Return of the Mount Hua

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The firmly shut door opened cautiously.

“Um……”

A child. The little attendant*, his rosy cheeks full of vitality, cautiously poked his head through the crack in the open door. His eyes shone with curiosity, a faint trace of fear, and a timid resolve.

But in the next instant, the attendant’s face twisted abruptly. The moment he stuck his head in, a pungent smell stabbed at his nose.

“Ugh, it reeks of alcohol!”

Clamping a hand over his nose, the boy hurriedly jerked his head back out the door and took several deep breaths. Then he threw the door wide open to let the harsh scent of liquor filling the room escape. Only after opening and closing the door for quite a while to air the smell out did he finally step cautiously inside.

“G-Great Uncle**…?”

Silence. In the dark room, several empty liquor bottles lay scattered about, and here and there were stains where spilled alcohol had dried up. 

‘…What a mess.’

And yet the bed, where a person ought to have been, was completely empty.

“Uh….”

Flustered, the boy scratched the back of his head.

‘I’m sure they said he would be here…!’

Tilting his head as he pondered, he suddenly caught a sound. It was the sound of loud snoring. Startled, he whipped his head around. Only when he looked closely did he finally see it. In one shadowed corner of the room where the bottles were strewn about, someone was sprawled out on the floor. Jus like spilled liquor.

Letting out a short exclamation of surprise, the attendant hurried over to the person lying there. But he had to clutch his little nose again.

“Ugh!”

This awful stench of alcohol was not coming from the floor, but from this person!

After shaking his head for a moment, the boy steeled his resolve and carefully opened his mouth.

“S-Sir.”

Snore – only the sound of snoring came back.

“You have to take your medicine. They said the time you promised has almost come. Great Uncle? Sir!”

Snore.

“Uh… He’s not waking up?”

The attendant did not know what to do. The elders had repeatedly urged him to wake his Great Uncle no matter what and bring him along.

“Um…”

After much deliberation, he cautiously reached out and tried shaking the man’s shoulder.

“Great Uncle? Sir?”

When there was no response, more and more strength went into the little hand shaking the shoulder. Still, no response came back. In the end, the attendant grabbed the man with both hands and shook him with all the strength he had.

“Sir! They said you have to get up! Sir……..”

Whoosh!

At that very moment, a large hand shot up violently in front of the boy’s face. Startled, the he froze stiff on the spot.

Thump!

The man’s large hand came to rest gently on the boy’s head.

“……Jopyeong, is that you?”

“Yes! Yes, Great Uncle!”

“Why did they send you?”

“The elders told me to escort you back!”

The attendant, Tang Jopyeong, answered bravely. A faint chuckle slipped from the mouth of the man lying sprawled there. Little Tang Jopyeong could not tell, but it was unmistakably scornful. The man muttered quietly.

“Pathetic bastards.”

Most likely, since they had not had the courage to wake him themselves, they had deliberately sent a child instead.

“Y-You have to get up……”

“Yes. I know.”

With a low groan, the man pushed himself upright. His whole body creaked, and the inside of his throat felt rough and parched. It seemed he had drunk more than he had thought the night before.

Tang Jopyeong merely looked at the man with eyes full of wonder. No matter how he looked at him, the man seemed only about his father’s age. And yet he was actually old enough to be called a grandfather.

‘Martial arts truly are remarkable.’

They said that martial artists who had reached a high realm looked younger than their true age, but even among the Tang Clan, where martial artists were everywhere, this man looked especially young for his years. Staring at him openly, Tang Jopyeong spoke with a slight air of caution. In contrast to that caution, his words were crisp and direct.

“They say drinking too much is bad for the body.”

“……Yes. I suppose it is.”

“And this liquor smells really awful. The kind my father drinks isn’t like this…”

Tang Jopyeong frowned, yet perhaps out of curiosity, picked up one of the liquor bottles rolling about on the floor. He tried to sniff it, but before it even reached his nose, the bottle slipped from his hand and was swiftly snatched into the man’s grasp.

“Don’t, little one. You’ll get addicted.”

“A-Addicted?”

“Yes.”

Not addicted to alcohol, but to poison. It was a poisoned liquor he had made himself by mixing toxins into a brew, because ordinary alcohol would never intoxicate him. A poison liquor [독주(毒酒)] in the most literal sense of the word. Since he already had the bottle in hand, the man tipped it back and gulped down the liquor.

“Y-You have to go.”

“Mmm.”

After washing down his parched throat with a mouthful of liquor, the man roughly swept his fallen bangs back. In the darkness, his strangely weary gaze revealed itself.

