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One day, someone hangs a talisman on their door when the Five Swords were not in the sect.
This talisman makes no sense to anyone else, if you ask the few Huashan disciples who know the basics in seals and symbols. (Another lost legacy they lost in the fire). Specifically Baek Sang states that it is a talisman for entering and exiting with conditions.
Considering that many had already entered and exited the sect to check the area for signs of threat, there was no harm in it, so it was unclear if the enemy did it or if someone decided to play a prank.
In essence, the talisman didn't let people over eighty years old in or out, and that was considering that their elder, the sect leader, was only sixty-nine years old. To test it, each of their elders stepped through the threshold to either side, warily looking at the talisman above their heads. What's equally discouraging, the offending piece of paper was on their plaque, and they all know one particular person who will be furious if they don't get rid of the pest.
The only real problem was that the talisman was glued in place.
They tried to scrape it off, wet it, and even set it on fire — to no avail.
So the second and third generation students practiced and waited for their fate when their Mad Dog was supposed to return; their only hope was that Baek Cheon and Yun Jong would hold onto Cheong Myeong for at least five seconds so that they would at least have a chance to escape.
And lo and behold, they're coming back. Sure, there are carts full of stuff being pulled by their elders instead of horses, and there's their Mad Dog on top of that, handing out orders to all the unfortunates around him. The disciples within the sect aren't ready to die, but they come to terms with their part pretty quickly, like the people in the seaside village looking at the tsunami that's a couple meters away when Cheong Myeong looks up while the sasuk pulls the cart with him on top of the load.
Sasuk passes through with no problem, part of the cart too, and that's when there's a deafening thud, like someone's body hitting a stone wall or the ground, and Cheong Myeong topples backwards as Baek Cheon takes another step before stopping and looking back.
"What the fuck?!" grumbles Cheong Myeong, not getting up off the ground, his foot hovering strangely in the air as if he's stepping on air, as if there's a wall there to keep their junior like this.
Cheong Myeong stands up with rage directed at the talisman, as if subconsciously finding the culprit before he punches his fist forward, a terrifying sound is heard again, and they watch as his hand stops in mid-air.
"What kind of joke is this, huh?" and his voice is full of such menace that no one dares to approach him except for three of the Five Swords approaching from behind with Tang Soso on his tail.
Yun Jong reaches out as if expecting to find the wall that Cheong Myeong crashed into, whose forehead and nose are now red from the brutal blow, and finds nothing. Yun Jong, Jo Geol, Yu Iseol and Tang Soso walk by like nothing happened. They all look at each other for a moment before turning to Cheong Myeong:
"Why did you stop?" asks Yun Jong, a brave soul, as if their Mad Dog has decided to fool everyone. Not unreasonable, but full of recklessness.
"Does it look like I'm doing this of my own free will?!" as if to prove it, Cheong Myeong tries to hit something again with a deafening force that makes them all prick up their ears, and his fist bleeds before Tang Soso shrieks at him, already moving back over and examining the other's knuckles.
"B-but... but—" Baek Sang felt so incredibly lost that his brain decided to shut off his tongue, "are you eighty years old?" was all he could ask.
Although Cheong Myeong is a man of many, many talents, acting and lying are not among them when it comes to himself, so he averts his gaze and scrunches up his nose with his free hand, speaking in a slightly shaky voice:
"C-course not", looking anywhere but at any of them.
Oh merciful gods, each of them thinks, feeling weak.
What are they going to do about it?