The Dadao swept up in a diagonal arc. The ferocity of the single strike looked as though it would split Chung Myung clean in two. But Chung Myung merely stared blankly at the scene, not moving so much as a step.
“Taoist-nim!”
The child, who had been watching, instinctively cried out.
The man’s blade tore through the air as it rushed at Chung Myung. Even if that Taoist possessed every conceivable skill under heaven, it did not seem possible that he could block such a vicious blade.
Just as the child, instinctively foreseeing the horror to come, was about to squeeze her eyes shut.
Boom! Boooooom!
The charging man was slammed into the ground at a speed that could not even be compared to the one with which he had been rushing forward. As though he were a fly struck by a gigantic flyswatter.
He struck the ground with such tremendous force that dirt billowed up in all directions, and even the earth beneath the child’s feet seemed to tremble.
“Huh……?”
Unable to comprehend what had just happened, the girl stared blankly at the man sprawled on the ground.
No, rather than sprawled, ‘embedded’ would have been a more fitting description. The burly man had sunk nearly three chi into the hard earth, his eyes rolled white as he lay unconscious, trembling faintly.
‘Th-That… it looks like… teeth?’
The yellowish things slowly falling from the corner of the man’s open mouth were surely exactly what the child suspected.
These shouldn’t be falling out like that, right?
Chung Myung, looking down at the man twisted up like grilled squid, frowned.
“What? You were yapping about twin fiends or twin something, and you’re this weak? One punch and you’re out cold?”
Chung Myung squatted down in front of the fallen man and poked at his side, again and again.
“Hey. Get up. Be honest – even you know you’re not the kind of guy who should go down from just one hit. I’ll beat you gently. Open your eyes.”
“…”
“Get up. Not getting up? You bastard, ignoring what people say? Hey! Hey!”
At last, Chung Myung started smacking down repeatedly on the back of the man’s head. Each time, a sound rang out as if he were driving a nail with a hammer.
The child’s mouth fell open weakly.
What had happened right in front of her eyes was shocking enough, but that Taoist trying to wake an unconscious man by beating him was just as shocking. No – if one had to measure which was more shocking, wasn’t it clearly the latter?
‘How…’
From the outside he looked like nothing more than a somewhat skinny, small-framed guy, and yet how could someone like that knock down that huge, shaggy man with a single hit?
And it seemed the child wasn’t the only one who had that question.
“Y-You!”
One of the remaining Twin Fiends, who had been looking back and forth between his fallen comrade and Chung Myung, flinched, unable to hide his bewilderment.
“Y-You… who are you?”
“Seriously, this bastard, since earlier… do you Black Path bastards get born with your tongues cut off from the start or what. Why have you been talking down to me this whole time? You little punk.”
“…Huh?”
“Me, you bastard – how old do you think I am!”
“…”
That’s a madman.
No matter how you looked at him, he was a madman. This, he – known as one of the Twin Fiends of Shaanxi – could guarantee with absolute certainty. And as a rule, you don’t pick a fight with a madman…
“Why? Running away?”
At the sharp words, the man’s foot, which had been inching back, stopped dead in place.
“Yeah. Go on, try running. If you can.”
“…”
The deeper Chung Myung’s smile grew, the colder got the sweat beaded on the burly man’s forehead.
‘What kind of lightning strike is this.’
He’s the kind of guy who knocks Left Fiend down in a single blow.
Luck? Don’t make me laugh.
Even if you got lucky, you might land a clean hit – but you don’t get lucky enough to knock a man out in one strike. Not when the opponent is someone like the Left Fiend, all the more.
Meaning, the man standing in front of him now was someone who had taken down the Left Fiend – whose notoriety spreads even through Shaanxi – with a single hit, and hadn’t his breathing changed even slightly.
Whether he was a peak master, an absolute master – he didn’t know that much, but either way, this wasn’t a level the Right Fiend could handle.
“I-I didn’t know a deceased person [고인 – goin] was here….”
“Oh? How’d you know I died and came back to life?”
“…Pardon?”
“You just said ‘a deceased [고인],’ didn’t you? It’s true I did become a deceased person once.”
“…”
The Right Fiend stared blankly at Chung Myung, then said.
“Not ‘deceased’ [고인(故人)], but ‘lofty one’ [고인(高人)]. I meant an outstanding person………”
“Huh? Yeah? I thought you meant something else.”
“…”
He really didn’t seem like an ordinary madman.
“I have been discourteous. If you will let me go, I will go quietly.”
As he spoke, the Right Fiend lightly touched the sword at his waist. It wasn’t a threat. It meant: if you insist on fighting, I’ll resist with everything I’ve got, and then it’ll be nothing but a nuisance for both of us, won’t it? Masters like that didn’t, as a rule, enjoy wasting their strength on pointless things.
