Chapter 315: Chapter 315
Thanks to Father’s outburst, the banquet came to an abrupt end.
The Black Dragon Stronghold men, who had initially glared daggers at the middle-aged man picking a fight, quickly fell into respectful bows once they realized he was my father.
“Ah! It was the Great Stronghold Master!”
“……”
That only made Father angrier, and he promptly threw out the Black Dragon Stronghold people on the spot.
Along with the tribute they’d brought.
Wait, that was a fortune right there.
I had no choice but to secretly meet the Black Dragon Stronghold men under cover of dawn, after the banquet had fully ended.
“Did you bring it?”
“Ah, yes. Stronghold Master.”
“I told you not to call me Stronghold Master.”
“My apologies. Stronghold Master!”
“……”
I didn’t want to be called Stronghold Master of the Black Dragon Stronghold either.
I wasn’t a Green Forest Bandit to begin with, so being called Stronghold Master made no sense whatsoever.
“We’ve converted it all to promissory notes as you instructed.”
“Good.”
But money itself was innocent, wasn’t it?
I fought to suppress the corners of my mouth from climbing upward as I checked the note amounts, then tilted my head.
“Hm? There were gemstones too, and you got full market value for everything?”
“Ah! The broker tried to cheat us, so we gave him a little education.”
“……”
These men had the savvy to get fair prices from money houses—places where blood and tears meant nothing in the face of profit.
My subordinates, whom I’d never met before today, seemed quite capable.
I was quietly starting to like them.
“Ahem.”
“At your command!”
They reacted this sharply to a mere cough?
Even more to like.
“Listen carefully.”
I drew a firm line, just in case they got any wrong ideas.
“I am not someone who can be your Stronghold Master, nor do I intend to be.”
“What do you……”
“Who am I?”
At my question, the ferocious-looking men timidly tilted their heads.
“The Black Flame Dragon…… our Stronghold Master?”
“Not that. What’s my official title?”
“The Murim Academy’s top scorer……”
“Exactly!”
The Black Dragon Stronghold operated jointly with the Green Dragon Stronghold.
The two had to be viewed as a single entity. And the master of this Twin Dragons Stronghold was Bang Du-chil.
I clutched the promissory notes tightly and spoke.
“A man who will become a pillar of the Orthodox Path cannot serve as a mountain stronghold’s master.”
“……”
The Green Forest Bandits glanced once at my hand, then drooped their heads like abandoned puppies.
I looked at the backs of their bowed heads and added.
“So from now on, send the tribute directly to me. Convert it all to promissory notes first.”
“Huh?”
They raised their heads in unison, confusion written across their faces.
“Father will have my neck if he finds out.”
“Um…… what do you mean? You just said you weren’t the Stronghold Master……”
Why couldn’t they understand?
I waved the promissory notes in front of them.
“You want to give me money, don’t you?”
“……”
If they insisted on giving, who was I to refuse?
Rejecting someone’s goodwill was no way to behave.
I wasn’t that kind of person.
“And if possible, send it on a fixed date each month. A large lump sum risks being traced.”
“……”
The Green Forest Bandits looked utterly stupefied.
The next day, we set out from the Great Heaven Merchant Guild as planned, heading back to the Academy.
Everyone in Taeul Sect came out to see us off.
“……The Outer Hall Master isn’t here.”
Everyone except Father.
Sa-ryeon gave me a worried look, so I shrugged.
“He must be busy.”
Just then, Kang Chae-seok approached with a small bundle.
“Take this.”
“What is it?”
“Your father prepared it for you last summer. He, uh…… did say he was going to burn it and left it next to the firewood, though.”
What a doting father.
I smiled and unwrapped the bundle.
Inside was a black martial arts uniform of the kind I usually wore.
“It’s tradition for parents to have an outfit made when their child earns top marks, isn’t it? Your father heard about it belatedly and went back multiple times to the best embroiderer in town to commission this.”
Delicate patterns stitched in silver thread adorned the fabric, and on the sleeves, the characters for “Taeul” were embroidered.
Thank heavens “Top Scorer” wasn’t written across the chest.
I wrapped the bundle back up with a smile.
