Return of the Mount Hua Sect Chapter 1365: You Really Are Generous, After All. (5)
Previously on Return of the Mount Hua Sect...
“Then we’ll be going now.”
“Yes, righteous warriors. Take care on your way!”
Hyung Euk bowed at a right angle and greeted them.
Many things had happened, but it was clear that Hyung Euk was sincerely grateful. For that reason, even the Heavenly Friends Alliance party showed him the utmost courtesy.
“Ah, um...”
Having finished his farewell, Hyung Euk awkwardly scratched his head.
“May I ask... where you are heading?”
“Yes?”
Baek Cheon glanced at Hyung Euk with a slightly curious look. Hyung Euk quickly waved his hand anxiously and said.
“Ah, it’s nothing like that. What good would it do me to know where you warriors are going? I just wanted to warn you to be careful if you plan to head up along the mountain range.”
“Be careful how...?”
“No matter how remote this mountain backwater is, it’s not like we can’t hear what’s going on in the world. I heard things have been a bit noisy up north lately, so if you’re heading toward Northern lands, you might want to choose another route...”
Baek Cheon smiled at Hyung Euk’s cautious words.
“Ah, that’s what you meant. No need to worry. We’re planning to head toward Nanjing.”
“Ah...”
Hyung Euk quickly nodded.
“S-sorry. You wanderers surely have your plans. Someone ignorant like me needn’t...”
“Don’t say that. We’re very grateful for your concern.”
Baek Cheon bowed politely and said.
“There are many things I’d like to talk about, but we’re pressed for time, so we must hurry on our way.”
“Yes! Of course! You should do that.”
“Then.”
Baek Cheon smiled gently and waved farewell.
When he turned, the others bowed to Hyung Euk and then all turned to leave together.
Hyung Euk stood there for a long while, watching until their figures faded and finally disappeared.
Wooooosh!
The disciples of Mount Hua, at the front, shot off like the wind.
The heavy steps they had taken leaving the village were now much lighter.
Baek Cheon ran at the very front, followed by Jo Gul. Jo Gul’s gaze was fixed on the sacks of grain slung over Baek Cheon’s shoulder.
The grain, which would barely amount to a handful if shared among so many, was being carried by Baek Cheon himself—as if it were a treasure that must never be lost.
“...When I think about it, it’s really strange.”
“Hm?”
Jo Gul muttered, and Baek Cheon turned. Jo Gul’s eyes were deeper than before.
“If you examine it, it’s that Hyung Euk fellow.”
“...Yeah.”
“Wasn’t he the one who distrusted us the most when we first stopped by the village?”
“Was he?”
“I’m telling you, yes. Other villagers were friendlier; that Hyung Euk treated us like thugs who’d come to show off our strength.”
Baek Cheon glanced up at the sky for a moment and recalled the first time they met Hyung Euk.
“Right. I guess he did.”
Thinking back, Jo Gul was right. When they first arrived, Hyung Euk had plainly shown his distrust towards them.
“But seeing that man act like that now...”
“Does it seem strange?”
“Not so much strange as...”
Jo Gul trailed off as if it were hard to put into words.
Fortunately, Yoon Jong articulated what he had been trying to say in a slightly more refined way.
“I think I understand a bit of what Chung Myung meant earlier.”
Baek Cheon looked at Yoon Jong with intrigued eyes. Yoon Jong shrugged and said.
“Of course, showing malice toward us doesn’t automatically make someone evil, and showing goodwill toward us doesn’t necessarily make someone good.”
“That’s obvious.”
“Yes. But... what changed that person’s attitude was probably the goodwill we showed earlier.”
Baek Cheon nodded silently.
There was, of course, concern. Calling the favor shown toward them a righteous change might be presumptuous. So Baek Cheon and Yoon Jong were cautious.
But what mattered here was not ‘righteousness’ but the change itself.
As Chung Myung had said, the association might not only be easing their lives... it could be changing something.
Something small and faint now that might one day grow and become greater.
Perhaps they had just witnessed that possibility with their own eyes.
“I believed the association was changing the world. That’s why I felt despair and was speechless at the villagers’ attitudes for a moment.”
“Yoon Jong...”
“But thinking now, that’s true. The association and goodwill might not change the world directly. Yet they might change people, even if just a little.”
Jo Gul nodded at those words.
Because they had seen it with their own eyes. They had witnessed a person changing.
“In the end, it’s people who change the world. It may be a slow process, but as one person after another changes, perhaps one day the world will be filled with goodwill.”
“That’s a difficult path.”
“Isn’t that what the tao is about? If it were easy, there’d be no need to seek it for a lifetime.”
Baek Cheon gave Yoon Jong a sidelong glance. Yoon Jong’s face looked unusually relieved and fresh. Baek Cheon felt merely comforted by Hyung Euk, but Yoon Jong seemed to have seen something Baek Cheon hadn’t.
That was enough. For now, that was sufficient.
“Let’s pursue the Tao a little later. For now, we must quicken our pace.”
“Yes, sasuk.”
“Although supplies didn’t turn out as planned... we’ll handle that as the situation allows.”
“Yes!”
Baek Cheon increased his speed. The wind rushed across his face.
The villagers who had turned away from them, the elder who had pressed them politely until the end, and Hyung Euk’s apologetic expression still lingered vividly before their eyes. It seemed they would not be easily forgotten.
But now all that remained was the heavy sack of grain on his shoulder.