The Right Fiend had no doubt those words would get through. In fact, hadn’t he saved his life a few times up to now by using this exact sort of approach?
“Hmm. What should I do? It is a hassle, that’s true.”
Chung Myung tapped his own chin lightly and tilted his head to the side.
“I won’t trouble you any further…”
“But, you know.”
“Yes?”
From Chung Myung’s clenched fist came an ominously loud cracking sound.
“What did you say your nickname was?”
“……The Twin Fiends of Shaanxi.”
“Yeah. Right. That’s the problem. Got it?”
“Yes?”
“Just think of it as bad luck.”
Beaming with a wide grin, Chung Myung lunged at Right Fiend.
⠀
“I-It’s true… This… this is the full amount.”
“This is really all?”
“Yes, Sir! Truly… Truly! Aaaaaaaaagh.”
“Don’t cry, you bastard. It’s unpleasant to look at.”
“Yes…”
Peering into the coin pouch, Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
“What kind of bandit bastards are this poor?”
“…If we weren’t poor, we wouldn’t be bandits….“
Bbaeeoong!
Chung Myung sprang up without hesitation and kicked the man who was kneeling, sending him flying.
“How dare a bandit bastard talk back so neatly. You want to die?”
“I-I was wrong. Please spare me!”
The burly man, who had toppled backwards, crawled back – his face swollen up round like a full moon – tears spilling as he flattened himself to the ground and clutched at Chung Myung’s pant leg.
Pathetic? Anyone who thought so would change their tune after getting hit by this guy. Every single punch felt like it was crushing bones to splinters.
“What were you going to sell? A person? Just thinking about it pisses me off again.”
Booom!
“Aaaaaaah!”
“Where do you think you’re screaming like that and hurting my ears, you bastard!”
Thud!
“…”
“Oh? What, you’re not even pretending it hurts? Are my fists this weak?”
“W-What do you want me to…“
“What do I want you to? This bastard just hasn’t been hit enough, that’s what it is.”
Booom!
The man, with Chung Myung’s heel driven into his face, collapsed limply and didn’t move anymore.
Chung Myung clicked his tongue once and turned away. Looking at the trinkets scattered across the floor, he smacked his lips.
They supposedly had a name for themselves, so he’d figured there might be something worth shaking out of them, but there was practically nothing. It was disappointing compared to all that talk about being the Twin Fiends of Shaanxi and whatnot, but still – if he thought of it as simply stripping two mountain bandits, it was a windfall.
“More importantly…”
But more than anything else, what caught his attention was something wrapped in white cotton cloth.
An object wide at the top and pointed at the bottom, unmistakably shaped like a single flower wrapped up inside.
Both Chung Myung’s gaze, and the gaze of the girl whose wits had half fled, were drawn there.
‘A divine relic.’
Whatever it was, it was true that a divine relic was important to a sect. Not because it was important in itself, but because they believed it was important, so it became important.
But… the child’s eyes wouldn’t leave the cotton cloth.
She was a sharp child – she might already have realized it. That the reason Chung Myung had come here was because of this flower, and that if Chung Myung wanted it, in the end she had no power to stop him.
Even so, the child was staring at Chung Myung defiantly. As if she would fight him too if he didn’t return it. Even after seeing with her own eyes Chung Myung beat down the Twin Fiends.
“Tsk.”
Chung Myung quietly reached out and lifted the flower wrapped in white cloth. Then he stared silently at the flower wrapped in fabric.
For a long while, he gazed at the symbol of the past that had returned to his hands. Then Chung Myung squeezed his eyes shut tightly and held the flower out to the child.
“Here.”
“…Huh?”
“You were looking for this, right? Take it.”
“I-Is it really okay?”
The fierce momentum that gave of a feeling as if she might swing an axe at Chung Myung at any moment was nowhere to be found now. The child asked with a stunned expression.
“Well… It’s true your mother bought it with her money.”
Even if it had been a ridiculously small sum, the rightful ownership of this flower belonged to the child. It was also true that those damned bastards had sold it off.
“If you’re thinking of reselling it, I was going to buy it back… Are you going to sell it?”
The child shook her head violently. Sometimes there are things you can’t trade even for a thousand pieces of gold – no matter what the actual price is.
“I won’t sell it!”
“I’ve got a lot of money.”
“I’ll never sell it! Never!”
“Tsk. Then there’s nothing I can do. I can’t just take it from you. I am a Taoist, and I’ve still got a name to keep.”
Chung Myung held the flower out to the child again.
“What are you doing? Take it.”
The girl reached out and carefully accepted the flower Chung Myung offered.
