"You can move out of my way now."

*Pak!*

Kang-hyuk's energy suddenly expanded, sending the man in black flying backwards.

*Po-ok!*

Suddenly, dozens of injuries appeared on the man's body, as though he had been wounded by the blade of a sword.

The man had died.

Ignoring the dead man clothed in black, Kang-hyuk looked at the Head.

"Wasn't your name Cho Soh?"

The Head of the Black Snake Sect flew into a rage at the sound of his name.

"Rude b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How dare you casually say my name!"

"Shut up. What are your reasons?"

"For what!?"

"Your reasons for going after Hwacheon Academy."

Cho Soh was a little fl.u.s.tered at Kang-hyuk's mention of the Academy.

'Co-coming to think of it….'

Cho Soh then began to look at Kang-hyuk's outer attire a bit more carefully.

He was wearing a blue teacher's uniform.

This could only mean one thing- that he was a teacher of the Hwacheon Academy.

"So it's revenge? Have the martial teachers of Hwacheon Academy come here for revenge?"

Kang-hyuk shook his head.

"Sorry, but you're wrong. I've come here along, and I'm not a martial arts teacher, I'm a teacher of horticulture."

"What?"

"I'm a horticulture teacher."

Dumbstruck at Kang-hyuk's ident.i.ty, Cho Soh began to laugh.

"Pwahahaha! You're a horticulture teacher? Do the horticulture teachers of today pluck out weeds with a force field mechanism?"

"I did think of doing that, but I thought it'd attract too much attention, so I just left it."

Cho Soh was rendered speechless, with Kang-hyuk having taken what was a joke seriously.

"Seeing as you're the Head, out of courtesy for your position, I'll remove my force field."

Within a few moments, the energy field that surrounded Kang-hyuk's body began to die down.

He spoke whilst rolling his attendance book around in his hands, "But I'll be giving you a beating with my attendance book so that you can come to your proper senses."

Cho Soh swallowed his saliva, and put his hand into his sleeve.

'What a fool.'

Cho Soh was trying to control his laughter at the unveiling of Kang-hyuk's only weapon.

'You shouldn't have retracted your force field.'

He smiled, and swung his sleeve.

"Die!"

A black snake jumped out of Cho Soh's sleeve. The snake had poisonous venom held in its mouth.

Whatever the snake's venom would splash onto would begin to burn. As Kang-hyuk was already covered in the venomous liquid, Cho Soh had the expectation that he would die from being burnt.

Cho Soh cried out jubilantly, "Don't you know that you should never let your guard down till the very end? Hahahaha! How do you feel? It's hot, isn't it?"

The venom was also known as the Black Snake Fire Venom.

The name originated from the very name of the sect, and it was made in the body of a black snake that the heads of the sect had reared for many generations.

The powerful venom that would cause one's entire body to burn was so powerful that even the head of the medicine valley was unable to create an antidote for it.

*Chi-i-i-ik-!*

Kang-hyuk's body was beginning to burn.

However…..

"You're right, you should never let your guard down till the end."

"...!"

Cho Soh realized that something was a little strange. Despite his whole body being on fire, Kang-hyuk was completely at peace.

"This kind of poison isn't enough to even tickle me."

*Pat!*

Kang-hyuk then released his energy.

Within moments, the poisonous venom on his body disappeared, completely traceless.

*Tak Tak!*

Kang-hyuk spoke as he dusted off his clothing, "Do you think I'm such a fool that I would retract my force field in front of an enemy? I simply limited the field to my body, and didn't expand it outwards."

"But you definitely said that you wouldn't use your force field…"

"I apologize, I know I said that to respect your position as head that I would do so, but I was lying. It was just that if I used my expanded force field, I wouldn't be able to beat you with my attendance book."

"This b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

*Ppak!*

Cho Soh's face swung backwards.

It had received the force of Kang-hyuk's attendance book.

*Ppeo-ok! Pok!*

After a few more blows, Cho Soh fell to the ground, and simply stared at Kang-hyuk.

Kang-hyuk addressed him, "Stop staring at me, it's scary. Anyway, who ordered you to do it?"

"I ordered it myself."

"Don't lie, I know the Black Snake Sect, you're the fellows that have been living off the leader of all the dark cultivating groups for a while now."

"...."

"It's the Blood King Valley, isn't it?"

Cho Soh frowned. Kang-hyuk internally clicked his tongue.

'A man who's meant to be a head can't even control his own body language…..'

Kang-hyuk sighed.

"I knew it. Before, it was the World Blood Forest, and now it's the Blood King Valley?"

Found out, Cho Soh burst into laughter as though he had given up.

"Hahaha. What are you going to do about it?"

"Well, of course."

"But before that, I have something to tell you."

A cruel smile spread over Cho Soh's face.

"If you leave after killing me, around half of the students will probably be dead by then."

"What do you mean?"

"Hahahaha! Do you think I'm going to tell you so easily?"

Kang-hyuk raised his attendance book.

"If you don't want to tell me directly, you'll have to tell me after being beaten."

Cho Soh recoiled at his expression. Kang-hyuk's current expression was completely different from how he had seemed thus far.

'Th-thinking about it, that expression! I think I've seen it somewhere…..'

But before he could finish his thoughts on where he had seen Kang-hyuk, the attendance book sliced through the air.

*Bak!*

***

At that time.

Yun Hseong was leading the students and teachers back to the Academy. His face looked dark.

He had received news from the team of warriors and teachers that had taken the advance route.

Exactly as on their journey to the mountain, the advance team travelled at the front of the formation, to check the safety of the routes.

As Yun Hseong was leading the Academy back home in place of Eun Myeong-myeong, another teacher had taken his place on the advance team.

The team was scrupulously checking the forward routes that the students would be taking.

"Stop!"

