The Martial Tournament of Jeongmu Academy
The martial tournament at Jeongmu Academy was an important event that seemed casual at first glance yet invited countless prominent figures from the murim world. Everyone at the academy paid close attention to it. The students had a chance to show off the martial skills they had polished over the past year, while their masters observed their disciples’ growth and assessed their potential. Prestigious groups like the Nine Great Schools or the Five Great Families would evaluate those talents and build connections early with the ones destined to become powerful martial artists. Occasionally, a few exceptional academy students even earned the opportunity to become disciples of renowned masters ranked among the top one hundred under heaven. No one could deny that this was the perfect stepping stone for a dragon to rise from a shallow stream.
That was why…
“Hey! No cutting in line!”
“I just got back from the latrine—what are you babbling about? I was here first!”
“What? You son of a—”
The buzzing crowd was nothing unusual for the first day of tournament registration. People swarmed the area like a human sea.
“Come on, everyone, stop fighting and form a proper line. We’ll be accepting applications from academy students for the next five days, so there’s no need to get so worked up!”
At the instructor’s shout—he wore green martial robes—the tightly packed crowd began sorting itself into orderly lines like beans sprouting in neat rows.
Among them stood three young men. They were the third-generation disciples of the Haenam Sect, one of the famous Nine Great Schools located on Yemo Peak in Hainan. As they waited, they chatted about a recent incident.
“Senior Brother Jongak, that Kim Siin fellow hasn’t shown his face lately.”
“You too? Same here.”
“Isn’t it strange? Even after getting beaten so badly in that spar, he used to drag himself to class no matter what.”
“What does it matter? If he’s skipping class, isn’t that good for us?”
Jongak, the eldest disciple of the Haenam Sect’s third generation, gave an indifferent reply. The youngest frowned, and the second brother, Jongmyeong, continued.
“Senior Brother, ever since that guy beat Jonghyeok last time, this kid hasn’t been sleeping properly. He says he won’t feel better until he steps on him himself, but since Kim Siin isn’t attending any classes…”
At the explanation, the corner of eldest Jongak’s mouth twitched downward. He clearly found it distasteful that his youngest junior was wasting mental energy on such a trivial matter.
“You’re still sulking over something like that? It’s already been a while… Tsk tsk.”
“Senior Brother! What do you mean, ‘something like that’? Because of that incident, I can barely swallow my food. Don’t you know what kind of humiliation the Haenam Sect suffered because of him—”
“The Haenam Sect? No. Weren’t you, Jonghyeok, the one who suffered the humiliation?”
Seeing Jongak’s face harden, Jonghyeok quickly lowered his head.
“…I’m sorry.”
Jongak was a talented individual recognized even among the elders of the Haenam Sect. His martial prowess was excellent, and his deep understanding of mechanisms, formations, and arrays had earned him praise. If not for his personality, he might have been discussed as the next sect leader.
Damn it.
Someone like him naturally found the youngest—whose only merit was sharing the same generation—utterly disappointing. Especially after losing to a nameless nobody with no background and no proper martial foundation.
Kim Siin… Next time I see him, I’ll crush him completely.
Jonghyeok was eagerly awaiting Kim Siin’s participation in the tournament. Of course, bad luck in the bracket might prevent them from meeting. But if he could just witness that bastard’s humiliation once, he was sure he could finally sleep soundly. The bracket didn’t matter.
Then, at that moment—
“There are so many people.”
“It is the first day of applications, after all.”
A familiar voice and an unfamiliar one drifted over from a man and woman standing beside them.
“It seems this isn’t your first martial tournament, Lady Hwayeong?”
“I’m in my graduating year now, so this is my fourth. What about you, Young Hero Siin? Is this your first time?”
“Ah… yes. Well, I suppose so.”
It was Kim Siin. The very bastard who had humiliated the youngest of the Haenam Sect’s three great disciples and then cowardly hidden himself away.
“This is going to take a while, huh? Maybe I should have brought something to eat.”
“Registration for outsiders begins in three days, so identity verification won’t take that long right now.”
“Huh? Outsiders can apply too?”
“Not many, but it’s not unheard of. Jeongmu Academy was established through an agreement between the government and the murim world, so it’s open to everyone.”
“Interesting.”
A few people nearby turned to look at them, but the pair continued chatting casually without any awkwardness. A gloomy man with jet-black hair dressed in black and white robes stood beside a beautiful young lady who resembled a single blooming flower. The combination was so striking that eyes kept drifting toward them.
Everyone except Jonghyeok, who harbored a deep grudge against Kim Siin.
“Hey.”
I had been happily chatting with Hwayeong, asking about everything I was curious about, when an unpleasant voice came from the side. I turned my head slightly.
“Why are you here, you bastard?”
An ugly man with an ordinary face, dressed in blue martial robes. Nothing special about his appearance, yet somehow familiar. I pointed at him and asked Hwayeong.
“Lady Hwayeong, is he an acquaintance of yours?”
My simple reaction made the ugly bastard’s face twist even more unattractively as he began to shout.
“This son of a—where do you get off joking around…!”
But his grumbling didn’t last long. More accurately, it couldn’t continue because his two companions behind him stopped him.
