Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: People on the Cliff
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"Head north from here for a few days, and you'll reach Wudang Mountain. I used to be a Daoist of the Wudang Sect back then. A Daoist training in the sword, dreaming of ascension. The same went for Dang Rang and Sanjeo."
He had known it from the moment they first met. Of course, it was Namgung Myeong who had realized that fact, not Dang Mujin.
"When we turned twenty, the three of us ventured out into the jianghu together and wandered the Central Plains. It was the martial debut we'd dreamed of. I still remember it vividly. We poked around Shaanxi, then followed our seniors' advice and traveled along the Yellow River all the way to Mount Tai."
A soft smile played on Pyo Choong's lips. Like anyone reminiscing on joyful past days, his unfocused eyes gazed off into the distance.
"It was like a dream. We even got to do something resembling righteous deeds we'd longed for, subdued bandits and thugs and handed them over to the authorities. I still vividly recall watching a duel between masters and being awestruck. Have you ever seen Mount Tai? It's a breathtaking sight. A view unmatched in a lifetime."
His tale slowed a bit after reaching that peak, and his voice sank low.
"After Mount Tai, we headed south, ascended the Yangtze, and moved westward. When our return to Wudang Mountain was just around the corner, we heard an intriguing story in Yichang. A band of rebels was stirring up chaos in the world, and it called for righteous heroes to come to the Taiyi Sword Sect to set things right. Our hearts were puffed up from all our experiences, so we didn't hesitate for a second."
"So that's how you ended up at Nogun Mountain?"
"Yeah. We followed their lead, and there they were—people in ragged clothes with faces twisted in fury. Maybe it was those expressions, but I didn't have a shred of doubt. I threw myself into the fray with the others, swinging my sword. It wasn't a tough fight. No, it was ridiculously easy. Easy enough to make you suspicious."
"..."
If he hadn't known the context, it might have sounded like quite the heroic tale.
But it was self-reproach, sorrow, guilt.
"I was a fool. I thought that was what righteous deeds were. I figured it'd make for a great story to tell back at Wudang. That everyone would gape in awe when I bragged about how many rebels I'd slain. That's how shallow I was."
"And among those you killed was the old woman's son from the village?"
"Yeah."
The story paused there.
It was as damp as that rain-soaked cave, as musty and fishy as the moss in it.
A memory that seeped back in no matter how hard you tried to drive it out.
Dang Mujin fiddled with the spirit tablet in his hand. Seo Songdeok. Died at twenty-nine. Killed by a warrior's blade.
"I protested to the Taiyi Sword Sect Leader too late. Asked if those dead people were really rebels. He answered that just as dogs birth pups and pigs birth piglets, rebels' spawn are rebels by nature. I wanted to argue, but I'd swung my sword harder than anyone, so I couldn't say a word. Then the Taiyi Sword Sect Leader swung his sword and severed my leg."
"Your leg?"
"Yeah. The cloud bridge."
Dang Mujin had seen countless cliff paths at Nogun Mountain but no bridges. Seeing his puzzled look, Pyo Choong explained.
"That cliff where you two got stranded. There was no path there because a cloud bridge was planned to connect to the opposite side. The Taiyi Sword Sect Leader destroyed it just before completion."
The way he said "you two" felt oddly off, so Dang Mujin glanced to the side.
Namgung Myeong, who had clearly been asleep in the hut, was sitting there listening. It looked so natural that Dang Mujin jolted in shock.
"Whoa! When did you get here?"
"I've been listening from the start."
He must have approached while deliberately concealing his presence. Namgung Myeong's stealth skills went beyond ordinary, so if he really tried to hide, even Dang Mujin couldn't detect him.
Pyo Choong chuckled at the sight, then retrieved a long box from deeper in the cave.
He opened the lid of the worn box to reveal a silk scroll that was equally tattered.
Pyo Choong unrolled it. A single sentence was written there.
[Keep them confined to Nogun Mountain until the rebels atone for their crimes through great merit.]
"What is this?"
"An imperial edict from long ago, they say."
Heavy words. The silk was frayed, but the ink-black characters showed no signs of fading.
The frayed edge of that silk had bound the villagers to Nogun Mountain under the emperor's command.
That one line had created the thousands of spirit tablets in this cave.
"What kind of merit does it refer to here?"
"Nothing defined. Since nothing was specified and no one clarified it, people had no choice but to accumulate merit they couldn't refuse. That was the only way to escape Nogun Mountain. The path they chose was building roads in this treacherous Nogun Mountain. Laying cliff paths, erecting bridges to connect the cliffs."
Dang Mujin recalled an old tale. Yu Gong Moves the Mountain.
Just as the foolish old man Yu moved mountains to open a path and moved the Jade Emperor, the people of Nogun Mountain sought to carve roads through it to sway the emperor.
Building roads was that difficult—and that meritorious.
Trapped in Nogun Mountain, they devoted their remaining lives to roads on the cliffs in hopes their descendants could escape. They lived on the cliffs, struggling to break free from them.
Namgung Myeong asked.
"But you've built the cliff paths, so isn't it almost done? You can just rebuild the cloud bridge."
"We did rebuild it. But it got destroyed again."
"What?"
"My brothers and I begged the villagers' forgiveness, settled in the village, and helped them. By the time we nearly finished the bridge again, the Taiyi Sword Sect Leader showed up with his men. We were nobodies at the second-rate level when we entered Nogun Mountain, but by then we'd stepped into first-rate. We thought we could handle a first-rate like the Taiyi Sword Sect Leader."
Dang Mujin could guess what came next.
