Return of the Mount Hua

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Thud.

“Urgh….”

Something black wavered before his eyes. It was still hard to comprehend, but that black thing was dirt. And what his cheek was pressed against was the ground.

‘T-There’s no way….’

He lost. No, that was too refined a way to put it. He got utterly crushed. To spell it out more clearly: he had been beaten one-sidedly without even managing to do anything, and ended up collapsing.

The flying dagger he had been so proud of, the one that had pierced Paeng Manwi in a single strike, had been knocked away like a grasshopper struck by a flail, accompanied by an indifferent voice saying, ‘What is this?’ Even the poison he had flung in desperation after being driven into a corner was scattered far away with just a few flicks of the hand.

A person can lose. No one can win every time. If two people facing each other are of similar skill, there will be times one wins and times one loses. Tang Bo, too, had never been certain of absolute victory either. He had thought it would be enough to merely prove that the gap between him and the Greatest Sword Under Heaven was not so large. But…

‘The difference is this big?’

This was not something that could be expressed by just saying Chung Myung was stronger. They were simply on different levels. Not ten times, but even if he challenged him a hundred times, he would not win even once. The gap was that enormous, that despairingly vast.

Then what had all his effort been for? What had all the agonizing deliberation he had gone through until now been for?

What was even more dreadful was the fact that, in the final moment, he had pulled out poison. Because he was of the Tang Clan, he had carried it on him, but he had never once used it. And yet the moment he felt that hopeless difference, instead of thinking of striving to overcome it, he had wound up scattering poison just like the other bastards of the Tang Clan he had mocked and cursed all this time. That fact made Tang Bo feel indescribably pathetic.

‘Though I pretended otherwise, I too am just someone with the Tang Clan’s nature soaked into my very bones.’

So of course he could never win. That man had clung to a single sword and built up that level of skill. And he did not even boast of what he had achieved. How much of grueling training must that man have endured? While Tang Bo had wasted his time drinking and lamenting his fate.

Lying collapsed, Tang Bo inwardly pointed at himself with harsh contempt, calling himself worthless. That, from the very beginning, he had not even been worthy of winning…

Thud!

But at that moment, something fell and stuck into the ground beside his head. It was a flying dagger. His cherished blade had been retrieved by someone else’s hand and returned to him.

“Hey, you.”

At the voice falling from above, Tang Bo struggled to lift his head. The damned Taoist was grinning crookedly with an infuriating expression.

“You were using some interesting tricks.”

Tang Bo bit his lip hard. Mocking the loser was the winner’s right. If the outcome had been reversed and he had lost, then he would have had to endure the mockery as his due. Just as Bugsan Maengho Paeng Manwi had been unable to say a word when he sneered at him.

But then, rubbing at his chin, the Taoist went on and on.

“Switching the flow of your inner energy the moment we made contact to throw me off – that was pretty interesting. If you pull that off well, it’d feel like your dagger suddenly carries tremendous force. When really all that’s happened is that the point of contact has shifted.”

For a moment, Tang Bo could only stare blankly at his face. The Taoist paid no heed and spoke seriously.

“But if you’re going to do that, wouldn’t it be better to turn the center downward instead of lifting it upward? It’s only natural that more force gets loaded below the tip of the blade. That’d be more effective. Then the flow would go like this? Hmm, no. Like this?”

Before he knew it, Tang Bo had begun picturing it in his head just as the man said, and a short exclamation slipped from him.

“Ah.”

Chung Myung, who had been idly mimicking the motion of twisting the direction of a flying dagger with his hand, shrugged.

“Well, anyway, that was fun. You’re stronger than I expected, you know? I thought all the bastards of the Tang Clan were idiots, but turns out there’s one like you too. If there had been just two or three more like you, the Tang Clan wouldn’t be living cowed by the likes of the Namgung Clan. Why didn’t they raise you properly? The Tang Clan really is full of idiots… Ah, right. I said earlier all the bastards of the Tang Clan were idiots. Well then, I guess that makes sense.”

Tang Bo felt as though his soul were about to leave his body. Just what in the world was this man…

“That Namgung… What was his name again? Azure Sky Sword… Uh… anyway, compared to that stiff scarecrow who only knows how to act important, you were a bit more interesting. Next time you come up with something more entertaining, come find me. I’ll play with you again.”

Just as he was about to nod blankly, Chung Myung stepped a little closer and crouched down in front of him. Then, with quick hands, he started gathering something from Tang Bo’s waist.

“Ah, here it is. Pretty heavy, huh?”

Chung Myung rose to his feet, then tossed something in his hand like a toy and caught it again. A pouch with gold. It was Tang Bo’s money pouch.

