Episode 165

“They aren’t dead?”

“Oh my, they came out alive from there?”

“… Wait. Then what about the Divine Weapons?”

As soon as someone mentioned the words ‘Divine Weapon’, the atmosphere changed completely.

At first, they were obviously amazed that so many people had survived that collapse.

However, when they realized that they might have come back with the Divine Weapons, greed began to rise within them.

“What do we do?”

“What do you mean?! We have to take it somehow! Didn’t everyone stay here for that in the first place?”

“But there are people from Wudang and the Beggars Union. They aren’t easy opponents.”

“Look at them! Do you think they are in any condition to fight now?”

Greed was completely taking over their minds and overcoming reason.

In particular, there was a saying that went, ‘The greater the gain, the farther away the morality’.

And these people were like that.

No one had come here with a good heart in the first place. Wasn’t there only one reason they didn’t give up the Divine Weapons despite not being able to enter the Sword Tomb?

Because they were ready to kill and steal.

In the first place, expeditions like these always ended like this.

There was no law that said that the one who acquires it the first would be its owner. The treasures released into the world were bound to go through a bloody battle.

The greed in their eyes shone as they exchanged glances as if they were all thinking the same thing and surrounded the pit. The people who came out from the hole wouldn’t be easy targets, so the first thing they had to do was to silence the strong.

One of those who surrounded the people looked at them and spoke in a loud voice.

“Congratulations for making it out alive. Heo Sanja, was it?”

Heo Sanja’s eyes twitched.

“And you are?”

“There is no need for me to say it because it isn’t important.”

Hong Dae-Kwang was watching it and smiled.

“Dan Sa-Hong, the Lightning Spear. I heard he was currently in Zhejiang, but it seems like he had come here as well.”

Heo Sanja looked at Hong Dae-Kwang and then looked at Dan Sa-Hong.

“You are martial artist Dan.”

Dan Sa-Hong frowned at it. He didn’t want to make his name known to the Wudang Sect, but he couldn’t help it now.

“Hahaha. Branch leader Hong knows my name. This is truly an honor. Can I ask you one thing?”

“Sure.”

“Where are the Divine Weapons?”

Heo Sanja said,

“Can’t you understand despite seeing us like this?”

“So you are saying that you barely made it out alive by giving up on the treasures?”

“It was not a situation where we could hold on to anything.”

Heo Sanja spoke firmly.

“And there is nothing worth being called a ‘Divine Weapon’ in there. After two hundred years, only rusted and brittle things remained. Even if they were brought up, they wouldn’t have been the weapons you expected them to be.”

“Huh.”

Dan Sa-Hong frowned.

“Then it is really unfortunate. But you see. Kangho is a ferocious land, and it is impossible to trust the words of others, right?”

“Then what are you going to do?”

Dan So-Hang smiled.

“Allow us to search the bodies of the Taoists. If you are really confident in your words that wouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“You brat!”

“Are we just going to let them do it?”

The answer wasn’t from Heo Sanja, but the people around him.

Letting their bodies get searched wasn’t anything difficult. However, with the relationship the warriors had between them, it was unlikely that they would let them go even if they didn’t find anything. And letting someone else get close enough to search your body was the same as handing your life to them.

Letting them come close to search their bodies wasn’t the same as a training match, but rather like an unfair match with a handicap.

Right now, that was exactly what Dan Sa-Hong wanted to do.

“And if we don’t allow it?”

“Hahaha. Taoist. You have to accept that the situation isn’t that easy to get out of by simply refusing. Can you, who is this exhausted, handle all of us?”

Dan Sa-Hong’s eyes went cold.

“If you don’t want to die, then give me everything you got from the inside. Then I will spare your life. If you don’t give them up willingly, then you’ll die, and I will take the things from your corpses.”

“Does this bastard want to die?!”

“… think and… Uh?”

Dan Sa-Hong’s eyes widened as he heard that.

A young man who was sitting on the floor until then jumped up and started to run towards them.