“Jonghyeok. That’s enough. There are too many eyes watching.”
In truth, academy students in blue robes weren’t people the Haenam Sect disciples needed to worry about. No fool here would dare pick a fight with disciples from one of the Nine Great Schools. That only applied to the students, however. They saw no reason to earn the dislike of the instructors who taught them.
“Tch… Consider yourself lucky.”
The guy spat out a third-rate villain line and slowly retreated. The moment I heard it, I realized these were the same punks who had picked a fight with me on my first day on the second floor.
Looking at their swords… Haenam Sect?
The long swords at their waists caught my eye. Parallel wave patterns decorated the scabbards. Combining what I had learned from Hwayeong while studying the Cheonwol Divine Art, I could roughly guess their affiliation.
That thought lasted only a moment. The tallest and most imposing of the Haenam Sect disciples stepped forward and slowly spoke.
“You’re entering the martial tournament as well?”
Looking at them, this one seemed to be the leader of the trio. What was this, like extras in a manhwa lined up by height—first, second, third? How childish.
“And?”
I looked him in the eye and gave a short reply, intending it as confirmation. He didn’t seem important, and arguing with him wouldn’t accomplish anything.
But his next words stirred a faint competitive spirit.
“Kim Siin, try to make it through the preliminaries if you can. I’ll personally step on you in the name of the Haenam Sect. Assuming you’re capable of it, of course.”
His two lackeys behind him glared at me fiercely. They still seemed bothered that I had taken down their Jonghyeok in a single blow. The name Haenam Sect carried weight. Even though outer disciples were present, main sect members were here too. A single loss apparently dealt a serious blow to their pride.
“Yeah, well… you do your best too.”
I decided not to pay them any mind. What did they expect? Whether they brawled or fought over territory was none of my concern. My goal was to reach the finals of the martial tournament. Only then would I earn Hwayeong’s recognition and ascend to the tower’s third floor while receiving her complete teachings.
But my indifferent reaction seemed to wound their pride even further.
“Kuh. That arrogance will turn to regret soon enough. Prepare yourself.”
He turned and returned to his spot. Absurdly, their place in line was directly beside ours. Since we were going to be standing next to each other anyway, I couldn’t understand why they had created such an uncomfortable situation.
That evening, I sat cross-legged on the wooden bed in the medicine hall that had become my personal bed and carefully opened my eyes.
The yin energy is colliding with the yang energy.
Energy Circulation has failed.
Sweat poured down my body like rain. I hadn’t expected learning yang martial arts after already mastering yin arts to be this difficult.
“Damn it…”
“Didn’t I tell you to give up? Learning yin martial arts and then coveting yang arts on top of it—what a greedy disciple you are…”
Dang Huiso clicked his tongue as he watched me.
When he learned I was practicing the Cheonwol Divine Art, he had given up on teaching me his own techniques. He claimed it was impossible for someone who had accepted yin energy to accept yang arts unless they possessed the heavenly martial body bestowed by the heavens. In his eyes, I was simply a pathetic, stubborn disciple throwing a tantrum.
But I refused to give up. This was an A-rank mission. The sweet reward of the Sichuan Dang family’s martial arts dangled right before my eyes. I couldn’t let it go.
“Master, isn’t there another way? I’ll even eat that tasteless pill by the bowl if you tell me to.”
“Nonsense. Impossible is impossible. Unless you have the inner core of a thousand-year fire lotus, there’s no way. Forcing yin energy out with sheer power alone cannot be done.”
Dang Huiso’s explanation left me drained. Where was I supposed to find such a spiritual herb? Naturally, I couldn’t leave the academy grounds right now, and even if I could, time was far too short.
The tutorial shop didn’t have anything useful either.
I had once secretly drunk a tutorial potion while he wasn’t looking, hoping it might push out the yin energy. Instead, the potion only made my body healthier and strengthened the yin energy. It did nothing to help me accept yang energy.
Is there no way to use a potion to forcefully raise only yang energy?
I kept pondering whether there was any method to accept yang energy. The problem was that yin energy already occupied too much space in my body, leaving no room for yang energy to enter. Without a powerful fire-based spiritual medicine like the inner core of a thousand-year fire lotus, there was no way to weaken that yin energy… Wait.
Weaken it?
My body was currently filled to the brim with yin energy. That was because I had absorbed it throughout my entire body while learning the Cheonwol Divine Art. So what if I could expel all of that energy instead?
I shot to my feet.
“Whoa! You scared me!”
“I have a method!”
“…What are you suddenly talking about?”
“Master, among the pills you’ve created, do you have any with strong yang energy?”
“Well, I do, but that won’t be nearly enough.”
“It doesn’t matter. Even just a yang supplement would be sufficient. Could I ask you for one?”
My sudden reaction made Dang Huiso groan. But his curiosity must have won out, because he wordlessly retrieved a yellowish pill from the corner and held it out to me.
“Uh… Is this all you have?”
“This one has the strongest yang energy. Take it or leave it.”
What he handed me was the Kwaecheong-dan I had consumed when I first arrived on the second floor. The moment I took it, my body twitched violently in rejection, but I pushed through.
I carefully shoved the far-from-refreshing pill into my mouth.
Then—
Wholehearted Devotion (C+)