Chapter 71 - Variable (1)
Thud!
Mumu landed on top of the northernmost Heavenly Dorm. Not only was the fire extinguished from the force of the landing, but the roof was partially curving inwards and the tiles had broken, yet fortunately the dorm was still standing.
But,
"Uhhh."
The wind pressure was so strong that Hae-ryang had to lay flat on the tiles and was losing consciousness.
When he recovered enough to look around, he discovered Mumu's appearance and couldn't help but feel amazed. The muscles all over his body had swollen up, and even his height seemed to have increased. His skin had turned all red, and there was something seeping out from it.
It felt like he was staring at the God of War right now.
"Y-Young lord Mumu?"
"Hae-ryang. Are you alright?"
Hae-ryang was surprised at Mumu's question and nodded. And then suddenly he remembered about Jin-hyuk who was still hanging from a roof tile.
"I'm fine, but what about Young Lord Jin-hyuk?"
Hae-ryang hurried over to where Jin-hyuk was, but he couldn't see him. But when Hae-ryang glanced down expecting the worst…
"Damn it… Mumu…"
Jin-hyuk hadn't fallen to the ground from Mumu's landing, instead, he was dangling under the tile. He had almost fallen, but he had managed to move under the tile to avoid the force of the wind.
When he looked down, there was soot, but the wall seemed to be holding up fine.
"Jin-hyuk. I will pull you up!"
"No!"
"What?"
"Mumu can you do this everywhere else?"
There were a lot of questions about how the fire went out with one punch, but Jin-hyuk had other things to worry about first.
He looked at the masked people under the building and said,
"I and Hae-ryang will chase after them, so extinguish the fire from the other dorms first."
"Those people?"
"They are the ones who set fire to the dorms."
Mumu looked at the masked people. As Jin-hyuk said, the flames in the other two dorms were much bigger than here. And the fire had broken out faster there too, so if he didn't stop it, something terrible would happen.
"Scream for me if something happens."
"Enough, just go!"
Mumu nodded,
Kwang!
He immediately flew to the other dorms. However, as Mumu kicked his feet, the roof tiles collapsed.
"Ugh!"
Jin-hyuk, who was hanging from the tiles, finally fell down. It was lucky that each floor had a tile railing so he could easily use some light footwork to softly land.
'T-this bastard should have told me he was going to do that.'
He was annoyed for a moment, but it wasn't important. When he looked down. He saw the shocked masked men who were escaping somewhere and he moved to catch them right away.
At the same time, the deputy was in the main building. It was late at night and only one person was working overtime.
It was all well and good that the person handling the academy's affairs was working so hard, but he was making his subordinates work overtime too.
And their eyes were wide open.
'… I want to leave.'
'Please let me sleep.'
"Phew"
Deputy Dan Pil-hoo stretched and got up from his seat.
His subordinates looked at him with anticipation. However, the man sat down and then said,
"You too, get up and stretch. Otherwise, your body will get hurt."
"… Ah, yes."
Hope flew away. Dan Pil-hoo smiled.
"Working all night like this, you are like a closer family to me than my wife. Hahaha."
'Family… my ass.'
Dan Pil-hoo tried to ignore their resentful eyes.
"Hmmm."
Working overtime for several days was unavoidable.
The Deputy Head was quite overloaded with work as there were some vacant seats, the head of the academy was busy with his own things and the annual ceremony of the Imperial family could happen whenever.
And he wants his subordinates to just work like this?
'My head hurts.'
There are so many things to do, so many things to take care of.
He had to look after Mumu who was causing accidents and the other master Sam Muheo, who was acting suspiciously.
'It is fortunate we have roll calls.'
Thanks to the roll call, the students were under control. And Mumu, that trouble maker too would have to do the roll call in dorms.
But it wasn't just one person.
'I did give him a warning, but he doesn't seem like the kind to stand still.'
Sam Muheo, who Dan Pil-hoo had seen, had hidden his true character. And judging from his history in the Murim Association, the more things he had hidden about his past, the more likely he would turn into a problem later.
Once under Dan Pil-hoo eye's though, as long as he knew they were skilled, he could keep an eye on them.
'Shouldn't the dorm final report be here by now?'
Dan Pil-hoo asked one of his aides.
"The report for the dorms hasn't come?"
"Yes. Not yet."
"It seems late."
It was a little later than half an hour from the usual time. It was just half an hour, but the fact that no one came to inform them about the delay was something which couldn't be overlooked…
Thud!
Then someone hurriedly opened the door.
"D-Deputy Head! We have a problem!"
He was one of the warriors directly under the deputy. Dan Pil-hoo curiously asked,
"What is it?"
"L-look at this."
The warrior immediately opened the window to the west side of the office. And when they looked out of it, all they could see was the black smoke rising in the distance.
It was in the direction of the dorms.
'What is this?'
There was quite a bit of distance between the dorms and the main office, and there were even hills in between so the smoke shouldn't have been so apparent right away. The first thing that came to mind when the smoke was so clearly seen was that something massive was on fire, and that thinking was correct.
"There is fire in the dorms!"
Upon hearing the warrior's words, Dan Pil-hoo jumped up from his seat and shouted,
"No, what are the warriors guarding the dorms even doing?"
"I don't know, I did send people but soon…"
"How can this happen now! Immediately call for help, and the Masters too, wake everyone you can to put out the fire."
"Y-yep!"
It was an emergency. The dorms were on fire. And it might have been fine if it was in the morning, but now the students must have been in bed, meaning this was probably the worst time for this to happen.
'Ah! The dorms! Why!'
Something didn't seem right. Dan Pil-hoo rushed out of his office.
Flinch!
