## Chapter 64 – (15)
An investment for the future, huh.
That statement alone wasn’t enough for me to understand.
“Just a friendly match, and you’re trying to kill me?”
“Kill? I’m just going to cripple you.”
The man said this as he drew his sword.
It was quite a large sword.
A sword that could be called a greatsword.
“…Don’t think you made the wrong choice in answering. Even if you had forfeited, I was planning to cripple you.”
It seemed he intended to attack me from the start.
But why?
Was he ashamed of losing to the Inmu Academy in front of so many people?
It didn’t seem like such a simple reason.
“Do you know how the Cheonmu Academy became the best academy?”
“…?”
The man spoke as if granting me a final mercy.
He told me the reason for his attack.
“As you saw in the sparring match, the Cheonmu Academy isn’t much different from other academies, except for a few of its students.”
I had to nod in agreement with that statement.
Clearly, Jeonpung and Namgung Yu were in a different league, but Dang Geon and the male student who lost to Jeongseon before that…
Frankly speaking, they weren’t much different from Namgung Hyeok.
They weren’t weak, but they seemed a little lacking to represent the Cheonmu Academy in a sparring match.
And apparently, this wasn’t the first time.
Although it was the first time they had struggled so much in a publicly held friendly match like this, they had barely managed to win or even lost in friendly matches attended only by academy officials.
“And after that, the Cheonmu Academy always poached the student.”
The Cheonmu Academy poached the students who defeated them in friendly matches.
And with that strengthened force, they won victories in real martial arts tournaments, not just friendly matches.
However, the situation was different this time.
Since the opponent was Inmu Academy anyway, the problem was that the sparring match was held publicly.
If it had been a private gathering of academy officials, they could have offered money, elixirs, or whatever they wanted to buy their silence.
But with so many people watching the sparring match, it was impossible to poach the student.
Moreover, Poongwoon, who could be said to be the core strength of Inmu Academy, was a student they had chased out for various reasons.
There was no justification for bringing him back.
So, the Cheonmu Academy decided.
If they couldn’t have it, they would destroy it.
And they would do it using the fifth participant.
The target was me, the fifth participant.
“We considered Seolyeong, but Bukhae Bingju’s love for his daughter is well-known.”
Come to think of it, Seolyeong had said something like that too.
That there were people who would do anything for her.
The fact that I was the fifth participant, that I didn’t have any significant connections, and many other factors seemed to have made me the target.
As for Poongwoon going over… was it probably because of his skill?
“…Are you stronger than Namgung Yu?”
“…I would lose in a sparring match. But I wouldn’t lose in a real fight where lives are at stake.”
His eyebrows twitched as if he was offended by the comparison.
And he pointed his menacing sword at me.
“At least I won’t lose to a guy with no weapon.”
“No weapon?”
I chuckled at that.
Yeah, that’s probably why he called me to this warehouse.
To ensure that only he had a weapon.
I raised my hand into the air.
The man frowned and strode towards me with his sword, as if to cut off my arm before I could do anything—
“What…”
But he stopped in his tracks.
And he began to stare blankly at me with his mouth open.
His lips trembled, and his pupils shook violently from side to side.
“What is…”
His face was filled with astonishment.
And for good reason.
It was probably the first time he had seen someone pull a sword out of thin air.
It was a technique that even a supreme master, or even the Heavenly Demon, couldn’t do.
I slowly pulled the jungle knife out of my inventory.
It was the moment my old partner revealed itself in the world of martial arts.
The man who had been so full of vigor began to tremble.
He was terrified when I pulled out a weapon of a form he had never seen before from thin air.
“Y-you, what are you?!”
The tip of the sword aimed at me was shaking uncontrollably.
That was a good thing.
If he was really a skilled warrior comparable to Namgung Yu, then now was my chance, while he was gripped by fear.
I gripped the jungle knife tightly and recalled the Inmu Sword Technique.
And I entrusted myself to my weapon skills.
I left the path of the sword to the weapon skills and focused solely on my inner energy.
To be precise, I recalled the image of Namgung Yu, Poongwoon, and Seolyeong infusing their swords with inner energy.
Especially Seolyeong’s image remained deeply etched in my mind.
Extreme Yin and Extreme Yang were like mirrors.
If I just followed the image that Seolyeong had shown me, I felt like I could do something similar.
It was on a different level than simply injecting inner energy into my body.
It was a realm that could only be reached by thinking of the sword as my own body.
If what I was holding now was a sword, I wouldn’t have been able to infuse it with inner energy.
