Chapter 43

• A Storm is Coming

After the announcement of the successful candidates of the Ascending Heaven Martial Festival, which had driven many people into a state of being unable to recover!
The night in Nanchang was now so dazzling, hot, splendid, and ecstatic.
Music overflowed in the streets day and night,
And the sweet scent of alcohol vibrated in every alley.

The taverns and brothels scattered throughout the streets did not extinguish the lights on their lanterns inside and out, even as the sun and moon changed. They were in continuous 24-hour operation, day and night. Even as the sun set and the moon rose, and that moon waned again, the excited heat within the castle showed no sign of subsiding. The cyclical law of the sun and moon's replacement was far too insufficient to restrain them.

The festival-like days, which completely ignored the changes of the sun and moon, swept through the entirety of Nanchang like a hot wind for several days. And finally, that day came. The day of the Cheonmu Academy special screening exam, where only a few chosen ones were given a chance, had dawned.

The rising stars of renowned first-class sects and promising next-generation figures flocked in groups of three and five to the exam venue designated by the Cheonmu Academy. Since those who did not possess a Dragon Riding Plaque were forbidden from entering the exam venue according to the regulations, all those gathered here were Bi Ryu-yeon's competitors who had a Dragon Riding Plaque in their bosoms. Of course, Bi Ryu-yeon didn't care much about such things. In fact, Bi Ryu-yeon was more enthusiastic about looking around the academy here and there.

Finally, the exam began. The Cheonmu Academy's special screening exam, which shattered the general expectation that it would be conducted in a manner one step more difficult than the Ascending Heaven Martial Festival, was conducted in a surprisingly simple way.

Unlike the Ascending Heaven Martial Festival, which had various gateways, equipment, and rules that were strictly designated and had to be followed, it was conducted in an incomparably concise and simple manner. In fact, there was no standard for comparison, so comparing it was unreasonable in itself. The procedure, rules, and passing criteria of the special screening exam were easy to memorize and easy to follow, as there was only one.

One had to prove that one was a superior being to others. To prove one's excellence in front of everyone. Whatever the means and methods... But for a person who was in the Murim and walked the path of martial arts, the methods were bound to be limited. It was just to directly clash with each other's bodies, experience the opponent, and compete with weapons. It was a world where skill was supreme over words. In short, it was a story of competing with each other to prove the excellence of one's martial arts and its level of achievement.

The many tasks and arduous gateways given in the Ascending Heaven Martial Festival were an exam to select people from a huge crowd, to distinguish jade from stone in a gravel field. Therefore, in the martial arts contests of the Ascending Heaven Martial Festival, one had to overwhelm and defeat the opponent in a fight.

But the martial arts contest in this special exam hall today was, on the contrary, an exam where one had to win a fight against oneself. The opponent in the martial arts contest was just a mirror that simply reflected oneself. Therefore, regardless of victory or defeat, the examiner decides whether the applicant passes or fails.

A master can guess the opponent's skill just by looking at one of their movements, half a move of their form. And a peak master who has reached a higher level can even grasp that person's potential at a glance. By looking at that person's bone structure, character, and fighting style, one can judge their aptitude and level of achievement to some extent. Not just anyone could become a master.

This was the Cheonmu Academy, which would be sad if it were second to anyone in terms of the number of masters! The only other place in the entire orthodox Jianghu that had a comparable number of masters was the Murim Alliance. Therefore, the examiners were also all peak masters, so a sufficient evaluation was possible just by watching the applicants' martial arts contests once. The evaluation was done by people who were said to have reached the level of the Way, where their martial arts were about to open a new horizon of martial arts through enlightenment. So how could it not be sufficient?

But this kind of exam could be more difficult because its criteria were somewhat ambiguous, confusing, and artificial. This was because the eyes of a master were different from the eyes of an ordinary person, as they saw what ordinary people could not see and thought about parts that they could not think of, so their perspective was too different from that of an ordinary person. Peak masters judge people by their own standards. So, low-level martial artists often could not accept their judgments and did not submit.

But even they, none of them could properly grasp Bi Ryu-yeon's skill and potential. His true strength and level of martial arts were so chaotic and confusing, like a divine dragon in the clouds, like a loach swimming in muddy water, like a fiercely swirling vortex of chaos, that it was impossible to grasp their true nature.

---

Lost in a thick fog!

