47: Heavenly Training (1)

In a garden located not far from the library there was a pavilion with red, blue and green lanterns attached to a small pond.

A nearby table was set inside the pavilion and several liquor bottles were on it.

An old man who looked to be around seventy, sat there and looked at the bottles with anticipation.

A man in a blue uniform sat opposite to him.

Maybe it was because of the angle of where the three lanterns were lit, but the man’s face was covered in shadows.

The old man opened his mouth without taking his eyes off the bottles,

“What is the next one?”

At that, the man in the shadows smiled,

“How about the elder guesses?”

“Guess?”

“If you are an elder who is well versed in drinking, I think you can.”

“Huh?”

“It is a liquor which was brought directly from Shandong province just for you, so wouldn’t it be nice to try?”

At that the old man smiled and touched the bottle, and then he untied the string wrapped around the snout and opened the cork.

As soon as he opened the cork a sweet scent came from within.

It was a strong enough scent to fill the place. At this the old man smiled.

“Such a deep scent. It seems to be closer to a wheat liquor.”

“Ho oh.”

“Wine I think.”

It was an alcoholic beverage which was obtained by fermenting the grains such as corn and wheat.

Depending on how concentrated the scent was, it was divided into three kinds.

But knowing that meant this old man was quite a drinker.

“Really old too.”

The old man poured the drink into the glass, then while gently shaking the glass, he dipped the tip of his nose into the glass to savor the scent.

“Its smell is so sweet, so I guess I need to sip it just to be sure.”

The old man took a sip.

And as he put it in his mouth, he enjoyed the stinging sensation.

The heat ran down his throat.

“Ahh! Nice.”

“Know what it is?”

The old man smiled at the question.

“Brought it from Shandong and there is only a white wine with a strong pear scent like this. Confucius House Wine”

Confucius House Wine. A famous drink, the name of which came from the only household that could produce it.

“Amazing. You knew it right away.”

“Hehehe. If I didn’t know this, why should I call myself a drinker?”

With those words, the old man emptied his drink and while pouring himself another said,

“It is nice to drink with a good friend. Come on, let’s have a drink”

“Sure.”

They both drank.

“Phew.”

“Nice.”

Putting the glass down, the man smiled.

“It has been eight years since I first met you.”

“Right, eight years since I have become friends with the one who was famous in Guangdong province, who overcame heavenly training in only ten seconds.”

“You are exaggerating.”

“It is the truth.”

The elderly man smiled and refilled the glass.

“Today is a good day. Thanks to you I am able to drink alcohol from each region.”

The man who was looking at the elder said,

“I don’t understand you.”

“About what?”

“I don’t understand why you, the elder who is nothing less than the Five Great Warriors, stays in this academy and only serves like this?”

At that, the old man laughed,

“How can an old man like me be on the same level as them? Fame tends to fade overtime, and when you are a little old, you’ll come to find there is no point dwelling on such things.”

“I don’t know if it’s because of the pact with…”

“…”

The old man just drank. And the man filled the glass.

“But now that the promised time is over, your journey here is over too,”

“Now is the time to rest. I have young friends like you and Mak Cheong-un so I can step back with peace of mind.”

“How can I stand on the same level as Guardian Mak who is said to be the next leader of the training?”

“Hehehe. How humble can you be?”

“It is the truth.”

“You are strong. Don’t belittle yourself.”

“I am not interested in management. It is just sad to lose a drinking friend when you retire.”

At those words, the old man’s eyes lit up.

The old man who, for a long time, wasn’t able to decide the successor to the third basement manager.

This elder wanted the man in front of him to take up this role.

Unlike the others, he wasn’t greedy and had a humble heart. With this, the old man ate some beef broth.

“Even though it has been a long time, you never even ask for anything.”

At that the man’s eyes lit up. But the old man pouring the drink didn’t notice this.

The man spoke,

“I am not interested and there are some things which are better left untouched.”

“Hahaha! A very famous answer, but say if that place I look after has a damaged copy of the most wanted book in there. Or simply a treasure trove left by a man who dyed the entire land in blood seventeen years back, can you turn a blind eye?”

The old man asked by narrowing his eyes. It was to see the reaction.

“I…”

It was just at the moment the man was about to say something, someone hurriedly ran into the pavilion where they were,

“Elder!”

