Read Novel Full Chapter 1192: Why Did It Turn Out Like This? (2)
Chapter 1192: Why Did It Turn Out Like This? (2)
“S-sasuk!”
“Why?”
“Did you hear the news?”
“What?”
Even as Kwak Hoe burst in hastily, Baek Sang’s face remained indifferent. From Kwak Hoe’s expression, one might think the Demonic Cult had attacked, but this timid sajil fellow made a fuss over nothing so often that Baek Sang wasn’t particularly interested even seeing that face.
“Ba-, Baek Cheon sasuk, you know! Baek Cheon sasuk!”
“Sahyung, why?”
“He became the Sect leader!”
“Oh, right. He’d become one. Someday he would.”
Baek Sang lowered his gaze back to the documents he had been looking at.
“No! Sasuk, it’s not that — I said he became the Sect leader!”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.”
“It’s r-really true! Rumors have spread widely in the Central Plains now! The Sect leader handed the Sect leader position to Baek Cheon sasuk!”
Only then did Baek Sang lift his head and pay attention.
“...The Sect leader?”
“Yes!”
“Suddenly?”
“That’s what I’m saying! He passed the position decisively! It’s chaos right now!”
“So... if I understand you, the Sect leader handed the Sect leader position to sahyung?”
“Yes!”
Kwak Hoe nodded vigorously as if relieved Baek Sang finally understood. Baek Sang’s eyes were half-lidded as he watched the nod.
“...Why?”
“It’s for the future of Mount Hua...”
“Why?”
“Be-Beop Jeong, while talking with that Shaolin Abbott...”
“Why?”
“...”
“Why?”
Kwak Hoe shut his mouth. He had seen Baek Sang’s lips trembling. Baek Sang murmured in a dazed voice.
“So that means...”
“Yes.”
“Why does it turn out that way?”
“...I don’t know either...”
“...”
The standoff—Baek Sang staring blankly at Kwak Hoe and Kwak Hoe at a loss—continued like that for some time.
“Sahyung, Un Geom reporting.”
“Come in.”
Un Geom quietly opened the door and entered. Un Am sat at the low table sorting papers. He must have heard someone enter, but he gave no glance and finished what he was doing—very much like his usual self.
Un Geom sat before him and said.
“I’ve heard the news.”
“Of Baek Cheon, you mean?”
“Yes, sahyung.”
Un Am nodded calmly.
“So it has come to that. I’m sorry I couldn’t consult with you beforehand. I hope you understand.”
“No need for apologies.”
A small smile formed at the corner of Un Geom’s mouth.
Originally, the one who should have become the next Sect leader wasn’t Baek Cheon but Un Am. Both Un Am and Un Geom had lived at Mount Hua for decades thinking that way.
Sect leader. A position of grave responsibility and heavy burden.
Still, among Mount Hua’s disciples, few would lack the desire to ascend to the Sect leader’s seat. It’s easy to imagine how difficult it must have been to give up a position one could have taken if one wanted.
Even just after such a major act, Un Am was no different than usual. No wonder Un Geom respectfully followed Un Am as his sahyung, even if Un Am’s prestige wasn’t towering.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Hard work?”
Only then did Un Am finish tidying the stack of papers, place them gently aside, and face Un Geom.
“It had to be so, so I did it. Nothing more.”
“‘Going with the ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) natural order’ sounds easy, but it’s actually the hardest thing.”
At those words Un Am chuckled.
“You’ve learned to speak like a proper taoist. You were a fellow who only knew the sword.”
Un Geom scratched the bridge of his nose sheepishly at that.
The sahyung is a strange being. By rank and allotment, someone of a parental generation should be more intimidating, but the person Un Geom found most daunting at Mount Hua was none other than Un Am.
“Raising disciples made it so.”
“That’s a good thing.”
Un Am smiled softly, as if seeing a younger brother finally come of age.
“But sahyung.”
Un Geom, a little embarrassed, shifted the subject.
“Are you okay, sahyung?”
“Hm?”
Un Geom’s gaze grew serious.
“You are human too, sahyung. Even if you follow the natural way, you must have some regrets.”
Hearing that, Un Am gave a small laugh.
“Why? Are you worried I’ll harm your dear disciples?”
“You, sahyung...”
“Haha.”
Un Am laughed lightly then shook his head.
“Regret... To say I have none would be a lie, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes. That would be so.”
Un Geom sighed lightly. It couldn’t have been easy. Of course it wouldn’t be.
“You and I both once hoped to lead Mount Hua to be the greatest sect in the realm, didn’t we? We wanted that when I became the Sect leader, I’d make Mount Hua different from what we endured.”
“...Yes, sahyung.”
Un Geom could feel the bitterness in Un Am’s voice.
He too had hoped for that.
Un Am becoming Sect leader and Un Geom becoming Mount Hua’s foremost sword, restoring the Mount Hua of old—this was the dream the two had kept since joining Mount Hua. Over time, reality had crushed that dream so it became hardly visible.
“But I have no regrets. Do you know why?”
“I don’t.”
Un Geom answered honestly. He had actually come here to hear those words.
Un Am smiled quietly and said.
“Because you find me difficult.”
“...Excuse me?”
It was a strange remark. Un Geom blinked. Seeing his bewildered face, Un Am smiled faintly.
“Don’t make that face. It’s not because of you.”
Un Am chuckled and elaborated.
“The reason you find me difficult is simple. I owe you nothing.
It was a puzzling line that seemed partly understandable and partly not.
“A child of a poor family still respects their parents, but a parent who raised children in poverty can’t help feeling deep remorse.”
“Ah...”
