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Translator: Vine
Chapter Title: Demonic Arts? No, It's Orthodox Martial Arts!
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The connoisseurs of the *Jianghu* have always enjoyed categorizing people, ranking them, and determining superiority and inferiority within those ranks.
Yet.
Martial arts is a long and arduous path to be walked in solitude.
How, then, can one truly divide practitioners into 'first-rate' and 'peak,' or even 'transcendent peak'—a title without true basis?
Nevertheless, there was one undeniable truth.
A realm that only a martial artist who had honed themselves to the extreme could finally glimpse.
When one transcends the mortal flesh and spirit, and definitively establishes the direction of the martial path they pursue.
The martial artist achieves the Harmonious Realm (*Jo-hwa-gyeong*) and becomes a star.
Thus, *Seong-gang*.
A state where one can fully manifest their will through their hands.
The conviction of one who has become both human and a complete star.
Their Unique Mental Image (*Go-yu-sim-sang*) could, at times, even twist the very laws of the world.
Martial artists who reached such a realm were exceedingly rare.
Among them, who had reached further could only be speculated in imagination, or truly ascertained by directly comparing their martial arts.
Therefore, if one were to ask who was the greatest under heaven in their era, opinions would sharply diverge.
However, if one were to approach the renowned martial artists of the Harmonious Realm in the *Jianghu* and ask who was the most troublesome opponent, they would unanimously give one answer.
That Sword Demon Wi Jilyang would be the most formidable.
Battles between absolute masters are often described as the heavens collapsing and the earth tearing apart.
Typically, when forceful qi (*gang-gi*) clashes, it's quite common to observe terrains changing overnight.
"Martial Arts Reversion (*Mu-ye-ban-bon*)."
At least within the Sword Demon's domain, such things do not hold true.
As Wi Jilyang held his sword vertically and quietly murmured.
A dark aura surged skyward, tearing through space and time, creating a massive circle around him.
In that instant.
The natural qi filling heaven and earth, and the internal energy that seemed to endlessly overflow from one's body, vanished as if they had never existed.
Instead, an infinite stillness settled, as if the history of martial arts had been reversed, returning to the moment when primordial martial arts first emerged.
"Tch."
The moment she actually encountered the Sword Demon's Unique Mental Image, which she had only heard about.
Seo Dohee clicked her tongue, threw down her great axe, and drew her twin axes.
As the two martial artists, lost in a trance, ceaselessly clashed sword and axe, testing each other's limits.
The anomaly appeared suddenly.
The area where *Mu-ye-ban-bon* was unfolded was a place where only Wi Jilyang and the opponent upon whom his will was fully projected could exist.
The Sword Demon's infamous reputation was also greatly influenced by his Unique Mental Image, which enforced one-on-one combat.
However.
"Master, I've come to help──! Cough!"
At the unprecedented situation of a man intruding from the edge of the domain, the Sword Demon's eyes widened, and he turned his head in that direction.
It was a golden opportunity to exploit the opening and deliver a decisive blow.
But Seo Dohee, too, was startled by her disciple's voice, which shouldn't have been heard here, and ended up turning her head.
Geum Sihyeon, who had run from afar using lightness skill (*gyeong-gong*).
Unable to adapt to the strange phenomenon of all his internal energy suddenly vanishing from his body, he simply tripped and tumbled several times on the ground.
"..."
"..."
The fighting spirit slowly vanished from the bodies of the two absolute masters who had been fiercely battling to kill each other just moments before.
The Sword Demon, with astonishment at the strange phenomenon he had never experienced.
The Battle King, with half gratitude and half exasperation for her clumsy disciple.
* * *
The midterm exam, which had rapidly escalated in scale from a simple bandit subjugation to a Blood Sect conspiracy, nevertheless ended with a happy ending.
Bringing along the personnel from the Medical Hall was a stroke of genius.
There were quite a few injured, but all quickly recovered from their beds without major injuries or lingering after-effects.
The past, after all, tends to be beautified and turn into memories.
At the time, I thought, 'I'm really going to die now,' 'Is there a second attempt?' and 'If I reset, I won't even go near Mount Taebaek again.'
