Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1490. I Didn't Come to See You? (5)
Editor: Hoamzz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
“Someone behind Beggar Union Sect Leader?”
Baek Cheon muttered. Everyone's gazes at the Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Ascension Tower were clouded with suspicion.
"Are you saying there's a mastermind? I- Is it Evil Sects? Jang Ilso?"
"Did this yangban hit his head in Gangnam or something? No matter what, does he really think Beggar Union is that weak? Not even Magyo, but controlled by someone like Jang Ilso?"
“…My bad. These days, I just think of Jang Ilso whenever something happens.”
“If there really were a hidden mastermind, things would actually be easier. We could just capture them and cut their heads off.”
“Then?”
“This isn’t that kind of hidden mastermind. That Sect Leader is likely real, but he's not the real Sect Leader. He's not a fake, but he's not the real one either. He's simply here."
Baek Cheon, who had been listening intently to Chung Myung's words, looked back at his sajes and smiled warmly. As expected, Yoon Jong and Jo-Gol also looked at him with the same expression.
'Don't worry, Sasuk. We don't know what he's talking about either.'
‘I’m grateful to have you guys.’
Baek Cheon, who exchanged warm affection with his eyes, soon sighed in self-loathing. Then Chung Myung spoke.
“Do you know the best way to hide the truth?”
"That thing about seventy percent... truth or something?"
"It’s by hiding it among truths."
"Huh?"
“People who deal with information usually do that. They don’t hide the real thing among the fakes. Rather, they hide the real truth among other truths. Then people usually only try to confirm the truths that are visible to them."
“I think I get it. If someone meets Beggar Union Sect Leader in a place like this and hears him speak, they would never even imagine there’s something more hidden behind all this, right?”
“Exactly. At best, they would only try to confirm whether he's the real sect leader."
Baek Cheon quietly closed his mouth. Because he had thought the same. A quick glance around showed the others had similar expressions.
'It's not our fault.'
‘No, honestly, it's a bit suspicious.’
'You need something to believe in for you to believe!'
Chung Myung smiled faintly as if he understood their thoughts.
"The moment you try to confirm if that man is the real sect leader and investigate the internal power struggles of Beggar Union, you fall right into the trap. None of that matters."
"...The important thing is what lies behind it."
“That's correct.”
Chung Myung looked straight at the Pavilion Master.
"What do you think? Am I right?"
Chung Myung smiled, but the Pavilion Master did not. His expression, already composed, looked as clean and calm as if nothing had happened.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Hmm?”
"I am Beggar Union Sect Leader, and I decide Beggar Union affairs. Stop the delusions there. Such groundless talk..."
"There's more than enough evidence. The evidence you yourself provided."
The Pavilion Master closed his mouth. His gaze toward Chung Myung was sharp, as if probing him. A moment later, he asked as if he couldn’t understand.
"I provided evidence?"
"Yeah."
"...What evidence did I provide?"
"Your words are all plausible. But one thing is missing. All that logic requires one single conviction."
“What is that?”
"The conviction that the world will inevitably turn into a living hell. The conviction that a war will definitely break out in which all the beggars will die.”
The Pavilion Master's eyes flickered for an instant.
"If the beggars had suddenly become incompetent after the Yangtze River disaster, your argument might hold water. But that's not the case. This hasn't happened in just the last few years. It started much earlier. So slowly that the beggars themselves wouldn't notice anything strange."
"That’s...."
"Do you get it now?"
Chung Myung spoke sharply.
"If what you say is true, it just means you're nothing but a moron who got scared of something that hasn't even happened and made himself incompetent."
The Pavilion Master stared blankly at Chung Myung without answering. Chung Myung shrugged.
"Well, fine. I can give you a hundred concessions and say that it can happen. Just because someone’s the leader of Beggar Union doesn’t mean they always have to be competent.”
“Watch your mouth…”
"But what's suspicious isn't that kind of thing. The real issue is what you said earlier."
"...What?"
