” then it became a sect? Since when had all these trivial procedures become necessary?! At the very least, when I was in the Murim, there was nothing like this!