Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 19

Chung Myung, who had been looking down from the roof, lay on his back. Beside him was a rice ball.

‘Ugh. I didn’t think I was such a kind person.’

If he went into the dining hall now, his martial siblings would be too busy watching him to eat properly. He should at least let them eat in peace. Wasn’t that the right thing to do?

Chung Myung patted his stomach and sighed.

‘It started more dramatically than I thought it would.’

He had planned to stay quiet for a while and watch what was happening. But those people didn’t just annoy him a little; they made him very angry.

So, what could he do? There were things he could accept, and things he simply couldn’t.

“What’s done is done.”

It was lucky that Un-geom was a reasonable man. Chung Myung had only hinted at his plan, and Un-geom understood perfectly, guiding him along. Because of that, things were going better than he expected.

Of course, he had other plans if Un-geom hadn’t agreed, but that would have been annoying.

‘He’s smarter than I thought.’

Smarter.

“…Smarter?”

Un-geom was Chung Myung’s granduncle and also his master. But Chung Myung was also Un-geom’s great-grandnephew in the family. Calling a granduncle-master ‘smart’ was disrespectful, but wasn’t calling a great-grandnephew ‘smart’ a compliment?

“Ugh. It’s complicated.”

He would need to spend more time to figure things out. His place in Mount Hua didn’t feel clear yet.

Anyway…

“Those two are definitely smart, though.”

Chung Myung looked at Yoon Jong and Jo Gul, who were entering the dining hall.

When many people were together, some were sure to stand out. Chung Myung thought those two would be the most important of the third-generation disciples.

“They are smart and sensible too,”

He was actually impressed. Most people, after being beaten so badly, would be whining and saying they were going to die. But these two weren’t complaining at all. They seemed even more determined.

Jo Gul, especially, stood out.

To be able to forget his anger after such a beating and think clearly about the situation… that was unusual. And he even believed that following Chung Myung would make him stronger. If he had any coins, Chung Myung would bet on that kid.

“If I train them well, they’ll be useful.”

Chung Myung chuckled and bit into his rice ball.

Those two were important, but Chung Myung himself was more important.

‘First, I need to make my body stronger.’

He had started well. There was still a long way to go, but he could say he had passed the most difficult part. So now, he needed to properly learn martial arts.

Then, what did he need most at this point?

A perfect body, of course.

Did he think that with all his knowledge, he could return to a young body and become stronger through meditation or sparring?

Absolutely not.

“Martial arts are honest.”

Theory was theory, and reality was reality. No matter how much he knew about martial arts, if he couldn’t *embody* the techniques – make them a real part of his movements, not just ideas, they couldn’t reach their full power.

Learning inner power and making it real in your body wasn’t just thinking. It needed hard work and physical training.

To do that, what he needed most was *muscle strength* – the power in his body.

Mount Hua’s sword was swift and dazzling?

In other words, Mount Hua’s sword needed someone to swing a sword full of inner power in one hundred and eight directions with just their wrist. The sword was dazzling, not the body.

To bloom beautiful and dazzling plum blossoms, one needed strong roots. In martial arts, the roots were the body.

‘You can’t only look at what you want to see.’

The world was amazed by Mount Hua’s dazzling sword. But because of that, they didn’t see that the person blooming those dazzling plum blossoms was desperately swinging their sword.

– Ah, damn swordplay! Why is it so complicated? Can’t we just stab them to death?

– Why do I have to twist three times when stabbing straight ahead! My wrist is going to break!

The legs of a swan gracefully gliding on the water were desperately paddling. If Mount Hua’s dazzling swordplay was the swan’s body, then the body that had to wield that sword was the swan’s legs.

So, he had to train and train again.

If those children learned even a quarter of the training he did, they would become the most powerful late-bloomers in the world in about three years.

Around that time, Mount Hua might become a powerful sect that become much stronger than Shaolin, rather than a sect that used the most dazzling swords in the world.

Chung Myung chuckled and stood up.

‘The problem isn’t the chicks, but their superiors.’

He could easily whip the chicks into shape, but he couldn’t control the higher-ups. So, he had to make them strong on their own…

Thinking of Un-geom made him sigh.

‘His talent isn’t bad.’

Judging from the aura around his body, he could feel how hard Un-geom had worked.

For someone who hadn’t been properly taught the sword, reaching that level was not easy. If he could teach him proper swordsmanship before it was too late, he would surely become a good swordsman.

‘But how do I give it to him?’

Chung Myung scratched his head.

This was difficult.

It would be nice if he could just throw it at him, but that would cause a commotion. He wasn’t confident in dealing with the aftermath. He had to pass on his swordsmanship as naturally as possible, without being too obvious.

“Ugh.”

Chung Myung scratched his head again.

He didn’t think he was stupid, but he hadn’t spent his life using his head, so it was always hard to find answers in these situations.

“Should I go back for now?”

To find a solution, he first needed to understand the situation.

He needed to check exactly which martial arts had been lost and whether the remaining martial arts were being properly taught.

Jo Gul swallowed hard as he looked at Chung Myung, who was sitting cross-legged in front of him.

‘I think I might have miscalculated a bit?’

