The Genius Martial Artist Who Remembers Everything [Novel] Chapter 211

Chapter 211. The Enemy’s Favor (4)

The Academy. A four-person dormitory.

Ak Jupyeong furrowed his brow as he massaged his foot, which had just been treated with his family’s secret arts.

“What are you talking about?”

“Rumor has it Jin Soun is gathering people to break the Jegal Family’s mechanical formation.”

“What?”

Even hearing it a second time, it sounded absurd.

Breaking a formation? The Seven-Star Seven-Catch Formation had been around for over fifteen years without anyone figuring out how to break it. And now he was going to break the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams All-Encompassing Formation, the Jegal Family’s newest masterpiece?

“So the Chairman of the White Faction brought in the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams Formation… And the people trapped inside…”

His roommate kept talking, but the words faded into white noise. Only three phrases kept echoing in his mind: Jin Soun, breaking a formation, and people.

Suddenly, a jolt went through him.

This is a chance! A golden opportunity!

If Jin Soun failed, they could hold him responsible, expel him from the Academy, and completely ruin his sect.

And on the other hand… what if he actually succeeded?

That would mean he somehow already knew the weakness of a newly developed, top-secret mechanical formation. He’d never be able to clear the suspicion of being a spy!

It was an absolute checkmate!

He shot up from his seat, completely ignoring his injured foot.

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“Didn’t you say the White Faction’s event was at the Grand Horse Track?”

“Yeah…”

He limped heavily toward the door.

“Hey, Jupyeong!”

Ignoring his roommate’s calls, Ak Jupyeong forced his bad leg forward as fast as he could.

His family’s physician had warned him that the injury would leave a permanent disability. Even with a perfect recovery, a fatal awkwardness would always plague his footwork. For a martial artist, it was a death sentence. He was doomed to forever lag behind his peers.

Jin Soun! Did you really think you could ruin my life and just walk away?

He had been crippled in an ambush, yet Jin Soun was out there living large as the Executive Representative. Ak Jupyeong could never forgive him.

He had planned to use his family’s influence to pressure the Taeul Sect, but he also needed personal revenge. Ak Byeongbi had reprimanded him over the incident, but even the Inspection Pavilion’s Head didn’t seem fond of Jin Soun.

If he could just mobilize the Inspection Pavilion’s power one more time…

Suddenly, a figure blocked his path.

“Ak Jupyeong.”

A small boy with unkempt, beggar-like hair stepped out of an alleyway.

“…Yayul Geuk?”

“You finally came out.”

Seeing the face of the boy who was the root cause of this entire mess made his blood boil.

“Get lost. I don’t have time for you right now.”

Instead of shrinking back, Yayul Geuk took a step forward. His aura had completely changed. This wasn’t the weak boy who used to just stand there and take a beating.

“Is that so? Well, I have business with you.”

“You little bastard… I’m going to chop all your limbs off eventually, so make sure they stay attached until I’m ready.”

“Why? Are you scared of me?”

Rooted to the spot by his bad foot, Ak Jupyeong could only yell.

“You wretched little shit…!”

Had the rumors of his crippling injury already spread? Was that why pathetic nobodies were suddenly looking down on him?

“You still don’t understand why you got beaten to a pulp, do you?”

Clack, clack.

Ak Jupyeong drew the collapsible spear from his waist and locked it into place. In response, Yayul Geuk raised his hands and settled into a martial stance.

Ak Jupyeong channeled the Mukcheon Dark Thunder Divine Art, preparing to unleash the Ak Family Spearman Art.

“Fine. There’s no need to delay your punishment.”

The spear cut through the air with a terrifying hiss. He usually relied on the Dark Cloud Lightning Spear, but his bad foot prevented him from executing a proper charge. Even so, the spearman arts that had built the Ak Family’s reputation were nothing to scoff at. It would be more than enough to sever the limbs of a foolish puppy who didn’t know his place.

Swish! Crack!

The spear thrust—aimed squarely at Yayul Geuk’s heart and dantian—strangely twisted off course.

“Ugh?!”

Despite the power behind the strike, the blade warped and stabbed empty air. Seizing the opening, Yayul Geuk closed the distance and slammed both fists into Ak Jupyeong’s abdomen.

