Return Of The Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1108

Dang Pae stared at his hand, his eyes unfocused. His empty spoon trembled in the air, shaking so fast it was almost a blur. *Heh heh…* he chuckled weakly, a dry, humorless sound.

The spark in his eyes was completely gone, like a fire that had turned to ash. He felt like a ghost, barely alive.

Looking around, he saw his brothers. They had long since given up on using their hands to eat and were burying their faces in their bowls.

They were too hungry to not eat, but their hands were too shaky to use. So, they stopped caring about looking proper and just wanted to get the food into their mouths somehow.

Stamina…

Dang Pae understood perfectly at that moment why Chung Myung had said that stamina was essential for the Dang Family’s martial arts.

How could they throw hidden weapons with hands that couldn’t even hold a spoon?

It wasn’t wrong to say that the Dang Family’s martial arts required precision. But that precision could only be shown if they had unwavering stamina that wouldn’t fail them.

How precise could someone be if they couldn’t even control their own hands?

I know it, but…

He remembered what Baek Cheon had once told him.

Dang Pae had been curious, watching Baek Cheon curse whenever Chung Myung opened his mouth. He had asked why Baek Cheon was so angry when it seemed like Chung Myung was saying the right things. Baek Cheon had answered clearly then:

“…You’ll understand when you experience it yourself.”

Yes. He understood now. He understood it to the bone.

Because Chung Myung kept saying the right things, there was no room to resist. But if they shut up and did as he said, they would die right away.

The problem was that if Dang Pae rebelled here, he would just become a lazy idiot who lacked perseverance. Who would have imagined that using good reasons to push people so hard could be so terrifying?

“Kkeueueueu…”

“Darn it…”

Groans leaked out of the mouths of the Dang Family members constantly.

No wonder Mount Hua became so strong. If you put them through this kind of training, even rabbits could beat tigers in a few years.

“Brother… are we actually going to survive this?”

“Don’t worry. We won’t die.”

“No, how do you know?”

“Look over there.”

“Yes?”

“They haven’t died, have they?”

Dang Zhan raised his head and looked where Dang Pae was pointing. There, the Mount Hua people, their faces pale and sweaty, were slumped halfway off their chairs, staring blankly at the food in front of them.

“…Why aren’t they eating?”

“They threw up everything they ate for breakfast.”

“…”

“I didn’t know the Clan Lord would be so excited and run wild like that.”

“I’ve never seen him like that before in my life.”

“It’s a relief, really.”

“Yes? What is?”

“That we’re seeing that side of him for the first time… It’s better not to see it at all.”

Tang Gunak seemed to have found something he really enjoyed – tormenting the Mount Hua disciples with throwing knives.

It was as if he was possessed by the vengeful spirit of someone who had died with a grudge because they couldn’t throw their throwing knives, and he was throwing them as a greeting whenever he saw the Mount Hua people. Of course, just because he threw them as a greeting didn’t mean that the people receiving them could accept them as such.

The disciples of Mount Hua, who felt their lives threatened dozens of times a day, were visibly withering away.

So that’s what they mean when they say their energy is being sucked out of them.

Dang Pae put down his spoon and sighed.

“Still, aren’t we in a slightly better position? So let’s not whine.”

“…Didn’t you hear?”

“What?”

“…After the morning training session, Chung Myung said, ‘Now that the basics are more or less in place, let’s raise the intensity and do it properly.'”

“That crazy bas… Cough, cough!”

Dang Pae quickly coughed to cut off the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

Seriously…

At this point, wasn’t it just Chung Myung and Tang Gunak competing to see who could torment the other’s disciples better? The backs of innocent shrimp were being torn apart in the fight between two whales.

“…They say the hardest thing in the world is to put what you know into practice.”

Dang Pae, who had sighed deeply, suddenly looked at the disciples of Mount Hua with warm eyes.

“Still, it’s a relief that those people are here.”

“Yes?”

“…Imagine if only the Dang Family was suffering like this. Wouldn’t there be ten times more complaints coming out by now?”

“That’s true, isn’t it?”

Dang Zhan nodded.

There was no need to even imagine it. Until a few days ago, voices denouncing Mount Hua and Chung Myung had been flowing non-stop, but after Tang Gunak started catching the Mount Hua disciples himself, those words disappeared completely.

And a subtle sense of camaraderie began to emerge instead of animosity.

After all, weren’t they also comrades suffering the same pain, and weren’t they the people who had been receiving that training until now?

“If you carry the burden together, it becomes a little lighter.”

“…Isn’t it just that the burden has increased?”

“Let’s just pretend that’s the case.”

Dang Pae looked at the disciples of Mount Hua with strange eyes.

Are the Clan Lord and Chung Myung even considering things like this?

When he thought about it, the relationship between the Dang Family and Mount Hua was somewhat of an illusion.

In reality, it was Hyun Jong and Tang Gunak, and Chung Myung and Tang Gunak, who were close.

Since they represented Mount Hua and the Dang Family, it wasn’t entirely wrong to say that the relationship between the sects was close, but in fact, the members of each sect didn’t really have any particular interaction.

They weren’t on unfriendly terms, but that didn’t mean they were close enough to have private conversations.

In other words, if the current leadership were to step down, the relationship between Mount Hua and the Dang Family wouldn’t be the same as it is now.

Dang Pae would try to maintain the relationship with Mount Hua in his own way, but no matter how he thought about it, it was difficult for Dang Pae to become a king-like Clan Lord like Tang Gunak. In the end, he would have no choice but to listen to the opinions of others.

