I Will Make It Like That. (1)

“Ugh.”

“……”

“Uuuugh.”

“……”

“Uuuuuugh.”

“Ah, for heaven’s sake!”

Finally losing his patience, Baek Cheon snapped his head around and shouted at Im So-Byeong.

“If you have something to say, then say it!”

“Can I really say it?”

“…No, please don’t.”

“I’m about to burst from holding it in!”

“…I said don’t.”

Baek Cheon tried a futile attempt to dissuade him again, but Im So-Byeong simply ignored him and continued.

“I told you we can still make contact now! I’m saying we should just turn back the ones heading to the village to help them!”

“No…”

“Acting Sect Leader, do you have no sense? You got driven out and still want to escort those people to the Northern lands?”

“……”

“Grain? Grain? Tell me honestly, will they carry those sacks of grain on their backs when they head to the Northern lands? They’ll have to leave it all behind anyway; why would we bother escorting people to the Northern lands who won’t even give up that one thing? What’s so admirable about them that we should take them along?”

“……”

“I said just say it! We can turn back those who are heading to Hyung Village right now!”

Baek Cheon, who had been silent the whole time, let out a deep sigh.

“…Still, there are human duties…”

“Dutyyy?”

Im So-Byeong, finally exasperated, rolled his eyes. Baek Cheon suddenly thought the Green Forest King was really starting to resemble Chung Myung, and that, of all things, he was taking after him in just that way.

“Duties? Duty! Well said! Did we break that duty? Aren’t those bastards the ones who abandoned their duties as humans?”

Baek Cheon had no response to that. He still believed they should be saved, but logically he couldn’t win against the Green Forest King.

Moreover, weren’t those people the sort to cover over parts that reason couldn’t solve with grand notions like the greater good or benevolence?

“Taoist!”

“Ahem.”

“Taoistt!”

Even with prodding, Baek Cheon remained unmoved, so Im So-Byeong’s eyes literally lit up.

“I mean, what kind of suckers are these in all my life…”

Smack!

“Aaaah!”

Im So-Byeong, who had been running, was suddenly flung forward and fell. Namgung Do-Wei, running behind him, casually picked him up and took care of him.

“Man, you really won’t stop jabbering.”

Chung Myung, having kicked Im So-Byeong away, slapped his innocent hand and dusted it off.

“Uuuuh.”

Im So-Byeong clutched the back of his head and groaned for a while before glaring fiercely.

“Why did you hit me! Did I say anything wrong…”

Pop!

“Aaaah!”

“Has this Evil Sect bastard gone mad? Where do you get off opening your eyes wide like that? Wanna get stabbed for it!”

“…Chung Myung. You should say that before stabbing.”

“Ah. Right, of course.”

Baek Cheon let out a long sigh. If only that were true, you…

Chung Myung glared at Im So-Byeong, who was clutching his eye and groaning.

“Really, as expected of a bandit!”

“Am I saying that because I’m a bandit?”

Im So-Byeong, on the verge of tears, scanned around wildly. His stabbed eye had red veins standing out.

“Isn’t that what everyone really thinks? Why save those who don’t know gratitude? If we meet them again in the Northern lands, what then? Will we just laugh awkwardly? Do we have to see that sight?”

“Shut up!”

Chung Myung smacked the back of Im So-Byeong’s head again with a loud crack.

“You’re a bandit because you just do whatever you feel like!”

“……”

“What?”

“Well… it’s not entirely wrong, but it’s not really something the Taoist should be saying, is it?”

“What, you punk?”

Around them, people only nodded in agreement.

“Right.”

“That’s definitely true.”

“Sometimes a bandit’s got the more righteous thing to say than a Taoist.”

“Seriously these bastards?”

When Chung Myung glared, everyone flinched and hurriedly turned their heads to act nonchalant, grumbling inwardly.

‘Did he come back alive after resting a few days and to start acting like that…’

‘As pitiful as he was when injured, it was at least easier then.’

‘He’s the kindest when he’s asleep.’

Im So-Byeong pressed the corner of his hollow eye with the tip of a fan and asked.

“So, Taoist, you’re saying it doesn’t bother you at all?”

“Bother?”

“Yes! Does it really not bother you at all?”

“…You want me to tell you what’s really in my heart?”

“…Yes? Ah, yes.”

“Honestly, by temperament I’d like to rip off their skins—civilians and all of them…”

“Eheheh! Chung Myung!”

“Mouth, mouth! Oh! That mouth!”

“Shut that bastard’s mouth!”

As words that a Taoist shouldn’t utter spilled from his mouth, Baek Cheon and Yoon Jong desperately ran up and clamped his mouth shut.

Still, Hae Yeon, standing nearby and unable to avoid hearing the muffled sounds, went pale and repeatedly expressed disapproval. A demon was crawling into his head; he had to somehow drive it out.

“You want me to say more? I could go on for a long time.”

“…Taoist, you’re really something…”

Even a bandit wouldn’t go that far… Im So-Byeong shook his head in dismay.

Chung Myung snorted and said.

“Still, what can we do? Among them, there were people who helped us.”

“There was a way to save just that person, wasn’t there?”

“This bandit… did he crawl up from hell rather than a mountain? If we told him to leave the villagers behind and go to the Northern Land alone, would that gentleman obediently go?”

Im So-Byeong closed his mouth tight. He knew Chung Myung wasn’t wrong.

The one who had handed sacks of grain to the Heavenly Friends Alliance had shown at least that much goodwill. Then that person ought to be saved. And if saving that person meant rescuing others as well… couldn’t that be unavoidable?

