Chapter 1901 – Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1901. There’s Something I Want to Ask. (1)❀ ❀ ❀

If asked why he had come here, even Cheong Myeong himself couldn’t quite explain.

Words like sympathy or understanding didn’t fit. The one buried before him was not worthy of sympathy. Even less was he worthy of understanding.

Even this ugly grave felt too generous for Jang Ilso. Not a shred of pity for Jang Ilso lingered in Cheong Myeong’s heart. He could be sure of that much.

And yet, Cheong Myeong had come here.

If he said it was simply because he wanted to, would it sound ridiculous? Perhaps those words he once spoke, that from now on he would act as his heart guided him, were what had brought him here. Beyond reason or duty, it was just Cheong Myeong’s heart moving him to act.

“Sounds like bullshit.”

Cheong Myeong let out a faint laugh.

Trying to explain something that couldn’t be explained was foolish. Pretending to understand what couldn’t be understood would only yield the wrong answer. In the end, it would all just be an excuse.

Cheong Myeong admitted it. This was nothing more than whim. Nothing more, nothing less.

“I’m just an idiot who can’t hold back a whim, even in a situation like this.”

That was a fact he couldn’t deny.

“So then…”

Murmuring, Cheong Myeong pulled open the cork of a bottle. The sharp scent of strong liquor stung his nose. He took a long, unhesitating swig, then wiped his mouth roughly. Then he tilted the bottle over the low mound where not even grass had sprouted.

Trickle, trickle.

Clear liquor drew a long stream as it fell, soaking the dark-red earth even darker.

“Be grateful and drink it. A stupid unorthodox bastard like you won’t ever again have the chance to drink the liquor a Taoist offers.”

Trickle, trickle.

After letting the drink spill for a while, Cheong Myeong raised the bottle back to his lips.

Continuing his one-sided drinking bout, he suddenly spoke as if spitting the words out.

“You always acted clever… so why’d you end up acting so damn stupid? You could have stopped before it came to this. You idiot.”

Even if, after defeating Cheong Myeong, Jang Ilso had held the world in his hands for a fleeting moment, the ending that awaited him would not have been much different. Jang Ilso would have known that clearly as well.

There was only one way to avoid the inevitable tragedy… no, even just to delay it a little: to stop before going too far.

But instead of stopping, Jang Ilso chose to press forward to the very end. Even while fully knowing that miserable death awaited there.

Cheong Myeong muttered.

“You had to, didn’t you?”

He had to carry through with what he had chosen to believe. If he collapsed in despair before that towering wall, he would have been reduced to nothing.

For Jang Ilso, for someone like him, that would have been a humiliation far greater than death.

“It couldn't have been any other way for you.”

Denying himself or embracing death. Between the two, it was obvious which Jang Ilso would choose.

“Yes, I know. That’s why…”

Cheong Myeong’s gaze flicked upward. The flawless, piercingly blue sky somehow felt stifling today.

“I hate people like you.”

Is a life burdened with humiliation, broken and bent, truly less than a proud death? Should one who casts even his life away for an ideal truly be considered right?

Of course, some might appear indescribably noble, while others might seem utterly vile. But whichever choice was made, Cheong Myeong could never bring himself to empathize.

That kind of life was too brutal.

An unyielding ideal that refused to bend could devour not only oneself but everything around. Those blinded by its dazzling radiance would see nothing else.

Yes, just like…

Cheong Myeong tilted the bottle in his hand once more over Jang Ilso’s grave. Then, as if it were the ordained order, he drank as well. As though sharing a drink with one who no longer existed, as though speaking with one who was already gone.

“There’s something I want to ask. Back then… why did you laugh?”

[note: that’s the title of this chapter.]

Of course, no answer came. None ever would. The dead could not speak.

After a long silence, Cheong Myeong opened his mouth again.

“I don’t know what I was to you. I don’t even want to know. But to me… you’re someone I can never understand... and yet somehow, someone I almost can.”

It was hard to deny the resemblance. Yet it was equally clear how utterly different they were.

Two beings walking along parallel lines, alike, yet never to meet. Was that not Cheong Myeong and Jang Ilso?

“Sometimes it felt like I could see right through you. What you thought, what you felt.”

Cheong Myeong muttered softly, staring at the red earth covering Jang Ilso’s body.

“But that last expression of yours… no matter how much I think on it, I can’t figure it out.”

It was the final moment of his life.

Everything had been thrown away. His life, all he had built, perhaps even things dearer to him than life itself. All burned away at the road’s end.

And in that instant as it all collapsed, how could Jang Ilso have laughed?

Relief? Self-mockery? Or perhaps emptiness? Some pitiful self-satisfaction of one who resisted an uncrossable wall to the very last?

To Cheong Myeong, it seemed like none of these. If it had been so easy to understand, he would never have come all the way here.

That last expression would not leave his mind. Branded like a scar, Jang Ilso’s face lingered within him. Perhaps it would remain an unsolvable question for the rest of his life.

He gazed heavily at Jang Ilso’s grave.

Before the year was out, grass would cover it. The faintly raised mound would vanish beneath weeds, worn down by wind and the hooves of beasts until it was flat again.

And soon, no one would ever find it.

“Heave-ho.”

Cheong Myeong rose to his feet.

He wished to leave behind neither scorn nor pity. Emptying the rest of the liquor onto the mound, he stood for a long while staring at the rough grave, then slowly turned away.

“I may hate you as a man, but I won’t condemn your choice. There was a time when I, too, desperately desired the choice you made.”

No one knew better than Cheong Myeong how fierce that fight was, how agonizing.

“But you know… there are those who face the despair you turned away from. Back then, and even now.”

Cheong Myeong closed his eyes slowly.

Perhaps he had no right himself. Yet even setting him aside, such people certainly existed in this world, people overflowing with that right.

