Chapter 113

“Not particularly. I’m a normal member who serves a warrior.”

Yeok Yong-ma found herself making an excuse without meaning to.

“Normal member? What’s that?”

“It’s like a retainer who carries a sword and serves a warrior. Sometimes I keep them company, and when their energy wanes I tend to them…”

Mid-sentence, Yeok Yong-ma realized Eul Gong was looking at her with suspicious eyes.

“You speak awfully grown-up.”

‘Oops.’

Only then did a chill run down her neck.

Sometimes a child’s intuition is more accurate than an adult’s.

Children can pick up on awkwardness that adults fail to notice, as if by some sixth sense.

This is why Yeok Yong-seul’s problems never end.

“Strange kids. Aren’t you hungry? Perfect timing. Come here. I happen to have something to eat.”

“No, I’m fine…!”

Eul Gong ignored Yeok Yong-ma’s reply and grabbed her wrist, pulling her along.

Where Eul Gong led her, Mount Hua’s three top disciples were gathered.

Though called the three top disciples, to Yeok Yong-ma they looked like boys barely in their teens.

The children, dark and crowded together like mice in a hole, noticed Yeok Yong-ma and grew curious.

“Eul Gong sajae, who is this?”

“A guest of Mount Hua. Maid? Member? Something like that.”

“…Member.”

“Right. Her name is Geom Dong (member in Korean). Now that Geom Dong’s here, shouldn’t we, as Mount Hua disciples, welcome our guest?”

Eul Gong’s disciples each tried on solemn expressions appropriate to Taoist students.

To Yeok Yong-ma, they still looked like grubby little brats.

“Eul Jeong sajae.”

“Yes, sahyung.”

“Do you have any of the dried rations left from last time?”

“There happens to be some left.”

“Serve the guest the rations.”

Eul Jeong bowed his head and brought something forth.

Peering into it revealed dried jujubes and chestnuts.

Sharp-eyed Yeok Yong-ma noticed even those were running low as rations.

“At least take these.”

Eul Jeong handed her the jujubes and chestnuts.

Yeok Yong-ma stared at what had fallen into her hand, then looked around at the three top disciples surrounding her.

The children were already gaunt from lack of food.

Yet they were pretending to be Mount Hua warriors and offering food to honor a guest—an almost comic sight.

The jujubes were shriveled and the chestnuts dry; they were likely being rationed for days.

Watching the young Mount Hua disciples, she suddenly saw the face of a child overlaid on them.

It was the faces of her dead sons.

“…”

“Guest, why aren’t you eating? This is Mount Hua’s hospitality—don’t refuse.”

Eul Gong, feigning an adult’s authority, urged her again.

Suppressing the lump in her throat, Yeok Yong-ma slowly chewed the jujube and chestnut.

The children brightened when she ate.

As she chewed the dried rations, Yeok Yong-ma caught on to something.

At first she thought she was mistaken. But after tasting the chestnut, she was sure.

Her face hardened as she continued chewing.

“Wait.”

Her voice dropped.

From a boy’s voice to Yeok Yong-ma’s voice.

The young Mount Hua disciples went quiet, thinking they’d misheard.

“What is this?”

From the young Geom Dong’s mouth came a shrill, old woman’s voice.

The disciples found it amusing, but Yeok Yong-ma was serious.

“You lot have been eating this?”

“…Yes?”

Eul Gong, flustered, asked.

Yeok Yong-ma pressed Eul Gong for answers.

“Tell me. How long have you been eating food like this?”

“Food like this? It’s only been three days.”

“Did you pick these yourselves and eat them?”

Eul Gong shook his head violently.

“Who gave these to you? Tell me at once.”

“These were handed out to us by Great sasuk Hyeon Geom…”

Hyeon Geom, huh.

Yeok Yong-ma remembered that this was the name of the Mount Hua man who had come to see Yeon Mujin.

‘That bastard…’

Seething with anger, Yeok Yong-ma stomped over and picked up the basket holding the remaining jujubes and chestnuts.

