Hou Jinchang tried to defend against the twenty-four swords at once, but he could only counter three of them. He then quickly wrapped himself up with defensive energy. Yeowun’s finger pressed his blood point, inflicting pain. If Yeowun had a sword in his hand, it would have killed Jinchang. And even with his bare hand, the powerful sword move was like a violent storm, making Jinchang spin.
“Aaaargh!”
Hou Jinchang quickly unleashed 100% of his internal energy to defend himself. At least the internal energy within the movements did not exceed his own. Hou Jinchang barely shook off the power and landed on the ground, but lost his balance and fell to his knees.
All the cadets’ mouths were agape from the shock. It was amazing that Chun Yeowun had learned such a powerful sword skill, but what was more important was that he had made Hou Jinchang fall on his knees.
‘...It worked just like the simulation.’
Chun Yeowun himself was also thrilled to see that it had worked. Hou Jinchang’s sword movements with the Seven Demon Sword was very similar to the counter sword skill from the blue pearl stone pedestal. However, Hou Jinchang’s movements were only at the early stages of the counter sword skill and when the counter sword skill had twenty-four movements at its perfection, the Seven Demon Sword only had eight. Therefore, it wasn’t enough to defend against the Sword Force of the Demon Sky.
‘This movement...’
Hou Jinchang looked at Yeowun with trembling eyes. Yeowun still did not let down his guard and was ready for another round.
‘He’s still not done yet. The fight is not over.’
Yeowun had overwhelmed him in the movement, but he felt Hou Jinchang’s strong energy shooting out. Yeowun was almost at the brink of breaking through the master level, but he was still far from reaching the grandmaster level.
‘This is interesting, Yeowun.’
Hou Jinchang readied himself. He hadn’t used his own skills, but he didn’t go easy either. He then wanted to fight against Chun Yeowun with his best.
“Hmph!”
Hou Jinchang let out a breath and powerful energy began to seep out from his hand, cracking the stone floor. It was by pushing out Yeowun’s sword energy that had infiltrated his body.
‘He pushed out the energy?’
Yeowun’s eyes grew wider. Highly trained warriors had the free flow of energy within their bodies, so it was easy for them to push out the hostile energy. Hou Jinchang got up and Yeowun readied himself again.
The fight was not over. That’s when the unexpected happened. Hou Jinchang, who seemed to want to fight back instantly, pulled back his energy.
‘Huh?’
Jinchang then smiled at Yeowun who was confused.
“It is amazing. You really become different as the days go by.”
‘Maybe we have a monster beyond imagination born within our cult.’
Jinchang thought that, but he didn’t say it out loud. He then pulled out the tag from his chest.
‘Huh?’
‘Really?’
The cadets were excited.
“I accept my loss. You are worthy enough to be a group leader. This tag is yours.”
At those words, the cadets began to shout in excitement. All their faces were red from the surge of excitement after seeing something that was impossible become a reality.
‘He really did it!’
‘Is this even true?’
‘He really is a monster!’
It wasn’t a complete victory, but Yeowun had made Hou Jinchang fall to his knees. There was no way for the cadets who were also cultists to not feel excited to see such strength. Yeowun then bowed to Hou Jinchang.
“Thank you, Instructor.”
“Don’t thank me. You acquired it with your own skill.”
Jinchang smiled and placed the tag in Yeowun’s hand. So, after five days, Yeowun had returned to become a group leader. But the weight of the tag was very different with all the things that had happened up until now.
‘I will never forget this.’
Yeowun then heard someone shouting.
“Master!”
It was Hu Bong. He had not imagined Yeowun to appear in the middle of nowhere and suddenly acquire another yellow tag at once. All of this was just too exciting.
“Hu Bong.”
“Master! We’ve been waiting for your return!”
But there was another man. Someone walked past all cadets and came up to Yeowun.
‘Bakgi?’
Yeowun did not know that Bakgi had joined his members while he was gone. Bakgi looked at Yeowun awkwardly and kneeled in front of him. All the cadets around them then turned to Bakgi.
‘Huh?’
