The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 88

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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 88
Ariana Ashford (2)
Who is the strongest Hunter in the world?
America names Leon, China names Wei Qingrong, but the British Royal Family is certain of one thing.
The world’s true number one is unquestionably Ariana Ashford.
“The infant’s body temperature is forty degrees!”
“Unwrap the swaddling! We need to bring the fever down first!”
She was different from birth.
Her body ran hotter than others, yet she remained calm; the doctors recorded it as a rare disease of unknown origin.
It only worsened as she grew.
She walked at six months and shattered a table by age three.
‘My daughter is a monster.’
Her father, Count Ashford, kept the fact meticulously hidden.
To protect his daughter.
In those days, the concept of Hunters didn’t exist yet, and he feared that revealing this might lead to her being taken away by someone, somewhere.
The year Ariana turned six, Dungeons appeared in the world.
The Great Catastrophe came, and her father thought to himself:
‘Perhaps our daughter awakened in preparation for this very day?’
And so Ariana was placed under the secret supervision of the Hunter Association, receiving the excavated martial arts of the Crimson Flame Sword and the Cleansing Fire Divine Art.
Years later, these Secret Manuals would be classified as Man Bak-ja’s third-rank techniques.
Whoosh!
Of course, the moment she wielded them, they became absolute divine arts.
Others trained but could barely conjure a single flame; the instant she drew her blade, a towering inferno erupted.
The day she entered middle school, her father happened to spar with an S-Rank Hunter of that era——
And the royal Hunter Association fell into shock.
Boom!
She had sent the S-Rank Hunter flying with a single blow.
That day, the British Royal Family entered a grave conference.
At the time, Britain was a weak Hunter nation.
If this child prodigy became known to the world?
She would face suppression and assassination attempts from the great powers—it was inevitable.
So they concealed Ariana and managed her carefully, until the day she came of age, when disaster struck.
An unranked catastrophic monster descended upon London.
As Britain’s vaunted knights were swept aside and the nation teetered on the brink of collapse, Britain had no choice but to reveal Ariana to the world.
And then.
Boom!
A single stroke of the Crimson Flame Sword reduced the colossal beast to ash without so much as a scream.
Overwhelming power.
Though no camera captured that moment, British officials understood it then:
‘Ariana is simply, without question, the world’s strongest.’
The Royal Family bestowed upon her, a high school student, the title of Commander of the Knights, and the British people called her the Scarlet Flame Knight.
Over the following six years, she remained active, earned her S-Rank Hunter Certificate from the international council, steadily demolished the rankings, and by age twenty-six claimed the title of one of the world’s five greatest Hunters.

* * *
The world did not know.
That the brighter the light, the deeper the shadow cast behind it.
Cough!
Each time Ariana coughed blood, the royal physicians shook their heads.
“Your meridian points are broader than most, which is good, but the Internal Martial Power flowing through them burns hotter. At this rate, you’ll incinerate your meridians entirely.”
“You must stop all Hunter activity and martial training at once. If this continues, we cannot guarantee your survival.”
But stopping her training changed nothing.
Her constitution was such that Internal Martial Power accumulated merely from breathing.
“……The Internal Martial Power is spiraling out of control. Your meridians are exceeding their breaking point.”
“Then what becomes of my daughter?”
“I’m sorry. It will be difficult for you to see thirty.”
That was the truth.
Ariana carried a Terminal Diagnosis.
The fact was treated as top secret—only her parents, the physicians, the Royal Family, and a handful within the Hunter Association knew.
“……All of you gathered here today represent the most brilliant talents your nations have produced……”
She recited the ceremonial address elegantly from the podium, but in truth, her insides were burning away.
The injustice of dying before thirty felt maddening, as if it might drive her out of her mind.
‘There’s still so much food in the world left to taste.’
In truth, she was a gastronome without equal on earth.
Whenever she traveled to a new country, she’d relentlessly hunt down that region’s Michelin-starred restaurants and hidden gems until her craving was satisfied.
And yet she was supposed to simply die like this?
When she first received the terminal diagnosis, she wept for days and nights without rest.
But eventually, she came to accept her fate.
Or rather, she pretended to accept it while throwing herself into Hunter work with renewed fervor.
‘I want to leave my name behind.’
She refused to disappear quietly, shamefully.
She wanted her name—the glory of House Ashford—to be remembered in the annals of the British Empire.
So that when her parents remembered her in years to come, pride would outweigh their sorrow.
Which was why she had not refused to deliver the opening address at this Global Exchange Tournament.
The Royal Family, concerned for her health, had strongly objected, but Ariana had insisted.
‘And I’ll eat that limited-edition Raspberry Tart from the Paris Marais District while I’m here, which is convenient enough.’
Whenever she thought of something delicious, a desperate longing for life would surge up inside her.
‘I want to live.’
A childhood memory flashed through her mind.
Due to her exceptional beauty, countless proposals and confessions had poured in, but she had rejected them all.
How could she think of romance or marriage when she was in such pain?
There had been times, in her youth, when she’d entertained such reckless thoughts.
‘If I were to marry someone, it would have to be the person who cures my illness.’
It seemed naive now, but she had been that sick, and she had been that desperate.
What if someone truly could heal her?
She would have been willing to place her own strength and Britain’s influence entirely at their feet.
“……And so you are the tomorrow of mankind, and the hope that cannot be broken.”
As her address drew to a close—
‘Hmm?’
Her brow furrowed slightly.
Standing at the absolute pinnacle, in the Transformation Realm, her sensitivity to presence was keen enough to envelop the entire Dome Stadium and beyond.
The presence of tens of thousands of spectators felt uniform, but one presence uniquely caught her attention.
‘There.’
Ariana’s gaze swept toward a corner of the stands.
Her two eyes, infused with Internal Martial Power, pulled the scene sharply into focus.
‘A man?’
An East Asian man wearing sunglasses.
He was staring directly at her with a peculiar expression on his face…….
‘What is this?’
Ariana’s pupils trembled.
Something dark and terrible emanated from within his body.
More precisely, two distinct energies were endlessly colliding within his Dantian.
‘Does that man have…… a monster living inside him too?’
Her, burning uncontrollably in Wild Fire.
Him, being consumed by a terrible poison.
Kindred spirits.
Curiosity ignited in Ariana’s eyes.

