Then There Is Only One Way. (2)

“D-don’t come any closer!”

Chung Myung clung to the wall with an expression as though he had just seen hundreds of bugs crawling all over it.

Seeing Chung Myung’s utterly disgusted face—a rare sight indeed—the Mount Hua disciples smiled warmly.

“Come on, Chung Myung. Be good. Just shut your eyes and do it once.”

“I, I don’t want to.”

“Someone go buy some candied sweets.”

“I’m not eating candied sweets!”

“Honestly, I told you. It’s for the greater good.”

Looking pleased… yet smiling with utter malice, the Mount Hua disciples made Chung Myung shudder.

“No! What greater good? Don’t be ridiculous! Why should I bow my head to that bald bastard! I’d rather bite down on a sword and collapse face-first!”

“Aw, what a cliché thing to say. Besides, biting a sword and collapsing wouldn’t solve anything.”

“Nooooooooo!”

“Go catch him.”

“Yes, sasuk!”

Already sick and tired of this sort of situation, the Mount Hua disciples quickly surrounded Chung Myung as he, pale-faced, tried to bolt outside.

They wrapped him up in an instant and tossed him into a corner.

“Mmph! Mmmph!”

Baek Cheon watched Chung Myung thrash around like a fish out of water while tied up, then turned to Im So-Byeong with a smile.

“What do you think, Green Forest King?”

“You look extremely refreshed.”

“That’s a misunderstanding.”

“Hmmm.”

Im So-Byeong lightly fanned his face with a fan, then nodded vigorously.

“It’s just my opinion, but the possibility is pretty high.”

“Are you certain?”

“Nothing is certain. But it’s hard to deny that this is the most likely method. After all, there aren’t many martial artists with the standing to raise their voices to the government, are there?”

The martial artists of the Central Plains did not associate with the government. It was an unspoken rule meant to preserve each side’s territory.

The principle the world called “nonaggression between the government and the martial world” was not a true law, but it did mean the two kept their distance from one another.

But there were exactly two exceptions to this rule…

“As you know, the Abbott of Shaolin and the Sect Leader of Wudang are granted the status of imperial teachers. Officially, they are treated as instructors to the emperor.”

“Yes.”

Because Shaolin and Wudang had another standing beyond being the North Star of the Jianghu.

Namely, that of the largest temple and Taoist monastery under heaven.

More precisely, they held imperial teacher status not as members of the Jianghu, but as representatives of Buddhism and Taoism.

“Among them, Shaolin is especially ancient, so the Abbott’s influence over the government may be greater than you think.”

“Hmm.”

“So… if that old man would just step forward, wouldn’t it be possible for one child to take a test?”

The Mount Hua disciples nodded at the same time.

“If even the Green Forest King says so, then it must be true.”

“He’s a giant, so he’d know better than us.”

“It’s clear this is the best we can do.”

After sharing their opinions, they all turned their gazes to one place.

“You heard that, right?”

“Mmph! Mmmph!”

“Come on. Let’s not make this more complicated than it needs to be, Chung Myung.”

Baek Cheon said with a dazzling smile that seemed as if it would brighten the entire room.

“You just need to go and say one thing. Plea-se. Plea-se. I’m. ask-ing. you. Say just that one line, and we’ll handle everything else ourselves, okay?”

“Mmmph! Mmmmmph!”

“Now, now. Don’t resist. Let’s go quietly. First, to Mount Song…“

“Aaaaaah!”

At that moment, Chung Myung tore apart the rope binding him in a single motion and kicked Jo Gul, who was approaching him.

In the chaos, the abandoned house shook as if it were about to collapse.

“I’m not doing it! I’m not going! Why me!”

“Tsk, tsk. What meaningless resistance.”

“This is the only way? Really the only way?”

“Yeah. This is it.”

Shuddering, Chung Myung muttered while staring into the air as though he were seeing a hallucination, his eyes even welling with tears.

“Wouldn’t it be better if I infiltrated the imperial palace instead? If I grabbed the emperor by the neck and shook him, wouldn’t that solve it?”

“You think that would work? Han-Bin would get split into two pieces.”

