Ultimate Martial Venerable - Chapter 34

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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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Chapter 34. The Martial Arts Academy
Sky-Obscuring Sparrow

As those wings folded, a wind rose that seemed to tear the heavens apart, sweeping across the forest.
Trees dozens of feet below bent in unison. Yuk Beom gripped one feather with his hand while drawing Kkamangi close with his other arm.
Yuk Myeong faced the tempest with gritted teeth. The wind-battered planes of his face twisted into an almost comical grimace, though for the sake of dignity he managed to swallow his cries.
Hwan Wol, by contrast, threw open her arms and laughed.

“Faster! Come on, this tickles!”
“If we go any faster you’ll actually take flight!”
“Then we just climb back up!”

Yuk Myeong gave up trying to answer, squeezing his eyes shut.
Thud!
Enormous talons pressed into the earth as the Sky-Obscuring Sparrow touched down. The moment the three of them leaped clear, deep claw-marks gouged the hard-packed soil.
Before Yuk Beom could even set Kkamangi down, the great wings unfurled again.
Another gust roared through.
Yuk Beom and Yuk Myeong shielded their faces with their arms, but Hwan Wol waved after the departing creature.

“Next time bring an even bigger one!”

The Sky-Obscuring Sparrow’s cry faded beyond the clouds.
Yuk Myeong, brushing dust from his clothes, muttered under his breath.

“First time I’ve seen anyone posture in front of a bird.”
“Don’t be jealous. You looked like you might cry the whole way down.”
“I was merely taking the situation seriously.”
“Even the part where the wind folded your face?”

Yuk Myeong closed his mouth.
Yuk Beom stifled a laugh and adjusted the Weaponless Heavy Sword

slung across his back.

“The Academy isn’t somewhere inside Pangseong?”
It lies in the Gyeongcheon Mountain Range

Yuk Myeong replied.

Taking the lead, Yuk Myeong stepped onto a bluestone path winding through the forest.

“First-timers usually buy a guide in Pangseong. A few silver coins and they’ll bring you there.”

Hwan Wol strode ahead, tilting her gaze upward. In the distance, a towering mountain range rose through the haze, as if shouldering the very sky.

“There’s an old legend about the Gyeongcheon Mountain Range — that it’s the transformed body of Gyeongcheon, a warrior who touched the outer limits of strength. They say his treasures are hidden somewhere in those peaks.”
“A person died and became a mountain range?”

A snort escaped Yuk Myeong.

“Children’s bedtime stories.”
“You sound like someone who’s never seen sky from anywhere but the bottom of a well.”
“If I’m the frog in the well, what does that make you?”

Hwan Wol didn’t even glance back.

“The one throwing stones down from above.”

Left without a reply, Yuk Myeong only muttered quietly once she had moved out of earshot.

“A surly toad, no doubt.”
“I heard that!”

The Red Dagger flashed up, and Yuk Myeong’s mouth snapped shut at once.
Yuk Beom walked ahead without a word. He saw no reason to mention that Hwan Wol’s teacher had reached the Yin-Yang Realm

—a strength that defied belief. Whatever truth lay behind that impossible legend, one thing was certain: Hwan Wol’s knowledge of the world likely stretched far beyond their own.
After nearly two hours of walking, the forked stone paths gradually converged into one.
Young martial artists appeared from the other routes—some with swords at their belts, others bearing massive axes, still others with spears slung across their shoulders. Their weapons and garments were as varied as their faces.
A few recognized Yuk Myeong and waved.

“Turtle Yuk Myeong! Made it back alive, did you?”
“Come to hide in your shell again, have we?”

The laughter was far too loud to pass for genuine warmth.
Yuk Myeong’s steps stiffened noticeably.
Hwan Wol drifted closer and asked quietly.

“Your nickname is Turtle?”
“No.”
“But everyone calls you that?”
“There are a lot of hard-of-hearing people around.”
“Yet right now your face is drawn up just like a turtle’s neck.”
“Say one more thing.”

Hwan Wol’s eyes sparkled with mischief.

“Turtle.”

Yuk Myeong’s fists clenched, but his opponent was Hwan Wol—there was nothing for it but to endure.
Yuk Beom did not laugh.
He recognized the stiffening of the shoulders each time mockery landed. It was no different from the looks he himself had once received within the Yuk Clan.
As they reached the base of the mountain, a narrow passage appeared between two massive stone walls. At the entrance sat an old man in tattered clothes, barefoot, his graying hair scattered by the wind and his eyes half-closed.

“Show your entrance tablet.”

