## Chapter 206 – (18)
“So, what’s the reason for gathering us all? Instructor Cheol-woong.”
“To gather us at such a crucial moment… Even now, the Demonic Sect bastards might be infiltrating…”
“Ahem! Watch your mouth! There’s a promising disciple here who’ll be participating in the martial arts tournament…”
“Does it matter? We’ll all find out tomorrow anyway.”
The deepest chamber of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
The people seated around the long, circular table were all representatives of various clans and aristocratic families.
From the Abbot of Shaolin Temple to the Lord of the Namgung Clan.
I thought Instructor Cheol-woong and I were quite strong, but compared to them, I felt rather insignificant.
With these powerhouses gathered in this small room, I felt like I needed to reach level 10 in the Spirit Severing Sword Art just to stand a chance.
The air in the room felt heavy.
“It doesn’t matter. The student here already knows everything.”
“…Everything?”
Instructor Cheol-woong stated calmly.
“Yes, everything that will happen tomorrow, who the Demonic Sect has disguised themselves as, and when the incident will occur. Everything.”
The room fell silent instantly.
The gazes of all the masters rained down.
The gazes, filled with inner energy, scanned my body, and it felt like being pricked with toothpicks.
Their eyes bored into me.
Hwa-yool, receiving the gazes alongside me, trembled, her teeth chattering.
The Abbot of Shaolin Temple broke the silence.
“Very well… Speak comfortably. What has happened?”
His voice was gentle.
His words alone made me feel at ease.
As if on cue, everyone averted their gaze at the Abbot of Shaolin Temple’s words.
For better or worse, it seemed Shaolin Temple held the greatest decision-making power here.
In the relatively relaxed atmosphere, I told them everything I knew.
From Hwa-yool’s identity and how I obtained the information from her.
To the fact that, during the martial arts tournament tomorrow, a disturbance would be created in the audience to draw attention, while the Demonic Sect secretly attacked the Sichuan Tang Clan to quickly steal the tournament rewards.
And that the Demonic Sect’s assassination squad participating in this attack included promising disciples from the Sichuan Tang Clan and the Beggars’ Sect.
I revealed as much information as I could.
“I, in our Tang Clan…!”
The Lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan jumped up from his seat upon hearing that name.
“N, no way, that child… No, that can’t be…”
The Lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan trembled, muttering as if something had suddenly occurred to him, while an elder from the Beggars’ Sect laughed loudly.
“Well, we accept all sorts as beggars. Haha!”
“…Do both of you have children you suspect?”
At the Abbot of Shaolin Temple’s question, the two gave their respective answers.
“No! But we’ll just beat up all the promising disciples on the Beggars’ Sect side and tie them up. They’re used to being beaten, so it’ll be fine.”
The Beggars’ Sect was simple and crude, but their answer was clear.
“…Yes, we do.”
The Lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan nodded, a bitter expression on his face, as if something had occurred to him.
This part seemed like it would be handled well.
“Does the Abbot believe we should proceed with the martial arts tournament as planned tomorrow?”
Someone asked the Abbot.
“We must. There may be additional Demonic Sect forces that this child is unaware of.”
Here, “this child” referred to Hwa-yool.
That was true.
Hwa-yool might know a lot, but she was still just a low-level member of the Demonic Sect.
It wouldn’t be strange if there were facts or plans of the Demonic Sect that Hwa-yool didn’t know.
Nevertheless, the Abbot thanked me and Hwa-yool for our great help.
Thanks to that, I was promised one of the championship prizes after the martial arts tournament.
…It seemed they hadn’t considered the possibility of the Inmu Academy winning at all.
And Hwa-yool would receive a much lighter punishment than originally intended.
She would be helping with the martial arts tournament and cleaning, they said.
It was difficult to gauge the severity of the punishment just from those words.
After that, we followed Instructor Cheol-woong outside.
“Rest for now. Tomorrow will be busy.”
“Yes.”
And so, preparing for the next day, Hwa-yool returned to her shack, and I returned to my lodgings.
***
The next day, I was sitting in the audience.
“We got another bye into the next round, you know?”
“Oh, really?”
I replied casually to Jeong-seon’s words.
“The Beggars’ Sect, the Sichuan Tang Clan, and the Wudang Sect have all forfeited.”
“…The Wudang Sect?”
Since the Wudang Sect hadn’t been mentioned yesterday, I was interested in that news.
Wudang had Poong-woon.
“Yeah, hard to believe, but Poong-woon was so shocked that he charged into the Sichuan Tang Clan and caused a ruckus…”
Poong-woon was shocked.
Then, could it be that the Demonic Sect member in the Sichuan Tang Clan was that promising disciple I saw before?
‘The one hiding behind that Poong-woon?’
A bitter smile appeared.
As a result, we advanced to the semi-finals with a bye.
It was an absurd bye, but surprisingly, there were no objections from the other participants.
Well, there was one objection.
