Chapter 192 :

<A Messenger from the Past (2)>

Not one member of the Sojeong Unit had ever been anywhere near the Martial Academy.

To men who barely scraped by on monthly wages with their flawed martial arts, the Martial Academy was practically another world, utterly beyond their reach.

Even admiring it was a luxury they could not afford. All they could do was fiercely despise its graduates.

And the worst of them was Yaryul Jae.

Normally a man of few words, he would lose his mind whenever he saw someone from the Martial Academy.

He would pick a fight, and when his opponent casually retaliated, he would fight back with his incomplete martial arts.

Of course, those confrontations always ended with Yaryul Jae sprawled on the ground, suffering humiliation.

As though he never tired of it, Yaryul Jae constantly picked fights with academy graduates and got beaten half to death every time.

That was how it had always been.

It had seemed impossible for him to have any connection to the Martial Academy…

'Then who the hell is that?'

Yaryul Jae had never mentioned anyone from his sect attending the Martial Academy.

To begin with, the Flowing Cloud Gate's martial arts lacked a decisive killing technique.

It was not the sort of sect aspiring martial artists favored.

And because its martial arts were incomplete, he had said the sect was always struggling to make ends meet.

Yaryul Jae himself had said he spent his life as a wandering warrior, trying to complete his sect's unfinished martial arts, before joining the Martial Alliance.

For a sect with neither strength nor money, taking the official examination was practically impossible at this point in time…

"Hey, you motherfuckers! Come at me, all of you!"

A sharp, ringing voice abruptly broke through my thoughts, and I looked ahead.

The small academy student who had thrown the big fellow was shouting for the next opponent to step forward, but none of the onlookers moved.

'As expected, it is still incomplete.'

Behind him, the big fellow who had been thrown got up as though nothing had happened, grabbed the smaller student around the shoulder, and kicked his leg.

The student lost his balance helplessly.

Thwack!

The big fellow's next kick struck the student in the face, instantly covering it in blood.

'I cannot just stand here.'

I drew up my internal energy and released a faint burst of killing intent.

"…!"

Those who had been watching leisurely widened their eyes and sprang to their feet.

I approached slowly and warned them.

"Why don't you stop?"

The big fellow froze as well, glaring at me.

I gave him a bright smile.

"I happen to be in a good mood today."

"…?"

His expression said he had no idea what I meant.

Well, I had not said it to help him understand anything.

I waved a hand in front of his face as though shooing away a fly.

"Would you kindly fuck off?"

Grind—

His teeth ground together menacingly, and his face twisted.

"Those are harsh words, Jin Sowoon."

One of the onlookers, dressed in the clothing of the Shandong Ak Family, spoke.

Ak Jupyeong, was it?

"This is a personal grievance. Stay out of it and leave."

Oh, so that bastard was the leader.

"…Do you not understand what 'personal' means? How many of you are there?"

I tilted my head at him, then slapped my forehead with exaggerated realization.

"Ah! That is right. I heard the Ak Family does not teach its children to read!"

A vein bulged on his forehead.

"How dare you insult my family!"

"Now you and I have a personal grievance too. Right?"

"…"

"As the academy representative, I cannot simply overlook this sort of shit."

I beckoned him with a finger.

"If you are confident, come and fight me. Otherwise, fuck off."

He sneered at my words.

"Do you still think you are the academy representative?"

Look at this bastard. He just would not stop buzzing.

This was why reasoning with idiots never worked.

I picked at my ear and raised my presence.

"Just fuck off already, you bastards!"

As I unleashed my killing intent, they scrambled backward.

"…Damn you!"

Only belatedly realizing they had retreated, their faces flushed crimson.

Ak Jupyeong chewed his lip, then abruptly turned away.

"Let us go."

Once their idiot leader backed down with his tail between his legs, the others hovering nearby each shot me a glare before following him away in the opposite direction.

"Tsk. They never listen when you ask nicely."

Clicking my tongue, I approached the boy who had been taking the beating.

'I have never seen him before…'

I examined him, wondering whether he might be connected to Yaryul Jae, but they looked nothing alike.

The only similarity was the identical sect emblem embroidered on their clothes.

"Hey. Are you all right?"

When I shook his shoulder, the student, who had been curled up protecting his head, snapped his eyes open.

Then he sprang to his feet.

"C-come on! Come at me, you bastards!"

He immediately assumed a fighting stance.

He certainly had guts. I would give him that.

"They are gone. Enough."

"…Gone?"

Only then did the student look around.

I nodded and started to ask what I wanted to know.

"You are from the Flowing Cloud Gate…"

"Where did those bastards go?"

"…"

Still worked up, he glared at me with bulging eyes.

"I chased them off. You can relax now…"

"You chased them off?"

The small student trembled.

"Who the hell are you to chase those bastards away? I was just about to teach them a proper lesson!"

"…"

Apparently, neither this bastard nor those other bastards had ever studied their letters.

He had a very strange understanding of "teaching someone a proper lesson."

"Bring those bastards back! Bring them back right now!"

How was I supposed to bring back people I had chased away?