“Since I played with you, I’ll be taking my liquor money. If I run up another tab, Sect Leader Sahyeong will foam at the mouth and raise hell, obvious as day. Next time you come, make sure you stuff plenty of money into your pouch too. I’m off.”

Chung Myung spun around sharply. He must have opened the pouch, because Tang Bo heard him let out a delighted, ‘Oh!’ to himself. Feeling the sound of his snickering gradually recede into the distance, Tang Bo slowly rolled onto his back.

Above him stretched an endlessly clear sky. It was so impossibly high. And yet he had lived without ever knowing the sky was that high. He had been nothing more than a fool who looked only down, complaining that the patch of ground beneath his feet was too narrow.

A small laugh escaped him. The quiet laugh gradually swelled into roaring laughter.

“Hahaha! Ha ha…… Cough! Hahahahaha!”

For some reason, he simply could not hold back the laughter. The places where he had been struck throbbed with terrible pain, but the laughter kept bursting out of him. Enough to make tears bead at the corners of his eyes.

“Hahahahahahahahaha!”

He laughed for a long while. It didn’t matter whether people were watching or whether his dignity was ruined. In all his life, there had never been a day more exhilarating than this.

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

His laughter rang through Xian for quite some time.

❀ ❀ ❀

A month passed after that.

“…..Ah, damn it!”

“Why are you throwing a fit again?”

Chung Jin let out a sigh as he poured liquor into Chung Myung’s cup.

“No, seriously, why do they keep giving me a hard time? Why! What did I do wrong?”

“…Sahyeong. There is such a thing in this world as generally accepted common sense.”

“Yeah, common sense! Hey, well said. From a ‘common sense’ perspective, if your junior goes out and beats some guy who calls himself the greatest under heaven, shouldn’t you normally welcome him back with open arms? Isn’t that the natural thing for the Sect Leader to do?”

“…That’s true.”

“Then why is he acting like this?!”

“If that so-called ‘best under heaven’ got beaten up in his own backyard, and the one who beat him up was someone who barged into another person’s residence without a word, then of course it becomes a problem.”

“They wouldn’t meet me!”

“If they wouldn’t meet with you, then you should have left it at that.”

“No, what were you even listening to when I was talking? I said those Namgung bastards were looking down on Sahyeong! Those bastards must have a death wish.”

It was impossible to reason with him. Feeling utterly at a loss, Chung Jin squeezed his eyes shut.

The whole story of the incident was this.

Gupailbang and the Five Great Families had held a gathering, and the head of the Namgung Clan had made a remark that rubbed Chung Mun the wrong way. You know the sort, don’t you? On the surface it was not particularly rude, but somehow it left the listener with an unpleasant taste. The kind of small slip of the tongue that can naturally come from people intoxicated by the hollow shell of being a prestigious household. It was no more than that.

But that depends on who hears it. The problem was that, of all people, the one who heard it was Chung Mun, and of all people, the one who heard about it was Chung Myung.

After hearing the story from the disciples who had been present, Chung Myung flew into a rage, shouting that he would rip off the Namgung patriarch’s head. The alarmed Chung Mun snapped at him that if he so much as touched a single hair on Namgung patriarch’s head, he would be excommunicated from the sect on the spot and locked away in the Repentance Chamber for life.

‘In that sense, he really does listen well.’

Chung Myung follows exactly what he is told. The problem is that anything he is not told, he absolutely does not follow.

The method Chung Myung chose, having listened so well, was to beat up someone other than the patriarch. And by sheer coincidence, that ‘someone else’ happened to be the Azure Sky Sword King, whom the Namgung Clan revered as if he were a sacred relic. 

At least in his heart, Chung Jin offered the Azure Sky Sword King his condolences once again. From that man’s point of view, it truly must have been a bolt of lightning out of the blue. A creature no different from a living calamity had charged at him with eyes blazing, and the reason for it was, of all things, someone else’s mistake.

“…How badly did you say you beat him?”

“He’ll be up in a month or two.”

“Considering he’s a master, that means about half a month left.”

“Huh? That already includes that. Two months.”

Wouldn’t it have been better to just kill him?

If someone whose martial attainment had reached the Sublime Realm [화경(化境)], a master said to contend for the title of greatest under heaven, had been bedridden for two whole months, then just how thoroughly had he been smashed to pieces? Even if he managed to get up, he probably wouldn’t be able to walk properly for quite a while. Poor man…

“Sahyeong. Do not, truly, blame Sect Leader Sahyeong for this. The Namgung Clan is currently foaming at the mouth in protest.”

“Hmm, really?”

