Chapter 136
Chapter 136
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 136
>Chapter Title: Cleanup (1)
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Walking down the street.
Or while riding public transport somewhere.
Anyone who's ever suddenly gotten the urge has probably experienced it at least once.
The human body was a mysterious thing.
When you had to hold it in because there was no bathroom, it would quiet down like a calm sea at some point.
But if you let your guard down just because it had quieted, that was no different from willingly climbing into a carriage bound for hell.
Just as a massive wave rises when change stirs in a once-calm ocean.
The urge that had quieted would return, several times stronger.
That was exactly the side effect of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword.
Chaeng!
The enlightenment he'd forcibly held back wasn't coming one by one in order like before.
Chaeng!!
It was pounding his mind relentlessly, like a big load suddenly hammering at the back door.
And on top of that.
'Damn it!! I can't even stop it!!'
This wasn't the leisurely situation from earlier where he could spectate the fight.
Chaeng!!
He was in the middle of battling some damn enlightenment trigger trying to kill him.
If he didn't swing his sword forcibly like before, his head would get lopped off.
Naturally, Il-mok swung his sword to survive.
- That's not it! Recall the memory from just now!
- A bit faster!! Don't set limits on yourself!
Every time, that cursed side effect kept chiming in with unasked-for advice.
Thanks to it, Il-mok's sword swings were growing more precise and faster with every moment.
But they weren't becoming any more fluid or powerful.
Yu-geuk and Yeom Ga-hwi's techniques were far removed from the subtleties of softness or flexibility.
The insights Il-mok gained were all about speed and precision.
All paths lead to the same end, as they say.
Though Yeom Ga-hwi and Yu-geuk had clearly used fist and saber arts.
Shweeeeeek!
Il-mok's sword advanced as swiftly as Yeom Ga-hwi's fist.
Chaeng!
It moved with the minimal motions of Yu-geuk's saber, precise and refined.
But.
Chaeng!
Even as he unleashed the flood of insights with his body, Il-mok was being steadily pushed back without respite.
No matter that he was an instructor in charge of doctrine education, Jeong Gyu-seok was still an instructor all the same.
He was two levels below the division instructor Chwi Il-hwan, but still far superior to Il-mok at his current level.
Without these insights, he'd have been forced to hand his body over to the demonic art entirely, just like during Chwi Il-hwan's ambush last time.
Thanks to the onslaught of insights and the demonic art's nagging, he managed to hold out for a few exchanges.
In the cramped room, realizing he couldn't last much longer, Il-mok thought.
Kwang!!
He let himself be flung by the force of his opponent's saber swing, launching straight toward the window.
The wooden frame and paper of the window shattered against Il-mok's back.
Jeong Gyu-seok, pursuing Il-mok who had flown into the night sky, emerged under the moonlight a beat later.
'This looks familiar, just like last time.'
As memories of his clash with the rampaging Chwi Il-hwan surfaced.
Sure enough, just like Chwi Il-hwan then, Jeong Gyu-seok swung his saber at the falling Il-mok while airborne.
Shweeeeeeeeek!
It was a fairly grand technique; thick layers of saber qi curved in a crescent shape toward Il-mok.
'Did the demonic art handle it like this back then?'
In the familiar crisis, Il-mok mimicked how the demonic art had blocked Chwi Il-hwan's signature move.
Il-mok's sword, embodying the ultimate subtlety of softness, clashed with the thick saber qi.
Chaeng!
Deflecting it aside like brushing off water, his body rebounded in the opposite direction from the repulsion.
But the outcome was quite different from last time.
Back then, he hadn't withstood the impact and had vomited blood.
Tadak.
This time, he landed smoothly on the ground without issue.
- Hahaha. Now you're finally starting to act human!
Il-mok scowled fiercely at the voice of his other self, laughing as if delighted.
In the meantime, Jeong Gyu-seok, who had also landed, charged at Il-mok while swinging his saber.
"It's a fight!"
"Outside!!"
"Il-mok, Young Master?"
The commotion from the two woke the cadets, who began trickling out of the Black Dragon Pavilion one by one.
"Instructor Jeong Gyu-seok?"
With the moonlight revealing his face, more cadets recognized Jeong Gyu-seok.
"Il-mok, Young Master!"
"We'll join you!"
"Young Master!"
People like Bang Mi-hwa, Dokgo Pae, and Joo Seo-yeon stepped forward to help Il-mok.
Jeong Hyeon, unable to speak amid the crowd, had already drawn her bow and was aiming at Jeong Gyu-seok.
Il-mok urgently shouted at those trying to help him.
"Don't interfere!"
Jeong Gyu-seok didn't miss that opening.
A stifled groan escaped Il-mok's lips as he barely blocked the swung saber.
"Keuk...."
He'd wasted breath yelling, leaving him slightly short of air and taking minor internal injuries.
By going to such lengths to stop the cadets' support, the side effect boomed with hearty laughter.
- Hahaha! A chance to perfect the sword, and they dare interfere!
Il-mok ground his teeth at the demonic art's nonsense.
'Shut up. That wasn't the reason.'
Whether it knew Il-mok's true thoughts or not, the onlookers who'd halted at his shout spouted their own nonsense.
"As expected! A true warrior of the Divine Cult, Il-mok, Young Master!"
"Hohoho. He wants to settle it one-on-one."
Their mutterings drilled into his ears, making Il-mok feel like demonic obsession was coming on.
'Crazy bastards, not helping but getting in the way....'
He appreciated their desire to help, but their involvement would only hinder.
Not by interrupting the sword's perfection, as the side effect claimed.
The problem was their skill levels were far below Il-mok's or Instructor Jeong Gyu-seok's.
If they jumped in recklessly, Jeong Gyu-seok could turn it against them and put Il-mok in danger.
