The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 26

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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 026
Are you prepared to dedicate your life?
Baek Yu-yeon flinched.
‘Dedicate my life?’
She was doing that already, but the way Kang Hyeon phrased it felt somehow different.
Like a demon demanding payment.
Her mind snapped to attention.
‘Why is he asking this question?’
Baek Yu-yeon understood that such a conditional question itself contained an underlying premise.
“Professor, do you mean…….”
She swallowed hard, her voice thin.
“There’s a way to treat my sister?”
That couldn’t be.
Even Professor Hwang Ye-rim had sought counsel from renowned overseas specialists without finding an answer.
Yet Baek Yu-yeon longed to hear affirmation from Kang Hyeon’s lips more than anyone.
“There is.”
“……!”
“But it might as well not exist.”
Confusion crashed over her.
What did that even mean?
Kang Hyeon continued.
“To melt the cold qi of the Nine Yin Meridian Severing all at once, you’d need at least the inner elixir of a Sun Fire Carp—a creature that supposedly lives for centuries in boiling lava. But in this modern age, no such mythical being exists, does it?”
“Ah.”
A sigh escaped Baek Yu-yeon’s lips.
It was what Professor Hwang Ye-rim had said.
To dissolve the cold qi that had sealed nine meridian points, you would need a Spiritual Elixir with an enormous reserve of warm qi.
That was why she had thrown herself into Alchemical Elixir Studies.
Since no such elixir existed in the world, the stubborn determination to create one herself.
“So there’s truly no way, then.”
“I didn’t say there was only one method.”
“Then there are other ways?”
“First, can I see your sister?”
“My sister?”
Baek Yu-yeon hesitated for a moment.
Her sister was extremely averse to people.
The long years of illness had contributed, but primarily because she couldn’t bear the gaze of strangers.
Aside from her parents, herself, and Professor Hwang Ye-rim, she refused to let anyone into her room.
But.
‘This professor knows something.’
Look at everything Kang Hyeon had demonstrated so far.
She had completed the formula for the Energy Circulation Elixir and showed deep knowledge in Martial Medicine.
She even handled Cha Yu-sik, who was notorious among professors as a reckless problem child, like a child of her own.
Baek Yu-yeon would have grasped at a straw.
She was that desperate.
“……Follow me.”

