The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 86

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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 86
That was the first test.
“Tch!”
Dang So-yoo instinctively held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut.
A wind fierce enough to shred her eardrums hammered against her auditory canals, and her body felt weightless for an instant before an enormous gravitational force crushed down on her entire frame.
‘Ahhhhhhh!’
When she cracked her eyes open, shock rooted her to the spot.
‘Am I—am I flying?’
She had no idea how she’d gotten here, but she was scaling the vertical face of a Paris skyscraper, her feet striking the glass with each bounding step.
Could a Lightfoot Technique like this actually exist?
‘It’s impossible.’
She’d seen plenty of S-Rank Hunters that the Chinese Government prided itself on.
But even they couldn’t move like this.
Whoosh!
Kang Hyun’s blade sang through the air once more before he finally touched down on the Skyscraper Rooftop railing.
“Exhale.”
The moment Kang Hyun unwound his arm from around her waist, Dang So-yoo’s legs gave out and she collapsed to the ground.
“Gasp, gasp, huh—huh!”
She couldn’t catch her breath.
The mask made it even worse.
When she looked down, the nighttime sprawl of Paris unfolded below, and the agents were nowhere to be seen.
Dang So-yoo’s conviction deepened.
‘Only this man can save me.’
“So.”
Kang Hyun looked down at her, his lips parting.
“You said you wanted to talk?”
“Hah, hah… yes.”
Dang So-yoo steadied herself and rose on uneven legs.
“What you taught me… what was that? How could my Poison Energy become so calm with just one Incantation?”
“A Qi Cultivation that controls the growth of your body.”
Kang Hyun answered matter-of-factly.
“Practice it consistently. It will grant you some degree of control over your poison.”
“But if I learn more? You said so yourself—I’d need to study much longer to master it completely.”
Dang So-yoo’s eyes burned with desperation.
The Huang Tian Poison Master had been right.
She was caught on the Mok Yo Formation.
“How do I finish learning?”
“Simple.”
The corner of Kang Hyun’s mouth curved upward.
“Become my disciple.”
Gulp.
Dang So-yoo swallowed hard.
She spoke, her words tumbling out with reckless urgency.
“Take me with you.”
“To Korea?”
“Yes. You could make it happen. If I go back to China like this after deserting, I might never be allowed outside again.”
She’d caused real trouble this time.
This Exchange Program she’d only managed to attend by throwing a fit—that card wouldn’t work anymore.
She’d probably end up in some research facility, locked behind bulletproof glass, extracting toxins for the rest of her life.
Dang So-yoo wanted nothing more than to grab this man’s pant leg and beg.
“It’s possible, sure.”
Kang Hyun spoke evenly.
“But then what? How do you plan to live? Hide your identity forever? Evade China’s pursuit?”
“Yes. I don’t care. That’s still better than living as a tool to extract poison.”
Besides, her family would be safe too.
Her household was the Tang Family of Sichuan.
Most would dismiss them as the kind of clan you only read about in wuxia novels, but within the Chinese Ministry of State Security, it was known that an ancient poison-working lineage actually existed in the Sichuan region.
They’d even produced multiple S-Rank Hunters.
No matter how powerful the Chinese Government, they wouldn’t dare move against the entire Tang clan simply because she’d vanished.
‘If anything, the family would demand answers from the authorities.’
Dang So-yoo was the Tang Family’s blood before she was a national asset.
To take her away under the pretense of protection and control, only to lose her abroad—wasn’t that shameful?
And after that, they couldn’t very well turn around and hold the Tang Family accountable.
“Please, take me with you. I want to serve you as my master.”
“That won’t work.”
“……What?”
Dang So-yoo’s eyes widened.
“Why not?”
She couldn’t understand.
If that were the case, why had he pierced through the surveillance of the security forces and sent her a message through the void, speaking to her and teaching her an incantation?
Was he offering kindness without reason?
“You’re not ready to become my disciple yet.”
“Ready? What kind of preparation do I need?”
“At the very least, you need to find your own freedom with your own hands. Would you really have me go through the trouble of hiding you while I teach you?”
Dang So-yoo’s lips trembled.
“And to speak plainly—becoming my disciple means walking a thornier path than you imagine. It means enduring endless, bone-grinding training to prepare for the demon that will descend upon the world someday.”
Kang Hyun’s gaze seemed to say this:
If you follow me, life becomes harder.
