CHAPTER: Chapter 3
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Chapter 3.
“His frame is twisted, and his qi channels are blocked. There is no need for further words. He is refuse. Lowest.”
The head instructor did not even spare him a second glance. He slapped the Lowest tag onto Uncheon’s chest and turned away.
‘Right now!’
Uncheon had already noticed the man’s habit.
That fleeting opening when he shifted his gaze to the next child and absentmindedly clasped his hands behind his back.
SWISH—!
At the instant the head instructor’s sleeve brushed past, Uncheon’s five fingers curved with uncanny precision, like the claws of a living dragon.
It was the Cloud Dragon Claw, a secret art of Gonryun that had once batted aside countless hidden weapons with nothing but the fingers.
The moment his soundless fingertips felt the tag tucked inside the instructor’s robes, Uncheon snatched it away without hesitation.
‘This touch… even in this ruined body, it has not rusted.’
The man could never have imagined that a scrawny boy judged Lowest would dare reach into his robes.
It was a divine feat born of carelessness—and finesse honed to the utmost extreme.
Though the head instructor was a first-rate expert, the very one who had judged Uncheon to be Lowest noticed nothing and moved on to the next child.
‘Hoo. That was close.’
Pretending to press a hand to his chest in relief, Uncheon attached the stolen tag.
Now, on his chest hung a vivid red tag marked High.
‘I cannot be discarded the moment my second life begins.’
Just as Jeok Mugwang had said, the evaluations proceeded swiftly.
With more than a hundred first-rate experts moving in perfect unison, it did not even take the time of a single meal to assess the constitutions of several thousand children.
“The evaluation is over! All of you, check the tag on your chest!”
Every eye dropped to the front of its owner’s robe.
Uncheon lowered his gaze as well and looked at the crimson High tag on his chest.
‘For now, I have put out the fire at my feet. But the real beginning will be from this point on.’
All around him, muffled sobs and despairing sighs began to leak from the children.
“All those bearing the Lowest tag, get out here at once! Any who do not step forward immediately will be executed on the spot!”
The children judged Lowest were dragged away like livestock being driven to slaughter.
“From this moment on, you will labor in the cult’s work camps!”
As he watched them being taken away, Uncheon’s eyes turned cold.
‘So this is the way of the Demonic Cult. They temper steel by feeding it endless sacrifices….’
That was why no matter how many demonic masters he had cut down, there had never seemed to be an end to them.
These bastards were kidnapping children from all across the Central Plains and turning them into warriors and slaves.
And Gonryun?
How much effort had it taken, on that barren frontier, just to bring in a single disciple?
Worse still, the Central Plains were crowded with famous Taoist sects. There had never been any reason for people to choose Gonryun, where every day was a war against the Demonic Cult.
‘If this is how things were done… there was never any chance of enduring a war of attrition against them.’
Watching the way the Demonic Martial Hall was run, Uncheon realized once more that the Demonic Cult was an even more troublesome foe than he had imagined.
‘The Immortal was right. It would be difficult to destroy them from the outside.’
Biting down on his lip, Uncheon’s eyes sharpened.
‘But it will be different from within… I will survive here, in the heart of this Demonic Path, and sever your breath with my own hands. This shall be my new Dao.’
While he was swearing vengeance, all the children judged Lowest were dragged away.
“Heh heh… already only four-fifths remain. But bone structure alone is not the only quality required to become a superior warrior!”
As expected, there was another test to follow.
“All those judged Supreme, step forward!”
At Jeok Mugwang’s shout, Uncheon let out a quiet sigh of relief.
After cutting away the Lowest, it seemed they now meant to sift out the very best.
But in a body like this, stepping forward as Supreme would have been no different from suicide.
Stealing a High-grade tag had been the correct choice.
“Any who cannot read will have their evaluation lowered by one rank. Move aside.”
Among the children judged to possess Supreme constitutions, a few who were unable to read shuffled forward hesitantly.
Their shoulders trembled beneath grime-soaked rags. They looked like children dragged straight off the streets, children who likely did not even know the three characters of their own names, let alone how to read.
Yet even within that mire, there were some who stood with arrogant poise.
The sons and daughters of Demonic Cultists, dressed in glossy silk martial robes, lifting their chins as they looked down on everyone around them. Every one of them bore the face of someone who had grown up well fed and well tended.
With a single glance, Uncheon measured their breathing and their frames.
‘They must have grown up swallowing expensive elixirs.’
A few of the more striking ones, despite their young age, had already opened their qi and blood pathways and even possessed internal energy of considerable weight—martial prowess sufficient to stand shoulder to shoulder with the head instructors standing there now.
