Return of Mount Hua Sect - Chapter 717
“Why!”
A voice filled with anger rang out.
No, maybe it’s sadness or resentment.
“Why! Why won’t you let me go, why!”
Even at that shout, the middle-aged man who had been staring at the distant moon quietly turned his head.
The weight in his gaze pressed down on his whole body, but Chung Myung did not back down. The eyes as still as a lake and the eyes like a blazing volcano fiercely collided without an inch of compromise.
“Do you really not know and ask?”
“Cheon Mun Sahyung!”
“If you leave here, we cannot guarantee victory. No, we will definitely fail (필패(必敗)).”
Eudeudeuk.
Chung Myung gritted his teeth at Cheon Mun’s words.
“He’s… he’s missing.”
“….”
“Do you not know what that means? Huh? Cheong Jin! That damn kid is missing, in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountain!”
“I know.”
“Cheon Mun Sahyung!”
Cheon Mun slowly closed his eyes.
His expression was calm, but the slightly trembling eyelids showed that his current feelings were indescribable.
“The who loses…. We’re not the only ones who lost someone.”
“….”
“Everyone has lost someone. But how can we be the only ones who have a tantrum?”
“Tantrum?”
Chung Myung’s face was distorted.
“Is it a tantrum to looking for his Saje?”
“Chung Myung-ah….”
“I don’t know what that bloody cause is, but to let my Saje die for that damn thing! We don’t even know if he’s still alive!” (“그 빌어처먹을 대의가 뭔지는 모르겠지만, 그 망할 것 때문에 사제를 죽도록 내버려 두라는 말입니까!)
With anger overflowing Chung Myung’s voice, even Cheon Mun temporarily closed his mouth as if he was speechless.
“What’s wrong with that! Damn it! What the hell with that!”
Cheon Mun’s mouth, which looked at Chung Myung’s face as if it was about to explode, leaked a full voice of remorse.
“…Yt’s the greater cause…”
Soon after, Cheon Mun smiled faintly.
It was so faint that it seemed like a hollow laugh, or a scoff, but on either side, it was so pitiful that a smile that he couldn’t bear to see calmly appeared on Cheon Mun’s lips.
“Do you think there is such a thing left? In me?”
“….”
“At first, there might have been such a thing. But now it’s worn out and there’s only one left. Do you know what that is?”
“…What?”
“Future.”
The resolute word came out of Cheon Mun’s mouth.
“If we don’t defeat them, nothing will be left for us. And to defeat them, we absolutely need you. You! Plum Blossom Sword Sovereign Chung Myung.”
“….”
“But you’re not going to go? Are you still leaving here alone to save Jin? What would he say when Cheong Jin, who you saved, comes back and sees all of us dead? Would he say thank you for saving him? You foolish guy!”
At the end, a vivid streak of blood flowed from Chung Myung’s tightly clenched mouth. The blood from the teeth stained his lips as if he had applied red rouge.
Cheon Mun shook his head slowly.
“He wouldn’t want it. What he values most isn’t you or himself, but the children left behind.”
“….”
There was a fishy smell of iron.
It was felt in the mouth. The scent that came from the end of the words.
It was just so bitter and disgusting.
“If you really want to go find him, go after the war is over.”
“Sahyung!”
“Didn’t we all lose something!”
Cheon Mun shouted angrily. Rage and frustration that could not be found in him burst forth like a dam.
“Do you think there’s only one or two people who want to find him right away! I want it more than you! Me! This damn….”
In the end, with a string of curses, he trailed off and bit his lips.
“Damn……”
His voice was trembling helplessly.
Cheon Mun is the Sect Leader of Mount Hua and leads the force of Jungwon for Magyo.
How much burden must be pressing down on those shoulders?
“……I sent him.”
“….”
“It was me who entrusted him with a dangerous mission. If you want to blame someone, blame me.”
The emotion had disappeared from Cheong Mun’s face as if it had been washed away.
“I can’t allow you to go looking for Cheong Jin as the Sect Leader of Mount Hua. Go back to your seat and stand by.”
“….”
Chung Myung also stared Cheon Mun with a look of no emotion.
The smiles that used to be there whenever they looked at each other were gone. The two stared at each other coldly with ironclad faces.
Chung Myung’s mouth opened emotionlessly.
“If it’s the order of Sect Leader.”
“….”
“I shall follow.”
The emotionless voice shook Cheon Mun’s eyes.
“However…… Sahyung.”
A hint of sarcasm appeared at the corner of Chung Myung’s mouth.
“Can you fill the void of what you’ve lost with what you’ve gained like that?”
Cheon Mun eventually closed his eyes tightly. Chung Myung’s cold voice pierced his chest like a blade.
