Childhood Friend of the Zenith

The day went by and I left the inn as soon as morning came.

As we had decided on the schedule a long time ago, I was all ready to depart.

Being winter, it was still cold outside, but the sky was clear.

It was so clear that the rain from the last few days felt like an illusion.

“It’s disgustingly tall.”

I sighed repeatedly as I made my way up the towering mountain valley.

I swear… This crazy neighborhood...

A mountain like that in Henan?

I felt speechless every time I looked at it.

In my past life, I fainted halfway through climbing this mountain.

Retard.

I should’ve just taken a break if I was that tired.

Instead, I was worried about the people watching me and felt the need to maintain my pride, which resulted in me ending in a more humiliating situation.

Just that mere thought sent chills down my spine.

That was one of the major reasons that made me feel thankful that I regressed.

“Before…”

As I continued climbing the mountain, Tang Soyeol, who was following me from behind, spoke.

“This mountain was formed during the Blood Demon War.”

Seeing her give me an explanation while wiping off her sweat, it seemed like my face had ‘Why is this damned mountain here?’ written all over it.

“An entire mountain was formed?”

“That’s right…! I heard that it happened during the Lord of the Fist’s fight.”

“…?”

Hearing Tang Soyeol, I couldn’t help but frown as it made no sense.

The Lord of the Fist was the other title of the Iron Fist, Yeon Il-Cheon.

Then, did that mean that this mountain was formed during a battle between Yeon Il-Cheon and the Blood Demon?

Rather than being formed due to a natural disaster, what kind of monstrous bullshit was it for a mountain to form after a battle?

Was it a man-made natural disaster or something?

How could a human manage to create a mountain this big while fighting?

…Hmm.

However, if I thought about it objectively, I felt like even I would be able to create a small mountain

However, something that big was too difficult.

That was the fucking Mount Tai.

Putting that aside for now…

I couldn’t confirm if it was a false rumor or simply an exaggeration, but I pushed those thoughts aside for now.

Because I wasn’t really feeling physically exhausted as I climbed the mountain.

Way too many people are staring at me.

I felt bothered by the numerous people gazing right at me.

The path up the mountain was long and wide.

Moreover, it was pretty crowded as everyone had to arrive at a fixed time.

They were mostly Young Prodigies…

No, it would be more accurate to say that all of them were Young Prodigies.

The others present were the escorts from their clans.

Besides them, the rest were all young martial artists, and our party was enough to draw their attention.

I started hearing some of their whispers.

-The Poison Phoenix…? That’s the Poison Phoenix, right?

-It looks like the Snow Phoenix is next to her too.

_-Woah… she’s incredibly pretty. _

They were mostly gazes of admiration.

And since Namgung Bi-ah had covered her face and was concealing her presence, there were no comments about her.

I’m glad she’s making good use of it.

I was a bit worried since she hadn’t used it for a while.

“…”

And it seemed like Namgung Bi-ah seemed had concealed herself since she felt uncomfortable being in the midst of so many people.

I felt a bit more comfortable thanks to that.

Even so, I wasn’t completely comfortable.

-Then who is that guy over there? Just who is he?

-Who? The one standing at the back?

-No, the one standing at the front… the scary-looking guy.

-There are two guys, so why are you only mentioning the one at the front?

-At least the guy at the back is handsome.

-Aha.

Those fuckers…?

Hearing their mumbling, I glared at them and that made them flinch and shut their mouth.

And it seems like Gu Jeolyub was the handsome guy they were referring to.

I was being discriminated against because of my looks.

Life was still full of beauty, huh?

Fuck my life.

Though, I am glad that it seems that they don’t know who I am.

This was because I had not done anything “special” after the tournament of Dragons and Phoenixes.

I’m also glad that I covered my face on purpose back then.

I, too, had my face covered, just like Namgung Bi-ah.

To be more precise, I concealed my presence and because I couldn’t afford to use all of my Qi in the middle of the fight, I concealed myself enough to the point where a person would only be able to recognize me if they had paid close attention.

And that makes me curious.

A few days ago, back when I overpowered the Water Dragon and Yung Pung…

-That face…! It’s the True Dragon!

There was a bastard who recognized me.

At that time, everyone simply took it to be natural, but it made me curious.

I wonder who it was.

I wasn’t able to identify the person, but I still felt uneasy.

It didn’t seem like a coincidence, and it felt like they did that on purpose.

It would have certainly been possible for a martial artist at the Peak realm to see through my barrier and my face, but a martial artist of that caliber wouldn’t have lacked the dignity to yell out my title from the middle of a crowd.

Moreover…

My senses didn’t catch them.

It was also true that they managed to escape my senses.

And it wasn’t just one or two things that made me curious.

