Chapter 318 - Where Responsibility Lies

It took less than half a day for word of Jin Sowoon's incident to spread throughout the entire academy.

Compared to the three or four days it took for rumors like "so-and-so and so-and-so have become romantically involved" to circulate, everyone agreed that this incident was exceptionally explosive.

Reactions were split in two.

Those who had been dissatisfied with the sudden replacement of the instructors, or with the way they treated the academy students, found it cathartic.

On the other hand, there were also those who treated the assault on an instructor as a grave problem.

That was generally the reaction of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Noble Clans.

"No, of all things, that lunatic dared to assault an instructor!"

"We cannot let this pass, can we?"

"Of course not! But... how do we make an issue of it?"

Those who had been indignant suddenly fell silent, and it was not only because of the authority carried by the position of representative.

The problem was that the newly arrived instructor was Hall Leader-class.

And that Jin Sowoon had overwhelmed that Hall Leader-class instructor with internal energy until he coughed up blood.

"Good heavens..."

There were few enough people who could fight a Hall Leader-class martial artist evenly in a contest of internal energy.

Now that Jin Sowoon had shown himself overwhelming such a man, they judged that, at the level of academy students, talking back to him was impossible.

"We should tell the instructors... the instructors and drill instructors!"

"Yes, yes! How can we receive an education when the authority of teachers has fallen this low?"

"But... I heard it was a fair contest of internal energy. Does that even count as a problem?"

That was precisely why the Department of Academic Affairs could not step forward immediately, even though an instructor had been injured.

It had been a fair contest of internal energy from beginning to end.

Moreover, the one who had started the quarrel was the instructor.

It was not as if they could reprimand a skilled student by asking why he was so skilled.

But since the injured instructor belonged to the Qingcheng Sect, the people of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Noble Clans could not simply sit still.

After all, Jin Sowoon, who had already been an eyesore to them, had now humiliated even one of their seniors.

"Should we not first inform our seniors in the Murim Alliance? Then our seniors will..."

"Weren't those very seniors already beaten by Jin Sowoon when they came to punish him? Even if higher seniors come now, what are they supposed to do?"

"... Who the fuck are you, exactly? You've been saying useless things since earlier."

"No, I was merely speaking calmly about the current situation..."

Their anger did not subside, yet the state in which they could not immediately do anything to Jin Sowoon continued, and whether the academy students wanted it or not, the story naturally flowed into the Murim Alliance.

"Oh, my head..."

Buk Wonpyeong pressed hard against his temples.

"How can you frown when such fine tea is sitting before you..."

Needless to say, the source of this headache was the bastard calmly drinking tea right in front of him.

Buk Wonpyeong was almost ready to laugh hollowly.

"Does that even go down your throat?"

"... Academy Director, you use fine tea."

"I asked if that even goes down your throat!"

In the end, unable to hold back his anger, Buk Wonpyeong reached out to snatch away the teacup.

But Jin Sowoon swiftly moved the teacup aside.

'Look at this bastard.'

Buk Wonpyeong unfolded the Supreme Clarity Controlling Hand Art and stretched out his hand again.

But.

TAP, TAP-TAP.

With a light extension of his hand, Jin Sowoon made a move to protect his own teacup.

'Good heavens...'

What kind of grappling art was the Supreme Clarity Controlling Hand Art?

Was it not the technique that had subdued in one stroke an Underworld figure infamous for the claw art called the Floating Willow Killing Claw?

And yet this bastard, who had only just passed twenty, had blocked the Supreme Clarity Controlling Hand Art without using any special technique.

Then he was calmly drinking the damn tea as if nothing had happened.

"Urgh..."

Buk Wonpyeong had once given Jin Sowoon private instruction, and in the process, he had learned that Jin Sowoon could handle a considerable amount of internal energy.

'Of course, I had no idea it was this absurdly large.'

But judging from the move just now, Jin Sowoon had advanced yet again compared to when Buk Wonpyeong had last checked him.

