Return of the Mount Hua

Uh, there… (5)

ROTMHS Glossary || About page

There is a saying: ‘Resolve lasts but three days.’

Without any longer explanation, it means that a person’s resolve is unlikely to last even three days. Baek Cheon sympathized with that saying. A person’s willpower is not as strong as one might think, and keeping up what one has set one’s mind to is an exceedingly difficult thing.

But even so…

“Forget three days, shouldn’t it at least last three sijin, you lunatic!”

“Well, things like that can happen when you live long enough.”

“How is it that there are so many things that ‘can happen’ for you..”

And why that mercy never seemed to apply to anyone else.

“Anyway, that’s how it turned out, so I’ll see you later. I’ll go and come back quickly.”

“Wait!”

“Ah, what now?”

Baek Cheon spoke, forcibly suppressing the rage boiling inside him.

“I’m asking just in case, but you do know that when a disciple of the main sect leaves beyond the sect gates, he has to receive the Sect Leader’s permission, right?”

At those words, Chung Myung beamed.

“Come on. I’ve eaten and lived at Hwasan for how many years – did you really think I wouldn’t know that?”

“Right?”

Then he nodded with satisfaction and said.

“So handle it for me, would you.”

“As if that’s going to happen! You crazy bastard!”

When Baek Cheon shot up to his feet, Chung Myung smirked and casually raised his hand.

“Come on, when a person is asking so politely like this.”

“I think the ‘polite’ you know and the ‘polite’ I know are two rather different concepts.”

“Then mine is the right one.”

Creak.

Baek Cheon’s teeth ground together on their own.

“So what? Are you going to try and catch me? You won’t catch me anyway, so there’s no need to make a huge thing out of it. Sasuk may have gotten a bit more mature, but he’s still not at that level yet.”

“Right. I’m definitely still not at that level.”

“Good, at least you know that.”

“So I prepared for it.”

“Huh?”

“Get him!”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the table flipped over, and something came hurtling in through the window.

“Uwaaaaaah!”

Chung Myung reflexively drove his heel into Jo Geol’s solar plexus as he came charging at him.

“Eeeeeeek!”

“Ah, you startled me!”

Chung Myung grabbed Yoon Jong as he rushed in from behind and hurled him away, then slammed Yu Iseol – who came flying down at him from overhead – with his shoulder and sent her flying, all while shouting in outrage and wildly pointing fingers.

“You can’t trust a person and set traps like this? A decent person should have some faith!”

“And whose fault is it that faith has fallen to the ground! You damned bastard!”

“Even so, trusting me is what Sasuk should do! It wasn’t like this back in my days!”

Seeing that face, of someone looking genuinely wronged, Baek Cheon almost found himself wondering for a moment if he was the one in the wrong.

But then, in that instant.

“Soso!”

Chwaaaak!

“Huh?”

Something pitch-black spread out before Chung Myung’s eyes. A net woven of black chains came flying over him in an instant.

“Ha. Look at these petty tricks.”

No matter how old(?) and sick(?) he might be, he was not someone who would be caught by this kind of nonsense. Just as Chung Myung was about to put force into his toes and kick off the ground.

“Now! Monk!”

In that instant, before his eyes there appeared something bright, clean, and round… Something that looked almost sacred, like an illusion.

“A bald monk?”

“Ooooooooh!”

Hye Yeon abruptly threw his arms around Chung Myung.

“Has this monk bastard lost his mind?”

If anyone else had tried to grapple with Chung Myung in a way that could not even be called a technique, their head would have been smashed open on the spot. But the one clinging to Chung Myung right now was none other than Hye Yeon, a prodigy said to appear in Shaolin only once in a hundred years, if that.

Even biting is different depending on who does it – when a cat does it, it might just draw a bit of blood, but when a tiger does it, you’d be left thinking, ‘Huh? I’m sure my hand was here just a moment ago?’ Such was the way of the world.

So the way Hye Yeon grabbed on and refused to let go ought properly to be given some a name like ‘Avalokitesvara’s Dragon-Clasping Fist’ or ‘Heavenly King’s Great Binding.’ And Hye Yeon’s Avalokitesvara’s Dragon-Clasping Fist succeeded splendidly in pinning Chung Myung down. That is, until the black net completely covered both Chung Myung and Hye Yeon.