But if the current situation were to be repeated, a sense of camaraderie would arise between Mount Hua and the Dang Family, and not only the leadership but also the members might maintain a good relationship with each other.

So, are the two of them volunteering to be the villains?

Perhaps the leadership was drawing a bigger picture that he couldn’t see. Thinking so, Dang Pae nodded without realizing it.

Dang Zhan, unaware of Dang Pae’s thoughts, said with a tearful face.

“…How are we going to do the afternoon training?”

“Don’t whine. They’re giving us time to sleep, aren’t they?”

“It’s not like all the fatigue is recovered by sleeping. These days, even when I circulate my energy, my body doesn’t feel lighter at all. It feels like I’m carrying an iron lump on my shoulder.”

Hearing that, Dang Pae nodded and looked at Dang Zhan.

“That’s the key.”

“…Yes?”

“From now on, we have to go through not just short battles, but a war. You understand that, right?”

“Yes.”

Dang Zhan nodded.

“War is not concluded overnight. Everyone felt that during the Plum Blossom Island incident. For a few days, or even a few months, the routine of fighting without properly resting or sleeping might continue.”

“…”

“Look.”

At Dang Pae’s words, Dang Zhan turned his head. The Dang Family people were still dying, unable to eat properly.

“Over there too.”

Following Dang Pae’s words, Dang Zhan’s eyes widened slightly. The Mount Hua people, who had clearly been slumped over like corpses just a moment ago, had regained their energy and were now shoveling food into their mouths.

“Do you understand what will happen if we are thrown into war in this state?”

“…Yes, Brother. I probably won’t be able to use even half of my skills.”

“That’s also wrong.”

“Yes?”

“Skills that cannot be used are not skills in the first place. That’s just an excuse. Only the power that can be fully exerted in actual combat can be called skill.”

“…”

“If you think that way, everything in the world changes. The common idea that the Dang Family is ahead of Mount Hua in terms of power is also wrong. Right now, we are worse than them.”

“Brother. That’s…”

Dang Pae turned to look at Dang Zhan with cold eyes.

“Why? Do you also want to get a big head because people think we are stronger?”

“…”

“Even after seeing the Namgung Family, who were thought to be stronger than us, suffer so miserably?”

“It’s not like that, Brother.”

Dang Pae nodded.

“In my opinion, Chung Myung and the Clan Lord are not people who only look at one thing when they do things. They must be looking at at least three or four things. Even if it’s hard right now, if we trust and follow them, there will definitely be a moment when we see the light. Surely they wouldn’t be doing this just to torment us, would they?”

“…That’s also true.”

“Yes. So let’s eat. We have to eat to endure.”

Dang Pae somehow grabbed the food bowl and began to shovel it into his mouth.

But at that moment, Dang Pae didn’t know.

That even if the intention is good, even if it’s done with the best of intentions, depending on the method, it can be more terrible than something done with malice.

“…What did you say?”

“Don’t you understand this?”

Chung Myung smiled more brightly than ever.

To anyone else, it was an exceptionally refreshing expression, but at least in Dang Pae’s eyes, that smile didn’t look good. No, it looked more like the smile of a demon from hell.

“You guys are tired too, right?”

“…That’s right.”

“You want to rest, don’t you? Right?”

“Of course…”

“So I’m going to give you a chance to rest.”

Dang Pae was momentarily speechless.

No, Master? I’m not an idiot, of course I understood that.

“But the method is…”

“Keuh. Yes. That’s the key.”

Chung Myung snapped his fingers with a loud sound.

“Rest is good. It’s really good. But people are like that? They don’t feel the value of something that’s just given to them.”

“What kind of bull… No, what are you talking about?”

“So I’m going to make you feel that value.”

Chung Myung grinned.

“You guys also have pride in your skills as members of the Dang Family, right? That you can win against anyone.”

“…That’s right, but.”

Chung Myung nodded as if it were obvious.

“Yes. But those guys will feel the same way, right?”

Chung Myung pointed his chin at the disciples of Mount Hua. They had nothing but venom left in their eyes and were nodding with the eyes of starving murderers.

“The law of the Murim is simple. The strong take, and those who prove themselves get it. So…”

Chung Myung snapped his fingers again with a loud sound.

“The winners get tomorrow morning’s training off. Simple, right?”

“Wait a minute. What is that supposed to mean?”

Even so, he was telling them to split up and fight each other, fellow disciples who had been training together! Did he think this kind of behavior could be tolerated?

And if the Dang Family and Mount Hua split up and fought each other now, wouldn’t the budding sense of camaraderie be uprooted? This was something that shouldn’t be done…

“Ah, this grumpy bastard talks a lot. Well, yeah. I guess you’re not used to it yet. I understand. But the way to solve that is super simple.”

Chung Myung smiled brightly.

“You’ll wake up in a flash if you get hit once.”

“Yes?”

“The one standing last wins. Get ready.”

“Yes?”

“Start.”

Chung Myung clapped his hands together.

Dang Pae let out a hollow laugh. No matter what, who would follow such unreasonable demands…

“Aaaaargh!”

And at that moment, a desperate scream was heard. Dang Pae was startled and quickly turned his head.

The disciples of Mount Hua, who had felt like blood brothers… No, those Mount Hua fanatics were rushing in like crazy with bloodshot eyes.