The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 31

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

Academy Absolute Professor – Episode 031
Can One Walk That Path?
‘What’s this now?’
Jin Myeong-hun’s eyes narrowed to slits.
‘Putting on airs, is he?’
He already knew the names of the five students taking Kang Hyeon’s classes.
Fine, he could concede that Cha Yu-sik and Gwak Do-jin might possibly make the cut.
But Yun Hyeon-jong?
That was unclear.
Han Tae-ho, a newcomer he’d never heard of?
To rank in the Top Five with the Samjae Sword Technique, he’d have to be a major rookie Jin Myeong-hun already knew about.
‘And finally.’
Seo Hae-in, the perpetual last-place student of the twentieth cohort.
She was supposed to enter the Top Five in just two months?
Even a passing dog would laugh at that before turning serious.
Even if the other four all met the criteria, Seo Hae-in absolutely would not. Impossible.
That would be a total upheaval of the heavens and earth.
“Fine, then.”
Jin Myeong-hun turned away from the ten professors.
“We’ll stake our necks on it too. If those five really do enter the Top Five, all ten of us here will leave the Academy. Is that sufficient?”
Several professors looked visibly taken aback.
This was a statement that hadn’t been agreed upon beforehand.
But even more flustered than they were the Academy Director himself, Seo Il-hyeon.
“Professor Jin, let’s calm down for a moment.”
Just the full professors gathered here numbered ten.
That was half the Academy’s core strength.
If they all resigned at once?
‘The Academy would be paralyzed.’
It would be impossible to find replacement professors on such short notice, and the confusion among the students and external criticism would all fall on his shoulders as Director.
In fact, Jin Myeong-hun had been aiming at exactly that point.
‘Go ahead and try to expel me.’
Even if they truly did meet the criteria?
The Director would stop Kang Hyeon no matter what.
When there was a way to remove an eyesore with safety guaranteed, why wouldn’t he take it?
“You’ll stake your heads on it?”
Kang Hyeon scratched between his brows and tilted his head.
“What do I gain from that?”
“What?”
“You all might care a lot about my head, but I couldn’t care less whether you teach here or not.”
He meant it sincerely.
Their presence was an annoyance to watch, nothing more.
Truthfully, whatever they did left him entirely unmoved.
“……Then what do you want?”
When Jin Myeong-hun asked, Kang Hyeon shook the Whiskey Bottle lightly.
In fact, there was one thing he wanted from the Academy.
“Land.”
“Land?”
“There’s unused property behind the Divine Hall. Quite spacious, actually.”
He had been feeling the need for a suitable location just then.
‘The Professor’s Office is cramped, and the Dormitory is uncomfortable.’
A person’s body and mind naturally take the shape of the space they inhabit.
“Give that place to me.”
Kang Hyeon planned to build a structure there.
He was going to need a storage building for alchemical materials and poisonous herbs soon, and a private library to keep secret texts as well.
Above all, the Old Training Ground that the students currently used was dilapidated and shoddy.
Back in the place where Kang Hyeon used to train, all manner of formations and mechanisms had been densely layered.
“You’re not talking about the Northern Outer District, are you?”
Academy property on the slopes of Bukhansan that people joked about as unused land.
“Ha! This is truly outrageous.”
Professor Kim, who had been standing in back, stepped forward.
When Kang Hyeon looked at him, he flinched slightly but held his ground and spoke.
“The Academy’s property belongs to the state! A mere contract instructor has no business wagering with it!”
“Should I really concern myself with such details? When I’m staking my neck on this?”
Kang Hyeon clicked his tongue and turned his gaze toward Seo Il-hyeon.
“What do you think, Rector?”
Had this incident not occurred, he would have asked the Administration Bureau and the Rector for a favor.
He’d have requested land in exchange for remaining at the Academy.
Perhaps, had they been so inclined, they wouldn’t have refused?
They could have fabricated some justification for it.
But the reason Kang Hyeon had brought up the property right here was singular.
‘To prevent trouble.’
Since they’d obviously seize on any pretext to obstruct him, he was forcing them to silence themselves instead.
“Ahem.”
The Rector, clearing his throat, asked back.
“And what do you intend to use the land for?”
“I plan to build a training ground, set up a storage facility, and construct a building.”
“With your own funds?”
“Of course.”
“What’s the purpose? For the benefit of the cadets?”
There, Kang Hyeon grasped Seo Il-hyeon’s intent.
He was naturally constructing a justification for him.
“Naturally.”
It wasn’t a lie, either.
After all, he was building this to nurture his disciples from the start.
“Heh, then the public benefit is certainly sufficient.”
“Rector?”
Professor Kim, bewildered, furrowed his brow, but Seo Il-hyeon ignored him.
‘If you’re clueless, for heaven’s sake, just stay quiet!’
If he merely handed over the unused land, couldn’t he keep Kang Hyeon bound to the Academy?
This wasn’t merely profitable—it was a windfall, a pumpkin rolling down the vine straight into his lap.
“Since Professor Kang Hyeon is willing to dig into his own pocket to expand the Academy’s infrastructure, I have no grounds to deny the use of the land. I believe this wager condition is perfectly reasonable. What do you think, Professor Jin?”
Jin Myeong-hun chuckled silently to himself.
‘It’s impossible either way.’
“I agree.”
A bitter smile played at his lips.
“What’s the big deal about handing over some abandoned plot of land? But Rector, you must be clear on this: the moment even a single student drops out of the Top Five, Professor Kang Hyeon steps down from his position immediately. At that point, don’t shelter him any longer.”
“I shall see it done.”

