Chapter 72 - Variable (2)

Forest hill was to the northwest of the dorms. In the middle of them was a man sitting on a small rock applying golden scab paste onto a wounded area of his thigh.

He was Master Go Heon-boem, the supervisor of the West Wind Dorm. Looking at the wound, he mumbled to himself, clearly annoyed,

“Still, the masters of the academy are seriously….”

The masters hadn’t breathed in the poison but had directly consumed it, yet they still managed to muster a much more violent resistance than he had anticipated.

During the struggle, he had suffered injuries to his thigh and shoulder; they truly weren’t any short for the name of masters of the academy.

If it weren’t for him being in the best form compared to them, it would have been challenging to deal with them alone.

He rolled up his pants and also applied the medicine inside the wound.

‘The time has come.’

He was waiting for those who had completed their mission to join him.

They were the ones who had to set fire to the four dorms and come here. The man smiled.

It had been nine years since he infiltrated the academy.

‘I wouldn’t have expected it to take 9 years to get this done.’

Over time, they brought in each one of their men. And there were no complications as they had done it slowly, one after another.

The poison was given through ventilation in the dorms to poison all the students at once.

‘I didn’t think their dorm system would be this weak.’

Thanks to the roll call, all students will be in the dorms. So they chose this as the right time.

The academy couldn’t have expected that the people who had infiltrated them would prepare this long to get the war started.

‘Now is the start.’

With this, many students would be caught in the fire and die. Even though they were children now, they would one day become heads of the famous clans.

Even if they burn to death, they wouldn’t be able to speak out anyway.

‘Don’t curse us. If you want to resent us for the death, it should be directed to your parents and teachers.’

They were just returning what they had gone through.

Seventeen years back, they also tried to kill Forces of Evil's children. It was a bloody punishment for them.

And the start would be the Heavenly Martial Arts Academy.

Pakk!

At that moment, the sound of bushes rustling could be heard, and Go Heon-boem looked toward the sound and saw two masked men walk out from there.

And he smiled,

“The mission?”

“The South Blade Dorm had been ignited.”

“Good.”

Finally, the highlight of arson happened. He couldn’t stop the smile on his face as he thought of the faces of the staff of the academy, knowing the truth behind this.

“Now one.”

Shhh!

As soon as he finished, two more masked people appeared from the bush.

And they reported right away.

“East River Dorm is on fire too.”

“Good work.”

Go Heon-boem praised them.

Things were going by the plan.

‘Now two more?’

And now, if the only two remaining dorms were burned, their plan was a success. And two more masked men rushed in from the northeast side. And looking at them, Go Heon-boem asked,

“What about the mission?”

At that, the masked men said in shock.

“L-leader. There was a variable.”

“Variable?”

“We met an obstacle on the way, and then the fire was eventually lit… but something suddenly few in from the northernside and put it out.”

“… what are you speaking now?”

Go Heon-boem raised his eyebrows.

No matter how hard he tried to understand, he couldn’t understand this gibberish. The fire was started, and then what happened?

“Report it neatly.”

“We don’t know what had happened. Suddenly a wind like a storm came from nowhere and the fire in the North Heavenly Dorm went out.”

Does that make sense?

A storm-like wind came?

Go Heon-boem looked at them, narrowing his eyes, thinking that this was all a little too absurd.

“Does this mean that you failed?”

“We apologize.”

Pak!

The two masked men hurriedly knelt on their knees and bowed. Failure of the mission meant death.

Go Heon-boem, who looked at them, clenched his fist.

‘Everything should have worked out.’

If possible, that dorm should have been burned. The failure of one place was nothing more than a blemish on their great start.

“Stupid bastards.”

“We apologize. However we didn’t expect the variable….”

“Variable?”

“We didn’t know that there would be people awake at that time.”

“What?”

Go Heon-boem frowned.

“You said they were awake?”

“Besides, they weren’t the only ones awake but had no problem moving.”

“What?”

The effect of the poison had already been demonstrated. It was something that had been prepared with great care, so it wouldn’t kill a person but make their body weak.

Didn’t even the masters get hit by it? But some students were completely fine?

‘... if exposed to it once, it isn’t unheard of for someone to form a tolerance to it, and for that amount to no longer work. But this can’t be the case for the amount we released….’

Something felt strange.

Did this mean the people awake had an innate tolerance to it? Just as he was puzzling through this–

Pas!

He could feel an energy from behind the bushes. And Go Heon-boem, who thought it was the other masked men turned. But as the bushes moved unexpectedly, unknown people walked out.

It was Jin-hyuk and Hae-ryang.

“No. How are you people here?”

The masked men of the North Heavenly Dorm couldn’t hide their shock. Perhaps, they didn’t expect these young people to follow them.

Go Heon-boem spoke with a terrifying expression.

“It wasn't enough that you failed the mission, now you even got them to follow you?”

“W-we apologize. They are the ones who didn’t sleep and disturbed our mission.”

“What? Those ones?”

He looked at Jin-hyuk and Hae-ryang. And the masked men pulled out their weapons.

Srng! Srng!

“Uh? Y-Young lord Jin-hyuk, they seem too many.”

