Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 67

The Eunha Merchant Guild was incredibly powerful.

The Eunha Merchant Guild did something amazing. They fixed and reorganized all of Hwa-Um’s businesses in just a few days. Even Hwasan, with all its people working hard, couldn’t do that.

Thanks to this, Hyun-Young, the Lord of Jae-Kyung Hall, who usually looked like a scary monster, always had a happy smile on his face.

And that happy smile was mostly directed towards…

“Have you eaten, Chung Myung?”

“Yes, Great Uncle.”

“Good, good.”

Hyun-Young stroked Chung Myung’s head with a loving smile, his eyes full of kindness.

“You must eat a lot. Eat a lot and go out there to earn more merit.”

“…Pardon?”

“No, no. I mean, build up achievements.”

“…”

The third-generation disciples were surprised that their fierce Great Uncle Hyun-Young could smile, and even more surprised that he could stroke someone’s head.

Chung Myung felt strange letting a younger person pat his head. It felt like being trained, not the other way around.

Even Hyun-Jong and Hyun-Young were looking younger. Seeing black hair growing back made them look more energetic.

‘Well, they did age excessively.’

They looked old for their age, especially because they were strong martial artists. It seemed that those who had aged too quickly were becoming young again as they found peace of mind.

Hwa-Um was stable, and the elders were smiling again.

Time began to pass quickly. The disciples of Hwasan felt safe for the first time in years and enjoyed the peace.

And while everyone was enjoying a peaceful life, the third-generation disciples were working hard.

“Keeeugh!”

“Aigo! Aigo!”

The third-generation disciples, carrying huge rocks, were covered in sweat. They bent down and stood up with all sorts of noises.

“Keeeugh!”

“Ugh, my back…”

However, one thing had changed: Chung Myung wasn’t yelling at them as much.

“Aigo, I’m going to die!”

“You won’t die. You won’t die. Straighten your back.”

“No, I’m really going to die!”

“Just two more times. Come on, this is the last one. This is the last one. Heave-ho! Good job. Just one more time?!”

“Aaaargh!”

The one who fell to the ground pushed away the rock and breathed heavily.

“A-Aren’t we going to die doing this?”

“I told you, you won’t die. No one has died yet.”

“…Keeugh.”

At first, they started without knowing why because Chung Myung told them to. They started training because they didn’t want to be hit. But after doing the training for a few months, they realized something.

‘This is effective.’

The effect was enormous. After being able to handle the training because of the spiritual medicine Chung Myung gave them, everyone felt the training working on their bodies.

First, their lower bodies became stronger, so their sword stances were steady. Their stamina increased, and their bodies were full of energy.

Even though they hadn’t been very motivated before, they were still martial artists. Martial artists would do anything to become stronger.

Who would refuse training if they could get stronger by just lifting some stones?

They complained, but the number of stones they carried increased, and now some of them were lifting boulders.

Jo-Gol was the most noticeable. He was lifting a rock twice his size. Everyone was amazed.

“Is that even possible without using internal energy?”

“I know, right?”

The people watching had changed a lot. In just a few months, everyone had grown taller, and their shoulders were broader.

Jo-Gol had changed so much that people wouldn’t recognize him. He had been one of the smallest of the third-generation disciples, but now he was one of the largest, with a muscular body.

Yoon-Jong looked around at everyone and smiled.

‘It’s strange.’

When he first started this training, Yoon-Jong was worried.

Hwasan’s sword style is based on speed and change, using techniques like Byeon-Geom (Changing Sword) and Hwan-Geom (Illusory Sword). He thought that training to increase strength would make it harder to use Hwasan’s sword style.

But when the training started to show results, their swords became twice as sharp.

He was able to learn the Six Harmony Sword easily, and now he was learning a new sword called the Falling Blossom Sword.

It was hard to learn it with the Seven Star Steps, but Yoon-Jong was happy to do it.

The Seven Star Steps and the Falling Blossom Sword were different from the martial arts they had learned before. The more he learned, the more secrets to becoming even stronger were hidden. It gave him confidence that he could become stronger just by mastering this.

So, he was excited.

‘However, there is one thing.’

“Heuuuuaaaah!”

“Keeeugh!”

“Keuh, now that my body is bigger, the sword feels like chopsticks!”

“Kekekeke! Is this all you’ve got! Bring me another piece of iron!”

Is this really Hwasan, or is it turning into a rough camp of fighters?

Yoon-Jong felt that Hwasan, which should be full of spiritual energy, was turning into a den of bandits.

“Senior Brother. It’s almost time to go eat.”

“Hmm, that’s right.”

In the past, everyone had been waiting for training to end, but now they were setting their own training plans and often went over time.

Yoon-Jong had to manage them so that their daily plans wouldn’t be disrupted by too much training.

“Let’s stop now and go in. We need to wash up, eat, and go to morning training.”

“Yes, Senior Brother.”

“I’ll finish what I’m doing and wrap up.”

“Okay. Do that.”

