The Strongest in Murim Through Gacha: Chapter 5
4. The Disciple of Interest to the Hwangryong Division
The Prajna Divine Art, one of Shaolin’s supreme techniques.
In the past, it was a divine art passed down only to Shaolin’s head disciple, but with Shaolin’s martial lineage severed and all its supreme techniques leaked, it had now flowed into the Manryong Pavilion and was left gathering dust.
The sects that produce experts are generally already great sects with many experts, and unless you are the disciple of an expert, it is difficult to become one yourself.
Outstanding talent and blood, sweat, and effort are the basics, and only when overlaid with a master’s teachings that can minimize all manner of trial and error is a new expert born.
The Prajna Divine Art was a profound and difficult martial art that few had succeeded in mastering even when Shaolin reigned as the supreme sect of the martial world.
Let alone sharing enlightenment, there was no one at the Jamnyong Academy who could offer advice on Buddhist teachings, making it an unsuitable martial art to learn there.
So Jongcheon roughly understood why Chu Omyeong was showing such a serious attitude.
And at the same time.
[Mission: A Crane Among Chickens (?) has been completed.]
[Acquired 7 Appraisal Scrolls.]
The mission was complete.
“Bullshit.”
He had been wondering how to attract people’s attention, but who would’ve thought he’d clear the mission like this?
So absurd was it that he inadvertently blurted out a curse.
And the air around him grew icy cold.
“Did you… just talk back to me?”
Chu Omyeong’s lips trembled.
“Huh? Ah! No, sir!”
Realizing this was a situation ripe for misunderstanding, So Jongcheon denied it in surprise, but it was already too late to smooth things over.
Meeting eyes with Chu Omyeong, So Jongcheon felt his knees go weak.
‘Holy shit, he’s killing me with his eyes. So this is what killing intent is…?’
“It seems you didn’t like me mentioning Shaolin’s secrets. Choosing a Shaolin martial art, and all… seems you have some connection with them, don’t you?”
Chu Omyeong bared his teeth as if he would chew him alive, and continued in a rigid tone.
“Cadet So Jongcheon. I will believe this was a choice made with a plan. I shall watch your future achievements.”
So Jongcheon’s body trembled.
‘I’m marked. He’s got his eye on me now, doesn’t he?’
He had planned to quietly blend in with the other cadets and learn about growth through the gacha system, but from the very first day, something seemed to have gone terribly wrong.
He felt like he might burst into tears.
* * *
“Somehow, you didn’t seem sane from the start.”
“…….”
“This is a process of choosing a martial art to compensate for your shortcomings, yet you immediately say you’ll learn a new inner cultivation method from scratch—what kind of crazy nonsense is that?”
So Jongcheon, seated facing the wall, swallowed a sigh at Cho Yeongho’s voice, which rattled off words of criticism as if for him to hear.
‘Damn it. My lacking point IS my inner cultivation method, you bastard!’
He felt like yelling, but picking a fight for no reason wouldn’t yield anything good, so he grumbled only inwardly.
“Now, now, stop. Like the instructor said, he must have his reasons. Just because Shaolin’s martial lineage was severed doesn’t mean all its martial arts were discarded, so he can learn it. And Jongcheon, you seemed to have been training in Buddhist-side martial arts from the start, right? If so, it makes sense, doesn’t it?”
If it was from the same lineage, even starting anew, it wouldn’t completely conflict with his existing martial art, unlike learning from absolute scratch.
To Jang Jagun’s question, So Jongcheon couldn’t bring himself to answer “no.”
So he just fixed his gaze on the wall in silence.
“Tch! No matter what, do you think you can achieve results by graduation if you start learning a new heart method now? No, forget graduation—you’ll be hard-pressed to even promote to the Cheongryong Division next year.”
The training course at Jamnyong Academy spanned three years total, proceeding through the Hwangryong, Cheongryong, and Baengryong Divisions.
You couldn’t rest assured simply because you had entered the academy; since advancement was determined through annual evaluations, failing them meant expulsion with no chance of repeating a year.
