Gwak Do-jin came up behind Baek Yu-yeon as she was going into the dormitory.
“Yu-yeon?”
At the familiar voice, Baek Yu-yeon turned and greeted him brightly.
“Ah, senior!”
At that cheerful face, Gwak Do-jin cleared his throat needlessly.
“Hwang Min-woo hasn't contacted you since, has he?”
“No contact. I hear he's even moved out of his room.”
Whether because of the police investigation or because he had been summoned home.
Hwang Min-woo was no longer at the Academy.
“That's a relief. It's all thanks to Professor Kang. You know that, right?”
Baek Yu-yeon laughed a little.
“Some of it is thanks to you, senior.”
“Me?”
“You put a fist in his face for me. And that's what got the committee convened.”
Puffed up despite himself, Gwak Do-jin pressed the corner of his mouth down.
“Ahem. Well, that's true too.”
A brief silence.
Gwak Do-jin scratched hard at the back of his head.
Now that he had to raise the real subject, his mouth strangely would not open.
‘Ah, whatever.’
Just come out with it!
“Have you got any thought of sitting in on Professor Kang's class?”
When you have no confidence in your ability to persuade, taking the direct approach is not a bad idea.
Throw yourself at it and a way tends to appear.
“Sorry? I'm a martial medicine major, though? As far as I know, Professor Kang Hyeon's special lecture is a class about how to get stronger, isn't it?”
“It is.”
“So why?”
‘I don't know either! Why the professor wants me to talk you into it!’
Honestly, that was what made it harder.
Surely he ought at least to be told the reason?
“Studying takes stamina too. Exercise while you study and it goes into your head much bett......”
Wait.
Even as he said it, it sounded off.
The person in front of him was called the walking encyclopedia for her tremendous memory.
“Hm, rather than that — you're learning martial medicine, so you can't very well not know martial arts, can you?”
“Yes, that's true, but......”
“It's a class where you only have to come out at six in the morning and do three hours anyway. It won't get in the way of your schedule.”
Baek Yu-yeon thought of Kang Hyeon for a moment.
He was certainly not an ordinary professor.
But if asked whether that meant she should take his class?
‘That's not on.’
“I'm sorry, senior. I appreciate the offer, but I don't have the room to give attention to anything else right now.”
Baek Yu-yeon drew a line.
Gwak Do-jin was her benefactor and she was grateful, certainly, but he had no authority to choose her path and her future.
That was her honest view.
“I'm preparing to get into Professor Hwang Ye-rim's laboratory. There's a selection exam soon, so every minute counts.”
Hearing that, Gwak Do-jin could not press any further.
“Right, you were preparing for an exam. Sorry for disturbing you. Go in and rest.”
“Yes, and good luck with your class tomorrow, senior!”
Watching Baek Yu-yeon bow and disappear straight into the dormitory, Gwak Do-jin let out a deep sigh.
‘This isn't going to be easy.’
***
The next day.
His session over, Kang Hyeon arrived at a certain building.
The Martial Learning Archive.
He had stopped by to do some preliminary research before writing out the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic — Bodhidharma's text, called the finest medical work in Murim's history.
‘Oh, it's fairly large.’
Across the top of the heavy exterior of the building hung a line of text.
[Secret Manuals Are National Strength]
‘A true statement.’
Even among the groups of Murim, the thing most rigorously guarded was the secret manual.
The extermination of a whole house over the leaking of a single line of verse was not uncommon, and brothers-in-training who had shared decades together drawing blood over one was hardly rare.
Because who held the superior martial art determined a group's survival.
Vrrrm!
When he pushed through the heavy automatic door and stepped inside, a middle-aged man greeted him.
He appeared to be the keeper of the place.
“Are you a professor?”
“Yes.”
“Present your staff identification, and place all belongings in the lockers on the left.”
Behind the keeper the rules were posted.