Hae-ryang was a bit shaken. First of all, Jin-hyuk carelessly followed the masked men, and he felt something unsettling.

And that thought seemed to be correct.

‘Tch!’

Jin-hyuk was also shocked by the number of masked people he was seeing. The arson occurred in all dorms, so he didn’t think two people could do it, but this was more than he could handle.

“Aren’t we supposed to run now?”

He heard Hae-ryang whisper to him. They could have handled it if there were just one or two, but now it was a considerable number. Go Heon-boem clicked his tongue and clearly depressed, said,

“They think they are doing heroic deeds, but they are just shortening their lives, kill them.”

Papak!

As soon as the word came, the masked men moved. They soon surrounded the two of them.

This wasn’t the academy surroundings either; this was a real fight with no one around.

Jin-hyuk gulped at the thought of fighting them all–then began to gather energy at the tip of his toes.

“Hurry up.”

The masked men moved at the words of Go Heon-boem.

The first to move were the North Heavenly Dorm infiltrators. It was to make up for the mistakes they made.

Phat!

The masked man came in close to Jin-hyuk.

‘This vicious speed’

The man had aimed for Jin-hyuk’s heart and head. In response, Jin-hyuk spread out his feet, avoiding the attack, and in retaliation, aimed for the man’s neck with a roundhouse kick.

“Huh!”

The masked man tilted his head to the back and lightly avoided it. But the attack from Jin-hyuk didn’t end there.

Pak!

‘Eight Foot Torture technique! Round Star kick!’

Jin-hyuk turned his body once more and kicked the man in the chest.

Papapak!

The masked man was hit in the chest and was pushed back three steps.

‘Me?’

And he grabbed his chest in surprise.

He knew this kid was good, but this was much better than he expected.

‘… master level.’

Go Heon-boem, who was leading the masked men, also looked at Jin-hyuk. At this level, this child could be the top of his class.

It might take some time to subdue this child if they went one-on-one.

“Don’t waste time and do it together.”

“Yes!”

And when the order fell, all the masked men tried to attack them. It was when Jin-hyuk and Hae-ryang were nervous and tried to move.

Papapak!

“Huk! Huk!”

Someone rushed through the bushes. It was a masked man clutching his right shoulder, which was bleeding, and Go Heon-boem asked with a frown.

“Why did you come alone? And what is that?”

“L-leader! I apologize. The West Wind Dorm is a fail.”

“What?”

After the North Heavenly Dorm, but the West Wind dorm was a failure too? What nonsense is this?

He was puzzled at this unexpected result, and then someone came through the bushes.

“Uh. I heard that some crazy people set fire to the dorms by releasing some poison powder and were gathered here.”

It was a cold-blooded woman with dark blue hair, an arrogant face, a fan in hand, and clothes that revealed her thighs. She was none other than Guyang Seorin, the manager of the West Wind Dorm.

“Kuak! This woman!”

Looking at the man’s reaction, it could be told who had hurt him. But she wasn’t the only one who showed up.

“Jin-hyuk! Hae-ryang!”

“Senior So-so?”

It was Tang So-so who called them with cute dimples. Next to Tang So-so was a pretty girl with fox-like eyes, and she was Ma Yeon-hwa, the third in the third-year ranking.

‘Ahh, we live!’

Hae-ryang sighed at their appearance.

It was the moment when they were confused about how to deal with so many masked men, and these amazing women showed up!

Ma Yeon-hwa scanned the people and said,

“Are these the animals behind the scenes?”

“Looks like it. Senior. Uh? But there is a familiar face. Isn’t that the supervisor for the West Wind Dorm?”

Guyang Seorin, who had found Go Heon-boem smiled. Perhaps she didn’t know that he caused this arson.

Go Heon-boem’s eyes turned sharp.

“How did you stay awake?”

“Please, don’t tell me you thought that the Guyang family would fall for that? After all it is stupid to even try something when we had a member of Tang family under me.”

“Tang family? … you want to talk like this?”

“Huhuhu, but it is the truth.”

Tang So-so’s cheeks trembled as she stared at Guyang Seorin. She didn’t like how this woman considered the Tang family to be her subordinate.

Ma Yeon-hwa stopped them.

“Stop arguing. The enemy is right ahead of us.”

Saying that Ma Yeon-hwa took out the two swords from her back.

The black sword with a dragon pattern and the white sword with a phoenix on it looked like a black dragon and white phoenix (flower).

They were the swords she was the proudest of.

“Well. Right.”

Pak!

Guying Seorin widened her colorful fan and raised one leg. An indigo energy rose from her legs.

“Huh. Let's see each other later.”

When Tang So-so also crossed her hands with the daggers of the Tang family, ready to move.

‘Variables, it was true.’

He didn’t assume five of such strong people would be untouched.

Tang So-so and Guyang Seorin are known to be aware of poison and herbs, but it was questionable how the other three were untouched.

But now wasn’t the time for such questions.

‘it changes nothing.’

Although the fires in two dorms had failed, two were being consumed in flames. And this alone was enough to shake up the academy.

“Kill them all.”

As soon as the order fell, the masked men moved to them with their weapons pointed.