Since less than half safely made it to graduation, even run-of-the-mill martial artists would put up signs advertising themselves as having gone through the Cheongryong or Baengryong Division courses.
“Learning a new heart method from scratch is no different than uprooting your foundation, right? Everyone knows the evaluation includes team scores from missions, doesn’t it? And of all things, I’m on the same team as this dead weight!”
“Stop it, Yeongho. You don’t have to go that far. We haven’t even seen everyone’s skills yet; how do you know Jongcheon won’t pull his weight in missions later? Get a grip.”
“……Damn it.”
Cho Yeongho grumbled and turned away.
Even amid such commotion, Han Sahye still didn’t exchange a word with anyone, sitting meditating in her place with her eyes closed.
‘Finally, a little quiet.’
Once Cho Yeongho closed his mouth, the room became peaceful.
Once the atmosphere settled, the Appraisal Scrolls acquired through the mission came to So Jongcheon’s mind.
‘Come to think of it, I should appraise that colorless elixir, right? I was so out of it that I forgot.’
He opened his inventory window and pressed the Appraisal Scroll, and a notification popped up.
[Please select an appraisal target.]
The moment he tried to appraise the colorless elixir obtained through gacha.
“……If I could change my foundation too.”
Han Sahye’s tightly closed lips opened.
“Huh?”
“Uh?”
At the sound of Han Sahye muttering, when she hadn’t said a single word in the room, the men’s gazes reflexively turned toward her.
[Appraisal successful.]
“Ack!?”
Though others flinched too, So Jongcheon was the most surprised.
Because the Appraisal Scroll had been used on the wrong target.
[Name: Han Sahye]
[Alias: None]
[Talent]
[Comprehension 7.03]
[Bone Structure 9.12]
[Perception 5.97]
[Internal Energy 2.02]
[Martial Arts]
[Bloodfiend Heart Method ?-Star]
[Bloodfiend Claw ?-Star]
[Four Shadow Steps 3-Star]
‘So appraisal works on people too.’
His concentration had wavered and he had glanced at Han Sahye, but he never would have guessed character appraisal was possible.
‘By the way, her stats are way higher than mine? We’re the same age, how can the gap be this big?’
The only stat where So Jongcheon was ahead was Perception in the late 8s, and in all other stats Han Sahye was superior.
Especially her Bone Structure exceeding 9 points was at a level that made comparison embarrassing.
‘Didn’t they say her martial arts level was similar to the other kids selected as disciples of the great houses? Can I take that level of talent as being high among my peers?’
In martial arts novels, you often saw stories of outstanding experts taking children with excellent Bone Structure as disciples.
Seeing that Han Sahye’s highest stat was Bone Structure as well, he suspected Bone Structure might be the most important talent for learning martial arts.
Anyway, although he had wasted an Appraisal Scroll on the wrong target, he learned that character appraisal was possible, and thanks to having gained a comparison target, he obtained useful information too—so it was a gain, if anything.
‘Only the achievement level for Four Shadow Steps is displayed? Does that mean appraisal can’t reveal everything?’
Most martial arts divided achievement from 1-Star to 10-Star according to proficiency, and a martial art learned to 10-Star was commonly said to have reached Great Success.
Seeing that except for the 3-Star Four Shadow Steps, the achievement was shown as question marks, it seemed there were some limitations to appraisal as well.
‘Even if it consumes an Appraisal Scroll, being able to grasp someone’s info this easily… Reality is reality, but this part is truly unrealistic.’
While So Jongcheon was examining the information window that had appeared through appraisal, Cho Yeongho changed his attitude and spoke to Han Sahye.
“Ahem! Lady Han. What did you just say?”
“…….”
Han Sahye, who had muttered something, didn’t answer the question and clamped her mouth shut again.
“Ahem! Ah, I’m rather thirsty. I suppose I’ll go get some water.”
The ignored Cho Yeongho flushed with embarrassment, muttering to himself loud enough for everyone to hear as he left the room.