Yuk Myeong reached for his Jade Tablet but caught sight of Hwan Wol’s empty hands.

“Where’s your entrance tablet?”
“I don’t have one.”
“You don’t have one?”

What emerged from the red waist pouch was a cracked, worn Iron Tablet. A single large character—”Martial”—was etched upon its surface.
Yuk Myeong laughed in disbelief.

“You’re going to try entering with that scrap metal?”
“It’s worth more than your jade tablet.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that?”
“Want to wager on it? If I can’t get in, I’ll do you a favor. If I can, you listen to what I say three times over.”

Yuk Myeong opened his mouth, then stopped.
Every time Hwan Wol spoke with such confidence, he lost. He’d already learned that lesson more than once.

“Why no answer, Turtle?”
“I don’t engage in childish games like wagers.”
“Scared, then.”
“It’s called wisdom.”

A scoff cut through their bickering.

“Yuk Myeong may be sharp, but he hides his head the moment there’s danger.”

A gaunt man in a purple martial robe walked toward them. The more he smiled, the more his long, narrow eyes and pointed chin made him look contemptible.
Beside him stood a youth in white robes with an almost identical face.
Yuk Myeong’s eyes went cold.

“Jeon Pung.”
“You remember names. I thought all those beatings had scrambled your brain too.”

Jeon Pung shoved his younger brother forward.

“This is Jeon Woo. He enrolled this year. Jeon Woo, introduce yourself. This is the Turtle—Yuk Myeong—I told you about.”

Jeon Woo twisted his mouth into a sneer.

“The one who washes your brother’s robes and digs medicinal herbs for him?”
“That’s right. If you ask him nicely, he can’t say no.”

Both brothers laughed together.
Jeon Pung stopped in front of Yuk Myeong and tapped his cheek with an open palm. Despite the lightness of the gesture, there was force behind it, leaving a red mark that bloomed across his face.

“Look after my brother too, would you? You can do that, right?”

Yuk Myeong’s jaw tightened.
If he raised his hand, he’d end up fighting an academy senior at the entrance. The thought that he had to endure it clashed with humiliation across his face.
Yuk Beom caught his wrist.

“Remove your hand.”

Jeon Pung’s laughter died.

“Who are you?”
“Yuk Beom.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Since you didn’t know his name, I thought I’d explain—you shouldn’t lay hands on someone else’s family.”

The laughter around them faded at the short, blunt reply.
Jeon Pung’s eyes flickered as he tried to wrench his hand free from Yuk Beom’s grip. He looked to be barely in the early Inner Gangjing Realm on the surface, yet the wrist he held wouldn’t budge.

“You must be Yuk Myeong’s family.”
“We are.”
“It’s not bad to save face in front of family, I suppose.”

Jeon Pung pulled his hand away with effort and stepped back.

“We’ll meet again inside the academy. There won’t be an old gatekeeper or spectators then.”
“When we do, I’d advise you not to raise your hand first.”

Yuk Beom’s gaze brushed across the red mark still visible on Yuk Myeong’s cheek.

“Next time, I might break it off before you can pull it back.”

Jeon Woo’s face darkened, but Jeon Pung blocked him with his arm.

“Confidence suits a newcomer. Let’s see how long it lasts.”

The two brothers showed their Jade Tablets and disappeared down the corridor.
Yuk Beom turned to the side.

“Has it been like this the whole time?”
“Don’t worry about it.”

Yuk Myeong rubbed his flushed cheek with the back of his hand.

“It’s something I need to handle myself.”
“If you can handle it alone.”
“Even if I can’t, I won’t take your help.”
“Then I shouldn’t have let go of your wrist earlier.”
“……Don’t act generous just because you already grabbed it.”

His voice remained sharp, but his eyes couldn’t meet hers.
Hwan Wol looked between the two of them, then nodded with understanding.

“You two really do get along.”
“What are you looking at?”
“You both say you dislike each other but keep taking care of each other anyway. Troublesome siblings, the pair of you.”

Even as two pairs of cold gazes shot toward her simultaneously, Hwan Wol only smiled.
Yuk Myeong offered the Jade Tablet first. The old man gestured without opening his eyes.

“Go in.”

The response was the same for Yuk Beom’s Jade Tablet.
When Hwan Wol confidently approached the passage last, the old man’s hand blocked her way.

“Your tablet.”
“I don’t have one.”

The waiting applicants behind them snickered.

“You made it all the way here without a tablet?”
“Looks like you took a wrong turn.”

Hwan Wol paid them no mind and thrust an old Iron Tablet directly under the old man’s nose.

