Tangmunjeon - Chapter 365



Only Krnovel

To the south

A quiet chaos has descended upon the North Sea Ice Palace.

People did not rise up with swords or farm implements in search of revenge, but an atmosphere permeated the North as if something would explode or collapse at any moment.

The atmosphere was so heavy that the chaos caused by the Demonic Cult’s soldiers killing people and setting fire to houses felt like nothing.

It was fortunate that the Demonic Cult warriors, who had lost sight of their goal, stopped attacking the North Sea Ice Palace.

Namgung Myung, who had been oppressed by the stuffy atmosphere for several days, grumbled.

“I feel like having a blast.”

Dang Mu-jin looked at Namgung Myung with sad eyes.

“Wake up. I know it’s frustrating, but nothing good will come from causing an accident here.”

“I’m not really planning on doing anything. You know that.”

“That must be true.”

Although he had persecuted Namgung Myung, Dang Mujin was equally frustrated with the current situation.

Rather, the frustration that Dang Mu-jin felt was greater than that of Nam Gung-myeong.

Since the Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace was killed by the Ice Ball, no one believed that the Dang Mujin group, who had not mastered the Ice Ball, had directly killed the Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.

However, the problem was that Baek Hyang-ah had returned to the north with Dang Mu-jin and his party.

Although Dang Mu-jin and his party did not directly kill the Bukhae Ice Palace Lord, it was natural that suspicions were rampant that Dang Mu-jin and his party had something to do with the death of the Bukhae Ice Palace Lord.

This was especially true for people in closed societies, who felt like outsiders were a lump of garbage.

Of course, quite a few people clearly remembered that it was Seolhwa’s mission to bring Baek Hyang-ah, and that Dang Mu-jin and his party arrived at Bukhae Ice Palace under Seolhwa’s guidance.

However, because the atmosphere was so tense, no one actively defended Dang Mu-jin and his party. When the atmosphere is tense, it is difficult to express opposing opinions, isn’t it?

There was one silver lining. The people inside the Bukhae Ice Palace were less hostile to Dang Mujin and his party.

The reason was that there were many people in the Bukhae Ice Palace who had interacted with Dang Mujin and his party on a human level, but the bigger reason was that Hyungong’s condition was serious.

The Hyeon-gong remembered by the people of Bukhae Ice Palace was a young warrior who was serious but also had a cheerful side.

A young man who played well with children and learned the northern language, albeit clumsily, to speak to northern people.

A man who looked at Seolhwa with eyes that would make anyone fall in love.

There was no one who didn’t know that Hyun-gong and Seol-hwa were deeply in love with each other.

So much so that people were more interested in the atmosphere between Seolhwa and Hyeon-gong and their upcoming wedding than in the news of Baek Hyang-ah’s return. This was even though the parties involved had never directly discussed the wedding.

But now, the cheerful young man had completely lost his mind.

Hyun-gong refused to eat or drink anything, and just sat there blankly staring outside. He couldn’t even swallow food or drink properly.

For the first few days, I cried so much that my eyes were sore, but at some point, I couldn’t even shed tears properly.

The sight was so pitiful that even those who had come to the Ice Palace to find the truth behind the death of the Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace were hesitant to turn back.

In fact, even if you suspect Dang Mu-jin and his group, and even if you find out that Dang Mu-jin and his group are guilty, the situation will not change much.

Not long ago, Dang Mu-jin and his party showed off their skills in a spectacular fight against the Demonic Cult’s warriors.

All the warriors of the North knew that none of them could reach the level of Dang Mujin and his party.

Now that the mainstay of the Ice Palace, the Northern Sea Ice Palace Lord, has disappeared, and even the variable of the Demonic Cult’s warriors has disappeared, it is quite possible that Dang Mu-jin and his party could wipe out the Ice Palace people if they set their minds to it.

Rather than creating a fuss and driving the North Sea Ice Palace to ruin, it would have been a more rational response to not voice vague suspicions.

The suspicions directed at Dang Mu-jin and his party lost their direction.

Imperfect faith and imperfect suspicion. However, a precarious balance where there is no way or intention to rashly provoke the other party. That can be said to be the relationship between the party of Dang Mu-jin and the people of the North.

*

While Dang Mu-jin and Nam Gung-myeong were watching Hyeon-gong from a distance, Hong Geol-gae approached and asked.

“Hyungong, isn’t he going to die like that?”

“···Not yet. Not yet.”

Dang Mu-jin did not believe the story that people died from a disease. He thought that was something that only happened in old stories.

But now, Dang Mu-jin was worried about Hyun-gong’s life. If Hyun-gong let a few more days pass like this, his life might really be in danger.

