The Erased Circle
The scorching heat that had threatened to boil over in the training ground moments ago froze solid with the appearance of a single man.
Jeok Mu-gwang, the Mad Blood Blade.
The cadets stood gripped by instinctive terror, like herbivores cornered before a colossal predator.
A voice cold as ice split through the roar of the waterfall.
"You lot have thrown around duels on your own whim, thrown the Hidden Demon Cave's discipline into chaos, and set up private gambling matches between fellow cadets."
He paused, raking his gaze over each and every terrified face. Wherever his eyes landed, shoulders flinched.
At last, he spoke like a judge delivering a verdict.
"Therefore, punishment will be handed down! Any objections?"
It was a trap dressed in the form of a question. To object was to challenge the instructor's authority head-on; to stay silent was to admit guilt and accept defeat.
A deathly stillness spread like poison.
Now then, let's see what this bunch is made of. How many will dare to challenge me?
Jeok Mu-gwang's test had already begun — from the very moment the cadets had entered the Hidden Demon Cave. Survival of the Fittest was not something one could embody merely by reciting it or memorizing it in one's head.
"The ringleaders of this gambling den, step forward!"
The moment the declaration dropped, the cadets' gazes swung toward Yun Cheon and Yu Ha as if on cue. But neither of them looked away. While the other cadets cowered and bowed their heads, Yun Cheon and Yu Ha met Jeok Mu-gwang's eyes squarely.
That one again... and the other is Yu Ha, is it. The one from the Sun Moon Merchant Guild.
The remaining cadets each shuffled back a step, as though to prove they had no part in it.
Muk Ha-jin, for his part, quietly savored the situation.
Serves them right! If this goes well... that upstart might get expelled from the Hidden Demon Cave along with Muk Wi-jin, the pride of our branch family. Two thorns in my side, removed in one stroke? Heh heh. This only strengthens my position!
Thanks to that, an unconcealable smile even crept across Muk Ha-jin's lips.
But deep disgust flashed through Jeok Mu-gwang's eyes as he watched the scene.
Tch. And they say orthodox sects raise spoiled brats.
Since when had the descendants of the Cult grown this docile? The grounds should have been too small for blood-spattering life-and-death duels, yet they rolled over and played dead the instant someone called out a mere sparring wager. Did they think the Hidden Demon Cave was some backwater where they'd train to be village militias?
Utterly disappointing.
Jeok Mu-gwang's gaze lingered briefly on Muk Ha-jin.
Survival of the Fittest. So there isn't a single one among them who's grasped its true meaning. The Serpent Scorpion Muk Family hasn't raised a snake — it's raised an earthworm.
It was precisely the moment Jeok Mu-gwang was about to end it all in his disappointment.
"Instructor!"
The one who broke the frozen silence was the last person anyone expected.
Yayul Hui.
With her fists clenched tight, she stepped forward without a trace of hesitation and squared off against Jeok Mu-gwang's declaration.
"How is it a crime for cadets of the Hidden Demon Cave to clash teeth against one another and prove their strength!"
Muk Ha-jin was thunderstruck, but he dared not raise his voice, muttering under his breath instead. "Yayul Hui! That stupid woman! Volunteering for punishment..."
Yayul Hui paid him no mind and pressed on. Pride in her family — one of the Twelve Guardian Families, the Wild Wind Yayul — rang in her voice.
"If anything, it's suppressing the wildness of hungry wolves to turn them into docile sheep — that is what truly defies the doctrine of Survival of the Fittest!"
When her cry ended, a silence fell so complete that even the waterfall seemed to pause.
Yu Ha, who had been watching her, jabbed Yun Cheon in the ribs and whispered so only he could hear.
"Well now, the pride of the Yayul Family's daughter is something else. And she didn't even bet big money like we did."
"......"
In Yun Cheon's eyes, too, she had no particular reason to step forward. Only the simple principle that a martial artist tests themselves in combat — nothing more.
...They call this place the Demonic Cult. But she hasn't yet been dyed by the demonic.
That bearing was closer to that of a martial artist who pursued the way of the blade for its own sake. The most martial soul in this place might well have been hers — not Yun Cheon and Yu Ha, who had stepped up for the reward of identity plaques.
Only when Yayul Hui stepped forward did a chilly smile finally curl Jeok Mu-gwang's lips. His eyes were those of a hunter who had at last, in a parched desert, spotted a single wolf cub.
Ho. The Yayul girl again this time. It couldn't have been easy for her to step out like that. She passes. The rest are hopeless.
Jeok Mu-gwang waved a hand and spoke as though the matter bored him.
"Tch. Yun Cheon, Yu Ha, Yayul Hui. The three of you stay. The rest of you tail-wagging dogs, get lost."
