Book 5 Chapter 10

Palpitation Sword

In every discipline, whether academic or martial arts, there is a line,

It's a line you can't cross through effort alone.

It represents a boundary.

The line is not necessarily one.

Sometimes it can be one line, sometimes it can be many, and I've seen too many people shoot themselves in the foot when they simply thought it was one line that could have taken them to a higher place.

The boundaries of learning, which can be said to be the so-called ascending gates, exist in any discipline, but the martial arts field was especially important.

Crossing that line is not possible through effort or willpower alone. It takes a combination of natural qualities, talent, and luck.

The number of people who cross this line quickly dwindles, because they are different.

The gateway from the common man to the superhuman! At the Heavenly Martial Arts Academy, it starts with the Five Sword Dragon. From there, it's literally anyone's game.

Usually, if you look at the distribution of ability in any group, it will look similar everywhere, whether it's academics, martial arts, or trades. Most of these groups will be shaped like a hill with a convex center, meaning that the middle is the most talented, and the lowest or highest talent will be fewer and fewer as you go down.

The same is true for the skill level of the Heavenly Martial Academy. Thus, despite having nearly 2,000 members, there are no more than 300 participants in the Samurai Festival, which is restricted to those above the level of Five Sword Dragons. This means that the number of people who have reached the level of the Five Sword Dragon is small. Even if you include those who do not participate, the number is probably less than 500.

Of the ten levels of the Sword Dragon Rank, it was ranked in the middle, but the actual distribution of skill was skewed toward the front three-quarters, meaning that only a quarter of the nearly 2,000 Kuan Daoists were proficient at the Five Sword Dragon level or higher.

If we look at the participation distribution of Samsung Musume, which is divided into four categories, we can see that the Sword Holy War is the most popular. Although it is less than 5% of the total participants, 128 people, or nearly 4%, flock to the Sword Holy War. This is because there are more people practicing sword arts in the factions.

The fewest participants in the Sword Battle. Not surprising, since the number of Innkeepers is much lower in proportion, and it's harder for them to become Five Sword Dragons or higher.

To summarize, the total number of participants in this year's Samsung Mujeon was 284, of which 64 were participants in the Samsung Battle. On the other hand, the total number of participants in the sword battle was 128, which was much higher than the rest. The lowest number of participants was 32 for the Sword Battle, and the next lowest was 50 for the City Battle.

If we do the math, we find that Bi Ryuyeon needs to win seven fights to win the Samsung War. Since she won one of them, she needs to win six more to win the Samsung War. If he wins one more, he will be able to win the overall Samsung MUJE title. And Mo Yonghui would have to win a total of eight fights, one more than Bi Ryuyeon, to win the Sword Battle. With so many contestants, the road is more difficult.

Both of them had just taken the first step. There was still a long, hard road ahead.

It's a long and arduous road to get there……. The problem is that you are completely unaware of it, and it's making everyone around you feel sorry for you.

"Keh-eh-eh!"

Her second opponent, the nondescript Jo Yeon-il, was also struck in the back of the head by Bi Ryuyeon's silence and laid out on the ground. It was the same spot where Danpyeong, her first opponent, had been hit, a sign of her lack of attention and neglect to gather information about her opponent.

But the victims of the silence did not stop at two. As if to prove that the previous disgrace (from Hong Lan's point of view) was deliberate, and that the victory was by no means a fluke, the number of victims of silence grew.

His third opponent, Yong Azo, seemed to have seen both the first and second bimu, and he was very much on the back foot, perhaps a sign that he didn't want to be laid low like his previous opponents. But it had to be a dream.

"Kaboom!"

Qin Fai had to buckle at the waist as his guts twisted. Bi Ryuyeon's silent gold had lodged itself precisely in his stomach. He couldn't see when it had flown in, and before he knew it, it was already lodged in his gut.

His dragonfish had to be tooth extracted (拔齒: to pull out a tooth) before he could even ask for food once.

"Hmph!"

The third opponent, Shaolin Temple Yilan, was in even worse shape.

He had to rub his eyes as his jaw crunched in pain.

Whether it was a musical instrument or a weapon, which he now deeply doubted, the silken hilt of the Bi Ryuyeon rose from under his chin like a mirage. He had prepared himself to swing it, but as if to mock his preparedness, it sprang up from below. Like a crowbar……. He didn't even have time to let his Shaolin 72 techniques shine through, as he too was caught off guard by Bi Ryuyeon's unorthodox attack that defied common sense.

