Entertain Me Properly
Once Baengni Hae had gone, the disciples left standing gathered the dead and the wounded and withdrew.
"Damn it. What was I thinking, saying we ought to wipe out Nokhyeon Sect? The Vice Sect Master is that strong? He's on a whole different level from the outer sect trash."
Back in their room, Yeogwi wiped the sweat from his brow as he spoke. Yi Yeok snorted.
"Hmph. And you're saying you could take the outer sect ones?"
"You bastard. I don't know how you got that strong, but if you managed it, so can I. I'll catch up before long."
The tension drained out of him, and Yeogwi flopped back onto the bed.
"Keep that temper of yours in check from now on. What were you going to do if the Vice Sect Master had actually meant to kill us? We got lucky."
Yi Yeok shook his head.
"It wasn't luck. A low-rank immortal sect like this exists to raise the talented and send them up to the sects above. We showed them we're strong enough. A handful of men they couldn't send upward even in a hundred years — they won't lose any sleep over a few of those dying."
"That so?"
Yeogwi nodded. He, too, was beginning to grasp, if only dimly, how a low-rank immortal sect actually ran.
The next morning, Mo Yeong came looking for them before they had even woken. Word of what they had done the night before had already spread through the sect.
"Darling. Just how strong are you, exactly?"
"Can't you tell by looking? Five Spirits Realm."
Mo Yeong scrunched her face the way she always did, catlike.
"I'm Five Spirits Realm too."
"Then next is the Creation Qi-Blood Realm. Hurry up and awaken your blood spirit. Use that immortal stone you picked up before and you'll get strong in no time. They'll let you skip the entrance course as well. Even that turtle bastard became a formal disciple thanks to me. A turtle riding a dragon's tail."
Yeogwi, who had been listening, bristled — but he had nothing to say in his own defense, and so he kept his mouth shut.
"As expected of my Darling. The best there is!"
"Drop that damned 'Darling.' I'm only paying you back for getting me qualified to enter Nokhyeon Sect."
Mo Yeong stuck her lip out in a pout.
Yi Yeok and his companions ate a simple breakfast and set out for the Technique Transmission Hall and their first class. The one guiding them was a senior brother in name only; his manner was closer to a servant attending his masters. What Yi Yeok had done the night before had planted awe and fear especially deep among the lower disciples of the outer sect.
No Jeong, a mid-rank outer disciple charged with teaching theory to the lower disciples, was considerably on edge. He had heard the rumors about Yi Yeok, and he knew as well that the man was a talent noteworthy enough to draw the Vice Sect Master's eye. He even prepared his lecture — something he never bothered to do — and prayed he might get through the class unscathed.
But not long after the lesson began, boredom sat plain on Yi Yeok's face. However faithfully No Jeong explained and dressed the material up, set beside the Hidden Soul Divine Spirit Art it amounted to little more than a jumble of petty tricks.
Even Yeogwi and Mo Yeong could tell the martial art was nothing so impressive as they had expected. Only the other lower disciples wore faces bright with delight, even a touch of awed gratitude, and strained to commit every word to memory.
"Junior Brother Yi Yeok, what did you think? Was there any part you found difficult to grasp?"
When the morning lecture ended, No Jeong approached Yi Yeok with a courteous smile. A few lower disciples who had only just entered, and had not yet heard the rumors, looked puzzled by his manner.
"Senior Brother No's lecture was most thorough. The martial art itself, however, is crude. However brilliantly one dresses it up, there is a limit, is there not?"
"That's—!"
No Jeong's words died in his throat. It was not wrong. Compared with the martial arts of the secular world, the level was indeed high, but the arts transmitted to lower disciples were paltry beside what the sect's seedlings and its core disciples were taught.
Yi Yeok yawned, making a show of it.
"Dull. Unless you intend to transmit the inner sect's arts, I don't believe you and I will have any further business, Senior Brother No."
No Jeong's face flushed a red so deep it seemed the color might drip from it. At that brazen insolence, the other disciples began to stir.
Yi Yeok left the Technique Transmission Hall as he was. Yeogwi and Mo Yeong followed.
"Boring. So boring. Is life in an immortal sect always this dull?"
"You won't fill your belly on the first bite, Darling. Just speak to the Vice Sect Master and have the inner sect arts transmitted to you."
"And how different would that even be?"
Yeogwi's eyes lit up.
"Thief, if you're that sick of it, how about we clean out Nokhyeon Sect and skip town? While you're fighting, I'll steal whatever's worth money..."
All at once, Yi Yeok looked off to one side. Yeogwi and Mo Yeong followed his gaze as a matter of course. A group was visible over there, and they were unmistakably coming this way.
The young man at their head looked to be about thirty. His lips were crimson as a woman's, and his face was full of fierce confidence.
Yi Yeok did not look away. He met that gaze head-on.
"Good. Looks like something interesting is about to happen."
The group halted in front of Yi Yeok. The young man in the lead looked quite angry, and yet even then he wore a bold smile.
"So you're Yi Yeok."
Yi Yeok bent smoothly at the waist.
"This humble junior is honored beyond measure that you would deign to recognize him. Might I dare inquire after Senior Brother's honored name?"
"Just as they said. Humbling yourself to lull a man, then striking from ambush — that is your specialty, is it not? Do you imagine such a petty trick will avail you against me, Ji Jung-ok, foremost of the outer sect?"
"Ah. The outer sect's foremost, whom I have known only by rumor. I had been meaning to seek you out and offer my greetings, so I am grateful you came to me first."
Ji Jung-ok grinned.
"A wretch not one day past his initiation, strutting about and declaring for all to hear that he will become foremost of the outer sect? And you believed you would come through it unharmed?"
"Not that alone. Last night I also happened to cut down a great many of Senior Brother Ji's junior brothers..."
"Silence. How could such feeble wretches be called junior brothers of mine? What becomes of them is no concern of mine. You will die as the price of daring to insult me, Ji Jung-ok!"
"Come now. We are of the same sect, are we not? Is that not rather harsh?"
"You impudent wretch. A few half-wits cut down last night, and already you swell with pride. Do you fancy that I stand upon the same ground as those rice-grubs who will squat in the outer sect for a thousand years and a thousand more? I, who will advance into the inner sect before long?"
Yi Yeok remained perfectly at ease, and Ji Jung-ok found it strange. Judging by his clothes, he was no scion of a wealthy house, and a reading of his qi put him only at the Five Spirits Realm. Even if the Vice Sect Master had acknowledged him, that meant nothing more than a thread-thin possibility of reaching a higher sect. That much, Ji Jung-ok himself — and most of the men following him — had already attained.
"I'll grant you the bluster, at least. Or perhaps you were simply a little lacking in wits to begin with."
"Ah, that isn't me. That would be this friend here. One look at his clothes and I'm sure you can guess..."
"Shut up, you damned thief!"
Yeogwi snarled and clapped a hand over Yi Yeok's mouth. Yi Yeok grinned and cracked his fingers.
"Enough wordplay. I was bored anyway. Are you ready?"
Ji Jung-ok grinned again.
"Ready? You think I need to prepare to deal with the likes of you?"