“And… even if I don’t care about the others, you shouldn’t be spouting that! If I judged like that, I’d have cut off your bandit neck first.”

Im So-Byeong, his hair standing on end, smiled awkwardly and unconsciously rubbed his pale throat.

“Heh, hehe… Haven’t I reformed?”

Chung Myung looked at him with a look of contempt.

“I told you.”

“Yes?”

“Even a bandit who went around killing people, if you beat him up he’d reform and become a decent person — so why should we let those people die over whatever mistakes they made?”

“…No wait, mistakes…”

“Everyone makes mistakes.”

Chung Myung’s gaze drifted briefly to the distant sky. Then he murmured to himself.

“Yes. Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes mistakes that are hard to forgive.”

Im So-Byeong said nothing. He felt like he shouldn’t open his mouth.

“Still, with someone to understand them, people can change.”

Just then, a few people were about to nod in agreement.

“That’s right, Dong-Ryong?”

“I knew you’d say that, you bastard!”

Baek Cheon, enraged, swung a fist. Chung Myung feigned dodging it and chuckled.

“When did I say that it was only about sasuk? Namgung’s the same, anyway.”

“…Let’s bury the past. How many people here can speak of their pasts with a clear conscience?”

“Ahem.”

“Hehehem!”

Several people coughed awkwardly as if pricked.

Despite Mount Hua being one thing, Tang Pae had once stabbed Chung Myung in the stomach, Namgung Do-Wei had shown off in front of him and had his groin punched until he foamed from his mouth, and Hae Yeon’s words spat at Chung Myung in the martial arts tournament finals were still often talked about, weren’t they?

So they could only cough and fall silent at Namgung Do-Wei’s remark.

“So I don’t really buy the idea someone’s rotten to the core. Of course, I was a promising shoot from the start!”

“…What a load of crap.”

“You weren’t just a yellow shoot — you were black and dead…”

Chung Myung shrugged.

“Even if you end up resenting them, save them first and resent them later.”

“……”

“If the former Sect Leader Hyun Jong were here, he would surely have said that.”

Hua Mountain’s disciples nodded at that. Hyun Jong would have said just that. When one’s heart was troubled, thinking what Hyun Jong would have done provided an unfailing path for Mount Hua’s disciples.

Im So-Byeong, who had been listening silently, spoke up in dissatisfaction.

“Well… the sentiment is fine, but it’s our kids who’ll have to take the risk because of it, you know?”

“Do I care if a few bandits die or not? There are too many of them to handle anyway, right?”

“…Are you even human? Seriously?”

“Anyway, let’s drop what happened.”

Chung Myung cut off Im So-Byeong’s grumbling abruptly.

“There’s no time to worry about that now. They’ll start pursuing us soon.”

Baek Cheon nodded in agreement and said.

“It’s quicker to Nanjing than you think. Once we descend the mountain we’ll pick up speed; it’ll be at most a day or two.”

For a moment, tension spread across everyone’s faces.

Both descending the mountain and the fact they’d reach Nanjing in two days were news that couldn’t help but raise anxiety.

It meant they had to overcome a greater mountain ahead and face correspondingly greater danger.

“For now we chose Nanjing thinking it would be the least dangerous, but in truth…”

“It’s uncertain.”

“Yes.”

Baek Cheon calmly agreed with Im So-Byeong. “Uncertain” was the right word. Southern land is already being shaken to its core because of their movements. There’s no guarantee the Nanjing they would soon reach would be the Nanjing they knew.

“Steel yourselves. We will cross the Yangtze river.”

“Yes!”

Everyone raised their voices to answer Baek Cheon’s words. It was both an answer and a personal vow.

After running for some time, Im So-Byeong matched his pace and came up beside Chung Myung, who had pulled slightly away from those in front. His face was serious, devoid of the earlier complaint.

“Taoist.”

“Speak.”

“…The pursuit is later than expected. And… we don’t see anyone blocking the way ahead. You know what that means, don’t you, Taoist?”

Chung Myung nodded silently.

During war, the absence of small skirmishes indicates only one thing: the enemy is preparing a powerful blow to utterly crush this side.

“By now… yes, if it’s him, he’d have figured out where we’re headed.”

“You weren’t really expecting him not to know anyway, were you?”

“Yes, that’s true. But…”

The Heavenly Friends Alliance and the Southern Island Sect’s party heading to Nanjing wasn’t to deceive the enemy’s attention. Considering time, distance, and the positions of each sect, Nanjing was the battlefield that gave them the best chance.

“Will he move?”

“It doesn’t matter whether he moves himself or not.”

“…Yes?”

“The point is that even if he doesn’t move personally, someone will move toward Nanjing. That’s enough.”

Chung Myung’s eyes darkened.

‘Then Beop Jeong will have no choice but to follow.’

Beop Jeong abhors risking unforeseen losses. His past behavior had already made that abundantly clear.

So Beop Jeong would have to follow to Nanjing. He would want to keep every situation under his control, to block any variables Chung Myung and Jang Ilso might create.

It might even play into Chung Myung’s plan.

“Someone once said.”

“Yes?”

“That the world ultimately moves according to natural order.”

“……”

“But I think differently.”

Chung Myung’s mouth twitched into a smile. It was somehow a chilling smile.

Originally, the Nine Great Sects should have been the ones to save the Southern Island Sect. So, in truth, the hardships the party was enduring should have been the Nine Great Sects’ responsibility.

“If things don’t follow natural order, then we’ll force them to. So that no one is left wronged.”

His bleak gaze turned to the distant north.

To Nanjing — the chaotic land where all the powers of the world are converging.