The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor – Chapter 013
Never Underestimate the Three Talents
Early the next morning, Kwak Dojin actually showed up.
Drag, drag!
Dragging his feet across the sand, he was visibly dead drunk!
“What is this?”
Seeing the sight, Cha Yusik furrowed his brow.
“Senior Kwak. Showing up in that state right now, what exactly…”
No, seriously.
Just how much alcohol did this man drink?
“Uuugh…”
Stagger.
Kwak Dojin’s swaying body pitched forward.
Thud!
He face-planted straight into the sandy ground, twitched once, and then went completely limp.
Yoon Hyeonjong and Han Taeho were about to run forward in a panic, but…
“Leave him be.”
Kang Hyeon, who had been sitting on the podium, slowly climbed down.
He looked down at the collapsed Kwak Dojin, then casually reached out and struck a spot on his back.
“Urgh!”
Kwak Dojin’s body arched like a bow.
Soon after.
“Blargh!”
The liquor and stomach acid he had been holding down came gushing out all at once.
A pungent stench spread across the training ground, causing the other cadets to unconsciously wrinkle their noses.
‘His mental fortitude passes, at least.’
Right.
If you want to pull yourself out of the mud with your own power, you have to keep your promises.
Shouldn’t you at least have that much grit and willpower to change your life when it’s stuck in the gutter?
“If you’re awake, wipe your mouth and stand up.”
“Cough! Kuurgh, huff…”
Gasping for air, Kwak Dojin staggered to his feet.
Because Kang Hyeon had injected internal energy into his acupoint to drive out the alcoholic vapor, he had regained his senses to some extent.
Neither of them spoke a word about what happened last night.
“What are you doing?”
Turning his back, Kang Hyeon ordered.
“The horse-riding stance. Begin.”
* * *
The horse-riding stance continued for another week.
It was merely an exercise of holding a position in place, but a clear change was taking root in the bodies of the five cadets.
On the first day, they couldn’t even last ten minutes before their legs shook like aspen leaves and they rolled on the ground. Now, they were enduring past thirty minutes with their backs held fairly straight.
Furthermore, not a single one had dropped out yet.
‘This should be enough.’
Their breathing had steadied, their spines had straightened, and their balance had finally settled.
They finally met the minimum requirement for qi and blood to flow.
“Stop.”
Kang Hyeon’s short command dropped.
“Huff!”
“Uwaaagh!”
At that moment, the five cadets collapsed like falling dominoes, as if they had planned it.
Panting heavily and drenched in sweat, they stared blankly at the sky as Kang Hyeon spoke.
“You’ve worked hard wrestling with the dirt. Looking at your pathetic states, I suppose you can at least grip the hilt of a sword now.”
At those words, the movements of the cadets sprawled on the ground instantly stopped.
“Starting today, I will teach you martial arts in earnest.”
“…!”
The first to snap his eyes open was Cha Yusik.
‘Finally!’
In truth, up until last night, he had seriously considered quitting this special lecture.
He was anxious.
If he didn’t get stronger quickly, he would be completely pushed out by his brother. He couldn’t just keep doing the horse-riding stance every single day, could he?
‘I can do basic stuff like this on my own outside of class.’
What Cha Yusik wanted from the professor was martial arts.
Even if it wasn’t some peerless divine art, it had to be at least vastly superior to anything he could obtain at the Academy!
“Each of you pick up one of those wooden swords rolling around over there.”
The cadets scrambled to pull out the wooden training swords stuck in the corner of the training ground.
Kang Hyeon also casually kicked up a wooden sword with his toe and caught the hilt.
The cadets were expectant.
What peerless sword art would he reveal?
“The first martial art I will impart to you all is.”
Gulp.
Everyone swallowed hard, their eyes fixed on Kang Hyeon’s lips.
“The Three Talents Sword Technique.”
“…?”
Silence fell.
What?
The Three Talents Sword Technique?
Everyone wore dumbfounded expressions.
Clear any random low-level dungeon, and you’d find four martial arts manuals practically kicking around your feet.
