Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 237 - Imperial Guard Bureau Martial Examination (5)

Chapter 237 – Imperial Guard Bureau Martial Examination (5)

===================

Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

Everyone in the grounds could not hide their astonishment.

No one among them had imagined that Ju Un-hyang would shatter the Qi-Resistant Stone slab.

‘Did that guy not have any internal energy?’

‘This is impossible.’

More than the result itself, everyone was filled with doubt over it.

They had thought that because Ju Un-hyang had a constitution that could not cultivate internal energy, his advancement to the upper class had only been because of backing.

‘How can this be…’

Wi Bu-cheong, who had of course expected Ju Un-hyang to fail miserably in the internal energy measurement, was left speechless when Ju Un-hyang shattered the slab entirely.

How could something like this even be possible?

‘Ha…’

‘This really is…’

The Thousand-Household Commanders of every department of the Six Service Offices were just as dumbfounded.

All of them had looked over the cadet records prepared in advance. And the record written there regarding Ju Un-hyang had been a complete mess.

Yet now he had shown something extraordinary.

‘…This is not at a cadet’s level.’

To shatter Qi-Resistant Stone, one had to at least be at the fully mature Transcendent Peak in pure internal energy.

That was something even the Embroidered Uniform Guard Thousand-Household Commanders serving as deputy supervisors could scarcely do.

‘What in the world is this?’

‘Was he hiding his strength all this time?’

The thoughts of the Thousand-Household Commanders could only become more tangled.

Just like them, Chae Ho-seong, one of the two chief supervisors of the Embroidered Uniform Guard selection process, was quite surprised as well, to the point that he could not take his eyes off Un-hyang.

Without turning to look at So Ye-rin beside him, Chae Ho-seong asked casually,

“Did you know?”

At Chae Ho-seong’s words, So Ye-rin only showed a faint smile. At her reaction Chae Ho-seong’s eyes narrowed.

Even he had not perceived until now that Ju Un-hyang was hiding his martial ability. Yet if she had noticed it,

‘…Does that mean you, So Ye-rin, are one step above me?’

For him, who had guessed until now that her martial level was about equal to his or slightly lower, this was an even greater shock.

As an Embroidered Uniform Guard aiming for the seat of the next Southern Commandant, he could not help but treat that as something to be wary of.

“Commander Mak.

Announce the result.” Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Chae Ho-seong broke the silence and said that.

At this, Mak Myeong-bo of the Office of Penal Service, who had been dusting off fragments of the shattered Qi-Resistant Stone slab, shouted loudly,

“Cadet Ju Un-hyang.

Complete destruction of Qi-Resistant Stone. First place!”

At this result, the cadets waiting in line, the ones who had failed, and the ones who had already passed all still looked at Ju Un-hyang with astonished eyes, as if the shock had not yet faded.

“Ha…

So the imperial palace had a monster like this too. Is that not so?”

“…”

At Seop Chun’s words, spoken with a click of the tongue, Mong Mu-yak said nothing. He too had received quite a shock.

He had believed that, aside from his lord Mok Gyeong-un, there could scarcely be another person who had reached such a level without even yet being twenty.

But the world truly was wide. To think that a monster like this existed not somewhere else but inside the imperial palace.

At that moment Seop Chun jerked his chin and said,

“It is our lord’s turn.”

“Ah.”

As he said, it was now Mok Gyeong-un’s turn, and he was walking out before the slab. Some of the cadets watched him with interest.

That was because Mok Gyeong-un too was one of the Heaven and Earth Society’s junior generation fighters.

However, those reactions came only from cadets with no skill or from those whose internal energy level was low.

The supervisors and the cadets who had produced high results reacted differently.

‘Among the Heaven and Earth Society juniors, at least this one seems rather ordinary.’

‘He is weaker than those other two.’

‘He should pass without trouble, but he does not seem like someone who will stand out.’

That was the general reaction. After all, the Mok Gyeong-un they sensed through qi awareness was only at the fully mature Peak Realm.

Of course, even that still put him above most upper-class cadets.

It was only that, compared to the Heaven and Earth Society pair and the top-ranked cadets, he seemed lower.

Thus Mok Gyeong-un stood before the Qi-Resistant Stone slab.

“Begin.”

