The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor [Novel] Chapter 27

Chapter 027

You’re Not Even Fit to Stand at His Feet

Upon returning to her dorm, Baek Yuyeon found a worn-out old book waiting for her.

[Comprehensive Theory of the Heavenly Veins]

The sheer thickness of it was staggering. It was easily as thick as two ordinary textbooks combined.

‘He wants me to memorize all of this in a week? And then he’ll accept me as his disciple?’

It was absurd. She hadn’t even said she wanted to be his disciple…

‘Should I at least take a look at the contents?’

Taking a deep breath, Yuyeon began flipping through the pages.

The first ten pages contained a basic meridian chart of the human body.

The Twelve Principal Meridians, the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, and the 365 acupoints.

It was foundational knowledge that any Martial Medical Arts major would have memorized by their first semester.

But as she turned more pages, her expression began to change.

‘They connect like this?’

At first, she thought it was just a unique concept.

But as she passed the twentieth page, then the thirtieth, a chill ran down her spine.

‘My god, what on earth is this?’

Each and every qi-and-blood pathway was drawn like an intricate blueprint. It went far beyond merely mapping the flow of energy. The book detailed exactly how each acupoint interacted with specific organs, explaining the precise principles by which they generated and counteracted one another.

Her hands moved faster. She was unwittingly drawn in.

‘This is a completely new approach! It’s a theory that hasn’t existed until now!’

Outside her window, darkness fell, and a red dawn eventually broke. She didn’t even notice her own hunger.

“This is crazy… truly crazy.”

Sometimes she gasped in shock; other times, she let out a deep sigh of realization.

The answers to unsolved medical mysteries lay right here in this book.

At the same time, she realized exactly why modern medicine had failed to advance further.

‘The very foundation they were trying to build upon was full of holes. No wonder progress was so slow.’

What if she released this book to the academic world right now?

She was certain it would turn the global Martial Medical Arts community upside down and usher in an entirely new paradigm.

A nagging question suddenly occurred to her.

‘How does the professor even have this book?’

A secret manual of this magnitude should absolutely be registered with the Association.

Or, at the very least, major guilds would have offered hundreds of billions, even trillions of won, to monopolize it.

Yet he just tossed something this precious to her like it was nothing?

Kang Hyeon had told her.

Memorize this entire book in a week.

Then come straight to his office to learn.

What did that mean?

It meant this book was only the beginning. There was even more to learn.

“Haah.”

She let out a long sigh.

If things were like this, how could she ever go back to Professor Hwang Yerim?

Having seen the vast ocean with her own eyes, how could she possibly return to a narrow well?

‘I’m sorry, Professor Hwang Yerim.’

I have to save Yuseol.

And… as a scholar, my blood is practically boiling with excitement.

She continued flipping through the pages, memorizing them at a terrifying speed.

* * *

“Next group, step forward.”

During the regular swordsmanship class, Seo Haein stepped onto the training ground where the female cadets were sparring.

She had always been known as the perennial last-place student of Class 20.

“Only the first three forms of the Clear Wind Swordsmanship are allowed for the basic stance. No variations are allowed. Begin!”

At the professor’s command, the spar began.

With a single clash, Haein was helplessly pushed back.

Her opponent was a classmate who consistently maintained a high rank.

‘No, I’m being pushed back again.’

She tried to continue with the forms of the Clear Wind Swordsmanship as usual, but she couldn’t find a single opening against her opponent’s fast and sharp continuous strikes.

At this rate, she would undoubtedly lose her wooden sword and face defeat again.

In that desperate moment, her body reacted before her mind did.

It was the very movement she had practiced every morning until she was gasping for breath.

‘Strike down. Hold. Thrust.’

Haein unconsciously lowered her center of gravity.

Planting her lower body firmly into the ground, she raised her wooden sword and took her opponent’s blade head-on.

Three Calamities Swordsmanship — Earth!

“H-Huh?”

Something surprising happened.

Haein, who was always pushed back, held her ground. Instead, the opponent’s sword bounced off the impact.

