I Became the Genius Mage of the Martial Academy

Chapter 64 : Dojo Challenge (3)

“Yes?”

A questioning voice and a look of disbelief. As I entered, voices with a mocking nuance spread here and there.

Since the rumors about the third scoundrel of the Zhuge family were also rampant here.

But such ridicule did not last long.

“Keuk! How…?”

Because I had crushed them all as soon as the formation battle began.

In the midst of everyone’s astonishment, only I slowly raised my gaze and looked at the next opponent.

“Next is the director’s turn.”

Only then did the middle-aged director, who seemed to have felt that something was wrong, harden his expression. It was less than a quarter of an hour before his stiff face was colored with despair.

“It can’t be! For me to be so helpless…”

“Why are your reactions always so similar? Anyway, this side won, so talk to Jo Wihye and arrange for the formation certification exam to be held at the main house. If you don’t want to have your sign torn down.”

I left the confused director and went outside.

This was the last formation hall. Because among the nearby formation halls, this one had the largest influence.

If you take care of the leader, the rest will bow down on their own. The other directors, who were weaker than Jo Wihye, would also surrender after hearing the rumors.

I was planning to go back after the directors had finished their negotiations moderately.

‘By the way, I think I can stand up soon. My bones seem to have healed quite a bit.’

I got up from the wheelchair and tried to stand on the ground with my two legs.

“Phew.”

It’s quite good. No matter how weak my body was, I basically had the talent of [Extreme Body]. My recovery ability was quite useful.

“Gaga, you stood up!”

Tang Surin shouted, spinning around. I asked her.

“When can we start with the hundred-poison immunity?”

“As soon as your bones are healed, we can start right away!”

Tang Surin answered, touching my limbs or poking them as if to grasp the hardness of my blood or bones.

“Then, please do it as soon as possible.”

“Okay!”

Along with a cheerful answer, Tang Surin cut my wrist with a dagger.

“……!”

It happened so fast and suddenly that I didn’t even have time to react. A red drop formed on my white skin. Tang Surin grabbed my bleeding wrist and licked the wound.

And then, after dabbing a drop of blood on a reaction needle and a special piece of paper she had brought, she looked up this way and smiled bewitchingly.

“Gaga, you have no resistance at all?”

[Extreme Will] made me see the situation calmly. A shallow wound, an attack without killing intent, and the goodwill in her two eyes. I made a quick decision.

“Yes.”

“I see… then I can stay for a long time. I’ve analyzed your constitution and blood, and it’s very pure. To the point where it will all melt if I release the poison.”

With that, Tang Surin took out a few small glass bottles from her bosom, saying that we should build up resistance starting with the ten poisons that are often used in real battles. What was inside were poisons made into pills.

“It’s an immunity-boosting poison made to suit Gaga’s constitution as much as possible. Actually, I had a little taste of it before. Even then, I thought it was too pure…”

She opened one of the poison bottles, hesitating.

“Actually, I was going to give it to you as a birthday present this time, but Grandma Poison Physician told me not to, so I just kept it… But my thought was right. Gaga wanted it too. As expected, we have something in common, Gaga!”

Tang Surin, who handed over the poison as if she were happy. And then she mercilessly threw the rest of the medicine bottles behind her.

“Ah, some of them are old, so their medicinal effect has dropped, so I have to make new ones. For now, among the ones that can be stored for a long time, try this one first! To reach the state of being immune to a hundred poisons stably, the order of building up resistance is also important.”

Although it was hidden by a very professional explanation, there was still a remaining question.

“You said you knew, but why did you cut my wrist with a dagger?”

That movement just now was as if she had been waiting.

“Huh? It was for confirmation. I thought you had given permission… no?”

A strange light appeared in Tang Surin’s eyes.

“From now on, get permission when you put a blade on my body.”

“Okay!”

The answer was fast. A feeling as if she knew something but had deliberately done it. I pushed aside my suspicion and looked at the medicine bottle containing the resistance poison.

Medicine and poison are a fine line. If you eat it wrong, it’s the end.

‘Although I’m anxious, I have no choice but to trust her.’

Still, it was a resistance-boosting poison that a disciple of Tang Man-dok-ui and a direct descendant of the Sichuan Tang family had vouched for. They wouldn’t have made it carelessly.

“Phew.”

I quickly went into the carriage and opened the bottle cap. At the same time, a pungent smell of poison wafted up.

It was a terrible appearance just by looking at it. I had no choice but to close my two eyes tightly and swallow the poison in the bottle.

“Keuk!”

I clenched my teeth, listening to Tang Surin’s whisper from the side that the effect would be good if I chewed it thoroughly and swallowed it.

A foul smell and a bitter taste that came up even if I held my nose. It was a terribleness that would make me lose my appetite for a few days.

Still, this was nothing. Compared to the pain that would follow.

“Keuk!”

A tingling reaction came up from inside my body.

Even if it was a poison treated for resistance, its essence was poison, so my fingertips trembled, and a pain as if my internal organs were burning rushed in.

“Phew, phew!”

I hurriedly sat down and crossed my legs. In my fading hearing, Tang Surin’s explanation continued.

