Return Of The Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1484

“Step right up and have some fun!”

“Hey friend! You look lucky today! Want to try your luck here?”

“Special treat today! Our cook used to cook for the Emperor! Taste food fit for royalty!”

Bright lights shone all along the narrow street. People stood very close together, shoulder to shoulder, all trying to get customers to come to their shops.

In the middle of all this, a group of martial artists walked around. They looked lost and confused in this lively place, like they didn’t belong at all. Their faces showed they were surprised by everything around them.

“Wow…”

“A place like this really exists?”

The Mount Hua disciples blinked and looked all around, taking it all in. Lights of many colors shone from the buildings, each one looking amazing in its own way.

The sweet smell of alcohol and the delicious smell of special foods filled the air. They could smell it all, but they knew they couldn’t easily buy any of it.

“Oh my, he’s so cute!”

One of the women watching them walked past Hye-yeon and clapped her hands, smiling brightly. Hye-yeon’s face turned bright red, like a ripe persimmon.

“Ah, Ami…”

*Thwack!*

Jo-geol was quick as lightning. He put his hand over Hye-yeon’s mouth. Hye-yeon’s big eyes looked around nervously. He nodded quickly and stopped himself from saying the Buddhist prayer that had almost come out without him meaning to.

“Hey, watch it.”

“S-sorry…”

Jo-geol shook his head and then started looking around excitedly again. He gasped.

“It’s like a different world, Senior Brother.”

“It is. I never knew a place like this existed.”

“If it’s like this here, imagine what Hangzhou will be like!”

The Mount Hua disciples were looking around, amazed and curious, when suddenly it happened.

“Don’t turn around. Just look straight ahead.”

“…Sorry.”

A voice behind them sounded like it could kill. Everyone felt a chill and quickly looked forward.

Lee Song-baek felt like he had ground his teeth into powder. He sighed deeply. He couldn’t understand how things had gone so wrong. He was supposed to just ignore their mistakes…

‘How did I get into this mess?’

But somehow, he was now with these bad guys (or so it seemed), pretending to be from the Jongnam sect. He groaned without meaning to.

He knew he shouldn’t be involved with them. That was obvious. But he couldn’t just let these wild guys wander around the streets at night by themselves.

Finally, he agreed to go with them, but only because he made it a rule that they had to stay with him. Still, he felt like he was in a dangerous situation.

“Hoo.”

Lee Song-baek took a deep breath to calm down. He spoke, trying to hide how annoyed he was.

“Don’t make trouble. Don’t talk to anyone, and don’t look anyone in the eye. We’ll do what we need to do and leave right away.”

“Yes.”

“Any questions?”

“Sorry.”

“…If only you all were silent…”

Lee Song-baek rubbed his head, which was really starting to hurt.

“Tsk, tsk. You kids.”

Cheong-myeong clicked his tongue and then put his hand on Lee Song-baek’s shoulder like it was nothing.

“Hey, don’t look so sad. We’re doing something good, right?”

“…Seal.”

“Come on, don’t be such a scaredy-cat. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure nobody causes any trouble.”

Just as Cheong-myeong was confidently promising everything would be fine…

“Oh, Great Hero! Let me tell you, we have great drinks in our tavern! We only have three bottles of Shaoxing wine, the kind you only find in Hangzhou! Want to try some? It’s perfect for heroes like you!”

“What? Seriously? Can we go now?”

Cheong-myeong tried to sneak his foot towards the waiter who was inviting people in. Lee Song-baek grabbed Cheong-myeong’s arm in a panic.

“The Seal! Remember the Seal!”

“…Can’t I just buy the drink?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Ah, that wine is so good…”

“And today, the winner of our bone-matching game will get Gobonghwangju (高峰皇酒) as a prize! We worked hard to get this special wine all the way from Beijing!”

“What? I can’t believe this! I’m going over there!”

“Hey! I told you to look forward!”

