Chapter 9
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: How Serious Should I Get?
“Hey, does that even make sense?”
A first-year Hidden Dragon Corps cadet asked his friend as they walked together.
“I can’t believe it either.”
He shook his head at the memory of what had happened in the Fierce Dragon Corps training grounds two hours ago.
“Didn’t they say Fierce Dragon Corps instructors are only second-rate at best?”
“Everyone except Corps Leader Moyong Jin-ho. Most are like that. Some are even third-rate. They’re a ragtag bunch with no chief instructor, and yet they’re Fierce Dragon Corps instructors.”
Hidden Dragon Corps.
As a training unit for the later-generation disciples of the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans, even the Fierce Dragon Corps instructors looked down on them.
And yet, some random instructor from that very Fierce Dragon Corps had utterly crushed a Hidden Dragon Corps instructor. Their chief instructor, no less.
He was the chief instructor for the first-years, but still a peak first-rate master.
For such an expert to be taken down by a Fierce Dragon Corps instructor without even using internal energy...
“How the hell did that Fierce Dragon Corps instructor beat the chief instructor...”
“What’s that instructor’s deal, anyway?”
Conversations like this were springing up all over the Hidden Dragon Corps.
The rumors spread far and wide, reaching not just the first-years but second-, third-, and even fourth-years.
They spread beyond Hidden Dragon Corps to Wa Dragon Corps and Fierce Dragon Corps too.
“Deputy Hall Leader.”
The voice was laced with barely suppressed fury.
“Yes, Hall Leader.”
“What the hell is this embarrassing rumor?”
“Well...”
Gok Mu-yeong, deputy leader of the Dragon Training Pavilion’s Gold Hall under Hall Leader Namgung Hwa-in, broke out in a cold sweat.
He had no idea how this had even happened.
But to this dog-tempered hall leader, that was no excuse at all.
“Ha Mu-baek, was it?”
“Yes.”
“Find out everything. Dig deep. I want to know how many pairs of underwear he owns.”
It was the snappish tone of a man whose temperament was all too clear.
“Yes, sir!”
Gok Mu-yeong answered swiftly and bolted from the hall leader’s office. He had to get out before the explosion.
“Tch.”
Namgung Hwa-in clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.
He already despised Fierce Dragon Corps. And now, to think a hidden master had been lurking there as an instructor.
“Sado Gwang. That bandit-looking fool’s an idiot too. Damn it all.”
The man had wagged his tail desperately, trying to cozy up to one of the Five Great Clans.
Namgung Hwa-in had considered promoting him a bit out of pity for his loyalty, only for this humiliation.
How could an instructor from the trash heap that was Fierce Dragon Corps so thoroughly trounce a Hidden Dragon Corps instructor?
“In the end, even Myeong couldn’t be swayed...”
Jegal Myeong.
He wasn’t the sort of person who belonged in the Dragon Training Pavilion.
A genius acknowledged even in the Jegal Clan—if he’d stayed in Heavenly Eye Pavilion, he could’ve risen to pavilion lord or close to it.
Dragon Training Pavilion.
They called it an institution to train the Righteous Heaven Alliance’s elites, but in truth, those sent here were the non-mainstream disciples from each sect and clan.
Would any sect or clan send their top geniuses to a joint training facility under the alliance?
No—they’d hide them away to teach secret ultimate arts as quickly as possible.
So the pavilion was a dumping ground for each sect and clan’s sidelines.
Factions formed within, looking down on the bottom-tier Fierce Dragon Corps to boost their own egos.
Mainstream disciples came only rarely as exceptions.
Namgung Hwa-in.
He was a collateral branch member himself.
The clan head’s sixth cousin, but at that distance, he counted as branch family now.
Hence his presence here.
Hall leader of Gold Hall, handling the pavilion’s finances—what good was that? It was a pittance, too insignificant to fulfill his ambitions.
Then Jegal Myeong—one of the Jegal Clan’s top geniuses—had entered as a Hidden Dragon Corps instructor.
Namgung Hwa-in had to make him his own, a stepping stone to climb higher.
But he’d fixated on Fierce Dragon Corps and insisted on teaching first-years.
Absurd.
With his talent, he could’ve taken the best in Hidden Dragon Corps and molded them into something greater.
Even among the sidelined, some had talent.
And right now, his own talented mainstream nephew was there too, for reasons even Namgung Hwa-in couldn’t fathom.
Talent meeting talent would surely yield great results.
That would become Namgung Hwa-in’s achievement, bolstering his faction to propel him upward.
Yet Jegal Myeong refused.
He’d tried persuading him personally, but the man wouldn’t even meet him—despite Namgung Hwa-in being an elder from another Great Clan.
He’d rejected the offer at their first meeting and kept his distance ever since.
In the end, he’d brought in Sado Gwang to persuade him.
As fellow first-year instructors, and chief at that—they had to interact.
The persuasion had dragged on frustratingly, and now this humiliation.
Namgung Hwa-in was done with Sado Gwang.
“Ah, one last look. He’ll pay dearly for shaming me. Grr.”
The duty hours had ended.
The sky was already dyed red, and Ha Mu-baek had vanished long ago, exhausted from actually teaching properly for once.
