All the commotion subsided in an instant.
After seeing his sajae’s body, Young Gadong had not been able to hold back his anger, but now he was able to regain his sanity.
It was because of the existence of Mumu, whose ability couldn’t be measured. Although he had battled countless opponents, he had never seen someone break a sword with just his bare hands.
‘He has surpassed the capabilities of a student.’
He had met some masters who received a title similar to himself, but he never saw such an unpredictable victory. Thanks to that, his mind that had been captured in anger became cold.
Young Gadong glanced at the other people sitting at the table.
‘I thought he was strong for an academy student.’
Hearing their identities, he couldn’t help but be surprised. Do Yang-woon, the grandson of North Heavenly Fist, and Guyang Seorin, whose grandfather was the West Wind Poison, are both descendants of the Four Great Warriors.
‘… this would have turned complicated.’
In a way, he was fortunate.
Most of his anger had been directed at Hong Hye-ryeong, but he was ready to kill anyone who got in his way. If he had done anything to them…
‘…’
He could have turned into an enemy of the Four Great Warriors. He managed to avoid that, thanks to that bastard.
‘What is he?’
Obviously, he had not learned martial arts.
However, he used his bare hands to grab his sword, which was covered with sword energy and Hong Hye-ryeong’s sword.
A student whose ability was on par with a monster.
‘Interesting.’
Guyang Seorin smiled. In a way, all the descendants of the Four Great Warriors were gathered here.
It was no exaggeration to say that skilled people from all over Murim were here, but not a single person could call for peace.
It was Mumu, with his innocent expression, who did this.
‘Everyone is looking at him.’
This was the first time such an interesting thing had happened. A disciple of the East River Sword Star, who was also one of the top ten masters, was wary of Mumu, and the daughter of Hon Hwa-ryun, Hong Hye-ryeong, too had a different look.
It was probably because she was holding Mumu’s arms
‘A weapon which held the will of fire.’
There were several weapons that her grandfather had warned her to be careful of.
The Fire Dragon Giant Blade was one of those weapons. He had told her that its flames were the incarnation of fire and could burn anyone.
[This is difficult. Hong Hwa-ryung is holding the Fire Dragon Giant Blade.]
Grandfather thought him to be his most difficult enemy. Yet Mumu’s skin wasn’t even burned despite holding it with his bare hands. Mumu’s muscles seemed to be impenetrable.
‘Will poison work?’
To have an impenetrable body means that even poison will not work. However, this muscular strength of Mumu’s seemed beyond common sense.
She wondered what his limit was.
‘What is certain is that he surpassed the Top Ten warriors with just his strength.’
Guyang Seorin then licked her lips. The night was turning interesting.
Perhaps it was because she might be looking at the future greatest warrior in Murim, one who would lead the next generation.
How would owning such a man feel?
‘Um. Not bad.’
She would have to watch a little more to find out, but the thought was stuck in her mind.
As everyone became conscious of this one person, Do Yang-woon began to speak.
“… if it wasn’t for Master Mumu here, I would have been taken down by the fake Guyang Seohan. This isn’t a weird coincidence.”
Young Gadong frowned at his words.
Wouldn’t that mean that two of the Four Great Warriors’ students would have died that night? Even Hong Hye-ryeong looked shocked.
“Did this mean someone mimicked me and killed Young Chun, like what happened with senior Do?”
“Didn’t I tell you that Hong-samae? And didn’t you say you didn’t kill Young Chun? Then, I can say it is almost the same as what I experienced.”
“How can such…”
Hong Hye-ryeong’s eyes turned bitter. If what he said was true, then she was suffering because of this unknown impostor.
And Do Yang-woon continued.
“It is no coincidence that this happened on the same night. Senior, what if this is a ploy to create a division between the Four Great Warriors?”
“A plan to create a division?”
“Yes.”
At those words, Young Gadong’s face became serious. To dismiss this theory… there weren’t just one or two things that felt right.
If Do Yang-woon had also lost his life, it would be a situation where all of the Four Great Warriors would be at odds with each other.
