CHAPTER: Chapter 4
------------------------------------------
Chapter 4.
“How amusing!”
Jeok Mugwang’s madness-laced shout shook the underground training hall, still ringing with the aftertaste of his booming laughter.
The several thousand children were so crushed beneath his overwhelming presence that not a single one dared even breathe too loudly.
Even the hundred-odd head instructors did not dare move carelessly, waiting in tense silence for his next action.
Step. Step.
Jeok Mugwang descended from the platform and came to a stop directly before Uncheon.
“You speak rightly. Very well… I should see for myself what kind of blade you carry within you.”
A cruel smile curled across Jeok Mugwang’s lips.
His gaze swept slowly over Uncheon’s frail body.
It was a relentless stare, as though he meant to count every bone from head to toe.
It was the cold gaze of a butcher grading livestock.
“The Demonic Martial Hall’s examinations were never soft enough for one to pass by wagging his tongue. However, this instructor is curious about what you harbor. Therefore…”
Just as Jeok Mugwang was about to render his decision, a sharp voice tore through the silence.
“Instructor! This cannot be allowed to pass as it is.”
It was the girl in crimson silk martial robes, Yayul Hui.
“Oh? A cult daughter, is it? Speak, then.”
He did not rebuke her for interrupting while he was in the middle of deciding the matter.
They were discussing the cult’s doctrine now.
Anyone had the right to speak.
Without the slightest hesitation, she stepped forward and shouted in a voice brimming with fury and arrogance.
“That boy clearly deceived a head instructor and disrupted the rules of the Demonic Martial Hall! Dress it up in the doctrine that the strong are exalted if you wish, but what he displayed was nothing more than theft and glib words!”
At her bold cry, nods of agreement and murmurs spread outward like a wave.
“In a place meant to judge the qualifications of martial artists, it is unacceptable for someone to gain the right to Supreme through petty tricks!”
The taut air in the training hall tightened yet again.
But rather than stopping Yayul Hui, Jeok Mugwang wore a faint, blood-scented smile, as though he had chosen instead to enjoy this interesting turn.
‘That robe… the daughter of the Yayul Family, then. To invoke the cult’s rules so readily… just as expected of one from the Twelve Guardian Families.’
Like a judge opening the stage, Jeok Mugwang jerked his chin toward Uncheon.
“There is sense in her words. Well then, brat—can you prove here and now that what you carry is not mere trickery or quick speech, but a blade? If you cannot, you will be discarded.”
All eyes turned to Uncheon again.
Contempt, curiosity, jealousy, and even pure doubt.
The invisible pressure created by those thousands of gazes bore down on his entire body.
Yet even under that life-and-death oppression, Uncheon’s gaze did not waver in the slightest.
Without giving so much as a glance to Yayul Hui, who was glaring at him, he looked only at Jeok Mugwang and spoke in a low voice.
“It is not an easy thing, by nature, to discern true talent. So yes… to your eyes, it may well have seemed like nothing more than words and theft….”
At his attitude, which almost sounded like an admission of fault, a faint smile of victory rose to Yayul Hui’s lips.
But Uncheon had not finished speaking.
“If one’s eye is lacking, that is.”
The words that followed were a plain mockery of Yayul Hui.
“What?!”
Yayul Hui reacted at once, sharp and shrill.
“If one looks with one’s own eyes and still fails to recognize it, then it is the same as having one’s eyes closed. And now you ask me to prove again what I have already proven. That is troublesome.”
“What exactly have you proven!”
Yayul Hui pressed him again.
“…Are you referring to the fact that you endured my aura?”
At Jeok Mugwang’s words, the other children were visibly shaken.
‘He endured the aura of a Peak Realm master?’
‘Then the blood at the corner of his mouth…’
Even Yayul Hui was thrown off.
If that boy had truly endured Instructor Jeok Mugwang’s aura, then that alone would have proven he possessed the qualifications of a martial artist.
But Uncheon’s answer differed from what all of them expected.
“That is not it. I already spared the head instructor’s life once.”
“…Spared him?”
“If, instead of aiming for the tag, I had struck the vital point of Head Instructor Ma Chung where that tag had been, would you still call it theft and trickery?”
In an instant, the training hall erupted.
A single possibility flashed into everyone’s mind.
‘An assassination strike!’
Yayul Hui’s smile froze.
As for the man in question, the very one who had been watching all of this unfold—
Ma Chung of the Blood Wind Leg turned paler than ash.
‘This lunatic! At this rate, it is my neck that will be taken!’
This catastrophe had been born from his own moment of carelessness.
And at the end of it, his life was what hung in the balance.
‘D-damn it! I cannot step forward now, but what am I supposed to do…?’
Yet Uncheon paid no attention to Head Instructor Ma Chung or to Yayul Hui.
He looked only at Jeok Mugwang, the true master of the hall.
Because the one he needed to persuade was never some powerless girl or head instructor without authority to decide anything.
“I merely exploited a moment of carelessness, and in doing so, reminded everyone of it.”