* * *
In the dormitory room.
Baek Yu-seol sat cross-legged on her bed.
‘Will this really work?’
The Geuk-Eum Heart Technique, spread open for the first time, was filled with incomprehensible archaic language, but Baek Yu-seol was sharp.
She was poring over a dictionary on her smartphone, somehow extracting the meaning of every incantation.
“Nnngh, huuuh…….”
Just sitting still, every bone in her body screamed.
Groans leaked out unbidden.
‘I’m not sure if this is right…….’
Suddenly, that professor’s eyes came back to her.
A man with a hellish interior.
There was no reason for such a person to lie to her.
Usually, only those burdened with anxiety or desire would resort to lies.
‘Besides, my sister believes in him.’
Baek Yu-seol knew better than anyone how intelligent her sister was, how tenacious.
And her sister trusted this man.
Her sister, who had staked her life and delved deep into martial medicine.
‘I’ll survive.’
Baek Yu-seol clenched her trembling lower lip hard.
She wanted to live and repay her sister.
She would not let her sister burn away her life on her account any longer.
Baek Yu-seol steadied herself against the bookshelf with trembling fingers, slowly reciting the incantation written there.
Then, with great care, she continued her breathing.
Once, twice, three times.
“Inhale… exhale…”
She couldn’t tell if it was working.
But was it just a feeling?
The sharp pain that had stabbed near her heart seemed to have dulled slightly.