But with this jungle knife, this jungle knife that had always protected me during the zombie world, I felt like I could do it.
A small wisp of smoke rose from the sword.
Both I and the man in front of me were simultaneously drawn to the wisp of smoke rising from the sword.
And then our eyes met.
“…Aaaargh!”
The man let out a sound that was a mix of a battle cry and a scream and charged at me.
He was attacking in a state of terror, but the attack itself had a force that couldn’t be ignored.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
He didn’t stop swinging his massive sword, even as it scraped against the walls and the ground.
Just blocking the attacks made my whole body vibrate.
My body was shaking like it did in the carriage, to the point where I felt like I was getting motion sickness.
But with each block, my breathing grew stronger, and my heart began to pound.
My inner energy slowly began to grow.
The color of the jungle knife turned red, and now a huge cloud of smoke was rising from the sword.
The warehouse was filling with smoke.
“…Th-the sword…”
Just blocking the man’s attack had caused the blade of his massive sword to melt slightly.
The man stopped attacking at the sight of that.
And I instinctively knew.
Now was the time.
“Hoo!”
Bang!
I kicked off the ground and closed the distance.
Swish.
My sword was fired towards the man’s solar plexus.
I poured all my inner energy and strength into pure speed.
Even so, the man reacted.
He raised his massive sword like a shield.
But—
“How…”
Sizzle.
A large hole had been pierced through the greatsword, and I had pierced through the greatsword and even the man’s shoulder.
I had originally intended to aim for the chest, but it had gone slightly off course as it pierced through the greatsword.
The area around the pierced shoulder was burning black.
I slowly pulled out the sword.
“Kuh-uck…”
Then the man dropped the greatsword and grabbed his shoulder instead.
He was biting his teeth so hard that blood was flowing from his mouth, as if the blackened skin was more painful than the piercing wound.
The man lost his will to fight and slumped down.
Clatter.
And then I heard the sound of someone trying to open the locked door.
Bang!
The person on the other side of the door couldn’t open it, so they forced it open with brute strength.
“…”
The instructor of the Cheonmu Academy was visible through the opened door.
A cold sweat broke out on my brow.
Considering what this guy had said before the fight, there was a high possibility that the instructor was also in on it.
“Instructor!”
As expected, the fallen man called out to the instructor in a hopeful voice.
Then the instructor looked down at the fallen man with cold eyes and said.
“What is all this?”
“…I-instructor?”
However, the instructor of the Cheonmu Academy coldly cut him off.
I was taken aback by the sight and looked back and forth between the two, and then a huge shadow appeared behind the Cheonmu Academy.
“Or you can explain it.”
Instructor Cheolung entered the warehouse, showing off his bear-like physique.
‘I see.’
I finally understood why the instructor of the Cheonmu Academy was trying to cut him off.
It was because Instructor Cheolung had come with him.
I nodded to Instructor Cheolung and told him everything that had happened.
***
The two instructors had been looking for the next participant and had immediately run over when they saw the huge cloud of smoke rising from the warehouse.
After hearing the whole story from me, the two instructors decided to destroy the dantian of the man who had attacked me.
The man tried his best to get out of it with lies, but it was a big deal that many people, including Namgung Hyeok, had seen him calling me out.
As a result, the friendly match ended somewhat vaguely with Inmu Academy’s victory.
Many people expressed their dissatisfaction, but when they were told the reason and the result, many understood.
“You bad guy, break his dantian!”
“We have to make sure he can never use martial arts again!”
Most people enjoyed seeing bad guys get punished.
Especially in the world of martial arts, where betrayal and secret plots were rampant.
Moreover, Poongwoon’s role was significant in people’s easy acceptance.
Many people had already sensed that the Cheonmu Academy had lost after seeing the Plum Blossom Sword Technique that Poongwoon had shown against Namgung Yu.
After the sparring match, I immediately headed somewhere.
It was none other than the Cheonmu Academy’s waiting area.
Everyone else had already left, but Namgung Yu was still there, watching Poongwoon.
And when someone blocked her gaze, she glared at that person with an annoyed expression.
“…Who in the world is blocking my…”
“Hi?”
“…”
Namgung Yu looked up at me with a surprised expression.
And then she lowered her head.
She seemed to have remembered the promise she had made.
That she would do anything if she lost.
“T-this is invalid.”
“Even if it had proceeded as planned, Poongwoon would have beaten him.”
“…Why has Gaga become so strong?…”
Namgung Yu bit her lip, blaming Poongwoon for becoming too strong.
Namgung Yu nodded with a frown when I told her to come to my room tonight.
