Chapter 216
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 216
Chapter Title: Then That's Even Better
Such gazes weren't limited to him alone.
They were treating their fellow cadets like servants.
Especially the seventh squad of the Fierce Dragon Corps—their looks were particularly sharp.
Yet the first squad first-years of the Wa Dragon Corps seemed utterly oblivious to the stares around them.
"Quite the ugly sight, isn't it?"
Namgung Ji-hu had approached without a sound and asked.
Dang Jin-san nodded.
"What the hell is that about?"
"I only heard from my sister yesterday. Apparently, he found some clever loophole."
The seventh squad cadets turned their eyes toward Namgung Ji-hu.
"Why, that first-year Fierce Dragon Corps cadet who got smashed by Instructor Ha?"
"Oh, the son of that Dorim Sect leader?"
"Yeah. Un Do-hyeon. No idea what he was thinking joining the Fierce Dragon Corps... And turns out, he didn't just join normally."
The seventh squad cadets tilted their heads.
"He got his servants admitted as Fierce Dragon Corps cadets. Said he needed people to wait on him in the Dragon Training Pavilion."
It was the kind of statement that left everyone dumbfounded.
Admitting servants into the Fierce Dragon Corps for something so trivial.
They had to head to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest in two years?
"And word of that method spread to the other sects of the New Eight Schools."
Just as he said it, five people carrying bamboo water buckets came rushing over.
"So those guys too..."
Dan Mok Un-roe's words drew a nod from Namgung Ji-hu.
"But the Wa Dragon Corps is different from the Fierce Dragon Corps, right?"
Unlike the Fierce Dragon Corps, which took just about anyone due to manpower shortages.
"Looks like they just taught them the basics and shipped them off."
Namgung Ji-hu shook his head with a sigh.
Clap!
Thud.
At that moment, a loud commotion erupted.
Byok I-gyeom had slapped the cheek of a cadet offering him a water bucket.
He'd struck so hard the victim collapsed to the floor.
"Damn it. All the steamed buns are cold now. Break time's over too. What kind of idiot pulls this crap? Tsk."
He tossed the steamed buns straight to the ground and turned to head back into the classroom.
"That bastard..."
Flames leaped in Dang Jin-san's eyes.
It was beyond excessive—it was outright outrageous.
Namgung Ji-hu grabbed his arm.
"That's their sect's business."
Dang Jin-san understood the implication and held back.
The slapped cadet was surely from the Thunder Citadel.
Even if it was within the Dragon Training Pavilion, meddling in Thunder Citadel internal affairs lacked justification.
Meanwhile, the cadets filed into the classroom.
The next class was about to start.
That left only the twentieth squad of the Wa Dragon Corps.
"You okay?"
Dan Mok Un-roe had approached and checked on the slapped cadet.
"Y-Yes, I'm fine. Thank you."
The terrified cadet bowed deeply and hurried inside after getting up.
The seventh squad Fierce Dragon Corps cadets watched the twentieth squad with complicated eyes.
"It's a shame, but there's nothing we can do. That's their internal issue."
"Nothing?"
Dang Jin-san shot back at Namgung Ji-hu with utter disbelief.
"Does the Pavilion Lord know about this?"
Dan Mok Un-roe suddenly asked curiously.
Namgung Ji-hu's face hardened into a blank mask.
The Pavilion Lord might know if he scrutinized Pavilion matters closely, but it didn't feel like the time yet.
"But you know that's not helping those guys, right?"
Namgung Ji-hu's question.
His gaze fell not on Dan Mok Un-roe, who'd asked, but on Dang Jin-san.
Dang Jin-san nodded.
Both were direct heirs of great clans under the Five Great Families.
They knew well how clan dynamics worked.
"If the Pavilion Lord finds out, those five get expelled and sent back to their sect. And there, they'll face hell."
Dang Jin-san laid out the obvious sequence.
"Exactly. If you're not seeing it through to the end, don't help at all. It could make things even worse for them."
Namgung Ji-hu nodded in agreement.
"Right? So we need a different approach. This is the Dragon Training Pavilion, after all."
A sly smile crept onto Dang Jin-san's lips.
"What...?"
Namgung Ji-hu tilted his head.
The other cadets did the same.
"I went through something similar last year."
Dang Jin-san said as they walked toward the classroom.
"In the end, in the martial world, the winner is the strong one—and no one messes with the strong."
"Their eyes were completely dead..."
Dan Mok Un-roe chimed in.
