The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 13

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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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Academy Absolute Professor — Episode 13
Never Underestimate the Samjae
The next morning, before dawn, Gwak Do-jin showed up after all.
Shuffle, shuffle!
He dragged through the sand with all the hallmarks of someone completely drunk.
“What the—?”
Cha Yu-sik’s brow furrowed at the sight.
“Gwak. In that state, you can’t possibly—”
This man.
How much had he drunk?
“Hnnnngh……”
Stagger.
Gwak Do-jin’s wavering frame pitched forward.
Crash!
His face slammed into the sand floor, and after a moment of flailing, he went still.
Yun Hyeon-jong and Han Tae-ho started to rush forward in alarm.
“Leave him.”
Kang Hyeon, who had been sitting on the Training Platform, descended slowly.
He looked down at the collapsed Gwak Do-jin, then casually reached out and tapped a single point on his back.
“Hack!”
Gwak Do-jin’s body arched like a bow.
Then,
“Rrretch!”
Liquor and bile erupted from his stomach all at once.
A sour stench filled the Training Ground, and the other cadets grimaced without thinking.
‘His resolve is genuine, at least.’
That was it.
If he wanted to pull himself out of the mire with his own strength, he had to keep his promise.
To transform a life thrown into the gutter, didn’t one need at least that much hunger and will?
“Get up and wipe your mouth.”
“Cough! Hack, hack, heave……”
Gwak Do-jin, breathing hard, staggered to his feet.
By channeling Qi into his vital points, his mind had cleared enough.
Neither of them spoke a word about last night.
“Well? Come on.”
Kang Hyeon turned away and issued his command.
“Horse stance. Begin.”

* * *
The horse stance continued for another week after that.
Though it was merely a stationary exercise, clear changes were taking root in the five cadets’ bodies.
Those who couldn’t manage ten minutes on the first day—trembling like aspen leaves before collapsing—now held their spines upright and endured even after thirty minutes passed.
Moreover, not a single one had dropped out.
‘This should do it.’
Their breathing had stabilized, their spines straightened, and their center of gravity was firm.
Now, at last, the basic conditions for their Qi to flow were in place.
“That’s enough.”
Kang Hyeon’s brief word fell.
“Gasp!”
“Argh!”
In that instant, all five cadets collapsed as if on cue.
Kang Hyeon watched them sprawl across the ground, breath ragged and soaked in sweat, staring only at the sky. Then he spoke.
“You’ve earned your rest, wrestling with the dirt all this while. From the look of you, you’re ready to grip a sword hilt now.”
The moment he spoke, the cadets strewn across the ground went rigid.
“Starting today, I’ll teach you Martial Arts in earnest.”
“……!”
Cha Yu-sik was the first to open his eyes wide.
‘Finally!’
In truth, until last night he’d seriously considered quitting this special training.
He’d been impatient.
If he didn’t grow stronger quickly, he’d fall completely behind his older brother — he couldn’t spend every day just standing in horse stance, could he?
‘These basics are something he can practice well enough outside class hours.’
What Cha Yu-sik truly wanted from the professor was martial arts.
Not necessarily some peerless divine technique, but at minimum something far stronger than what the academy could offer!
“Pick up one of those wooden swords lying around.”
The cadets rushed to pull training wooden swords from the corners of the Training Ground.
Kang Hyeon likewise flicked a wooden sword up with his toe and caught it in his hand.
The cadets waited with bated breath.
What grand and magnificent swordsmanship would he reveal?
“The martial art I will teach you for the first time is this.”
Gulp.
Every eye fixed on Kang Hyeon’s lips, every throat tight with anticipation.
“The Samjae Swordsmanship.”
“……?”
Silence fell like a stone.
What?
Samjae Swordsmanship?
Every face went blank with shock.
Clear a low-rank dungeon and four martial texts pour into your inventory like water.
Samjae Swordsmanship, Yukap Gong, Yukap Kwon, Chulpo Sam.
