TL: FoodieMonster007
The Erudite Sage's face turned pale with shock, and his hands trembled as he confird the seventh erroneous passage that Baek Suryong had pointed out.
"H-How did you…" he stamred.
Baek Suryong scratched his head awkwardly. Judging from the Erudite Sage's shocked expression, it seed he genuinely didn't know about the seventh flaw.
He felt sowhat disappointed in the Erudite Sage. I thought he knew everything and only told six on purpose, but was that not the case? He missed that and still calls himself the world's best theorist?
Even so, the Erudite Sage wasn't the only one taken aback. The Blue Sky Sword King, the assistant instructors, and the other new instructors were all gaping.
Baek Suryong humbly clasped his hands together. "It was just luck," he said.
"Are you telling that you found sothing which even the Erudite Sage missed, by pure luck at that? Hoho, that's hard to believe," the Blue Sky Sword King remarked, eyeing Baek Suryong with a sharp gaze that bordered on suspicion.
If I fail to give him an acceptable answer now, he'll interrogate , Baek Suryong thought. Fortunately, he had an appropriate excuse ready.
"I once investigated demonic arts practitioners at the Murim Alliance's request. The traces of demonic arts I pursued back then were similar to this one, so I could solve it easily."
Ak Yeonho raised his hand. "I can vouch for that! I was with him then!"
Before joining the Azure Dragon Academy, he and Baek Suryong had investigated the case of Old Man Heo, a loan shark who died from demonic arts, at the Murim Alliance's request.
"If you were there too, why could you only solve that much?" Myeong Il'oh sneered, glancing at Ak Yeonho's secret manual, which he hadn't even read half of yet.
Annoyed, Ak Yeonho snapped, "Shut up."
Ignoring his bickering friends, Baek Suryong added, "I also currently teach Defense Against the Unorthodox Arts at the Azure Dragon Academy. My research on demonic arts while preparing for my lessons helped a lot in this test."
"Hmm, is that so…?"
Although not all doubts were cleared, the Blue Sky Sword King nodded reluctantly. It seed that Baek Suryong's prepared excuse was sowhat convincing.
"Even so, that's impressive. Isn't that right, Erudite Sage?"
"Hmm… Actually, I just skimd through it. If I'd read carefully, I could have noticed it, but I was busy and seem to have missed the last part." The Erudite Sage, who had finally regained his composure, mumbled as he nodded.
It sounded like a la excuse, but no one dared comnt on it.
His face slightly flushed, the Erudite Sage said to Baek Suryong, "Anyway, you got a perfect score. As a reward, I'll give you the right to ask two questions during the next theory class."
Baek Suryong grumbled inwardly, I prefer money or miracle herbs as a reward, thank you very much.
Outwardly though, he bowed humbly. While he was free to cause so chaos with the other new instructors, he had to manage his image carefully in front of those judging his performance, especially the Blue Sky Sword King, the Erudite Sage, and the teaching assistants.
Ignoring the disdainful gazes of his peers, Baek Suryong plastered a fake smile on his face. "Thank you," he said.
The Erudite Sage asked sullenly, "Now that you've finished, what are you going to do? You're free until the practical lesson in the afternoon."
"May I return to my seat and wait?"
"Suit yourself, but know that if you try to use telepathy to share your answers to others, you'll be punished," the Erudite Sage warned.
"I wouldn't dream of it," Baek Suryong replied, returning to his seat.
Turning back to the other new instructors, the Erudite Sage exclaid, "Well! Seeing how relaxed you all are, the problems must be easy for everyone!"
Many of the new instructors were staring at Baek Suryong with various expressions, but the mont the Erudite Sage scolded them, they returned their focus to deciphering the secret manual.
Baek Suryong looked around leisurely. Sama Yeong was gritting her teeth as she deciphered the text, Jaegal Soyeong almost pressed her nose into it, and Ak Yeonho and Myeong Il'oh were also concentrating hard. Only Kwak Duyong looked flustered and was sweating profusely.
He sank into deep thought.
Who would've thought they'd use the Blood Cult's demonic arts as a test question?