The Three Talents Sword Technique, Six Harmonies Energy Art, Six Harmonies Fist, and Iron Shirt.
These were things you didn’t even need to come to the Academy to learn.
Because they were like national calisthenics—martial arts you could download as PDF files from the Hunter Association’s website for just a few tens of thousands of won.
Cha Yusik’s face contorted.
“…I must have misheard, right? The Three Talents Sword Technique?”
“You heard perfectly. Heaven, Earth, and Human. It is the most fundamental of fundamentals, containing the three principles of the universe.”
Finally, Cha Yusik’s face flushed bright red.
“Professor! Are you playing a joke on us right now?”
He had endured it all this time.
Swallowing his pride as the heir of a large guild, he endured the horse-riding stance—something only snot-nosed kids at neighborhood dojos did.
Every morning, his muscles screamed, and he endured the subtle mockery of his peers in the Martial Research Society, yet he tenaciously showed up to the training ground.
Why?
Because he expected an incredible secret art to be given to him at the end of this humiliating time!
“Is that garbage sword technique the reward for enduring that ignorant horse-riding stance?”
“Garbage?”
Kang Hyeon’s eyes narrowed.
“Yes! I mastered miscellaneous arts like the Three Talents Sword Technique before I even entered the Academy. No, even the lowest-ranking porters in our guild don’t use that crap!”
The other cadets also seemed to inwardly agree with Cha Yusik’s words.
Even Yoon Hyeonjong wore an expression that clearly said, ‘Still, the Three Talents is crossing the line a bit.’
“There seems to be a misunderstanding.”
In the Murim where Kang Hyeon lived, there was a saying:
— A bastard who looks down on the Three Talents has no right to hold a sword, and a bastard who clings only to the Three Talents will never achieve the sword!
Could mastering only the Three Talents make you the greatest under heaven?
He admitted that was con-artist nonsense.
However, you must not deny that nothing beats the Three Talents when it comes to building a foundation.
The Sword Maniac old man had said it, too.
No matter the swordsmanship, it ultimately never escapes the Three Talents.
What if someone had run their mouth in front of that old man, calling the Three Talents Sword Technique a miscellaneous art used by porters?
He’d have taken a wooden sword to the jaw before he even got an answer.
Accompanied by a thunderous roar calling him an ignorant bastard who knew nothing of the principles of Heaven and Earth, he would have been smashed into the dirt and beaten until his bones broke and he vomited blood.
‘But I am different from those old men.’
Kang Hyeon scoffed inwardly.
It is a professor’s duty to teach a student when they do not know.
If there is a misunderstanding, he just needed to clear it up himself.
“Cha Yusik, step forward.”
Kang Hyeon jutted his chin, lightly lowering the wooden sword in his hand.
“The swordsmanship you practice, was it the Wolf Fang Swordsmanship?”
“…That is correct.”
“It’s a good swordsmanship.”
A martial art exclusively practiced by the elite pursuit squads in the Green Forest Alliance.
While not as refined as swordsmanship from prestigious sects, it was a practical art sharpened by blood.
Naturally, it was in Kang Hyeon’s head as well.
“Come at me with that swordsmanship. I will only use the Three Talents Sword Technique.”
At those words, Cha Yusik’s eyes sank.
He would only use the Three Talents Sword Technique?
Truly?
Cha Yusik imagined what it would be like if his father used only the Three Talents Sword Technique against him.
The conclusion came easily.
‘Even if I can’t win, I am confident I won’t be overwhelmed.’
No matter how great one’s momentum, the limitations of the sword technique itself are clear.
That was exactly why good secret manuals fetched high prices.
‘The Wolf Fang Swordsmanship is what elevated the Heavenly Wolf into the top three guilds. That professor is looking down on the Heavenly Wolf.’
Suppressing his anger, Cha Yusik gripped his wooden sword.
“Do not regret this.”
“Regret?”
“You said you would strictly use only the Three Talents Sword Technique. What will you do if my wooden sword so much as brushes your clothes?”
“Clothes? Shouldn’t you normally say you’ll win?”
