Return of the Mount Hua Sect

“Keueuh….”

“Keueueup….”

Chung Myung’s eyes glared fiercely at the hundreds of people bowing their heads to the ground with stones tied to their bodies. Those fierce gazes mercilessly stabbed Heavenly Comrade Alliance members in the back.

“I went out of my way to give you a break, something I normally wouldn’t do! And you couldn’t even wait a moment before starting a fight?”

“….”

“So, this is your way of protesting against me? You’re so full of energy that you had to start a fight for no reason because I let you rest? Huh?”

At that moment, Jo-Gol, who was bowing his head to the ground, suddenly stood up and raised his hand.

“What?”

“It seems like you misunderstand. We didn’t fight because we had too much energy.”

“Then?”

Jo-Gol shrugged his shoulders.

“We really had no energy left, but we got so pissed off that it gave us energy.”

“Ah.”

“Isn’t that amazing? Haha.”

Chung Myung nodded his head understandingly.

“I think I understand, Sahyung.”

“Right?”

“Yeah. I feel exactly the same way right now, you bastard!”

Chung Myung’s feet, which flew in after kicking on the ground, landed in Jo-Gol’s face.

“Kuack!”

As Jo-Gol rolled around on the ground, Chung Myung climbed on top of his stomach. Soon, Chung Myung’s upper body turned left and right vigorously for the first time in a long time.

“Die! Die! Please just die!”

“Ah! Ahhh! Agh! Spa- Spare me…”

“Die, you bastard! Die!”

Jo-Gol fought with Tang Family during the day, got beaten up here and there in the Dining Hall in the evening, and was now happily getting beaten by Chung Myung, but unfortunately, no one here felt any sympathy for him.

‘He deserves to be beaten.’

‘Honestly, he wouldn’t have any complaints even if he died.’

‘Chung Myung Dojang who has been keeping him alive is the true Taoist.’

It was a meaningful moment when the four sects, previously at odds, were momentarily united in their thoughts.

“Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!”

Chung Myung, who left Jo-Gol lying there miserably, stood up and glared at the others with his eyes gleaming.

Everyone quickly closed their eyes and turned away from Chung Myung’s gaze. If they make eye contact, they will be like that too.

“I… Uh, right. I… was a bit short-sighted.”

“… … .”

“Everyone has so much energy and vitality. I worried for nothing.”

Everyone present realized that even a human voice could be so terrifyingly eerie. It was a very unique experience, but it was also a scary one.

“It’s all my fault! All of it!”

“….”

“If I had known you all had this much stamina and enthusiasm, I would have increased the intensity earlier. Huh? It’s my fault for not knowing that you had enough strength left to fight even after all that training!”

“Wa- Wait a minute, Chung Myung!”

Baek Cheon panicked and raised his head, but it was already too late.

“A person!”

Chung Myung stomped the ground as he shouted.

“Shouldn’t repeat the same mistake. Of course, that’s right. Fine. Let’s give it a try, you bastards. Either you die or I die! Let’s start with three days without sleep and see how that goes…”

“Y- You’ll kill us!”

“I’m telling you to die, you bastard!”

Chung Myung overturned his eyes and rushed towards Baek Cheon.

The training ground suddenly turned into a mess. Hyun Jong, who was watching the scene from a distance, buried his face in his hands. A despairing sigh poured out.

‘How…’

How can it be that nothing has changed after going from Mount Hua to alliance? How….

Oh Yuanshi Tianzun….

* * *

“I’m… dying.”

“I’m already dead.”

“So- Soso, I think my back is messed up.”

“…There’s a needle over there. Just stick them in the right spots…”

The sounds of death escaped from the mouths of Mount Hua disciples lying across the ground.

They were in pain from the hits they took while fighting Tang Family, and their entire bodies ached from the subsequent brawl. However, the most painful areas were the back and knees, which had been overworked by Chung Myung’s anger.

No, how can the place those struck by martial artists be more painful than the place where they get rolled on the ground? At this point, shouldn’t they consider Chung Myung’s training to be a work of art?

