Myth of Martial Arts - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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1화
“I have studied the stars in the night sky and counted out the signs on my fingers, and this child is a genius, the sort who appears once in ten thousand even in the Yellow Continent! The heavy duty of saving the world will surely rest on this child’s shoulders!”

Jang Wook, draped in a purple robe, gazed at the father and son before him with a grave expression, then shook his head as if genuinely pained.

“If a talent like this chooses Sinwang Academy, isn’t it no different from letting it rot?”
“Master, are you really saying my son is a genius?”

The middle-aged man gripped his twelve-year-old son’s hand tightly and asked, trembling with excitement.

Jang Wook nodded, his eyes full of certainty.

“You’ve crossed mountains and rivers to get here, so the journey must have been hard. Allow me to recommend a better place.”
“There’s a place better than Sinwang Academy in the Imperial City? Master, please tell me. Where do we go?”

Jang Wook flicked his sleeve once, as though he were an immortal who had transcended the mortal world, and spoke with unhurried ease.

“Just keep heading west along this street. It’s about three kilometers… no, make that seven li, and you’ll arrive.”
“Seven li to the west…”

The middle-aged man, turning the words over in his mind, suddenly furrowed his brow.

“Isn’t that Changung Academy?”
“It is. That’s exactly Changung Academy!”

The moment he heard the name Changung Academy, every trace of a smile drained from the middle-aged man’s face.

As if he had come across a plague, he snatched his son’s hand and fled without a backward glance. Afraid Jang Wook might try to stop him, he quickened his pace even further.

Jang Wook watched the retreating pair and muttered in dismay.

“…They ran off again. Was that the thirty-first time? Why is recruiting a single student so impossibly hard?”

Jang Wook looked over the people coming and going along the street, then let out a deep sigh.

Pressing hard at his temples, he looked up at the sun, which was about to slip over the mountains.

‘If I can’t recruit a student before sunset, the quest fails.’

Half a shichen was all he had left.

By modern reckoning, that was a little over an hour.
* * *
In truth, Jang Wook had never been a person of the Yellow Continent to begin with.

In his previous life, he had worked as a young board director at a third-rate private university on Earth. He had run himself ragged every day trying to solve the student recruitment problem, and just as results began to show, he collapsed from overwork and died.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already in this unfamiliar world.

Even more absurd was the fact that the original owner of this body also bore the name Jang Wook.

His status was no ordinary one, either.

Director of Changung Academy.

The trouble was that the impressive title was all that remained; there was nothing of substance behind it.

Seven years ago, after Jang Wook’s father, Jang Hoyeon, suddenly vanished, Changung Academy fell apart within a matter of months. Hundreds of instructors and thousands of students scattered in every direction, and most of the advanced Cultivation Methods and martial arts stored in the Library Pavilion disappeared with them.

And so the once-celebrated Changung Academy was left as nothing but an empty shell.

Of all the living things, the only one still left was the native dog my father had bought from a farmhouse eight years ago.

Its name was So Gang.

Still, the original owner of this body hadn’t been entirely useless.

At twenty-three, he had reached the fourth stage of the Gyeseon Realm, a martial artist of real standing.

That alone would have earned him a warm welcome from any power in the Imperial City. Had he wanted, he could have gone there and grown into a core talent, treated handsomely all the while.

But the original Jang Wook was stubborn to the point of obsession.

He refused to place himself under any power. Alone, he tried to hold on to the crumbling Changung Academy, determined to restore its former glory somehow.

The result was seven years with zero students and zero teachers.

Then, on the night before every academy in the Imperial City began recruiting new students all at once, the original Jang Wook tried to drown his worries in liquor. But the more he drank, the heavier his chest grew, and in the end he collapsed drunk and never opened his eyes again.

Into that very empty space stepped the Jang Wook from Earth.

Right after Jang Wook came to his senses in this world, a cold mechanical voice rang out inside his head.

“Super Director System activation complete.”

Before Jang Wook could even make sense of his situation, the mechanical voice continued.

“Analysis of the host’s current situation is complete. Assigning the first quest.”

[Main Quest 1: Recruit one student, regardless of aptitude.]

[Even the tallest pavilion begins with a single cornerstone. Only when there are students can it be called an academy, and only when there is an academy can the host truly become a director.]

[Quest Reward: Insight]

[Time Limit: 12 hours]

[Penalty for Failure: None]

Jang Wook spent the whole morning piecing together his predicament, then bolted out into the street without so much as a proper meal.

The results, however, were dismal.

The moment people heard the name “Changung Academy,” they turned their backs as if they’d never shown any interest at all. Some took off running before Jang Wook even had a chance to grab hold of them, their feet nearly catching fire.

Less than an hour remained on the quest’s time limit now.

“Other academies just sit back and wait for students to walk in, but I came out to the street myself as the director, and still nobody will come? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

It was infuriating.

It was suffocating, too.

In the end, Jang Wook made up his mind.

“Honest methods won’t work. I’ll need a bit of… finesse.”

He was turning over how to lead someone all the way to Changung Academy when it happened.

“Excuse me. How do I get to Sinwang Academy?”

A soft voice sounded right in front of him.

When Jang Wook lifted his head, a girl who looked about fourteen or fifteen came into view. Her face was still as youthful as a bud that hadn’t yet opened, and she wore an expression that seemed a little guileless.

Her voice was small and cautious, as if talking to a stranger was not something she was used to at all.

But there was something else that mattered to Jang Wook.

“I’m looking for Sinwang Academy.”

Jang Wook’s eyes flashed.

‘The pumpkin rolled right into my lap on its own.’

