The First Gate of the Hell Official Exam (2)
Five hundred years ago, the Demonic Cult appeared, and the Murim Alliance was formed.
After driving out the Demonic Cult, the remaining members of the Murim Alliance at the time left the Murim Alliance behind as proof of their sworn pact.
In the ownerless murim world, interests began gathering around the Murim Alliance, and the Murim Alliance achieved rapid growth.
However, the influx of talent that should have accompanied such rapid growth became entangled in blood ties, regional ties, and official ties, leading to downward standardization. Because of this, three hundred years ago, the Martial Academy was established to train talents who would protect the order of the Murim Alliance and the murim world.
Thus, the Martial Academy became a symbol of success for martial artists.
Those who entered the Murim Alliance through the Martial Academy were treated as officers, while those who entered the Murim Alliance as low-ranking warriors could not be promoted beyond deputy pavilion master.
For prestigious great sects, entering the Murim Alliance as a low-ranking warrior with a limit on promotion was an unbearable humiliation.
The entrance competition that began like that endlessly raised the level of the exam, and at some point, people began calling the Martial Academy regular examination the Hell Official Exam.
“Do you understand now? What kind of exam you were trying to take?”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
I said to them.
“Go back. I will not stop you.”
If I wanted to protect all the children of the Taeul Sect, we needed more people from the Martial Academy.
But now, we had inherited the Taeul Sword Emperor’s true transmission, and various conditions had been added.
There was no need for everyone to risk their lives and take the Martial Academy regular examination.
However, despite my persuasion, the Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers did not back down.
“What are you talking about?”
“Do not say something so ridiculous.”
“What kind of resolve do you think we endured that training with?”
Contrary to my worries, their fighting spirit was still burning fiercely.
“We will follow even out of resentment.”
“If you leave us behind, we will chase you to death.”
“Me too!”
Well, after working that hard, if I left them behind, I did not know what those three brothers might do to me later.
“You are confident you will not regret it?”
“A Taeul Sect disciple does not regret things.”
“Who said that?”
“Eldest senior brother.”
“…….”
Why were these boys saying words that I, who had absolute memory, did not remember?
“Eldest senior brother, but why mountain strongholds?”
At Dongryong’s question, I answered.
“That has to do with the number of examinees.”
“Examinees?”
The number the Martial Academy selects in one round is only eight hundred ninety-two.
Including the one hundred eight people selected from the One Hundred Eight Peaks, that makes a total of one thousand.
The number of people applying to the Martial Academy is roughly two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand.
If the warriors they bring along are included, the number reaches nearly one million.
The Murim Alliance uses this opportunity to handle the petitions coming into the Murim Alliance and also reduce the number of examinees, so it creates the First Gate.
“The number of mountain strongholds designated by the Murim Alliance nationwide is four thousand. These are all the mountain strongholds that have the potential to grow into a large scale, excluding the Seventy-Two Green Forest Strongholds represented by the Green Forest Alliance.”
Most mountain strongholds belonging to the Green Forest Alliance are bandits from the dark faction who have learned martial arts.
They are closer to gangs than mountain strongholds.
“Then only four thousand people pass the first gate?”
“Yes.”
It was truly a masterful move.
Those without decent martial arts, those without forces, and those without strength would fall in the first exam.
At the same time, if the exam was completed, the mountain strongholds that had long troubled the Murim Alliance would disappear all at once.
The Murim Alliance could sit still, hold the exam, and solve a problem at the same time.
“Then this is not the time to be standing around, is it?”
As expected, Eunho was quick-witted.
I smiled and asked.
“Why?”
“Should we not hurry and secure the weakest mountain stronghold among the four thousand? We already have so few people.”
“Yes, let us go for now.”
I took them to Hwaun Mountain.
“Is this not Hwaun Mountain? Is there a mountain stronghold here?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“There is something you must do before eradicating a mountain stronghold.”
“?”
“Stand in front.”
The Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers stood side by side.
“You have learned moving circulation, right?”
Geumpyo tilted his head.