This person was a warrior at the academy.

The warrior looked at the other man and then whispered to the old man, who frowned as he got up.

“Elder?”

“We should end our drinking party now, I should head back first.”

With those words, the old man left the pavilion.

As he disappeared completely, the man in the shadows smiled.

“So it was hidden in there all this time?”

He too was waiting for a long time to get some specific words out of that old man’s mouth.

In the meantime, he ended up having to keep with the old man’s alcohol parties all for this sake.

-The secret archive control room. The place was in turmoil.-

Jo Doo-an, the manager of the control room, couldn’t hide his shock.

It was because the defenses of the third basement were operating.

Here in the control room he could see the situation in real time using the red stone in front of him.

He noticed it only after the fourth cog of red stone had turned.

They didn’t know how the intruder got in, but suddenly they were in.

However, before long they had entered the fifth hall.

“Wow! This is bad! Manager. Doesn’t this mean that this intruder will pass the hall?”

At that, the manager shook his head.

He knew best that no one could endure the transition from hell.

“No, soon it will start.”

Screaming Hell was a water hell.

Once entered anyone would soon be submerged and drowned.

But to this the disciple shouted,

“The Screaming Hell hall has stopped!”

“What?”

Anyone would have to die there. It wasn’t long since the intruders entered so what was this?

“No? Did they pass already?”

“Yes! That is weird, and it stopped working for some reason?”

‘!?’

They didn’t pass but stopped the entire technique?

What the hell?

Kiiiik!

They were puzzled when the 6th red stone moved.

It meant that the sixth hell, the Heat Hell was operating.

‘This…’

Jo Doo-in bit his lip.

“They are up?”

“Yes.”

The danger of the heat hell could not be compared to the previous one.

However, there was something unusual about the intruders’ force.

‘They will touch the last one if this goes on’

The last one was a warning system for the academy. If the Invincible Hell button glows, all the teachers in the academy would be summoned.

The teachers would gather to enter a defense formation to protect the treasures of the academy.

‘I don’t know who the intruder is, but Heat Hell should stop them…’

Kik!

And the gears around the 6th stone stopped.

‘Huh!’

Jo Doo-in’s eyes went wide realizing that the 6th hall was crossed.

[It was said that no intruder can escape the Hell halls alive.]

‘… but these people are in the 7th Hell hall!’

The seventh was Great Fiery Hell.

And after this was the last, 8th one.

And if that was crossed all the defense would collapse.

“M-manager, what do we do?”

At the question from the assistant, JO Doo-in bit his lip.

“Ready to hit the…”

“What is it?”

They heard a voice from behind.

Jo Doo-in’s eyes widened.

“Great Guardian?”

“Seems like something happened.”

“An intruder in the 3rd basement.”

“The third?”

“Isn’t that the Hell of Misfortune?”

“The intruder passed through the 6th hell.”

“Hmm.”

At that, the old man stroked his beard and turned around to see the man behind him.

“Great Guardian Hwang?”

“If an intruder gets in, the situation is bad. We can go ahead and take care of it. I will be back soon!”

Ahh.

With that the man disappeared from the control room.

It seemed like he was rushing to the 3rd basement. Seeing that, the assistant manager sighed.

“We are fortunate he showed up on time, wouldn’t he be able to stop this?’

“That would be nice but…”

At that moment, someone opened the control room.

It was another assistant in another control room.

“There is trouble.”

“What now?”

“It seems like manager Im Jong had fallen into the 3rd basemen by accident with a student.”

‘!?’

Jo Doo-in’s eyes widened.

So the intruders in the secret archive were?

“… how?”

“We need to investigate it for details, but as it can be seen, it seems like the pillars in the 1st basement collapsed and the level went down.”

Jo Doo-in who thought stood up.

“ch-chase after great Guardian Hwang!”

That man had to be caught and stopped.

Otherwise there will be innocent deaths on the hands of the staff.

Meanwhile on the 3rd basement.

The seventh one, Great Fiery Hell.

A bright scarlet colored molten iron which could burn anything and flows like lava was filling up the land.

The heat was so strong that it melted everything.

In that place.

Ang! Bang!

There was a gigantic muscular being who ignored the path and was going straight through the walls, it was Mumu.