Getting stronger? Training?

All good. All good.

But to do that, he had to keep living with this guy like this.

‘Can I handle this?’

The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

“So…”

“Yes.”

“Speak informally, Sahyung.”

“…Yeah.”

“So, this is all there is?”

“Yes.”

“I said speak informally.”

“Yeah.”

Chung Myung frowned as he looked at what Jo Gul had written.

“Is this really all there is?”

“That’s what I’m telling you….”

“Speak informally…. No, do as you please.”

He’d speak informally when he got used to it. That wasn’t important now.

Chung Myung grabbed his head as he looked at the paper, the ink not even dry yet.

“So, you’re saying that this is all the martial arts in the Library of Martial Arts?”

Jo Gul nodded silently.

“Ha, I’m going crazy.”

“…”

Chung Myung slumped in his chair. Jo Gul, as always, couldn’t even guess why he was doing this.

‘Why is he being like this?’

He suddenly told him to go to the Library of Martial Arts and write down all the titles of the martial arts books. Now he was snorting as he looked at the list he had written down.

“Is this all there is?”

And then he repeated the same words like a parrot.

‘No matter how I look at it, he’s not in his right mind.’

Sasook said that to become stronger, one had to give up many things.

But wasn’t this guy giving up too much? He should at least maintain a minimum of humanity…

“Sahyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Is there anything else besides this? There must be a limit to where Sahyung can go?”

“Reading isn’t allowed, but looking is okay. That’s all there is.”

“…No.”

Chung Myung’s gaze scanned the list again.

He had somewhat guessed the situation when he heard that they had thrown away the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique and learned a half-baked technique like the Tae-eul Mire Sword. But this was too much.

“No, how can so much be gone?”

And they only picked out the important sword techniques to get rid of.

How could this be possible unless someone was deliberately trying to ruin Mount Hua?

“So, you’re saying that the first-generation disciples mainly learn the Tae-eul Mire Sword and the Subduing Tiger Azure Sun Sword?”

“That’s what I know.”

“…I can’t believe this.”

Chung Myung scratched his head.

‘This is more serious than I thought.’

This wouldn’t do.

Of course, people were more important than martial arts. But there was a limit to that, wasn’t there? If the enemy was charging with a well-honed true sword, and you gave them a tree branch and told them to fight, they’d get slapped before they could even hand over the tree branch.

They had to do the minimum. The minimum.

But in Chung Myung’s opinion, the Tae-eul Mire Sword and the Subduing Tiger Azure Sun Sword were sword techniques that didn’t meet that minimum.

‘If only they had even the Seven Plum Sword.’

Mount Hua wouldn’t be in this state. The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became.

Chung Myung was trying to calm his very angry feelings when Jo Gul suddenly opened his mouth.

“I heard that…”

“Yeah?”

Something was coming out without him even asking.

“When the Demonic Sect attacked in the past, the West Library caught fire.”

“…The West Library caught fire? Ah, no, more than that, the Demonic Sect attacked?”

Why would the Demonic Sect attack Mount Hua? Hadn’t the Heavenly Demon died and they were falling apart?

Jo Gul asked another question before answering.

“Do you know the Plum Blossom Sword Saint?”

“I know him.”

Very well. No one knew him better than he knew himself.

“The Sasooks said that the Plum Blossom Sword Saint helped kill the Heavenly Demon.”

“…Helped?”

I cut that bastard’s head off, what? Helped?

Chung Myung’s face flushed slightly. To belittle the achievement he had made while sacrificing his life in this way!

“But, well. You never know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know, you rascal! The Plum Blossom Sword Saint cut off the Heavenly Demon’s head!”

“Huh? Who says that?”

“Who says that! That’s all…”

Huh?

Chung Myung’s head tilted slightly to the side.

‘Wait a minute.’

“I can’t say for sure that it’s not true either, because everyone who went up Daesan at that time died. So, no one knows how the Heavenly Demon died.”

“…”

That’s right. They all died. Chung Myung was the last one alive to cut off the Heavenly Demon’s head.

So, no one saw it…. That’s right. No one saw it.

That’s right.

Chung Myung realized.

‘No, then…’

He sacrificed his life for the honor of Mount Hua, but no one knew about it?

This situation is unfair!

“Anyway, they say that the Heavenly Demon fell at Daesan at that time, and the remaining members of the Demonic Sect went crazy and pushed down to the Central Plains. They suffered tremendous damage, but they still managed to climb up to Mount Hua and set everything on fire and made a mess?”

“…”

Cold sweat began to flow from Chung Myung’s entire body.

But Jo Gul, who didn’t notice the change in Chung Myung, continued to speak casually.

“They said they didn’t know why they did that. Mount Hua didn’t particularly have any grudges against them.”

“Uh…. Um, that’s…”

They didn’t know why they did that. I think I know.

“Heh heh.”

So, if you put these words together.

Mount Hua was destroyed.

‘Is it because of me?’

Huh?

Was it because of me?

“Heh heh heh heh heh.”

“Why are you laughing all of a sudden?”

“Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.”

Ah, what a life.

Heh. Heh heh heh.