Chapter 58
Using It in Secret (1)
Cheon-geuk was the first to react to Baek So-cheon’s question.
“That’s impossible!”
Baek So-cheon gave an awkward smile.
“I suppose it would be difficult after all?”
Still unable to let go of the idea, he asked Na Sarin again.
“I’m not asking to learn the Soul-Ensnaring Art itself. I only need to learn how to determine whether someone is under its influence.”
“If that is all...”
When Na Sarin left room for possibility, Baek So-cheon immediately asked,
“How long would it take to learn?”
“It may be obvious, but that would depend on the learner’s talent.”
At the very least, she had not said it was impossible.
“Then could you try teaching me? I am fully aware of how discourteous this request is.”
After all, he was asking her to reveal one of her secret arts.
“However, this is the only way to investigate without putting you in danger, Elder.”
Both Cheon-geuk and Na Sarin understood exactly what he meant.
It would be far too dangerous for Na Sarin to examine the Alliance Leader directly.
Na Sarin looked at Cheon-geuk, seeking her permission.
“Shall we give it a try?”
“Are you sure you’re comfortable with that?”
“I am.”
Cheon-geuk looked back and forth between them before finally nodding.
“Very well. Let’s try it.”
Baek So-cheon rose from his seat.
“Then let us go to my house.”
The three put on bamboo hats and rain cloaks before leaving the teahouse.
As they walked through the rain, Cheon-geuk watched the two figures ahead of her.
At times they looked like brother and sister, and at others like father and daughter.
The sight felt both unfamiliar and strangely familiar, perhaps because of how she felt about the two of them.
Only a few months ago, she would never have dreamed that she would be doing something like this with them in front of the Murim Alliance headquarters.
At some point, nothing had made her heart race anymore.
Nothing that happened during the day felt new.
Someone succeeded in an assassination, someone else failed. Someone died, someone survived...
Even though she received reports of life and death several times a day, she had grown accustomed to that existence.
But after meeting Baek So-cheon, her heart had begun to race again.
Even simply watching the backs of these two people made it pound with the tension of this unfamiliar situation.
Shhhhhhh!
Only the pouring rain drowned out the sound of her heartbeat.
Upon arriving home, Baek So-cheon summoned Im Chung and Beon Saeng.
“I have something to do at home for the next few days. Handle the affairs of the Hyeoncheon Unit yourselves. If something requires me, Beon Saeng, come and inform me.”
“Yes, understood.”
The two turned to leave.
As Beon Saeng was heading out, he stroked Na Sarin’s head and said,
“You’re truly adorable. How old are you?”
“Eighty-four.”
“Hahaha. You even joke just like your older sister.”
Laughing, Beon Saeng followed Im Chung outside.
Then he stopped at the doorway and asked without turning around,
“I made another mistake, didn’t I?”
At his miserable tone, Cheon-geuk answered solemnly,
“Your tongue is already scheduled to be cut out, so I suppose we only need to cut off that hand as well.”
Beon Saeng lowered his head and left the room.
Once the door closed, Baek So-cheon said to her,
“Stop teasing him.”
“As you can see, he keeps giving me things to tease him about. And he reacts so well.”
Cheon-geuk laughed before fading smoothly from sight.
“I’ll guard the area around the house. You two begin.”
Baek So-cheon and Na Sarin sat across from each other at the table.
“We do not have much time, so I will teach you the secret method immediately.”
“Thank you.”
“First, memorize the mnemonic formula I recite.”
Na Sarin began teaching him the mnemonic formula.
He had been able to memorize the entire Heaven-Shattering Nine Fists during a carriage ride.
After she repeated the formula twice, Baek So-cheon recited it perfectly.
Na Sarin was inwardly astonished.
He possesses no ordinary mind.
Since he had once risen to become the greatest martial artist under heaven, she had expected him to possess outstanding martial talent.
She had not imagined that his memory would be this extraordinary as well.
“Now circulate your energy according to that formula.”
“Yes.”
While the instruction continued, Cheon-geuk sat on the roof beneath the rain.
A distant voice transmission reached her from Dong-seong, one of the Guardian Killing Stars.
—You will catch a cold.
She had ordered them to remain far away while this matter was underway.
Even from a distance, the Guardian Killing Stars worried about her day and night.
They were at least somewhat reassured because Na Sarin was with her.
—It feels refreshing. It has been a long time since I stood in the rain.
—May we come closer for a while?
—Go ahead.