The emotion in those two eyes… it wasn’t exactly gratitude – more like, well. Hard to put into words.
But one thing was certain.
‘This is right.’
This flower is Hwasan’s sacred relic. So it is, beyond measure, important.
But is that really so? A sacred relic is important because people believe it is important – so how many people are left in Hwasan now who would even consider this flower as something important?
Who knows. At the very least, it didn’t seem like there would be anyone who, like this child, would risk their life to take it back.
It was nothing to feel disappointed about, nor anything to regret. If there were no meaning imbued in this flower, then it was nothing more than a scrap of metal.
‘Something important…’
So… the one who should receive this flower now isn’t Hwasan, but this child.
As Chung Myung allowed himself a faint smile, the child slowly unwrapped the white cotton cloth. A crudely carved white plum blossom revealed itself from within.
Chung Myung’s eyes, carrying a little nostalgia, a little regret, and a faint bitterness, turned towards the pure-white plum blossom that had emerged.
“Huh?”
Chung Myung’s expression twisted into something bizarre in an instant.
“…W-Why, what’s that?”
The girl flinched and looked at Chung Myung with anxious eyes. But instead of answering, Chung Myung stared at the flower, then muttered like an idiot.
“This… This isn’t it?”
“Pardon?”
“This… isn’t what I was looking for.”
“……What?”
Chung Myung’s pupils wavered, lost, as he stared at the flower.
A plum blossom carved from a metal that held a white sheen – yes, that much was right. It was certainly such an object. But that wasn’t Hwasan’s White Plum Blossom. A shoddy imitation. No – ‘imitation’ didn’t even do it justice. It was simply a completely different plum blossom carving.
“Ha…”
“T-Taoist…… nim?”
“Haha, ha ha ha.”
“Why are you like this?”
Chung Myung clutched his stomach and laughed. So hard that tears even welled at the corners of his eyes.
When had it been switched?
Maybe some wicked disciple – one Chung Myung had never even met – had quietly stolen it and swapped it out, or maybe it had been fine when it was sold off and then, somewhere along the way, changed hands and been replaced at just the right moment.
No – honestly, what did that matter? What mattered was this: Chung Myung had chased after a flower that wasn’t even the Dark Fragrance White Plum Blossom, and in the process he’d suffered like a dog while wandering all across the Central Plains. That fact alone.
Chasing a fake flower that wasn’t even the real thing. Without knowing what truly mattered, simply because he believed it mattered.
“Hahahaha! Ah, damn, I’m tearing up. Acting all high and mighty, saying things like that, and then….”
The dumbest one, it turned out, had been none other than him.
Chung Myung wiped the tears that had gathered at the corners of his eyes with a quick swipe, then snorted and jerked his chin towards the child.
“What are you doing? You have to return the flower to your parents.”
Chung Myung took the child by the hand and tugged her along.
Step, step, step.
Black soil covered the pure-white plum blossom placed upon the grave.
“If we do this…”
“It’s fine. What matters is that it’s here. If you stick it somewhere visible, it might be okay for now, but someday someone who finds it will just take it.”
“…That’s true.”
“So you just bury it like this, right here. Then the flower won’t disappear, and that feeling will remain, too.”
The girl nodded as if she understood. And though her face was wet with tears, she still looked steadily at the mound with a resolute expression.
“I’ll be satisfied with this.”
Well. Who knows.
Whether the plum blossom this man had been looking at was truly Hwasan’s plum blossom, whether the child’s mother had known something and bought this flower – there was no way to ever learn the story tangled up in it now. Only…
“Something important…”
Chung Myung, who had been wearing an unreadable expression, let out a short laugh that was almost a sigh, then looked back at the child.
“Let’s go.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re not going to keep living here, are you? They say the world is dangerous, but it’s just as dangerous here. You’ve seen it.”
“…”
“Follow me. I’ll take you somewhere safe.”
The girl hesitated slightly and stared hard at Chung Myung. It wasn’t a look of suspicion, as if she didn’t trust him. It was just that changing her whole life in an instant couldn’t be easy.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to drag you off to a temple – looking at you, you’re not someone who’s meant to become a Taoist.”
“…”
“Just like your mother said, the world is a dangerous place. But there are things you can only see once you go out into it. And who knows – maybe someday you’ll find something even more important?”
“For me, it’s…”
The child started to say something, then hesitated. And Chung Myung spoke, as if he already knew what the child had been going to say.
“Keeping the promise you made to those who passed away is important. Guarding this gravesite is important, too. But I’ll say this for certain.”
Chung Myung said it in a lowered voice.
“That must not become the most important thing in your life.”
“…”
“In this world, there will definitely be something. Something more important. Something you’ll come to value even more. So.”
