Return of the Mount Hua Sect

A bomb had fallen on Mount Hua.

“What does this mean? To make a merchant chamber in Sichuan!”

“What? The swords made by the Sichuan Tang family are going to come here? Well, then, what do we do about them? Should we just store them in the storehouse?”

“What about the rice that needs to be taken to Yunnan? Who will manage it?”

Each situation was serious enough to overturn a sect. Since several such bombs were dropped on Mount Hua at the same time, it was total chaos!

“Tch, these kids.”

Seeing the hustle-bustle in the sect, Hyun Young smiled.

“Why are you making such a fuss about this?”

“Elder, isn’t this a huge thing! This has never happened since I joined!”

“Right. It hasn’t.”

Hyun Young smiled more and more. At this point, it was so wide that it was almost reaching his ears.

“But Mount Hua didn’t have our Chung Myung before.”

“…”

‘Our Chung Myung?’

It was the first time that the finance head was using such words, and his tone was…

“It is no surprise. Seriously it’s nothing. There will be many more surprises in the future, so why bother making a fuss now?”

Un Bang couldn’t say anything. Seeing Hyun Young’s face looking so happy, he couldn’t help it. Breaking that happiness wasn’t the right thing for a disciple to do.

Clack!

At that moment, the door to the finance office opened, and a disciple came in with a large basket.

“Finance head! I brought it!”

“Oh!”

Hyun Young jumped up and ran towards the disciple.

And when the cloth over the huge basket was put aside, he saw large eels, hemp, and tied chickens.

“…w-what is this?”

“They must be exhausted from going to Yunnan, so wouldn’t they feel better if we feed them something good, like chicken stew?”

“But there are no eels in chicken stew.”

“What? Why?”

“…”

“…”

Un Bang coughed a couple times.

‘This isn’t important now.’

“Ah, no. Mount Hua doesn’t forbid eating meat, and the children are growing well by eating it. They are, after all, still kids despite being called Taoists…’

“It is fine. This is worthwhile to have, even if it brings death. They will be happy too.”

‘Shouldn’t you at least listen to the eel’s true words?’

‘Are you really fine with doing things like this?’

Hyun Young, who ignored those words, mumbled.

“Didn’t the children return back with dead and exhausted faces? Mount Hua can only grow if Chung Myung is well fed and raised.”

“You are making them lazy.”

“Uh!”

“I wouldn’t do such things to people who are of my grandchildren’s age.”

“How can you compare things like grandchildren to Chung Myung!”

‘You have no answer, so stop yelling!’

“Anyway, you people take care of these things. I have other things to do.”

“U-us?”

“Yes!”

Hyun Young turned away without listening to the words of the disciple. He then excitedly headed to the kitchen.

Un Bang, who saw that, seemed shocked and sighed a little as he smiled.

‘Does he like it this much?’

When he thought of Hyun Young in the past, all he could remember were his constant sighs.

Hyun Young’s daily routine was to look at the books all day, sigh and ponder, and then sigh again. There were wrinkles on his forehead, and his eyes were sunken.

He was a person who was weighed down by the burden of having to feed the people on Mount Hua.

That was the Hyun Young Un Bang could think of.

So, seeing him happy and smiling made him feel better.

‘A lot has changed.’

In the last two years, it felt like the entire sect had changed. Even he himself could feel it. When was the last time Hyun Young had smiled like this?

“Tch. Right.”

He knew that Hyun Young liked Chung Myung. Even more so than Un Bang himself, who had been serving Hyun Young since he entered Mount Hua.

However, the reason why he didn’t dislike the child was because he knew that everything he did helped Mount Hua in the end.

“Disciple. What do we do?”

“Are we really going to do this by ourselves?”

Un Bang frowned, seeing the disciples in shock.

“Don’t back down.”

“But…”

“Are we going to back down? Even though we know that the medicine hall is busy?”

“Ah…”

When the word ‘medicine hall’ came in, the disciples all nodded their heads in agreement. They then looked at the medicine hall with pitiful eyes.

“Purple Ginseng, two, full!”

“Two, full!”

They heard the sound of something being cut. Even by just listening to the instructions, it was clear that everything was being handled so carefully that even the possibility of an error would get discarded.

“Done!”

“Bring it!”

“Yes!”

A member of the medicine hall carefully grabbed the pieces.

“Here!”

Un Gak, the head of the medicine hall, took them from the disciple’s hand. He then carefully placed them on the scale. The moment the scale gave the right number, Un Gak checked and said!

“I am telling you to bring me two pounds of it! And you cut them into 4 pieces! Are your eyes for decoration!”

“Ah, no, that…”

“Do you know what could have happened! Because of you, the Vitality… no, if this pill doesn’t form correctly, will you take responsibility for it! Frustrating jerk!”

Anger exploded out like flames, and all the staff there bowed their heads.

“We have sinned!”

“Are you saying that a disciple couldn’t even measure a single thing properly?”

“W-well, on my scale, it was two pounds!”

“What?”

Un Gak seemed angry.

However, before he could say anything, a voice was heard behind them.

“The scales are so old that they don’t seem to show the right figure.”

“Uh?”

Un Gak turned his head.

In front of him stood Tang Soso, in the robe of Mount Hua, looking at the scales.

“It seems the problem is because the scales are old, and they keep showing different numbers. We have to use one scale for all of the calculations or replace all of the scales.”