‘What is this??’

Dan Sa-Hong was unable to understand it and tilted his head in confusion.

Why on earth would a young man recklessly run into a place full of warriors?

And there was something even weirder.

He was doing something this crazy and not a single person who had come up with him from the tomb was trying to stop him.

Even Heo Sanja was looking in the opposite direction from that man with a sad face.

‘What is he up to?’

It was when Dan Sa-Hong was getting a little worried.

The person running to them jumped up and landed right in front of Dan Sa-Hong.

‘Uh?’

Surprised, he took a step back.

The face of the man in front of him wasn’t relaxed yet and had unknown emotions, and his body was still covered in dust. However, the weird warmth that was oozing from the body seemed to be neutralizing the effect that his face had. The face that was filled with grumpiness, frustration and irritation.

“Who….”

“What? If we don’t want to die, then what? What should we do?”

“Ha… Haha. Disciple. It isn’t a situation that a mere disciple should intervene…”

Puck!

In an instant, Dan Sa-Hong lost consciousness and his world turned black.

And when his consciousness returned, he saw the blue sky.

‘Sky?’

‘Why am I looking at the sky?’

In that moment.

“Kuaaaaaak!”

He began to feel tremendous pain in an area in which a man should never feel pain. It was a pain that brought tears to his eyes.

“Ak! Ackkkkk! Ackkkkkk!”

Dan Sa-Hong fell down and shuddered. And then realized.

That little one… no, that mad man kicked him in the groin and blew him into the sky.

Thud!

The body which was rising to the sky fell straight down. The only difference was that the man who was standing tall before was now lying on the ground in pain.

“Ah, right? You want the Divine Weapons, right?”

‘No! Such things don’t matter now! Take me to a medical practitioner! I think my balls have exploded…’

Thud!

Chung Mung pulled the man up by the collar.

“If you want the Divine Weapons, then you should have them! They are down there so you can go look for them.”

“Uh?”

Without another word, he threw the man into the hole.

“Ackkkk!”

Dan Sa-Hong’s body flew through the air and landed right into the hole from where Chung Myung and the others had come out.

There was a desperate scream but it soon turned inaudible.

Gulp.

Everyone who saw it gulped.

And Chung Myung looked at them and asked.

“Who else here wants the Divine Weapons?”

At the same time.

Srng! Srng!

The people present there all drew their weapons at once.

But some people had been completely suppressed when they saw what had transpired, and consequently didn’t dare face Chung Myung and retreated.

And Heo Sanja said,

“I swear in the name of Wudang.”

“…”

“We didn’t come out with anything. And down there… the Divine Weapons you thought were present there didn’t exist. There were some that looked like them, but I don’t think they would have survived the collapse. They are probably broken as well. I am sure there are still some people who want to get the weapons and might dig for them here. It may take years, but I am sure you will find something.”

Everyone held their breath at the cold voice.

This wasn’t something which could be taken lightly since an elder of the Wudang Sect was swearing on his name.

“C-Can we believe that?”

“Are you saying that you won’t believe the words of Wudang?”

Everyone went silent.

If it had been a while ago they wouldn’t have considered the words at all.

“As you can see by looking at us right now, there is no place for us to hide such things. Or would you like us to take off our robes?”

Those who regained their reasoning eventually agreed.

Divine Weapons.

Regardless of whether they were swords or spears… they could be anything that had the form of a weapon. But no matter how much they looked; they couldn’t see any weapons.

The Wudang Sect who would have been the first to get their hands on it were now holding their own swords.

Furthermore.

“Who else wants to check? Huh! I am a busy person so come out quickly!”

That guy was scary.

They had seen with their own eyes how he had thrown a man down the hole, so how could they go against him?

“Let’s go back.”

“Yah, I am exhausted!”

Knowing that the situation was not optimal, they thought it would be beneficial to get out of the place rather than make that man throw them inside.

It wasn’t known if they could do something against all of the people who had come back from the Sword Tomb. But the chances were that they couldn’t, so avoiding any kind of confrontation was better.