As of now, only many positive memories remain.
The expressions on the faces of those who finally broke through the formation from outside and entered to save us.
"Young Master──! Ruri──!"
The tears that welled up in the large eyes of Na Rang and So-jeo, who, despite bleeding profusely from their arms, worried about my and Ruri's safety.
"Taek-ah, Taek-ah, are you alright...?"
"Sister! I'm glad you're safe...!"
Even the heartwarming scene of the Murong siblings, who usually bickered like cats and dogs, immediately asking about each other's well-being as soon as they regained consciousness.
...Of course, I slightly regret my impulsive action afterward.
This meddlesome nature of mine is a disease that can't be cured even after dying once.
"Master... Instructor Seo hasn't returned yet. She might have been caught in a trap, so how can we optimistically wait for her to come back!"
...Or rather, I was briefly intoxicated by *Hyeop-ppong* then. *chuckles*.
Anyway.
I ran there on a vague hunch, but my master was actually having a WWE match with a strange man, not even using her internal energy.
After realizing that the WWE opponent was the Sword Demon, I was truly, well, really, very scared.
It felt like he would paralyze my brain with an old-man-style speech, saying something like, 'Here, take a sword.'
Fortunately, he no longer harmed my master, nor did he inflict any particular injury on me, before quietly vanishing somewhere.
The outcome was good, so that's all that matters.
Though I don't have a preference for older women.
My master's 'educational assets,' revealed between the torn clothes and compression bandages by the Sword Demon, were quite impressive.
If I were to become the Martial Alliance Leader.
My first decree would be a ban on wearing compression bandages.
"No sweets (*dang-gwa*)?"
"What do you mean, sweets? You're a patient."
Everyone else had minor injuries, lasting one day at most three, but.
There was one bad child who was still sprawled out in the Medical Hall, idly refusing to go to school.
Having been swayed by Na Rang and So-jeo, I was burdened with the important task of visiting her alternately and indulging her whims.
Ruri, with a sulky expression and slightly puffed cheeks.
I sighed, looking down at her flatness, which seemed to need not even a compression bandage, but perhaps some cotton padding for effect.
"Just rest up and rub your Pikafing belly."
"Pikafing...?"
Ah, right.
Is this *geun-cheop* still clueless?
"It's a thing. A cute electric mouse that says 'Pika' at the end of every sentence."
Still, she's a patient.
For the first time in a while, I poured my artistic soul into a painting, capturing Pikafing's adorable figure.
"Pika...!"
Ruri, who received my drawing, had an expression like she'd been electrocuted.
As expected of a primitive ancient Central Plains dweller, she seemed utterly astonished by the sensation of 21st-century animation art style.
30 minutes later.
[Baekhwa Academy Gallery]
[Lupika (170cm_75G_) / Hello Pika~ Nice to meet you Pika~ (3)]
I deeply regretted my thoughtless action.
I had unsealed the *geun-cheop* and unleashed a new 'concept-monger' onto the gallery....
* * *
[[❗❗SHOCKING TRUE STORY❗❗] Video of an Unknown Swordsman from the *Jianghu* Teaching a Bandit Leader a Lesson]
Despite the provocative title, the video uploaded to 'Mootube' under the name 'BloodyQueenTube' initially didn't garner much attention.
It was entirely the fault of the videographer.
Shot from afar, the quality wasn't even clear.
The cameraman, what on earth were they doing, the screen kept shaking slightly.
Moreover, it was a crude video utterly devoid of any visual appeal, without even sound to capture the vividness.
But paradoxically, that's why the video survived on Mootube.
Thanks to the blurred background where corpses lay scattered.
Thanks to the explicit, passionate groans being removed.
Thanks to the shaky camera cleverly avoiding moments of rampant bloodshed.
It was able to breathe and survive uncensored.
Soon.
People who endured the initial barrier to entry.
People captivated by the raw, practical atmosphere, rarely found on Mootube, began to watch the video one by one.
Even in the degraded quality, a blade energy shrouded in brilliant starlight scattered here and there.