“The interesting part is that the child knows that too. So secretly they think that if they mess up once or twice, the parent will pretend they can’t resist and forgive them.”
Un Geom nodded as if he understood what was meant.
“There is certainly that aspect.”
“Yes. Now you know. We see the kids through the eyes of that parent.”
Un Geom sighed.
“That’s right, sahyung.”
It wasn’t only Hyun Jong who felt sorry toward the kids. Un Geom felt the same. He had given them nothing as a teacher.
Whether he was the head of White Plum Hall or whatever, while he taught, Mount Hua’s disciples didn’t particularly stand out. Their growth came only after Chung Myung appeared.
Was it because of battle-tested martial arts? Un Geom himself knew that wasn’t the case. A truly skilled master could train disciples well even with third-class techniques spread on the streets.
Could Un Geom have sternly punished his disciples when they erred? Like a parent who failed to feed or clothe their children properly, wouldn’t he blame himself?
“Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
Un Am nodded as he spoke.
“Right now, anyone can see the core of Mount Hua is Baek disciples and Chung disciples. But I don’t have the confidence to lead those children properly. In their eyes I’m just a slightly less severe, slightly less strict version of Sect leader.”
“...”
“Being like parent and child is a good thing. But children will eventually act spoiled toward their parents. A parent who has given nothing will inevitably indulge that spoiling. I’ve long worried that my sense of entitlement could one day ruin those kids.”
“Sahyung...”
Un Geom looked at Un Am with fresh surprise.
Since when had this man been thinking this way?
He had thought it was simply a decision about Mount Hua’s future—reasonable to quickly hand the power center to Mount Hua’s core.
But Un Am seemed to be looking deeper. In his mind there was no path to merely make Mount Hua stronger. He only saw a path for his disciples to grow correctly.
“Meanwhile that Baek Cheon fellow came to me and said so. He claimed he had no debts from the past.”
“...”
“So he told me to take the Sect leader seat. He said he’d assist and lead Mount Hua splendidly. That rascal. He didn’t even know what those words truly meant.”
Hearing that, Un Geom burst into uproarious laughter.
Another person might have taken that at face value. Baek Cheon himself wouldn’t have hidden his true intent. But how would those words sound to Un Am, who had been wrestling with such worries?
“So there was nothing to hesitate over, right? Persisting on another path when a better one exists would be just my pride taking hurt.”
“...But isn’t there a law to follow?”
“Haha. Is there a law in Mount Hua?”
“Sahyung!”
“I’m joking. Why get so angry?”
Un Am chuckled and shook his head. “To say I have no lingering attachment would be a lie. If I felt no regret, I’d be a saint. But I have not the slightest doubt that my choice was right.”
“...”
“And Un Geom.”
“Yes, sahyung.”
“Having lingering attachments and regrets is only natural.”
Un Geom looked at Un Am as if to ask what he meant.
“To do good, to follow what is right, is always like that. If choosing good were easy and enjoyable, who in the world wouldn’t follow it? It must leave your gut aching and regrets—that’s what makes it good.”
Those words resonated deeply with Un Geom.
“Good must be hard...”
“Yes. Acts of goodness carried out without hardship are mere comforts to one’s heart. Can a rich merchant who piled up gold give a single coin to a starving beggar and call it true goodness?”
“...I couldn’t say no to that, but.”
“Indeed.”
Un Am nodded slowly.
“But if someone who earned only two coins a day gives one coin to a beggar, that is goodness in itself. As they hand it over, their heart aches and they hesitate many times. Yet overcoming that regret and offering the coin—that is goodness.”
“...I understand what you mean, sahyung.”
Un Geom let out a small laugh.
“So in the end you wanted to say you’re a very admirable taoist, sahyung.”
“You rascal...”
“Hahaha!”
Un Geom burst into loud laughter.
He felt good. Very good.
This man was his sahyung. The one who had thrown away the Mount Hua Sect leader seat like an old rag and now complained his heart ached and he felt regret—that man was his sahyung.
“You can give because you trust.”
After laughing heartily together, Un Am quietly smiled.
“Because it’s Baek Cheon. He’s my disciple I’ve watched over, so I can give it. In this age there’s no one better to lead Mount Hua than him. As he said, he has no debts and his chest is full of chivalry. And...”
“He’s hopeless, right?”
“Right. A clueless rascal... ahem. That’s something we can support and help with.”
When Un Am let out a wry smile, Un Geom smiled back at him. Un Am spoke.
“Un Geom.”
“Yes, sahyung.”
“I did the right thing, didn’t I?”
Un Geom curled the corner of his mouth into a smile.
“This is the second thing my sahyung has done with initiative that I’ve seen so far.”
“...And the first?”
“When you once, in hard times, tried to escape at dawn by climbing the wall but changed your mind and came back...”
“Shut your mouth. Before I commit manslaughter.”
“Oh ho! Since when does a taoist utter ‘manslaughter’!”
The two sahyung-sajaes laughed heartily at each other.
Both had eyes full of trust and faith. It was the look of those who aim high yet are never attached to the position itself.
“He’ll do well.”
“Yes. He will do well.”
“Yes. He will do well. Whose disciple is he, after all.”
Un Geom, looking at Un Am with a warm smile, spoke.
“But, sahyung.”
“Yes?”
“There’s something that’s been bothering me a bit earlier.”
“Hmm? What...”
“Baek Cheon is my disciple.”
Un Am looked at Un Geom with trembling eyes. Un Geom cut it off sharply and decisively.
“Don’t slyly try to stick your spoon in. I won’t yield this.”
“...You petty fellow.”
In the end, they too were people who lived at Mount Hua.