A cold sneer touched Uncheon’s lips.
“So let me ask. Does this cult’s doctrine—that the strong are exalted—mean that those who were merely fortunate enough to be born with much may oppress those who do not yet possess it?”
The moment she heard those words, Yayul Hui sensed defeat.
‘He was never trying to argue with me in the first place? No… from the beginning, was this his aim?’
Uncheon’s words were cunning.
The strong and the weak.
The simplest of relationships, decided by superiority of force.
But Uncheon had recast it into a relationship between those fortunate enough to possess and those who did not yet possess.
And by doing so, he brought into stark relief the contradiction that had been conveniently justified beneath the words the strong are exalted.
Status.
It stood out with painful clarity between the rags on Uncheon’s body and the crimson silk martial robes worn by Yayul Hui.
His words drove deep into everyone’s mind.
The inheritance of strength passed down through bloodline from the moment of birth.
Uncheon’s words had pierced straight through it.
‘……!’
In that moment, Yayul Hui’s face flushed red.
Not only Instructor Jeok Mugwang, but the eyes of the head instructors changed as well.
‘If this continues any farther, it will become truly dangerous!’
‘There are plenty of children here from the entrenched powers within the cult!’
Uncheon was certain of one thing.
If they were truly followers of the Demonic Cult, they would not be able to openly deny his words.
‘More zealously than anyone else, I will wield your own doctrine against you—and one day, I will turn it upon the heart of your cult.’
Once they publicly declared that the strong were exalted, they could not forbid a challenge.
“…You understand this cult’s doctrine remarkably well, brat.”
The smile that had hung at Jeok Mugwang’s lips vanished in an instant.
In its place, a cold gleam flashed in his eyes, as though he meant to see through Uncheon entirely.
“Yes. What you say is true. When a weak man cornered at the edge sinks his teeth into the throat of the strong—that too is the strong are exalted.”
He acknowledged Uncheon’s logic in a low voice.
But he did not stop there.
Turning toward the head instructors, Jeok Mugwang spoke again.
“In other words, the strong are exalted also means that the strong are not permitted even a single moment of carelessness. And you lot—what were you doing?”
What Uncheon had done was no longer simple theft.
Its meaning had been completely overturned into an act that awakened the fundamental doctrine of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
“This brat has embodied the doctrine of the strong are exalted with his very body! Therefore, I will grant him this chance. Is there anyone who still dares object to this instructor’s decision?”
Yayul Hui trembled with rage and humiliation.
‘I have been played…!’
Meanwhile, Yuha, who had been quietly watching the situation unfold, felt a chill crawl up his spine.
‘…A madman. He seized the doctrine of the strong are exalted by the throat and silenced every mouth here. That was a checkmate. Just what… is he?’
Yuha’s eyes shone with astonished admiration, as though he had just found a jewel the likes of which he had never seen before.
“…….”
A heavy silence descended over the training hall.
Ignoring it, Jeok Mugwang called out to Ma Chung.
“The head instructor who evaluated this one, Ma Chung of the Blood Wind Leg, step forward.”
Ma Chung immediately dropped to his knees and struck his head against the ground three times.
THUD—! THUD—! THUD—!
He smashed it so hard that the floor of the training hall cracked, and fresh red blood streamed from his forehead.
“Ma Chung. You are a head instructor, yet through your own carelessness you were toyed with by a mere brat. You are unworthy of enjoying your position as one of the strong.”
As though offering up one arm as the price of his fault, Ma Chung sealed the acupoints in it himself, thrust it forward, and shouted,
“When the Heavenly Demon Reigns, All Demons Bow!”
As Jeok Mugwang’s hand rose to the long saber at his waist, everyone in the training hall held their breath.
“Ma Chung, severing your head would not be difficult. However…”
It was a moment in which a head instructor’s arm—or at worst, his life—could be taken.
Not only the cadets, but even the head instructors had tension carved into their faces.
“It would be a waste of the cult’s labor spent raising you.”
But unexpectedly, Jeok Mugwang did not draw his blade.
His hand slowly left the hilt.
“Let every head instructor remember this. Your indolence dulls the cult’s blade. Should I witness such a mistake again, my blade will not turn toward a single arm, but toward your necks.”
Jeok Mugwang scattered his cold killing intent over all the head instructors as he spoke.
“By your command!”
This time, Jeok Mugwang’s chilly gaze shifted once more to Yayul Hui and the children of the Supreme rank.
“Daughter of the Yayul Family, and the rest of you who silently agreed with her—listen well.”
Jeok Mugwang clicked his tongue.
“Looking at you, I am reminded of tiger cubs with full bellies.”
“…….”
“Have you forgotten how to hunt because you grew fat and content on prey your mothers dragged back for you, without ever needing to hunt for yourselves?”
At Jeok Mugwang’s rebuke, Yayul Hui inwardly reproached herself.
‘…That boy was right. The instructor was right as well.’
She had grown so accustomed to the backing of the Twelve Guardian Families and to the hierarchy of the cult that she had forgotten the true essence of the strong are exalted.