“Please think of this situation…”
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
“Do Yang-woon, was it?”
“Yes.”
“I see that there is truth to what you are saying. But there are differences between what you and my sajae had gone through.”
“That…”
“You competed against a fake child with a human skin mask on him, and you said he fought with just the basic martial arts of the Guyang family.”
“Yes, and Hong-samae too….”
“Hong Hye-ryeong competed directly against my sajae, and the scars on his body weren’t just basic scars. They were scars that came from the blade in her hands. How do you explain that?”
“…”
This was the problem.
Unlike Do Yang-woon, the evidence against Hong Hye-ryeong all pointed to her. She might say that she wasn’t the culprit, but the evidence pointed to her.
Without witness or evidence, it was difficult to conclude that someone else had done it. Hong Hye-ryeong then spoke in a bitter voice.
“Can you not believe me?”
Young Gadong stared at her. It was difficult to confirm the death of his sajae as just a strange coincidence just because of what he heard.
“Do you remember what I said? The dead don’t speak, but…”
“Scars don’t lie.”
“Right. If the allegations regarding the scars aren’t resolved, even the master of our sect will not dismiss this.”
Master of his sect.
He was talking about the East River Sword Star, Shin Eui-gyeom.
“I have been with him for over 20 years now, so I know it well. Master has a higher sense of justice than any of the Four Great Warriors, but he is the most knowledgeable of them too.”
“Uh?”
“He will not accept your opinion as a fact unless there is clear evidence.”
“But….”
“There is no but. I am being honest here.”
The Shin Eui-gyeom he knew was a person who didn’t compromise.
That is why he is also called the ‘Slayer of Evil.’
If he judges an opponent to be evil, then he would slay them no matter what.
‘Because you are their blood, you don’t know the dark side of it. The Four Great Warriors stay true to their name. People who are often called geniuses and are talented have a completely different mind from the normal ones.’
And his master was like that.
Do Yang-woon was frustrated. Despite saying everything, the situation was still considered suspicious because of a lack of evidence.
“Senior. This is a conspiracy. If you have doubts I…”
“Give me clear evidence.”
“Uh?”
“Right now, my heart doesn’t accept it. Of course, I still am leaning to your side for now, but master will not be like this.”
“Then…”
“Bring me evidence to prove she is innocent. Instead, I will delay the arrival of my master.”
At those words, everyone’s faces turned red.
After the roll call that night, Jin-hyuk heard the story from Mumu.
He thought the incident had been resolved to some extent after the arson attempt was stopped, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
Jin-hyuk looked at Mumu.
“What are you?”
“You… Did you catch something?”
“Huh?”
“How are you at the center of everything?”
As he listened, he realized Mumu was always in the center of such things. It felt bizarre to him.
“Right.”
Jin-hyuk sighed as he watched Mumu’s smiling face.
“So, what do we do?”
“I went to the deputy and told him about this.”
“Deputy?”
“Yes.”
“Why? You should talk to the academy office, right?”
“Ah! That…”
Do Yang-woon was concerned about the other officials knowing about this. The people who committed the arson were unknown, and someone impersonated Guyang Seohan to kill him. They had to be inside the academy.
That said, no one knew how many spies were in the academy, so disclosing it to the officials and staff felt premature.
“So he asked me to talk to the deputy. He said the deputy could be trusted.”
“Right. Because he was framed and imprisoned.”
“And when I talked about this, the deputy took this seriously.”
As soon as Dan Pil-hoo heard about it, he first asked if anyone else knew about it, and then he told them to not speak about this to anyone.
[The spies within the academy haven’t been identified yet. Your judgment is correct. If you speak carelessly, your enemies will take advantage of this.]
Hearing that, Jin-hyuk nodded.
“That makes sense. Holding the information is better if we don’t know who the spies are. Then what did the deputy say?”
“To investigate.”
“And for you all to stay out of it?”
“No. We never know, but there could be spies in students.”
“Among students?”
“Yes. He asked us to find any suspicious ones in our classes.”
