The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 4
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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’s Absolute Professor, Episode 4
Who in their right mind would do something so reckless?
A student writhed on the ground, spitting blood.
Lee Se-ah had rushed over at the sound of the commotion.
Her expression spoke volumes.
‘What are you doing?!’
“Sigh.”
He breathed out sharply.
The reason he’d endured the professors’ uproar until now was simple.
He’d wanted so desperately to return to Earth, to South Korea, and to live well here.
He wanted to adapt by following the rules of this place.
It seemed the rules here forbade mere teaching candidates from stepping in during such situations.
“What are you talking about? The heart’s rupturing, you say?”
A professor who’d tried to stop him shouted, his face flushed with anger.
For a moment, Kang Hyun’s lips twisted, and his true thoughts nearly burst out.
‘You idiots. You’re blocking the hole with force, so where will the smoke from a burning house go? Of course it backflows to the weakest point—the heart—and ruptures.’
But he held back.
The warning from the chick who’d brought him here echoed in his mind.
“When you get there, you absolutely cannot speak informally to me the way you did before! You must use formal speech at all times! Do you understand? You said you wanted to become a professor. If you cause more trouble here, even the Management Bureau won’t be able to help you.”
Honestly, it felt maddening.
He’d fallen into the Martial World at thirteen and spoken only Chinese for twenty years.
He wasn’t ignorant of Korean formal speech, but it wouldn’t come naturally to his tongue.
But what could he do?
This too was a gate he had to pass through to adapt to the world.
“The Qi is twisted once at the Zhongwan and twice at the Qimen.”
“What? How could you possibly know that?”
Normally one couldn’t tell without feeling the pulse.
But Kang Hyun had learned medicine from a madman of an old man—one who’d taught the Divine Physician, the Demonic Physician, and even the Medicine Immortal—the Mad Hands.
Mad Hands, one of the seven elders who’d instructed him, could read the flow of Qi with his eyes and diagnose illness by scent.
“Believe it or not, it’s your choice, but shouldn’t we save the boy?”
“What are you trying to do!”
Chief Professor Jin Myung-hun stepped forward, but with no time to spare, he strode toward the student.
At the same time, he pressed his hand to the Qihai Acupoint, about two finger-widths below the navel.
“Wait, just a moment! What are you doing?”
The eyes of the student watching the situation filled with terror.
There you have it.
If it were truly a Demonic Qi Intrusion, the victim couldn’t grasp the situation at all.
“Insane! That’s the Dantian!”
“What madman places his hand on the Dantian of someone afflicted with Demonic Qi Intrusion! Step back this instant!”
The professors descended into chaos.
‘Deafening.’
Kang Hyun paid no heed to the shrieking swarm of flies and struck the acupoint with force.
“Cough!”
A dark, clotted mass of blood erupted from the boy’s mouth like a fountain.
Splatter!
Drops of blood scattered across the Training Grounds floor, staining it crimson.
The boy collapsed to the ground like a puppet with cut strings.
‘Treatment complete.’
With that striking technique, he’d fully loosened the twisted acupoint.
But then.
“Y-you mad bastard! You’ve killed the student after all!”
The Training Grounds descended into absolute pandemonium.
Even Lee Se-ah, watching from far back at the entrance, had gone pale, covering her mouth with her hand.
That was when it happened.
Ring!
The metallic sound of steel rang out.
Jin Myung-hun had drawn his sword.
“You dare kill an Academy student? I will hold you accountable for this catastrophe!”
As he approached, drawing out his aura, Kang Hyun simply stared at him.
Had it been the old days, the man’s head would have been severed the moment he unsheathed that blade.
That’s how the Martial World operated for the twenty years I spent there.
In that moment, Kang Hyun found himself at an impasse.
Should he trust his instincts from the Martial World, or his reason from Earth?
It was the Dean who extricated Jin Myung-hun from that brutal dilemma.