“No, listen! This stuff is really incredible, you know? You haven’t tried it, that’s why you don’t understand! Trust me, you have to try this!”

“I know! Now turn around!”

Cheong-myeong clicked his tongue again and again, looking like he really regretted something. Lee Song-baek rubbed his face hard, like he wanted to rip it off.

‘If the Sect Leader finds out, I’m dead.’

Actually, it wouldn’t even need to be the Sect Leader. If people found out he helped Baek-cheon’s plan to pretend to be Jin Geum-ryong, Jin Geum-ryong himself would skin Lee Song-baek alive and use his skin as a doormat outside his office.

Now that things were this bad, Lee Song-baek’s only hope was to end this crazy situation fast and pretend he knew nothing about it.

“Are we there yet?”

“Tsk. Just a minute.”

Cheong-myeong patted his chest. Baek-ah, who had stuck his head out, sniffed again.

*Squeak!*

His little paw pointed in one direction, more sure than ever.

“It’s this way.”

“Are you really sure?”

“Wow, you don’t trust anyone! Just because he came to Mount Hua and we joke about eating him in an emergency doesn’t mean he’s not a special animal, you know? People in the Southern Savage Beast Palace think he’s amazing! You could sell him for over a thousand gold right now…”

Cheong-myeong looked down at Baek-ah as he said this.

“Actually, now that I think about it, this guy…”

Of course, Baek-ah protested loudly.

*Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak!*

“Calm down!”

“Are you even human, you jerk?”

“You can sell things, but you can’t sell your friends!”

“Who said I was really going to sell him? I was just kidding!”

Cheong-myeong clicked his tongue, looking a little sad. Then, he walked heavily towards the direction Baek-ah pointed.

“Let’s go. We’ll be stuck on this street all night if we don’t.”

“But Cheong-myeong.”

“Huh?”

Then, Baek-cheon asked Cheong-myeong, sounding confused.

“Usually, places like this, with all the fun and games, aren’t near big religious groups, right?”

“Usually, yeah? Because they try to avoid bothering them.”

“But this place is really big, isn’t it?”

“Well… maybe it’s because this area is full of beggars? Maybe they don’t care as much about having fun places next to monks and religious people.”

“Hmm. Maybe.”

Jo-geol, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.

“Hey, Uncle. Why is that weird? Beggars can’t easily get food from normal houses, so they probably get food scraps from the taverns. To feed so many beggars, wouldn’t the taverns need to be really big? It makes sense.”

“…Sometimes I remember you come from a family of traders.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“Think of it that way.”

While Jo Gul and Baek Cheon argued, Chung Myung looked around, his eyes growing serious.

‘Wait a minute… was it always like this here?’

He hadn’t been to Kaifeng often, so he didn’t remember exactly how it used to look.

‘But I don’t think it was *this* crazy.’

Chung Myung scratched his head, thinking.

Did it really matter to him if Kaifeng’s pleasure district got bigger?

No. What bothered Chung Myung was that the person he was looking for was *right here*. That was the problem.

“Wow… things are getting really fancy,” he said.

“Yeah… it’s a little scary now,” another disciple replied.

“I’ve been seeing scary-looking guys around here. Are they really from the Demonic Sect?”

Everyone in the *Kangho*, the world of martial artists, knew the Mount Hua disciples were heroes. They had defeated the evil Demonic Sect! But now, watching the rough-looking men swagger through the narrow alley, even these brave disciples felt small. Lee Song-baek shook his head, not believing what he was seeing.

But then…

*Kiyi!*

Baek-ah, who had been twitching his nose, suddenly looked up at Chung Myung.

*Kiyi!*

“Did you find it?” Chung Myung asked.

*Kiyi!*

“Oh!” Chung Myung’s face lit up. They had taken a long way around, but they had finally found where the Golden Ten Thousand was going.

“Where is it?!” he asked excitedly. Baek-ah confidently pointed his paw forward.

“Here?”

*Kiyi!*

“Yes, *right here*?”