And a fourth!

"Bam!"

"Crack!"

A grotesque scream erupted from offstage.

"Again?"

"Not again!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk! What's going on with him……. How could even the pearly whispers of the Pearl Clan be so easily defeated!"

Everyone was clicking their tongues and saying something. Even the face of Hua Shan Bi Tian Ning, who was watching, was slightly distorted and unable to straighten up. He felt fortunate that Hong Lan wasn't there. She hadn't even bothered to come over to see him because she knew that if she saw him like that again, she might fall into coinage. Her choice was excellent.

"Oops! I did it again! I did it again. Bam!"

Bi Ryuyeon said bitterly. Alas, even if I cried out that it wasn't intentional, who would believe me.

The much-anticipated Destroyer of the Pearl Clan, Unga Ying, was lying on the ground, disfigured, his eyes rolling back in his head. Less than half a mile to the side of where he had fallen, the famous Unga Muk Spear lay like a useless stick. Now that it had left its owner's hands, it was only worth a stick.

Bi Ryuyeon couldn't help but have a bad taste in her mouth. This hadn't been the original plan.

Still, Myung-cheol came out with Yin Gong as his main weapon, and it would be an added bonus to win the championship with a flawless display of Yin Gong. None of the people who had fallen in his battles with Bi Ryuyeon had been knocked down by a straightforward Yin Gong. They had all taken a powerful blow to the back of the head, stomach, or chin, and passed out face down on the floor.

So it's fair to say that we've never used a real yin gong. This has caused quite a stir. It was even suggested that his martial art might not be yin kung at all, but rather a form of kung fu, and his fierce battles had earned him the not-so-elegant nickname of the "Transport Warrior". It was an obscure story that had been overshadowed by Mo Yonghui's inaction, but it was a story that would have caused a stir if the Heavenly Yin Master Hong Lan had heard of it.

Who's going to stop that ignorant, snarky streak?

In search of someone who could conduct a more dignified bimu contest, they set their sights on Bi Ryuyeon's next opponent, who they believed would be more than capable of stopping her outrageous and fraudulent winning streak.

The Eightfold Divine Sword is at its peak!

It was the name of her next opponent.

As a fifteenth generation disciple of the Jiaqiang Sect, he had always lived an unremarkable life, and he had no doubt that he would continue to do so.

He was the last disciple of a prestigious, old school sect to learn the secrets of the martial arts, and he had inherited some of its secrets and now possessed a martial prowess that was beyond reproach. His star sign, the Eight-Eyed Divine Sword, was a fitting description of his fast and flamboyant swordplay. To appear to have eight arms, what a colorful and changing swordplay!

Moreover, he had entered the Heavenly Martial Academy, which was the envy of all powerful people, and now he had passed the difficult promotion examination and become a Six-Sword Dragon. So he didn't have much to be jealous of. Moreover, his pride was high.

He had an incurable disease, a terrible disease called heavenly and earthly infantilism, also known as prestige superiority syndrome. This disease caused the sufferer to be very arrogant, never to associate with people of lowly origins (there is a tendency among prestigious disciples to assume that people of unidentified origins, or who do not belong to the great schools, are automatically lowly), and to look down on them.

So naturally, he had Bi Ryuyeon under his eye.

After all, he was a pureblood from a prestigious family, and Bi Ryuyeon was just a lucky first-year kid. Naturally, he was more than twelve percent sure of his victory.

He says to himself.

'He's just a simple first-year brat. A brat who will never be able to defeat a prestigious disciple like me…….'

How she had managed to pull off the previous four fights hadn't even crossed his mind. The details of Bi Ryuyeon's secret dance were just one of those stories that were often told these days for laughs or to liven up a drinking party.

After all, the attention of the proper, cultivated Heavenly Guards these days was all focused on Qinghe and Mo Yonghui. Whenever they met, all they talked about was them.

On top of that, Jeon Ok-ki was in a pretty bad mood, with everyone around him urging him to harpoon Bi Ryuyeon for desecrating the Samsung brand. On top of that, Bi Ryuyeon had already become the enemy of almost all the men since she pretended to know Na Yerin in their first match.

That's how he could have gotten the courage to make such a false claim. Of course, he was completely unaware of it.

It happened just one day before her fifth fight.

"Then I'll believe you, hahahaha!"

"Then, then! Leave it to me, a brat who doesn't even know where he came from! How dare he defeat me, a disciple of the Daoist Changing Sect! I'm far past the stage where I can win by luck alone! I can't believe he's reached the fourth round…….. The rumors that the level of this Samurai Martial Saint has dropped significantly are true!"

