4th floor of the National Academy’s Western Wing.
The nameplate hung at the end of the hallway was engraved with these characters:
<Martial Research Society>
A gathering of cadets researching martial arts.
The name sounded plausible.
After all, where in the National Academy was there a bastard who didn’t research martial arts?
Naturally, the reality was something else.
It was a social club that selectively accepted only cadets with excellent backgrounds, such as heirs of large guilds, children of political and business figures, and third-generation chaebols.
“It’s been loud these days.”
“Because of that contract professor?”
“Don’t even mention it. It’s practically at the level of a ghost story. There’s even a rumor that he isn’t a parachute, but a killing weapon raised by the Management Bureau.”
“Gossip needs to have limits. Have you ever seen a killing weapon that drinks booze?”
“Still, for most of the kids to be carried to the medical center just because he exuded killing intent once, don’t you think there is something to him?”
Amidst the various reactions exchanged, someone’s gaze turned toward the window.
“Yusik, what do you think?”
At the curious female cadet’s question, the gazes in the room gathered in one place.
“You participated in that class because of that suspension incident last time, didn’t you? Are the rumors true?”
“…”
Cha Yusik did not answer.
He merely sat with his legs crossed, staring out the window.
“K-Khm. Yusik must be tired today.”
She backed away awkwardly.
They did not know.
They didn’t know that underneath the table, Cha Yusik’s crossed thigh muscles were frantically convulsing and trembling even at this moment.
‘Is this right?’
Cha Yusik chewed his lip.
Starting from the first class on Sunday, the contract professor was making them do only the horse-riding stance for three hours every day.
He truly made them do only that.
He didn’t teach a single other thing.
‘Perhaps he lacks the ability to teach, so he’s just punishing us to kill time?’
But he couldn’t give up either.
Because the other bastards were enduring until the end.
If that professor happened to bring out a genuine secret manual the moment he gave up, his stomach might just twist in madness.
‘I feel like I’m being scammed.’
What was more annoying was that it was hard to definitively conclude it was a scam.
“Yusik? Are you really feeling unwell? Your complexion is pale.”
At the voice of the cadet opposite him, Cha Yusik finally returned to reality.
His lips twisted.
“If you’re curious, you guys try registering for it next semester.”
“…What?”
“Of course, that is if you have the guts to cross the line that man drew.”
* * *
Where was the most crowded place for cadets?
Grab anyone passing by and ask, and a hundred out of a hundred would say the New Wing.
A massive, majestic structure towering high as if to show off the Academy’s grandeur.
Splash!
A fountain was situated in the center of the plaza out front, where countless people crossed paths ceaselessly.
From cadets moving busily to attend their major classes, to groups of young high school students on field trips, to ordinary tourists gathering in small groups to take pictures.
‘Where are they?’
Kang Hyeon sat languidly on a bench in the corner.
His gaze seemed indifferent, but in reality, he was scanning the bone structures and constitutions of the passing cadets.
‘Come out. I just need a constitution that somewhat matches the martial arts of the seven old men.’
Every day, once the dawn class ended, his real daily routine began.
Roaming the Academy and searching for vessels to complete the Seven Luminaries Formation!
‘Why is there not a single bastard in sight?’
Suddenly, the expressions of the old men who found him at thirteen, possessing the Heavenly Martial Body, came to mind.
Was that why?
Was that why they danced so joyfully and laughed like madmen?
He had dreams sometimes.
A nightmare where he opened his eyes to find himself young again, being beaten by those madness-filled old men.
Being hit, breaking, vomiting blood, and finally waking up at the exact moment he felt his breath about to cut off.
‘Damned old men.’
Why do you torment me even in death?
Gulp!
He was about to suppress his nausea with a sip of whiskey from his tumbler.
“Mr. Kang Hyeoooon! Huff, huff!”
From far away, someone was running over while panting.
It was Lee Seah.
“Chick?”
“Why are you roaming around so much? Huff, huff.”
“I told you. Stop following me.”
Wiping her flowing sweat, she flopped down on the bench opposite him.
“Because following you is my job, Mr. Kang Hyeon.”
“I told you it’s fine to take a break from that job, didn’t I?”
“My direct superior is the Director, you know?”
“Give me the Director’s contact info.”
“Never mind.”
Since Kang Hyeon looked like he would actually do it, Lee Seah backed down.
“Anyway, why are you roaming outside so much?”
“And if you know? Will you solve it for me?”
“I should solve it! Just say the word. I may look like this, but I entered the Management Bureau at the top of my class. I’m in the Special Task Force, so I have information-gathering power, too. What is it that you want?”
“Is that so? Then find me some constitutions. Someone possessing the Heavenly Meridian Eye, or the Nine Yin Severed Meridian, the Nine Yang Defeated Meridian, or the Ghost Eye. Ah, the Heavenly Murderous Body or the Vajra Body would be good, too.”
“…Pardon?”
Lee Seah’s eyes went blank.
“What is all that?”
“You said you had information-gathering power.”
“I-I will look into it.”
“Forget it.”
There was no way she would know.
Even in Murim, where they were mad for martial arts, they were rare physiques that might or might not appear once in a millennium.
He hadn’t expected anything anyway.
Kang Hyeon stared at Lee Seah, whose breathing was gradually stabilizing.
‘Why does she work so hard?’
He knew.
When he recently moved to the faculty housing, she had set everything up, from the furniture to the liquor cabinet.
On top of that, she moved into the residence right next door and hadn’t clocked out since.
A truly immense sense of patriotism.
‘There were people like that in Murim, too.’
Loyalty, duty, the greater good.
