Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1614

So, it has to be torn down.

“Senior Brother,” Jo Gul whispered.

“Shhh,” Yoon Jong replied quietly.

Jo Gul felt like he had walked into the wrong room. He tried to be as quiet as a mouse and spoke softly to Yoon Jong.

“I know we need to be quiet,” Jo Gul said, “but what is happening? Are they changing the orders?”

“Well…” Yoon Jong hesitated. He looked around the room before speaking. He wasn’t really sure himself.

“We may be acting under the banner of the Alliance, but aren’t we essentially taking orders from our respective sects?”

“So, what are you trying to say?”

Yoon Jong’s face tightened slightly.

“If the Sect Leader and the Alliance Lord give conflicting orders, whose orders should we follow?”

“The Alliance Lord’s, obviously?”

“Uh…?”

That should be right… Uh, it is right, but…

“Perhaps my example was poor. Alright, if the Vice Alliance Lord and the Alliance Lord simultaneously give different orders, which would the Tang family follow?”

“Well…”

Of course, it should be Hyun Jong.

But practically, it would be Tang Gun-ak. It couldn’t be helped. To the people of Mount Hua, Hyun Jong was the Alliance Lord and the Supreme Elder, but, coldly speaking, from the Tang family’s perspective, he was an outsider.

“It seems they want to change that.”

“Ah, that… that…”

Jo Gul was confused and spoke quickly, stumbling over his words. He tilted his head.

“How can they change that? Is that even possible?”

“That’s why the command…!”

Growing frustrated with the lack of understanding, Yoon Jong’s voice began to rise, only to be met with Hyun Jong’s serious and warning look. Yoon Jong and Jo Gul lowered their heads as if struck by lightning. Everyone had become focused on their chatter.

“Ahem.”

Tang Gun-ak cleared his throat slightly and looked at Chung Myung.

During the last meeting, Baek Cheon had dropped a bomb. But that was nothing compared to what Chung Myung had just thrown into the mix.

Command? Did he even understand what he was saying?

“Chief Strategist, I understand your intention. But…”

“It’s not realistically feasible?”

Tang Gun-ak nodded.

“Indeed. This is…”

He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence. As silence filled the meeting room once more, Jo Gul couldn’t help but speak again.

“Senior Brother.”

“Just stop it already…”

“No, why is this such a big deal? Is it really that important?”

“Haa…”

Yoon Jong sighed as if the ground was collapsing beneath him and whispered back.

“Could you fight taking orders from someone other than the Mount Hua Sect Leader?”

“Of course. Aren’t we part of the Heavenly Union Alliance?”

“Even if those orders came from the Jongnam Sect Leader?”

“……Huh?”

Jo Gul’s eyes wavered.

“No, what if it wasn’t the Jongnam Sect Leader, but Jin Geum-ryong? Would you be willing to risk your life and charge towards the enemy under his command?”

Jo Gul clamped his mouth shut like a clam. He had been ready to answer with an obvious yes, but hearing it like this made him hesitant to reply.

“Revoking the command means that the system you’ve known until now will disappear entirely. And it means you have to adapt to a new system.”

“Surely it won’t be that extreme? That guy must have thought this through.”

“That’s something we can say because we’re Mount Hua people. From the perspective of other sects, even more extreme situations could arise.”

Take Im So-byeong, for example. Until now, he had held the position of strategist, and his opinions had been indirectly conveyed through Hyun Jong.

But if the command were unified, a situation would arise where those who had walked the righteous path would have to risk their lives under the command of someone who had been called a bandit until recently. Could everyone truly accept that?

Perhaps because everyone was thinking along similar lines, this silence was quite prolonged. Seeing their reactions, Chung Myung finally opened his mouth.

“Unrealistic, impractical, it’s better to start with what’s possible… After being pushed around this much, are you still saying that?”

Chung Myung stared directly at Tang Gun-ak. Tang Gun-ak’s face hardened slightly. *’This boy is too bold,’* he thought, *’but maybe he has a point.’*

“The reason the Nine Sects were defeated is simple. Even with the centuries-old system of the Nine Great Sects and Five Families, they couldn’t overcome their limitations. The sweet name of alliance couldn’t break down the division of ‘us versus them.’”

“Of course, that’s true, but…”

“If we fight under such a flawed system, even if we win, it’s obvious that it will leave behind immense damage and bitter conflict. Surely you’re not thinking of dividing into factions again and fighting amongst ourselves after defeating those bastards?”

Everyone’s faces became like stone. Only Chung Myung, who continued to speak, remained calm.

“Then there’s only one way. We can no longer divide into sects, we have to combine our strength.”

Instead of waiting for Tang Gun-ak’s reply, Chung Myung turned his gaze towards his martial brothers.

“Those who clung to the existing system were invariably defeated. But those who, however clumsily, broke down those boundaries returned with the head of the Black Dragon King, something no one expected. Is there even one sect here that has achieved greater results than us against them?”

No. Surprisingly, there wasn’t.

Amidst the heavy atmosphere, Chung Myung’s eyes gleamed coldly.

“Let’s face reality. Since becoming enemies with those damned Four Evil Sects, we haven’t achieved a single victory against them. We haven’t won once, and we haven’t gained anything. A continuous string of defeats. We’ve only repeated the cycle of losing every time we engage and regretting it afterwards.”

Several people bit their lips.

“And yet, you’re saying we can win if we just pull ourselves together and fight properly? Without changing anything?”

Chung Myung let out a faint sneer. That smile made everyone flinch.

“People should learn from history, shouldn’t they? But to my eyes, it looks like we’re on a ship that’s slowly sinking.”

“Chief Strategist, your words are excessive.”