Time allowed the Taiyi Sword Sect Leader to advance as well.
"But while we climbed to first-rate, he broke through to the peak realm. We were weak, got crushed without a chance, and the bridge was destroyed again."
Pyo Choong shook his head with a deep sigh.
"After the bridge was severed twice, everyone realized it. Once trapped in Nogun Mountain, we'd live like livestock forever. To the county magistrate, the people of Nakseong Village, and the Taiyi Sword Sect Leader, we're just livestock. Livestock to pass down through generations."
Dang Mujin cut off Pyo Choong's endless negativity.
"Why not just flee with the people? Nogun Mountain is rugged, but it's not like there's no way out for them."
"There are watchers. Ones who ensure the bridge never finishes and the people don't escape."
"Ah."
He could guess who the watchers were. The Green Forest bandits fighting the Nogun Three Swords when they first found them.
Unless that was their role, there'd be no bandits on Nogun Mountain. No passing merchants, no villages to plunder.
Dang Mujin almost suggested killing all the bandits and fleeing, but stopped.
Watchers who return alive fulfill their duty, and even those who don't return serve it well enough. A watcher not returning signals something's happened, so they'd just send a new one.
Maybe because it had been so long since he reviewed the situation from the start, Pyo Choong felt choked.
Nogun Mountain was a massive prison. Built by the Nakseong villagers, the county magistrate, and whoever that Taiyi Sword Sect Leader was—all in cahoots.
Dang Mujin and Namgung Myeong racked their brains for answers. They were too young to slump in despair like Pyo Choong, too unaccustomed to defeat.
Namgung Myeong asked.
"Why not build the bridge again? Plenty must want to escape Nogun Mountain."
Pyo Choong shook his head.
"People die building it, and it'll get destroyed before completion again. Besides, folks are content enough with things as they are."
"Content?"
"Thanks to you two, Nogun Village is livable now, isn't it? It's been ages since no kids cried from hunger."
Not empty words. Pyo Choong seemed genuinely satisfied.
Having spent over half his life in Nogun Mountain watching people suffer, he apparently saw the current state as much better.
But Dang Mujin immediately countered.
"It won't stay livable forever."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at it from the perspective of those surrounding Nogun Mountain. They need you starving and struggling, climbing dangerous cliffs to gather herbs and trade for food. If you keep foraging fruits and hunting mountain beasts like now, their money dries up."
Pyo Choong's face hardened. Dang Mujin's words rang true. He'd just never thought that far.
Dang Mujin continued.
"I don't know what methods they'll use. But they'll create problems for you no matter what, and you'll slide back into starvation. Maybe even more wretched than before."
"But there's no way. Two big problems. The Taiyi Sword Sect Leader will smash any bridge with his men, and even if you finish it, the county magistrate won't report to the court."
Pyo Choong laid out the reasons they couldn't build, as if he'd been waiting.
Dang Mujin disliked the preemptive resignation, so he cut in sharply.
"We can handle the Taiyi Sword Sect Leader somehow. He's peak realm, but we've got five first-rates, so we can take him."
"Five?"
Pyo Choong echoed.
Among Nogun Mountain's people, only the Nogun Three Swords knew martial arts, and the recent newcomers to the village were just Dang Mujin and Namgung Myeong.
That meant Dang Mujin and Namgung Myeong were first-rates.
"I figured you'd trained decently, but first-rate at your age?"
Dang Mujin and Namgung Myeong neither boasted nor preened, just nodded calmly.
Pyo Choong glimpsed possibility in that matter-of-fact attitude.
"Then we might have a shot. But the second problem remains. What about the county magistrate? Nothing changes if he doesn't report upward."
Namgung Myeong had the answer here.
"Target magistrates and governors from other areas, not him. Yichang, Zhangli County, Zhushan County, and so on. No need to ask them to side with the village. Just have them verify the bridge on Nogun Mountain exists. No interests at stake, so one will help."
"Too vague."
The plan's looseness left no conviction in Pyo Choong's voice.
But Dang Mujin knew you had to charge ahead without overthinking when the moment called.
"No need to fear and nitpick. Two choices: sit and wait to sink back into suffering, or gamble when opportunity knocks. It's not zero chance."
He didn't know what kind of man the emperor was. Probably never would.
But emperors were human too, so if tales of Nogun Mountain's trapped folk reached his ears, there'd be some reaction.
Nogun Mountain's people were just locals near the rebels' plot, descendants many generations removed. And that plot wasn't even against the current dynasty.
Carve roads through Nogun Mountain for great merit, and release was possible.
"Keep it simple. Rebuild the bridge, fend off the Taiyi Sword Sect Leader, report to the court via a nearby other magistrate or governor. That's it. You have nothing to lose anyway, so failure costs little."
Pyo Choong bowed his head without replying. He wasn't Nogun Village's leader, and even if he were, he couldn't decide alone.
"I'll ask the people's opinions."
"If you choose to stay like this, we'll leave the village soon. Might return later to check patients, but won't make similar offers."
"Got it."
The three emerged from the cave. The rain had stopped.
*
Pyo Choong went around asking the villagers' opinions.
They feared change, but hearing the current abundance wouldn't last shifted their attitudes quickly.
Having tasted brief plenty, they dreaded returning to hopeless starvation even more.
Waiting passively might let them scrape by in poverty.
But was mere survival better than death?
They didn't think so.
Just as embers could glow in ashes, Nogun Village's people yearned for happy lives.
Two days later, Pyo Choong sought out Dang Mujin and Namgung Myeong and bowed deeply.
"For Nogun Village, please lend us your hands."