The Hand That Lets Go

A simultaneous attack closing in from both sides.

Both of his hands were gripping the cliff face.

His hands were bound, plain and simple.

…There's nowhere to dodge!

He was utterly helpless—hands tied, nowhere to run.

Any ordinary child would have been shaken loose without a chance to fight back.

But even in the heart of danger, Yun Cheon's eyes glinted cold and clear.

His senses, honed through dozens of brushes with life and death, had already read their killing intent and even the shallowness of their breathing, perfectly.

If I block one side, my center collapses—and this body doesn't have the strength to simply hold on. Which means…!

In that split instant, a maneuver bordering on madness flashed through Yun Cheon's mind.

Sriiik—.

The hands reaching for him from both sides were a breath away from touching his body.

And Yun Cheon let go of the cliff.

Of his own accord.

"What the—!"

"Th-the little lunatic!"

Shock flooded the two boys' eyes. They had expected him to resist or dodge. Letting himself fall? Never.

But that wasn't the end of it.

In the very instant Yun Cheon's body slid down past the cliff's edge—

CRACK!

Like a hawk snatching its prey out of the air, Yun Cheon's hands shot out.

And seized both boys' wrists with unerring precision.

"Guhk!"

"What the hell?!"

In an instant, his entire weight crashed onto their arms, and the force of his fall dragged both of them down hard.

The two boys, each bracing on a single hand to keep attacking, had their balance ruthlessly torn out from under them.

"Uh… aah?"

"AAAAARGH—!"

Their desperate screams echoed through the valley as they plummeted away into the depths.

But only the two of them fell.

Yun Cheon did not fall with them.

Riding the recoil of the very instant he yanked them down, he launched his own body upward.

The supreme lightness art of Kunlun—no, a gongfu fit to contend for the greatest under heaven.

An exquisitely subtle movement, using the rebound of his own body like a dragon sporting among the clouds.

Convenient that I have no internal energy—no one will be able to read what just happened.

The hidden principles of the Great Eight Styles of Cloud Dragon blossomed through his body in a heartbeat.

In that fleeting moment, Yun Cheon drove both hands deep into a crevice in the rock, as though carving out a hold with his bare fingers!

CRUNCH!

Pain surged as his nails split and his skin tore open.

Yet Yun Cheon let out not a single groan, pinning his body to the cliff face with absolute stillness.

"Huh? Wait—those two fell instead?"

"Are they idiots? They attacked and lost their own balance."

Even watching the whole scene unfold, the cadets never imagined Yun Cheon had done something deliberate.

Only a few of the drill instructors caught on.

Don't tell me—he pulled both boys down while using the recoil at the same time?

Astonishment and curiosity mingled in the eyes of the instructors who had noticed.

He steadied his balance in midair and snatched that protruding rock with perfect accuracy…

Jeok Mu-gwang's eyes, too, gleamed with something unusual.

…So he wasn't all mouth after all!

The madness of releasing the cliff with his own hands, the quick wit of using two falling bodies as a stepping stone, and a divine technique that seized a handhold out of open air while steadying himself—

The very instructor who had provoked the spontaneous attack now wore a satisfied smile.

That wasn't carelessness on Ma Chung's part… there's something about this one!

He nearly let a raw gem slip through his fingers. I need to pull him into my faction before another power catches wind of him!

Several instructors' gazes toward Yun Cheon flashed with undisguised greed.

"…Heh. And with that, nine remain. The test is over! You may all let go."

At his words, the remaining children clinging to the cliff finally released their grips.

The waiting instructors appeared like the wind, snatching each of them out of the air before they could fall.

Yayul Hui, who had been watching it all in breathless silence, stared with eyes wide in disbelief.

He let go of the cliff himself and dropped two of them at once…! Not bad at all.

Her assessment of Yun Cheon—once she'd dismissed his frail frame and petty tricks—had been completely overturned by what she'd just witnessed.

Her sharp lips parted slightly without her realizing it.

And that strange way of moving his body… how on earth did he do that? I wouldn't even know where to begin copying it…!