Realizing something was wrong, Ak Jupyeong frantically tried to twist away, but he was too late.

Pow!

“Keugh!”

Stumbling back five steps, Ak Jupyeong felt his insides twist. The unexpected strike made his breakfast churn violently.

He had no idea what had happened, but Yayul Geuk’s skills were completely different. Ak Jupyeong desperately tried to deny the genuine fear bubbling up toward this tiny, frail boy.

“You fucking bastard!”

Flooding his spear with seventy percent of his inner qi to manifest spear aura, Ak Jupyeong dragged his bad foot forward and unleashed a flurry of rapid thrusts.

Swish! Swish!

Watching the storm of spear strikes that threatened to turn him into a bloody sieve, Yayul Geuk muttered softly.

“As expected, you’re absolutely nothing compared to him.”

With cold eyes, Yayul Geuk dove straight into Ak Jupyeong’s guard without a shred of fear. He recalled watching Jin Soun fight against Ak Byeongbi, the Head of the Inspection Pavilion. Jin Soun had charged directly into a storm of spear strikes far more ferocious than this.

Forming a hand blade, Yayul Geuk caught the spear shaft and unleashed the technique, Lotus.

Screeech!

The flexible sections of the spear were forcibly twisted until they finally shattered.

Crack.

The sudden kinetic rebound traveling up the shaft forced Ak Jupyeong to drop his weapon. Panicking, he unleashed the Phoenix Divine Fist at Yayul Geuk.

But Yayul Geuk merely looked at him with a mocking sneer.

“Do you have any idea how badly he beat the shit out of me while I was practicing this?”

“…What?”

Yayul Geuk’s eyes flashed with violent intent.

“It means you’re dead!”

Before Ak Jupyeong could process the words, Yayul Geuk grabbed his incoming fist and executed Snow. Ak Jupyeong was dragged helplessly forward and launched into the air.

W-What is…?!

His body floated for a split second, defying gravity, before being slammed vertically into the earth.

BOOM!

It was a technique he had never experienced in his life, accompanied by a pain he had never felt before. But above all… it brought a terrifying sense of dread he never thought he would feel.

“Keeugh…”

Yayul Geuk approached the groaning Ak Jupyeong and looked down at him.

“You don’t think this is the end, do you?”

The thoughts of revenge against Jin Soun that had consumed Ak Jupyeong’s mind just moments ago went entirely blank.

The Academy. Headmaster’s Office.

“Ahem…”

I felt it every time I came here, but this office had terrible ventilation. The air always felt suffocating.

“Ahem, ahem!”

Or maybe it was just because of the people sitting in here.

After breaking the Jegal Family’s mechanical formation, I tried my best to put on an exaggerated show of being gravely injured to buy some sympathy. But Sama Jeong, who had been urgently summoned from the Medical Pavilion, took one look at my hand and declared: ‘He’s fine.’

How could he look at a critically injured patient and claim that smearing some ointment on it was enough?! The guy had zero tact.

It really hurt, damn it!

“Ugh… my internal meridians must be twisted. My hand keeps shaking. I should hurry back and rest…”

I showed off my violently trembling hand, but Jegal Somyeong spoke with a deadpan expression.

“The hand that looks severely injured is your left. Why are you shaking your right hand?”

The Jegal Family formation masters stared at me in utter disbelief.

Oops, was it?

I guess I was in so much pain I got confused.

“I-Invisible injuries are always much more critical.”

“Sama Jeong was specially recruited for his peerless medical skills. Currently, there are very few people in the Medical Pavilion who can match his abilities—especially considering his age.”

“…”

Silence fell over the room as I shut my mouth.

No, seriously, I just saved people’s lives! Does it make sense to set up an interrogation room like this?

This is exactly why the Murim Alliance falls to the Demonic Cult…

“First, there is something of utmost importance we must ask you.”

Led by Jegal Somyeong, the formation masters sitting opposite me glared at me with piercing eyes.

“How did you know about the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams All-Encompassing Formation?”

Well, at least they had stopped talking down to me in half-speech. I guess that was an improvement?

But I was in way too much danger to find comfort in that.

“I didn’t know.”

“…”

If they caught me on a technicality here, I might actually get dragged off to the Inspection Pavilion’s basement.

The eyes of the men surrounding me narrowed suspiciously.