With a glass of wine in hand, he clinked it excitedly with a group of people around him: the late master of the Jiaqiang Sect, the next great master of the Eight Flying Divine Swords. The restaurant was called Song Feng Lu, and it was well known in the Nanchang culinary scene.

"Hahaha, my friend, you're too good for me. I'll trust you tomorrow. Do you know how much money I've lost because of him? I'm not the only one who's lost money because of him. Who would have guessed that the spear of destruction would be so futile!"

"Coincidence, coincidence! That bastard was lucky. From what I've heard, Fang Fengchang Yun Jiayoung must have suffered some serious internal injuries in the previous match! You know, Yun Jiayoung's last opponent was Chu Ying Xinbo Yi Haklim."

As he spoke, everyone's faces turned into faces that said, "So it is. They were satisfied because they had finally heard an explanation they could understand and accept.

"That's right, you were right. I thought you were too easily defeated by that kid in the last match……. It's not unreasonable, since he was up against Chu Yingxinbo, who is said to be as fast as a ghost, and the two of them are equally skilled!"

The bull-like man who gulped down the wine like it was water spoke, and everyone nodded in agreement. In fact, Eun Ga-young and Lee Hak-rim's bimu was already three weeks before their fight with Bi Ryuyeon. That was enough time for them to recover from any injuries they might have sustained, as long as they kept up their training. That's why they had been training for half a year. And yet, none of them really thought that Bi Ryuyeon had won the match.

Everyone was quick to criticize Bi Ryuyeon's performance, saying that she was unable to win because of the hurt she suffered from Lee Hak-rim.

"Isn't it too much for you to be listening, you don't have eyes to see!"

Suddenly, the laughter that had filled the room washed away. Suddenly, everyone in the middle of gossiping turned to look in the direction of the cocky voice with a sharp glint in their eyes.

"Who is it?"

A young man with two sashes crossed on his forehead proudly revealed himself. He wore identical twin swords crossed behind his back.

"Resuscitation is called hyo-ryong."

Undaunted by his glare, Hyorong met his gaze with aplomb. He swept a searching glance at Hyo-Ryong, who stood calmly before him.

The first thing he discovered was that this guy wasn't a disciple of one of the old schools. Originally, his way of judging a stranger was by their origin, which was one of his most absolute criteria. Secondly, he didn't belong to the Eight Great Families. Great powers like the great prestigious factions and the Eight Great Houses would have distinctive markings on their bodies to indicate their affiliation, whether it was a character or the color of their clothing. As a disciple of the Jiaqing Sect, he wore purple robes.

There were no markings on his body, so he must be a disciple of an insignificant sect.

The next thing he knew, he had the arrogant thought, "This is why I can't do non-prestige stuff.

"I see you're a first-year student. Don't you think it's a little presumptuous of you to interrupt the seniors?"

Hyorong's heart stood out like a saber in the face of Jeon Ok-ki's condescending demeanor, and the corners of his mouth curled into a thin but sneering smile.

"You mean to tell me, then, that a man of your stature, a senior, is permitted to make such insults in your presence, and that is indeed an embarrassment to a junior, don't you think?"

Hyo-ryong's words were unmistakably confident.

"Who are you talking about?"

Jeon Ok-ki's voice rises, as if he's not going to lose, as if he can't be so arrogant.

"And who is that person sitting there?"

Hyo-ryong's finger pointed to where they were sitting: Jang Hong, who was quietly observing the situation, Yun Jun-ho, who was fidgeting beside him, and Bi Ryuyeon, who, whether she realized it or not, was diligently picking at a whole chicken. She was still working hard on cutting and disassembling the food even after the incident.

Zhen Okki's expression changed to one of trepidation. He hadn't expected her to be there. In his drunkenness, he hadn't noticed Bi Ryuyeon's group coming up from the middle.

Unbeknownst to the uninitiated, it was completely unbecoming of an honorary student to gossip when the party was listening.

"Ryuyeon, I want you to say something too!"

Hyorong looked back at Bi Ryuyeon and couldn't help but make a dumbfounded expression as he spoke.

"Yum. Muga……, is that Mari……? Woof, woof, woof!"

Right now, Bi Ryuyeon's mouth is full of food, and his tongue is busy tasting it, so he has no spare capacity for language.

