The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 42

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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 042
So you were hiding here.
The morning of the Quarterfinal had arrived.
As always, Kang Hyeon and Lee Se-ah claimed the best seat in the Professor’s Seat with a view of the Stage.
“Haaah.”
Lee Se-ah covered her mouth with her right hand and let out a yawn.
“I’m going to split my face open yawning this early.”
“Sorry about that. I barely slept last night.”
“Those cadets should be the ones losing sleep, not you. Why are you?”
On the Stage, the cadets who’d made it to the Quarterfinals were warming up—some swinging Wooden Swords, others stretching—but among them, Yun Hyeon-jong with his left arm immobilized stood out distinctly.
“I don’t know.”
Crackle, crackle.
Lee Se-ah pulled out some jerky and continued chattering.
“I’m getting more nervous than I should. I even caught Han Tae-ho this morning and told him not to drop his guard.”
“That’s overstepping.”
“I know it is. I was worried he might float on yesterday’s victory, but looking at his eyes, he’s deadly serious. He said he’ll end it quick and clean.”
Lee Se-ah’s need was just as urgent as theirs.
Keeping Kang Hyeon firmly rooted at the Academy.
That was her mission as an Agent, if it was a mission at all.
“By the way, I should start calling Hyeon-jong something like ‘Yun the Stubborn’ now. I never could’ve gone through that match.”
“Without that killer instinct, he wouldn’t have even made the Quarterfinals.”
And in the first place, he wouldn’t have kept up with Kang Hyeon’s dawn training either.
Wouldn’t he have naturally stopped showing up after a few days?
Just as they were chattering away.
“Ha ha, Professor Kang. Would it be all right if we sat here?”
Someone approached with a cheerful voice.
Kang Hyeon glanced around to find two professors wearing awkward smiles.
Recognition dawned—they were two of the ten professors who’d stormed the Dean’s Office not long ago.
‘Look at these guys.’
He could guess why they’d come.
Yesterday’s Round of 16 matches had shifted the cadets’ opinion.
At the very least, they had to acknowledge that Professor Kang’s teaching ability was beyond question.
But wasn’t that the most important virtue of a professor anyway?
‘Trying to hedge their bets, I see.’
Kang Hyeon didn’t stop the professors from approaching.
More precisely, he felt nothing one way or the other toward them.
“This isn’t my seat to give or take. Sit without asking permission.”
“Ah ha ha! Thank you so much.”
“We apologize for before. Everyone seemed to think we all had to go along with the current.”
As Kang Hyeon replied with easy indifference, Lee Se-ah chimed in.
“Have the professors eaten breakfast? Please, have some of this while you watch.”
“Well now, is that jerky?”
“Ha ha, we’ll gladly help ourselves.”
And.
Park Gwang-woo, watching the scene unfold, trembled violently.
“Those, those, those… traitors!”
Professor Kim ground his teeth as well.
“Just yesterday they said he smelled of alcohol, and now they’re taking jerky and sitting down? Even bats would weep at their shamelessness!”
“Please, calm yourselves.”
Jin Myeong-hun’s brow furrowed sharply.
‘Why react so strongly to just a few rats deserting the ship?’
Their behavior was so pathetic it made him feel embarrassed by proxy.
Being in the company of men beneath his station somehow dragged his own standing down with them.
“Han Tae-ho will be dealt with by Do Jung-hyeok anyway.”
“Ah.”
At the mention of Do Jung-hyeok’s name, color returned to Park Gwang-woo’s face.
“The top-ranked freshman of the 21st Generation!”
“He’s a rookie who just entered, but scouts from the major Guilds are already salivating over him—a genuine prodigy. Han Tae-ho’s momentum is considerable, but against Do Jung-hyeok, it will be no match.”

* * *
– Cadet Han Tae-ho, Cadet Do Jung-hyeok! Please come up to the Stage!
“Ooooh!”
“Wow! Finally!”
The most anticipated match of the 21st Generation bracket had begun.
One was the top student.
The other was the youngest under Oh In-bang, the hottest contract professor right now.
“Let’s do our best.”
Han Tae-ho bowed first, letting his Wooden Sword hang loose at his side.
He knew his opponent was skilled.
In regular classes, Do Jung-hyeok monopolized the professors’ praise every session.
Word was he was an elite who’d toured famous private academies in Gangnam before enrollment, mastered rare techniques, and completed advanced studies ahead of time.