It was no wonder they were arrogant.
To them, this Demonic Martial Hall was only a temporary station.
The certainty that the very head instructors now training them would soon be beneath their feet gleamed openly in their eyes.
Uncheon clicked his tongue softly.
‘Tsk. The Demonic Cult and the orthodox sects alike. The breed of fools who swagger because they trust in bloodline and sect is always the same.’
It was then, while he was coldly sweeping his gaze over them, that he heard whispers passing among them.
“They are checking whether we can read… so it really is just as I heard.”
“Heh, did you know? A tiny number of cadets are given a chance to undergo a procedure that changes their constitution.”
One of the children lowered his voice after glancing around.
“Quiet. You mean the cult’s secret art, the Demonic Bone Rebirth Art?”
“Yes, that. They say that with it… even someone lacking in natural constitution can far surpass the level of Supreme.”
At that instant, Uncheon’s heart sank with a heavy thud.
‘A secret art that changes one’s constitution?’
In his mind, one possibility flashed like lightning.
‘Could that secret art perhaps cure even Severed Meridians?’
At this point, he had to grasp even at a strand of straw.
While Uncheon’s thoughts were seized by the secret art, Jeok Mugwang’s voice rang out again.
“Next, among those judged High, anyone who can read, step forward! You will be given a chance to be evaluated for Supreme!”
Uncheon’s eyes flashed.
‘If that secret art can completely cure Severed Meridians—or even improve this body in the slightest!’
Even if it meant drawing some attention to himself, Uncheon decided he would have to accept the risk.
“In the end, those judged Supreme will be allowed to choose a martial manual for themselves from this cult’s martial archive, and they will also be given a matching elixir!”
The other rewards being announced openly were enticing enough, but Uncheon’s true aim was not that.
What he wanted was the secret art the children had been whispering about, the Demonic Bone Rebirth Art, whose very existence was still uncertain.
It was the only rope hanging before this cursed body.
‘…If I can only cure the Severed Meridians, growing stronger will not be a problem.’
Uncheon stepped out from among the High-grade children.
A gaunt boy wrapped in ragged clothes.
The moment that street-worn boy stepped forward, countless gazes speared into him.
Most of them were naked with contempt.
And the instant he joined the end of the line, a sharp voice finally burst forth, as though it could no longer bear the sight.
“…Hmph. That kind of frame is supposed to be High? Ridiculous. It seems the Demonic Martial Hall’s standards have fallen into the dirt.”
It was a girl in a neatly tailored crimson silk martial robe.
Yayul Hui.
At her mocking words, the children around her began murmuring in agreement.
“I have never seen him before. He does not even look fit for Low, let alone High.”
“He does not seem to be from one of the Twelve Guardian Families or the Ten Sects of the Demonic Cult.”
“Just some trash dragged in from who knows where, not even knowing his place.”
From the corner of the group, a boy named Yuha brightened as though he had found an amusing toy.
“Now, now, calm yourselves. We finally have something entertaining to watch, do we not?”
Sliding smoothly in front of Yayul Hui, Yuha spoke with a glib smile.
“Whether that brat’s nerve is real, or whether he is simply a fool… the instructor will decide that himself. All we have to do is enjoy the spectacle.”
“Hmph!”
Yayul Hui snorted and turned her head away.
It was at that moment.
Jeok Mugwang, who had been sweeping a satisfied gaze over the other children, seemed to notice the commotion and turned his head.
“What is all this noise?!”
His gaze stopped at the very end of the line, on Uncheon.
The instructor’s brow furrowed at once.
“What is that thing!”
At the thunderous roar, the eyes of the surrounding head instructors all snapped toward him.
“Which fool judged that corpse-like wretch to be High? Which witless head instructor made such an absurd decision!”
At Jeok Mugwang’s furious shout, Uncheon saw the face of the head instructor whose tag he had stolen turn ashen.
Yet Uncheon, the very one who had caused the disturbance, remained perfectly calm.
No—there was even a smile touching the corners of his lips.
The larger the spectacle became, the more it favored Uncheon.
“Who was it! Which head instructor judged you!”
Instead of answering directly, Uncheon quietly lifted a finger and pointed to the very head instructor who had marked him Lowest.
“That head instructor there. The one skilled in leg arts.”
All eyes turned in one direction.
Instructor Jeok Mugwang’s brow tightened.
‘Ma Chung of the Blood Wind Leg? He is not so incompetent that he would fail to judge even a child’s bones and meridians… then what is this?’