Like finding a narrow path in a swamp covered in a hazy, thick fog, it was so mysterious that no one had seen its end. That made the examiners' decision difficult. Because passing him felt like a kind of gamble. And a gamble with a high probability of losing one's fortune while holding a hand that might be the lowest hand! That was it.

Also, the people who participated in the special screening were fundamentally different from other ordinary martial artists. They were the top disciples that each sect, and sects that were evaluated as first-class or higher, had poured their heart and soul into raising for over a decade. They were people who had already passed a primary verification, no different from the guaranteed silver notes of each sect. The Cheonmu Academy side also acknowledged this.

So almost everyone was guaranteed to pass, and failure was nonexistent except in special cases. After a simple mutual martial arts contest, the applicant's passing or failing was judged, and it was all up to the examiner. Since the number of entrants was not clearly fixed, everything depended on the examiner's discretion. So this special exam was only an exam in name, and in reality, it was just a simple skill classification evaluation. Except for the fact that the skill evaluation team was composed of peak masters. But as expected, there were many peculiar, strange, and whimsical people among the peak masters, so unexpected judgments sometimes came out.

Still, in the history of this exam, most of the recommended candidates had never disappointed the examiners' eyes. The number of defaulted, bad silver notes was very rare. Last year, and the year before that, no one had failed this special screening. This was because the sects, which were carefully selected as first-class, recommended the best talent every year.

If a disciple, who was recommended as the best talent, was not defeated in a martial arts contest but was failed because his talent and potential were uncertain, that sect would have to seal its doors for ten years out of shame.

But today was an exception. It would probably be recorded as the exam with the most dropouts in the history of the Cheonmu Academy special screening. For the time being, this record would be hard to break. And it was probably an unprecedented record of involuntary(?) dropouts, not voluntary ones.

The dropouts did not drop out because they wanted to. Who would want to drop out of this important exam where they were staking the honor of their sect? Their hearts were eager to fly, but their bodies, which could barely even crawl, did not follow, so they had no choice but to declare their withdrawal. One has to be in one piece to enter the academy and diligently practice martial arts. How could one enter the academy with all four limbs completely broken?

The person who caused this situation was, without a doubt, the problem child Bi Ryu-yeon. It was Bi Ryu-yeon, who was fully displaying his specialty of constantly causing problems ahead of a sacred exam.

At first, Bi Ryu-yeon had no intention of being this severe. He had solemnly thought of going easy and finishing it. But a few participants started acting cocky, saying they were from prestigious orthodox sects, without knowing any dignity or courtesy, and that decisively touched Bi Ryu-yeon's delicate(?) nerves. Bi Ryu-yeon couldn't stand the sight of it. So he used his hands a little too much.

The first opponent was a punk from some falling flower peak of Mount Hua, one of the Five Great Mountains, who was blabbering on about how his sect's sword was the best of the Five Great Mountains, and furthermore, the best in the Murim. His face was pale, and the clothes he was wearing were shiny silk clothes, and on the left chest of those clothes, five red plum blossom patterns were embroidered.

This proved that he had a high status in the Mount Hua Sect and was receiving the expectations of his sect, but Bi Ryu-yeon, who was blind to the political situation of the Murim, had no way of knowing such a thing. Even if someone had told him, he wouldn't have wanted to know.

This punk got a straight punch to the jaw and suffered a comminuted fracture of the mandible (the lower jawbone was broken into several pieces continuously), and in addition, his teeth were knocked out in a big chunk, so he was in a state where he might have to live on porridge and water for the rest of his life if things went wrong, let alone for a while. Poor punk!

The second punk was one who used the sword style of the Diancang Sect, and this punk was also a good-for-nothing, same as the one above. If his sect was a prestigious sword family, then it was a prestigious sword family, why was he running wild? This guy's four limbs were pointing in directions they shouldn't be, so he had no choice but to withdraw. For a while, his bones would be dislocated and his muscles would be twisted at will, so it would take a long time—probably about a year—for his skeleton to be properly restored.

The third punk was the second son of the master of a place called Golden Abundance Manor or something, and it seemed this place called Golden Abundance Manor was ridiculously rich. He was plastered with gold, silver, and jewels all over his body, and his face was shiny with grease. He was the owner of a repulsive appearance that deserved to be shunned, a really unlucky-looking punk that you would be disgusted to see in your dreams. Moreover, he boasted about things that were not at all like a warrior, such as having eaten so many rare medicinal herbs that he had obtained with difficulty by spending gold like water since he was young that his stomach was about to burst, and that his stamina—stamina formed by the power of medicine—was like the great sea, so the women he kept for the night could not be counted with both hands and feet. The very fact that he was breathing the same air in the same place at the same time as this punk was creepy and disgusting. So he closed his eyes and, with a self-sacrificing heart, dealt with him decisively in the spirit of waste disposal, environmental beautification, and nature conservation.

