Return of the Mount Hua

Uh, there… (4)

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“How is he?”

“He’s been out of it the whole time.”

“…”

Baek Cheon let out a low groan, his face dark with gloom.

“Uh, how bad?”

“I think it’s pretty serious.”

“So what exactly do you mean?”

Jo Geol shrugged and continued.

“Well, this is the kind of thing you have to see and feel for yourself. For example, yesterday he was up on the eaves, drinking himself stupid.”

“That happens all the time.”

“The liquor just kept pouring out of the bottle. Dripping all over the ground.”

Baek Cheon’s face went pale.

That lunatic who was obsessed with alcohol… spilling liquor on the ground? That guy who would raid bandit warehouses and distribute the goods to the commoners, yet still say, ‘Liquor has done no wrong. What good does it do for commoners to drink?’ and keep all the alcohol for himself?

“….What on earth am I even supposed to compare this situation to?”

It was so absurd that he could not even think of a fitting comparison.

“That bad?”

“That’s not even the serious part, Sahyeong.”

“Hm?”

“Yesterday, during sparring, that punk Geol smashed Chung Myung on the head.”

Clatter.

Baek Cheon dropped the spoon he had been holding.

“You shouldn’t be shocked yet. The important part isn’t that Jo Geol smacked Chung Myung on the head. It’s that Chung Myung just left after getting hit like that.”

“W-What……?”

“It looked like he didn’t even realize he’d been hit?”

Of course. If that were not the case, there was no way Jo Geol would still be standing here on his own two feet right now. What had happened the last time Baek Cheon managed to land a perfect thrust that grazed Chung Myung’s side?

‘Did I lie in bed sick for three days back then? Or was it four?’

Didn’t that petty bastard hold a grudge over it and beat Baek Cheon like a dog? And now what? Not anywhere else, but his head got smashed, and he just let it pass?

“Did he really come down with some deadly illness?”

If it wasn’t something like that, this was at a level that simply made no sense…

“Right now, about half the disciples stop by the Ancestral Hall every time training ends.”

“Why?”

“To beg the ancestors to please spare their lives. The atmosphere right now couldn’t be more ominous.”

“…”

Baek Cheon nodded blankly.

Did he feel like snapping at them, asking what all the fuss was about? As if. Once this conversation was over, Baek Cheon was planning to stop by Ancestral Hall and pray too.

“What on earth is wrong with him?”

“How would anyone know that?”

Yoon Jong let out one long, heavy sigh after another.

“No, I’m saying there has to be some reason.”

“…Isn’t the idea that there IS a reason just our preconceived notion that Chung Myung is still something akin to a human? The mountain is mountain, the water is water. Chung Myung is simply Chung Myung – wouldn’t that itself be the Tao?”

“What kind of deranged nonsense is that! Why are you looking for the Tao here?”

“…Where else would you look for the Tao, if not in a Taoist temple?”

“Stop spouting nonsense and move aside, Sahyeong.”

“…”

Baek Cheon and Jo Geol put their heads together and began to ponder. Of course, the reason they had become this serious was by no means because Chung Myung’s condition was strange.

It was because they were certain that whenever that bastard entered a state like this, he always caused some kind of trouble.

“What do you think it is?”

“…..Could it be that the liquor storehouse was robbed?”

“I don’t think that’s it.”

“Why? It’s a well-known fact that that bastard sets up liquor storehouses here and there and hides alcohol in them. If one of those got cleaned out, I’d say this wouldn’t be strange at all.”

“Actually, I raided a few of them with the others, and it seemed like there were more than just one or two. Something on that level wouldn’t make him like this.”

“…”

Baek Cheon stared at Jo Geol in a daze, then tilted his head.

“You’re saying you managed to find and raid what Chung Myung hid? Are you sure you guys did it on your own?”

“Well… actually, the monk was with us too.”

“…”

Baek Cheon squeezed his eyes shut.

‘Monk Hye Yeon. Just how far are you going to….’

A Shaolin monk stealing liquor.

If Beop Jong, who was probably praying day and night at Shaolin for Hye Yeon to return, were to hear this, wouldn’t he clutch the back of his neck and collapse? Then there would be no need to go out of their way trying to make Beop Jong suffer. This alone felt like it could finish him in one blow.

“What I said stays a secret. He’s such a sensitive soul, after all.”

“A sensitive soul stealing liquor?”

“If you raid a good person’s storehouse, that’s theft, but if you raid a bad person’s storehouse, that makes you a righteous thief. In that sense, isn’t it the right thing to do?”

“Oh…..?”

Now that he put it that way…

“No, that’s not the important part. Anyway, you’re saying that isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Then what on earth is it?”

“Exactly. Ugh.”

Yu Iseol, who had been staring blankly at Jo Geol and Baek Cheon clutching their heads, finally opened her mouth.

“Why are you worrying?”

“Hm? Because we have to figure it out, obviously.”

“You know the consequences, don’t you? You know what kind of mess that bastard is going to cause if he keeps acting like that. We can’t just sit around and wait, can we?”

“That’s not it.”

“Hm?”

“You can just ask him. Go and ask him directly.”

“…”

“Idiots.”

“…”

⠀

“No. There is nothing.”

“…”

“What are you even worrying for? If it weren’t for you lot, I’d be a man with nothing to worry about. Hm?”

“…”

“So stop with the useless thoughts, and if you’ve got time for this, go train instead. With skills like yours, do you even have room for other thoughts? I don’t think I’d be able to even sleep.”

