The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 190 Scholar Juyul (13) - A Needle in a Bag "Outstanding talent will eventually be revealed no matter how much one tries to hide it" *** The standards for distinguishing the realms of masters in the martial world are somewhat ambiguous. While different groups, sects, and regions have different methods of classification, the most important factor is the historical context. For example, just a few hundred years ago, Peak Master was truly a title given only to martial artists who had reached the pinnacle of their era. They skillfully wielded sword aura to cut down giant trees with a single blade, and crossed several zhang in distance with just one step - how could they not be the greatest martial artists? But martial arts is ultimately a field of study as well. All elements - mental cultivation methods, internal energy, techniques, and skills - gradually develop with the flow of time, so the average level of the martial world must inevitably rise together. As the standards for masters rose, the realm called Transcendent emerged to designate what came after Peak Masters, and then Transformation Realm and Manifestation Realm were continuously added as new realms. At this point, one might ask how this differs from children's quarrels, but what can be done? Whether they're large or small, whether they have thick beards or not, men are fundamentally children, and distinguishing realms and asking "So how strong is that? Which side is stronger?" is behavior close to instinct. Especially for intelligence organizations, they must have even clearer and more unified standards regarding these master classifications. Because if an ignorant organization member can't distinguish between sword aura and sword force and reports a Peak Master as a Transcendent Master, it could become a serious problem when it matters. The Hao Sect, known as the representative information organization of the evil path in this era, had established detailed classification standards for each realm to prevent such mishaps, and thoroughly drilled them into their disciples. The classification method that Hao Sect leader Oh Ga-myeong personally wrote by hand and distributed to each branch was as follows. Third-rate: "These are trash who carry weapons at their waist but have no real skill in handling them, and in severe cases can't even properly equip weapons. They're basically martial artists in name only, so even our Hao Sect disciples can beat them if they put their minds to it. But don't actually pick fights. You'll get hurt." Second-rate: "These have the skill to handle weapons and are sufficiently strong compared to ordinary people, but have no ability to handle internal energy. However, there's no beating numbers, so if five or six charge at you with killing intent, you just die. Usually that killing intent doesn't work out and they get picked off one by one though." First-rate: "These can handle internal energy to show strength and movement beyond ordinary humans, but have limitations in handling sword aura like projecting energy outside their body. Just think - kids who do things that make you go 'Is that possible with a human body?' are at least first-rate. Among dragonkin there are some who do the same stuff without using a drop of internal energy, but just count that as first-rate too. Don't try to distinguish every little thing with your uneducated heads." Peak: "Usually called the realm of handling sword aura, but actually it's just that swords are most common - use it with a blade and it's blade energy, with fists and it's fist energy. The important thing is that you can see faint shimmers or glows around whatever they use as their main weapon. By the way, this is the realm where the most incorrect reports come in. You can clearly see when skilled guys use it, but sword aura squeezed out by those who just reached Peak level or first-rate guys not thinking about practicality is fucking hard to see. Be especially careful in blazing summer sunlight. Don't mistake heat mirages and swords glinting in sunlight for sword aura and report them as Peak Masters." (E/N: So third rate is 1st rank, second rate is 2nd rank, first rate is 3rd rank, peak is 4th rank, transcendent is 5th rank, transformation is 6th rank - if we compare to the classification used outside this empire) Transcendent: "The realm of using Sword Force. What is Sword Force? It's when internal energy goes beyond simply dwelling in weapons to become dense enough to possess physical force on its own, and at this point even ordinary people can see the distinct colors and shapes just by looking. Additionally, wrapping this kind of Sword Force around your body like armor is called protective Sword Force, and these bastards won't get a scratch even if you stab them in the back of the head, so absolutely don't mess with them." Transformation Realm: "They manifest their mental imagery into reality through energy, breaking down the boundaries between nature and self, but you won't understand that stuff anyway so I'll just speak at your level. First: If their known age and appearance don't match up, there's a high chance they're Transformation Realm. They can maintain their physical condition at its peak, so even elderly people look like young adults on the outside. Second: If they overwhelmingly crush Transcendent Masters, that's Transformation Realm." Manifestation Realm: "Just don't report it. Even if I see it, I don't know." Hao Sect leader Oh Ga-myeong looked over the guidelines he had written out from start to finish once more. