Chapter 1
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Murim Scholar
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At sixteen, I passed the preliminary examination to become a licentiate. At nineteen, I aced the provincial exam to earn recommended man status.
Now only the metropolitan and palace exams remained, but for me, it was just a matter of whether I'd claim first place as zhuangyuan or settle for second as bangyan.
Nothing came as easily to me as scholarship. But misfortune always trails happiness, or so they say.
Dark clouds began gathering over my smooth-sailing path.
My father's illness took him from us, leaving me unable to focus on my studies.
To make matters worse, my mother fell victim to some unknown ailment, forcing me to scrape together money for medicine amid our desperate poverty.
I could no longer keep studying. I had to become a low-ranking official to draw a salary.
As a recommended man, I could land a county magistrate post, but even such lowly positions required bribes to powerful families. In our penniless state, bribes were out of the question.
My mother's condition demanded rare herbs just to keep it stable—far beyond what a minor official's salary could cover.
In the end, I couldn't take an official post and instead joined the Murim Alliance, lured by a salary several times higher.
Even mid-sized sects needed Confucian scholars for administrative work.
They employed anywhere from ten to dozens at a time.
So how many scholars and students did the Murim Alliance require?
I was a recommended man, no less.
A prodigy who'd passed the provincial exams held every three years in each province.
Me, that's who.
With a family wealthy enough to support my studies, I'd be a presented scholar by now, probably working in the central bureaucracy or even the imperial palace.
Instead, I spent three years at the Murim Alliance.
Three times the pay of a minor official—who could refuse?
Being a recommended man, I worked in the Alliance's Inspection Unit.
The Inspection Unit handled every corruption scandal in the martial world, so they rotated staff to prevent graft.
And my rotation came up.
My first assignment: the Nangong Family.
The unit leader hinted at the Family Head Nangong Hak's personal intervention.
I'd initially planned to switch to a preferred posting.
But after the Inspection Unit head's request to investigate the Nangong Family, I volunteered for it instead.
I'd found a compelling reason to go there.
"Scholar Cheon. The reason I called you here alone is..."
Nangong Hak, head of the Nangong Family.
A renowned figure, one of the Three Great Swordsmen of the World alongside the leaders of Mount Hua Sect and Wudang Sect.
I never imagined such a great man would meet me privately.
I'd expected the family steward at most.
"Sigh. It's hard to beat around the bush. I'll be direct. My youngest son's got a rotten temper. He's trained only in martial arts since childhood, shunning letters, and now lacks any refinement."
The Family Head's youngest son: Nangong Mubaek.
The scholar who'd briefed me upon my arrival called him one of the Nangong Family's top three people to avoid.
"Make him into a proper human being, and I'll reward you handsomely."
I replied calmly.
"What makes you think I have the skill to change the Young Master's temperament?"
"Hah, I've looked into you already. Didn't you reform a notorious scoundrel even the Alliance talks about?"
"Well, if you're referring to Young Master Pang Soun, there must be some misunderstanding..."
"No need for false modesty. You turned the Alliance's infamous playboy Pang Soun into a decent man. That's why."
Nangong Hak ignored my words and pressed on.
"Turn my youngest into someone like that, and I'll grant whatever you desire. A post in the Hanlin Academy? Done. The palace? I'll make it happen. And I'll even cure your mother's illness."
Seeing my lukewarm reaction, Nangong Hak played his trump card.
"The Divine Physician can treat your mother. To that end, I'll have her brought from Hubei to Anhui soon."
The Divine Physician could heal my mother. They said he could even raise the dead.
More than anything, that offer appealed to me.
'Mother's illness is nearly incurable. Only a Spirit Mountain Flower could treat it. But the Divine Physician might manage. Plus, she'd be close by— that's a bonus.'
While long stationed at the Alliance in Hubei, I'd left Mother behind.
Transferring to Anhui Hefei meant leaving her frail health unattended, which gnawed at me.
She insisted on staying where she'd grown attached, but I knew it was to avoid burdening me.
I'd left a servant, but worry never left me.
Honestly, if it meant the Divine Physician treating her, I'd do far worse than this.
"Very well. I'll give it a try."
