Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1515

“Hurry!” an Elder shouted.

“Yes, Elder! We’re going to the main headquarters!” another replied quickly. “Faster! We must get to the main headquarters now!”

“Right away, Elder!”

The Beggar Clan’s elders, who had gathered the ordinary beggars outside the main headquarters in an instant, began to rush forward, leading them.

The ordinary beggars followed, looking utterly bewildered. Just seeing the elders’ desperate appearances was enough to know how urgent the internal situation was, so no one was foolish enough to ask for the reason now.

“When we enter the main headquarters, you must knock down all those attacking the elders! Understand?”

“Yes!”

“I’ll say it again, it’s unconditional! Regardless of the reason!”

The ordinary beggars looked unsure. Was there really a need to emphasize such an obvious thing?

“Advance!”

“Yes!”

They reached the main headquarters before they knew it and saw the wide-open doors. First, according to orders…

“Stop!”

But at that moment, someone jumped out, blocking their path.

“Huh!”

“What is it?”

The beggars paused for a moment. The elders immediately raised their voices.

“No questions asked! Attack!”

The beggars reacted quickly to the order. They infused their cudgels with internal energy.

“Haaah!”

Wham!

Before the ordinary beggars could even swing their cudgels, the person blocking their path slammed their staff down hard on the ground. The firmly packed earth in front of the main headquarters burst open and caved in.

“Th-that!”

The beggars, utterly horrified, stopped dead in their tracks.

It wasn’t just the power that shocked them. It was what kind of power it was. They knew that move – the Beggar Clan’s special skill, the Staff of Wielding Heavens. The jade-green light around the staff was clear proof.

“You cannot go any further.”

The Wind and Shadow Divine Dog, blocking the ordinary beggars, gritted his teeth and shouted.

“Beggars of the Beggar Clan, follow the orders of the Clan Lord! Everyone, stand by!”

“C-Clan Lord? Did he just say Clan Lord? Is he?”

“The Clan Lord?”

The beggars murmured amongst themselves. This was so different from the Wind and Shadow Divine Dog, the Clan Lord of the Beggar Clan they knew, yet the martial art he had shown was definitely from the Beggar Clan. What on earth was going on? Everyone was plunged into confusion.

One of the elders spat out venomously.

“Lies! It’s all…”

“Remember what it means to be a ‘Heart Remembering Beggar’!”

Then, the Wind and Shadow Divine Dog’s loud roar fell upon him.

“Aren’t you ashamed of your title!”

The Heart Remembering Beggar bit his lip tightly at the Wind and Shadow Divine Dog’s rebuke.

In fact, his title had been given to him directly by his master, with the meaning of never forgetting the warmth in his heart. So, the Wind and Shadow Divine Dog’s words were bound to be painful.

But there was no turning back now.

“What are you doing! Kill that evil scoundrel who is impersonating the Clan Lord right now!”

The Heart Remembering Beggar, his eyes filled with venom, screamed.

“Come and try.”

Bang!

The Wind and Shadow Divine Dog stepped forward again.

“I have no choice but to clean up the mess I made. I will not let you pass, even if it costs me my life.”

He held the Staff of Wielding Heavens tightly, trying to hide how scared he was.

How could he not be afraid?

If they attacked all at once, he, who was already injured, had no way to withstand them. He might even become the first Clan Lord of the Beggar Clan to be beaten to death by the Beggar Clan’s ordinary beggars.

But he would not retreat even a single step.

‘It’s the most fitting death for me.’

If the Beggar Clan was punishing him for ruining the Beggar Clan, he had no choice but to accept it.

“Go over my dead body if you want to go!”

The Wind and Shadow Divine Dog planted his feet firmly as if he was going to take root there. The elders shouted without backing down.

“What are you doing! Kill that bastard right now!”

But there were no beggars who actively responded to that order. The Heart Remembering Beggar shouted in embarrassment.

“Can’t you hear me?”

“Well… isn’t he perhaps the Clan Lord?”

“You foolish bastard! What Clan Lord is he! Can’t you tell at a glance?”

