Book 2 Chapter 22

A storm is about to break.

After the announcement of the candidates for the Ascensionless Martial Arts Tournament, which drove many people to a state of incapacitation!

Tonight, Namchang was dazzlingly bright, hot, glamorous, and intoxicating.

Music overflowed in the streets day and night,

and the sweet aroma of liquor wafted through every alley.

The taverns and brothels lining the streets never extinguished their lights, day or night, no matter how the sun and moon changed. They were open for twenty-four hours. Even as the sun set and the moon rose, and that moon waned, the fervent excitement within the city showed no signs of subsiding. The cyclical law of the sun and moon’s rotation was utterly insufficient to restrain them.

For days, like a scorching wind, festivals swept through all of Namchang, completely disregarding the changes of the sun and moon. And then, finally, that day arrived. The day of the special entrance examination for the Heavenly Martial Academy, an opportunity granted only to a select few, dawned.

Hopefuls from renowned first-class martial arts sects and promising young disciples flocked to the designated examination sites within the academy’s jurisdiction in small groups. Those without a Dragon Soaring Plaque were prohibited from entering the examination grounds by regulation, so everyone gathered here was a competitor of Bi Ryuyeon, all possessing a Dragon Soaring Plaque. Of course, Bi Ryuyeon paid little attention to such things. In fact, Bi Ryuyeon was more engrossed in exploring the academy grounds.

Finally, the examination began. Contrary to the general expectation that this special entrance examination would be conducted one level more difficult than the Ascensionless Martial Arts Tournament, the Heavenly Martial Academy's special entrance examination proceeded in an unexpectedly simple manner.

Unlike the Ascensionless Martial Arts Tournament, which had various gateways, contraptions, and strict rules to follow, this was incomparably more concise and straightforward. In fact, there was no standard for comparison, so comparing them was unreasonable. The method, rules, and criteria for passing the special entrance examination were simple and easy to remember and follow: one thing.

One simply had to prove that they were superior to others. To demonstrate their excellence before the masses. Regardless of the means or methods used… However, for those who dedicated themselves to the martial arts world and walked the path of martial arts, the methods were ultimately limited. It was nothing more than directly clashing bodies to experience each other and testing one’s skill with weapons. It was a meritocracy over words. Simply put, they were told to compete and prove the superiority of their martial arts and their level of achievement.

The numerous tasks and arduous gateways presented in the Ascensionless Martial Arts Tournament were tests to select individuals from the masses, to distinguish jade from gravel. Therefore, duels in the Ascensionless Martial Arts Tournament required defeating and overcoming one’s opponent.

However, the duels in today’s special examination were tests to win against oneself. The dueling opponent was merely a mirror reflecting oneself. Therefore, regardless of victory or defeat, the examiners determined the applicant's passing status.

A master can discern an opponent's skill by observing a single movement, half a breath of a technique. And a peak master who has reached a higher realm can grasp a person's potential at a glance. By observing their physique, character, and fighting disposition, they can judge their aptitude and achievements to some extent. One does not become a master easily.

This is the Heavenly Martial Academy, where masters are so numerous that they are second to none! The only other place in the entire righteous martial arts world with a comparable number of masters is the Martial Arts Alliance. Therefore, the examiners were all peak masters, making it sufficient to assess the applicants simply by observing their duels. These were individuals whose martial arts had reached the realm of Dao, where they were said to open new horizons through enlightenment. How could that not be sufficient?

However, the more such the examination, the more ambiguous, vague, and arbitrary the criteria could be, making it even more difficult. The eyes of a master, unlike those of an ordinary person, see what ordinary people do not and think about what they do not consider, so their perspective is vastly different. Peak masters judge people by their own standards. Therefore, it was often the case that lower-level practitioners disagreed with their judgments and could not accept them.

Yet, even they could not properly grasp Bi Ryuyeon's skill and potential. His true power and martial arts level were as elusive as a divine dragon in the clouds, a loach swimming in murky water, a chaotic vortex swirling violently, making it impossible to grasp his true form.

Lost in a thick fog!

Like finding a narrow path in a misty swamp, his end was so elusive that no one had ever seen it. This made the examiners' decisions difficult. Passing him felt like a gamble! A gamble with a high probability of losing their fortune by holding what could be the worst hand! That’s what it was.

Moreover, the participants in the special entrance examination were fundamentally different from ordinary martial artists. Each sect, and these were sects evaluated as first-class or higher, sent their top disciples whom they had painstakingly nurtured for over a decade. They were individuals who had already undergone initial verification, serving as endorsements for their respective sects. The Heavenly Martial Academy acknowledged this.

Therefore, almost everyone was guaranteed to pass, and failure was nonexistent except in special cases. The applicant's passing status was determined after a simple mutual duel, and it was entirely up to the examiner. Since there was no clearly defined admission quota, everything was at the examiner's discretion. Thus, this special examination was merely a preliminary assessment of skill, a mere formality of an examination. Except that the practitioners evaluating this skill level were peak masters. However, among peak masters, there were many eccentric, peculiar, and capricious individuals, leading to unexpected judgments.

Still, throughout the history of this examination, the majority of recommended individuals had never disappointed the examiners' eyes. Damaged endorsements were very rare. Last year and the year before, no one failed this special entrance examination. This was because esteemed first-class sects had recommended the individuals considered the best each year.

If a disciple recommended as the best talent failed, not because they lost in a duel, but because their talent and potential were unclear, their sect would have been ashamed and confined for ten years.

But today was an exception. This would likely be recorded as the examination with the most dropouts in the history of the Heavenly Martial Academy's special entrance examination. This record would likely not be broken for a while. And it was an unprecedented record of involuntary (?) dropouts, not voluntary ones.

