Let’s Try To Get Along Together! (1)

Confucius once said, “If you befriend the upright, you yourself will become upright; if you associate with the wicked, you yourself will become wicked.”

In other words, a person’s character is influenced not only by themselves but also by the friends around them.

And if that is true, then those gathered in the Heavenly Friends Alliance now are clearly the worst kinds of people who should never be considered friends.

“…You bastard…”

“Today, I will definitely kill you.”

The Five Swords walked toward the training ground with faces full of malice. Their eyes were filled with deadly intent.

“I thought your mouth was just frozen shut.”

“No. Did we burn the pavilion? The Green Forest did! Then the Green Forest should be kicked out, so why are we the ones being caught?”

“Exactly! If they want to make us sleep outside, they should just send out those Ice Palace bastards. They sleep wearing only their underclothes and still complain about the heat, leaving windows and doors wide open!”

“Wow, they open the doors? Then they should sleep outside themselves!”

Baek Cheon shook his head from side to side.

“Enough.”

A fierce fire ignited in his eyes.

“Even if I don’t care about the others, today we’re really burying those Green Forest bastards. These crazy bastards even set fire to the pavilion?”

“Obviously, the Green Forest King ordered this.”

“He should freeze to death, Green Forest King. Just call him a bandit bastard!”

Mount Hua already has psychological scars from fires, especially fires in the pavilion. Thanks to the fair fire that Chung Myung mentioned, Mount Hua narrowly avoided being completely burned down.

“Knowing that and still setting the fire? Are they really human?”

Bloodshot veins appeared in Baek Cheon’s eyes.

He suffered nightmares all night because of Im So-Byeong’s face laughing gleefully as the pavilion burned. That expression seemed to shout, “We’re not trying to win the fight, just to piss off the Mount Hua bastards,” which made his stomach churn even more.

“Im So-Byeong…”

Baek Cheon gritted his teeth, but Jo Gul seemed to think differently.

“No, is this the time to only talk about the Green Forest King? Aren’t the Tang Family bastards more of a problem?”

Jo Gul rolled his eyes and passionately argued.

“No, those crazy bastards are thoughtless bandits who, if they set fire to the pavilion, should at least try to put it out together. But they threw poison bombs on top of the fire?”

“…”

“If it weren’t for that poisonous smoke, we could have put out the fire and saved the pavilion somehow. Don’t you remember the face of that Tang Family bastard admiring the pink poisonous smoke rising, calling it a spectacle?”

“It was quite a spectacle.”

“Kind of like a plum blossom field.”

“Yeah, it was pretty.”

“What are you agreeing to, you crazy bastards!”

“…Jo Gul, calm down. After all, it’s our sasuk.”

“Huh? Sahyung? Why aren’t you hitting today?”

“…It’s hard for you to understand, but coincidentally, I was thinking the same as you.”

Yoon Jong shook his head and continued.

“…And the poisonous smoke aside, if the beasts of the Beast Palace hadn’t rampaged so much, we would have put out the fire before the pavilion was completely burned. But these so-called sacred beasts had their tails on fire and were running wild. What could we do? We’re not Baek Ah.”

“Come to think of it, what happened to Baek Ah? I didn’t see her.”

“She collapsed from exhaustion while desperately trying to control the beasts…”

“So she fell ill? Poor thing…”

“No. She’s mostly recovered from exhaustion, but when she heard the beasts were rampaging, she got pissed and was taken away by Chung Myung.”

“…What does that have to do with anything?”

“If a beast causes trouble, Baek Ah is always held responsible.”

Everyone squeezed their eyes shut. From Baek Ah’s perspective, it must be so unfair. No matter how great she is, she’s just a marten, and what can she do when beasts the size of houses catch fire and go crazy?

This isn’t a matter of ability but of innate size, but the problem is that such excuses won’t work on Chung Myung.

“Amitabha. May he rest in paradise…”

“He’s not dead yet!”

But Hae Yeon shook his head coldly.

“It’s just an empty obsession. How can someone taken by the devil return alive? Next time we see her, she’ll probably be a nice scarf.”

“…How did such a person come out of Buddhism?”

“When I first saw him, he was definitely shy and kind.”

“Then it’s our fault.”

“Actually, that’s hard to deny.”

Everyone became solemn before Mount Hua’s original sin(?). Just by looking at Hae Yeon alone, one can understand the resentment the court holds against Mount Hua and the deeds committed because of it.