“…Who ratted us out to Chung Myung?”

“It looked like Baek-ah? I saw it running towards the door right after the fight broke out.”

“That filthy marten… betraying his own Sahyung…”

“Ugh…”

While Tang Soso trembled with anger, Baek Cheon struggled to sit up and took a seat on a chair.

“I feel like dying…”

Baek Cheon was better than anyone else in the world at keeping neat clothes, but now his clothes were a mess with sweat and dirt. He was too exhausted to even think about washing up.

Jo-Gol grumbled.

“Ugh. Those Tang bastards picking a fight for no reason…”

“Just shut your mouth, you bastard!”

“Argh!”

Yoon Jong kicked Jo-Gol mercilessly. If you think about it, wasn’t something that could have easily been overlooked escalated because of this damn punk?

“That nature of yours…”

When Yoon Jong rolled his eyes, Baek Cheon stopped him.

“Stop it, Yoon Jong. It’s not entirely Jo-Gol’s…. No, it’s that bastard’s fault. Yes, that bastard was completely at fault, and that bastard is the cause of all this, but it’s not only his.”

“…Your words contradict themselves, Sasuk.”

“Ugh.”

Baek Cheon sighed and continued.

“It was wrong of us to lose our tempers.”

“…But they did say something that would make anyone angry.”

“That’s true.”

There’s nothing more infuriating than someone acting magnanimous after they’ve lost.

Clicking his tongue, Baek Cheon took on a slightly different tone and looked at everyone.

“Speaking of which.”

Baek Cheon’s eyes turn to Tang Soso.

“Soso.”

“Yes, Sasuk.”

“What do you think? About what Tang Family said?”

“What does Sasuk mean?”

“That… I mean if they had used the poison properly, none of us would have survived.”

“Oh, that?”

Tang Soso nodded nonchalantly.

“Yes. My brother crossed the line quite a bit. He shouldn’t have said that. Next time, don’t worry about me and just beat him to Sasuk heart’s content.”

“N- No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Yes?”

Baek Cheon broke into a cold sweat as he looked at Tang Soso questioning him as if she didn’t understand what she did wrong.

“I mean, what do you think would have happened if Tang Family had really used poison correctly?”

“Oh… is that what Sasuk meant?”

Tang Soso frowned slightly.

“Well, to be honest, Sahyung and Sasuk didn’t go all out either. The essence of Mount Hua’s swordsmanship… It’s hard to say it with my own mouth, but it has to be a killing sword (??(殺劍)), but it can’t be used in sparring.”

“That’s true.”

“But in that kind of situation, Tang Family poured all their extreme poisons (??(絶毒)) and prohibited hidden weapons (??)…”

Dang Soso leaned her chin on her hand as if she was deep in thought.

“Hmm, this is a bit difficult…”

When she couldn’t answer readily, Baek Cheon nodded as if he understood..

“I guess Tang Family would have won.”

“N- No. That’s not necessarily true.”

“No, I think the same way.”

Then Jo-Gol protested.

“What are you talking about, Sasuk! There’s no way we would lose. That’s impossible.”

“Listen to me until the end.”

“Yes?”

Baek Cheon sighed and spoke.

“If it’s our first time facing Tang Family, we’re sure to lose. We are not used to poison or hidden weapons. Isn’t it the first time you have faced people fighting like Tang Family?”

“Tha- That’s true, but…”

“We know a fair amount about Tang Family. No, maybe we were bragging that we knew them quite well. But that is Tang Family as a colleague, not as an enemy.”

“….”

“Even though we can withstand the poison to some extent with our Jasodan, many of us fell in the initial surprise attack. That means that if we don’t prepare in advance, we can get hit even in the place we shouldn’t.”

Jo-Gol, who was the first of Five Swords to be poisoned by the poisonous needle, quietly closed his mouth. There was no excuse for this.

“If we suddenly encountered Tang Family as enemies on the battlefield, do you really think we could display our true skills? We would have definitely been the ones to suffer greater losses.”

