Chapter 118: Chapter 118
As always, the morning of the Martial Alliance began with running.
Because each martial squad ran together, Song Yi-yeon, Jin Un, and Namgung Jin were to Cheon Woo-jin’s left and right.
Martial artists of other martial squads glanced sideways at the Hidden Dragon Squad members.
The youngest recruits who joined the alliance this time were commonly called the golden class of the Martial Alliance.
Cheon Woo-jin, who became a squad leader in the shortest time, went without saying, and Jin Un, known as the future of the Mount Hua Sect, the eldest son of the Namgung Clan, and the daughter of the Tang Clan had all joined grouped in a single class.
However, everyone except Tang So-yeon had banded together in one martial squad. Thus, naturally, they could not help but draw everyone’s attention.
Cheon Woo-jin ran without the slightest disorder, as always. His gaze was fixed straight ahead, and his breathing was serene.
Yet unlike usual, his mind was not tranquil. Whispers from two people on either side were reaching his ears.
“Young Hero Cheon, but when are you selecting the vice squad leader?”
Song Yi-yeon asked. Originally, Song Yi-yeon and Jin Un had addressed him as Squad Leader, but Cheon Woo-jin found it uncomfortable and told them to simply call him Young Hero.
Cheon Woo-jin made an effort to pretend he hadn’t heard. Selecting a vice squad leader was the role of the Military Strategy Department, but the squad leader’s influence played an overwhelming part.
From beside him, Jin Un spoke as if muttering to himself.
“If I became the vice squad leader, my fellow Mount Hua disciples who only look up to me would dance with joy. But that is impossible. There is no way I could become vice squad leader already. There is Young Hero Song, who is closest to Young Hero Cheon, and Young Hero Namgung, who is already called the Young Sword Dragon.”
“…”
Following his left ear, Cheon Woo-jin blocked his right ear as well.
However, what bothered him most was the burning sensation on the back of his head.
Namgung Jin was glaring continuously from behind. With an exceedingly fierce gaze, at that.
Having come to the Hidden Dragon Squad under the orders of his father, the Sword King, he could by no means yield the position of vice squad leader to the other two.
Although he had already conceded that he could not catch up to the monster named Cheon Woo-jin, falling behind the remaining two was something his pride as the eldest son of the Namgung Clan would not permit.
After that uncomfortable running session ended.
Catching his breath, Cheon Woo-jin saw the three approaching and lightly sprang into the air, disappearing.
* * *
The place Cheon Woo-jin headed to was the superior organization, the Inspection Hall.
Just as he had received a manor to manage the Hidden Dragon Squad, the Inspection Hall had also received a splendid manor befitting a higher-level organization.
After observing the outside for a moment, he stepped inside to find a considerably bustling scene unfolding.
Martial artists of the Courier Hall busily went in and out of the Inspection Hall holding letters in their hands, while scholars belonging to the Military Strategy Department organized the intelligence sent by the Courier Hall.
Due to the nature of the organization, the Courier Hall, the Disciplinary Hall, and the Military Strategy Department would have many occasions to cooperate closely with the Inspection Hall. Furthermore, affiliated personnel worked organically while moving across each organization.
Guided by a martial artist, Cheon Woo-jin headed to the office of the Inspection Hall Master. People were already bustling in and out of the office, so the door was open.
Discovering Cheon Woo-jin, Cheol Ji-ak brightened up. His eyes looked as though he were thinking that someone had finally come to save him.
“Ah, Hidden Dragon Squad Leader! You said you had something urgent to report confidentially, right? Everyone, please excuse us for a moment.”
When Cheol Ji-ak spoke thus, the Courier Hall members and Military Strategy Department scholars who had been tormenting him with all kinds of documents reluctantly cleared out.
Opening the window to ventilate the lingering heat, Cheol Ji-ak offered Cheon Woo-jin a seat.
“Woo-jin, it seems I made a terrible mistake. This isn’t a promotion. In all my life, I never imagined I would be reading and handling this many documents.”
The foundation of inspection was intelligence.
To verify a single piece of information, dozens or hundreds of sheets of documents followed.
Having lived as a perpetual squad leader, Cheol Ji-ak was having his discipline thoroughly drilled into him ever since being appointed Inspection Hall Master.
“It’s a relief that Rin helps me out in her spare time, at least.”
The Black Tortoise Squad did not maintain a separate manor. Because the Inspection Hall’s manor was so vast, they prepared space for the Black Tortoise Squad within it.
In the first place, the Inspection Hall, the Black Tortoise Squad, and the Hidden Dragon Squad were practically one and the same entity.
