Return of the Mount Hua Sect

Watching Baek Cheon walk up the stage, Hyun Jong clenched his fists.

‘Baek Cheon.’

He clenched it even harder.

Was he afraid of Baek Cheon losing?

It wasn’t like that.

Hyun Jong had unconditional trust in this man. If Chung Myung was the one making a mess, then Baek Cheon was the one purifying Mount Hua with great care.

If Chung Myung was the child who would not even blink their eyes in the face of a fight, then Baek Cheon was the child raised with care, who might even get blown away by the wind or broken with a touch.

So, naturally, he felt concerned.

“Isn’t he the great disciple of Mount Hua?”

“Yes. He is the greatest among the other disciples.”

“Then he must be the fiercest of all the children we’ve seen.”

“Right.”

He couldn’t say anything else.

He just stared at Baek Cheon and those who were looking at him cautiously.

‘The atmosphere is clearly different from yesterday.’

Yesterday, it seemed like they all were saving their own faces. But after Chung Myung became active, the disciples of Mount Hua continued their streak and now everyone was acting cold.

‘What are they so afraid of?’

Hyun Jong bit his lip.

Afraid of getting hurt?

Or afraid that the balance of power that they had struggled to keep was being disrupted?

‘This should be done by first-class disciples.’

If this was a place where real sword battles were happening between first class disciples and the elders of another sect, then he could understand their nervous expression and reactions.

However, it was disappointing for him to see these old people being overly passionate about the activities of young people who could not yet be called the true power of a sect.

‘Does that mean this is how it works?’

Hyun Jong couldn’t hide his disappointment and sighed.

‘No. No. I was wrong.’

It wasn’t that the others were wrong, the one in the wrong was Hyun Jong.

If there were two sects with the same amount of skills: Hyun Jong and another random person were the sect leaders, then which sect would develop more?

Hyun Jong, who always conceded to others, would step back from everything and be pushed around by the other sect leader.

‘Weren’t we always told to be careful with time?’

Hyun Jong nodded slightly, looking at the Shaolin sect leader standing ahead.

‘Abbot must have seen all of this.’

Of course, a good person could be a good sect leader.

However, those who could not take care of their own and could only hope for a collective agreement would only be buried.

To keep one’s position, one needs to have a goal-oriented mind.

The moment he understood that these seemingly frivolous actions were for the sake of their own sects, Hyun Jong’s eyes shone.

‘I need to be more passionate.’

To protect these children.

To not let anyone get in their way.

Hyun Jong learned a thing from the reaction of the other sect leaders.

“If it is Baek Cheon, isn’t he the kid who defeated the Sword Dragon of Wudang? Now, he is called another of the Five Dragons instead of the Sword Dragon right? White Dragon was it?”

At someone’s words, the Wudang sect leader smiled brightly,

“Our child has been taken care of. However, I am grateful to this child too. Jin Hyeon has been focusing on his training ever since he lost that day. The child who believed in only his talent is now putting effort into it, so I am looking forward to what he will show in the future.”

“Haha. That would be a good thing.”

“Probably.”

Heo Do Jinin looked at Hyun Jong and smiled,

“The results of this spar will be different from the previous one. It would be great if they could meet here.”

Old Hyun Jong would have spoken modestly and timidly at the words of his opponent.

But now he knew. Lowering yourself was fine, but never lower the position of Mount Hua.

Even if he was called naïve and narrow-minded, he wouldn’t let them talk about Mount Hua. That was what a sect leader was supposed to do.

“If Wudang’s Sword Dragon has achieved such a thing I would be congratulating them. But…”

Hyun Jong smiled,

“Baek Cheon’s talent is astonishing even for me. It is hard to imagine that he would lose to an opponent he has already beaten once.”

Heo Do Jinin looked startled at his comment.

“Hahaha. It seems like the results of yesterday’s spars have given confidence to Sect Leader.”

“It isn’t that. How can the results give me confidence? It wasn’t the outcome that gave me the confidence, but the skills of my kids.”

Everyone went silent at that.

Heo Do Jinin looked at Hyun Jong without saying anything, and his mouth was wide open.

A shrill voice came from the other side,

“To discuss that, my child will have to be defeated!”

