“How?”
Jin Young’s eyes trembled.
The grandson of Jin Gyun, the Flame Emperor Great Blade.
I grinned watching him and tried approaching Yoon Jaso, the head of this floor. Surprisingly, Lee Jung-gyeom was already there.
He was asking if he could head up by yawning, like he wasn’t interested.
‘Ha!’
The opponent he was facing fell down head first.
‘What happened?’
-I saw it, Wonhwi. As soon as that young man you know gazed at him, he stepped back with footwork and hit the opponent with the back of his hand.
In other words, he knocked out his opponent with one hit. Truly the difference in our power felt so much.
Even before returning, I heard of his fame and name, but it certainly seemed like he wasn’t a normal person.
I could see why people talked so much about him, and the eyes of those around landed on me and Lee Jung-gyeom.
-You too took him down with one shot.
Maybe that was why the warriors here were giving me surprised looks. Unlike Lee Jung-gyeom who had a name and fame outside, I was someone no one had heard about till now.
I could feel their gazes lingering on me for long. The muscular man who guided us into the tower at the entrance was looking at me with strange eyes.
-What is with him?
His gaze was different from that of the others, it felt like he was curious and when our eyes met, he pointed to the back with his thumb.
The entrance of the stairs. It seemed like the way to the upper floor. Seeing Lee Jung-gyeom move there. It seemed that we should also head that way.
-You need to fight with him.
Seems like it.
As I climbed the stairs I saw Lee Jung-gyeom standing in the middle and leaning against the wall.
What? Was he waiting for me? When I looked confused he spoke.
“Second.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Strange. You are definitely below me, but you are the second among my peers with whom I cannot guarantee that I would win.”
‘…?!’
I think this guy was judging me right here and unlike the first time, it felt a bit friendly.
Like worth watching.
And to be evaluated by someone who would be called as the hope of Murim Alliance before returning…
-Good thing?
‘Not a bad thing.’
At that time, I was in a hurry to save myself as a spy. When I was in the Alliance as a spy, no one even looked at me.
Only two people showed interest and they immediately backstabbed me.
“Baek Wei-hyang… Moyong Soo…”
I shall kill them with my own hands. No, it shouldn’t end at just killing.
I would make them suffer.
-You need power to do that.
Right.
But suddenly, I felt curious. Apart from that, Lee Jung-gyeom mentioned I was the second, which meant there was another one whom he considered a difficult opponent.
There were a few people that I could think of, but I never heard about them and I didn’t know much.
Anyway, I spoke politely.
“It is an honor to be evaluated so highly from such a reputed person.”
Half-sincere only.
And at my words he smiled.
“I am Lee Jung-gyeom of the Murim Alliance.”
And he looked at me. Was he trying to get me to reveal my identity?
After hesitating for a moment, I looked at him and replied.
“Haun.”
It was a fake name I created when entering the Dual Martial Troops. The Ha was for the family name and Un was just added up.
“Haun? Quite a unique one. And my friend has luck (Un means luck) in his name…”
It was then, I heard someone running up the stairs and sure enough, it was Jin Young. He was rushing with a red face, anger dripping from his expression.
“You are hiding your martial arts!”
“Euk, so bothersome. I am going first.”
Lee Jung-gyeom moved up the stairs and I looked down. I knew that this guy wouldn’t lose and seeing him come up with an angry face I began to climb up too.
When I arrived, I saw 20 men on the floor. All skilled warriors.
‘Uh?’
However behind them were people who held their palms out and I could see Yoon Jaso from the 1st floor talking with a bald man.
It seemed like there were other things happening.
Tatata!
“You! I am talking to you but you continue to ignore me and run up!”
He was raging out and thankfully the bald man who was talking to Yoon Jaso stepped ahead and spoke in a loud voice.
“This floor is said to be a transforming room where the use of palms is taught. Welcome.”
The voice had a unique feeling to it, which denoted the status of the bald man. He was stronger than Yoon Jaso.
Lee Jung-gyeom raised his hand and asked.
“Who do I compete with?”
“Before that, there are changes in rules.”
“Uh?”
Change in rules?
The head of Palm style floor, called himself as the Yang Do-bang, recollected the names of the warriors and this time there weren’t three, but 15.
“That’s quite a few.”
“What do we do now?”
To us, who were puzzled, Yang Do-bang spoke with a high voice.
“Since each and every one of you are beyond first rate warriors we decided to change the way to make it fair.”
Now I get it.
This was why Yoon Jaso came up here. It must have been to speak about our level of strength. It seemed that he changed the rules, judging that one on one was not right.
-He said he had no intention of sending us up so easily.
Seemed to be so.
“How can you suddenly change the rules? Did you do this every time a test was attempted?”
Jin Young stepped up and asked.
To which Yang Do-bang said, “The first test is against the warriors of a sect which are more or less near the standard of a warrior. And your skills are at a level that they couldn’t handle, so are you trying to say that changing the rules to make you fight for this is wrong?”
“Tch.”
At his words Jin Young went silent.
It must be because if Lee Jung-gyeom and I didn’t talk much and he spoke like this, it would seem like he was acknowledging that he was weak.
“Then the fight?”
Jin Young clicked his tongue at my question.
“You must know. Five people per person.”
At this, Yang Do-bang shook his head and corrected.
“No. Young warrior Haun and Lee Jung-gyeom will fight with 6 each and little warrior Jin Young will fight with three.”
‘…?!’
At this Jin Young was speechless.
He was dealing with three and us with six, which must have hurt his pride.
“Why do I have to go against three?”
“You defeated the first floor warriors in 10 seconds. And the other two…”
As if realizing it, Jin Young’s face went stiff.
In the end, it was suitable for him to compete with three and seeing his face turn red, it was clear how much his pride was damaged.