The four Guardian Killing Stars immediately flew over and landed beside her.
They took out a rain cloak and stretched it above her head, forming a small canopy.
Dong-seong, as their leader, was dependable and trustworthy.
Buk-seong possessed excellent analytical and decision-making abilities, so he handled intelligence-related matters.
Nam-seong was exceptionally loyal.
Seo-seong, the only woman among them, spoke so little that it was difficult to tell what kind of personality she had. However, judging from her love of flowers, Cheon-geuk sometimes thought that her natural disposition did not suit the Assassins Alliance at all.
“What are all of you going to do without me?”
“We have never imagined a world without you, Alliance Leader.”
“Should anything ever—”
“Alliance Leader.”
“Listen until I am finished.”
“Yes.”
“If anything happens to me, disperse and live your own lives. That is an order.”
“...”
None of the four Guardian Killing Stars answered.
They could already sense what their own fates would be.
If Cheon-geuk died, they intended to avenge her and then take their own lives.
However, they likely would not even need to commit suicide.
If someone was powerful enough to kill Cheon-geuk, their attempt at revenge would fail.
No.
They would probably die alongside her while trying to protect her.
They would never simply stand by and watch her die.
Cheon-geuk also knew that they would not go on to live their own lives.
Having always remained together, she understood them well.
“Fine. Then we live together, and we die together. Since that’s how it is, let’s fight desperately to survive.”
This time, all four answered simultaneously.
“Yes!”
“Will it become a little cooler once this rain stops?”
It was the sort of rain that announced the end of summer.
Shhhhhhh!
Four days later, Baek So-cheon and Na Sarin stood in a forest near Wuhan.
Ten men stood before them.
Half were Na Sarin’s disciples, while the other half were ordinary assassins.
They simply stood there without releasing the slightest aura.
Baek So-cheon walked slowly past them.
When he reached the end of the line, he selected five.
“The first, third, fourth, seventh, and eighth.”
At Na Sarin’s order to withdraw, the ten assassins vanished in an instant.
“How many do you think you identified correctly?”
“All of them.”
Baek So-cheon answered confidently.
“How can you be so certain?”
“Did I not learn from someone worthy of such confidence?”
Only then did Na Sarin’s expression brighten.
“Well done. You identified every one correctly.”
Na Sarin was deeply astonished.
She had never imagined that he would master the secret technique in only four days.
Of course, he could not actually perform the Soul-Ensnaring Art.
What he had learned was only the method for determining whether someone had been subjected to the art or had learned it themselves.
In truth, this method was one of the most important exclusive secret arts within Na Sarin’s Soul-Ensnaring Art.
To determine whether someone was connected to the Soul-Ensnaring Art merely while pouring them a cup of tea required a truly supreme level of mastery.
Yet she had taught Baek So-cheon the method without holding anything back.
Of course, it was not truly for Baek So-cheon’s sake, but for Cheon-geuk and the Assassins Alliance.
“If the Soul-Ensnaring Art was used by someone more skilled than I am, you may not be able to detect it. Otherwise, you will notice it without fail.”
“Thank you.”
“I hope you have not forgotten this old woman’s request.”
She was reminding him once more not to use the Assassins Alliance.
“You have given me such tremendous help. How could I forget that kindness? Please do not worry.”
“Thank you.”
Na Sarin was relieved.
Cheon-geuk appeared soon afterward.
“Elder.”
Rather than expressing her gratitude in words, she took Na Sarin’s hand.
“Alliance Leader.”
Cheon-geuk was deeply grateful to the woman who worried only for her and the Alliance.
After showing her gratitude to Na Sarin, she turned to Baek So-cheon.
“Our Alliance has purchased that teahouse. It will operate normally most of the time, so if you ever need to contact me, send word through its owner.”
“Thank you.”
Baek So-cheon turned and strode away.
Watching his retreating figure, Na Sarin said,
“He is a good man.”
“Isn’t he?”
“That is also why he is dangerous. You understand what this old woman means, do you not?”
“Yes.”
...And that was also why Cheon-geuk found herself even more drawn to him.
In any case, the two of them could not leave yet.
At the very least, they had to remain until they learned whether Baek So-cheon succeeded.
Baek So-cheon did not deliberately seek out the Alliance Leader.
He had not voluntarily visited him even once during the past three years.
If he suddenly did so now, it could arouse suspicion.
Moreover, his goal was to use the secret technique.
He needed to find a natural opportunity to meet the Alliance Leader again.
