Several people were gathered in the room.

Sect leader of Mount Hua, Hyun Jong, and Mount Hua’s elders.

And Tang Gunak, who effectively serves as the vice-alliance leader of the Heavenly Friends Alliance.

The four of them stared at one person with stiff, grave faces.

But the one receiving those gazes, Chung Myung, just kept smiling lightly.

“Really...”

Hyun Jong, at a loss for words, cleared his throat and asked again.

“Are you really sure this is okay?”

“Yes. I am.”

Chung Myung shrugged his shoulders.

“Honestly, the answer was decided from the start, wasn’t it?”

“Even so...”

“Sect leader, do you think differently?”

Hyun Jong let out a deep sigh.

“...My thoughts aren’t that different either.”

“Yes. If my view and the sect leader’s view are the same, there’s nothing more to worry about.”

Chung Myung turned his gaze to Tang Gunak.

“I’m a bit sorry to you, Family Lord.”

“It’s nothing you should apologize for.”

Tang Gunak shook his head.

“The Tang family hasn’t suffered a loss from this. Its standing is far higher now, being treated as second-in-command within the Heavenly Friends Alliance than when it was one of the Five Great Families.”

Tang Gunak looked at Chung Myung with eyes full of warmth.

“And it’s not just prestige. The Sichuan Tang family, which once only thought of its own gains, has learned—thanks to you and Mount Hua—what it means to stand rightly as the Justice faction. That is a priceless experience that can’t be exchanged for anything.”

“Ahem. That’s a bit embarrassing.”

“No, you have every reason to be proud...”

“To be blunt, the Sichuan Tang family did have those tendencies—selfish and conniving. Ugh, just thinking about ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) it.”

“...”

Tang Gunak’s eyebrows twitched.

“...Anyway.”

“Yes.”

A small sigh escaped his lips.

“The leaders of other sects have said they will fully follow Mount Hua’s decision, so there should be no backlash. But there’s one thing I want to ask.”

“Yes.”

“Are you truly okay with that?”

“...”

Tang Gunak continued in an extremely serious tone.

“Even if it’s the more righteous path, it’s still a decision to give up everything you’ve achieved so far. Even if Mount Hua regains the prestige of the Nine Great Sects, or even attains status equal to Shaolin, that’s the point.”

Chung Myung fell silent.

“What you were striving for wasn’t just prestige, was it?”

“Well, that’s true... but it’s fine.”

Before those words finished, Hyun Young, sitting sullenly, mumbled, ‘Fine my foot, damn it,’ then bit her lip upon seeing Hyun Jong’s grim expression.

“I know too. Equal status, Nine Great Sects—it’s not particularly meaningful. This is essentially cash now, a promissory note. No matter how large the amount written on it, it could become worthless overnight, couldn’t it?”

“You know that well. But why?”

“Originally, the Heavenly Friends Alliance was a means, not the goal.”

Chung Myung shrugged his shoulders.

“Mount Hua didn’t create the Heavenly Friends Alliance because it wanted to become great. It gathered under that name to protect even one more person they could. But to cling to that means and abandon a safer path reverses cause and effect.”

“Do you trust Beop Jeong?”

“Of course not.”

Chung Myung said sharply.

“What I trust is myself and Mount Hua—and the other sects that joined the Heavenly Friends Alliance. Do you think I’ll meekly follow what that bald king thinks? Not on my life. He doesn’t even have a brain!”

“...”

Chung Myung, a bit ruffled, snorted and continued.

“So we go in for now. In a storm, it’s better to take shelter under the eaves of a house you don’t like than to stand out in the field.”

Tang Gunak shook his head.

“The more I hear, the less I understand.”

“...What do you mean?”

“Wasn’t the Heavenly Friends Alliance that eaves for us?”

“...”

Tang Gunak looked Chung Myung straight in the eye.

“It’s a contradiction. In this way, one could argue the Heavenly Friends Alliance can give up everything for the sake of agreement. They could be praised for making a magnanimous decision for the murim world’s future. But aren’t we losing the very eaves we must not lose?”

Chung Myung closed his eyes without answering.

“I think what we shared within the Heavenly Friends Alliance wasn’t merely power. Didn’t we see something beyond that? And now to choose merely to become stronger and safer...”

Chung Myung slowly opened his eyes again.

His gaze was endlessly subdued.

“I’ve been feeling it for some time.”

“...What do you mean?”

“Perhaps I’m running toward a predetermined outcome and only turning a blind eye to that result.”

Tang Gunak fell silent. The weight behind Chung Myung’s words was too heavy.

“Parents want their children to grow up right—unyielding to injustice, standing by the righteous path, knowing how to help the weak.”

“That would be so.”

“But no parent wants their child to die in another’s stead.”

“...”

“They may weep over what’s already happened and praise it as right, but no one would allow their child to jump into the pit to save another.”

Tang Gunak closed his eyes. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

He seemed to understand what Chung Myung was trying to say.

“But at some point I found myself pushing Mount Hua and Mount Hua’s disciples into that pit. The louder Mount Hua’s proclamations grow, the more formidable Mount Hua becomes, the more danger they’ll face.”