Shi U-ryang, the Thousand-Household Commander of the Office of Inner Palace Affairs who was supervising his line, said that.

‘At best, perhaps two cun, or two and a half.’

That was his estimate. At that moment Mok Gyeong-un looked at the Qi-Resistant Stone slab and opened his mouth.

“Is there really much meaning in scratching a lump of stone that is not alive and does not move?”

At these words, Thousand-Household Commander Shi U-ryang gave a snort and said,

“Say things like that after you can properly leave a mark on the slab, cadet.”

For a fellow who could not even reach the uppermost levels to say such things was unbearably arrogant.

If anyone said something like that, it would at least have been understandable if it were someone like Ju Un-hyang, who had completely smashed a slab.

‘Tch tch.’

Yet instead of placing his hand on the center front of the slab, Mok Gyeong-un set it above it. Seeing that, Shi U-ryang gave a warning.

“Do it properly.

Not there, but at the front center of the slab…” Before those words could even finish,

Mok Gyeong-un gripped the slab from above and slowly drew down with all five fingers. At that moment something astonishing happened.

The Qi-Resistant Stone slab was carved downward as if it were nothing but a mound of packed dirt.

‘!!!!!!’

The Qi-Resistant Stone slab crumbled down as though it were clumped wet soil.

Shi U-ryang of the Office of Inner Palace Affairs, the deputy supervisor who had held not even the slightest expectation, could not suppress his shock at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

‘W, what is this?’

By qi sense, Mok Gyeong-un’s martial level had felt to him like the fully mature Peak Realm.

For that reason, even at his very best, he had expected perhaps two and a half cun. Yet the result completely escaped that expectation.

‘!!!!!!’

He was not the only one startled.

The Thousand-Household Commanders of the other five departments also stopped their testing and could not take their eyes off the sight.

How could this be possible?

Mok Gyeong-un’s five fingers, which had continued crushing through the slab without obstruction, eventually passed clean through and turned the Qi-Resistant Stone slab into six long pieces.

As Shi U-ryang’s gaze dropped following the chunks of Qi-Resistant Stone rolling across the ground, he was left too dumbfounded to say anything.

The training ground fell into silence for a brief moment. Then all around, a stir rose.

“…He is insane.”

“D, did he just do that to a Qi-Resistant Stone slab with his bare hand?”

“Just how powerful must his internal energy be, not merely to leave a scratch, but to do that?”

From the cadets’ perspective, he felt like a complete monster. And that admiration naturally led to comparison with someone. That someone was,

“Ju Un-hyang and this bastard too, what in the world are they?”

“They are complete monsters.”

“Can you not tell?

Even the deputy supervisors are standing there with their minds blown.”

“That is true, but even so, was Ju Un-hyang not stronger than him, since he completely shattered the slab?”

“Right.

Ju Un-hyang smashed it apart completely.”

“Then does Ju Un-hyang remain first place?”

It was utter chaos. Yet compared to the reactions of these cadets, the Thousand-Household Commanders were even more serious.

They had already been astonished when Ju Un-hyang shattered the Qi-Resistant Stone slab, since his internal energy had reached a level above that of cadets, one equal to or beyond that of Thousand-Household Commanders.

But this was even more shocking.

‘He is a monstrous bastard.’

Every one of the Thousand-Household Commanders of the six departments had the same thought.

Of the Thousand-Household Commanders gathered here, perhaps about half, if they used a killing move or forced it, could also smash a Qi-Resistant Stone slab like Ju Un-hyang had.

But to do what Mok Gyeong-un had done required an extremely advanced level of skill.

One had to prevent the internal energy from dispersing outward in all directions.

Only then could one dig through Qi-Resistant Stone while preserving the exact shape of all five fingers.

That was truly a high-level refined technique.

The Thousand-Household Commanders recognized this, but among the cadets too there were people who could not hide their amazement at the technique Mok Gyeong-un had shown.

They were Namgung Cheong-hyeon of the Namgung Clan and Geum Jong-hyeon of the Zhongnan Sect.

Unlike the cadets whose level did not allow them to understand it, they were so stunned by that single technique that they were nearly speechless, just like the Thousand-Household Commanders.

‘…That is absolutely not at the level of a junior generation fighter.’

‘It seems like something only Immortal Geonmunja, my master, or the sect leader could do.’