That's why he'd stopped them. Because he was confident.
Chaeng!!
Not that he could subdue Instructor Jeong Gyu-seok himself. Just.
"Il-mok, cadet!!"
"Instructor Jeong Gyu-seok! What the hell are you doing!?"
He could hold out until other instructors arrived after hearing the noise.
Pat!
Eun-ryeo and Cheok Il-so, leaping over the spectating cadets with lightness skills, swung their weapons at Jeong Gyu-seok.
With two instructors of comparable skill joining to attack in tandem, Jeong Gyu-seok's movements shook violently.
Chaeng!
"What's all this racket!!"
On top of that, Yeom Ga-hwi and Seo Wan-pyeong, who had been handling the interrogations, joined in, creating a huge opening in Jeong Gyu-seok's harried actions.
Pat!!
Il-mok's sword thrust in instantly, exploiting the gap.
"!!!"
Yeom Ga-hwi, arriving late to the scene, saw his eyes shake unusually.
'He stole my single strike already?'
That lightning-fast thrust, though executed with a sword, unmistakably resembled Yeom Ga-hwi's Asura Blood Fist.
And the moment Il-mok's single sword strike touched Instructor Jeong Gyu-seok's body.
'...Even the vice division leader's saber.'
An involuntary sigh of admiration slipped from Yeom Ga-hwi's lips.
Il-mok's final sword stopped precisely on Jeong Gyu-seok's麻穴 acupoint.
Rather than piercing flesh, the sword tip pressed the point, injecting qi to seal it.
The pinnacle of precision. Neither excessive nor insufficient—just the bare minimum motion to execute a consummate skill.
Yeom Ga-hwi, once more awed by Il-mok's talent, halted midway to the subdued Jeong Gyu-seok.
'What the hell is this...?'
As if reading Yeom Ga-hwi's mind, the surrounding cadets spoke up.
"...Why the dance?"
"Celebrating the victory...?"
"Now that you mention it, he did this at the sparring tournament too, right?"
After subduing Jeong Gyu-seok, Il-mok abruptly began dancing with his sword.
The battle had ended before he could fully contain the overflowing insights.
Like being interrupted mid-storm without unleashing it all.
"......"
As everyone stared at him like he was mad.
'Damn it. Damn it.'
Il-mok, with a face full of resentment, had to perform his sword dance under the moonlight.
It was the Moonlit Sword Dance, imbued with lingering sorrow as if reminiscing a departed love.
* * *
The next day.
Thanks to three underlings being exposed, the Demonic Path Academy took its first holiday since opening.
It was fortunate for Il-mok.
He'd danced with his sword until dawn and only stopped on the verge of collapse.
If classes had resumed in the morning, he might have fainted midway.
But with two instructor positions vacant and even Academy Lord Yeom Ga-hwi tied up with interrogations, classes were impossible—so in the end, Yeom Ga-hwi ordered individual training for the day.
He merely commanded Instructors Eun-ryeo and Cheok Il-so to keep the cadets out of trouble.
Thanks to that, Il-mok could finally sleep after finishing his sword dance.
Even with his hygiene obsession, he'd managed a bath first before collapsing.
In any case, having fallen asleep only at dawn, Il-mok didn't wake until afternoon.
The first place Il-mok headed upon waking was the Academy Lord's hall.
Fortunately, Yeom Ga-hwi was there.
Seo Jae-pil the physician and Seo Wan-pyeong were with him too.
"Is the interrogation over?"
At Il-mok's question, Yeom Ga-hwi nodded with an unusually complicated expression.
"Indeed."
"It ended faster than expected."
"Thanks to that drug you and Physician Seo prepared."
"Did you cross-check everything? Half of what they said under it was nonsense or sleep-talk, so verification is needed."
"Don't worry. We only used the drug once each anyway."
"???"
As Il-mok looked puzzled, the watching Seo Wan-pyeong explained instead.
"They'd already spilled some info with the first dose, junior brother. Right after, Jeong Gyu-seok ambushed, pausing the interrogation. When we returned to resume, both Vice Division Leader Yu-geuk and Ma Do-yeong were already in despair."
Only then did Il-mok grasp the situation.
"After that, they confessed on their own without needing more drugs."
The Demonic Path Academy Lord nodded at Il-mok's words and spoke.
"Thanks to that, we learned why the vice division leader got involved. That famously impartial man who separated public and private like a blade—why he planned such a vile scheme."
"???"
As Il-mok blinked in confusion at the sudden remark, the academy lord continued.
"The vice division leader had become coldly rational under the side effect's influence. A splendid warrior devoted to the cult, free of selfish desires. But after escaping extreme demon state and regaining his ego... forgotten greed sprouted anew. He'd merely been fooling everyone all along."
Seo Wan-pyeong added an explanation.
"After breaking free of extreme demon, he grew frustrated at being tied to the Demonic Path Academy. He believed he deserved a far higher position, but those above failed to recognize his worth. So he aligned himself with someone likely to become the next cult leader."
Seo Jae-pil's eyes sparkled as he chimed in.
"What a peculiar case. Why do we in the Divine Cult practice demonic arts? To forge unyielding minds that overcome their side effects and save the masses, right? Yet the vice leader became upright thanks to the side effect—and turned villainous after overcoming it. Hahaha."
Only then did Il-mok understand the complicated expressions in the academy lord's hall.
For devout Heavenly Demon Divine Cult followers, Yu-geuk's fall was a bizarre violation of doctrine.
But.
'No, why are they getting all serious over such trivial bullshit?'
From Il-mok's perspective, not a devout cultist, this was just absurd nonsense.
Far more important issues remained than Yu-geuk's change of heart.
"So, did you find out who Yu-geuk aligned with?"