Entrance Exam (3): Results
Deep in the night, long after everyone else had gone to sleep, the most renowned instructors of Cheonmu Academy gathered in a single room.
They had only one reason for being there.
"Ye Hajun. What the hell is this cadet?"
The moment his name was spoken, the assembled instructors erupted into a noisy clamor of competing voices. In the middle of it all, the instructor who had overseen Ye Hajun's written exam shot up from his seat and declared,
"Forget everything else. We of the Jegal Clan want this cadet for ourselves."
The fan-bearing instructor from the Jegal Clan held out the wooden answer tablet Ye Hajun had written on, his voice ringing with absolute conviction.
"Look at this. He phrased it politely, but he called our Jegal Clan's formations crude. I was furious when I first read it—but the more I study this answer sheet, the more profound it becomes."
He pointed to several places he had marked.
"This formation, as you all know, is an improved version of the Azure Wood Eight Trigrams Maze Formation already in active use by the Alliance. We weren't even asking him to find the Life Gate or the Death Gate—just to write down where he would dig in and hold out to survive. And yet!"
The fan-bearing instructor's neck veins stood out as he flourished his fan and shouted,
"Not only did he locate both the Life Gate and the Death Gate, he sensed that the wood energy was slightly excessive within that subtly warped balance—and from there he found a way to completely neutralize the formation itself. And he even proposed an improvement method?! It took our main family three years to create this one formation. Do you understand what that means?"
He slammed his palm down on the table.
"If this child comes to our clan, the formations of the entire martial world will evolve. The half-baked formations we're currently using to hold back the Jeonggoe will be refined, and the situation in Henan and Hebei Provinces might actually improve. The entire war front would shift."
At that, a massive, barrel-chested instructor rose from his seat as if to back him up.
"Speaking of the war front—did any of you look at his other answers? This child smells like military stock to me."
"Military stock? You mean a soldier?"
The burly instructor held up the wooden tablet he had graded for the others to see.
"He wrote out the complete mutual counters of the Eighteen Arms without missing a single one—from the perspectives of individual versus individual, individual versus group, and group versus group. This isn't mere soldier material. At minimum he has the makings of a commander. That might also explain why he's so familiar with formations."
"Military stock, is it. That would explain things."
The fan-bearing instructor nodded as if convinced—until the instructor from the Demonic Cult sitting beside him let out a soft, mocking snicker.
The fan-bearing instructor frowned and asked, clearly irritated,
"What exactly do you find so amusing?"
"I'm laughing at how thoroughly you're barking up the wrong tree. Military stock? Military stock? Puhahaha. Well, it could be. But this child is almost certainly connected to the Divine Cult."
"What?!" "What did you say?!"
The Demonic Cult instructor waved the wooden tablet for the internal-energy-application question he himself had set and graded.
"What I originally asked was a carefully hidden question about what problems arise when operating an internal cultivation method that inevitably accumulates yang energy. A simple answer—that residual yang energy in the head makes qi deviation more likely than with other methods—would have been enough, so long as they grasped the intent. But do you know what this child wrote?"
"Out with it."
"He even described methods for naturally resolving the resulting madness."
The fan-bearing instructor snorted.
"So he just wrote the usual basic advice—eat a yin-rich spiritual medicine to neutralize it."
"No. This child wrote down secret methods of the Divine Cult."
"What?!"
"Because of the nature of demonic arts, the Divine Cult has countless cultivation methods that drive practitioners into madness and qi deviation—and just as many countermeasures. This child wrote down five of those secret methods. What does that tell you? At the very least, one of his masters or relatives must be from the Divine Cult."
"Then how would someone from the Divine Cult know military-style applications of the Eighteen Arms?"
"If a predecessor left the Divine Cult, founded a lineage, and that descendant entered the military, it wouldn't be impossible at all."
The fan-bearing instructor's face drained of color.
"…So you're saying you want to take him to the Divine Cult?"
"Even if the branch has split, the root is still the Divine Cult. In the end this child is someone who must return to the Cult. Wasn't that the very agreement under which we began cooperating with the Academy in the first place?"
"Kh…!"
The fan-bearing instructor trembled with frustration, his grip on the fan shaking—until a one-armed instructor from the Unorthodox Path cut in.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that."
"What are you trying to say, Single Hand?"
"If he were from the Demonic Cult, his internal energy would surely be demonic, wouldn't it? Yet that child's internal energy is pure, orthodox energy of the highest order."
"What? Did you verify that yourself?"
