Return Of The Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 3

Goochil thought, *He must be crazy.* He looked at Chung Myung with a serious face.

‘Did he get hit so hard he lost his mind?’

He was hit pretty hard.

The Boss always had a tendency to beat people a bit too much, but today he really seemed determined. He wouldn’t beat a dog that hard on the hottest day of the year.

Those who would normally try to stop the Boss were so intimidated by his ferocity that they couldn’t even think of interfering. So, a normal person should be groaning by now…

“So, you’re saying I’m a beggar?”

‘His body is fine, but his mind is gone?’

A beggar is asking if he’s a beggar.

Could there be anything more absurd than this?

This guy is definitely acting strange today. No, very strange.

Goochil thought Chung Myung was always trying to avoid work and cause trouble. He was just unlucky to be caught today, but he was always lazy. He would have been beaten sooner or later.

In the beggar’s den, it was a golden rule that if you couldn’t beg for your own food, you would either starve to death or be beaten to death.

Whether it’s a dog or a person, they usually come to their senses for a while after being beaten. That’s normal.

But the opposite was happening right before Goochil’s eyes.

“Really? I’m a beggar living in a place like this? There’s no way.”

“…Are you blind?”

“Huh?”

“Just look at what you’re wearing. It doesn’t seem too difficult to figure out your identity.”

Chung Myung lowered his head. He saw rags patched together with all sorts of fabric. He called it clothes because he was wearing it, but it was just a tattered mess that no one would recognize as clothing if it were thrown away.

A normal person would nod and walk away at this point, but Chung Myung didn’t know how to give up.

“Don’t I even have a name?”

Goochil sighed softly.

“What name would a beggar have? We just make one up and call you that. You’re Chosam (Grass Three).”

“…Sounds like a beggar’s name.”

See? His condition isn’t good at all.

“Why a beggar of all things? What a beggar-like thing to happen.”

“⋯⋯.”

“Age? Maybe around sixteen?”

“How would a beggar know his age?”

“I suppose not.”

There’s more than one or two strange things about this.

The way he spoke and acted was completely different. It’s too much to simply attribute it to a severe blow to the head. Besides, isn’t he asking questions as if he doesn’t know anything?

“Then what year is it now?”

“…I’ve seen all sorts of beggars in my life, but this is the first time I’ve seen one counting the days. Why would a beggar care about the year? Just find food for today!”

“What a beggar.”

Goochil raised his hand and rubbed his eyes. A beggar’s life is always tiring and hungry, but at this moment, he felt twice as tired as usual.

“Then I’ll ask you one thing.”

“…You’ve been asking questions all along.”

“Are you the Heavenly Demon?”

Goochil frowned.

“You kept talking about the Heavenly Demon earlier. Why are you suddenly looking for him so much?”

“Just answer the question.”

“Of course, I know him. He’s the great demon, a powerful evil leader, who died a hundred years ago.”

“What?”

“The great demon…”

At that moment, Chung Myung grabbed Goochil’s shoulders tightly, shaking him back and forth. “The Heavenly Demon died a hundred years ago? A hundred years? Did you just say a hundred years? A hundreeeed yeeeears?”

“⋯⋯.”

He really seems to have lost it.

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Is that the absolute truth?”

“What do I gain from lying to you? You’re nothing but skin and bones!”

Chung Myung, who had been glaring, opened his mouth and then released Goochil’s collar with a shocked expression. Then, he suddenly began to scratch his head vigorously.

‘He’s definitely gone mad.’

Looking at his face, that’s the only thing I can think. He seems to be out of his mind, completely insane. Goochil realized for the first time that a person’s face could express so many different kinds of ‘bewilderment.’

“A hundred years ago?”

“Should I say it again?”

“⋯⋯I’m going crazy.”

Chung Myung looked up with a blank expression.

He hoped that seeing the blue sky would comfort him a little, but all he could see was the dark ceiling of the dugout. It was as gloomy as Chung Myung’s mood.

“Are you saying a hundred years have passed?”

