The Blue Dragon Sword Sect (3)
The first match of the Ascendance Ceremony had ended in the blink of an eye.
The man who called himself a hard worker and the sect's rising prospect had been knocked flat by a single blow from Lee Tae-hyun.
Seong Gyu-ho was flustered for a moment, but he quickly recovered his composure.
"So it wasn't... just baseless rumor after all."
He couldn't quite believe that a single man had set a new C-rank gate record, but it seemed Lee Tae-hyun's spear skills hadn't been exaggerated. That movement just now wasn't the kind of thing a reckless thug could pull off.
'Still, that's only one down.'
The real charm of the Ascendance Ceremony was that the more matches you won, the stronger the sect disciples who came to challenge you became. It felt low to say, but people like Jo Seung-hyun were nothing more than straw men meant to sap the challenger's strength. While the other disciples wore Tae-hyun down, the skilled ones would gradually rack up victories. It was a little underhanded, perhaps, but anyone who wanted the secrets of the sect had to overcome at least this much of a trial.
'Heh heh. Let's see how long he can keep up that smug act, Lee Tae-hyun.'
He wouldn't even need to resort to the last resort, it seemed.
Seong Gyu-ho crossed his arms and let out a sly chuckle.
And so came the next disciple.
"Gahk!"
"Next."
And the one after that.
"Gwaaeeek!"
"Next."
...And the tenth disciple.
"H-hold! I surrender! I unconditionally surrender!"
"Next."
Once the number of disciples defeated by Lee Tae-hyun crossed ten, Seong Gyu-ho began to bite his lip bloody.
'What is this?'
What on earth was happening right now?
From the tenth disciple onward, they should have been at least semi-professional hunter level — people who had trained under the sect for over a year. Even if they couldn't win, they should have been able to slow him down somewhat.
'Why are they all losing in under a minute?!'
Every one of them had been swept away before Lee Tae-hyun's spear like autumn leaves in the wind. The average time it took for a disciple to fall didn't even exceed thirty seconds.
The match would begin.
Lee Tae-hyun's spear would surge forward.
Thwack-whack-thwack.
Over.
And this pattern repeated, infinitely.
Occasionally, a disciple would hang back instead of charging first.
Not coming? Then I'll come to you.
Thwack-whack-thwack.
Over.
"Kuhleck! Ghk!"
As the fifteenth disciple crumpled without resistance, Seong Gyu-ho hacked out a dry cough. His chest felt tight, as if someone had shoved a stone down his throat.
'He's THIS strong? That thug Tae-hyun?!'
It was absurd enough to flip heaven on its head and make the earth leap from its foundations.
Who was Lee Tae-hyun, after all? The delinquent whose antics made the news at least once a month, if not more. The man ranked first in "The Person I'd Most Like to Have Assassinated" as voted by Cheonseong shareholders. The man they used to call the single blemish on Lee Jin-sung's life.
"Next."
That same man was now, on that training ground, knocking down fifteen of the sect's disciples in an instant.
Fair and square — no luck, no tricks.
Gulp.
A dry swallow scraped down his throat.
An uneasy picture was starting to take shape in his mind: the scene of himself, tears in his eyes, handing over the Seven Forms of the Blue Dragon to Lee Tae-hyun.
'No!'
It was only the fifteenth so far, wasn't it? If the remaining disciples gave it their all from here on out...!
"Next. Hurry up and come out."
Lee Tae-hyun tilted his head as if bored, jabbing his spear shaft against the ground.
"Y-you go out there..."
"What?! I still have turns left!"
"Ack! Stop shoving! I'm NOT going out!"
Murmurs rippled through the disciples. Gone were the jeers and insults they'd hurled at Lee Tae-hyun out of contempt.
"What the hell is with that guy?"
"He's a monster..."
"...He's disgustingly strong."
Like people staring up at a wall impossibly high, none of them could step onto the training ground — they just shuffled in place, eyeing one another nervously.
By this point, it was safe to say everyone understood it implicitly.
That not a single person here could beat Lee Tae-hyun.
"What's the matter? Why is nobody coming out?"
When no opponent appeared for a long while, Lee Tae-hyun's eyes turned wicked, the corners of his mouth curling upward.
"Don't tell me you're all scared?"
"...!"
A few flinched at the provocation, but that was all. Nobody stepped forward. Anyone who charged out in a rage would only get clipped by his spear shaft and suffer a humiliating defeat.
"Hmm... Not enough yet... awe... where's the awe..."
Muttering something incomprehensible, he turned his gaze toward Seong Gyu-ho and spoke.
