Who Would Do Something That Crazy?

"Who would do something that crazy?"

A student thrashed on the ground, coughing up blood.

Behind him, Lee Se-ah had already arrived, drawn by the commotion. Her expression said it all.

What are you trying to do?!

"Hah."

Kang Hyun let out a short breath. The reason he had held himself back while the professors made such a spectacle was simple enough. He wanted to live well in this place — Earth, South Korea — the world he had longed so desperately to return to. He wanted to follow its rules and adapt.

And apparently, the rules here said that a mere applicant for a teaching post had no business stepping forward in a situation like this.

"What on earth are you talking about? His heart is going to burst?"

The professor who had been trying to stop him shouted, veins standing out on his neck.

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For a moment Kang Hyun's lips twisted, and his true thoughts nearly spilled out.

You idiots. You've sealed every exit with raw force — where do you think the smoke goes in a house on fire? Straight back into the weakest point: the heart. Of course it's going to burst.

But he held it in. The warning the little chick behind him had given earlier floated back into his mind.

"When you get there, you absolutely cannot talk to people the way you talk to me! Formal speech only, no exceptions! Got it? You said you wanted to become a professor. If you cause any more trouble, even the Bureau won't be able to cover for you."

Honestly, it felt unbearably awkward. He had fallen into Murim at thirteen and spent twenty years speaking nothing but Chinese. He knew Korean honorifics, but they simply refused to sit right on his tongue.

But what choice did he have? This, too, was a gate he had to pass through if he wanted to adapt to this world.

"The energy is knotted once at the Zhongwan point, and twice at the Qimen."

"What? How would you know that?!"

Ordinarily, no one could tell without taking a pulse. But Kang Hyun had learned medicine from Mad Hand — that lunatic old man who had once lectured even the Divine Physician, the Demon Physician, and the Medicine Immortal. Mad Hand, one of the seven old men who had taught him, could read the flow of qi with his eyes and diagnose disease by scent alone.

"Believe ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me or don't — that's your business. But shouldn't we at least save the kid?"

"What do you think you're doing?!"

Head Professor Jin Myeong-hoon stepped forward, but there was no time. Kang Hyun strode straight to the student and laid a hand on the Qihai acupoint, roughly two cun below the navel.

"W-wait! What are you doing?"

Terror flooded the watching students' eyes.

See? If this were a real case of qi deviation, the victim wouldn't even be able to grasp the situation.

"Are you insane?! That's his dantian!"

"What kind of madman puts his hand on the dantian of someone in qi deviation?! Get away from him this instant!"

The professors erupted into chaos.

They're going to talk me to death.

Kang Hyun casually ignored their buzzing, fly-like shouts and struck the acupoint.

"Gahhk!"

A fountain of dark crimson blood erupted from the student's mouth.

Spatter!

Blood droplets sprayed in every direction, staining the training ground floor red. The student who had vomited blood collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

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Treatment complete.

That single strike had fully untangled the knotted meridians.

But—

"Y-you crazy bastard! You actually killed the student!"

The training ground descended into pure pandemonium. Even Lee Se-ah, watching from the distant entrance, had gone deathly pale and clamped both hands over her mouth.

Then—

Shing!

The ring of metal cut through the air. Jin Myeong-hoon had drawn his sword.

"You dare kill an Academy student? I will hold you responsible for this!"

Kang Hyun simply stared at the man advancing on him, killing intent pouring off him in waves. In the old days, the moment that weapon left its sheath, the man's head would already have been rolling on the ground. That was how things worked in the Murim he had spent twenty years in.

In that moment, Kang Hyun hesitated. Follow the instincts forged in Murim — or the reason demanded by Earth?

What saved Jin Myeong-hoon from that murderous deliberation was none other than the Dean.

"Stand down, Professor Jin!"

He stepped between them. The Dean's expression seemed to say: For heaven's sake, stay still if you don't want to die!

"Dean!"

"Sheathe your sword! You're far too agitated."

"B-but this man just struck a student dead!"

"Even if that were true, what grounds do you have to draw a blade right now?"

"……!"

The Dean's rebuke left Jin Myeong-hoon speechless.

"Dean! Are you taking the side of a complete stranger? Don't tell me this man has connections at the Bureau?"

"Do not cross that line."

The Dean's voice dropped low. The eyes of the old man who usually wandered about with an easy smile had turned heavy and cold.

"Even if this man did harm a student, that is a matter for the Academy Disciplinary Committee and the Association's Inspection Bureau to judge and punish. It is not for a single professor to draw a sword and play executioner on his own authority."

"Kh…"

"Sheathe that sword at once — unless you find my words amusing."

At the Dean's chilling warning, Jin Myeong-hoon's face twisted. He was reluctantly about to put the blade away when—

"Cough!"

A cough broke the silence at the center of the training ground. Every gaze snapped to the floor.

"Cough — gahhk!"

The blood-soaked student who had been lying still began to shudder, then painfully forced air from his lungs. Moments later, he staggered upright, pushing his upper body off the ground. Color was already returning to his ashen face, and the rampaging energy that had been on the verge of exploding had gone quiet.

"Hah… hahh…"

Gasping for breath, the student patted his chest and stomach, murmuring in a daze.

"It… it doesn't hurt…"

Even the Dean was stunned. Everyone who had witnessed the scene wore the same blank expression.

"H-he's alive?"

"He cured qi deviation by striking the dantian?"

"What in the world…"

The Dean took charge of the situation. Code Name: Black was a state secret. No one knew better than he that drawing unnecessary attention would do no one any good.

"What are all of you standing around for?! Get that student to the infirmary at once and let him rest!"

At the Dean's roar, the professors scrambled to support the student and hustle him out of the training ground. Having restored order in an instant, the Dean casually turned to face Kang Hyun.

"Ahem. Master Kang Hyun?"

"Just Hyun is fine."

"Haha, is that so? My apologies for putting you through such an unpleasant scene."

"It's fine. Thanks to you, everything got sorted out cleanly."

"I'm grateful for what you did for the student. It may be a bother, but would you wait in the reception room? We'll speak again once things settle."

"Understood."

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

The medical center.

Professor Hwang Ye-rim, just back from a business trip, took the student's pulse.

"He's stable."

At her calm assessment, the tension drained from the shoulders of the professors who had been waiting anxiously for the result.

"You said he struck the Qihai point? That was an appropriate emergency measure. There are traces of knotting around the Zhongwan and Qimen — in a case like this, you have to open the qi-blood pathways and force the stagnant blood out all at once."

Deep admiration lit Hwang Ye-rim's eyes. Even knowing the theory, you needed a considerable depth of expertise in qi-gong medicine to treat someone this cleanly.

"Who was it?"

"……"

"Who prescribed this so perfectly?"

Silence. Neither Jin Myeong-hoon nor any of the other professors could open their mouths. The very method they had argued against had turned out to be perfect. How humiliating was that?

Then the Dean, who had been watching with his arms folded, spoke up casually.

"Professor Hwang. One question."

"Yes, Dean."

"If…" His gaze swept across the frozen faces of the faculty. "If someone had deployed a qi-gong net from the outside and forcibly suppressed the true energy — what do you think would have happened to this student?"