Only the five members of Squad Seven remained.
They were still seated in lotus position.
Baek Ri-pyeong had joined them in lotus position at some point, cultivating the Zhongnan Sect’s heart method.
The other four continued operating the Three Talents Heart Method as Ha Mu-baek had taught.
Though “operating” just meant breathing today.
Inhale as instructed, gather the breath, then exhale.
Repeat.
No changes in their bodies that they could sense.
If they hadn’t witnessed Ha Mu-baek demolish Sado Gwang themselves, they might’ve doubted again.
Maybe the endless self-study was embarrassing, so he was just pretending to teach.
But a master who toyed with a Hidden Dragon Corps chief instructor without qi wouldn’t waste time—they followed orders diligently, breathing as told.
“Um, Dang Jin-san.”
Dan Mok Un-roe hesitantly spoke up, careful as ever.
They were squadmates, but no real conversations or bonds had formed yet.
Despite the time passed.
Endless self-study meant they just did their own thing silently, plus the cadets’ personalities.
Yeon Ha-min, Baek Ri-pyeong, Nak Woo-jin—all quiet. Dang Jin-san grumbled occasionally, but got no replies.
For Dan Mok Un-roe, Dang Jin-san was the most approachable of the four.
Besides, only he and Baek Ri-pyeong could answer his questions.
“What?”
A curt response from Dang Jin-san.
“Did Instructor really not use any internal energy today?”
That’s what bugged him most.
He’d said no, but Dan Mok Un-roe had no way to tell.
“Haa.”
Dang Jin-san sighed deeply at the question. Dan Mok Un-roe panicked, gauging his mood.
“Yeah. Hard to believe, but he smashed a first-rate master without qi. Our instructor.”
“For real?”
“Yep. Real. True story. Fact.”
Dang Jin-san rattled it off as Dan Mok Un-roe double-checked.
“O-oh, okay. Got it.”
“So why ask?”
“It feels like our instructor’s some amazing person...”
“Ah, ‘I, I want to get strong, Instructor’?”
Dang Jin-san teased, mimicking him with a grin. Dan Mok Un-roe’s face flushed red.
Dang Jin-san chuckled.
“Well, I wanna get stronger too.”
Dan Mok Un-roe stared blankly at him.
“What’s with that face? No martial artist hates getting stronger. C’mon, let’s eat.”
Dang Jin-san stood, dusting off with a laugh, and slung an arm around Dan Mok Un-roe’s shoulders.
“Uh, y-yeah.”
At least this talkative guy was more comfortable than the other three.
As they headed to the southern Devouring Dragon Pavilion, a bitter smile tugged at Dang Jin-san’s lips.
Thinking of someone back in his clan, and someone in the eastern Hidden Dragon Corps.
‘I’ll get stronger too. Maybe I’ve hit the jackpot.’
Dang Jin-san lightly patted his dantian.
He’d learned the Tang Clan’s internal arts, then switched to Three Talents Heart Method.
To him—who’d failed at poisons and hidden weapons—the clan’s martial arts were just shiny poison apples.
He’d tried it half in resignation, a gamble.
But seeing Ha Mu-baek’s skill sparked hope he’d drawn the best card.
Yet after a full afternoon of breathing as ordered, no hint of qi.
What would come of it?
An exciting gamble for Dang Jin-san.
Ha Mu-baek sat tapping his desk in his room.
“Interesting.”
Truly.
Squad Seven’s five members were clearly handpicked by the Pavilion Lord. And every one brimmed with talent.
He could tell from their breathing.
Even Nak Woo-jin, the shady one, had exceptional aptitude.
How had Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul gathered these kids and dumped them on him? Coincidence?
Who knew.
“But one’s too late.”
One of the five stood out.
Dan Mok Un-roe.
A completely ordinary body that had never learned any martial arts.
His meridians were severely blocked as a result.
Turbidity settles in meridians around age five normally, so it was expected at his age.
“What to do.”
Ha Mu-baek pondered.
The kid who’d looked at him so earnestly, begging to grow strong.
That gaze made him hesitate.
“How serious should I get?”
He’d started on Jegal Myeong’s words.
But now, he had no clue where to stop.
Dragon Training Pavilion, Fierce Dragon Corps.
He’d ended up here unintentionally amid headquarters’ power struggles, planning to lay low and leave quietly.
Learning the corps’ true purpose just reconfirmed they were all scum.
Ha Mu-baek recalled the two Three Talents Arts he knew.
One was the common version sold cheap in markets.
The other, from his master’s manuals.
The true origin of Three Talents Arts.
The market ones had lost profound principles and essences from the source.
The heart method too.
The original included not just energy accumulation, but meridian cleansing too.
Accumulating qi, purifying meridians.
Lost due to a few missing characters in the incantation.
Should he teach even that?
He hesitated.
Three Talents was the first step to Infinity.
Stopping there was fine. But if pulled by Dan Mok Un-roe’s potential—or the others’—to the next step?
It would exceed mere instructor-cadet bounds.
Far from why he’d come to the pavilion.
Still.
“I’ll get strong! Please make me strong!”
The desperate, serious eyes of a kid his master had once seen.
Ha Mu-baek felt like he’d seen them too, and his resolve wavered.