The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 61

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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 61
Hunting Rats, Finding Dragons
Heart Lamp Ghost.
Among all the jiangshi, this one was exceptionally damp and cautious by nature.
Once it fixed on a target, it would lurk for months—sometimes years—waiting for its moment.
Like an assassin stripped of all feeling.
‘No matter how much I frightened it, there’s no way it would move now without a clear reason.’
Whoosh, whoosh!
Kang Hyun deployed his Lightness Skill and traced Kasar’s path without hesitation.
‘Perhaps…….’
There might be a heart nearby that the Heart Lamp Ghost coveted.

* * *
A remote countryside house in Inje, Gangwon Province.
Fifteen-year-old middle schooler Min Seo-jun sat hunched in his room, tinkering with something.
Disassembled Radio Parts and several blueprints beneath them.
The boy’s face was alight with excitement.

* * *
The same moment, in the living room.
“Honey, look at this. It’s what I wrote down after going to the consultation today.”
Before the couple sitting at the table lay a sheet of paper and a gleaming certificate.
[34th Korea Mathematical Olympiad Gold Medal—Min Seo-jun]
“The counselor said Seo-jun absolutely has to go to a science high school or gifted academy.”
“……It would be nice to send him, of course.”
Unlike his wife’s bright tone, the father let out a deep sigh.
“Why the sigh? This is good news.”
The truth was, the couple had worried for a long time.
Their child spoke little and rarely made eye contact with others.
Ever since childhood, they’d watched him become obsessively fixated on numbers, patterns, and structural assembly—and so they’d simply assumed their son was a bit different from other children.
And truthfully, there was something odd about it.
“You know Seo-jun’s condition. He doesn’t get along with the other kids at school, just stays in the corner fitting blocks together. Do you think he can survive in one of those suffocating gifted schools?”
“In a gifted school, kids like him might be considered normal.”
“That’s not the only issue.”
The father rubbed his face with an exasperated expression.
“Every chance he gets, he goes on about seeing ghosts in thin air. If he does that in Seoul, he’ll be treated like a freak, and it’ll just hurt the boy more. It’d be better to raise him quietly here, with us…….”
Creak.
That was when the door opened.
It was Min Seo-jun.
“Seo-jun, why aren’t you asleep?”
The boy’s pupils were fixed, piercing through the front entrance beyond.
“It’s there again.”
His voice was quiet.
“What is?”
“A ghost.”
“Sigh.”
The father pressed his forehead with a pointed gesture and let out a groan.
“See? Here we go again. He’s fine until a moment ago and then he starts this nonsense—what kind of gifted school is that?”
“Honey, not in front of the child…….”
“Seo-jun. Didn’t Dad tell you? Ghosts don’t exist in this world. You’re just tired and seeing things…….”
“I’m serious.”
For the first time, Seo-jun turned his head slightly.
His pupils trembled faintly.
“It’s huge, and it smells like rot…….”
Seo-jun’s words didn’t even finish.
Crash!
With a deafening roar, the locked front door was torn clean away and crashed onto the living room floor.
“Ahhhhh!”
“What—what is this!”
The mother shrieked and crumpled to the ground, while the father snatched Seo-jun and shielded him behind his own back.
Dust billowed thick from the entrance.
A shadow stepped through it, footfall after deliberate footfall.
Bronze skin wrapped in beast hide and plate armor.
And eyes the color of fresh blood.
It was Kasar, his crimson gaze unmistakable.
But something was terribly wrong. His pupils had gone black—completely black—and foul smoke curled from his lips alongside a stench that made the air itself recoil.
‘Is he… is he actually a ghost?’
Father’s mouth fell open.
“Grrrrr.”
The sound that came from Kasar was animal, and his gaze locked onto Min Seo-jun with lethal precision.
“…Found… you…”
A massive hand reached out toward Min Seo-jun, fingers spread wide.
“Stop! Get away from my son!”
Father threw himself forward desperately, grabbing Kasar’s arm, but no ordinary person could match the strength of a student of the Academy.
“Honey!”
Father was dragged across the floor as Mother screamed.
Min Seo-jun crouched trembling on the ground, paralyzed by terror, when—
“Forgive the intrusion.”
A sharp crack split the air.
Qi erupted from nowhere, striking Kasar full in the chest.
Kang Hyun appeared as if materializing from the shadows themselves, his palm driving the creature backward.
“Shrieeeek!”
Kasar tumbled, but his joints bent at grotesque angles as he sprang back upright.
“Using a body that isn’t yours—you shouldn’t push it like that.”
Two sharp strikes. A snap.
Kang Hyun’s fingers struck pressure points across Kasar’s form, sealing the channels one after another.
“Aaaaagh!”
The Heart Lamp Ghost thrashed and poured out Demon Energy in desperation, but Kang Hyun’s own Qi pressed down mercilessly, overwhelming it.
Then.
Kasar crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.
It had all taken mere seconds.
“Huff… huff…”
Father lay on the floor, breathing ragged and hard, while Mother held Min Seo-jun close, both of them trembling.
“Are you hurt?”
“N-no, no! What on earth happened? What is that… that thing?”
While the parents stammered in shock, Kang Hyun’s eyes settled on the boy.
What was it?
Why had the Heart Lamp Ghost moved so urgently to find him?
‘Hm?’
Kang Hyun’s drowsy gaze suddenly sharpened.
Those eyes… he knew them.
‘Ghost Eyes?’
Kang Hyun’s heart quickened with genuine surprise.
The ancient demon who had overseen the Earth formation among the Seven Stars formations—the Formation Ghost—had been the bearer of Ghost Eyes.
The ability to instantly dismantle and reassemble even the most intricate formations.
‘Well, well.’
Remarkable, wasn’t it?
So many talents rolling about in this cramped corner of Korea.
If one who possessed Heavenly Meridian Eyes never forgot anything they had once seen, then one who possessed Ghost Eyes had an uncanny gift for spatial perception and reconstruction.
Kang Hyun forced himself to remain composed.
“Do not be alarmed. This creature had been infested by the energy of a Demon Beast. Your son’s talent is so extraordinary that the beast’s instinct sought him out as its target.”
“…Talent?”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyun loosened the Professor Credential at his waist.
“Take this.”
“…What is it?”
Father’s eyes went wide as saucers as he examined it.
[National Hunter Academy, Professor of Special Instruction—Kang Hyun]
“A professor at the National Academy?”