As he had done the past few days, Dang Mu-jin opened a bowl of cold snow and sprinkled some herbal water and salt on it.

And he sat down next to Hyun-gong and handed him the bowl.

“Take it.”

Hyun-gong accepted the treat and put the snow inside it in his mouth. Unable to swallow food or water properly, Hyun-gong endured in this way.

“Is it very difficult?”

“···It’ll get better.”

But both the voice and the lips are split and unsightly.

Dang Mu-jin let out a deep sigh. The only things he could say were somewhat embarrassing.

“Yeah. That’s fortunate.”

Silence fell between your friends.

The nights in the north are quiet. Not even the sound of insects or birds can be heard.

Finally, the party leader asked.

“You wouldn’t be mindless, would you? What do you think about all day?”

“I just… I think about the story a bit. I also think about how it came to this.”

“Do I need to think about how this happened? It’s all because of the Ice Palace.”

“No matter what the Ice Palace Lord did, if I had responded well, it would have been resolved.”

Hyun-gong seemed to think that there was something wrong with his response.

The party of Dang Mu-jin listened intently to the story of Hyun-gong that followed.

“I told you that I was watching the fight between Ice Palace Lord and Baek Hyang Ah.”

“okay.”

Hyun-gong and Dang Mu-jin told Hong-geol-gae and Nam-gung-myeong everything that happened at the reception that day. There weren’t many things that could be called secrets between the four of them.

“If it were you guys, I would have gotten involved in the fight without worrying about this or that. If I had gotten involved a little earlier and attacked the Ice Palace Lord, things might have been a little different.”

“I guess so.”

“But then, I jumped in front of Seolhwa without thinking about anything. I fell for the Ice Palace’s trick. If I hadn’t fallen for that, Seolhwa wouldn’t have died.”

Dang Mu-jin, Nam-gung Myung, and Hong Geol-gae all kept their mouths shut. They had no intention of chiming in with the story of self-reproach.

Hyun-gong didn’t even wait for a positive response.

“I thought that maybe acting in a way that was neither here nor there led to the worst outcome. Wouldn’t it have been better if I had been cowardly to the end or brave from the beginning?”

“What are you going to do from now on?”

“I’ve thought about all sorts of things. But now I’ve become a little more indifferent. No matter what I conclude from here, I won’t be able to abandon the way I’ve lived so far. It was a problem that I didn’t even have to worry about.”

It is not easy for a short-sighted person to develop the habit of thinking before acting, but it is equally difficult for a long-sighted person to develop the habit of acting without thinking.

If you’ve been living like that for about thirty years, you should think that you’ve reached a point where it’s difficult to turn back.

Hyun-gong struggled to swallow the melted snow water he had been holding in his mouth. He looked as if he was going to vomit at any moment, but Hyun-gong held it in with great difficulty.

In the past, I couldn’t even swallow something like that. I just held it in my mouth and waited for it to go down my throat little by little.

But as time passed, the condition improved slightly.

Hong Geol-gae said.

“In the end, it will become a bitter yet beautiful memory, right?”

“Even if you don’t want it to happen, it will happen.”

“Are you going back to Mt. Wudang now?”

“okay.”

Hyun-gong nodded.

The story was that the days when the four of them hung out together as if it were natural were over.

Dang Mu-jin thought back to how long it had been since he had met Hyeon-gong.

It was five years. If it was long, it was long, if it was short, it was short.

The twenty-five-year-old young man, full of energy, is now thirty.

It was time for Hyun-gong to go his own way.

Dang Mu-jin spoke in a pretended bright voice.

“If you return to Mt. Wudang, will Yeongbo Jin-in give you the position of Jangmun-in?”

“That’s probably it.”

“Hyun-gong, the leader of the non-partisan faction. I wonder if I should at least bow down before him the next time we meet.”

Hyun-gong smiled quietly.

“Long story is good, but I won’t stop there.”

“then?”

“I need to vent my anger.”

“To whom?”

“The devil’s cult.”

Hyun-gong’s heart was still filled with resentment and sadness. He would never forget Seol-hwa for the rest of his life, so he would never forget this feeling either.

But in order to relieve this pain even a little, Hyun-gong had to take his anger out on someone.

But there was no one to vent one’s anger on.

The Sosang-gak-ju and Daebyeok-gak-ju who allowed Baekhyang-ah and Seolhwa to escape from the Bukhae Ice Palace are dead. The Bukhae Ice Palace Lord is also dead.

Seolhwa cannot take her anger out on the people of Bukhae Ice Palace whom she loved.

Taking it out on my friends was even more ridiculous.

Hyun-gong’s heart was filled with all kinds of emotions, but he had no one to vent his anger on.

