Return Of The Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 16

“Hmm?”

Un-geom woke up slowly. Bright light hurt his eyes as he looked at the window.

He felt a little annoyed. *Those kids,* he thought.

The Hwasan Sect had very strict rules.

Long ago, when masters taught students directly, the student had to wake up before the master, greet him, and make his breakfast.

Times had changed, and that wasn’t normal anymore. But the children in Hundred Flowers Hall still had to wake up Un-geom, the Hall Lord, and say good morning.

But today, no one had come to greet him.

“Heh. Those brats.”

He had been less strict lately, and they had already become lazy.

Un-geom frowned and got out of bed.

The fact that no one greeted him meant something was wrong. It wasn’t just the greeting group sleeping in. If anyone was awake, they would have woken the others. It seemed all the children in Hundred Flowers Hall were still asleep.

“Come to think of it.”

He remembered that a new child had joined the Hundred Flowers Hall yesterday.

“Those brats are at it again…”

Un-geom narrowed his eyes a little.

He knew the children had strange welcoming ceremonies. As their master, he should stop it, but children needed friendship. A Sect is a group of people who practice martial arts together, and living together helps them build camaraderie.

Jo Gul would probably go too far, but with Yoon-jong around, things usually stayed under control.

But the fact that they were so late with the morning greeting meant yesterday’s welcoming ceremony had been too wild.

Un-geom frowned. He quickly put on his robe and tied his sword around his waist. He walked fast towards the door.

*I need to scold them,* he thought, feeling a little angry. *They’ve become too lazy.*

Un-geom walked quickly towards the Hundred Flowers Hall. He was ready to tell them off.

He planned to shout as soon as he saw the Hundred Flowers Hall, waking the sleeping children. But then, as he turned the corner…

“Ga…”

Un-geom, about to shout, gasped and stopped. His eyes opened wide.

*What… what is this?*

He rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

*What is this? Is this hell?*

A strange thought crossed his mind, but Un-geom quickly remembered where he was.

This was Hwasan! So, whatever he was seeing was happening in Hwasan.

But he couldn’t understand what was going on.

Was he dreaming?

Un-geom rubbed his eyes again and blinked, looking again. But nothing had changed.

“Uh…”

Un-geom didn’t know what to do and made an awkward sound. Then he heard a desperate moan.

“Ugh… Ugh!”

“Oh dear… I’m going to die. Oh dear.”

“Mom… please take me home.”

Un-geom stared at the groaning children.

“…”

Were these really his students? He felt a pang of worry. They looked terrible.

Children were usually full of energy. Sometimes they caused trouble because they didn’t know better, and sometimes they were disappointing because they were naughty.

But children who were innocent had a liveliness that made people happy.

But the children in front of him now had no energy at all.

*Why do these kids look like rags?*

Where had all the happy children gone? Why were only ragged children rolling around?

Un-geom looked around, horrified.

“Ugh…”

“I’m going to die… I’m really going to die.”

Un-geom looked closely at the faces of the sprawled children and blinked.

*I think these are my grand-disciples?*

They were in a slightly… no, a much worse condition. But those dirty figures were definitely Un-geom’s grand-disciples, the Blue Cloud kids from the Hundred Flowers Hall.

*What on earth did they do?*

How could they turn happy children into ragged beggars overnight?

Wooden swords lay on the dusty ground, next to rough cloth pouches, ripped and spilling dirt. The children themselves were covered in dust, their clothes stained with sweat and dirt.

What were those dirt pouches for?

Un-geom knew what he had to do. If he couldn’t guess, he didn’t need to think too hard. There were over a hundred mouths here to answer his questions.

“Wh-what on earth is going on here?”

As soon as he spoke, heads turned. The children, collapsed on the ground and groaning, all looked at Un-geom.

The half-dead children suddenly became lively again!

“Grand Uncle Master!”

“Oh, thank goodness!”

He thought he heard something a little strange at the end, but the children were clearly happy to see him. They even looked like they were about to cry.

It was rare for him, who always told them what to do. No, it wasn’t just rare; he didn’t think he’d ever seen the children so happy to see him before.

“Hee hee hee! Grand Uncle Master!”

“Why did you only come now! Why!”

“We missed you, Grand Uncle Master!”