“Th-that’s…”

“Beat that evil scoundrel to death right now! Hurry!”

The ordinary beggars still looked at the Heart Remembering Beggar and the Wind and Shadow Divine Dog alternately with troubled faces. The Heart Remembering Beggar was burning inside.

“You foolish… There’s no time to waste…”

“Then the elders should do it themselves.”

“What?”

At that time, the murmuring stopped abruptly at the voice that flew in from behind. The Heart Remembering Beggar, embarrassed, looked in the direction from which the voice came, and saw several beggars looking at him with dissatisfied faces.

“It’s just one person. And you even said he’s not the Clan Lord. Then the elders can just take care of it themselves, right?”

“I saw you running around just fine earlier, so why are you leaving this to us?”

“If he turns out to be the real Clan Lord, you’ll put all the blame on us. Nah, I’m not doing it.”

“Y-you bastards!”

The enraged Heart Remembering Beggar wanted to find those who had raised the complaints and punish them as an example right away. However, it was not easy to catch the one who had spoken first among the swarming beggars, and to make matters worse, the dissatisfaction spread like wildfire among the ordinary beggars.

“Honestly, I clearly saw people from the famous Shaolin Temple going to the main headquarters earlier, so what’s with the talk about attackers now? Does that mean Shaolin has become our enemy?”

“Then do we have to go there and fight those Shaolin bastards?”

“Even the elders can’t handle them, so what are we supposed to do?”

“They usually act so important as elders, but at times like this…”

“Y-you! Can’t you shut those mouths? Have you all gone mad!”

The Heart Remembering Beggar, beyond furious, looked around at everyone in a fluster. Now, all the ordinary beggars seemed unwilling to get involved in this situation.

“Come to think of it, I got some food earlier, and we’ll be resting soon.”

“Then let’s go eat.”

“The main headquarters is under attack, is it okay to do that?”

“There are elders up there, and Shaolin people too, so what’s there to worry about? Oh, and I think I saw fighters from the powerful Chongnam Sect going up earlier.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about. With so many big shots gathered there, what can we do? It’s a good thing if we don’t get in the way.”

The beggars glanced at the Heart Remembering Beggar with strange looks, then slowly turned around and began to scatter.

“Y-you bastards! Can’t you come back here right now?!”

Of course, it wasn’t because they thought it was nothing and were going to rest. In any way you looked at it, it was a situation where the Clan Lord and the elders were fighting for power. There was no point in getting involved in such a thing.

Besides, there was another reason.

“Do you think you’ll be safe after doing this! This is insubordination!”

At the Heart Remembering Beggar’s desperate shout, some of the beggars who had turned around burst into laughter.

“You used to act so important as an elder, but now you’re not even acting like a beggar. You’re going to lose everything.”

“What did you say?”

“Think about it. We’re guys who have lived our whole lives eating scraps and reading faces.”

At those words, the Heart Remembering Beggar closed his mouth.

“Do you think we don’t know which side we’re on right now?”

“Y-you bastards… This is the Beggar Clan! Yes, it’s all for the Beggar Clan!”

“It’s clear that the elder is no longer a beggar.”

“Wh-what?”

A sneer hung on the beggars’ lips.

“People become beggars because they don’t care about money. And even as beggars, they survive by knowing what is right and wrong.”

The Heart Remembering Beggar’s mouth fell open.

“If you’re not the type to bow and apologize even when a guy who’s not even worth a fistful kicks you, you can’t even stick around in the Beggar Clan in the first place. Do you think we don’t know it’s easier to knock that guy down and steal his money?”

“That’s right!”

“I haven’t liked the elders lately anyway. What’s with those beggar bastards walking around with so much swagger?”

The beggars’ cold gazes poured onto the Heart Remembering Beggar and the elders who followed him.

“Anyway, we don’t know, so do whatever you want.”

“Y-you bastards! The elders! Don’t you know the Beggar Clan’s main headquarters is collapsing? If that happens, you too…”

At those words, one of the beggars shrugged.