"Acting Sect Leader Seong Gyu-ho. It appears the remaining disciples have no desire to face me."
"W-well... yes..."
"So how about this?"
Lee Tae-hyun rested his spear on his shoulder and raised his palm.
"All of you come at me at once."
"...What?"
"We can't exactly stand here for the rest of our lives waiting for the next volunteer, can we? So — all of you, at once."
Is that bastard out of his mind?
Seong Gyu-ho gaped in disbelief.
"I... a one-versus-many bout? No matter how exceptional your skills are, that's—!"
Seong Gyu-ho forced himself to swallow the rest of the sentence.
A one-versus-many match in the Ascendance Ceremony. Normally it would be absolutely forbidden — an insult, a slap in the face to every disciple of the sect.
'But what if they all lose to Lee Tae-hyun anyway?'
What if that ended with him handing over the Seven Forms of the Blue Dragon? Then the one who died would be him. Seong Yong-ho would beat him to death, screaming that he'd been blinded by petty greed and handed away the very foundation of the sect.
"All of us, against one man?"
"This actually seems doable...?"
The disciples' morale was better than before, too. It wasn't as though one man was fighting all of them — the remaining disciples would all rush in together against a single opponent.
"...Very well. I grant permission for a one-versus-many bout."
The moment Seong Gyu-ho's approval fell, the remaining disciples drew their swords in unison.
"Finally, time to pay him back for a hit!"
They talked a big game, but tension hung on every face. They'd all seen how fifteen disciples before them had fallen, pathetically and without a fight.
But there were at least forty of them, minimum.
And Lee Tae-hyun was alone, wasn't he?
Even for a hunter specialized in duels, covering multiple opponents at once was a tall order. Wasn't it common knowledge that inside a gate, the thing to avoid most wasn't a strong enemy but a numerous one? To put it another way — a gap in skill could be bridged by a difference in numbers.
"Go!"
So all they had to do was rush in and strike together!
At the signal from the man at the front, the disciples charged as one.
"Haha! Got you now, you son of a bi—"
The man at the very head of the charge swung his sword, aiming to cleave Lee Tae-hyun in two.
No — he thought he did.
"Huh? What the— where'd he g—"
"Mind if I borrow your face?"
CRACK!
"AAAGH!"
Lee Tae-hyun used the man's face as a springboard and launched himself high into the air.
"Whew, what a wriggling mess."
They swarmed him like flies, all desperate to land a single hit on one man. Apparently they didn't realize that charging in blindly, without strategy or coordination, only scattered their own strength.
So this is the current state of the Cheongnyong Sword Sect, huh.
Lee Tae-hyun sighed inwardly.
Vmmm...!
He concentrated mana into the tip of his spear.
"G-get that bastard!"
Someone spotted the flow of mana and shouted, but it was already too late. Lee Tae-hyun's spear technique was already complete.
'Remember, Tae-hyun. The dozens, the hundreds of branching streams were, in the beginning, one great river.'
His master's teaching drifted past his ear. He honestly had no idea what profound truth was buried in those words, but—
'I do know it's a spear technique perfectly suited to a situation like this one.'
Once this technique unfolded, he was pretty sure none of them would be able to stop themselves from gaping in awe.
Kwoooosh.
He gripped the shaft tight, turning the spearhead toward the ground.
"Pierce."
As the spear thrust out, a single stream of mana shot down toward the earth in a long streak.
Pazuk!
Then it split in two midway.
Pazuk! Pazuzuk!
The split streams of mana split again.
"Wh...?"
The cascading streams of mana kept multiplying, until at last one enormous current became thousands upon thousands of fine needles and descended upon the men on the ground.
"Dodge!"
"Anyone with a defensive skill, get up here and block that thing!"
"Damn it, HOW are we supposed to block THAT?!"
A single thrust, split by thousands of strikes. Repeat that thrust endlessly, and it became a dance.
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!
"Ughaaargh!"
"Gwahk!"
It was like—
A rain shower of daggers falling from the sky.
'Cheonha-jiwol Gwangmu — Rain of Moonlight Under Heaven.'
The rain that fell from his spear soaked the ground through and through.
"Save meeeeaargh!"
"I give up! I surrender, I surrender!"
Though the wailing and the tears, of course, belonged to everyone else.
Numerous disciples have felt awe at your technique.
Additional rewards will be granted.
The message I'd been waiting for appeared.
So this choice was the right one after all. If I'd kept taking them one by one, I would have earned not awe but terror and hatred. Time saved, bonus quest cleared.
See? Working your brain pays off.
'Still, it won't register as a skill, huh.'