To search for a method, Baek So-cheon went to find Zhuge Hyeon.
Zhuge Hyeon was not in his office at the Hyeoncheon Pavilion.
“The Strategist is at the Strategic Command Center. I will send word to him.”
At the Hyeoncheon Pavilion warrior’s words, Baek So-cheon immediately turned away.
“There is no need. I will go see him myself.”
Baek So-cheon was authorized to enter even the Strategic Command Center.
Zhuge Hyeon had effectively granted him every possible authority.
The moment Baek So-cheon entered the command center, every strategist turned to look at him.
In a sense, the strategists here were among the people closest to Baek So-cheon.
Every operation assigned to him during the Orthodox-Unorthodox War had been issued from this very place.
The strategists here knew better than anyone just how much Baek So-cheon had accomplished during the previous war.
Several senior strategists who had been present since the beginning of the war greeted him respectfully.
Baek So-cheon returned their greetings with equal courtesy.
As he walked farther inside, his steps halted before the wall displaying the Murim Ranking Register.
He looked at the Alliance Leader’s name at the very top.
Then he noticed that the Blood Cult Leader had recently risen above it.
Below them, in third place, was the name of the Cheokcheon Alliance Leader.
Someone that powerful is only third.
Then his gaze fell to his own name at the very bottom.
At that moment, Zhuge Hyeon came to stand beside him.
“It has been a long time since you came here, hasn’t it?”
“I believe it has been three or four years.”
When he had been the Secret Pavilion Master, he had been free to enter this place whenever he wished.
Back when Baek So-cheon had been one of the orthodox faction’s core forces during the Orthodox-Unorthodox War, there had been nowhere he could not enter and no information he was forbidden to handle.
As Zhuge Hyeon looked at the Murim Ranking Register beside him, he forcibly swallowed the words that surged into his throat.
Sometimes, I miss the days when your name stood at the very top.
To Zhuge Hyeon, it was a source of regret.
To Baek So-cheon, however, it would be far too painful a wound.
“What brings you here?”
“There is something I wish to discuss with you.”
He was just about to ask Zhuge Hyeon to arrange a natural meeting between himself and the Alliance Leader when—
Gong! Gong! Gong!
The emergency bells rang.
Every strategist immediately tensed.
“An urgent message has arrived from the Cheonmun Branch! The Sa-yeong Sect has reportedly been ambushed by unidentified assailants!”
Zhuge Hyeon was startled.
The Sa-yeong Sect was one of Hubei’s leading orthodox sects and had always provided active support to the Murim Alliance.
If something had happened to them, the Murim Alliance was obligated to help.
“Who attacked them?”
“We do not know. They have taken the Sa-yeong Sect Leader and his entire family hostage, while the Cheonmun Branch warriors have surrounded the sect.”
If the Cheokcheon Alliance was responsible, this was an unmistakable provocation.
The incident had occurred in Hubei Province, where the Murim Alliance headquarters itself was located.
Furthermore, Cheonmun was not far from the headquarters.
This was entirely different from exerting pressure along the border.
They had crossed the border and taken members of an allied sect hostage.
However, the likelihood was low.
Had it been the Cheokcheon Alliance, they would have struck and fled already.
There was no reason for them to stage a hostage situation like this.
“Which strike force is closest?”
“The Fourth Squad of the Iron Cavalry Corps is returning after completing an operation nearby.”
“Send an emergency message and dispatch the Fourth Squad of the Iron Cavalry Corps there immediately!”
“Yes!”
The strategists moved quickly.
The strategist assigned to the Alliance Leader’s Hall reported the situation there, while another issued deployment orders to the Iron Cavalry Corps.
Then another emergency message arrived.
Gong! Gong! Gong!
“Another message has arrived from the Cheonmun Branch!”
That meant the situation at the scene was changing rapidly.
It seemed that a new development had occurred immediately after the previous messenger hawk was sent.
Of course, the events described had occurred half an hour earlier.
Sa-ma Iljung read the message and was visibly startled.
“What is it?”
“The one holding the Sa-yeong Sect Leader hostage has revealed his demand.”
“What does he want?”
Sa-ma Iljung’s gaze shifted toward Baek So-cheon, who stood behind Zhuge Hyeon.
Then words no one had expected emerged from his mouth.
“He has demanded that Captain Baek be brought to him. If Captain Baek does not arrive before midnight tonight, he says he will kill one hostage every half hour.”