Goochil, who was starting to get annoyed, shouted.

“Why are you repeating what I said like a parrot! A hundred years have passed! The Murim Alliance fought the Heavenly Demon at the summit of the Ten Thousand Mountains and eventually took his head, that whatchamacallit…! Right! The Great Mountain Bloodshed happened roughly a hundred years ago!”

“⋯⋯I understand.”

That’s why I’m going crazy.

Chung Myung stared at Goochil with a dazed expression.

‘I wish he was just a beggar who didn’t know anything.’

The guy who had gleefully beaten Chung Myung a moment ago was a First Class Beggar of the Beggar’s Union. That meant that the guy in front of him also had a foot in the Beggar’s Union.

Don’t they usually say there are ten thousand members of the Beggar’s Union?

But the Beggar’s Union wasn’t the wealthiest group in the world, and they couldn’t feed and house all ten thousand members. The Beggar’s Union was known to be quite profitable for a beggar clan, but there were still limits to their funds.

Most of those ten thousand members were just beggars like Goochil in front of him. The Beggar’s Union gave these beggars the title of Mukyeolgae (knotless beggar) and treated them as members.

That meant that even the beggars roaming the streets were more knowledgeable about the affairs of the Murim than ordinary people.

So, it could be considered somewhat reliable. If he knew the fact that the alliance gathered from each sect had climbed the mountain, there was nothing more to see.

“Heo. Crazy. A hundred years.”

It was enough time for the landscape to change five times over.

Now he had to accept it. He had been reborn in another’s body.

But…

‘Couldn’t you have let me be reborn right after I died?’

If a hundred years had passed, everyone who knew him would be dead. Of course, even if a hundred years hadn’t passed, most of those who had associated with him had died on the mountain, but this was still different, wasn’t it?

Even though Chung Myung was a martial artist, he wouldn’t have only associated with other martial artists. Among those he knew were merchants and commoners. But now that a hundred years had passed, there was no chance that they would still be alive.

He felt like he was alone in the world.

‘How could things get so twisted? If that’s the case, then the Mount Hua Sect…’

“Huh? Wait, Mount Hua!”

Chung Myung suddenly jumped up from his seat and shouted, causing Goochil to close his eyes as if he had given up.

Nothing was surprising anymore.

“Mount Hua! What happened to Mount Hua?”

“What are you talking about?”

“What happened to Mount Hua!”

“Mount Hua?”

“Yes!”

“What is Mount Hua?”

“⋯⋯Huh?”

Chung Myung’s eyes widened.

He doesn’t know Mount Hua? A beggar from the Beggar’s Union?

“Okay, stop joking around. What’s the current situation with the Mount Hua Sect?”

“Mount Hua Sect?”

Goochil tilted his head.

He doesn’t know?

He doesn’t know the Mount Hua Sect?

“Goo, you don’t know the Mount Hua Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects? Hey, you…”

“Nine Great Sects? What nonsense are you spouting? There’s no Mount Hua Sect in the Nine Great Sects.”

“⋯⋯There isn’t?”

“Shaolin, Wudang, Jongnam, Jeomchang, Gongdong, Cheongseong, Emei, Hainan, Kunlun, and the Beggar’s Union. Those are the ten sects.”

“Hae, Hainan? Those island bumpkins kicked their way into the Nine Great Sects? Ah, no, wait, that’s not the important thing. Mount Hua was kicked out of the Nine Sects?”

Goochil sighed softly.

‘Should I call a doctor?’

It seems like I need to do something. He’s gone completely mad.

“Mount Hua, Mount Hua was kicked out of the Nine Great Sects? No, let’s say that’s possible! But you don’t know the Mount Hua Sect? Even if a rich man goes bankrupt, he’ll still last three years! A beggar from the Beggar’s Union doesn’t know the Mount Hua Sect?”

With the audacity to call the person right in front of him a beggar, it seemed like he wouldn’t starve to death anywhere. He might get beaten to death, though.

Chung Myung grabbed Goochil’s shoulders tightly, shaking him back and forth. “Does that make sense? Does any of this make sense?”