Min Seo-jun’s father’s voice cracked.
Every citizen of South Korea would know this place.
A destination for the chosen few alone—a world apart from elite science high schools and the like.
“If you send your son to us, I will personally guarantee his admission.”
Both his mother and father stood slack-jawed.
Only Min Seo-jun stared blankly at Kang Hyun.
‘This man can see ghosts too.’
But the ghost he sensed was not the foul, malodorous specter he usually encountered.
It was overwhelmingly imposing… and noble.
“Send the bill for the broken front door and home repairs to the Academy. We’ll cover everything.”
When all was said and done, the Mongolian Academy bore the responsibility.
It was Kasar’s doing, after all.
“What’s your name, kid?”
“…Min Seo-jun.”
Kang Hyun smirked and pulled a notebook from his jacket, then began sketching something rapidly with a pen.
He tore out the page and handed it to Min Seo-jun.
“What is this?”
“A diagram of the basic Formation Method. You’ve heard of Formation Methods, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve twisted the original a bit. It’s like a puzzle—complex maybe—but you should be able to solve it. Once you do, come find me at the address written on the Professor Credential I gave your father.”
The boy gazed down at the diagram drawn on the paper.
In that instant, fear vanished and curiosity bloomed.
It was the mark of Ghost Eyes.
When faced with an intriguing problem, all emotion died and obsessive focus consumed everything.
‘He’s a bit young for enrollment.’
Kang Hyun possessed a favor owed to him by Dean Seo Il-hyun.
He intended to use it to bring the boy in.
“Then I’ll be on my way. We’ll meet again later.”
Thump.
Kang Hyun hoisted the massive Kasar onto his shoulder as lightly as a sack of rice.
‘Came to catch a mouse and found a dragon instead.’
As Kang Hyun left in good spirits, Min Seo-jun’s parents wore expressions of pure wonder.
A bolt from the blue in the dead of night—what else could you call it?
“H-honey.”
“…What in the world is happening here?”
Min Seo-jun’s father looked at his son.
The boy gazed intently at the diagram with bright, eager eyes, muttering continuously to himself.
‘That’s right…’
The Academy was said to be a gathering place for monsters.
There could be far stranger specimens than his own son crawling all over it.
‘Kang Hyun… a professor?’
The father’s grip tightened on the Professor Credential.

