Chapter v20c6

## Night Fishing

– Hood or Handcuffs?

“Who are you?”

Gongson Jeol-Hwi asked, his voice sharp with suspicion.

“Just a humble fisherman. Here to catch some bait before I go after the big fish.”

Namgung-Sang’s words could be interpreted as an insult, belittling Gongson Jeol-Hwi’s worth.

“Are you saying I’m nothing but bait?”

He asked angrily, as expected. Young men who had never tasted defeat were easily provoked, their pride easily ignited. He had been like that once. It was a sign of immaturity, but they never admitted it.

‘Good, the fire is lit…’

So far, everything was going according to plan.

‘This is too easy. I’ve improved.’

The plan was proceeding smoothly, almost disappointingly so. It was so simple that it was predictable.

Perhaps there were things you learned from being on the receiving end of countless schemes.

‘Let’s move on to the next step.’

He cracked his knuckles, remembering the conversation he had with Bi Ryu-Yeon before coming here.

* * *

“Is it tonight?”

“Yes, he’ll definitely show up. We’ll leave the academy together, but I’ll patrol alone. He’ll be waiting for me.”

“If he’s an idiot, he will.”

“But you think he will, right?”

“I do.”

“I knew it! He deserves to be called an idiot for doing the same thing for five days straight. But he’s been doing it for the past four days, so it’s unlikely he’ll change his routine today.”

“Perfect. This is your chance to test ‘it.'”

“You mean ‘that’? But…”

“What?”

“It’s still incomplete.”

Bi Ryu-Yeon chuckled, his voice filled with disbelief.

“Are you stupid? That’s why you need to test it. Why bother testing something that’s already complete?”

He had a point.

“Y-you’re right.”

“Of course I am.”

“But… are you sure we have time for this?”

Namgung-Sang asked again, still unsure.

“Time? You better be prepared to die. Because that’s probably what’s going to happen.”

“Is that so?”

“It is.”

* * *

His last words weren’t very reassuring, but he had learned something from Bi Ryu-Yeon. He needed to practice before the real thing.

‘Should I try it?’

He touched his sword hilt, mentally rehearsing his plan. Every martial artist had a desire to test their skills before a big match. If he won this fight, he would gain confidence, a valuable asset that would protect his heart.

‘He’s probably doing this for the same reason.’

He could finally understand his opponent’s motives, now that he was in a similar situation. He had a target, a goal. And he was sharpening his sword for that goal. And then he realized something that shocked him.

‘Is this karma? Or reaping what you sow? Did Eldest Senior Brother plan this?’

He shook his head, refusing to believe it.

‘No, it’s just a coincidence…’

It was easier to believe that. He didn’t want to think about the implications. He decided to distract himself.

“Hey, can I give you some advice?”

The perfect distraction was right in front of him.

“Go ahead.”

The man replied gruffly.

“How about taking off that hood? It doesn’t suit you.”

He was wearing a hood to conceal his identity.

“I don’t need your advice!”

He refused, as expected. But he wasn’t going to give up.

‘We can’t just give up because we disagree!’

He had to find a compromise. And he had the perfect tool for persuasion hanging from his waist.

“That’s a problem. I can’t stand things that are an eyesore. And I’m saying this for your own good. That black accessory really doesn’t suit you. How about trying a different accessory? Something black, hard, and heavy. Some people call them handcuffs or shackles, but they look quite good! What do you think?”

His taunting skills had improved considerably since he met Bi Ryu-Yeon.

“Mind your own business. If you’re so eager to change my fashion sense, why don’t you try using your skills instead of your words?”

“You want to settle this with force? I like that.”

He smiled faintly.

“It seems like we agree on that. No need to be polite. That was my plan all along!”

He had abandoned the delusion that the world would bend to his will after meeting Bi Ryu-Yeon.

‘Actions speak louder than words.’

That was Bi Ryu-Yeon’s motto.

“Then I’ll take it.”

He walked towards the man, his footsteps leisurely, after giving him a friendly warning.

“W-what…?”

The man was flustered by his casual approach. He had expected a fierce attack, not a leisurely stroll. He felt his tension draining away.

‘What’s he up to?’

He tightened his grip on his sword. He knew he wasn’t here to politely remove his hood. He started walking towards Namgung-Sang.

The distance between them shrank with every step. And when their right shoulders aligned, the tension reached its peak. Time seemed to stand still.

