Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1655. It's a Good Day (5)
Editor: Hoamz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Urgent yet agitated footsteps echoed out.
“Se- Se....”
“Move aside!”
Those startled at seeing the owner of the footsteps hastily parted to the left and right. Heo Do Jin-in walked roughly through the path that opened.
After passing through the middle gate located in the yards, a uniquely antique Taoist hall appeared.
It was the Ancestral Hall. In this sacred place of Wudang, where the tablets of the ancestors were enshrined, about ten Taoists were performing bows.
"You...!"
Heo Do Jin-in, who had almost involuntarily shouted, bit his lower lip and barely suppressed his anger.
This place houses the tablets of ancestors who lived their entire lives for Wudang and achieved ascension. It was the most sacred place where no commotion or dispute of any kind was permitted. Even for Heo Do Jin-in.
"You rascals..."
"One bow."
Heo Do Jin-in gritted his teeth and raised his voice, but before that, a solemn, firm, and calm voice overshadowed it. Then the Wudang disciples in the Ancestor Hall bowed toward their ancestors' tablets in a reverent posture.
Heo Do Jin-in clenched his fists tightly.
No matter that they were inside the Ancestral Hall offering bows, there was no way those Wudang disciples didn't know Heo Do Jin-in had arrived. Yet right now, they were completely ignoring him as if he didn't exist here in the first place.
How could he not know what that meant?
"One bow!"
Nine bows.
A ritual unique to martial artists that could only be offered to teachers and ancestors was perfectly carried out without a single bit of carelessness, and only then did the disciples fully rise.
Heo Do Jin-in, who had been biting his lips waiting for this entire ritual to end, immediately emitted a voice chilled with coldness.
“What is the meaning of this?”
The disciples in the Ancestral Hall turned their gazes simultaneously to Heo Do Jin-in.
"I asked what you think you're doing!"
"As you can see, we were bowing to our ancestors."
“You know I’m not asking that right now!”
“Lower your voice, Sect Leader."
“...What?”
"The ancestors are watching."
At those words, Heo Do Jin-in's gaze reflexively went past the people standing before him towards the tablets enshrined in the Ancestral Hall.
Thin trails of incense smoke flickered before the well-kept, elegant tablets.
"Heo Gong. Was this your doing?"
When Heo Do Jin-in asked, Heo Gong, who had been bowing before the ancestral tablet, slowly turned around. He watched Heo Do Jin-in in silence, then finally cupped his fists deeply and bowed.
"I greet Sect Lead…"
“Answer me!”
Finally unable to contain himself, Heo Do Jin-in sharply cut off Heo Gong's salute. He was more heated than one could ever imagine from his usual self.
“I asked if this is your doing! Are you the one who ordered this absurd nonsense?”
“It is difficult to understand what you are saying, Sect Leader.”
"Difficult to understand?"
"Yes."
Unlike the greatly agitated Heo Do Jin-in, Heo Gong was eerily calm. Even while facing sharp anger head-on.
"What do you find difficult to understand? Can you not answer properly right now?"
"It is exactly as I said. This humble disciple finds it difficult to understand why Sect Leader thinks that way."
“...What?”
"Do I have the authority to force Wudang's disciples?"
For a moment, Heo Do Jin-in shut his mouth as if he was speechless.
“In the first place, are the disciples of Wudang the kind of people who determine their will by listening to someone else's words and being swayed by them?”
"Then you're saying..."
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
Heo Gong nodded.
"There was no one who ordered this. No one could dare to do so. This is simply the result of the disciples' combined wills."
The more he listened to the calm voice, the more Heo Do Jin-in's chest felt stifled as if it were about to burst. Staring at Heo Gong for a long time with a gaze that seemed to slice through flesh, he looked at the other disciples.
And asked.
“Is it true?”
“....”
“Answer me, Mu Jin. Is it true?”
At the cold question that flew in, Mu Jin let out a deep sigh.
“Yes, Sect Leader. There was no coercion of any kind. Our wills simply aligned.”
"Jin Hyeon. Is it the same for you?"
"Yes."
Jin Hyeon also nodded without the slightest delay.
"It was my thought and my will."
Udeudeuk.
From between Heo Do Jin-in’s lips came the sound of grinding teeth.
Though his stern expression showed no change, that sound alone revealed how furious Heo Do Jin-in was.
“What are you thinking?”
"Sect Leader."
"What on earth are you trying to do! You foolish brats!"
"Sect Leader. The ancestors are watching."
"Heo Gong! You bastard!"
Finally, Heo Do Jin-in's shout burst out like thunder. The old Ancestral Hall shook as if it would collapse any moment from the energy wave infused with internal strength.
"You say the ancestors are watching! What exactly are you doing! Do you intend to sever Wudang's legacy in your generation? What would Wudang's ancestors say if they saw you now!"
"They would say we are splendid."
"...What?"
“I believe they would nod, saying it is commendable and praiseworthy. Isn't that why I came to offer respects to the ancestors?"
"Th- This...!"
Heo Do Jin-in's body began to tremble. Whether it was from being too angry or from frustration, even he found it hard to know.
“You think the ancestors would find you admirable while you sever Wudang’s legacy?”
“Yes.”
“Does this make sense?”
"Of course it makes sense."
Compared to the flustered Heo Do Jin-in, Heo Gong answered calmly.
"Because it is right."
“....”