Those who dropped out did not do so because they wanted to. Who would want to fail such an important examination where the honor of their sect was at stake? Their minds were as eager as flying, but their bodies, which could barely crawl, could not keep up, so they had no choice but to declare their withdrawal. After all, one had to have a sound body to be admitted and diligently train their martial arts. How could one be admitted with all four limbs completely broken?

The person who caused this situation, without looking around, was none other than the troublemaker, Bi Ryuyeon. Bi Ryuyeon, who, in front of a sacred examination, displayed his specialty of continuously causing problems.

At first, Bi Ryuyeon did not intend to go this far. He had solemnly decided to finish it quickly. However, a few participants, claiming to be from prestigious righteous sects, began to act arrogantly without manners or courtesy, which critically irked Bi Ryuyeon's delicate(?) nerves. Bi Ryuyeon found it utterly unbearable to watch. So, he used a bit too much force.

The first opponent was someone who claimed to be from Mount Hua, one of the Five Peaks, and that his sword was the best on Mount Hua, and furthermore, the best in the martial arts world. He had a pale face and wore a lustrous silk garment embroidered with five red plum blossoms on the left chest.

This proved that he held a high position within the Hua Mountain Sect and was a recipient of their expectations, but Bi Ryuyeon, ignorant of the martial arts world's intricacies, had no way of knowing that. Even if someone told him, he wouldn't want to know such things.

This fellow received a punch to the jaw, resulting in a fractured mandible (the lower jawbone was broken into multiple pieces) and the loss of many teeth. He might have to live on gruel and water for a long time, or perhaps for the rest of his life. Poor fellow!

The second fellow used the sword techniques of the Cang Mountain Sect. This guy was also a scoundrel, just like the previous one. Why should he be so rampant when his sect was already a renowned sword family? This fellow's limbs were twisted in directions they should not have been, leaving him no choice but to withdraw. It would take a considerable amount of time – perhaps a full twelve months – for his bones to realign and his muscles to untwist before his skeleton could be properly restored.

The third fellow was the second son of the master of a place called Jinbok Villa. It seemed this Jinbok Villa was incredibly wealthy. He was adorned with gold and jewels all over his body, and his face was greasy, making him an object of disgust and truly unlucky to behold. Furthermore, he bragged incessantly, as if he had consumed his fill of precious spirit herbs acquired with great difficulty since childhood, claiming his vitality – vitality formed by medicinal effects – was as vast as the ocean, and the women he kept for the night could not be counted with ten fingers. Bi Ryuyeon found it revolting and nauseating to even share the same air with him. So, with his eyes closed, as an act of self-sacrifice, he decisively dealt with him for waste disposal, environmental beautification, and the sake of nature conservation.

The man who claimed to have consumed all sorts of beneficial substances turned out to be so frail, contrary to his lengthy boasts. He had one blow to the abdomen, which twisted his internal organs, and after a few twists of his arms and legs, their bones immediately snapped. He must have consumed an excessive amount of dubious spirit herbs in his youth. Otherwise, how could his bones be so brittle? Perhaps as a side effect, he became so weak-boned. This is why one must choose their medicine wisely, isn't it? It was his own fault for not adhering to the old adage.

The last fellow was a master from the renowned fist-fighting family of Jinju Eon Clan. With a single punch from Bi Ryuyeon, his fist was crushed, turning into a bloody mess. He clutched his fist and rolled on the ground before being rushed to a doctor by his attendants. This fellow had already drawn Bi Ryuyeon's ire before entering the examination grounds, by bringing a crowd of attendants to the front gate, claiming to be from a renowned family.

The fate of the four individuals who provoked Bi Ryuyeon and displeased him was shocking and miserable. Perhaps they had underestimated this entrance examination. They lacked humility and courtesy, overestimated their abilities, and crucially, were too complacent. And they had overlooked the fact that there could be someone as ill-tempered and eccentric as Bi Ryuyeon in the world and acted too arrogantly.

They overlooked the eternal truth that the reputation of one's sect and family was not a shield to protect oneself, but only one's own skill was the source of strength for survival in the martial arts world. Therefore, perhaps the current outcome was inevitable.

For these reasons, the four individuals were incapacitated for martial arts training for the time being and, having no choice, forfeited their admission qualifications and returned to their respective sects. Since all four were in no condition to return alone, they had to be carried like cargo on stretchers or palanquins by other disciples or escorts.

This fact alone cemented Bi Ryuyeon's adversarial relationship with four major first-class sects. However, the man himself was overjoyed and carefree, not paying the slightest bit of attention to such matters.

Bi Ryuyeon's skill, which, with seemingly simple and playful gestures, had driven four promising young disciples to a state of incapacitation, was undeniably formidable, even if it seemed cruel.

While the examiners had considerable doubts and deliberated over his character and personality, they could raise no objection to his skill. Therefore, Bi Ryuyeon passed. It was an inevitable outcome. Thus, Bi Ryuyeon easily passed the examination and was confirmed for admission to the Heavenly Martial Academy, but his violent and cruel techniques became an object of concern for the examiners, and upon admission, he was branded as a person of interest. Consequently, he was classified as a special management subject and placed under the strict surveillance and management of the Heavenly Martial Academy. It would not be long before everyone at the Heavenly Martial Academy would be watching him.

However, at this time, no one knew that Bi Ryuyeon's admission was the harbinger of a storm that would shake the Heavenly Martial Academy and, consequently, the entire martial arts world to its core. The wind had begun to blow. But it was still a gentle breeze.