‘Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1623. With Our Blood and Lives! (3)
Editor: Hoamz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
The sky was intensely blue.
Mount Hua had always been a mountain that felt close yet unfamiliar, and more difficult than any other place. Standing there looking up at the clear sky, Jong Nigok let out a long breath.
Had he ever imagined a day would come when he would climb Mount Hua alone and gaze up at the far sky?
His gaze naturally turned toward the distant west. The vast expanse of the world extends into the familiar mountainside he knows.
'Strange.'
Not a single day had passed that he hadn't set eyes on Southern Edge Sect. Yet, Southern Edge Sect viewed from this distant place felt strangely unfamiliar. And he realized anew.
Just because one lives on a mountain doesn't mean they know it best. Sometimes, the one who steps back to gaze at it can see much more.
Then, a human presence was heard nearby.
"Hmm."
As soon as Jong Nigok's gaze turned in that direction, something flew into his chest.
Tak.
He caught it by reflex and found a heavy, white porcelain bottle. He could guess what the liquid inside was without even having to open it.
"Alcohol?"
“Do you dislike it?”
Jong Nigok shook his head. Not really. Though he wasn't one to drink often, it wasn't as if he had lived strictly forbidding it either. However...
"In broad daylight?"
“Were you the type to care about such things?”
When Jong Nigok asked, Chung Myung snickered and answered. Jong Nigok couldn't help but smile as well. Indeed, they had come too far to start worrying about appearances.
"Then I'll gratefully drink."
Jong Nigok uncorked the bottle and took a swig straight from it. It wasn't anything special, but today its fragrance felt uniquely different.
Perhaps because what was contained in this bottle wasn't merely alcohol.
“It’s good liquor.”
"It's cheap rice wine."
“It’s good liquor.”
Chung Myung shook his head. Then he took out the bottle he had brought for himself and drank heartily.
"Keu."
Chung Myung glanced at Jong Nigok, wiping the corner of his mouth lightly. Ironically, his white Southern Edge Sect attire matched the scenery of Mount Hua quite well. It was almost absurd.
Well... Would there be people who suited or didn't suit mountains? Mountains just existed there.
"I didn't know you'd be so without a plan."
“You saw wrong. I am a very prudent person.”
“And I didn't know you had such a bad personality.”
"I've often been called a good-natured person. Perhaps not by you people.”
"...For someone like that, you sure don't communicate at all."
“My ears are always open. That is the duty of a sect leader.”
Chung Myung stared at Jong Nigok who parried every word without losing once in exasperation. Soon, he shook his head again and asked.
“Why did you do it?”
“What do you mean?”
"...You could have just let it pass."
Instead of answering, Jong Nigok gave him a blank stare. Perhaps feeling pressured by that gaze, Chung Myung added words that weren't even asked.
"No, well... it's not that I feel sorry for Southern Edge Sect or anything, it was obviously something that had to be done. It’s what should have been done, but, how should I put it…”
"Wasn't it you who urged me?"
"Right. That's true. But..."
Chung Myung scratched his nose bridge as if embarrassed.
"It wasn't a good timing, was it? Since we're now in a position where we have to fight together."
"...Timing."
Mouthing the word blankly, Jong Nigok stared at the far sky and took another sip.
“You’re right. But....”
Soon a small smile tugged on his lips as he looked at Chung Myung.
"No matter how much I thought about it, there was no such thing as an 'appropriate' timing."
“....”
“Do you know?”
“...What?”
The corners of Jong Nigok's mouth softened a little more.
“There’s always a reason why it shouldn’t be ‘now’.”
“....”
"Right."
Jong Nigok nodded as if agreeing with his own words. Yes, these words weren't directed at Chung Myung but at himself.
“Always. Anytime.”
At the small smile he let out, Chung Myung's face was strangely distorted.
“Ugh.”
A deep sigh leaked out. Jong Nigok's words were right. Once you let an opportunity slip by making this or that excuse, everything just tends to fizzle out.
"But that wouldn't necessarily have been a bad result for you, Sect Leader. Just last night, weren't you the one saying those very words?"
“Is that something a man should say when he was the one flaring up last night about laying everything bare and moving on?”
“You have a knack for leaving people speechless.”
Chung Myung smacked his lips. Jong Nigok put on a smile.
The more he looked, the stranger this person was.
At one moment he exuded a chill, implacable fury so vast it defied understanding, and yet once Jong Nigok made up his mind, he tried to be considerate of his position.
Putting it nicely, he was a complex person; putting it badly, he was all over the place and did as he pleased.
Yet, Jong Nigok didn't particularly dislike Chung Myung. Perhaps because he could feel the lingering affection underlying those unprincipled actions.
"So... are you really going to be alright?"
“Even if I'm not, is there any other way? It's something I've already done.”
“...You're really a lost cause.”
Chung Myung let out a chuckle as if dumbfounded. Could he have ever imagined Jong Nigok would be this kind of person?
Southern Edge Sect had lost much through this.
While there weren't many who would immediately condemn Southern Edge Secton the spot, the stigma now etched upon them won't easily disappear.
When Southern Edge Sect prospered, they might be able to act as if nothing was wrong and move on, but when they lose their strength, it could become a divine punishment (천형(天刑)) they can never escape.
