Spirit could be referring to one’s soul or something akin to ghosts–the living dead.
After learning Mount Mo’s Ghost Art, Kang Mui was aware that these spirits were visible to the naked eye and located in a different dimension despite using the same space.
Therefore, he thought it was impossible to interact with them without suggestion being involved.
But,
Woong!
The ghost, which had half-melted skin, was suffering from pain induced by Mumu. What did this mean? And,
Shhh!
The bloodshot-eyed black shadow ghost holding Tang So-so had disappeared without Kang Mui even giving an order.
‘Is he afraid of that guy?’
It was absurd. Mumu, who had deflected the half-melted ghost, was charging toward him. He couldn’t detect any energy from the attack but still felt a tremendous force behind it.
‘He’s not a normal one.’
In an instant, Kang Mui’s eyes narrowed. Cautious, he tried to stop Mumu from rushing, but Tang So-so caught him by the collar. As Mumu jumped in….
Phat!
“Oh?”
Tang So-so, who suddenly caught him by the collar, made him unable to move. Thanks to that, Mumu, who wanted to rush to the other side, moved without a problem.
‘I cannot do this with physical strength.’
Kang Mui was exhausted, and it was then,
Bang!
Fragments of the ground bounced up, and as Mumu passed through them, they crashed into his face. Ignoring all of this, Mumu slammed his fist into Kang Mui’s chest–even while Kang Mui did his best to block.
Paaang!
The moment their hands collided, an intense shockwave rose, and Tang So-so’s hair was blown to the back from the force.
Swish!
Kang Mui’s form, which blocked Mumu's fist, was pushed three steps back. And that was it. Mumu’s fists were fine, but the hands of Kang Mui, which had blocked the attack while trying not to be thrown back, were trembling. With a trembling mouth, Kang Mui spoke,
“You… you must be that guy. The one who passed the entrance exam with just strength and no martial arts.”
He remembered now.
Recently, this was the most talked about thing in the academy. He thought about what level of power one needed to pass the test with only strength, and now he saw. Mumu’s eyes shone.
‘… Uh. This person stopped it with just strength,’
After learning about internal energy, Mumu understood the flow of energy in the bodies of the murim. But now, Kang Mui blocked him with pure physical strength. And unlike the pale face, the muscles of his body were swollen in a bizarre shape.
‘His muscles look weird.’
It was difficult to see such muscles with just training. It looked like the muscles had adapted to the situation with a temporary increase in power.
“You are stronger than you look.”
“That is what I want to say. Did you really get this strength by just training your muscles?”
“If you train hard, even you can do it.”
“I… it doesn’t seem like that would be possible. You don’t seem to understand any martial arts…”
Pak!
At that time, Mumu's left hand was pulled back, and Mumu’s forearm muscles which twisted and contracted were shown to Kang Mui, who frowned.
‘Compressing the muscles?’
Paaang!
Astonished by the contracting muscles, Mumu's fist had reached Kang Mui’s face like a lightning strike. And with that, his body was thrown back into the basement wall.
Kwang!
It was cloudy with the dust rising.
And Tang So-so, who saw it, couldn’t help but be shocked. Kang Mui, who boasts of being second in the 3rd year, was hit by Mumu, who was a first-year.
‘He is that strong?’
She knew he was strong since she had seen him fight a couple of times, but then Mumu asked her,
“Are you fine?”
“Yes?”
And her eyes shone. This was a chance! Tang So-so pretended to be dizzy and staggered to lean on Mumu.
“Ahhh. I feel so dizzy at all that threatening….”
Tak!
And someone had landed in the basement just at that moment. When they looked back, it was Jin-hyuk standing there; he had come through the hole drilled by Mumu.
Jin-hyuk looked at both of them and asked,
“Did something happen?”
‘Tch!’
Tang So-so pouted at the sight of him. She was almost ready to lean on his back, but this had failed!
‘You should have come a little later.’
It could have turned out nicely, but Mo Il-hwa and Hae-ryang were also down now.
And with that, the chance was blown away. As soon as Mo Il-hwa landed, she pointed to the wall that was covered in dust and asked,
“What happened here?”
Mumu scratched his head and said,
“I don’t know. I came down to find someone threatening So-so.”
“Oh! Are you fine?”
Soon enough, everyone looked at her, and Tang So-so nodded.
“I hope it wasn’t that, but I was going to find you guys; I am glad you are all here. The person whom Mumu hit is the one behind everything in the building.”
“Behind this?”
She briefly spoke about what happened to the puzzled ones, and everyone was visibly shocked, particularly Mo Il-hwa, who was afraid of ghosts.
“See, I told you that was a real ghost.”
Knowing that the ghosts were real now, she shivered. On the other hand, Jin-hyuk was more uncertain that the spirits were being controlled like this.
‘… Mount Mo uses such dangerous techniques.’
Now he could see why they were not involved in the murim clans. Those who could control the dead deviated from nature’s general providence.
‘If this wasn’t Mount Mo’s tricks, we would have all considered it witchcraft or something.’
He could understand why the person called Kang Mui was hiding in this place; there was nothing good about standing out for this reason. But he had other doubts.
‘How is that brat able to touch the spirits?’
From what Tang So-so said, the spirits being used like ghosts were able to touch them because of the Suggestion technique, then shouldn’t it be impossible for them to handle the ghosts?
But, Mumu was casually touching them. No, not just feel; he was landing blows onto them. Jin-hyuk stared at Mumu, trying to understand.
“What is it?”
