Chapter 77

Whether he knew of the existence of a group united by extreme anger, which had made him the object of their resentment, Bi Ryu-yeon, on the other hand, was committing an act that would have made her personal guard pour out extreme curses and imprecations if they had known. It was none other than an investigation into the personal history of the protagonist of the lips he had stolen.

Since he had left the scene without even asking for her name by mistake, Bi Ryu-yeon, who knew nothing about the academy, had no choice but to find a way to resolve his curiosity elsewhere. It was an act that poured cold water on the efforts of the personal guard to prevent Bi Ryu-yeon from approaching within a 900-meter radius of her.

Surprisingly, the method was simple, and it even saved him the trouble of searching. It was the existence of the Young Lady Lovers' Society, a club specializing in the collection of information on beautiful girls, including the 18-and-over kind, which he had joined in a daze. Under the judgment that the Young Lady Lovers' Society could not possibly not know of such a beauty, Bi Ryu-yeon decided to use the Young Lady Lovers' Society, trusting in Bi Yeon-tae's perverted tendencies, the passion of his dark desires, and its results.

"Wow, really? You found out surprisingly easily."

The result was as expected. Without even having to hear a few words of explanation, with just the date, time, and place where Bi Ryu-yeon had been that day, Bi Yeon-tae was able to tell him in detail who the she he had contacted was.

Besides, the incident a week ago had become quite famous due to the sudden and unexpected, cause-unknown injury of Wi Ji-cheon, one of the Cheonmu Nine Dragons, so he was able to obtain the information more easily.

"So you're saying that the name of the she who was in 'Jeonghyang-un' was Na Ye-rin."

"That's right. The person who was at Unhyangjeong at that time a week ago was Miss Na Ye-rin of the Ice Soul Phoenix. But how do you know her?"

Bi Yeon-tae asked, his two eyes suddenly shining gloomily. No matter how he thought about it, Bi Ryu-yeon was not in a position to know her. If it had not been for the difficulty of approaching her, Bi Yeon-tae would not have been complaining like this.

"It's just a chance encounter. Why?"

Bi Ryu-yeon mumbled vaguely with a smile.

"No, it's just that a strange rumor keeps tickling my ears..."

Saying so, Bi Yeon-tae rustled and took something out of a box on one side. The picture he unfolded in front of Bi Ryu-yeon's eyes with a flourish was the very image of the she he had met.

"That's right. It's definitely her! But it's really the same."

The portrait was so amazing that it made even Bi Ryu-yeon, who had no particular appreciation for painting, exclaim in admiration and be unable to hold back his praise. Even in the painting, her mysterious, fresh, and noble grace was vividly alive, not faded at all. The portrait had perfectly reproduced her appearance on a sheet of paper, as if it did not exist in this world. Like a miracle...

It was clear even at a glance that it was a portrait made with enormous effort. The terrifying sincerity and passion contained in each and every brushstroke were vividly felt even by Bi Ryu-yeon's skin. What on earth was the painter of this picture thinking and in what state of mind did he paint it? It was clearly not a picture that could come out in a sane state.

"Isn't it amazing? It's the best and last masterpiece of the painting master, So Ryeong-hwa!"

The creator of the painting, the Heavenly Painting Brush Stroke, So Ryeong-hwa, was a master of portraiture who was said to have the talent of heaven, and he was the owner of an amazing skill that was praised to the extent that even the soul of the subject was contained in the paintings completed with his brush strokes. Originally, he had come here to paint her portrait at the request of her personal guard, the Ice Phoenix Flower Guard. A huge reward was prepared for it. But the story had flowed in a strange direction.

The Heavenly Painting Brush Stroke, So Ryeong-hwa, after having the honor of meeting her in person, had fallen completely in love at first sight, and had begun to suffer from lovesickness and worry. The symptoms were so severe that it was difficult to even hold a brush, let alone paint. As a result, the work could not proceed properly. For him, who had met hundreds of beauties in his life for work but had never once lost his heart to a subject, it was a great shock. The shock was so great that it shook his soul.

Thus, after having been sick for dozens of days and having set aside the painting, he suddenly picked up a brush again one day and stood in front of the canvas. And he clung to the painting like a madman, forgoing food and drink, forgetting sleep, and throwing away rest. And after playing with the brush with madness for seven days and nights in a dazed state, he completed a portrait. It was a masterpiece of his life, a collection of his skill, effort, and spirit. But unfortunately, it was unfinished.

So Ryeong-hwa had completed the painting like a madman, burning all the passion of his soul, but he had left only her eyes as a white empty space, unable to finish them. It was because he had felt that he himself lacked the skill to put the final touch, which should be called 'painting the phoenix's eyes' instead of 'painting the dragon's eyes'. He despaired and was ashamed of his insufficient skill. He was tormented like a madman, saying that he could not express the abyss of the universe contained in her eyes with the tip of his brush. Then he began to wield his brush like a madman again. In his two eyes, which were wielding the brush unconsciously, an indelible madness flowed and passed.