Jin Sowoon calmly savored the tea and looked at him with eyes that gleamed clear as a madman's.

Buk Wonpyeong stared quietly at his face and thought of those idiotic instructors.

They should have picked their target better before provoking someone. ... Even at a glance, was this really an opponent they could afford to touch?

It was not only a matter of internal energy.

One could tell just from the move with which he had blocked Buk Wonpyeong's technique.

His understanding of martial principles had already surpassed Hall Leader-class.

If they had picked a fight through a sparring match, they would have been beaten to a pulp, and even if they had pressured him through theory, they would not have avoided a hard battle.

'If they had instead picked on his attitude or his expression...'

Buk Wonpyeong, who had somehow become possessed by the instructors and started thinking of ways to harass Jin Sowoon, soon frowned.

Was this not the same bastard who had entered the academy alongside Underworld bastards from the very beginning?

What did they expect to accomplish by provoking someone this reckless?

"Haa..."

"I will say this again, but the instructor was the one who started it..."

"Shut up."

There was no need to listen to any more useless talk.

"Yes, sir! I will keep my mouth shut."

"..."

But seeing him grin as if to provoke him made it impossible to endure.

Thinking he had to see Jin Sowoon frown even a little, Buk Wonpyeong continued.

"Do you not know that because of this matter, you may suffer all kinds of harm in the future?"

"What kind of harm?"

"You may be given subtly low scores, or you may not receive letters of recommendation from the instructors. Then later, you may not be assigned to the pavilion you want."

But Jin Sowoon still answered leisurely while savoring the scent of the tea.

"But if I place within the top ten, I can be assigned wherever I want, can I not? Just as the current Dragon-Phoenix Summit was."

"Hmph. You think you will place within the top ten?"

"Every evaluation I have received so far has been at the very top. Even at worst, I doubt I will fall out of the top ten."

"..."

Was the world not supposed to be fair by nature?

If one's head was bad, one's body should be good, and if one's body was good, then most of the time one's head should be bad.

So why was this damned bastard smart enough to calculate even this so quickly?

"Hehe. Thank you for the praise."

"... I did not say anything!"

"That expression just now. It is the expression people make when lavish praise bursts from the mouths of enemies."

Buk Wonpyeong inhaled deeply and looked up at the ceiling.

How in the world was he supposed to explain this so this bastard would understand?

They said one of the three great misfortunes in life was achieving success too young.

Those who became intoxicated with the genius they were born with and lived on while forgetting the vastness of the world and the terror of heaven.

They rose higher than anyone, and with one brief mistake, they fell endlessly.

Buk Wonpyeong did not want Jin Sowoon to fall.

But at the same time, he knew that Jin Sowoon, too, would eventually fall.

That was why the brighter the boy shone, the more worried Buk Wonpyeong became.

"Listen carefully. Instructors and drill instructors can bind you with methods more petty and filthy than you imagine. No, from now on, they surely will."

Just as it had happened not only to him, but to all his seniors who had shone alone as he had.

Before the long span of five hundred years, outstanding genius was nothing more than a brief flash.

"If they cannot get to you, they will drag in your junior disciples. If that does not work, they will drag in your sect and friends as well."

"..."

"Of course, the first few may fall while opposing you. But while you cannot be replaced and must continue facing them, they will keep changing people and harassing you."

Even so, in his own case, it had happened after he joined the Murim Alliance, but for Jin Sowoon, such things would begin from the academy.

"This irrational structure has not been broken even once in the past five hundred years."

An egg colliding with an enormous boulder.

No matter how many times it tried, an egg would never break a boulder.

Had the boy grasped reality a little now?

The smile vanished from Jin Sowoon's previously beaming face, and a cold sneer settled there.

"... If that is the case."

At least to Buk Wonpyeong, it was far better than the look he had worn until just now.

Still, it seemed he had grasped reality, if only a little...

"I suppose I will simply have to quit the academy."

Hm?

What sort of novel nonsense was this?

