Return of Mount Hua Sect - Chapter 337

When she closes her eyes, it returns to her mind.

It was a dark night.

The image of his father, who wielded his sword with an indescribably painful expression.

He always carried his sword, even in the rain and snow. Even when his hands swell and bleed and his lips crack and bleed.

Always, always, always.

Her father was always wielding his sword in her mind.

Yoo Iseol, the young man, had no idea what was driving him so hard.

He was always wielding a sword, as far as she could remember. When he opened his eyes, he was wielding a sword, swinging it until the sunset, and then sobbing as he was about to collapse from exhaustion.

He was anguished at times, angry at others, and howled like a beast at others.

– I’m going back.

He said, holding on to the young Yoo Iseol.

‘If only I could make a perfect plum blossom, I will take your hand and go back to Mount Hua. And I will ask for forgiveness from the Elders in the sect.’

– I will make plum blossoms.

Yoo Iseol opened his eyes still.

“He wanted to go back to Mount Hua, my father.”

“…….”

“I think he needed a justification for that. Because my father turned his back on the ruined sect. He can’t go back empty-handed and beg for forgiveness.”

“……then that book…….”

Yoo Iseol nodded still.

“My father was thinking of restoring it. If he could restore that martial art and return the plum blossom to Mount Hua, he thinks they would forgive him for running away.”

At those words, Baek Chun groaned unconsciously.

‘Restore?’

‘With that?’

‘What a ridiculous thing to do…….’

Restoration is meaningful only when the original form can be guessed. Tracking the original form based on more than half of the lost martial art method is no different from finding a single grain of sand in the desert.

“Heum.”

Chung Myung sighed low and looked at Yoo Iseol.

“So?”

She looked down at the books quietly.

Those dozens of books resulted from her father’s research and study on the Twenty-Four Plum Blosso Sword Technique. And all those essences were gathered in one last book.

“He’s getting weaker day by day. Clinging to impossible things eats people up.”

“…….”

Besides, it wasn’t just the body that became weak.

Before he ran out of breath, his father was almost a madman. He wielded his sword with his arms dried up like a branch in winter, and read the original book madly with eyes sunken like a corpse. He wrote new things countless times and re-established them all over and over again.

But.

Her father could never reach Mount Hua’s sword until the end.

A distant day of snow.

Her father, who was wielding a sword frantically in the blizzard, vomited blood on the ground over and over again. And the hilt he was holding was torn apart.

– I can’t reach it. I! I…… I can’t reach…….

The scene of her father sobbing desperately is engraved in Yoo Iseol’s memory like a painting.

– Seol-ah….

As he was dying, he held Yoo Iseol’s hand and said.

– You have to make plum blossoms. No, you should never be obsessed with plum blossoms! No. No. You… No! You can’t. You shouldn’t be like me.

Words that the young Yoo Iseol couldn’t understand.

– Will the Sect forgive me… Will they understand me who left them behind? … . I want to see the plum blossoms of Mount Hua… … . Plum blossoms… … .

Yoo Iseol spent several days with his body in the hut. She matched the torn books one by one without eating nor drinking beside his father who had cooled down.

Meanwhile, someone found the hut. Hyun Jong came running after receiving the last communication from his father who felt his end was creeping close.

He wept loudly on the spot when he discovered Yoo Iseol almost dying out of starvation.

– You idiot……! What do you want me to do! What do you want me to do!

Hyun Jong sobbed for a long time holding on to the young girl. The warmth she felt in his hand still lingered on her back.

Still.

Yoo Iseol said in an indifferent voice.

“My father was a fool.”

“…….”

“He abandoned Mount Hua, but he couldn’t completely throw it away. It seems that he wanted a different life when he jumped out of Mount Hua, but his father was more obsessed with Mount Hua than anyone else. So he regretted and suffered his whole life.”

Her eyes were fixed on the blazing bonfire.

She still had a hard time understanding her father.

If he valued Mount Hua so much, why did he abandon it? He should have forgotten it if he had thrown it away, but he couldn’t let it go. And if he missed it so much, why couldn’t he bow his head and just go back?

It was still hard for her to understand.

“…Sago.”

Tang So-so opened her mouth and closed it again as if she couldn’t speak.

What should she say?

At least now, she couldn’t find anything to say to Yoo Iseol. It was because she understood how much that calm voice contained.

At that time, Jo-Gol, who was listening silently, opened his mouth.

“If only…”

His gaze was directed at a pile of books.