“Oh!”

“It worked!”

But that did not mean the situation was particularly good for Hye Yeon either.

“Let go! Are you letting go or not?”

Smack! Smack!

“You octopus-headed idiot! Where do you think you’re going around sticking to people!”

Smack! Smack!

As Chung Myung’s hand repeatedly smacked Hye Yeon on the head, Hye Yeon’s scalp turned red exactly like an octopus. But for Hye Yeon, his wounded heart hurt more than the head that had been struck.

“A-Aren’t your words far too harsh?”

“What are you even saying! You boiled-octopus-looking thing! Let go already!”

Just now, it even felt as though he had heard someone somewhere say, ‘Octopus? Huh? Now that you mention it?’…

“Euuuhaaaaa!”

At that moment, Chung Myung flung Hye Yeon away while at the same time tearing apart the net that had wrapped around him.

“Wow.”

“He tore that apart.”

“At that point, isn’t he basically a bear?”

“Huff. Huff. Huff!”

Drawing in deep breaths, Chung Myung wiped at the corner of his mouth with a look that could be interpreted as him being genuinely impressed.

“These brats… to think they could make me breathe this hard.”

“…”

“But this much still isn’t enough to stop me. If you want to stop me, you’ll have to stake your lives at lea… Huh?”

At that moment, Chung Myung’s vision swayed violently. At the same time, his body staggered heavily to one side.

“Huh? Why is this….. The alcohol… did I drink too much? I didn’t drink that mu…. gurgle.”

Thud!

Chung Myung collapsed forward just like that.

“D-Did we get h…”

“Hwaaaaaaap!”

No sooner had Jo Geol begun to speak than Chung Myung sprang back upright.

“Kieeeeeeeeek!”

Thud.

Chung Myung immediately flopped forward onto the ground again. Everyone looked at Jo Geol – who had somehow plastered himself to the ceiling in the meantime – with pitiful eyes.

Tang Soso, wearing a triumphant smile, picked up the torn chain net.

Tap.

At that, pitch-black droplets began to fall in a shower from the net.

“If you want to hide a tree, you hide it in the forest.”

“Excellent, Soso!”

“As expected of the Tang Clan’s precious jewel.”

“There’s no one but you!”

Everyone gave Tang Soso a firm thumbs-up, tears streaming down their faces. If not for a method like this, they would never even have dared to imagine capturing this bastard.

“But didn’t you say you wouldn’t use poison anymore?”

“Not on people.”

“Ah……”

Right. That one wasn’t a person. That had to be it.

“There’s no time for this. Hurry and tie him up while we can. It’s a lethal drug strong enough to put even a bear to sleep for ten days, but if it’s Sahyeong, even lasting half a gak will be pushing it.”

“Ah, got it!”

The disciples rushed at Chung Myung and quickly began winding thick iron chains all around him.

“The effect is definitely certain.”

“This is exactly why people say Tang Clan, Tang Clan. If it weren’t for a special eixir made by the Tang Clan, how could anyone possibly send this bastard off like this?”

“Exactly. If you could buy it with money, I’d like to buy some myse…”

Mid-sentence, Yoon Jong suddenly paused, as if something had just occurred to him.

“But this… it wasn’t only Chung Myung who got hit, was it?”

“Huh?”

“No, I mean, Monk was with him too…”

Yoon Jong’s head slowly turned backward.

And then Yoon Jong saw it. Hye Yeon had collapsed on the floor, foaming at the mouth and convulsing intermittently. It might have been less frightening if he had at least been trembling continuously, but instead he kept twitching in sudden jerks, as if keeping some strange rhythm.

The sight was so bizarre that it was downright terrifying.

“Mo…”

“Looks like he’s gone, doesn’t it?”

“Seems like he’s already halfway across.”

As if by prior agreement, everyone pressed their palms together.

“May you attain blissful rebirth, Monk.”

“Primordial Heavenly Lord.”

“We will not forget you.”

The one who had fainted remained silent.

❀ ❀ ❀

“So… where exactly were you trying to go?”

Chung Myung rolled his eyes around.

He was a proud man. So proud, in fact, that even in the very moment of dying his neck had remained stiff with pride.

Of course, that excessive pride had led to the disaster of his body that ought to have been one being split into two, but since even the Heavenly Demon who had cut off his arm had gone through the same thing, it was not particularly a problem.