“…And let me say this in advance: do not even dream of going there again. If that happens, there truly will be no turning back.”

“If there’s no turning back, then they’re the only ones who’ll die.”

“Yes. And you’ll die too, Sahyeong. Sect Leader Sahyeong will draw his sword.”

“…For an old man, he’s got plenty of spirit. And anyway, why do you keep nagging? Did I say I was going?”

“Didn’t you?”

Chung Myung grinned.

“Just tell them I might go.”

“…What?”

“Just drop the hint. Tell them that if they keep this up, I’m going to keep getting scolded, and if that keeps happening, then at some point I might just snap and show up in Anhui before anyone knows it. Then they’ll quiet down.”

With a pained expression, Chung Jin looked out the window. It was such a ridiculous threat it was almost laughable, but honestly, it was not wrong either. If he casually let that slip, the Namgung Clan would fall silent at once. Others might not, but the Azure Sky Sword King would definitely lose his mind and clamp the patriarch’s mouth shut himself. Because to anyone who had experienced Chung Myung once, the most terrifying thing in the world was seeing Chung Myung again.

In that sense, perhaps the true hell on earth was Hwasan. What sin had he committed to deserve living while seeing this man’s face every single day?

“Got it?”

“Yes, yes, I understand. I’ll make them quiet down.”

“You should’ve done that from the start. There, now that it’s settled, let’s drink.”

What exactly did you settle? I’m the one doing all the work.

“If those bastards quiet down, then Sect Leader Sahyeong will probably calm down too.”

“So you do know he’s angry?”

“He’s always angry.”

“And whose fault is that.”

“Keep it down, you brat. You get uppity the moment you’re bored, talking back to your Sahyeong.”

“I’m actually older than you…”

“This bastard is subtly ignoring seniority again, huh? Should I tell Sect Leader Sahyeong?”

“You only call him Sect Leader Sahyeong at times like this, honestly!”

As Chung Jin’s face twisted, Chung Myung cackled and raised his cup. He was just about to tip it back.

“Hey, over there!”

“Huh?”

Chung Myung turned around. A tall, handsome man in a green robe was walking into the inn.

“Chung Myung Dojang!”

Chung Myung brightened and spoke as he looked at the man.

“Oh! Who are you?”

“…”

“Have I seen you somewhere before? Hey, do you know him?”

“I don’t.”

The man in the green robe – Tang Bo – ground his teeth. What kind of person is this…

“Well, whatever. Did you need something from me?”

“……You told me to come find you if I finished making something more interesting, didn’t you?”

It would be faster to show him than explain it with words. Tang Bo pulled a flying dagger from his sleeve and held it up. Only then did Chung Myung’s eyes light up, as though he had finally remembered.

“Ah, it’s you!”

“……Don’t remember people by their weapons!”

“Wow, it was you. Huh… Hmm?”

Mid-sentence, Chung Myung tilted his head as if he could not make sense of it.

“I figured I’d beaten you badly enough to put you down for at least half a month back then. It’s only been two months.”

“It’s been one month.”

“Huh? Then that makes even less sense. You already finished a new martial art in that time?”

Chung Myung stared blankly for a moment, then grinned.

“Looks like you worked hard?”

Tang Bo glared at him, his insides boiling. Easy for him to say. The past month had truly been the hardest period of his life. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he had ground himself to the bone. In order to restore his shattered pride, he had corrected every flaw this bastard had pointed out, and on top of that had poured new insights into each of his eleven flying daggers.

“Let’s fight.”

“Ha! You’re an interesting one. Did you bring a nice fat money pouch?”

“You bandit bastard! I did!”

“Good, good. Then we should fight. Let’s go.”

Grinning, Chung Myung rose from his seat and headed outside. Tang Bo ground his teeth so hard they nearly creaked and followed after him.

“Put the liquor bottle down!”

“If it will be necessary.”

“You really are going to die like that.”

“Feel free to try.”

Left behind alone, Chung Jin stared blankly at the backs of the two men as they headed outside.

‘He came looking for Sahyeong of his own accord?’

And that only a month after getting beaten up? A hollow laugh slipped out.

“I’ll kill you for sure this time.”

“Sure, sure.”

“I told you to put the liquor bottle down.”

“I said I’ll put it down if I need to. Just hurry up and start already.”

“Diiiiiieeeeeeeeee!”

Listening to the rough voices drifting in from outside the inn, Chung Jin let out a small chuckle.

‘I’d better put out one more cup.’

