Chapter 85
Chapter 85
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 85
>Chapter Title: Demonic Path's Greatest Prodigy (4)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
Kwak Sul, who had briefly tried to escape reality, belatedly pulled himself together and asked,
"Then, Team Leader, how do you plan to prepare to fight the instructor?"
"What preparation is needed? After getting plenty of rest, we aim for a head-on clash, don't we?"
Kwak Sul's fist twitched involuntarily, but he couldn't bring himself to swing his weapon.
It was obvious they would lose. That was the problem with being smart. He couldn't attempt something insane.
Still, drawing from his experience in the previous exam, Kwak Sul decided to coax and persuade Dokgo Pae.
"Team Leader. If this exam were like the last sparring tournament, you'd be right. But this one integrates all our training. That means using tracking, stealth, traps—everything counts toward the test."
"Cadet Kwak is correct, Team Leader. Even if you aim for a frontal assault, the instructor might not engage."
Choi Ung chimed in to back Kwak Sul.
As someone who was, in his own way, within the realm of normalcy, he instinctively sensed their scores would plummet if they proceeded like this.
"Especially if we don't prepare traps or countermeasures in advance. While we're fighting the instructor, another team could intervene."
At Kwak Sul's final addition, Dokgo Pae, who had been negative up to that point, finally nodded.
"True. That youngest young master might pull something like that."
Dokgo Pae recalled the ambush during dinner in the last exam.
"Then, you two prepare the traps from now on. You seem to have some expertise in that."
At Dokgo Pae's order, Kwak Sul—who had advocated digging traps—and Choi Ung exchanged glances.
'...You've suffered.'
'Indeed...'
Comrades in hardship.
The two, who now understood each other with just a look, shared that bond.
* * *
While Choi Ung and Kwak Sul hurriedly prepared their traps.
The second team, including Bang Mi-hwa and Ha Yeong, had also stopped moving and was discussing their next plan.
"From now on, we should all scatter and hide as best we can. That seems like the optimal strategy."
Bang Mi-hwa declared haughtily, snapping her fan open.
"Hmm. Wouldn't sticking together at least give us a chance to snatch the bell if we encounter Instructor Chu Il-hwan?"
At her team member's point, Bang Mi-hwa raised her nose and replied.
"Heh. Foolish."
"!?"
"Even I, whom the Academy Lord has recognized and taken note of for my talent, can't yet gauge Instructor Chu's full power. Of course, the instructor can't kill us, so he won't go all out either. But conversely, Instructor Chu will use any means necessary. He'll employ hit-and-run tactics and tracking to hunt us down one by one."
She painted the still-inactive Chu Il-hwan as a vile schemer, speaking with utter conviction.
"The evaluation for this exam is purely how long we last. There's no rule saying we must stick together. Better to scatter. While other teams get taken out by Instructor Chu Il-hwan, if even one of us survives, that's our victory."
Her team members stared at her with blank eyes.
Not out of shock at her logic.
They instinctively realized she was someone they couldn't reason with.
Except for one.
"As expected of Mi-hwa!"
Ha Yeong, Bang Mi-hwa's best friend, praised her with an admiring face. Truly a perfect pair.
Amid her friend's adulation and the dazed gazes of the other three team members looking up to her, Bang Mi-hwa's nose rose even higher.
'Heh. I planned to bring that young master to his knees this time, but with the exam like this, no choice. Well, as long as I survive to the end, it's my win anyway.'
The triumphant girl said,
"Then, let's move out. Hide your tracks as much as possible."
At her command, the three team members—who hadn't even voiced opinions—sighed inwardly and began to scatter.
And from beyond the brush, Instructor Eun Ryeo, who had been watching them, let out a faint sigh.
Not because Bang Mi-hwa's plan was foolish.
The Demonic Path Academy's exams presented real-combat-like scenarios to observe how the cadets navigated them.
In that sense, scattering for survival was certainly a valid approach.
Especially in missions where one obtained information that absolutely must reach the Divine Cult. Scattering so even one could return alive was a plausible situation.
The problem was the shortage of manpower.
Instructor Eun Ryeo, sighing faintly, signaled nearby assistants with hand signs before each began pursuing one.
The remaining three were now beyond surveillance.
* * *
As Il-mok's team subdued three teams, and the other two settled on their strategies.
"Hmm."
Confirming the sand timer he had set had fully run out, Chu Il-hwan stretched lightly and began walking.
Il-mok's team went this way, I think...'
Chu Il-hwan briefly considered pursuing Il-mok but soon changed his mind. It was an exam, after all; he needed to maintain some fairness.
Examining the trails of the four departed teams, Chu Il-hwan began tracking the one with the most obvious signs.
Metallic chimes rang continuously around the swiftly moving Chu Il-hwan, following the trail.
The sound came from the bell on his sash.
The pursued cadets could flee upon hearing it, but Chu Il-hwan didn't mind.
He had attached it precisely so they would, and he knew the distance was still considerable.
From the trails they left behind.
In the midst of accelerating, Chu Il-hwan's movements suddenly slowed.
'Fresh trail. Not long ago.'
Realizing he was closing in on his target, Chu Il-hwan began moving silently, muting the bell, as he tracked.
After proceeding stealthily for a while.
Heh.
Chu Il-hwan's lip curled slyly.
'Interesting. Shall I play along?'
Composing his expression, he advanced along the trail as if oblivious.
Crack.
Suddenly, an odd sensation transmitted from the ground he stepped on.
Whoosh!
Simultaneously, vines twisted to ensnare his legs.
Swoosh!
Sharpened branches rained down from above.