You could master these without ever stepping foot in an academy.
They were basic as calisthenics — downloadable as PDFs from the Hunter Association website for just a few thousand won.
Cha Yu-sik’s face twisted.
“……I must have misheard you, right? Samjae Swordsmanship?”
“You heard correctly. Heaven, Earth, Human — a foundational martial art embodying the three principles of the cosmos itself.”
Cha Yu-sik’s face flushed crimson with rage.
“Professor! Are you joking with us right now?”
He’d held it in all this time.
Swallowed his pride as a scion of a major guild, endured the horse stance like some village martial artist’s child would do.
Every morning his muscles screamed, every day his peers from the Munyeonhoe whispered mockery behind their hands, yet he’d dragged himself to the training ground without fail.
Why?
Because he believed that degrading ordeal would lead to something extraordinary!
“Is this garbage swordsmanship really the reward for enduring that humiliating stance?”
“Garbage?”
Kang Hyeon’s eyes narrowed to slits.
“Yes! I mastered Samjae Swordsmanship long before I even entered this academy. Hell, even the lowest pack mules working under my family’s guild operations don’t use that trash!”
The other cadets nodded in silent agreement with Yu-sik’s words.
Even Yun Hyeon-jong wore an expression that said, ‘Well, Samjae really does cross a line.’
“There’s been a misunderstanding.”
In the Martial Realm where Kang Hyeon came from, there was a saying.
– Those who scoff at Samjae Swordsmanship have no right to wield a blade, and those who cling only to Samjae will never truly master the sword!
Could mastering Samjae alone make you the greatest swordsman under heaven?
He concedes that’s the talk of charlatans and dreamers.
But it cannot be denied that nothing surpasses Samjae in laying a proper foundation.
Even Geom Gwang — the old madman — said it.
No matter what swordsmanship one practices, it never truly escapes Samjae.
If he’d spouted off that Samjae Swordsmanship was mere porter’s work in front of that old man?
A wooden sword would’ve flown at his jaw before he finished the sentence.
Cursed as an ignorant fool who didn’t understand the principles of Heaven and Earth, he’d be driven into the dirt, bones snapping and blood flowing, beaten until consciousness faded.
‘But I’m different from those old men.’
Kang Hyeon smiled quietly to himself.
A professor’s duty is to teach what students don’t know.
If they’re mistaken, he simply has to clear up that misunderstanding with his own hands.
“Cha Yu-sik, come forward.”
Kang Hyeon jerked his chin, letting the wooden sword hang casually at his side.
“The swordsmanship you’ve been studying — it’s Langya Swordsmanship, isn’t it?”
“……Yes, it is.”
“A fine art.”
Only the elite assassin squads of the Nokrim Alliance trained in it.
Not as refined as the techniques of noble schools, but a practical battle art honed in blood.
It was naturally on Kang Hyeon’s mind as well.
“Come at me with that swordsmanship. I’ll use only the Samjae Swordsmanship.”
At those words, Cha Yu-sik’s eyes dimmed.
Only Samjae Swordsmanship?
Really?
Cha Yu-sik imagined what it would be like if his father used only Samjae Swordsmanship against him.
The conclusion came easily.
‘I might not win, but I’m confident I won’t be overwhelmed.’
No matter how formidable the momentum, the limits imposed by swordsmanship itself were clear.
This was precisely why good secret manuals commanded high prices.
‘Langya Swordsmanship is the technique that elevated Cheonrang to one of the three great guilds. This professor is looking down on Cheonrang.’
Cha Yu-sik swallowed his anger and gripped the wooden sword tightly.
“Don’t regret this.”
“Regret?”
“You said you’d use only Samjae Swordsmanship. What will you do if my wooden sword even brushes against your robe?”
“Your robe? Normally people say they’ll win, don’t they?”
“I’m not foolish enough to boast like that.”
“Or lack a conscience?”
The corners of Kang Hyeon’s mouth curled upward.
