Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1752

Heo Do-jin listened to the story, his face calm.

“So, that is what happened,” Baek Cheon finished, his voice quiet.

For a moment, Baek Cheon’s head drooped slightly. He tried to hide it, but a tremor he couldn’t conceal was visible.

Heo Do-jin sighed softly.

“Are you blaming yourself?” he asked.

“I……,” Baek Cheon started.

“How arrogant,” Heo Do-jin interrupted.

Baek Cheon looked up, surprised.

“Are you saying that if you had stayed with the Cheonwoo Alliance, or if you hadn’t been injured, you could have prevented this?” Heo Do-jin asked.

Baek Cheon pressed his lips together, unable to answer.

“If their goal was to harm the Cheonwoo Alliance, this was bound to happen sooner or later. Only the form would have been different,

To think you could have prevented it alone is arrogant.”

Baek Cheon sighed softly.

“Thank you for thinking about me,” Baek Cheon said quietly.

Heo Do-jin, who had been watching Baek Cheon closely, shook his head.

“No,” Heo Do-jin said, his voice low. “You still don’t understand what I mean. Some things are too heavy for just words to carry.”

He, too, had experienced this. No matter how righteous the path, some things can’t be helped by one person or sect.

He should have realized that sooner.

Heo Do-jin gazed at Baek Cheon silently.

Baek Cheon’s arms were gaunt, and his face was haggard. His eyes, once full of vigor, were now clouded.

Could he be described as ‘fallen’?

Heo Do-jin didn’t think so.

If that were the case, Heo Do-jin wouldn’t have offered Baek Cheon a place to hide, no matter how pitiable he was.

Even in those clouded eyes, Heo Do-jin could still see the Baek Cheon he remembered.

Heo Gong and Jin Hyun, who had brought him here, must have seen the same thing.

‘Perhaps they thought two people in a similar situation should lean on each other.’

Heo Do-jin had a silly thought, and then cleared his throat.

If that was the intention, it had hit the mark to some extent. The Heo Do-jin of the past would never have given Baek Cheon a place to rest.

Now, Heo Do-jin understood the feeling of wanting to escape from everything, the despair of having nowhere left to fall.

Giving such a person a small nest wasn’t so difficult.

“So, what do you intend to do now? You can’t hide here forever, can you?” Heo Do-jin asked.

“You know this is just an escape.”

His voice was sharper than before, not to rebuke Baek Cheon, but like a question he was asking himself.

What was he like before Baek Cheon appeared, kneeling and asking for a place to rest?

The two weren’t so different.

Heo Do-jin, too, was hiding in this cottage to avoid people’s gazes and his own situation.

“As you know, there are talented people in the Cheonwoo Alliance. They may be too busy to find you now, but eventually…,” Heo Do-jin said.

“That will not happen,” Baek Cheon said calmly.

“Hmm?” Heo Do-jin questioned.

“They aren’t too busy to find me. Someone in the Alliance knows where I am, but they aren’t looking.”

Heo Do-jin nodded.

“I understand. Whatever the circumstances, it’s not something I need to know.”

“……”

“But that doesn’t change my question. What do you intend to do now?” Heo Do-jin’s eyes darkened.

Although he took Baek Cheon in out of pity, Baek Cheon’s situation was desperate, perhaps more so than Heo Do-jin’s, who had lost the will to live.

Heo Do-jin had lost many disciples due to a wrong choice, a small arrogance that clouded his judgment.

But even so, Heo Do-jin was still a Taoist of Wudang, with people who understood him.

How could he compare to Baek Cheon, who had fallen into the world alone?

“If you want to live in seclusion, I will help you,” Heo Do-jin offered.

“……”

“I can give you enough money. You can go to a foreign country and live as you wish.”

He knew these offers wouldn’t appeal to Baek Cheon.

He offered them anyway because he had imagined it himself and, in a way, wanted it.

He couldn’t choose that path, but would it have been different if someone had pushed him?

“If not, is there anything else you want?”

At Heo Do-jin’s question, Baek Cheon slowly raised his head.

The Plum Blossom Sword Saint of Mount Hua, once praised for his bravery, was now so broken that the word ‘haggard’ seemed inadequate.

But his eyes suddenly seemed to have returned to the past, to that ‘look’ that Heo Do-jin remembered.

“Perhaps… could you give me a teaching?” Baek Cheon asked.

“A teaching?” Heo Do-jin repeated.

A teaching could mean many things, but for a martial artist, it meant only one thing, if Baek Cheon still considered himself one.

“What do you mean?” Heo Do-jin asked.

“The ability to overcome the strong with the weak.”

“……”

“Or using four ounces to move a thousand pounds. I’ve heard Wudang is the best at subduing greater force with lesser force. Could you teach me that secret?”

Heo Do-jin looked bewildered.

“Are you asking me to teach you martial arts now? I am not a doctor. I cannot fix that arm.”

“I know,” Baek Cheon replied.

“Then?” Heo Do-jin asked.