Goochil’s head shook helplessly.

“You really don’t know? Mount Hua? You don’t know the Mount Hua Sect? Mount Hua?”

“⋯⋯Mount Hua.”

“Yes! Mount Hua!”

Goochil tilted his head.

“Now that you mention it, I think I heard that there was a sect like that in Shaanxi.”

Chung Myung’s eyes widened.

“Yes! Shaanxi is right! The Mount Hua Sect of Shaanxi.”

“As far as I know, it went bankrupt.”

“⋯⋯What?”

He felt breathless.

“I don’t know if the Mount Hua Sect was one of the Nine Great Sects, but I think I’ve heard that a very prestigious sect called Hwa-something was completely destroyed in the war between good and evil. I don’t know for sure. If you want to know more, ask the higher-ups…”

What nonsense is this? Mount Hua went bankrupt?

Mount Hua? Mount Hua went bankrupt?

“This beggar is talking nonsense.”

Goochil looked up at the ceiling with slightly moist eyes.

Even if I tell him everything I know, all I get in return is 욕. That’s why you shouldn’t take in black-haired animals.

“No! I can’t believe it!”

Chung Myung pushed Goochil away and jumped to his feet.

“I have to see it for myself!”

Goochil shouted as he watched Chung Myung run out.

“Hey! The Boss said he’d beat you to death if you don’t beg properly by dinner! Don’t waste your time and get to work!”

But Chung Myung ignored Goochil’s words and left.

“⋯⋯Why is that bastard acting like that today?”

Goochil tilted his head, unable to understand Chung Myung’s sudden change.

“⋯⋯Heo.”

Is this what the face of a merchant who has lost all his fortune looks like?

Chung Myung’s face, slumped in a corner of the marketplace, was filled with despair.

At first, he thought that there was no way a Mukyeolgae would know anything.

Now that he thought about it, the First and Second Disciples of Mount Hua had been wiped out in that battle, which was now called the Great Mountain Bloodshed, so it was possible that the sect’s power had declined.

In the meantime, they might have been pushed out of the Nine Great Sects.

But no matter how much he thought about it, how could Mount Hua, which had dominated the world, become a sect that even beggars didn’t know in just a hundred years!

A sect that even beggars don’t know… what a terrible feeling…

Anyway, he thought that maybe this beggar didn’t know, but others might know Mount Hua.

But no matter who he grabbed and asked, the result was the same.

– Mount Hua? Are you talking about the mountain in Shaanxi?

– Mount Hua Sect? There’s a martial sect on Mount Hua?

– I’ve never heard of such a sect.

– This beggar is grabbing people’s sleeves. Do you want to die?

Ah. Except for the last one.

No one knows.

“Does this make sense?”

What kind of sect is Mount Hua?

There were many sword sects in the world, but there was no sword sect more famous than Mount Hua. It was a bit ambiguous to claim that it was the most famous sword sect in the world, but no one could argue that it was one of the three most famous sects in the world, along with Wudang and the Namgung Clan.

But they don’t know?

“Heo⋯⋯.”

This was the most positive reaction.

– Mount Hua Sect? I think I’ve heard of it. Wasn’t it a famous sword sect in the past? I heard that they were destroyed by the Heavenly Demon? Are they still around?

Completely destroyed? That Mount Hua?

“What kind of nonsense is this?”

It would be more realistic if the Imperial Palace caught fire and the Emperor ran away in his underwear.

Mount Hua went bankrupt! Mount Hua!

The last image of the Sect Leader was flickering before his eyes.

The Sect Leader, who always had a gentle face and a hearty laugh, had collapsed with an indescribably grotesque expression.

‘I’m glad I was reborn.’

If the Sect Leader had been reborn and heard this absurd news, he would have vomited blood and died again.

“No, no!”

Chung Myung jumped up from his seat.

“I have to see it with my own eyes!”

No matter how much the sect had declined, it had continued for hundreds of years. He couldn’t believe it until he saw it with his own eyes.