‘Next is Heaven.’

The moment she saw her opponent lose their balance, she naturally raised her wooden sword and brought it down.

“Kyaaak!”

Trying to block it, the opponent lost her grip on her sword and fell backward.

Haein stared blankly at the scene.

‘This actually works?’

Her heart raced.

Something she couldn’t achieve no matter how much she trained had suddenly become possible with Professor Kang Hyeon’s Three Calamities Swordsmanship!

It was a thrill she had never felt before in her life.

“Stop right there.”

But that excitement didn’t last three seconds.

“Seo Haein. Disqualified. You forfeit the match.”

“Pardon?”

Haein looked up in confusion.

“Professor, I clearly won this…”

“Won? Does this look like a win to you right now?”

The swordsmanship professor clicked his tongue coldly.

“This is the evaluation time for the Clear Wind Swordsmanship. Where do you think you are, swinging around some lowly street-level technique? Just because you got lucky and knocked down your opponent, don’t mistakenly believe that what you did was proper swordsmanship.”

“B-But.”

She wanted to argue.

No matter how much she thought about it, the Clear Wind Swordsmanship just didn’t suit her.

And if they were debating what was right or wrong in swordsmanship, wasn’t the stronger technique ultimately the right one?

“I will deduct points. Step back.”

Haein bit her lower lip hard.

It was unfair.

‘The professor is wrong.’

She was even more certain now.

In this entire Academy, the only person teaching her what true swordsmanship meant was Professor Kang Hyeon.

* * *

Unlike the quiet Seo Haein, Han Taeho was quite sociable, which meant he had many friends.

“Hey, Han Taeho.”

On his way to class, a group of classmates approached him.

“Are you really still going to that class?”

“Professor Kang Hyeon’s class?”

“Yeah.”

“I am, why?”

“Isn’t it exhausting? What can you even learn from a drunkard professor?”

Out of all the countless freshmen, Han Taeho was the only one taking Kang Hyeon’s class.

Because of that, a few kids had shown some interest.

“I just learn what I’m taught.”

Taeho made up a vague excuse, but inwardly, he snorted.

‘A drunkard? Nothing to learn?’

What a bunch of ignorant frogs in a well!

Even Cha Yusik, the second son of the Heavenly Wolf Guild, and the mad dog Kwak Dojin didn’t dare breathe too loudly in front of Professor Kang Hyeon.

Besides, hadn’t he seen it with his own eyes just a few days ago? The overwhelming aura of the Emperor’s Sword Form, powerful enough to crush the world, had been unleashed with nothing but a single wooden branch.

‘It’s actually better this way.’

The less his classmates knew about Professor Kang Hyeon’s true worth, the better it was for Taeho.

After all, they were ultimately his competitors.

“Hey, but is it true? That the professor only teaches the Three Calamities Swordsmanship during class.”

“What’s wrong with the Three Calamities Swordsmanship?”

“Honestly, it’s a scam. Does it make sense to teach a sword technique that even neighborhood kids know at the Academy?”

At that, other classmates chimed in.

“Exactly. Honestly, I’d feel like my tuition was being wasted.”

“You got played for a fool.”

“Are you going to say you learned the Three Calamities Swordsmanship when you apply to a guild later?”

As the kids giggled around him, Taeho slowly began to feel annoyed.

“Hey, don’t run your mouth if you don’t know anything. Do you have any idea how good the Three Calamities Swordsmanship is? Don’t you know you need a solid foundation to learn a higher-level martial art?”

At Taeho’s serious response, his classmates paused for a moment before bursting into laughter.

“Puhahaha!”

“What is he saying? Is he actually brainwashed?”

“Make sure you use the Three Calamities Swordsmanship during the dungeon practice.”

“Why don’t you just use only the Three Calamities Swordsmanship during the midterms?”

That finally got Taeho to bite.

“Yeah, I was planning to do exactly that anyway.”

“What?”

Unable to control his youthful pride, Taeho blurted it out in a fit of anger.