"Then you can take their beating instead!"

The little brat grabbed my hand and tried to perform the Flowing Cloud Divine Art's Snow Flower technique.

If Lotus Flower was a counterattack, Snow Flower was an offensive technique.

Since it could not use the opponent's strength, its essence lay in maximizing one's own energy. But the little brat apparently knew nothing of that and simply tried to twist my hand by force.

"This little shit…"

Was he seriously crossing the line?

My patience exhausted, I drew up a little internal energy and lifted him bodily into the air.

Then I slammed him into the ground.

Boom!

"Gurk!"

The impact was so great that the brat vomited up what he had eaten.

Now perhaps we could have a conversation.

"Now, calm down and let us talk…"

But before I could finish, the brat sprang up and started running away.

"J-just you wait, Jin Sowoon! I will get revenge! Watch your back!"

With that, he limped away at a decidedly unimpressive speed.

"Ha!"

I let out a disbelieving laugh at the absurd situation.

I had failed to learn anything I wanted to know, but at least one thing was certain.

That bastard had some connection to Yaryul Jae.

No, they were almost certainly brothers.

'There is no way their shitty personalities could be that identical unless they shared blood.'

An inexplicable nostalgia welled up in my chest.

I went to the dormitory and sought out Jang Ujae.

As the central figure among the unaffiliated students, he might know something about the boy.

"Ah… You mean that vicious little bastard?"

Sure enough, Jang Ujae recognized him after only a brief description.

"Yuhun Sect? Flowing Cloud Gate? I remember his sect having a name like that."

"He really is from the Flowing Cloud Gate?"

"Do you know it? I had never heard the name before, so I could not quite remember."

"Yes, I have heard of it."

Jang Ujae nodded a couple of times.

"In any case, he is a peculiar fellow. He never spends time with anyone, and I have never seen him go out drinking or leave on personal business. He seems to squeeze training into every spare moment, but his skills do not appear to improve all that much."

"Are the others excluding him?"

Jang Ujae scratched his cheek.

"Well, the White Path Association, the Righteous Path Association, and the Twelve Peaks Fortress never treat us like people anyway. Because of that, the rest of us tend to stick together."

"Then why?"

"The thing is… he barely talks."

"…Then why did you call him a vicious little bastard?"

Jang Ujae rolled his eyes as though searching his memory.

"Well, he got into an argument with someone from the White Path Association a while ago. It was nothing serious. He demanded an apology, but the other person ignored him and walked away."

"And?"

After a pause, Jang Ujae raised both hands into the air and answered.

"That was when he took a rock to the White Path Association member's head…"

Ha. That lunatic…

Even his behavior was exactly like a certain someone's.

"After that, the White Path Association retaliated against him as a group. But he tracked them down one by one and attacked them again… It has been going on for three months now."

"What a spectacle."

"And whenever someone tries to help, he attacks them too… There is really nothing we can do."

"As expected, he is even crazier than I thought…"

"Pardon?"

"Ah, nothing. Just thinking aloud. But…"

I tilted my head at Jang Ujae.

"Why do you keep speaking so formally to me?"

"Ah, haha. I just find it more comfortable."

"…"

"Does it bother you?"

"No, not particularly."

Jang Ujae's eyes sparkled like a puppy wagging its tail at its owner.

"Then I may continue speaking to you this way?"

"Well, if that is what you prefer…"

Just as I finished talking to Jang Ujae and turned to leave, I remembered a question I had neglected to ask.

"Come to think of it, what was his name?"

"His name? …Ah! I remembered it because it was unusual."

"Unusual?"

Jang Ujae nodded vigorously.

"Yes. He said his name was Yaryul Geuk."

"…"

See? I told you I was right.

That bastard with a head full of reckless bravado instead of brains was definitely related to Yaryul Jae.

At this point, a question arose.

Why had Yaryul Jae never mentioned his younger brother?

He had been quiet, but he was not someone who kept his own life a closely guarded secret.

An impoverished sect and incomplete martial arts.

Yaryul Jae had said he became a wandering warrior in his youth to solve those two problems.

Since the fastest way to perfect one's unique martial art was through extensive practical combat, he had tried to complete the Flowing Cloud Divine Art while sending money back to his poor sect.

But fairy-tale stories about successfully traveling the murim world alone and ultimately perfecting one's martial arts were only possible for exceptional people like Hyeok Mugang.

Like the seniors of my own sect, Yaryul Jae had ultimately failed to complete his unfinished martial arts.

After drifting from place to place, he had ended up in the Martial Alliance's Sojeong Unit.

Ironically, only after giving up on everything had Yaryul Jae finally completed the Flowing Cloud Divine Art. But by then, the Righteous-Demonic War had been raging for some time.

Seven years had passed since the Flowing Cloud Gate had been uprooted completely.

[Damn it. To think I would actually finish it in the end.]

As though he resented himself for completing the martial art, Yaryul Jae had agonized over it and drunk even more than usual.

'What exactly happened? Were the two of them on bad terms?'

In any case, wanting to hear the story directly from Yaryul Geuk, I went looking for him.

