Chapter 1907 - Return of The Mount Hua Sect

Chapter 1907. I’m Home. (1) ❀ ❀ ❀

“Good grief. That man’s capacity is about as small as a soy sauce dish.”

“.....”

“And that kind of fellow is becoming Sect Leader? What will become of Mount Hua’s future?”

“......Urrrrghhhh.”

“Oh, Sahyung! My goodness, you can speak?! You were so quiet around Jin Geumryong I thought maybe you’d forgotten how to talk.”

Baek Cheon tightly shut his eyes.

The road to Shaanxi should have been a happy and pleasant journey, but for some reason, it felt endlessly long and like a living hell. The main reason for that was the chatter of those devil brats behind him who never stopped talking.

‘At this rate, I’d rather deal with the unorthodox sect... yes, even the unorthodox sect...’

What made it worse was that the most vicious one among the bunch tormenting him wasn’t Cheong Myung. Unexpected suffering is always the hardest to bear.

When Baek Cheon glanced back, Baek Sang met his gaze, lifted his chin, and glared.

“What?”

There was a chilling madness in Baek Sang’s wide, twitching eyes.

“You dragged me into hell itself, talking about duty and righteousness, and now what? You’re angry because I said something that happens to be true?”

“That...”

“Oh come on, surely not! You’re human, aren’t you?! Surely you’re not going to act like some hypocrite wearing a human mask, right?”

“....It’s nothing.”

Baek Cheon’s shoulders slumped.

That Baek Sang came back alive from the gates of hell was nothing short of a miracle. And the responsibility for that ordeal fell entirely on Baek Cheon.

To be honest, he did feel sorry.

For Baek Cheon, it had been something he had to do, but from Baek Sang’s perspective, that didn’t matter, did it? He’d been dragged along against his will and almost lost his life several times, so of course Baek Cheon felt guilty.

The problem was that Baek Sang seemed to have left a piece of his sanity back in hell. Since that day, the sharp, chilling madness in his eyes was enough to make even Baek Cheon shrink back.

‘He used to be one of the few normal ones in Mount Hua...’

Baek Cheon quietly buried the question, ‘How did he end up like that?’ deep in his heart. Saying it aloud would only make things worse for him.

Anyway, everything else he could endure.

The judgmental stares from the sajes. The sulky looks from the sajils. The constant snide remarks. Even the faint reproach in the sasuks’ eyes! He could somehow ignore it all.

“......”

But what he couldn’t bear were the distrustful gazes of the children watching everything unfold.

“Well, you see...”

Every time Baek Cheon tried to explain himself, they would quietly avert their eyes. Then, when he gave up and looked away, they would sneak glances back at him again.

The distrustful gaze, wondering, ‘Is it really the right choice to follow this person to Mount Hua? Wouldn't it be wiser to turn around and head for Diancang?’ made Baek Cheon want to cry.

As if understanding his heart, Yoon Jong gave him a warm look and offered comfort.

“At least it’s a relief that the Emei and Qingcheng kids aren’t here, isn’t it, Sasuk?”

“.....What a comfort, Yoon Jong.”

Of the disciples from the three sects who decided to travel together to Mount Hua, the children from Emei and Qingcheng had stayed behind in Henan for now, to visit their own sects as Baek Cheon had promised.

— In that case, it’s only right that we take care of it.

Baek Cheon had intended to handle that task himself, but since the Tang Family had volunteered, he couldn’t refuse. After all, the Tang Family of Sichuan would be the one most involved in future exchanges with Qingcheng and Emei.

At the time, he couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed, even though he understood the situation. But now, in hindsight, he had to admit Yoon Jong was probably right.

“Still… don’t you think all this happened because you lot don’t respect me enough?”

“Hahaha, Baek Cheon siju.”

Hye Yeon, who had been watching, smiled softly.

“Respect is not something that comes from coercion, but from the heart, don’t you think? If one wishes to be respected, one must first strive to become someone worthy of it.”

“....So you’re saying, if I want respect, I should act like someone who deserves it, is that it, monk?”

So right now, I’m a pathetic man with nothing worthy of respect?