At his command, the cadets scattered in a scrambling rush. In an instant, only four remained in the training ground — the three of them and Jeok Mu-gwang.
Only then did Jeok Mu-gwang reveal his true intent.
"Fools. To think you still haven't grasped what Survival of the Fittest means..."
He faced them now with the face of a 'examiner' considerably relaxed.
"The way I see it, the three of you bared your fangs, each in your own way. And I like that."
Yu Ha laughed with practiced ease. "Haha, well now... does that mean, somehow, only we passed the test?"
"You find this funny? Don't get the wrong idea. The test is only just beginning."
Yayul Hui answered his words with a sneer.
She's right. There's no way Instructor Jeok Mu-gwang lets this slide...
Yun Cheon did not doubt the man's true purpose for a second.
"Heh heh, you catch on fast. Baring your fangs isn't enough. Frightened dogs bare their teeth too!"
The instant his words ended, the playfulness of the examiner's face vanished — and killing intent erupted from his body, bearing down on the three of them like a mountain.
"Ngh...!"
Without any need to decide who went first, groans tore from all three of their mouths.
"Pride without strength is nothing but arrogance. Cunning without strength is nothing but petty trickery. Skill without strength is nothing but empty bravado."
In that moment, Jeok Mu-gwang's lips curled into that familiar, thick, cruel smile.
"If you cannot prove your strength against me, then all of you have committed nothing but reckless insolence — and you will be judged the very lowest!"
"Calling it the lowest now! That's just unfair, Instructor."
Yu Ha grumbled, still refusing to lose his composure.
Thud—!
Jeok Mu-gwang slammed his foot down in a fierce stomp. The sound was heavy, yet the result was exquisitely precise. Hidden force bursting from beneath his feet bored into the ground, and his internal energy whirled in a single circle around his body, carving a perfect concentric ring into the earth.
Internal energy control of an astonishing level!
The depth and width of the carved groove held not a hair's breadth of error.
This is nothing like a stomp that simply hurls power into the ground! He carved the earth exactly as deep as he willed it, with surgical precision!
Everyone could grasp that a profound subtlety was folded into Jeok Mu-gwang's every move.
"Heh heh... Are you afraid? Can you understand that fear — and still bare your fangs? That is precisely what separates dogs from beasts!"
Going by everything shown so far, Yu Ha and Yayul Hui were, at best, first-rate entrants. A master at the summit like Jeok Mu-gwang could subdue them without effort, without even drawing on his internal energy.
"I will set a constraint. I will not use internal energy. By any means necessary, force me out of this circle, and you win. Come!"
Before the declaration had even finished falling, the first to move — surprisingly — was Yayul Hui.
"Your instruction, Instructor! I gratefully accept!"
Judging by her tone alone, it sounded like a courteous offer of thanks. But her draw carried a razor-edged ferocity.
Shing—!
With a sharp crack of splitting air, her drawn blade shot toward Jeok Mu-gwang's throat like a bolt of lightning. It was the Wild Wind Thirteen Sabers of the Wild Wind Yayul Family, one of the Twelve Guardian Families — a swift saber technique worthy of its name.
But Jeok Mu-gwang did not so much as twitch.
Rather than dodge the incoming blade, he simply raised his right hand — and with his index and middle fingers alone, he caught, light as a feather, the very tip of her blade mid-flight.
"......!"
Yayul Hui's eyes flooded with disbelief. Her full-power opening strike, First Form: Severing the Wind, might as well have slammed into a mountain range — it could not advance a single inch.
"The Wild Wind Thirteen Sabers — your fundamentals aren't bad... but!"
The moment Jeok Mu-gwang sneered and flicked his fingers, her saber bounced away limp, and she staggered back several steps.
"Far too light."
Right at that moment — someone erupted upward from the shadow of her retreating figure.
"Now!"
With the shout, Yu Ha kicked the campfire, scattering ash and burning logs straight into Jeok Mu-gwang's line of sight. Simultaneously, he dropped low like a serpent and dove in for the man's lower body.
"Tricks like that wouldn't fool a blind man."
Jeok Mu-gwang didn't even bother closing his eyes. He simply swept his sleeve once.
Whuum—!
A violent gust bursting from his cuff blasted every last ember of ash away — and casually shoved Yu Ha's charge aside as well.
The two attacks, nullified in their entirety. A despairing sight.
"And here I thought you were wolves, but you're just pups who can't even hold their water. Is that all you've got?"
"......"
Yun Cheon watched, utterly unmoved by the provocation.
The weight of his iron rings kept him from moving rashly. No — he had no need to move at all.
He wasn't reading Jeok Mu-gwang's martial arts. He was reading the 'circle' the man stood in, his feet, and the minute shifts of his weight.
