STYNP | Chapter 06

Chapter 6

He was tall, with broad shoulders.

Just standing there, he seemed to overwhelm everyone around him with his sheer presence.

His dark, sun-tanned skin gleamed, and the muscles on his openly exposed forearms were impressively defined.

His entire physique seemed to shout:

This is what a martial artist is supposed to look like.

The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace?

From the tiger skin he was wearing to the two enormous axes strapped to his back, there was no way I could mistake him for a martial artist from the Central Plains.

His appearance immediately reminded me of one of the sects belonging to the foreign martial world, like us.

“Oh-ho.”

The giant had also noticed me getting up from my seat.

Our eyes met.

His gaze was like that of a predator that had just spotted its prey.

Rather than looking away, I stared straight back at him.

“…I knew it at a glance! You’re Seol Suryeo from the Northern Sea Ice Palace, aren’t you?”

Even his voice was booming.

His height and build were larger than those of most grown men.

But his voice was unmistakably a woman’s.

And she even knew my name?

Is she here to challenge me to a duel?

“That’s right, but…”

I carefully raised my qi as I tried to gauge her strength.

Her presence was completely different from that of the weak martial artists I had encountered in the countryside.

“I am Maeng Ryeongji, a disciple of the Beast Palace.”

The giant woman strode toward me.

With every step she took, I could feel an aura so powerful that it seemed as if a mountain itself were moving.

Cheap tricks probably won’t work on her.

If we fight, I’ll have to draw my sword.

“From the moment I heard your name, I have been looking forward to today!”

Whoosh!

Maeng Ryeongji spread both arms wide.

She looked like a bear preparing to intimidate someone.

I instinctively placed my hand on my sword and lowered my stance.

“…”

And then, the very next moment—

“I finally get to see your face! I’m truly delighted that we’ll be entering Tianmu Academy together! Hahahaha!”

Maeng Ryeongji suddenly pulled me into a tight hug.

I was so shocked that it took me a moment to understand what she had just said.

…Thank goodness I didn’t draw my sword.

“Ahem. Um… you startled me.”

“Hahaha! How could I possibly wait after hearing that a fellow martial artist from the foreign martial world had arrived in Luoyang?!”

Maeng Ryeongji burst into hearty laughter and patted my back several times.

Apparently, I had misunderstood her because her expression when she was serious looked so frightening.

“Just sit down for now. You’re going to scare everyone.”

I pointed toward the chair across from me.

Not only the waiter standing far away, but everyone inside the inn was staring at us.

“Can I… eat with you?”

Ignoring their stares, Maeng Ryeongji pulled out the chair and sat down, her eyes strangely watery.

She was so huge that it looked as if the little chair might break beneath her.

“Of course. You can eat as much as you want. How did you know I was here?”

She didn’t seem to have any bad intentions, but I was curious how she had found me so quickly.

I stood out quite a bit myself, although obviously not as much as Maeng Ryeongji.

It wasn’t strange that someone could recognize me as a disciple of the Northern Sea Ice Palace at a glance.

But I had only arrived in Luoyang today.

“As soon as I arrived at Tianmu Academy, I asked if you had come! They said you hadn’t arrived yet, so I asked them to tell me as soon as you did!”

Huh?

Did the assistant who checked the admission tokens tell her where I was going after speaking with Sowoon?

Well, her identity was certainly legitimate, so there was no particular reason for them to refuse.

“Wait. You said your name was Maeng Ryeongji, right? If your surname is Maeng, are you perhaps the daughter of the Beast Palace Master?”

I was just about to accept the explanation and start eating when I suddenly remembered something Father had told me.

The child of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace Master was coming to the academy.

I had completely assumed the child would be a boy, so I had never connected the two.

“Yes! But in the Beast Palace, everyone is considered an equal disciple regardless of bloodline, except for the Young Palace Master!”

So this was Maeng Ryeongji.

The Beast Palace Master’s son wasn’t Candidate Husband Number One after all?

Father had never said she was a daughter.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t actually said she was a son either.