Chung Myung let out a small snort and held out his hand.
“Let’s go.”
After a moment’s hesitation, the child reached out with a resolute expression and clasped Chung Myung’s hand.
“By the way, you – what’s your name?”
“I’m….”
The child slowly parted her small lips.
“Sanghwa. My name is Ye Sanghwa.”
“‘Sanghwa’ [상화(想花)]….“
Longing for blossoms.
Chung Myung’s gaze drifted to the distance. Far away – to a familiar peak, clearly visible even from here.
❀ ❀ ❀
“…So. You’re saying I should take that child in?”
“I’m not asking you to take her in.”
“Haha. Right, right?”
“What’s so good about a merchant guild that I’d leave a kid with you? So, I’m saying – some suitable place. A place where the kid can grow up properly, with a good environment, safe, protected until she can stand on her own. And where she won’t be discriminated against, can live comfortably the way she wants, and be happy. I’m saying you should place her somewhere like that.”
“…”
“It’s not exactly hard, is it? Right?”
Tears welled faintly at the corners of Hwang Jong-ui’s eyes. Where in the world was there a place like that?
“You don’t want to?”
“N-No, it’s not that I don’t want to. It just seems like it might be a bit difficult.”
“Haha. Right. It’s a bit difficult, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Dojang. It’s not that I truly dislike it….”
“Isn’t that why merchant guilds exist? To do those difficult things well?”
“…”
Since when had merchant guilds become the ones who solved things like that?
“In this world, there’s nothing money can’t do, and the place with the most money is a merchant guild, so there’s nothing a merchant guild can’t do. Aaahhhh, flawless logic.”
That lunatic…
If anyone else had spouted this kind of nonsense, he would have beaten them on the spot and thrown them out, but the man in front of him was none other than Chung Myung.
In Hwang Jong-ui’s mind flashed the sight of Twin Fiends of Shaanxi still sprawled out in the courtyard (and, as a token of arrival, beaten once more for good measure).
‘There’s a limit to what you can call ‘picked up on the way.’ ’
Who were the Twin Fiends of Shaanxi? Even Jongnam had tried so hard to capture them, yet had failed to do so until now – troublesome figures, to say the least.
What could he say to someone who brought down men like that as if it were after-meal exercise? And besides…
“Please help her grow up normally.”
“…”
Hwang Jong-ui shut his mouth and looked at Chung Myung.
Seeing the meaning held in that gaze, Hwang Jong-ui finally nodded. It must be because of unexpected sides like this that he couldn’t treat this man lightly.
“…Understood, Dojang.”
“Then.”
Chung Myung brushed himself off and stood up. When he stepped outside after being seen off, Ye Sanghwa was waiting for him.
“You kept what I gave you earlier, right?”
Ye Sanghwa quickly nodded.
He had given her all the trinkets that had come out of stripping the Twin Fiends. Somehow, it felt like he should. Chung Myung possessed more than enough wealth that he needn’t concern himself with such amounts.
“These people will send you somewhere you won’t particularly need money, but money becomes your last line of defense. Never hand it out – keep it for yourself, no matter what.”
“Yes! I’ll remember that.”
Chung Myung lightly patted Ye Sanghwa’s head a couple of times as the girl nodded vigorously, then turned away.
“Then. Live well.”
“Um, Taoist-nim!”
“Yeah?”
“I’m truly gratef…”
“That’s enough.”
Chung Myung snorted dismissively and was about to leave again, but then he stopped and turned back to Ye Sanghwa.
“If you think about it, I’m the one who got more out of this.”
“Got more…? What did I give you?”
“There are things like that.”
Chung Myung chuckled and was about to turn away again when Ye Sanghwa asked urgently.
“Then… where are you going now, Taoist-nim?”
“Where else. It’s obvious.”
Chung Myung’s gaze went to one place.
That sheer, towering mountain rising high. And among it, the highest peak of all.
“To the place where the most important thing is.”
A bright smile formed at the corners of Chung Myung’s mouth as he muttered.
“You should hurry and find it too. What’s important to you. It’ll be there – absolutely.”
With powerful kick off the ground, he was gone in an instant, quickly getting smaller in the distance.
Left alone in the courtyard, Ye Sanghwa silently watched Chung Myung’s retreating back – and beyond him, the mountain that rose so high it seemed to pierce the sky.
Side Story. “Encounter.” Part I >>>
________
This is the final part of the side story! Hope the novel comes back soon enough, but no news so far.
________
Please, subscribe/donate on Patreon or Buymeacoffee – support my work and help me buy official cookies to purchase the chapters. My schedule is on the About page.
Return of the Mount Hua 
Leave a comment