"Well, it looks like neither of us has anything to say, so we'll have to leave. If you have something to say, do it offstage, if you have the courage to do so, hahahahaha!"

Then she stormed off the field with the attitude that she didn't need or deserve your permission. Hyo-ryong, stunned by Bi Ryuyeon's outrageous behavior, was no longer in a position to take control of the situation. With that, the standoff was over, and Jeon Ok-ki's men, feeling a little stung, also fled the field in droves.

"You can't have that kind of nonsense! The man has no self-respect!" ……."

They were the ones who remembered to say something as they went down the line, not the ones who would miss it. It was obvious they were there to hear it.

"You're not even upset, how can you so nonchalantly put food in your mouth and digest it, you're not thinking that eating is more important than the insults you've been subjected to by those bastards?"

Hyo-ryong glanced back at Bi Ryuyeon with an angry voice. Heat flared within him. How dare something as small as a bug run amok on a flimsy backdrop! He turned around and looked at Bi Ryuyeon.

I just shouted it out to be sure, but Bi Ryuyeon's answer was a masterpiece, and Hyo-ryong couldn't help but burst out laughing in disbelief.

"Of course! As expected, Hyorong and Jang Hong, my two friends, bought me a sumptuous dinner for free as an encouragement, and it would be a waste if I didn't eat it soon. It would be a shame if I got into an argument with them and had less food to eat. I'm going to enjoy a proper meal once in a while, and I'm going to enjoy it fully! This kind of luxury is rare……."

Bi Ryuyeon still spoke calmly as she threw herself wholeheartedly into the task of cutting.

Isn't that what you're really saying, that the chicken foot you're picking is more important than the argument you're having, more important than your ego, more important than the chicken foot you're picking? It's a mindset that can't exist in an unmanned environment.

In fact, this was a dinner prepared by Jang Hong and Hyo Ryong to congratulate and encourage Bi Ryuyeon on her winning streak.

But while he was concentrating on his meal, something tickled his ears, and he looked up to see that the senior writers were trying to put down his junior and arch-rival, Bi Ryuyeon. That's when Hyo-ryong stepped up to the plate. He felt sorry for Bi Ryuyeon because he had brought her there to encourage her, but she had to listen to the gossip unintentionally.

But when the third party is getting pissed off, he's the one who's eating the food!

"Why did you stand still? You're not the kind of person to do that, do you have something else in mind?"

Hyo-ryong looked at the empty seats of the Jeon Ok-ki group, who had been chewing hard on Bi Ryuyeon a few moments earlier. If he stood still after hearing all that, he'd be labeled a gutless bastard. Of course, as far as Hyorong knew, Bi Ryuyeon would never be associated with that sort of thing. It was even more curious that she had remained silent.

"Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, I'm sure my bones will be a little numb tomorrow……. It's not even good for an after-meal snack! It's just the skin, no kernel, and it's so…, so…, stale… it doesn't even have any flavor. I wonder if the bones are strong…………………………………………………………"

Looking at Bi Ryuyeon, who was smiling eagerly and single-mindedly picking at the chicken's feet, Hyorong asked her curiously. Something had caught his ear.

"Are you talking about the chicken feet you're picking at, or the guy who just walked out?"

"Well? Hmph……."

Hyo-ryong doesn't seem to dislike Bi Ryuyeon, who just chuckles at Hyo-ryong's questions.

On the day of the bimu, he showed up unarmed and unassuming, and Jeon Ok-ki had to feel something tugging at his nerves.

Something about the atmosphere felt off to Jeon Ok-ki.

The first thing that caught his eye was the group of 17 martial artists that surrounded the Bi Ryuyeon.

All but one of them were faces he recognized with certainty. No, they were too famous in the current Heavenly Martial Academy to not recognize them even if they tried.

"Why are they here? Why are they here?

They were famous in a way that I don't think I am today. He didn't think he was any less talented, of course, but there was a marked difference in name recognition. Sadly, that was something that even they admitted. After all, they were the most prominent Divine Dragon Phoenixes in the Heavenly Martial Academy right now.

They weren't the kind of people who would sit on the sidelines of a fight between someone of his caliber and a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, as far as he knew.

"Why are they gathered around that kid like that, and does that mean that he's their goal…….?

Suddenly, his eyes widened, as a thought flashed through his mind like a slap in the face.

"No way, Priest?!

Then I could never let my guard down. The mere fact that he had such a close relationship with Zhu Jiaxuan was enough to make him wary. This was the limit of his imagination. It was a very common sense thought process, but……. And if he could imagine it, then he must be insane. There's no need for a mental examination.

