Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 385

Silence hung heavy in the newly built pavilion. Dust motes danced in the sunlight streaming through the open sides, but no one moved. The disciples of Mount Hua were frozen, staring at the figure before them. Their faces showed a mix of confusion and something like… pity?

Finally, Baek Cheon cleared his throat, the sound echoing in the stillness. He looked at the man – or what was left of a man – slumped on the ground. The white clothes he wore were definitely human clothes, but his face… that was another story.

*Swollen like a melon.*

*More like a steamed bun, really.*

*Just how badly had Cheong Myeong beaten him?*

A flicker of pity softened Baek Cheon’s usually stern gaze. “Ahem,” he began, his voice calm and measured. “So… you are saying you are a disciple of the Ghostly Gate?”

“Y-Yes.”

“The Ghostly Gate, you say…” Baek Cheon paused, considering, then tilted his head.

“Have you heard of it, Jo Gul?”

“I’ve never heard of it before.”

The disciples of Mount Hua, looking slightly embarrassed, stared at the man again.

“Um… I’m sorry, but we’re not very knowledgeable.”

A look of injustice flickered across the man’s face, now swollen and purple.

Then, Cheong Myeong frowned slightly.

“Ghostly Gate?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve heard of such a place, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen someone from there. What I heard was, uh… their movement technique is so outstanding that they’re the best in the world, and…”

“That’s right.”

“They hide their presence and fly around like ghosts…”

“That’s right.”

Cheong Myeong also nodded with a dubious expression.

“That matches up.”

Having heard it, it was strange that he hadn’t realized it sooner. But in truth, hearing about something and seeing it are two different things, so it was understandable.

Baek Cheon, who had been listening with a serious face, asked him.

“Are you a villainous sect?”

“It’s hard to say if we are truly bad. If you really want to classify us, you’d have to say we’re somewhere between good and bad…”

Cheong Myeong shrugged.

“They’re still ghosts.”

“I’m a person.”

“Then you’re a robber.”

The Ghostly Gate disciple tried to express his injustice, but his swollen face wouldn’t move as he wished.

Baek Cheon, looking slightly flustered, stared at the Ghostly Gate disciple as if trying to say something.

“Anyway, I see. Then, uh… um. Uh…” He hesitated for a moment, then scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed.

“I’m sorry, but what’s your seniority? Your face is so… different now, it’s difficult to tell how old you are.”

“⋯⋯.”

The Ghostly Gate disciple squeezed his eyes shut in sorrow.

*There’s no easy opponent here.*

This bastard looks normal but chooses the words that irritate people the most.

“⋯⋯I’m over forty.”

“Then you’re a senior.”

“⋯⋯At a time like this?”

When the Ghostly Gate disciple spoke with a slightly sulky tone, Cheong Myeong tilted his head.

“Hey, did this bastard not get hit enough?”

As Cheong Myeong grabbed the shovel again, the Ghostly Gate disciple turned pale… no, he was already purple, trembling as he backed away.

“I, I’m sorry…”

“Geol.”

Baek Cheon said.

“Yes, Martial Uncle.”

“Put some candy in that bastard’s mouth. He’s starting again.”

“Yes.”

Jo Gul grabbed Cheong Myeong by the arms and hauled him back, Cheong Myeong protesting loudly with every step.

Even as he was dragged away by both arms, Cheong Myeong glared and shouted all the while.

“Answer me properly! Before I send you to the afterlife!”

Baek Cheon shook his head as if his head was throbbing, then looked back at the Ghostly Gate disciple.

“But why on earth did you do such a thing?”

“Well, that’s…” The Ghostly Gate disciple glanced at Cheong Myeong being dragged away, then opened his mouth.

“I am Gye Hyeong, the 12th disciple of the Ghostly Gate. In the martial world, I am known as Shadow Ghost.”

Then Cheong Myeong, who had been obediently dragged away, shook off Jo Gul and approached again.

“No one even knows the Ghostly Gate, but you have a nickname?”

“⋯⋯.”

Baek Cheon gestured to Jo Gul and said with a pitiful expression.

“Don’t mind him and continue. He’s always like that.”

“⋯⋯.”

“To a robber!”

“Please, don’t mind him.”

Gye Hyeong raised his head to look at the sky.

*Just kill me, you bastards.*

One was cursing, and the other was comforting him; it felt like candy was being shoved into his mouth while a whip was lashing his backside.

Which tune was he supposed to dance to?

If he had known that the Mount Hua bastards were this vicious, he would have run away without looking back.

“So, you are Gye Hyeop.”

“⋯⋯Hyeop is too much for me. Just call me Shadow Ghost.”

