Return of the Mount Hua Sect

“Here it is.”

“Oh my, I don’t know how to express my gratitude for this….”

Yoon Jong smiled as he saw an old woman holding out her hand.

“Do not say that. These are all things stolen by the bandits.”

“Still….”

As the old woman wiped her wrinkled eyes, Jo Gul stuck her head out and said,

“Hehe. Grandma! Please remember that this is from the Mount Hua sect!”

“You be quiet.”

“… Yes.”

Yoon Jong glanced at Jo Gul with his eyes and then held the woman’s hand tightly.

“Okay then, we’ll leave now.”

“Oh my. I will prepare a meal….”

“No, it’s really fine.”

Then he tried to dissuade the old woman, who wanted to give something back to him and walked out. The old woman waved her hand for a very long time until they had left.

“Where next?”

“They said ahead. We will have to go a bit further.”

“Hmm.”

Yoon Jong slowly turned his gaze to look at Jo Gul’s face.

Following Chung Myung’s instructions to win over the public sentiment, they were currently visiting houses outside of Wuhan and distributing grains.

Not just the two of them but all the other disciples of Mount Hua were pairing up and pulling the carts of grain one by one, going around the small villages of Wuhan.

“But.”

“Uh?”

Yoon Jong smiled and said,

“For some reason, you’re working without complaint. Normally, I would have been asking a lot of questions if we had to do something like this.”

“Ehh. I am not some kind of bastard.”

Jo Gul scratched the back of his head sheepishly and glanced back at the old woman’s house, which was now far.

“Actually…”

“Uh?”

“I still don’t know. What is this, and why do we have to do this?”

“…”

“This is an agreement, but isn’t Chung Myung doing this to mess with Wudang? It just seems like a good thing for Mount Hua.”

Instead of answering, Yoon Jong nodded slightly.

“So I don’t think he is doing anything great….”

Jo Gul, who was looking ahead, was a bit embarrassed.

“What can we say… it feels like something changes inside when I see the happy faces of the people when handing out the grains.”

It seemed like he wasn’t getting used to these things, as he was coughing softly.

“…a bit so.”

A faint smile appeared on the lips of Yoon Jon as he walked out again.

“That will be enough.”

“…Uh?”

“I don’t think there is any one form of agreement.”

“…”

“Like you said, it will be taken as acceptable to assume sacrifice. But just because you don’t sacrifice yourself for others, it doesn’t mean it isn’t fine.”

“It is a bit difficult.”

Jo Gul tilted his head as he found it difficult to understand Yoon Jong’s words. Yoon Jong decided to explain a little more.

“Did you just say this is good for Mount Hua?”

“Yes. What I think is…”

“Then isn’t it a lot better?”

“Uh?”

Yoon Jong smiled.

“If it is good for us, then it is good for others; there is nothing better than that. Did Mount Hua benefit from this incident, and did civilians suffer?”

“It isn’t like that.”

Of course not. On the contrary, since the grain was distributed, the people of Hubei also felt good, and there was nothing bad about it.

“The agreement achieved by sacrificing myself will be infinitely brighter and more valuable. But in the end, the sacrifice cannot last forever. If that sacrifice continues, ultimately, what I can do will inevitably decrease.”

Yoon Jong’s soft face was touched by the warm spring breeze.

“In my opinion, the most correct arrangement is one where the benefit leads to the benefit of others. In that case, wouldn’t it be possible to have more consultations for a little longer?”

“Ah…”

Jo Gul looked at Yoon Jong with new eyes.

After hearing this, he realized that this was in line with what Yoon Jong had said in the past in front of the Nanman Beast Palace.

-Mount Hua couldn’t make them uncomfortable; all the Mount Hua disciples would be able to boast about their glory. However, if it only remained as the glory of Mount Hua, Mount Hua would simply turn into any other sect, which could get replaced at any time!

The cry from that time was still vivid in Jo Gul’s mind.

‘It turns out that sahyung wasn’t just making empty talk.’

They didn’t show off when they did something, and they didn’t take the lead or raise their voices for themselves. However, Yoon Jong silently performed the given task for a long time, and simultaneously, he also adhered to Taoist principles.

‘The glory of Mount Hua is the glory of the world.’

Those were such big words.

But they didn’t feel so grand when they came out of Yoon Jong’s mouth. He would truly accomplish what could be done, one after another, with the Taoist spirit in his heart.

As honest as a cow.

“… I cannot win.”

“Uh?”

“No, it is nothing.”

Jo Gul chuckled.

It was something he couldn’t understand at the time, but now he felt like he was starting to grasp it a bit. Of course, it was still a bit ambiguous.

But….

“It is a bit disturbing that the person who is creating this Mount Hua you speak of is none other than Chung Myung…”

“…”

Yoon Jong’s soft face flinched at this.

“Is Chung Myung thinking like this when he does things?”

“… probably not.”

“Then, isn’t there something wrong with this?”

“Isn’t the result what is important?”

A Taoist should never have said it, but Jo Gul didn’t want to blame Yoon Jong for that.

‘It is a strange thing.’

That was what Chung Myung always did.

There was no way he had good intentions for others, so everything he did was either for Mount Hua’s benefit or to undermine other sects.

But in the end, there were many cases where what was done with that narrow sight helped and benefited others.

‘Of course, those bastards who had their souls and integrity taken down by that guy started puking to death.’

But anyway, wasn’t that the case in terms of results?

With Chung Myung, the poverty in Yunnan was resolved, and the crisis in the North Sea was also resolved. And now they were helping the people of Hubei.