"Quit? No, even if you do, you will have to return through mandatory service anyway..."

"It cannot be helped. If they harass me like that, then I will take everyone from the Taiyi Sect active in the Murim Alliance, including myself and my junior disciples, and return to the Taiyi Sect."

As expected, he was still full of hot blood.

Buk Wonpyeong was clicking his tongue at Jin Sowoon's foolish answer when he sensed something strange.

"... The Taiyi Sect does not have any officers active in the Murim Alliance, does it?"

"Of course, if we count only main-sect disciples, that is so, but if we include lay disciples, there is one."

"..."

Jin Sowoon's gaze, which had been lowered to the teacup, turned straight ahead.

Blink, blink.

Buk Wonpyeong's eyes blinked slowly like a cow's.

What?

Why was that bastard's gaze...

"... Surely not me?"

"Yes."

"You insane...!"

"If someone of the Three Purities Formless Sword's caliber withdraws from the Murim Alliance, would they not restrain themselves?"

He had known the boy was not in his right mind, but to think he was this far gone.

Buk Wonpyeong's face flushed red as he shouted.

"What if I say I will not leave?"

"That cannot happen. Although our dear junior brother is older than I am, the orders of the Taiyi Sect's head disciple are 'absolute,' you see."

'Fuck, nobody told me that when I became a lay disciple!'

"It should have been in the terms. Did you not know? That is why you should have looked carefully before stamping the documents with your seal."

'I never stamped any documents in the first place!'

Jin Sowoon's coldly sneering eyes curved back into crescents.

"At any rate, so that it does not come to that, Junior Brother, please 'do your utmost.'"

He had returned to the usual mischievous Jin Sowoon.

And seeing that, Buk Wonpyeong felt somewhat relieved.

It meant that Jin Sowoon did, in the end, properly understand what he was worried about.

Even so, Buk Wonpyeong asked once more.

"So as long as you can get through your academy life smoothly, I will not have to leave the Murim Alliance with you. Is that what you are saying?"

"Of course."

Buk Wonpyeong let out a long sigh.

Then a thought suddenly occurred to him: perhaps the boy's excessive use of force against the instructor had not been merely an emotional response.

It was a reasonable suspicion that he had used somewhat extreme measures because he had been confident he could get away with it from the very beginning.

"Did you do it on purpose?"

Jin Sowoon readily admitted it.

"To a degree."

"Why go that far?"

The Taiyi Sect was already steadily growing its strength.

If he hid his power and climbed step by step, he surely would have been able to accomplish what he wanted one day.

Yet because he had already begun drawing lines of confrontation, the road ahead might become even harder.

However, not a single trace of fear could be found on Jin Sowoon's face.

"Because we have already become targets of wariness."

"..."

"If they came in this openly, enduring it would have become even harder from now on."

His unique cold smile appeared again.

"And the Taiyi Sect has already become too sharp an awl for them to ignore."

"..."

Had he been the one whose thoughts were shallow instead?

"... Still, could you not have endured at least until you went to the Murim Alliance? If things go wrong, you may be scattered in every direction."

Unlike Buk Wonpyeong, who had established his position alone, the Taiyi Sect had several people together.

Now that the Taiyi Sect had stood out as such a threatening presence, those above would never try to gather the Taiyi Sect's talents in one place.

Jin Sowoon's face turned cold for the first time.

In that chilling expression were the traces of years so deep and bitter that they were hard to believe belonged to a mere youngster.

"..."

It was an unpleasant expression, as if his pride had somehow been wounded.

A face full of dissatisfaction, asking whether Buk Wonpyeong truly saw him as only that much.

Buk Wonpyeong realized that he had judged wrongly.

"... Yes. I suppose you have prepared for that as well."

What in the world was inside that bastard's head?

Success too young?

He was not someone who knew nothing of the world and made a name for himself while intoxicated by his own genius.

He understood the world, and within its cracks, he had begun proudly revealing his name.

By his own will.

