Chapter 17 :

Chapter 17

Act Three: The Grand Martial Path Entrance Examination (10)

“The examination is over. The four of you may leave the barrier.”

Perhaps reaching a higher cultivation realm also elevated one’s composure, because Kang Yitae steadfastly performed his duty even while everyone else was engulfed in silence.

Of course, in his eyes, Yise probably looked no different from an infant who had only just outgrown the newborn stage, successfully rolled over for the first time, and raised both hands while roaring triumphantly.

The four of them walked out of the barrier.

Hae Unchan looked disappointed that he had failed to finish the demon himself despite having several opportunities.

Pi Garam remained expressionless as usual, showing no particular agitation.

Yise strode out confidently while carrying the enemy leader’s severed head.

As for Seol Ryeong...

“Why in the world is he acting like that...?”

She stared at Yise in astonishment, completely unable to understand the reason behind his behavior.

The sixth day’s examination allowed the applicants a moment to catch their breath.

In the morning, they took a written examination covering the contents of the Basic Grand Martial Path Handbook, which they had studied beforehand.

There were one hundred questions in total.

Yise completed the examination without difficulty.

Early in the afternoon, an examiner inspected his spiritual root.

The process appeared intended to determine whether an applicant had awakened their spiritual root, what type it was, and their current cultivation realm.

The examiner identified Yise’s cultivation realm the moment he saw him.

“You’ve already reached the Second Star.”

He could see that?

The examiner could not have judged it solely from the amount of spiritual energy Yise possessed.

By contrast, Yise found it difficult to estimate the examiner’s cultivation realm.

However, the man’s spiritual energy was not flowing in the form of meridians. Instead, it had gathered in one place and gently rippled as though contained within a vessel.

From that, Yise could roughly infer that he was a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

“The section for spiritual-root type was left blank... Do you possess an unusual constitution?”

“Yes.”

The examiner’s gaze once again turned toward the inside of Yise’s body.

However, he merely furrowed his brow, apparently unable to understand what he saw.

His curiosity and scholarly enthusiasm as a cultivator began to rise, but the examiner quickly composed himself.

Excessive greed invited disaster.

If he had been instructed not to take an interest, it would naturally be best to obey.

“You may leave.”

Yise bowed his head and moved on to the next stage.

The third place he visited was the Medical Hall.

The applicants were carefully examined for injuries or poisoning sustained during the previous examinations, and any discovered problems were treated.

The sudden improvement in their treatment made Yise feel that they had already crossed seventy percent of the examination’s course.

After the day’s schedule ended, he gathered with his teammates beside a brazier in a garden inside the martial training ground for a celebration.

Yise, Hae Unchan, and Pi Garam all questioned why they needed to do such a thing, but Seol Ryeong was adamant.

“Traditionally, after an event ends, you must enjoy music and dancing and even perform the Clothing-Burning Rite before it can be considered properly concluded! You could say it sends off the spirits from the ritual while adding to the festivities!”

“What are you talking about?”

Hae Unchan could only shake his head at Yise’s question.

Yise decided that shamans probably enjoyed celebrating whenever anything came to an end.

While Seol Ryeong busied herself preparing something around the bonfire, Hae Unchan procured some food and a bottle of unrefined rice wine from somewhere.

His bundle was filled with appetizing dried meat.

Yise smacked his lips.

If roasted over the fire, the golden-brown dried meat looked as though it would release a savory flavor and melt inside his mouth.

“Where did you get that?”

“This? It’s my emergency ration.”

“Setting aside the dried meat, are cultivators allowed to drink alcohol? Especially unrefined rice wine?”

“Maybe we aren’t?”

Hae Unchan and Yise fell into contemplation.

The Basic Grand Martial Path Handbook instructed them to stay away from impure food.

The problem was that it did not clearly explain what qualified as impure food.

At the very least, unrefined rice wine certainly appeared impure.

After putting their heads together and deliberating, Hae Unchan and Yise ultimately pushed the alcohol aside.

“All right, everyone take off your clothes!”

Having finished her preparations, Seol Ryeong smiled brightly and spoke to the three boys.

Unable to understand what she meant, the three of them exchanged bewildered looks.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and undress.”

“...Could you explain yourself without leaving out all the context?”

Only after Hae Unchan asked did Seol Ryeong realize her mistake, smile sheepishly, and elaborate.