Martial Learning Archive Rules of Use
1. Daily usage time: professors 5 hours / cadets 3 hours.
2. Bringing in smartphones or other electronic devices, and photography, absolutely prohibited.
3. Bringing in writing implements and taking notes on contents absolutely prohibited. (Expulsion and criminal referral if detected)
4. Removal of any secret manual from the premises prohibited, excepting mass-issue martial arts.
In other words: look with your eyes only, cram it into your head, and leave.
‘As it should be.’
Some people imagine that people of Murim are a breed who ignorantly swing blades, but the reality is that they are far cleverer and better at memorization than most scholars.
Because they must decipher and memorize obscure verses running to thousands of characters.
Nor can it be memorized loosely.
Misconstrue even a few characters of a martial verse and qi deviation is the likely result.
Beep!
When the keeper held the card to the device, an alert came up.
[Welcome, Professor Kang Hyeon.]
[Remaining usage time: 5 hours 00 minutes.]
‘Thorough.’
The barrier opened and he stepped inside, and imposing bookcases revealed themselves.
The manuals were systematically classified.
Sword arts, saber arts, fist and foot, footwork arts, inner arts heart methods......
Running his eyes over the signs as he walked, an interested smile spread at the corner of Kang Hyeon's mouth.
‘Korean interpretations?’
The manner of display was quite distinctive.
Inside a special glass case at the center of each bookcase, the original was preserved under rigorous security, and around it the shelves were packed tight with copies and a vast number of interpretations.
The interesting part was that even from an identical original, the interpretations of the so-called manual interpreters differed from one another entirely.
Kang Hyeon picked out a mass-issue heart method text slotted into the shelf.
《Lesser Yang Heart Method》
In Murim it was a breathing method obtainable from a market bookseller for a few copper coins.
Slip.
When he turned the pages of the copy, the archaic language used in Murim was written there.
By modern reckoning it would be old Chinese characters.
‘Clean enough.’
Putting it back, Kang Hyeon this time opened two interpretations and compared them.
“Hm?”
For one and the same line of verse, the two books' readings differed.
Tak.
Closing the book, Kang Hyeon clicked his tongue quietly.
‘What kind of nonsense is this.’
To understand a secret manual properly, one must learn the language first and grasp the context and meaning of the original oneself.
And yet, learning a martial art by looking only at translations others have interpreted however they pleased?
Not consulting one because you are stuck, but from the very start?
A martial art's branches diverge enormously according to insight and interpretation.
If a man makes no attempt to open his own road and simply goes in the direction another has set, what becomes of him?
‘If the direction is right, well and good; if it's wrong...... he wanders forever.’
Unbidden, Dean Seo Il-hyeon came to mind.
‘The Clear Void Heart Method, was it?’
Only now did he understand why the man had had no choice but to be blocked at the third gate.
He had probably been reading a botched interpretation.
Slotting the book back into place, Kang Hyeon headed for his original objective — the second floor, the medicine and alchemy section.
He meant to judge the level of martial medicine in this place.
What good was writing out the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic?
If the level here was not enough to understand it, it would all be for nothing.
He intended to survey the place and fill in what was lacking, one piece at a time.
Not for the cadets here, naturally, but for Baek Yu-yeon.
‘Hm?’
He happened to be thinking of Baek Yu-yeon, and there she was, seated at a desk in the corner.
‘I mustn't be the honorable sort, then.’
Kang Hyeon killed his presence and watched what she was doing.
‘Alchemy?’
Spread in a fan in front of her were four thick alchemy texts.
Since writing implements were prohibited, she seemed to be shifting the books' positions slightly and assembling the contents in her head.
A good method.
‘Wait.’
But wasn't Baek Yu-yeon the one with the gift of never forgetting?
Why would a girl who has memorized all of it be doing that?
He looked at the titles of the books.
《Treatise on Fire Condensing》
《Explanation of Conflicting Medicinal Properties》
《Chapter on Spirit-Herb Fusion》
《Essentials of Pill Sealing》
Kang Hyeon's eyes narrowed.