“……Yeah.”
Do Jung-hyeok replied flatly.
“This is the first time we’ve actually talked, isn’t it?”
“You’d have to be doing pretty well to start a conversation with someone like me.”
Han Tae-ho laughed awkwardly, and Do Jung-hyeok’s eyes narrowed.
“Isn’t it you who’s doing well, though?”
“What?”
“You’re training with Cha Yu-sik, the Academy’s most powerful figure.”
“Hm.”
When he thought about it, Do Jung-hyeok had a point.
Not to mention Kwak Do-jin alongside him.
At first it had felt burdensome, but by now they’d become solid backing.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
Do Jung-hyeok adjusted his grip on the Wooden Spear and posed the question.
“What exactly is the professor teaching you? I know you train at dawn, but……you couldn’t reach this level with just the Samjae Sword Technique.”
“Horse stance, Samjae Sword Technique, and Mountain Climbing.”
“…….”
“That’s all he makes me do.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, that’s really all there is.”
Do Jung-hyeok’s brow furrowed deeply.
“Are you messing with me?”
“I’m not.”
“Just those three things made Seo Hae-in get that strong?”
Han Tae-ho had found that part strange too.
Everyone had said Seo Hae-in was perpetually last in the rankings.
Of course, there were hidden training sessions like consuming the Blue Vitality Pill or practicing Qi Circulation with mysterious incantations, but that wasn’t something to brag about here.
Whistle!
Fortunately, the assistant instructor’s whistle cut the conversation short.
“If you’re curious, try taking the class next semester!”
Bang!
Before the words had even finished, Han Tae-ho kicked off the ground and surged forward.
‘End this in one blow.’
None of the holding back he’d shown in the Round of 16.
Spring!
His body shot upward like a compressed coil, and his Wooden Sword raked through the air with brutal force.
The first of the Samjae—Heaven.
Crash!
“Ugh!”
Do Jung-hyeok caught it with both hands gripping the spear shaft, sucking in a sharp breath.
‘What is this insane weight?’
The crushing force bearing down from above was so raw that the Training Ground floor beneath his feet split with a loud crack.
Any ordinary cadet would have had their hands torn open and their organs twisted by this single strike.
‘But.’
He was no ordinary cadet.
Gritting his teeth, Do Jung-hyeok twisted the spear to aim for Han Tae-ho’s ribs.
Whoosh!
The spear point shot forward like a viper, tearing through the air with a sharp whistle.
Clang!
Han Tae-ho did not panic.
Earth.
‘Hold steady.’
In the next breath, he detonated his back leg. Man.
‘Thrust.’
Bang! Crash!
Do Jung-hyeok did not simply accept the blow.
With graceful footwork, he parried it away using his Spear Technique.
Thus began a furious exchange!
Bang! Crash! Clang! Boom!
As the strikes came and went, Do Jung-hyeok found himself genuinely astonished.
‘My spear is actually being blocked by the Samjae Sword Technique?’
It was more than just blocking.
With each collision, he felt his wrists growing numb, tingling painfully.
Han Tae-ho, for his part, was growing impatient.
‘I made a promise with the seniors.’
To finish this as quickly as possible.
Like Seo Hae-in, he wanted to win overwhelmingly and bask in thunderous applause.
But unfortunately, their strength was evenly matched.
Three minutes passed with the exchange continuing, the atmosphere in the Training Ground growing heated.
“Wow!”
“Now this is a true duel!”
“Wait, he’s blocking that?”
“The fact that he keeps parrying with the same Samjae Sword Technique is even more terrifying?”
“These are our classmates?”
The trainees knew because they had stood on that stage themselves in the preliminaries.
They knew because they had tried to hold their ground against Do Jung-hyeok and against Han Tae-ho.
Bang! Boom!
The trainees watched with deepening intensity, and the tide was beginning to turn in Han Tae-ho’s favor.
‘I can win this.’
The moment Han Tae-ho grew certain, Do Jung-hyeok’s foot caught.
He stumbled, his body lurching off balance.
“Oh!”
“Ah!”
“Whoa!”
Gasps echoed throughout the Training Ground.
To make matters worse, he even dropped his spear.
It was a mistake no warrior should ever make, yet for Han Tae-ho, it was an opening more precious than any other.
‘Now!’
There was no room for reason to intervene.
How inviting the exposed nape of the neck looked!
He immediately sent his Wooden Sword flying forward.