“Stand down, Professor Jin!”
The Dean moved to block his path.
His expression spoke volumes without words.
‘For heaven’s sake, don’t move—unless you want to end up dead!’
“Dean!”
“Sheathe your blade. You’re far too worked up right now.”
“But—but this man just nearly beat the student to death!”
“Even so, what grounds do you have for drawing steel at this moment?”
……!
The Dean’s harsh rebuke left Jin Myung-hun speechless.
“Dean! Are you siding with a complete stranger? Surely this man doesn’t have connections to the Management Bureau?”
“Don’t overstep.”
The Dean’s voice dropped to a dangerous calm.
The old Dean’s eyes—usually twinkling with good-natured laughter—had turned heavy and grave.
“Even if this man harmed a student, it’s the Academy Discipline Committee and the Association Inspection Bureau who judge and punish such matters. It is not a professor’s place to draw steel and mete out private justice.”
Krgh.
“Put that blade away this instant. Unless you’d like to test whether I’m serious.”
Jin Myung-hun’s face contorted at the Dean’s lethal warning.
Just as he was reluctantly moving to sheathe his sword—
Cough!
A coughing sound rang out from the center of the Training Grounds, breaking the silence.
All eyes snapped downward.
Cough, cough-hack!
The bloodied student lying on the ground stirred, his body heaving as he gasped painfully for breath.
Then, faltering, he pushed his upper body upright.
Color had already returned to his pallid face, and the violently churning Qi that had raged moments before had stilled.
Gasp, huff.
The student, breathing heavily, felt across his chest and abdomen, muttering under his breath.
“It… it doesn’t hurt…….”
Even the Dean was stunned.
In fact, everyone watching the scene had gone blank-faced.
“He… he’s alive?”
“A strike to the Dantian to purge Demonic Qi Intrusion?”
“What in the world is……”
It was the Dean who took command of the situation.
Code name: Black was classified national intelligence.
The Dean knew better than anyone that drawing unnecessary attention would only invite trouble.
“What are you all standing around for! Get the student to the Medical Center at once and see that he rests!”
At the Dean’s sharp command, the professors hastily supported the student and hurried him out of the Training Grounds.
Once the situation had been brought under control, the Dean smoothly turned and faced Kang Hyun.
“Ahem. Professor Kang Hyun?”
“You can just call me Hyun.”
“Ah, I see. My apologies for putting you through such an unpleasant commotion.”
“It’s fine. In fact, matters were resolved quite well because of you.”
“I’m grateful for handling the student. If you wouldn’t mind, would you wait in the Receiving Room? We can discuss everything properly once things are settled.”
“Understood.”
* * *
Medical Center.
Professor Hwang Ye-rim, just back from her field assignment, took the student’s pulse.
“It’s stable.”
At her measured words, the tense professors felt their shoulders sag with relief.
“You said the Qihai Acupoint was struck? It was precisely the right emergency measure. There’s a twisted blockage around the Zhongwan and Qimen—in cases like this, you must open the Qi pathways and force out the stagnant blood all at once.”
A deep admiration flickered across Hwang Ye-rim’s eyes.
Even knowing the theory, one would need considerable mastery of Qigong medicine to execute such a clean treatment.
“Who is he?”
“…….”
“Who prescribed this so perfectly?”
Silence.
Not a single professor, Jin Myung-hun included, could open their mouth.
So the very method they’d been questioning was actually flawless!
How mortifying.
Then.
The Dean, who’d been standing with arms folded and observing the situation, spoke casually.
“Professor Hwang. One question, if I may.”
“Yes, Dean.”
“If…….”
The Dean’s gaze turned toward the rigid faces of the gathered faculty.
“Someone from outside had deployed a qigong net to forcibly suppress the True Qi. What would have happened to this student?”
It wasn’t meant as blame, but rather to drive home a point.
“Hmm.”
Professor Hwang’s brow furrowed.