But with a casual swing of his right hand, black lightning surged from Chu Il-hwan's palm, incinerating the branches in an instant.
And timed with his technique.
Whoosh!
"Die!!"
"Now's our chance!!"
"Hah!"
Cadets burst from all directions, unleashing their signature moves at Chu Il-hwan.
But their techniques merely cleaved empty air.
"Even so, shouting 'die' at an instructor is a bit much, don't you think?"
Chu Il-hwan, who had leaped into the air with superior lightness skill, smirked playfully and clapped his palms together.
Crackle!
The black lightning from both hands intertwined with a roar, swelling massively.
"Haat!"
With a shout, he thrust his palms forward, blasting a colossal bolt of black lightning toward the cadets.
"Dodge!"
"Damn it!!"
But as it was such a grand technique, the cadets easily scattered, evading the strike.
No—he had intentionally used a technique they could dodge.
He couldn't kill cadets during an exam.
Thud.
Landing, Chu Il-hwan immediately launched toward one of the scattered cadets without hesitation.
"Haat!"
Faced with Chu Il-hwan closing in instantly, the targeted cadet, Joo Seo-yeon, thrust her short spear.
Her spear, trained in an illusory demonic art emphasizing phantoms, twisted bizarrely, spawning afterimages.
But.
Grab.
Chu Il-hwan instantly discerned the real one and seized the spear's side with his right hand.
Crackle!
Black lightning from his right hand surged along the spear into Joo Seo-yeon's body.
"Kieek!"
As she convulsed, screaming grotesquely from the electrocution, Chu Il-hwan struck her acupoints and slung her over his shoulder.
Boom!!!
Moments later, an explosion erupted where Chu Il-hwan and Joo Seo-yeon had been.
"Cadet Dokgo. Planning to kill your fellow cadet?"
It was Dokgo Pae's handiwork.
"Casualties are inevitable when capturing the enemy leader, Instructor!"
Setting down the subdued Joo Seo-yeon, Chu Il-hwan flinched involuntarily at Dokgo Pae's nonsense.
"Cadet Dokgo. True, but this is an exam, not real combat."
"Didn't you say to treat it like the real thing?"
"......"
Should I kill him?
The thought flashed through Chu Il-hwan's mind, but he easily suppressed the murderous urge.
Something more amusing had occurred to him.
"Come at me."
"That was my plan!"
At Chu Il-hwan's taunt, Dokgo Pae charged like a wild boar.
Chu Il-hwan evaded his attacks effortlessly with flashy footwork.
Moreover, he subtly maneuvered toward the other cadets.
The result.
"W-Wait a second!"
"Team Leader, stop!!"
Dokgo Pae's missed sword now swung toward his own team members.
"Argh! Get out of the way!"
Dokgo Pae, irritated by his team as obstacles, relentlessly unleashed his one-track Dokgo Lone Sword.
Due to his brutish swordsmanship, the other team members couldn't even properly deploy their arts, reduced to frantic dodging.
And Chu Il-hwan.
Whoosh.
"One more for now."
He subdued the cadets whose stances Dokgo Pae had disrupted, with utter simplicity.
Soon enough, with Dokgo Pae restrained, the remaining cadets were all captured.
"Isn't this too cheap!!"
At Dokgo Pae's furious shout, Chu Il-hwan grinned wickedly.
"Didn't you want it like real combat? In the real world, you'd be called a fool for whining like that, Cadet Dokgo."
At Chu Il-hwan's playful provocation, Dokgo Pae instead hardened his resolve.
"Good! Now it's just me. Let's duel fairly, Instructor!"
"Alright. Come at me again."
Deciding to end the fun, Chu Il-hwan nodded seriously for the first time in a while. Dokgo Pae pressed with his Dokgo Lone Sword.
Clang!
Clang!!
Chu Il-hwan's black lightning-wreathed hand clashed repeatedly with Dokgo Pae's greatsword, ringing metal.
Dokgo Pae's sword, cloaked in sword qi, held firm against the black lightning. He endured the thunder qi, maintaining his offense.
'Hoo. He's definitely improved a lot in these two months. Because of that clear goal, Il-mok? Or the Academy Lord's special training? Maybe both.'
Playing along by parrying all of Dokgo Pae's assaults for a bit.
As the endless barrage continued, the murderous impulse resurfaced.
'Time to wrap this up.'
Realizing prolonging it might turn a valuable cadet into charcoal, Chu Il-hwan's demeanor shifted.
His playful eyes turned serious.
As Dokgo Pae unleashed his technique, Chu Il-hwan smacked it aside with his right palm.
Whoosh!
Moving faster than before, he instantly drove his left palm into Dokgo Pae's abdomen.
"Guh...."
As Dokgo Pae crumpled from the invading thunder qi, Chu Il-hwan—back to smiling—struck his meridian seal acupoint.
* * *
Handing the subdued cadets from his assigned team to another instructor, Chu Il-hwan set out to find the next.
"Hm?"
Along the way, he spotted a faint trace.
Too subtle for five people traveling together.
'Heh heh heh. This batch is definitely entertaining.'
Pleased that each team had chosen different tactics, Chu Il-hwan was.
But amusement was amusement, exam was exam.
He pursued the trace and easily located a lone team member acting solo.
"Fun, but tracking down the other four will be a hassle."
Muttering lightly, Chu Il-hwan moved to find new traces.
How long had he wandered the mountain?
Spotting a new trail, he proceeded cautiously, silencing his bell.
Heh.
Locking eyes with the new target, Chu Il-hwan's mouth curved up to his ears.
And the target who met Chu Il-hwan's gaze.
"Damn it."
Il-mok's face crumpled miserably.