Chapter 196: Chapter 196
“I set the legs back in place, but…… hmm…… Even if you recover fully, aftereffects will probably remain.”
At the Physician’s calm voice, Ak Ju-pyeong’s face crumpled like paper.
“Do-don’t spout bullshit! Don’t you dare make excuses because your skill is lacking and you can’t treat me properly!”
“…….”
“The Physicians Pavilion……! Send me to the Murim Alliance’s Physicians Pavilion!”
“……Only Murim Alliance members may go to the Murim Alliance’s Physicians Pavilion. You are not yet a formal Alliance member.”
At the Physician’s firm refusal, Ak Ju-pyeong’s face turned red and blue.
“You stupid quack of a physician! How is it that even my clan’s physician could fix this, but you cannot!”
At the continued shrieking, the Physician’s face turned cold.
“You have quite the foul mouth.”
“Wh-what is your name! I will never let this matter pass!”
“Sima Jeong. Grade Five Special Alliance Member of the Murim Alliance.”
At Sima Jeong’s words, Ak Ju-pyeong’s face tightened.
For someone of his age to have already risen to a Grade Five Alliance Member also meant that he was different from ordinary physicians.
“Why? Do you wish to make an issue of it?”
“…….”
“I will make an issue of your words today.”
“…….”
“So I had best finish the treatment quickly.”
With those words, Sima Jeong left the inner room.
“Haah!”
Ak Ju-pyeong let out a long sigh and ground his teeth.
He was not particularly afraid even if some mere physician made an issue of it.
The power of his clan had already spread throughout the Murim Alliance, and in the Execution Pavilion, the highest inspection agency, his uncle was one of the real authorities.
However, the fact remained that he had received a severe injury after being ambushed by Jin So-un.
Even if he tore Jin So-un to death afterward, the pride cracked by this incident would not recover.
“Jin So-un…… I’ll tear apart not only your Junior Brothers, but your sect as well.”
BANG.
When someone suddenly opened the door and came in, Ak Ju-pyeong’s brow furrowed deeply.
“Just what bastard enters without making his presence…….”
After confirming the other party’s face, Ak Ju-pyeong clamped his mouth shut.
The Uninvited Guest entered the inner room and slowly approached Ak Ju-pyeong while dragging the chair placed in the middle.
SCREEEECH──
The chair scraping across the floor made a strange sound and created an ominous atmosphere.
For some reason, Ak Ju-pyeong forcibly shook off the fear that tightened around his body and glared at the Uninvited Guest.
SCREEEECH──
Stop.
Soon the sound stopped, and the Uninvited Guest sat on the chair with the backrest facing forward, looking at Ak Ju-pyeong without emotion.
“Jin So-un…….”
Ak Ju-pyeong ground his teeth.
“You bastard…… after daring to do something like this……!”
“Do not even dream of just letting it pass.”
“…….”
When the words he had been cut off from saying were strangely completed, Ak Ju-pyeong pressed his mouth shut.
Jin So-un rested his arms on the backrest and tilted his head slightly.
“Ak Ju-pyeong. You crossed the line.”
“…….”
Tap, tap, tap.
Jin So-un tapped the backrest of the chair rhythmically with his finger and said,
“You crossed it by far.”
Soon, he propped his chin on his hand and calmly swept his gaze over Ak Ju-pyeong’s entire body.
His gaze was endlessly indifferent, yet at the same time, endlessly cold.
“If I followed what I feel right now, I would break all your limbs and then destroy your Dantian.”
Ak Ju-pyeong trembled without realizing it, then clenched his teeth and answered.
“I-I’m Ak Ju-pyeong of the Shandong Ak Clan! Do you think you can do whatever you want to me?!”
Heh.
Jin So-un raised one side of his lips all the way to his ear.
“Do you think this place is the Ak Clan?”
“…….”
“Even if the Ak Clan comes after you become crippled, what meaning would that have? You’ll be spending the rest of your life in bed eating gruel anyway.”
“…….”
Only then grasping reality at Jin So-un’s words, Ak Ju-pyeong trembled again.
Gulp.
When Jin So-un stretched out his hand, Ak Ju-pyeong flinched and retreated backward.