Then came an answer, sharp and unadorned.
“Who in their right mind would do something that reckless?”
“……!”
“With the twisted Qi already losing its outlet and spiraling out of control, if external pressure were applied, it would all surge toward the weakest point—the heart. In no time at all, the heart meridians would rupture. Instant death.”
Jin Myung-hun’s legs nearly buckled.
He’d nearly killed the boy, and the very person he’d drawn his sword against—the one he’d dismissed as a parachute—had been the savior who brought the student back from death’s door.
The Dean asked no further questions.
What would those professors who knew nothing but swordplay understand?
He understood that their desire to save the student came from genuine concern.
But still.
“It seems the candidate’s qualifications as a professor have been sufficiently verified. What does everyone think?”
He had to press his advantage and suppress any remaining opposition.
No professor offered a response.
Even if they’d had ten mouths, they’d have had nothing to say.
Because Kang Hyun had cleaned up their mistake.
“Then, I’ll accept it by consensus.”
Jin Myung-hun watched the Dean nod and exit, his lips pressed tight.
He conceded this point.
But still.
Whether a little medical knowledge qualified someone to discuss teaching credentials was another matter entirely.
‘Let’s see you try. Let’s see if all that fancy medical knowledge holds up on the lecture platform.’
Jin Myung-hun turned to leave, suppressing the anger that roiled within him.
* * *
“Kang Hyun! Or should I say Professor now!”
In the car on the way back to the Safe House.
Lee Se-ah, sitting in the driver’s seat, practically bounced with excitement.
In the back seat, Kang Hyun held the Academy Special Professor Appointment Letter the Dean had handed him directly.
National Hunter Academy
Special Professor Appointment Letter
Name: Kang Hyun
Position: Special Professor
Course: Special Guidance Studies
Term of Appointment: 1 year
The aforementioned individual is hereby appointed as a Special Professor at the National Hunter Academy.
Dean of the National Hunter Academy, Seo Il-hyun (Official Seal)
‘Special Guidance Studies.’
Just Saturday, two hours a week—that’s how they’d arranged the schedule.
Since he wasn’t a tenured professor, they couldn’t count it as a major course, and he’d acknowledged their apology for that constraint.
“That was absolutely incredible. How did you know without even checking his pulse? You just went bang on his Dantian, and the blood just came spurting out, and he just sprang back to life—did you see the look on that Professor Jin Myung-hun’s face?”
Chatter, chatter, chatter.
Through the rearview mirror, Lee Se-ah’s mouth never stopped moving.
At first, she’d trembled at just a glance, but now she seemed more at ease.
Kang Hyun made no reply.
Just that.
Glug, glug.
He drank the whiskey from the back seat like it was water.
“Ahh.”
The alcohol’s warmth pressed down the pain in his dantian, suppressing even the toxic qi of Asura.
“And you did really well. Exactly as I asked—keeping the formal register all the way through. Though the ‘step aside’…… was a bit much.”
“Hey.”
Kang Hyun knitted his brow and struck the front seat.
“Yes, yes?”
“Shut up and drive faster.”
His voice carried a fine edge of pain beneath the words.
Lee Se-ah, whose instincts were sharp, caught it immediately.
‘Oh no. Again.’
She glanced at Kang Hyun’s pale face in the rearview mirror.
‘I knew it.’
Black was definitely hurt.
Lee Se-ah’s anxiety spiked—vroom!—and she stamped on the accelerator.
“Are you all right? If you’re in a lot of pain…….”
“Didn’t you hear me? Be quiet.”
“Yes.”
Not long after, they arrived at the Safe House.
Bang!
The door slammed shut.
Lee Se-ah found something desolate in Kang Hyun’s departing back.
What on earth was it?
Why wouldn’t he show it?
He could detonate a Leviathan with a gesture.
Lee Se-ah began to grow more and more curious about what private hell he was enduring alone.
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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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