Chapter 86
Chapter 86
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 86
>Chapter Title: Greatest Prodigy of the Demonic Path (5)
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The moment he locked eyes with Chu Il-hwan's face through the bushes.
The first thought that crossed Il-mok's mind was simple.
‘Should I run?’
If the five of them scattered in all directions here, even if one or two got caught, the rest had a good chance of surviving.
But.
“Heh heh heh. So this is where you were hiding, Cadet Il-mok.”
That madman was staring straight at him, piercingly. As if the other four teammates didn't even exist.
Il-mok instinctively realized it. If they scattered and fled, that lunatic would definitely chase only him.
Of course, that much was fine.
Even if he got caught, the other four would live.
He could just surrender immediately the moment he was overtaken while fleeing as far as possible. No need to exchange blows and risk some unwanted enlightenment.
“Scatter right n—”
Il-mok froze mid-thought as he was about to issue the order to his teammates.
He had realized a massive flaw in his plan.
While scattering and fleeing, he alone would lag behind and get caught and subdued by that insane instructor.
With no one around and only the subdued him and that instructor left, his entire body sent out intense warning signals.
‘Fuck.’
Realizing he was on the verge of losing his precious chastity, Il-mok urgently changed his words.
“Don’t scatter! Form up!”
“!?”
His teammates, who had been preparing their lightness skills, looked bewildered but their bodies reacted swiftly to the command anyway.
They had followed Il-mok's orders so faithfully until now that their bodies moved on autopilot.
“Oh? Choosing to fight head-on, eh? Unexpected.”
Il-mok felt chills crawl over his skin as Chu Il-hwan licked his lips with evident interest.
‘Yeah. Fuck it. No matter how crazy that guy is, he wouldn’t pounce with all the teammates watching, right?’
Il-mok didn’t care about getting caught by that damned instructor and taking a low score. Chastity mattered more than points.
Chu Il-hwan smirked, seemingly surprised by Il-mok's resolute expression, which looked like a call for desperate resistance.
Whoosh!
He burst forward with a sudden lightness skill.
But his target wasn’t Il-mok.
“Damn it!”
Seeing Chu Il-hwan veer aside to avoid him, Il-mok drew his sword in alarm and gave chase.
The target he had gone for was none other than Jeong-hyeon.
Chu Il-hwan was reaching for the collar of Jeong-hyeon, who had been subtly slipping away with stealth techniques to provide ranged support from the rear.
In his shock, Il-mok charged at Chu Il-hwan while slashing repeatedly at the air.
Screeeeech.
Sword qi formed along Il-mok's swings flew toward Chu Il-hwan's side one after another, but Chu Il-hwan effortlessly dodged them with light footwork.
“Protect Cadet Jeong!”
At Il-mok's command, Bu Ga-yeong, who had been closest to Jeong-hyeon, hurriedly whipped her lash out.
The whip snaked toward him grotesquely like a serpent, aiming to coil around Chu Il-hwan's torso, but he thrust out his right hand and seized it.
Crackle!
Black lightning erupted from Chu Il-hwan's right hand, surging along the whip and into Bu Ga-yeong's body.
“Kyaaah!”
As the electrocuted Bu Ga-yeong screamed, an arrow from Jeong-hyeon, who had already nocked her bow, flew toward Chu Il-hwan.
But he didn’t panic.
He yanked back his right hand, which still gripped the whip. Bu Ga-yeong's muscles contracted from the lightning, dragging her along with it.
Thwack thwack thwack!
The arrows, blunted for the exam to prevent fatalities, pelted Bu Ga-yeong's back repeatedly. Using her as a shield, Chu Il-hwan swiftly tapped her acupoints with his left hand.
One had been subdued with ridiculous ease, but Il-mok didn’t mind.
“Haap!”
While Bu Ga-yeong was getting taken down, Il-mok had closed in on Chu Il-hwan and swung his sword.