“You didn’t know?”

They collectively scoffed.

I mean, it wasn’t like I could tell them I knew about it because I’d experienced the future!

One of the formation masters asked, his voice dripping with suspicion.

“The Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams All-Encompassing Formation is a mechanical formation that only a tiny fraction of the most elite members within the Jegal Family have been researching. Forget outsiders—barely anyone inside the family even knows it exists.”

“So how would I possibly know about it?”

“…”

The master who asked the question opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish, completely at a loss for words.

Of course, I couldn’t just keep dodging the question forever.

The Jegal Family’s mechanical formations were so heavily guarded that the Murim Alliance strictly managed them. It was a top secret among top secrets of the White Faction Alliance.

This wasn’t a situation I could just brush off with an ‘I dunno!’

Sigh… what do I do?

I couldn’t exactly tell them the truth either.

Even if I said, ‘Your mechanical formation gets totally cracked by the Demonic Brain in the future,’ they wouldn’t believe me anyway.

Plus, who knew what kind of hysterical fit the Jegal Family would throw if their pride was wounded.

While I agonized over this, the Jegal Family masters relentlessly pressured me.

“You must answer properly. Regardless of your merits or faults in this incident, this concerns the leak of highly classified information.”

Fuckers… ungrateful bastards.

But it was a serious issue, so I couldn’t just blindly curse them out.

I racked my brain trying to squeeze out a plausible excuse, but nothing came to mind.

That was when—

“You heard it from Cheongi, didn’t you?”

A voice of salvation echoed through the room.

“Excuse me?”

“What does that…?”

Jegal Somyeong took a sip of the tea Buk Wonpyeong had prepared and spoke calmly.

“Did your sect not take Cheongi in? The trouble Cheongi caused within the family a while ago was also related to Living Formations.”

Oho.

So the reason Jegal Cheongi had been locked in solitary confinement wasn’t just because he was obsessed with tinkering with contraptions?

That was new information to me.

“T-Then the one who leaked the classified information was Young Master Cheongi?”

“Tsk.”

Jegal Somyeong’s eyes turned sharp at the idiotic question.

“Do you take Cheongi for a fool with absolutely no sense of discretion?”

“But…”

“Cheongi merely told him about the conceptual existence of Living Formations.”

“But, Chief Strategist! Even if he knew of its existence, that doesn’t mean he could just break the formation!”

Jegal Somyeong slowly turned his head and gestured toward me with his chin.

“Look at who we’re talking about.”

“Sir?”

“He’s the one who dismantled the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Extinguishing Formation at the Demonic Spirit Plateau. Were you unaware of this?”

“…”

Was it just my imagination, or was there a solid sense of trust in his eyes?

“He’s a monster who strolled through the Soul-Extinguishing Formation like it was his own living room, even despite the harsh environment and the interference of the Mount Mao Sect. I suppose the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams All-Encompassing Formation didn’t feel all that difficult to him.”

For some reason, a faint smile was playing on Jegal Somyeong’s lips.

His family had just suffered a massive humiliation, so why was he smiling?

Has he lost his mind?

“Even so, the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams All-Encompassing Formation is…”

Smack!

Jegal Somyeong slammed his hand on the table, silencing the formation master.

“Are you all still frogs trapped in a well?! Have I not told you time and time again?! Look at the broader world! Did you really think I didn’t know you rushed out a half-baked formation just because you felt threatened by the Soul-Extinguishing Formation?!”

“…”

The formation masters instantly snapped their mouths shut like they’d eaten a mouthful of honey.

Without dropping the anger from his face, Jegal Somyeong looked at me.

“You explain the rest.”

Wait, I have to explain it?

I panicked for a moment at the sudden pass, but my survival instincts kicked in, and I started spewing bullshit.

“When I first heard the concept of a Living Formation from Cheongi, I thought an absolute, unparalleled formation would be born. But then I realized—just as there is no perfect martial art in this world, there can be no perfect mechanical formation either, right?”

At my confident tone, the formation masters slowly raised their heads to look at me.

“So I spent weeks… no, months, visualizing this theoretical Living Formation, running simulations in my head. And eventually, I felt like I could probably break it.”

“Weeks?”

“Months?”

They clearly didn’t like the numbers I was throwing out.