If so, Buk Wonpyeong's words no longer had meaning.

Whether they were reprimand or advice.

"Understood. I will exert myself regarding academy matters, so do not worry."

He only had to do what he could do for him.

... Well, whatever the case, to him, the youngest junior disciple, Jin Sowoon was also a dignified Eldest Senior Brother.

After leaving the Academy Director's office, I was walking toward the representative's office when I stopped dead.

'I'm fucked.'

With a blade at my throat right now, I had failed to consider things as far ahead as the Murim Alliance.

After all, once we graduated from the academy, it was only natural that my junior disciples would be assigned to the Murim Alliance.

'I can't believe I forgot this...'

Now that we had already drawn attention, they were certain not to simply leave us alone if we tried to gather in one place.

'Moreover, if they want to break us apart, it would be easier to scatter us first and defeat us one by one.'

In my previous life, we had been a Third-Rate crap sect, so they had not cared even if we gathered in one place, but now the situation was different.

Ha, why did those damned bastards have to pick a fight for no reason?

After cursing the instructors and drill instructors to my heart's content, I soon shook my head clear.

Even if I had endured it, things would have turned out this way anyway.

No, rather, this was for the best.

Instead of staying together from the start and then scattering in every direction around the time the war broke out...

It would be better to work separately and then gather as one when the wartime units were established.

'Yes, this is definitely for the best. Yes, yes.'

The problem was how to deal with it if the scattered ones were harassed in each of their units.

'This is really filthy.'

They would have to obey the positions within the Murim Alliance and the regulations of the pavilions they belonged to.

In principle, mutual exchange or interference would be impossible.

It meant I would no longer be able to protect the Taiyi Sect's junior disciples within my embrace.

At least, unless I received an extraordinary promotion and crushed them with my rank.

But there was such a thing as the limit of physical time.

Until then, I needed to think of a way to protect my junior disciples.

Hmm, how should I... hm?

'Wait... do I really need to protect them?'

Once I entered the White Wolf Pavilion, I would be insanely busy because of the duties I would be assigned anyway.

I would have to take trash who had not even mastered the basics and turn them into a proper unit.

Would I have the leisure to look after my junior disciples one by one in the middle of that?

In the end, the question was whether my junior disciples would get beaten around like I used to in the places they were assigned.

'Then they just need to not get beaten, right?'

We had found the Great Martial Ancestor's martial arts, and for the internal energy that had been pointed out as our weakness all this time, we had also consumed the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil.

The greatest effect of the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil was the stabilization of the Dantian.

Since we had consumed the Jeongsimdan and even the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil, our bodies should have no problem even if we consumed most spiritual elixirs.

'The amount of internal energy can be resolved at the academy event half a year from now...'

If they had internal energy and martial arts roughly in place, they would have no reason to get beaten around.

There was nothing to be done about our sect's weak power and prestige, but if the person himself was strong, it became difficult for a superior to treat him as a subordinate.

They might receive some unjust orders, but if they lived comfortably without even that, I would feel a little wronged.

Do you know how much I was ground down in my previous life...!

"Where are you coming from?"

"Huh? Ahem."

Saryeon, who had been about to enter the representative's office, saw me and asked.

I answered calmly.

"I was coming back from meeting the Academy Director."

"Was it... resolved?"

I nodded broadly.

"Really?"

Saryeon's eyes said she could not believe it.

Ahem, why has her trust in her Eldest Senior Brother fallen so low?

"Not only the matter at the academy, but also the problem of what the junior disciples might suffer after going to the Murim Alliance has been resolved."

"Huh? R-Really? The Academy Director said he would handle it?"

"No!"

"..."

"I thought of the solution myself."

Saryeon asked with an uneasy expression.

"W-What is it?"

There was no solution in the world more certain than this.

Yes, absolutely.

I looked at Saryeon and curled up the corner of my mouth.

"You all become incredibly, incredibly strong."

"..."

"So that no matter how much your superiors try to harm you, you can deal with it as much as you like!"