‘I had a promise with Gagawa…!’
Namgung-yoo apparently lamented, shouting those words.
Probably because of the promise that the loser would treat the winner.
Whether we won or lost, I felt like I had to spend time with Namgung-yoo afterward.
“There are some good things about being underestimated.”
“True.”
Thinking that, I secretly scanned the audience.
The Abbot of Shaolin Temple and the Lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan were casually walking around the audience, talking to every mother and daughter pair they saw.
Then, when they approached one mother and daughter, suddenly, the girl threw a skewer she was holding at the Abbot.
As if throwing a hidden weapon.
However, the opponent was the Lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Without a care.
He caught the hidden weapon in mid-air as if picking up a fallen twig.
Then, the Demonic Sect spy, who appeared to be the child’s mother, threw a punch.
Her hand was overflowing with crimson inner energy, and it was clear at a glance that it was dangerous.
Suddenly.
The Abbot of Shaolin Temple reached out and lightly caught that punch.
Immediately after, he grabbed the woman’s head with his other hand and shook it, and the woman collapsed to the floor like a doll with its strings cut.
Afterward, the Abbot, having knocked out the girl in the same way, gestured somewhere, and sturdy men picked up the fallen mother and daughter and headed somewhere.
The surrounding audience didn’t even glance in that direction at the events that unfolded in an instant.
It was too quiet a battle for a fight between the Demonic Sect and the Orthodox Sect.
“…What was that?”
To receive that punch and lightly shake her head with his hand to knock her out.
I didn’t think it was impossible, but it was somehow a movement that felt experienced.
To receive a punch full of inner energy without using much inner energy himself was in the realm of the divine.
As I was admiring, Jeong-seon called me from beside me.
“What?”
“…Never mind. Let’s focus on the tournament.”
In my heart, I was wondering if she needed my help. But there was no need.
Seeing what was happening in the audience, it seemed like the incident would be resolved quickly.
The martial arts tournament was conducted as a series of matches.
“The order will be Jeong-seon, Seol-yeong, and Seong-han.”
At Instructor Cheol-woong’s words, we nodded.
We, the semi-finalists, nodded as we watched the level of the promising disciples competing earlier.
It was doable.
I could read that thought in the eyes of the two besides me.
The opponent in the semi-finals was the Mount Hua Sect.
“That’s fortunate. Senior brother, our opponent is the Inmu Academy.”
“That’s truly fortunate. I’ve been accumulating fatigue from fighting consecutive matches…”
Jeong-seon wore a slightly annoyed expression at the two’s conversation.
There was a reason why those words made Jeong-seon even more angry.
“It’s even more annoying that they don’t have any malice.”
It wasn’t that they were trying to tease or be sarcastic.
It was that the disciples of the Mount Hua Sect were genuinely relieved.
“I’ll crush them.”
With those ominous words that shouldn’t be said at a martial arts tournament, Jeong-seon went up to the martial arts stage and showed off the Shaolin Temple’s practical combat skills, instantly overwhelming the two disciples of the Mount Hua Sect.
It was a complete annihilation.
As soon as the bell rang, she ran up and struck their chins, and the two Mount Hua Sect disciples fainted as if falling asleep.
For reference, when the two were hit, there was a sound like wood breaking, and the audience grimaced as if they were the ones in pain.
It wasn’t a thud, but a crack!
However, even Jeong-seon struggled a bit against the top disciple of the Mount Hua Sect who came out afterward.
Their compatibility was bad.
Jeong-seon, seeing the Mount Hua Sect’s Plum Blossom Sword and Illusion Sword for the first time, didn’t know what to do and just kept dodging, eventually being cornered and surrendering.
“Do well.”
“Yeah.”
And Seol-yeong went up to the stage.
The bell rang, and Seol-yeong strode toward the top disciple of the Mount Hua Sect and waved her hand.
The opponent quickly sensed the threat and took a step back.
“You let your guard down.”
To avoid it, she needed to move one more step back.
A white frost spread in the air, and the Mount Hua Sect disciple dropped his sword and grabbed one of his arms as if in pain.
“Kuh, wh, what…”
Her yin energy and inner energy traveled through her hand, freezing the moisture in the air and simultaneously freezing the opponent’s arm.
It was something I couldn’t imitate even with my skills.
It was a technique possible because of her yin energy and inner energy as a Nine Yin Severed Meridian, and the ice techniques she had trained for a long time.
Even the Abbot of Shaolin Temple and Instructor Cheol-woong right next to him couldn’t hide their admiration at that scene.
“What’s going on?”
I went to bed early yesterday for today.
Both the Demonic Sect side and the martial arts tournament side were going too smoothly.
I thought I might just be sitting here all day and it would be over.
“Wh, what’s wrong?”
“No, I just felt like I had to do something…”
So I just massaged Jeong-seon’s legs next to me.
It was also for Jeong-seon’s next match, and I thought I would fulfill some personal desires.