Because they possessed both excellent martial arts and sharp insight, from this one technique they keenly felt the gap between Mok Gyeong-un and themselves.

Of course, not everyone there was purely full of admiration like they were.

Wi Bu-cheong, who had received martial arts instruction from Gwi Sa-man, the Evil Silence Sword of the Evil Alliance, felt a fierce jealousy toward Mok Gyeong-un, who after Ju Un-hyang had become the center of attention.

‘Damn it.

Why do people like these keep appearing one after another…’

His plan had been for him to receive high results in the Embroidered Uniform Guard selection process regardless of any predetermined seat and attract the attention of Prince Gyeong and everyone else, but that plan was steadily being ruined.

As a result, his rage toward Ju Un-hyang and Mok Gyeong-un, whom he thought had ruined it, only swelled.

‘This is absurd.

To reach such a level at that age.’ Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Chae Ho-seong clicked his tongue.

Even he, who had reached the extreme of the Transcendent Peak, could perhaps force himself to reproduce the technique displayed by that junior fighter of the Heaven and Earth Society.

Yet whether he could do it with all five fingers as that one had was doubtful.

That was how advanced the technique was, something that required internal energy control so refined it could be done as naturally as breathing.

‘To have raised a monster like that.’

It was truly like the Heaven and Earth Society, one of the three forces holding hegemony over the martial world.

No one present was in a position to properly evaluate a fellow who had entered that kind of realm.

Surely Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin was thinking something similar…

‘Hm?’

When he looked beside him, he saw that So Ye-rin was frowning as she stared at the disciple of the Heaven and Earth Society.

This was the first time he had ever seen her wear such a serious face.

At that, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Chae Ho-seong called to her carefully.

“Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So.”

“Ah… yes.”

She answered with a slight tremor, as though startled. To her Chae Ho-seong clicked his tongue and said,

“It truly leaves one speechless, does it not?”

“…That is true.”

“It seems another monster has entered the Six Service Offices.

It is shocking enough to remind me of when either the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander of the Office of Stealth or you entered.”

So Ye-rin too had drawn everyone’s astonishment back then.

Though she was merely around twenty and a woman at that, she had shown such outstanding ability that she seized a position as Deputy Thousand-Household Commander, which could be called one of the peaks of the Six Service Offices.

But that monster sent by the Heaven and Earth Society was even younger than they had been. He had not even reached twenty yet.

That meant his room for growth was endless. Half letting Chae Ho-seong’s words of admiration pass by one ear, So Ye-rin turned her gaze somewhere.

That place was the line of those who had passed. And there stood Ju Un-hyang.

‘As expected, you felt it too.’

Just like her, Ju Un-hyang too wore a serious expression. He could not take his eyes away from the creepy sensation rising from his spine.

It was the first time he had felt such a sensation that made his fingertips go cold.

‘What was that just now?’

The moment that Heaven and Earth Society fellow Mok Gyeong-un placed his fingers on the slab, the qi within Ju Un-hyang’s body reacted with extreme sharpness and activated of its own accord.

As though it were on guard against something.

‘It was like pitch-black darkness.’

It was difficult for him to explain exactly what that sensation had been. Nothing came to mind except that it was vicious and dark.

While he was caught in that discomfort, the Heaven and Earth Society’s Mok Gyeong-un slowly turned his head and before he knew it, was looking straight at him.

That caused their gazes to meet directly.

‘!?’

Ju Un-hyang immediately frowned. That was because the fellow called Mok Gyeong-un was looking at him with clear interest.

Why was he looking at him with those eyes?

At the moment Ju Un-hyang was puzzling over that, the Thousand-Household Commander Shi U-ryang who had overseen Mok Gyeong-un’s test shouted the result.

“Cadet Mok Gyeong-un.

Five-finger cut through the slab. First place!” At this result the cadets stirred and could not hide their puzzlement.

“Huh?

What?”

“First place?”

“It was amazing, but is Ju Un-hyang not still more amazing?”

“Why did this kind of result come out?”

Ordinary cadets who did not know what an advanced technique this was found it hard to understand the result.

Among the cadets, only a few at the top could accept that result.

Having passed, Mok Gyeong-un walked calmly toward the group of successful candidates.

And as he passed by Ju Un-hyang, he whispered as if speaking under his breath,

“So you had hidden it tightly in your middle dantian instead of your lower dantian.”