"Wudang doesn't exist to continue. Wudang exists to be right. If the legacy is cut while practicing Righteousness, isn't that a far more excellent thing than maintaining the legacy unrighteously?”
“Thi- This punk....”
Heo Do Jin-in's hands were trembling.
“Do you even know what you just said?”
"Yes, I know very clearly. Sect Leader, no... Sect Leader Sahyung."
“....”
"We must not commit an irreversible act again. This much I know for certain."
“Heo Gong!”
"Sahyung should know as well. We should not have retreated."
“....”
"We retreated even though we shouldn't. Just as you cannot scoop up spilt water again, what was lost through wrong choices cannot be recovered no matter what. So how can we make the same choice again?"
"That, that is not your karma! It's me! This is karma I must bear! So how can you take that karma..."
“Why is that the Grand Sect Leader’s karma?”
Jin Hyeon, who had been listening to the conversation silently, spoke in a cold voice.
"That is Wudang's karma."
"It was my choice."
"Yes, Grand Sect Leader. Grand Sect Leader made the choice. But just because you chose it doesn't mean you can bear all the sin alone. If you believe so, that is arrogance and overconfidence."
“...What did you say?”
"I said it is arrogance."
Jin Hyeon looked straight at Heo Do Jin-in with clear eyes.
“No matter what you think, it was we who accepted Sect Leader’s choice. We too cannot be free from that sin. Yet you are telling us to commit the same mistake again under the same order? Pushing forward an excuse that isn’t even an excuse, saying Sect Leader instructed it so?”
“....”
“I have lived as a disciple of Wudang. And among all that Wudang taught me, there was never anything like cowardice.”
“Yo- You brat…”
"If Sect Leader truly is my master, please do not tell me to beg for my life through cowardice disguised as loyalty. That is not a path to save me, but rather a path to kill the rest of my life."
Heo Do Jin-in's face changed several times in a split second. His voice trembled slightly as he spoke.
“So you intend to die?”
“....”
“Knowing the fact that an unbearable enemy is coming, you still intend to throw your life away like that? For what you think is right! For that obstinacy when you can't even clearly know if it's truly right? Will you only be satisfied when you, your master, and your sworn brothers are all turned into cold, lonely souls?!"
"No one was coerced, Sect Leader.”
“....”
"Only those who have chosen for themselves. As you said, those who said they would throw away their lives for 'obstinacy' in the name of the 'Righteousness' they believe in."
Jin Hyeon's gaze passed over Heo Do Jin-in and gazed behind him. Heo Do Jin-in unconsciously followed his gaze and looked back.
He saw countless disciples lined up outside the middle gate.
Every single one of them had eyes shining with unshakable resolve. These were the eyes of those who would not shrink from death. Perhaps these resembled Heo Do Jin-in's own eyes when he conversed with Heo Sanja not long ago.
Seniority and position were meaningless. First-class disciples and second-class disciples all looked at him with the same eyes.
After looking for a moment at Jin Hyeon, standing with a determined face, and Mu Jin, who had firmly closed his mouth, Heo Do Jin-in shifted his gaze back to Heo Gong.
“Gong-ah....”
"Please say nothing, Sahyung."
“....”
"I know what you're about to say. You probably want to take all responsibility onto yourself and set us free. That is Sect Leader’s way.”
“Heo Gong....”
"But Sahyung. That method may ease your heart and deceive the world, but it cannot deceive my heart."
Heo Do Jin-in bit his lip.
He knows.
Perhaps Heo Do Jin-in could free them through his heroic death, liberating them from the world's condemnation.
But he also knows. What Heo Gong was saying.
Even if everyone in the world accepts Wudang's atonement. No, even if a day comes when the world praises Wudang again, the wound carved into them when they fled from the enemy using the excuse of Heo Do Jin-in's order would not disappear.
Because even those who can deceive everything in the world cannot deceive their own hearts.
If they were unaware, it might be different, but the moment they become aware, they have no other choice.
“...Is that your answer?”
“Yes, Sect Leader. And this is my answer, their answer, Wudang's answer, and Sect Leader's answer.”
“My... answer?”
Seeing Heo Do Jin-in, who didn't immediately understand the meaning and asked back, Heo Gong wore a faint smile for the first time.
"Because if Sect Leader were in our position, you would naturally have done the same."
Heo Do Jin-in closed his eyes at the feeling of the world spinning for a moment.
"This is what we learned at Wudang, and what we learned from Sect Leader."
A heavy sigh slipped out of him without him realizing it.
'Why….'
He had expected their wounds to deepen during the long years of seclusion.
But he had failed to consider that those deepened wounds and the thoughts that grew deeper along with them might have fostered their growth.
These are no longer the foolish disciples of Wudang who blindly followed his orders in the past. Now they have become dignified Taoists whom even Heo Do Jin-in cannot treat lightly.
'...But why must that time be now!'
Their growth, their righteousness, their Tao (Way/Path) will lead Wudang to extinction.
The very growth of theirs that Heo Do Jin-in had so desperately hoped and wished for.
A horrific ending seemed to unfold before my eyes. A heavy emotion, perhaps despair or sadness, surged through me like a massive wave.
‘O Wonshi Cheonjun…. This… This is too cruel ….’
Heo Do Jin-in closed his eyes tightly. His eyelids trembled faintly.
His heart was full of sorrow and sadness.
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