“Ugh.”

Jo-Gol, who was at a loss for words to argue, groaned.

“So Sasuk is saying we are still weaker than Tang Family? Even though their elders didn’t participate?”

“It’s a little different.”

“Yes?”

“If we meet for the first time, we will definitely lose, but we would improve in the second fight, and if we fought ten times, I’m confident we would definitely win. That is, if Tang Family didn’t improve at all during that time.”

Yoon Jong nodded.

“I understand what Sasuk means.”

Losing because they don’t know the opponent. But if they get used to the opponent, they can surely handle them.

At that time, Yoo Iseol, who had been listening quietly, spread her hand out wide so that her palm was visible.

Everyone looked at her, puzzled by her unexpected gesture.

“Five times.”

“….”

“Five times is enough.”

A smile formed on Baek Cheon’s lips.

“If Samae says so, then five times it is.”

Tang Soso made a complicated and strange expression at those words. It seemed like a boast that they could easily adapt to the poison and hidden weapon of Sichuan Tang Family, but on the other hand, it didn’t sound completely false.

“As you all know, Chung Myung… That rotten damned devil… that useless piece of junk, that accursed devil that crawled out of hell…”

“Calm down, Sasuk.”

“Kuhum, yes. Anyway, there was nothing meaningless about the training that bastard made us to do. This isn’t simply about fighting to determine the hierarchy. It must mean that we need to experience Tang Family’s poison and hidden weapon techniques.”

“…At the same time, chaotic warfare.”

“Yes, chaotic warfare. And… I guess he intended us to experience the conflict that will arise when various sects are mixed together in one place.”

Baek Cheon continued speaking in a meaningful tone.

“Because before long, we’ll have to experience that in a much more intense form.”

At those words, the expressions of Mount Hua’s disciples, who instinctively recalled the faces of Evil Tyrant Alliance and Jang Ilso, became even more serious. At that moment, Jo-Gol spoke.

“No, you think too positively, but with that bastard’s personality, wouldn’t it be possible for him to just twist his stomach and harass you?”

“….”

“He didn’t have to bother giving instructions here and there, and it would have been convenient for him to just let everyone die.”

Everyone turned to look at him.

Then Jo-Gol reflexively put on a wronged expression.

“Are you going to say I’m wrong again?”

“……No. It’s quite convincing.”

“Very convincing.”

“In fact, my suspicion leans towards that side.”

A sigh escaped everyone’s mouths as if on cue.

Of course, it’s impossible based on common sense, but wouldn’t it be stranger to hope for common sense from a guy who attacked Jang Ilso and Shaolin Bangjang just because he was being treated badly?

“A- Anyway….”

Baek Cheon cleared his throat and somehow tried to manage the situation.

“The training we have to do is clear, so from now on we need to prepare for…”

“From now on?”

“Huh?”

Jo-Gol’s face distorted.

“You mean we’re going to keep doing this?”

“….”

“This crazy stuff?”

“…I agree that it’s crazy, but don’t you need some experience to deal with Evil Tyrant Alliance?”

“Evil Tyrant Alliance? Evil Tyrant Alliance?”

Jo-Gol speaks as if he couldn’t understand at all.

“No, Sasuk. If we continue to do this, Heavenly Comrade Alliance will be ruined due to internal strife before we can even deal with Evil Tyrant Alliance.”

“….”

“Just two days ago, Tang Family was our comrades. But now?”

“Damn poisonous punks.”

“Cowardly bastards.”

“Sichuan country bumpkins.”

“I’ll kill them!”

Jo-Gol snorted.

“Look at this. I guarantee that if a few more days go by like this, we’ll be drawing swords at just a glance. And if we add Nokrim Forest King, who’s quick to anger, and Namgung Sogaju, who’s also easily provoked, it won’t take much for the Yangtze River to run red.”

“….”

“Heavenly Comrade Alliance is now doomed. There’s no hope or dreams left.”

Jo-Gol, you’re oddly making sense today.

What an amazing day…