Chapter 1824 – Return of The Mount Hua Sect
Chapter 1824. Side Story – Journey Outside (5) ❀ ❀ ❀
Cheong
Myeong scratched the back of his head. It was obvious, but hearing it from
someone else made him feel a little strange.
Even a boy
younger than him endured the brutality of all sorts of drunkards just to
achieve his dream and survive in the world. So why had he stayed tied to Mount
Hua? There were so many great things in the world.
Take Xi’an,
for example. As far as he knew, Xi’an wasn’t even that large of a city compared
to the whole of the Central Plains. But if Xi’an was this impressive, how many
amazing places must there be in the world?
He wanted to
see them all. With his own eyes.
‘Then why don’t
I just go?’
Why should
he voluntarily return to Mount Hua, only to be scolded and nagged?
“Ah, I get
it now.”
“Huh?”
Even though Cheong
Myeong himself hadn’t reached a conclusion, the boy nodded as if he understood.
“So that’s
what it is.”
“What is? I
don’t get it.”
“A home.”
“…Huh?”
“A home.
Home. A family.”
“……”
Cheong
Myeong looked blankly at him, but the boy continued with a smile.
“It’s
annoying, sometimes even worse than strangers, it can be disappointing,
sometimes unbearable to look at, and though there are good things, there are
far more bad things that others don’t see.”
Was he a
mind reader? If he wanted to make money, instead of being a waiter, he should just
carry a bamboo stick with ‘All-Seeing, All-Knowing’ written on it.
“But no
matter how suffocating it is… in the end, it’s the place you always go back to.
And eventually, you find yourself missing it.”
“……”
“That’s what
a home is, or so I’ve heard.”
The boy
smiled brightly and asked.
“For you,
Mount Hua is your home, right?”
“Huh? Uh… I
guess so?”
“Then it
makes sense.”
The boy
laughed out loud and added.
“I envy you.
The reason I do business and want to be a merchant is that I want to build my
own home and family someday. A place where I can return to, even if I bicker
and fight sometimes.”
Cheong
Myeong stared at the boy. Against the backdrop of the dazzling Xi’an
nightscape, the boy seemed to shine a little. Normally, he wouldn’t have paid
attention to such a small child.
“Have you
decided on a name?”
“Huh?”
“For your merchant
guild.”
“Oh, that?”
The boy
turned to face the brilliant lights of Xi’an and said.
“One day,
I’ll light up a city like that with just my stores. Like a river of stars in
the night sky, Eun-…”
“There he
is!”
“That way! Sahyung!”
“Cheong
Myeong-aaaah!
“Argh, damn
it! These leeches!”
Cheong
Myeong shot up from his seat, quickly scanned his surroundings, and shoved his
hand into his robe.
Thud!
“Huh?”
The boy
caught something that had suddenly been thrown at him.
“What is
this…?”
“A reward
for your help! Bye then!”
Cheong
Myeong turned and bolted away.
“Do, Dojang…?”
“Oh! Right!”
Then, moving
even faster than before, he rushed back, jabbed his fingers into the bag the
boy was holding, and pulled out a silver ingot.
“I still
need money for drinks tonight.”
“……”
“For real
this time. Live well! Open that merchant of yours!”
Cheong
Myeong dashed off into the distance.
“Do, Dojang!
Wait! My name is Hwang—”
But Cheong
Myeong’s figure soon disappeared into the darkness.
The boy’s
outstretched hand, reaching out instinctively, slowly lowered.
“…..Indong [인동(忍冬)].”
[Tl note:
yeahh, Hwang Indong... he really is the ancestor of Hwang Jongui and Hwang
Munyak T_T]
He scratched
the back of his head, disappointed.
“I wanted to
tell him I’d name my merchant as ‘Eunha Merchant Guild.’”
Letting out
a deep sigh, he looked at the bag in his hands.
“Why… would
he even…”
With an
indifferent gesture, he opened the bag.
Then his
hands started to tremble.
“O-Oh… Oh my
god.”