Bastards who slap on grandiose name tags and grind their lives away.
“You can take it easy, kid.”
Kang Hyeon spoke languidly, bringing the tumbler to his lips.
“No one will thank you for grinding your life away like that.”
That was Kang Hyeon’s bone-deep truth, having rolled like a beast for twenty years in Murim supposedly to save the world.
To hell with the nation and loyalty.
How could one do a proper job when they couldn’t even take care of themselves?
“It doesn’t matter if no one acknowledges it.”
“What?”
“I know it, don’t I? That I am doing incredibly important work right now.”
“Is that right?”
A self-imposed duty, huh…
He’d seen plenty of people like that.
Noble, yet foolish.
“Suit yourself. Once you roll around a bit, you’ll eventually realize…”
Kang Hyeon paused mid-sentence.
His lazy eyes instantly sharpened.
‘What?’
On the opposite side of the fountain.
A lone female cadet emerged from the sea of people.
Swaying, pitch-black bobbed hair.
Yet in stark contrast to that, pale blue pupils.
‘Insane.’
Kang Hyeon’s heart lurched.
‘The Heavenly Meridian Eye!’
Eyes capable of seeing straight through the body’s meridians and the flow of qi!
Kang Hyeon had those eyes, too, but those madness-filled old men had forcibly developed them postnatally by pouring the juice of poisonous herbs into his eyes.
That is an innate Spiritual Eye!
‘Now this… was a surprise.’
A tingling thrill washed over him.
A legendary, rare physique that might or might not appear once in a millennium even in Murim, walking right before his eyes just a few days after he arrived at the Academy?
How was this even possible?
“You said you didn’t want to clock out, right?”
“Pardon?”
Blinking, Lee Seah asked back.
“That cadet.”
Kang Hyeon jutted his chin toward the female cadet with bobbed hair beyond the fountain.
“Investigate her.”
“Who?”
“That kid over there with the black bobbed hair and deep blue pupils.”
“U-Understood!”
* * *
Not long after, Lee Seah, having asked for the student’s name, approached.
“Cadet Baek Yuyeon, 19th term.”
“The info?”
“Hold on.”
Tap, tap!
Lee Seah began her briefing while checking the record on her tablet.
“Wow, this cadet is an incredibly famous genius within the Academy. Her grades are at the absolute top, and above all, she possesses a perfect memory that never forgets what she sees once. So she even has a nickname among the cadets.”
“A nickname?”
“The Walking Encyclopedia. They say if she glances at any complex formation or mental art incantation, she memorizes it exactly as is. Apparently, it’s to the point where even the professors click their tongues in awe.”
Kang Hyeon silently shook his tumbler.
‘The Talent of Non-Forgetting.’
A talent that does not forget what it sees.
In truth, that was an ability one inevitably possessed if they had the Heavenly Meridian Eye.
The Heavenly Meridian Eye pierces through the essence, not the exterior.
Therefore, one couldn’t forget the deployment of complex incantations or formations, which were merely the shell, even if they tried.
“Her major?”
“Martial Medical Arts.”
Nice!
Kang Hyeon cheered inwardly.
It perfectly matched Mad Hand old man’s major.
“A notable detail is that she is Professor Hwang Yerim’s favorite disciple. Professor Hwang Yerim is the top in the nation when it comes to the field of Martial Medical Arts.”
He understood those old men’s feelings.
So this was what discovering a vessel felt like.
Of course, just because he understood didn’t mean he had any intention of following their methods.
‘Then what should I do?’
He would have to think about that slowly now.
If she was a genius majoring in Martial Medical Arts, her intellectual curiosity and thirst for that field would inevitably be extraordinary.
And in that field, Kang Hyeon was confident he wouldn’t fall behind anyone else in the world.
* * *
The evening glow dyeing the Academy’s scenery red.
Sitting on the roof of the New Wing, Kang Hyeon was leisurely looking down with a whiskey bottle.
‘There she is.’
The female cadet with black bobbed hair walking while hugging a pile of major textbooks as big as her own body.
The prospective disciple possessing the Heavenly Meridian Eye, Baek Yuyeon.
Now that he’d set his sights on her, the other cadets didn’t even enter his vision.
He had been following her back with his eyes in amusement for quite a while.
Thud.
Someone blocked Baek Yuyeon’s path.
It was a tall, slick-looking male cadet.
‘Did she have a boyfriend?’
Resting his chin in his hand, Kang Hyeon watched intently from above.
But for a fresh vibe between a man and a woman, the atmosphere was somewhat strange.
“Baek Yuyeon.”
At the man’s call, Baek Yuyeon stopped and adjusted the books in her arms.
“M-Minwoo.”
“Have you thought about it?”
The man called Minwoo pulled out a stiff paper document from his coat and thrust it in front of her eyes.
Even from afar, it took the form of a contract.
“An agreement to work in our guild’s affiliated medical unit for ten years after you graduate.”
“…”
“You just need to stamp your thumbprint here.”
“Mhm.”
Baek Yuyeon bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut.
Kang Hyeon’s brow twitched as he watched the scene from the roof.
‘What is this situation?’
A 10-year exclusive contract?
Whose permission did you get?
Just as Kang Hyeon’s languid eyes turned cold for a fleeting moment.
“What are you guys doing here?”
A rough, delinquent voice cut between the two.
‘Eh?’
Kang Hyeon’s eyes went round.
‘Kwak Dojin?’
Why is he here again?
This situation was taking a fun turn.
He was just feeling a lack of snacks to go with his solo drinking.
Well, this should make for excellent drinking entertainment.
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