Chapter 571. Advancing (1)

“F***ck... Don't feel like doing this anymore.”

Gong Yeong-Gil unhappily kicked a poor rock on the ground. A projectile like a rock flying around in the training area filled with other martial artists was deemed incredibly dangerous, but... No one rebuked Gong Yeong-Gil for his carelessness. After all, no one was on their feet and training away in the first place, anyway!

Something like this happened in the past, too. Post-Korean War, Lee Jung-Geol saw a desperate need to revive the completely obliterated Korean martial society. While building the Martial Assembly, he focused on getting rid of South Korea's inflexible mindset of masters choosing only one disciple. He also wanted to do away with these stuffy masters' insistence on only selecting pure-minded, upright individuals.

Lee Jung-Geol copied the then-new state-led education structure and had countless sects come together under one system to exchange ideas and learn under one roof. And thanks to his efforts, things flourished and advanced to reach their current state.

However, each sect still possessed secret techniques that could not be shared with outsiders, even if everyone was supposed to train together. Unsurprisingly, those with knowledge of such secret techniques were reluctant to train in full view of other people.

As such, the common training ground became a place where martial artists showed up to improve their stamina or practice their basics. But now...

'Gee, whiz. It was never this bad before, you know!'

Gong Yeong-Gil scanned the surroundings and groaned. His comrades sprawled on the floor reminded him of a pack of mutts slumped on the ground under the unforgiving and relentless midday sunlight.

Their unmotivated figures caused more groans to escape from Gong Yeong-Gil's lips, but he knew he shouldn't blame them. He was roughly in the same boat as them, after all!

“Whew...”

Gong Yeong-Gil spat out another groan and looked up at the heavens above. For some reason, the burning sunlight felt especially annoying today.

He shifted his gaze and glanced at the buildings in the Martial Assembly's HQ in the distance. The one that drew most of his attention was the building in the middle.N0vel_Biin hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

On the first basement floor of that building was a huge auditorium, and a group of younger-generation martial artists was stuck down there to experience a different sort of fate than Gong Yeong-Gil & Co. The important thing to remember about that description was that those folks had been chosen by Kang Jin-Ho.

Yes, those who had passed that test were down there. The test Gong Yeong-Gil & Co. had grandly failed!

“F***ck...” Gong Yeong-Gil muttered another curse word almost reflexively. 'What did I do wrong, I wonder?'

Among the chosen was Yi Myeong-Hwan, Gong Yeong-Gil's friend.

Gong Yeong-Gil begrudgingly admitted that Yi Myeong-Hwan was better than him. They had been friends for a long time, and even from early on, Gong Yeong-Gil had a strong hunch that Yi Myeong-Hwan would become a big shot in the Korean martial society sooner or later. Objectively speaking, it was true that Yi Myeong-Hwan was better than Gong Yeong-Gil. No one would doubt that.

But the current state of things was different from that. In the past, Gong Yeong-Gil firmly believed that the gap between him and his friend was tiny, and that he should be able to leapfrog Yi Myeong-Hwan as long as he put in enough effort. But that tiny gap had transformed their situations to absolute extremes.

Gong Yeong-Gil's irritated glare shifted over to the auditorium. Right about now, Yi Myeong-Hwan should be directly receiving teachings from Kang Jin-Ho regarding demonic cultivation methods. And Gong Yeong-Gil would never be able to catch up to Yi Myeong-Hwan once his friend became a peak expert in the overpowered demonic arts!

Everyone here had already witnessed the frightening power of demonic arts through Kang Jin-Ho.

That old saying about how a technique's strength was secondary as it all depended on the person mastering it? It might have been true, but now...

Once upon a time, Gong Yeong-Gil used to believe that notion. Even if he failed Kang Jin-Ho's test, Gong Yeong-Gil didn't think the gap between him and his friend wouldn't widen so much. Although his motivation did wane a little from his failure, Gong Yeong-Gil was soon filled up with the desire to show Kang Jin-Ho that he had made a wrong choice.

Until recently, that was.

Something happened a few days ago to utterly obliterate Gong Yeong-Gil's beliefs. And that was a purely coincidental run-in with a group of demonic arts-practicing martial artists in the cafeteria. Yi Myeong-Hwan just so happened to be a part of that group.

So, what happened exactly?

'Nothing major, really.'

Indeed, nothing of note happened. Although... If only something did happen! At least Gong Yeong-Gil wouldn't feel this crappy if they had gotten into a tussle and he got mercilessly trampled on. But what he experienced back then wasn't as extreme.