Had he spent about a month in madness? He was finally able to put the two dots that fulfilled his wish. From the moment the two eyes of the phoenix, which were evaluated as the most beautiful in this world, were drawn, it was no longer a painting. It emanated a magical power as if it were a living creature. It had emanated a magical power that could fascinate people with just the painting. It was too admirable to be called a human's skill, and by then, he was no longer in his right mind.

Finally, after completely losing his ego and madly wielding his brush to complete her eyes, he was not satisfied even amidst the praise of all the people and declared his retirement from painting. Even that work, which was praised as a divine skill, had not satisfied him. For him, who had burned all his soul to complete the painting, there was no energy left to paint another picture. He declared his retirement from painting, saying that there was nothing more beautiful than this in this world, and that he could no longer paint anything more beautiful than this, and then he disappeared. Thus, he disappeared, leaving behind a legend.

Numerous people set out to find the portrait, which was his last and best painting, but no one could find it. That portrait was a one-of-a-kind masterpiece that vividly contained her lifelike appearance and her mysterious figure that could not be described in words. It was natural for everyone to be searching for it with fire in their eyes.

In particular, her personal guard, the Ice Phoenix Guard, had searched everywhere with all their might, but they could not find it. The legendary portrait that no one had found and was still looking for was now hanging preciously on one wall of this Young Lady Lovers' Society.

The value would have been that enormous, so it was just a mystery what means Bi Yeon-tae had used to be able to have that painting.

Bi Ryu-yeon was now looking through the data that the Young Lady Lovers' Society had collected on Na Ye-rin. Bi Ryu-yeon, who was looking through the data carefully, suddenly said to Bi Yeon-tae.

"But there's not much data, considering."

It was true. Considering the value of her existence, the data on her was severely lacking compared to other people. For a peerless beauty of her level, three volumes of books were too small. It was too lacking compared to the data on top-class beauties, which were at least five volumes. Originally, it should have been at least fifteen volumes to be normal.

"Don't even mention it. Do you have any idea how hard it is to collect data on her? The effort and sacrifice that went into collecting this much is not small. Collecting data on her is too hard. This much was barely collected. The human curtain surrounding her is too thick. If you approach carelessly, you're bound to get hurt. Of course, it's not like I would give up just because of that..."

"Hmm, I see."

Bi Ryu-yeon nodded his head with a look of understanding.

Name: Ice Soul Phoenix, Na Ye-rin
Age: 21
Height: ?
Weight: ?
Hair: Black
Eyes: Black
Three sizes: Many people got hurt trying to find out.
Peculiarities: The best beauty of the Cheonmu Academy, recognized by herself and others. According to the investigation, she has mild symptoms of autism. She is the biological granddaughter of the Murim Alliance Leader, the White Soul Sword Thunder Heavenly Sword God, Na Baek-cheon, and the successor of the Three Sages of Cheonmu's Sword Empress, Lee Ok-sang. The martial arts she possesses are the White Soul Sword Thunder Heavenly Sword Style of the Murim Alliance Leader, Na Baek-cheon, and the Cold Injury Jade Spirit Divine Sword of the Sword Empress, and she has the true transmissions of two of the Four Great Sword Gods of the righteous path in one body. Her martial arts level is currently unpredictable.

"In a word, she's not an easy opponent. It has to be this much to make me want to try!"

It seemed that Bi Ryu-yeon had no intention of giving up.

• The Sound Art Class and the Heavenly Sound Fairy

Bi Ryu-yeon was preparing for today's class in his very neat, tidy,
and perfectly clean room.
The room was so perfectly clean that not a single speck of dust could live,
a ruthless place, and it was so dazzling with a luster that seemed
to have captured the sunlight of midday.

But the fact that the interior was so excessively clean and tidy was of course not Bi Ryu-yeon's doing. Considering Bi Ryu-yeon's personality, which was not just leisurely but even lazy, such a miracle would not happen. Rather, Bi Ryu-yeon could be defined as a hostile being that harmed the perfection of the tidiness and cleanliness of the room. But the perfection damaged by Bi Ryu-yeon is immediately restored in an instant.

Moyong Hwi was the owner of an amazing ability to restore all of it within 7.5 minutes, by any means necessary, no matter how Bi Ryu-yeon damaged the perfection of the tidiness and cleanliness of the room. The cleaning state, which shone as transparently as the afternoon sunlight, was so perfect that it was not without a sense of strangely pressuring Bi Ryu-yeon's psychology. His obsession with cleanliness, which stemmed from his severe mysophobia, was so great that now, even Bi Ryu-yeon, who was the personification of being reckless and lawless, did not easily have the courage to mess up the room carelessly. Moyong Hwi's obsession with cleaning and cleanliness was that scary.