That’s right. He only said ‘child.’ …What an idiot!

I drank some cold water as I thought over Father’s choice of words.

She certainly seemed to possess extraordinary martial talent.

But even if this girl mastered an extremely yang martial art…

Yin-Yang Union would be impossible!

…Could Father not have known that Maeng Ryeongji was a woman?

Ah, but he mentioned the Namgung Family and the others as well.

Maybe I don’t necessarily need the Beast Palace Master’s son. Perhaps there are other people at the academy who can learn extremely yang martial arts.

I was confused inside, but I couldn’t exactly reveal the ridiculous misunderstanding I had made—especially when Maeng Ryeongji had never even considered such a thing.

I calmed myself and spoke naturally.

“I heard about you from my father, too. He said your martial talent was extraordinary.”

“Hahaha! I beat up every disciple my age!”

Maeng Ryeongji proudly held her admission token between her fingers.

“I heard that the North Star Emperor guaranteed that you would even overwhelm the talented younger generation of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang!”

“…”

…Father?

He didn’t just say things like that inside the Ice Palace. He actually said such embarrassing things in front of the Beast Palace Master, too?

Did he seriously think I was going to beat up all the best young martial artists in the Central Plains and monopolize all the spiritual medicines?

Surely the heads of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang weren’t there.

Maybe he was just drinking with the Beast Palace Master and said it in passing… right?

Regardless of how confused I was about Father’s real intentions in sending me here, my face grew hot with embarrassment.

Of course, the Northern Sea Ice Palace was by no means inferior to ordinary sects.

But even if I had been ranked first in my school in some provincial town, there would still be countless students in Seoul’s Daechi-dong who were just as good—or even better.

The Nine Great Sects and One Gang were the ten most prestigious powers in the Orthodox martial world of the Central Plains.

Except for the Beggars’ Sect, which was a sect of beggars, the Nine Great Sects accepted talented disciples from all over the Central Plains and trained them in the best possible environments.

As for the Five Great Families, I had heard that they began cleansing and opening their children’s meridians from the moment they were born and fed them spiritual medicines as casually as if they were drinking water.

So saying that I could overwhelm them was a little too much.

“Let’s crush those weak Central Plains people together! Hahaha!”

Whether I resented my father all the way back in the distant Northern Sea or not, Maeng Ryeongji had apparently believed every word of his boast.

As she talked about fighting, she straightened her shoulders and clenched her fists.

Powerful yang energy radiated from her entire body.

Hmm… At least in terms of sheer presence, she probably wouldn’t lose to anyone.

“My blood brother says that the Central Plains people all think they’re the greatest! He says that if you threw them into a jungle full of wild beasts, they wouldn’t even be able to recover their bones. Yet they all stick together among themselves. So naturally, we should unite in righteous spirit as well!”

So basically, she thinks they’re pampered flowers growing in a greenhouse.

I nodded, but one word caught my attention.

“When you say ‘blood brother’… do you mean your older brother?”

“Hmm? Ah, yes. He’s the Young Palace Master of the Beast Palace.”

“Is he at the academy?”

“No. He graduated last year.”

Maeng Ryeongji frowned.

I suddenly wanted to ask whether her older brother was handsome and how great his martial talent was.

But if I kept my Nine Yin Absolute Meridian a secret and suddenly started asking questions like that…

There was a very high chance Maeng Ryeongji would think I was obsessed with men and start avoiding me.

I decided to remember the information about her older brother for later and continued the conversation naturally.

“I see. Since you have an older brother who attended the academy, you must have heard quite a lot about it.”

I was also curious about the other students.

I wasn’t as aggressive as Maeng Ryeongji, but if I wanted to obtain the spiritual medicines distributed by Tianmu Academy and extend my limited lifespan, I would have to compete with and defeat many outstanding young martial artists.

“Would they be very strong in one-on-one matches? Have you ever crossed swords with the younger generation of the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families?”

Maeng Ryeongji had looked down on them by talking about how unlikely they would be to survive in the jungle.

But I suspected that at the academy, we’d be much more likely to fight other martial artists than survive in a jungle.