According to what I had heard in my previous life, Yaryul Jae would have recognized his limits by now, abandoned his life as a wandering warrior, and begun living like a broken man.

If I could pass the completed Flowing Cloud Divine Art to him through Yaryul Geuk, perhaps his life in this timeline would change a little.

But the boy was nowhere to be found, either in the academy classrooms or in the eight-person dormitory room where he was staying.

'Is he getting beaten up by the White Path Association again?'

Just as I gave up searching and was about to return—

I sensed something flying toward me from behind.

I tilted my head slightly to avoid it and simultaneously snatched it out of the air.

'A… a rock?'

In my hand was a hefty rock with several sharp edges.

"Ha…"

Utterly dumbfounded, I turned toward the direction it had come from.

"That little bastard!"

A flustered Yaryul Geuk was spinning around and fleeing for his life.

Even as he ran, his mouth kept working.

"J-Jin Sowoon! Watch yourself at night!"

Last time he had told me to watch my back, and now he had thrown a rock at me. Did that mean he would ambush me at night next?

"Definitely Yaryul Jae's blood relative."

Yaryul Jae had probably never spoken of his younger brother because their relationship was absolutely terrible.

Did people with shitty personalities not hate others with the same personality most of all?

Was that called self-loathing?

"Trying to help him will only give me a headache."

It seemed the time to talk to him had not yet come.

I abandoned any thought of chasing him and returned to the dormitory.

"Huff, huff, huff."

After running for a long time and ducking behind a building, Yaryul Geuk cautiously poked his head out to see whether Jin Sowoon was following.

Fortunately, he sensed no sign of pursuit.

"Hah! See? Now he will be too scared of my attacks to sleep!"

After laughing to himself for a while, Yaryul Geuk gradually fell silent.

"Geuk… What the hell are you doing?"

He shook his head in self-disgust.

Jin Sowoon was a legend.

Though his sect belonged to the Hundred and Eight Peaks, it was utterly insignificant even compared with the Flowing Cloud Gate.

Yet he had taken the official examination with only his junior brothers and claimed first place.

Meanwhile, Yaryul Geuk had reached the academy through his older brothers' sacrifices, but instead of completing his martial arts, he spent every day fighting.

'That is why I said I did not want to come.'

His eldest brother had ventured into the murim world long ago, determined to complete their unfinished martial arts, only to fail.

Then he had sent Yaryul Geuk to the academy, saying that he could succeed.

During the official examination, his second brother had died, and his third brother had been crippled.

His eldest brother had told him not to worry about any of it and to focus on his studies. But how could it be that easy?

Still, after working himself to the bone to live up to his brothers' expectations, he had realized one thing.

'…I cannot do it.'

Every night, as he lay down to sleep after another day, he had the same thought.

He wished he could simply close his eyes forever.

He wished he would never see tomorrow's sun.

That was why he hated Jin Sowoon.

Because he shone so brightly.

Because he seemed so great.

The way he stood proudly before the powerful.

The way he pressed forward without wavering, no matter what difficulties confronted him.

It was all so contemptible.

But then the arrow of contempt changed direction and flew back toward him.

'No… The contemptible one is me.'

Yet there was nothing he could do now.

Behind him lay his second brother's death and his third brother's severed arm. Ahead stood a towering, solid wall he could never overcome.

"When will I be able to see my second brother…?"

For some reason, he found himself thinking more than usual today of his second brother's gentle smile.

He shook off his thoughts and started walking.

If he was going to launch a surprise attack tonight, he should get at least a little sleep now.

Then—

"There you are."

At the unpleasant voice behind him, his head snapped up.

Ak Jupyeong.

The bastard who had started this whole miserable feud.

The White Path Association members who always followed him stood in a line nearby.

There were three times as many as usual.

"You fucking bastards. Fighting dirty…"

"Do not worry. You will only be fighting one of us at a time."

"Fuck off!"

Yaryul Geuk thrust an insulting fist gesture at them, then sprinted in the opposite direction.

But before he had taken more than a few steps, a kick shot out from an alley and sent him flying.

Crash.

"Gurk."

The kick had struck so hard that his insides felt as though they were churning.

Ak Jupyeong approached at a leisurely pace and crouched down.

"What is your relationship with Jin Sowoon?"

He stared steadily at Yaryul Geuk.

Was this bastard afraid of Jin Sowoon too?

"Why do you want to know?"

"We are preparing something. If you have a connection to Jin Sowoon, we will postpone your punishment for a little while."

Did that mean he could escape this crisis by using Jin Sowoon's name?

"Huh?"

Yaryul Geuk swallowed the derisive laugh threatening to burst out.

Had he become so pathetic that he needed to invoke the name of someone he despised?

"Why would I have anything to do with someone like Jin Sowoon?"

"…"

Yaryul Geuk's eyes flashed like a wildcat's.

A smile spread across Ak Jupyeong's lips.

"That is a relief. It would have bothered me to put off trampling you."

Still smiling, Ak Jupyeong slowly rose to his feet.

His smile was the exact opposite of his second brother's.