Mount Hua Sect/History

Overview**History**RelationshipsArchitectureGallery

## War against the Demonic Cult

The Mount Hua sect enjoys a long legacy, and were formerly ranked among the 10 great sects. Among their most prominent members was the Plum Blossom Sword Saint, Cheongmyeong, also ranked among the top 3 swordsmen of the era. At the foot of Mount Hua, they own many businesses. Although they used to run the businesses themselves, with time the sect began leaving the management of the businesses to individual merchants, only collecting some revenue to finance the sect's daily affairs of cultivation. These merchants would eventually forget their origins, and consider their businesses a family inheritance, and that they were only paying tribute to the Mount Hua Sect for their long history of protecting the region.[?]

They participated in the war against the Demonic Sect, and although Cheongmyeong successfully defeated Chunma, most of the sect's prominent figures perished. All that was left was the powerless descendants, mostly young children, who were defenseless against the forces of the Demonic Cult. When they were beset by enemies from a demon cult, reinforcements from Zhongnan came to the rescue. However, one of these so-called allies stole Mount Hua's martial arts tomes, and instead of rectifying the matter, the sect's elders passed it off as their own technique and mocked Mount Hua by naming it "Snow Blossom".

Later, they also proposed the Annual Conference under the guise of "improving relations", when they actually used it as an opportunity to further humiliate the weakened Mount Hua sect. Struggling, to continue training new disciples without access to the sect's martial arts manuals and without the guidance of the masters in their own lacking cultivation, the strength of the clan declined significantly. Eventually, the Mount Hua sect lost their position among the 10 great sects to the Southern Edge sect.[?]

## The remains of Mount Hua

With all the sect's strongest members dying in the fight against Chun Ma, the sect were lacking in staff and thus had to promote well-meaning but ultimately weak members. In extension of the new leadership's weakness, their trainees' qi also worsened. Originally, new initiates would stay temporarily at the White Blossom Hall, until the initiation ceremony, at which point they would be paired up with a mentor and immediately move into their mentor's house. However, after the war there weren't enough mentors to assign to each trainee, and the sect was forced to make the White Blossom Hall a makeshift dormitory. As the sect fell on hard times, the building eventually became a permanent residence for third class disciples.

The sect's martial arts curriculum also suffered as a result of the war. It can be presumed that many of the sect's martial arts manuals were either burnt up in the raid on Mount Hua or stolen by their rivals.[?] Therefore, the sect was forced to make do with what survived the raid and the little knowledge they had as lesser disciples. Instead of building a solid foundation first like in the past, third class disciples are put straight onto the advanced True Six Elements Sword Technique. They then move on to the Sword Technique of the Seven Sages, before graduating from the White Blossom Hall to study the Lesser Clarity Sword Technique. Finally, they gain the right to learn the (inferior) Great Pacification Sword Technique.

Without access to the ledgers locked away in the sect's secret underground chamber, the new sect leader was unable to prove their ownership of the businesses at the foot of Mount Hua, and the merchants began claiming the businesses as their own. When the sect began to struggle financially, these merchants lent the sect money, leading the sect to incur a massive debt they were unfit to repay. Their lamentable coffers, led the sect to sell off many of their valuables and significant heirlooms in order to pay off their debt, leaving the sect's facilities in disrepair. In a last ditch effort to refill their coffers, they resorted to accepting third grade disciples undiscriminately, to little success.[?]

As the sect faced eventual ruin, the Baek generation represented its only hope, with Baek Cheon as the shining star among them. In preparation for the upcoming Huazhong Contest, the Baek disciples went into isolation training outside of the sect grounds. When they left, the sect grounds was in disrepair, filled with old furniture and old people.

## From rags to riches: Rise from the ashes

100 years later, the former Plum Blossom Sword Saint was reincarnated as the beggar Cho Sam. He returned to Mount Hua, rejoining as a 3rd grade disciple also named Cheongmyeong. Surprised to find that the sect had declined so significantly,[?] he set about solving the sects major issues: From poverty to their lost martial arts.