Their next steps were agonizingly slow. Hundreds of attack and defense techniques flashed through their minds in the frozen time.

*Thud!*

Their left feet touched the ground simultaneously. Time was still moving slowly. He could count every single hair on the back of his hand as it moved towards his sword hilt. He had counted two hundred and fifty hairs when his hand finally reached the hilt.

He slowly turned around. His opponent’s sword was coming at him. It was a fine sword, forged by a master craftsman. The blade was sharp and polished, its decorations flawless. It was undoubtedly a famous sword.

‘A sword like that must be a family heirloom. The only sword in the Namgung Family that can compare to that is…’

He could easily deduce that his opponent was from a prestigious family.

‘One of the Eight Great Families? But why would he use such a valuable sword for something like this? He must be an immature young master, just like Eldest Senior Brother said.’

He was so lost in thought that he almost forgot about the sword hurtling towards him.

‘Oh, right! The sword!’

The sword, which had been traveling through the frozen time, was now inches from his throat. It was a sharp sword, capable of inflicting a deep wound with a single graze.

‘I need to dodge.’

He thought slowly, his movements sluggish. The sword was moving slowly, but his body wasn’t responding as quickly as he wanted.

‘What’s wrong?’

His movements were as slow as the approaching sword. He realized he might mistime his dodge.

Fortunately, he managed to dodge the sword, moving his head an inch to the side.

The man’s eyes, visible beneath the hood, widened in shock. He blinked a few times, his surprise evident. Namgung-Sang clicked his tongue. The tiny opening in his opponent’s defense had suddenly widened.

‘Tsk, tsk, you can’t lose your composure. Your emotions are showing.’

He extended his sword, aiming for the opening beneath the hood. The man’s eyes widened further, almost bulging out of their sockets.

He had ample opportunity to kill him.

‘Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you.’

A dead bait was useless. He had to avoid that. Otherwise, his death would be meaningless.

His sword pierced the hood and emerged from the other side, grazing the man’s cheek. He flicked his wrist, and the hood fell away, revealing the man’s face. It was a handsome face, but young. Nineteen or twenty? He was probably an aspiring entrant. But why would someone with his skills resort to something like this? He clearly had ambitions beyond entering Cheonmu Academy.

The young man, startled by the revelation of his identity, recovered his sword and prepared for a second attack. His sword tip gleamed with killing intent.

An old martial arts saying came to mind.

‘Silence the witness?’

He hesitated, and the second attack came, fiercer and more brutal than the first.

‘Is he panicking? Well, I can’t die yet.’

He had to die, but not like this. He twisted his sword, deflecting the attack. The young man’s sword, losing its trajectory, skidded off his blade.

*Clang!*

The deflected sword vibrated, its shadow multiplying. One, two, three, four, five. He ignored the two on the left and the two on the right.

‘They’re just feints…’

He moved his sword swiftly, countering the remaining three attacks. He couldn’t afford to waste any movement, since his opponent wasn’t the only one moving slowly. He drew a straight line towards the three swords, calculating the shortest and most efficient path. If he ran out of space, he could simply move his body.

‘Space is relative! There’s no such thing as absolute space!’

Was that something Eldest Senior Brother said?

‘One!’

*Clang!*

He blocked the first attack, aimed at his heart.

‘Two!’

He blocked the second attack, aimed at his stomach.

‘Skip the third!’

He didn’t have to block every attack. He just had to avoid getting hit.

‘This is easy!’

He stepped back with his left foot, his body pivoting away from the third attack. The blade whizzed past his stomach.

‘Just as planned!’

He had closed the distance with a single movement. He extended his sword, feeling the energy at its tip dissipate. He hesitated, wondering where to strike. Head, shoulder, knee, foot? He briefly understood Bi Ryu-Yeon’s usual dilemma. He decided to go with a classic move. He aimed for the shin.

* * *

“Always do your best.”

* * *

‘Don’t worry, Father!’

He remembered his father’s words and kicked the man’s shin with all his might.

*Thud!*

The man’s mouth opened slowly, wide as a whale’s. He felt like he was entering a deep, dark cave. He could see every tooth, every taste bud on the man’s tongue. He could probably measure the depth of his throat, but he decided to stop there.

The man seemed to be screaming, but he couldn’t hear it. So he didn’t feel any guilt about making him produce such an inhuman sound. And then he snapped out of it, as if he were waking up from a dream. He thought,

‘What just happened?’

It was a useless thought. He felt like he had just had a dream.