The eyes of the two turned at the sound.

The Hebei Peng family head, Peng Hwaso, looked at them with a dissatisfied expression.

Both of them then noticed that the opponent of Baek Cheon, who stood there, was from the Hebei Peng family.

“Excuse my words, Lord.”

“We were short of thought.”

“Hm!”

Peng Hwaso snorted loudly and crossed his arms.

“My Dowan is not a famous child but his skills are second to none! So open your eyes and watch carefully!”

Heo Do Jinin didn’t respond to that, and Hyun Jong looked at Peng Hwaso, who was holding back his anger.

‘Even the head of the Hebei Peng family confidently speaks about the children of his family, so what does it mean to put our faces first instead of the children’s?’

With an apologetic heart, he looked at Baek Cheon.

‘Baek Cheon, Win.’

His eyes looked at the clasping hands, yet he trusted the guy.

Lightly.

Baek Cheon lightly applied force to the sword he was holding, slowly releasing it, and then repeating.

‘I know what they are saying.’

The opponent was Peng Dowan of the Hebei Peng family.

A name he had never heard of, but a name associated with the representative of the Hebei Peng family,

Still, Baek Cheon couldn’t feel any threat from him, all he could feel was his own heart beating steadily.

And the gaze of Hyun Jong, who was looking at him.

‘Sect Leader.’

In the past, Baek Cheon was a person who only thought about his own growth. But after meeting Chung Myung and going through many things, he learned something new.

What a wonderful person his sect leader was, the man knew about Baek Cheon’s background and still accepted him without any questions.

‘I will make Mount Hua the greatest sect.’

In other words, he would make the sect leader of Mount Hua the most respected and notable person in the Central Plains, and in order to do that, he had to defeat the one in front of him.

Baek Cheon looked at Peng Dowan with careful eyes. However, the opponent attempted to provoke him.

“Such cheeky eyes.”

He put the sword onto his shoulder on one side.

“You seem to have lost your fear because your people did a good job yesterday?”

Baek Cheon, hearing that, sighed.

‘Why do my opponents come like this?’

It would be better if it were someone who would just fight normally, and exasperated, Baek Cheon said,

“It isn’t like that. I am still a little scared.”

“Hahaha. That mouth of yours is shiny like your face.”

“…”

Baek Cheon grabbed his sword, realizing that it was too late to hear good words from him.

“If you don’t intend to fight with words, you can start.”

“No no. I will give you a chance.”

“A chance?”

Peng Dowan chuckled and said,

“If you abstain from the fight and head down, I won’t hurt your face or pride. I get annoyed when I see someone who looks like a loach, someone like you.”

“… loaches?”

“Mount Hua has been lucky till now, but that’s only because you haven’t met the real deal. But you are out of luck now. I’m different from the idiots that dealt with Mount Hua yesterday. If you don’t want to be shamed, you’d better back out now.”

“… thanks for the advice.”

Baek Cheon shook his head.

Yoon Jong was seated and squinting his eyes, looked at Baek Cheon.

“They seem so similar.”

“Try to relax, sahyung. It is too late to turn back now.”

“… what about a human’s heart?”

As Yoon Jong and Jo Gul talked, gulping back their anxiousness, they watched their sasuk, who was turning more and more into Chung Myung.

Where did all this change come from? In the past, he was the sasuk that they respected so much.

Of course, they still respected him.

The problem was that their feelings of respect had changed a little.

Peng Dowan shrugged and continued,

“So Still…”

“Ah, enough.”

“Uh?”

Baek Cheon sighed like he was tired,

“Come at me when you are done, it is boring here.”

“… You?”

Peng Dowan lowered his sword from his shoulder and pointed it at Baek Cheon.

“You seem to think you are strong because you had some luck. Then I will show it to you clearly. Mount Hua, which has been cut off from the world once, can never be called a prestigious sect!”

At those arrogant words, Baek Cheon smiled,

“Prestigious?”

“Yes.”

He scratched his head a couple of times and spoke sarcastically,

“If someone I knew had heard this, he would say something like this.”

“… what?”

“Don’t prestigious sects have heads?”

“…”

Baek Cheon straightened his sword and aimed for Peng Dowan,

“Come here. I will break the head of a noble person then.”