“Oh my!”

Im Jong hanging from Mumu’s shoulder, was shocked.

‘Who is he?’

He couldn’t believe that he was a student. Suddenly this man had his muscles all bulged up and ran through walls. Breaking through everything with only force.

He was ignoring all kinds of rules of the martial arts and just simply breaking everything; Yet it was working!

Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!

The roaring sound was the crashing walls.

If it went on like this, he could get out of here. But the thing was they had been crashing through walls for a long time, until a sudden change occurred.

The maze which was bringing in new walls, opened up.

The scarlet lava didn’t flow anymore. The noise of something turning could no longer be heard.

Im Jong was puzzled.

“Uh? Boy. Can you drop me now?”

“Ah, yes.”

Mumu put him down.

Im Jong got down and gave the black rod back to Mumu.

Due to the lights installed they could see the place.

‘It stopped?’

Without the formation, this impossible thing couldn’t happen.

As they were looking at it, Mumu looked at his bands.

It was turned to 5 and glowing red.

Chhhh!

So hot that it was heating his flesh.

It was the first time he had to change the dials on both his wrists and legs.

Maybe that’s why he felt the heat.

‘I need to change it back,’

He didn’t know why, but it felt like they had to be changed to the original one.

So he tried to turn them.

“Boy. Over there.”

Im Jong pointed his finger to an entrance with antique display racks.

Unmistakable the secret Archive.

Im Jong, who pointed it out, was thrilled.

“Hohoho! Now the trouble is done. They must have noticed we fell.”

“Ah! Really?”

“Yes. Let’s go inside and wait in case they forget and operate this place again.”

Im Jong took the lead again.

Mumu also followed.

‘Huh?’

Until they heard a sound.

It was from quite a distance.

Mumu had been more sensitive to it as he changed the dials on his bands to 5.

It was when he was puzzled.

Shhh!

The sound kept coming closer.

Shhh!

And in an instant, Mumu heard something.

“Speed is enough weight. Have you ever been kicked at a speed you can’t handle?”

‘!?’

Puck!

Before he could see, a kick flew to Mumu’s face.

Mumu who was hit was thrown to the side.

Kwakwakwang!

Startled by the roar, Im Jong turned and looked at a tall middle-aged man with beard and blue dress standing.

Im Jong was shocked.

‘H-hwang…. Special master!’

The moment he saw him he recognized it.

One of the masters which the academy was proud of.

Even the Poison Air of West wouldn’t stop from praising this man.

‘he is a monster.’

Im Jong panicked.

He heard of the strength of this man, but seeing it was amazing.

He took down Mumu who pierced through the walls with one hit.

He was shocked to see Mumu lying face down.

‘He is too strong. Even the eunuchs in the Imperial Palace who are known to be skilled can’t touch him,’

It was natural why this strong power was in the Heavenly Martial Arts Academy.

Im Jong shook his head, he didn’t have the time to do this. There seemed to be a misunderstanding.

“Master Hwang Won! I am Im Jong! I think you have misunderstood something, that kid and I were in the 1st basement when it collapsed…”

Shhh!

In a blink Hwang Won was close to Im Jong.

“Disappointing. A manager doing this for the sake of greed.”

“What are you saying? Greed? It is nothing like that.”

Puck!

Hwang Won kicked Im Jong in the stomach.

“Euk!”

He was ignoring all kinds of rules of the martial arts and just simply breaking everything; Yet it was working!

It was so painful that Im Jong couldn’t breath, and Hwang Won whispered,

“Considering your past I won’t kill you. I don’t know why you would use such a clumsy excuse, maybe the manager would understand but not me.”

He was convinced that Im Jong was blinded by greed.

It was because of that mysterious giant muscle monster.

He didn’t understand how that muscle monster was brought into the academy in the first place.

“Let’s head up.”

Hwang Won tried to lift Im Jong who passed out onto his shoulder when he heard a rustling sound.

‘!?’

He turned to see Mumu who was hit slowly raising his body.

It made him frown.

‘His neck should have been broken.’

He definitely wanted to kill this man at once, but he didn’t understand why he was fine.

Crack!

Mumu titled his head to let go of the stiffness.

And looked at Hwang Won and said,

“What was that just now?”