CHAPTER: Chapter 10
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Chapter 10.
WHOOOSH—!
A boy clad in shabby rags.
His emaciated leg sliced through the air, perfectly tracing the form of the Blood Wind Leg that Head Instructor Ma Chung had spent his entire life cultivating.
‘Th-This....’
He did not know the mnemonic formulae, nor was he circulating internal energy, so its power could not compare to Ma Chung’s own.
And yet the ‘form’ alone was perfect, as though one were looking into a mirror.
‘I showed it only once. And yet... he imitated my Blood Wind Leg exactly?’
The shock was so great that his mind seemed to go blank.
A groan of astonishment escaped Ma Chung’s lips.
“...A genius!”
But Uncheon did not stop there.
“Senior Head Instructor Yajin’s footwork seemed to move something like this, I think?”
SWISH—.
This time, it was the Shadowless Step.
The moment Uncheon shifted his feet, his presence seemed to melt away.
It was not perfect concealment, but it produced a bizarre state in which he stood plainly before their eyes, yet no trace of his presence could be felt.
Yajin’s pupils shook as though struck by an earthquake.
‘This is no simple imitation... the shifting of the center of gravity, even the concealment of breath! He saw my martial art once and stole every core principle of it!’
The anger vanished from both Head Instructors’ faces as though it had never existed.
In its place rose sheer shock at a talent they could not comprehend.
‘That... is a monster! So there truly was a reason Young Master Yuha had taken notice of that boy!’
A burning desire flared in the eyes of the two Head Instructors, who had gone rigid as statues.
The one to move first was Ma Chung, newly appointed and therefore all the more impatient.
“Ahem... you should be on your way now, Senior Head Instructor Yajin. It just so happens that I still have a debt to settle with this brat.”
“What an obvious and pathetic ploy. I, too, still have instruction to give him.”
The two began glaring at one another, testing each other’s resolve.
Yet that did not last long.
“D-Damn it! This will not do! Brat, you need not pay any Instruction Tokens! Learn leg arts from me!”
In his urgency, Ma Chung even gave up the Instruction Tokens he would have earned from teaching.
At once, Yajin grew anxious as well.
‘Young Master Yuha even tipped me off... If neither of us taught him, that would be one thing. But I cannot lose him to some newly appointed Head Instructor!’
If Uncheon chose to learn under Ma Chung here, then not only his sect’s dignity, but this monster himself, would be lost forever.
“Wait! I... I will give you Instruction Tokens! Learn from me. There is nothing worth learning from the likes of Ma Chung!”
“Damn you, Senior Head Instructor Yajin! Have you no decency at all? Are you saying a Head Instructor should bribe a cadet?”
“Hmph, bribe? This is an investment.”
At Yajin’s words, Uncheon tilted his head and asked,
“...Invest Instruction Tokens in me? Can Instruction Tokens be used for things other than lessons?”
At that innocent question, Ma Chung nearly jumped out of his skin.
“You fool! Of course they can! Instruction Tokens are practically the currency of this Hidden Demon Cave! Elixirs, manuals, whatever it may be—you can buy it all with them!”
“Hmph. A lesser Head Instructor like Ma Chung may cling desperately to a few Instruction Tokens, but a true investment looks toward something greater. I have seen your future. A handful of tokens means nothing.”
Yajin took up the thread of the conversation, his voice brimming with contempt for Ma Chung.
“Oh, how grand you are. Then let me make that same investment as well! Brat, if you learn leg arts from me, I shall give you Instruction Tokens too!”
At that point the two Head Instructors were nearly at each other’s throats, growling that they would hand their Instruction Tokens over to Uncheon.
Uncheon cut through their quarrel and spoke softly.
“...Very well. I will accept both of your investments.”
“Brat, do you mean that?!”
“...Both of our investments? Are you saying you will learn under the two of us?”
Uncheon nodded.
After exchanging a brief look and falling into thought, Yajin and Ma Chung soon let out sighs and spoke.
“Very well. But an investment must be recovered. In time, when your evaluations come and whenever opportunity presents itself, you will display before everyone the martial arts you learned from me. That is my condition.”
“I shall invest Instruction Tokens as well, provided you promise to display the Blood Wind Leg and produce results!”
It was a reversal so absurd that two experts of the First Rate were now hanging on the answer of a mere boy.
But Uncheon only smiled with leisure.
“Of course. If I receive instruction from the two of you, how could I possibly fail to produce results? However....”
He let confidence show in his face and grinned as he extended a hand.
“......?”
“What is it?”
“The retainer must be paid upfront.”
In the end, Uncheon extracted Instruction Tokens from both Head Instructors.
Ten from each of them, for a total of twenty.
It was twice the number of Instruction Tokens another cadet received when first entering the place.
‘...What should I use these for, I wonder.’
Only after confirming the heavy weight of the Instruction Tokens in his pocket did a satisfied look finally appear on his face.
“Then the agreement is concluded.”
Still wearing a face that suggested he could scarcely believe what had just happened, Yajin asked, “Brat... what do you plan to do with those Instruction Tokens? Surely you do not mean to seek instruction from other Head Instructors as well?”