So Jongcheon closed the information window and moved his gaze back to the inventory window.
‘Now I really need to appraise the elixir.’
He used another Appraisal Scroll and designated the colorless elixir as the target.
[Appraisal successful.]
[Acquired 30-Year He Shou Wu.]
He had been quietly expecting something since it was called an elixir, but a different name than expected appeared.
‘He Shou Wu? That’s way too low-grade to be called an elixir.’
He Shou Wu.
It was a common medicinal herb that even someone unfamiliar with medicine would have heard of.
‘It’s not even ginseng, but He Shou Wu. So colorless really was the most useless grade.’
A 30-year-old He Shou Wu probably had good medicinal efficacy, but it still seemed like a stretch to call it an elixir.
So Jongcheon checked the information on the He Shou Wu that appeared in the inventory window.
[30-Year He Shou Wu]
[Not rare, but a common He Shou Wu.]
‘Ha! Look at that description. But how do I eat this?’
It might not be much of an elixir, but it was still something that needed to be consumed, so he wondered if he could take it out from the inventory window.
When he checked by poking with fingers made from his imagination, he realized there was no need to go through the trouble; it could be used directly from the inventory window.
[Would you like to use the 30-Year He Shou Wu?]
‘Of course I should.’
As he expressed affirmation while looking at the text, a new notification appeared.
[Internal Energy increased by 0.01.]
“Oh!”
A warm energy of sorts was felt in his stomach and then vanished.
Checking his status window, his Internal Energy, which had been 1.36, had increased to 1.37.
‘They called it an elixir, but it only raises internal energy by a rat’s dropping’s worth. To think internal energy actually rises from a common herb like He Shou Wu. It must be because it’s an item belonging to a game system rather than reality.’
Honestly, 0.01 was an extremely small amount, but it was understandable considering it was a colorless-grade item.
If he could acquire higher-grade treasures through gacha, they would surely show much greater growth, so he looked forward to it.
‘To survive in this world, growth in martial power is essential. So to get stronger, gacha really is the answer after all. For starters, if I get daily rewards and missions keep popping up like today…….’
He didn’t want to train sweating blood like everyone else.
Since he had been thrown into a game world, he wanted to grow conveniently, like raising a game character.
‘Still, I can’t put in zero effort. Since I’ve already been marked by the instructor, I should at least look like I’m doing something.’
Having finished what he needed to do, So Jongcheon sat cross-legged and recalled the Prajna Heart Method.
‘I thought it was a jackpot, but it’s a dud. Ugh… They said it’s that hard to learn? The formulas definitely sounded like grasping at clouds, but….’
You couldn’t change a martial art once it was registered anyway.
Now, whether for better or worse, he had to dig into his choice.
‘Let’s at least try and see how difficult it is.’
He couldn’t even remember the overall formulas well, but he had memorized the early part’s qi circulation methods, though they were complex.
‘So… from the Huiyin acupoint of the Renmai to the Duiduan acupoint of the Dumai….’
The energy accepted through breath circulated through his body according to his will.
‘Yinjiao, Chengjiang, then passing through the Chongmai from the Yinwei Meridian to the Yangwei Meridian….’
Had he stepped into this world with nothing, he wouldn’t have even known the names of these acupoints and meridians.
If not for the memories left in his body, he would have had to study for a long time before attempting to learn the heart method.
Thanks to having built internal energy for ten years, controlling qi itself wasn’t difficult.
But just because you circulate breath and qi doesn’t mean you’ve learned the heart method.
To achieve 1-Star, the minimum accomplishment to say you’ve learned a martial art, one must form a qi mass in the dantian through repeated qi circulation.
So Jongcheon repeated inhaling and exhaling qi, concentrating on training the Prajna Divine Art.
Time passed, the day changed, and dawn arrived.
[Issuing daily login reward.]
“Huh!?”
So Jongcheon, who had fallen asleep late due to training, woke from sleep together with the notification, just like yesterday.