Apparently my proficiency was still lacking there too. And this was a spear technique that required manipulating mana in tandem — in terms of difficulty, it was easily twice as hard as Manryu-wolha Cheonmu, the defensive one.
'Not to mention that last move burned through more than eighty percent of my mana.'
Nearly all my mana gone from a single use of one spear technique. Yep, this trash F-rank body delivers as always.
Still, it had been worth it.
"Ghhk..."
"Uuugh..."
That one move had taken care of every remaining disciple. I'd adjusted my output, so nobody was seriously hurt — but they'd all be suffering through muscle aches for a while.
That's what you get for running your mouths about people behind their backs.
"That about wraps it up, wouldn't you say, Acting Sect Leader Seong Gyu-ho?"
"......"
Seong Gyu-ho rolled his eyes this way and that, his face corpse-pale. Clearly, he hadn't expected me to go this far.
"...You're remarkable. And I mean that sincerely."
There was genuine, deep-seated conviction behind those words.
"I'm not the type to bet on matches I lose."
"Truly, you have the skill to back it up. But we're not finished yet. There is still one disciple... remaining."
I already knew.
I knew exactly who was in the sect at this point in time. The ironclad insurance — and the last resort — that made it possible for Seong Gyu-ho to accept my proposal at all.
"She's in the seclusion hall right now. I'll fetch her at once."
"I'll wait."
About ten minutes passed after he left.
'...There she is, all right.'
A woman was walking toward me, a few paces behind Seong Gyu-ho.
"Thank you for waiting."
"...It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Baek Seo-ha."
She stared at me with a face of absolute blankness, snow-white hair flowing long like a fresh snowfield.
I deliberately greeted her with an easy smile.
"So I get to see you here, of all places."
"You... know of me?"
"Of course. You're famous."
Around this time, Baek Seo-ha should have been making quite a name for herself — one of those 'Ten Superstars Who Will Lead Korea's Next Generation!' list features.
White Dragon Baek Seo-ha. Future Sect Leader of the sword sect, Seong Yong-ho's direct disciple. A blazing prodigy who had awakened S-rank potential.
At least, that was who she was at this point in time.
'Wow. She really is young.'
Compared to the woman she'd become in the future, the Baek Seo-ha standing before me was practically a baby. Her left arm was still whole, and her facial muscles hadn't yet frozen over.
"That's funny, because I know you too."
Baek Seo-ha said, her tone still stiff as a plank.
"Trash. Thug. Delinquent. Defective human. Moron. The toxic wastewater of a major corporat— mmmph, mmph!"
"Seo-ha, you—! I'm so sorry. The girl's social skills are a little..."
Seong Gyu-ho hastily clamped a hand over her mouth. Somehow he'd only muzzled her after she'd said her piece, and it left a sour taste in mine.
"Ptui, ptui..."
Released from his grip, Baek Seo-ha spat and wrinkled her brow slightly.
"Ahem. In any case, this girl is the final opponent of the Ascendance Ceremony."
Seong Gyu-ho's expression had visibly eased compared to the trembling, wound-up wreck of a few minutes ago. He'd probably concluded that there was no way in hell I could beat Baek Seo-ha too.
'Well, he's not wrong.'
I had no intention of beating Baek Seo-ha.
'No intention' in the ordinary sense, that is.
▷ Make the disciples feel 'Reverence': +13 Exp
Hey, I'm not done with the quest yet!
"By the way, Seo-ha. You don't look all that strong, honestly."
"...?"
"Tsk. Talk about a letdown of a finale."
CRACK!
I smashed the wooden spear I'd been holding clean in half. Tossing the ruined stick of splinters carelessly on the ground, I cracked my knuckles.
"For the final match, I'll just use my bare hands."
If I wanted a performance that would inspire 'reverence,' it took at least this much.
I looked at Baek Seo-ha, not bothering to hide my snickering.
"......?"
She just blinked for a long moment, apparently failing to process what had just happened to her. But soon enough, she realized she was being thoroughly mocked.
"...What did you just say?"
Her quiet stillness ignited into something vicious.
'Tae-hyun, if you could go back to the past, what would you want to do?'
'Where's that coming from all of a sudden?'
'I have one. Just remembered it now.'
'What is it?'
Baek Seo-ha of the future — a future that was now the past — had smiled bitterly.
'I want to beat the crap out of my past self with my bare hands. Swords are too good for her. Just my fists.'
The reason I had just snapped my spear in half had absolutely nothing to do with that memory.
"You... what the hell do you think you're doing?"
"What's it look like? I'm telling you even a spear is too good for you."
Well. Maybe a little something to do with it.