“Nothing of the sort. Instruction from the two of you will be more than enough. For now, I intend to invest these Instruction Tokens in my body.”
As Uncheon had said, his body was gaunt and lacked even proper muscle.
Only then did Yajin understand Uncheon’s bold plan, and a dry laugh escaped him.
“...Your body, is it? So you mean to invest in medicine and food. Not bad. Very well. Instruction begins tomorrow.”
“Then I shall see both of you tomorrow.”
With those words of farewell, Uncheon immediately took his Instruction Tokens and strode lightly away.
In Uncheon’s hand, the order and common sense of the Hidden Demon Cave collapsed completely.
The two Head Instructors left behind could do nothing but stare blankly at one another.
“...I feel as though I have been bewitched by some little ghost.”
“Indeed, Senior Head Instructor Yajin.”
“It seems you and I have boarded the same boat now, newly appointed Head Instructor Ma Chung.”
“...Still, when it comes to using it in real combat, isn't my leg art the better one?”
“Hmph. With my Shadowless Step, exploiting the flaws in your leg art would be child’s play.”
Even now, the two continued bickering.
From the dark corridor, Instructor Ga Cheonak, who had witnessed the entire scene, narrowed his eyes.
‘A single new cadet... has placed two Head Instructors completely in the palm of his hand. Above all, the talent to steal their martial arts outright is astounding.’
Ga Cheonak’s gaze sank cold as ice.
“Adjutant, investigate that child thoroughly and report back to me.”
The adjutant beside him swallowed involuntarily.
It was not merely because of the instructor’s voice.
It was because the corner of the instructor’s mouth, which was always as emotionless as forged steel, had lifted into the faintest, eeriest curve.
“That includes any unusual details in the results of the trial overseen by Instructor Mad Blood Saber Jeok Mugwang.”
“By your command!”
“Even his actions before entering the Demonic Martial Hall. Investigate everything about that child and bring it to me!”
***
Leaving the two Head Instructors behind, Uncheon walked alone down the corridor when he suddenly leaned against the wall and began coughing.
Cold sweat streamed down his face.
“Cough...! Huu....”
The composure with which he had directed that tempest of events was nowhere to be found.
The moment the tension left him, the pain signals from his frail flesh came crashing down upon him.
Simply imitating the two Head Instructors’ martial arts a short while ago had been enough to make his twisted qi channels scream.
‘As expected, I need to do something about this body somehow.’
Uncheon looked down at the twenty Instruction Tokens in his hand.
Their cold, solid feel lent the whole matter a sense of reality.
‘If Senior Brother, the Sect Leader, were still alive, would he have scolded me for resorting to trickery unbecoming of a Daoist? Or would he have laughed in delight at the thought of me making fools of the Demonic Cultists?’
Uncheon forcibly swallowed the bitterness rising in his chest.
‘But now... neither Senior Brother, the Sect Leader, nor Gonryun remains... only I do.’
It was a solitary road—destroying the Demonic Cult from within the Demonic Cult itself.
Uncheon would have to walk that road alone.
‘If it is for the sake of vengeance with this garbage of a body, then I shall stand alone and reign supreme as much as I must.’
His gaze turned resolute.
‘To do that, what I need most right now is survival and recovery....’
Uncheon headed not toward the training grounds nor the library,
but toward the place within the Hidden Demon Cave that answered the most basic of all needs.
[Nourishment Hall]
It was the place responsible for the meals of the Hidden Demon Cave.
It was the first destination Uncheon had chosen for spending his Instruction Tokens.
Inside the Nourishment Hall, the cadets were all lined up on one side, receiving bowls of pale gruel.
“What kind of meal is this? Give me a little more!”
“...Will you hand over an Instruction Token?”
“Forget it. Who would waste an Instruction Token here just to get a few extra bits in their porridge?!”
Uncheon ignored the serving line and approached the far quieter counter of the special kitchen.
The man in charge of the Nourishment Hall, Head Cook Po Daesan, spoke gruffly, as though annoyed.
“Boy, the serving line is over there.”
Uncheon shook his head and placed ten Instruction Tokens on the counter.
“That is not it. I wish to place an order for a special meal.”
Po Daesan’s eyes widened.
For a new cadet to pour Instruction Tokens into food so early was unheard of.
He gave Uncheon’s filthy appearance a quick once-over, then offered advice.
“You fool. No matter how hungry you are, how can you spend a new cadet’s entire monthly allotment of Instruction Tokens on food? Do you mean to receive no instruction from the Head Instructors at all?”
Uncheon paid no heed and calmly recited his demands without hesitation.
“From now on, I would like ‘Black-Scale Snake’ added to every meal to replenish qi and blood, along with ‘Ginseng-and-Astragalus Broth’ to invigorate true qi. Please do not be stingy with the deer antler and goji berries in the broth.”
As Po Daesan listened, his expression visibly changed.
‘So this boy was not merely some starving cadet dragged in off the streets....’
What Uncheon had requested was not a mere restorative meal, but a combination of medicinal cuisine most effective for the recovery and growth of a martial artist’s body.
“You brat... you know a thing or two about ingredients. What exactly are you?”