No, maybe it was a little extreme in a sense?

When Gong Yeong-Gil and his group encountered Yi Myeong-Hwan and the other demonic arts practicing martial artists in the cafeteria... No one dared to say anything.

On the surface, nothing about them had changed. In Gong Yeong-Gil's eyes, his friend was still unmistakably the same person. Even though Yi Myeong-Hwan looked dead tired, even though his expression seemed a little sharper and annoyed... He still looked like the 'Yi Myeong-Hwan' Gong Yeong-Gil knew.

However, Gong Yeong-Gil couldn't even walk over to his friend and say hi. That was because the atmosphere oozing out of Yi Myeong-Hwan had completely transformed.

In the past, Yi Myeong-Hwan was fundamentally a nice guy, with his actions usually informed by logic. But now? How should Gong Yeong-Gil describe the feeling he got?

'It felt like I was looking at a serial killer...'

Not literally, of course, but similar enough! Since it was impossible to define what the normal atmosphere of serial killers was supposed to be like, Gong Yeong-Gil's comparison might not be correct. Even so, he still got the vibe of, 'Carelessly run your mouth in front of me, and I shall butcher you right here and right now!' from Yi Myeong-Hwan.

What an incredible presence that overwhelmed his senses!

Only a dozen or so men had sauntered into the cafeteria to eat some food by themselves in a corner far removed from everyone else, yet a few hundred people occupying the place couldn't even squeak out a single word. All they could do was figuratively bury their faces in their plates and silently eat their grub.

...Even though nothing had happened!

That was when Gong Yeong-Gil realized it. No, wait. Everyone at the cafeteria must've realized it, too.. That this group of a select few individuals had changed beyond recognition!

'So... I thought I knew, huh?'

The one-and-only Kang Jin-Ho was teaching them. He was teaching demonic arts to those people. In that case, not seeing any changes or improvements would've been weird.

Knowing this, Gong Yeong-Gil understood that the chosen would've advanced in a different manner from himself or his peers. And he even acknowledged that they would surge far ahead in the race called cultivation, too.

However, that was supposed to happen in the distant future. The separate training regime started not too long ago, yet the gap between them had grown by so much?! How was this even possible!

Gong Yeong-Gil wouldn't feel this sh*tty if he had dueled with one of the chosen and got beaten up until he admitted defeat. Not just him but all the other martial artists of the younger generation were given no other choice but to accept defeat without even throwing a single punch.

The mere vibe oozing off from a dozen-plus men was enough to overwhelm and suppress hundreds of others! What humiliated Gong Yeong-Gil even more was that the dozen demonic arts-practicing men weren't even trying to threaten the rest. Just their normal level of demonic qi and bloodlust leaking out of them was enough to silence the entire cafeteria!

That incredible, overwhelming gap!

After witnessing that unbridgeable chasm, all of Gong Yeong-Gil's motivation and drive got either broken in half or thrown out the window. And it wasn't just him, either.

Gong Yeong-Gil couldn't help but groan again at the sight of his peers all listlessly wasting time doing nothing. Their eyes resembled dead fish at this point, but he couldn't really blame them. He must look pretty much the same as everyone here, anyway.

'Where did things go wrong?'

This question had been burrowing deep into Gong Yeong-Gil's head for the past few days after that cafeteria incident. Just where did things start going wrong for him? He could think of plenty of simple answers for it.

For instance, when Gong Yeong-Gil failed to catch Kang Jin-Ho's eye. That had to be the starting point of this crappy situation. However...

'Am I supposed to accept that simple reason as the culprit for my current situation?!'

Wasn't this treatment too cruel? Gong Yeong-Gil had dedicated his entire life to improving his martial arts. He sacrificed his youth to become stronger while others in his age group were busy fooling around. But the reward for solely focusing himself on cultivation was... this?

Yes, he knew that in this world, one's talent was the ultimate difference maker, and that one wrong decision somewhere could render one's talent useless in an instant. Even so... Wasn't it too unfair to Gong Yeong-Gil and what was left of his future prospects to say such a simple reason was to blame for everything? Wasn't it too... sorrowful?

“Goddamn it...!”

The only thing coming out of his mouth was a string of curse words.

'Just what the f*ck am I doing here?!'

Things weren't like this in the past, but Kang Jin-Ho's appearance had changed everything. Back then, everyone recognized each other as comrades traveling on the same path together. Even if they were comparably weaker than now, people still viewed each other as friendly rivals who'd eventually improve themselves through fair competition.

But now, what did they have left to show for their sacrifices?