‘She said to do qi circulation when the poison reacts in the body.’

I began to barely drive out the poison energy with my cultivation method. In the process, the internal energy, poison, and blood mixed, and resistance was gradually built up.

It required a high level of concentration because even a slight mistake could cause the toxicity to excessively erode the qi and blood.

“Haa.”

After barely finishing one circulation, I let out a rough sigh.

As I barely lifted my hand and wiped my forehead, which was covered in a cold sweat, Tang Surin’s voice was heard from the front.

“How is it?”

A beaming face. I answered with difficulty.

“It’s a success.”

Tang Surin came and checked whether the resistance poison had melted stably, checking my acupoints.

“It was absorbed very quickly… Gaga, you have a talent?”

Tang Surin, who was happy as if it were her own business. At that sight, I expressed the sense of unease I had been feeling from before.

“Why are you helping me this much?”

I couldn’t understand why Tang Surin, who was hostile or indifferent to others, liked Zhuge Cheonwu so much.

“Huh? Because it’s between Gaga and me?”

“Is it just because we’re fiancés? I’m disappointed.”

“No! Uh… do you remember when we first met?”

“Yes.”

I lied. It was an atmosphere where I couldn’t say I didn’t know. Since I was the one asking the questions, I thought I could just lead the answer.

I made up my mind leisurely. Then Tang Surin opened her mouth shyly.

“Gaga… the day you forcibly took off my outer garment… everything changed.”

And she began a story that made my heart sink.

* * *

She was different from others since she was young.

She couldn’t understand the other children who cried when they fell. And also the gazes that looked at her when she stepped on such a child and passed by.

She had just passed by because they were blocking her way.

This sense of alienation became more severe in the harsh discipline of the Tang family.

She was fine even when she saw a bird or a rabbit dying from poison, and she also endured the training to build up her poison resistance without a word. However.

“A child who neither cries nor laughs…”

Just as she couldn’t understand them, others also couldn’t understand her. Even her parents.

Because even when the cat that had been given to her to help with her emotional development was found as a corpse, bitten by a wild animal, Tang Surin didn’t even frown.

Still, she was good at one thing, learning. She hid the questions that were not solved and acted only as she saw and heard.

That was enough to avoid troublesome things. Thanks to that, although Tang Surin was an outcast among her peers, it didn’t matter.

Because to them, she was just an unpleasant person who wore the shell of others, who just repeated the etiquette of the family at that time.

Those who looked at her from a distance would have thought of Tang Surin as a beautiful girl like a doll, but those who had experienced her up close were chilled by her coldness.

As such a daily life was repeated, from some point on, even Tang Surin herself could not know herself.

Then one day, a banquet was held in the family, inviting outsiders.

Tang Surin felt a strange nausea from those who were hitting on her as usual and forced a smile.

The noisy people, the incomprehensible laughter and expressions, and the words and expectant gazes directed at her. It was all full of things she hated.

And on top of that, she had heard a rumor that she might be engaged to someone she didn’t even know the face of, so she was in a worse mood. It was less uncomfortable to be alone for the rest of her life, but a fiancée all of a sudden.

Tang Surin felt a certain confusion. The will of the family cannot be avoided. She had been educated that way, and it was natural. Everyone was living like that.

But why, was it such a complicated feeling? Tang Surin couldn’t understand.

It was less troublesome to live according to the rules. Emotions were difficult, but the rules were clear. But not today.

Everything was unpleasant. To the point where something would break.

Just as she was letting out a stuffy breath in the midst of the men who were chattering words of praise next to her.

A commotion was heard from a distance.

“You, do you know who I am?!”

It was a drunkard. To be precise, it was a young man with a mean-looking gaze. His appearance was handsome, but his actions were not. Everyone frowned and looked at the commotion.

Although it was a behavior that was considered disgraceful by everyone, he didn’t care.

As if he didn’t care about anything. That appearance felt different to Tang Surin, who had lived in a sterile environment.

He was shouting fervently. His existence.

“Do you dare to mess with a direct blood relative of the Zhuge family?”

He shouted, shaking off the arm of the guard who was approaching.

How could he be so reckless?

Tang Surin thought. He was using the name of his family, tarnishing it, and making those around him uncomfortable.

He was selfish.

But something… was free.

Only then did Tang Surin realize something.

At some point, she had been blocked by a sense of helplessness and had been trapped in a frame. She had hidden behind the rules.

She had never fervently expressed something of her own, even to the point of tarnishing the name of her family like that.

“So that’s possible.”

Tang Surin muttered. It was a strange feeling. To think she was impressed by someone. And by such a scoundrel at that.

‘Huh?’

But the scoundrel was walking this way. While knocking over another table. But this time, wasn’t he losing his balance, tripping over the table he had pushed over himself?

And so, as he was staggering, he fell on Tang Surin’s chest.

“…Who are you?”

A sharp gaze and a drunken look. Zhuge Cheonwu asked, grabbing her clothes to balance himself.

“Please let go. Don’t you know shame?”

Tang Surin replied politely as she had learned. This way, people usually backed off. The formula was set that way.