*Kiyiiii!*

Everyone looked where Baek-ah was pointing with such certainty.

“…Uh…” one disciple said.

“…Here?” another asked.

The disciples’ faces twisted in confusion.

It was a building with seven stories, towering over everything else. It was so fancy that all the other buildings nearby looked sad in comparison.

“…Celestial Paradise?”

“The name is simple,” one said.

“But it sure doesn’t look simple,” another replied.

It was a high-class brothel that regular people could only dream of visiting.

“Uh… here?”

“Baek-ah, are you sure this is the place? Something feels wrong,” one of the disciples asked.

*Kiyiik!*

“Huh? You’re saying no?”

Everyone’s faces brightened at Baek-ah’s denial. *Of course* it wouldn’t be here…

But then, Baek-ah slowly moved his paw upwards.

“Uh?”

Why was his paw going up?

Finally, the paw stopped, pointing to the very top of the Celestial Paradise. The top floor looked even fancier than the rest.

Silence fell over the group.

The Mount Hua disciples looked back and forth between Baek-ah’s paw and the top floor of the Celestial Paradise. Finally, after a long pause, they spoke.

“…The very top,” one said.

“Oh, it’s the very top,” said another.

“Of all places, it has to be the very top,” a third added.

Baek Cheon wiped the sweat from his forehead and gave an awkward smile.

“No matter how fancy it looks, it’s still just a brothel. We’re not poor anymore, so let’s just go in and…”

Baek Cheon stopped talking. A woman in a beautiful dress was leaning out of the brothel’s window, gesturing for them to come in.

As soon as Baek Cheon saw her elegant gesture, he turned to the group with a bright smile.

“Our goal was to find out where the bird was going, right?” he said.

“Yes, yes! We found it! We found it!” the other disciples replied.

“Shouldn’t we just say we’ve done our job? Let’s focus on that,” one suggested.

“That’s right. Let’s go back now. Quickly!” another added.

Just as they were about to turn around, Chung Myung grabbed Baek Cheon by the back of his neck.

“Where are you going?” Chung Myung asked.

“Let go! We can’t go in there! It’s obviously not just any brothel!” Baek Cheon protested.

The other disciples also resisted.

“There are women in palace dresses going in and out! If we go in there, the Sect Leader will kill us!” one cried.

“Even though we’re not that serious about Taoism, we still have to be a little moral!” another exclaimed. They were worried about their *Taoist morality*, the code of conduct they were supposed to follow as disciples.

“Amitabha! Just let me die! I can’t go! I can’t go!” Hye-yeon shouted, using a Buddhist prayer.

“Have you all gone crazy?!” Chung Myung yelled.

He kicked Hye-yeon in the rear.

“Are you saying we should go back after coming all this way? That makes no sense!” Chung Myung said.

“B-But Daoist! This really doesn’t feel right,” Hye-yeon stammered.

“Whether it’s right or not is not for you to decide. And why are you all so worried? The *Jongnam bastards* are probably going in anyway.” Chung Myung said. He was referring to the Jongnam Sect, another martial arts group, possibly rivals of Mount Hua.

“Huh?”

Lee Song-baek, looking pale, tried to say something, but Chung Myung ignored him and walked towards the brothel. The red light from inside made Chung Myung’s face glow.

“The top floor, huh…”

He had expected it to be hidden underground, but this was practically shouting, ‘Come and find me!’

“If they’re inviting me this much, I have to check it out. Let’s go see what’s waiting for us. Ghosts or monsters, whatever it is.”

Chung Myung turned to the group.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“Ch-Chung Myung…”

Baek Cheon couldn’t stop Chung Myung. He swallowed hard and looked up at the tall brothel, his face pale.

‘Oh…’

He had to go in *here*?

“Sasuk, what do we do? This…” one of the disciples asked, using the term *Sasuk* which means ‘Senior Disciple’.

“…I’m Jin Geum-ryong, though?” another disciple said, sounding confused.

“No, Sasuk, have you gone mad too?”