“Moving circulation?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“What were you taught?”
“The hall master of Kuaehwa Hall said, ‘Geumpyo, no matter the situation, you must not use moving circulation.’”
“And?”
“Hmm…… Ah! He also said this. ‘If you must use it, if you really, really have no other choice, if your life is truly, truly in danger…… even then, do not use it.’”
“You were taught well.”
“……No way?”
Moving circulation was one of the representative energy circulation methods, along with standing circulation, seated circulation, and lying circulation.
“You will learn that moving circulation anew.”
“……Senior brother.”
“What is it?”
“If I may say one thing, when the sect leader sent us, he also gave us the mission to monitor senior brother. He told us to make sure to stop you if you did something insane.”
The reason seated circulation was the representative energy circulation method in the murim world was because of its efficiency and stability, and the reason moving circulation was looked down upon was because, unlike seated circulation, its efficiency and stability were not guaranteed.
“Did I not say it? You will learn it anew.”
“…….”
“Memorize what I recite carefully.”
During my Sojeong Unit days, I always hit my limit because of my meager internal energy.
Enemies kept pouring in endlessly, and we had no time to rest, so there was no room to circulate energy.
But without even a small amount of internal energy, we could not deal with demonic practitioners who had learned demonic arts.
Most of the Sojeong Unit members were the same.
I created a new moving circulation while experiencing the threat of qi deviation hundreds of times.
‘Thinking about it now, it was truly insane. It was only possible because I was prepared to die.’
As the sight of me becoming exhausted in battle gradually disappeared, the members of the Sojeong Unit began taking interest, and I shared it with them.
The Sojeong Unit members attached the name of my vanished sect to the nameless moving circulation.
It was the Taeul Moving Circulation.
“Have you memorized it?”
“…….”
Their eyes were still filled with distrust.
For boys who had no trust in their eldest senior brother, punishment was necessary, right?
I released killing intent toward the three of them.
“Keuheuk!”
“Hup!”
“Kkeueok!”
The boys’ faces turned deathly pale as if they had seen a ghost, and they scattered in all directions.
After I used innate true energy in the spar with Hwa Jeongsan and drew the Taeul True Scripture to its extreme, my killing intent had become denser, so the boys looked as if their souls might leave their bodies at any moment.
“Heok, heok, heok. W-What is this, senior brother?”
“Why, why are you doing this?”
“Stand again.”
At my words, the three brothers began walking back hesitantly despite their unwilling feet.
“From now on, I will slowly release killing intent and gradually raise its intensity. Operate the moving circulation.”
The boys began operating the moving circulation with desperate hearts, wanting to survive.
“How is it?”
“……Huh? It is getting better?”
I doubled the killing intent.
“Now?”
“It is…… fine.”
Then I gradually raised the intensity of the killing intent until it was half of what it had been before.
“How is it now?”
“It is difficult…… but it is fine.”
“This is one of the advantages of moving circulation.”
One of the effects gained while creating the Taeul Moving Circulation was that one could maintain reason inside killing intent and demonic energy.
At the same time, the Taeul Moving Circulation could sensitively sense the threat of qi deviation, allowing one to stop the moving circulation before falling into qi deviation.
“Aha! You mean we should use this moving circulation when we feel killing intent?”
“What are you talking about? If that were all, why bother learning moving circulation?”
“Uh…… then…….”
“From now on, operate the moving circulation whenever you are awake. When you walk, when you run, and when you fight.”
“Senior brother! Senior brother!”
Dongryong raised his hand.
“What is it?”
“When I try to move with this, it feels like my whole body is about to twist.”
“That is the safety device. If you go further from there, you will enter qi deviation. So you must practice carefully, then move slowly.”
“…….”
The three brothers looked at me as if I were truly insane.
“Why must we go this far?”
“First, your internal energy is too meager. If you move through the Taeul Moving Circulation, it is faint compared to seated circulation, but you can steadily gather internal energy bit by bit. Second, you must take the exam and train at the same time. What use are boys I brought all the way here if they cannot even inherit the Taeul Sword Emperor’s true transmission? Third.”