If I deceive this girl… no, if I guide her well and take her to Changung Academy, I can complete the quest.

In an instant, the performances of every great actor he had seen in his previous life flashed through his mind.

Jang Wook wore the most indifferent expression he could manage and asked curtly.

“Are you going to the academy?”

Sinwang Academy is an academy, and Changung Academy is an academy too.

He hadn’t told a lie.

Not yet.

“Yes.”

The girl nodded shyly.

Speaking to a stranger first hadn’t been easy for her, and the man turned out to be far younger and more handsome than she’d expected, which seemed to make her even more nervous.

“Come on. As it happens, I work at an academy too, so I’ll take you there.”

Jang Wook glanced at the girl once, then turned and walked off toward the far end of the street.

It wasn’t a lie.

After all, he was the sole director and the sole teacher of Changung Academy.

The only problem was that he had nothing whatsoever to do with Sinwang Academy.

“Oh!”

The girl, who had no way of knowing any of that, brightened.

She must have thought herself lucky to meet someone from the academy the moment she asked for directions.

As Jang Wook strode quickly through the crowd, the girl didn’t stop to think and hurried after him. Afraid of losing sight of him, she even broke into a quick little trot.
* * *
A little while later.

A young man in a fur-trimmed coat stepped out of Gibogak, not far away.

He looked left and right, then frowned.

“Where did that brat go? He didn’t really go to Sinwang Academy alone, did he?”

He didn’t seem particularly worried about the girl’s safety itself.

Hardly anyone in the Imperial City would dare lay a hand on someone from the Mu Clan.

After scanning his surroundings and deciding the girl had already gone, he adjusted the gift box in his hand and headed for Sinwang Academy.
* * *
The Yellow Abyss was the largest primeval forest on the Yellow Continent.

The Imperial City had been built at the foot of a massive mountain on the eastern edge of that Yellow Abyss, and Changung Academy stood right on the boundary where the Imperial City met the Yellow Abyss.

To the east, the Imperial City. To the west, the Yellow Abyss, stretching on without end.

As far as location went, it wasn’t a bad spot.

Having climbed the long stone staircase, Jang Wook finally came to a halt.

He caught his breath briefly, then turned to look at the girl who had followed him up.

“We’re here.”

The girl glanced around, her expression puzzled.

“I heard Sinwang Academy had plenty of excellent teachers and talented students, and that it was supposed to be really lively… So why is it so quiet here?”

She looked a little naive, but she wasn’t a fool.

Her gaze swept over the area and stopped on a towering stone tablet at the entrance.

It stood one zhang tall, roughly three meters.

Four bold characters were carved clearly across its surface.

Changung Academy.

The girl stared at the stone tablet for a moment.

Once.

Twice.

Then her eyes went wide.

“Changung Academy? Wasn’t this supposed to be Sinwang Academy?”

She spun around and glared at Jang Wook.

“You tricked me!”
“I said I’d take you to the academy. I never said it was Sinwang Academy, did I?”

Jang Wook quietly looked away.

The girl’s voice rose another notch.

“That’s still tricking me!”
“I never said it was Sinwang Academy from the start. You just assumed it was.”

He said it, but there was no force behind his words.

“So you did trick me after all.”

The girl pushed out her lower lip. Tears welled up in her big eyes in no time.

Seeing that, Jang Wook felt a faint prick of conscience.

“…Fine. I admit it. I did deceive you.”

But he couldn’t afford to give up here.

There wasn’t much time left on the quest.

“Still, I didn’t do it out of malice. I brought you here because I thought it was a good choice for you, too.”

The girl blinked.

Jang Wook didn’t let the opening slip away.

“Look closely. Do you think Sinwang Academy has buildings like these?”

He gestured at the grand structures around them.

No one had tended the place in ages, so weeds ran thick across the ground, and the trees sprawled out their branches however they pleased. Still, the sheer scale of it was undeniably impressive. Add the stillness, not a soul in sight, and if you were generous, it truly felt like a Secluded Paradise, cut off from the outside world.

“And look back there. Could Sinwang Academy offer a view like that mountain range?”

Changung Academy sat with the Yellow Abyss at its back.

Just by turning his head, he could take in the endless sweep of mountains and forest.

Jang Wook brushed back the bangs the wind had tousled and stole a glance at the girl. Then, deliberately, he lowered his voice to something gentle.

“Wouldn’t you find it easier to train your mind in a place this quiet and this beautiful?”

The girl gazed around her, dazed.

The scenery that had looked bleak only moments ago now seemed to have shifted somehow, now that Jang Wook had spoken.

‘Hearing it put that way… I suppose it isn’t wrong…’

Still, she had the nagging feeling that she was overlooking something important.

She just couldn’t quite pin down what it was.

Jang Wook didn’t miss the way she wavered.

“Why would a cute little thing like you need to get jostled around in some crowded place to train, when you could have an environment this good?”

The girl flinched.

Then she suddenly ducked her head.

Her cheeks flushed faintly red.

“Th-Truly? You really think I’m cute?”

This handsome big brother seemed to have a fairly good eye for people.

Jang Wook silently cheered inwardly.

She’s hooked.

We’re almost there.

He puffed out his chest and declared it with the solemnity of someone announcing a law of heaven and earth.

“Of course! If anyone called you not cute, I’d be the first to march over with my sword and demand an explanation!”

Even his eyes were ridiculously earnest.

Whether the girl really was cute was beside the point.

Right now, what mattered far more to Jang Wook was not letting this perfect chance to finish the quest slip away.

Under that ‘sincere’ gaze, the girl’s cheeks flushed an even deeper red.

And silently, she repeated it to herself.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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