“After fighting a wicked being such as a demon, you’re exposed to demonic energy and splattered with blood. If you don’t hold a proper purification celebration afterward, you’ll attract misfortune. That’s why we’re going to burn the clothes we wore during the battle and perform a simple ritual.”

As though she had finished explaining everything, Seol Ryeong placed one hand on her hip and beckoned with the other.

She meant for them to strip immediately.

“I understand the meaning, but here?”

“Yes, here! Honestly, you aren’t little children. What are you so embarrassed about?”

Frustrated that they continued dawdling despite her repeated instructions, Seol Ryeong stripped off Hae Unchan’s Daoist robe and overcoat.

She might have been tiny, but she was remarkably strong.

“There. Take off your trousers too.”

“Are you actually out of your mind...?”

The three boys looked at Seol Ryeong as though she were some lawless pervert.

She sighed and handed them the Daoist robes she had brought.

“Then put these on and remove your trousers underneath. I don’t understand why fully grown boys are so shy around me.”

“We’re like this because we’re fully grown...”

Seol Ryeong merely shook her head in frustration at Hae Unchan’s muttering.

A short while later, sparks crackled from the firewood as smoke and ash rose into the air.

Seol Ryeong performed a brief ritual, swaying with unusual movements as though dancing.

Apparently becoming hungry afterward, she grabbed a handful of Hae Unchan’s dried meat and ate it.

The dried meat roasted over the embers tasted truly magnificent.

More firewood was added to the flames.

Watching the fire rise again, Yise asked,

“Didn’t they purify all the demons’ remains at the examination ground yesterday? Do we really need to do this again?”

“That purification sent the demons’ souls into the bottomless abyss. This ritual removes the wicked energy attached to us.”

“Do we have to go through this troublesome ritual every time we perform demon extermination?”

“It would be better if you did, but you should at least perform it after hunting your first demon. It helps you develop resistance.”

Yise nodded as though he had acquired another useful piece of information.

However, there was one problem.

“That wasn’t my first demon extermination. Will it still have the same effect?”

“What?”

Seol Ryeong questioned him, while Hae Unchan and Pi Garam subtly raised their heads and glanced his way.

“You performed demon extermination before entering the Grand Martial Path? When?”

“When I was ten.”

“...? You’re joking, right? Then what you said earlier about a ten-year-old being able to kill a demon was true?”

Yise merely shrugged.

“It’s still better to perform the ritual as early as possible even if that wasn’t your first hunt... But why did you hunt a demon at such a young age? What kind of demon was it—?”

“Don’t ask any further.”

Seol Ryeong leaned her upper body closer to Yise as she questioned him, but Pi Garam extended a hand and stopped her.

Seol Ryeong fell silent at Pi Garam’s serious tone.

“Children from noble families who were raised in comfort might not understand, but there are few childhood encounters with demons that produce pleasant stories when questioned.”

Only then did Seol Ryeong realize that pressing further might reopen painful memories, and she backed away.

Yise might have mentioned the subject first, but companions still needed to know when to respect one another’s boundaries.

Yise neither confirmed nor denied it.

In Seol Ryeong’s seventeen years of experience, an answer like that was usually closer to confirmation.

“More importantly, Yise. Why did you overextend yourself while fighting the Mokgwang yesterday?”

Pi Garam naturally changed the subject and asked what he had been wondering for some time.

Yise readily admitted that he had pushed himself too far.

“I’m sorry I didn’t discuss it with you beforehand.”

“I wasn’t asking for an apology. We passed the examination easily, so there was no harm. I’m simply curious about your reason. You seemed cautious and deliberate.”

“Even if I had to take a risk...”

Seol Ryeong, who had quietly been tasting the unrefined rice wine, flinched.

“I needed to catch the examiners’ attention.”

“Why?”

“Because of my unusual constitution. I need the privilege awarded to the first- and second-place applicants: personal instruction from a Hall Master.”

The other three recalled the disturbance that had occurred on the second day.

Yise clearly possessed a secret he could not disclose, one significant enough to summon even the Grand Martial Path’s Hall Masters.

They finally appeared to understand and offered him a warning.

“I understand. To be safe, it would be best to keep information about that constitution secret from everyone else.”

“That’s why I didn’t tell any of you either.”

Although it was already a not-so-secret secret known by several people, Yise chose not to say more.

“I see.”

Yise smiled faintly, and Pi Garam crossed his arms.