“Great Uncle……”

“All right, all right. Stop pestering me.”

The man let out a faint laugh. If some other fool had come to hurry him along, he would have smashed their chattering mouth to pieces, but this little brat was impossible to deal with. The Tang Clan bastards must have known that too and sent this child. Honestly, a pack of idiots who could not even act their age.

“Fine. Let’s go. Who was it you said was waiting?”

“Ah, but!”

When the man tilted his head in confusion and asked, ‘Huh?’ Tang Jopyeong pinched his nose and said.

“You have to wash up first. They told me I had to make sure you washed and then escort you back. I have to make sure!”

“…”

❀ ❀ ❀

The atmosphere was grim. Paeng Manwi’s [팽만위(彭滿威)] expression was so menacing that it seemed it could not grow any fiercer.

“Father, this is those bastards looking down on us.”

“That’s right, Brother! No matter what, how can this be acceptable? It has already been one sijin!”

Though angry voices rang out one after another from both sides, Paeng Manwi maintained his silence.

One sijin was not such a terribly long time. But it was excessive for making someone wait. And when the side that set the time was the other side, and those waiting for the person to appear numbered well over several hundred? In such a case, calling it merely ‘excessive’ would not be enough – ‘atrocious’ would be more fitting. And if one were to take into account the status of Paeng Manwi, who was being made to wait, then ‘atrocious’ would in turn have to be changed to ‘outrageous’ to do it justice.

As Paeng Manwi stood there in silence with a hardened face, sparks flared in his eyes. At last, his mouth opened.

“……I had heard that the prestige of the Ilsu Talmyeong [일수탈명(一手奪命) – One Strike – One life (taken)], was formidable, but I never realized he was so formidable that he would make the one he had an appointment with wait a full sijin.”

His voice, imbued with inner energy, resounded thunderously. It was both a warning and a protest. A few of those who had been fidgeting awkwardly with troubled expressions quietly averted their gazes. In the end, one of those standing across from him finally opened his mouth with a deeply embarrassed expression.

“If you would just wait a little longer…….”

“Should I take this as not only an insult to me, but to the Paeng Family as well?”

Several faces turned pale in an instant. But there was nothing they could properly say in response. After all, this was no one else but Bugsan Maengho Paeng Manwi, [북산맹호(北山猛虎) – Fierce Tiger of the Northern Mountain], and he was by no means a man who could be slighted like this.

He was a Dao [도(刀) – a heavy blade] master counted among the foremost even within the Hebei Paeng Family, who were said to wield the finest dao under heaven. To slight such a man was no different from disrespecting the entire Hebei Paeng Family. And to make matters worse, Paeng Manwi was also the younger brother of the current head of the Paeng Family, so what more was there to say?

“I want an answer. Does the Tang Clan truly wish to become irreconcilable enemies with the Paeng Family?”

The faces of those confronting him grew even paler.

“We came all the way here from Hebei! From Hebei, no less!”

“…”

“In the first place, this matter did not even arise from any fault of the Paeng Family! And yet, when it was proposed that the issue be settled through a duel with Ilsu Talmyeong, we came all the way here from distant Hebei – so just how lofty a place is the Sichuan Tang Clan, that they dare treat the Hebei Paeng Family with such discourtesy?”

Those who no longer had a word to say even if they had ten mouths lowered their heads deeply.

“If you have even the slightest sense of dignity and honor, should you not at least drag the man here at once! Or are you conspiring together now to humiliate us?”

“I-It is not like that, Paeng Daehyeop.”

“If not, then what is it supposed to be?!”

Even more enraged by the hasty denial, Paeng Manwi glared with the eyes of a beast. Startled, the others involuntarily let out anxious sighs one after another.

If they could have dragged him here, they would have done so long ago. But the person who was supposed to appear here now was not someone they could do anything about. Even within the Sichuan Tang Clan, which operated with strict family laws and iron discipline, he was the one and only existence ‘outside the rules.’

“He will be here very soon, so please just a little longer…”

“How long exactly are we expected to wait! I will no longer…”

It was right at that moment.

“H-He’s coming! He’s here!”

“The Elder is coming!”

At the cry that burst out from one side, several of the Tang Clan members who had gone deathly pale let out sighs of relief. A few of them even muttered curses under their breath. It was fortunate, at least, that even Paeng Manwi’s gaze had turned that way, so he did not hear them.