“Tell him I said thank you.”
“He’ll probably curse you for doing something pointless.”
“Still.”
The send-off was brief.
After the previous night’s incident, everyone in Taeul Sect was walking on eggshells around Jin Tae-san.
Unlike the journey here, we traveled comfortably this time using an Escort Agency.
As the carriage rolled from Hefei toward Wuhan, the weather noticeably warmed.
Along the way, I listened to my juniors’ endless chatter, and when mealtimes came, I ate the food prepared by the agency’s cart hands.
The greatest advantage of traveling with an Escort Agency was that you didn’t need to stand night watch.
Most nights we slept at designated inns, and the occasional night spent outdoors was no inconvenience.
By the time we arrived at the Academy, spring flowers were beginning to bloom.
“Oh? You arrived today? If I’d known, I would’ve traveled with you from Hefei.”
Seong Mo-ran arrived on the same day as us, together with Namgung Seon-hwa.
“It was sooooo wonderful!”
Eun Seol-ran arrived two days later, somehow in much brighter spirits after visiting home.
“Haah, Brother……”
Murong Jae-hwa arrived three days later, and for some reason, a sword now hung at his waist.
“Grandfather asked what I’d do if I ran out of arrows.”
No one objected to his archery anymore, but in the event of an emergency, his grandfather had told him to learn swordsmanship too, and Murong Jae-hwa had readily agreed.
“Ugh……”
He’d realized far too late that those words had turned his entire break into a living hell.
Not a single day of rest throughout the break—nothing but solo training with Murong Gang.
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
When Eun-ho chided him for complaining about personal training under an absolute master, Murong Jae-hwa looked ready to burst into tears.
“H-he kept, he kept stabbing at my neck with the sword, and my skin actually got slashed, and ugh…… I’d get hit until I passed out. B-but you know what the scariest part was……?”
“……”
“I was in so much pain I thought I’d die, but the next day I’d wake up perfectly fine. And then the same day would repeat itself…… I really, truly wanted to run away so many times, but……”
Murong Jae-hwa’s vivid testimony made Eun-ho—who had been scolding him—nod deeply in sympathy and gently pat his shoulder.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. That feeling where you think you absolutely can’t do it but then you do it anyway…… Go ahead, cry. It’s okay to cry!”
……Why was that kid looking at me, though?
Before long, everyone from the Academy Representative office had returned.
“Welcome back, Representative.”
“I heard about the Lantern Sect incident.”
“As expected of you, Representative.”
The Representative office buzzed with talk of the Lantern Sect for a while.
Everyone seemed to have been waiting for the new term just to unload their stories.
“To think someone practicing Forbidden Arts was hiding inside an Orthodox Path martial sect. Truly terrifying.”
One Academy student shuddered as he spoke, and another replied with a grave expression.
“A sect in my hometown was also attacked under suspicion of practicing Forbidden Arts during the break.”
His words opened the floodgates, and similar stories poured out from members of the Representative delegation.
“Huh? A sect near my own was hit with the same thing.”
“We had something like that too.”
The stories tumbled out as if by prior agreement.
And as they compared notes, everyone soon sensed something was wrong.
“……This many sects were practicing Forbidden Arts?”
An absurd number silenced the room.
Even if many sects were involved, uncovering their transgressions shouldn’t have been this easy.
How had so many been rooted out in such a short span?
‘It’s already started.’
Elimination of rivals.
Considering that most of the accused sects were competitors of the ones filing the accusations, the intent behind all this was painfully transparent.
Without even needing the Murim Alliance’s help, sects were attacking others on their own in the name of purging Forbidden Arts. And even if the charges later proved baseless, the targeted sect would already have been destroyed—rendering any vindication meaningless.
‘They’ll see the window before the Alliance Leader’s Decree as their chance.’
The accusations and ambushes would not stop until the Murim Alliance issued a formal decree.
This was the perfect opportunity to expand one’s own power, after all.
‘I managed to delay things, but in the end, the same problems have surfaced?’
I’d believed that cutting the Sichuan Blood Calamity short had reduced the casualties. I’d never imagined things would spiral in this direction, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
I didn’t even want to think about what would happen once those who had truly learned Demonic Arts began to emerge.