The crowd began to slowly move back and Chung Myung who watched it, slightly gnawed his teeth.

‘In the end, this is how Kangho is.’

He had deeply realized for quite a while that he couldn’t expect anything in here. Besides, if the men had any conscience, then Mount Hua wouldn’t have turned out like this.

Chung Myung, spat on the floor and jumped back down.

Tak!

Standing among the sahyungs of Mount Hua, he looked at Heo Sanja.

Although they had gone through many things, there was no resentment in either of their eyes.

Chung Myung didn’t need to hold a grudge against the Wudang Sect, and Heo Sanja had his life saved because of Chung Myung. So, there was no reason for him to hold a grudge either.

“Young disciple.”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

Heo Sanja said.

“Thanks to you I survived.”

“Right. You did good too.”

Chung Myung glanced down and took a deep breath.

‘They worked the hardest and didn’t get anything.’

Heo Sanja looked up with a bitter face as if he had the same thoughts.

“We will head back to Wudang. In the end, all of this happened because of our greed. We couldn’t understand what we had and went after something else because of our greed, so maybe this was to be expected.”

They were noble words.

“Have you considered the offer, young disciple?”

“It will not happen. I am a disciple of Mount Hua.”

And that will never change.

Heo Sanja who was looking at Chung Myung nodded with a serious face.

“Right. I guess so. Maybe the young disciple is a much greater person than I thought.”

“Only a hypocrite like you will say that.”

“Huhu. Hypocrite… Hypocrite. Seriously.”

Heo Sanja shook his head and then spoke in a cold tone.

“The Wudang Sect will remember Mount Hua.”

“…”

“I hope we never turn into enemies.”

His words were rather mild, but it was a warning. But Chung Myung didn’t bother answering it. He was tired of speaking now.

“Then.”

The Wudang moved.

After that, the rest of the people who had survived the Sword Tomb began to move with regrets.

Rather than the people standing outside, it would have been easier for them to sort out their regretful feelings. Because they saw that there was nothing in the Sword Tomb.

And lastly…

“Mount Hua’s Divine Dragon. We are so exhausted that we cannot head back to Luoyang today. Let us stay at the Huayoung Gate.”

“… even if you are a beggar aren’t you being too shameless?”

“Do this favor for us. It is because we might die on our way back.”

Chung Myung sighed.

The Beggars Union were the ones who took care of others in dire situations. It was difficult to dig all the way up, and yet they did, and they were second only to Wudang and Chung Myung.

“The gate leader is there so go ask him.”

Chung Myung pointed at Wei Lishan and he spoke with a smile.

“Who will refuse the people of the Beggars Union. Let’s go. We will serve you food and drinks. As a celebration of new life.”

“Oh! Thank you, gate leader!”

All the Beggars Union members smiled.

Chung Myung let out a low sigh and looked at his sahyungs.

Baek Cheon approached him with a disappointed face.

“In the end, there was nothing there.”

“All because of that damned bastard.”

Mount Hua, Wudang and even the Beggars Union.

They had all played into the trap of Yak Seon who had died two hundred years ago.

“Kuaaak.”

Chung Myung scratched his head.

‘I feel like I am going to go crazy!’

If that man had appeared in front of him, he had the mind to beat him for three days and nights. But Yak Seon was dead and there is no place for him to settle his anger.

Chung Myung calmed down and spoke in dismay.

“… let’s go.”

“Um.”

“There is no point in having regrets. I am pissed off, so let’s go and drink right away.”

“A disciple drinking?”

“Then you won’t drink?”

“… I will drink.”

“Let’s go.”

Chung Myung moved, and the other disciples of Mount Hua followed him with sighs.

They should be content with the fact that they had learned something good.

And the Mount Hua disciples, who had expectantly gone into the Sword Tomb, had no choice but to finish the test and return without results.

All of them.

Even Chung Myung.

That’s what they all felt at that moment.

They couldn’t gain anything.