"Well, we've got time. We can take it slow. Slow... but intense."
"So what exactly?"
Baek Ri-pyeong asked.
"The Summer Combat Festival."
A curt reply.
But everyone lit up with understanding and nodded.
Namgung Ji-hu flushed slightly and averted his eyes.
Joo Woo-myeong chuckled at the sight.
The reason he'd come to the Fierce Dragon Corps.
Because he'd heard about last year's Summer Combat Festival results.
His competitive spirit had drawn him to the Dragon Training Pavilion.
And now, Joo Woo-myeong was thoroughly satisfied with that choice.
Had he stayed at Wudang with just his master, he'd never have had these experiences.
And those experiences were forging him into someone stronger and more mature.
"Summer Combat Festival?"
Ha Seol-ran tilted her head curiously.
She knew the Spring Combat Festival from participating, but not the summer one in detail.
"It's a team tournament just for first-year cadets."
Dan Mok Un-roe explained briefly.
"We smash them there. With pure skill. Instructors will be watching, so no dirty tricks."
"Not all matches are supervised by instructors, though?"
Like what Dang Jin-san and Dang Chu had gone through.
Dang Jin-san's smile deepened at Namgung Ji-hu's point.
"Then that's even better. Heh."
A chilling laugh.
"Well, only if those guys have the will to fight."
"They've got fighting spirit buried deep down."
Yeon Ha-min spoke up quietly.
Her voice was icy cold.
Laced with subtle fury.
"What about their martial arts?"
Namgung Ji-hu's follow-up.
The seventh squad cadets turned to him.
"N-No, I'm just checking feasibility..."
"Martial arts-wise, even just the Three Talents Arts should suffice."
Baek Ri-pyeong said.
Namgung Ji-hu couldn't really argue.
He himself had been on the receiving end of that Three Talents Arts.
During the inspection, of course.
But they could teach those inspection moves.
"And the Graceful Dragon Divine Method. It's an excellent movement art. Don't they have sword or fist techniques too?"
"Ah!"
Namgung Ji-hu let out a sudden exclamation, as if it had just clicked.
Focused solely on his clan's martial arts training, he'd overlooked it.
"Right. That's a thing..."
"Anyway, let's hurry. We're gonna be late."
At Nak Woo-jin's words, everyone quickened their pace.
"Ha. Unbelievable."
Ha Mu-baek stared quietly at the manuscript before him.
Emperor Sword Form.
The manual for the Namgung Clan's supreme sword art was in his hands.
Namgung Ji-hu had brought it last night.
Begging for instruction.
"Was I sticking my nose in too much?"
He'd given the diligently training boy a bit of advice out of admiration, only for it to turn into this homework.
Ha Mu-baek just gazed at the manual.
Namgung Ji-hu had been upfront about his situation and pleaded for help.
"The Namgung Clan Lord..."
He vaguely recalled passing by the man once.
A figure brimming with pride in his clan.
For such a man to handle heir selection this way?
It was odd.
The greatest talent right there before him, yet insisting on verification.
Under terms disadvantageous to his own eldest son, no less.
Others might see it as a fair, future-focused clan lord.
'But it feels like he's just trying not to give the heir position to Namgung Ji-hu.'
Ha Mu-baek thought that because he knew Namgung Ji-hu's talent.
'Come to think of it, there was something...'.
Ha Mu-baek frowned.
Dan Mu-hyeon, the chatty deputy leader of the Hocheon Corps.
He recalled hearing something about the Namgung Clan Lord from him.
During a boring operation, the man had rambled on.
Ha Mu-baek hadn't paid attention.
So the details escaped him.
"Eh, I'll ask over lunch."
Ha Mu-baek went to find Han Seol-bing.
They entered the Devouring Dragon Pavilion together and took seats.
The north section.
"Aren't you sick of that?"
Han Seol-bing pointed at the small pork slices.
"It's good."
She nodded.
Her plate had them too.
"About the Namgung Clan Lord."
Ha Mu-baek broached it over the meal.
"Pardon?"
"What was that story Dan Mu-hyeon yapped about? Something about a backstory?"
"Oh, that nosy Dan Mu-hyeon."
Han Seol-bing grimaced at the name.
They'd been co-deputy leaders, but he really didn't mesh with her.
"The Clan Lord's backstory?"
She echoed.
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
Han Seol-bing rummaged through her memories.
The guy had spilled plenty of tales.
"Ah."