Yoon-Jong looked around and glanced at Jo-Gol.

“By the way, where is Chung Myung?”

“He doesn’t come to training often these days, does he?”

“I guess so.”

“It’s not like he’s lying down and sleeping, and he seems to be the first one up every morning, so where on earth is he wandering around?”

“How would we know? Isn’t Chung Myung the busiest person in Hwasan, actually?”

“That’s true.”

It was the truth. After a series of events, Hwasan was alive again. Visitors were common, and the businesses recovered from Hwa-Um were being renovated and making money.

The old buildings of Hwasan were being renovated, and preparations for visitors were being made.

Chung Myung was busy going back and forth between the Eunha Merchant Guild and Hwasan.

“Senior Brother.”

“Hmm?”

“How strong have we become now?”

“Well…”

Yoon-Jong thought about it. Strength is relative. To know how strong you are, you need a way to measure it. But they didn’t have a way to measure it. They were getting stronger, but it was hard to feel how strong because everyone was growing together.

“At least we’ve become twice as strong as before that guy appeared, haven’t we?”

“Only twice as strong?”

“I don’t know. Saying twice as strong is hard to imagine exactly. What’s certain is that I’m confident I can take on about three of my former selves.”

“That’s not enough.”

“Huh?”

“You know. That the Assembly is coming soon.”

Yoon-Jong frowned at the word ‘Assembly.’

“That’s right.”

“We need to become stronger. Much stronger.”

“…I see.”

Yoon-Jong smiled.

“Then shall we ask that Chung Myung to push us a little harder?”

Jo-Gol nodded with a determined face.

Chung Myung trudged towards Nak-Hwa Peak.

“What am I even doing?”

For a martial artist to become stronger, they must train.

His sword matched his past body perfectly. He could imitate it believably, but he couldn’t achieve the perfect connection between his body and his sword as he did in the past.

There was no shortcut. He had to keep using the sword to fix the disharmony between his body and mind.

However, Chung Myung’s sword was not something he could use in front of others. If he trained properly, Hwasan would be turned upside down.

“Keeugh. I’d rather die than suffer.”

He had to train in a place where no one could see him.

So, he climbed the mountain early in the morning, used his sword at Nak-Hwa Peak, and then went down.

‘I need to do something about this.’

Climbing to Nak-Hwa Peak wasn’t the problem, but it wasted a lot of time.

‘I don’t have enough time as it is.’

Taking care of the third-generation disciples, managing Hwa-Um’s businesses with the Eunha Merchant Guild, and calming down the Head and elders who were acting strangely were enough to make him dizzy.

But Chung Myung becoming stronger was more important.

‘There’s no time to be leisurely.’ He remembered the faces of the people who wanted to destroy Hwasan in the past. They wouldn’t wait for him to be ready.

If he had a hundred years, Chung Myung would become the Plum Blossom Sword Saint again. And he could become stronger than in the past. As Chung Myung became stronger, Hwasan would become stronger.

But the world wasn’t so easy.

If there were people aiming for Hwasan, they would try to do something before it became stronger. Problems will happen in many ways, and people who want to fight will appear.

What if he fights people he can’t beat while taking his time to become stronger?

Besides, Hwasan has an enemy called Jongnam, where problems are bound to happen.

Chung Myung shook his head.

‘I need to become stronger as soon as possible. Enough to solve whatever happens.’

So, he couldn’t stop training. He just had to climb as fast as possible. He doesn’t get stronger by lying down. He had to work hard…

“Huh?”

Chung Myung narrowed his eyes.

Someone was there.

Someone was in the training ground that Chung Myung had been using for a month.

‘Who would be here at this time…?’

Chung Myung carefully approached Nak-Hwa Peak and saw someone using a sword under the moonlight.

The tip of the sword made a smooth line.

Soft but powerful. Beautiful and elegant.

The sword moved across the ground and drew lines in the sky, slowly falling like petals.

Sword dance.

It was dark before sunrise. Under the bright moonlight, a woman was performing a sword dance.

She wore a pure white martial robe and had hair like ebony. Her sword shone under the moonlight.

“A beauty under the moon…”

Chung Myung was completely amazed by the woman’s sword dance.

The moonlight made the sword seem to melt.

It was a graceful but strong sword. It looked like a plum blossom. Hwasan’s old sword style was in that sword dance.

Chung Myung felt a strange emotion.

Hwasan’s old swordsmanship, which he thought he would never see again, was now in front of him.

It wasn’t about what kind of swordsmanship she had learned. It was about how she used the sword.

Yes, just like…

“Who is it!”

A sharp voice rang out, and the woman suddenly rushed towards Chung Myung.

“Huh?”

The woman stabbed her sword at Chung Myung.

“Huh?”

The sword touched Chung Myung’s neck.

Chung Myung sighed as he looked at the sword.

‘The emotion can freeze to death.’ He thought, ‘I’m not as good as I used to be. Even a child noticed me.’

“Who are you? You look like someone I’ve never seen before?”

That’s the same here.

Who are you?