“I want to fight 6 too!”
“It goes against the rules of fairness.”
At the words of the man who coldly shut him down, he struggled to let go of his anger, but if he competed with 6 he was bound to be eliminated.
If that happened, he would have to serve as a caterer here for three years.
-Is this fine, Wonhwi?
Iron Sword asked worriedly. Two of the six were skilled and the other 4 were first rate warriors.
It seemed unreasonable to go through it as swiftly as the first floor. In addition, since I was hiding my identity I couldn’t use Blood Demon Sword or Iron Sword here, so I needed to fight with basic techniques which weren’t famous or Short Sword.
-There is that string too.
But I pointed to Jin Young with my eyes. The boy who was the grandson to one of the Eight Great Warriors. It would be dangerous if he noticed the silver string.
-We need to take the hard way.
‘Yep.’
If we couldn’t use the techniques then it was like demonstrating half my skills. It wasn’t exactly a disadvantage but it would take some time.
And the decision was to suffer here. Yang Do-bang raised his head and shouted.
“Let’s begin the test!”
An old fashioned library.
In front of the wall covered with a white paper, someone who had taken his shirt off was applying ink with their large arm.
Behind him was a muscular middle-aged man. The man painting asked without looking.
“Interesting. To think two of the descendants from the Eight great Warriors are here to covet the successor position.”
“Who wouldn’t be greedy?”
“One guy isn’t here due to his greed.”
“Are you talking about Lee Jung-gyeom?”
“Yes. Even if we say that he is here to covet the martial arts, do you think a guy with the knowledge of two sects would be greedy for more? It is probably the order of Baek Hyang-muk.”
“Murim Alliance leader!”
“He must be doing this to restore the broken relationship of the two factions by using his disciple as the successor.”
“Indeed. That makes sense.”
“Anyway, things turned out nice. Did you say that there was another besides the two? I heard there was one more.”
“Yes.”
“He will fall down between the floors, and it is clear which of them will come up.”
“…”
“Why are you saying anything?”
“That is.. unexpected.”
At those words, the man with ink soaked hands stopped.
“Could it be that the Flame Emperor Great Blade’s disciple, is stronger than him?”
“No.”
“Isn’t that unexpected?”
“He is an unheard friend.”
“What?”
“I only watched him till the fourth one, but he is pretty great.”
“Great?”
The muscular man reported everything he saw and observed the change of rules in the test. The man holding the brush couldn’t help but be surprised.
“You mean that the unheard of young friend is climbing up the floors the second fastest?”
“Yes. It is kind of strange that he is so skilled at such a young age but didn’t make a name for himself till now.”
“Hmm.”
At those words, the brush holding man looked like he was in pain and then picked the brush to move it against the wall again.
The brush strokes looked more swift like he was moving a sword. There was just one thing he wrote on the wall.
Sword.
Just the character in Chinese, but even the strokes were sharp like a sword.
“Ahhh!”
The muscular man was shocked. Someone who put down a brush turned away like he didn’t care.
“Did you say that guy uses a sword?”
Papak!
“Kuak!”
After being hit in the jaw by a kick that was thrown while doing a turn, the warrior on the spear floor screamed. The warriors of the spear floor who were watching it were shocked.
The one who fell down was the opponent on the 8th floor.
“Phew… phew…”
There was definitely a sense of exhaustion. If one was dealing with one person this would end in no time, but it was six against one, and it was inevitable that it would take time to defeat them all.
If only I had been able to freely use the techniques I learned. I could have finished this faster.
Even so, I reached the 8th floor with basic sword technique.
-Yah, you were faster than the Jin Young guy.
Short Sword smiled as if she liked this. But from the time I came up, I couldn’t see Lee Jung-gyeom.
-Is he already at the second stage?
He came up first so there was a chance of it. But the 8th floor was silent.
I looked to the other side of the training hall, there should be father in there but I could feel nothing.
But since he was one of the Eight Great Warriors, I couldn’t sense his presence. At that time, the head of the 8th floor said.
“Congratulations on passing the first part.”
“Do I get to take it right now?”
“No. To be fair, you will be scheduled for tomorrow, so take this plaque and come to this place on the 8th floor tomorrow by noon.”
Ah…
Was this why I couldn’t see him? The round wooden plaque given had the symbol of the sect.
It was a proof of us succeeding and he said in a heavy voice.
“But if you do not come by noon, we will take it that you gave up on the test, so keep that in mind.”
“He’s here! Here!”
“How did it go?”
When I came out of the tower, the many warriors around the castle tower looked at me wanting to know the result.
However I passed by not speaking because I didn’t want to brag about it. Then, I heard the whispers.
“Tch, tch. He must have failed.”
“Well, he took the test with the Eight Great Warrior’s descendants.”
“Shouldn’t he have given up?”
Looking at these reactions, it seems that there weren’t many who passed and those who didn’t pass wouldn’t know about the second test.
‘Uh?’
But it was strange
Lee Jung-gyeom, who should have passed the test before me, didn’t come out? Looking at their reactions it was like I came out alone. And then, someone blocked my way as I made my way through.
‘Who?’
It was a muscular middle aged man who showed up on the 4th floor. Why was he blocking me?
“What is it?”
I asked the man and he said.
“Could you spare some time?”
‘…’
What did he mean?
Even if not this, it felt like this man was keeping an eye on me ever since I crossed the fourth floor. For now I didn’t know his intentions so I thought it would be right to avoid him.
I bowed politely.
“Sorry. I just finished the test, I am tired so I just…”
But then unexpected words came out of the man’s mouth.
“Martial Heavenly Sword wishes to see you.”
‘…!?’
Martial Heavenly Sword was Chun Mu-seong.
He was one of two Eight Great Warriors within the Forces and head of the Martial Heavenly Sect.
