CHAPTER: Chapter 20
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Chapter 20.
“Cadet Yuha versus Head Instructor Geum Soso!”
At that instant, every gaze in the training grounds turned toward a single place.
The boy who always watched the board with that easy, knowing smile.
The organizer of the night sparring matches, and a figure whose true thoughts no one could ever read.
Naturally, a nickname had sprung up for him among the cadets.
“It’s the Smiling Fox!”
Smiling Fox.
A sobriquet that meant exactly what it sounded like—a fox with a smiling face.
Yuha accepted the hundreds of eyes fixed upon him with effortless ease and gave a slight shrug.
Then he walked with light steps toward the center of the sparring platform.
His appearance stirred a strange anticipation, entirely different from Yayul Hui’s fighting spirit or Muk Hajin’s venom.
Because no one truly knew the full extent of his skill.
“...That bastard always seems strangely relaxed.”
“How strong is Yuha, really?”
The Head Instructor who stood opposite him was Cold Swallow, Geum Soso, who wielded a Swallow Whip.
One of the few female Head Instructors, she was highly popular among the cadets for both her outstanding martial arts and her beauty.
“...This spar should be interesting, should it not?”
“A swallow against a fox. That is not a spectacle one sees often.”
Geum Soso looked Yuha’s slender frame up and down, then spoke in a voice as cold as ice.
“Yuha. I know better than anyone that you have hidden your true skill. I am the one who taught you, after all. So I will not go easy on you.”
Even in the face of her warning, Yuha showed not the slightest intention of wiping that composed smile from his face, and answered with his usual sly lightness.
“I am honored, Head Instructor. Masters who wield the whip are not common.”
“Hmph. You are very much at ease. Let us see whether that ease remains when the spar is over.”
Deng—!
“The spar begins!”
The instant the judge’s cry rang out, the Swallow Whip in Geum Soso’s hand split through the air like a living creature.
CRACK!
With a blast that tore through the air, the tip of the whip flew toward Yuha’s cheek in an utterly unpredictable arc.
It was no simple strike.
Like a living swallow toying with its prey, the direction of the attack shifted from instant to instant.
But Yuha was already moving.
His figure looked as precarious as a willow leaf yielding itself to a fierce wind.
Yet that was precisely his footwork.
‘Bewildering Willow Step!’
Yuha’s body swayed lightly, and the whip swept past him with no more than a sheet of paper’s breadth to spare.
There was no clash of power against power.
It was a contest of pure technique against technique, skill against skill honed to the utmost extreme.
A probing battle unfolded, the kind that made all who watched hold their breath.
Yuha’s eyes gleamed with delight.
‘Three changes within every strike... It is not easy to predict where each attack will truly end. But...’
By contrast, Geum Soso’s brow narrowed slightly.
‘That footwork... I cannot grasp its flow at all. Fine then. Let us see how long he can keep dodging!’
Yuha’s footwork was so exceptional that Geum Soso soon realized a probing exchange was pointless, and a colder light settled into her eyes.
Just then, the judge who had announced the beginning of the spar cried out to mark the time.
“From this point on, affix the Black Iron Plaque and resume the spar!”
Once she fastened the Black Iron Plaque to her chest, she no longer regarded Yuha as a mere cadet.
She had recognized him as an opponent who had to be broken with her full strength.
But Yuha’s tactics only grew more devious.
He acted as though the Black Iron Plaque affixed to her chest was of no concern to him at all.
He merely circled around the edges of the Head Instructor’s range, seeming to aim only for bonus points through small, precise attacks.
That alone was enough to make the cadets erupt in admiration at his movement technique.
“Look at those movements! He is going to surpass Yayul Hui’s record!”
“No, more than that! If things go well, he might even score higher than Muk Hajin!”
“That fox really is fox-like!”
The bonus-point record that Yayul Hui had built up with such fierce and bitter effort was being broken from Yuha’s fingertips as though it were nothing more than a trivial game of points.
Geum Soso’s expression hardened.
‘This wretch means not to aim for the Black Iron Plaque at all, but merely to rack up a high score through safe exchanges? If I let a mere brat toy with me like this, what will become of my honor!’
Fearing that her honor would be tarnished, Geum Soso began wielding her whip far more aggressively.
“That is enough of your prancing about!”
The supreme technique she had held in reserve exploded forth.
Swallow’s Three Ultimate Whips!
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!
The afterimages of the single whip multiplied into dozens and descended from all directions.
As though a shadow had fallen across the platform, they layered over one another to seal off every possible avenue of retreat available to Yuha.