“Phew.”
Jeong-hyeon, who had finally retreated, let out a sigh of relief and nocked another arrow.
On top of that.
“We'll join you!”
Seong-hwan and Lee Gyun hurriedly drew their weapons and charged at Chu Il-hwan.
As he eyed Il-mok's sword weaving mystically to disrupt his vision, Chu Il-hwan casually dodged or deflected it with alternating hands.
Screeeeech.
Even Jeong-hyeon's arrows were lightly evaded amid it all. His demeanor was leisurely, as if he were simply appreciating Il-mok's swordplay.
Despite Seong-hwan and Lee Gyun, Il-mok's teammates, joining in.
“Haap!”
Seong-hwan and Lee Gyun finally closed in, thrusting spear and sword at Chu Il-hwan.
Only then did Chu Il-hwan, who had been leisurely sparring with Il-mok, start moving in earnest.
“Heh heh heh.”
There were two reasons he had been taking it easy with Il-mok.
One was to check how much the youngest young master had improved over the past two months.
The other was.
“Just because you’ve got three doesn’t mean you’re three times stronger.”
As an instructor, he wanted to teach them how dangerous it was to attempt teamwork without proper coordination.
Surrounded by the three, Chu Il-hwan deflected the incoming sword and spear with palm strikes, then seized an opening to dart toward Lee Gyun with his signature nimble footwork.
It was perfectly timed.
Startled by the sudden intrusion, Lee Gyun's hasty sword swing.
Clang!!
Collided with Seong-hwan's spear thrust toward Chu Il-hwan, getting in each other's way.
The moment Lee Gyun faltered from his hasty swing clashing with Seong-hwan's spear.
“That makes two.”
Chu Il-hwan, already in Lee Gyun's embrace, simply tapped his acupoints with a finger technique.
On top of that, in a completely natural motion, he hugged the now-paralyzed Lee Gyun and hurled him toward Il-mok, who was closing in to swing his sword.
‘Even in this chaos, no hesitation about sexual harassment!’
Shocked by Chu Il-hwan's boldness in embracing Lee Gyun, Il-mok hurriedly retracted his sword and leaped aside to avoid the incoming body.
Thud.
Since Il-mok hadn’t caught him, the paralyzed Lee Gyun tumbled across the ground.
Screeeeech.
In the meantime, arrows from Jeong-hyeon, who had kept her bow trained, flew relentlessly at Chu Il-hwan.
With Il-mok, Seong-hwan, and Lee Gyun surrounding him, she hadn’t had a clear shot until now.
Rather than waiting passively for an uncertain chance, she had already put some distance between herself and Chu Il-hwan.
Crackle!
Jeong-hyeon's surprise arrows were devoured in an instant by the black lightning from Chu Il-hwan's left hand.
But it wasn’t a meaningless attack.
In that interval, Seong-hwan had recovered his spear and thrust it again at Chu Il-hwan.
“Let’s coordinate properly!”
Il-mok, having dodged Lee Gyun, dove back in and swung his sword.
Chu Il-hwan, who had considered leaping into the air for a grand technique like when he subdued Dokgo Pae's team, clicked his tongue upon realizing a key fact.
‘Arrows are a pain in the air.’
Sorting his thoughts in an instant, he leaped to the right, narrowly dodging Il-mok's sword while swinging his right hand to block Seong-hwan's spear.
A similar situation unfolded as before.
He blocked or dodged the assaults from Il-mok, Seong-hwan, and Jeong-hyeon for a moment.
Whoosh!
The instant Chu Il-hwan twisted his body in a surprise move, Jeong-hyeon's arrow flew past him toward Seong-hwan.
“!!!”
Seong-hwan spun his spear in shock to block the arrow.
In one fluid motion, Chu Il-hwan dodged Il-mok's sword and burrowed into Seong-hwan's guard.
“Heh heh heh. Just two left now.”