“Shame… what do you do if you ask for something that wasn’t there from the beginning?”

But he didn’t. On the contrary, he acted as if nothing mattered.

At that provocative tone, Tang Surin felt a subtle shock. Did she herself have shame? Since when did others’ gazes become important?

Looking at such a Tang Surin, Zhuge Cheonwu raised the corner of his mouth.

“Why? You seem to know something?”

With that, he threw a mocking gaze. What do you know? Tang Surin felt something welling up. And she punched him in the top of his head.

Quite hard.

Thanks to that, her outer garment that he had been holding was torn off.

“Miss Surin!”

Only then did the escorts and servants come running, but even in a half-naked state, Tang Surin didn’t care. On the contrary, she felt a certain sense of liberation. A joy she had never felt before.

It felt like she had accomplished something in a world that was full of things she couldn’t do.

“…That man, what’s his name?”

“He is the third young master of the Zhuge family, Zhuge Cheonwu. He is famous for being a scoundrel, so please don’t mind him too much.”

“Zhuge Cheonwu…”

Tang Surin’s eyes crinkled as she watched him being dragged away while unconscious.

And the next day, she heard that the scoundrel from back then was her fiancée.

“Hahat…!”

For the first time in her life, Tang Surin laughed sincerely. Even she herself didn’t know why. She thought she should make it her future goal to find out.

For the first time, she began to get to know others, Zhuge Cheonwu, seriously.

He didn’t try to understand her and was just selfish. Tang Surin was also like that. She liked that.

And so, curiosity became admiration, and admiration again…

The day Zhuge Cheonwu was returning to the main house, Tang Surin, who was seeing him off, felt a certain throbbing.

As the carriage procession disappeared, she looked at the nail marks that had dug into her palm and lowered her gaze.

You have to hold onto what you want and not let go.

Because like a cat that has been left free, it breaks too easily.

* * *

“That’s how it is!”

Tang Surin finished her words with a smile. It was a relationship that was somehow understandable and yet not.

“I see.”

But at the certain pressure that was felt from her bright expression, I pretended to understand.

‘To think there are cases where one is attracted to a scoundrel like this. Is it because of his face?’

Putting aside the question that suddenly came to mind, I asked her.

“So to what extent do you think you can do it during the vacation?”

“The adaptation is faster than I thought. Perhaps by the end of the vacation, it will be possible up to being immune to five poisons!”

Tang Surin, who was grinning as if she was happy just to be asked a question. I asked additionally.

“Then how long does it take to prepare?”

“Hmm, at least three days?”

“We have to go soon.”

Considering the grade-skipping exam, every day was precious. I first opened the carriage window and told the escort to prepare new clothes and a place to wash.

Since my body was soaked in poison, I needed to tidy up.

“How did things go?”

As I asked Jo Wihye on the way to a nearby inn where I could take a bath, she told me some good news.

“Since several directors put in a word, they said they would hold a formation certification exam in five days. And since Protector Jangyeo said he would be a notary, it was even easier.”

With this, there was no need to do any more dojo challenges.

“Then we can go back.”

First, after washing my body, which was soaked in poison.

* * *

We arrived at a decent-sized inn located on the way to the northern part of Hubei and stopped the carriage.

“Ah, customer. We can’t take any more today because we have a distinguished guest. I’m sorry.”

Whether he hadn’t seen the emblem in the darkness, at the servant’s words, one of the escorts stepped up and said.

“We are from the Zhuge family.”

“Gasp! I’m sorry for not recognizing you! I’ll prepare it right away.”

When I showed the emblem of the Zhuge family, the servant, who was startled, began to guide us. He was in a mood to make a room even if there wasn’t one.

“Ahem.”

I cleared my throat for no reason and went inside.

Even if the opponent’s authority was great, this side was also the Zhuge family. We were not at all inferior in Hubei.

And so, when I went inside, I saw a quiet inn. I followed the servant’s guidance and headed to the backyard.

Since there was no separate shower room here, I had to wait until warm water was brought from the open space behind the inn.

As I was standing still for a moment, I suddenly felt a presence from behind.

“Are you the third young master of the Zhuge family?”

Distinct features and bewitching lips. It was a woman who looked to be in her thirties. At the appearance of a beauty who had appeared in the middle of the night, a stiff voice came out for a moment.

“Who… are you?”

I was about to speak informally, but I felt a sense of incongruity and raised my voice.

A person who could speak to me informally even while knowing my identity. And yet, someone who had to ask because she didn’t know my face.

‘Who is it?’

I couldn’t guess the opponent’s identity at all.

And most of all, I didn’t feel any energy until she approached.

This side also had a decent qi sense.

‘Looking at her appearance, she’s no different from a commoner.’

At a glance, she had a similar presence to an ordinary person, but the more I looked, the more strange things there were.

No matter how much of a non-martial artist she was, it was absurd that I couldn’t even detect something like the mana or internal energy she had within her.

And that too, after she had entered the detection range of [Absolute Magic].

‘Unless she’s dead.’

Since the opponent in front of me was clearly alive, there was only one conclusion I could draw.

‘A master.’

And a monster who was at least much higher than me.

(End of Chapter)