With the thought that the martial arts competition had ended, Gongson Su completely relaxed.
The spectators watching also felt the same.
No one there expected that Jo Maksaeng would not accept his defeat and attack from behind.
"Ahhhh!"
"Gasp!"
Gongson Su hastily turned around and swung his wooden sword.
However, it was not enough to completely block Jo Maksaeng's full-force double palm strike.
Crack!
The wooden sword broke, and Gongson Su spat blood as he was flung away.
Jo Maksaeng did not stop there.
"You despicable old man! I'll kill you!"
With bloodshot eyes, Jo Maksaeng pulled out a dagger from his chest and lunged at the bleeding Gongson Su.
He had completely lost his reason.
"Die!"
The people around the martial arts stage screamed simultaneously.
"That lunatic!"
"Someone stop him!"
At that moment, two people jumped onto the martial arts stage at the same time.
One of them arrived first and knocked away Jo Maksaeng's dagger.
Clang!
Jo Maksaeng, pushed back, glared at the person who had blocked him.
It was Wi Jicheon, gritting his teeth and glaring at Jo Maksaeng.
"What do you think you're doing!"
"Hah. You think you can stop me?"
A sneer formed at the corner of Jo Maksaeng's mouth.
The hand holding Wi Jicheon's sword trembled slightly.
He was undoubtedly scared.
"If you don't move, I'll kill you too!"
Jo Maksaeng shouted fiercely and charged like a beast released from its cage.
"Unforgivable..."
Wi Jicheon gritted his teeth and raised his sword to the middle.
His trembling hand quickly regained stability.
Wi Jicheon was not trembling out of fear of Jo Maksaeng.
He was simply furious to the point of boiling over.
Swish—
Wi Jicheon lightly swung his sword.
However, the result was by no means light.
Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, slash!
The sword wind created by Wi Jicheon enveloped Jo Maksaeng's body.
"Argh!"
With more than dozens of sword marks engraved on his body, Jo Maksaeng was instantly covered in blood.
It was a single sword strike.
Jo Maksaeng's clothes were torn to shreds, and blood dripped from the wounds all over his body.
But the injured Jo Maksaeng became even angrier.
"Argh! You bastard...!"
Though he had outstanding talent in martial arts from a young age, Jo Maksaeng's temper was like fire, and he would often cause trouble if things didn't go his way.
Jin Jin and Namgung Seok frowned as they watched their deranged comrade.
"Crazy fool. I thought he was behaving for a while..."
"He finally caused trouble."
Though it seemed like his personality had improved while learning martial arts under Namgung Seok, in truth, he was merely suppressing it out of fear of Namgung Su.
"Argh! That old man, and you too! I'll kill you all!"
Red bloodlust began to swirl in Jo Maksaeng's eyes.
He moved his inner energy according to the memories engraved in his body and followed his instincts.
Crackle...
Then, a gray aura began to flow from the dagger Jo Maksaeng was holding.
The spectators watching the situation erupted in admiration.
"A sword aura?"
"Though it's crude..."
"Wow. At such a young age..."
Everyone was surprised, but the person most shocked by Jo Maksaeng's manifestation of sword aura was Namgung Su.
'That brat can use sword aura? And I never taught him such a technique...'
When Jo Maksaeng ambushed Gongson Su from behind earlier, Namgung Su had tried to jump onto the martial arts stage to stop him.
But Wi Jicheon moved a step faster, so he stopped midway.
"Wi Jicheon..."
Just from the single sword strike he had shown, Wi Jicheon's martial arts were at an astonishing level.
"... I should watch a bit more."
Namgung Su prepared to intervene at any moment.
However, he did not move immediately.
As a martial artist, he was more interested in observing the martial arts of the two boys.
"Die, you bastard!"
Jo Maksaeng charged like a hungry beast, gripping the dagger enveloped in sword aura.
In contrast, Wi Jicheon appeared calm.
"... Kill, you say?"
On his face, which usually looked like a naive and slightly timid country boy, a cold sneer appeared for a moment.
"Have you ever really killed someone?"
"You bastard!"
At that moment, Wi Jicheon's figure disappeared from Jo Maksaeng's sight.
"What!"
Jo Maksaeng looked around, searching for his suddenly vanished opponent.
A chilling voice came from right behind him.
"If you intend to kill someone, you should be prepared to die yourself, right?"
"Ahhh!"
Startled, Jo Maksaeng swung his dagger wildly.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! The sword aura sliced through the air, creating dozens of afterimages.
But Wi Jicheon was no longer there.
Tap, tap!
Wi Jicheon dodged all the attacks, then leaped into the air.
Twisting his body in midair, he flipped and aimed his head downward.
In the air, the eyes of the two boys met.
Only Wi Jicheon's eyes were smiling.
"Now it's my turn, right?"
In Wi Jicheon's clear eyes, the face of the terrified Jo Maksaeng was reflected.
"Damn it..."
Before Jo Maksaeng could finish his words, the trajectory of Wi Jicheon's sword passed by his left arm.
Slice!
Blood sprayed, dyeing the air red, followed by a scream.
"Argh! My arm! My arrrrm!"
Jo Maksaeng screamed as his left arm was severed.
Wi Jicheon slowly walked toward him, chuckling.
"I left your right arm. You can still fight, can't you?"
"Hic, hic!"
Suddenly, hiccups started and wouldn't stop.