“I don’t think the mysteries of Wudang are limited to swordsmanship and palm techniques.”

“……”

“There must be ways to use the body and legs as well.”

Heo Do-jin sighed.

“Is it difficult?” Baek Cheon asked, his expression firm and calm.

‘What kind of fellow is this…?’ Heo Do-jin wondered.

Baek Cheon knew his condition best, and yet he was talking about fighting.

Wudang wasn’t limited to swordsmanship and palm techniques. In terms of using the torso and legs, it surpassed even Shaolin. After all, the Tai Chi Fist was a martial art of Wudang.

But how much could he teach someone with almost no internal energy and who couldn’t use his arms?

“I cannot understand,” Heo Do-jin said, dumbfounded.

“Even if you learn the mysteries of Wudang, do you think you can regain your strength?”

“Of course not,” Baek Cheon answered easily, which made it even more absurd.

Heo Do-jin asked, “Then what exactly are you going to learn?”

Baek Cheon tilted his head.

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm?”

“Of course, I, as the sect leader…,” Baek Cheon began.

“Call me Taoist Master,” Heo Do-jin corrected.

“Yes. Even if I learn from you, I know I won’t reach my past strength. But that doesn’t mean I can only fight if I become as strong as I was, does it?”

“……”

“The strong have their way of fighting, and the weak have theirs. I’m just trying to find a way to fight in my position. It will be of some help, however slight.”

Heo Do-jin’s eyes wavered.

“Mount Hua will not accept you back.”

“I know.”

“Jongnam will not want you either, as you are not their disciple.”

“That is only natural.”

“You may not even be able to join the Cheonwoo Alliance, because you have no affiliation.”

“That may be the case.”

“And yet you still want to fight?”

Baek Cheon stared blankly at Heo Do-jin, as if he had heard something difficult to understand.

“I am no longer a disciple of Mount Hua, nor a member of the Cheonwoo Alliance. I may not even be a martial artist who fought relying on his swordsmanship.”

“……”

“But I didn’t fight because I was a disciple of Mount Hua, nor because I was a member of the Cheonwoo Alliance. I didn’t even fight because I was strong. So… is there any reason why I shouldn’t fight now?”

Heo Do-jin’s hand trembled slightly. Baek Cheon’s words weighed heavily on his heart.

“A reason not to fight…”

He didn’t fight because he was a disciple of Mount Hua, nor because he was a member of the Cheonwoo Alliance, nor because he was strong.

Then…

“Well, now that I think about it, there’s no particular reason,” Heo Do-jin chuckled.

He kept letting out absurd, hollow laughs.

“Hehe. Hehehe. Yes, there isn’t. There wasn’t. Yes…”

Something sparkled in the corner of his eye as he couldn’t stop laughing. Heo Do-jin wiped his eyes and stared at Baek Cheon, his eyes much softer than before.

“You asked me to teach you how to fight?”

“Yes.”

“You are someone who has refused to be a disciple of Jongnam. Of course, you have no intention of becoming a disciple of Wudang.”

“That is so.”

“So you’re asking me, the former sect leader of Wudang, to teach you, who is not a disciple of Wudang, the mysteries of Wudang, enough that we can’t demand anything specific from you.”

“……”

“And yet, we have to make sure you don’t die somewhere… and because the situation is urgent, we have to solve even that in just a few days?”

“In other words… yes.”

Heo Do-jin shook his head, dumbfounded.

“You’re nothing but a robber. Don’t you know shame?”

“Face is the smallest thing I’ve lost. It’s not that great that I would want to get it back now.”

“……”

At Baek Cheon’s calm answer, Heo Do-jin was momentarily speechless. His blank gaze was on Baek Cheon, but it seemed to be looking somewhere else.

“Taoist Master?” Baek Cheon asked.

“That’s right. Yes, you’re right,” Heo Do-jin replied.

“……”

“It’s not that great that I would want to get it back… Yes, that may be the case for someone who has lost something greater. It is said that everything is a matter of perspective.”

Heo Do-jin’s gaze turned to the sky, his eyes empty.

He looked at the empty air for a long time before speaking.

Heo Do-jin suddenly looked sharply at Baek Cheon.

“Listen,” Heo Do-jin said, his voice heavier and more subdued than before.

“Martial arts were originally meant for the weak to fight against the strong. If you want, I can teach you how to fight back. But like people, martial arts are not perfect. Even if you do your best, you will still be a third-rate martial artist.”

“……”

“Even so, you will have to endure terrible hardships to get that little bit. Are you still willing to fight after all this?”

“Yes,” Baek Cheon replied.

There was no great resolution, he simply nodded as if discussing something natural.

The corners of Heo Do-jin’s lips faintly lifted.

‘Perhaps I’m the one who’s learning,’ Heo Do-jin thought.

Heo Do-jin slowly reached out his hand.

“Then brace yourself. The Tao of Wudang is not as lenient as that of Mount Hua. I will engrave strictness into you.”

In the deep heart of Wudang Mountain, the voices of two people who had turned their backs on the world began to be heard.