“If you’re going to argue that my words are excessive, then you need to change something, starting now. The methods we believed were right, everything we thought was correct. And…”

Chung Myung bit his lip tightly and pointed to himself.

“Even the things I believed were right.”

These were very meaningful words.

Jo Gul, who was almost the last to leave the meeting room, scratched his shaggy hair and sighed.

“……Will it be alright? The Sect Leaders’ faces were something else.”

“Why wouldn’t they be? This is a very sensitive issue.”

“Then shouldn’t we just not do it? Why go this far…”

“He must have thought it was necessary.”

“Chung Myung, you mean?”

“Yes.”

Jo Gul looked at Yoon Jong with a slightly strange expression and pouted.

“Senior Brother, you’re weird sometimes too.”

“What is it?”

“Recently, you’ve been acting like you’re completely against Chung Myung, ready to find small faults in everything he does. But now, why do you seem to be subtly agreeing with him?”

This guy, really. Yoon Jong sighed heavily.

“If everyone in the world were as simple as you, the world would be a peaceful place.”

“……Is that a compliment?”

“Yes. Probably.”

Yoon Jong shook his head as if he couldn’t help it and said quietly.

“I may disagree with him, but I agree on one thing. If we continue with the current methods, even if we manage to defeat the Four Evil Sects, a deep rift will form between us.”

“……Why is that?”

“Because someone will die because of those who hesitated at the last moment.”

Jo Gul nodded as if he understood the gist of it.

In this battle, they had combined all their different strengths to defeat the Black Dragon King.

But what if, at that crucial moment, some people had subtly pulled back to conserve their strength? And what if someone from Mount Hua had died because of them?

Jo Gul would never forgive them for the rest of his life. He might even show more anger than when facing the Demonic Sect.

“Even if we win the war, everything will be meaningless if we leave behind anger that can never be fixed.”

“Is that why?”

“……Perhaps he believes that we can’t win without that method.”

Jo Gul nodded as if he now understood vaguely.

“Something, um… It feels strange, yet obvious at the same time.”

“What do you mean?”

“This used to be so natural for Chung Myung. He’s always been changing something, hasn’t he? After coming to Mount Hua, he changed everything from martial arts to training methods, and even the system itself.”

“……”

“After that, he changed the way we treated other sects, and he even blurred the lines between enemies and allies.”

Yoon Jong nodded slowly, recalling the past.

“But from some point on, I started to feel like he was, how should I put it… respecting others. In the past, he would have smashed everything until people listened to him, but from some point on, he started listening to others as much as possible?”

“……He did.”

Yoon Jong had felt the same thing. And he had thought that it was just because Chung Myung was growing up and maturing.

But Jo Gul’s thoughts seemed to be a little different.

“Isn’t it that he can’t stand it anymore?”

“……Couldn’t stand it?”

“Yes. He wanted to do this from the beginning, right? Think about it. Originally, that guy is the type of person who, if he thinks something is right, doesn’t care about other people’s circumstances and just overturns everything and shouts for everyone to follow him.”

The countless hardships they had gone through flashed through his mind. He felt as if his whole body was aching.

“……That’s true.”

“Then it’ll be the same this time.”

Yoon Jong sighed briefly.

“It’s not that simple this time, Geol-ah. The reason we could trust him with everything was because we had nothing to lose anyway. The other Sect Leaders won’t be able to think as easily as we do.”

But Jo Gul chuckled and replied.

“That’s not the important thing, is it? Whether we have something to lose or not is the way people like Senior Brother think. The important thing is that we have to do as he says to win. Isn’t that right? And…”

Jo Gul said firmly.

“That it’s right.”

Yoon Jong closed his mouth.

“If it’s right, we have to do it, right? Of course.”

“That’s true, but…”

Jo Gul cut off Yoon Jong before he could say anything.

“Ah, honestly, I don’t know.”

His face was somewhat annoyed.

“From some point on, you, the Supreme Elder, Chung Myung, and even Martial Uncle, have all become so complicated. I don’t know why you have so much to think about. It wasn’t like this before.”

A hollow laugh escaped Yoon Jong’s lips.

“That’s because we didn’t used to…”

“Don’t talk nonsense. You’re saying we didn’t have anything to think about before? There were things to think about all the time. Rather, there were even more things to think about when Chung Myung first came. How much did we have to consider to revive a ruined sect?”

Yoon Jong paused for a moment. On second thought, he was right.

“There’s only one thing that’s changed. Back then, that guy didn’t even consider our feelings or positions. Even today, it’s the same. In the past, he would have foamed at the mouth and caused a ruckus when the Sect Leader said that each of us should take some time and have another meeting. Saying what kind of carefree nonsense are you spouting when we don’t have time.”

The image of Chung Myung lying down and causing trouble was easily imaginable. He knew it well without even seeing it.

“He would have.”

“He’s holding back now.”

“But isn’t that right?”

“You’re saying that’s right?”

Jo Gul looked at Yoon Jong quietly and said.

“Well, I used to think that Senior Brother was a bit old-fashioned but still an interesting person, but these days, you feel a bit different.”

“How so?”

“You’re starting to be like the other Sect Leaders I’ve seen in the past. Weighing this and that, considering everything, and ultimately choosing only the safest method.”

“……”

“Uninteresting.”

Jo Gul turned his body sharply.

“Geol-ah.”

“I’m going to go see Chung Myung. It’s been a while since that guy stirred up something interesting, so I’m going to tell him to not pull back halfway this time and turn things upside down properly.”

Jo Gul glanced back with just his eyes and said.

“Senior Brother will probably try to stop me anyway, so just stay here. Then.”

Yoon Jong blankly watched his retreating figure as he strode away.

“……Changed? Me?”

His eyes trembled slightly. These were words he couldn’t easily dismiss, having heard them from Jo Gul, of all people.