Can You Walk That Path?
Well, look at this.
Jin Myeong-hoon's eyes narrowed to slits.
Putting on airs, is he?
He already had the full list of the five students enrolled in Kang Hyun's class memorized cold.
Fine. Cha Yu-sik and Kwak Do-jin—he could concede those two a hundred times over. But Yoon Hyun-jong? That one was murky. And the complete unknown, the freshman Han Tae-ho? If someone could crack the top five with nothing but the Samjae Geombeop, he ought to have been a heavyweight rookie Jin Myeong-hoon already knew by name.
And the last one.
Seo Hae-in, the eternal dead-last of the twentieth batch. She was supposed to climb into the top five in two months? A dog walking past would laugh itself straight-faced at the idea. Even if the other four somehow met the bar, Seo Hae-in never would. That would take a genuine upheaval of heaven and earth.
"Very well."
Jin Myeong-hoon stepped forward, putting the ten professors at his back.
"We'll stake our necks as well. If those five truly take the top five spots, every one of us here will leave the Academy. Does that satisfy you?"
A few of the professors looked openly flustered. The declaration had never been agreed upon in advance. But the one more rattled still was Dean Seo Il-hyun.
"Professor Jin, calm yourself first."
Ten full professors stood in this room—half the Academy's core strength. If they all walked out at once, the Academy would seize up. Replacing them overnight was impossible, and the chaos among the cadets plus the public backlash would land squarely on the dean's shoulders.
Jin Myeong-hoon had counted on exactly that.
Go ahead and try to throw me out.
Even if the standard were somehow met, the dean would still find a way to rein Kang Hyun in. Why not cut out an eyesore when your own safety was already guaranteed?
"You're offering me your necks?"
Kang Hyun scratched his brow and tilted his head.
"What exactly do I gain from that?"
"What?"
"You lot may be obsessed with my neck, but I couldn't care less whether you stay professors or not."
He meant it. Their hovering presence was annoying, nothing more. Honestly, whatever they did left him completely unmoved.
"…Then what do you want?"
At Jin Myeong-hoon's question, Kang Hyun gave the whiskey bottle a light shake. There was, in fact, one thing he wanted from the Academy.
"Land."
"Land?"
"There's an unused plot behind the new building. Fairly spacious."
He had been feeling the need for a proper space of his own. The professor's office was cramped, the dormitory inconvenient. A person's body and mind, after all, took the shape of the place they inhabited.
"Give it to me."
Kang Hyun planned to raise a building there. He needed a warehouse for refining materials and toxic herbs, a private archive for manuals. More than anything, the old training hall the cadets used was worn and flimsy. The training grounds he had once rolled across had been packed tight with formations and mechanisms of every kind.
"You mean the northern outer zone?"
Academy property, left idle because it sat on the skirts of Bukhansan.
"Ha! This is truly absurd."
Professor Kim from the rear stepped up. He flinched when Kang Hyun's gaze landed on him, yet pressed on.
"Academy territory is national property! A mere contract professor has no right to demand it as a wager!"
"Do I really need to worry about that sort of thing? When you're already staking your necks?"
Kang Hyun clicked his tongue and turned to Seo Il-hyun.
"What's the dean's view?"
Had this confrontation never happened, he would simply have asked the Bureau and the dean for the land as a condition of remaining at the Academy. If they had any sense they would have agreed; a pretext could always be manufactured. The reason he raised it here was simpler.
To shut them up.
They would pick fights and throw obstacles the moment he tried anything, so better to make them close their own mouths.
"Ahem."
The dean cleared his throat and asked,
"What do you intend to use the land for?"
"A training ground, some storage, and a building of my own."
"At your own expense?"
"Of course."
"And the purpose? For the cadets?"
There Kang Hyun caught the dean's intent—Seo Il-hyun was smoothly handing him a justification.
"Naturally."
It wasn't even a lie. He was building it to raise his disciples.
"Haha. Then the public benefit is more than sufficient."
"Dean?"
Professor Kim scowled in alarm, but Seo Il-hyun ignored him.
If you don't understand, just stay quiet!
Hand over a plot of idle land and keep Kang Hyun tethered to the Academy? This wasn't merely a good deal—it was a pumpkin rolling in with the vine still attached.
"Professor Kang Hyun is willing to dig into his own pocket to expand the Academy's infrastructure. I see no grounds to refuse him the use of the land. As a wager condition, this seems perfectly reasonable. What do you say, Professor Jin?"
Jin Myeong-hoon snorted inwardly.
It's impossible anyway.
"Agreed."
A thin sneer curled his lips.
"What's one abandoned scrap of land? But Dean, you must be clear as well. The moment even one of them slips outside the top five of their year, Professor Kang Hyun steps down from his post at once. No more shielding him after that."
"So be it."
Inside the room, Baek Yu-seol sat cross-legged on her bed.
Is this how it's done?
The Extreme Yin Heart Method she had opened for the first time was packed with archaic language she could barely parse, yet Baek Yu-seol was sharp. She dug through dictionary apps on her phone, piecing together the meaning of every verse as best she could.
"Hhhk… huuuu…"
Even sitting still, every joint in her body screamed. Soft groans slipped out on their own.
I keep wondering if this is right, but…
Unbidden, the professor's eyes rose in her mind—the hellish interior of that man. Someone like that had no reason to lie to her. Lies usually came from people carrying anxiety or desire.
And above all, Unnie believes in him.
Baek Yu-seol knew better than anyone how brilliant and tenacious her sister was. That sister trusted the man. The sister who had staked her entire life on martial medicine.
I'm going to live.