Perhaps being quietly controlled and raised like livestock is the easier path after all.
“I can endure it.”
Dang So-yoo clenched her teeth.
“No matter how easy it is, I don’t want to live like a fish in a tank. You said so yourself—living ordinary is not simple. I want to find freedom. I felt it clearly now. Who are these security forces? What is the state, to forbid me even from talking with my friends?”
And this time, she hadn’t even harmed anyone.
She was shaken simply by the fact that they’d blocked conversation itself.
“Your disciple Yeon-yeon is happy, isn’t she?”
“She is.”
“She looked happy. I want to live like that too. Wouldn’t a fish swimming in the ocean be happier than one in a tank, even if it’s more dangerous?”
“Haha.”
Kang Hyun laughed.
The girl’s words showed promise, but she understood so little of reality.
“No—it’s the whale swimming in the ocean that’s happy, not some fish. If getting swallowed by something bigger the moment you leave is your idea of happiness, then I have nothing to say.”
“…….”
“This world doesn’t listen to the weak’s grievances. Do you know the real reason you’re shackled to the tank that is China? Because you spew poison? No. Because you’re still not strong enough for them to fear you. So go back.”
Dang So-yoo’s shoulders slumped.
She bowed her head.
‘So that’s it…….’
She had to go back after all?
Was she condemned to spend her whole life there watching dramas and dreaming?
“Go back and grow stronger.”
“……!”
She lifted her head again.
“Grow strong enough that they can’t treat you as a mere pet scorpion, useful only for extracting poison.”
Dang So-yoo’s heart began to race.
“You said you wanted to become my disciple, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“That’s your first test.”
Dang So-yoo’s lips parted.
Her chest burned hot, but reality was not kind.
“How am I supposed to do that? No matter how strong I become, China will never let me go. There are limits.”
China was the strongest hunter nation.
For an individual to overwhelm a state system was unimaginable.
“The incantation I taught you is the third basic foundation of a Secret Manual called the Mok Yo Formation.”
‘What?’
Dang So-yoo’s eyes flew wide.
A basic foundation?
She’d suppressed her poison energy with just one short incantation, and that was only a basic foundation?
“It’s called the Life Growth Control Formation, and from now on I’ll teach you the advanced methods.”
She swallowed hard.
Even now it was extraordinary—there were advanced methods beyond this?
“Controlling growth doesn’t mean merely suppressing something so it can’t develop. The opposite is possible too.”
“……So if it’s the opposite, you’re making it grow even more?”
“That’s right. It means you can make the poison you possess detonate far more explosively.”
Huang Tian Poison Master had already been the king of poisons, but after he truly mastered this Life Growth Control Formation, he became known as the poison emperor.
One school was exterminated by his poison application, and an entire mountain rotted away.
“……You’re trying to turn me into a complete weapon, aren’t you?”
Kang Hyun let out a bitter laugh.
“Isn’t what you are right now already a weapon?”
“What?”
“Is leaking poison everywhere against your will a weapon, or is it controlling it completely and only spraying it at targets you choose a weapon?”
Dang So-yoo fell silent.
The latter is what people usually call a hunter.
“Teach me.”
“You’d better remember it well.”
It took Kang Hyun roughly an hour to transmit all the incantations to Dang So-yoo.
Throughout that time, the security forces still hadn’t found this place.
‘It would be difficult for them.’
Even with their feet on fire, they couldn’t exactly ask France for cooperation.
The moment they asked for cooperation, Dang So-yoo’s confinement and control would be exposed, along with just how dangerous she was and the inhumane way she’d been raised.
“Polish what I’ve taught you on your own. Get stronger that way. Next time, you come out on your own strength.”
Dang So-yoo nodded.
“Understood. I think I’ll have to return to China tonight and won’t be able to watch the Closing Ceremony.”
“That’s how it’ll be. You caused trouble, after all.”
“Ugh, now they really won’t let me out again, will they?”
“Memorize my phone number.”
Kang Hyun recited the number through internal transmission.
“Why the number?”
“In case it gets too much for you to handle. When you truly have nowhere else to turn or feel your life is in danger, find a way to contact this number by any means necessary.”
“And if I call?”
“Then you endure with the incantation I just taught you. If you’ve learned it properly, most people won’t even be able to approach you.”
From Kang Hyun’s perspective, he could never simply let Dang So-yoo die.