Chung Myung shrugged his shoulders.

“Of course it’s not just Mount Hua; the Heavenly Friends Alliance is the same. For example.”

“I know that.”

“At some point I began dreaming that we’d defeat the Evil Sect Alliance, defeat the Heavenly Demon, defeat everyone, and finally bring peace to the murim world. A moment when everyone could be happy.”

“Isn’t that what we desire?”

“But Mount Hua isn’t in that picture.”

“...” “Mount Hua, the Tang family, the Namgung Family... the two sects of Nokrim and Saewo. No one.”

Chung Myung looked up at the ceiling with an indifferent face.

“In the end, it turned out well. Everyone protected what they wanted and achieved what they sought. But... I couldn’t smile at that.”

His voice was calm, yet somehow desperate.

“Because nothing changed. It’s the same result.

“It was hard to fully grasp, but the emotions within were clear—the deep bitterness and remorse.”

“I was simply doing as I wanted, but at some point Mount Hua became the sect that makes grand principles. And before we knew it, everyone expects lives to be risked for those principles.”

“You...”

“What’s at the end of that?”

Tang Gunak could not bring himself to answer.

“Events like Hangzhou will happen again and again. Each time, it’ll be because it’s the Heavenly Friends Alliance, because it’s Mount Hua, because it’s the Tang family. It will become natural for them to step forward and fight the fiercest.”

Upon those words, Tang Gunak couldn’t help but nod.

He couldn’t deny it even if he wanted to. Hadn’t everything about the Heavenly Friends Alliance already begun to show that tendency?

“Then someday we may face a result where everything we preserved through our sacrifices is enjoyed only by others.”

That was the path Mount Hua once took.

A path Chung Myung had bitterly regretted and vowed never to repeat.

But isn’t it strange? Despite all the resentment and regret, Chung Myung himself had quietly been walking the same road.

The more he understood Chung Mun and the past, the more his choices resembled Mount Hua’s past.

And he feared the outcomes would become the same as well.

“So what.”

Chung Myung shrugged his shoulders again.

“If I were truly some great martyr, I might say it’s fine. But honestly, I’m petty and selfish; I can’t stand to see others alone enjoy what we achieved through hellish effort. I can just become a bit more cowardly.”

“You...”

“That would be the right thing.”

Chung Myung snorted a laugh.

“Those damned ones won’t suddenly exercise restraint just because we tell them to, nor will they only fight as much as others. So I have to block them—so it’s less dangerous, so it’s not as hard.”

“But... haven’t you repeatedly said that doing things that way won’t let us defeat the Demonic Cult?”

“We’ll find another way. There never was a single answer from the start anyway.”

“Irresponsible.”

“I know.”

Chung Myung sighed.

“But this is my limit. It’s getting harder now. What’s left is to discuss it with that bald king. He’s not exactly trustworthy, but he does have a perspective on the situation that’s better than mine in some respects.”

Tang Gunak looked at Chung Myung with heavily sinking eyes.

“...You’ve become an adult.”

“That sounds like you’re saying I’ve become cowardly.”

“If it’s praise, then it’s praise. You can’t live on bravado forever.”

A bitter smile formed on Chung Myung’s mouth.

The answer came easily. He simply reconsidered what he most wanted to protect.

What he wanted to protect was Mount Hua, Mount Hua’s disciples, and Mount Hua’s future.

Not the martial world, not the central plains, not the realm—Mount Hua itself.

Wasn’t Chung Myung the one who strongly resisted Chung Mun’s idea that one must protect the realm to safeguard Mount Hua’s future?

But at some point he too was walking Chung Mun’s path. So now he must change that path.

“Alliance leader, do you think the same?”

“I am also nothing but a petty man.”

Hyun Jong shook his head.

“As Chung Myung says. I cannot in all honesty call myself their parents, but which parent would wish for the world to be peaceful on their child’s blood?”

“...”

“I only hope their bloodshed is reduced even a little. If that choice causes others to shed more blood in exchange... that’s a sin I must bear.”

“I understand. Completely.”

Tang Gunak closed his eyes and nodded.

They must protect the common people and the realm. But just as the Tang family is dear to Tang Gunak, Mount Hua’s disciples are people they must protect.

Perhaps more precious than everyone in the realm.

To discuss agreements while exposing such people to danger might be a reckless act born of being lost in ideals.

Therefore Tang Gunak understood them. Both loved Mount Hua so dearly that they had no choice but to make such a decision.

“I understand both of your intents.”

Not much will change.

It’s merely entering a larger enclosure. There will be Mount Hua, now elevated to the Nine Great Sects, and the Tang family and Namgung Family joining as Five Great Families, and the sects of Outer Wall and Green Forest alongside them.

A change of name won’t erase that mutual understanding.

So only one thing changes.

“Then.”

Tang Gunak said, a little bitterly, parting his lips that seemed reluctant to open.

“The Heavenly Friends Alliance ends here.”

Everyone who heard those words simply closed their eyes.

As if they could not bear to look at one another’s faces.