How many people alive could pull off such ingenuity with a skinny, underfed body that had never learned a single martial art?

In her eyes, contempt had given way to a fierce curiosity, surging like a tide.

That boy… I'm watching him from now on.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

With the test concluded, Yun Cheon meant to climb down without straining himself.

At that very moment, one of the instructors approached and took his arm.

That judgment and those reflexes are anything but ordinary. His frame is thin—but that's exactly what makes him the perfect stock for our Shadowless Ash Sect!

His touch was, for some reason, gentler than it had been with the other children.

The instructor leaned in and murmured, low enough for only Yun Cheon to hear.

"Stout nerve you've got, brat. You have real potential. A dagger well worth keeping around."

The instructor's eyes glittered with greed.

But even through that brief moment of support and conversation, Yun Cheon could feel his body screaming.

To be drained by a movement this small… this body truly is garbage.

He had clung to the rock face for so long that crushing exhaustion bore down on every inch of him.

Then Jeok Mu-gwang, who had presided over the test, stepped forward and declared:

"Heheh… To the nine who passed, I grant the finest qualification, as promised."

At last, Yun Cheon had been officially judged into the Supreme class.

"Consider it an honor. You will now enter the Hidden Demon Cave, where the cult raises its demon candidates. We've wasted enough time—move out, immediately!"

A miraculous reversal, from the very bottom of the pile.

And yet only now was Yun Cheon truly standing at the starting line of the real contest.

Raising demon candidates? So the demon candidates rank above ordinary warriors, apparently. The Hidden Demon Cave, is it…

The nine children who had risen to the Supreme class were marched without a moment's rest, under the instructors' escort, deep into the bowels of the Mad Path Pavilion.

How long had they walked?

The damp, gloomy corridor that seemed as if it would never end came to an abrupt close, and an entirely different vista spread out before their eyes.

A colossal underground cavern.

An overwhelming space, as though an entire mountain had been hollowed out from within.

Luminous night pearls were embedded in the rock, keeping the depths from ever growing dark.

Within, countless stone chambers stood ranged in perfect order.

A seriously professional facility.

An enormous training ground occupied the center of the space, and an air that was both chill and crystalline—the essence of the mountain itself gathered here—drifted across the whole cavern.

"This is the Hidden Demon Cave. It will be your home from this day forward."

As the escort instructor spoke and the children gaped around them in awe, Yun Cheon's eyes had already fixed on a single point.

A group of students, standing at the edge of the training ground and eyeing the new arrivals with visible displeasure.

The children who had already claimed their places in the Hidden Demon Cave.

Ornate silk combat robes, keenly honed weapons—and above all, the arrogance and powerful auras that flowed from their bodies as naturally as breath.

"So the bottom-of-the-barrel leftovers finally showed up."

"That fills the Hidden Demon Cave, then?"

As the cave stirred, children emerged one by one from the stone chambers.

Like spectators looking down on a street-market sideshow, they openly raked their eyes over the newly arrived students.

Contempt and mockery, with a faint dash of curiosity mixed in.

Territorial posturing, huh.

Just then, a boy at the center of the group stepped forward.

It was Muk Ha-jin of the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family—the one who had once glowered at Yun Cheon and drawn a finger across his throat.

Clad in black war robes, his face wore confidence as clear as paint.

He opened his mouth with a sneer.

"So the little schemer made it all the way here. Instructor Jeok Mu-gwang has gotten soft."

As he finished speaking, Muk Ha-jin snapped his fingers.

PING—!

A single hidden needle flew soundlessly and buried itself in the ground directly in front of Yun Cheon's feet.

A naked threat. A warning.

A hidden weapon—and a needle meant to carry poison, no less.

It posed no threat to Yun Cheon whatsoever.

"Hey, you! Yes, you, you gutter rat!"

Yun Cheon met Muk Ha-jin's gaze with a perfectly indifferent expression.

For a hidden-weapon user to reveal his weapon this openly… never mind mastery, this is third-rate through and through.