“Umm… Is that so?”

“Yes. The most important thing is the ratio, but if we use scales with different numbers, there can be such errors.”

“Umm. But using one scale would take too much time.”

Un Gak shook his head.

“Go down to Hua-Um and buy new scales right away! Right now! The money will be given by the Finance Head.”

“Yes! So the scales…”

“What? What? Change them all! Don’t let a single old one stay! You go and buy them now! And get the right ones!”

“Yes!”

The staff freaked out and ran out right away, not wanting to be yelled at again.

Un Gak rolled his eyes and shouted.

“Listen, everyone.”

“Yes.”

The members of the hall responded with nervous faces. There was sweat glistening over their foreheads.

“The fate of Mount Hua is at stake! If anyone neglects their duties even a single bit, I will throw you into the scariest peak we have here! Do you get it!?”

“Yes.”

Un Gak raised his sleeve and wiped the sweat off his brow.

‘Kuak. This isn’t easy.’

Of course, the process of making any pill was difficult. Everyone knew that there was no special training for it, so all they had to do was measure the ingredients in the right amount and follow the recipe Yak Seon had given them.

The problem was the burden when it came to measuring the ingredients themselves.

The Soul Vitality Pill was so delicate that even one small change in the ratio could drastically drop the efficacy of the pill.

‘It is a herb they brought all the way from Yunnan. I will not tolerate a single failure!’

Un Gak took a deep breath.

‘Still, I am glad to have that child with us.’

Mount Hua didn’t have a single pill made in the last 100 years. In other words, there were no pills coming out of Mount Hua.

Still, Un Gak had learned to know how it was done in the medicine hall of the sect, and this was his first time making something so important with his own hands.

‘Although I cannot disclose the entire recipe…’

But he still wanted to listen to the advice from Tang Soso, considering it had helped him till now.

And it was also known that the Soul Vitality Pill was tough to make… and there was another problem.

“Ahem. Is anyone inside?”

“….”

The door opened, and Hyun Jong came in with Hyun Sang.

“I greet the Sect Leader!”

All the members of the Medicine Hall bowed, and Hyun Jong nodded with a smile.

“Right. Everyone must be busy, but I didn’t come here just to see things.”

Un Gak looked at Hyun Jong.

‘Sect leader.’

‘This is the 6th time you have come here, today alone!’

‘Why don’t you just sit in the chair over there instead of opening the door each time?’

“Huhuhu. This is a lot of trouble. It isn’t much different…”

Hyun Jong, who seemed to be looking around, lowered his gaze.

“Everyone seems to be so busy and not paying attention… but isn’t there too much dust on the floor?”

“…uh?”

“I want to avoid such things contaminating the pill. If you leave the window open, insects might come in too.”

“Ah… yes.”

“Ahem. And… if you have all the ingredients out in the open, they might change due to moisture.’

Un Gak went silent.

‘It was the sixth time.’

‘You have come six times back into my place to nag me, to tell me to clean up while working and clean up before working.’

‘Sigh.’

“Sect leader…”

“Um? What is it?”

“I… I will take good care of it.”

“Uhhh! It isn’t that. I am not trying to look down on you or anything. I am just too old and worry a lot.”

Seeing Hyun Jong shy away, Un Gak narrowed his eyes.

‘It would be better to get cursed at.’

He felt weird as the man kept coming in again and again and used the same thing as an excuse.

“Right, then… ah, the pill, how long will it take to perfectly produce it completely?”

“10 days.”

“I-is that so?”

Hyun Jong frowned.

His face said: ‘No. My life seems to be hanging on a thin thread, but you want me to wait another 10 days?’

That was what it looked like he was asking Un Gak from his face.

“Sect leader. Most of the pills take at least 49 days to be prepared and another 49 days for maturation. However, unlike the others, our pill takes less time as its process is simple.”

“R-right?”

Hyun Jong’s face brightened.

“We will have to check the qi in it, and that is a case where I need to personally check the qi in the pill. So please… please!”

“Ahem. R-right. I was wondering if I can do anything to help…”

“I will do it myself!”

“R-right!”

Hyun Jong glanced around with a shy face and coughed heavily several times.

“Right. Everyone worked hard.”

“Thank you, Sect Leader!”

Hyun Jong went out with a sad face.

As the door closed, one of the members said.

“He seems to have high expectations.”

“Right. Seems like it…”

Think about it, how huge was this? It wasn’t really weird for Hyun Jong to act like this.

He could understand it, but it was still a hindrance. They couldn’t afford to distress or pressure those who were trying to get it done.

“Everyone, relax. We cannot fail!”

“Yes.”

“For the future of Mount Hua. We cannot fail…”

Un Gak proudly said those words.

“Think about it. For this reason, Chung Myung traveled all the way to Yunnan.”

“Yes!”

“…and if this fails, he will have to go back to Yunnan again.”

“…”

The atmosphere turned cold.

“Do you think he will just go? That Chung Myung?”

“…he won’t.”

All the people remembered the scene of Chung Myung running around their Medicine Hall with his eyes rolled back like a crazy man.

Their bodies shivered.

‘We need to succeed!’

‘Even if we die, we have to succeed!’

Everyone concentrated as they looked at the materials.

Un Gak’s eyes sunk low.

‘I will bet everything here!’

The Medicine Hall was now filled with burning flames of passion.