Hye Yeon only smiled gently. But even the Diancang kids standing nearby seemed to understand perfectly what that smile meant.

“Sahyung, didn’t they say that man is the deputy sect leader? That he’ll soon become Mount Hua’s Sect Leader?”

“Yes, that’s what I heard.”

“Then why does he seem like the most ignored person here?”

“Well, who knows. I can’t quite figure that out either...”

The Diancang disciples once again snuck glances at Baek Cheon. His fists clenched tight.

“Sasuk.”

“Huh?”

“Just relax. Being treated like a fool is better than being treated like an enemy, isn’t it?”

“…..I could handle being treated like a fool. But this feels more like being treated like an idiot.”

“Ah.”

Jo Geol nodded as if he completely understood.

Baek Cheon let out a dry chuckle. Thanks to him becoming the butt of the jokes, the atmosphere on the road to Shaanxi, which could have turned tense, had softened quite a bit. Maybe, just maybe, the others weren’t teasing him to mock him, but rather to lighten the mood...

“Isn’t the road a bit narrow?”

“Hmm. Rather like your capacity, Sahyung. Should we call this Baek Cheon Road?”

“How about Dongryong Road instead?”

“Ugh. It sits so nicely on the tongue, doesn’t it?”

No. Of course those bastards just enjoy picking on me. Baek Cheon, who had been boiling like a teapot, could no longer hold back and snapped his head around.

“Hey, you…!”

But Baek Cheon’s lid shut before it could fully open. His sahyungs were all staring off into the distance as if entranced.

A momentary question flitted through his mind, then Baek Cheon, seized by a sudden strong premonition, hurriedly turned his gaze to the same spot.

“....Ah!”

Baek Cheon cried out.

The shape in the distance was blurry, yet it felt as clear as if he could reach out and touch it.

Like a great rolling wave, a formation rose up, and in it a peak shot up like a blade.

“Mount Hua…”

A bright smile spread across Baek Cheon’s mouth.

At last it was there. The place they had to return to.

“Um…”

“Ah…”

There was only one problem.

Joy usually comes from seeing something familiar again.

A lifetime farmer longs for his golden fields. One who has lived among high mountains never forgets steep slopes and green trees.

In other words, if the scene you have always known looks too different, it is hard to feel glad.

That was exactly the feeling the Mount Hua disciples stared at with mouths agape.

“Um… it’s definitely the place.”

“Yeah. It really is Huayin…”

The disciples blinked again and again. No matter how vast the Central Plains are, there cannot be two mountains with such a fierce presence. The distant mountain was definitely the Mount Hua they knew.

But the scene spread out at the foot of the mountain was nothing like what they remembered.

“Look! That looks like the inn we used to go to?”

It was the inn they used to order food from whenever the sect held a banquet and the disciples carried it up the mountain. The proprietor’s cooking was so good that everyone from Mount Hua liked that inn…

“...I suppose you can’t really call it an inn anymore.”

It had become a seven-story pavilion.

The signboard still bore the name they knew, but the small, cozy inn had grown into a place that could not be called small even as a joke.

And that change was not limited to the inn.

“It’s tall…”

“It really is.”

The disciples’ gazes climbed higher.

“It’s huge…”

“It is.”

Then all at once their sight swept from left to right.

The entrance to Huayin, the narrow path that led to their small beloved village, had become wide enough for many carts to pass side by side, and towering pavilions rose on both sides higher than any they had ever seen.

“This is... Huayin, right?”

“I think we came to the wrong place…”

The disciples blinked repeatedly.

“Change has its limits. How long were we gone to let it change this much?”

Even before they left, Huayin had already gone through a big change. Who did not know that? They themselves had cut trees to build houses and leveled land into fields.

But what lay before them now was leagues beyond what they had built and left behind.

“Is this bigger than Xi’an by now?”

Jo Geol muttered absentmindedly. Yoon Jong shook his head, but his expression was also stunned.

“It can’t be that big. But…”

“But?”

“....It does look more splendid than Xi’an.”

“Haha.”

The Mount Hua disciples could not hide their bewilderment and let out nervous laughs.

Unlike them, Im Sobyeong, who had little attachment to Huayin, guessed the reason behind it and said indifferently.