“The professor already made me a promise anyway. He said that if I make the top five in the grade using only the Three Calamities Swordsmanship, he’ll pass down a higher-level martial art. Just wait and see. I’ll prove it to you.”

Having said his piece, Taeho strode away.

He didn’t want to waste any more energy arguing with such ignorant fools.

“…What is he talking about.”

“Is he crazy?”

The classmates stared at Taeho’s back with pathetic looks on their faces.

* * *

[Did you hear? The drunkard professor told them to only use the Three Calamities Swordsmanship during the midterms.]

– ???
– What does that even mean?
– Specifically, he said if they make the top five in the grade with the Three Calamities Swordsmanship, he’ll teach them a higher-level martial art lol.
– He’s a total scammer.
– For real. He never even had a higher-level martial art to give them in the first place, so he’s just setting an impossible condition to get out of it.
– Why is that professor even still here when he causes so much trouble?
– I wish he’d just disappear;

Due to Han Taeho’s mistake, the rumor spread rapidly and eventually reached the ears of the professors.

A few days later, when swordsmanship practice came around again…

“Hup!”

Desperately trying to evade her opponent’s attacks with the Clear Wind Swordsmanship, Haein finally resorted to the Three Calamities Swordsmanship.

Her opponent’s wooden sword spun through the air and fell to the ground.

She had completely subdued her opponent.

‘It’s amazing.’

How could an opponent who seemed so strong be this easy to handle just by using the Three Calamities Swordsmanship?

Honestly, Haein wanted to completely erase the Clear Wind Swordsmanship from her mind.

“Seo Haein!”

However, the professor in charge eventually caught sight of it.

He strode down from the podium and blocked her path.

“I clearly instructed you to spar using only the Clear Wind Swordsmanship. Do my words seem like a joke to you?”

“I apologize. My body just reacted…”

“Your body reacted first? Hah?”

The professor let out a sneering laugh.

“There’s been a very unpleasant rumor circulating the Academy these past few days. You think you can make the top five in the midterms with something like the Three Calamities Swordsmanship? Is that why you’re doing this?”

“…”

Haein bit her lip, and the professor continued his venomous remarks.

“It seems that dim-witted lunatic of a professor filled your head with hot air, promising to give you a higher-level martial art, but don’t be mistaken. The only reason he teaches that cheap, third-rate martial art is because it’s the only thing he actually knows. I can’t even stand to look at how pathetic you are, playing along with an incompetent professor’s scam.”

A public humiliation.

The classmates gathered in the training ground also began to giggle, mocking Haein.

Normally, Haein would have shrunk back and lowered her head.

She always had.

But.

Strength gathered in Haein’s fists.

Professor Kang Hyeon is incompetent?

A scam?

“…Professor Kang Hyeon is not that kind of person. He’s not a scammer, and he’s not incompetent.”

“What did you say?”

The professor scoffed in disbelief.

“Who do you think you’re talking back to so arrogantly?”

Normally, she would have stopped there.

But Haein had also seen Acanet, and everything she had kept suppressed until now finally exploded.

“…Honestly, you don’t even come close to him! Don’t run your mouth when you don’t know anything!”

“…!”

A heavy silence fell over the area.

No one had expected such a shocking statement to come out of Seo Haein’s mouth.

“You really have gone crazy, haven’t you!”

His patience snapping, the professor violently slapped Haein across the cheek.

With a sharp sound, Haein’s head snapped to the side.

A bright red handprint welled up on her pale cheek, but she didn’t shrink away.

She turned her head back and glared straight at the professor.

“…It seems you haven’t come to your senses yet. Did that drunkard professor teach you that vicious lack of manners too? Fine. I will discipline you properly today until you come to your senses, and restore the authority of the teaching staff.”

Just as the professor snorted in anger and rolled up his sleeves.

“What do you think you’re doing right now?”

A languid voice rang out from the entrance of the training ground.

Everyone’s gaze turned toward the sound.

Standing there, holding a whiskey bottle, was Kang Hyeon in a crooked stance.