“Why didn’t Sect Leader not collect that manual? Even though it’s less than half the original manual, it’s still Twenty-Four…”

“We can’t use that.”

Chung Myung said in a muffled voice.

“If he took it to Mount Hua for no reason, there must have been people who picked it saying they would try to restore it. Then Mount Hua would be really ruined. Everyone would have suffered because of the impossible.”

Flimsy hope is sometimes crueler than painful despair.

At that time, no one could restore the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Swords Technique based on that. No, this would have been impossible for anyone in the world.

Even if Chung Myung were to try to restore the Twenty-Four Plum Blossoms Sword Technique, he would only make out a whole new sword technique that belongs to himself if he did it without knowing the original form. He would never have reached its original form.

‘What a stupid thing to do…….’

Chung Myung bit his lips slightly.

It is endlessly stupid, endlessly foolish.

But…….

‘He must have been that desperate.’

Because there was no intention of returning to Mount Hua and dying with it. He must have wanted to find the key to somehow resurrect Mount Hua Sect.

Even if it’s a futile obsession.

“That’s why Sago…….”

“No.”

Yoo Iseol shook her head.

“I don’t stand up for my father. My father abandoned Mount Hua. It is unforgivable for me, a disciple of Mount Hua.”

“…Sago.”

“Sect Leader has forgiven him, but it’s not something he can be forgiven for. How could someone who abandoned his sect expects forgiveness. So….”

She closed her eyes in an unusually long speech.

“I don’t know what to say…..”

A heavy silence fell.

They all just stared at each other and remained silent, knowing that clumsy consolation could be rather cheap sympathy.

Then Chung Myung blurted out.

“Well, let’s go to bed.”

The eyes of the disciples turned to him.

“I think you’ve said everything, and it’s not really that big of a story. In conclusion, Sago just stopped by your father’s grave on the way. Isn’t that the story?”

“Chung Myung-ah!”

Baek Chun sprang up from his seat with an angry face.

However, Yoo Iseol nodded with a calm face.

“That’s right.”

Baek Chun was briefly speechless. Yoo Iseol said calmly.

“I just wanted to stop by. In any case, I thought he would be happy to know that Mount Hua is regaining its former self.”

But Chung Myung stood up with a sour face.

“A dead man is just a dead man.”

“…I know.”

“I thought you were going to say something great. I’m going to bed. If you’re going to leave tomorrow morning, go to bed. You’ll have to run faster as much as you’ve wasted the day.”

He strode into the hut without looking back. The rest of Mount Hua’s disciples looked at him from behind with uncomfortable faces.

Yoo Iseol said.

“Sahyung.”

“Huh?”

“We should sleep, too.”

“…Yes, let’s do that.”

Baek Chun nodded quietly.

He doesn’t think he will going to fall asleep, but it wouldn’t be very good for her to keep bringing this up, as Chung Myung said.

“…Thank you for telling us.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Her gaze turned to the dark night sky again.

“Because it’s not just someone else.”
~~
Now.

Yoo Iseol suddenly opened her eyes.

And she looked around with a little bewildered face. Inside the hut, she could see the disciples of Mount Hua lying and sleeping.

‘…when?’

She didn’t remember sleeping.

She just remembers all of them coming into the hut and lying down…….

‘Was I really that tired?’

It looked like that. Everyone seemed to be asleep without caring the world.

Then she heard a voice right next to her.

“…Sago.”

Looking back, Tang So-so was muttering something with her eyes closed.

“……Sago…….”

She seemed to be sleep-talking.

Yoo Iseol, who looked at the side of the bed, closed her eyes again. However, she soon felt a little uncomfortable and got up.

‘There isn’t.’

She doesn’t see Chung Myung among those who are sleeping in the hut.

“Where?”

Yoo Iseol stood up quietly.

And carefully walked out of the hut. Even near the almost extinguished bonfire, there was no sign of Chung Myung.

Yoo Iseol, who was looking around, slightly hardened her face. Then, as if possessed, she began to move hurriedly.

Step, step, step.

Strong liquor was sprayed on the grave.

The grave, where the grass sparsely grew, began to get wet.

Soon after emptying the bottle, Chung Myung took out a new bottle and opened the lid. Then he sprayed it on the grave again.

Chung Myung, who had been pouring alcohol like that for a while, brought the bottle to his lips.

He drank alcohol without delay, wiped his mouth with a loud squeak, and murmured bitterly in a low voice.