Il-mok grimaced as Chu Il-hwan grinned wickedly after tapping Seong-hwan's acupoints too.
‘Everything’s going just like that bastard says, and it’s pissing me off.’
As Chu Il-hwan had implied, their clumsy teamwork was worse than fighting alone.
Lee Gyun and Seong-hwan's movements had actually hindered Il-mok's sword path.
Precisely, Chu Il-hwan had maneuvered his footwork to lead them into it.
Seemingly delighted by Il-mok's crumpled face, Chu Il-hwan grinned widely and charged straight at him.
Thwack thwack thwack!
At the same time, arrows from Jeong-hyeon slammed delayed into the spot where Chu Il-hwan had stood.
As Chu Il-hwan's left hand flew in, seamlessly blending evasion and assault.
“Phew.”
Il-mok let out a light sigh, calmly thrusting his sword to meet it.
With his teammates down, swinging his sword felt much freer, ironically.
On top of that.
“!?”
Clang!
For the first time, Chu Il-hwan showed a startled expression as he barely blocked Il-mok's sword.
Il-mok's blade had flown toward his throat, ignoring any defense—like aiming for mutual destruction or a flesh-slicing bone-breaking strike.
It was a stark contrast to the defensive swordplay he had always used, prioritizing his own safety.
The reason for Il-mok's sudden change was simple.
From the previous exchanges, he had realized something crucial.
‘That bastard isn’t going all out.’
Chu Il-hwan wasn’t using any killing moves. To be precise, he had no intention of killing anyone.
He occasionally feinted lethal strikes, but they were just lures to induce dodges or blocks. His real attacks were all light.
It made sense. An instructor couldn’t kill cadets during an exam.
Having grasped his opponent’s “weakness”—not a true one—Il-mok’s sword advanced along a path that disregarded defense.
In truth, Il-mok had two goals.
Since winning head-on was impossible, one was to exploit the fact that his foe couldn’t use killing moves.
The other was.
‘Win or lose, the longer I fight this lunatic, the more likely enlightenment hits!’
He just wanted to end the fight quickly, one way or another.
Clang!
“Oh?”
As Il-mok swung wildly like Dokgo Pae's Dokgo Lone Sword—come die with me—Chu Il-hwan let out an intrigued hum.
It evoked Dokgo Pae's technique, but Il-mok's execution was actually superior in completion. The sudden shift in his sword intent was fascinating too.
“Hahaha! Excellent! Let’s clash properly!”
Intrigued, Chu Il-hwan gladly engaged Il-mok's sword.
Screeeeech!
Il-mok's blade flew concisely, blatantly exposing vitals while targeting only Chu Il-hwan's heart, throat, and other lethal spots.
Chu Il-hwan swiftly moved both hands, blocking or batting away every strike.
Il-mok grew impatient at Chu Il-hwan's sudden defensive stance.
‘End it quick, you mad instructor!!’
He could feel enlightenment creeping in.
* * *
‘Whoa.’
Yeom Ga-hwi, watching the battle between Il-mok and Chu Il-hwan from beyond the bushes, nearly let out a gasp.
‘I knew he was exceptional, but not to this degree.’
Chu Il-hwan was the strongest among the instructors, befitting his role as head instructor.
Yet, even if he wasn’t at full power, the sight of a mere cadet holding his own was astonishing in every way.
Even more so.
‘He’s getting more refined by the second.’
With each exchange, Il-mok's killing sword grew sharper and more concise.
‘The Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword aims for perfection, but all I can say is he’s truly versatile.’
He had displayed the essence of soft swordplay to its limit in the sparring tournament, and now he was honing the subtleties of fast swordplay.
Watching this high-level duel—rare even between instructor and cadet—Yeom Ga-hwi had a gut feeling he might get dragged into it.
‘...Instructor Chu’s bad habit might kick in.’
Chu Il-hwan could go berserk and accidentally kill the youngest young master.