In the end, the targets that Hyun-gong found were the Demonic Cult’s warriors.

If the Demon Lord hadn’t taught Baek Hyang-ah suspicious martial arts, wouldn’t Seol-hwa have been able to survive?

If the Demonic Cult members had not interfered and complicated the situation, wouldn’t the Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace have simply given up on Baek Hyang-ah without taking the opportunity? Furthermore, wouldn’t Seol-hwa have survived?

Hyun-gong also knew that this anger was somewhat irrational.

But anger is an emotion that is not rational to begin with.

There was no thought of carefully examining the responsibility or comparing the size of the punishment. All that matters is that there is even a little bit of responsibility.

The dam was a small dam. It was a dam that was sure to burst someday if the water was not allowed to pass through.

As the heavy rain poured down endlessly, Hyungong had to find a way for the water to flow somewhere, and in that direction, there was a magic bridge.

Namgung Myung was disgusted.

“Are you planning to storm the Demonic Cult alone? Or are you planning to lead the shamanists into the Demonic Cult? I’m telling you in advance, I can’t help you with that.”

“I have to think carefully about the method. But I have no intention of being tied down to just myself or one nonpartisan group.”

Hyun-gong said that and slowly got up from his seat.

On the back of Hyun-gong’s thigh, the flesh that had been torn off by the Ice Palace Lord was slowly growing back.

Although his movements are still a little uncomfortable, he seems to be able to return to normal, or close to normal, condition if managed well.

“I think I’ll be able to sleep deeply today.”

Hyun-gong said so and went into the room.

And then I fell into a deep sleep for the first time in a long time.

*

After some time had passed, when Hyun-gong was able to walk without limping, Dang Mu-jin and his party packed their bags.

In the meantime, the northerners’ suspicions toward Dang Mu-jin and his party had subsided considerably.

The reason was that the suspicions toward Dang Mu-jin and his party were not so clear, and the situation in which revenge could not be taken even if one wanted to continue for a long time.

In these situations, rather than endlessly regurgitating their desire for revenge, people tend to vent their anger in other directions.

Instead, people endlessly reminisced about their anger towards the white-handed devil and the witch.

As stories of seeing Baek Hyang-ah were heard here and there, the resentment towards Dang Mu-jin and his party subsided even more quickly.

As Dang Mu-jin and his party were about to leave the ice palace, the young ice palace owner saw them off with a complicated expression.

The new Ice Palace Princess was Seolhwa’s younger sister, three years younger than her.

A child who resembled Seolhwa just like her. However, she seemed too young and vulnerable to shoulder the enormous responsibility of being the Ice Palace Lord.

However, the party of Dang Mujin had to leave. Rather, they thought that it would be helpful for the young Ice Palace Lord if they disappeared at this point.

Dang Mu-jin was thinking about what he could give to the new Ice Palace Lord, and whispered in a small voice.

“Even in the cold land, flowers will bloom someday. And a hero will appear.”

That was all Dang Mu-jin could tell. Dang Mu-jin and his party left for the south.

The four walked silently toward the south.

The wind was colder than when I first arrived at the ice palace.

Only then did Dang Mujin and his party remember one thing. When they first arrived at the Ice Palace, it was summer.

As he walked south, Hyun-gong occasionally stopped and looked north.

Anyone who saw it would see an expression full of regret. And an expression that looked like it might burst into tears at any moment. However, Hyun-gong never burst into tears again.

Hong Geol-gae, who could not stand to see that sight, comforted Hyeon-gong.

“Don’t be too heartbroken. Just shake it off. As time goes by, you will gradually become less sensitive, and new relationships will come to you.”

“A new relationship? It won’t come again. I have no intention of accepting it.”

Hyun-gong spoke bluntly. It was a completely different tone from before, when he had always left a loophole for escape.

Hong Geol-gae nodded silently. Was the consolation too hasty? That thought crossed his mind.

Hyun-gong continued the story.

“I realized. Things like passion only get in the way of practice. A Taoist doesn’t need them.”

But Hyun-gong’s story sounded a little strange.

Instead of saying, “I don’t need new relationships,” it’s saying, “A Taoist doesn’t need new relationships.” Doesn’t that seem unnecessarily broad?

When his friends looked at him with doubtful expressions, Hyun-gong smiled faintly.

“Do you know what I’ll do first if I become the eldest son of a long-time writer?”

“···well.”

“From now on, I will make it a rule that all Taoists of the non-partisan faction must remain single.”

“haha!”

Dang Mu-jin, Hong Geol-gae, and Namgung Myeong laughed out loud for the first time in a long time.

I thought it was a really fortunate thing that Hyun-gong had finally calmed down enough to even joke around.