With the disciples watching, she walked to the cliff and threw them over.

“Aah!”

The young disciples cried out in surprise.

She spoke clearly to the young disciples.

“Listen up. From now on, never eat anything that great sasuk brings you. Never.”

Yeon Mujin was expelled from Mount Hua.

“Don’t ever set foot in Mount Hua again.”

The disciple who drove him out snarled as he spoke.

He was the warrior who had nearly come to blows with Yeon Mujin upon his arrival at Mount Hua.

“I heard you dared draw a sword at the Green Cloud Palace. Today the Sect leader ordered you to be sent away politely, but don’t ever cross my path again. If you do, I’ll be the one to cut you down.”

Of course, Yeon Mujin didn’t bat an eye.

“If you want to cut me down, go beat your own Hyeon Geom first.”

Bang!

The warrior slammed the gate shut with a clang.

“What a temper.”

Yeok Yong-ma, who had been expelled with him, asked him.

“Seems your plan of having no plan didn’t go well.”

“I spoke the truth.”

“Truth isn’t always right. What on earth did you say to cause that reaction?”

Yeon Mujin roughly explained what had happened at Lotus Peak.

Listening calmly, Yeok Yong-ma clicked her tongue as if incredulous.

“You’re really crazy, you know that?”

“Why?”

“You said that in front of Mount Hua’s Sect Leader who prides himself on his reputation? It’s a wonder there wasn’t bloodshed.”

“Is it reasonable for that so-called reputation to stab a guest out of the blue?”

“Was it reasonable to tell him to sell his family register because his house’s ruined, in front of the Sect Leader?”

“I said the right thing. I can look up at the sky without shame.”

“Be thankful you were born a warrior and not a civil official. Every time you open your mouth you have a knack for overturning people’s positions. If you’d been a government official, you’d have been beheaded a dozen times over.”

“Then that’s not the sin of me speaking the truth—it’s the emperor’s sin for not embracing me.”

Yeok Yong-ma suddenly grew curious.

The Yeon Mujin she had seen in private taverns was not someone to resolve matters so recklessly.

But now he was doing just that—talking in ways that would turn Mount Hua inside out even while claiming he must ally with them.

His words and actions were opposites.

“You.”

“Yes.”

“You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you?”

“…?”

“You’re after something, aren’t you? It makes no sense. You’re acting as if you’ll become Mount Hua’s mortal enemy rather than join hands with them. What are you thinking?”

Yeon Mujin looked at Yeok Yong-ma quietly.

“I’m curious.”

“About what?”

“Once there was a child. A child nobody paid attention to—beaten by siblings, ignored even by his father, always quietly fading away. But it turned out he had a depth and talent greater than anyone else’s. That child simply had never been given an opportunity in life.”

Yeok Yong-ma tilted her head.

“What are you talking about now? Is that about you?”

Yeon Mujin ignored her question and continued.

“Perhaps the fate of a sect resembles a person’s fate. If it’s crushed by misfortune it cannot overcome on its own, might it not show a different side once that misfortune is swept away?”

“What are you on about? Are you talking about the Mount Hua sect?”

Yeon Mujin looked at Yeok Yong-ma and spoke plainly.

Yeok Yong-ma assumed he meant the Mount Hua sect, but it wasn’t the only thing on his mind.

Yeon Mujin’s eyes grew deep.

‘How will you change?’

Once there was a woman who belonged to a wandering sword-dance troupe and danced the sword-dance.

A woman who raised a child alone, without knowing who the father was.

She hid her nursing infant in a basket and survived by dancing the sword-dance.

Her child left his mother’s side before he had even outgrown his swaddling—a common tale of misfortune in this world.

But when that misfortune repeated three times, the woman became Yeok Yong-ma.

She could not bear the mother’s guilt of being born with a fate that killed her children.

“I’m simply curious.”

Simply because he wanted to see a different way of living.

It was one of Yeon Mujin’s whims.

“You know.”