* * *
The Camping Site had been thrown into complete chaos.
“Find him! Search the surrounding forest thoroughly!”
“Kasar! Where are you!”
A Mongolian student on watch had discovered Kasar’s disappearance too late, and Batar’s furious command had come down.
The Korean students had also risen to join the search.
“Where could he possibly go in the middle of the night…”
Just as Jin Myeong-hun wiped cold sweat from his brow.
Thud, thud.
Slow, deliberate footsteps echoed from the darkness.
Every eye turned toward the source of the sound.
The man emerging from the darkness was none other than Kang Hyun.
And on his shoulder.
“Kasar!”
Batar’s roar erupted.
In his eyes, Kasar hung limply from Kang Hyun’s shoulder like a piece of cargo.
Thud!
The moment Kang Hyun set Kasar down on the ground, Batar’s body erupted with a ferocity beyond imagination.
Crack—crack—crack—crack!
The surrounding trees swayed, and the campfire’s flames were beaten flat against the earth.
“Professor Kang! What in the hell do you think you’re doing? What have you done to our Student?”
The fury in his voice—bordering on murderous intent—sent both Korean and Mongolian Students backing away.
Yet Kang Hyun merely dropped Kasar to the ground with an unmoved expression.
He turned to the interpreter standing nearby and spoke.
“It’s not what I’ve done—it’s what I’ve prevented him from doing.”
“I’m asking where he’s been!”
“Possessed by Demon Beast Qi, he went berserk and tried to attack civilians. So I sealed his meridian points and brought him here. Be grateful.”
Batar couldn’t believe Kang Hyun’s indifferent reply.
“Do you truly expect me to accept such nonsense?”
“What nonsense? What would I gain by taking this boy? If you doubt me, unseal his meridians.”
The Heart Lamp Ghost’s Qi was raging.
Having failed to claim the Ghost Eyes’ heart, it was attempting to detonate itself.
If that happened, finding the main body would be impossible.
“But you’d better be prepared.”
“Prepared?”
“The moment you unseal him, I can’t guarantee his life.”
……
Batar and Kang Hyun’s eyes locked and held.
Their standoff alone was enough to silence every Student present.
An overwhelming tension pressed down on the forest.
Seconds crawled past.
“You understand the symptoms?”
Batar asked, and Kang Hyun answered.
“I already told you—Demon Beast possession. By the look of it, he’s been suffering for roughly half a year. Isn’t that so?”
……
Batar’s pupils trembled.
That Kasar was unwell was classified information known only to Mongolia’s highest officials.
‘Could it truly have been… a Demon Beast’s doing?’
Not a single renowned professor had been able to discover the cause, yet this man Kang Hyun—not even a medical specialist—spoke with such certainty.
Sigh.
The ferocious aura radiating from Batar’s body began to ebb.
His student’s condition mattered more to him than his own pride.
And he was desperate enough to grasp at any straw.
“Professor Kang.”
His voice trembled slightly with urgency.
“Since you seem to understand the symptoms, I must ask—is there a way to treat it?”

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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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