Silver. The
bag was packed full of heavy silver coin. This wasn’t just enough for a market
stall—he could rent a whole shop in Xi’an.
“H-Holy….”
The boy—no,
Hwang Indong—stared in shock at the direction where Cheong Myeong had disappeared.
It was a
night where the galaxy of stars flowed in the sky, and the galaxy of people
flowed on the ground.
[Tl note: Eunha
means galaxy, so this is a bit of a play on words]
❀ ❀ ❀
“Ugh,
seriously… If only they trained with this kind of persistence.”
Did it
really make sense to go through all this just to catch one person? Cheong
Myeong grumbled as he massaged his sore legs. He’d spent the whole night
running and hadn’t even had a drink.
“I was
planning to go back tomorrow. But now, I can’t. You brought this on yourselves!”
He spat
toward the ground in annoyance and turned east. Even in the darkness, Mount
Hua’s ridge stood tall in the distance.
“Hmmm… A
home, huh…”
Cheong
Myeong scratched his cheek.
“Well, I
made them worry enough. Maybe I should head back tomorrow.”
But first,
he needed to drink his fill…
“There you
are.”
“Huh?”
Cheong
Myeong snapped his head around. Had he been caught? No, these guys were yelling
their heads off earlier—why were they suddenly so quiet…?
Then he
frowned. The approaching figure wasn’t from Mount Hua.
“Who are
you?”
“....Have
you already forgotten? I am Jin Seokrim!”
“Jin what?”
“The man
from the tavern earlier!”
Cheong
Myeong narrowed his eyes. The moon, previously hidden by clouds, now
illuminated the world.
Standing
before him was an annoyingly handsome man with a somewhat familiar face.
[lmaoo, that annoyingly handsome man hahahaha]
“Oh, it’s
you. I thought you were one of my Sahyungs. But what do you want… huh?”
Cheong
Myeong instinctively caught something thrown toward him. A long stick? No—a
wooden sword.
“Take your
stance.”
“…What?”
Jin Seokrim
raised his wooden sword, his expression filled with killing intent.
“Did you really
think you could just walk away after humiliating me like that? It was a mistake
to go easy on you just because you're young. Today, I'll teach you a proper
lesson.”
Cheong
Myeong stiffened.
“Oh, so you
want to fight?”
“Draw your
sword.”
“I mean, it's
not like I was planning to refuse, but… are you sure? I heard you have an
important sparring match? Tournament? Something like that coming up.”
“Enough with
the chatter. Draw your sword. You won’t escape this time.”
Jin Seokrim
ground his teeth. If he beat up a young disciple of Mount Hua, the elders of
his sect would surely scold him, but that was nothing compared to the shame of
leaving this humiliation unanswered.
If he let
this brat go, he would become the laughingstock of Zhongnan.
“This is
your last chance! Draw your sword!”
“Oh, well,
if you insist… But.”
Cheong
Myeong grinned.
“Don’t
regret it.”
“You
little—!”
Jin Seokrim
charged at Cheong Myeong with all his might.
❀ ❀ ❀
“Where is
he?”
“I heard a
scream from over there!”
“Sahyung! No
matter what, he's just a kid… What are you planning to do?!”
Yang
Gwanjeong and the other disciples of Zhongnan, who had been searching Xi’an for
the enraged Jin Seokrim, rushed into the bushes, following the loud cries.
They had to
stop him before he crippled the boy.
“Sahyung!
Stop.... huh?”
But the
scene that unfolded before them was not what they had expected.
“Sa-Sahyung?”
“Why is
he—?!”
“What…
happened here?”
Jin Seokrim
was sprawled out under the night sky, lying flat like a fallen tree. The
disciples gasped and ran toward him.
“Good
heavens, he's a mess. Was he ambushed?”
The faces of
the Zhongnan disciples turned pale. Jin Seokrim wasn’t fatally injured, but he
was clearly beaten to a pulp.
No way… It
couldn’t have been that kid.
“Yang
Sahyung, over here.”
“What is it?”
