Twelve Disciples: Punished or Exonerated?
A pillar of fire spiraled upward in a perfect circle, roaring like thunder as it shot skyward. The flames licked the transparent barrier, a breathtaking spectacle. To anyone watching from outside, it was truly magnificent. To Han Yuhyeon inside, however, it felt exactly like descending into a furnace of scorching hell.
What he had believed in was the second form of the True Dragon Ascending Heaven-Shocking Art. The moment the technique reached completion, he had gained the ability to unleash Dragon-Subduing Mountain-Splitting. A fitting name for it. Scales bursting forth, mountains shattered.
Precisely as the name suggested, Dragon-Subduing Mountain-Splitting had caused Han Yuhyeon’s skin to stand on end, transforming into scales. When he tested it, the scales possessed absolute immunity to all five elemental energies, and that was no exaggeration. He could press his fiery arm straight against the flames without so much as a tingle.
The catch was that Dragon-Subduing Mountain-Splitting was a cultivation method, not just a simple body-strengthening pill like the Latent Dragon Reforming Pill. It burned through spiritual energy at an alarming rate. On top of that, Han Yuhyeon’s stats were skewed heavily toward Luck, leaving him with far less spiritual energy than a standard Qi Condensation fourth-stage cultivator. As a result, he could only sustain the technique for a mere ten seconds—the absolute limit.
He had no real way to test the upper bound, so he was gambling with his life. But fighting a fifth-stage Qi Condensation cultivator made risk inevitable.
Among the options, he had only one he felt confident enough to risk: this one. The sounds of Assistant Magistrate Su’s screams had reached him earlier, yet the roar of the flames drowned them out entirely.
It was razor-thin. His skin was burning so hot it felt like it would melt. If the heat had been even slightly stronger or he had lasted a second longer, Han Yuhyeon would have burned away along with the scales.
The pillar of fire was simply too powerful; it incinerated everything inside the barrier in seconds. Once there was nothing left to burn, the flames naturally guttered out, leaving only ash. Every living thing except Han Yuhyeon himself had become nothing but charcoal.
“……Hah.”
The agitated air that had been spinning around him finally began to settle. The barrier outside was being removed. At the same time, Han Yuhyeon lifted his head and took a deep, cleansing breath.
He looked up and first saw the spot where Assistant Magistrate Su had stood. The man had been reduced to a single bone fragment and turned to ash.
“Tsk.”
Han Yuhyeon clicked his tongue. He couldn’t even feel the ashes under his foot. If the flames had been ordinary law or fire magic, he would have pocketed the loot. But the heat had been far too intense.
“Interesting.”
At that exact moment, a woman’s voice drifted down from the sky, light and clear.
At the same moment, a massive shadow fell over Han Yuhyeon. He looked up and saw a huge feather-shaped flying fan carried by the Magistrate slowly descending.
Han Yuhyeon recognized the attire and immediately dropped into a deep bow.
“Greetings, Elder.”
The woman was the Elder of Baekun-pa. The Elder descended lightly from the fan. The moment she landed, the fan shrank back into a compact size one person could easily hold. Han Yuhyeon recognized her instantly and performed the full three obeisances.
“Rise.”
“Understood.”
Han Yuhyeon stood up following the Elder’s command. Both he and the Elder froze at the same time. The Elder’s pause made sense.
“You’re not as ugly as the rumors said.”
Han Yuhyeon, on the other hand, was stunned. The Elder was stunningly beautiful.
Despite her white-cloud Sect robes, she carried an almost ethereal freshness, as if she had just passed her youth. Her large, luminous eyes and skin like frozen jade were enough to hypnotize anyone who gazed too long.
Han Yuhyeon quickly lowered his eyes before he could stare longer and get himself in trouble.
“Reaver? The trash cultivator brought by Elder Mun.”
“Correct.”
“I heard the story. I thought you were a Heavenly Spiritual Root user and brought you along, but you turned out to be five spiritual roots. I was pretty shocked. Old men like me need to be careful. We don’t want to be eaten alive.”
The Elder smiled. On paper she looked twice her age, but that didn’t matter in this world. What mattered was one’s cultivation level. No one could tell how young she appeared.
“But it seems the rumors were mistaken, weren’t they?”
A soft hand reached down and lifted Han Yuhyeon’s chin. The Elder tilted his face upward with her index finger.
“I heard you were an utterly worthless five-spiritual-roots trash. Turned out you’re not at all. You look like you could be useful. Starting with the way you handle spiritual energy, that doesn’t seem like an ordinary trash technique.”
“……”
It was obvious she had watched his entire fight. The sudden closeness of the Elder made Han Yuhyeon turn his head away, face burning.
“Hah. Even if you turn your head, I’m the one who should. You’re quite the strange one.”
“I apologize.”
Han Yuhyeon turned to face her again.
“What’s your name?”
“Han Yuhyeon.”
“I am Baekri-wan.”
“Nice to meet you, Elder Baek.”
As he answered, Han Yuhyeon scanned his surroundings. The Reaver’s pack seemed to have disappeared. If they had appeared now, they would only have lost face.
“Hand.”
Han Yuhyeon blinked in confusion. The Elder held out her palm, shaking it as if training a puppy.
“Huh?”
“Hand. Come on, hand.”
Han Yuhyeon placed his hand on the Elder’s pale palm without understanding. The moment he did, she shook as if struck by lightning and slapped his hand away.
“Who told you to touch my hand? Put both of them together and hold them up.”
Her sharp voice made Han Yuhyeon instinctively raise both hands. Steel cuffs snapped shut around his wrists.
“Huh?”
“What do you mean? You just went around like an idiot, yet the sect hasn’t taken any action?”
“……Ugh.”
There was nothing he could say. Maybe this place actually had rules.
