Chapter 30
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Seizing the Opponent's Momentum
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There was none.
Among those seated in the chairs, only Uiseong hadn't taken any disciples.
Since one person could take more than one disciple, there wasn't really any issue with Uiseong not having taken any. Still, it was rare since most had taken disciples to pass on their signature techniques.
"Uncle, why haven't you taken a disciple?"
"I didn't want to get frustrated teaching idiots."
Uiseong stretched languidly and yawned.
Since my master Uihyeon had gone off to serve as an instructor for the Outer Disciple entrance exam, I was moving my belongings to the hall where I'd be staying with Uiseong. My hands were full of the issued supplies and my personal items.
You could probably guess why they hadn't bothered sending Uiseong, who had no disciples, as an instructor.
It was possible a miracle had occurred where all five hundred of the five hundred examinees dropped out on the first day.
"Teaching our little top scorer of the entrance exam was frustrating enough to kill me. You think I'd want to teach those even worse?"
"Before nitpicking the kids' skills, maybe check your own teaching first."
"That brat never runs out of snark."
Uigang spotted Uiseong smacking my head and came running over to whack the back of Uiseong's head.
"Where do you think you're hitting a kid's head!"
"You're going too far, big senior brother! So where do you think you can hit me then?"
Bihwan, who was standing behind Uigang clutching his own bundle of issued supplies just like me, scratched his head with a flustered look at the two suddenly bickering.
By the way, Bihwan had become Uigang's disciple.
"Let's just go by ourselves."
"You know where the hall is?"
"Of course. I could find it with my eyes closed."
Ignoring the two who showed no sign of starting to walk and just kept arguing, I grabbed Bihwan and headed for the hall where the Third-Generation Disciples stayed.
I'd gone there often following Uiseong, so I knew the way well.
The Core Disciples' quarters were slightly separated from the Outer Disciples'.
"...The rooms look no different from the Selection Hall."
Bihwan muttered in a deflated voice.
The sight before us made me wonder if we'd come back to the Selection Hall.
Yeah, the Selection Hall hall had looked familiar for some reason. It was exactly the same as here.
The gender ratio among the twenty-eighth generation Core Disciples was eleven female disciples and nineteen male. And there were five rooms provided.
At least the rooms were spacious enough for over a dozen per room?
Only First-Generation Disciples got their own rooms, while Third-Generation Disciples had to cram together in one hall.
Core Disciples were still better off, with five to seven per room. From what I'd seen, Outer Disciples were stuffed fifteen or more into even smaller rooms.
Secular Disciples, meanwhile, got rooms divided by donation amounts.
Man, they sure know how to run a business. No wonder the sect was overflowing with money.
As a baby, I'd had my own 'room,' but now that I was a Third-Generation Disciple, that was gone.
Having become an official Mount Hua disciple, my special privileges had come to an end.
"Still better than eight to a room like back in the Selection Hall days, right?"
"That was just for one day. Don't you remember how we each got our own big rooms later?"
Bihwan grumbled, his eyes narrowing slightly as if recalling the comfortable memories of the Selection Hall.
"Just accept it. Complaining won't make the rooms any better."
I patted his shoulder in consolation, then slipped off my shoes at the threshold and hopped up onto the main floor.
Entering the room used by the female disciples, I plunked my luggage down.
Biryung, who had arrived first and unpacked, glanced sideways and smoothly cleared space for me.
As I shoved my stuff roughly into the storage cabinet, I spoke to her.
"I heard Uiyeong the Junior Uncle is your master? He hates show-offs, so you'll get along great, little sister. Just do like you did in the Selection Hall."
Uijin, who had overseen the exam and watched Biryung's actions, had probably tipped off Uiyeong about a promising kid.
I was a bit of a special case, but usually, they picked disciples of the same gender.
Techniques like the Jade Maiden Heart Art or Jade Maiden Sword, which female swordswomen with lower raw power relied on skill for, were typically passed from female disciple to female disciple.
I didn't particularly need to learn Jade Maiden Sword or Heart Art, so I'd chosen Uihyeon as my master.
Biryung's expression didn't change at my advice. She stared at the mess I'd crammed into the cabinet and spoke.
"Tidy up your luggage, senior brother. If you're just going to keep shoving it in like that, stay farther away from my side."
"Hey, I'm giving you heartfelt advice that's worth its weight in gold, and you're fussing over luggage?"
I desperately blocked Biryung as she tried to pull my stuff out of the cabinet.
What was this subtle feeling where her polite speech didn't feel polite at all?
"If you don't tidy it right now, I'll move it to the far end. Just so you know."
"Puhaha! Kid, you've met your match!"
Uiseong, who had come in dangling my remaining luggage in one hand, burst out laughing at Biryung's words.
