Chapter 70

Outside, dawn was dim. The winter air was cold as ice, and frost crumbled underfoot with every step across the training ground.

Jin Mukyung, who had already been warming up, grinned at me.

“Well? Are you mentally prepared?”

Of course not. But I hid my churning stomach and nodded.

Someone once said that if you couldn’t avoid something, you should enjoy it. Thinking of this as just another step toward becoming stronger made me feel a little more at ease…

Shing.

“Then let’s see that impressive skill of yours.”

Is this bastard Korean? Why is he so impatient?

I had no time to avoid him. Jin Mukyung rushed toward me in an instant, and I hurriedly swung my spear shaft at him.

Clang! Kaga-gang!

Jin Mukyung’s breath drifted between us over our locked weapons.

“Your stance isn’t bad.”

It had to be. I had survived seven years in a Gate where my life had been on the line, using nothing but a spear. The experience I’d built up with the spear was on a completely different level from my fists and kicks.

I glared into his eyes and answered.

“This time, it won’t be easy.”

One word at a time. Clearly and distinctly.

“You…”

Had he sensed my unusual aura? Jin Mukyung’s eyes trembled.

“Can’t you keep your damn eyes open?”

“Oh.”

Swoosh. Thud!

Jin Taekyung collapsed.

It was hardly surprising. This was already his fifth knockout.

The real surprise lay elsewhere.

I can’t believe he lasted two hundred exchanges against me.

Five spars over two shichen—roughly four hours.

Anyone would have been exhausted. But Jin Taekyung was different. He kept springing back up like a roly-poly toy, growing stronger each time. By the final spar, even Jin Mukyung had been forced to take him seriously.

What the hell is this guy?

Unarmed, his movements had been as clumsy as those of an eighty-year-old man. But the moment he picked up a spear, everything changed.

The coward who had fawned over Jin Mukyung to avoid getting hit had vanished. In his place stood a seasoned spearman.

He was like a wandering martial artist. Someone who had survived countless brushes with death.

His movements were so simple they seemed crude, while his irregular attacks and evasions relied entirely on instinct. A wandering martial artist’s fighting style followed no fixed pattern.

That was exactly what Jin Taekyung looked like to Jin Mukyung.

Which only made the question more baffling.

How?

Even among the heirs of prestigious families who picked up a sword as soon as they learned to walk, countless people only hovered around the threshold of First Rate. Yet this man had stood before the wall of the Peak realm in just three years.

And he did it while giving off not the scent of a courtesan’s powder, but the strong scent of a seasoned wandering martial artist. The more Jin Mukyung thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.

Was something like this even possible?

Technically, yes.

Having a Supreme Peak master cleanse his tendons and marrow. Improving his constitution with elixirs. Then swinging a spear until he shit blood while building real combat experience.

Every single day for three years!

“…That’s ridiculous.”

Jin Mukyung muttered hollowly and scratched his head.

Then only one answer remained.

A genius.

That one word resolved every question with perfect clarity.

Why?

Because he was a genius. Someone blessed by heaven, just as the word implied. Someone born with talent.

Geniuses were ahead in every way. They started from a completely different place.

“Zzz… Hoo…”

“…”

But of all people, this guy was a genius?

That was impossible. It couldn’t be allowed!

Anger suddenly surged within Jin Mukyung, and he kicked his younger brother in the rear.

“Prrrblblbl.”

Jin Taekyung rolled away several times before shuddering all over.

“W-Wolhwa noona¹. Not there.”

“…!”

“If you suddenly do this… Ah. Aah!”

Crack.

The last thread of Jin Mukyung’s patience snapped.

Beep!

System

• Sleep Mode has been forcibly terminated!

So it can be forcibly terminated?

My joy at discovering a new function lasted only a moment. Why had Sleep Mode been forcibly terminated?

Because someone had woken me up, obviously.

“On the sacred training ground, you say what? ‘Not there’? ‘Not there’?”

Whack! Whack! Whack!

Curled up like a shrimp, I pleaded in a dying voice.

“Please, spare me…”

“No!”

Thwack-thwack-thwack!

I had no idea how many times he hit me. I lost consciousness twice in the middle of it.

My last memory was of collapsing while using the last of my strength to leave a dying message on the training ground. When I opened my eyes, it was already night.

What did I even do for it to be night already?

I felt like a time traveler. Ever since I had met Jin Mukyung, entire days had been flying by.

Pain swept through my body as I muttered, “Jin Mukyung really is strong.”

Excluding Jin Mukyung, I had faced two Peak masters so far.

The Head Elder and Jopil.

The Head Elder doesn’t count.

In his case, I had to admit that luck had been on my side. If not for the sacrifices of the Jin Family of Taiyuan’s martial artists and Lee Cheonbaek’s surprise attack, he was a master I could never have defeated in a million years.

Then how does Jopil compare to Jin Mukyung?

I did not have to think for long.

I had fought both of them, so the choice was easy.

Jin Mukyung is stronger.

Jopil was unquestionably a monster. Even now, I got goose bumps whenever I remembered the savage heat pouring from his Flame Divine Palm.

But how should I put it? He was strong like a Peak master, and he used the deadly Flame Divine Palm, but that was all.

More precisely, it was a difference in how they used their martial arts.

Jin Mukyung was different from Jopil. Even during our spar, he had used more than ten different martial arts to completely shut down my attacks.

To a martial artist, martial arts were another weapon. Jin Mukyung knew how to draw out the right weapon at exactly the right moment.

Compared to him, what did I have?

Setting aside the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique, which I had possessed from the beginning, the only martial arts I had learned in Murim were the Jin Family’s Spear Technique and the Jin Family’s Manoeuvre Technique.

Of course, both were unquestionably First Rate martial arts.