The punk who said he had eaten everything good for his body turned out to be so weak, contrary to his long-winded speech, when he was actually tested. He got one punch to the stomach and his intestines were immediately twisted, and after his limbs were kneaded a couple of times, his limb bones were chopped into pieces. He probably overdosed on bad spiritual medicine when he was young. Otherwise, how could his bones be so brittle? Perhaps he had become such a weakling with a weak skeleton due to the side effects. That's why they say you should be careful about what medicine you take. It was the self-inflicted consequence of a punk who did not follow the old maxim.

The last punk was a master from the Jinju Eon family, a prestigious family of fist arts, but with one punch from Bi Ryu-yeon, the fist he had thrown was crushed, and he rolled on the ground for a while, clutching his bloodied fist, before being rushed to a doctor by his family members. This was the guy who had gotten on Bi Ryu-yeon's bad side by leading his family members to the front gate before entering the exam venue, acting as if he were a descendant of a prestigious family.

The end of the four who had provoked Bi Ryu-yeon and made him displeased was shocking and miserable. They might have taken this entrance exam too lightly. They did not know humility, they did not know courtesy, they overestimated their own skills, and decisively, they were too careless. And they had overlooked the fact that there could be a person in the world with a dirty and eccentric personality like Bi Ryu-yeon, and had run wild with too much arrogance and insolence.

They had overlooked the eternal truth that the fame of their sect and family was not a shield that protected their bodies, but that only their own skill was the source of power to live in the Murim. So, in fact, it might have been natural for this result to occur.

For this reason, the four were reduced to a state where they could not practice martial arts for a while, and they had no choice but to give up their entrance qualification and return to their respective sects. Since all four of them were in a state where they could not return on their own, other fellow disciples or attendants had to carry them on stretchers or palanquins like luggage.

With this, it was as good as confirmed that Bi Ryu-yeon had formed a difficult relationship with four large, first-class sects. But the person himself did not care a single bit about such things and was happy-go-lucky and carefree.

Bi Ryu-yeon's skill, which had driven four promising next-generation figures to a state of being unable to recover with what looked like very simple and playful gestures, was, although it was considered cruel, its power could not help but arouse admiration.

The examiners had considerable doubts and deliberation about his character and personality, but they could not raise any objection in terms of skill. So. Bi Ryu-yeon was accepted. It was a natural result. Thus, Bi Ryu-yeon easily passed the exam and his entrance to the Cheonmu Academy was confirmed, but his radical and cruel handiwork became a subject of caution for the examiners, and he was branded as a person of interest upon entering. Thus, he was classified as a special management target and was placed under the thorough surveillance and management of the Cheonmu Academy. The day when everyone in the Cheonmu Academy would be watching him was not far off.

But at this time, no one knew that Bi Ryu-yeon's entrance was a prelude to a storm that would shake the Cheonmu Academy and, furthermore, the entire Jianghu Murim to its roots. The wind had begun to blow. But it was still a gentle breeze.

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• It's Too Boring Here

A place where the lush green forest, which seemed to split even the sun in the sky, somehow looked familiar.
A dense sea of trees where even light had a hard time penetrating!
After pondering for a long time, he was able to figure out where he was.

(Huh? Where is this... Ah, Mount Emei!)

A faint memory was about to surface, and I thought it looked familiar for a reason. Wasn't this the back forest of the Mount Emei training center? Two figures could be seen faintly through the dense green space surrounded by a lush forest.

(Huh, who's that?)

(...)

(Oh, that's Gung-sang! What, Ryeong-ah is here too!)

The figures of two people came into view. Both of them were faces he knew well. In the lush green forest, amidst the peak of twilight, there was a shy and pathetic young man who didn't know what to do in front of the girl he liked, and a girl standing in a beautiful posture as if to show off in front of him. The girl might be intentionally inducing the young man's heart attack. A young man in danger of dying from a heart attack due to a seductive posture, and a beautiful girl who constantly threatened the young man's life. An unknown smile appeared on his lips as he looked at the two.