❀ ❀ ❀

Click

With that sound, the wooden case has been opened. Tang Gunak carefully took out the flying daggers. The hands that wiped the blades with a piece of cloth were delicate. Countless scars were etched into the old daggers. At a glance, they looked like objects hardly fit for the patriarch of the Tang Clan to be using. Yet Tang Gunak’s touch was reverent beyond measure.

Just then, he heard someone outside.

“Father, it is Pae.”

“Come in.”

Tang Pae, who opened the door and stepped inside, paused slightly when he saw Tang Gunak tending to the flying daggers.

“…Are those Amjon’s [암존(暗尊) – Dark Sovereign] daggers?”

Tang Gunak nodded. His eyes still did not leave the daggers.

“Yes. Amjon’s flying daggers, and the soul of the Tang Clan.”

The reason the Tang Clan uses poison is not because it is tradition. Poison is a means for the weak. When a family continues on through the generations, there are times when it encounters an enemy it cannot overcome with its own strength. An enemy so strong it cannot be resisted, yet also cannot be avoided.

Then what should one do? Bow one’s head and beg to be spared? Or silently accept destruction?

That cannot be allowed. One may be defeated, and one may be destroyed. But one must never give up fighting. The poison of the Tang Clan is not merely poison. It is the Tang Clan’s will to never cease resisting, to use whatever means necessary no matter the circumstances.

But once, the Tang Clan forgot that truth. They forgot why they had taken up poison, and instead became obsessed with poison itself. It were these flying daggers that shattered that stubborn delusion.

“You must remember. That the flying dagger arts you now learn as naturally as breathing was not something simply handed to you. That there was once a time when even the direct line of the Tang Clan did not hold flying daggers in their hands.”

“I remember.”

“Good.”

Tang Gunak nodded heavily. Amjon, who fought against Demonic Cult. He saved a family that had been on the brink of destruction. He saved lives, and he saved the future of the Tang Clan. With these very daggers, he personally carved out and opened the path the stagnant Tang Clan would walk. And…

Having finished the maintenance, Tang Gunak carefully arranged the daggers back inside the wooden case. The worn old daggers, which had now become heirlooms, were placed in a luxurious display cabinet in the green wooden case that symbolized the Tang Clan. It was the most visible place in this room.

Tang Gunak, who had closed his eyes for a moment and paid his respects, only then looked properly at Tang Pae.

“Well then, what is it?”

“The case commissioned by Hwasan has been completed.”

“…..I see?”

Tang Gunak’s eyebrow twitched slightly. To the Tang Clan, Hwasan was their most important client. No, rather than a client, it was their most important ally. From Tang Gunak’s point of view, they were people he could privately call ‘close friends.’ Since it was a request from such people, not even the slightest negligence could be permitted.

“Bring it here.”

“Yes.”

Receiving the brand-new white wooden case made from precious whitewood [백목(白木)], Tang Gunak turned it over this way and that, inspecting the craftsmanship.

“It’s been made well.”

“So it seems. I am told the craftsmen put a great deal of effort into it.”

“Hmm.”

A satisfied smile settled at the corner of Tang Gunak’s mouth. The craftsmen of the Tang Clan were particularly fond of Hwasan. Well, having gone through what they had together, that was only natural.

“Good. Take it away.”

But Tang Pae did not leave, and instead conveyed the rest of his errand. A faint smile hung at the corner of his lips.

“Ah. And… Hwasan sent a gift.”

“A gift?”

“Yes. It is called Jasodan. It seems to be an elixir made by Hwasan. They said they wished to place that elixir in the whitewood case we made and present it to you as a gift, Father.”

At that unexpected gift, Tang Gunak fell silent for a moment, then let out a small laugh. A case like this was originally used either to store precious things or to hold a gift meant for someone important. Thus, this case itself was also meant as a gift to Tang Gunak.

When he opened the case, a clear, elegant fragrance spilled out, and a single pill came into view.

“Well, of course… since they did not send any silk to line the inside, I prepared that separately.”

“That does sound like Hwasan.”

“Doesn’t it?”

The gentle smile spreading across Tang Gunak’s lips remained bright for a long while. Tang Pae thought that ever since they had begun interacting with Hwasan, Tang Gunak had been smiling more often.

“Isn’t it interesting?”

“Yes?”

“Your ancestor once opened the blocked path for this clan in ages past. And now, more than a hundred years later, Hwasan came here and resolved the troubles of a household that had begun to stagnate once more.”

“…That is true.”

“He would have been pleased.”

Tang Gunak placed the newly received wooden case in the most visible spot in the display cabinet. By coincidence, that place was right beside the case containing the flying daggers. The green wooden case engraved with the emblem of the Tang Clan and the white wooden case engraved with red plum blossoms stood side by side. As though showing the relationship between the Tang Clan and Hwasan as it was now.