* * *
Meanwhile, Kang Hyeon, who was observing Ariana, had his own concerns.
From a quick search, she was already practically a symbol of Britain itself.
Captain of the Royal Guard and an S-Rank Hunter under royal control.
‘Can I really bring her in as a disciple?’
Given that he was dying from the Guyang Bak Meridian, he could lure her with the promise of curing her illness, just as he had with Dang So-yu.
The real problem was whether she could remain at his side constantly.
‘There’s simply so much to teach.’
He’d need to train her almost constantly, like a personal tutor.
The First Tribulation aside.
Sword Grandmaster’s Ultimate Yang Heart Method and Single Extreme Sword Technique were profound arts that would take decades to reach Grand Completion even if trained to the Heavenly Martial Body standard, not as an ordinary person.
But he had to obtain Ariana by any means necessary.
She was the most overwhelmingly powerful asset among the Six Tribulations’ candidates—a card he absolutely could not afford to discard.
‘Wait, before that.’
How was he supposed to approach Britain’s national treasure of a Hunter out of the blue?
It was precisely then that Kang Hyeon found himself wrestling with such practical concerns.
‘Hmm?’
A flicker of awareness crossed his eyes.
Something unpleasant and viscous had caught on his heightened sense of presence.
Or rather, it was closer to a smell that pricked the tip of his nose.
‘The stench of a beast?’
Yes, that foul odor from when he’d captured Simdeunggui in the past.
That revolting Asura Stench.
Tap tap.
“Professor Jin.”
Kang Hyeon called out to Jin Myung-hun in the seat ahead.
“Huh? Professor Kang. What is it?”
“Get the students together right now and head to the airport.”
“What? The airport? We’re still in the middle of the closing ceremony?”
“The airport?”
Lee Se-ah, listening from beside him, gasped in surprise.
“We still have plenty of time before departure?”
“I won’t repeat myself.”
A bleak presence flashed across Kang Hyeon’s eyes.
“Move now. And Do Jeong-hyeok, Baek Yu-yeon, Min Seo-jun—you three stay close to me.”
It was an impulsive decision.
Even if the students were lost, he wanted to keep his direct disciples near.
He wanted to show them what kind of path they would have to walk, what lay ahead of them.
Even if he couldn’t protect everyone, he felt he could somehow shield these three.
“Lee Se-ah, help Professor Jin gather the students. Don’t look back—get out of here.”
Everyone was about to panic.
Crackle!
The lights enveloping the Dome Stadium began to flicker.
And then.
Drip, drip, drip.
From the ceiling, the stands’ walls, the stage, even the floor near the exits.
Crimson blood spread like a spider’s web, etching an eerie formation pattern.
‘The Blood Gate!’
A marking he could never forget.
It was the insignia of the Blood Heaven Society, one of the Six Calamities that had turned the Central Plains into a sea of blood alongside Asura in that distant age.
“Wh-what is this?”
“Is it a closing ceremony special effect?”
“It’s kind of creepy though?”
Bewildered spectators murmured, and sensitive Hunters and several others began drifting toward the exits.
“Hurry!”
Just as Jin Myung-hun snapped to attention and began leading the students away.
Splurt!
Someone’s head burst open in the distance.
As Kang Hyeon turned his head, figures wearing blank white masks began appearing one by one.
‘The Unmask have come too?’
His skin crawled.
The Unmask are subordinates of the Unmask Rakshasa.
And who is the Unmask Rakshasa?
None other than another of the Six Calamities, the Master of the Rakshasa Gate.
The one who created Simdeunggui!
Which meant two of the Six Calamities—each already formidable in their own right—had appeared at once.
“Kyaaahhh!”
“P-people are dying!”
“Run!”
With the arrival of the Unmask, the Paris Academy had become a scene of utter chaos.
‘They’re revealing themselves already, at this stage?’
The Six Calamities grow stronger as the time of Asura’s descent approaches.
‘Then that means…….’
Had the time already come for Asura to appear?
If so, there was no saving anything.
No matter what Kang Hyeon did, Earth was finished.
‘But that couldn’t be right.’
If such a time had truly come, the signs would have been unmistakable by now.
He knew that Asura’s resurrection required an enormous amount of blood as tribute.
By now, entire regions would have to have collapsed or vanished, with countless people missing.
‘So why?’
Kang Hyeon’s thoughts spiraled as the question formed.
Crack!
A Blood Gate hanging in the void tore open with a sharp snap, and a dark shadow shot toward the platform.
Its target: Ariana Ashford.
Ariana’s pupils contracted as she sensed the danger.
Schling!
Her hand instinctively drew the sword at her waist and thrust it upward.
In that instant.
Boom!
A tremendous explosion erupted, shattering the surrounding glass and decorations into fragments.
Whoosh!
Beyond Ariana’s blazing blade, the form of the descending figure became visible.
Kang Hyeon’s eyes widened in shock.
‘The Unmask Rakshasa!’
A masked figure in white, billowing a crimson robe, had appeared before them.
‘……The master of the Six Calamities has shown himself in person?’

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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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