Muk Ha-jin mistook that composure for shock—assumed the boy couldn't even react.

Laughter burst from his lips.

"See that? Keh heh. He's too scared to even twitch!"

"That is supposed to be Supreme, same as us…? Laughable."

The children around him chimed in at his words.

Those raised in the great houses of the Demonic Path understood by instinct:

their standing could only be preserved by crushing the clueless fools who kept scrambling endlessly upward, chasing the doctrine of Survival of the Fittest.

"I will watch and see just how far your little stroke of luck can carry you!"

In Yayul Hui's eyes, as she observed the exchange, sat an emotion far more complicated than before.

He flinched…? No… the more accurate way to say it is that he didn't move a hair.

Beside her, a boy leaned against a pillar, watching the entire scene unfold as though it were an entertaining stage play.

A faint smile played on Yu Ha's lips.

It's not that he couldn't react. It's that he didn't. Even my information network never picked him up in advance… so why is he more interesting to me than Muk Ha-jin?

Yun Cheon, unbothered by the insults, answered with lazy indifference.

"You're awfully interested in me. Is this your idea of a hidden weapon? How low-grade. Flaunting a needle out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the open like that."

Yun Cheon picked up the needle Muk Ha-jin had thrown ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with perfect calm, and sneered.

"You little—!"

The instant Muk Ha-jin ground his teeth and moved to take a step forward—

"……Silence."

A low voice rolled through the hall, swallowing every noise in the chamber at once.

It wasn't shouted, yet the voice carried a weight that pressed down upon everyone present.

"……"

The rambunctious crowd fell silent as if by magic.

Every child's gaze turned to the platform at the center of the training ground.

How long had he been standing there?

A single man, motionless as a boulder.

A cold, hard face stripped of any trace of emotion.

Muscles that looked wrapped in steel, and two rough, enormous fists that were themselves living weapons.

A fist artist at the absolute peak… a different kind of pressure than Mad Blood Blade Jeok Mu-gwang. Not a tiger in a frenzy—a blade of cold steel.

While Yun Cheon analyzed the man, the man spoke.

"I am Ga Cheon-ak, Iron Fist—your instructor. I will guide your training and weigh your talent for the martial path."

He swept his gaze over the children once, then continued in a voice like frost.

"You all seem content with the fact that you were merely selected as Supreme. Disabuse yourselves of that notion. You were simply sorted as slightly better pebbles out of a field of thousands."

At Ga Cheon-ak's gesture, a massive stone wall at one side of the training ground split apart with a ponderous grind.

From within emerged a practical, functional space: a dozen or so vast bookshelves, masterfully built and spaced at even intervals.

Shelves lined up beneath nameplates: Foundational Sword Art, Foundational Saber Art, Foundational Internal Cultivation Method.

Low gasps of awe broke out among the children.

"That's the Soul-Seizing Sword Art…!"

"And that one… isn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that the Seven Kills Saber Art?"

"The Army-Breaker Spear Art! Every spear technique of the Demonic Path begins with that one—it's the orthodox foundation."

"There's the Chaos Origin Demon Art too. It's no exaggeration to say every cultivation method in the cult traces back to it."

The children who had risen to Supreme were already naming the famous foundational arts of their own families and sects, making their choices in their hearts.

"Heheh, you all know your stuff. From this moment, each of you will choose two arts from that repository."

Ga Cheon-ak's voice rang throughout the Hidden Demon Cave.

"Ordinarily, one art will be the weapon technique you devote yourself to, and the other an internal cultivation method to support it. The choice, of course, is yours. But you get exactly one chance—so choose with care."

He gave the children one final sweep of his gaze and declared:

"One year from now, you will face assessment duels, and your achievements will be judged. Outstanding results will earn rewards to match."

At that declaration, every child's eyes lit up at once.

"On the other hand, those who fail to prove themselves will descend to the lowest place in this cult. Remember this well: there are thousands of children in the Mad Path Pavilion who never made it into the Hidden Demon Cave."