Chapter 20
Bang Sun-taek felt a sense of incongruity. In his opinion, the Head Instructors of the Martial Arts Academy were no match for the people who had captured him. Even if the Principal were to step in, it would be a long shot; in the Martial Arts Academy, only someone on the level of Cheon Ha-seong would have a chance of subduing them.
But listening to the sounds now, didn't it seem as if the Head Instructors were holding them off quite staunchly?
‘Are they different from the people I saw?’
Otherwise, it just didn't make any sense.
“Where is the Chief Head Instructor! What have you done to the Chief Head Instructor!”
The Head Instructors confronting the intruders shouted loudly. Listening to their voices, they seemed injured and lacked their usual strength.
Even while hearing that, Bang Sun-taek couldn't move. The memory of what had happened to him while he was captive came to mind, and his body wouldn't move.
He couldn't guarantee that what had happened to him there was worse than what was happening to the Head Instructors now. And yet, Bang Sun-taek did nothing and remained in hiding.
The sound of clashing weapons continued to be heard.
‘They're still holding out?’
Bang Sun-taek became agitated. He no longer knew what he himself was hoping for. Now that things had come to this, it might even be better if all the Head Instructors died. What would he do if they said the Chief Head Instructor was nowhere to be seen while they were fighting?
‘I'm sorry, but just go ahead and die.’
While he was having that thought, a massive explosion suddenly erupted, one that felt like it would tear his eardrums.
Bang Sun-taek belatedly covered his ears.
The shock was so great it made his head spin. Not knowing what the sound was, he thought blankly.
‘Where did that sound come from?’
Then he realized that the sound had come from the direction of the Martial Arts Academy's later gates.
‘Who went there? Why there…’
Then he was belatedly able to piece everything together.
‘As I thought, the mnemonic verses were the goal from the beginning. So they were trying to turn others' eyes elsewhere… But what was that explosion? If they made it that far, they should have just quietly copied down the verses…’
While thinking that, Bang Sun-taek realized that the atmosphere had changed rapidly. At first, he didn't notice what had changed, but eventually, he too found out.
The sound of clashing weapons was no longer being heard.
Wondering what that meant, his eyes widened.
‘No way…’
He already knew the intruders' skills to some extent. The idea that the Head Instructors had defeated them made no sense from the start. That meant... all the Head Instructors were dead.
Even after realizing that fact, Bang Sun-taek couldn't move from that spot for a long time. He couldn't control his trembling body. For a good while, he couldn't budge from that spot. Fifteen minutes passed, then thirty. And only after an hour, then two hours had passed could he barely move his body.
There was already nothing he could do, but he moved, thinking that at least now, no harm would come to him.
Even then, it wasn't so much that he moved because he was worried about the other Head Instructors, but simply because he had to open the Martial Arts Academy's gates soon.
After going through such an ordeal, he could see what a tremendous piece of trash he was. It seemed that was his true nature.
‘Is it wrong to want to live? I just wanted to live, that's all. All I did was struggle to survive?’
Thinking that, Bang Sun-taek started walking.
Even before he reached the place where the fierce clash of weapons had been heard for so long, he realized what kind of scene he was about to see.
Smelling the acrid stench of blood wafting over, it was impossible not to know.
When he got there, there were corpses submerged in thick pools of blood. They were all the bodies of the Head Instructors. Their throats were more than halfway slit.
‘Did they really have to do that?’ he thought, but Bang Sun-taek couldn't stand there for long. It seemed he also had to check what had happened to the mnemonic verses of the Heaven-Shattering Will Art.
When he got there, he stood blankly with his mouth agape and his eyes wide.
The wall where the mnemonic verses had been carved was completely…
‘What should I call this?’
Should I say it was shaved off?
He had no idea what on earth had happened to the wall. It looked as if someone had destroyed it with an immense palm force. A palm force that could do that to a wall was beyond imagination.
His body was trembling so uncontrollably that it was difficult to even stand properly on the spot. But he had to endure.
People would be coming soon. He had to tell them. What had happened.
How he alone was able to escape all that carnage while the other Head Instructors were dying.
From then on, Bang Sun-taek began to fabricate the story.
His head wasn't working well, but he had no choice.
Come to think of it, he hadn't slept a wink since the Martial Arts Academy had closed, but now was not the time to think about that.
The Head Instructors who had laughed and talked with him were dead.
‘If only I hadn't gone to the gambling den… If only I hadn't fallen for what the backer said… Why did it turn out like this? Why… How did I…’
He clutched his head with both hands and sank to the floor. Hot tears welled up in his eyes. However, even those tears were, in the end, nothing but self-pity.
He was crying because he felt he had been unfairly trapped, because he felt sorry for himself.
And so, time flowed heavily around him.
***
Cheon Ha-seong went to the Martial Arts Academy early. He had firmly decided to oversee Seo Hyo-eun's martial arts training. The Martial Arts Academy was a very good environment for training in martial arts.
There were training grounds everywhere, and in particular, there was also a training ground for the exclusive use of the Head Instructors.