“How could I do that? Then I’ll call you Gye Gong. Anyway… Gye Gong, how did you come to be here?”

“That’s…” Gye Hyeong sighed deeply and began to explain.

“In fact, this place where you built the pavilion is one of our Ghostly Gate’s branches. To be precise, it should be called a safe house. A safe house, he knew, was a secret place for people who needed to hide.”

“⋯⋯A safe house?” Baek Cheon frowned.

He had heard of the term safe house before.

Those who needed to minimize their exposure and avoid the eyes of others, like assassins or robbers, would create hideouts called ‘safe houses’ in various places and hide whenever necessary.

“Here?”

“Yes.”

“⋯⋯Here?”

Gye Hyeong cleared his throat loudly.

“W-Well, of course, you’d be surprised. It’s a bit strange to have a safe house here.”

“⋯⋯Indeed.”

What kind of madman would build a hideout in the most bustling part of Seoan? (It was like the saying, ‘the best hiding place is in plain sight.’)

“T-This safe house has already been here for over two hundred years. Back then, Seoan wasn’t this bustling, and I heard there wasn’t even a main road this way.”

“Ah….”

If it was that old, it was understandable.

Yoon Jong, who had been listening to the story, exclaimed as if he understood.

“Ah. So, the ghost sightings in the abandoned house before were…?”

“⋯⋯Yes. It was us.”

“⋯⋯.”

Under the Mount Hua disciples’ blank stares, Gye Hyeong protested as if he was wronged.

“From the beginning, this place was a pavilion we built. But over the past two hundred years, the city of Seoan slowly expanded, people started living on either side, and at some point, they started occupying it as they pleased, saying it was an empty pavilion or something….”

“Wasn’t it actually empty?”

“⋯⋯That’s right.”

Gye Hyeong cleared his throat.

“But… given our position, we couldn’t come forward as the owners. And it wasn’t just once or twice.”

Baek Cheon nodded as if he finally understood.

“So, you pretended to be ghosts to drive people away. If rumors spread that it was an abandoned house haunted by ghosts, people wouldn’t want to live there.”

“Yes, that’s right. And as you can see, our martial arts are perfectly suited for such acts.”

“⋯⋯Indeed.”

“I thought you were real ghosts.”

“At that point, you could just acknowledge them as ghosts.”

A hazy figure flying at an invisible speed, and you expect people to think anything other than ghosts? Especially when you can’t even feel their presence.

Gye Hyeong nodded vigorously.

“This idea worked quite well, and in fact, there were no problems for a while. So, this time, I came to Seoan to manage it, but… the abandoned house that I had struggled to maintain, barely managing to keep it from collapsing… was nowhere to be found….”

“⋯⋯And now, it’s full of Taoist priests in black hats.”

“They were sword-wielding Taoists too,” someone murmured, a low whistle of surprise in their voice.

“Thinking about what they went through, it must have been terrible,” another disciple added, shaking his head.

A wave of sympathy washed over the group. Gye-hyung nodded, his eyes glistening, as if tears were just behind them, ready to spill. He looked like a small animal caught in a trap.

“It’s a little embarrassing to say this now. But when I learned those Taoists were from the Hwasan Sect, who are becoming famous… I just couldn’t…”

“I’m sorry.”

“We’re sorry.”

They hadn’t done anything wrong, but they felt like they should apologize.

“So, I tried to act like a ghost and scare people away, just like before. That was all I could do.”

Only then did the disciples of Hwasan, now understanding the whole story, nod their heads.

“…When you think about it, they didn’t really do anything that bad, did they?”

“That’s right. They didn’t hurt anyone, just pretended to be ghosts and startled people.”

“They got beat up way too much for the mistakes they made.”

“Way too much.”

“Yeah. Way too much.”

The disciples looked at Gye-hyung with pity, their eyes soft with sympathy.

Those sympathetic looks made Gye-hyung feel like he was about to cry.

‘What sins did I commit in my past life?’

He had just wanted a quiet life, away from trouble. Was that too much to ask?

To meet such a ruthless bastard?

“Enough.”

But that ruthless bastard seemed to have no interest in Gye-hyung’s circumstances.

“So, this is your house?”

“Y-yes, it is.”

“Do you have proof?”

“…Pardon?”

Chung Myung asked with a blunt look.

“Do you have proof that this is your mansion?”

“…Proof?”

Gye-hyung blinked.

“No, I mean, proof…”

They had even turned it into a haunted house to hide that it was theirs, so how could there be any proof?

“We bought this. We even have the deed.”

“Th-that is…”

“And.”

Chung Myung grinned, a flash of sharp teeth in a wide, almost too-bright smile, and gestured with his chin towards the dug-up pit.