Yeok Yong-ma, riding on Yeon Mujin’s back as they descended Mount Hua, spoke.

“What is it?”

“There’s one thing you ought to hear.”

“Yes.”

“Have you heard of Occult Blood Grass?”

“Occult Blood Grass?”

Yeok Yong-ma nodded.

“It’s an herb originally used to kill a man’s vital energy. Courtesans in the red-light houses mix it into drinks to secretly feed to their patrons. After a day or two it makes a man’s member unable to rise.”

Yeon Mujin, listening, let out a sigh.

“That’s a dreadful herb indeed.”

“But that’s not the only problem. If taken habitually, Occult Blood Grass becomes a deadly poison. Once a man who frequented the red-light houses was found as thin as if all moisture had been wrung from him. The courtesan who attended him had fed him small amounts of Occult Blood Grass daily.”

“And?”

“Occult Blood Grass was mixed into the food the Mount Hua children were eating.”

“…”

Yeon Mujin’s steps faltered as he descended.

“It’s clear. From my past I know Occult Blood Grass well. It seems not only the children but other warriors of Mount Hua had been taking it habitually. Men who take Occult Blood Grass develop a particular empty energy. When I asked who brought the food, they named one person.”

Yeon Mujin felt he already knew who it was without being told.

“It was that scoundrel Mok Gyeong-hae.”

On Lotus Peak of Mount Hua, the elders were still gathered.

It was because of the Sect leader’s orders.

Hong Yujin, who had driven out Yeon Mujin, instructed the Mount Hua elders to remain at Green Cloud Palace.

The Sect leader returned after briefly stepping away.

“Are you all gathered?”

“Sect leader, Hyeon Geom has not yet come.”

“I forbade Hyeon Geom from being admitted. He must pay for the crime of drawing a sword at Green Cloud Palace.”

Green Cloud Palace has long been the place where Mount Hua holds rites to the ancestors whenever great matters occur.

Drawing a sword at Green Cloud Palace is tantamount to insulting the sect’s founding ancestor.

“But Sect Leader, please forgive Hyeon Geom.”

“He drew his sword in a rage at the insults hurled by the man from the Bukgung Family.”

“If Hyeon Geom hadn’t drawn his sword, I would have. His actions deserve praise.”

The elders all sided with Hyeon Geom.

Compared to the insult they’d suffered today, Hyeon Geom’s fault was nothing.

“So, what do the elders think?”

Hong Yujin asked.

“How do the elders regard the proposal from the Bukgung Family?”

“How else could we take it?”

“There are limits to insulting Mount Hua… That man went too far.”

“The Bukgung Family’s arrogance has crossed the line.”

But despite the elders’ outcry, Hong Yujin’s reaction was ambiguous.

An elder, sensing an ill omen, asked him.

“Sect Leader, surely you’re not swayed by that man’s words?”

Hong Yujin looked at the elder and replied.

“I’ve long thought it: perhaps it’s time for Mount Hua to change. There’s little wrong with what he said. Mount Hua is so ruined it cannot think of the future. What kind of sect can’t even feed its three top disciples properly?”

The elders recoiled at the Sect leader’s rueful answer.

“Sect leader!”

“This cannot be!”

“Do you really intend to sell off Mount Hua as he suggested?”

Hong Yujin shook his head slowly.

“If I sell Mount Hua with my own hands and go to the netherworld, how could I face my master? Don’t worry about that. But…”

Hong Yujin carefully set down the object he had been holding.

It was the Sect leader’s treasured item: the Purple Cloud Divine Sword.

“But today I realized I have borne a burden I, in my old age, can no longer carry. Mount Hua must change. My own greed has been blocking it.”

“Sect leader…”

The elders’ mood sank low at Hong Yujin’s words.

They too understood the Sect leader’s feelings.

How could the hearts of elders watching their failing sect be any different?

“Tell the first class disciples outside the gate to return to Mount Hua. When all the disciples have returned, we will hold the ceremony to bestow the Purple Cloud Divine Sword.”