Gong Yeong-Gil looked behind him. His peers were sitting around idling their time away, having already given up something of themselves. On a far corner, some martial artists were silently exercising as if to announce to the world that they still hadn't given up yet. However, their actions looked half-hearted, at best.

If this continued on... Everyone here would eventually throw in the towel and walk away from martial arts.

Gong Yeong-Gil's expression hardened. No, this was not right. This state of things must not continue! He or someone else must find a way to...

“Attention!”

That was when a sharp voice dug into Gong Yeong-Gil's hearing. He jumped up in alarm and hurriedly turned his head. Even if the training area was located in the middle of a mountain and open on all sides, to think no one here had noticed the presence of an intruder...!

This moment brutally reminded Gong Yeong-Gil of how dazed and out-of-sorts he and his peers were right now.

'Huh? Lee Hyeon-Su?'

The one calling out to them was none other than Lee Hyeon-Su, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. With a cigarette dangling from the corner of his lips and a slightly lazy expression etched on his face, Lee Hyeon-Su slowly waved around several A4-sized pages in the air for everyone to see. “This is a list of names. Once you confirm your name on it, gather at the specified area. You have one hour.”

One of the martial artists raised his hand, then asked cautiously, “...Mind telling us what's this about?”

“Would knowing what's going on change anything?” Lee Hyeon-Su replied as if he couldn't be bothered about explaining anything. He stuck that A4 paper on a nearby tree, then went down the mountain without saying anything else. Since this wasn't the only training area, he probably needed to make multiple stops.

'What are they scheming this time?'

Gong Yeong-Gil frowned slightly. Even though he feared the higher-ups were trying to do something weird again, he couldn't stop himself from hurriedly approaching the list. The other martial artists lounging around also began getting up one by one to walk up to the list of names.

“...Huh?” Gong Yeong-Gil's brows rose up slightly. He could clearly see his name on the list.

***

“What are they planning to make me do this time?”

Gong Yeong-Gil scanned his surroundings, his expression filled with anxiousness and dissatisfaction. It wasn't only him, though. Others sitting around Gong Yeong-Gil were all making similar expressions to him.

'Huh... Why did they only gather rough-looking guys like these, though?'

Gong Yeong-Gil frowned ever so slightly. Sitting here felt uncomfortable as everyone's shoulders were rubbing against each other.

Even though the spaces between chairs were fairly generous, everyone gathered here was abnormally broad-shouldered. People with good physiques would grow a little larger when taking up martial arts training, so it was natural to see quite a few martial artists becoming abnormally larger than average human beings.

'Why does it look like only those with large physiques have been gathered here?'

What were the higher-ups thinking of doing by bringing together these massive human specimens? Maybe to start an American football team?

'That might not be such a bad idea, actually!'

If the Martial Assembly created an American football team and unleashed it on the unsuspecting folks of the NFL, more money than anyone could count should flood into the organization's coffers. Well, as long as the North American martial society was okay with it, that was!

All sorts of dumb thoughts flitted in and out of Gong Yeong-Gil's mind as he sat here doing nothing. He shouldn't be faulted for it, though. The one who summoned them here but hadn't shown up himself yet should be blamed instead!

Just before Gong Yeong-Gil could swear openly in irritation, the door suddenly opened, and Lee Hyeon-Su waltzed inside. His steps were quick and steady while his expression was brimming full of naked annoyance.

Those two things seemed to be Lee Hyeon-Su's trademark at this point!

He stopped in front of the crowd and scanned them. “Is everyone here?”

“...”

“Why aren't you answering?”

“Yes, sir. We're all here...”

A slightly cowered voice came from the crowd. To these folks, Lee Hyeon-Su was quite a bit... troubling character to deal with. Those who originally hailed from the Yeongnam Group knew how scary Lee Hyeon-Su was. Meanwhile, the Assembly-affiliated martial artists had heard countless times about how dastardly Lee Hyeon-Su was from various briefings in the past. As a result, no one wanted to chat with him if they could help it.

Worse still, the rumors of Lee Hyeon-Su securing a spot as Kang Jin-Ho's right-hand man had spread recently. No wonder everyone's mouth was firmly clamped shut.

Lee Hyeon-Su took time to count every person gathered in this place, then nodded in satisfaction before yelling in the direction of the doorway he had used to enter. “Okay, it's fine to enter now, sir! Everything is ready!”

'...What is ready?'

Gong Yeong-Gil cocked an eyebrow in suspicion and glanced at the doorway. And then, his jaw began to gradually drop to the floor.

'W-what the f*ck is that?!'