He thought that if they went early, he could oversee Seo Hyo-eun's martial arts training there.
That was why he had hurried her to go early, but Seo Hyo-eun asked a question.
“To enter the Martial Arts Academy, the Mechanism Formation has to be deactivated, right? Even if we go now, won't we be unable to enter if it isn't deactivated?”
“Shouldn't it be deactivated by now?”
In any case, they wouldn't know unless they went to see. It would be decided depending on which Head Instructors had remained to guard the Martial Arts Academy the previous day.
The two of them talked about various things on the way.
Cheon Ha-seong spoke about martial arts, and Seo Hyo-eun told him about the Divine Cult's leadership.
It was a story about the positions occupied by each of the prestigious Demonic Clans and about the masters of the Divine Cult.
She was now unhesitatingly telling him stories that would have been difficult to tell if she didn't trust him. Seo Hyo-eun trusted no one, and she even told him the schemes that various people harbored in their hearts. Since another person cannot know someone else's thoughts through and through, it could only be speculation. The fact that she was telling him this made Cheon Ha-seong realize how much Seo Hyo-eun trusted him.
“You can assume that the Family Heads of the places known as the prestigious Demonic Clans are constantly aiming for my father's position. They do all sorts of things to make the people of their own families stronger. On the outside, they seem loyal to the Divine Cult and my father, but if you look inside, they act with incredible greed to benefit their own families.”
To make their people and their families stronger quickly, the things they focused on the most were spiritual elixirs and martial arts.
Feeling the limits of acquiring spiritual elixirs within the Divine Cult, they sent people to the Central Plains. This was because the elixirs that helped in learning the Divine Cult's martial arts didn't necessarily only grow in the vicinity of the Divine Cult.
“Anyway, from now on, the fight between the Demonic Clans will likely begin in earnest. Centered around the Young Masters adopted into the Marquis Halls. Until now, it was up to the people of the Demonic Clans to decide when to start the fight, but the situation has changed with this incident.”
She must be saying that because they had made things urgent on their side, the others wouldn't be able to just remain comfortable either.
As they were having this conversation and arrived at the Martial Arts Academy, Cheon Ha-seong was the first to notice a strange sign and looked at Seo Hyo-eun.
“It looks like something happened inside.”
As he was saying that, a few Head Instructors approached from behind.
“Head Instructor Cheon, you're here? Head Instructor Seo came with you? Why are you two here so early?”
After greeting them, Cheon Ha-seong gave Seo Hyo-eun a look and made sure she didn't separate from him. From then on, Seo Hyo-eun also walked beside Cheon Ha-seong with focus.
“It's the smell of blood.”
When Cheon Ha-seong said that, the other Head Instructors were also surprised and flinched.
“Everyone, be careful.”
He said in succession, and pulled Seo Hyo-eun by the hand.
“Don't leave my side from now on, Head Instructor Seo. I don't think I'll be able to look out for you separately.”
“You don't have to worry about that.”
Then, perhaps thinking that Cheon Ha-seong wouldn't be reassured by those words alone, Seo Hyo-eun sent a telepathic message.
[I haven't told you this before, but I have mastered the Stealth Technique to its pinnacle. If I use my Stealth Technique, even my father can't find me.]
For Cheon Ha-seong right now, there could be no more welcome words than those.
[Duration?]
[That part, I'm not sure… I think the longest I've done it was about thirty minutes. You can finish before then, right?]
[I'll try to make it so.]
[Good. Then from now on, don't worry about me and do what you want to do. The other Head Instructors are acting strangely; I'll find out what their scheme is.]
That seemed like it would be an unexpected help.
Indeed, it didn't make sense that the Cult Leader wouldn't have taught his only daughter anything properly until now. No matter how strong a person he assigned as her personal bodyguard, that was still just another person. No matter how much loyalty they pledged, one could never know when or for what reason they might change their mind.
Cheon Ha-seong, unable to hide his feeling of admiration, went inside.
“Uwaaack!”
That was the first sound he heard when he went inside.
“Help me. Help me! I did nothing wrong. I don't know anything. It wasn't me. Uwaaack!”
The person screaming, frantically hitting his own head and tearing out his hair, was Bang Sun-taek.
“Chief Head Instructor…?”
Cheon Ha-seong gasped at the scene spread out before him.
On the floor lay the bodies of the Head Instructors, and Bang Sun-taek was kneeling in the pools of blood, screaming like a madman.
“Chief Head Instructor, what is all this? Was it an intrusion? Who did this? Did you not see anyone?”
“It wasn't me. I said it wasn't me. I don't know. I don't know anything!”
As Bang Sun-taek continued to lose his mind, Cheon Ha-seong strode towards him. Then he forcefully slapped his cheek five or six times, and Bang Sun-taek screamed and rolled on the ground.
Even if he had been wallowing in self-pity until then, he must have now thought that he had to find a way to survive. Thinking that Cheon Ha-seong wouldn't stop unless he did something, he frantically begged to be spared.