Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 473

“Hack! Hack! Hoo-wheeze!” Im So-byeong coughed, a wet, rattling sound.

He wiped his mouth with a silk handkerchief, wincing. He looked up at the sky, a pale grey sheet above the rough wooden roof.

“…Rain coming?” he muttered, his voice hoarse.

It felt ridiculous. A young man, leader of the Green Forest Clan, feeling the weather in his bones like a creaky old farmer. But his body knew. His cursed body always knew.

Im So-byeong rubbed his fingertips, a dull ache thrumming there.

*Damn this sickness.*

It was getting worse, he knew it. This strange weakness inside him, this icy feeling that doctors called ‘Yin imbalance,’ was making everything harder, even learning new fighting moves.

Bang!

Just then, the door burst open. It was Beon Chung, carrying a bowl of medicine.

“It’s time for your medicine.”

“That useless—cough!—medicine! Cough!”

“You still have to drink it.”

“Ugh.”

Im So-byeong accepted the medicine with a grimace. Taking it regularly wouldn’t cure his severed meridians, but it did help a little with the symptoms, so he had no choice but to drink it.

“Still, it was prescribed by a well-known doctor.”

“Haa, yes. That’s true.”

The money spent to find this medicine, which had very little effect, amounted to hundreds of thousands of Nyang, their local currency, and the cost of the medicine exceeded one hundred thousand Nyang a year.

Im So-byeong, his face twisted, gulped down the medicine.

Clatter!

He slammed the bowl down as if throwing it, then slowly leaned back in the chair covered with tiger skin.

“Has there been any word from Hwasan yet?”

“No.”

“…They’re late.”

As Im So-byeong groaned, Na Gok, one of the Green Forest Ten Soldiers, the Nine-Lock Scythe, cautiously spoke up.

“Those fellows, could they have taken the goods and run?”

“That…”

“You little rascal?!”

Just as Im So-byeong was about to speak, Beon Chung’s eyes blazed with fury, and he roared like thunder.

“How dare you say such things! Are you saying that our leader is the kind of petty man who deceives people! Come here! I’ll tear your mouth apart right now!”

Seeing Beon Chung, who was as furious as if he had heard insults against his parents, Na Gok flinched and stepped back.

“…Why is that man like that?”

“Talking about it only makes me bitter.”

Im So-byeong sighed deeply.

‘This one, that one.’

There was no one to trust, no one to trust.

At times like this, he should be even stronger, but his health was getting worse day by day, which was truly sad.

“…Still, they are supposedly righteous sect members. They wouldn’t break their word so easily.”

“I heard they were like bandits…”

“…”

“I also heard they were like swindlers.”

At the continuing remarks, Im So-byeong turned to Na Gok with a blank look. Na Gok tilted his head.

“Am I wrong?”

“…It’s not wrong, that’s why.”

Im So-byeong sighed, feeling trapped.

“Anyway, they wouldn’t want to become enemies with the Green Forest over just one Spirit Pill. So, they should be arriving soon…”

Just then.

“Green Forest King!”

A loud voice was heard from outside the door, and soon the door burst open.

“…If you’re going to do that, just leave it open.”

These bandit fellows had no concept of asking permission before opening a door. This Green Camp was too rough and basic a place for someone like Im So-byeong to live in.

Black Night Fox rushed inside.

“A letter has arrived from Hwasan!”

“Oh?”

Im So-byeong’s eyes widened, and he jumped up from his seat.

“They’ve come!”

A letter, he hadn’t expected that, but whatever the method, wasn’t it a good thing?

“Yes, what came with the letter?”

“…Pardon?”

Black Night Fox tilted his head, and Im So-byeong’s brow furrowed.

“Didn’t anything else come with it? Like a wooden box?”

“No.”

“…Nothing?”

“No.”

“Nothing at all?”

“Yes.”

“…Cough.”

“…”

Im So-byeong, who had shuddered, asked with a slightly twisted face.

“There isn’t anything bulky inside the letter, is there?”

“It’s very flat.”

“…Bring it here.”

“Yes.”

Black Night Fox respectfully handed Im So-byeong the letter he was holding.

Im So-byeong, with a hesitant look, tore open the envelope and unfolded the letter inside.

“…”

And at the same time, Im So-byeong’s eyes and mouth widened.

“Kkeueuk…”

He grabbed his chest and staggered to the side.

“Green Forest King!”

“A doctor! Bring a doctor, now!”

“Wa, water… A, a doctor or whatever, water… Quickly!”

“Yes! Here it is!”

Black Night Fox hurriedly grabbed a water bottle and offered it to Im So-byeong, who snatched it and gulped down the water in one go.

“Keh-eh-eh-eck! Cough! Aargh!”

Then, perhaps because he choked, he coughed violently and spat the water back out.

‘He’s really going to die like that.’

Black Night Fox picked up the letter that had fallen to the floor.

What on earth is written…

Black Night Fox’s eyes widened as much as Im So-byeong’s.

Going to the Northern Sea to get the ingredients for the Hongwon Pill, so wait a bit.

Ah, it won’t be fun if you cause an accident while I’m gone.

