Return of the Mount Hua Sect
chapter-691

“Basically, a defense circle is…”

The heavy voice of Un Geom spread around.

“It can be considered a method that requires the effort of everyone.”

All the disciples listened to Un Geom with bright eyes. Un Geom, the master of the White Plum Blossom Boarding House, was someone who was respected by his disciples. After what happened in the past, not a single person would fail to admire him.

So, it was unthinkable to turn a blind eye then.

“Basically, the sword of a swordsman follows a certain path. The more you practice, the more sophisticated it becomes. Therefore, in order to properly display skills in actual combat, it is best to lead the sword according to the formation set.”

Un Geom looked at everyone and continued.

“But, when many people fight together, and the space becomes narrow, it becomes difficult to wield the sword properly.”

The disciples nodded. They had felt it during their battle with the bandits.

Since they were in a situation where they had to put their shoulders together, they couldn’t fully extend the sword for fear of hurting their sahyungs and sajaes. There were numerous times when the sword they swung had collided with their sahyungs rather than the enemy.

“A defense circle isn’t about bowing down and greeting the enemy. Rather, it is a way to demonstrate your skills properly in the space you hold. So, I hope everyone does their best to train.”

“Yes, master!”

The loud response motivated Un Geom, who smiled.

‘Nice.’

It would be impossible to say how much Mount Hua had changed from before, but from the perspective of Un Geom, the first thing to point out was the disciples’ willingness to learn. This was amazing.

“I and your sajaes will demonstrate it first for you all, and then a group of seven can follow along.”

“Yes!”

“There is no specific set of martial arts skills to be used during the circle. If you are skilled, you can use the sword technique you are most familiar with. However, when you first learn it, it will be difficult to use sword techniques with complicated techniques, so use the Seven Sages Sword.”

“Yes!”

“Nice.”

Un Geom, along with the sajaes, formed a circle in the shape of the Big Dipper.

“Mount Hua’s Seven Sages Sword follows the concept of Seven Stars among the principles of the world, which leads to Nothing, Taiji, Three Disasters, Four Causalities, Five Elements, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars, Eight Trigrams, and Nine Palaces.”

That was when Jo Gul raised his hand, and Un Geom nodded.

“Go on.”

“Is there a reason to follow the principles of the Big Dipper?”

“… that, me too….”

After a moment’s hesitation, Un Geom’s face turned red. Yoon Jong hit Jo Gul on the side.

“Kuaak!”

Jo Gul held his side, bent over, and whimpered, but no one looked at him with pity.

‘Seriously, that guy and his mouth.’

‘If we don’t have Chung Myung around, that one is the next new troublemaker.’

‘That bastard has to die. How dare he cause concern for senior sasuk!’

The Baek disciples were all enraged at him, and the Chung disciples glared at him.

“Ahem.”

Un Geom cleared his throat awkwardly.

“The ancestor who created the circle must have had his own reason, but my understanding of the murim and military is limited, so it is tough for me to guess the full meaning behind his actions.”

“It is fine, sasuk!”

“It makes sense!”

“All we need to do is learn the Big Dipper and everything else! What more matters!”

Such a loving sight of a family helping one another.

Jo Gul, who couldn’t participate in this loving air, blinked his tears away and mumbled.

“… I was just asking.”

“Shut it.”

“Enough!”

In the end, he cried.

‘Words I’ve heard too many times somewhere.’

Chung Myung. Was this how he felt?

He was sorry.

“Ahem.”

Un Geom cleared his throat and raised the sword.

“Everyone, make sure to get a good look. It will be shown any number of times, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention.”

“Yes!”

With loud responses from the disciples, Un Geom began to slowly move the sword. At the same time, the swords of the disciples who formed the circle also moved.

‘There is space.’

‘They move together like one?’

‘But… if that is the case, isn’t the only change in position from how we normally swing the sword?’

Several swords were moving in the same direction.

Actually, there was nothing special up to this point. This was because adjusting the speed and direction of the sword wasn’t a difficult task for the sahyungs, who had trained together their entire lives.

Weren’t they already doing similar exercises every time they did group training in the morning? Did it matter if it was the Chung or Baek disciples?

But it was from the moment that the power of the circle began to emerge.

Wheik!

Un Geom, who was in the lead, began to move faster and faster. At the same time, the cleanly organized movement of the swords began to change.

‘Already?’

No, no.

It wasn’t that they became different, but they were moving differently. As proof of that, even though the people performing the circle showed different sword techniques, their swords didn’t clash once.

‘So this is how it works?’

‘Interesting.’

Mount Hua’s disciples looked at the scene in shock.

Because they had experienced what group warfare was, they knew how difficult it was.

‘So this is a sword circle.’

Everyone finally understood the words of Un Geom, who said this was needed to show their full skills.

But the changes in the Sword Circle didn’t stop there.

Those who were moving their swords began to step with their feet.

“Uh?”

“Uh- that….”

When Un Geom, who was in the lead, stepped back, Un Am, who was behind, stepped ahead. The distance between them narrowed once and then widened again.

The sasuks, who were forming the shape of the Big Dipper, turned in a circle, then into a straight line, and back to the Big Dipper again. The changes were dizzying to witness.

Despite this, the swords never stopped moving, and the paths never overlapped.

The eyes of the Mount Hua disciples turned serious.

They had a feeling that learning about the Sword Circle wouldn’t be easy.

They could clearly see how hard it must have been for the Un disciples to train every day despite their busy schedules.

Un Geom stepped back, came forward, and swung his sword strongly.

The sahyungs around him moved in a dizzying manner. It looked like he was drawing the path for the plum blossom sword technique with his entire body.

Baek Cheon, who was watching this, was shocked.

‘Wonderful!’

It was this perfect?