From the moment they lured the genius martial artist who would lead Shaolin’s next generation into becoming a drunken monk who only sought liquor at night, the relationship between Mount Hua and Shaolin became irreparable.

“Anyway, it was like hell.”

Baek Cheon shook his head in disgust.

The bandits who set fire to the pavilion, and the Mount Hua guys who screamed and ran around like wild boars shocked by lightning upon seeing the fire.

And the Tang Family bastards who laughed while throwing poison bombs into the pavilion as the Mount Hua guys panicked trying to put out the fire, and the Beast Palace members sweating profusely trying to catch the flaming sacred beasts.

All the chaos and evil in the world were mixed that night. If Asura had seen it, he would surely have shaken his head and muttered, “Master, you’re progressing too fast.”

“…Come to think of it, where were the Ice Palace people then? Their Ice Cold Qi Technique would have helped put out the fire.”

“They ran away without even looking back, saying it was too hot just being near the fire.”

Baek Cheon’s tightly closed lips trembled.

‘How is it that none of them are sane?’

It’s hard to say. Were all the gathered people insane from the start, or do normal sects lose their minds once they join the Heavenly Friends Alliance?

“Anyway, I’ll really kill them all.”

Everyone gritted their teeth.

“…This time, I agree.”

“Me too.”

“Brother or not, I’ll stab a big needle right in the middle of their faces!”

Mount Hua’s disciples, burning with fighting spirit, headed to the training ground. And sure enough, other sects had already set up camp there.

“Oh dear.”

As the Five Swords appeared, Im So-Byeong leisurely waved his fan. Though his face looked more gaunt and corpse-like these days, trying to act relaxed only made him look like someone about to die.

“I wonder if our Taoists slept well last night.”

Gnash!

The sound of Mount Hua disciples grinding their teeth echoed like music. Seeing this, Im So-Byeong chuckled.

Watching the culprit who set fire to the dormitory, a hellfire also blazed in the hearts of Mount Hua disciples. It was a fire that wouldn’t go out unless they caught and burned that bastard to death.

“You have a hole in your mouth!”

“Hahaha. Couldn’t sleep… cough cough cough Sleep… gag!”

Im So-Byeong coughed as if about to spit his lungs out. Each cough sprayed red blood everywhere, causing the nearby bandits to step back with uneasy expressions.

“Cough, cough. Sleep… sleep… cough.”

“…That guy will die even if we just leave him alone.”

“Just leave him? Feels like we’re just making a corpse out of him for no reason.”

“No way. Even if he dies, it has to be by our hands. Beat him to death before he dies a natural death.”

“As expected of the sasuk. Second place in Mount Hua’s personality rankings.”

“What? I’m second? What about Jo Gul?”

Even Baek Cheon couldn’t bring himself to claim he was below third place.

At that moment, several people approached, chuckling. It seemed that not only the Green Forest and Im So-Byeong wanted to mock Mount Hua’s misfortune from yesterday.

“Oh dear, you came out wearing those singed and torn clothes. How undignified.”

“Looks like Mount Hua has no money.”

“The leftover clothes from yesterday are all burned up, so what can they do? Tsk tsk tsk. They should have been careful with fire day and night.”

Baek Cheon glared fiercely at those laughing mockingly.

“You’re really… excited, aren’t you?”

“Isn’t there really no reason to be depressed?”

“Right. We had a good fire-watching.”

“And a good people-watching.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Baek Cheon tilted his neck and grabbed the sword at his waist.

“But what should I do? Those eyes that enjoyed the fire-watching so much might not be in good shape soon.”

“Oh dear. These days, Taoists even threaten people? If you can, try it.”

“You don’t think I can?”

There was no need for long words anymore.

They were already in a relationship where warm fists built up malice and gentle sword strokes piled up grudges. Now, just making eye contact without talking was enough to launch a killing move—a close(?) relationship.

True friendship is not built on words. Now, they prove their friendship through actions rather than worthless words.

“Kill them all!”

“Tang Zhan bastard, today is your funeral…”

Kraaaaaaang!

“Aaaaaaah!”

At that moment, someone flew toward the blue sky at lightning speed.

“What, what is that?”

“Oh dear, Jo Gul!”

“J-Jo Gul sahyung!”