I think I need to be more mindful of my surroundings.

I thought about letting it pass, but judging by the situation, I felt the need to exercise more caution.

Although I needed the fame, things like this made me worried.

The more famous I get, the more annoying bastards will target me.

That applied to anyone.

And I somewhat expected it…

But they were faster than expected.

Who was it?

Or where were they?

No, since I was curious, I’d look for them myself.

I’d learn everything once I caught them.

After all, I was a professional when it came to that field.

As I was rubbing my lips while lost in my thoughts…

“Are you alright?”

Asked Moyong Hi-ah, who was walking next to me.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Your expression is… familiar.”

“Familiar you say?”

Did I make this expression a lot?

“Ah, no. It’s just that I make that expression a lot.”

“Hmm?”

What was she talking about?

To clear my confusion, Moyong Hi-ah began her explanation.

“If you ever get caught, I’ll show you how hell looks like.”

“…Huh?”

“I make that expression whenever I ever feel that way, and the Young Master was making that exact face right now.”

“…”

She was so spot on that I became speechless.

Upon seeing me become speechless, Moyong Hi-ah smiled brightly.

“Young Master is really bad at hiding his expressions.”

“…I get that a lot.”

I thought I did a fairly good job in hiding them, but it seems I had become bad at it ever since I regressed.

Why, though? Is it because I had gotten a little used to peace?

“I should work on it.”

“There is no need for you to.”

“Hmm? Why?”

“I like that side of Young Master more.”

“…”

After she spat those words out naturally, like flowing water, silence lingered for a moment.

I checked on her to see what was happening.

…They became red?

What I came across was the rare sight of Moyong Hi-ah’s cheeks becoming red.

It seemed that she accidentally said those words out loud.

“It looks like these two apples are ripe. They are really red.”

“Ough…”

Moyong Hi-ah’s cold expression began to collapse as I teased her.

Seeing her reaction made her look a bit cu…

…Cute?

Crazy fucker.

For me to think that the almighty Moyong Hi-ah was cute.

Did the exhausting mountain climb make me lose my mind?

It’s not even that exhausting though.

Because of my constant training, it was impossible for something like this to tire me out.

It must just be a temporary thing.

Then, I brushed my hair aside as a cool breeze made me feel a little better.

******************The Heavenly Dragon Academy was at the peak of the mountain, but that wasn’t our destination.

Our destination was a bit closer than that.

One had to pass an examination to be accepted into the Heavenly Dragon Academy.

This meant that they weren’t planning on accepting everyone who came, but it also meant that they would only accept those with enough talent.

Every Young Prodigies present was from a well-known noble clan and household, and despite that, they still planned to filter some people out.

In some ways, it hurt the pride of some people as passing the exam meant they were more talented than those that didn’t.

It made the people obsessed with fame and honor drool all over.

Those who passed the test formed their own groups and built connections, thus making the original goal of this place, education, not feel all that important.

Though of course, putting them aside, in the end, everyone came here just so that they could say they graduated from the Heavenly Dragon Academy.

Also…

Just like how they claimed to be the greatest educational institution, their quality of their teaching wasn’t that bad either.

…Though you could learn most they teach you here if you belong to a noble clan.

If a person was a blood relative of a noble clan, they had no reason to attend the academy since they already had the Lord or the Elders to teach them.

“Gu Clan’s Gu Yangcheon of Shanxi, you are checked off. Head to the second group.”

Because this land belonged to the Murim Alliance, the people who checked off the Young Prodigies also belonged to the Alliance.

I was given my group number as I got checked off.

Glance.

The person checking me off glanced after checking my name and my origin during the process.

His gaze clearly said, Is it really him?

And I believed that I was going to receive such gazes for some time.

I was too tired to even get angry.

For the ones who aren’t here yet, is tomorrow their day?

The Water Dragon and the Sword Dragon weren’t present as it seemed like the people belonging to the Sects were going to have their exam tomorrow.

And only blood relatives from various clans were going to have their exam today.

Without much exaggeration, it was fair to say that all Young Prodigies in the world had gathered here, so one day wouldn't be enough.

Second group, huh?

It was obvious that they were grouping people according to their ranks.

To prove that, Moyong Hi-ah, Tang Soyeol, and Namgung Bi-ah were all in the first group.

But why am I in the second group?

I wasn’t angry that I wasn’t being treated as a member of a top noble clan.

It just felt strange.

The Gu Clan wasn’t a clan that was looked down upon, though I wasn’t saying that the second group was low.

It was just that when I thought about how the Gu Clan was currently ranked in the Central Plains, the group number I was assigned was a bit off.

“Hmm…”

Though I honestly didn’t care.

I knew there weren’t any benefits to being put in a different group, so it didn’t really matter.

