Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1354

Paaah!

The trees turned into streaks of green and brown as Chung Myung sped up. He pushed hard against the ground, going even faster. Wind rushed past his ears.

“Is this the right way?” he thought.

Chung Myung narrowed his eyes, looking around quickly. He changed direction a little and ran even faster.

A clear scent tickled his nose, guiding him.

As he moved, following the scent, memories of past conversations flashed in his mind as if they had happened yesterday.

“I don’t need this sort of thing!”

“Just learn it as I tell you. If you learn it once, there will be plenty of uses for it!”

“I’m not a dog. What would I use the ability to smell for?”

“You’re practically a dog when it comes to smelling alcohol.”

“What, you little punk?”

A faint smile appeared on Chung Myung’s lips.

The scent that cut through the strong smell of grass was the Tang Family’s secret Tracking Incense.

The Hao Clan or the Beggars’ Union used this incense to track people. Those who have mastered special skills never lose this scent. You can’t smell the incense from ten thousand miles away, but you can track it for several dozen miles.

‘Good thing I got it from the Tang Family Head in advance.’

Of course, Tang Gun-ak looked at him strangely when he handed over the Tracking Incense, but it was worth it.

The incense was left on Dong-ryong, his friend who wasn’t very quick-thinking, so there was no need to worry about getting separated. Just follow the scent, and he would rejoin the group in front.

Without slowing down, Chung Myung glanced down at his hands. He clenched and unclenched them a couple of times, nodding in satisfaction.

Even though he had been fighting for a while with an injured body, he felt a surge of strength instead of tiredness. When he left the cave, he felt like he was at seventy percent of his best, but now he was at least eighty percent.

‘Better than expected.’

In the past, Chung Myung also got a lot of help from the Taoist internal energy inside him.

He could fight to the very end, even after getting hurt a lot, because the Taoist internal energy healed and recovered him quickly.

But his current body was recovering even faster than he expected.

Every time he used his sword and internal energy, the pure energy inside him pushed out bad stuff and fixed his damaged body, like it was fixing its own home.

‘Nature⋯⋯.’

The purest energy in the world might be the internal energy closest to nature. If so, it made sense. Because that’s how nature was. Even if it fell apart, it would go back to its original form over time.

Yes, just like Mount Hua was slowly rebuilding itself, healing after being broken.

Taat!

Chung Myung’s foot touched the ground lightly. He didn’t put much force into it, but the internal energy in his leg lifted his body.

It was a strange feeling.

His body felt slow, like he was walking, but the world around him rushed by very fast. His senses were confused.

Paaah!

With each step, his body went even faster.

Soon, Chung Myung’s eyes lost focus as he reached an invisible speed.

‘Humans are also part of nature⋯⋯. But their actions are planned. Nature doesn’t like plans and goes back to the origin. So nature leaves out humans.’

His unfocused eyes started to look deep.

‘But⋯⋯ if humans are part of nature, then human plans are also part of nature. Why are those plans left out? Things with plans and things without plans. Even animals have plans⋯⋯.’

His thoughts flowed like water. The flow of thought, with no beginning or end, filled him like a big river. His senses grew and became unclear, and the world became clear and blurry at the same time.

The line between him and the world blurred.

It flowed and flowed. But then, the flow went back to the beginning.

Like the Tai Chi symbol, which shows balance. But the symbol broke apart again and turned into a twisted circle.

‘A circle is equal. It has no beginning, no end, and goes on forever. Life is both an end and a beginning, and also a conclusion and a continuation⋯⋯.’

“Huh?”

Chung Myung’s eyes opened wide. He blinked a couple of times and then made a frustrated face.

“Wow, damn it! I missed it!”

He had entered enlightenment just now. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had been in that state.

Gaining enlightenment was like breaking through a wall. It was a great achievement for a martial artist.

There were two walls you faced when learning martial arts: the wall of the body and the wall of the mind. His body hadn’t reached the past yet, but his mind was moving beyond the past to a deeper place. But⋯⋯.

“Huh?”

But why did he wake up?

Normally, once you entered enlightenment, it wouldn’t break so easily. Usually, you had to feel like you were missing something at the end of your thinking and stop on your own. But now, it was like something had blocked him.

Tap. Tap.

Then Chung Myung realized that his feet hadn’t touched anything for a while. He finally saw the big sky in front of him.

“The sky⋯⋯?”

The ground was far below. And behind him, he saw a steep cliff, which he didn’t even know when he had jumped off.

Wow, he jumped all the way from there. He jumped really far⋯⋯.

“Aaaaargh! You crazy bastard!”