“Jin Sahyung’s
arm…”
Yang
Gwanjeong’s face went white. Jin Seokrim’s arm, still clutching his wooden
sword, was visibly broken and dangling loosely.
“If… if
that’s the case, then the tournament…”
What was
there to say? He was out.
‘What the
hell happened here…?’
No matter
how hard he tried to make sense of it, Yang Gwanjeong couldn’t understand. How
did Jin Seokrim end up like this?
Then, at
that moment—
“Ughhh…”
“Sahyung!
Are you conscious? Sahyung!”
A groan
escaped from Jin Seokrim’s lips, as if he were on the verge of death.
“What
happened?”
“F-five…”
“What? Five?
Were you ambushed by five people? Was it Mount Hua’s disciples?!”
“He said it…
five times…”
“…What?”
“Then… why…
six times…”
[Tl note:
NOOO, HAHAHAHAHA. This is CM's habit of hitting people's heads 6 times, but
mentioning 'head' 5 times T_T. That means this is indeed a habit from his first
life, it's not Jong Pal/Wang Cho's (the beggar) fault for hitting CM's head at
the beginning of the chapter lmaoooo]
Jin
Seokrim’s head slumped to the ground. Yang Gwanjeong, speechless, looked at his
fallen sahyung, who had passed out again mid-sentence.
“Yang
Sahyung, what should we do?”
“Ugh…”
Yang
Gwanjeong rubbed his face in frustration.
“First…
first, carry sahyung back.”
“Yes!”
The disciples
hoisted Jin Seokrim onto their backs and hurried toward Zhongnan. Left alone,
Yang Gwanjeong bit his lip and glanced at the spot where Jin Seokrim had
collapsed.
'That’s…'
His eyes
landed on a wooden sword lying on the ground. Not the one Jin Seokrim had been
holding, but another, discarded from the start.
Yang
Gwanjeong’s expression twisted.
'No way. It
can’t be.'
There's no
way. Absolutely not.
Absolutely…
❀ ❀ ❀
Two days
later, after drinking himself into a stupor, Cheong Myeong staggered back to
Mount Hua on his own.
Upon hearing
about the incident in Xian, Cheong Mun became utterly furious and confined
Cheong Myeong to the Repentance Hall—for over a month.
Then, after
an official complaint from Zhongnan, Cheong Myeong’s confinement was extended
by another month.
By the time
he was finally released two months later, Cheong Myeong suffered from an
unusual side effect—he would completely lose his composure at the mere mention
of the word ‘Zhongnan’. [tl note: source of CM hate lmao]
For some, it
was a tragic tale.
For others,
it was a rather trivial one.
❀ ❀ ❀
“Why?”
“.....”
“Why are you
looking at me like that?”
Baek Cheon
frowned, visibly annoyed as he stared at Cheong Myeong. The guy had been eyeing
him up and down for a while now.
“No, it's just…”
“Just what?”
“I thought
you were unpleasant from the first time I saw you.”
“…Huh?”
“And now I’m
wondering why.”
Baek Cheon’s
face contorted. This lunatic seemed even crazier than usual today.
But Cheong
Myeong, oblivious to Baek Cheon's irritation, tilted his head with a serious
expression.
“Where did I
first see you again?”
“The tavern,
idiot! You were already wasted back then! And you were just a kid!”
“Right?”
“Yeah!”
“And you
were drinking with your Sahyungs?”
“Are you
losing your memory already? Why do you keep asking? It wasn’t even that long
ago!”
Cheong
Myeong tilted his head.
“No, I know,
I know… I’m sure that’s right. But something feels off. Like it happened a
really long time ago. It’s like I almost remember, but I don’t.”
“What the
hell are you talking about?”
After much
contemplation, Cheong Myeong finally smiled brightly.
“Eh,
whatever. I guess you just have an annoyingly unlucky face.”
“……”
“Hahaha. It’s
really that simple.”
“Please,
just leave me alone… Please…”
Baek Cheon
could only feel bitter. What kind of sin had he committed in his past life to
end up as Sasuk of this lunatic?
❀ ❀ ❀
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