“I don’t know what meaning there is in what we’ve gained while losing what we shouldn’t lose.”
“…Chung Myung-ah.”
“I….”
Blood trickled down Chung Myung’s mouth and fell to the ground.
“I won’t accept this decision until the moment I die.”
At the end of the sentence, Chung Myung turned his body without waiting for a response. He put distance between himself and Cheong Mun without an inch of hesitation.
He clenched his fist to the point of bursting.
Eudeueduk.
Grinding his teeth and pounding his chest wouldn’t change anything.
As he stepped so silently, he looked back with venom-filled eyes. But the sight that met his eyes made Chung Myung lose all his anger and strength.
Cheon Mun’s broad shoulders that always embraced all of Mount Hua’s disciples and gave them support were trembling weakly.
With his half-crouched body and silent sobbing, Chung Myung couldn’t bear to look at his back any longer and turned his head away.
‘Cheong Jin-ah….’
– Sahyung.
Recalling Cheong Jin’s smiling face, Chung Myung closed his trembling eyes.
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry.
…I’m sorry. (*note)
* * *
Chung Myung took a step forward as if in a trance.
One step, and another.
He staggered as if he would fall at any moment but kept moving forward.
And Yoo Iseol followed him silently. Her eyes caught the back of Chung Myung.
That back seemed like a mountain at times. Sometimes, it embraced them like the ocean; sometimes, it became a cliff that pierced the sky and became their goal.
But now Chung Myung’s back looked just pitiful.
As if…
‘Father.’
It was as if she was again looking at her father’s back, which was vaguely left in her memory.
The back of someone who couldn’t accomplish what must be done.
The back of someone who hold onto something they could never achieve.
Why does that thin back look overlapped with the current Chung Myung?
Chung Myung, who had been stumbling, walked faster and faster. In line with that, Yoo Iseol also increased her walking speed to match him.
Mount Hua’s disciples, who happened to find the two, rushed to Yoo Iseol as if they had sensed a strange atmosphere.
“Samae?”
Yoo Iseol put her index finger on her lips.
“Do not disturb.”
Baek Cheon alternately looked at her and Chung Myung’s back and nodded soon after. And together they began to follow Chung Myung in silence.
One step.
One step.
The ancestor walks ahead, and those who inherit his will follow behind. However, the steps of the ancestor walking ahead were filled with confidence yet pitifully shaky. (선인이 앞서고, 그 의지를 잇는 이들이 뒤를 따른다. 하지만 먼저 걷는 선인의 걸음은 확신을 담고도 애처로이 흔들리고 있었다.)
Chung Myung’s gaze at the mountain ahead was the same as what he had in the past.
‘Cheong Jin-ah is… not that kind of person. He is not the kind of person to let go of his hand like that.’
Even though the body that shed too much blood is slowly stopping, even though the impulse to put everything down and feel at ease eats away at the soul.
He’s not… the kind of person to give up everything and let go.
Step.
Chung Myung started climbing the mountain.
‘Think.’
‘What if I were Cheong Jin?’
‘What would I do if I were him?’
‘I can’t go back now. There’s no way to return to Mount Hua, to Sahyung, through the Demonic disciples who have filled all around, even if my breath is about to be cut off.’
Then what would he have done?
If he from a hundred years ago was standing where Chung Myung is now, what would Cheong Jin have done when he saw that mountain while desperately trying to grasp his fading vision?
Chung Myung’s feet, which climbed the mountain as if possessed, became faster.
‘I know. I know it.’
‘You would have done this.’
Even if it was Chung Myung, it would have been the same.
The mountain is not very high and therefore cannot be Mount Hua.
But… in this faraway land, it’s a small mountain where you can at least reminisce about Mount Hua’s atmosphere.
‘I have to go back.’
Yes, he has to go back.
Even if his body is here, he has to go back to Mount Hua.
‘The place we left. The place where we lived.’
As Chung Myung could not forget even in death, as he eventually returned.
It must have been the same for Cheong Jin.
Chung Myung’s steps climbing the mountain grew more and more certain.
Upward, and upward again, without resting for a single moment. Hesitation disappeared with every step.
It was not long before Chung Myung stopped walking.
Chung Myung stared blankly ahead.
And the disciples of Mount Hua watched his back in silence.
They didn’t know what the hell made him feel this way. But they didn’t dare to talk to Chung Myung.
‘Here…”
Yoon Jong, who had been quietly looking around, narrowed his eyes.
“Sasuk.”
“…What?”
“Here… Doesn’t it feel like Mount Hua?”
“…The mountain is a bit steeper than other places.”
“N- No. It’s not like that…….”