"I didn't take his pulse, but I'm certain. I also watched him spar."
The one-armed instructor leaned back in his chair and continued in a lazy drawl.
"While we're on the subject—wherever that child ends up later, for the time being we must keep him at Cheonmu Academy. This cadet… defeated Namgung Gyeom."
"What?!" "Nonsense!" "That's impossible…"
The most violent reaction of the entire meeting erupted.
Who was Namgung Gyeom?
He was the direct descendant of the Sword God Namgung Segeuk—the greatest sword under heaven, a man so far beyond the Orthodox Path that no one disputed his supremacy with the blade. Not only was Gyeom's bloodline impeccable; he possessed true, once-in-a-generation talent that the Sword God himself had acknowledged. A genius among geniuses.
Even in Cheonmu Academy, where the finest talents of the entire Jianghu gathered, Namgung Gyeom was a talent that broke the scale—he had never once lost a spar since entering. The news that someone had beaten him was enough to stun every instructor in the room.
"Namgung Gyeom lost? How?!"
"They fought best-of-three under the usual sparring rules. The first match, Namgung Gyeom admitted he had been careless. But the second was something else entirely."
The one-armed instructor recalled the scene and reconstructed it step by step.
"Namgung Gyeom tried to decide the match with Thunderflash Severance—the high-speed technique he has the most confidence in. But that child saw it coming and instead stepped inside the range, blocking the sword strike."
"That much can happen."
"Namgung Gyeom wouldn't go down to that alone, of course. He immediately corrected the trajectory and went for the neck—and that child's reaction was a masterpiece."
The one-armed instructor lifted his remaining shoulder.
"His shoulder. He simply raised his shoulder and intercepted the sword's path with it."
"He reacted to that technique? It's already a completed sword art that has reached the realm of pure Skill!"
"I'm telling you he reacted to it. And that wasn't all—he grabbed Namgung Gyeom as the boy tried to open distance, hooked his leg, and slammed him flat. Done. Two-zero."
"Good heavens."
The meeting hall, which had been roaring only moments earlier, fell into a silence so complete a mouse could have been heard scurrying.
Defeating Namgung Gyeom in a spar—and doing it two-zero—was that shocking.
Then a quiet voice broke the hush.
"Then for now, let's keep him at the Academy. It'll be good for Gyeom as well. The boy has always suffered from having no true rival. Now he has a reason to stay."
The one-armed instructor, who had been smirking until a moment ago, straightened his posture.
"…Principal. But if two geniuses appear in the same generation, won't it cause problems for the other children?"
"Neither Gyeom nor Hajun has a rotten nature. Now that they have each other as rivals, rather than trampling the others they'll probably become goals that pull everyone else upward."
The one-armed instructor asked with lingering doubt,
"Both of them… so you've already met Cadet Ye Hajun?"
"I have. I was out begging in the Outer Academy for the first time in ages when, of all things, he gave me alms. Emptied his entire purse for me, no less."
Then Jin Soya, Principal of Cheonmu Academy and known as Po-ui Sin-an—the Divine Eye in Coarse Clothes—slapped his knee and laughed heartily.
"He even knew the old rite. Giving a beggar everything you have and then dirtying your hands with earth… I hadn't heard that story since my great-great-grandfather's day."
"Then, Principal, do you know the child's background?"
"I don't. The departing-for-war rite is an old military custom, yet the money pouch itself was from the Hao Clan. I've already asked the beggars of my own sect, so something should turn up soon."
"We should leave open the possibility of Unorthodox Path ties as well. I'll contact the Hao Clan myself."
"I've already contacted them too, so don't bother."
The moment Principal Jin Soya took charge, the chaotic atmosphere in the conference room settled in an instant.
That was the trust carried by his title—Po-ui Sin-an, the Divine Eye in Coarse Clothes.
The man with the mysterious eyes who wore rags. Whatever else could be said of him, his eye for people was said to be the most perfect of any Beggars Sect Chief in history.
"Well then, now that we've sorted the situation, let's decide where to put him for lodging. Any suggestions?"
The one-armed instructor raised his remaining arm.
"I've already given that matter some thought."
"Go on."
"How can a dragon live among ordinary beasts? The only place a dragon can stay is where another dragon already is."
"I thought as much. Any objections?"
Jin Soya looked around the room. Everyone nodded in silent agreement.
"Good. Settled. As always, each of you may try to recruit the cadet on your own—but for now we'll accept him into the Academy and decide later. Meeting adjourned."
And so Ye Hajun's admission to Cheonmu Academy was decided.