“Originally, anything that comes out of the land belongs to the landowner. That’s the law.”

“Yes?”

“That’s ours now.”

Chung Myung smiled more brightly than ever.

“If you feel wronged, go argue in the government office.”

Gye-hyung stared blankly at Chung Myung. Then, with difficulty, he opened his mouth.

“Excuse me…”

“What?”

“Isn’t it a bit… strange to apply the laws of the secular world to the affairs of the Murim…”

“Are people from the Murim not citizens too? Are you trying to cause trouble?”

“…Th-that’s…”

Gye-hyung argued, flustered.

“Th-there’s that secret chamber, isn’t there! If it’s as I say! Wouldn’t that be as good as proof?”

“How does that prove anything? We dug it up first, and then you came.”

“If a gold chest came out of your house, would it become mine if I went there and insisted I buried it?”

“N-no, but…”

Gye-hyung felt lost in Chung Myung’s tricky words.

“Enough.”

Chung Myung grinned.

“Anyway, that’s ours now. Get out of the manor without another word. If you hang around one more time, I’ll really help you pass on.”

“What kind of law is th…”

“Is there a law that says you can come to someone else’s house and pretend to be a ghost to scare people away?”

Gye-hyung flinched.

“Consider yourself lucky. If I were in a bad mood, you’d really be a ghost.”

Chung Myung tapped him on the shoulder a couple of times, and it was at that moment when he turned around.

“Th-there’s no treasure there.”

Suddenly.

Chung Myung’s body froze in place.

And after a moment, his neck twisted strangely, bending backward.

“…What?”

A voice, low and chilling, crawled from Chung Myung’s throat, several times more eerie and terrifying than when Gye-hyung was pretending to be a ghost.

‘Eek!’

Gye-hyung’s eyes widened, his breath catching in his throat, horrified, quickly changed his words.

“N-no riches! I mean, there’s nothing that could be called riches! There’s something else…”

“Is that so?”

Chung Myung’s face melted back into a bright smile.

“Eh, what does that matter? If you can make money with it, it’s treasure. So, what’s inside there?”

“That is…”

Gye-hyung hesitated, moving his lips.

Then Chung Myung approached and patted him on the shoulder.

“You’re being frustratingly slow. If you’re like this, I’ll have no choice but to go in and check myself. The result will be the same anyway, so let’s not waste each other’s energy.”

At those words, Gye-hyung let out a deep sigh, as if giving up on everything.

“…It’s the Spirit Tablet.”

“Huh?”

“The Head Abbot’s Spirit Tablet. The Head Abbot’s Spirit Tablet of the Yuryeong Sect is inside that warehouse.”

“…Huh?”

Even the great Chung Myung couldn’t hide his bewilderment this time.

“The Head Abbot’s Spirit Tablet?”

“…Yes.”

“So. That Spirit Tablet that symbolizes the authority of the Head Abbot, who presides over the major and minor affairs of the sect?”

“Yes.”

“That Head Abbot’s Spirit Tablet that, depending on the situation, holds even more power than the Head Abbot?”

“…That’s right.”

“That’s inside there?”

Gye-hyung nodded weakly. This was something that should never be revealed, but he had no power to stop what was happening here anyway.

That devilish bastard would somehow open that place and search it.

“Why is that here?”

“…It’s a bit complicated to explain. That is…”

“If it’s complicated, forget it. Don’t explain.”

Then why did you ask, you bastard?

“Hmm. So, you’re saying the Head Abbot’s Spirit Tablet is inside there?”

“Yes. It’s an incredibly important item to the Yuryeong Sect, so please…”

“The Head Abbot’s Spirit Tablet…”

“…Yes?”

The corners of Chung Myung’s lips curled up.

“So, you’re saying that just by possessing it, one can have the same command authority as the Head Abbot, that Head, Abbot, Spirit, Tablet is inside there?”

“Really? Hee hee hee. Is that so? Ehehehehehehe!”

Chung Myung began to laugh innocently, like a child who had received a toy he liked too much.

Feeling an indescribable sense of dread, Gye-hyung cautiously called out to him with eyes that couldn’t hide his anxiety.

“Th-that, Young Taoist?”

“Not anymore.”

“…Yes?”

Chung Myung straightened his shoulders and looked at Gye-hyung with an extremely benevolent expression.

“From now on, you must call me Head Abbot’s Tablet Master.”

“Please take care of me from now on. Hee hee hee.”

What are you asking me to take care of, you crazy bastard…

There’s really no hope, really…

Gye-hyung, who had barely been holding on, finally grabbed the back of his neck and fell backward.