Yoon-Jong looked around a few times and made eye contact with Baek Cheon.
“It’s where Mount Hua Sect is… Yes, isn’t it similar to that place? If this mountain were Mount Hua, then this place would be…”
“….”
Only then did Baek Cheon look around with a stiff face again. A sigh burst from his neat lips.
“Ah….”
He thought he knew what Yoon Jong was talking about.
If this mountain were Mount Hua, then the place where they stood would be the location of Mount Hua Sect. It doesn’t match perfectly, but for those who considered Mount Hua their home and lived there, it was a place they would undoubtedly feel was similar.
Baek Cheon’s gaze turned to Chung Myung.
‘Then you….’
At that moment, Chung Myung knelt down haphazardly on the spot. He crawled on the ground with his knees, tearing the growing bushes with trembling hands, and stretching his bare hands.
Mount Hua’s disciples just watched the scene without saying a word.
They couldn’t bring themselves to help.
No.
It occurred to them that they should not help.
This wasn’t something they could carelessly intervene in. For no clear reason, all of the Mount Hua disciples present shared the same thought.
“…What is he looking for?”
When asked by Tang Soso, close to whispering, Yoo Iseol answered without turning her head.
“Fox hole.”
“….”
“It would have dug a hole. To come out with a secret martial art manual.”
“Ah….”
Tang Soso nodded and looked at Chung Myung.
At that time, Chung Myung’s hand, which was searching for the ground, suddenly stopped. Chung Myung’s fingertips trembled.
Brushing aside the long, overgrown bushes, a small hole was revealed.
There was nothing unusual about such a hole in the mountain. It seemed to have been dug by a wild animal and then abandoned, crumbling over time, a very small hole.
But at that moment, Chung Myung’s hands were shaking pitifully.
At first, his hand was groping slowly to dig out the hole, but it gradually sped up, and soon he began to dig the ground like a madman.
“Haaa… Ugh…!”
The suppressed agony burst from his mouth as an intangible sound. Scattered dirt fell on his head and back. While looking at the scene, Baek Cheon unwittingly moved closer to him.
“Chung Myung-ah….”
At that moment, Yoo Iseol’s hand grabbed his shoulder.
Baek Cheon looked back and saw Yoo Iseol shook her head.
“….”
Baik Cheon, who bit his lips, eventually nodded. All they could do now was watch Chung Myung.
Digging out the soil, removing the gravel, and smashing the rock with his bare fist, Chung Myung dug deeper and deeper into the ground.
His rough breathing sounded strange like sobbing.
Chung Myung, who had dug and dug the ground, was covered in dirt. Gritting his teeth, he acted as if digging was his only mission, and his hand suddenly stiffened as he dug.
A different sensation caught on his fingertips, buried in the dirt.
Nothing was caught on his fingertips that had penetrated the soil. It meant that the space behind it was empty.
Chung Myung’s breathing became faster.
“….”
Now, he began to carefully remove the soil. It was a completely different, delicate touch than before.
The eyes of Mount Hua’s disciples who were watching him grew bigger.
‘A cave?’
They weren’t exactly sure.
But one thing was certain: a space was large enough for a person to enter the area Chung Myungwas clearing.
Soon Chung Myung staggered inside.
“…Sasuk.”
Baek Cheon nodded at Yoon Jong’s words.
“…Let’s go and see.”
Baek Cheon bent over and led the way into the cave that Chung Myung had entered.
It was a narrow passage, but inside, there was a larger space than expected. Baek Cheon jumped down lightly, raised his head and took in the sight with his eyes.
‘Chung Myung-ah….’
Baek Cheon was perhaps a little shocked at that moment.
Chung Myung’s small shoulders, too small, as if they would collapse at any moment, were trembling uncontrollably.
What was visible beyond those shoulders…
A person? No. What was lying down was not a person, but a skeleton.
Even though only bones remained due to decay, the skeleton maintained its posture from when it was alive. The fabric draped over the skeleton was so tattered and worn that it was difficult to guess its original shape.
But they had no choice but to know.
This is because the stone wall, which is as smooth as if it had been carved with white bones, was engraved with magnificent words as if it had been dug with fingers.
A sigh escaped from Baek Cheon’s mouth.
‘Though my body sleeps here,
My heart is with the distant Mount Hua.
Cheong Jin, the 13th generation disciple of Mount Hua Sect.’
“Ah…”
With trembling hands, he cautiously touched the engraved characters. His shoulders began to shake uncontrollably.
“Ah… Ah…”
At last, the suppressed sobbing burst from Chung Myung’s mouth, which had collapsed on the spot. Baek Cheon, hurt by his crying, slowly closed his eyes.