Samjae Sword Technique, Man!
Shriek!
The moment the sound of air being torn apart reached his ears, Han Tae-ho’s spine erupted in goosebumps.
‘Did I put in too much force?’
When he thought about it, this was a sparring match, not a real fight.
So why would they be using a real sword instead of a wooden one?
‘What if he dies from this?’
What if his neck breaks and he dies instantly?
He would become a murderer.
“Hah!”
Just as Han Tae-ho tried to release the force he’d put in, Do Jung-hyeok began to do something incomprehensible.
Rather than evade or defend, he actually thrust his neck forward, directly into the path of Han Tae-ho’s blade.
“Ah!”
“No!”
The teaching assistant at the referee’s stand jumped up, and the professors gasped, rising from their seats in shock.
Lee Se-ah screamed as well, but only Kang Hyeon’s eyes held a look of puzzlement.
‘Did he deliberately create that situation?’
Kang Hyeon understood.
Both the twisted footwork and the dropped spear—Do Jung-hyeok had orchestrated it all.
Yet even he
couldn’t make sense of that thrust toward the neck itself.
‘Damn it.’
Han Tae-ho squeezed his eyes shut.
He tried to pull back the force, but the power he’d already unleashed made that impossible, and the blade’s tip touched his neck.
And then.
Clang!
“……?”
A strange sound rang out.
Not the crack of breaking bone—but a vibration, as if striking metal.
Simultaneously.
“I’ll give you credit. You made me use my fists.”
While Han Tae-ho reeled in shock, Do Jung-hyeok’s hook landed precisely on the right side of his jaw.
Crack!
Even as his face snapped around, Han Tae-ho couldn’t process what had happened.
What was that?
What just occurred?
Why did Do Jung-hyeok switch to Fist Technique?
But before that…….
What was that metallic ringing sound?
He wanted to know, but couldn’t follow the thought any further.
His body completed the rotation, his brain rattled loose, and consciousness slipped away.
“What—what was that?”
“What did we just see?”
The spectators erupted in whispers, and even the assistant referee froze.
“……!”
Kang Hyeon shot to his feet.
But his astonishment came from a different cause.
‘Vajra Body!’
Do Jung-hyeok hadn’t drawn Qi to shield his neck.
He’d simply blocked the wooden sword with his natural bone structure.
There was only one physiology in the world capable of that.
The Vajra Body.
Not quite Indestructible Vajra, but a constitution so exceptionally dense that it harbored a prodigious gift for External Technique—the kind of physiology that made even the hardest strike ring like metal.
Cheol San No-goe, who’d once deployed the Golden Jade Formation, possessed precisely that constitution.
A tremor of electricity raced through Kang Hyeon’s entire frame.
‘Hidden here all along!’
No wonder he’d looked so awkward holding that mismatched spear…….
Just as the Heavenly Eye carried the gift of Unforgetting Talent, the Vajra Body came with a natural mastery of the fist.
Cheol San No-goe’s epithet in the martial world was the Fist God.
Truth be told, Kang Hyeon had already given up hope.
He’d searched through all sixteen Round of 16 competitors yesterday and found no matching constitution.
Just as he was wondering whether he’d need to dig through other national Academies, the Vajra Body revealed itself.
‘The wait paid off.’
“Little bird.”
“Y-yes……?”
“Can you dig up some information on Do Jung-hyeok?”
Lee Se-ah caught the glint of excitement in Black’s eyes.
‘What’s gotten into him?’
Honestly, she was devastated.
If Han Tae-ho lost here and ended up placing eighth, what would happen then?
Dismissal would be certain.
Yet Black showed absolutely no concern about that.
Smoothly.
He even stood, as if he’d already seen all there was to see.
“Huh? Aren’t you watching the other matches?”
“Nothing left to see.”
“Sir?”
“Why watch a match whose outcome I already know? That’s no fun.”
“……?”
That meant……
He hadn’t known the outcome of Han Tae-ho and Do Jung-hyeok’s match.
“The match result, whatever it may be……wait, huh? Hold on, where are you going right now?”
“The Infirmary.”
The Infirmary……
Ah, because of Han Tae-ho?
“I-I’ll come with you! Kang Hyeon!”
Startled by the retreating figure of Black, Lee Se-ah hurriedly gathered her things and followed after him.
In the seat beside her, only the two professors who had approached earlier sat with awkward expressions, reading the mood.

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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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