The swordsman fighting back, cleverly avoiding fatal blows and enduring well despite the perilous situation, had a magical power that made viewers unconsciously clench their fists and cheer him on.
Finally.
As soon as the blade practitioner threw his blade aside and entered a contest of internal energy, exclamations burst from the viewers' mouths.
It was clearly an overwhelming disadvantage for one side.
The depth of martial arts seemed slightly more advantageous for the swordsman, but in terms of internal energy depth, the blade practitioner was overwhelmingly superior.
Just as a sense of regret spread, thinking the match would end in vain.
The aura surrounding the blade practitioner's body gradually dispersed.
His vitality was visibly waning, even from a distance.
And finally, until the swordsman shook off that hand and swung his sword.
Although the moment the head flew off wasn't fully captured due to the sudden violent shaking of the camera.
The scene where a clearly disadvantageous situation was overturned in an instant delivered a thick thrill, creeping up the viewers' necks.
To borrow an expression common in Greece, far away in the Western Regions, one could say that catharsis washed over them.
Soon.
"What? Is this real?"
"Damn, does he have shaky hands? Why is it shaking so much???? Totally breaks immersion."
"Are those Peak and Transcendent Peak levels? I think this is the first time I've seen masters fighting so fiercely on Mootube, lol."
"Nom nom... nothing special.... Nom nom...."
Little by little.
Reactions accumulated, and the video's popularity began to rise.
It was exposed to more people.
More people reacted.
Views begot views, and despite being a crude video, it began to gain sensational popularity.
Meanwhile, people who couldn't rest until they shared what they knew began to add various opinions to the video.
"That martial uniform looks like Baekhwa Academy's uniform, right?"
"Could be a graduate, lol. I'm from the 2nd cohort, and I still have my uniform at home."
"Old man, are you getting aroused?"
"You bastard, what cohort are you from?"
"As a professional analyst of Mental Image Duels, my assessment is that the blade practitioner seemed to lack practical experience. While clearly possessing stronger internal energy, they failed to utilize this advantage, moving stiffly... (See more)"
"Yeah, next armchair expert, lol."
"How can someone lacking practical experience be a Transcendent Peak master?"
"But can a Transcendent Peak master even emit such forceful qi? Isn't that the Harmonious Realm?"
"Would a Harmonious Realm master lose to a mere Peak master?"
"Pika! Pikapika!"
"?"
"Why are there only male martial artists in the video? I'm uncomfortable."
"What kind of ridiculous nonsense is this, damn it?"
"I think the person who filmed this is a woman? You can see hair occasionally falling down."
"You crazy creep;;; Why are you nitpicking about that in a video like this?"
Tap-tap.
[Hawaaaang!!!!! Hawaaaang!!!!! So cool!!!! Princess-chan is touched!!!! It's totally awesome!!!!!!]
Even as she left the comment, brimming with silliness.
Murong Seol's face, in stark contrast, was hardened.
Since she herself had fainted, she had only heard about the outcome of that day.
While she admired the martial prowess and cunning displayed by the man who was clearly Geum Sihyeon in the video.
...Who on earth filmed this, and how?
And why on earth was this video uploaded publicly to Mootube like this?
Deep questions swirled in her mind.
Unfortunately, Murong Seol's imagination.
Did not extend to the fact that the videographer was likely experiencing extreme excitement and reveling in pleasure while watching the views and comments.
Bwoooong──
As Murong Seol scanned other comments, wondering if there was anything hinting at the Mount Taebaek incident, a new message caught her eye.
[Notice of Provisional Hearing]
[Regarding the recent Mount Taebaek incident, a provisional hearing will be held concerning Geum Sihyeon (1st year student) and the suspicion of his use of forbidden demonic arts (Star-Sucking Divine Art) and learning of Demonic Cult martial arts (Blood Wolf Sword Art). All instructors are requested to attend Room B3 of Jiphyeondang by mid-Yu-si today.]
"...What the hell is this nonsense?"
What bastard dares to accuse our Sihyeon?
Extremely enraged, Murong Seol pushed off her desk and stood up.