‘!?’

At those words Ju Un-hyang’s eyes shook slightly. He tried as hard as possible not to show it, but Mok Gyeong-un did not miss that brief instant.

However, there was no time to speak at length now, so after saying only that, he simply passed by.

Meanwhile, as Mok Gyeong-un passed, Ju Un-hyang clenched his fist tightly.

At the rear of the line of those who had passed, Seop Chun, who had slipped back from the front, whispered,

“You worked hard, my lord.”

“There is nothing that could be called hard.

I merely crushed a single slab.” To him, Seop Chun asked in a small voice, sounding puzzled,

“But my lord…

Was that not showing rather too much of your ability?” That was what he had wanted to ask all along.

Naturally, to pass the Embroidered Uniform Guard selection one needed to be among the upper ranks.

But if Mok Gyeong-un had wished, he could have simply matched himself roughly to Seop Chun or Mong Mu-yak and still placed among the upper ranks without displaying a technique like that.

Thanks to this, Seop Chun feared he had received too much attention for no reason. At such words, Mok Gyeong-un answered,

“Something troublesome happened.”

“Something troublesome?”

“Yes.”

Mok Gyeong-un recalled what had happened only moments ago.

* * *

Only a short while earlier, As Mok Gyeong-un approached the Qi-Resistant Stone slab to take the test, a voice had reached his ears.

So you are the one who dared to try to harm Her.

‘!?’

It was none other than secret voice transmission. Without showing it outwardly, Mok Gyeong-un narrowed his eyes and shifted them.

Was there someone in the imperial palace who could use secret voice transmission?

As he found this strange, the voice continued. You are calm. Quite something, not fitting your young age.

‘…A man.’

The voice was male, yet the way it spoke was rather feminine. It was a style of speech eunuchs commonly used.

Mok Gyeong-un opened his qi sense and moved only his eyes, trying to track where the sound was coming from.

Do you think you can find me just by looking around?

Mok Gyeong-un’s narrowed eyes grew even thinner.

The sound spread in all directions, and the qi carrying it bounced out here and there, making it impossible to trace.

It was somehow different from the ordinary secret voice transmission he knew. At that moment the voice came again.

There is no use trying to find me. I am speaking through Six Harmonies Sound Transmission. Six Harmonies Sound Transmission?

What was that?

Was it the name of a technique for handling sound and qi in this way?

More importantly, if what old man Beom said was true, then you are someone who crossed the wall, and yet the qi you give off is only at Peak Realm.

Old man Beom?

At these words Mok Gyeong-un could infer two things.

‘He moved quickly.’

The old man with the surname Beom that he knew was that man at the inn during the downpour.

Because he had completely read the man’s qi, Mok Gyeong-un had already learned that the old man was alive in the imperial palace and was a eunuch of the Western Depot.

He had noticed that he looked startled and hurried off somewhere after seeing him yesterday, but it seemed he had moved more quickly than expected.

‘This one too must be a eunuch.’

No matter what else changed, eunuchs could not easily change the speech pattern ingrained in their mouths.

That meant this one was highly likely to be either a companion of old man Beom or someone above him.

‘…Hmm.’

He had thought it might become troublesome, but they had moved even faster than expected.

And that was before Mong Mu-yak had even resolved the issue. At that moment the secret transmission continued. Then it is fitting.

If you truly crossed the wall, show skill worthy of it. Mok Gyeong-un frowned slightly. Show his skill?

Here?

‘…’

Originally Mok Gyeong-un had intended simply to leave a mark on the Qi-Resistant Stone slab at about the level of Seop Chun or Mong Mu-yak.

There was no need to reveal his ability in a place like this.

Yet with the other party making this sort of demand, it had become troublesome indeed.

‘What should I do?’

The other party’s intention was clear. They simply wanted to verify his true martial ability.

Of course, there was nothing to gain from being led around by that. However, the other party was not simple either.

If you ignore my words, then on the charge of trying to harm Her, your qualification for the Imperial Guard Bureau martial examination will be stripped from you immediately.

‘!?’

If you do not want that, show skill worthy of your station.

At that secret transmission, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes became expressionless and his lips twitched slightly.

If he did not show his ability, then it was no different from the other party saying they would forcibly interfere with his affairs.