Mount Hua disciples instinctively flinched seeing Jo Gul spinning through the air and the red trail he left in the sky. Other sect disciples who had intended to strike Jo Gul were momentarily stunned and stopped.

‘What is this?’

No one had gone towards Mount Hua yet? The confused looked blinked and looked at where Jo Gul had been. Instead of Jo Gul, a familiar figure stood there.

“Chung… Myung?”

“Mount Hua’s Sword Saint?”

“No, why…”

Drip drip drip.

The blood Jo Gul scattered in the air fell like drizzle. From within it, Chung Myung smiled gently.

Baek Cheon’s heart dropped at that moment.

‘Da-dangerous…’

His mouth smiled, but his eyes stiffened awkwardly. His eyebrows twitched slightly. This was the highest level of danger signal.

“Ch-Chung Myung! I don’t know what’s going on, but… please calm down first…”

“Calm down?”

Chung Myung smiled even brighter. Baek Cheon’s face began to turn pale. At the same time, the perceptive Yu Yiseol quietly stepped back.

Chung Myung spoke.

“No, no. Sasuk, I think there’s some misunderstanding. I didn’t come here with bad intentions.”

“Is that so?”

A reasonable person would ask why he beat Jo Gul then, but at this moment, no one dared to say that. Actually, whether Jo Gul lives or dies is none of their concern…

“I just wanted to ask a bit.”

“Huh? Ask what?”

“Well… lately there’s been talk that sasuk and sahyungs aren’t sparring but fighting. So I wanted to check. Are you fighting now?”

Baek Cheon’s face turned pale. Whether Chung Myung caused all this or not was meaningless now.

“That can’t be.”

“No way!”

“Hey! That’s nonsense, Taoist!”

“W-Who said that? We’re this close!”

“It’s sparring, sparring! Just sparring!”

Those who knew Chung Myung quickly agreed. The Tang Family and Mount Hua, who had been cursing each other as if to kill, now laughed arm in arm like best friends, and the Green Forest also nervously shook hands with the Namgung Family.

It was a historic moment of harmony between the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families, the Evil Sect and the Justice faction, which seemed impossible forever. But the true meaning behind it was utterly tragic.

“Oh, really? Then was I mistaken?”

“Y-Yes!”

“This is all done for each other’s good.”

“There’s no selfishness at all! Hahaha!”

“That’s right, Taoist!”

Even Yoon Jong and Hae Yeon were busy sweating nervously and making excuses.

But when there are many people, there are always those who lack tact.

“No, why are you suddenly pretending to be close? Damn bastards!”

“Who said we were pretending to be close to you! You barbarians!”

“What, you bastard?”

The heads of those belonging to the four sects of central plains turned sharply. The Ice Palace and Beast Palace, not understanding the situation at all, bared their teeth at each other and fought again.

‘Shut up!’

‘Please be more aware!’

‘I’ll definitely kill those bastards later!’

Just when no one dared to speak.

“Ah, so you’re not fighting. Then you’re close, right?”

“Y-Yes!”

“Of course!”

“Hey. Now we can’t live without each other.”

Chung Myung nodded as if satisfied.

“Yes. In the process of getting close, you fight sometimes. Fighting builds strong bonds, right?”

“Exactly!”

“Hahaha. We couldn’t be closer than this even if we wanted.”

The Tang Family and Namgung Do-Wei desperately made up words. Then Chung Myung spoke.

“So I felt a bit left out.”

“…Huh?”

He grinned and licked his lips.

“Come to think of it, I’m the same rank, but everyone is getting close without me. Isn’t that right?”

“N-No way!”

“I’m the closest to the Taoist!”

“That’s not true at all, really!”

“Hey. Don’t just say polite things. So from now on, I’ll try to hang out and get closer too.”

“T-taoist. Wait…”

Chung Myung shook his head enthusiastically.

“So. Then.”

Everyone there saw.

Mount Hua’s Sword Saint. The greatest enemy of the Demonic Cult who defeated the high priest. From the eyes of this great man, a murderous aura poured out that even the Demon couldn’t emit.

Boom!

When Chung Myung stomped the ground, a spiderweb-like crack appeared with a cracking sound.

“Come on, you bastards, let’s try to get along together!”

He rolled his eyes back and charged forward.

“Eeeeeek!”

Everyone was terrified. As the enraged tiger charged, the pitiful(?) sheep’s desperate screams began to fill the training ground.