This was the reason I was passing down the Taeul Moving Circulation to them.
“There are only four of us. And our competitors are close to one million. Do you think we will have time to rest?”
“…….”
“It is not only the exam. For the Taeul Sect, with its weak strength, to soar, we will have to fight countless people countless times. Those who try to trample us will number at least in the thousands, and we will not even have time to rest.”
Once the Righteous-Demonic War broke out, the terrible days with no leisure whatsoever would continue for years.
We would have to use internal energy while gathering internal energy at the same time, and at the same time, maintain mental strength.
The Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers swallowed hard.
“If we do this…… can we beat the people who block our path?”
“How do you think I have been winning until now?”
The eyes of the three brothers began shining brightly.
“Begin.”
Then they slowly began taking steps.
However, perhaps because they kept feeling twitching sensations, their movements were slower than snails, and their brows were deeply furrowed.
“If you do not want to stay in Anhui Province throughout the Martial Academy exam, you had better be diligent.”
“Where are you going?”
“I do not want to sleep on Hwaun Mountain. If you do not want to either, hurry down. I will wait at the foot of the mountain.”
I left them and headed down the mountain.
#
After descending Hwaun Mountain, I took a small note out from my sleeve.
* Sohwa Pavilion. First room.
When I was looking at the notice at the Hefei branch of the Murim Alliance, someone secretly played a hand trick on me.
Naturally, I thought they were aiming for the money pouch inside my robe, so I grabbed their wrist and twisted it, but the other person did not even scream and instead opened their palm to show me this note.
“To think they are contacting me only now. They are really weighing their timing.”
After robbing Wolhyang’s grave in Hunan and dealing with the wealth, I asked Yang Gunbaek for the qualification of a “guest” of Haomun.
It had been months since I gave him the Beggar Gang’s information along with that request.
Only now had the answer come.
“They must have waited for the moment when their own value would be highest.”
Along with the Martial Academy exam, the value of the Beggar Gang and Haomun would rise through the roof.
Haomun probably knew this and had delayed giving me an answer.
There are three representative wine houses in Hefei’s pleasure district.
Manyue Pavilion, Johyang Pavilion, and Sohwa Pavilion.
Among them, the place Gye Cheolyeong had frequented constantly was Johyang Pavilion, and the most expensive of the three, where only high-ranking officials and nobles came and went, was Sohwa Pavilion.
When I entered Sohwa Pavilion, decorated with splendid lanterns and cloth from the entrance, a woman wearing clothes that exposed her skin because there seemed to be too little fabric approached.
Even after seeing my plain martial uniform and attire that made me look penniless no matter how one looked at it, she acted as if nothing was strange.
“Is there a courtesan you are looking for?”
“I have an appointment. I was told to come to the first room.”
The basic guest room of Sohwa Pavilion was the fourth-grade room.
It was the most basic room, with one female servant, one male servant, and one courtesan attached to each guest.
If it was the first room, there were four female servants and four male servants attached, with musicians included, and four courtesans attached to each guest.
It was truly a place only people who could throw money around could come to.
Originally, it was a space someone like me could not enter.
But perhaps the woman already knew I was coming, because she guided me to the place without delay.
The inside of the room was more pleasant than I had expected.
There were no windows, but candles were lit here and there, and there was no miscellaneous furniture.
On one side, elderly maids and servants were waiting, and though their clothing was simple, the texture looked like silk rather than ordinary cotton.
Red-light establishments often used old men and women as servants and maids in preparation for drunk guests touching them.
This also had the effect of making the young and beautiful appearances of the courtesans stand out even more.
“They will come if you wait a moment.”
There were no courtesans inside the room.
The male and female servants stood silently with their heads lowered, and even that appearance made the place feel luxurious.
‘Is this why people come here and spend money?’
A little while later, a woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties entered the room with four warriors of imposing presence.
The beauty of the young woman who had guided me just now had also been no ordinary level, but the beauty of the woman entering now was even greater.