The gathered crowd parted to either side, opening a path. Along it, one man strolled forward at an unhurried pace. Soon, Paeng Manwi’s face began to twist.

His clothes had been thrown on carelessly, and his hair, perhaps washed only a moment ago, still dripped with water. On top of that, his gait was so leisurely that his reluctance was plain to see. No matter how one looked at him, this was not the appearance of a man coming to engage in an important duel.

Nor could it be taken for oversleeping. Because… if he was not mistaken, the smell now stabbing at his nose was the scent of liquor. A vile stench of alcohol, so strong that even after going into the bathing room he had not managed to wash it away. That man had spent the entire previous night pouring liquor down his throat, had only just now managed to get up, and appeared at last with obvious reluctance. And this, no less, on the eve of his duel with him. Enraged, Paeng Manwi bit down on his lower lip as if to tear it.

‘How dare he…!’

It felt as though his blood surged backward, his entire body burning hot. Even grinding his teeth, it was difficult to suppress his fury. In all his life, this was the first time he had ever been so slighted by someone.

His younger brother and son, who had accompanied him, kept watching him warily. But the very man who had provoked Paeng Manwi’s wrath showed not the slightest change in expression, even though he must surely have felt the surging force of his rage.

Thud, thud. 

The sound of footsteps rang out slowly. Only after what felt, to the others – and especially to Paeng Manwi – like an eternity long enough to stop one’s breath did the man finally come to a halt.

The man’s gaze, as though looking down on him, stirred even greater fury within him, but Paeng Manwi forced it down and spoke.

“Ilsu Talmyeong… or rather, these days I hear you are more often called by the title Bido Mujeok, [비도무적(飛刀無敵) – Unrivaled Flying Dagger]?”

The man gave no reply and merely stared at Paeng Manwi.

“I came rushing all the way to the distant Sichuan with a heart that held a certain admiration for you, and yet it seems that compared to your skill, your character falls short. You arrive more than one sijin late, and not even a single word of apology?”

Paeng Manwi revealed a killing intent that would not ordinarily be tolerated in a duel. But no one dared blame him for it. The pride of a powerful martial artist naturally ought to pierce the heavens. And yet he had been so openly disregarded. Even if this were to become a fight to the death, he had ample justification for it.

“Today, I will make it known clearly to all under heaven that your reputation is nothing but hollow fame [허명(虛名)]!”

Paeng Manwi spit out his words. It was a justified and truly menacing declaration, but the man’s response was brusque.

“Done talking?”

“……What?”

“Then stop flapping your mouth and come at me.”

“How dare you…!”

“How can you be this insolent!”

Paeng Manwi’s younger brother and son cried out in outrage. Unexpectedly, Paeng Manwi himself remained silent, but that was not because he had kept his composure. Rather, his fury had risen so high it left him momentarily speechless.

Staring fiercely at the man in front of him, Paeng Manwi silently gripped his dao. By now, enough justification had piled up that he could have broken off the duel itself and demanded accountability from the Tang Clan for letting matters deteriorate to this point. Perhaps that might even have been the far wiser course.

But Paeng Manwi had not the slightest intention of doing so. Unless he beat that insolent wretch down with his own blade, it felt as though his anger would not subside even in ten years. As if to harden that resolve, the man threw out yet another remark.

“Honor? A pack of fools too immature to act their age turned a children’s quarrel into a fight between adults, and now you talk about honor. What ridiculous nonsense.”

“…”

“I don’t feel like wasting time, so come at me. I’ll teach you your place.”

How could anyone be so arrogant? Paeng Manwi felt it keenly. In the man’s gaze, looking down at him with his chin slightly tipped up, there was blatant contempt. That bastard clearly had not the slightest thought that he himself might lose.

‘I’ll kill him.’

Paeng Manwi slowly drew his blade. A heavy sound rang out. Even within the Hebei Paeng Family, who used dadao [대도(大刀)], his was counted among the largest and heaviest. Drawing it with one hand, Paeng Manwi clenched the hilt tightly and at the same time flung the scabbard he had been holding in his other hand onto the ground.

Several people’s eyes widened in shock. For a swordsman to cast aside his scabbard carried an all too obvious meaning. It was something that could never happen in a mere duel.

But who would dare criticize Paeng Manwi’s actions? The man across from him had been just that rude.

Gripping the dao in both hands, Paeng Manwi glared with blazing eyes and roared.

“Ilsu Talmyeong…. Tang Bo [당보(當步)]!”

It was a roar akin to a beast’s howl.

“Today I will teach you what courtesy is!”

Kwaang! 