The dazzling movements of Bewildering Willow Step began to show clear restraint.
And Geum Soso did not miss that fleeting instant.
At last, her whip pierced into Yuha’s opening.
CRACK!
With a sharp tearing sound, the end of his sleeve was ripped apart, and a vivid red lash mark appeared upon his forearm.
“Ghk!”
The training grounds stirred.
“Yuha has been struck for the first time!”
“As expected of a Head Instructor!”
Geum Soso became certain that victory was now in her grasp.
‘No matter how dazzling he looks, he cannot escape my net.’
Yuha had been forced onto the defensive.
But his eyes showed no sign of panic. Rather, they shone with a colder clarity than ever before.
His gaze was fixed not upon the tip of the whip, but upon the wrist and shoulder of Geum Soso, the one who wielded it.
‘The instant she retrieves it! That is the only opening!’
The faintest stiffness, born from the absence of internal energy. Yuha seized upon that split-second gap.
In the next moment, the Swallow Whip came surging down toward Yuha’s head.
Just as everyone thought it was over, Yuha raised both hands for defense for the very first time.
‘Now!’
Flowing Cloud Palm Art.
Swooosh—
His two hands moved with the grace of flowing water, softly wrapping around the rushing path of the whip.
Then, as though he were drawing a taiji through the air with a great brush, he guided the savage force of the whip into the flow of a circle.
Geum Soso’s brow furrowed.
The explosive force carried at the tip of the whip seemed to melt away into a soft whirlpool, leaving behind a deeply unpleasant sensation.
Instinctively, she hastily tried to pull the whip back.
At that very instant, Yuha’s figure shot forward, not missing the brief stiffness that came with her retrieval of the whip.
This was no longer the same soft footwork he had shown until now, but a lightning-fast movement technique from an entirely different school!
‘That gentle palm art seems almost like something from the orthodox sects. But that footwork is a swift movement technique of an entirely different lineage. To wield such opposing arts so naturally together... not bad at all....’
Uncheon’s eyes flashed.
The sight of Yuha rushing in was like a streak of lightning itself.
“What?!”
Startled, Geum Soso lashed the whip repeatedly after retrieving it.
But for some reason, the range of the whip—which only moments earlier had been able to reach the very end of the platform—had been reduced to something absurdly short.
Because of that, the Swallow Whip that flew from her hand tore through empty air without touching Yuha at all.
“What!”
Shock flooded Geum Soso’s eyes. At that moment, Yuha’s low voice slipped into her ear.
“That is enough, Head Instructor.”
Before she knew it, Yuha had already slipped fully into her embrace.
He had not merely blocked the whip with Flowing Cloud Palm Art.
Feigning that he was simply redirecting it, he had used those smooth and elegant hand movements to wind around the middle of the whip and knot it.
Its length had been reduced by half.
‘Fox-like bastard! Was that why he deliberately sought instruction from a Head Instructor who used a Swallow Whip? Just how many moves ahead had he seen?’
Yuha’s Flowing Cloud Palm wrapped around her arm like running water and gently restrained her wrist.
Thud.
The Swallow Whip, which had been like a living swallow only a moment before, now fell lifelessly to the ground like a dead rope.
“...You little wretch! Was everything up until now done for the sake of this single move?!”
Yuha halted his palm softly just before Geum Soso’s chest, then stepped back after giving her a respectful salute.
“That is correct, Head Instructor. So long as internal energy was forbidden, this was always an unfavorable match for an instructor who wielded a Swallow Whip. Now then... please hand me the Black Iron Plaque.”
The match was decided.
A victory won not through force, but through flawless calculation and technique.
“...I acknowledge defeat.”
The moment Geum Soso admitted her loss, Yuha saluted her respectfully once more and withdrew.
Had she been permitted to use internal energy, the entire shape of the battle would no doubt have been completely different.
“I knew it... There was something suspicious about you from the moment you asked me for instruction. Don't tell me you even predicted the contents of the examination?”
A thin curve drew itself across Yuha’s lips.
“...It was merely one of the possibilities.”
That answer was little different from admitting that he had predicted it.
Yuha wore a faint, lonely smile, yet even to the end he did not lose his composure.
Since even she, a Head Instructor, had failed to foresee the examination’s contents, it was a perfect defeat.
“Hah, you really are something... your little schemes are impressive. That too is part of your skill. Here, take the Black Iron Plaque.”
Geum Soso acknowledged her defeat cleanly and handed over the Black Iron Plaque.
A thunderous roar erupted throughout the training grounds.