In other words, not even the Heavenly Demon who had nearly ruined the world, nor the illustrious Sect Leader who would remain in Hwasan’s history, nor even the abbot of Shaolin, the most powerful figure in the current Gangho, had been able to take Chung Myung’s pride away from him.

But even Chung Myung, before Hyun Jong’s gaze that said, ‘Yes, yes, it is all my fault. How could any of this possibly be your doing?’, had no choice but to twist and squirm like a fish laid out on a grill.

“Well, that…….”

“Yes. Where were you going?”

“To Shan… dong for a bit.”

“Shandong?”

“…”

“You mean all the way to the far east? Why? Why not just say you were going off to Japan instead? You have already seen Yunnan to the south and the Northern Sea to the north, so are you now thinking of reaching the very ends of east and west as well?”

“It’s not exactly like that…”

“What kind of restless traveling ghost has possessed you that you would go all the way to such a distant place without saying a word to me?”

Chung Myung awkwardly scratched his head. Of course, since his hands were tied, he did it with his foot.

“Because I could go and come back quickly.”

“Quickly?”

“…”

“Quickly? Did you just say quickly? To Shandong and back?”

Now completely out of excuses, Chung Myung ground his teeth and turned his head away.

Clear as day, he could see those wretches who had dared deceive him and bring about this situation furtively avoiding his gaze.

“…I’ve raised tiger cubs, it seems.”

He had expected a joint attack. Hadn’t he been tempered in the fires of war? Facing an opponent one cannot defeat alone and joining forces is neither cowardly nor dishonorable. First, you win – that is what matters.

But using poison while brawling with your fellow disciples?

That crossed the line. Even that Heavenly Demon bastard in the underworld would probably go, ‘Ah, this is a bit much…,’ and spin his severed head from side to side at something like this.

“Where are you looking right now? Can you not even look at your Sect Leader anymore?”

As Chung Myung’s lips started to jut out slightly, Hyun Jong narrowed his eyes fiercely.

“That mouth of yours.”

Chung Myung promptly tucked his protruding lips back in.

Hyun Jong was speaking calmly, but judging by his expression, he really did seem rather angry.

To be honest, it was not hard to understand why. A disciple of the sect had packed his things without a word and was about to head off to a place that would take a good ten days to reach? It was only because Hyun Jong was as benevolent a man as he was that he was handling it with words. If Chung Myung had been in the opposite position, he would not even have bothered listening before smashing the other person over the head.

Frankly, if they shoved him straight into the Repentance Chamber this very moment and made him live on only nutritional pills for three months and ten days, he ought to be grateful for it.

But that was only if he were the one on the other side of things.

“So.”

“Yes.”

“What were you planning to do in Shandong?”

“Well… it really is something trivial.”

“You are saying you have to go all the way to Shandong to deal with something trivial? You brat, are you telling me I am supposed to believe that right now? At least say something that makes sense.”

“But it’s true…..”

Hyun Jong narrowed his eyes.

“Chung Myung-ah.”

“…Yeees.”

“It has not even been that long since you returned from the Northern Sea. And besides, you know better than anyone that there is still no small amount of work to be done going forward, do you not?”

“That’s…. true, I suppose?”

“I cannot permit it.”

“No! Sect Leader!”

“If it is truly something trivial, then this time you are the one who must let it go. This is an order as the Sect Leader. Do you understand?”

“…”

“And your answer?”

“I…”

Chung Myung’s face twitched awkwardly, as if it had been malfunctioning.

An order from the Sect Leader was something that must be obeyed. That was the proper way.

But this matter…

“Answer me!”

“I understa…”

It was at the very moment Chung Myung was about to nod weakly.

“Sect Leader, are you in……”

The closed door flew open, and someone poked their head inside.

“What’s going on here that everyone’s gathered like this?”

“Ah, Elder. It’s nothing, just…”

“Well now, what a stran…. Hm?”

Hyun Yeong, who had stuck his head in, fixed his gaze on one spot.

At the same time, the flow of time itself seemed to freeze as well.

“…Which bastard.”

“What?”

“Which wretched bastard tied up our child like a bundle of dried pollock? Untie him this instant!”

Flames of fury blazed from Hyun Yeong’s eyes.

Next chapter >>>

________

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.