She let out a soft exclamation as it came back.
"That's ancient history. Before the war even broke out."
"What was it about?"
"Well. The Clan Lord struggled as heir because he couldn't have kids. The previous lord said heirs needed descendants."
That jogged the rough outline for him.
"Even after taking a concubine, no children. Then he went on a central plains tour and came back with kids..."
"Returned alone with a son and daughter."
Han Seol-bing nodded.
"Rumors flew back then. How'd Dan Mu-hyeon even know Namgung affairs?"
"Suspicious circumstances, yeah."
Indeed.
The heir left with wife, concubine, and one guard—returned with just two kids.
"Said the guard took a wrong turn into the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest."
The Blood Cult's heyday.
When the forest was far more terrifying.
No great wall yet.
A wrong path could cross into Demonic Forest territory, and if unlucky, meet blood corpses or dark blood zombies.
But an extraordinarily improbable chain of events.
"Some said the heir killed the guard and wives, stole two kids from a village."
Plausible.
Could've shoved just them into the forest.
That was the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
A place to erase people without trace.
No one dared enter for bodies.
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
He remembered up to there.
The rest he hadn't heard.
Operation started right after.
"So what happened?"
Now hooked, it was intriguing.
"A ritual array."
"Ritual array?"
"Yeah. The Namgung Clan had one to verify bloodlines."
He'd heard of it.
"Rumors swirled in the clan, so the heir immediately dripped the kids' blood on it."
"Proved their bloodline, I assume."
She nodded.
Hence Namgung Ji-yu, Namgung Ji-hu existed, and he was clan lord.
"But I've never heard this."
"Oh, after the operation, at the afterparty, someone asked. So I inquired."
Ha Mu-baek hadn't been there.
He never joined afterparties.
"Who set up that ritual array?"
"Seon Yu Valley."
"Ah."
Ha Mu-baek exclaimed softly.
Seon Yu Valley of medicine and rituals.
He'd mainly dealt with their medical side, overlooking rituals.
"Orthodox sects: Seon Yu Valley's unmatched. Unorthodox: Ghost Spirit Palace, Demonic Cult. Oh, and Mt. Mo Sect."
Han Seol-bing listed ritual experts.
"Why the sudden interest in Namgung Clan gossip?"
"Got something nagging at me."
She tilted her head at his answer.
No clue how clan lord rumors tied to him.
"Thanks for the intel."
Ha Mu-baek finished eating, released his barrier, picked up his empty plate, and stood.
Han Seol-bing was nearly done too.
"Come on. Heading to the main training ground anyway."
She rose as well.
'Namgung Hwa-hyeon and Namgung Ji-hu...'.
Ha Mu-baek recalled the Namgung Clan Lord he'd briefly met.
What kind of man he was.
'Hoo... Senior Sister Hae-eun.'
Eun Hwa-ryang touched her swollen cheek, thinking of one person.
The instructor on the platform droned on, but it didn't register.
Thunder Citadel.
They took in orphans wandering the martial world and made them disciples.
Nominal disciples.
Whose role was serving true disciples as servants and doing chores.
Far better than starving on the roads, so orphans flocked there.
Eun Hwa-ryang was one.
And fairly lucky.
Myeong Hae-eun.
She'd met her.
Not a standout disciple there, but kind-hearted.
Called her junior sister despite the nominal status, no proper treatment.
And insisted others call her senior sister.
Not just her—all orphan disciples.
Truth be told, she'd volunteered for the Dragon Training Pavilion hoping to see Myeong Hae-eun.
But she'd already graduated and left.
Failed to meet her goal senior sister, now serving the vicious Byok I-gyeom instead.
The remaining four years loomed bleak for Eun Hwa-ryang.
Her eyes were dying black.
'Can I endure it?'
That thought looped endlessly.
Class ended.
Soulless, she followed Byok I-gyeom to the Devouring Dragon Pavilion for errands.
Another slap was routine.
Lucky others' eyes kept it at that.
Next: squad training time.
One of the few breaks from his grasp daily.
Eun Hwa-ryang headed to the twentieth squad Wa Dragon Corps training ground.
After escorting him to his first squad ground, of course.
En route, she passed other twentieth squad cadets.
Different stories, but all in similar straits.
A sense of kinship, but each bore too heavy a burden to care for others.
Then.
"Hey. Juniors."
Near the twentieth squad training ground, someone called them.
A familiar voice.
Their eyes snapped toward it.
A man stood there.