The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 46

—————
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 46
The Gifting of Arts
“Cha Yu-sik first.”
Kang Hyun knew he was the one leading the Five Tiger faction.
“You take these.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cha Yu-sik accepted the two Secret Manuals that Lee Se-ah handed him.
Cangqiong Wuya Swordsmanship
Cangqiong Dayan Divine Art
“……This is.”
His brow furrowed slightly.
‘Cangqiong Wuya Swordsmanship? But I was supposed to learn the Imperial Sword Form?’
And these two arts, no less!
They were definitely third-rank martial arts that Man Bak-ja had designated.
“Could this be the divine art I learned on the mountain?”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyun tilted his head slightly.
“Not satisfied?”
“……No, sir. I’m sure you have your reasons for all of this.”
He couldn’t have answered honestly even if he’d wanted to.
The fact that the professor was teaching him at all was something to be grateful for.
But his eagerness wouldn’t stay hidden—it showed plainly on his face.
He had one goal alone.
To surpass his brother.
To win his father’s recognition from that, and become the head of Cheonlang.
“Here you are, barely taking your first steps, and already thinking about me.”
“Sir?”
“Did you think the path of an Emperor was easy? What I just gave you is learning to run before you can fly—these arts teach you the fundamentals. Master them first. Only then can you achieve Grand Completion in the Imperial Sword Form.”
Only then did Cha Yu-sik’s expression brighten.
‘So it’s a stage toward achieving Grand Completion.’
Through the Samjae Sword Technique, he had learned how crucial the foundation was.
Learning methodically and thoroughly, rather than skimming the surface, would create an even greater gap between him and his brother.
Cha Yu-sik decided to trust Kang Hyun.
He’d already begun to trust him anyway.
He’d trust him to the end.
“I will bear that in mind.”
“Next! Gwak Do-jin.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Learn these first.”
Seven Kills Sword
Lesser Yang Heart Technique
He had given considerable thought to what arts to assign Gwak Do-jin.
In the end, he chose Gongdongpa.
‘Mad monks who beat demons into submission.’
As one of the Nine Sects and One Clan, they were closest to the Demonic Sect—unavoidably rough around the edges.
Which was why their Secret Technique was the Demon-Subduing Sword Technique.
A sword to make demons bow!
Before learning that, the Seven Kills Sword was essential.
“I love the name! I’ll work hard and definitely become your student, sir!”
“I look forward to it.”
Later, nothing would serve better against the subordinates of Asura.
Kang Hyun hoped Gwak Do-jin would become their vanguard commander.
“Next, Yun Hyun-jong.”
“Yes.”
Yun Hyun-jong, with bandages wound around one arm, stepped forward with a tense expression.
“Is your arm all right?”
“It’s still throbbing, sir.”
“Once you master these arts, it would be wise not to rely on that arm.”
Undefeated Twin Swords
Qiankun Wuyang Divine Art
“This is…….”
“Right. From now on, you’ll master the Twin Swords.”
Yun Hyun-jong was methodical and calculating by nature.
In the Martial World, he’d fit perfectly with the Moyong clan—the type who loved thinking while fighting.
That’s why he’d brought their family martial arts.
But.
“This swordwork……! I’ve seen it at the Martial Arts Library!”
“That’s right.”
Yun Hyun-jong could have felt disappointed.
The Qiankun Wuyang Divine Art was ranked third-tier at best, but the Undefeated Twin Swords was fourth-tier martial arts.
“Disappointed?”
“Oh, no, sir.”
“Man Bak-ja is just an appraiser who doesn’t know anything. Fourth-tier? I’d say the Undefeated Twin Swords easily rivals second-tier arts.”
“Truly?”
Even in the Martial World, practitioners preferred a single blade to two.
The reason was simple.
‘It’s easier.’
Distance control came naturally, gathering strength was straightforward, and switching between offense and defense happened swiftly.
Dual swords, on the other hand?
They demanded separate control of both hands, making the learning curve far steeper.
Movements tangled easily, and in pitched combat, your own movements could interfere with each other.
“Learn it properly, and you’ll reach first-tier potential.”
“Wha—!”
Yun Hyun-jong couldn’t believe it.
A Secret Manual you could easily find in any library—rivaling first-tier martial arts?
“And it’s the second-highest potential art among your five.”
“R, really, sir?”
“Why would I lie to you?”
“Huh! I’ll practice hard, sir!”
Only then did color return to Yun Hyun-jong’s face.
Meanwhile, the other students’ eyes flickered across one another.
‘Second-highest potential?’
‘Then where do I rank?’
‘What about the first……?’
‘Could it be me?’
The students sensed that Kang Hyun might deliberately withhold that information.
Revealing it carelessly could distract them with needless jealousy.