Nangong Mubaek's temperament might test my patience to the limit, but hadn't I seen the depths of endurance in the Inspection Unit?
And I was confident I could handle a scoundrel like him within my limits.
The Alliance teemed with them, after all.
The time had come for my hardship-filled Alliance life to shine.
Cure Mother's illness, advance to officialdom, and rise to glory—perfection.
"So you're my writing tutor?"
Right from the start, his words were clipped and rude.
He qualified as a true scoundrel.
Nangong Mubaek was a scoundrel who wasted good looks.
He was the spitting image of Family Head Nangong Hak: straight forehead, thick brows, long lashes, prominent nose—a textbook handsome face.
But whether deliberate or not, he smirked from one corner of his mouth, snorting derisively, making him seem frivolous.
"The Family Head assigned me."
I invoked Nangong Hak's name.
With his father's authority backing me, he wouldn't throw a tantrum.
But this guy exceeded expectations.
"Father keeps sending me useless scholar trash. No idea why."
I shot back.
"The Family Head said his youngest lacks learning and needs a writing tutor badly."
Crash!
The maid beside Nangong Mubaek dropped a water bowl.
No one had ever spoken to him like that to his face, so she was stunned.
Her eyes flashed with fear I'd be killed, her body trembling.
Her reaction alone revealed his usual behavior.
"Whoa! What nerve!"
In truth, Nangong Mubaek was more shocked.
He didn't even scold the maid for the broken bowl.
She snapped to, hurriedly cleaning up.
Meanwhile, he stared me down.
The eyes of a butcher sizing up a carcass.
One key to handling scoundrels I'd learned: pierce their expectations with words and deeds.
And it piqued his interest.
Nangong Mubaek grinned.
I could see him pondering not smashing me outright, but how to toy with me.
"Fine, I respect that guts. No one's ever said that to me, Nangong Mubaek. Let's see if you qualify as my tutor. Survive one day without running, and I'll accept you. Deal? But if you flee, we forget you ever existed."
Scoundrels from prestigious families loved these gambling propositions.
They honored the bets, too.
A scoundrel's romance, I suppose.
"Agreed. I'll follow your word, Young Master. But you must honor yours."
"Good."
"Words alone won't do—we need witnesses. A written contract."
"Hah, look at this nitpicky scholar."
He barely held back a curse. Demanding a contract for this irked him.
"How can a true man skip a contract for something this important? Without one, it'd be woman's work."
My subtle taunt hooked him. Still a young beast with gaps in his armor.
"That scrap of paper? I'll write ten."
'You don't grasp what this means.'
I slipped in casually.
"Hold on. A plain contract lacks flavor. How about adding that breaking it costs a hundred taels of silver? Gives it teeth."
"Oh ho! Nice. What do you stake?"
"What do you want? I have no money—name something else."
Nangong Mubaek thought, then smirked.
"Serve as my slave for a year. For daring to tutor me, that's fair punishment."
Forcing a scholar into slavery was worse than telling him to die.
Many would truly kill themselves in such disgrace.
But I didn't cling to hollow scholar's pride enough to risk my life.
"Agreed."
We boldly wrote the terms into contracts.
Tucking them away, we stood.
"Follow me. Time to teach you, Scholar Cheon—the harshness of this world."
Nangong Mubaek strode ahead swaggeringly.
I followed, half-worried, half-curious what he'd do.
Though I'd cleaned up after plenty of Alliance scoundrels, his resolve felt different.
He led me to the marketplace.
'What's he planning here?'
I couldn't read his intent yet. Then he approached a man picking out a jade hairpin at a trinket stall.
A warrior, sword at his side.
Thwack!
Nangong Mubaek smacked the back of his head.
"What the hell? What was that for?!"
The warrior glared murderously.
He didn't draw immediately, so not a fiend or black type.
Local merchants recognized Nangong Mubaek and looked away.
But the warrior, new to Hefei, didn't know him.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have spoken so boldly.
"Why'd you hit me?!"
"Settle it with him."
At Nangong Mubaek's words, the warrior flushed with rage. He was dead set on getting me in trouble.
Fail here, and I'd slave for him a year.