But a firm wall felt cold against his back.
Without realizing it, Ak Ju-pyeong squeezed his eyes shut.
When no sensation came even after some time passed, he opened his eyes narrowly.
“……Hup!”
Jin So-un’s hand, which had been heading toward Ak Ju-pyeong’s neck, stopped moving.
Then it changed direction and patted his shoulder.
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of acting with my own hands. If I did, that brat would probably charge at me to the death instead of at you.”
“……What?”
“So recover quickly and start your Academy life again. You have to recover even a day sooner so that bastard’s madness can find its proper path and go to you instead of me.”
“What does that…….”
Having said what he needed to say, Jin So-un turned his back on Ak Ju-pyeong, not caring what he babbled, and walked toward the door.
Then he suddenly stopped.
“Ah, right. Do not think about withdrawing from the Academy, just in case.”
A killing intent terrifying enough to make one’s teeth chatter stretched out from Jin So-un’s entire body.
“Then I really will chase you to the ends of hell and kill you.”
With those words, Jin So-un left the inner room.
“Huff… huff… huff…….”
Only after Jin So-un left did the tension that had tightened around his whole body loosen, and Ak Ju-pyeong felt tremendous shame at the fact that he had been this tense because of someone like Jin So-un.
“……Jin So-un! You damned bastard!! I will absolutely, absolutely take revenge……!”
The sound of Ak Ju-pyeong grinding his teeth echoed hollowly through the entire inner room.
***
On my way out after warning Ak Ju-pyeong.
When I saw the faces of the people approaching this way, I laughed without realizing it.
Had they heard the laughter?
The Instructors and Teaching Masters all looked at me at once.
“Jin So-un……. You should be under Disciplinary Action right now. Who told you that you could wander around like this?”
“Disciplinary Action?”
When I tilted my head, the face of the Teaching Master who appeared to be their representative twisted.
“The Instructor Meeting has already begun discussing the procedure for your Disciplinary Action. Do you not know that depending on the result, in the worst case, it may lead to Expulsion from the Academy?”
Ha, where are these bastards trying to peddle bullshit?
“How amusing.”
“What?”
A sneer escaped me because I was so dumbfounded.
“Until the Academy Head approves it, the Disciplinary Action isn’t confirmed, is it?”
“……Y-you!”
Do you know who I am?
Huh?
I’m a man who became martial brothers with your Academy Head, you know!
“Jin So-un, show proper courtesy to the Teaching Master.”
“Courtesy, my ass…….”
When I picked my ear and looked at the bastards indifferently, the Teaching Master at the head of them, and even the Instructors behind him, trembled.
“Moreover, expelling an Academy student is an important matter that must even receive Mantongbu’s approval. In investigating the incident, the issue of the Murim Academy’s Teaching Masters and Instructors neglecting their duties will also be mentioned. Will that be all right?”
“……You mannerless bastard!”
Wow, high praise had burst out.
This was no different from the Teaching Master admitting he had lost the war of words.
“Well, that sounds entertaining. Teaching Masters and Instructors who neglected a student until he was beaten nearly to death. And me, who assaulted the perpetrator in order to save that Academy student. I wonder who will receive the heavier punishment.”
“……Do you think the Orthodox Path Association and the Shandong Ak Clan will let this matter pass?”
“And on top of that, Teaching Masters and Instructors who should have maintained neutrality were clinging to a certain faction and looking after the convenience of individual Academy students.”
“Grr!”
I pointed with both hands toward the inner room where Ak Ju-pyeong was lying.
“Hurry up and go lick his asshole. If you lick it for him while his heart is weak like now, won’t Ak Ju-pyeong like it even more?”
I walked straight through the space between the Teaching Masters and Instructors.
In the courtyard of the Medicine Hall, Namgung Seon-hwa and Seong Mo-ran were there.
They must have heard roughly what had happened, because their faces were full of worry.
“Young Master Jin, what on earth happened?”
“It’s nothing much.”
“How can it be nothing much! The entire Academy is in an uproar because of that matter right now……!”
“Well, I’ll probably receive a minor punishment, but I don’t think I’ll be expelled or anything. Ak Ju-pyeong’s evil deeds are far too great.”