“…If it only ended with two pieces, that’d be lucky.”

Chung Myung trembled all over.

He didn’t want to. Truly, literally, he’d rather die than do it.

But no matter how he thought about it, there was no other way.

He desperately tried to force his sluggish mind to work, but his rusted brain only creaked and failed to produce any answer he could accept.

“Chung Myung.”

Baek Cheon smiled and slung an arm around Chung Myung’s shoulder.

“You started this.”

“…”

“You have to take responsibility. You’re not thinking of backing out now after coming all this way, are you?”

Chung Myung blankly turned his head and looked at Yu Han-Bin.

His somewhat downcast face—(that bastard is downcast? That has to be an act.)—briefly overlapped with Chung Mun’s face.

“Grrrrrr…“

Chung Myung curled up like a pill bug and tore at his own hair.

“It’s easier if you give up, Chung Myung.”

In the end, not long after, Chung Myung collapsed limply like an octopus left on dry land.

Baek Cheon nodded with a satisfied expression, then came over and grabbed Chung Myung by the nape of his neck.

“Good. Then when should we leave?”

For some reason, Baek Cheon looked extremely refreshed.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.

A cart in less than ideal condition traveled along the mountain road.

And in that cart’s cargo bed sat a Taoist who was in even worse condition than the cart.

“Uuugh…“

Holding a bottle of liquor, Chung Myung looked up at the purely blue sky and shed clear tears in streams.

“What sin did I commit in my past life…“

• I’ve said it a few times already, but honestly, you did commit quite a lot of…

“Ah, shut up already! That damn mouth of yours, seriously!”

Chung Myung sprang up in the cart and jabbed a finger at the sky.

“Whose fault is all this in the first place?! Huh? Because of who am I going through all this suffering?!”

Yu Han-Bin, who was sitting astride the front of the cart, looked at Chung Myung with a reluctant expression, then quietly asked Baek Cheon.

“Um, is this really okay…? The Taoist seems to be in very bad shape.”

“…I don’t know what you’ll think if I say this.”

Baek Cheon, wearing an awkward expression, said in a low voice.

“He’s always like that.”

“…”

“Every now and then, his mania flares up like that. A crazy bastard does crazy things, so there’s nothing we can do.”

“Ah…”

Yu Han-Bin nodded with an even more awkward expression.

Right, it was faster to give up on trying to understand.

“That bastard, even now!”

Kiiiii!

In the midst of that, when he saw Baek Ah go flying after trying to snatch Chung Myung’s liquor and getting kicked, Yu Han-Bin squeezed his eyes shut.

“But, Taoist.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“It’s a bit strange to say this now, but… is it really okay to just go like this?”

Baek Cheon tilted his head as though he didn’t understand.

“Is there some problem or something?”

“That’s not it… Someone like the Abbott of Shaolin is a truly high-ranking person. If we just go to see him without an appointment, he won’t meet us, will he?”

“Huh?”

Baek Cheon tilted his head crookedly again, still looking as if he didn’t quite get it.

“Wouldn’t he meet us?”

“…Pardon?”

Yu Han-Bin turned to Baek Cheon with a blank face.

But Baek Cheon looked the opposite—dumbfounded, as though Yu Han-Bin had asked something bizarre.

“We’re asking to meet him, so why wouldn’t he meet us? He didn’t seem that busy.”

“…”

“Isn’t that right?”

When Baek Cheon turned and asked, the other disciples nodded.

“He did look like he was just lounging around and enjoying himself.”

“At that level, wouldn’t the underlings do all the work? Surely the Abbott wouldn’t handle the actual affairs himself.”

“Our Sect Leader is busy, though?”

“Ah, that’s different from our Sect Leader. Mount Hua only has two Elders, doesn’t it? Shaolin probably has dozens of Elders.”

“True enough.”

Watching the Mount Hua disciples talk so casually, Yu Han-Bin gave a liberated smile.

‘I don’t even know anymore. Forget it.’

Being with these people made everything he knew as common sense feel meaningless.

‘No. Maybe these people are actually far more incredible than I think?’

