Chapter 36: Wind Rising on Mount Hua (1)

Baek Mu-ho, who had obtained a hint of enlightenment from the plum blossom in the snow and was now able to use the sword technique he named the Snow Plum Sword, was as delighted as a young child with a new toy.

No, really.

Quite literally.

The guy who had coaxed me to explore the Five Sacred Mountains together was now so engrossed in training the Snow Plum Sword that he seemed ready to gladly agree if I suggested settling down in some quiet place just to practice martial arts.

Needless to say, the journey slowed to a crawl because of it.

And I became even more annoyed.

After all, who would be the target he swung his sword at under the pretext of practicing the Snow Plum Sword?

“Wanna go a round?”

Me, of course.

He was running wild like a rogue monk who had just tasted meat and alcohol.

Honestly, it was to the point of being a bit scary.

Although I had held back, I had beaten him up quite thoroughly in my own way, yet his recovery was so fast that by the next day, he would be perfectly fine and attack again.

I couldn’t help but think it was thanks to the energy left behind by the Gold-furred Ape.

“It’s still daytime. Just walk.”

“That’s true. But when I thought about it, doing it at night feels a bit unwholesome. Two men sweating and panting together after the sun goes down is a bit…”

“Sigh!”

What on earth should I do with this crazy bastard?

He was already someone with a hole in a corner of his mind, but that hole seemed to have grown even larger. Was it because of Heavenly Demon Master’s demonic art?

‘So please! Please!! If it is because demonic nature remains from the sword marks left by Heavenly Demon Master, please do something about this guy!’

I looked up at the sky for a moment with eyes full of earnest prayer.

Regrettably, there was no answer. It seemed everyone was busy.

“You’re convinced, right?”

“Ugh!”

When sparring with Baek Mu-ho, I could not use the Extreme Strike. Ultimately, I had to face him using only the basic Wudang Fist and Shaolin Fist.

It was only because I had achieved the First Stage of the Heavy Earth Divine Art and made rapid growth that I was able to hold out somehow; otherwise… Ugh!

Well, I didn’t want to credit him for it, but it did help in refining my Wudang Fist, which still had some unpolished areas.

Still, what I disliked, I disliked.

Once again, I could only think how amazing Sister Seol-ah was for taking care of such a guy as her younger brother.

……Huh?

Wait!

“Sister Seol-ah?”

“What? Where? Where is she?”

Baek Mu-ho suddenly began to look around and grow vigilant.

Did he seriously think she had secretly followed us?

“Do you hate Sister Seol-ah that much?”

“I think I’ve said this before, but haven’t you heard that blood-related brothers are enemies of a past life, and blood-related siblings of opposite genders are enemies of three lifetimes?”

“Of course I haven’t. You made that up.”

“Anyway. To a younger brother close in age, an older sister is roughly like this: you’re walking down the street, and you see someone who looks like they have a nasty temper. You approach them and slap them in the face out of nowhere. Then, ta-da! You also have an older sister.”

“It was only for a moment, but I feel like I just caught a glimpse of the messy structure inside your head.”

“Anyone who has an older sister would agree with that story.”

When I snorted in response, Baek Mu-ho beat his chest in frustration.

It seemed I had found a way.

“Then let’s do this. From now on, if you spar with me, when we return home later, you have to go to your sister and shout ‘Sister, I love you!’ ‘loudly in front of people.’ Once per sparring match.”

In an instant, Baek Mu-ho’s face looked as if he had chewed on a bug.

Nice! It worked.

“Along with that trashy Ultimate Cute Act Art of yours.”

“…Are you even human!”

“Of course I am.”

I am even a person of great character, enough not to smash your head right now.

Looking at his reaction, it seemed like he might refuse, but…

“Hey, as human beings, let’s leave out the Ultimate Cute Act.”

I was mistaken. Indeed, there was no way this guy would bow his head so easily.

“Should I even designate the movements for you to do when acting cute?”

“…Damn it! Ultimate… Cute Act… Accepted! *Grind!*”

Wow! He actually accepted this? Well, if the martial art one was practicing was growing so rapidly that one could feel it firsthand, it was not incomprehensible to lose one’s mind, but still.

Anyway, today’s journey ended here. If we had pushed ourselves a bit, we would have reached Mount Hua around sunset, but now we were suddenly going to camp out right on its doorstep.

“Huh?”

While I was thinking about sweating a bit since the afternoon, a sharp sensation brushed over my skin.

Someone was approaching. I could feel a martial artist carrying a momentum, not an ordinary person, closing the distance.

Baek Mu-ho must have sensed the presence soon after, as he suddenly frowned toward the direction I was looking.

“Why is that guy coming here?”

“Is it someone you know?”