No, perhaps even while fighting and risking their lives together, they might have to suffer under cold gazes. Even if they achieve great merits, they might be buried under that past sin.
Jong Nigok wasn't someone who wouldn't know this. Nor was he unaware that Chung Myung, concerned about such a situation, had wanted to shelve the matter for the time being.
Jong Nigok said with a laugh.
“And you’re wrong. Now is a very good time."
"What?"
"With Shaolin absent now is the opportunity. Since Ten Great Sects' facade has disappeared, there won't be expulsion from Ten Great Sects over this matter, will there?"
“...You can laugh about this?”
"Is there a reason I can’t?"
"...I'm going crazy, really."
He wasn't just saying that. It was true that the stiffness and tension he used to feel from Jong Nigok were gone. In its place, there was an indefinable sense of detachment and composure.
One might say he had taken on even more burdens now, yet Jong Nigok’s shoulders looked lighter than before.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm human too, so I did agonize over it."
"Agonize?"
"When you blocked me from saying what I was going to say."
Jong Nigok's eyes settled.
“For a moment, I thought this was enough. I showed my courage, and you acknowledged it. So I thought, maybe we can just bury everything with this and move on.”
"...Then why did you force it through?"
Jong Nigok let out a snicker. The reason...
"Because burdens are carried not with shoulders, but with the heart."
Chung Myung gazed silently at Jong Nigok. It would be difficult to seek from him the same enlightenment as Mount Hua's Taoists.
But sometimes the world easily uttered words that even those who had cultivated their entire lives couldn't say.
Cheong Mun said so. That Tao exists in everything in the world, and we are merely those who pursue it.
Jong Nigok smiled faintly again.
“My apologies to you.”
"You seem to misunderstand, but I spit even on smiling faces."
“But you won’t draw your sword.”
“...I’m really going crazy.”
Chung Myung scratched his head roughly. There's a limit to how much a person can change overnight. This was completely...
"Ah, forget it. Not my problem!"
Chung Myung shot up from his spot and spun around.
“Leaving?”
"Yes, I'm leaving. I have a mountain of work. Sect Leader should also stop wasting time here and come down quickly to work."
"I will."
"...Ugh. Really can't get used to this."
Chung Myung screamed as if bugs had crawled on his body, then trudged down the mountain. As Chung Myung vanished, the smile slowly vanished from Jong Nigok's face.
"Burdens..."
His voice carried a weight that could be felt.
He knew. He would shoulder even more from here on. But Jong Nigok had no intention of avoiding it. Because by doing this, he could avoid passing the burden he carried onto future generations.
It would be difficult. But if he could just overcome that difficulty, his disciples could someday stand in the world without a single hesitation. Unlike him, they would be able to face them directly.
Before he knew it, he saw Chung Myung running down the mountain in the distance.
Jong Nigok wore a smile somewhat different from before.
'I think I understand why so many people follow that person.'
Chung Myung pressured him to become a nourishment for Southern Edge Sect. He had bluntly told him, rather than having future generations entangled in grudges and shedding blood, it's better for you to carry all of it yourself.
That it was the duty of those who stood above, those who walked first.
But when Jong Nigok tried to keep those words, he instead tried to protect him. As if he would become Jong Nigok’s nourishment.
A small chuckle escaped Jong Nigok's lips. Perhaps he should feel this as insulting. A young punk treating Southern Edge Sect Sect Leader of all people as an immature person who still needed protection.
However, Jong Nigok didn't feel that way at all.
A single cloud was drifting across the endlessly stretching blue sky.
When he slowly closed his eyes, the conversation he had with Hyun Jong vividly came to mind.
"...Please raise your head, Sect Leader."
When Jong Nigok raised his head, Hyun Jong was gently shaking his head.
"While the person here’s indeed the grand sect leader of Mount Hua, he’s no longer the sect leader of Mount Hua. So it's difficult to see me as representing Mount Hua So it's difficult to see me as representing Mount Hua. However… if someone must answer the words you have spoken, Sect Leader, it would be right for me to do so, regardless of title, as the one who has the deepest connection with you.”
He reached out and took Jong Nigok's hand.
"Make atonement to the world, not to Mount Hua. If you uphold now the duty you couldn't uphold then, no one will resent Southern Edge Sect."
“...Grand Sect Leader.”
“Could you do that for us?”
Jong Nigok slowly opened his eyes.
Still… what a stifling, foolish, and naïve person.
Had he been in Hyun Jong’s position, he would have seized this chance and run straight in to ruin Southern Edge Sect in the literal sense.
Even if Hyun Jong had demanded all of Southern Edge Sect's assets, Southern Edge Sect would have had no grounds to refuse.
But all Hyun Jong did was make such a request.
He could see the foothills of Southern Edge Sect spreading out beneath the blue sky. Those unfamiliar yet familiar peaks kept blurring hazily.
“...Not bad.”
Right, not bad. Southern Edge Sect viewed from this place. The sky spread above it. And... this mountain he stood upon.
And perhaps this world, where his descendants would have to live alongside someone.
It looked much clearer than the world he had viewed yesterday, and a bit more... warmly.
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