The young man, who was blushing and shy in front of the girl he had in his heart, was the guy he knew well, the peak of patheticness, Namgung Sang. The guy who had quite a talent for the sword, for some reason, didn't know what to do with himself whenever he stood in front of a woman, so he was truly pathetic. The girl who was showing off her beautiful posture in front of such a guy was surely the culprit who was making Gung-sang lose sleep at night, Jin Ryeong of Mount Emei.

(What's going on?)

As his curiosity surged and he tried to look more closely between the two, his vision suddenly blurred.

(Huh?)

Suddenly, the surrounding objects and scenery swayed like a heat haze, and then the scene changed like a mirage, and a bunch of familiar children's faces appeared. Of course, it was a bit of a stretch to call these people, who were now close to twenty years old, children, but in his eyes, they were just children. Hwa Seorok, who lived on Mount Hua and didn't know what to do after burning the rice. Yeon-hwa of the Hwangbo family, who was trying to get out of eating roasted snake. Moyong Chwi, who was so quiet she was like a mute. Danmok Susu, who was better at turning laundry into rags than washing it. She had to do painstaking sewing to turn the rags back into laundry as a responsibility for turning the laundry into rags. Because the laundry that had turned into rags was their only set of clothes.

And the tomboy Tang Mun-hye, who didn't seem to be quiet at all. She was a girl with a strong spirit, so there was no guy with the guts to provoke her temper. Even the third son of the Tang family, Tang Cheol-yeong, who was more often called Tang-sam by some, couldn't do anything in front of Tang Mun-hye. And contrary to her, the extremely feminine Namgung Sansan, who was particularly fond of cooking. If it weren't for this kid, the maintenance of their diet during the training camp would have had to face a serious crisis of forgetting the basic human level. So she was a very precious existence to them. They were all faces he missed.

The boys?

Come to think of it, my memory of the boys is a bit faint. As expected, the brain's memory capacity allocation for rough and rebellious boys is bound to be relatively lower than for pretty and cute girls. Isn't that natural?

What's the use of a guy using a lot of space in his brain to remember other guys? If there's that much useless space left over, it would be much more beneficial to study mathematics instead. Still, if I squeeze out the fragments of memory, thoughts do come to mind. Hyeonun of Wudang, who liked to watch the stars, later he liked living in the water more. Ilgong, a 'seu' who liked to secretly eat meat. The reason I call this guy 'seu' is because this punk is a complete good-for-nothing monk who doesn't even deserve to be called a 'seunim' (monk).

There is no reason to attach the honorific 'nim' to a good-for-nothing monk who gobbles down alcohol like water and meat like rice. So, Ilgong just became 'seu'. But for his actions, he was too quiet and taciturn. Tang Cheol-yeong, who was just prideful even though he couldn't even throw a single hidden weapon properly. Still, as time passed, he was a guy who at least learned how to make one necklace properly... Come to think of it, he's the guy who came back after getting beaten up by someone in a pathetic way.

Cheongmun, a disciple of a sword sect that was said to be on Mount Qingcheng, but couldn't even handle a single sword properly. Lee Jaryong, who lived on Mount Kunlun and had a talent for dancing on water. No Hak, a beggar whose taste was becoming picky and got beaten up for it. Does it even make sense for a beggar to be picky, saying he can't eat roasted snake or stir-fried maggots? Still, this guy is the one I remember the most because he's the one I touched the most among them. He was also the most rebellious.

And Jo Cheon-u of Mount Hua, who was acting cocky, saying he would make plum blossoms bloom with an axe. Later, it seems his useless effort paid off, and commendably, one plum blossom seemed to have bloomed. And Geum Yeong-ho, who had nothing but money and knew nothing but money. He's a guy whose martial arts, which he learned on the side, I'm worried about how much power they will exert. Still, he was the guy who brought me the most profit, so I didn't hate him. But was there anything this guy could do? I can't think of anything but money.

Those guys should know that it is the glory of three lifetimes that this body has remembered them, the sweaty guys, to this extent. They all gather and call him in one voice.

"Master!"

Flash! Bi Ryu-yeon's eyes opened.

He was blinded by the sudden sunlight. But that was also for a moment, the eyelids on his eyes drooped down again as if they had a weight of 600 kilograms. It seemed he had been called up before he had completed his mission. Bi Ryu-yeon exerted an amazingly strong willpower and barely prevented his eyelids from closing completely. If the strength of the willpower he had exerted had been even a little less, it would have been dangerous. He would have gone straight to dreamland.