And he thought of something strange. No matter how much he thought about it, there were warriors and even the supervisors of the dorms nearby, but it bothered him that the fire was this large and no one had reported about it to them.
And the report by the man who was keeping an eye on Sam Muheo had been delayed too.
'No!'
Dan Pil-hoo looked at the dorms and turned away.
The Heavenly Martial Arts hall was located on the northern side of the main building.
Its tower was the tallest among all the buildings with a fortress-like form, and the surrounding conditions could be surveyed from the top.
There was a man sitting on top of that tower and wiping something with a cloth.
It was none other than a blood-soaked blade. The man mumbled something and wiped the sword.
"Aging is such a bad thing. When you see the person who was once equal to a dozen collapse in vain."
The man who had wiped off the blade stood up.
Dang! Dang!
The bells rang from the main building. As the bells rang in all directions, torches lit up everywhere and people flocked over.
And the torchers were heading for the dorms.
'Hurry up. If all the students die in the fire, there will be nothing left.'
In the academy, everyone there was from Murim, and there were only a few normal people with any form of power there.
And if a few of them died, one can never know what would happen next.
'I think I can see why you enjoyed sitting here and drinking. I also want to have a drink and enjoy it in such a nice place.'
This was a disaster for the academy which marked the beginning of a great era. And this was only the beginning of their revenge.
Starting today, the Heavenly Martial Arts Academy, which was known to be the core of martial arts, will fall into an abyss of chaos.
'Get up. And see it all burn.'
Taste the despair by burning the flowers which are meant to bloom, those who have taken everything from them in the name of justice.
And starting from that despair, the feast of endless suffering will come.
A bloody tragedy that couldn't be compared to back then…'
'!?'
The man in the shadows frowned. The torches had not yet arrived at the dorms, but the flames and smoke from the dorms to the north had suddenly disappeared,
'… what?'
Come to think of it, the flames should also be coming from another place. However, the smoke from the other side had vanished as well, and now only two fires could be seen.
'The dorm must have burned down completely.'
All of the powder which had worked so nicely, and the men who must have done the work right. Even if there was only one chance, and even if someone discovered their plans, there was no way the flames could be stopped at once.
Unless that was–
"A variable?"
An unseen variable. He wanted to check what was happening but it was too far away and in the dark so he couldn't confirm it with his eyes.
It was then.
'Again?'
This time, the flame on the east side was taken down and the smoke also disappeared right away.
'What the hell is going on?'
Wheik!
The flame was spreading down the hallway.
"Haa… Haa…"
Hong Hye-ryang with her scarlet hair roughly exhaled and re-covered her nose with a cloth.
'The fire is getting stronger.'
Hong Hye-ryang was shocked at this situation. Shortly after coming back from her personal training, she suddenly felt that her body was losing strength and fell asleep.
But, unlike the others, the Hong family's cultivation was, as her father said to her, "reverse cultivation to push away the limits."
Therefore, without learning about poison she had developed a resistance to them.
As she was exhaling out the poison while in a trance, she suddenly felt that her surroundings were becoming warmer and then much too hot. She opened the window only to see the dorm burning down around her.
She was bewildered by this, but calmly carried the student she was sharing the room with on her shoulders and went into the hallway.
Wheik!
But the fire was spreading in front of the hallway. She was shocked by this.
The symptoms of falling asleep were gone, but her hands were trembling and the strength in her body was greatly lessened.
'My strength isn't all there.'
Now she was in a situation where a simple mistake could put her in great danger. But she didn't hesitate to do it.
Bang!
After breaking down the wall which hadn't yet caught on fire, she wet the area around it with water and removed her roommate from the building and then came back inside.
It didn't matter how this fire had happened. She had to save as many people as her body could handle.
But,
"haa… Haa…"
She gradually got dizzy because of inhaling too much smoke. She tried to rescue herself with the wet towel around her nose and mouth, but there was a limit to how much this would work.
And the flame was spreading too fast.
'Only… eight… I could move…'
Had she been in her best form, she could have saved more people than this. But she couldn't help them now. She had to at least save the two people on her shoulders.
She ran towards the wall.
Wheik!
She thought the fire would slow down as the wall was wet, but the fire from the surroundings was blocking her path.
It was evident that if she passed from there, her face and body would get burned.
'… burn, I don't know if that is a big deal!'
Thinking that she threw herself into the flames when–
Swish!
A huge windy force rushed through the hole she had created in the wall and the flames blocking her advances were taken down.
'Now is the time!'
She ran without missing the chance and when she was about to pass through the hole.
'Ah!'
She lost strength due to her legs going weak. And the strength she barely had left was finally taken from her.
Hong Hye-ryang collapsed there and fell from the third floor with two people on her.
At that moment when she thought it was the end–
Kwang! Roar!
With a roar from above, someone on the outside of the building glided down and hugged Hong Hye-ryang and the two other mates she had.
Her eyes widened as she felt the huge muscles that hugged her and she looked at his face.
"You?"
It was none other than Mumu who saved her. And with a bright smile, Mumu said,
"You aren't hurt anywhere right?"
"Ah, I am not hurt, but your body has grown a little…"
"Let's talk about that later."
Pak!
Mumu let go of them as they landed on the ground. Hong Hye-ryang, who was on her knees, looked back at the dorm.
'Ah!'
All the fire on the outer wall of the building was extinguished. She didn't know what was happening.
But there was still fire inside the building, so people inside the dorm were still in danger.
"There is fire inside too."
"Uh?"
Kwang!
At that moment, Mumu jumped up to the fourth floor and tore off the wall with one hand.
Crack!
And then he stood in the hallway with his arms all wide. And applauded.
Paaaah!
The fire inside subsided in an instant. And Hong Hye-ryang who saw it mumbled,
"… To make the fires disappear like that."