“Next, Seo Hae-in!”
“Yes, sir!”
As Seo Hae-in shuffled forward, Kang Hyun handed him the same Secret Manual he’d once given Ma Chul-ung.
Qiankun Lianhuan Tuobai Saber
Qiankun Wuxu Divine Art
“Master these to Grand Completion, and I’ll teach you the Five Tiger Single Slash Saber.”
“……!”
“Huh?”
“The, the Five Tiger Single Slash Saber!”
The students’ eyes widened.
It was the hottest martial art in the country right now.
The very art that S-rank Hunter Ma Chul-ung had been scammed over at a Grand Completion auction!
“Did you know about it, Professor?”
Cha Yu-sik in particular felt a headache building.
The Imperial Sword Form, and now the Five Tiger Single Slash Saber…….
Plus countless arts comparable to them, and the Professor was still authoring new Secret Manuals.
Did the Professor have some legendary library crammed inside his head?
‘There’s definitely something.’
Questions flooded his mind, but he couldn’t ask carelessly or pry.
He figured that when the time came, he’d understand—for now, the wisest path was to focus on learning.
“Finally, Han Tae-ho.”
“Yes, sir……!”
Having witnessed the fortune of his seniors, Han Tae-ho swallowed hard.
Kang Hyun stared at him intently.
Whenever he looked at the boy, romance bloomed in his chest.
A greenhorn with no experience had passed the visiting professor’s test, then kept showing up steadily, and eventually held his own against someone with a Diamond Body without giving ground.
What happens when you add a dash of boldness to that kind of romance?
The great Daoist masters of Huashan came to mind.
Six Harmonies Sword Technique.
Six Harmonies Art.
“This is what you’ll learn.”
“This… this is…….”
Han Tae-ho’s eyes went wide.
Was it some extraordinary Secret Manual?
No!
It was the opposite.
“This is too much, Professor!”
“What is?”
“This is a martial art taught even in regular class sessions, isn’t it!”
A mere eighth-rank martial art set by Man Bak-ja himself!
Among the students, it was the foundation of fundamentals—called trash.
He’d just been delighted to move past the Samjae Sword Technique, and now he was learning basic martial arts again.
“They teach Samjae Sword Technique at neighborhood martial schools, don’t they? And what were the results? Six Harmonies is the same.”
If the Undefeated Twin Swords was second, then it was this Six Harmonies that held the first rank of latent potential.
Huashan’s methods divide the fundamentals more slowly, and if you don’t establish them properly and move beyond them, you can’t even unfold the higher martial arts.
“Learn it properly. It’ll take time, but if your progress is good, I’ll teach you the Plum Blossom Sword Technique and the Purple Glow Divine Art later.”
For a moment, silence fell.
Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
And the Purple Glow Divine Art.
Just hearing the names made the heart swell—those two martial arts were famous as Man Bak-ja’s first-rank arts.
“Is that real? First-rank martial arts actually exist? You know about them, Professor?”
Not just the students, but Lee Se-ah and Baek Yu-yeon alike couldn’t hide their shock.
Man Bak-ja herself had only ever said she knew of them through ancient texts—nowhere in the entire world had first-rank martial arts ever been revealed to the world.
“Believe it or not, that’s your choice. And from now on, don’t prattle about ranks in front of me.”
Even if martial arts had ranks, within the Nine Sects and One Clan and the Five Great Families, they differed only by a hair’s breadth.
If the level of Secret Manuals were everything, then a supreme master of the realm would emerge from those places every generation.
“What matters is the person. Even if all of you achieved Grand Completion of these martial arts, do you think you could stop my Samjae Sword Technique?”
Ranks were hollow.
Especially if Man Bak-ja had said so.
‘I’ll have to reestablish the framework through Lee Se-ah later.’
“Anyway, return the Secret Manuals to me.”
Whoosh.
Kang Hyun extended a hand lightly toward empty air.
Then an invisible force drew the Secret Manuals from the students’ hands as if fishing them out, collecting them back.
“Starting tomorrow at dawn, come to the land behind the New Training Hall, not the Old Training Hall’s Practice Grounds.”
Having won the wager, that land now belonged to Kang Hyun.
“All the Secret Manuals I just showed you will be stored on that land. Absolutely no removal outside.”
Not circulating peerless Secret Manuals to the outside was an unwritten rule in both the Martial World and here alike.
“Instead, whenever you come there, even outside the designated training hours, I’ll leave the Secret Manuals open for you to practice.”

* * *
After sending the students away, Kang Hyun came alone to Baek Yu-seol’s house.
Bringing Do Jeong-hyeok was important, but managing Baek Yu-seol was equally so.
She was at a terminal stage, if one were to call it cancer.