Worse, I might end up a ghost on that sword first.
Perfect way to mess with a bookish scholar.
The warrior's target shifted to me.
"You his attendant?"
Wealthy young masters often dragged burly guards or servants around.
"Yes. Please, come this way. A scene here would bother others."
From his robes and eyes, I pegged him as a righteous sect warrior.
Years eyeing Alliance visitors honed that eye.
"Why'd you hit me?!"
"Not my will, but I apologize first."
"What grudge do you have? My hand could've flown off!"
He tapped his sword hilt threateningly. Proof his anger lingered.
I seized the opening.
"That three-color silk wrap on your hilt—Chongui Sect, right?"
The warrior, mid-roar, narrowed his eyes.
"Huh? You know my sect?"
He seemed surprised a scholar recognized his affiliation.
"Of course. I'm with the Murim Alliance Inspection Unit."
I remember everything I see or read—even tiny branch manors across the land.
The Chongui Sect warrior flinched.
To them, even a scholar from the Inspection Unit was like the grim reaper.
Especially for a mid-sized sect.
"Your branch leader, Jeong Chaebong, once got aid from our Elder Gal after heavy losses, right?"
Doubt faded; he straightened and spoke respectfully.
His anger vanished faster than breath.
"Ah, yes. That was practically classified."
"I handled it myself."
The warrior practically shrank.
"No way—the Ghostly Scholar? Ah, sorry. Scholar Cheon, right?"
"My nickname's spread that far?"
"Forgive me. I spoke out of turn."
He bowed his head.
"No need. Don't apologize like that."
I waved it off, patting his shoulder.
To onlookers, it might look like a scholar scolding a warrior.
Then I waved to Nangong Mubaek watching from afar.
"You might've heard, but that punk's Nangong Family's scoundrel youngest young master."
"Yeah, heard it entering Hefei. The family's headache."
"He's baiting me by hitting you."
"Ah, I see."
Realizing I was an Inspection Unit scholar dragged around by a family scoundrel, his eyes turned pitying.
Hostility flipped to sympathy in seconds.
"Tough serving a scoundrel like that."
He consoled me.
"It's my fate. I just think of him as a rabid mutt."
The warrior burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! The Nangong brat picked the wrong guy messing with the Ghostly Scholar of the world."
Sympathy bonded us instantly.
"I'm Hong Jangmok, senior disciple of Chongui Sect."
"I know. The Red Cloud Swordsman shaking Henan Luoyang, right?"
"Impressive—Alliance Inspection Unit indeed. Even knows a backwater swordsman."
"Nonsense. You're a famed righteous junior. The Alliance has high hopes. Since we're fated, I'll put in a good word up top."
"Oh, really? Thank you."
Hong Jangmok bowed deeply in thanks. I nodded, glancing at Nangong Mubaek.
Leveraging name or rank for clout? Not for noble scholars.
Scholar's dignity?
Scholar's pride?
In a predator-filled world, it was a gossamer shield thinner than spider silk for prey like me.
I was a deer that could bite a wolf's neck to survive.
My survival law in the Alliance, teeming with beasts and ruled by the law of the jungle.
Nangong Mubaek, watching from afar, furrowed his brow.
An absurd scene.
I was supposed to suffer humiliation from the warrior.
Instead, they chatted amiably.
Worse, the warrior bowed repeatedly, acting deferential.
He couldn't fathom their talk and itched with curiosity.
When I returned, he asked coldly.
"What the hell did you say to that warrior?"
"Just apologized."
"Apologized, and he acts honored to receive it?"
"Yes. I was polite."
Curiosity burned, but I clammed up.
Cold fury filled his eyes.
'Hah, look at this punk. Quick on his feet, huh? Wrong guy to mess with. I'll show you who Nangong Mubaek is. Make you puke from disgust.'
Nangong Mubaek especially hated the scholar's face.
Heard he was handsome everywhere, but now passersby lingered more on the scholar.
Their admiring gazes grated worse.
Above all, that untouchable refinement he could never have was unforgivable.
He burned to torment me more.
"Follow me."
Nangong Mubaek strode on, then halted abruptly at one spot.