Even as he looked at Ma Chung, Jeok Mugwang carefully examined Uncheon with his qi-sense.
‘No, more than that… how did this brat know that Ma Chung is an expert in leg arts? Judging from his miserable appearance, he does not seem to be a cult disciple’s child….’
Concealing his thoughts, Jeok Mugwang asked in an icy voice, pressing force into every syllable.
“Ma Chung… was it you?”
“N-no, Instructor! It is not that, I clearly gave that brat—!”
Just as Ma Chung, flustered, tried to defend himself, Uncheon cut across him.
“The head instructor’s assessment of my constitution was accurate. However…”
Jeok Mugwang’s brow furrowed even deeper.
“What… did you say?”
Deliberately drawing every eye onto himself, Uncheon reached up and peeled the High-grade tag from his chest with his own hand.
Beneath it, a black Lowest tag was revealed.
The training hall erupted.
“What is going on?”
“Lowest behind High?”
“He has two tags?!”
No one seemed able to grasp the situation at once.
Amid the uproar, Uncheon casually flicked the High-grade tag down at Ma Chung’s feet.
“Your guard was down. I will return your property.”
CLACK—.
The sharp sound of the tag striking the ground rang with startling clarity in every ear.
“……!”
Only then did they all realize it.
Uncheon had stolen the High-grade tag from Ma Chung.
The blood drained entirely from Ma Chung’s face. It was not enough that he had made a mistake—he had now been humiliated before everyone.
At last, Uncheon lifted his head and met Jeok Mugwang’s hardened gaze directly.
“Is the cult not searching for children of outstanding martial talent?”
“And you claim to possess such talent?”
A savage smile spread across Jeok Mugwang’s face, as though he had just heard something amusing.
“Very well… prove it.”
With those words, the force he released crashed over Uncheon like a wave.
‘Kh… he is testing me….’
The aura of a Peak Realm master.
Under that suffocating pressure, it felt as though every bone in his body was screaming.
Without realizing it, Uncheon clenched his teeth hard.
‘If I retreat now, it is over!’
The taste of blood seeped out between his locked teeth.
“Bone structure is merely… kh… the vessel one is born with.”
A thin line of blood ran from the corner of his mouth, but Uncheon did not stop.
“Between a vessel that merely looks impressive on the outside, and a vessel that may be crude yet harbors a blade within, which one accords with this cult’s doctrine that the strong are exalted?
Which one is true martial talent?”
The instant Uncheon openly invoked the doctrine of the Demonic Cult, silence fell over the training hall.
The moment doctrine was brought into it, this was no longer a simple objection. It risked turning into a dispute over doctrine itself.
The strong are exalted.
A short and simple creed, yet one that allowed for countless interpretations.
Though all were bound beneath the banner of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, the many sects and factions within it had shed rivers of blood over their conflicting interpretations of that creed.
Those born into the cult knew it was not something to speak of lightly.
‘If this turns into a real doctrinal dispute, it will be dangerous! The Twelve Guardian Families and the Ten Sects of the Demonic Cult are present here. Word will inevitably spread…!’
‘He actually struck at a taboo. Did that brat do it deliberately?’
Not only the children of the Demonic Cult, including Yayul Hui, who had voiced her scorn, but even the head instructors fell silent.
Jeok Mugwang’s eyes narrowed.
He was beginning to suspect Uncheon’s origins.
The brat’s actions did not look like mere bravado or the flailing of a cornered animal.
The nerve to exploit the opening of a first-rate expert.
The confidence to withstand the aura of a Peak Realm master and still meet his gaze.
And on top of that, the audacity to invoke doctrine without hesitation.
He could not possibly be an ordinary abducted child.
‘Who stands behind you?’
His murderous eyes asked the question soundlessly, but Uncheon’s did not waver.
To challenge the meaning of the creed of the cult before the very instructor who held his life in his grasp—it was a kind of challenge.
A kind of madness.
More than any hidden backing, what pleased Jeok Mugwang was the boy’s sheer fearless bearing.
Were these not the very makings of a true scion of the Demonic Path?
“Hahahahaha!”
Having reached his judgment, Jeok Mugwang’s wild laughter shattered the suffocating stillness.
His laugh was so hearty that it bordered on madness, booming past the platform as though it might swallow the entire underground training hall whole.
“You are right! This place is meant to evaluate talent. Bone structure is only one part of talent….”
At the end of that mad laughter, he nodded as though he were thoroughly entertained.
“And yet, to think a lunatic would appear who dared lecture me on doctrine….”
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