Chapter 208: Hero (1)

A few days ago.

Thousands of li away from Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu Province.

Among the countless peaks of the Tianshan Mountain Range located in the west of Xinjiang, there stood a facility with a plaque that read Hall of the Demonic Way.

In the Hall Master's chamber, Yeom Ga-hwi and Chu Il-hwan were deep in conversation.

"How's that person settling in?"

"He's adapting well enough, Hall Master."

The "person" they were discussing wasn't some fresh-faced disciple who'd just entered the Hall of the Demonic Way.

"Give him another month or so, and I think he'll be ready to take over my teaching duties without any major issues."

They were talking about a new instructor.

Even after Il-mok had graduated from the Hall of the Demonic Way, changes kept rolling through the institution.

Actually, the changes were only getting bigger.

It was all because of the massive educational reform that Il-mok had drafted, the Heavenly Demon had ordered, and the First Disciple was now directing.

Starting three years from now, disciples would enter the Hall of Demonic Way at eighteen instead of sixteen, and the number of students per grade would increase accordingly.

And obviously, more students equals more teaching personnel in need.

Instead of trying to do everything at once, the Hall of Demonic Way decided to hire the new staff first to let them get some on-the-job training.

"The expansion work on the Black Dragon Pavilion and Black Tiger Pavilion is proceeding smoothly so far, Hall Master. The whole project should be done in two years, but we should have some of the new space ready to use within a year."

Yeom Ga-hwi nodded at Chu Il-hwan's report.

The plan wasn't to suddenly flood the place with new students. They were going to ease into it, increasing the class size bit by bit.

This year, they'd stick with the usual twenty students, but next year, they'd bump it up to thirty.

And with each increase, they'd add one more assistant and instructor per grade to run another test, with plans to recruit up to forty students per grade in two years.

Then, three years from now, they'd finally switch to recruiting eighteen-year-olds instead of sixteen-year-olds as originally planned.

Forty new disciples—that was the official number decided by the Grand Teacher's department.

Chu Il-hwan continued with various other reports.

He covered things like the student clubs, notes on individual students, and how well they were all doing in their classes.

"To be honest, the disciples' average skill level has dropped compared to when the Eighth Young Master was here."

"That year was simply an anomaly. Compared to other years, there's not much difference, is there?"

"That's true."

After they'd finished discussing all the various changes happening at the Hall of the Demonic Way...

After reading through the entire written report that Chu Il-hwan had submitted, Yeom Ga-hwi looked at him with a somewhat suspicious expression.

"Head Instructor Chu Il-hwan."

"Yes, Hall Master."

"Can you swear to me that none of your useless prejudices or personal opinions snuck into these reports?"

"W-what happened with the Eighth Young Master will absolutely never happen again."

Cold sweat trickled down Chu Il-hwan's back as he answered.

Lately, Hall Master Yeom Ga-hwi had been treating Chu Il-hwan with deep suspicion.

And it wasn't because of that time he'd been tricked by the old Vice Director and lost his mind.

"See that it doesn't. Pinning the label of 'lecher' on an innocent kid who's done nothing is not acceptable."

"Y-you're absolutely right, Hall Master."

The truth was, Hall Master Yeom Ga-hwi had recently been called to the Heavenly Demon Palace and had come back completely mortified.

***

"Hehehehe. Hall Master Yeom, did you hear that rumor?"

"I spend all my time at the Hall of the Demonic Way, so I haven't heard any particular rumors."

"Looks like my youngest is starting to think about marriage. He came right out and said he likes women in their prime years."

Seeing his great lord go so far as to call the Eighth Young Master 'my youngest,' Yeom Ga-hwi forced himself to reply in a neutral tone.

"Is that so?"

But something felt off. His lord's reaction was different from usual.

'Was he perhaps hoping for a bit more flattery?'

Yeom Ga-hwi wondered if maybe the Heavenly Demon had been hoping to hear some praise about the Eighth Young Master, but what came out of his lord's mouth was completely different.

"Don't you think something's strange about this, Hall Master Yeom?"

"Nothing in particular comes to mind, Lord of Ten Thousand Demons."

"How odd. Weren't you the one who reported that my youngest's only weakness is a love for the ladies'?"

"...Isn't it precisely because of that tendency that the Eighth Young Master is already thinking about marriage?"

"My, my, you weren't listening carefully, were you, Hall Master Yeom? I clearly said our youngest is looking for a woman 'in her prime years.' Tell me, were there any women in their prime years among the Hall of Demonic Way disciples?"

Only then did Yeom Ga-hwi realize what had gone wrong, and he swallowed hard without meaning to. The Heavenly Demon chuckled softly as he stroked his beard.

"Hahaha. Oh, dear. I always thought you were such an upright and fair man, Hall Master Yeom, but it seems this old man was mistaken. To think you'd pin the false accusation of 'lecher' on an innocent child."

Somehow, despite the jovial atmosphere, cold sweat kept pouring down Yeom Ga-hwi's face.

***

Since that day, Yeom Ga-hwi had been distrustful of Chu Il-hwan.

To be precise, while he trusted and entrusted him with all other matters, he was completely unable to trust evaluations concerning the students—especially assessments related to their 'character or disposition'.

From Chu Il-hwan's perspective, this was unfair in many respects.

He wasn't the only one who thought that about the kid! The other teachers did too, and the Hall Master himself had seen the evidence and agreed with them back then!

But there was no way he could ever say that to the Hall Master’s face.

Was it because he held the Hall Master, the great 'Fist Demon' Yeom Ga-hwi, in such high esteem?