‘Let’s not try to draw conclusions.’
Perhaps neither he nor his sahyung-sajaes were ready to make definitive judgments. No matter how famous or entrusted with grave duties, they were still young practitioners.
How to live in order to uphold the Way they believe in is a lifetime’s worth of contemplation. So don’t judge hastily—just remember. Someday these memories and what they saw here will blend into them.
Only...
‘Who could it be?’
The ‘someone’ Chung Myung occasionally spoke of—Baek Cheon found himself newly curious about that person.
He once thought Chung Myung was invoking someone non-existent to express his intent, but recently he realized that when Chung Myung referred to ‘someone,’ his words were full of a rare aura, so profound it was hard to find in Chung Myung himself.
“Respect, huh...”
He muttered, and Chung Myung, running in silence, tilted his head in curiosity.
“Hm?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
“How bland.”
When Chung Myung dismissed it as if incredulous, Baek Cheon gave a wry smile.
‘Someday...’
Then he stamped the ground hard, clenching tightly so as not to let slip any of the many things that had arisen within him.
❀ ❀ ❀
“None.”
Yu Gong flinched at the low voice. Forgetting to keep scanning in panic, he froze in place. Cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.
When he turned with a creak, he saw Ho Ga-Myung’s impassive face. Their gazes met in the air and Ho Ga-Myung asked.
“Isn’t this right?”
Yu Gong’s fingertips began to tremble.
Ho Ga-Myung was right. The sect’s markings were no longer visible. They searched desperately, but there wasn’t a trace.
He thought perhaps they’d misread the previous signs and taken the wrong direction, but that was highly unlikely. Ho Ga-Myung had already fully understood the Southern Island Sect’s markers. It was impossible for both Yu Gong and Ho Ga-Myung to be wrong at the same time.
“If the markings stopped, it means the rear guard has fully rejoined.”
“Ah, perhaps we simply haven’t found them yet. If you give me a little more time...”
“If I give you time?”
Ho Ga-Myung asked calmly.
“You mean you can find them?”
Yu Gong couldn’t bring himself to answer confidently; he knew well that he was clutching at straws.
Ho Ga-Myung narrowed his eyes. At the same time, Yu Gong recoiled.
But whether fortunate or not, Ho Ga-Myung had no regard for someone like Yu Gong at the moment. His mind was full of doubts about why the Southern Island Sect and the Heavenly Friends Alliance group had shown such sudden changes.
‘Logically, it means they realized we were tailing them.’
Otherwise, there would be no reason for them to suddenly rejoin like this.
What bothered him was that he couldn’t figure out how they detected the pursuit. Yu Gong had been desperately tracking them, but from Ho Ga-Myung’s perspective, they had been keeping a reasonable distance.
Without any special variables, they shouldn’t have noticed by now.
“Hmm.”
After a moment of thought, Ho Ga-Myung glanced at Yu Gong.
“What do you think?”
“...Sorry?”
“Why do you think they’ve stopped leaving markings?”
“How would I know...”
Ho Ga-Myung narrowed his eyes.
“I’m suddenly curious.”
“...About what?”
A clear sneer curled his lip.
“You have plucked out your own claws and become dogs. I’m curious whether other wolves can guess what you’re thinking.”
“...”
“But it seems a futile effort. Yes. A dog is only a dog.”
Yu Gong bit his lip between humiliation and anxiety. Ho Ga-Myung coldly shook his head at the sight.
“It’s become clear. Your role is over.”
In fact, Ho Ga-Myung had spoken without particular meaning—it was merely a way to summarize the situation.
But Yu Gong couldn’t accept it that way. The combination of dog, hunt, and end brought to mind the proverb ‘use and discard.’
The color drained from his face in an instant.
“So step back...”
“S-something! Something!”
Ho Ga-Myung was about to tell him to fall back but closed his mouth and stared at Yu Gong. Yu Gong desperately racked his brain and, afraid his words might be cut off, rambled out a torrent of speech.
“Th-there must be something they want to hide! Something that must never be discovered! Something whose traces must never be found by anyone in the future!”
“...”
“They want to avoid leaving artificial traces. Whatever it is! They must hide something that must never be exposed, so it’s not themselves they’re hiding but something else! So that thing...”
Though his words tumbled incoherently, Ho Ga-Myung understood what he was trying to say.
“Something they want to hide.”
A meaningful light kindled in his eyes.
“There’s sense to that.”
Snap!
When Ho Ga-Myung snapped his fingers, the lieutenants quickly moved to either side.
“Search the nearby area. Even trivial things are fine. Report anything noticeable. You have one watch; no more—nothing beyond that is worth wasting.”
“Yes, sir!”
At Ho Ga-Myung’s command, the lieutenants set the Ten Thousand People Clan members in motion, scattering them in all directions.
Drop.
Sweat trickled down Yu Gong’s face, pooling at his chin and dropping in beads. Anxiety seemed to eat away at his whole body.
Before that sweat had cooled, several of those who had dispersed returned.
“There’s a small village about 6 kilometers northwest.”
“A village?”
“Yes!”
Ho Ga-Myung briefly stroked his chin and murmured.
“A village...”
Could that village be the place they wanted to hide at all costs?
He couldn’t make sense of it. If they had been chasing some other entity, they’d naturally have ignored that information. But...
Ho Ga-Myung, staring intently at Yu Gong, slowly nodded.
“Move out.”
We’ll know when we see it. What, indeed, is being hidden.