The Heavenly Poison Body was irreplaceable material that couldn’t be found again in this modern age.
If the Chinese Government abandoned control and tried to kill her?
Then he would wage all-out war and march straight into the heart of China to bring her out.
“If I hold on like that, you’ll come rescue me?”
Dang So-yoo lifted her head to look at him.
Kang Hyun smiled faintly.
“Ten hours.”
“What?”
“I’ll come find you within that time.”
Dang So-yoo stared at Kang Hyun blankly.
It seemed like he really could do it.
‘Then why……’
Why not take me now instead of telling me to come out myself?
Dang So-yoo couldn’t know, but Kang Hyun had his reasons.
‘Problems like this need both sides to work together.’
That’s the fastest and surest way to solve it.
If he smuggled Dang So-yoo out right now, there would be too many side effects.
Kang Hyun planned to go back and work with the Management Bureau to find a way to extract her legally or diplomatically.
It wasn’t something that could be resolved with effort from only one side, so he gave it to her as a sort of task.
And if she really solved it on her own and came out, that would be even better.
No matter how strong Kang Hyun was, openly going to war with an entire nation through force was troublesome and burdensome.
Could she sense something of Kang Hyun’s true intentions?
“All right.”
Dang So-yoo answered with confidence.
“I’ll give it a try.”
That was their last meeting in Paris.

* * *
After parting with Dang So-yoo, when Kang Hyun arrived at the Restaurant, the atmosphere was already in full swing.
“Professor! Why are you just now arriving!”
“Master, oh masssster!”
“This place is way too expensive! The water costs almost as much as alcohol!”
As time had worn on, the reek of alcohol had grown thick enough to choke on.
Only Min Seo-jun, nursing his ade in the corner, seemed untouched by it all.
“Heh, Professor Kang. Really, we can eat all this? A single steak costs three hundred thousand won.”
Jin Myung-hun’s expression had grown sour, and there was no help for it.
If Professor Kang didn’t show, he’d be the one stuck with the bill.
“Order more, please.”
Kang Hyun settled into his seat with a quiet laugh.
“You lot eat more too. We could wrap up the whole first round here if you wanted.”
“Yeeeah!”
“Long live Professor Kang!”
In the midst of their cheers, Cha Yu-sik spoke up.
“We’re truly grateful for the drinks, Professor, but you have to keep your promise about teaching us the Lightfoot Technique!”
The Lightfoot Technique?
That was when Jin Myung-hun understood.
‘Ah.’
So there was a reason they’d been so eager.
While he, as the faculty supervisor, had claimed today’s glory, it was Kang Hyun who’d been guiding them all along.
Jin Myung-hun clenched his sweat-dampened hands into fists.
After hesitating for a moment, he approached Kang Hyun and spoke carefully.
“Professor Kang.”
“Yes, Professor Jin. Shall I order more wine?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Jin Myung-hun cleared his throat and lowered his voice.
“I owe you an apology.”
“An apology?”
“I wanted to say sorry. When you first arrived, I thought you were a political appointee, and I wasn’t very kind to you. I was petty.”
Now Jin Myung-hun had to admit it.
If Korean hunters were ever to escape their provincial confines, they needed Kang Hyun.
A contract professor?
Nonsense.
When he returned, he’d recommend to the chancellor that they hire him as a tenured professor right away.
Kang Hyun picked up his glass without ceremony.
“I’ve never held it against you. And yes, I was a political appointee.”
“Professor Kang.”
“Honestly, I couldn’t bring myself to teach as earnestly as you do either—it seems like too much work. We each do what we’re good at. Let’s drink to that.”
The gathering had grown warmer still, but Kang Hyun slipped away before long.
‘I’d like to stay, but the time isn’t right.’
Dang So-yoo weighed on his mind.
His prospective student was about to begin a lonely fight on her own—he couldn’t very well spend the evening at a banquet.
“Lee Se-ah.”
“Huh? Kang Hyun? You’re leaving already?”
Lee Se-ah, her cheeks flushed red as tomatoes from successive glasses of wine, slurred the question at him.
Kang Hyun pulled out a credit card and pressed it to her forehead.
“Stay alive until tomorrow morning, then take this and get home safe. No limit, so feed the kids whatever they want.”
“Ugh… Really going? Should I come guard you?”
“Keep your own wits about you. I’m off.”
The Exchange Program now had only one thing left—the Closing Ceremony.

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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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