But put another way, they were only useful at the First Rate level.

The limitations of my martial arts. There was no way Jin Wikyung had failed to notice what I had felt.

That must be why he put me with Jin Mukyung. Ugh.

The pain made my brow furrow on its own. I had barely raised my upper body, yet every joint throbbed and my skin stung.

Apparently, even the rest provided by Sleep Mode had its limits.

Well, I did get beaten half to death.

To complete the Quest by earning Jin Mukyung’s recognition, I would have to endure days like today—or even worse ones.

Maybe I would simply get beaten senseless and fail the Quest anyway.

It really is one mountain after another.

And that made me happy.

As an F-rank Hunter, I had not even been given the right to climb a mountain. But everything had changed.

There was a mountain I had to climb, and I had been given the right to climb it.

Faster than anyone else!

This isn’t the time for this.

Forgetting the pain, I rose. I could not bear to waste another minute or second.

Jin Mukyung was in the underground training ground.

I descended the stairs as quietly as possible and spotted him below.

“Hah!”

With a short shout, his sword moved.

Whoosh! Shh-shh-shhk!

The wind split along the blade.

Jin Mukyung moved without hesitation, thrusting and slashing through empty space at the speed of a ray of light.

About fifteen minutes passed before he lowered his sword and released a long breath.

“Hoo.”

He wiped away his sweat with his sleeve, then turned toward me.

It seemed he had noticed my presence some time ago.

“Tell me.”

The words came out of nowhere.

Caught off guard, I asked, “Tell you what?”

“About the martial art I just performed.”

“Uh, well, first of all, it was really fast…”

“For the record, if you spout pointless bullshit like ‘It was fast’ or ‘It was strong,’ I’ll kill you.”

He’s a mind reader.

I racked my brain for an answer that would keep me alive.

What had Jin Mukyung’s martial art been like?

As I thought about it carefully, a vague impression began to surface.

“Rough?”

Jin Mukyung’s eyebrow twitched.

Was that the right answer?

“Did you just speak informally to me?”

“…It seemed rough.”

“Even a little kid could say that. Be more specific.”

The image in my head gradually became clearer.

I remembered the blade pouring down upon an imaginary enemy and the movements that accompanied it. Fast and unrestrained. And the aura pressing down from every direction.

It was like…

“A waterfall?”

“…”

“Huh?”

What? Was that the right answer?

After a long silence, Jin Mukyung abruptly swung his scabbard.

Smack!

“Ow! Why did you hit me?”

“Just because.”

He stared at me with a strange look in his eyes.

“How did someone like you ever come out?”

Was that an insult or a compliment?

I had no idea what he truly meant, but I had to hear the answer to his question if only because I felt wronged. Rubbing my throbbing forehead, I asked:

“So, was that the correct answer?”

“There are thousands of martial arts manuals in Heaven’s Gate Temple. They were arrangements left behind by the departed Seniors who hoped to cultivate the younger generation of the orthodox Murim.”

“And?”

“The Falling Flow Sword you just saw is one of them. I found it buried deep in the archives.”

Falling flow. In other words, falling water.

A waterfall.

I had simply blurted out the first thing that came to mind, but it had actually been the right answer.

“Oh, ooh.”

Am I really a genius?

If I could recognize martial arts like this after only two months of learning them, I was afraid of how strong I might become in the future. Even I found myself frightening.

“Surely you’re not having the embarrassing thought that you’re a genius or something after managing only that much?”

“…”

He really is a mind reader.

Still, I seemed to have at least a little talent.

Unable to let go of the thought, I cautiously asked, “Can everyone normally do this much?”

Jin Mukyung flinched.

“O-Of course. Anyone with eyes should be able to guess this much.”

“Come on.”

“‘Come on’? Want me to pluck out one of your eyes?”

“…That might be a bit much.”

Why is this bastard being especially stone-faced today? Did something unpleasant happen?

Even after I backed down, Jin Mukyung could not contain his anger. He kept huffing angrily.

“It’s basic. Basic. Everyone can do it.”

“I said I get it. Why do you keep getting angry? You’re scaring me.”

“Are you rebelling against me? Is it because you’re going through the storm-and-stress stage of adolescence? Do you want to get beaten with the Twelve Gale Fists?”

I did not know what the Twelve Gale Fists were, but getting hit by them sounded painful.

I shook my head fiercely, but Jin Mukyung’s anger showed no sign of fading.

“Do you know martial arts? Huh?”

“N-No, sir.”

“How long have you been learning martial arts?”

The answer slipped out reflexively.

“Two months. Two months.”

“Right, a bastard who’s only been at it for two months… What? Two months?”

Jin Mukyung glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

“Not three years, but two months?”

This was an emergency.

The social instincts I had gained through seven years of working life shone at that moment. I hurriedly opened my mouth, making sure to emphasize one particular part.

“Three years! Plus two months!”

Jin Mukyung’s fist had been trembling as though he had suffered a stroke, but it steadied again. For some reason, even his voice seemed slightly gentler.

“You little bastard. You startled me.”

You startled me even more, you son of a bitch.

Does he have anger-management issues?

If he asked Jin Wikyung, my lie would be exposed immediately. But at least I would avoid the misfortune of experiencing the Twelve Gale Fists right now.

In any case, Jin Mukyung’s anger subsided in the meantime.

“I’ll say this only once. Listen carefully.”

“I’ll engrave it on my heart.”

I bowed deeply, and he declared in a domineering tone, “I teach. You obey.”

“…”

Is this a dog-training school or what?

“There will be no objections. Why? Because I’m stronger than you.”

It was true, so I had no desire to argue.

Money, power, and force. Their forms might differ, but the world always revolved around the strong.

I wanted to stand at its center.

“What will you do?”

My answer had been decided a long time ago.