"Listening to you talk about me was really amusing. It was like the typical reaction of someone who only knows people through secondhand information."
"What's strange about that? It's the truth."
"Right. It's the truth, so there shouldn't be anything odd about it. That is, until you started carelessly rambling on and on about Isong Baek."
The Pavilion Master's face hardened. Chung Myung began to giggle.
"You would know the person called Chung Myung better than Isong Baek. But when it came to Isong Baek, you didn’t hesitate to say, ‘the one I know,’ while with me, you used the phrase ‘as I’ve heard.’ That means only one. The one who judged me was not you. You simply accepted someone else's assessment."
“....”
"Right?"
The Pavilion Master didn’t show any major reaction. However, Baek Cheon saw the slight tremble in the hand placed on the desk. The fact that he didn’t even think to hide it beneath the desk meant he was more shaken than he let on.
"Isn't that too much of a stretch..."
“Wait. There’s still the most important thing left.”
Chung Myung looked at the Pavilion Master.
"There's one reason why I thought someone was behind you, but that it wasn't a mastermind. Your anger was real. But from my perspective, that's what's truly ridiculous."
“And why is that?”
“Why are you angry? You’ve never gone through it yourself. You’ve never been forced to sacrifice anything.”
“....”
"Resisting something wrong and harboring resentment are different. Yet you spoke as if you were the victim who personally suffered through it all. You, who've lived in an era of unprecedented peace."
The Heavenly Ascension Tower Pavilion Master tilted his head as if he couldn't understand at all.
"Are you saying my anger is misplaced?”
"No. It's justified. Of course, it is justified. But... just because something is justified doesn't necessarily mean it's natural."
"...I don't understand."
"You wouldn't. You can't possibly know. A person who accepts anger only through the head can never know."
But even if the whole world couldn't understand, Chung Myung could.
The anger emanating from the Heavenly Ascension Tower Pavilion Master was of the same nature as the hatred he himself held for this world.
That's what made it strange. The Pavilion Master hasn't experienced what he's been through. So how could he empathize with those emotions?
Because he had a lot of information? Because as Beggar Union, he knew all of history? That didn't make sense. Just look at how the leaders of other sects who knew the history acted.
“So the conclusion is obvious. Whether you're the sect leader or not isn't my concern. What's important is that the real culprit who made Beggar Union into this state exists separately."
The Pavilion Master shook his head.
"What a ridiculous delusion."
“....”
"I know another answer. I wasn't as smart as you, so I wasn't able to come up with a good countermeasure. Also, that I’m an emotional person who can get angry enough even over past events.”
“....”
"I won't entertain this nonsense any longer. Just leave. I’ve had enough.”
“I was going to anyway. I’m not the type to waste time barking at scarecrows.”
As if proving his words true, Chung Myung turned away without hesitation.
"Just deliver this message straight to your master."
"What should I convey? Your nonsense?"
"No."
Casting a sharp glance behind him, Chung Myung coldly proclaimed.
"Running away won't change a thing."
“....”
"Just this one sentence will do. They'll get the message."
Chung Myung jutted his chin towards his comrades.
"Let's go. We've wasted enough time."
“...Are we really going?”
“He’s just a carrier pigeon. I’ve put the message on him, so it’ll be delivered.”
“What if it’s not?”
"What do I care."
It was when Chung Myung, who blurted out the words in a nonchalant tone, headed towards the door.
"Then!"
The Pavilion Master's voice grabbed the back of Chung Myung's neck. It was a seething voice, clearly different from before.
"What will you say to those who will die for that insignificant cause?"
“I can’t say anything.”
Chung Myung stopped dead in his tracks and spoke.
"I wasn’t able to say anything. That's why I'm doing this."
"...Doing this?"
“Looking for what I could say to them. Doing whatever it takes so I can say that their deaths weren’t meaningless. Desperately.”
Chung Myung, who had been glaring at the air as if staring beyond the door, soon smiled quietly.
"Don't worry about it. It's nonsense. I've gotten old too."
He waved his hand dismissively and strode away.