Baek Yu-seol bit down hard on her trembling lower lip. She wanted to live and repay her sister. She refused to let Unnie burn her life away for her any longer.
With shaking fingertips she marked the page and slowly recited the verses written there. Then, with the utmost care, she linked her breath.
Once. Twice. Three times.
"Sssss… huuuu."
She had no idea whether it was working. Yet—was it only her imagination?—the stabbing pain near her heart felt a fraction lighter.
The next morning.
"Mmm."
Baek Yu-yeon stretched and opened her eyes. Morning sunlight filtering through the dormitory window was dazzling.
How long did I sleep?
She checked the clock.
"Hhk!"
She had washed the moment she got in yesterday and collapsed around five in the afternoon… nearly sixteen straight hours of sleep.
No wonder I feel so refreshed.
A full week of snatching catnaps, piled on top of the dawn training that had come before, had driven her fatigue to the breaking point. Now it was gone as if washed away.
Baek Yu-yeon finished getting ready in a rush.
It starts today.
Just thinking about learning the acupuncture art the professor had named—the Heavenly Physician's Ghost Needles—set her heart pounding already.
Hair neatly tied, clothes tidy, she opened the door to the professor's office—and paused.
Hmm?
The atmosphere was different. First of all, the woman named Lee Se-ah who was always glued to his side was nowhere in sight. What truly put her on edge, though, was Kang Hyun himself.
"…Professor?"
The man who normally lounged about was seated in perfect formal posture on a cushion spread across the floor. Another cushion waited in front of him.
"You're here. Sit."
She felt it in his tone.
Ah—this isn't just showing up for work. Something's happening!
The biggest sense of wrongness was the absence of the whiskey bottle that never left his side.
Baek Yu-yeon slipped off her shoes, carefully settled onto the cushion, and folded her hands. Kang Hyun fixed her with a direct stare.
"I promised, didn't I? Memorize everything within a week and I would take you as a disciple."
To Kang Hyun, the word "disciple" carried special weight. It had to. The world he had lived and learned in was Murim. Here, paying tuition bought knowledge and graduation ended with smiles and farewells—that might pass for a master-disciple bond. The bond Kang Hyun knew was never so light.
"The master-disciple relationship I have in mind is not one where the disciple simply siphons off knowledge. Beyond knowledge, they inherit my work—my karma—as well."
In true Murim, the master-disciple bond was held heavier than the ties of heaven and blood. In that sense, Kang Hyun had never once called any of the five cadets he taught his disciples.
Baek Yu-yeon swallowed dryly and found the courage to ask,
"What is that work, exactly?"
Kang Hyun was silent for a moment. Having come this far, what was his standard for a true disciple?
"Someone who can stake their life and fight beside me when the sky collapses and the world turns into a hell soaked in blood."
Only to such a person would he teach proper martial arts. And Baek Yu-yeon would have no choice but to fight—because she would have to deploy the Suyo Formation.
"…"
Baek Yu-yeon clenched both fists tight. She did not fully understand what the professor was saying. One thing was certain, though: if she wanted to learn properly, it sounded as if she had to stake her life.
To claim she was not afraid would be a lie. Yet something more important still pressed on her.
"If I become your disciple, Professor… can you guarantee my sister will live?"
"Not only your sister."
"Then…"
"Everyone except those already dead will become savable."
"…!"
Baek Yu-yeon's mouth fell open. The claim might have sounded arrogant, yet for some reason it only drew her in harder. Anyone who claimed to teach others ought to carry at least that much confidence!
At the same time, curiosity stirred.
"Why me, of all people?"
Looking back, it had been that way from the start. Even when Hwang Min-woo had tormented her, he had kept coming to save her. And no matter that Kwak Do-jin had called him out, he was still putting her through physical training with knowledge as collateral. Clever as she was, she knew: Kang Hyun had targeted her from the beginning.
"I already told you. I need someone who can stake their life and fight beside me. That bastard is strong. Ordinary talent cannot face him. With the Cheonmaegan you possess… perhaps."
"And if I refuse?"
"That makes no difference either. The choice is yours. But mark this well: once you become my disciple, there is no taking it back."
Siphon the teachings and run? Kang Hyun was not soft enough to let such a person walk free.
"Think carefully. Whether you can keep walking this path even after your sister is fully cured."
The question landed heavy. Baek Yu-yeon asked herself.
What will I do once Yu-seol is saved?
She had lived her entire life on the single resolve to cure her sister's illness. Yet suddenly the past week rose in her mind—the pure exhilaration of reading the Comprehensive Theory of Heavenly Meridians. Every time she grasped a new mystery, a thrilling current had raced through her whole body. Had her sister been present in that thrill?
No.
She had simply delighted in the pure process of exploring martial medicine itself. An emotion she had never felt while studying under Professor Hwang Ye-rim. An emotion only Kang Hyun could fill.
Other thoughts crowded in, yet they all converged on one point.
"I want to walk that path."
"Good. Stand up."
Kang Hyun rose with her and pointed at the bare floor between the two cushions. Then he tossed out the words:
"Killing intent at the first-rate level, exactly."
The same condition he had set for the cadets to enroll. No matter how gifted she was, if she could not endure Asura's killing intent, there was no point teaching her the Suyo Formation.
"Cross over. You have ten minutes."
Kuuung!
The instant the words left his mouth, an overwhelming killing intent crushed the space flat. Fortunately Baek Yu-yeon clung on with sheer stubbornness and crossed the line. When she finally dragged her steps across and collapsed onto the floor, Kang Hyun smiled and spoke.
"From this day forward, you are my first disciple, Baek Yu-yeon."