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed well-written in an easy and friendly way. Why was this bastard in front of him acting up? "Zhang Oh. Hao Sect disciple Zhang Oh." "Yes! Sect Leader!" "Are you perhaps defying me? Because I forced you to go to that academy last time when you said you didn't want to?" At the sudden remark, Zhang Oh was startled and waved his hands. "No! How could I dare do such a thing to the Sect Leader!?" "Then, hey. I wrote it down well here, didn't I? That it's common to get confused just by looking at Peak Masters. That if you keep looking and looking, it seems like there's something there when actually there's nothing." Following the virtue of working people dealing with superiors, Zhang Oh swallowed the retort that the latter part didn't seem to be written there, and enthusiastically played along. "Y-yes! The standards you personally provided have been a great help in our work!" "Good, I'm glad you acknowledge that. Then shouldn't we revise this part in the Black Blood Sect martial artists' personnel information from their fight with Lady of Trampling Fire: 'All thirty-eight members excluding Black Blood Sect Leader Dokgo Gang judged to be Peak Masters. Especially the six who coordinated with Dokgo Gang had sword aura so clear that their blade edges were barely visible'?" "......" Seeing Zhang Oh's mouth clamp shut when he had been responding briskly just moments before, Oh Ga-myeong unconsciously let out a sigh. If Zhang Oh had been showing this attitude out of rebelliousness or pride, he would have just given him a suitable punishment and moved on. The problem was. '...No matter how I look at it, this is the reaction of someone afraid he'll get beaten up later for not reporting properly if he just casually agrees and moves on here.' That meant at least Zhang Oh himself had complete confidence in this report without any doubt. One Transcendent Master. Thirty-eight Peak Masters, including those at the highest level. That terrifying force had been overwhelmingly crushed by just one person, Lady of Trampling Fire, without inflicting a single decent wound - that was the report. Looking at the report that boldly stated Lady of Trampling Fire's realm as Transformation Realm, Zhang Oh let out a bitter laugh anew. Yes, if Zhang Oh really hadn't seen it wrong, then there was no problem with this assessment. It wasn't even a one-on-one fight with a Transcendent - if she overwhelmed one Transcendent plus thirty-eight Peak Masters single-handedly, what else could it be but Transformation Realm? In fact, news of the Black Blood Sect's destruction was continuously coming in from other information sources besides Zhang Oh, so at this point there was no choice but to acknowledge it was correct. But. 'Even so, isn't this too early?' It's not that there are no masters who have reached Transformation Realm in the martial world. No, rather it is the Liu Empire that possesses many masters compared to other nations thanks to the unique environment of the martial world. Just one generation ago, regardless of orthodox or evil paths, the leaders of major forces and their representative powers had all reached Transformation Realm, and even now after the Orthodox-Heretical Great War killed many masters and forced a generational change, if you scrape together what's left, there are barely more than one hand's worth of Transformation Realm masters remaining. However, most of them are over sixty years old, and quite a few are even over seventy. It's not that they are exceptionally old. Originally, the period when martial artists achieve maturity through harmony of body, internal energy, and techniques is considered to be between forty and fifty years old, and only a select few with exceptional talent, endless training, and fortuitous encounters can finally reach Transformation Realm, so it can rather be seen as an appropriate age range. But Lady of Trampling Fire? If the Hao Sect's investigation is correct, she's around twenty-five. An age where it's still difficult to even discuss turning thirty. 'It's not that there's no precedent... but the endings for such people were usually one of two things.' Either they ascended to distant realms that no one could catch up to, carving their names in history as the strongest of an era. Or they were dragged down by the ankles by those who envied their brilliance, falling before they could soar. And in Oh Ga-myeong's view, the latter possibility was higher. "What a waste, such a waste. Why does it have to be at a time like this?" The evil path was being reorganized into one. Heaven-Breaking Lord Mu Hyeok was not hiding his ambition to unite various evil path forces centered around the Heretical Seven Hegemons and become their leader, and even now an invitation from Heaven-Breaking Lord had come to Oh Ga-myeong. If Lady of Trampling Fire appeared as a threatening competitor in the eyes of such a Heaven-Breaking Lord, wouldn't the outcome be obvious? "Um, excuse me. Sect Leader. May I please offer a word?" At that moment, Zhang Oh, who had been silently rolling his eyes, suddenly spoke up. When Oh Ga-myeong gestured for him to go ahead, he spoke with a resolute expression. "How about our Hao Sect joining hands with Lady of Trampling Fire's forces?" Oh Ga-myeong stared intently, very intently at Zhang Oh. Only after confirming that Zhang Oh, who would normally immediately fidget and look away, was trembling but still meeting his gaze, did Oh