What the murim needed right now was a swift decision from the Murim Alliance to rein in the martial world, which was in a frenzy over the appearance of Forbidden Arts.
“At least my sect’s elders have connections to the Execution Pavilion, so we’re fortunate.”
“This is precisely why sects work so hard to build ties with the Murim Alliance.”
“We need to secure good assignments too. If you start your Murim Alliance career at some backwater branch, you’ll never get anywhere.”
Being Academy students, they understood perfectly well that the crux of the current crisis was not “Forbidden Arts” but a “power struggle.”
‘What a filthy business.’
Those who held high positions in the Murim Alliance or maintained close ties with it would not be easily targeted in this Forbidden Art purge.
If someone were foolish enough to ambush a sect that was backed by the Alliance’s power, the excuse of a “mistake” would not let them off lightly.
After all, “mistakes” only went unpunished when the other side was weaker than you.
Watching the Forbidden Art crisis suddenly boost the Academy students’ motivation to achieve was not a pleasant sight.
***
Most Academy students returned from the break.
But the somewhat giddy atmosphere did not settle easily.
Whether it was because the winter break ran longer than the summer one, or because of the recent Forbidden Art crisis, was hard to say.
In any case, everyone was clearly buckling down to prepare for the new term.
“Hey.”
I met with Cheol Sun-jik before the term started.
I had something I needed to give him.
“Looks like you made it through without incident.”
That sounded a lot like “How are you still alive?”
Tsk. The fact that I’d immediately understood what he meant showed I’d gotten used to his way of speaking.
“If you’ve been watching Zhongnan, you’d already know that.”
“I’d rather not pay attention.”
Playing coy.
“Anyway, did you bring it?”
At my question, Cheol Sun-jik tilted his head.
“……I’m fairly certain I’m the one who came here to receive something. And what would I even have to give you?”
What? He didn’t bring it?
I shifted my weight onto one leg and held out my hand.
“The Iron Rings.”
“……”
“You were supposed to bring back the Iron Rings you recovered. Do you know how much those cost?”
Cheol Sun-jik stared at me hard.
I knew that expression well.
It was unmistakably the look of “what kind of bastard is this.”
“You really didn’t bring them?”
Cheol Sun-jik glanced around, then muttered under his breath.
“Crimes are always exposed because of the evidence. Obviously I melted them all down and disposed of them.”
Why would he throw them away?
He could have reforged them into something else.
Could it be that as a born rich kid, he simply didn’t understand the concept of being frugal?
“Tch, I can’t trust you with anything.”
“……Nor do I wish to be trusted.”
As Cheol Sun-jik rose to leave with that prim little face, I pulled a small mother-of-pearl bottle from inside my robe and set it on the table.
Cheol Sun-jik’s body froze mid-stride.
I jerked my chin toward the bottle.
“What I promised you.”
I’d ended up missing out on the spiritual medicine because of this.
Well, the Diamond Honey pill made up for it somewhat.
“……”
Cheol Sun-jik sat back down and studied the bottle in silence, then looked up at me.
Still wearing an expression that said he couldn’t make sense of any of this.
“You’re…… really giving this to me? You could have said the quantity was small, or that the purity was low. I’d have had no way to verify.”
“Good grief, you complain even when I’m giving it to you.”
“……”
I looked at him and shrugged.
“I made a promise. I simply kept it.”
“A promise……”
What exactly did this kid think of me?
“……”
“Take it or leave it.”
When I reached for the bottle, Cheol Sun-jik hurriedly tucked it into his robe.
I looked at his face and smirked.
“Anyway, our deal is done. You’re an accomplice now too. Don’t go changing your story later.”
With that, I’d sealed Cheol Sun-jik’s lips. I rose to leave when—
“Are you aware that the murim is in an uproar over Forbidden Arts?”
Apparently Cheol Sun-jik had more to say.
Then again, this kid didn’t have many friends either.
I settled back into my chair.
“And?”
“There’s talk that the Academy’s classes will change.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re going to change how students are evaluated.”
“So what do they gain from that?”