“You…”
Jin-hyuk was about to ask something, but Hae-ryang rubbed his palms and spoke to Mumu.
“Wah. As expected, Young Lord Mumu is truly wonderful.”
“Uh?”
“If that man is Kang Mui, he is the second-ranked person in 3rd year, and you took him down with a single blow, even if you think he is someone….”
“That makes no sense.”
‘!?’
At the voice, everyone turned at the same time. They could see Kang Mui walk from the dust, and everyone who saw this had their expression turned sour.
‘… didn’t his face meet with Mumu's fist, and he is still fine?’
But Kang Mui’s face wasn’t good. Since they were all aware of Mumu’s strength, it was shocking for them.
‘Ah!’
And then, they were all on edge. It was because they remembered that this man was dealing with spirits.
Jin-hyuk was ready to move when he met his eyes with Kang Mui.
Creepy!
‘!!!!’
At the same time, he felt weird. It was just eye contact, but he saw the illusion of Kang Mui coming to him and cutting off his head instantly.
Drip!
Cold sweat dripped from Jin-hyuk’s forehead. And this didn’t stop there. Mo Il-hwa, shaking in fear, went stiff, and Hae-ryang had dropped his dagger.
The only ones that were okay were Tang So-so and Mumu.
‘Oh!’
Kang Mui’s eyes shone.
Tang So-so showed signs of nervousness, but she wasn’t stiff like the others. This meant that she was ready to act despite what he showed her.
‘She is a fine woman.’
And this made him like her even more. But what was truly amazing was Mumu.
Despite the threatening illusion being shown to him, Mumu was still staring him straight in the eye. Even though he wasn’t familiar with martial arts, he could withstand it.
‘This is interesting.’
It was also unusual to use physical power to hit a ghost. And despite not being a descendant of the prestigious murim families, he was the one drawing the attention of Kang Mui.
Kang Mui smiled and spoke to Mumu.
“Mumu was it?”
“Yes. Why?”
“You are a lot stronger than I thought!”
And Mumu too spoke,
“I heard about senior, and you have a stronger body than you look.”
At that, Kang Mui tilted his head and burst into laughter. He was giving out killing intent, yet this kid was complimenting him. This wasn’t an interesting one, but more like a funny one.
“I cannot use strength anymore.”
With those words, Mumu put his hands on the bands on his right wrist and tried to take a step forward.
As a result, Kang Mui began to give out more killing intent than before. And he raised his hands and spoke.
“Let’s end this here.”
“Uh?”
“It seems that there is something hidden, but if we make more noise, no matter what we do, the academy guards will come.”
‘Ah!’
Mumu, who heard that lowered his hand. Come to think of it; if he exerted more power here, the building would fall. He forgot that he had sneaked into this place.
Kang Mui looked around and said,
“Thanks to you, I lost a nice training space. I am sure you people also came in here secretly, so I am sure everyone is alright with keeping their mouths shut about what we all did here. Bye then.”
With those words, he smiled and disappeared, and as he did, Mo Il-hwa and Hae-ryang slumped to the ground.
It was because they were free from the pressure.
“Haa… haa… what a monster.”
“I-I wanted to say that.”
“…”
Jin-hyuk couldn’t deny their words. This overwhelming force he felt from Kang Mui was something that surpassed his masters.
The intimidation he hadn’t felt ever since he came here as a student.
‘Should I say I am glad he left?’
Tang So-so also released her clenched hand. With the momentum that Kang Mui had shown, their victory was uncertain. Fortunately, the man decided to walk away.
And unlike them, Mumu was smacking his lips.
‘… he looked very strong.’
He wanted to test how much of his strength the man could withstand, but unfortunately, due to the situation, they couldn’t.
But he couldn’t speak these thoughts to his companions, and then he saw something faint shimmering in the dark hallway.
‘Ah!’
The ghost offered to tell him where the seeds were and then ran. Mumu walked to it and even walked there to show that it didn’t have to run this time.
And as he got closer, he could see the temperature drop.
Shhhhh!
It continued to move and guided Mumu, and Mumu, who followed it, widened his eyes at the sight of red flowers, which could be seen through the dirt in the hallway.
‘This…’
Behind the old research building, where not many people stay...
Kang Mui slowly walked to where only moonlight would shine and stopped. He looked somewhere as he pulled out a flat green jade from the pocket and lifted it.
“Faster than I thought. The sign was already there.”
And then, from where Kang Mui was looking, someone appeared there. And then he got down on one knee and bowed.
“I am the person who serves the Lord.”
Kang Mui smiled and said.
“So it was you. I always wondered between Sam Muheo and Mak Cheong-un who Master Heo was, and the answer came out today.”
“Forgive the actions I did.”
“Well, it has been said in advance that everyone has decided to hide their identities in here.”
Kang Mui waved his hands, saying it didn’t matter, and Master Heo got up and said.
“We have a few variables.”
“Variables?”
“Yes. So it seems like we have to move ahead with the plan.”
Kang Mui’s shoulders shook at those words. It had been three years since he joined the academy. How long had he been waiting for this to happen?
“This is the start?”
“Sure…!?”
Master Heo, who was answering, frowned and then asked.
“… the one to be the Lord. Did something happen?”
“Uh?”
Master Heo looked at Kang Mui’s nose and saw that Kang Mui covered his nose.
Shhhh!
And he looked at his hand, which showed blood from the nose. He thought he had dispersed the fist's power, but that didn’t seem like the case.
‘… to make me bleed.’
It seemed like it had been a while since someone did this to him, and this made him smile.
‘This is fun.’
It made things more interesting for him.