‘Why is Bakgi kneeling?’
‘What is going on?’
Bakgi was another group leader level cadet, so it was confusing. The cadets didn’t know what happened yesterday, so they thought Bakgi was another group leader with a tag.
“Bakgi. What are you doing?” Yeowun asked.
Bakgi then shouted in a loud voice, “I will first thank you! I, the 18th cadet, Bakgi, survived from the Poison Clan’s poison attack due to Prince Chun Yeowun!”
“Huh?”
People began to mumble to themselves in shock.
‘What? The Poison Clan tried to kill the 18th cadet?’
‘What’s going on?’
It was natural for the cadets to be shocked to hear this. All they knew up until now was that Yeowun had destroyed Chun Jongsum’s internal energy, which looked like a foolish act to provoke the Poison Clan. But if what Bakgi said was right, then Chun Yeowun was helping Bakgi.
“I am deeply touched by your actions. You pushed yourself so far that you even got sent to prison.”
‘Hmm? What is up with him and this politeness?’
Yeowun frowned slightly since he knew how Bakgi usually talked. However, he realized what Bakgi was trying to do here, so he didn’t say anything.
‘What? So the 7th cadet did that to save the 18th cadet?’
‘But what for?’
The cadets seemed to find this to be very shocking. Bakgi then bowed.
“I, Bakgi, will serve Prince Chun with my life from now on!”
‘Ah.’
Yeowun was astonished. If Bakgi had planned this himself, this really was astounding. Bakgi, who was not part of Yeowuns’ group yet, had just announced to all the cadets that he would be joining Yeowun for his noble deed. Among the cadets, there was a muscular cadet who stood between them with a smile on his face. It was Ko Wanghur. He sent a telepathic message to Bakgi.
[Good work. It was a bit awkward though.]
[...I will do what you want just this once.]
[Hahaha. That will do.]
What Bakgi did had been planned by Ko Wanghur. He had thought of this plan in a short time when all cadets were shouting with joy. Bakgi then had to act in front of all cadets for the sake of the plan.
At the same time, there were two instructors walking up the stairs of the main building — Instructor Hou Jinchang and Impeng.
“It’s noisy outside.”
Impeng knew why of course.
“Will it be okay, sir?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? He is worthy of such recognition.”
“Yes, sir.”
Impeng had also watched the fight. He was worried at first but Yeowun surprised him yet again.
“But I was really impressed. How did he learn such martial arts?”
Impeng was experienced with the sword, but even he was shocked to see it. However, it was weird that he had never seen such sword art throughout all the time that he had been in the cult.
“Do you think the Right Guardian taught him that skill too?”
“I am not sure, but he definitely is an exceptional warrior, so I guess that might be the case.”
“....Hmm.”
Would a blade skill user teach his apprentice a sword skill? Impeng thought this was weird but that seemed to be the only logical reason. As they reached the third floor, Impeng turned to walk into instructors’ office but Hou Jinchang went up further.
“Huh? Aren’t you coming to the office?”
“You go ahead. I want to take a break.”
“Yes, sir.”
Hou Jinchang then walked up the stairs to the roof of the main building. At the fence on the roof, someone was there. He had long red hair that was fluttering in the breeze.
“Chief.”
“Come over.”
Hameng did not look back. He was looking down at the crowd below.
“I would not have held back if it wasn’t for your telepathic message.”
“Anyone would do that if they were challenged with such a sword movement.”
Hameng had watched the fight from the start and he had seen Yeowun’s powerful sword movements in detail. Hou Jinchang walked up to the Hameng and spoke with a quiet voice.
“When I was young, I fought wars against the Forces of Evil and Justice countless times. And of course, there had been many instances where I fought in the war with our Lord.”
“...”
“I’m sure you, as a guardian, know about this better than me.”
Lee Hameng narrowed his eyes. He knew what Jinchang was trying to say. Hou Jinchang mumbled to Hameng who was looking down silently.
“That sword movement... if I’m not wrong, it was very close to the Lord’s Sword Art of the Sky Demon. No... it was similar, but something much more.”