"Let's go."
"...Sure."
Though they couldn't understand the final exchange, it was clear nothing more could be done here. The group nodded and followed Chung Myung.
"...Wait."
But the Pavilion Master caught Cheong Myeong once again.
Chung Myung glanced at Pavilion Master. He glared at Chung Myung with his lips tightly bitten, and muttered as if to himself.
“...How come....”
"Hm?"
Chung Myung's gaze left the Pavilion Master for a moment and shot upward.
Thump. Thump.
It was faint but clearly audible.
There was a tapping sound coming from the ceiling above where they were standing.
"...They say it's darkest under the lamp. I guess there was another lamp under the lamp."
"Huu."
The Pavilion Master let out a long sigh and shook his head.
Which part of their conversation had reached up to that place?
“There’s no helping it since it’s what he wants. I’ll let you meet him.”
“...Oh?”
“But you’ll have to be careful.”
“Are you threatening me now?”
“…You’ll understand once you meet them.”
The Pavilion Master touched something under the desk while still sitting.
"Hoo?"
"Wow..."
"There was a mechanism here?"
Amidst everyone's admiration, a line appeared on one side of the ceiling. Soon, a long staircase began to descend.
“...Wasn’t there a total of seven floors?”
“It definitely looked that way from the outside?”
"It seems they carved out more space under the eaves. I didn’t even notice it.”
Tang Soso bit her lip in frustration at having failed to realize it.
"You can go up."
As the stairs came down, the Pavilion Master gestured towards them with his chin. The Five Swords looked at the stairs and the pitch-black space opened above with slightly uncomfortable feelings.
"...It's not a trap, is it?"
“So what if it’s a trap? Let’s just go.”
"Ugh. This is unnerving."
Everyone looked at Chung Myung's expression. Chung Myung, as if he weren’t afraid in the slightest, had already set foot on the stairs.
"...Is that bastard's liver made of cast iron?"
The Five Swords shuddered and hurriedly followed him.
Once they went up, they immediately understood why this space hadn't been noticeable. Even someone as short as Chung Myung had trouble standing straight. That’s how low the ceiling was.
Moreover, unlike the floor below which was luxurious beyond measure, this secret room was so desolate that one wondered if people could live here.
"This place..."
Chung Myung's gaze was drawn somewhere.
A bed was placed forlornly in one corner of the secret room. A white-haired old man lay there who wouldn't seem strange if he stopped breathing at any moment.
“...This person is?”
He was an old man so aged and withered that even Chung Myung, for a moment, couldn't figure out what to do.
The old man's withered hand slowly lifted. The way it shook weakly seemed to be a gesture to come closer.
Chung Myung stood beside the old man without saying a word.
His wrinkled face was spotted with age marks, and his skin was as rough and dry as a desert. His entire body was as emaciated as bare tree branches, unimaginably so from what he might have been in his youth. At a glance, he didn't have much life left.
A former sect leader? Or the one before that? How exactly should one converse with such a person?
As Chung Myung pondered, the old man's eyes slowly opened. His gaze met those cloudy pupils.
Chung Myung opened his mouth for now.
"I am...."
But he couldn't finish his words. Would the man even understand him? Even though their eyes met, he didn't seem like a living person. He couldn't even muster the expectation that a conversation was possible. This person was, quite literally, just barely breathing.
To think that the head of Beggar Union they finally found was in this condition. There was nothing he could do. Just as Chung Myung was about to let out a sigh at the overwhelming sense of powerlessness.
“...Sword (Geom/검(劍))....”
A voice cracked beyond measure leaked from the old man's mouth. A question flashed across Chung Myung's face.
Sword, what was he trying to say...
“...Sovereign (Jon/존(尊)).”
Chung Myung’s eyes shot wide open.
Crack!
The old man’s lightly resting hand suddenly clenched the bed, and a cracking sound rang out.
Bewilderment, confusion, and a faint sense of fear swirled through Chung Myung’s mind like a storm.
|Note
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