Chung Myung’s body started to fall quickly.

He waved his arms and legs, but there was nothing to grab. How could he grab a cliff that was already more than thirty yards away? He wasn’t a superhero who could fly.

“Hiiiik!”

As the ground got closer quickly, Chung Myung wildly released his internal energy. The pushback slowed him down a little.

Then, Chung Myung saw a tall pine tree branch. When he saw the thick branch, his eyes flashed.

‘I have to grab it!’

He kicked hard against the air and pushed his body sideways. Chung Myung reached out his hand with all his strength. He grabbed the thick branch.

‘Got it, I⋯⋯.’

Crack!

“Huh?”

Thud!

Chung Myung’s body hit the ground face-first and trembled before going still.

Plop.

The broken pine branch lay without care beside him.

Luckily, he didn’t die, and he breathed out through his nose. Dry dust rose up.

“Kkeueueue⋯⋯.”

He pushed himself up from the ground with both hands, lifting his face. Blood poured from his nose.

The tree broke, but it slowed him down, so he didn’t die. He needed to think about whether that was lucky or not.

“⋯⋯Kkeueueue.”

He straightened his twisted nose and blew out the blood. Red blood splattered on the ground. Chung Myung sat down with a sad look.

“This⋯⋯.”

They say unlucky people have bad luck even when things should be easy. Because he was unlucky, he fell off a cliff even when he entered enlightenment⋯⋯.

“If I enter enlightenment twice, I’ll really go to the afterlife! Is this even possible? Is it?”

He wanted to become immortal, not go straight to the afterlife!

“Why does enlightenment come while I’m running?”

Chung Myung was disappointed and scratched his head.

If it hadn’t been for the cliff, he might have been able to understand something, but the cliff forced him out of enlightenment. The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became.

Of course, Chung Myung knew that he shouldn’t dwell on it. Once you had enlightenment, it would come again, so he could wait. If he kept regretting it, enlightenment would move further away.

He knew. He knew very well. The problem was⋯⋯.

“Aigooo! I’m going to die from regret!”

Chung Myung rolled around on the ground, upset.

If he could do everything he knew, would he be Chung Myung? Even if he knew, he would still be upset.

Even if he got a little better mentally, he wouldn’t be able to instantly regain his past skills and beat Jang Il-so, but it would have been easier!

“Why the hell is there a cliff there! People should make everything flat!”

– Heavenly Venerable. That is absurd.

“Kaaak! Shut up!”

Chung Myung yelled at the sky.

“If you’re human, you should know when to butt in! You don’t know where to sit and just shove your ass in whenever something happens!”

Chung Myung stopped yelling and realized he hadn’t heard Cheong Mun’s voice so clearly in a long time.

“⋯⋯Tsk.”

Feeling awkward, he scratched his head. Maybe because he had crossed the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, he was feeling a bit better.

“I’m experiencing all sorts of things now that I’ve lived so long.”

Chung Myung shook off the awkwardness and quickly ran off, following the scent that had faded. He moved like the wind again. Nothing had changed, but enlightenment didn’t come back easily.

He clicked his tongue in disappointment and ran.

‘But⋯⋯.’

A strange light flickered in Chung Myung’s eyes as he ran.

‘What was that?’

The flow that flowed like a river. Its beginning and end met and swirled around. Like the Tai Chi where things were balanced. But the things soon broke down and connected as one.

That was the origin of everything. Or something called the Absolute.

Chung Myung knew about the Absolute, but this was the first time he had seen it in his mind. This would help Chung Myung move forward.

But Chung Myung was thinking about something else.

Just before he was pushed out of enlightenment, he had seen it.

The sign that the flow of the circle, which had been turning forever, was changing into something.

‘There is something behind that.’

That might be a place Chung Myung hadn’t reached yet. Maybe no one had ever reached it. It might open when he understood the meaning of that circle. A power that couldn’t be reached. A way to face that god-like being.

His fingers trembled.

‘But⋯⋯.’

Chung Myung looked complex. If he was right, that circle should be good. It was a deep truth that included everything he had learned and the origin of the world. It would be.

‘But why⋯⋯ do I feel worried?’

Why did he feel so heavy even though he had found what he was looking for? What was behind it? What did he have to see⋯⋯.

“Tsk.”

Chung Myung shook his head.

“I’m too sure of myself.”

Chung Myung shook off his worry and ran with a brighter face.

‘Think about it later. Let’s do what we have to do now.’

He ran, following the scent.

The clear blue sky looked down on him as he ran through the forest to the mountains. It was warm, but without care.