Bi Ryu-yeon grumbled and complained that a room without a single speck of dust was too inhuman and abnormal, but it could not pass through Moyong Hwi's ears and be delivered to his head.

Well, sometimes this kind of neatness was not bad. Especially when the morning sunlight came in through the window, he would often get the illusion that the whole room was submerged in light.

In the middle of the wave of light that filled the room, whether he knew of the numerous arrows of resentment, killing intent, and criticism directed at him, Bi Ryu-yeon was leisurely preparing for today's class. Today was finally the day of the sound art class, so Bi Ryu-yeon, with an excited heart for the first time in a long time, was polishing the Thunder Zither, Ink Thunder.

The Thunder Zither, Ink Thunder!

The very darkish ink zither that had been hanging on Bi Ryu-yeon's back when he had entered the academy at the beginning of this year, using a bizarre trick that had overturned a sect to its very bottom. A thing that he usually found troublesome to carry around and had passed on to Yeomdo to carry.

According to him, he claimed that he had received it from his master through a proper and legitimate procedure, but there were one or two suspicious points. The Thunder Zither, which had the name Ink Thunder, was a secret treasure of his sect, the Flying Thunder Sect, and was not something that anyone could carelessly possess or handle.

But according to Bi Ryu-yeon's claim, he was a proud successor of the sect who had gone through a legitimate procedure and was the next generation's sect leader. So wasn't everything of the sect his? That was his claim. Of course, if his master had heard it, he would have swung his fist like a windmill and vehemently denied it.

Besides, the reason why the ink zither was a more important and valuable treasure was because the Thunder-Sealing Box was inside it. The Thunder-Sealing Box, which was known to seal the power of the Thunder God, was the best treasure of the Flying Thunder Sect, and its use was for the storage of the true Flying Thunder Dagger.

If the Flying Thunder Dagger was stored inside it, strangely, the sharpness of the thunder blade (the blade of the Flying Thunder Dagger) or the edge of the thunder spirit thread would not be damaged, so when it was not in use, it was always put in there. In other words, by Bi Ryu-yeon possessing the Ink Thunder, along with the Thunder Zither, the Thunder-Sealing Box, the other of the two treasures of the Flying Thunder Sect, was also in Bi Ryu-yeon's hands. Bi Ryu-yeon was no different from having come out after having cleaned out the entire foundation of the Flying Thunder Sect, without leaving a single pillar root.

Bi Ryu-yeon, who was hurrying to prepare, polishing the ink zither, which had such a story, to a shine for the first time in a while, as if he had been infected by Moyong Hwi's thorough spirit of maintaining cleanliness, suddenly looked to the side. There, he saw Moyong Hwi, who, just like him, but extremely meticulously, carefully, and thoroughly, was engrossed in polishing his own zither. It was very unexpected. He had usually only touched cleaning tools, hundreds of books with complicated names, and paper, brush, and ink, other than his sword.

"Oh, you're taking the zither sound class too?"

At Bi Ryu-yeon's question, Moyong Hwi silently nodded his head. How cold...

"I didn't expect you to take the sound art class too."

"Is it unexpected?"

Moyong Hwi asked back, as if he were displeased with Bi Ryu-yeon's gaze, which was looking at him as if it were strange.

"Of course. I thought you only knew the sword, but to have an elegant hobby like sound and rhythm like me, it's unexpected for a blunt punk like you."

It was Bi Ryu-yeon's words that strongly felt like he was emphasizing his own elegance(?) of learning sound art.

"It's not a hobby."

"Then what is it?"

"I'm just interested in the flow of ki and the difference in its change between the emission, use, operation, and application of true qi in sound art and the emission, use, operation, and application of sword ki in sword art. My interest is just that."

"Ugh! What on earth is that? I really can't believe it. I can't believe it. Then you're just learning sound art with great effort just for a comparative analysis of the principles and differences between two different martial arts?"

Unlike Bi Ryu-yeon, who was trying to learn sound art for personal hobbies and interests to show off all sorts of coolness, Moyong Hwi was listening to sound art for an extremely complicated academic reason. It was natural for Bi Ryu-yeon to be fed up.

"Of course."

Moyong Hwi said firmly without hesitation.

Bi Ryu-yeon cursed inwardly that he was a really boring punk. He felt proud of himself for continuing to maintain a human relationship with such a lump of lack of fun and sociability (Bi Ryu-yeon, you're really something.). Bi Ryu-yeon was completely unaware of the fact that, in the eyes of others, he was also a strange punk who was not to be trifled with.

"Then which Old Master's class is it?"

Although he asked the question, Bi Ryu-yeon already knew the answer. There was only one person whose lecture was scheduled on today's timetable.