He was telling the truth when he said that he had lucked out. After all, the Erudite Sage had literally just asked a forr Blood Cult instructor to decipher a Blood Cult martial arts manual. In reality, it hadn't even taken him a minute to interpret and comnt on it, but he had deliberately waited an hour before handing it in to avoid arousing suspicion.
Still, while he was happy that he had easily demonstrated his skills in the first test, one thing bothered him.
How does the Erudite Sage know the Blood Cult's martial arts?
Although the Erudite Sage was reputed to be so knowledgeable that there was no martial art in the world he didn't know, it was hard to believe he knew the demonic arts of the Blood Cult, which was destroyed fifty years ago.
There's no way I can ask him directly…
Since the Erudite Sage hadn't ntioned that this martial art ca from the Blood Cult, Baek Suryong couldn't be the one to bring it up first.
I heard that the Erudite Sage has been staying as a guest of the Namgung Clan for quite a long ti. Then, it's likely that the Namgung Clan also knows this fact…
Suddenly, a na Baek Suryong had forgotten for a while surfaced in his mind.
Cho Maksaeng!
Cho Maksaeng was a boy whom Namgung Su had tried to enroll in the Azure Dragon Academy. Sadly, he lost a duel against Gongson Su, couldn't accept the result, tried to harm Gongson Su, had his arm cut off by Wiji Cheon, and was then expelled.
Most importantly, when Baek Suryong had confronted the boy after that, he went mad and turned into a mindless ghoul, forcing Baek Suryong to kill him.
It turned out that when he was very young, he had been forcibly subjected to a vile and sinister technique known as Soul Alteration. This wicked art implanted demonic techniques into his mind, causing him to unknowingly learn them.
"Cough! I really don't know, I don't know anything! B-Blood Cult? I'm an orphan… Cough! Martial arts, I learned them at the orphanage, then… Cough! From the Namgung Clan…"
Cho Maksaeng grew up in an orphanage sponsored by the Namgung Clan, where he learned the basics of martial arts and eventually caught Namgung Su's eye.
Baek Suryong's brows furrowed slightly.
At that ti, I suspected Namgung Su, but now I'm absolutely sure that Namgung Su has nothing to do with the Blood Cult.
Baek Suryong trusted his ability to read people. Namgung Su was most definitely innocent.
But…
Baek Suryong looked up and gazed at the vast Namgung Clan Estate around him.
But what about the Namgung Clan? Could the leaders of the clan have sothing to do with the Blood Cult?
Naturally, Baek Suryong's gaze turned to the Blue Sky Sword King, the man who had elevated the current Namgung Clan from rely one of the Five Great Clans to the world's strongest martial family.
Coincidentally, at that mont, the Blue Sky Sword King also turned to look at Baek Suryong.
"……"
"……"
Their gazes t, creating a strange atmosphere, but fortunately it didn't last long. Sama Yeong and Jaegal Soyeong stood up at the sa ti, blocking their line of sight.
"I'm done!"
"I've finished!"
Both won briefly made eye contact, but in the end, Jaegal Soyeong, the junior, bowed her head slightly, yielding to Sama Yeong.
"Bring them here," the Erudite Sage said. As he reviewed their answers, his expression changed ever so slightly. "…This year's newbies are quite sothing. Both of you pass."
"…Thank you," Sama Yeong said, though her expression crumpled. Even though she was the second to pass after Baek Suryong, the Erudite Sage had only told her that she had passed, not that she had received a perfect score.
Next, a woman with a gloomy appearance, the only participant from the Black Tortoise Academy, also stood up and submitted her answer.
She too passed.
Within two hours, three people had passed one after the other. After that, it took quite so ti for more to pass.
"These newcors this year… hmm… they're really sothing…" the Erudite Sage groaned, sounding discontented.
Finding it amusing, the Blue Sky Sword King burst out laughing, "Hahaha! Today, the great Erudite Sage is humiliated!"
"Humiliated, my ass," the Erudite Sage grumbled.
anwhile, Baek Suryong folded his arms and closed his eyes.
The Namgung Clan, huh. I'll just keep observing them for now.
Not counting today, there were still six days left in the new instructor training course. If there was sothing related to the Blood Cult here, that was more than enough ti for him to investigate.
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