Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Iron Fairy
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"The Elusive Squadron's Tenth Squad has invited Master Kang to serve as our martial instructor. If you're not inclined, feel free to decline."
When he heard those words from the Strategist, the first image that came to mind was the bright face of that young man named Han Se Yeong.
'It must be that young hero who wanted an old man like me.'
He had sensed at first glance that Han Se Yeong was no ordinary youth.
And his hunch had been right. The young man had repelled a righteous faction expert at the Guangwu Festival and skyrocketed to fame in an instant.
The only regret was that he hadn't witnessed that battle at the festival firsthand.
The label of once having been a Demonic Cultist was a heavy burden on his life.
For the first decade or so, he had taught the Murim Alliance's young prodigies, but he never mingled with them at all.
He was always alone, and as that solitude dulled, he distanced himself from people even more.
"I'll do it."
Kang Seok-hyeon's acceptance was a bit unexpected even to the Strategist.
'What's going on with the Tenth Squad that all these oddballs keep flocking there...?'
He had heard before that members of the Elusive Squadron had invited him in the past.
But he had always disliked associating with others and turned down the role of martial instructor.
"Please escort Master Kang to the Tenth Squad."
"Understood, Strategist."
A warrior approached and bowed at the Strategist's command.
But even that, Kang Seok-hyeon declined.
Heh heh...
"It's been years since I settled in the Murim Alliance—do you think I don't even know where the Tenth Squad barracks are? I'll go alone, so leave me be."
Stopping the warrior's efforts, he turned and left the Strategist's room.
Returning to his quarters, Kang Seok-hyeon packed lightly.
What he called luggage amounted to just a few changes of clothes and a single sword.
Before leaving the room, he glanced around at the desk and bed he had used all this time.
He had lived here for over thirty years, but it had never felt as alien as it did today.
Kang Seok-hyeon crossed the Murim Alliance grounds toward the Tenth Squad's barracks.
The closer he got to the Tenth Squad's quarters, the more his once-calm heart began to stir.
'I don't know why my heart is pounding like this.'
His heart had been cold and still for a long time now.
The lord he had pledged his loyalty to was lost to a heavenly tribulation, and the betrayer who slew that lord couldn't be punished due to his own lack of strength.
Someday, he would surely execute that betrayer.
Yet, absurdly, the husband of his young lord had taken care of the betrayer instead.
With even his thirst for revenge extinguished, all that remained was emptiness.
Heh heh...
Calming his pounding heart with a hollow chuckle, he entered the courtyard where the barracks came into view.
"Welcome, old master."
The moment he stepped into the courtyard, the first thing he saw was, as expected, the bright face of that young man named Han Se Yeong.
"The ties between people are truly wondrous."
How could he have foreseen this situation back when they crossed paths in a corner of the Murim Alliance?
"Welcome, Instructor. I'm Paeng Se Gi, Brother Han's younger brother."
"It's an honor to meet you, Instructor. I'm Yi Cheon Yeong of Mount Hua Sect."
"Dang Ok Yi pays her respects to the Instructor."
"I'm... Hahu Yeon."
The squad members bowed first in greeting.
"Pleased to meet you all. I'm Kang Seok-hyeon."
As Kang Seok-hyeon finished his first greetings with the squad, Sa Sa Un belatedly introduced himself.
"I'm Sa Sa Un..."
But before he could finish his bow, Paeng Se Gi barked out.
"Hey! What are you doing? Take the Instructor's luggage already!"
"Ah, got it. Hand me your luggage, Instructor."
Such reactions from the squad members felt utterly foreign to Kang Seok-hyeon.
First meetings were always heavy affairs, yet these youngsters showed no trace of that.
"Sa Sa Un, was it? Looking forward to working with you."
The elderly instructor remembering his name moved Sa Sa Un deeply.
"D-don't worry, Instructor."
His voice trembled from the emotion, tears even welling up unbidden.
"Hey. Since it's the day the Instructor arrived, let's set a proper feast."
But Paeng Se Gi's next words instantly deflated that emotion.
'May lightning strike that bastard dead.'
Se Yeong and Kang Seok-hyeon sat side by side under the shade of a tree, talking.
"With so many fine instructors available, why specifically invite me?"
"In my eyes, only you stood out, old master."
Heh heh...
Kang Seok-hyeon brushed off Se Yeong's praise with a hollow laugh.
"I'm not the fine instructor you imagine, young hero. If I were, would I have ended up as a forgotten old man in the back rooms?"
"That's because they failed to recognize your true worth."
Se Yeong trusted his own judgment.
Teaching others wasn't just about possessing profound martial arts.
One needed not only supreme skills but also insight and the character to understand one's students.
What Se Yeong wanted wasn't merely a martial instructor, but a true master.
"Please regard them not as Elusive Squadron members, but as your personal disciples."
Huh...
Kang Seok-hyeon was so taken aback that words failed him.
To him, the notions of master and disciple belonged to another world entirely.
Who would take a former Demonic Cultist as their master?
"I... was once a Demonic Cultist."
Ha ha...
"What does that matter? If you treat them as disciples, they'll serve you as their master."
Se Yeong didn't care whether Kang Seok-hyeon had been in the Demonic Cult or not.
His grandmother had once been a Demonic Cultist too, after all, so Demonic Cult blood flowed in his own veins.
"Thank you, young hero Han."
The squad members found unpolished stones and securely tied them to both arms and legs.
With the stones bound, they each took up their weapons and began practicing their martial arts.
Watching them, Kang Seok-hyeon couldn't hide his shock.
'The martial world's prodigies training in Demonic Cult methods? Who on earth taught them this?'
The Demonic Cult often used such brutal methods for intense training.
But as time passed and the stones grew heavier, it became an excruciatingly painful regimen.