Hey, the Demonic Brain completely cracked the All-Encompassing Formation in less than three months.

I was just using him as my baseline!

At this point, I felt something boiling up in my chest and rushing to my head.

I-If this keeps up, I might actually turn into a demonic practitioner…

“Yes. So I just did what I imagined, and it worked.”

“…”

“…”

The formation masters all simultaneously looked like they were chewing on shit.

Damn right. You should’ve been polite when you had the chance.

But my answer seemed to have hit the exact trigger point of these so-called Jegal Family geniuses.

“Absolute nonsense! Our Jegal Family spent years creating this! How dare the likes of the Taeul Sect…”

Tap.

Jegal Somyeong tapped the table, and the formation master flinched. But the unsaid words had already naturally completed themselves in my head.

“…The likes of the Taeul Sect what?”

“…”

“I said, the likes of the Taeul Sect what?! Say it! I said say it!”

When I leaped up and grabbed the formation master by the collar, the other masters panicked and desperately tried to pull me off him.

But did they really think that would work?

How could people who had spent their entire lives playing with books at a desk overpower a monster with four cycles of internal energy?

“I said speak! What about the Taeul Sect! What about the Taeul Sect?!”

“Ugh, ghk, urk!”

Buk Wonpyeong stepped in and grabbed my arm as I violently shook the master.

“That’s enough.”

I glared at him, my eyes wide open.

“What?! Senior Brother! Are you seriously telling me to forgive a bastard who dared to insult our sect?!”

“…”

Panic flashed in Buk Wonpyeong’s eyes too. Naturally, the formation masters were terrified.

Do these guys have any idea whose sect they’re messing with? Sure, he’s a layman disciple, but this is the sect of the Academy Headmaster, you bastards!

“I’m telling you, they dared to insult the Taeul Sect—your sect, Senior Brother! You shouldn’t be stopping me, you should be wringing his neck!”

“What are you talking about? Why would the Three Purities Formless Sword be in the Taeul Sect…”

“…Haa.”

Since Buk Wonpyeong had let go of my arm with a sigh, I prepared to lift the formation master off the ground and shake him in earnest.

But…

“Stop.”

One quiet word spoken as he sipped his tea made me flinch and freeze in place.

Ah, I was so close to successfully burying the topic in chaos.

I let go of the heavily rumpled, wild-haired formation master. The others quickly shielded him, never dropping their wary gazes from me.

“We will conclude this matter here.”

“Chief Strategist!”

“Chief Strategist! We need a more thorough investigation—”

“We cannot let this go!”

As the masters collectively protested, Jegal Somyeong’s eyes grew fierce.

“Do you all wish to bear the heavy responsibility for this incident?”

“…”

“If we proceed with an investigation, your faults will naturally be brought to light. Do you wish to pay the price for coaxing a young master of the family into installing an incomplete device?!”

“…”

The incredibly arrogant formation masters visibly shivered.

“We will conclude this matter here. Is there anyone else who still has something to say?”

The formation masters simply shook their heads instead of answering.

“Leave.”

At Jegal Somyeong’s dismissal, the masters all stood up at once. Since I also had no more business here, I tried to leave as well.

“I did not tell Jin Soun to leave.”

“…My tea is empty, so I was going to get a refill.”

“Headmaster, you may leave as well.”

“…Yes.”

“Wait, why…?”

I shot a desperate SOS look to my old Senior Brother, but he just shook his head with a sigh and walked out.

You, you! You completely useless old Senior Brother!

Trickle.

“The tea is overflowing.”

“…”

No matter how slowly I poured it, the teacup only had so much space. In the end, I sat back down in front of Jegal Somyeong.

“…”

Even after I sat down, Jegal Somyeong didn’t speak for a long time.

What could he possibly want to talk about in private? I racked my brain, but nothing came to mind.

Was he going to spout that nonsense about joining the All-Knowing Pavilion again?

Just as I was trying to force myself to imagine a positive future…

Jegal Somyeong asked in a heavy voice.

“What is your true identity?”

“Excuse me? What do you mean…”

“No matter how much Cheongi follows you, there is no way he would leak the family’s classified secrets.”

“…”

“What is your true identity?”

My heart plummeted to the pit of my stomach.

Fuck, he’s flipping the script like this?