Read Novel Full Chapter 1189: The Path We Will Continue To Walk (4)
Chapter 1189: The Path We Will Continue To Walk (4)
Beop Jeong’s dazed gaze did not leave Hae Yeon for a long time.
Hae Yeon did not deliberately meet that gaze. It was not out of fear or awkwardness. She simply knew that him facing Beop Jeong now would be unbearably harsh for Beop Jeong.
“Huh...”
A moment later, an empty laugh escaped Beop Jeong’s mouth.
“Heh heh... heh heh heh...”
“...”
“Heh heh heh heh heh.”
Beop Jeong finally turned his gaze and swept it over the others. In those eyes was a firm resolve. Beop Jeong shook his head and, as if incredulous, spoke.
“Now that I see it... this was a place of no meaning from the start. I was merely clinging to those who had no intention of joining.”
“Abbott.”
“Acting Sect leader.”
Beop Jeong spoke softly. His voice no longer held malice or anger.
“You have won.”
Baek Cheon could not tell what was contained within Beop Jeong’s calm eyes.
“I have no confidence in breaking your logic. How could I possibly defeat someone who states righteous truth as it is?”
His gaze passed over Baek Cheon and turned to Hyun Jong, who wore a complex, strange expression.
“If one knows how terrifying the world is, how can the aging who are being pushed aside bear to face young people who boldly speak words they could never voice?”
“Abbott. We...”
“Acting Sect leader.”
Beop Jeong’s eyes, turning back to Baek Cheon, carried a bitter trace.
“You must understand that that lofty ideal, that exalted consensus, and that unwavering righteous truth could one day strangle the Acting Sect leader’s neck and lead the sect called Mount Hua to ruin.”
“...”
“Those who shout justice bow before power, those who preach mercy are trampled by malice, and those who speak of consensus have their throats cut by intrigue.”
Baek Cheon gently closed his eyes.
“Life is suffering, and the world is a hungry hell. Those lofty ideals may give strength to endure that hell, but they cannot change it.”
Beop Jeong sighed deeply. His face somehow looked noticeably worn.
“This is neither a curse nor a spite; it is simply the way things are, a fact.”
Baek Cheon’s chest grew heavy as if pressed. How could he not know? Mount Hua had already experienced this plenty.
Beop Jeong asked again.
“Is that truly acceptable? Grand words aside, does it not mean Mount Hua will again stand at the front, sacrifice, and spill blood as before?”
“...”
“You said someone who cannot cherish those around them cannot think of all the people. Then conversely, how can one who cherishes those around them lay down their precious life for strangers? Could they walk that thorny, hellish road with only the lamp of consensus to light it? Could we praise those who died following your orders as having done well?”
These words were not spoken out of ill will.
Had Beop Jeong never once dreamed noble dreams? Had he never once burned with ambition? Who seeks to wear themselves out for the sake of wearing out? The body may age, but the heart wants to stay passionate—that is human.
This was advice from one who had already passed through to those who have not yet come, a concern offered to those younger ones who insist on walking the thorny path the speaker had trodden and returned from.
But Baek Cheon only smiled at that.
“You said they are those who will die following my order?”
“That is so.”
Baek Cheon now looked at those around him.
“Abbott, do you see?”
“...”
“In the Abbott’s eyes, do these people look like those who would risk their lives for orders they themselves do not believe in?”
Beop Jeong turned his head. There stood Mount Hua’s disciples, looking at Beop Jeong with resolute faces.
“As Acting Sect leader, my duty is simply to throw myself into the flames at their very front.”
“You yourself?”
“Yes.”
Baek Cheon nodded. Beop Jeong asked as if bewildered.
“Does the one who will become Sect leader intend to cast his body into the most dangerous place?”
“What reason would there be not to?”
“Acting Sect leader...”
“Abbott. You believe no one can take your place as Abbott, do you not?”
Beop Jeong fell silent at that question.
“You would think that not only other sects but even among Shaolin’s disciples no one could replace the Abbott. Because you are so outstanding. But...”
Baek Cheon shook his head.
“I am not. I believe anyone from Mount Hua could take my place. It is simply my turn to step forward now. Someday, someone better than me will naturally inherit my position.”
Beop Jeong’s lips trembled slightly. Seeing that, Baek Cheon smiled.
“That is why a sect exists. To do what cannot be done alone, and to pass the will discovered over a lifetime to the next generation; therefore a truly outstanding Acting Sect leader is...”
Baek Cheon turned and glanced at Hyun Jong before continuing.
“Someone who can trust the next generation. And someone who makes it possible for the next generation to walk a better path.”
At those words, Chung Myung’s shoulders trembled slightly.
‘Chung Mun sahyung...’
He could almost see Chung Myung smiling. The image of him saying everything was for the next generation and the future was vivid.