The same venomous tongue as always, the same cutting tone. So there was nothing particularly special about it.

The place was not strange either. Someone might find it odd that it was on a rooftop, but at least they would not. This bastard treated rooftops like his own home.

So having a drinking spread laid out on the roof wasn’t strange, nor was the fact that he was casually drinking there.

Right. Except for the fact that the one drinking with him was not a person.

“Kyaaaaaah!”

The weasel, clutching a wine cup twice the size of its own forepaw, downed the liquor in one gulp, then shook the cup dry and set it on top of its head.

“What am I even looking at?”

“Is the world really ending?”

“…Well, I’ve lived long enough to see a weasel drink liquor and shake out its cup.”

Maybe all of this was just one enormous nightmare.

But no matter how much he pinched his cheeks, nothing changed. What could he do? If he were the one who’d gone mad, he could at least try to get treatment. But if the whole world had gone mad, then all you can do is accept it and keep living.

‘Anyway, he doesn’t seem to be in his right mind, does he?’

‘Is that even a question?’

‘Honestly, isn’t it a little hard to say? Drinking with a spirit beast isn’t exactly something a person does, but that bastard isn’t the kind of man for whom that would seem strange.’

‘The problem isn’t that he’s treating a beast like a person. The problem is that he’s sharing liquor with it.’

‘Ah.’

He was definitely out of his mind.

If this were the usual Chung Myung, the moment Baek Ah so much as dipped a forepaw into his cup, he would have flown into a rage, screaming that he’d skin it alive and make a scarf out of the hide.

‘Say something to him.’

‘What am I supposed to say to a madman?’

‘You always do.’

‘…Ah.’

Having attained enlightenment, Baek Cheon nodded.

“Uh… well, Chung Myung.”

“Hm?”

“So… you’re saying you don’t have any worries?”

“…Could you please tell me what exactly you think I’m worried about?”

“No. Never mind. No need to hear it.”

It would probably just be an insult anyway.

“Instead, then, let’s just make one promise. You’re not going to suddenly turn Hwasan upside down, or run out through the sect gate, or go somewhere and crack someone’s skull open… nothing like that, right?”

“Sasuk, what exactly do you take me for?”

“You.”

“…”

An awkward silence passed between the two of them.

“Anyway, then, it’s a promise.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.”

“Then I’m trusting you and leaving. I mean it.”

“Go! Just go already!”

“….I’m really trusting you.”

Baek Cheon and the other disciples, who had been loitering around and lingering, cast doubtful glances at Chung Myung before finally dragging their feet away.

“Tsk. Seriously…”

Watching them retreat, Chung Myung clicked his tongue and drained his cup in one go.

‘Guess it showed a little!’

Those brats had gotten quicker on the uptake these days. He had only been veeery slightly more awkward than usual while trying to hide what was on his mind, and yet they had noticed.

“But that was only until a moment ago.”

Yes, he admitted it. He really had been troubled. But now he had sorted it out.

“Why the hell should I be the one cleaning up that mess?”

To put it plainly, it wasn’t a sin Chung Myung had committed, was it? And yet, just because he shared ties with Chung Mun, he was supposed to look into it?

What a joke. They were separated by four generations. In terms of kinship, that was well past sixth cousins. At that point, even if it had not been Chung Myung but Chung Mun himself still alive, he would likely back out, saying, ‘That’s a bit awkward’…”

On top of that, Chung Mun had left his family to become a taoist monk. Unless that man had changed his mind right before dying and returned to secular life, they ought to be considered complete strangers.

And yet he was supposed to take uncertain information and go all the way to distant Shandong just to look into it?

“Talk about nonsense.”

Chung Myung downed another cup and let out a short laugh.

Wasn’t that cold-hearted? Not at all.

If Chung Mun knew about this situation, what would he have said? ‘It’s unfortunate, but I’ve already severed ties with my family. Even if circumstances change, severed bonds do not reconnect. Do not concern yourself with it.’  Yes, that was surely what he would have said.

Then what if that punk Chung Jin had heard about this? ‘Good grief, you’ve really got a knack for meddling. You’re already running yourself ragged because you can’t even manage your own sect properly, and now you want to take care of that too? If you’ve got so much free time, go teach your disciples instead. Why are you creating more trouble for yourself? Why?’ he would have said… Ah, no, that one kind of pisses me off.

‘I should’ve beaten that bastard a little more.’

It was a lifelong regret that he had failed to correct that bastard’s manners even up to the very moment he died.

Anyway, putting that aside – didn’t the opinions of the two people he trusted most in his life… no, his previous life(?)… align perfectly?

Honestly, he could not say he had been free of hesitation, but after finally finishing his conversation with the spirits(?) of those two who dwelled within him, Chung Myung was at last able to come to a decision.

“Right. I’m not going. Absolutely not.”

Having found inner peace, Chung Myung’s face was finally washed in absolute serenity.

– No matter how much one turns one’s head away and averts one’s gaze, how could there be no lingering affection?

❀ ❀ ❀

Bang!

“…”

“I’m going to make a trip to Shandong for a bit.”

“…”

“I’ll be back soon, really. It’s a simple matter.”

With a bundle larger than his own body slung over his back, Chung Myung declared boldly.

“Don’t tell anyone else for now – it’ll just get annoying. Only you need to know, Sasuk.”

A perfectly clear smile spread across Baek Cheon’s lips.

“Got it?”

Yes. It really had been a very long time.

Since he had last thought that he wanted to kill someone.

________

Just a reminder that any (?) in the novel are what Biga put there, not me.

________

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