“Are you really going to tell me I can’t go in after seeing this?”

The old man’s eyes fully opened for the first time as he accepted the tablet with an air of annoyance.
The moment his faint gaze landed on the character for “Martial,” his body straightened at once.

“Miss Hwan Wol, it is.”

His manner of speech had changed entirely.
The old man returned the Iron Tablet with both hands and stepped aside.

“Please forgive the wait. Do go in.”

The laughter that had been coming from behind ceased at once.
Hwan Wol stopped in front of Yuk Myeong and held up three fingers.

“I win three times.”
“I didn’t make any wager.”
“Running away in fear counts as losing.”
“There’s no such rule.”
“There is now.”

Yuk Myeong let out a deep sigh as he watched her hum a tune and disappear down the passage.

“Will she keep acting like that forever?”
“I suspect it will only get worse.”
“Why are you so certain about that?”
“Because you look happy.”

The dark stone passage narrowed as they went deeper. For a long stretch, there was only the sound of dripping water and footsteps.
A small light appeared in the distance.
The moment they passed that light, the vista opened before them all at once.
A vast complex of palaces floated as if suspended on clouds, filling the depths of the Gyeongcheon Mountain Range. Golden eaves and classical pavilions stretched along the mountainside, and waterfalls curved between buildings on the cliffs before flowing down into a river below.
Above the palace, a colossal stone hung suspended in the air.
Two characters carved into the rock.
Martial Way.
The overwhelming presence radiating from those characters, carved as deeply as brushstrokes, pressed down even upon Yuk Beom’s chest from a great distance away.

“If you stand around with your mouth open, you’ll swallow insects.”

Hwan Wol bumped him with her shoulder and walked past.
Yuk Beom closed his mouth, but his eyes remained fixed on the sight.
Following the sky-blue stone path down to the main gate, an instructor who’d been waiting ushered the new arrivals eastward.

“New students lodge at Donghyang Pavilion.

Four days from now, you will undergo the Academy Branch selection trials.”

The crowd stirred with murmurs.
Yuk Beom, by contrast, clenched his left fist.
The Heavenly-Earthly Energy in the air here was incomparably denser than in Ganglim Castle. Even without deliberately drawing it in, with each breath he took, pure vital force seeped into his meridians.

‘Here, then.’

He was beginning to understand why O Jin had told him to seek out a wider world.
The four days passed quickly.
During that time, Yuk Beom scarcely left his room. He focused on stabilizing the realm he had refined through the Five Elements Cycle, and on recovering the meridians damaged by Spirit Beast Fusion.

Kkamangi too regained strength through a cycle of eating and sleeping. By the morning of the fourth day, he had recovered so completely that he burned through a pillow with black flame while yawning on the bed.

“You’re going to answer for this.”

Kkamangi pushed the charred pillow under his foot and tucked it away toward Yuk Beom.

“There’s no one else to blame but you.”

The black ears drooped.
Just then, a bell sounded from far away.
Boom—!
The windows trembled, and a solemn voice echoed through all of Donghyang Pavilion.

“All new students, report to Yeonmu Plaza.”

Opening the door, he found the corridors and courtyards stretching endlessly filled with people. Thousands of new arrivals jostled one another, all moving in the same direction.
Yuk Beom hoisted Kkamangi onto his shoulder and merged into the flow.
Upon arrival at Yeonmu Plaza after half an hour’s walk, the space was vast enough to contain an entire small city with room to spare. Even that multitude of new students occupied only one corner.
Someone pointed toward the sky.

“Look up there!”

Ten massive thrones floated beneath the clouds.
The figures seated upon them were wreathed in light so brilliant that their outlines remained indistinct. The Sageun of nine Academy Branches and the headmaster of the Martial Arts Academy.
Simply sitting there in stillness, they took one’s breath away.
Around them, people’s knees buckled and they sank to the ground under the crushing pressure. Yuk Beom too felt the weight bearing down on his back, but he clenched his teeth and lifted his head.
He wanted to see what the view looked like from such a height.
A resonant cry echoed across Yeonmu Plaza.

“All new students accounted for.”

A moment of silence.

“Activating the formation.”

A tremendous tremor surged up from beneath their feet.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
Screams erupted from all directions.
The entire Yeonmu Plaza—boundless in its expanse—tore free from the earth.
As rocks and soil cascaded down in torrents, the colossal platform bearing thousands of people rose slowly into the sky.
Looking down at the ground receding a hundred paces below, a smile spread across Yuk Beom’s face.
The first trial at the Martial Arts Academy had finally begun.

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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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