The moment he stamped down, a thunderous crash rang out. There was no opening stance, no customary exchange of names and origins. Which meant this duel was no different from real combat. Bugsan Maengho Paeng Manwi charged at the man like an enraged tiger living up to his title.

The ferocious tiger of the Northern Mountain. How many demonic foes had lost their lives beneath his blade, and how many wicked sapas of the Evil Sects had been cut clean through at the waist? When the name Ilsu Talmyeong had done no more than rampage through Sichuan – no, even before that – Bugsan Maengho had already made his name known throughout the Central Plains. By age and by fame alike, his defeat made no sense.

From the tip of Paeng Manwi’s dao, blazing balde energy burst forth like fire. The condensed energy surged wildly, carving five spiraling currents through the air.

“Huh! Th-That is…!”

Voices of shock rang out from the mouths of several Tang Clan elders.

Ohodan Mundo [오호단문도(五虎斷門刀)***]. It was the signature ultimate art of the Hebei Paeng Family, said that at its peak it took on the form of five tigers lunging at once. The blade energy before them proved beyond doubt that Paeng Manwi’s Ohodan Mundo had indeed reached its highest peak, and that his martial prowess far surpassed what the world knew of him.

“Haaahhh!”

The enormous blade energy came raging down as though it would tear Tang Bo’s entire body to shreds. He was, quite literally, like a fallen leaf before a typhoon!

But at that moment, one corner of Tang Bo’s mouth curled up slightly.

Kang! 

With a sharp metallic clash, Paeng Manwi’s dao, which had been flying in with unstoppable force, was suddenly knocked back as though it had collided with something. Paeng Manwi’s eyes flew wide open.

His dao was a havier weapon among the various heavy weapons [중병(重兵)], weighing no less than fifty geun by itself. If one had the strength to swing it, its weight alone was enough to crush solid iron as though it were tofu. And yet that heavy weapon had been forced back.

By a tiny flying dagger [비도(飛刀)] no longer than a woman’s palm!

‘H-How can this be….’

Kagagak!

Sparks flew as metal collided with metal. The flying dagger was spinning as it shoved Paeng Manwi’s dao aside. Even as he watched it happen, it was hard to believe that such a tiny blade could produce such terrifying force.

“Urgh, ugh!”

But this was no time to be shocked. Paeng Manwi could not afford to be pushed back like this. If that happened, not only he but the entire Paeng Family would be disgraced for generations.

Paeng Manwi pushed out every last bit of strength he possessed and unleashed his inner energy. No, he tried to.

Kaaaang!

But before Paeng Manwi’s inner energy could fully erupt, another flying dagger struck his blade.

“Ghk!”

In that instant, a ripping pain tore through his shoulder and wrist. Naturally, Paeng Manwi’s dao was knocked violently aside. Before he could even recover his stance, another sharp sound rang out. The moment yet another flying dagger struck the flat of his blade, his palm burst open, unable to withstand the pressure. The dao that had been with him all his life twisted as though it might break at any moment.

‘Th-This is impossi…’

Paeng Manwi was more shocked and flustered than he had ever been in his life. In that very moment, another flying dagger shot in again, mercilessly aiming at his heart.

“Kh-Kuaaah!”

With a savage cry, he knocked aside the incoming dagger. The instant the tiny flying dagger collided with his dao, the back of the hand gripping it split open, and bright red blood sprayed into the air. His wrist and shoulder screamed in pain. 

But whether it was fortunate or not, Paeng Manwi had no time to dwell on the pain. A different, far more real pain followed, piercing through his left shoulder. Before he knew it, another small flying dagger had surged in and buried itself deep in his flesh.

“Ugh!”

And that was not the end. The assault continued relentlessly. While he was striking aside another flying dagger, one of the daggers that had been knocked aside spun in the air as though in mockery. Then, this time, it drove deep into Paeng Manwi’s thigh, sinking in until only the handle remained visible.

He felt as though he had been possessed by a ghost. Just what kind of martial art was this…

At that moment, accompanied by a fierce sound, as if tearing through the air, three daggrs flew in at once. One aimed for his head, one for his chest, and one for his solar plexus. Moreover, the daggers spun violently, drawing in the surrounding air. He could feel the truly terrifying inner energy carried within them. If he were struck by that attack, it would not end with merely a bit of flesh being torn away.

With a wild cry, Paeng Manwi thrust out his dao. He had wrung out every last scrap of inner energy he could muster. At last, a sharp metallic sound rang out.

