First, Deal with the Lackeys
Just what the hell is going on? Did I really go back fifty years?
Could this all just be a coincidence...? But what coincidence in this world looks like this? Even the shape of the dirt pile is identical...
Yeop Pung had no way to explain this dreamlike reality. It defied belief. He wrestled with it for a long while, but not a single clue presented itself. For now, he set the questions aside and headed back to the herb garden.
"Brother Yeop Pung, you're finally here!"
The moment he arrived, the handyman disciples he knew by face came crowding around him.
"Are you all right?"
"Have your wounds healed?"
"Brother, we nearly pissed ourselves the other day. P-please don't hate us too much..."
Yeop Pung shook his head and answered their greetings with a smile. He had long grown used to the fear and frailty of those around him. Of all the people offering their usual perfunctory hellos, there was only one he truly cared about.
"Where's Yi Sang?"
He glanced around, but the honest boy was nowhere to be seen.
"He's gone."
"Gone?"
"The Yi family came and took him yesterday. Ah — that's right, Brother. Yi Sang left you a letter before he went."
A letter?
Yeop Pung took the letter they held out and unfolded it.
Brother Yeop Pung,
Please come find me at the Yi Family Escort Agency in Bongsang County Seat. I'll have everything prepared for you there. Don't worry about what comes next — just come. I'll be waiting.
— Yi Sang
The letter was a great comfort. Yi Sang had no idea Yeop Pung had already broken through to the Profound Realm — and yet he was still looking out for him, still worrying over his future. The sincerity of it made Yeop Pung's chest tighten.
Once I become an inner disciple, I'll go to Bongsang County Seat and share the joy of it with Yi Sang!
A faint smile spread across Yeop Pung's face. That was when two familiar figures came walking in from outside the herb garden.
"Hey! You worthless lot! What have you been doing all day? Is Senior Brother Gi's spirit medicine ready or not?"
The handyman disciples turned. Two men stood there, speaking in cold, arrogant voices, carrying themselves as if the rest of the world did not exist. They were Jang Un and Jo Bihong — the same two inner disciples who had played lackey at Gi Beonjin's side two days ago.
Gi Beonjin was not with them today, but the pair's swagger was as insufferable as ever, and it set everyone's teeth on edge.
Then they spotted Yeop Pung. Jang Un in particular broke into a nasty grin, as if he had just found himself a fine bit of entertainment.
"Well, well! Who do we have here? If it isn't 'Brother Yeop Pung'! Hahaha — how are you still shameless enough to show your face at the Cheonun Sect?"
Jo Bihong, standing beside him, piled on with a sneer of his own.
"Some worthless trash just don't know when they don't belong. They cling and linger, refusing to leave — like a mangy stray that won't take a hint. Shameless to the bone!"
The two of them were used to puffing themselves up in Gi Beonjin's shadow. The Yeop Pung they had stomped into the dirt two days ago did not even register as a concern. What they did not know was that today's Yeop Pung was nothing like the one from two days ago.
The smile vanished from Yeop Pung's face. A chill he had never given off before poured from his body — sharp enough that the people around him flinched.
What the hell? Brother Yeop Pung's killing intent is off the charts today!
Yeop Pung started walking, heading out of the herb garden. With every step he took, deep footprints sank into the earth.
The handyman disciples shrank under that pressure. Sensing that the mood had turned ugly, they hurried after him, trying to hold him back.
"Brother, please, hold back! Those bastards aren't people we can afford to mess with!"
"Brother, those guys have already reached the First Meridian Profound Realm! They're leading candidates to pass tomorrow's inner sect examination! Don't get yourself beaten again..."
Yeop Pung paid their pleading no mind and walked on in silence.
He closed the distance until he stood about thirty paces from Jang Un and Jo Bihong. The others could not bring themselves to go any farther. They could only stare at his back and sigh. He would not listen. There was nothing they could do.