Cheon Woo-jin could not think of any comforting words, so he merely sipped tea. In truth, he was also in a position where he had fled here, exhausted by the three men’s battle over the vice squad leader post.
Around the time the two finished their teacups.
“Ah! I’m going to die, really!”
Zhuge Rin barged in. A distinctive weariness seemed smeared across her face as well.
“Squad Leader, no, Hall Master. Was the squad leader position originally this exhausting? When you were in this seat, Hall Master, it looked so easy with you doing practically nothing. Money keeps slipping out subtly, and why does Do Seong-hwi, the vice squad leader, fight with Jang Woo-pyeong so much?”
Cheol Ji-ak smirked. It was a smile that dared her to experience cleaning up after subordinates for once.
Although he had been mocked as a perpetual squad leader, not a single accident or incident had ever occurred within the Black Tortoise Squad during his tenure. He merely failed to achieve merits externally; surprisingly, his ability to manage subordinates internally was quite outstanding.
How much time passed while Zhuge Rin complained, Cheol Ji-ak felt gratified, and Cheon Woo-jin continued emptying his teacup?
Having poured out all her grievances, Zhuge Rin finally brought up the main topic.
“Ten days remain now, right? Until the first mission.”
Cheol Ji-ak nodded.
Cheon Woo-jin also set down his teacup and adopted an attentive posture.
In ten days, the Inspection Hall’s first mission would begin.
First, the Inspection Hall’s mission was to investigate those who attempted to establish the Righteous Heavenly Alliance, based on the testimony of the Tang Clan elder.
The first target was decided as the Qingcheng Sect.
“Why of all factions the Qingcheng Sect?”
At Zhuge Rin’s question, Cheol Ji-ak shrugged his shoulders.
They merely did as ordered from above; how could he know every detailed circumstance?
However, Cheon Woo-jin felt like he somehow knew the reason.
“Could it be that the Chief Strategist dislikes the Qingcheng Sect?”
“What? No way. He is not someone who would reflect such personal feelings in a mission.”
Cheol Ji-ak shook his head. In truth, he did not know much about the Chief Strategist either. In the first place, occasions for a squad leader and the Chief Strategist to meet were extremely rare.
However, he vaguely thought that the Chief Strategist of the Martial Alliance would be benevolent, fair, clear-headed, and at the same time logical.
“Mhm.”
Cheon Woo-jin smacked his lips.
His guess was likely correct.
Because the Daoist Master Cheong-hyeon he saw back then was not someone anyone would particularly like.
Of course, since it did not particularly matter, he did not bother explaining what had happened back then.
“During that time, we must undergo bone-carving training. It’s our first mission, and the counterpart is one of the pillars of the Nine Sects.”
Cheol Ji-ak had recently realized the importance of training.
He had thought it was enough to simply work twice or three times as hard as others. However, at the Black Overlord Castle, with the Divine Physician beside him, he experienced veteran training alongside Ma Yong-seok.
In Cheol Ji-ak’s long life, he had never grown that much in such a short period. Even Cheon Woo-jin had thought that something about Cheol Ji-ak had changed.
Cheol Ji-ak explained the events of that time to the two, reaffirming his resolve.
“Honestly, since I only began learning martial arts systematically after joining the Martial Alliance, I didn’t know the importance of a good master all this time, but experiencing it this time made me realize it clearly.”
“Wait a second. You began learning martial arts properly only after joining the alliance? Then what about before that?”
Zhuge Rin raised a question with a bewildered face. Usually, already-skilled martial artists entered the Martial Alliance after undergoing an extreme selection process.
This was because the Martial Alliance was not a martial academy teaching martial arts, but a place where martial artists of the Righteous Path performed missions.
To Zhuge Rin’s question, Cheol Ji-ak answered as if it were obvious.
“I was self-taught.”
“Eh? Where and how?”
“While fighting bandits in the mountains. Didn’t I tell you? There were originally a lot of bandits in my hometown.”
“…?”
Astonishment surfaced on Zhuge Rin’s face.
The Martial Alliance, especially the main headquarters rather than a local branch, was not a place one could enter merely by self-teaching martial arts.
No, more than that, bandits were fundamentally martial artists as well, so was it even possible to master martial arts while fighting them?
“Could it be that you are some sort of genius too, Hall Master? Why are there so many geniuses these days?”
Zhuge Rin inwardly blamed herself. Having stayed closest to Cheol Ji-ak, why hadn’t she thought of it sooner?
Cheol Ji-ak’s nonsensical physical durability, abnormal regenerative capacity, bizarre muscle mass, and tremendous appetite.
In the first place, he was practically a martial talent bestowed by heaven to practice external arts.