“What a fool.”

He couldn’t understand this guy.

If it were him, he wouldn’t have abandoned Mount Hua, but if the man had abandoned the failing sect anyway, he should have at least lived well. Moreover, the fact that a man with a young daughter threw his life away at an impossible task cannot be defended in any words.

It’s stupid, pathetic, and idiot.

But…….

“But I usually like morons.”

Chung Myung grinned.

The smiling face of Chung Myung gradually changed. Sitting in front of the grave, he drank and lamented long. At the end of it, his sincerity came out.

“… I’m sorry.”

He knows.

This is his sin.

What is wrong with those who have left the crumbling sect? Who in the world can hold on to the crumbling sect and demand they die together?

Those who remain are great, and those who do not remain are not wrong.

“Why did you do that? You stupid…….”

‘If you threw it away, forget it.’

‘Why did you foolishly regret it even though you threw it away?’

‘You’re a fool.’

“I…….”

Chung Myung leaned against the mound and looked at the stars in the sky.

“In fact, I wanted to go to the North Sea.”

When he heard the word “magyo,” his blood started to rise upside down.

If it weren’t for Hyun Jong, he would have grabbed Bop Jeong by the collar and screamed where the Magyo was. He didn’t want to leave anything in the world related to Magyo.

When he closes his eyes, he still remembers the Sahyung at the top of the Hundred Thousands of Mountains.

Still.

“But I can’t go. Still…….”

If he is harmed, the remaining Mount Hua will fall again as in the past. If Chung Myung loses his focus, Mount Hua can’t handle the Ten Great Sect and Great Five Family, who will surely keep a check on them.

Mount Hua will fall again, and people who are similar to Yoo Iseol’s father will reappear.

So he couldn’t go.

It was because of that.

Because he can’t repeat the same mistake.

Even if the inside is bruised and torn to death, he cannot witness the same sight again. If the moment comes when Mount Hua falls again, he will not be able to close his eyes even if he dies.

“Though I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but…….”

Chung Myung’s fingertips stroked the wet mound.

“…Now take a rest. Plum Blossoms will bloom again in Mount Hua.”

Then he shook his head violently, biting the bottle. The strong liquor scratching on the neck felt especially sad today.

“Right.”

Putting the bottle down as if tossing it, he staggered and stood up.

“You said you wanted to see the Plum Blossoms, didn’t you?”

Sreureuk.

The sound of the sword being drawn echoed in the quiet mountain.

“If you want to see it, you should see it. You’ve been wanting to see it for so long, so I’ll show you. Right.”

Chung Myung, who was staggering as if drunk, quietly lowered his sword.

Then he closed his eyes slowly.

It is as if he can see it.

The figure of a man who wields and wields a sword in this deserted mountain.

The image of someone who suffers from lingering attachment and inevitable reality and is obsessed with only one sword.

It’s like…

Seueut.

Chung Myung’s sword began to move slowly.

Soon, starting with the opening of Plum Blossoms Sword (매화점개(梅花漸開)), the Twenty-Four Plum Blossoms will unfold.

The perfect original plum sword technique without any craftsmanship.

Mount Hua’s plum blossoms, which Yoo Iseol’s father had been trying to make all his life, were now revealing themselves at the edge of Chung Myung’s sword.

‘Look.’

‘You idiot.’

‘This is Mount Hua’s plum blossoms you have been longing to see.’

‘What you lost once.’

‘Having to spend so many years trying to bloom again.’

The plum blossoms of Mount Hua, drawn by the perfect Plum Blossom Sword technique, began to turn the barren land into a forest of red plum blossoms.

Where Mount Hua’s plum blossoms bloom, that’s Mount Hua.

So this place is just Mount Hua, too.

In the forest of plum blossoms, a swordsman performed a sword technique.

Like cutting out the lingering feelings that the man couldn’t wipe off yet, the edge of the beautifully moving sword was determined but sad.

And…….

Yoo Iseol, looking at the plum blossoming like an illusion from afar, still closed her eyes.

‘Father…’

Her downward eyelashes trembled. Then a drop of tears flowed down.

– Did you find your plum blossoms?

‘No’

‘Not yet.’

‘But…….’

Yoo Iseol opened her eyes.

A forest of plum blossoms spread out like an illusion.

‘One day…’

The day will come when the perfect plum blossoms bloom at the edge of her sword.

Then her dead father will finally be able to rest in peace.
someday

Right, one day.