The Wi Jicheon in front of Jo Maksaeng was no longer the boy he had underestimated as easy prey.
"S-save me, save me..."
Thud.
Jo Maksaeng, retreating backward, eventually fell on his backside.
His face was a mess of tears and snot.
His pants were damp.
Many people were watching his disgraceful appearance, but he couldn't care less right now.
'I-I'm going to die.'
Jo Maksaeng realized.
He was going to die at the hands of the grim reaper walking toward him.
He was too terrified to resist.
All he could do was bow his head and beg for forgiveness.
"Please, spare me..."
"No."
Wi Jicheon ignored Jo Maksaeng's trembling pleas and approached him. 'Kill him.' The sword in his heart whispered to the boy.
There was enough reason to kill him for harming someone precious to him. 'Kill him.' There was no aversion to killing.
He was so accustomed to taking lives that it felt familiar. 'Kill him!' Wi Jicheon followed the voice of the sword.
"Die."
He thought of nothing else.
He swung his sword with the sole intention of killing.
At that moment.
"Stop!"
Clang!
Wi Jicheon was pushed back several steps by the strong repulsion from the sword.
"Ah..."
At the same time, his concentration broke, the voice of the sword disappeared, and his momentarily hazy mind cleared.
"I told you to stop. Didn't you hear me?"
Namgung Su, holding a sword, stood in front of Wi Jicheon with a stern expression.
His palm, which had deflected Wi Jicheon's sword earlier, tingled.
'Where did such a monster come from...'
Of course, he hadn't used his full strength to deflect it.
If he had, it would have been a counterattack, not a defense.
Still, he thought he had put enough force to make him drop the sword from his hand...
'To think it only pushed him back.'
Namgung Su was chilled by Wi Jicheon's overwhelming talent.
But talent was just talent.
Without honing it under a proper master, it would go to waste.
Namgung Su looked at Wi Jicheon with undisguised greed in his eyes.
"A martial artist lost an arm. Isn't that enough?"
"Why should I..."
"Who taught you the sword? How about learning properly from me..."
"Ah! Sir!"
"..."
Ignoring Namgung Su's words, Wi Jicheon immediately ran to Gongson Su.
Gongson Su, who had barely regained his senses, sat with a pale face.
Wi Jicheon approached him with a face that looked like he was about to cry and supported him.
"Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?"
"Hehe... I can bear it. Thanks to you, I got to see a good show. Cheon, you're really strong."
Gongson Su forced a smile, enduring the pain.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
"Lean on me. I'll take you to the doctor right away."
Wi Jicheon, who had been rampaging like a bloodthirsty sword demon, returned to his usual self.
He carefully supported Gongson Su and descended from the martial arts stage.
"Excuse me! Coming through!"
The spectators, who had just witnessed the boy wielding his sword, hurriedly stepped aside to make way.
Murmur, murmur.
"Wi Jicheon..."
"They said his name was Wi Jicheon, right?"
"Is he really taking the entrance exam with us?"
"He's a complete monster..."
People murmured with astonished faces.
By the end of the day, rumors about the boy named Wi Jicheon would spread throughout the Blue Dragon Academy.
"Wi Jicheon..."
Namgung Su stood on the martial arts stage, watching until Wi Jicheon's figure disappeared.
"M-master..."
When he turned his head, Jo Maksaeng approached, applying pressure to his severed arm.
His pale face was full of fear.
"I'm sorry. I got too excited during the match and tarnished your reputation..."
Slap!
Jo Maksaeng, slapped across the face, rolled on the ground.
Everyone was startled by the sound and looked, but Namgung Su didn't care about the others' gazes.
"Pathetic fool."
"Ugh..."
Jo Maksaeng, with his head hung low, trembled.
Some people felt sorry for him, losing an arm and being hit by his master, but most looked at Jo Maksaeng with even colder eyes than Namgung Su.
"You couldn't accept the result of the match and tried to kill your opponent from behind. If this had happened within a sect, you'd have no excuse if they cut your tendons and abolished your martial arts to expel you."
"I'm, I'm, I'm sorry!"
Jo Maksaeng, his face pale, lay flat and begged.
Only now did he realize what he had done.
Namgung Su looked down at his trembling head and spoke coldly.
"Be grateful that you're still young and inexperienced. Consider yourself lucky that it ended with just losing an arm."
"Yes..."
He barely managed to answer through gritted teeth, but Jo Maksaeng's eyes, hidden by his bowed head, burned with anger.
It was too obvious what he was thinking, and Namgung Su's brow furrowed deeply.
'I thought I'd try raising him because he had talent...'
This one was a failure too.
The interest in Namgung Su's eyes toward Jo Maksaeng completely disappeared.
He ordered Namgung Seok and Jin Jin, who were standing behind Jo Maksaeng.
"Take him to the doctor. Punishment will be decided later."
"Yes."
The two nodded and practically dragged Jo Maksaeng away.
"Tsk..."
Namgung Su's expression as he watched his disciples' retreating figures was far from satisfied.
They all had outstanding talent, but they fell short of Namgung Su's standards.
'For the first time, I'm envious of Baek Suryeong.'
The image of Wi Jicheon, who had surprised him with a single sword strike, kept lingering in his mind.
Along with the face of Baek Suryeong, who had annoyingly smiled and said:
- Namgung teacher, if I win, how about I take over one of your classes this semester?
"Damn it."
Namgung Su unconsciously cursed as he turned away.