“What’s it matter if it collapses?”

“Wh-what does that mean?”

“What else can we be but beggars if it collapses? What more can we lose?”

The Heart Remembering Beggar, momentarily speechless, froze on the spot. The beggars smiled among themselves and moved their feet.

“Let’s go. Let’s go eat.”

“Yeah. Let’s go together.”

The elders staggered as they watched the beggars receding like a tide.

And the Wind and Shadow Divine Dog, who had been watching all of this, closed his eyes tightly.

‘What’s it matter if it collapses, we’re just beggars…’

Yes. That was the Beggar Clan.

They could be brave because they had nothing to lose. They could risk their lives because they had nothing to protect.

It was none other than the Wind and Shadow Divine Dog who had given such a Beggar Clan things to hold, things to protect, and taught them that they had to endure injustice for their own benefit.

Even so.

‘There are still places that haven’t changed.’

Those who had something to hold in their hands had changed, but those who still had nothing in their hands were protecting the Beggar Clan of the past.

If so, there might still be hope.

“Th-this… if this happens…”

The Heart Remembering Beggar looked back at the Wind and Shadow Divine Dog with a face that couldn’t hide his embarrassment, then bit his lip.

“Do you know what you’re doing, Clan Lord?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know. It’s something I should have known a long time ago.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We don’t get to decide what happens to the Beggar Clan anymore. We are supposed to serve the Clan, but we have lost what makes the Beggar Clan special.”

The Heart Remembering Beggar stared intently at the Wind and Shadow Divine Dog with questioning eyes.

“Now, there are only two who can determine fate. Those who are still following the spirit of the Beggar Clan…”

The Wind and Shadow Divine Dog paused for a moment, then looked silently towards the main headquarters where the battle was taking place.

“And the one who still cherishes what that Beggar Clan was trying to pursue.”

He closed his eyes and called out inwardly.

‘Sword Saint.’

He had lost it too. No, Mount Hua had lost far more than the Beggar Clan, and had been betrayed in many places.

Even so, Mount Hua was rising again. Just like in the past.

Boom!

At that moment, a tremendous sound rang out. One side of the main headquarters burst open, and red plum blossom petals scattered across the sky of Kaifeng.

“Look, the plum blossoms are blooming again. Just like Mount Hua, they are strong and beautiful even after falling.”

Falling and falling again, yet stubbornly blooming again.

That would be the case. Because flowers are just the result. What makes those flowers bloom is ultimately the roots of Mount Hua and the spirit of Mount Hua. As long as that spirit does not disappear, the flowers will bloom again someday.

The Wind and Shadow Divine Dog’s gaze followed the plum blossom petals.

“We too must open a new era.”

Wham!

Chung Myung, riding on the blue energy that burst out from the main hall’s wall, soared into the air.

“Ah!”

“Th-that!”

Chung Myung, flipping his body like a phantom in the center of the plum blossom petals he had created, shot back towards the main hall in an instant. He was like a hawk descending.

The sword energy, resembling the sunset, that bloomed from the tip of his sword mercilessly tore apart the fiercely attacking blue energy.

“Eighteen Swords of Justice…”

He didn’t need to see it to know.

The old fighting style, the ‘Eighteen Swords of Justice’, which had lost its true meaning, was no match for Chung Myung’s sword. His sword carried the true spirit of Mount Hua.

The red sword energy that Chung Myung poured out cut through the resisting blue light so easily that it was almost absurd, and struck the dilapidated main headquarters of the Beggar Clan.

That was not a sword aimed at Ilhoshin’gae.

It was a sword aimed at the Beggar Clan.

What they should never have forgotten.

“Haaah!”

Chung Myung’s roar extended to the sky. Soon, the red sword was embedded in the Beggar Clan’s main headquarters.

Kraaaash!

“Th-that!”

“Eeeeeek! It’s collapsing! Run!”

The main headquarters, which was like a symbol of the Beggar Clan and that had existed for hundreds of years.

One corner of it began to collapse with a deafening roar.