“Hmm…”

She couldn’t answer immediately and frowned.

If she had won, she probably would have said so right away.

“This is actually my first time coming to the Central Plains, too.”

Apparently, just like me, she had almost no experience fighting Central Plains martial artists.

…Then aren’t both Maeng Ryeongji and I just pampered flowers from greenhouses?

Ah, although… maybe the Beast Palace didn’t spoil their daughter as much as Father spoiled me.

“Would you like to go see them?”

When I looked disappointed, Maeng Ryeongji suddenly grabbed my arm.

“Go see them? See what?”

“I heard there is also a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect taking the entrance exam. We should be able to see him if we go now.”

Hmm? She wants to go see a disciple of one of the Nine Great Sects?

The Mount Hua Sect was one of the respected Nine Great Sects supporting the Central Plains martial world.

If they had sent one of their promising young disciples, he would likely be competing for the top ranks at Tianmu Academy.

I vaguely remembered Father mentioning a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect as well.

“Wait. A Mount Hua disciple is taking the entrance exam? Why?”

If he was a disciple of such a major sect, wouldn’t he, like Maeng Ryeongji and me, automatically receive a recommendation token?

“I don’t know that much either.”

But Maeng Ryeongji didn’t know everything.

After all, she had only arrived in Luoyang a few days before me.

“If we want to go, we should hurry. Today is the last day of the entrance examination.”

“Can we just go and watch?”

“Of course. The academy is open to outsiders while the entrance examinations are being held.”

Ah, the place I saw on my way out earlier.

There was a Mount Hua disciple there, too?

“Then… shall we?”

It was actually a rather tempting suggestion.

“Wait a moment. Let’s talk about it after my guard comes back.”

I made a tentative decision and waited for Captain Baekung, who had gone out briefly.

He returned not long afterward, holding a stirrup in his hand.

So I immediately told him that I wanted to go take a look at the Mount Hua disciple and come back.

“What? No! Absolutely not! If you suddenly challenge a disciple of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang, it could cause serious trouble!”

He had completely misunderstood me.

“No, I only meant that I’d heard one was taking the entrance exam, so I wanted to watch from a distance.”

“Ah… I see. I thought you meant…”

Did he really think I was going to storm into the inn where the Mount Hua disciple was staying?

And why would I challenge him to a fight?

“Hahaha. If that’s all, then there is no problem. Please enjoy yourselves.”

He glanced over Maeng Ryeongji, apparently checking whether I had already made a friend.

Then he said:

“However, the two of you absolutely must not cause trouble in Luoyang. If there is someone you really want to beat up, you must drag them either inside the academy or outside the city before settling things.”

He left us with that strange warning and walked away.

Honestly, what on earth does he think I’m going to do?

A short while later, at Tianmu Academy.

The enormous training ground had been divided into ten sparring platforms, and applicants were fighting simultaneously on each of them.

There was one platform in particular where an unusually large crowd had gathered.

“Looks like the Mount Hua disciple is over there.”

We didn’t have much trouble deciding where to go.

The crowd made things somewhat cramped, but when people noticed Maeng Ryeongji’s enormous frame, they willingly moved aside.

Thanks to that, the two of us soon reached the very front of the sparring platform.

Two boys were standing on the platform.

It was obvious which one looked stronger.

“Is that the Mount Hua disciple?”

I pointed toward a handsome, long-haired boy.

Oh my god. What is this?

He’s so handsome!

He still had a youthful look to him, but he was exactly the kind of long-haired handsome man I had been hoping to see after coming to the academy.

I widened my eyes and carefully examined his face.

Huh?

At that moment, the boy also looked in our direction.

For a brief moment, I thought our eyes had met.

He’s really handsome.

But it lasted only an instant.

BAAANG!

The dull sound of a wooden sword striking something slammed into my ears.

And from the very direction my finger was pointing—

Blood suddenly sprayed into the air.

“Aaaaargh!”

The boy wearing a traditional headband—the one who wasn’t handsome—screamed and collapsed to the ground.