“Why are you all saying such obvious things? Did you expect it to be exactly the same? So many people have gathered here.”

“The houses are already—”

“Tsk tsk tsk. What nonsense. Do you think people only eat and sleep? Cities are not there because of buildings. A place becomes a city because people gather there. Whether by choice or not, once that many people are here, this is what happens. Tsk tsk.”

“You speak as if you know a lot, Nokrim King.”

“That is an obvious observation. Do you think banditry only needs a sword? You need to know where expensive goods pass, where it is hard for a suppression force to be organized, which mountain will become a transport hub and a center of logistics… Ah! Why are you hitting me?”

“Are you proud of studying how to rob people? Want me to just bury you?”

Cheong Myeong, who had just kicked Im Sobyeong in the butt, looked at Huayin with a newfound gaze.

What was this feeling? This strange yet familiar, unexplainable emotion?

Even Cheong Myeong couldn’t find the words for it when suddenly Baek Cheon burst into hearty laughter.

“Hahahaha!”

“Why are you laughing, Sasuk?”

“Haha. Isn’t it funny? From Hubei to Henan, fighting against the Evil Tyrant Alliance, I thought I was defending the world on behalf of the Heavenly Comrade Alliance.”

“Well, that’s…”

“But everything we protected burned down and was soaked in blood, while the people who stayed here, look at them, they’ve changed the world, haven’t they?”

Baek Cheon looked at Huayin with calm eyes and murmured quietly.

“It’s not those of us who wield swords who lead the world, but those who till the earth. I’ve always known that, and yet…”

His voice trailed off. The Mount Hua disciples, listening silently, seemed to come to the same realization as they gazed once more at Huayin.

“But that’s only half the truth.”

“Yes?”

Im Sobyeong, however, spoke again with his usual unshaken expression.

“That world of common folk can crumble from just one kick of a bandit’s boot. No matter how much Huayin has developed, if the Heavenly Comrade Alliance had fallen and the Evil Tyrant Alliance reached this place… could this sight still exist?”

“Hmm.”

“They’d be lucky if it hadn’t all burned down.”

Snap.

Im Sobyeong opened his fan and lightly fanned his face.

“There’s no need to puff your chest too high, but don’t belittle what you’ve accomplished either. Look at it as it is. This is the sight you protected.”

“…says the bandit.”

“Hey! The mood was perfect!”

Regardless of Im Sobyeong’s outburst, the Mount Hua disciples paid him no mind. They simply stood still, gazing at the view before them.

Until now, it hadn’t felt real. They had fought in empty places and seen only lands reduced to ashes.

Only here did they finally understand what it was they had fought to protect.

As none of them could bring themselves to speak, footsteps suddenly echoed.

Step.

“Hm?”

“Uh…”

Everyone turned their eyes toward the sound.

“Cheong Myeong?”

Cheong Myeong was walking away from them. His steps led to a small mountain path, the one that climbed toward Mount Hua itself. It was the only road in Huayin that had not changed.

Glancing back, Cheong Myeong asked lightly,

“Weren’t we heading this way?”

The Five Swords were silent for a moment, then slowly began to smile.

“Yeah. We were.”

Whether things had changed or not, what did it matter?

The Mount Hua disciples began to walk. The same narrow, steep, yet dearly familiar path.

They had lost much, and much had changed. They had clung to countless regrets and let them go again. Yet the narrow mountain road that welcomed them all had not changed in the slightest.

The Mount Hua disciples didn’t hurry. They climbed slowly, step by step, up the path they had walked hundreds of times, the road that led home.

And finally—

Creeeaaak!

The long-shut, dust-covered temple gates swung wide open.

Step. Step.

Without hesitation, the disciples of Mount Hua crossed the threshold.

At the front, Cheong Myeong gazed steadily at the dust-covered main hall and spoke slowly.

“I’m home.”

The words he had always carried naturally within his mouth drifted into the cool mountain air, spreading far and wide.

[Note: I translated the title (which is also said by Cheong Myeong at the end) as “I’m Home” because it sounds prettier, even though the literal meaning is “I have gone and come back.”]

Btw, thanks for the birthday wishes in advance!

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