“Fine then. If your sword so much as grazes my sleeve, I’ll join your Cheonrang.”
……!
Cha Yu-sik was startled.
An S-rank hunter joining Cheonrang?
If it came to pass, it would be an enormous opportunity to solidify his position as an heir.
“You’ll have to keep that promise.”
Cha Yu-sik lowered his stance on the sand, his expression growing serious.
‘I’m going all out.’
“Come.”
Thwack!
Cha Yu-sik kicked off the ground and launched forward.
Was this the result of his lower body conditioning?
His striking speed was far sharper than before.
Shriek!
The wooden sword screamed through the air with rough cutting power, tracing a vicious arc.
To the other students, it looked like an overwhelming blow.
But.
“First: Heaven.”
The foot moves before the sword.
Kang Hyeon stepped forward a half-pace.
From foot to hip, spine, arm, and then the sword’s tip.
His entire body was aligned as one perfect line.
All tension had drained from his shoulders, yet the weight of the heavens already rested upon his blade.
“Downward.”
The simplest overhead cut, from above to below.
Crack!
“Ugh!”
The moment Cha Yu-sik’s ferocious assault met Kang Hyeon’s wooden sword, a terrible sound exploded outward.
‘Insane!’
The throbbing sensation made Cha Yu-sik’s grip weaken in shock.
It was clearly just a simple downward cut—yet he felt this overwhelming pressure?
It felt as if Mount Tai itself had fallen from the heavens upon him.
“Second: Earth.”
The moment Kang Hyeon’s feet pressed the ground, both his legs rooted themselves into the earth like the roots of a centuries-old tree.
Lift your feet, and your sword dies.
But turning only from the waist would be slow.
The force from planted feet traveled up through ankle and knee to the waist, flowing seamlessly into the wooden sword’s horizontal trajectory.
“Hold.”
A weighty horizontal cut that grazed just below the waist.
“Argh!”
At that single strike, Cha Yu-sik’s body swayed like a reed in the wind.
The boulder had passed right over his wooden sword, and the shock of it made his grip slip.
“The final stance: Man.”
Between heaven and earth, a person stands.
Look only upward and you float like clouds; look only downward and you become sluggish and heavy.
The axis of a person connecting high and low must not collapse.
Kang Hyeon’s gaze pierced not the tip of his own blade, but the defenseless center of Cha Yu-sik’s stance.
Greed makes the distance too long; fear makes it too short.
From the perfect distance, the most direct thrust.
“I thrust.”
Whoooooosh!
Kang Hyeon’s wooden sword, driven forward at tremendous speed, stopped perfectly just beneath Cha Yu-sik’s jaw.
His neat fringe was swept upward by the terrible wind pressure, torn back in a sharp arc.
“……”
Silence.
A suffocating quiet swallowed the Training Ground.
Cha Yu-sik could not breathe.
This… this is Samjae Swordsmanship?
Descend, hold, thrust.
That tedious, predictable form was capable of this?
‘It’s impossible.’
A moment ago, the downward strike made him feel as though the heavens themselves were collapsing, and the horizontal slash carried such weight that the earth seemed to writhe beneath it.
And the final thrust…
‘It felt like all of it was condensed into a single point and released.’
Behind them, Gwak Do-jin, Yun Hyeon-jong, Han Tae-ho, and Seo Hae-in all stood rigid, their faces drained of all awareness.
In their eyes, Kang Hyeon’s Samjae Swordsmanship appeared more vast and overwhelming than any of the most dazzling, world-shaking martial arts.
“Well?”
Tap.
Kang Hyeon withdrew his wooden sword and spoke in a lazy drawl.
“Still garbage?”
He tapped his own shoulder deliberately as he continued.
“A sword without foundation, decorated with nothing but flash, is nothing but a castle of sand in the end. How do you train in martial arts when you don’t even understand what the Three Talents are?”
Cha Yu-sik’s pupils trembled sharply.
“If you understand now, take up the wooden sword. Today: one thousand downward strikes.”

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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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