“So watch closely from there. We won’t run away. We won’t give up. Even if only ruin waits at the end, I’ll fight to the very last.”

Perhaps this was the message he had truly wanted to deliver.

Because it was something he could never say to anyone else. Something only the ears of the dead could receive, even if the dead man had been his enemy.

Cheong Myeong began to walk. Just as when he came here, trudging step by step. Nothing had changed.

Step. Step.

As though leaving nothing behind, his footsteps continued without hesitation.

But then, suddenly, Cheong Myeong turned his head, staring blankly at the empty air.

Impossible… it couldn’t be… and yet, a phantom sound brushed past. Confusion flickered across his face.

What was that? Just now… surely…

No one, nothing gave Cheong Myeong an answer.

For a long while he searched the empty air, then took in every sight before him as if to capture it all. And then he walked on again. This time, without pause. Slowly, steadily, his figure grew smaller.

And at last, on the empty plain where Cheong Myeong vanished, only the pungent scent of liquor lingered. Heavy at first, it thinned with the wind, scattering until at last it was as if it had never been.

Nothing remained but a faint after-scent, sinking with mournful grace.

[note: janhyang, 잔향(殘香): literally means “lingering fragrance” or “remaining scent.”]

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Though people were present, a heavy silence hung. Cold, sharp gazes like frosted blades clashed in the air.

Like rivals glaring across a board, neither yielding an inch as their killing intent pressed against each other. At the same time, the two men moved their hands… and seized their teacups.

“Mm.”

“Hmm.”

As if displeased by the fact that they had grabbed their teacups at the same time, the two men set them down again—also at the same time.

Then, just like at the start, they fell into silence and glared at one another.

The suffocating sight made the others around them exchange glances.

‘Uh, so… sohyeop.’

‘Yes, dojang.’

‘So... on one side, we have the elder brother who even cast aside the authority of the sect leader to save his younger brother.’

‘Yes.’

‘And on the other side, we have the younger brother whose life was saved thanks to that elder brother.’

‘That’s right.’

‘So basically, even though they looked like they were on bad terms, deep down it turns out they cared about each other a lot.’

‘More precisely, it looked like one of them was just bullying the other, but in the end it turns out he was nothing but a brother doting on his younger sibling. That interpretation seems closer to the truth.’

‘Either way, that’s the gist. Which is why we arranged this meeting…’

‘Yes.’

‘So then why the hell are they acting like this?’

Hearing the whispered questions tumbling out, Lee Songbaek turned to look again at the two men sitting opposite each other. Not only their energy, but even their faces resembled each other, as if they were staring into a mirror.

A strange expression briefly crossed Lee Songbaek’s face.

‘Well, you know.’

He answered with a faint laugh, as if an old memory had surfaced.

‘Aren’t brothers all like that?’

At that very moment, both men reached out simultaneously again and seized their teacups.

“Mmm.”

“Ahem!”

Once again, they both wore uncomfortable expressions as they set the teacups down.

“…This is driving me insane.”

“They’ve done that at least ten times already.”

“Precisely thirteen times.”

The disciples of Mount Hua and Zhongnan, who had in their curiosity edged closer, wondering whether the two might actually start hacking at each other with swords(?) or, if not that, what else might erupt between the brothers, were now clutching their chests in frustration and letting out silent screams.

At that moment, Jin Geumryong, being the elder brother after all, was the first to open his mouth.

“Your body… is it all right?”

Baek Cheon’s expression twisted. Or rather, it was closer to a grimace.

He knew those words were meant as concern, but hearing them come from Jin Geumryong’s own mouth felt like worms drenched in poison were crawling all over his body.

“That…”

And whether fortunate or not, Jin Geumryong seemed to feel just as dreadful about saying it.

“Seeing you stabbed and nearly dying at the hands of unorthodox bastards, how could I not be concerned? I can’t fathom how someone like you was born into our family.”

“…What?”

Baek Cheon shot to his feet in outrage, making Yoon Jong cry out in alarm.

“Ah! No, Sasuk! Weren’t you going to say thank you? What are you doing?! A life-saving grace! A life-saving grace!”

“Ughh…”

Grinding his teeth furiously, Baek Cheon reluctantly sat back down. Jin Geumryong, hearing Yoon Jong’s words as well, let out a smug little laugh.

“So? Why did you call me here?”

“That…”

Baek Cheon’s face flushed red.

What he wanted most was to flip the table and storm out, but he had spoken of righteousness before outsiders so many times that he couldn’t very well act disgracefully now. After all, it was true that Jin Geumryong had saved his life.

Even if the whole thing felt so dreadful that biting his tongue seemed the lesser bad, he could not deny the reality that had already happened.

“That…”

“What?”

“Tha…”

Baek Cheon’s voice shrank to the size of an ant’s.

“What? I can’t hear you.”

“Tha…”

Baek Cheon’s face twisted miserably. This was impossible. The words simply refused to come out of his throat.

“You just go around doing things no one asked you to do!”

“What? That’s what you say to your brother who saved your life?”

“Who says you saved me? I could have handled it on my own. You were nothing but a nuisance!”

“You bastard...!”

Neither waiting for the other, both men leapt up at the same time and grabbed each other by the collar.

“I spared you because you’re still my younger brother, and this is how you act, so arrogant.”

“Who’s your younger brother? I severed ties with you long ago!”

“Fine! I saved you, so I’ll take you back again.”

“Ha! Try it if you can!”

Lee Songbaek and Yoon Jong stared blankly at the sight.

“Unbelievable.”

“Brothers…”

Watching the wretched scene, Jo Geol rubbed his face harshly with both hands.

“…Those damned Jin family bastards really are hopeless.”

No one could bring themselves to argue with Jo Geol.

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