Peng Dowan’s face turned red in an instant. He ground his teeth so much that it felt like they would be grounded down to nubs.

“You cheeky bastard!”

And finally, he held the sword tightly and ran towards Baek Cheon like an angry bull.

“I will fix that head of yours!”

“Tch.”

Baek Cheon narrowed his eyes.

What the opponent was doing was quite stupid, but whether he was taught like this or not, the man did have tremendous force.

But…

‘This must be how it felt like.’

He seemed to know now how he appeared to others when they had said he had changed. Thinking about it, it made him turn red in embarrassment.

Those who haven’t been able to get past the façade of belonging to a prestigious sect, clinging to it as their background, their source of meaning. Baek Cheon too had realized this only after Chung Myung broke his head.

Then?

Baek Cheon smiled,

“I didn’t want to do this favor¹.”

“What nonsense!”

Peng Dowan jumped up like a frog and slammed his sword down at Baek Cheon.

The technique that the Hebei Peng family was the proudest of. It was the technique called ‘The Five Tigers Broken Door Blade’s Flying Tiger Killing Rabbit’.

The blade, embracing an intense red qi, fell toward Baek Cheon with great force.

At the same time, Peng Dowan’s movements were following Baek Cheon.

‘There is no use trying to avoid it!’

Unless one was an idiot, this technique that was already close would be avoided, no one would try and tackle it.

Either way, once the opponent began to lose their energy either through dodging or counterattacking, the blade would devour them.

Then, with such successive attacks, he would win and leave a cut on the face of that…

It was then.

Baek Cheon, who was staring at the blade of Peng Dowan falling at him, slightly tilted the sword he was holding toward the back. And then with a formidable force, he swung it at the incoming blade.

‘Is he crazy!’

Peng Dowan was shocked. Was he going to strike his blade technique with that thing?

Even a three-year-old would know this makes no sense.

‘Fine! Then don’t blame me!’

Peng Dowan pushed qi into the blade. Finally, his blade and Baek Cheon’s sword collided.

Kwaaang!

A loud explosion-like sound echoed and a man was bounced back and tossed onto the ground.

“T-that!”

“That makes no sense!”

Cheers rose from everyone watching.

Judging from the difference in body size and weight, it was normal for Baek Cheon to be on the losing end, but it was Peng Dowan on the ground.

“K-Kuak?”

As he fell, he raised his head with difficulty and looked at Baek Cheon. There was shock on his face.

“Tch.”

Baek Cheon lightly waved his sword and walked toward him.

Unlike Peng Dowan, who seemed to have hurt his arm during that one collision, Baek Cheon showed no visible wounds.

At last, Baek Cheon stood in front of Peng Dowan and said,

“Yah, you.”

And he gave some sincere advice,

“Need to do some real exercises.”

“…”

“You are so weak that you wouldn’t even be able to carry a bucket of water if you come to Mount Hua.”

Peng Dowan was shocked.

Weak?

‘Me?’

He scanned his arm.

The descendants of the Peng family were known to have amazing bodies, and he was amazingly well-grown for his age. His size was enough to make others bow to him.

And he was called weak?

Peng Dowan didn’t understand, and Baek Cheon rolled up his sleeves.

His muscles were shocking. Muscles, trained through hell.

Peng Dowan, who saw that got up,

“Where in the world… does… a dog like…”

“UH? Dog? Right. That puts my mind at ease.”

“Uh?”

Baek Cheon turned his hand upside down and hit Peng Dowan on the back of his head.

Cuk!

There was a sound of a watermelon being cracked.

Peng Dowan’s mouth was wide open as if he had been frozen.

“The head! Head! Head! Head! Head! Head!”

Tuk! Tuk! Tuk! Tuk! Tuk!

After five consecutive blows, Peng Dowan went down with foam in his mouth.

Baek Cheon, who caught a glimpse of the fallen, pushed the sword into his sheath and turned around.

But after taking a few steps, he suddenly stopped on the spot as if he had missed something.

And with a contorted face, he thought,

‘I should have hit his head one more time!’

He shouted head six times and hit five times!

“Eh!”

‘I didn’t learn it right.’

Tch.