“So I will leap ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) in without hesitation. I will accept the blood shed as a result. I have no doubt that that blood, that will, that sacrifice will make Mount Hua more truly Mount Hua.”
“...”
“And the actions of myself and the other disciples will prove that Mount Hua has not been wrong in the path it has walked until now.”
“Acting Sect leader.”
Beop Jeong sighed.
“I do not know if I dare speak like this, but without concern for my own face, I will ask one more question.”
“Ask, Abbott.”
“I understand the meaning well. I understand the reasons, too. But still, one thing I cannot fathom.”
“What is that?”
Beop Jeong took Baek Cheon, Hyun Jong, and Mount Hua’s disciples into his eyes.
“Is Mount Hua okay with that?”
“...”
“Is Mount Hua not the place that best knows what results those lofty wills and unstoppable consensus have brought?”
Beop Jeong asked again.
“This time you may meet the same result. And because of that exalted consensus, the world might even collapse. Is Mount Hua truly okay with that?”
Baek Cheon smiled faintly.
“Abbott. The answer to that question should come not from Mount Hua’s Acting Sect leader but from Mount Hua’s second class disciple, Baek Cheon.”
“...As merely a second class disciple?”
“Yes.”
Baek Cheon took a deep breath and continued.
“What you spoke of, Abbott, troubled me longest: whether acting as in the past and meeting the same results as the past is truly right.”
“...Amitabha.”
“I too once rolled my eyes at the elders as being foolish, and I once raged that their sacrifices were meaningless. It was closer to sorrow than resentment. But, Abbott, after experiencing the murim world as you have said, I reached a conclusion.”
Baek Cheon looked at Mount Hua’s disciples. His words were not merely an answer to Beop Jeong but seemed directed to all of them.
Then he turned and met Beop Jeong’s eyes, speaking in an extremely serious voice.
“Abbott, do you think those people were wrong?”
“...”
“I will ask again. Do you think those who fulfilled their righteousness with their lives were wrong?”
“That is...”
“No. It is not so.”
Baek Cheon shook his head.
“People do good because goodness is what it brings to them. Because it is good in itself.”
“...”
“The Tao enjoins compassion, and Buddhism emphasizes mercy toward sentient beings not because those feelings guarantee good results. Even if the results are not good, because we are human, it is right to do good.”
Baek Cheon’s eyes looked steadfast with firm will.
“You are a Buddhist, Abbott, and I am a Taoist. Why then should we judge our predecessors and debate their results? Even if the whole world condemns their choices as wrong, should not at least you and I refrain from such judgment?”
“...”
“If we condemn goodness because its returned results were poor, no one in the world will do good anymore. People will act only for personal benefit rather than for goodness itself. Then, as you said, the human world will be no different from hell. Abbott, who creates that hellish world—the predecessors or us?”
Beop Jeong’s eyes, silently watching Baek Cheon, trembled slightly.
“Those who should pay for wrongdoings are not the predecessors who practiced goodness with their lives. Those who deserve punishment are the later generations who failed to properly inherit those lofty wills, who buried those high intentions. Had today’s murim world inherited and practiced the predecessors’ will, it would not be like this now.”
“...”
“You asked whether we would not regret the same result?”
Baek Cheon smiled gently.
“The will left by Mount Hua’s predecessors will continue as long as Mount Hua endures—hundreds of years, thousands of years. Perhaps as long as the two characters ‘Mount Hua’ remain in the world, it will continue forever.”
“...Acting Sect leader.”
“If I have one wish, it is only this: to follow their path and become a descendant who does not shame the predecessors. So that one day I too may, like them, carry out the will and be someone passed on to future generations.”
“...”
“You said my choice could cause the world to collapse, Abbott. We have already defeated the demonic sect. We have already stopped the countless outbursts of the Evil Sect. Yet here we stand again before the same situation. Why is that?”
Determination glinted in Baek Cheon’s eyes.
“Because later generations who do not truly practice those teachings and fail to inherit the predecessors’ will repeat foolish acts. If they keep compromising and compromising, hesitating and stepping back before the word ‘reality,’ sooner or later we will face another Demonic Cult. We will meet another Four Sects Alliance blade to blade. And one day we will be defeated by them.”
“...Acting Sect leader.”
“My conclusion is one.”
Baek Cheon straightened his shoulders. Mount Hua’s will he had inherited stood with him.
“Even to avoid repeating this deep folly, I will learn myself and practice what I have learned. That is my will as Mount Hua’s second class disciple, my will as Mount Hua’s Acting Sect leader, and also...”
Baek Cheon put the final words to end all this conversation into his mouth.
“It is Mount Hua’s will.”
As everyone looked at Baek Cheon with moved faces, only one person bowed his head.
Chung Myung. His shoulders trembled faintly.