...Actually, that wasn't it.

'Even if I transferred somewhere else, it'd be exactly the same. Damn it.'

It was just the bitter reality of being a middle-level employee.

After finally finishing the nerve-wracking meeting with the Hall Master...

And so, after finally getting through the stressful meeting with the boss, Chu Il-hwan headed somewhere to find peace of mind.

He wasn't going to the infirmary for mental health counseling.

"Head Instructor Chu!"

His destination was Instructor Xiao Hong's office.

"Hahaha. When it's just the two of us, there's no need to be so stiff and formal."

A far cry from his old, awkward self, Chu Il-hwan was back to his usual smooth-talking ways with her.

Xiao Hong also glanced around quickly before breaking into a bright smile.

"Just being careful, you never know. Hehe."

The old bachelor and old maid had somehow become lovers.

***

While the Hall of the Demonic Way was caught up in winds of change...

"Is the textbook for the intermediate course done yet?"

"W-well, about that..."

"Are you out of your mind right now?! We need to finish it by tomorrow and report to the Grand Teacher!"

The organization driving these changes—the Demon-Teaching Pavilion—was being shredded to pieces by the hurricane of transformation.

Given the massive scale of the reforms they were pushing through, they had way too much work to handle.

The desks of everyone in the Demon-Teaching Pavilion were literally buried under mountains of paperwork.

The education system they were currently preparing was divided into four major stages.

First, kids around ten years old would get two years of basic schooling at their local village branch.

Then from age twelve to fifteen, they'd establish facilities called "Elementary Demon Halls" in several major counties, gathering children from multiple counties for more advanced lessons.

The curriculum included basic arithmetic, more complex Hanja beyond the Thousand Character Classic, more intricate doctrine, and fundamental martial arts instead of Demonic Arts.

After four years there, they'd be sorted.

High-achieving students would go to places called "Middle Learning Halls" built in what passed for cities within Xinjiang, while children with substandard grades would return to their family trades.

And at the Middle Learning Halls, they'd split into three paths: children with talent for martial arts would begin learning Demonic Arts, while those without martial talent but with good heads would receive administrative or practical training according to their aptitudes, or training in medicine.

However, the Demonic Arts taught at the Middle Learning Halls would be basic ones without serious side effects.

Then, in the year the children turned eighteen, those with outstanding martial achievements would take the entrance examination for the Hall of the Demonic Way.

Children who passed would enter the Hall to learn advanced Demonic Arts and receive training to become elite warriors of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

Those who failed would return to their hometowns to start as regular martial artists in the local branch offices. As for the administrative and medical students, they'd go to the main headquarters for internships in the different departments.

And right now, the Demon-Teaching Pavilion was preparing the entire education system except for what related to the Hall of the Demonic Way itself.

Naturally, those being ground to dust in the division felt conflicting emotions about the Eighth Young Master.

On one hand, they marveled at the Eighth Young Master's intelligence for conceiving such a systematic education system in just a few days while lying in an infirmary bed recovering from injuries.

"I swear, this work never ends..."

"At least you got to go home yesterday. I've been sleeping here for three days straight."

"You had time to sleep? Your workload must be pretty light."

They resented the Eighth Young Master for shoving them into this hellscape.

The Eighth Young Master had presented a truly excellent education system.

The problem was, he'd only provided the big framework.

Whether it was the Elementary Demon Halls or the Middle Learning Halls, creating the actual textbooks was work the staff had to do.

And it didn't end with just making textbooks. They had to train instructors to teach children using those textbooks and handle all the business related to establishing the Middle Learning Halls that hadn't even been built yet.

The number of other problems that popped up along the way was endless.

Of course, the one who'd ordered the education reform was ultimately the Heavenly Demon. Logically, their resentment should have been directed at the Heavenly Demon, but for members of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, resenting the Heavenly Demon was unthinkable.

The Heavenly Demon was an object of absolute faith, so ultimately their resentment could only turn toward the easy target—Il-mok.

Not that they could ever actually complain out loud.

"Who said that? Who just dared to complain?"

Wi Jin-hak, the Grand Teacher and First Disciple, had appeared out of nowhere. A deathly silence fell over the office.

"Your heads are full of demons. Have you forgotten how important the work you're doing is to our great Heavenly Demon Divine Cult?"

But he wasn't ruling their resentment through fear alone.

After scaring the hell out of them with a blast of his murderous aura, Wi Jin-hak reined it in and looked at them with a serious expression.

"The kids who grow up with the system we're building today will be the shining future of this cult in ten years! Imagine that day!"

At Wi Jin-hak's cry, those being ground down by their work began to swim through their imaginations with dazed expressions.

"Imagine our children kicking out those pathetic unbelievers from the Central Plains and offering salvation to the people!"

Either way, they were all people who'd been educated in the cult's doctrine for decades.

"Imagine every single person in the world praising the name of our Great Heavenly Demon Divine Cult!"

Their faith in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was beyond question.

"The Heavenly Demon Descends!!"

"Ten Thousand Demons Obeys!!"

"Make the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Great Again!!!"

With their resentment replaced by fanatical zeal, they suddenly started shouting at the top of their lungs and threw themselves back into their work with bloodshot eyes.

Watching the fanatics voluntarily diving back into the hurricane of work, Wi Jin-hak nodded with a satisfied expression.

'I found it frustrating at first, thinking fistfights were easier, but I'm getting used to this.'

At some point, Wi Jin-hak became an excellent leader of fanatics.

You could say it was because he'd had plenty of chances to watch his Master and his youngest brother working their magic on their followers.