His gaze fixed on the iron rod Paeng Se Gi was swinging.
The black sheen flickering on the rod suggested it was incredibly heavy just by looking.
But what halted his gaze was his recognition of a weapon with a similar hue.
This rod had a dull black tint, while the one he knew gleamed with a clearer black.
It was the Heavenly Demon Sword, known in the martial world as the Demon Lord's Sword.
Having held a fairly high position in the Demonic Cult, he had seen the sword the Cult Leader always wore at his waist several times.
Heavenly Demon Earth Sword.
The Cult Leader was said to possess two swords originally, but he had never even glimpsed the one called Shi Wol.
The Heavenly Demon Sword now in the Murim Alliance was a treasure that rightfully belonged back in the Demonic Cult someday.
Kang Seok-hyeon shifted his gaze to watch Sa Sa Un.
Like the others, he practiced his swordsmanship with stones bound to his limbs, and that swordsmanship was truly bizarre.
Faithful to the basics yet profound in depth—it was something even he, who had mastered numerous Demonic Cult arts, had never seen before.
'The Tenth Squad has a reputation as a bunch of wastrels, but seeing them now, they're all exceptional.'
As he closely observed their martial arts, Se Yeong approached him.
"How do the squad members seem to you, Instructor?"
Kang Seok-hyeon gave his honest impression.
"They don't need someone like me as an instructor. I can't even fathom why you invited me."
Se Yeong felt a great wave of relief at his words.
Having never taught anyone before, he hadn't been without anxiety.
But hearing such high praise from an instructor of deep experience washed away all that worry.
"Please spar with the squad members every few days, Instructor."
"Spar?"
"Yes. Push them harder and fiercer than in real combat. And whenever you have time, share your experiences from the martial world."
Kang Seok-hyeon stared steadily at Se Yeong.
To think such a man existed in the world.
He had been shocked at their first meeting, but this surpassed even that.
"Do you intend to turn the squad members into the next generation's Five Absolutes of the Martial World, young hero Han?"
The question was half in jest.
But Se Yeong took it entirely seriously.
"Why not?"
Heh heh... Heh heh heh...
Kang Seok-hyeon couldn't help but laugh at the utterly absurd dream.
To raise the Tenth Squad into the next Five Absolutes.
If that dream came true, wouldn't he become the master who produced the Five Absolutes?
Yet he didn't find this preposterous dream distasteful at all.
After all, wasn't it said that bigger dreams were better?
'I've come seeking not an instructor's seat, but a place to die.'
An elderly woman with a long sword strapped to her back entered the Murim Alliance alongside young male and female warriors.
The young men were all handsome without exception, and the female warriors had pretty faces and slender figures.
As they walked deeper into the Alliance, they paused to watch some passing Elusive Squadron members.
"Ever since that Han Se Yeong showed up, the Tenth Squad's been strutting around too much. Even that loser Sa Sa Un walks with his head held high like he's some great expert."
"The Tenth Squad's grown a lot thanks to that Han Se Yeong. They used to not even dare look us in the eye."
"Where's that guy from, anyway?"
"Not sure. Rumors say he's from some minor martial clan tucked away in a mountain valley."
"Then he's got no chance of rising high. Someone from a small clan can only climb so far."
They gossiped among themselves, then spotted the elderly woman and hurriedly bowed their heads.
"We pay respects to Elder Golden Flower."
"We pay respects to the Iron Fairy."
The elderly woman was an elder of the Emei Sect and one of the Seven Sages, her moniker the Iron Fairy.
Originally from the Moyong Family, she had entered Emei young for cultivation and, after becoming an elder, returned to her family to teach the younger generation.
Typically, a woman who left secular life once rarely returned to her family.
But her master had pulled strings, allowing her homecoming.
The master of Golden Flower Matriarch was one of the Five Absolutes of the Martial World, known in the martial world as the Six Net Sword Queen.
Thanks to her becoming an Emei elder, the Moyong Family and Emei were as close as one household.
Golden Flower Matriarch nodded coldly and resumed walking.
Only after she and the young warriors vanished from sight did the Elusive Squadron members finally speak.
Phew...
"She could kill with a look."
"I nearly pissed myself."
Golden Flower Matriarch was infamous in the martial world for her icy temperament and strong pride.
"Wonder what brings her to the Murim Alliance."
"Who knows. Maybe she's been invited as an Elusive Squadron instructor?"
"Nah, no way."
"It's been a while."
"The Strategist looks as sharp as ever."
The Strategist bowed first in greeting, and Golden Flower Matriarch reciprocated.
Though both were among the Seven Sages, the martial world's reputation rated her even higher.
Some even said that without her master the Heartless Matriarch, she would have been called Sword Queen.
"The Alliance Leader has already informed me."
Alliance Leader Namgung Je had invited Golden Flower Matriarch as the First Squad's martial instructor.
"Then this will be straightforward. In exchange for me taking charge of the First Squad, include these children as squad members."
'As expected, not an easy opponent.'
The Strategist found dealing with Golden Flower Matriarch challenging.
Adding them to the Elusive Squadron wasn't difficult at all.
These young warriors were Moyong Family scions and Emei disciples—something to welcome wholeheartedly.
But placing all seven in the same squad was another matter entirely.
"How about splitting them across the First, Second, and Third Squads?"
"I've personally trained these children for five years. If the Strategist refuses, we'll return to the family."
Her words were nothing short of a threat.
Yet the Strategist had no good counter.
Inviting a Seven Sages-level expert as a martial instructor was no small feat.
"Understood. We look forward to your guidance of the First Squad."
As the Strategist bowed in acceptance, a faint smile graced her lips.
"Don't worry. I'll mold the First Squad's members into the martial world's greatest experts."