He needed to take her pulse regularly and check whether she was absorbing Seol Mu-wol’s martial power well.
Ding-dong.
He pressed the doorbell and waited a moment.
Click.
The door opened.
“Ah, hello. You’re Professor Kang Hyun……. Right?”
Surprisingly, it was Baek Yu-seol herself who opened the door, not her parents.
‘A good sign.’
The fact that she wasn’t lying in bed meant there had been decent progress.
“May I come in?”
“Yes, yes! Please, come in!”
“Oh my, Professor!”
As he crossed the threshold, Baek Yu-seol’s mother rushed toward him with open arms.
“What brings you all this way! Come in, come in! How fortunate—I was just preparing dinner. Please, you must stay and eat with us!”
“That’s not necessary. I only came to see how she’s doing—”
“Don’t say such modest things! You saved our Yu-seol’s life.”
The mother’s eyes glistened with tears.
“I can’t thank you enough, Professor! Our Yu-seol—she used to lie in bed all day, complaining and crying of pain. But now the nighttime aches have vanished completely, and look at her now, walking about on her own so well.”
“Mother, really, you’re making the Professor uncomfortable.”
Baek Yu-seol tried to soothe her mother’s exuberance, but Kang Hyun observed her complexion in quiet scrutiny.
It was unmistakably different.
The cheeks that had been pale as glass now held a faint flush of color, and as flesh gradually returned to her gaunt frame, her features had sharpened into striking clarity.
‘No question—that face would turn heads anywhere.’
Where Baek Yu-yeon possessed an intellectual, refined allure, Baek Yu-seol emanated something cool and distant, yet utterly captivating.
As mentioned before, beauty was a hallmark trait of the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian constitution.
“You look well.”
Kang Hyun offered the brief compliment and turned to the matter at hand.
“How far have you progressed? Are you practicing Qi Circulation properly?”
The moment the question left his lips, Baek Yu-seol’s eyes lit up.
“Yes! At first, when I tried to draw in the energy exactly as the manual described, it felt so cold that I thought it would only hurt me more. But instead of forcing it down into my Dantian, I found that if I let it flow along my spine during Qi Circulation, the pain lessened strangely. And around the third passage, I felt a slight blockage, but when I extended my breathing a bit longer, that part seemed to unwind smoothly. And the fourth passage—”
She chattered on without pause.
As Baek Yu-seol’s words tumbled out ceaselessly, her mother—who had been bringing out side dishes from the kitchen—went wide-eyed.
‘Did my daughter always talk this much?’
She had always been quiet and withdrawn.
But now she seemed animated, eager—like a child waving a perfect test paper, hungry for praise.
Kang Hyun, meanwhile, was quietly impressed.
‘Look at this one.’
He had actually come today to teach her the advanced applications of the third passage.
Yet she had discovered it on her own?
‘The Nine Yin Absolute Meridian truly does breed genius.’
“Well done. Continue in that manner. I’ll visit often.”
“Yes!”
Soon the living room table groaned under the weight of an elaborate feast.
Braised short ribs, glass noodles, assorted vegetables.
“It’s simple fare, but please eat well, Professor.”
“…I will partake gratefully.”
Kang Hyun reluctantly picked up his chopsticks.
Smoothly.
In that same motion, he drew out the Whiskey Bottle from his robe and took a sip as an accompaniment to the meal.
The mother carefully opened her mouth.
“Professor, if I may ask…”
“Please, go ahead.”
“Our Yu-seol is walking on her own now and the pain is gone, isn’t it? Surely she doesn’t need to pursue such dangerous and difficult martial training anymore? I would simply like for my daughter to live an ordinary, healthy life…”
It was a natural concern for any parent.
But.
“That is not possible.”
“Pardon?”
“Her current painlessness is not recovery. It is merely a pause in the timer of a time bomb. The moment she stops training, the suppressed Yin Energy will detonate, rupturing her Heart Meridian.”
“A ruptured Heart Meridian means…”
“She will die.”
The mother’s face drained of color.
“She trains in order to live.”
If, upon the Water Yang Formation, she could bring Seol Mu-wol’s martial arts to Grand Completion—
Then the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian constitution itself would become an extraordinary opportunity for advancement.
Kang Hyun explained this to her parents calmly as he ate.
Across from him, Baek Yu-seol sat watching intently.
‘This man.’
Everything he said was without deception.
It was all truth.
Baek Yu-seol felt a strange anticipation stirring within her.
‘So I’m supposed to enroll at the Academy next year? And you’ll help me do it?’
What would it be like—herself, healthy and whole, living the life of a student?
It was a dream she’d never dared to reach for, but now, thanks to him, hope had taken root.
‘I’ll work harder, I promise.’
So please.
Just let me get better.

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