“I am merely a cadet with a frail body.”
Having said only that, Uncheon turned away.
“Hah... very well. It is your first order, after all. Come back in one shichen. I will have it prepared starting this evening.”
Looking back and forth between the Instruction Tokens left behind and Uncheon’s retreating figure, Po Daesan came to regard him as a peculiar sort that merited attention.
The next place Uncheon visited was the place that managed and traded all goods within the Hidden Demon Cave.
[Myriad Treasures Pavilion]
Unlike the Nourishment Hall, it was a place filled with the cool scents of medicinal herbs and metal.
All kinds of herbs, manuals, and weapons were arranged neatly upon its shelves.
There sat an old man with a gaunt frame, flicking the beads of an abacus—Do Chansu.
At a glance, he looked stubborn and sharp in his calculations.
Even when Uncheon entered the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, Do Chansu merely gave his shabby appearance a sidelong glance before returning his attention to the abacus.
“Heh heh, a new cadet, is it? You do not seem to be in a position to spend Instruction Tokens yet. Well, looking costs nothing.”
But Uncheon walked straight to the counter and set down his remaining ten Instruction Tokens.
“I wish to make a transaction.”
Only then did Do Chansu show interest.
“Hoh...? A new cadet, and already asking for a transaction from me? Very well... what is it you want?”
“Please prepare Purple Haze Heavenly Root and Iceheart Herb into pills, in quantities I can take each day.”
Click.
The hand that had been moving the beads of Do Chansu’s abacus came to a stop.
‘...A new cadet is asking for herbs like these? Ordinarily, the only herbs they seek are the ones that help them accumulate internal energy.’
The herbs Uncheon named were not for increasing internal energy, but for stabilizing twisted meridians and tending internal damage.
“Boy, those are not things a new cadet like you should be using. If your internal damage were severe enough to warrant such herbs, you would not even be standing here right now.”
Uncheon replied in an even tone.
“...I have not suffered internal damage, but my constitution is such that I require them. So I need the herbs at once.”
“......”
Do Chansu pushed the abacus aside entirely, then studied Uncheon for a moment with an intrigued expression before speaking.
“...You know this already, no doubt, but herbs like these cannot alter your constitution itself.”
That much Uncheon already knew.
For as he fought the Demonic Cult in the past, gathering every variety of herb until it became tiresome had been part of the daily life of a Gonryun disciple.
“It is enough if they merely calm my qi and blood.”
“Heh, very well. Come back in one shichen.”
Without any further complaint, Do Chansu turned back toward his worktable.
‘An interesting one.’
Yet inwardly, he too marked Uncheon down as an oddity—one possessing both a peculiar constitution and knowledge of herbs.
That very night, after Uncheon had passed through both the Nourishment Hall and the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, strange rumors began to spread throughout the Hidden Demon Cave.
“They say some scrawny fellow showed up and ordered medicinal cuisine with snake meat using Instruction Tokens!”
“What? At the Nourishment Hall too? I heard some strange new cadet with an unusual constitution showed up at the Myriad Treasures Pavilion asking for medicine for internal damage.”
The rumors fed upon one another, grew exaggerated, and soon spread throughout the entire Hidden Demon Cave.
“They say some lunatic new cadet spent all his Instruction Tokens on food!”
“What? I heard another fellow used his entire initial allotment just to order medicine for internal injuries!”
“What sort of idiot does that? Do they not think at all?”
Naturally, the owner of those strange rumors was Uncheon.
But no one imagined that both rumors belonged to the same person.
Even if someone had spent not a single Instruction Token on martial arts, one person alone could not have caused both incidents with the tokens available to a new cadet.
Uncheon returned to his stone chamber.
He had already eaten the medicinal cuisine and taken the special medicinal pills that soothed his qi and blood.
Only then did a faint satisfaction finally cross his face.
“Now only the ten Instruction Tokens originally assigned remain.”
In order to draw out the effects of the medicinal cuisine and the pills, Uncheon practiced the Life-Prolonging Breathing Method and the Heaven-and-Earth Dynamic Art until late into the night.
Only once dawn began to break did he close his eyes for a brief rest.
The next day.
“Brat, it is time for instruction!”
Early in the morning, Head Instructor Ma Chung hammered on the stone door of Uncheon’s chamber as he shouted.
Uncheon slowly opened his eyes and rose from where he sat.
When he opened the stone door, unexpected figures were waiting for him outside, in addition to the overzealous Head Instructor Ma Chung.
“Hey.”
A boy was leaning against a pillar in the corridor, watching Uncheon with eyes full of interest.
Yuha raised a hand in greeting.
“......”
And on the opposite side stood Yayul Hui with her arms folded, her expression a complicated one—part contempt, part curiosity.
Ma Chung asked in bewilderment, “And what are these two doing here?”
The boy was the first to speak.
Wearing a sly smile, he bowed politely.
“My name is Yuha, Head Instructor Ma Chung. Would it be possible for me to observe the lesson?”
But Yayul Hui ignored Ma Chung entirely.
Instead, she addressed Uncheon directly.
“Are you, by any chance, the glutton who traded all his Instruction Tokens for food?”
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