“I am not foolish enough to bluff.”
“You mean you don’t have a conscience?”
A grin spread across Kang Hyeon’s lips.
“Well, fine. If your sword even grazes my clothes, I’ll join your Heavenly Wolf.”
“…!”
Cha Yusik was stunned.
An S-rank Hunter joining the Heavenly Wolf?
If he could pull this off, it would be a monumental opportunity to solidify his position as the heir again.
“You will have to keep that promise.”
Planting his feet in the sand and lowering his stance, Cha Yusik’s expression turned serious.
‘I am going all out.’
“Come.”
Dash!
Cha Yusik kicked off the ground and shot forward.
Was it the effect of tempering his lower body?
His leaping speed was far sharper than before.
Swoosh!
His wooden sword also tore through the air, drawing a vicious trajectory.
To the other cadets, it looked like an overwhelming strike.
However.
“First, Heaven.”
The foot moves before the sword.
Kang Hyeon took a half-step forward.
From his foot to his waist, spine, arm, and finally the tip of the sword.
His entire body connected perfectly into a single line.
The tension was completely gone from his shoulders, yet his sword already carried the weight of the sky.
“Strike down.”
The simplest downward slash, cutting from top to bottom.
Craaack!
“Kugh!”
The moment Cha Yusik’s fiercely rushing sword clashed with Kang Hyeon’s, a terrifying shockwave erupted.
‘Insane!’
A throbbing pain shot through his hand, and Cha Yusik panicked as his grip loosened.
Anyone could see it was a simple downward slash… yet he felt this much pressure?
It felt as though a massive mountain was crashing down from the heavens.
“Second, Earth.”
Kang Hyeon’s two feet planted on the ground dug in firmly, like the roots of a centuries-old giant tree.
A sword is dead if the feet leave the ground.
Yet, twisting only the waist is too slow.
The force of pushing off the earth traveled up his ankles and knees, flowing into his waist, and poured straight into the horizontal trajectory of the wooden sword.
“Endure.”
A heavy horizontal slash that seemed to graze just below the waist.
“Gaaaah!”
At that strike, Cha Yusik’s body swayed like a reed.
It felt as though a boulder had just scraped across his wooden sword, and he lost his grip entirely.
“Finally, Human.”
Between Heaven and Earth stands a Human.
To run wild looking only up is chasing clouds; to look only down is to be sluggish.
The human axis linking Heaven and Earth must never collapse.
Kang Hyeon’s gaze wasn’t on the tip of his own sword, but piercing straight into Cha Yusik’s defenselessly open center.
Greed makes it too long; fear makes it too short.
From the most perfect distance, the most straightforward thrust.
“Thrust.”
Whoooooosh!
Thrusting at an unbelievable speed, Kang Hyeon’s wooden sword stopped dead right under Cha Yusik’s chin.
His neat bangs were swept back by the fierce pressure of the strike.
“…”
Silence.
A suffocating stillness swallowed the training ground.
Cha Yusik couldn’t breathe.
Th-This was the Three Talents Sword Technique?
Strike down, endure, and thrust.
Those boring, predictable stances were capable of this?
‘Nonsense.’
The downward slash earlier felt like the sky was collapsing, and the horizontal slash felt as heavy as the earth writhing.
And the final thrust…
‘It felt like all of that condensed into a single piercing point.’
Watching from behind, Kwak Dojin, Yoon Hyeonjong, Han Taeho, and Seo Haein all stood frozen with their souls sucked out.
In their eyes, Kang Hyeon’s Three Talents just now looked grander and more overwhelming than any flashy, peerless divine art.
“How is it?”
Tap.
Pulling back the suspended wooden sword, Kang Hyeon opened his mouth languidly.
“Is this still garbage?”
He tapped his own shoulder and added.
“A sword that is merely flashy without a foundation is ultimately just a sandcastle. You want to learn martial arts when you don’t even know what the Three Talents are?”
Cha Yusik’s pupils shook violently.
“If you understand, pick up your wooden sword. Today, it’s one thousand downward slashes.”
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