Although I said that, Seong Mo-ran and Namgung Seon-hwa still could not relax their expressions.
The two briefly met each other’s eyes, and this time, Namgung Seon-hwa stepped forward and spoke.
“The Shandong Ak Clan is also the clan that holds the most major public posts in the Murim Alliance among the Five Great Clans.”
“Hmm…… Is that so?”
This was something I knew roughly as well.
But I did not pretend to know it in front of Namgung Seon-hwa.
Regardless of my state of mind, for some reason, Namgung Seon-hwa’s face was stiffer than usual.
“In particular, they have many people stationed in the Execution Pavilion.”
“Yes?”
Hm? What does that mean?
I hurriedly searched the library in my head and began looking for the personnel management ledger.
Meanwhile, Namgung Seon-hwa continued speaking.
“You know that among the halls of the Execution Pavilion, the Third Hall is the most vicious, right?”
Not only in the Murim Alliance, but even among the Black Path Murim, it was known that once one entered the building of the Execution Pavilion’s Third Hall, one could not return intact.
“…….”
Namgung Seon-hwa nodded.
“The Third Hall Master, Blood Ghost Flying Spear, is Ak Ju-pyeong’s second uncle.”
“…….”
Just then, as I searched through the personnel records of the Execution Pavilion from around this time in my past life, I also found the name of the Third Hall Master.
Third Hall Master of the Execution Pavilion, Ak Byeong-bi.
Damn it, he was certainly a man of the Shandong Ak Clan.
***
‘U……um…….’
Regaining his senses, Yaryul Geuk was startled by the unfamiliar ceiling and opened his eyes wide.
“Wh-where is this……!”
Then, at the voice he suddenly heard, he snapped to attention and turned his head.
“J-Jin So-un!”
He had felt unpleasant because he thought he had seen that detestable face in a dream.
“You…… if you show yourself before my eyes……!”
Instinctively, Yaryul Geuk bared his teeth and forcibly raised his killing intent.
However, the killing intent he emitted with a body that had not yet recovered was weak beyond measure.
Jin So-un, who had been watching Yaryul Geuk, spoke indifferently as if he did not feel any killing intent at all.
“Why did you give up?”
A question whose meaning he could not understand.
When Yaryul Geuk said nothing, Jin So-un took one step closer and asked again.
“Why did you give up?”
“Wh-what are you talking about!”
Jin So-un’s eyes flashed sharply.
“Their hands were harsh, but even so, it was not enough to kill you. Why did you give up?”
“…….”
Yaryul Geuk lowered his head, having even forgotten that he had been angry at Jin So-un.
“Why did you give up?”
A persistent question.
“Th-that’s none of your business!”
He tried to rebel with effort.
“Why did you give up?”
But Jin So-un continued driving Yaryul Geuk into a corner.
“Why did you give up?”
At the repeated question, Yaryul Geuk’s eyes finally turned fierce.
“What the hell do you even know……! Who are you to interfere!”
“So you did give up.”
“……Crazy bastard.”
Jin So-un fell silent for a moment, then asked in a voice carrying a chill.
“Was it comfortable when you gave up?”
That question gouged into his chest again.
More painfully than a fist.
More sharply than a kick.
But the cold voice showed no sign of stopping.
“I’m asking whether running away felt peaceful.”
All Yaryul Geuk could do was glare.
As if that gaze was laughable, Jin So-un smiled faintly.
“If it were me, I think I would have remembered my brothers.”
“……!”
In that instant, fire lit in Yaryul Geuk’s eyes.
However, Jin So-un’s indifferent voice continued.
“Your dead second eldest brother, or your crippled third eldest brother, for example.”
“……Y-you!”
As if he had recalled something, Jin So-un struck his own forehead with a smack.
“Ah! I heard you attended the Regular Exam with the money your eldest brother earned over his entire life, didn’t you? That brother is pitiful too. How absurd must he feel, thinking he wasted his life on such a worthless bastard?”
Yaryul Geuk felt as if he could hear something bursting inside his head.
“You, you son of a bitch……!”
Without realizing it, he lunged toward Jin So-un.