Strong. And precisely because he's strong, he doesn't move. That arrogance — the belief that he can end this inside that circle. That is his one and only flaw.
Having studied the attack paths and techniques of the two, Yun Cheon finally resolved to move. Had he stepped in without properly reading Yu Ha's and Yayul Hui's arts, their movements would only have gotten in each other's way.
Watching the earlier exchange, Yun Cheon had committed their techniques and Jeok Mu-gwang's footwork to memory.
Time to move.
In that instant, his gaze, Yayul Hui's, and Yu Ha's met briefly in the empty air. No words were exchanged, but the meaning carried.
We go all out!
Yayul Hui gritted her teeth once more and re-gripped her saber. Yu Ha, too, lowered his stance and began to circle Jeok Mu-gwang.
Clank—.
This time Yun Cheon joined the assault as well, the iron rings on his limbs sounding their heavy toll.
"Instructor! Here we come again!"
With Yayul Hui's cry, a full three-man combined assault began in earnest.
Unlike Jeok Mu-gwang's dismissive provocations, the exchange was anything but trivial. When Yayul Hui's swift saber pinned Jeok Mu-gwang's gaze head-on, Yu Ha struck from the flanks with erratic, unpredictable attacks, hunting for openings. And through the infinitesimal gaps those two attacks created, Yun Cheon's Limitless Step slipped inside.
Dozens of exchanges crossed in the blink of an eye. Even Jeok Mu-gwang, watching their seamless coordination, felt a flicker of genuine admiration.
They act as if they've never once trained this combination together... and yet they move like this! Is it... because he's holding the center?
Unlike the other two, Yun Cheon rarely attacked. He was simply there around Jeok Mu-gwang — like water, like a shadow. His uncanny footwork slipped half a step outside the instructor's expectations, again and again, and that minute margin bought Yayul Hui and Yu Ha the room to breathe.
Of course, that didn't mean a proper battle was actually taking shape.
BANG!
"Khagh!"
THUD!
"Argh...!"
Time and again — dozens of times — Yayul Hui and Yu Ha were hammered into the dirt and sent flying. Their clothes were already ruined with mud and sweat, and salty blood trickled from the corners of their mouths.
But they rose again.
Because Yun Cheon never fell — because he endured at Jeok Mu-gwang's side without wavering, their dying fighting spirits caught flame once more.
For the first time, Jeok Mu-gwang's brow creased, if only slightly.
That one... what in the world is that strange footwork? He almost never attacks — he commits entirely to evasion and disruption. He has a real talent for lasting long.
Having promised not to leave the 'circle,' Instructor Jeok Mu-gwang was exploiting that distance to its limit as he circled Yun Cheon. And so, to his eyes, Yun Cheon merely looked like a man 'holding out.'
But Yun Cheon was aiming at something else entirely.
His eyes had been fixed on Jeok Mu-gwang's legs from the very start.
How much time passed like that?
More had flowed by than could honestly be called mere hundreds of exchanges.
"...Not bad, whelps. I did say I wouldn't leave the circle, but to think you'd last this long. Still — as things stand, this is your defeat."
At last, even Yun Cheon exhaled a rough breath and pulled himself far away. At his retreat as a signal, Yayul Hui and Yu Ha staggered back as well.
Their bodies were already caked head to toe in mud and blood. In the center of the training ground, meanwhile, Jeok Mu-gwang still stood without a single hair out of place. Without a trace of fatigue, he looked down on the three battered wrecks.
"This is the end. Will you accept your defeat?"
Victor's magnanimity overflowed from his voice.
"What do you mean, Instructor?"
But Yun Cheon wiped his bloodied mouth and broke into a grin.
"We won."
"What did you say?"
Jeok Mu-gwang's brow furrowed. In place of an answer, Yun Cheon jerked his chin toward his feet.
"Look beneath your feet, Instructor."
Jeok Mu-gwang instinctively looked down.
"......!"
His eyes flooded with disbelief. The vivid 'circle' he had carved into the earth with his very first stomp was gone without a trace.
He was not the only one stunned. Only then did Yayul Hui and Yu Ha understand.
"Ha... haha."
What Yun Cheon had been doing for those hundreds of exchanges, instead of attacking.
It hadn't been mere endurance.
Even as he fought — he had been erasing the board.
"...You. You planned this from the very beginning?"
The ground there was a tangle of hundreds, thousands of footprints and traces of battle — a churned mire in which no one could say where the inside of the circle ended and the outside began.
The circle is gone.
The test's condition had been to force the instructor out of the circle. That very premise had ceased to exist.
Jeok Mu-gwang now stood in a daze upon a circle that no longer existed.
"KHAHAHAHA!"