* * *
An ordinary apartment in downtown Seoul.
The moment they stepped through the entrance, a middle-aged woman greeted them.
“Yu-yeon, what brings you home at this hour?”
Baek Yu-yeon’s mother.
The exhaustion of long hours of nursing care was evident in her gaunt features.
“Mom, where’s my sister?”
“She just fell asleep after taking an Analgesic. But who’s this person?”
“She’s a professor from the Academy. I brought her to get some consultation about Yu-seol’s condition.”
“Oh my, a professor! Please, let me bring some tea.”
“No need. Let’s see my sister first.”
At the mention of seeing her sister, her mother stiffened, but Baek Yu-yeon quickly patted her arm gently.
“Mom, I’ll take care of it. You rest.”
Leaving her mother’s worried gaze behind, Baek Yu-yeon carefully opened the door at the end of the hallway.
A chill crept in suddenly.
Contrary to what her mother had said about sleeping, a young girl lay propped halfway up on the bed, absorbed in a book.
‘Interesting.’
Kang Hyeon’s eyes flickered with intrigue.
She was a beauty so striking that even her pallor could not diminish it.
Translucent white skin and sharp, coldly composed features.
If a noble flower could bloom alone atop ice, would it look like this?
‘Nine Yin Meridian Severing.’
A constitution said to carry heaven’s gift of overwhelming talent and breathtaking beauty as the price of an early death.
“Sister?”
Baek Yu-seol lifted her gaze at the unfamiliar presence.
“Yu-seol, I’m sorry. A professor from the Academy wanted to meet you so badly that I brought them by.”
In that instant, Baek Yu-seol’s eyes met Kang Hyeon’s.
For a moment.
“……!”
Her transparent pupils trembled.
The truth was, Baek Yu-seol’s aversion to people had a deeper reason.
She could read emotions through another’s eyes.
Pity, worry, desire, possessiveness, curiosity—and more.
She wished those feelings were pure, but most people’s emotions felt sticky and repulsive.
‘But.’
This man was different.
Rather, he was strange.
‘He’s… pleased?’
It was the emotion one feels upon finally discovering something they’d been searching for all along.
But why?
Before she could process this unfamiliar gaze, shock seized her.
“Ugh.”
Baek Yu-seol clutched her chest involuntarily, her brow furrowing.
Her breath caught short.
The moment she glimpsed the depths of Kang Hyeon’s eyes, a terrible vision flooded in.
A living hell where the sky had turned the color of blood.
A man standing alone amid endless corpses piled beyond counting, surrounded by their stench and carnage—a mountain of the dead, a sea of blood.
And hovering above him, pressing down, were the visions of seven elders looking upon him, and an overwhelming monstrous form that tore the sky asunder!
“Hah… hah!”
Baek Yu-seol gasped for breath, trembling like an aspen leaf.
Traces of immense agony were written upon her.
She had endured endless pain from a rare illness since childhood, day and night without reprieve.
Yet even for her, her own suffering seemed insignificant before the pain this man carried.
What kind of life must one live to harbor such a living hell within one’s very soul?
As Baek Yu-seol gasped in confusion, Kang Hyeon suddenly extended his hand.
“Let me take your pulse.”
Kang Hyeon reached out without warning.
Baek Yu-seol abhorred being touched by strangers.
Whenever a non-family hand came near, she would react with hysteria and withdraw.
But this time was different.
“Yes.”
At how readily Baek Yu-seol offered her wrist, Baek Yu-yeon’s eyes widened like lanterns.
‘Yu-seol is giving her wrist to a stranger she’s just met?’
Indifferent to Baek Yu-yeon’s shock, Kang Hyeon placed three fingers gently upon the girl’s slender wrist.
“Don’t regulate your breathing. Stay as you normally are.”
“Understood.”
Silence settled over the room.
Only the shallow, uneven breathing of Baek Yu-seol filled the air.
How much time passed?
Withdrawing his hand, Kang Hyeon spoke flatly.
“Progression is advanced. Once your Heart Meridian closes completely, it will be over. I’d estimate you have less than half a year left.”
At those words, Baek Yu-yeon felt her heart plummet.
She’d known.
Lately, her sister slept longer under the influence of analgesics, passed out as if dead, than she spent awake.
“There… there has to be a way, doesn’t there? Professor! Please!”
Baek Yu-yeon seized Kang Hyeon’s sleeve, her voice pleading.
“There is.”
“What?”
“But before that.”
Kang Hyeon fixed his gaze squarely on Baek Yu-seol.
“Do you want to live?”
Baek Yu-seol bit her lip.
Live? After all these years of illness, she’d wanted to give up countless times.
There were nights without number when she’d wished she could simply close her eyes and never wake again.
But.
The moment Kang Hyeon asked that question, something hot surged up from the depths of her chest.
She wanted to live.
Not merely breathing, not just clinging to life’s thread — but living like everyone else.
She wanted to run like the ordinary people on television, wanted to dash until her breath caught at her throat.
She wanted to walk beside her sister on two strong, healthy legs.
“I want to live.”
“Good. That’s all I need.”
With a smooth motion, Kang Hyeon withdrew two worn, ancient manuscripts from his robes and laid them on the bed.
The Geuk-eum Heart Method.
The Wolgeuk Sword Method.
The unique martial arts Seol Mu-wol had created for herself alone.
“Learn these.”
“…You’re asking me to learn martial arts?”
“You’re sharper than most, so you’ll understand quickly. Start with the Ancient Language texts and work your way through carefully. If you don’t understand something, send word.”
Both sisters stared blankly.
Asking a patient who couldn’t properly walk without someone’s help to learn martial arts—it made no sense.
But Kang Hyeon’s expression was so assured and serious that neither of them dared speak.
“How old are you now?”
“Nineteen. Three years younger than my sister.”
“Perfect timing. By next year, you’ll be ready to enter the Academy as a freshman.”
Baek Yu-yeon nearly laughed aloud.
This made no sense whatsoever.
The National Hunter Academy—what was that place?
A gathering ground for monsters: those who’d awakened in childhood, trained in blood-soaked preparation for a decade or more, and still failed the entrance exam.
And he was saying a patient who’d lain in bed her entire life would master martial arts in a single year and enroll?
“The moment you continue mastering those arts, your life will extend. The pain will ease further.”
If an ordinary person practiced the Geuk-eum Heart Method, their blood would freeze solid throughout their body and they’d die.
It was a vicious martial art demanding enormous innate yin essence.
But when someone bearing Nine Yin Meridian Severing learned this method, they transformed that cold power into raw force instead.
Each time they circulated their energy, the blocked Qi Meridians would slowly open, even if only slightly.
“Is that… really true?”
“There’s one limitation, though. It alone won’t completely heal you. For true healing, you’ll need the Water-Moon Formation.”
“The Water-Moon Formation? Is that a type of formation art?”
“Yes. To properly deploy the Water-Moon Formation, you need Martial Medicine knowledge and Acupuncture mastered to the utmost degree. And you’ll need Heavenly Pulse Vision.”
In truth, it wasn’t strictly necessary to have it—he simply didn’t mention that part.
But with it, the formation’s full power would manifest, he’d said.
“The eyes that see the flow of Qi—your eyes, Baek Yu-yeon.”
“…!”
“From now on, don’t come only at dawn.”
Kang Hyeon let go of his drowsy gaze and emanated the heavy, absolute presence of a supreme being.
“Report directly to my Professor’s Office. Train there and learn everything.”
Only then did Baek Yu-yeon understand.
That question he’d asked on the Training Ground.
— Even if it meant sacrificing your entire life?
Its true meaning.
Kang Hyeon was telling her this now.
Forget any thought of studying under Professor Hwang Ye-rim. Come only to him, and learn everything from him alone.

Stake your entire life on me.
It was a question that demanded careful thought.
Whether she could trust Kang Hyeon’s words was one thing, and turning her back on Professor Hwang Ye-rim required its own resolution.
Had he perceived her hesitation?
In one fluid motion,
Kang Hyeon withdrew one final secret manual from his breast and tossed it toward Baek Yu-yeon’s chest.
She caught it reflexively, examining the cover.
Heaven Meridian Comprehensive Theory
A secret text from Gwang-soo himself—the entire mystery of the human body lay bound within these pages.
“If you truly intend to study properly under me,”
Kang Hyeon turned toward the door, his words clipped as he stepped through it.
“Memorize every word of it within a week—not a single character out of place. Then I’ll accept you as my student.”
A proposal only possible because the other party possessed Perfect Memory.
The sisters’ mother had brought out tea, but Kang Hyeon politely declined and left.
The two sisters stood dazed, staring at each other.
Three secret manuals lay before them.
‘What on earth is all this?’
A brief examination, and he’d completely upended their world before departing.
“Sister, who was that person?”
“Well……”
How was she supposed to explain?
Honestly, she wasn’t entirely sure herself.
But why did it feel
as though letting this opportunity slip away would haunt her for the rest of her life?
So she spoke.
“……Perhaps someone who could change the course of our lives?”

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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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