Whether his body was in good condition or not did not matter.
Because if he did not hurl himself forward in a fit, he could not endure it.
Yaryul Geuk launched himself from the bed and immediately thrust out the Hard Thunder Fist Art, aiming only for Jin So-un’s vital points.
Tap, tap, tap.
But Jin So-un lightly neutralized the fist techniques with one hand, then directly struck Yaryul Geuk’s Numbing Acupoint.
Yaryul Geuk thrashed his body and struggled.
“R-release this! I’ll kill you!”
“This is the Medicine Hall, where patients are present.”
Jin So-un lifted Yaryul Geuk with one arm and left the Medicine Hall as he was, heading toward a training ground.
As soon as they arrived at a small training ground with no one around, he threw Yaryul Geuk down, and at some point, he had already released the Numbing Acupoint.
Looking down at Yaryul Geuk, Jin So-un provoked him.
“If it is here, it doesn’t matter how much of a scene you make.”
Yaryul Geuk immediately rolled his eyes wildly and shouted.
“You damned bastard!”
The Hard Thunder Fist Art unfolded from Yaryul Geuk’s hands.
It was a fist art fierce and fast as lightning.
Without even thinking of dodging, Jin So-un grabbed his shoulder, hooked his leg, and flung him to the ground.
THUD.
Yaryul Geuk tried to get up quickly, but this time, Jin So-un snatched him by the nape and pulled him forward.
Yaryul Geuk rolled messily across the ground as if executing Lazy Donkey Roll.
“What? With skill like this, who do you think you’re going to kill?”
“Aaaaaaagh!”
Downpour Palm Art poured out and seized three directions around Jin So-un.
Still without dodging, Jin So-un raised a knife hand and neutralized the palm techniques.
Jin So-un’s movements as he dealt with Yaryul Geuk’s struggles were endlessly light, and light again.
“With this, I don’t think I even need to use martial arts.”
“…….”
Yaryul Geuk forcibly held back his rising breath and aimed for his final move.
Jin So-un approached Yaryul Geuk as if he was not even concerned.
“I understand why Ak Ju-pyeong harassed you so persistently. Bastards who are all mouth are naturally pathetic.”
Jin So-un’s fist flew in roughly.
Yaryul Geuk, who watched the fist’s trajectory to the end, seized Jin So-un’s fist and unfolded Lotus of the Flowing Cloud Divine Art.
It was a decisive move that even Ak Ju-pyeong’s group had been caught by several times before experiencing it directly.
‘It worked……!’
Thinking his attack had landed, Yaryul Geuk looked at Jin So-un.
Jin So-un’s body floated up, rotating halfway in the air.
If he slammed him into the ground like this, the impact would jolt him awake.
If he followed up with an attack then…….
“A bastard without even a basic understanding of momentum is trying to use the Transplanting Flower and Grafting Tree Art.”
In that instant, Yaryul Geuk doubted his own ears.
Jin So-un should have been utterly flustered, yet he spoke incomprehensible words in midair.
Tap.
Then he landed on the ground and, as he did, changed the position of his hand and pulled Yaryul Geuk in.
In that instant, Yaryul Geuk’s body floated into the air, dragged by an enormous pulling force he could not resist.
‘Th-the Transplanting Flower and Grafting Tree Art?’
No one in the Flowing Cloud Sect had ever produced this degree of powerful pulling force.
CRASH.
Slammed into the ground, Yaryul Geuk’s head went blank from the shock that seemed to shatter his entire body, and tinnitus rang in his ears.
He had received back several times the force he himself had produced.
Because the impact had struck a body that had not yet recovered, he felt as if he would collapse at any moment, but because of the technique he had just suffered, he had no time to feel the pain.
More than pain, Yaryul Geuk was so shocked by surprise that his whole body seemed to stiffen.
‘Th-this is…….’
The very thing all the members of the Flowing Cloud Sect had searched for so desperately until now.
The ultimate Transplanting Flower and Grafting Tree Art.
Lotus, in its true meaning.
“Wh-what the hell are you, Jin So-un!”
That had now manifested from the hands of the hateful Jin So-un.
It had clearly manifested.