If one looked at the actions, it seemed like…

Uh?

Jo Gul’s face contorted slightly as he felt something was odd.

“… b-by any chance, sahyung.”

“Uh?”

“As time passes, someone in the distant future will look back on Mount Hua’s actions.”

“And if they do?”

“Don’t you think that Chung Myung is a hero with a sense like no other person in this world?”

“…”

Yoon Jong’s body turned stiff like a stone.

“N-Not a chance…”

“N-No, think about it carefully. How will the future descendants know how shitty Chung Myung’s nature was and what a disgusting bastard he was? In the end, what remains are achievements and accomplishments.”

“…”

“But if one looks at that alone….”

“Enough. Don’t.”

This theory was too tough for Yoon Jong to accept.

“Terrifying… No, let’s stop thinking about useless things and finish what we were doing.”

“…”

Seeing Yoon Jong move ahead, shaking his head as if he didn’t even want to think about it, Jo Gul let out a small sigh.

‘That guy is a hero.’

What would happen to the world…

One after another, the empty carts passed through the main gate of the Golden Mountain Merchant Union.

Mount Hua’s disciples lined up the empty carts cleanly on one side of the union and rushed to Hyun Sang.

“Elder! We gave them all away and returned.”

“Right. Thank you for the hard work.”

“We also visited all the villages we were assigned to.”

“Yes, yes. Good job.”

As Hyun Sang smiled, Hyun Young wore a sad look.

“It can’t be that they took it and sold it off somewhere, right?”

“You be quiet.”

“It was a joke…”

“Even when I told you to be silent.”

“…Yes.”

Meanwhile, behind the two elders who were looking at the disciples with their backs turned, Song Tae-Ak was deep in thought.

‘So odd.’

The more he looked, the more strange the sect seemed. Those who were usually elders were involved in every aspect of the sect’s affairs. All of the sects he had observed so far were like that.

However, the elders of Mount Hua just silently watched the work of their disciples and encouraged them.

‘This truly wasn’t an easy task.’

Since Song Tae-Ak was in a position of running a merchant union, he couldn’t help but know how difficult it was to quietly trust and observe the affairs of the subordinates without speaking.

No, it wasn’t just the elders.

The first-class disciples who were watching after the elders weren’t interfering with the disciples. Even though this was the age when they were the most energetic. As a result, the young ones felt more responsible and motivated.

‘Maybe this is the driving force behind Mount Hua’s sect becoming famous.’

Even as Song Tae-Ak was thinking this, empty carts continued to pile up.

“Uh!”

Jo Gul, who returned last, approached the carts and shouted.

“Everyone is back!”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

Hyun Sang smiled.

‘Everyone’s faces were full of pride.’

It was the same when they had their first real battle and defeated the bandits in Green Forest, but the emotions on their faces now and the emotions back then were different.

‘I am glad.’

During those tough training times those brutal battles, Mount Hua’s disciples still found a great sense of joy in helping.

Hyun Sang was very happy and proud, too.

“So, is it almost done now?”

Hyun Young nodded in response to Hyun Sang’s question.

“We distributed all the prepared grain. Everything that had to be done in Wuhan is done.”

“Hmm.”

Hyun Sang lightly nodded and looked to the side.

“Chung Myung.”

“Yes.”

“Can we go back to Mount Hua now?”

“Hmm.”

Chung Myung scratched his cheek and smiled.

“Yes, well. There is nothing more to do.”

“Then when would be a good time for us to leave?”

“Let’s go ahead with tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

Hyun Sang tilted his head at the unexpected answer.

Of course, everyone was probably tired from all sorts of things, so it wasn’t strange to rest today and leave the next day. But the Chung Myung that Hyun Sang knew wasn’t someone who would consider the disciples’ situations with a warm heart.

Time was money, sloth was a sin, and he could run to Mount Hua with all his might, but to leave tomorrow…

“What are you thinking?”

“Well, it isn’t like that….”

Chung Myung smiled with a slightly puzzled face.

The faces of the Mount Hua companions were distorted with anxiety as if they were still hiding something.

‘That… it’s definitely the face he makes when he’s up to something.’

‘Now, just looking at that face makes my heart drop.’

‘What are you trying to do here now?’

‘That’s a bad idea. A bad one now.’

Chung Myung, who had no way of knowing their anxiety, simply smiled and answered.

“I thought that since we dragged it out too long, maybe some guests would come.”

“Guests?”

“Yes.”

Hyun Sang tilted his head.

If it’s a guest, who could be someone who comes to Mount Hua from another place than Shaanxi?

“Who did you call?”

“Hmm. I’m unsure if I should say yes or no.”

“Uh?”

As he continued to talk nonsense, Hyun Sang frowned.

It was then.

“Merchant lord!”

Someone urgently pushed open the front gate. Song Tae-Ack asked.

“What happened?”

“W-we have something huge!”

“Uh?”

“G-guest… a guest is coming!”

“A guest? Who are you talking about?”

And Song Tae-Ak, who was about to ask why he was rushing, dropped his jaw at the next words.

“W-wudang! The Wudang sect is coming!”

The voice was close to a scream, and everyone’s eyes turned to where Chung Myung was.

Chung Myung, taking all their attention, grinned.

“It came sooner than expected. Hehehe. It seems like the butt of the Wudang sect leader is burning hot!”

“…”

No…

What was this bastard up to now…?

The faces of all the Mount Hua disciples turned pale in that instant.