He did not know what medicine she was trying to make, but learning from those four alone would resolve nothing.
Those were, from the outset, manuals that are only completed when five come together.
Kindle the fire and condense it, govern the clashing of medicinal properties, fuse the energies, then shape the form and seal it in.
‘All well and good, but the most important stage — stabilization — is missing entirely, isn't it?’
It was one of two things.
Either that manual had not yet been obtained, or it existed and the level of modern alchemy was too low to know of it.
And Baek Yu-yeon would be feeling the wrongness coming from that gap and agonizing over it endlessly.
The corner of Kang Hyeon's mouth lifted.
This made luring her over easier still, did it not?
“What are you trying to make.”
Startled!
Baek Yu-yeon, every nerve fixed on her books, jerked her head up in surprise.
“......Professor?”
“I'm asking because you have four alchemy texts spread out.”
Baek Yu-yeon was wary.
Kang Hyeon would be a martial arts professor, so there was no chance he knew anything about alchemy...... She told him roughly.
“I was trying to work out the formula for a Qi-Circulation Pill.”
The Qi-Circulation Pill.
A basic medicine.
A drug that aids the circulation of qi and blood and gently opens the passages.
Good to take before circulating one's energy.
“A good pill.”
“You know the Qi-Circulation Pill?”
“Of course I do. I've even brewed one once or twice, long ago.”
Baek Yu-yeon's pale blue eyes trembled minutely.
‘This professor knows alchemy?’
In South Korea's Hunter world, the professors who have delved deeply into alchemy can be counted on one hand.
Even Professor Hwang Ye-rim had given up on alchemy, hadn't she?
And this drunkard of a professor said he had done alchemy?
“At the end, when you roll it into a ball, the color doesn't come out, does it? Comes out somewhat red?”
“......!”
Baek Yu-yeon's mouth fell slightly open.
It was exact.
The greatest problem she had been racking her brains over for days, combining the four books this way and that, was precisely that.
According to the books the Qi-Circulation Pill should be blue, yet every time she completed one it came out red.
“Right after the fusion ends, pull the fire out completely and leave the cauldron open for two hours. You do everything well and then don't draw the heat out, so it turns red. And all the good properties inside it die too.”
“But in the book......”
No such process was written.
Because the stabilization stage was missing.
When Baek Yu-yeon moved to ask, Kang Hyeon was no longer there.
He had tossed out that single remark and moved on to scan the books in the martial medicine section.
The way he traced the books one by one with a serious expression was utterly unlike the professor of the rumors.
‘Impossible.’
If it was going to be solved by a method that simple, why was there not one line about it in the book!
Her reason denied what Kang Hyeon had said, but she was desperately curious.
The Kang Hyeon she knew was not a man who spoke idly.
Hurriedly tidying up the alchemy texts, Baek Yu-yeon left the Archive and headed for the laboratory.
And two hours later.
“I-Is it real?”
Opening the lid of the alchemy furnace, her eyes went wide.
“This works?”
Rising from it was not the burnt smell she had known until now but a clear, refreshing fragrance that cleared the head.
The color, naturally, was blue.
Gulp.
She swallowed dryly.
Kang Hyeon's image passed through Baek Yu-yeon's mind.
A man who always carried a whiskey bottle with those languid eyes.
His strength alone was astonishing — tearing up a contract, driving off a Taewang executive with presence alone.
And on top of that he had a command of alchemy as well?
‘Who on earth is he?’
That he was no parachute hire she now felt certain of.
Was that not precisely why even the difficult Cha Yu-sik was following him?
Her doubt turned at once into fierce curiosity, and unbidden a voice crossed her mind.
- Have you got any thought of sitting in on Professor Kang's class?
After some deliberation, Baek Yu-yeon picked up her phone.
- Oh, Yu-yeon. What's this, at this hour?
“Senior.”
- Yes?
“Professor Kang's class. I go out to the Old Hall drill grounds by six in the morning, is that right?”