He knew well my habit of tossing things anywhere because unpacking was a hassle.
"Don't just dump your luggage like that—tidy it up, Senior Uncle Uiseong?"
And that habit of mine was shared by certain others.
Having gotten an earful himself, Uiseong started unpacking alongside me with a sullen expression.
"Uncle, looks like you've met your match too."
"At least she won't be right next to me like you."
Having given as good as I got and gotten back just as much, I clamped my mouth shut and roughly shoved my stuff into place.
With neat-freak Teacher Biryung around, I had a feeling my fifteen years in the Third-Generation Disciple hall wouldn't be smooth sailing.
* * *
"Sect Leader Grandpa."
At my call, the Sect Leader old man welcomed me gladly.
"Has Biyeon come?"
Once the Outer Disciples were fully admitted, the old man would step down as Sect Leader and become Supreme Leader, retreating to the background.
The owner of this office would soon change too.
I looked around the room that had been my playground and sanctuary from infancy until age six—a place that had occupied a part of my past.
A place I wouldn't be able to visit freely anymore.
"When did the kid who fretted over not blooming plum blossoms despite learning one form grow so big to become an official Mount Hua disciple?"
"When did I?"
I played dumb, pretending not to remember. To think he still remembered something from three years ago.
Back then, I'd only thought in terms of wuxia novel protagonists, so I hadn't known any better...
The Sect Leader old man just smiled gently at my feigned ignorance, stroked my head, and said yes.
I felt the passage of time from the deeper wrinkles.
While I was in the Selection Hall, Elder Mujin, who had first put a sword in my hands, had ascended.
In simple terms, he had passed away.
He'd wanted so badly to create a genius swordsman for Mount Hua. If only he could have seen me become a Plum Blossom Swordsman before going.
I knew generational change was inevitable, and eternal farewells were too. But knowing didn't make the weight any lighter.
"Sect Leader, if possible, achieve bone shedding and marrow replacement, even reverse aging, and live a long, long time."
"That's the dream realm for any martial artist, heh heh."
The Sect Leader old man let out a hearty laugh at my words and looked at me warmly before speaking.
"I'll give you one piece of advice that might help with blooming the plum blossoms."
In the world, just hearing this would make me a Mount Hua genius swordsman blooming plum blossoms at seven?
Meeting my sparkling eyes, the Sect Leader old man recited.
"Only those who have awakened can attain the truly unchanging and immovable Way. Keep this in mind."
No, wasn't this that profound-sounding empty rhetoric? The Way is attained by those who awaken to it themselves. Because that's the 'Way.' Hmm...!
It didn't seem helpful at all. Telling me the order of techniques to learn would be way more useful.
Tsk, but that sounds familiar somehow. Where did I hear it?
* * *
"Ooh, here they come, here they come."
At someone's mutter, I shouldered my wooden sword and looked at the group walking under Uihyeon's guidance in the distance.
"That's a lot of them."
They were the twenty-eighth generation Outer Disciples who would become our juniors.
And the opponents we needed to firmly engrave our hierarchy upon.
Biyeong, who had spent a year as the youngest and was finally getting juniors, wiped away moved tears.
Unlike Core Disciples taken up to age ten, Outer Disciples were accepted up to thirteen, so there were plenty who had suddenly shot up in height.
Uiseong had said those types were annoying, trying to crush with age and size.
"So, how should we seize the initiative?"
Biwon asked me with a bright smile. What a personality...
He was the guy who refused to acknowledge me as big senior brother until I hung upside down from a tree, but still.
"No need for us to rush in first—"
A tall Outer Disciple passing by scanned us up and down with a sneer.
Our oldest were eleven. The big senior brother was seven.
Perfect conditions for a thick-headed thirteen-year-old Outer Disciple to look down on us.
"Right?"
I finished my sentence with a crooked smirk.
Even if Mount Hua was a Righteous Faction, they were fundamentally martial artists: fiercely competitive, proud, and hating loss more than death.
Young or not, their competitive spirit was if anything stronger, never weaker.
In the Selection Hall, it was just us, so fights and brawls didn't matter, but this was the upper palace, Mount Hua Sect's headquarters.
Above us were Second-Generation Disciples, First-Generation, Elders, Supreme Elders.
Starting a fight here without reason?
'That'd be insane.'
Even if it was for establishing hierarchy, we had to keep it at a level the seniors would overlook.
Even with masters and uncles on our side, there were limits.
The best was to shove all the blame on them.
"Isn't it the most fun when cocky opponents charge in overconfident and get beaten down?"
I deliberately smiled brightly and waved at the Outer Disciples.
Biryung, watching me from the side, clicked her tongue.
"You really have a nasty personality."
"What, like it's news after seeing it every day?"