Of course, it was incomparable to an out-of-spec anomaly like Cheon Woo-jin, but he was certainly a rare martial talent at the very least.
“Now I understand what you meant by being self-taught. If a person born with such martial talent had learned under a proper master, he would have become a formidable martial artist.”
“Then what am I right now?”
“Just our Hall Master. If only you had met a good master, you would have been an incredible Hall Master.”
“Ahem.”
Cheol Ji-ak cleared his throat.
In truth, what was the use of rambling on about past stories?
The world was inherently unfair. While there were those born into good families who grew up taking spirit medicines constantly and learning martial arts from all sorts of masters, there were also people like himself who started from bare ground and lived by rule of thumb.
“Anyway, I brought it up anew because I felt bad keeping what I realized to myself…”
Cheol Ji-ak trailed off.
He had brought it up out of a desire to share even a single thing with his cherished subordinates, but thinking about it, one was a daughter of the Zhuge Clan and the other was the disciple of the White Flower Sword Immortal.
Naturally, Zhuge Rin also looked at Cheon Woo-jin.
A person born with millennial talent who received the finest teachings.
The paragon of such a man was right here.
“Junior Cheon, how did you train when you were young?”
Zhuge Rin asked subtly. Cheol Ji-ak also wore a deeply curious expression while pretending otherwise.
It was the teachings of the White Flower Sword Immortal, of all people.
They wondered what he ate, what training he underwent, and even when he slept and woke up. Somehow it felt as though all those actions contained the great and profound arrangements of the White Flower Sword Immortal.
Cheon Woo-jin looked at the two for a moment before speaking nonchalantly.
“It was nothing special. It was just training similar to others.”
“Come on, how could that be?”
“It’s true. If you wish, I can teach you my master’s training method.”
Instantly, Cheol Ji-ak and Zhuge Rin widened their eyes.
The same thought struck their minds like a lightning bolt.
It is a fateful encounter. This is a fortuitous opportunity.
To think it was the training method of one of the Three Eccentrics of the Righteous Path.
How profound, deep, philosophical, arduous, and splendid it must be.
Merely imagining it made their hearts pound wildly as martial artists.
“Let’s go right away.”
Cheon Woo-jin rose from his seat.
If they were going to train anyway, he intended to do it at the Hidden Dragon Squad.
His master’s training method could be easily followed by anyone while producing immediate results.
Naturally, for the three men aiming for the vice squad leader position of the Hidden Dragon Squad, there was no harm in growing stronger ahead of the mission.
* * *
“R-Really?”
“Young Hero Cheon, is it truly all right to do so?”
Having heard the explanation from Cheol Ji-ak and Zhuge Rin, Song Yi-yeon and Jin Un’s reactions were hardly different from what the previous two had shown.
Even Namgung Jin, who had not yet mingled and was quietly reading a book in the corner, slyly rose from his seat and joined them naturally, like a river meeting the sea.
Cheol Ji-ak, Zhuge Rin, Song Yi-yeon, Jin Un, and even Namgung Jin.
Cheon Woo-jin observed the five people closely and gave them numbers in order. Four for Cheol Ji-ak, three for Zhuge Rin, and two for all the remaining three.
“My master valued training methods suited to each level, so whenever starting training for the day, he always stated the intensity of training we had to endure today.”
“Ooh!”
Exclamations burst out from here and there. Befitting the training method of the White Flower Sword Immortal, something felt distinct from the very start.
Soon, Cheon Woo-jin’s words continued.
“Once you overcome as many near-death crises as the assigned number, you rest for half an incense stick. And then repeat. The goal is to raise the number by one by the time training ends. Until then, training does not stop.”
“…?”
It was a training method that squeezed a person to their absolute limits.
Growing stronger by crossing near-death crises several times a day.
Everyone wore puzzled expressions at a training method that seemed more suited to demonic practitioners of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Did the White Flower Sword Immortal truly devise such a training method?
Regardless, Cheon Woo-jin reached his hand into the air.
Soon, the Crescent Moon Staff propped in the corner was pulled toward him as if wound by thread.
He had said his master’s training method; he had never said it was Master White Elder’s training method.
Lightly swinging the Crescent Moon Staff through the air, Cheon Woo-jin looked at the five with entirely different eyes. Air that had turned utterly chilling heavily weighed down upon the grounds.
Everyone’s breath hitched. Had those who faced Cheon Woo-jin until now felt this way? They were on the verge of developing a strange sort of respect for them.
“W-Wait a moment…”
Cheon Woo-jin’s figure surged forward.
Preparation was unnecessary.
Because whether they prepared or not, it remained unchanged that they would return having at least smelled incense at death’s door.