Just as he was about to burst into admiration at what he saw, Un Geom opened his mouth.

“So this is the Big Dipper formation. Now all…”

And that was the moment.

Kwaaang!

A roar rang out. Everyone closed their eyes for a moment without realizing it.

“…”

When they slowly opened their eyes a bit later, a wooden sword was touching the left knee of Un Geom, who was in the lead.

No…

Right now, it looks like it’s touching, but to reach that, uh… uh…

The eyes of Un Geom twitched. The owner of the wooden sword scratched his head with an awkward smile.

“I am sorry, sajae. I will make sure to practice this section well…”

“…”

When Un Am apologized humbly, Un Geom forced his lips to say,

“I-it is fine… sa-hyung… it can happen.”

“Did it hurt too much?”

“… I am fine.”

The heads of the disciples watching this were drenched in sweat.

‘That must have hurt.’

‘Kuakk, that sound… it was like one could die.’

‘During this time, his expression didn’t even change. If it were me, I would have fallen down.’

Even though it was a wooden sword, he was hit hard by it. There was no way he felt no pain. And yet, Un Geom was suppressing his angry expression as much as he could, and that is what they all admired.

But then.

“… puah!”

A suppressed laugh came from Jo Gul’s mouth, who was covering his hand over his mouth.

“This bastard?”

Before he could laugh out loud, Yoon Jong’s fist turned to Jo Gul’s chin without another thought.

“Kuak!”

The Baek disciples swarmed to Jo Gul, who was lying flat.

“Step on him!”

“This insane bastard! Are you smiling?”

“As the days go by, this jerk’s attitude is getting worse!”

“Step on him! More!”

Yoon Jong, who was looking at what happened with a bit of shock, stepped back.

He thought it was rare for a Chung disciple to get stamped on by the Baek disciples this dedicatedly. Uh….

Eventually, he slowly turned his gaze away from the scene.

“Ugh… what should I do when it made me laugh….”

Jo Gul, who was now covered in dust, asked back with a troubled face, but when the feet surrounding him were raised up again, he just fell flat on the ground.

“I have committed a horrid sin!”

“You need to know that.”

As the sahyungs all clicked their tongues and walked away, Jo Gul was welling up with tears. He trudged to Yoon Jong with sad eyes like a puppy drenched in rain and asked.

“Sahyung.”

“What?”

“Isn’t everyone being too harsh to me these days?”

“Gul.”

“Yes, sahyung.”

“If people are all saying the same thing and doing the same thing, shouldn’t you at least wonder what wrong you are doing for that to happen?”

“What do you even mean?”

“… nothing.”

This kid was a Taoist in a different sense than Chung Myun.

Un Geom, who turned back slightly, checking his leg, cleared his throat to get the attention of everyone.

“As you have all seen with your times, this training is a lot more dangerous than training alone. If you are not focused, you can get injured or injure someone else, too. Do you get it?”

“Yes!”

“Good. Then get into pairs of seven now and stand in the shape of the Big Dipper.”

As soon as the order was given, the disciples widened the distance and stood in pairs.

“The tip of the sword needs to be placed in the direction each one faces.”

The Un disciples ran around and gave explanations. After going through that process, a pretty standard check-up was done. The feeling of intimidation was great as more than a hundred disciples stood there, each taking their own lessons and performing.

“Hmmm.”

Un Geom nodded, satisfied.

“Let us start by unfolding the formation first. Even though each person’s sword is pointed in a different direction, it will be difficult to open the sword form at that distance. You need to always be aware of the distance you hold and how to extend the sword as narrowly as possible. Consider your sahyungs on the left and right.”

“Yes!”

“Start!”

Shhh!

While Baek Cheon took the lead, the disciples of Mount Hua swung their swords at the same time. The sight of the disciples standing and unfolding their swords gave the image of a huge flower garden.

‘So good.’

A proud smile bloomed on the lips of Un Geom and Un Am.

This kind of sight might have been common in Mount Hua in the past. And this made his heart swell.

‘This is nice.’

Even though it was the first time with the sword formation, everyone was drawing their swords amazingly. Of course, it is the most simplified and basic form, but a circle is a circle. The fact that swords aren’t mixed up like this means that they are now real sahyung and sajaes who can judge the thoughts of each other…

Taaang!

“…”

“No, you jerk! You cannot come into this place!”

“No! Isn’t it because sahyung suddenly pushed the sword to the side?”

“It is because you are too slow that it seems like that!”

“What?”

The eyes of Un Geom, which were smiling, had begun to twitch.

“Ah, yah! You won’t swing that sword right! Are you blind?”

“I swung mine first, then why did sahyung put his hand up?”

“Who does this bastard think he is talking to?”

Once it began, the entire training hall turned noisy.

Actually, this was possible. It was their first time getting into a formation, and if they did well, that would be more weird.

The problem was…

“You hit your sasuk on the head?”

“Sasuk! It wasn’t intentional!”

“It wasn’t intentional? It seems like you didn’t hear what Chung Myung said. The important thing is that you got hit, not the reason for being hit!”

“…”

“Ah, swing that sword straight, sahyung!”

“Ah, really? Then tell me what swinging properly is?”

“Yah, bastards!”

Un Geom closed his eyes.

‘This isn’t sparring time, though.’

When a person was hit, the first thing was to think about why they got hit, but these children, once they got hit, they were entirely losing their minds.

There was no time to stop it. Swords were flying everywhere, and fists were swinging in. A sigh was coming all the way from his dantian.

‘This is a Taoist place.’

This was ridiculous.

“Geom.”

“Yes, sahyung.”

That was when Un Am looked at Un Geom and smiled.

“… Cheer up now.”

“…”

“Bye for now.”

“…”

Un Geom sighed louder as the Un disciples began to quickly leave the training ground.