“Good heavens! A cadet subdued a Head Instructor?”
“That fox! He was aiming at the fact that, without internal energy reinforcing a Swallow Whip, its power would fall to less than half!”
Up on the platform, an observer from the Hall of Myriad Demons murmured in a low voice.
“That child must be taken by the Hall of Myriad Demons.”
Though they were all observers, there were still differences in standing between the various organizations.
The Hall of Myriad Demons in particular was an exceptional organization filled with elders, old masters in great number.
That declaration from the Hall of Myriad Demons meant that Yuha had achieved exactly what he had aimed for from the start.
Up on the platform, Gal Muheun, the Master of the Demonic Martial Hall, wore a satisfied smile despite Head Instructor Geum Soso’s defeat.
It was not that Geum Soso had been lacking. Rather, Yuha’s cunning had simply been exceptional, taking into account everything from the compatibility of weapons to the question of whether internal energy could be used.
“You have all seen it. In a contest, there is no such thing as the absolute. Engrave that upon your minds. In a duel between experts, victory and defeat are shaped not only by the martial arts one possesses, but by weapon compatibility and even the surrounding conditions.”
Gal Muheun praised the match between the two as a duel between experts.
After he finished that brief lesson, the master of the next stage was finally called.
“Next. Cadet Uncheon versus Head Instructor Ma Chung!”
Clank. Clank.
As the heavy sound of the Iron Weights fastened to his arms and legs struck against one another, the cadets—still drunk on their earlier excitement—finally turned their attention to the new fight.
“...Now this is interesting, for an entirely different reason.”
“That ragged beggar is facing Head Instructor Ma Chung, Blood Wind Leg, the very man from whom he stole an identification tag?”
“The Head Instructor will go all out as well!”
Just as the anticipation reached its peak, a low voice rang out from an unexpected quarter.
“I petition the Hall Master. During the evaluation of natural foundation, Head Instructor Ma Chung already had his identification tag stolen by that cadet. Thus, I believe it is only proper that another evaluate him.”
The owner of that voice was Instructor Jeok Mugwang.
Ma Chung’s face turned ashen as his humiliation was exposed before all.
“Ho... A cadet stole a Head Instructor’s identification tag during the natural foundation evaluation?”
When Gal Muheun nodded with interest, Senior Head Instructor Yajin, who had been standing in the darkness, stepped forward and spoke.
“In that case, since I personally took notice of that child’s talent and instructed him myself, I shall verify him.”
The cadets were thunderstruck at Yajin’s appearance.
“That is... Senior Head Instructor Yajin of the Shadowless Killing Sect, the man said to teach only the cadets he chooses himself!”
“That ragged beggar received Yajin’s choice?”
“How in the world? Was he born with the makings of an assassin?”
Gal Muheun nodded.
“Senior Head Instructor Yajin instructed him personally? Very well. Then that is appropriate.”
At that declaration, Ma Chung’s face crumpled beyond measure.
‘Damn it, after I invested Instruction Tokens in him and even taught him the Blood Wind Leg...! Now all the attention is going to be stolen by Yajin! I have been completely played!’
Yet he did not dare object to the Hall Master’s decision.
Just as Senior Head Instructor Yajin was about to step onto the platform with a satisfied smile,
Jeok Mugwang stepped forward and blocked his way.
“Stop, Senior Head Instructor Yajin.”
At his low voice, all the noise in the training grounds vanished like a lie.
“I know your skill well enough... but with an assassin’s methods, you will show no more than the outer shell of that child.”
“...”
Since Yajin had personally instructed Uncheon and experienced his talent with his own body, he could not easily refute those words.
“Hall Master. Though it was a spar bound by restrictions, this instructor has already lost once in a spar against Uncheon, Yuha, and Yayul Hui together.”
In an instant, the entire training grounds was plunged into shock.
“...!”
“The Instructor... lost?”
“To no more than three cadets...?”
For the first time, something colder than mere interest flashed through Chief Instructor Gal Muheun’s eyes.
A light of genuine astonishment.
“Ho. Interesting. Does Instructor Jeok Mugwang have another proposal?”
“That child will be verified by this Mad Blood Saber, Jeok Mugwang, in person.”
It was an unprecedented development.
A full instructor of Hidden Demon Cave, a Peak Realm master, was stepping forth as the examiner in person.
Every Head Instructor, every cadet, even the observers concealed in the darkness—
all those present in the training grounds stared up at the platform in shock and disbelief.
Watching that sight, a deep smile spread across the lips of Hall Master Gal Muheun.
“I permit it.”
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