At some point, Hae Unchan and Seol Ryeong had begun passing unrefined rice wine back and forth in a cut gourd dipper, their faces growing flushed with intoxication.

The fact that the Grand Martial Path’s future suddenly seemed somewhat bleak was a minor concern.

***

The final day of the Grand Martial Path Entrance Examination dawned.

The previous night, Seol Ryeong had explained, “If you remain until the final day, they say you’ve practically passed already. You can think of the final examination as something closer to a ranking match!”

That was understandable, as only around sixty applicants remained.

Considering the deaths that occurred during a disciple’s first year after entering, it would be difficult to eliminate many more applicants here.

Among the applicants who remained until the end, eight were ordinary mortals without spiritual roots.

They would enter as Outer Sect personnel, primarily work in intelligence gathering, and live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

Unlike Inner Sect disciples, their mortality rate was not high, so selecting around ten each year was said to provide more than enough personnel.

While the applicants stood in formation and waited at the examination ground, nine men and women appeared on the platform at the front and exchanged greetings with Kang Yitae and one another.

Yise recognized three of them.

They were Great Cultivators in the Core Formation Realm, regarded as the Grand Martial Path’s central fighting force and the very power supporting it.

The Hall Masters of the Eleven Inner Halls had appeared.

There were ten of them in total.

It seemed every Hall Master was present except Hae Il, the Master of the Azure Dragon Hall, who was reportedly away on official business.

“Have this many Hall Masters ever observed the examination before...?”

An applicant named Wang Soin, who had approached Yise and swaggered about this being his fourth attempt, muttered to himself.

Apparently, they had gathered after hearing rumors that this year’s applicants possessed extraordinary talent.

“We will now begin the seventh examination.”

Once the somewhat chaotic atmosphere settled, Kang Yitae stepped onto the platform as usual and declared the beginning of the examination.

“The examination is simple. Two applicants whose names are called will compete against each other in a one-on-one match. The match will end when one participant surrenders or loses consciousness. Every method and means is permitted. Based on the cumulative scores thus far, the matches will begin with the lowest-ranked applicants and proceed in reverse order.”

A direct confrontation between cultivators.

Yise understood why the final examination, despite not determining whether they passed or failed, produced the greatest number of casualties.

This was a kind of stage.

Unlike the previous examinations, where attention had been divided among many people, this moment focused solely on the two competitors determining which of them was superior.

Those observing them were Great Cultivators in the Core Formation Realm, objects of admiration and respect.

It was the perfect situation for applicants to become overexcited while trying to attract the Hall Masters’ attention.

Their pride would not allow them to surrender easily.

Furthermore, each opponent was a competitor ranked directly above or below them.

Battles between people of similar skill were always the fiercest.

The examination began with matches between ordinary mortals.

They had already accomplished all their goals by reaching this point, so their matches felt like light entertainment intended to enliven the atmosphere.

After the eight ordinary mortals completed their matches, the cultivators’ battles began in earnest.

They were all-out battles in which the applicants poured everything into their trained martial arts and prepared ritual implements.

The Hall Masters conversed casually among themselves, occasionally turning toward the examination ground to see whether any promising talent had appeared.

The atmosphere of the examination ground grew heated.

Not even common magic was being used, but as the applicants’ rankings increased, the matches became fiercer and increasingly worth watching.

“Next. Seol Ryeong and Jo Jeongjin.”

Seol Ryeong was currently ranked eleventh overall.

At first, she appeared to be fighting fiercely against the twelfth-ranked applicant.

However, she soon expended a large number of hidden ritual implements and overwhelmed her opponent with superior firepower.

Pi Garam was ranked seventh.

The eighth-ranked applicant was one of the preselected applicants at the Second Star of the Energy Refinement Realm.

Despite facing an opponent capable of controlling spiritual energy, Pi Garam kept him at a distance and pressured him with archery and formations.

He ultimately defeated his opponent with a sudden close-range attack.

Although both of their performances had been overshadowed by Yise’s almost excessive accomplishments, they had proven themselves fully capable of achieving the highest rankings.

Near the end of the examination, two more members of their group were called.

Yise and Hae Unchan looked at each other.

Neither of them had been called.

That meant they were ranked first and second and would determine the final victor in the last match.

“I expected it, but it really turned out this way. I have no intention of going easy on you.”

Although Hae Unchan’s voice was calm, his face was filled with excitement and fighting spirit.