Just Bring the Mooncakes, Yeogwi
The next morning, every outer disciple of the sect packed themselves in front of Yi Yeok's house.
Yi Yeok stood on the roof with one hand braced on his hip, looking down at them.
"Yesterday put me in a truly dogshit mood."
The disciples murmured, uneasy.
"The inner sect ordered you to squeeze protection fees out of us."
He let out a deliberately enormous sigh. The disciples, however, looked utterly unmoved, their faces saying And what is it this time...
Tribute had always been the unspoken rule. It was a reality you could neither resist nor escape, and even the sect itself tolerated it, believing that so unreasonable a structure would stir the disciples' will to strive and make them stronger.
At that lukewarm response, Yi Yeok clicked his tongue inwardly.
"Outer sect or inner, we are all fellow disciples of Nokhyeon Sect. Why should we let them grind us down? What makes them so great?"
Still there was no reaction. In their hearts they were full of nothing but And who are you?
"Where there is injustice, ought there not be resistance?"
His voice grew louder, and it did very little good. A few wore bored looks, staring at the sky or at their own toes.
"Our ancestors said it themselves! Justice comes from the fist!"
The disciples stirred. Bewildered faces, looks of pure incomprehension—their eyes were a muddle of confusion.
Frustration rose in Yi Yeok at the tepid response. He sank into thought for a moment, then broke into that mischievous smile peculiar to him.
"Do you truly mean to live out your whole lives under this unjust oppression? You'll let them seize by force the money we sweated blood to earn, and trample us however they please?"
A few among the disciples gave the faintest of nods, but there was still no great reaction.
This would not do. He needed something that would strike the deepest place in their hearts.
"All of you..."
Yi Yeok said, slowly lowering his voice.
"Did you happen to know? They're even stealing the grain and side dishes allotted as our share, and eating them themselves."
The crowd fell silent for a beat.
"What?"
Someone whispered, and soon a low anger began to kindle through the mass.
"That's right! So that was it! The meals they've been rationing out lately keep getting worse and worse!"
Another disciple chimed in.
"Yeah. When was the last time we even got a meat dish?"
Yi Yeok went on, grinning in triumph.
"If you're going to cultivate, sleeping well and eating well come first, as a matter of course. What those bastards are robbing isn't our food—it's our future! Just like that meat we never got to taste, our potential is slowly vanishing!"
The disciples' expressions began, little by little, to change.
"If we don't drag them down, we'll have no choice but to starve forever inside this rotten structure!"
Yi Yeok shouted with growing heat.
"This doesn't end with our meals being taken. They're stealing our pride as well!"
Faces in the crowd flushed all at once. Anger climbed by degrees, and more and more disciples began to nod.
"He's right! We can't go on living like this, bled dry!"
One disciple yelled, and the crowd boiled hotter still.
"If we don't rise and fight now, we'll be under their heels forever!"
The light in the disciples' eyes changed. Their fury was aimed now at the whole unjust order.
"Follow me!"
Yi Yeok roared.
"We have to take our lives back! To the inner sect!"
"To the inner sect!"
"Smash the inner sect to pieces!"
"You damned bastards, give me back my meat!"
The disciples exploded into motion. As if reason had left them, they charged toward the inner sect.
The outer disciples numbered close to a thousand, while the inner disciples were a mere few dozen. And the gap between resolve and frenzy was a thousandfold beyond even that.
Bang Cheon took the lead, a banner slung over his shoulder, and shouted.
Those following behind roared as one.
"So long as the sun rises in the east, we always win!"
The shout shook the whole of Nokhyeon Sect. It was their will, and their vow. In that moment they believed nothing in the world could stop them.
Yi Yeok and Yeogwi pressed forward at the head of the charge, faces twisted with rage.
"You want me to play the dog? I'll turn you lot into funeral-house curs first."
Yi Yeok muttered. Yeogwi said little, baring his fangs as he hefted his sword, scabbard and all.
Bang Cheon swung the banner and bellowed.
"In the name of Senior Brother Yi Yeok, First of the Outer Sect, I command you! Carve those inner-sect bastards to pieces, and crush them down to the bone!"
Yeogwi's mouth split wide.
"Look at Bang Cheon. Having the time of his life."
The mountain itself seemed to shake. The crowd's roar and the thunder of their feet rolled toward the peak.
The outer-sect elders stared, struck dumb. Watching that vast mass charge without hesitation straight out of the outer sect, even they could only be overwhelmed by the wave of fury.