“Wh, what is th…”

Black Night Fox opened his mouth wide and couldn’t continue speaking.

“…Cra, crazy bastard…”

“Cough! Cough! Keu-haa, Ack, eugh!”

Im So-byeong coughed as if he were about to vomit his lungs. Then, finally, blood spurted from his mouth, causing the Green Forest Ten Soldiers to panic and rush towards him.

“My lord!”

“Are you alright?”

Im So-byeong looked at them with sad eyes.

“Sh, sure bit my tongue properly.”

“…”

“…”

“But… that crazy bastard…”

Im So-byeong stared at the letter with a completely shocked expression.

The Northern Sea, what nonsense is this? What about the Hongwon Pill he was supposed to give?

“This is not something we can just overlook! We must immediately rush to Hwasan and hold them accountable!”

Na Gok roared, his face flushed red. But Beon Chung and Black Night Fox, who should have shared his feelings, just stood there blankly.

Na Gok, undeterred, continued to raise his voice.

“The Green Forest King himself should personally strike down that arrogant fellow called Chung Myung and make him pay the price for daring to mock the Green Forest…”

“You.”

“Yes?”

Im So-byeong, with a weary face, beckoned him with his finger.

“Come here. Come here.”

“Yes?”

Na Gok tilted his head and approached him.

At that moment.

Whack!

“Ugh!”

Im So-byeong kicked Na Gok’s shin with all his might. Not satisfied with that, he even used both hands to slap the fallen Na Gok.

“What? Personally strike him down? This bastard’s eyes on my position are unsettling! Trying to get me killed! You want me to come back with my head cut off, don’t you? You bandit bastard!”

“Ack! Aack! Th, that’s not what I meant! I! Aaaargh!”

“Die! Die!”

As Im So-byeong violently lashed out at Na Gok, Beon Chung cautiously approached and tried to calm him down.

“He’ll really die if you keep doing that. Please calm down.”

Im So-byeong watched the heavy wooden training dummy swing back and forth. He turned to Beon Chung, who stood nearby. “Will I die if I get hit by that?” he asked.

Beon Chung shook his head quickly. “No, Master. But my lord would be very angry if you broke it,” he replied seriously.

Im So-byeong stopped training and tried to catch his breath. “Lock that annoying servant, Na-gok, in the storage room. No food for three days.”

“Yes, Master,” Beon Chung agreed.

Na-gok, who had been beaten for a small mistake and was now going to be locked up, started to cry and stumbled out of the room. Im So-byeong sat heavily on a chair and sighed deeply. “That man,” he muttered, “he really knows how to make me lose my temper.”

“What will you do, Master?” Beon Chung asked, concerned.

“Tsk.” Im So-byeong picked up a letter from the table. He stared at the words for a moment, then burned it with the Samadhi Fire. “There’s no way that sly old fox went to the Northern Sea without a reason,” Im So-byeong said, his voice low. “There must be something important there. He told me to wait, so I have to wait.”

“Are you really okay with just waiting, Master?” Beon Chung asked again, worried.

“Then, should I go all the way to the Northern Sea myself?” Im So-byeong asked, his voice rising in frustration.

Beon Chung stayed silent.

“Ugh! He sees the big picture, that man! There must be a reason for this! Yes! There must be a reason!” Im So-byeong’s eyes looked red with stress.

Beon Chung watched his master, a feeling growing in his stomach. *I think Master has been completely fooled by that Taoist,* he thought sadly. And he was right.

“Eesh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“My ear keeps itching. Is someone talking about me?”

“That’s strange. If your ear itched every time someone talked about you, it would be itching all day long.”

Just as Chung Myung was about to roll his eyes, a commotion erupted from the front.

“Sasuk!”

Baek Cheon’s head snapped around.

The person who had been lying on the bed, listlessly closing his eyes, began to flutter his eyelashes and open his eyes.

“He’s waking up!”

Baek Cheon, Yoon Jong, Jo Gul, and Hae Yeon stared at the child regaining consciousness with tense faces.

The child opened his eyes, stared blankly at the ceiling as if trying to focus, and then said weakly, “Mom.”

“Yes! Are you feeling better?”

“I’m hungry.”

The child’s mother, who had been waiting so long for that short sentence, burst into tears and hugged the child tightly.

Baek Cheon finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“There’s progress. There’s progress.”

“I’m so glad, Sasuk!”

“Amitabha. This is all thanks to the Buddha’s virtue.”

However, Chung Myung, who was standing behind them, narrowed his eyes. “So-so found the illness, and I caught the fish, so what did the Buddha do to deserve all the credit? Maybe if it was the Supreme Old Lord!”

“Benefactor.”

“Huh?”

“Are you not afraid of hell?”

“Hell, my foot.”

Chung Myung clicked his tongue and snorted. The patients were now getting up one by one. It had only been a day since they had eaten the raw food, but as Dang So-so had said, the patients were rapidly improving.

“I’ve brought the rice porridge!”

“Cool it down so it’s not too hot and feed it to the patients! If they eat too quickly, they might get sick, so slowly!”