“From this moment on, either sharpen your fangs and reclaim the place of the predator, or meekly prepare yourselves to become prey. The choice is yours.”
He nodded and continued.
“This is the true meaning of the strong are exalted, and it is what all of you must carve into your bones!”
“By the Principle that the Strong Are Exalted, the Demonic Path Flourishes!”
The head instructors answered as one.
Jeok Mugwang smiled inwardly.
‘Thanks to that brat stepping forward, I have easily driven the carelessness from the head instructors and tightened the discipline of the cadets. Not a bad harvest….’
The voices of the head instructors had lost all trace of complacency, and a sharper vigilance now clung to them.
But as Uncheon watched this, his own wariness deepened.
‘The Demonic Cult… it is even more systematic than I expected. He turned an unexpected disturbance into a chance to tighten the discipline of the head instructors. A troublesome enemy.’
The instructor knew how to accept a small loss in order to reap a greater gain.
‘Instructor Jeok Mugwang… he is no ordinary man.’
They were not merely zealots who pushed forward by force alone, but an organization that moved with ruthless attention to profit and efficiency.
‘Was it because the Demonic Cult was this thorough that Gonryun fell?’
That made them all the more terrifying.
“Good. We will now continue the evaluation.”
Jeok Mugwang gathered the High-grade children who could read and brought them forward separately.
There were thirty of them, Uncheon included.
“Of you lot, only the ten who survive to the very end will be granted the qualification of Supreme!”
At that unexpected opportunity, delight flickered across the faces of the High-grade children.
The children who had already been judged Supreme, on the other hand, still wore their displeasure openly.
As Uncheon joined the line, he could feel dozens, hundreds of eyes fixing on his back.
He met the contemptuous stares aimed at him with utter indifference.
Martial robes sewn from costly silk, finely crafted jade tokens hanging at the waist, and above all, that arrogance soaked into their bones.
‘They seem to be the children of the cult’s internal elite.’
The type raised from birth on precious elixirs and teachings, convinced that they themselves stood at the center of the world.
It was a sight he had seen until he was sick of it among the hypocritical heirs of prestigious orthodox clans.
‘In the end, the orthodox sects and the Demonic Cult are the same.’
It was something he had endured to the point of disgust in the past, when he had been a rising talent of frontier Gonryun.
As he joined the end of the line, blatant whispers reached his ears.
“Just look at his appearance. For that filthy little bag of bones to gain this chance through sheer luck….”
“Hmph. So he played a few tricks and now he thinks he is fit for Supreme? The instructor’s judgment must have clouded for a moment. What can a piece of trash with such worthless bones possibly do?”
“Do not tell me that wretch is after the Demonic Bone Rebirth Art as well? Laughable.”
At that, one of the children laughed darkly and drew a finger across his own throat.
It was Muk Hajin of the Sagal Muk Family, a family famous for martial arts as sinister and lethal as snakes and scorpions.
“Even if the instructor gave him a chance, what of it? If someone unworthy of Supreme appears among us, we can simply clean him up ourselves. Heh heh.”
At the low murmur passing among the children, Jeok Mugwang turned and issued a warning.
“Is there anyone else who still refuses to accept this judgment? This instructor will personally re-evaluate you. However… anyone who continues to delay the examination schedule will pay the price.”
Only at Jeok Mugwang’s killing-laden warning did the murmuring Supreme-grade children finally fall silent.
“Good.”
With a nod, Jeok Mugwang personally led the thirty children toward a remote corner of the Demonic Martial Hall.
At one edge of the hall, precariously built along the mountainside, there lay a dizzying cliff.
Below that bottomless drop, jagged rocks jutted up like the fangs of some monstrous beast.
“Here, I will test your grit and your resolve!”
WHOOOOSH—.
No sooner had Jeok Mugwang spoken than a savage mountain gale lashed at the children’s tattered clothes without mercy.
It was a height from which, if they fell, even their corpses would not remain whole.
“Only ten may ascend to Supreme. Hang from the cliff and endure longer than the others. Survive.”
The faces of the children who had to take the test turned deathly pale.
Then, from the cluster of Supreme-grade children watching from behind rather than participating, someone raised a hand.
It was that very boy with the playful look on his face—the one who had watched Uncheon with interest throughout the exchange of words.
“Instructor, I have one question.”
Jeok Mugwang furrowed his brow.
“Speak.”
“Is this test simply a matter of hanging there quietly and enduring longer? Or… are we meant to make others fall and survive ourselves?”
A chill ran through the gathered children at Yuha’s cold question.
‘Depending on the answer, the very nature of the test changes completely!’
In the eyes of some children appeared fear.
In the eyes of others, anticipation.
The boy’s question was the very thing everyone had been wondering in silence.
A cruel smile rose to Jeok Mugwang’s lips.
Looking down at the thirty children, he declared in a low but unyielding voice,
“…Is that not obvious? So long as you survive, it does not matter what method you use. Is that not the very meaning of the strong are exalted?”
0 Comments