On the other side, Jang Un watched Yeop Pung approach with that ice-cold expression and laughed in his face. To Jang Un's eyes, the chill in Yeop Pung's bearing was nothing but the empty bluster of a fool who did not know his place.
Jang Un clutched his belly and roared with laughter.
"Ahahaha! Brother Jo, look at 'Brother Yeop Pung' over there. He's really pissed off! I'm so scared I might die! Ahahaha!"
A smile tugged at Jo Bihong's mouth as well. He let a cold aura settle over himself and strode out to meet Yeop Pung, lifting his palm high, an ugly grin splitting his face.
"Looks like this mangy mutt let Senior Brother Gi's words go in one ear and out the other. Hmph! In that case, I'll do Senior Brother Gi the favor of throwing you out of the Cheonun Sect myself!"
Crack!
Jo Bihong's palm came screaming toward Yeop Pung's cheek. The air itself shrieked under the whipping gale of the strike. It was the blow of a man who had truly reached the First Meridian Profound Realm — Jo Bihong's speed rivaled Gi Beonjin's from two days prior. Any Body Realm martial artist would have been sent flying without a prayer. The handyman disciples had already given up; they squeezed their eyes shut.
Crack!
A sharp report rang out across the entire herb garden.
And in the next instant came Jo Bihong's wretched scream.
"Aaaagh!"
The cry was so hideous it turned the listeners' blood to ice.
W-what just happened?
Nobody had caught what had taken place. In that sliver of time, the arrogant, ice-cold Jo Bihong went flying through the air. Half his face had already been grotesquely caved in by Yeop Pung's backhand. His lip was split and dripping blood, and several blood-smeared teeth went scattering through the air. It was a wretched sight.
Jo Bihong tumbled across the ground, rolling several times before his head smashed into a wall and he blacked out on the spot. Half his face had already swollen up like a pig's head.
W-what in the world had just happened?
The onlookers could not believe their own eyes. Yeop Pung had sent Jo Bihong flying with a single blow? How was that even possible? The other man was a Profound Realm martial artist. Everyone stood stunned.
Only Yeop Pung's expression remained as cold as a sheet of ice. Without the slightest flicker of emotion, he wiped the blood from his clothes.
But in Yeop Pung's heart, a fire was blazing. It was the sheer, savage pleasure of it.
Ignoring the shocked stares around him, he walked toward Jang Un, who was still standing there with his wits knocked clean out of him.
"Take that one and get the hell out of the herb garden. Now."
He pointed at Jo Bihong and did not waste another word. That single strike had made the gap between himself and an ordinary First Meridian Profound Realm martial artist unmistakably clear. Jang Un, standing in front of him, was no longer even an opponent. The one he truly wanted to face was Gi Beonjin.
Jang Un, however, had no intention of backing down so easily. Once his mind caught up, his face twisted into something even more vicious and cruel. White Profound Qi surged up around his entire body. He swung his fist hard, driving it straight at Yeop Pung's face.
"You mongrel! You dared ambush Brother Jo while his guard was down! I'll kill you today!"
A sharp, glittering light filled Yeop Pung's eyes, cold killing intent and nothing else. He extended his fist as if it were nothing at all and met Jang Un's attack head-on.
A faint golden gleam flashed across Yeop Pung's knuckles. His fist carried the crushing force of a massive cannon. It collided with Jang Un's fist dead-on.
A dull boom sounded, and the two fists hung in the air as if time itself had stopped.
Then came a hideous crack of breaking bone — and a scream tore from Jang Un's throat like a hog at the slaughter.
"Aaaagh! My arm! Yeop Pung, y-you bastard, you broke my arm! Aaaaagh!"
Jang Un staggered backward. His right arm hung limp as soft tofu, his face contorted in agony. All the strength went out of him and he crumpled to the ground.
Good god.
The onlookers could only stare, their minds completely gone. Sending Jo Bihong flying with one blow could perhaps have been written off as a sneak attack. But this time he had broken Jang Un's arm in a head-on clash. This was proof of Yeop Pung's strength that no one could deny.