If not for the faint traces of time around her eyes and mouth, she would have been beautiful enough to shake the world.
The middle-aged woman seemed to have no regret about the traces of time, and aside from natural makeup, she did not try to hide her aging.
“I finally get to greet you. On behalf of Haomun, I offer my thanks. I am Yeo Mimi, the Haomun sect leader.”
I also slowly rose and clasped my fists.
“I am Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect.”
“I have heard much of Young Master Black Flame Dragon’s reputation.”
“…….”
“I heard the story through Gunbaek. You said you wished to become a guest, correct?”
“Yes.”
“I apologize for not being able to answer quickly, as we had to check internal matters.”
“I understand.”
Unlike the Beggar Gang, most Haomun disciples were engaged in livelihoods.
In inns, in wine houses, in shops, wherever there were people, Haomun was there.
However, unlike the Beggar Gang, martial arts had not been passed down in Haomun, and since there were more civilians than warriors, they tried even harder to hide their identities.
“For us, there was much to think about regarding how we should accept Young Master Jin Sowoon.”
“Has it now been settled?”
Haomun was generally closer to an organization that sold information, but in truth, the ones who used their information the most were Haomun themselves.
For Haomun, protecting Haomun and maximizing the interests of its disciples was the highest goal.
A “guest” referred to the position of one who surpassed such goals of Haomun.
That was why, throughout history, very few people had received the qualification of being a “guest.”
And what people did not know was that to receive this “guest” qualification from Haomun, one had to pass several tests.
The first test was whether one possessed information Haomun did not have.
The reason I had handed the Beggar Gang’s information to Yang Gunbaek was because of that.
“Yes. We also confirmed the information Young Master Jin gave us.”
“Was it helpful?”
“Very much so. Honestly, it was truly difficult to find the source of where Young Master Jin obtained that information.”
“I am glad it helped.”
“But at the same time, there is also concern. Whether we should accept someone outside our field of vision as a guest.”
“Is that not precisely why you should do it? The best way to observe someone I do not know is to place them within my field of vision.”
At my words, Yeo Mimi fell into deep thought.
What was unusual was that even while thinking, she kept staring steadily into my eyes, making me feel as if she were observing what lay within them.
“I know why Haomun’s closed nature is necessary. But if you become too buried in only that, will you not eventually become stagnant and rot?”
Yeo Mimi’s eyes wavered for the first time.
“The incident at Maling Plateau. If there had been even one skilled art practitioner, Haomun would not have fallen into danger, would it? If I had not been there, what do you think would have happened?”
For the first time, Yeo Mimi lowered her head and fell into thought.
Then she soon nodded.
“As expected, they said Young Master Black Flame Dragon’s scheming is deeper than the Infinite Buddha Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation, and it seems the rumor was true.”
For the first time, a faint smile appeared on Yeo Mimi’s face.
How many men in the past had burned with longing because of that smile?
“Understood. Let us do that. I prepared this just in case, and it seems I will end up using it.”
Along with her words, Yeo Mimi held out a pouch made of silk.
Inside it was densely written information about the examinees one should pay attention to among those currently participating in the First Gate of the Martial Academy regular examination.
Yeo Mimi rose from her seat.
While looking over the documents, I asked Yeo Mimi.
“Then is it over now?”
“Yes. Whenever you need Haomun’s help, please call us.”
As Yeo Mimi rose, the warriors surrounded her at the same time.
With my eyes still fixed on the documents, I asked.
“Is that so?”
Haomun’s verification was not yet over.
“Then…… when can I meet the sect leader?”
“…….”
Yeo Mimi’s face stiffened a little as she turned her head sharply.
“You contacted me late enough as it is, so I am quite busy. I would like the occasion for verifying the ‘guest’ qualification to end quickly.”
The second test.
Whether one possesses eyes that can distinguish the truth.
I looked at the person standing at the very end of the old maids and asked.
“If the sect leader thinks I am unnecessary, I will leave. I cannot let my junior brothers sleep in the mountains.”
“!”
Yeo Mimi’s eyes trembled violently as she looked at me.
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