“He is a main sect disciple of the Mount Hua Sect.”

As expected, perhaps. Even though he was at this distance, the wave of energy radiating from him was incredibly sharp.

A moment later, the silhouette of the person closing the distance became clear.

It was a time when the traces of a vigorous youth were beginning to settle on his face. He was a man who looked to be around thirty.

The man, who had a silently stern impression, looked at us and clicked his tongue out of nowhere.

“I came here because a martial artist was approaching, only to find strange things.”

“It seems you’ve been doing well too.”

“My trip was in vain, and I only ruined my eyes.”

“It’s fine. I’ve been doing well too.”

Look at the flow of this conversation. What was the context of this dialogue?

The context did not match at all, so how was this conversation even continuing?

“You haven’t changed a bit.”

“If a person changed so easily, would that be their personality? That’s just putting on a facade.”

“Your mouth is as foul as ever, too.”

Ah, now it felt like a conversation is finally happening.

Though the underlying atmosphere was still turbulent.

By the way, feeling like a borrowed sack of barley was not very pleasant. It wasn’t as if they were ignoring me or anything.

“Anyway, what is a guy who said he wouldn’t even piss in the direction of Mount Hua doing here? You said the only time you would return to this place, stagnant and reeking of rot, would be to piss in the prestigious Jade Maiden Pool. Did you come to piss in the Jade Maiden Pool as you predicted?”

Huh?! Is this for real?

I should just keep my mouth shut. Please continue to ignore me. I was not here.

At the summit of the Lotus Flower Peak, there was the Upper Palace, which could be called the beginning and source of the Mount Hua Sect. In front of the Upper Palace, there was a pond filled with clear water, which was the Jade Maiden Pool, where a heavenly maiden descended on a moonlit night to wash her hair.

You could think of it as a legend or symbol that every prestigious sect roughly had.

So, from my perspective as a member of the Wudang Sect, was it equivalent to saying he would take a dump and piss in the Sword-Dismounting Pond?

How on earth did this guy survive and descend from the mountain?

“Ahem!”

“Why are you coughing ‘ahem’ there!”

*Smack!*

I had intended to stay quiet as much as possible, but in the end, I could not endure it and slapped the back of Baek Mu-ho’s head.

“Ouch.”

Baek Mu-ho, who staggered heavily once, clutched his head.

“If I get stupider, is it your fault?”

“Yes, I made a huge mistake.”

I felt deeply regretful for suddenly hitting him on the head.

Indeed, I should have broken the limbs of this bundle of future trouble or cut off his breath, but since I only hit him enough to make him stupider, I made a huge mistake.

As I was lamenting like that, the fellow who was a main sect disciple of the Mount Hua Sect looked at me rather strangely.

It was a look that could be interpreted without him having to speak directly. He roughly lumped me together with Baek Mu-ho.

“By the way, what brings you here? For a heavy-bottomed main sect disciple to descend all the way into the secular world?”

I wondered what was going on at Baek Mu-ho’s sudden question, but upon hearing those words, I also realized one thing.

‘You came because a martial artist was approaching?’

Did the Mount Hua Sect check like this every time a martial artist passed by?

There was no way.

A disciple of the Nine Sects started their day with training and ended it with training. That was the primary reason they lived in the mountains, away from the secular world.

Moreover, if he was around thirty as he appeared, it was a time when he should be devoting himself to training. He did not have time to waste patrolling the area like this.

‘Something has happened?’

The Mount Hua Sect was guarding their surroundings.

It was then.

“Damn it.”

The Mount Hua Sect main sect disciple, swearing out of nowhere, turned his gaze somewhere.

Black smoke was rising from the direction his gaze had moved.

A story sufficient to make a Mount Hua Sect main sect disciple swear out of nowhere flashed through my mind.

It seemed it was not just my own wild leap of logic.

“Hwaseong Village?”

“Yeah, you must know the place too.”

“Is it under attack?”

It was hard to believe.

To think there were those who would touch a neighboring village, which could be considered the home turf of the Nine Great Sects under heaven.

“Follow me if you want to know.”

With those words, the Mount Hua Sect main sect disciple dashed toward the place where the smoke was rising.

“Let’s go too.”

Baek Mu-ho, erasing the playfulness from his face, urged me.

If he knew the location of the village just from the direction, it might be a place with which Baek Mu-ho had a personal connection.

***

“That guy’s name is Jeong Man-jok.”

Perhaps bothered by the fact that he had left me out earlier, Baek Mu-ho spoke as he pointed to the Mount Hua Sect main sect disciple running ahead.

Just as I was about to nod at his consideration.

“If his surname had been Boo, calling him would have been a bit more fun.”

“…….”