Once the hearts of the people were seized by rage, no one could hold them back.
Vice Sect Master Baengni Hae sat atop a great hall, let out a deep sigh, and shook his head.
"Did it really have to go this far?"
He looked down with a troubled face.
"That walking headache. This time he's truly started something."
Below, an inner-sect elder appeared and barred their way with a resolute face. His voice rolled like thunder.
"If you do not withdraw at once, you will be expelled from the sect!"
Dignity filled the elder's eyes, but before a wave of enraged disciples he did not look particularly threatening.
"Take him!"
Yeogwi shouted and leapt in first, and the crowd surged after him like a flood.
The elder startled. In the next instant, before he could even draw up his blood qi, he was buried under the press of bodies.
A moment later the inner-sect elder was flung off the mountain path. He tumbled down the slope, leaving only a thin groan behind. He was barely breathing.
Yi Yeok cried out in grand style.
"Onward, my beloved brothers! It's a massacre!"
Baengni Hae clutched his head at the sight.
"This brat... He clearly has no intention of wrapping this up halfway."
Nearly a thousand people stormed the inner sect and attacked whoever they met without discrimination.
Every inner disciple was outstanding, far stronger than the outer disciples. But the assault was far too sudden, and the outer sect's numbers were overwhelming. Worse, with Vice Sect Master Baengni Hae watching, they dared not kill their opponents outright.
They could only take the beating, helpless. The crack of broken noses and the snap of limbs never ceased.
Yi Yeok found Dong Pil, and without a shred of hesitation he poured attacks into him. He moved at tremendous speed, overwhelming Dong Pil's reactions. The instant Dong Pil tried to summon his blood spirit, Yi Yeok was faster.
A portion of the blood spirit was seized and drawn in.
Dong Pil startled and hastily withdrew the blood spirit. The moment he did, dozens of outer disciples flooded in. They fell on him with savage blows, as if they had met a mortal enemy.
The female disciple who had threatened Yi Yeok the day before was no exception. Hemmed in by several other women, she took an endless rain of fists.
"You stole my seat in the Document Hall, didn't you?"
One of them shouted.
"The window seat has to stay empty no matter what? A woman who barely shows up a few times a month!"
Another yelled even more fiercely.
"Hand over my trinket! Give back the keepsake my darling gave me!"
The fight among the women veered into ever more absurd grievances. It was the moment when petty grudges, stored up all this while, burst free.
Before long Dong Pil was strung up upside down, taking blows from the outer disciples. Terror already lay across his face.
"You're the one who snuck off with my belt, aren't you? I spent the whole day clutching my trousers!"
"And last time you swapped out my herbs in secret! I nearly blew myself up making a spirit pill!"
"I can't endure it anymore! The time has come to set everything right!"
The outer disciples' fury exploded once more over trifling, festering grudges.
"Th-that wasn't me..."
Dong Pil mumbled piteously, but the disciples didn't so much as pretend to listen.
Even after pouring out all their rage, they still glared at one another with bloodshot eyes. Hatred accumulated over a long time was not eased by a single outburst.
Turned mob, the outer disciples now turned their glares upon each other.
One woman seized the shoulder of a disciple who had been beating Dong Pil.
"You're no different... Last time you ruined my formation, and I suffered for days!"
She unleashed her attacks on a fellow outer disciple.
As if that were the signal, the mood flipped in an instant. A brawl among the outer disciples themselves had begun.
"You interrupted me in the middle of training! That's why my qi and blood got tangled!"
"Always acting so superior, weren't you? If it weren't for the spirit stones your family sends, do you really think the likes of you could surpass me?"
Only then did Yi Yeok show a flicker of dismay.
"H-hey, brothers! Uh... you can't fight! We're on the same side!"
But no one listened. The crowd had sunk into a battle without end, like a pack of starving wolves.
Yi Yeok looked at Yeogwi and whispered carefully.
"This... seems to be going a little strange, doesn't it?"
"It's gone completely off the rails."
They looked at each other through a brief, awkward silence.
"Did we... make this too big?"
Yi Yeok asked cautiously. Yeogwi thought a moment, then shrugged.
"We definitely made it big. But honestly, it's fun, isn't it?"
Yi Yeok snorted a laugh.
"Yeah. It is fun."
The two of them wore hollow smiles as they watched the carnage of the fight. They knew it was already past undoing, and even so, they were enjoying it in their own way.