* * *
The next morning.
“Mmm.”
Baek Yu-yeon stretched and opened her eyes.
Morning sunlight filtered through the gap in the Dormitory curtains, dazzling her vision.
‘How long did I sleep?’
She checked the clock.
[09:00 AM]
“Oh.”
She’d showered the moment she came back yesterday, then collapsed around five in the afternoon…
That meant nearly sixteen hours straight.
‘No wonder I feel so refreshed.’
The exhaustion that had accumulated from a week of fragmented sleep and dawn training sessions before that had lifted completely, as if washed away.
Baek Yu-yeon quickly prepared herself.
‘Today’s the day.’
Her heart was already racing at the thought of learning acupuncture—the Cheon-ui Gui-chim technique the Professor had mentioned.
She tied her hair neatly and straightened her clothes before opening the Professor’s Office door.
‘Hmm?’
The atmosphere was different.
For one thing, Lee Se-ah, the woman who was always attached to his side, wasn’t here.
But what truly unsettled her was the sight of the Professor.
“…Professor?”
He, who normally lounged about languidly, was sitting in perfect posture on a cushion placed on the floor.
And before him lay another cushion.
“You’re here. Sit in front of me.”
She felt it in his tone.
‘This isn’t just a regular visit. Something’s happening!’
The greatest oddity was the absence of the Whiskey Bottle that always sat beside him.
After removing her shoes and carefully settling onto the cushion with her hands folded together, the Professor fixed his gaze on her.
“I made you a promise. Learn it all within a week, and I’ll accept you as my disciple.”
The word “disciple” held special meaning to the Professor.
It had to.
Given the world he’d lived in and learned from—the Murim.
In this place, perhaps a Master-Disciple Relationship meant paying tuition to receive knowledge, then parting with a smile upon graduation. But to the Professor, a true Master-Disciple Relationship was nothing so trivial.
“In my understanding, a Master-Disciple Relationship is not merely the disciple extracting the master’s knowledge. The master passes on his very karma, his accumulated deeds.”
In the actual Murim, a Master-Disciple Relationship was considered weightier than any Heavenly Bond.
For that reason, the Professor had never once called any of the five students he taught a “disciple.”
She swallowed hard.
Baek Yu-yeon mustered her courage and asked.
“What is this karma you speak of?”
The Professor fell silent for a moment.
What was his standard for a true disciple?
“One who can stand beside me and fight to the death when the heavens collapse and the world becomes a hell drowning in blood.”
He intended to teach true martial arts only to such a person.
And Baek Yu-yeon would have no choice but to fight.
Because she would have to deploy the Su-yo Formation.
“……”
Baek Yu-yeon clenched her fists tightly.
She didn’t know exactly what the Professor meant.
But one thing was certain—it sounded like he was telling her to stake her life if she wanted to learn properly.
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t afraid.
But what mattered more to her was……
“If I become your disciple, can you save my sister for certain?”
“Not just your sister.”
“Then…….”
“Everyone except those already dead — you’ll be able to save them all.”
“……!”
Baek Yu-yeon’s mouth fell open.
It was the sort of statement that could seem arrogant, yet somehow it drew her in all the more.
Anyone who teaches ought to possess that much confidence!
At the same time, she felt a pull of curiosity.
“Why me, specifically?”
Looking back, it had been that way from the beginning.
Even when she was suffering at Hwang Min-woo’s hands, he kept coming to her rescue, and though Gwak Do-jin had summoned him, wasn’t he also putting her through physical conditioning while using knowledge as collateral?
Sharp-minded as she was, Baek Yu-yeon understood.
Kang Hyeon had marked her from the start.
“Did I not say so? I need someone who can fight me to the death. He is strong. Ordinary talent cannot match him. But with the Cheon-Maek Eye you possess, perhaps it could be different.”
“What if I refuse?”
“That too is of no concern. The choice is yours. But mark this well — once you become my disciple, you can never go back on it.”
Taking only the teachings and running?
Kang Hyeon was not so soft-hearted as to let such a thing slide.
“Think carefully. Can you continue down this path even after your sister is fully healed?”
It was a weighty question.
Baek Yu-yeon asked herself.
‘What will I do after I save Yu-seol?’
She had lived her whole life driven by a single purpose: to cure her sister’s illness.
But suddenly, the past week came back to her.
The exhilaration she had felt reading the Cheon-Maek Comprehensive Theory.
Each time she grasped a new mystery, her entire body thrummed with an electric thrill.
Had her sister been present in that sensation?
‘No.’
She had genuinely enjoyed the very process of exploring martial medical arts.
A feeling she had never experienced studying under Professor Hwang Ye-rim.
A feeling only Kang Hyeon could fulfill.
Many other thoughts surfaced, but in the end they all converged to a single point.
“I want to walk that path.”
“Good. Stand up.”
Kang Hyeon rose with her and pointed to the empty floor between the meditation cushions.
Then he spoke flatly.
“Precisely first-class Killing Intent.”
The entrance requirement he had set for his students.
No matter how talented she was, if she could not endure the Killing Intent of an Asura, there was no point teaching her the Su-yo Formation.
“Cross over. You have ten minutes.”
Boom!
Before the words even finished, a tremendous Killing Intent crushed down upon the space.
Fortunately, Baek Yu-yeon gritted her teeth and pushed through to the other side.
Inch by painful inch, she moved her feet across the line and finally collapsed to the floor.
Kang Hyeon smiled and spoke.
“From this day forward, you are my first disciple, Baek Yu-yeon.”

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