Plum Petal Crown

side by side

It was a known fact that Cheong Myeong was reincarnated into the world in order to slay demons, eradicate the Demonic Sect completely along with its leader the Heavenly Demon, and rebuild Mount Hua again to ensure its esteemed future.

Or at least, Cheong Myeong thought that it was a fact. It wasn’t known or anything by others, aside from some rumors and false assumptions about his past that Cheong Myeong didn’t bother to correct— who would believe him about his past anyway?

Except demons hadn’t been all that mighty or great. The Heavenly Demon, Cheon Ma, was nowhere. Mount Hua was flourishing, blooming in a way that the past would be envious of, even.

So… So why was he here, if it wasn’t to end the war once more?

No, that wasn’t right. He technically didn’t end the war the first time around. All he did was cut off the Demon’s head to stop the current attacks. The war had still been brewing, even then. They were just more silent without their god walking amongst them.

But their god was now dead— Cheong Myeong cut off the bastard’s head himself. The Demonic Sect was still doing things. The Murim Competition hosted at Shaolin gave him information that demons were moving.

It’s just that there didn’t seem to be a large structure to them. (Traces. Why only traces? If the Demon was going to make a move, he would make it loud, bloody, and full of fleeting despair.)

Where were the bishops? The tens of hundreds of thousands of followers that didn’t care about pain? Where was Cheon Ma?

Cheong Myeong received no answers, not even from Cheong Mun-sahyeong.

It was quite strange to sit on the ledge of a cliff. His knees bent to allow him to dangle his feet over the edge, the drop below of rocky, enticing cliffs looking hauntingly familiar.

Well, actually, it was a common sight for the disciples of Mount Hua. Yu Iseol was the one who saw Cheong Myeong there the most since she was the best at concealing her presence. But others saw him there too, though he would then get up and force them back into training like the wonderful sajil he was.

But it was different today.

For one, Cheong Myeong didn’t have any alcohol with him. All of the bottles were left back at the sect. Cheong Myeong decided that he needed to actually think today without numbing his thoughts.

Shaolin went well in a lot of ways. Mount Hua made its name known once again. When they left the monk’s palace, other sects looked at them with envy. It felt good. It reminded Cheong Myeong of how people used to look at those who wore plum blossoms on their chest.

The rumor was that the Northern Kingdom, the Ice Palace that had been cut off from the outside world for a while now, had signs of demons. Part of Cheong Myeong wanted to run over there. His qi was pure and bright, but not quite as strong as he needed it to be. He could have made the trip within a couple of days in his past life, but currently he wouldn’t be able to do such a thing.

Plus, he hadn’t traveled out of the Central Plains much.

He didn’t like it when the weather was too hot, and he didn’t like it when the weather was too cold either. But they were running low on ingredients for the Vitality Pill— a violet one that Cheong Myeong himself had somewhat created due to his pure qi.

Cheong Myeong was waiting for the Abbott to show up. The monk was surely going to. Mount Hua was renowned for slaying demons. And since Cheong Myeong ruined Shaolin’s original point of showing its superiority of the sects, they would be tasked with that blame.

Cheong Myeong didn’t regret it, though. Defeating Hye Yeon was easy— it wasn’t exactly a defeat, though. It was more of a one-sided pummeling. Cheong Myeong was angry that day as he stood across from the yellow-robed monk as he talked about things he shouldn’t have.