He already thought they were incredible, but beyond that… the kind who were deeply respected in the world called the Jianghu…

“No, but you damn weasel!”

“Ah, you’re loud! Shut up already!”

“Someone put a gag in that bastard’s mouth!”

“What? You wanna try me now? Come at me, all of you!”

Amid the ear-splitting commotion, Yu Han-Bin quietly closed his eyes again.

‘No way.’

No, it must not be.

A world where people like this were respected—what kind of horrifying place would that be?

“Kheh…“

Regardless of what Yu Han-Bin thought, Chung Myung, who had been shouting at the top of his lungs, flopped down onto the cart.

Then he muttered with a face slightly filled with tears.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just beat up that giant bald head and threaten him?”

But he knew. There was no way that would be possible.

No matter how much it was Chung Myung, he could not subdue Beop Jeong in the middle of Shaolin.

Even if he somehow subdued Beop Jeong, hundreds of those octopus-headed lunatics would come rushing in—how could he possibly handle that?

“Kheup.”

Wiping at the corners of his eyes, Chung Myung grabbed the liquor bottle.

“Huh?”

Before he knew it, the bottle was completely empty.

“No more liquor?”

“Why are you asking us for liquor, you bastard? You brought it.”

“…I drank it all.”

“Then stop guzzling it! What kind of idiot drinks that much?”

“I need to drink just to endure this. How am I supposed to get through it sober?”

“…Anyway, there isn’t any. When we reach the next village, stop by an inn or something.”

“When do we get to the next village?”

“We’re crossing mountains right now—how would there be a village? We’ll only see one once we get near Sung Mountain.”

“So when is that?”

“So… in two days?”

Despair filled Chung Myung’s eyes.

“I-I have to endure two days sober?”

“Chung Myung… normally, people live sober.”

“How can a person do that!”

“That’s what I’m saying—people usually do.”

“N-no…”

Chung Myung finally started trembling violently.

Tang Soso, who had been watching blankly, shrugged and said,

“If it’s really that hard, should I stick a needle in you? You’d probably sleep soundly for two days.”

“That’s fine. Thanks for worrying about me, junior sister.”

“You suddenly became perfectly normal.”

“…Anyone would become like that after seeing that needle.”

Chung Myung quickly shook his head, then plopped down into his seat.

“Anyway, nothing is going right… huh?”

“What is it?”

Baek Cheon turned his head with a puzzled expression.

In his eyes, he saw Chung Myung flaring his nostrils.

“What are you doing?”

“It smells.”

“Hm?”

“I smell liquor.”

At the sudden remark, Baek Cheon frowned in disbelief.

“…What the hell are you talking about? We’re in the middle of the mountains right now.”

“I’m telling you, it smells.”

Chung Myung jumped up from his seat.

“And… sniff sniff. This is a pretty good liquor smell?!”

“I’m going crazy, seriously. First, calm down. We’ll get to a village as fast as possible… Hey! Hey, you idiot! What are you doing?”

“See? It’s me, right? You smelled it too, right?”

Kiiiii!

Chung Myung grabbed Baek Ah and shook him.

Then Baek Ah struggled and flailed her feet in the air.

As if she were about to run off at once.

“Go!”

Kiiiiiiii!

The moment Chung Myung set Baek Ah down as though throwing her to the ground, Baek Ah swiftly moved her short legs and charged forward at a terrifying speed.

“Heave-ho!”

Then Chung Myung sprang out of the cart with great momentum and chased after Baek Ah before anyone could stop her.

“F-follow her!”

“She needs to be punished.”

“Gul! Carry Han-Bin over here!”

“No, why is it me again!”

The Mount Hua disciples groaned and chased after Chung Myung.

Kiiiii!

Baek Ah cut through the dense forest like lightning.

After climbing the mountain and pushing through the woods for a long while in pursuit, an unexpected sight appeared before them.

“Hek! Heeek! Hey, you crazy bastard…“

“Sasuk, look at that.”

“Hm?”

Baek Cheon squinted and looked at the small building before them.

“…A shrine? In the middle of this mountain?”

His voice was full of surprise.