At Mumu’s words, Jin-hyuk frowned. Obviously, it was difficult to consider teaching staff and guards as the only potential spies.
But can the suspicious ones among the students be found?
“What are you looking for?”
“Well.”
This was a different case from Sa Muheo, who tried to frame the deputy. He was accused of dealing with agents and monitoring the staff, but the one thing he didn’t touch was the students.
“It isn’t much different from telling you to find a needle in sand.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have another plan in mind?”
“Nope.”
At Mumu’s words, Jin-hyuk looked at him with a blank expression. Well, this was expected.
It was a vague instruction to find a suspected spy among this many students.
“Is there no good way?”
At this question from Mumu, Jin-hyuk closed his eyes. What way could there be? He just heard about the whole situation now.
‘Listening to it, the arson and all other things seem related…’
It was unclear to know the reason behind it, but if he compared the timing of everything, something might come to light.
Mumu wasn’t there at the start of the arson incident as he was outside catching Ki Majin. And thanks to that, he saved the life of Do yang-woon.
‘I was going to find him, so I went to talk with Kang Seo-ryeong…. Ah!’
Jin-hyuk’s eyes lit up. He remembered when he caught the arsonists. That was one thing he had forgotten.
“There is!”
“Uh? What?”
“A suspicious student.”
“Who?”
“Before the fire broke out, you weren’t there, but I was there, and most of the students, not all, were showing sleepiness symptoms. Mo Il-hwa too.”
“Right, and Hae-ryang was with you?”
“Right, but come to think of it, Hae-ryang and I had already been through it once before.”
“Been through it before?”
Mumu was puzzled and frowned, but something popped into his mind.
“You remember it too?”
“Yes.”
And with that, the two people called out the name in their minds.
“Ha-ryun!”
“Ha-ryun!”
At the same time, in a room on the 6th floor of the North Heavenly Dorm…
After his punishment was completed, Ha-ryun came out of the disciplinary center that night and became confused by all the news.
“Did you say a great war?”
Someone was standing while leaning against the door and flipping through pages of a book as they answered the question.
“Right.”
“What kind?”
“Fire and death.”
‘Was it already done?’
The war had begun while he was locked up. He didn’t think it would happen this quickly.
Initially, he thought it would take a couple more months. And if it was successful, the entire dorms would have been burned, and many students would have died.
But…
“Was it a failure?”
“As you can see.”
“Uh, why?”
“Variables.”
“There were those who were awake?”
Ha-ryun asked, not being able to understand.
“Is that possible? Anyone who took a sip of it would…”
“It was a failure because 5 people were awake despite it.”
“Five?”
Considering the number of students here, it was small. But it was no exaggeration to say that those five escaping from this plan became a huge variable.
Who could stay awake?
“The names I list now caused interference to our plans, so memorize them. 3rd year Ma Yeon-hwa, 2nd year Tang So-so, Guyang Seorin, 1st year, Hae-ryang, Yu Jin-hyuk…”
‘!?’
Ha-ryun, who heard the names, couldn’t hide his shock. Those two names he heard…
‘Damn it.’
Ha-ryun couldn’t help but become embarrassed. He didn’t know the first three names, but he knew how the latter two stayed awake.
The drug they used, he had already used it once on them at a high dosage, so it gave them immunity for the next attempt.
‘This is bad.’
This was so twisted!
He had thought that Mumu being kicked out of the academy would be good, so he used it, but both Jin-hyuk, who had suffered, and Hae-ryang were with him by chance.
‘How did this…’
If this became known, he would be punished. If they knew that he was partially the reason for the plan’s failure, it wouldn’t be strange if Master Heo came to kill him.
“Yu Mumu.”
“Uh?”
“I said Yu Mumu.”
Ha-ryun frowned at that name. Why was Mumu coming out now? It was obviously…
“The lord ordered this to be known. The last name listed, pay special attention to his presence.”
‘The lord did?’
What is this?
If this Yu Mumu was the Mumu he knew, then he was the lord.