The teacher, that was the head of the advance team, was the third year archery teacher, Bang-cheong.

At his command, the warriors and other teachers of the team immediately halted, and looked at him.

As Bang-cheong pointed towards something, the team's expressions shifted.

The traces of vegetation that had been left there indicated that many people had been in movement along that route- the minimum number being one hundred.

"We would have had prior notification if that many of our Baekdo warriors had been in movement here!"

"What does that mean?"

"It means that there are people aiming for the students! I think we should take another route!"

"Another route….."

Bang-cheong responded to the confusion of a warrior.

"The most important thing is safety, so we'd better choose the safest route out of the two remaining routes!"

There were a great number of nods from the rest of the advance team. After sending a warrior to inform the other teachers down the line, the advance team looked over the two remaining routes.

And the route that they had decided to take was….

"I think the Snaketail Valley will be the safest route!"

"I know it's the shortest route, but isn't the path quite rough?"

"There a number of ways to overcome that issue, right?"

"That's true but…."

Bang-cheong spoke, hesitant towards the idea.

"But I don't feel too good about it."

"What don't you feel good about?"

"I'm wondering why is it that there are no traces of activity only on the roughest route the students could take."

A warrior amongst the team smiled at Bang-cheong's concerns.

"Bang Seonsaeng, you're overthinking it, don't tell me you think that it's a ruse to entice us to that route?"

"Isn't the valley's road so rough that it would be impossible for any attackers to lie there for ambush?"

"That's true but…."

"I guess there's no other choice."

Bang-cheong nodded, resigned. They had no choice but to take that route.

***

Yun Hseong sighed, deep in concern.

"Snaketail Valley…."

Yun Hseong was well aware of the conditions upon that particular route. This was exactly why there was something bothering him about it.

"I know that it's known to be a place that almost impossible to ambush, but something still feels wrong."

"We can't even hide the students away in this kind of situation, it's quite frustrating."

Yun Hseong sighed once more at Ok Hae-mi's words.

She was indeed correct.

If they remained still, and made no changes to their movements out of anxiety, they had more to lose than to gain.

Yun Hseong now had the taste of what it felt like to be the Princ.i.p.al- what a headache it could be.

He had a thought. 'Being a teacher is a much easier position.'

But, the only way he could fulfil his responsibilities as Eun Myeong-myeong's subst.i.tute was to ensure the students' safe return.

Within the s.p.a.ce of his concern, he recalled someone.

'If it's that fellow! He might have an idea to overcome this issue.'

But he soon shook his head.

He remembered that it had been some time since that person had returned to the Academy for some sort of urgent work.

'Seeing as he's the Clan Leader's envoy, the Clan Leader must have called him back!'

This meant that he would have to resolve the situation himself.

He soon came to a decision, "We'll have to go through the Snaketail Valley."

Ok Hae-mi responded; "Okay, I'll let the advance team know."

But Ok Hae-mi felt at unease.

'Why do I have a feeling that we're walking into the mouth of a beast?'

But Ok Hae-mi had no choice but to deliver Yun Hseong's decision. The Academy began to move once more, and soon they were at the entrance of the Snaketail Valley.

***

"f.u.c.k-! Why aren't they coming? Didn't the ones above say that they'd be here by now?"

"Be quiet! The managing leader will hear you!"

"Listen! s.h.i.t!"

Waiting at the end of the Snaketail Valley for their targets were the warriors of the Black Snake Sect.

They had a simple operation.

There were Black Snake Sect warriors hiding out by the entrance and exit of the Snaketail Valley. When the Hwacheon Academy group entered the valley, they would block the entrance and exit points, so that they couldn't escape, and then attack.

It was an operation that was only possible because of the winding valley path hiding the exit point.

If the location had been anywhere else, the Academy would have found some way to escape, but due to the unique topography of the valley, their escape would be impossible.

Along both sides of the valley were high precipices, and one couldn't run from a precipice!

Despite this operation being quite easy for the warriors, they weren't too happy.

On this particular expedition, out of the five managerial leaders, one of them had gone missing, one had been captured, and one died at the Head's sword.

There were only two managerial leaders remaining.

As one of those two was the Head's personal guard, in truth, there was only one managerial leader that could be in action remaining.

The man was filled with the ambition for this operation's success, and as a result, the warriors beneath him suffered greatly.

Therefore complaints from the warriors were slowly streaming out.

"You there! What's wrong with you?"

A warrior that had many complaints turned around, surprised at the sudden voice.

'd.a.m.n it!'

It was the man in charge of the operation, the managerial leader.

"Ah, Dae-daeju-nim [1]!"

"It sounds like you have quite a few complaints, don't you?"

"N-not at all! I have no complaints whatsoever!"

"Take the b.a.s.t.a.r.d out!"

But at that moment.

"The-they've appeared! It's undoubtedly the Hwacheon Academy fellows!"

The warriors began to move out and about at the news. The managerial leader then cried out; "Go to your individual locations!"

The managerial leader immediately went to check the ident.i.ties of the group who were nearing the Snaketail Valley. His eyes were then met by the sight of hundreds of students, teachers in the blue uniforms, and warriors, all moving rapidly with Gyeonggong.

It was confirmed.

The managerial leader's lips trembled.

He antic.i.p.ated that they would enter the valley before he could count to fifty. His sword would finally be able to taste blood.

'Seeing as we're already at it, we can kill all of the male students and kidnap the pretty girls. Then I'll offer the best of the girls to the Head….hehehe.'

The mere thought was causing him to salivate.

Finally, the group entered Snaketail Valley.

"Whoo-!"

The managerial leader had taken a deep breath, then was going to cry out the word 'attack'.

But all of a sudden…

There was a tremendous roar.

[1] Daeju- Korean term for managerial leader