But Jeon Ok-ki saw what he shouldn't have seen. If only he hadn't seen it, if only he could pretend he hadn't seen it, it would have been easier. The damage was done.

"Huh! What the…, what was that? Did I just see something?"

I rubbed my eyes a couple times out of suspicion, but nothing seemed amiss. So what the hell was that?

Unfortunately for him, he had to watch as Bi Ryuyeon unwittingly smashed the head of Namgungsang, the leader of the Zhu Jia Clan, with a cold blow to the head. After watching this scene, I thought that the little brat was surely dead, but after being slapped on the back of the head, Namgungsang was only laughing at his reputation and skill!

Jeon Ok-ki rubbed his eyes two or three times and pinched his cheeks just in case, but he found nothing wrong with his eyesight, and the pain in his cheeks from the twisting and pulling made them tingle, so it was definitely not a dream.

"Then what is it that I just witnessed with these eyes?

A million question marks swirled around in his brain, but none of them made sense, so he decided he'd just missed it. Surely he had seen nothing but a little pre-game nervousness.

"You must be mistaken……. Hahaha!"

But no matter how much he self-hypnotized himself, his laughter was already stifled.

The reason why the entire cast was called here today was very simple and straightforward: to support Bi Ryuyeon's bimu.

Bi Ryuyeon insisted that they should cheer for the fact that they couldn't participate, and Joo Jae-dan, who had been forced to come out by violence and repression, could only cry and eat mustard to cheer them on.

In fact, if you trace back to its origins, the reason why the Jujak Dan was banned from participating in this year's Samsung Dance Festival is because of none other than Bi Ryuyeon, who encouraged the Blue Dragon Corps to fight against the Jujak Dan. But they couldn't refuse.

Poor Zhu Zhaodan had no time for the priests, who were shaking their fists in front of Bi Ryuyeon, who dared to ask if it was the law of any country in the world that the priests did not come to cheer them on on the day of the death penalty match.

As a result, they were always the bridesmaids of Bi Ryuyeon's matches. In some cases, the attention that should have been focused on the offstage area was instead taken by the main cast members. No one understood why they were there.

But what can I do? I can't help it, it's the tears of the powerless…….

I wonder if the day will ever come when the main cast members will be free from being at the mercy of Bi Ryuyeon's pacifier, maybe not even in this lifetime.

There are a lot of idiots in the world. This was the conclusion she came to after watching Jeon Ok-ki today. How could anyone be so stupid? It was so strange.

If you have a sign that says you're a disciple of a prestigious sect, does that make your muscles double? Or does it make your bones twice as strong? There are no benefits. It's just that you have a skill that's been accumulated by secret knowledge, and it's faster and more useful than what's available elsewhere.

When you die and wake up, signs and backgrounds don't give you a free transmogrification. However, there are often idiots who mistakenly believe this. Jeon Ok-ki was one of them. Even now, when the signal for the start of the rain dance sounded, he was still scolding himself. He was definitely in need of mental education.

"What's with the hair, are you ignoring me?"

His index finger swooped down and pointed to Bi Ryuyeon's bangs, which covered his entire eye area. His long bangs were considered disrespectful to him.

"Well, cut it if you have to, or if you can, but I doubt you'll need to cut it in this bimu."

"I've never had to cut my bangs in front of anyone," she said with a smile on her red lips that peeked out from under her tousled bangs. So far, she had never felt the need to cut her bangs in front of anyone. Besides, she'd been urged to do so by Master Inspiration Tang.

"How dare you shackle yourself to the eye method, which is the essence and life of martial arts, are you out of your mind, and what is your reason for doing so? Do you disrespect me, the immediate disciple of one of the Nine Great Schools, the Great Pointing Sect?"

Qianlong was furious. As a disciple of an old school sect, he had been completely disrespected by a brat who didn't even know where he came from. This could never have happened within the realm of his imagination.

"You're such a big fan of big things. Why do you keep bringing up the old school and the prestigious school since yesterday? Annoying!"

Jeon Ok-ki's face contorted in anger as he listened to Bi Ryuyeon's crooked and unkind words.

"Shut up, you're talking out of both sides of your mouth. Now tell me why. Or I'll cut you."

If you're confident enough, you can try it. It was just a bullshit idea that he ignored.

'Why? Come to think of it, that was probably the day I started growing my bangs…….'

His long bangs started in the most unlikely of places.