Ga-myeong speak with a serious attitude rather than joking. "To my ears, it sounds like you're saying we should make all our family members jump into a fire pit, but if that's not the case, you'll need to explain very well." "As I already wrote in the report, this battle wasn't won by Lady of Trampling Fire's strength alone. She was the one who defeated the sect leader and Inner Sect martial artists, but it was the academy students who defeated the Outer Sect." "Even so, aren't they just third-rate trash?" "Even if they're third-rate trash, there were over a hundred armed men. That's definitely not a force to ignore. Master or whatever, if you stab someone in the gut when their stamina and internal energy are depleted, they die just the same - isn't it you, Sect Leader, who taught the disciples to preserve themselves but rely on the sect when things get really fucked up?" "Hmm." "Originally, what they first targeted were the children. But far from being captured, those children actually toyed with them and lured them to a hunting ground, which the adults then massacred. I didn't realize it at the time either, but when I thought about it calmly later, I understood. It was all thanks to the martial arts Master Juyul taught them." That was right. There was certainly such content in the report as well. In some ways, it was an even more absurd story than Zhang Hualing's ascension to Transformation Realm, so he had half-dismissed it, but what if all of this was true? "Our Hao Sect can do it too. If we could have the Hao Sect disciples learn Master Juyul's martial arts, even we who are currently being pushed around everywhere and beaten like neighborhood dogs could change." Oh Ga-myeong thought. '...Was this guy the type to spout such talk?' As the Hao Sect leader, he prided himself on being quite good at reading people. The assessment he had given to the disciple named Zhang Oh was 'not bad in talent and ability, but lacking in ambition and passion.' If you worked hard to push him from above, you'd get results accordingly, but he was someone who lacked the will to voluntarily step forward and accomplish something. In some ways he was wasting his potential, but Zhang Oh didn't particularly think that was bad. There were plenty of similar people everywhere. 'But now he's stepped forward on his own without being told to. And at risk to himself at that.' No matter how much Oh Ga-myeong belonged to the informal type of sect leader, he was still the head of a proper force. He was someone who could become as ruthless as needed when the situation called for it, and Zhang Oh would know that too. Light jokes and banter were one thing, but for a mere disciple to chatter about major issues that would determine the very survival of the sect could be taken as infringing on the sect leader's authority, and in fact, even if Oh Ga-myeong cut off Zhang Oh's head right now, no one in the Hao Sect would say it was excessive. Yet Zhang Oh had spoken. For the Hao Sect. And for that scholar named Juyul whom he had been consistently calling 'Master' and the academy he led. After thinking that far, Oh Ga-myeong opened his mouth. "Then demonstrate it." "What?" "You said you'd spread the martial arts taught there to our Hao Sect. You must have already learned it, so demonstrate it once. Let me see what level it is." "Th-that is. There aren't any techniques like what you might expect, Sect Leader. It's entirely for improving physical ability and health─" "You talk too much. Aren't you going to do it quickly?" "Yes!" Oh Ga-myeong carefully observed Zhang Oh as he did jumping jacks in place, repeatedly sat down and stood up in strange horse stance positions, and repeated various other movements. 'It's moving cultivation. Without consciously trying to move internal energy, just moving the body allows internal energy to naturally gather and bones and muscles to strengthen? Those with some talent take one to three years to recognize internal energy and start building their dantian. Those without talent can go their whole lives without feeling energy and just stop at second-rate, but this is an internal energy cultivation method that definitely works whether the user has spiritual sense or not.' Perhaps sensing something ominous from Oh Ga-myeong's increasingly sly grin, Zhang Oh quickly made an excuse. "I-I absolutely wasn't mocking you, Sect Leader. Since Master Juyul improved Instructor Zhang's martial arts as well, he'll surely be able to create new martial arts for us too!!" "Fuck, create what new stuff. Even this current thing just looks like it roughly works, but I can't even get a sense of how such results could come about." "What?" "Hey, let's go. I'm curious enough that I need to see his face directly. Could he be an immortal who came down from heaven for a stroll?" Leaving Zhang Oh with a face full of question marks, Oh Ga-myeong tore up the letter intended for Heaven-Breaking Lord from the two letters he had prepared in advance and handed only the other letter to another subordinate. Drunken Dreamer Yayul. One of the three members of the Heretical Seven Hegemons that Heaven-Breaking Lord had not yet recruited, and the drinker that Oh Ga-myeong had been persistently clinging to in order to somehow maintain connections. "Fighting four with two is hopeless, but if there are three plus an unidentified immortal... I can at least threaten them not to attack recklessly." The final member of the Seven Hegemons. Oh Ga-myeong, the Hero Among the Filthy, set his steps toward Juyul's academy.