Did he have eyes in the back of his head? For some reason, I felt like he was glaring at us from behind.

“It’s a truly jok-like name.”

*Grind!*

The sound of grinding teeth could be heard clearly from ahead.

“Let’s not make fun of names.”

I felt that if Baek Mu-ho opened his mouth just a bit more, he would brandish his sword at us, regardless of any attackers.

Well, still, it was a relief that Baek Mu-ho seemed stabilized.

Leaving behind Baek Mu-ho, who had returned to normal (?), I asked Jeong Man-jok.

“What on earth is going on?”

“…Just follow.”

Jeong Man-jok hesitated for a moment but soon glossed over his answer.

“Mu-ho looks like his mouth is itching to talk. Shall I let Mu-ho ask?”

“Sigh…”

Indeed, I would hate it too.

Jeong Man-jok confessed in a voice packed with suppressed irritation.

“It’s absurd, but… some guys started targeting the surroundings of the Mount Hua Sect a while ago.”

“That really is absurd.”

There was already something visible. I had guessed as much, but hearing it directly from a Mount Hua Sect main sect disciple made it feel different.

It could be seen as similar to the attack of the demon humans at Shaolin, but strictly speaking, it was an event of a different gravity.

The attack of the demon humans was a case of picking a fight with the Nine Sects themselves, even if the targets were young rising stars. It was a fight among martial artists, just of a different level.

However, this incident, even if it was near the Mount Hua Sect, targeted civilians. It was of extremely poor nature.

It was no different from openly smearing dirt on the face of the Mount Hua Sect.

To put it crudely, they treated the Mount Hua Sect like absolute shit.

Or they were crazy bastards who didn’t think about the consequences.

If considered that way, it would become quite a headache. If they were going to run wild without thinking about the consequences, even the Mount Hua Sect would have no answer.

“Although the Mount Hua Sect is strong, it must be difficult to defend such a wide area.”

Originally, ten officers cannot stop a single thief. In the end, it only concludes with those ten officers tracking and catching the thief later.

While the power to find them and retaliate later was more than sufficient, defending a broad area was a different matter.

If all the main sect disciples came out to guard the vicinity of Mount Hua, they would be able to defend about a dozen surrounding villages.

The problem was that moving just a day or two’s distance away from Mount Hua would increase the number of villages needing defense by more than tenfold.

“In this case, shouldn’t you borrow the power of the Regional Military Commissioner?”

“We already sent someone. But they were flustered as well. Aside from this being the first time such an event occurred in Shaanxi where the Mount Hua Sect is located, the north has been restless lately, so a large portion of the troops moved near the Great Wall, leaving very few forces remaining in Shaanxi.”

“That’s indeed…”

I didn’t know whether to call it bad luck.

“Then there is only one way.”

“I know. There is only one. Catch them, interrogate them, and pull them out by the roots (塞)!”

There was no solution in only thinking about defending passively.

For the elite few of the Mount Hua Sect to defend a wide region was no different from a strategic defeat. They had to find the enemy and root them out.

As we approached the place where the smoke was rising, traces of human touch began to appear gradually.

From the sign indicating the entrance to the village to felled trees, items with a sense of daily life, and farming tools.

Looking at them, my face hardened.

“Bloodstains… That amount would be lethal.”

“Shit!”

As if they had resisted, farming tools and axes thrown onto the ground were stained with blood. Although no corpses were visible, perhaps because they had been gathered, the trace that someone had been murdered here remained clear.

***

“Damn it!”

A man of sturdy build holding a sword dripping with blood spat out harsh curses and spat toward the lump of meat that ‘had been a person until a moment ago.’

In front of the man, a building was burning fiercely.

“With this much smoke, it’ll be visible from far away. Shouldn’t we put it out quickly?”

“Fuck! Use your brain before speaking! There isn’t even a well nearby, so how do we put this out!”

At the man’s words, his companion, who had been looking around, frowned.

If they put in the legwork, they could find water, but it would not be enough to suppress a fire consuming a building.

Moreover, the house was extremely eco-friendly. Meaning, it was made of things that burned easily. The moment they intentionally set it on fire, there was no way to extinguish it.

Finding no answer, the man clicked his tongue and grumbled.

“Losing him and then acting all loud.”

“Hey! What did you say!”

The man yelled as if he would brandish his blood-stained sword at any moment.

There was no family as dysfunctional as this. If left alone, they looked ready to actually fight each other.

“Both of you, shut your mouths. This is not the situation to bicker and blame someone. Go and gather the villagers we left alive.”

But there was a man who stepped in before that.

At those words, those who were about to go on a rampage immediately began to move, glancing warily at him.

The man, who was staring at them, sighed as he turned back to the burning house.

“We’re screwed.”