‘What the…?’

He couldn’t remember anything. He couldn’t recreate the hazy, dreamlike, languid, and slightly boring sensation. It was gone, vanished from his memory. Only his body remembered it.

“Will I ever be able to do that again?”

He felt a strange thirst, a longing for something he couldn’t quite grasp.

One thing was certain. He had experienced something extraordinary.

‘Maybe… this is what it means to have an open perspective?’

He knew that his perspective was different from that of a master. But he had only glimpsed that world. He was still lacking in insight.

* * *

“Raise your perspective. Or you’re finished.”

* * *

That was what Bi Ryu-Yeon had told him during their training for his duel against the Emei Goddess.

‘Was Eldest Senior Brother seeing that world?’

* * *

“You can’t maintain that vision for long. It consumes too much mental energy. It’s too much for you right now. But there’s a way. You can’t do it for long, but you can do it for a short time. The question is, can you enter that world at will? You need to be able to access that vision whenever you want. That’s the only way you can defeat her.”

* * *

*Whoosh!*

They passed each other.

He took eight more steps before stopping. He turned around and looked at Gongson Jeol-Hwi, whose face was filled with shock.

“How do you like it?”

He was holding the hood in his hand.

“It looks much better this way.”

* * *

“That’s hard to believe.”

Jin So-Ryeong said, her first reaction after listening to his hazy, dreamlike story.

“It’s true.”

But his claim was based on unreliable memories.

“That’s your claim… And how can you be sure if you don’t even remember?”

Yoo Eun-Seong pointed out.

“It’s a feeling!”

He replied confidently, almost shamelessly.

“I’ve heard enough ‘feelings’ for one day. Hey, is he telling the truth?”

Yoo Eun-Seong, realizing it was pointless to ask Namgung-Sang, decided to ask Gongson Jeol-Hwi.

“I don’t know.”

He replied honestly.

“All I know is that I lost. Slow? It was faster than the wind, as swift as lightning. I’ve never had such a boring duel.”

He glared at Namgung-Sang.

“How would I know what happened in his mind?”

“That’s true.”

“But…”

He wasn’t done yet.

“I remember him grinning several times during our duel, even though swords were flashing all around us.”

“No, I never…”

Jin So-Ryeong raised her hand, silencing them. They both shut their mouths, as if on cue. It was a clear demonstration of the power dynamics in the room.

“So you’re saying… that you’ve already reached the ‘Mind’s Eye’ at such a young age?”

She said something he hadn’t even considered. And it sounded even more unbelievable.

“Huh? The Mind’s Eye?”

He asked, his voice filled with confusion.

He was naturally flustered by the suggestion that he possessed such an extraordinary ability without even knowing it.

“You’re saying you don’t even know what you achieved?”

She asked, as if she had never met anyone so clueless.

“So it’s really…”

He asked, his face blank. She sighed.

“It was definitely the Mind’s Eye.”

He was even more flustered when she confirmed it.

“But can you really say you’ve mastered it? You only experienced it briefly, like a daydream, and you can’t even recreate it.”

He didn’t seem to believe it himself.

“But it’s still impressive that you were able to enter that state in such a non-critical situation.”

She paused, then continued,

“I owe you an apology.”

“I don’t think I deserve an apology…”

He replied, his voice uneasy. He had a bad feeling about this.

“You do. I underestimated you.”

“You don’t have to apologize for that…”

But she wasn’t listening.

“As a sign of respect for your skills, I’ll fight you with all my might in our duel. I was planning to go easy on you, but I was wrong. I apologize.”

“No, really, you don’t have to apologize…”

He wanted to cry. Why was his intuition so accurate today?

“Continue your story. We’ll know if you’re telling the truth after we hear everything.”

“But it’s not true… Please don’t do this…”

He felt wronged.

* * *

“We have our bait… The atmosphere is getting tense… Now we just need one more person to cast the net.”

Bi Ryu-Yeon said, waving his chopsticks in the air.

“Who is it?”

Jang-Hong asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

“There’s someone. He owes me a few favors.”

He replied curtly.

“Tsk, tsk, to be in debt to someone like you… That poor soul.”

“Don’t talk about others. You know him too.”

“Huh? Who is it?”

“He’s a model student, clean-cut, and handsome. The perfect husband material.”

He had a guess.

“You mean Mo Yong-Hwi?”

Bi Ryu-Yeon grinned.

“Yes! Who else could it be?”