What should he say?

The children, who were always careful around him, were so happy to see him that he felt a strange sense of pride. He felt an unknown emotion.

But Un-geom quickly shook his head and focused again.

*No, this isn’t the time to be happy about this.*

Look at the children. Covered in dirt and sweat, they looked like they’d been through a war. Seeing their limbs shaking, Un-geom felt sick.

“What on earth happened here?”

The children, who looked like they were about to grab Un-geom and cry, hesitated and went quiet when he asked. They just secretly looked behind them.

*They’re being careful?*

Un-geom looked where the children were looking. There, slumped on the ground with his mouth open, was Jo Gul.

“Jo Gul?”

“…No. Behind him.”

“Behind him?”

He looked past Jo Gul.

“Th-that brat is?”

Un-geom’s eyes opened even wider.

*The new kid?*

His name was Chung Myung, wasn’t it? But what was he doing?

Un-geom tilted his head. Chung Myung was doing something strange. He had a wooden sword over his shoulder, and several big dirt pouches were hanging from it.

“What are those pouches?”

“They’re dirt pouches.”

“…Why dirt pouches?”

He asked, but he already knew.

The weakest-looking child, carrying dirt pouches bigger than his head on his wooden sword, was shaking as he bent over and stood up straight.

“Hooo…”

Un-geom felt tense and sweaty just watching.

Chung Myung’s small body shook. His legs trembled, but he fought to stand tall, dirt pouches pulling at his shoulders. Each breath was a loud gasp.

“Isn’t he going to die?”

His face was red, his veins were bulging, and his face was twisted like a demon. Un-geom couldn’t help but feel worried.

There was no better way to show how hard something was. Chung Myung groaned as he stood up straight, then bent over again.

*He’s going to die, that brat!*

It wasn’t because Un-geom was kind. He actually believed in very hard training. He thought that the more you train, the stronger you become. He would usually be happy to see his students training hard.

But even for Un-geom, Chung Myung’s training was too much.

*No, so the reason these brats look like ragged beggars is…?*

They were training together?

“G-Grand Uncle Master! Please save us!”

“We’re going to die like this.”

Now that he thought about it, the children were covered in sweat. So much sweat that it looked like they’d just wrung out their clothes and put them back on. The thought of all that sweat made him shiver.

*So they weren’t all asleep?*

They’d been training since just after dawn and ended up like this?

“…Since when have you been doing this?”

“Just after dawn.”

They’d been doing that for over an hour?

“…Why?”

It was a natural question, but no one answered. They just looked desperate, as if to say,

*If we say that, we’ll die.*

*Could it be?*

No, it couldn’t be. There’s no way.

Was that even possible?

The children here were the Third-Class Disciples of Hwasan. Even though Hwasan wasn’t as strong as it used to be, they still trained in martial arts. Many of the Third-Class Disciples had been learning martial arts for over five years. They were much stronger than people who didn’t know martial arts.

But were they saying that they were being pushed around like this because they couldn’t handle that one small child?

*Wait a minute.*

Jo Gul, who was one of the best Third-Class Disciples, was lying on the ground, barely breathing, wasn’t he?

*What about Yoon-jong?*

Un-geom quickly looked for Yoon-jong, the First-Class Disciple.

“Huh…”

Something that looked like Yoon-jong was sprawled on the ground.

*Why is he like that?*

Jo Gul at least looked somewhat human, but Yoon-jong was unrecognizable. Seeing Yoon-jong with his face in the dirt and only his backside raised, gasping for breath, made him feel so sorry that he wanted to cry.

“Th-that…”

Un-geom started to speak, then stopped.

*No, it’s good to train, but.*

He knew what they had been doing. It was clear from looking at Chung Myung. The children had been doing strength training since just after dawn.

Hwasan was known for its fast and elegant sword techniques, but it also included basic strength training. All martial arts start with the body.

*But what do you have to do to turn perfectly fine children into something less than human in just one hour?*

Un-geom wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He glanced over and saw the children staring at him with hopeful eyes. They were hoping that Un-geom would fix this.

*Don’t look at me like that when you look like that.*

It was really annoying.

“Ahem.”

Un-geom cleared his throat and looked at Chung Myung. First, he needed to find out what was happening. Then he could decide what to do.