“Come to think of it, who made this wooden case?”

“Elder…”

“Great Uncle?”

“Yes.”

Tang Gunak looked at Tang Pae as though dumbfounded and said.

“Even if it was something for Hwasan, it was only a wooden case. Are you saying you actually asked Great Uncle to make it?”

“It was not that I asked him. No matter how out of my mind I might be, even I would not dare do that.”

“Then?”

“They say that when Elder saw the other craftsmen carving plum blossom patterns into the case, he smashed everything they had been making and then made it himself. And the remaining ones are all being made by his own hand as well.”

“Huh-huh… Well, he was the one who made the clan’s wooden cases in the first place.”

Tang Pae scratched his head awkwardly.

“He keeps saying that if he does not personally handle something Geomjon asked for, his Great Uncle will skin him alive, but I have no idea what he means…”

“……Well, his mind is not wholly sound.”

Muttering bitterly, Tang Gunak asked casually.

“Did he look pleased?”

“Yes. That much is certain. I have never before seen Great Uncle so delighted in recent times.”

Tang Gunak nodded. So long as it was not a burden, it would surely be a good thing for Tang Jopyeong as well.

“Good, then that settles it. Let us go.”

“Yes? You mean to go in person?”

“In any case, I’ve ended up placing another task on Great Uncle, so I should go and see him.”

“Yes. Then I shall lead the way.”

As Tang Gunak followed Tang Pae out, he stopped at the door and suddenly turned to look back. The two cases standing side by side were a pleasing sight.

‘They suit each other well. As if they had been one from the beginning.’

A contented smile rose naturally to his lips. But just as he was leaving the patriarch’s chamber and about to close the door, Tang Gunak hesitated for a moment. A sudden question had crossed his mind.

‘Even in Amjon’s time, flying daggers were certainly not treated within the clan as a proper martial art… So how in the world had Amjon managed to change the clan’s traditions?’

It was true that Amjon’s fame had spread far and wide across the world, but before the Great Demonic War, that fame had not been all that great. In such circumstances, it should have been even harder to change the clan’s strict laws by one man’s strength alone.

Through the door, still not fully shut, Tang Gunak looked once more at the two cases standing side by side. Watching how oddly harmonious they appeared together, he finally let out a hollow laugh.

“I’m overthinking it.”

❀ ❀ ❀

“So what exactly are you dissatisfied with?”

“…No, it’s those blockheaded fools in the clan!”

Dead drunk, Tang Bo pointed across the table at Chung Myung as he spoke.

“Talk all you want, but watch where you point that finger before I cut it off.”

Tang Bo quietly folded his finger back in and resumed lamenting his situation.

“I’m telling you, those idiots just can’t understand what people say, can’t understand a single thing! I keep telling them poison has its limits, over and over!”

“Hmmm.”

“And no matter how much I talk, they won’t bloody listen! All it does is make my insides boil, damn it…”

“Hmmm.”

Chung Myung, who had been listening quietly as if thinking something over, suddenly had both his eyes light up. The grin spreading across his face looked ominous somehow.

“Hey. That… want me to solve it for you?”

“……What?”

Chung Myung’s face twisted with a mischievous expression.

“From the sound of it, it’s hardly a problem at all. Though there’s something you’ll have to do for me in return.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

“As it happens, things have been pretty damned awkward for me at Hwasan too. These days, our Sect Leader gets pissed off every time he sees me.”

“That’s only natural.”

“What did you just say, you punk?”

“Ah, no, that’s not what I meant. Anyway, what do I have to do for you?”

“You go to our Sect Leader and tell him he ought to let me go with you. Say it’s a request from the Tang Clan. That’s all you have to do. Then I’ll go and solve everything for you. Got it?”

Tang Bo was struck speechless. But Chung Myung paid not the slightest attention to his reaction and only grinned in smug satisfaction.

“Well then, let’s go.”

“Go? Go where! No, I need time to think about this…”

“Ah, the sooner the better. Let’s go! To Hwasan.”

“I said I need to think about it, you lunatic!”

“You look too stupid to be doing so much thinking. Does thinking ever get you an answer? Stop yapping and follow me.”

“…I can’t even kill you, damn it.”

As the two men walked side by side, bickering boisterously, bright moonlight poured down between them.

One year passed, then two… And so even after ten years, dozens of years, a hundred years had gone by, it was moonlight that would remain unchanged.

________

Please don’t write any novel spoilers about Tang Clan under here! I know it can be tempting.

Thanks everyone for reading this SS with me, hope we meet again soon with a new SS or the novel’s return.

________

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