“The Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans have each been building their own power bases.”
I smirked.
Old news.
“You talk as if the Twelve Peak Citadels aren’t doing the same.”
Cheol Sun-jik continued as if he hadn’t heard me at all.
“All the Instructors and Training Masters will be replaced.”
Now?
“They’ll be replaced by people who have served at least at the Hall Master level within the Murim Alliance. Word is they all volunteered.”
“And the volunteers are from the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans?”
Cheol Sun-jik nodded.
“The Hall Masters and Elders of each sect led the effort. They say they intend to overhaul the system that’s been stagnant for so long.”
“Why now of all times?”
A change like this should have required lengthy preparation…….
For them to rush it like frying beans over lightning rather than even waiting for the next class, swapping things mid-term?
“Isn’t this too sudden?”
“……It’s a sudden situation, isn’t it?”
Was there some other problem I wasn’t seeing?
“What’s so urgent?”
Cheol Sun-jik simply gazed at me without a word.
Why wasn’t he saying anything?
“That’s all I have to say.”
In the end, Cheol Sun-jik withheld the crucial part.
Still, this kind of intelligence was classified even internally. Why bother telling me?
Cheol Sun-jik hesitated, then dropped his gaze.
“……Consider it payment for this.”
He tapped his chest where the mother-of-pearl bottle rested, then stood.
***
The day before the new term.
Just as Cheol Sun-jik had said, every Instructor and Training Master was replaced.
The sudden, unannounced change drew protests from students, but they were ignored.
The number of students protesting was overwhelmingly small to begin with.
And so the new term began.
THUD, THUD, THUD.
A man strode into the lecture hall, stood still, and swept his gaze across the room.
“Confused by the sudden upheaval, aren’t you?”
He flashed a likable smile and continued.
“I’m sure some of you are disappointed about not seeing the Instructors you’d grown close to…… and I hear some of you even filed formal objections?”
Did the Instructor even know?
What those who had objected actually took issue with was not the sudden replacement—it was the backgrounds of the replacements.
“Well, there must have been all sorts of grumbling—just like those ball-less fools in Beijing.”
The Instructor spoke bluntly, as if complaints were beneath his notice.
“However, this situation is your class’s responsibility.”
The temperature in the hall plummeted at his words.
“Your achievements are so far behind those of previous classes that we had no choice but to take these drastic measures.”
At this preposterous attack, one student raised a hand.
“……What do you mean by that?”
These were people who had survived the most brutal Regular Exam in history to earn their place.
To say their achievements fell short of other classes—
The Instructor nodded grandly as if it were an excellent question.
Then his expression turned ice-cold in an instant.
“If we graduate you all as you are, you’ll bring harm to the Murim Alliance.”
“……I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“Hmm, is the entire class this far below standard?”
“……”
The Instructor shook his head and sighed before continuing.
“Think of it this way. By the standards of my era, a student whose skills would barely qualify for the White Wolf Pavilion might end up in the Red Dragon Pavilion in your class.”
“……”
“That is how vast the gap is. But do not worry. The new Training Masters and Instructors will raise your skills while also determining your assignments through objective evaluations……”
“Pfft!”
I’d been listening in silence, but I finally couldn’t hold back the laugh.
This was genuinely hilarious.
“Heh!”
“……!”
The Instructor, about to begin his lesson, froze.
Then his eyes sharpened into blades as he scanned the students.
“……Who was that? Who laughed?”
When no one stepped forward, the Instructor began leaking killing intent.
Starting from the front row, students’ faces turned white.
“No one’s going to come forward? On the ground, all of you!!!”
His thundering voice shook the entire hall.
A collective punishment over that. Typical Murim Alliance types—they just had to make a show of it.
Rigid, narrow-minded people.
I had no choice but to stand.
“It was me. I apologize.”
The Instructor’s gaze locked onto me, and he growled.
“……Jin So-un. Do you think the Instructor is a joke?”
“No. I was momentarily distracted by another thought……”
The Instructor cut me off, clearly uninterested in hearing it.
“Come to the front.”
The chill dripping from his voice pressed the hall’s atmosphere down even heavier.