He succeeded in knocking the flying daggers away, but Paeng Manwi’s face stiffened. He realized immediately that something was wrong. Despite the fierce momentum with which they had been spinning, he felt no recoil at all.

‘I’ve been tricked…’

Paaaat!

In the instant he failed to recover the dao he had swung upward, a single dagger drove in sharply. It was fast – nothing more, nothing less, without any trickery to it. That tiny blade seemed to fold time and space as it flew straight for the center of Paeng Manwi’s brow. Realizing he could not evade it, Paeng Manwi squeezed his eyes shut.

“Father!”

“Brotheeeeeer!”

The members of the Paeng Family, who had likewise sensed his fate, cried out in despair.

After an instant that felt like eternity, silence fell.

To his astonishment, what Paeng Manwi had expected did not happen. When the anticipated pain never came, he slowly opened his eyes. What he saw was a flying dagger that had stopped barely a chi in front of his brow. The blade that had come hurtling towards him at terrifying speed had, as if by a lie, slowed and come to a complete stop in midair.

Paeng Manwi collapsed where he stood. His face was drenched in cold sweat. His eyes, as though bewitched, filled with shock, emptiness, and fear, followed Tang Bo standing across from him. Then he realized something even more shocking.

Tang Bo, standing opposite him, had not taken a single step from that spot from the beginning of the duel to the end. This entire duel had been nothing but Paeng Manwi rampaging on his own before being defeated.

“H-How……”

Paeng Manwi had opened his mouth with a trembling voice, but swallowed the question back. He had no idea where to begin asking. Tang Bo, standing there looking down at him arrogantly, now felt impossibly distant.

Tang Bo, who had been looking at Paeng Manwi as if he were not worth noticing, finally spoke.

“You, weakling. Now that you know your place, go back. You’re not even at the level to withstand my poison.”

Paeng Manwi’s face flushed beyond red, turning almost black. It was a terrible humiliation. But he could not refute it. Ilsu Talmyeong’s skill had reached a level beyond his grasp. There was no choice but to acknowledge it.

“…I have lost.”

Only after those words, spoken with the anguish of a torn heart, did the flying dagger aimed at Paeng Manwi’s brow finally withdraw. Tang Bo, having gathered all the daggers back into his sleeve, gave Paeng Manwi a passing glance and then turned away without the slightest hesitation. As silence engulfed the arena, someone spoke in a ringing voice.

“The duel is the Tang Clan’s victory!”

The faces of the Paeng Family’s men who had accompanied Paeng Manwi twisted with humiliation.

“As agreed before the duel between the Sichuan Tang Clan and the Hebei Paeng Family, neither side shall further contest right and wrong in this matter. However, the result of this duel shall not be spoken of outside, and anyone who carelessly reveals it beyond the clan shall be severely punished according to clan’s law!”

Paeng Manwi shut his eyes, feeling dizzy.

Severely punished according to clan’s law? What a joke. Human mouths could not be sealed with such things. No matter how much they tried to suppress it, the outcome of this fight would soon spread throughout the world. His own reputation would plummet, while the name of Ilsu Talmyeong would resound across all Central Plains, far beyond Sichuan.

The victor takes everything. Was that not the law of Gangho?

Even if those words were upheld, the superiority decided here between the Hebei Paeng Family and the Sichuan Tang Clan would not be reversed in his generation. Since he had suffered such a crushing defeat, no one in the Paeng Family would be able to defeat Ilsu Talmyeong.

‘It would have been better not to fight at all.’

He had never imagined that man’s skill would be of this caliber. But it was already too late for regret. A bitter taste lingered in his mouth, yet he pretended not to notice and watched Tang Bo’s retreating figure. Despite his victory, his steps carried no sense of triumph – only indifference.

Second part of the side story >>>

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*소동(小童) – can have two meanings. A small child below 10 years old or, in the context of historical stuff/wuxia novels – a young child serving in a sect, household or a temple. Meaning this child is doing small errands for his/hers elders ‘attendant/errand boy’ etc. 

**숙조부님 – literal translation of this is 叔祖父 – paternal great-uncle’s younger brother ㅠㅠ. 

***’Fiver Tigers and a Dao Breaking through the Gate’. 문(門) – gate – here is a metaphor, breaking one’s limits, to breakthrough etc, not smashing physical wooden gates. 

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This is the second Side Story from volume 5 of the novel’s printed edition (first being Journey Outside). It will be posted in 4 parts, as soon as I translate each one.

HELLO, EVERYONE. And no, there are no news when the novel will come back.

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