There was no longer any room for doubt. Yeop Pung was a true Profound Realm martial artist — and his power was savage, overwhelming. Not a soul here had ever seen him this ruthless.
But to anyone who remembered how 'Brother Yeop Pung' had carried himself eight years ago, it was no surprise at all. Anyone who dared strut in front of him received the same treatment then as now: they were crushed without mercy. That familiar sight had finally returned.
"Jang Un!!"
Beside him, Jo Bihong — now sporting a pig's head — came scrambling over in a panic. Drenched in cold sweat, he hauled up the writhing Jang Un.
A minute ago they had been dishing out threats and mockery without end. Now they were a miserable pair: one with his mouth torn open, the other with a broken arm.
"Yeop Pung, you're finished! You dare do this to us? Senior Brother Gi will never let you get away with it!!"
Jo Bihong shouted through clenched teeth, but with a mouth already half burst open, the words carried not a shred of menace. They were just laughable.
Yeop Pung did not even look back. Jo Bihong's words might as well have never reached his ears.
"Don't make me laugh! Yeop Pung, just you wait..."
"Get lost!!"
Yeop Pung's icy glare snuffed Jo Bihong's threat out in a single breath. He was savage. The Yeop Pung standing there now was so savage that even Gi Beonjin had never given off an aura this terrifying.
Jo Bihong and Jang Un did not have the courage to provoke the reaper in front of them a second time. They had no choice but to slink away like beaten dogs. Even as they left, though, they hurled curses over their shoulders.
"Just wait, Yeop Pung! Senior Brother Gi won't let this slide!"
"Yeop Pung! Tomorrow's the day we bury you!"
Once the two of them were gone, the remaining handyman disciples approached Yeop Pung as if they were afraid of him, staring as though they were looking at a stranger. It was as if they had all been loaches wriggling in a muddy stream — and then, all of a sudden, one of them had become a dragon and soared into the sky. Every gaze was packed with envy, shock, jealousy, and shame.
Yeop Pung paid their stares and whispering no mind at all. He put his fellow disciples at ease, then walked out of the herb garden that had been a prison to him for five long years.
That's right. Yeop Pung was a dragon. He had lived like a loach for eight years, but in the end he had broken through to the Profound Realm and shaken the herb garden to its core. And once he passed tomorrow's inner sect examination, he would finally rise as a true dragon, soaring above the clouds to command the heavens themselves.
Word that Yeop Pung had broken through to the Profound Realm and turned the herb garden upside down spread through the entire outer sect of the Cheonun Sect in a single day. The ripples it caused were anything but small.
The outer sect instructors handled the incident with relative fairness. Plenty of people testified that Yeop Pung had acted in self-defense, so they did not make any great issue of it. Even so, in the space of a single day, Yeop Pung's name was on every outer disciple's lips.
"Yeop Pung?"
"Who's Yeop Pung? I've never even heard of him."
The outer disciples who had joined recently murmured among themselves.
"From what I hear, he's a handyman disciple. Sat on it for years and finally broke through to the Profound Realm."
"That handyman must have a death wish. He actually laid hands on Gi Beonjin's men?"
"Hmph. Gi Beonjin's already declared he'll crush Yeop Pung at tomorrow's inner sect examination. This should be fun."
"Fun? The inner sect examination isn't even a duel. Gi Beonjin's going to dominate him in every category."
"There's a practical assessment, though."
"That only matters if the two of them actually meet. And if Gi Beonjin does run into Yeop Pung... he might not die, but he'll be a cripple on the spot..."
Not a single one of the new disciples looked on Yeop Pung with any favor. In their eyes, standing before Gi Beonjin's overwhelming strength, Yeop Pung was as pitiful as a firefly beneath a blazing moon.
Even so, the outer disciples of the Cheonun Sect fixed their attention on the inner sect examination, eager to see how it would all unfold.
Meanwhile, once word that Yeop Pung had broken through to the Profound Realm reached the inner sect of the Cheonun Sect, he found himself drawing the attention of certain people...