First, poverty. As the sect's coffers ran dry, the merchants demanded the repossession of Mount Hua itself.[?] Cheongmyeong made his way into the secret vault to recover the lost ledgers, which he pretended to have accidentally discovered during a training session. This allowed the sect to reclaim their businesses in Huayin, and punish the backstabbing merchants. With over half of their partners dismissed, the sect struggled taking over the management of the Huayin businesses.[?] Fortunately, after Cheongmyeong saved Master Hwang's life from mahwa,[?] the Eunha Trading Company became the sect's patron and took charge of running their businesses in Huayin, allowing the streets of Huayin to return to their normal hustle and bustle. They assured that the sect would never worry about money again, and the sect glided into stable and peaceful times.

Second, rediscovering their lost martial arts. While in the secret vault, Cheongmyeong also made copies of the martial arts tomes found there,[?] which Hyun Sang would lead his office in deciphering. He also argued for the old techniques of the Mount Hua sect in a discussion with the council, instead of the new techniques which yield quicker but less lasting results.[?] He convinced Un Gum to allow him to lead the 3rd grade disciples in traning sessions at dawn, where he would be rigorous about putting them through basic strength training. Although his peers doubted his methods and made several complaints, they soon came to enjoy the sessions as they noticed significant improvement and realized how physical fitness in fact benefitted their martial prowess, in spite of seeming counterintuitive against Mount Hua's rapid and flowing style. Once they began to enjoy their sessions, Cheongmyeong stopped turning up so often, opting to working on his own Sword-Body Unity hidden prying eyes.

## Generational tensions: Baek and Cheong

Since the Baek and Cheong disciples are far too close in age, with Yoo Iseol and Yunjong being being only a year apart, so Hyun Jong expected there to be tensions between them.

## The final Zhonghua conference

Not long after comes the Annual Conference between the Zhongnan Sect and the Mount Hua Sect where both sects have a duel with each other to further “improve relationships” and also their respective martial arts. This was also the time when the 2nd ranked disciples came out of their closed door trainings where they prepared for said conference. Baek Cheon found Cheongmyeong to be extremely arrogant and annoying hence created problems for the 3rd class disciples. But Cheongmyeong promised to not cause trouble out of respect for his senior Yunjong. This all changed when Baek Cheon was the one who first caused trouble and eventually was “beaten like a dog” by Cheongmyeong and tamed by him. Soon after the conference day has arrived and all of the 2nd class disciples lost all 10 of their respective matches to the Zhongnan Sect as predicted by Cheongmyeong. It was the 3rd class disciples who regained the honor by then winning 10 consecutive matches of their own matches. Cheongmyeong declared a draw is not in his dictionary hence proposed to play “winner stays” where the 3rd class disicples will fight against the 2nd class disciples of Zhongnan Sect. Cheongmyeong then utterly destroyed all of his opponents, and on his last match against Jin Geumryong, he covered the blue sky with Plum Blossoms. Stating the essence of Mount Hua sect isn’t just the beauty of plum blossom but the blooming. The copied sword arts of the Zhongnan Sect was but an empty shell in front of the real sword art and was destroyed. This display caused some internal damage for Cheongmyeong, but he said this was also his redemption of not taking care of the sect properly.

Shortly after the conference, the 2nd class disciples witnessed how strong their juniors were after being trained by Cheongmyeong and hence put their pride down and asked Cheongmyeong to train them as well. 2 years have passed in the blink of an eye and it was a short moment of peace for the members as Cheongmyeong has recently entered closed door training in a cave nearby under the instructions of the sect leader. But was later forced to come out a few days earlier due to a surprising guest from a branch of the Mount Hua sect climbing up Mount Hua sect in request for assistance.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 1: Everything is red (Manhwa)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 32 (Manhwa)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Chapter 3 (Web Novel)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 5 (Manhwa)
5. ↑ Chapter 4 (Manhwa)
6. ↑ Chapter 43 (Manhwa)
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Chapter 35 (Manhwa)
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Chapter 34 (Manhwa)
9. ↑ Chapter 45 (Manhwa)