The one thing that worried me was that the other members from the Gu clan might show their tempe-

It doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen…

When I glanced at Gu Yeonseo, feeling a bit worried, I saw her spacing out.

Looking at her appearance, it seemed like the Sword Queen paid her a visit at night after hearing my request.

Seeing that, I was able to let out a sigh of relief.

It may not be perfect.

Rather than getting rid of her Inner Demons, it was more like covering them with something else.

If she wasn’t able to move forward by herself, then the best solution for a swordsman was to give them a target to achieve or make them focus on their swords.

It was so that they wouldn’t be able to think about anything else.

Of course, it was possible for this to cause a person to be afflicted with Inner Demons as it was a sin for them to chase after their sword if they weren’t capable.

However, I felt that this method wasn’t that bad for Gu Yeonseo.

Of course, if this doesn’t work…

I was planning to use Something else, but it seemed like I wouldn’t have to.

At least not for now.

To begin with, is she even going to pass the exam?

I wasn’t worried about Gu Jeolyub as I made him work hard, but it was a bit different for Gu Yeonseo.

It was true that she was pretty talented when compared to the other Young Prodigies.

And she was at the peak of Second-rate, which wasn’t bad. But it was a bit difficult to say that it was enough for her to pass the Heavenly Dragon Academy’s exam.

On the contrary, Gu Jeolyub was at a level where he would pass the exam as long as he didn't lower his guard, like an idiot. So all I had to worry about was how to deal with him if he failed instead.

I’ll beat him to a pulp.

I worked so hard to raise him, so if he failed and embarrassed me in front of everyone, I would give him a fitting punishment. A big one at that.

Flinch.

Gu Jeolyub flinched as he felt a chill from me, and then he created some distance between us.

After seeing that, I asked him.

“What?”

“…Nothing. For some reason, I felt like you were going to hit me there for a second.”

“Tsk… You are sharp.”

“Huh…?”

It was funny to see Gu Jeolyub with a look of shock.

Oh, but I wasn’t joking though.

I was really going to break him if he failed.

As I was killing time teasing Gu Jeolyub, I felt another presence come towards me.

Who was it? There weren’t that many people that would approach me.

Wondering who it was, I focused a little…

Tsk.

I clicked my tongue immediately after I guessed who it was.

His aura felt uneasy.

Right, that bastard must’ve also come.

It wasn’t that strange as I came here knowing that.

Despite that…

“It’s been a while.”

It didn’t change the fact that I got pissed off every time I saw him, especially with his intentions of approaching me being obvious.

Seriously, why's he getting closer?

That guy really was stubborn.

The bastard got close and greeted me with a smile.

The dark symbol on his white outfit was the same, and so was his damned handsome face.

And seeing that his body was better than when I last saw him, it seemed like he had trained hard.

“Have you been well?”

“Yes.”

I held back the killing intent that reached all the way to my neck.

If I exploded here without holding back, things could get seriously fucked.

Not to me, but to the others around me.

As much as I was on the verge of exploding, I had to hold myself back for my future.

In order to do that, I had to speak as politely as I possibly could.

I spoke politely to the bastard named Jang Seonyeon smiling in front of me.

“Hey, you fucker.”

“…”

That was the best I could do.

******************Blaze.

The Qi that was about to erupt from her shoulder, scattered away.

She tried sending out a Qi wave to cut, but her Qi was scattered away, unable to maintain itself.

Clack.

It felt like her hand holding the hilt of her sword froze.

It was because someone else was blocking it so that she couldn’t draw it out.

Wi Seol-Ah glared at the person preventing her from drawing her sword with cold eyes.

“Sister, you are more aggressive than I thought.”

His voice sounded slow and heavy, but fast at the same time.

Due to the mysterious atmosphere the person gave off, Wi Seol-Ah kept her guard high.

Noticing that, the young man continued speaking.

“Fair, you would be like that. Especially if you take after your mentor.”

“…”

“I’m not sure what you are trying to do, but it would be wise for you to hold back. If you do not want to return home, that is.”

The young man warned her with a smile.

How did he know?

As Jang Seonyeon was walking towards him, Wi Seol-Ah tried to draw her sword so that he wouldn’t approach him.

However…

When?

This young man was beside her before she realized it.

She concealed her killing intent, to the point that no one would notice it.

It was easy for Wi Seol-Ah to swing her sword without any killing intent.

And that made this young man even weirder since he noticed it.

As Wi Seol-Ah kept glaring at the young man with a sharp gaze…

“You must be curious about who I am.”

The young man spoke to Wi Seol-Ah with a bright smile.

“Bi Eejin. I am Bi Eejin from Bi Clan.”

Wi Seol-Ah couldn’t help but get shocked on hearing his name.