At that moment, the Elder unfurled her fan and tossed it to the ground. It immediately enlarged into a size one could sit on.
“Hey, hop on.”
“……?”
A 1990s-era megastar in a 1990s-style outfit had somehow appeared in the cultivation world.
“You’re not riding?”
“I am.”
There was no choice. He had to obey. The steel cuffs were heavy, but they somehow disrupted spiritual energy.
And at the end of a fight that had drained his energy, riding comfortably was also a plus.
Han Yuhyeon climbed awkwardly onto the fan behind the Elder. She glanced back, then tapped the fan with her heel. It lifted into the air and shot forward at high speed.
“Woooaah!”
It felt exactly like riding a roller coaster without the safety bar.
Violent air currents whipped past. Han Yuhyeon had no choice but to hang on desperately, body pressed flat against the fan.
“You country bumpkin. You can’t even ride a flying fan.”
The Elder looked at Han Yuhyeon’s deathly pale face and clicked her tongue in disdain.
“T-this is my first time.”
“You’ll have to get used to it.”
“Huh?”
Han Yuhyeon asked, but the Elder gave no answer and headed straight for the sect headquarters. For some reason, just like with Elder Mun, she seemed to have no intention of leaving him alone.
Han Yuhyeon followed her with a puzzled expression. Once inside the headquarters, the Elder showed no signs of restraint. Being two inches shorter than him, she walked with her chin held high in a way that looked almost comical. Of course, saying that here would be an instant death sentence.
The Elder didn’t knock on the door to the Patriarch’s chamber. She simply pushed it open. If she had been using a double-cultivation technique, why would she dare?
But the Elder was skilled enough to cut in before the Patriarch could roar out his presence.
“We have returned with the cultivator.”
Seeing Baekri-wan speak so casually, the Patriarch furrowed his brows. It seemed the Patriarch of Baekun-pa wasn’t especially fierce. After all, the sect was in the tutorial area; a weird personality was only natural.
“……Hm. Did you bring the wrong person?”
The Patriarch eyed Baekri-wan with suspicion. The Elder frowned.
“Why?”
“This brat… I remember him. He’s the external disciple Elder Mun brought. I don’t remember the others, but I definitely remember this one. How shocking.”
It was obvious what he meant by “shocking.”
“I thought maybe… but it turned out to be true.”
“Hmm. Can this guy actually fight? He survived that too?”
“I suppose so.”
The Patriarch sounded doubtful as well, judging by the scale of the fight. A month ago he had reported this one as only Qi Condensation second stage.
“We should just hear it directly. Reaver, I mean, what’s your name?”
“Han Yuhyeon.”
“Right. Tell me yourself. What happened?”
“Am I being punished?”
“Normally I would. But if you had quietly fought, I wouldn’t have cared. Burning an entire mountain, though… I can’t ignore that. The sect rules are clear.”
The Patriarch’s calm tone gave Han Yuhyeon hope.
“Even if I was ambushed unfairly?”
“There any recorded flying stones?”
“I’m an external disciple who joined a month ago. I have no such technique.”
“Then there’s no evidence. I can’t just trust your word. The dead don’t speak.”
The Patriarch glanced at Baekri-wan again as if he had forgotten something.
“But who was the dead one?”
“I don’t know the name, but it was the Magistrate who was assisting Elder Mun.”
“Hm?”
The Patriarch thought for a moment, then shook his head.
“No, that’s impossible. From what I know, that guy is Qi Condensation fifth stage.”
“Even in the capital, there are things that don’t make sense.”
Baekri-wan shrugged. Han Yuhyeon, a new arrival to the capital, agreed. Nothing was impossible in the capital.
The Patriarch reached for Han Yuhyeon’s wrist, but the Elder stopped him.
“He’s already cuffed, so there’s no point in checking his pulse.”
“……Ah, right. In that case, we have no choice but to punish him. Elder Mun won’t stay silent if I let him go.”
“He’s a troublesome old fart, after all.”
As expected, the cuffs contained something that suppressed spiritual energy. Useful, but right now they needed to get out of this situation first.
“Then I’ll explain from the beginning.”
Han Yuhyeon began to recount his story in a quiet voice: the bet with the internal disciple, the mission from the Forgotten Tomb Record, finding the relic after solving the tomb…
“Wait!”
The Patriarch shot upright. Han Yuhyeon smirked. He had guessed he would stop at this point.
“You solved the secret of the Forgotten Tomb Record?”
“Yes.”
“Seriously? How?”
“I tripped and fell while blindfolded, tearing the record. In the moment of despair, the broken pieces glowed and a relic appeared.”
Baekri-wan’s eyes widened in genuine surprise, as if she had never heard this before. The part about finding the relic was obviously a lie. She couldn’t come up with a believable excuse.
“Th-then where is it?”
The Patriarch’s eyes sparkled with excitement. A real relic. Of course he would be excited.
“Ah, I need to take it out of the flying stone. I’m cuffed so…”
Han Yuhyeon shrugged. The Patriarch immediately drew his palm blade and split the steel cuffs in half.
“Thank you.”
Smiling, Han Yuhyeon reached into the flying stone. The Patriarch and Elder’s eyes locked on his hand. Just before he pulled it out, he looked at the Patriarch.
“Ah, one more thing, Patriarch.”
“W-what? What is it?”
“May I ask again? Am I being punished?”
Han Yuhyeon smiled. The Patriarch blinked, then burst out laughing along with him.
“Who would punish you? This is Baekun-pa’s fortune!”
“See? Right? Hahaha.”
“Hahaha!”
“Hahaha!”
A cheerful laugh echoed through the Patriarch’s chamber. Watching them, the Elder looked faintly exasperated.
[Movement/form description]