“Yes, Doctor!” the villagers shouted enthusiastically.

The villagers saw the patients waking up. They were amazed. Now, they would do anything Dang So-so asked. They trusted her completely.

From their perspective, she was a doctor who had solved a strange disease that they couldn’t cure with any method in just a few days. It would be stranger not to trust her.

“So-so, is it just a matter of feeding them more raw food now? No other treatment is needed?”

“Yes, Sasuk. But overall, they are very weak from hunger. We need more food.”

“We’re starting to run out of the grain we brought.”

“Anything that can be eaten is fine. Now that things have come to this, it would be good to eat a little more fish.”

“Eek! Amitabha! Amitabha! Hail Avalokiteśvara!”

Dang So-so tilted her head with a puzzled expression, watching Hae Yeon suddenly have a fit.

“Why is the monk suddenly acting like that?”

“There are some things in the world that are better left unknown.”

Baek Cheon didn’t want to tell his youngest disciple about such a terrible thing.

“But it’s really strange. That something that can be solved so easily.”

“It’s a disease that wouldn’t have occurred in the past.”

“Hmm?”

Dang So-so’s face hardened slightly with anger. “Like an elder told me before, these people would usually fish in the winter and eat fresh food. But recently, the situation in the Northern Sea has prevented them from leaving their homes.”

“Hmm.”

“That’s why those who govern a region must always consider and think again about their actions. They don’t know what impact their small actions will have on the common people living in that region.”

Dang So-so is the daughter of the Sichuan Tang Family, who is no different from the king of Chengdu. Although not as much as the Ice Palace of the Northern Sea, the Sichuan Tang Family also has a great influence on the people of Chengdu.

That’s why she wouldn’t look kindly on this situation.

Bang!

Just then, the door was roughly opened, and the village chief, whom they had seen before, rushed in, panting. The trembling of the cane in his hand seemed to indicate how very worried the village chief was.

“Ah.”

The old man, having confirmed that the patients had regained consciousness, trembled his hands and turned to look at Dang So-so.

Then, without warning, he grabbed Dang So-so’s hand. His thin shoulders trembled, and a half-sobbing sound escaped. “Thank you. Really thank you.”

The disciples of Mount Hua couldn’t say anything. Although the village chief had treated them coldly before, they could all guess from this one action how anxious he had been about this situation.

“I don’t know how to repay this kindness.”

Seeing the misty moisture in the village chief’s eyes, Dang So-so smiled awkwardly. “I just did what I had to do, Village Chief.”

“No. How could this be something that should be taken for granted?”

The village chief bit his lip tightly. “You could have just left, and no one would have said anything. But you went out of your way to persuade us to cure the disease, and you even provided us with grain to help us survive in this poor Northern Sea. I don’t know how to express this gratitude. Really thank you so much.”

As Dang So-so was trying to find something to say, Chung Myung, who was next to her, smiled happily and answered instead. “It’s nothing. As a Taoist of the Mount Hua Sect, I just did what I had to do.”

“What, that guy?”

“What did he do?”

Baek Cheon and his group glared at him from behind, but Chung Myung didn’t even hear their words. “Just remember that the Taoists of the Mount Hua Sect did their best for this village.”

“So, Shaolin also.”

“What is he saying? He didn’t even do anything.”

Hae Yeon lowered his head sadly. Yoon Jong patted him on the shoulder. “We know. Don’t be too disappointed, Monk.”

The village chief bowed his head repeatedly with an extremely grateful expression. And then he asked cautiously, “Then, are they all cured now?”

“They are a bit weak from hunger, but they will all be able to recover soon.”

Dang So-so explained the cause of the disease step by step. The village chief, having heard everything, sighed with a pitiful expression. “Such a thing.”

The situation was so very bad that they had been preventing people from going outside, but who would have imagined that this would cause a disease to spread?

“It was my fault.”

“Don’t blame yourself. Village Chief, you just did the best you could. The problem isn’t the Village Chief, it’s the Ice Palace.”

As the word Ice Palace came out, a look of fear briefly crossed the old man’s wrinkled face.

Chung Myung, who was quietly watching the village chief, slightly curled up the corners of his lips. “Well, then, shall we get paid now?”

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

The disciples of Mount Hua hurriedly turned their heads towards Chung Myung. “Paid? You’re going to get something in return?”

“Of course! There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world!”

Of course, that wasn’t wrong. But it was a very inappropriate thing to say in this situation.

Just as Baek Cheon was about to say something harsh, the village chief bowed and said, “It is human nature to repay kindness when you have received help. However, as you can see, we are not very well off, so I can only apologize.”

“Hey, you don’t have to worry about that. It’s not like we’re trying to get money.”

“Yes?”

“We’re rich, so we don’t need money,” Chung Myung said, smiling broadly, sticking out his stomach.

For some reason, Baek Cheon wanted to poke that bulging belly and burst it open.

“Then what should we give you?” The old man asked with a slightly troubled face, and Chung Myung smiled as if he was excited.

“Village Chief.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s have a cup of warm tea and have a conversation.”

Chung Myung’s eyes slightly narrowed. “About what’s really going on here.”