Chapter 30: Like a Cow Stepping Backward

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

An emergency bell rang out across the entire Thousand-Day Pass in the middle of the night.

“What the hell?!”

“Is it an attack?!”

“It’s from the new recruits’ Qi training room! Hurry!”

Not only the instructors on night duty, but even the secret units tasked with guarding the Thousand-Day Pass rushed toward the Qi training hall.

Just moments ago, an explosion had rocked the entire facility.

An explosion of that magnitude was nearly unheard of within the Thousand-Day Pass.

Not long after, the Pavilion Master of the Thousand-Day Pass himself appeared, flanked by instructors as his escort, having awakened from sleep.

“Greetings to the Pavilion Master!”

Baek Gyu, the commander of the Gatekeeping Unit, who was investigating the scene, bowed deeply and respectfully to the Pavilion Master.

“Spare me the chatter. Just the report.”

Startled by the irritation and killing intent in his superior’s demeanor, Baek Gyu quickly answered.

“We believe someone destroyed half of the Qi training room and then escaped.”

“Injuries?”

“Other than two trainees who were lightly injured while training, there were no major casualties.”

“That’s a relief, at least.”

“However, the identities of the injured trainees are quite significant, so we are investigating whether this might have been an assassination attempt.”

“An assassination attempt?”

The Pavilion Master’s expression stiffened.

“Who are they?”

“Trainees Jin Yeomyung of the Demonic Heaven’s Jin Clan and Ma Jinseong of the Blood Dragon Demonic Clan.”

Twitch.

Not just the Pavilion Master, but even the expression of Senior Instructor Jang Deuk-soo, who accompanied him, twisted upon hearing those names.

“Where are they now?”

“I sent them to a physician dispatched from the Medicine Hall, just in case.”

“Good.”

If it were just Ma Jinseong, a branch family member, it wouldn’t matter as much—but if Jin Yeomyung had suffered serious injuries?

He didn’t even want to imagine what might come next.

The Pavilion Master knew well that, despite appearances, the Asura King Jin Gun-ak deeply cherished his eldest son.

Should something truly happen to him, it wasn’t hard to envision the Asura King storming in with the Jin Clan elites in tow like a vengeful demon.

“Take me to the scene.”

“Yes, sir!”

Though the training room for new recruits wasn’t particularly large, it boasted impressive durability.

“Whoa! The wall made of Azure Steel stone is shattered like tofu.”

“It’s a blessing that there were so few trainees using the hall at the time.”

Only three new trainees had been using the hall.

And even then, they had been training far apart from one another, which helped keep the damage to a minimum.

“So Jin Yeomyung was training near here?”

“Yes. According to him, the wall suddenly collapsed and a powerful burst of Qi struck him.”

“Hm…”

Something felt off about that to the Pavilion Master.

‘An assassin made such a flashy entrance?’

And despite all that, the targets only ended up with minor injuries?

‘It sounds more plausible that he wrecked it himself while training… no, that still doesn’t add up.’

Azure Steel stone was tough enough that even most sword qi couldn’t leave a scratch, let alone slice through it.

To cause this level of destruction, the attacker would have to at least be capable of manifesting Qi Projection.

Which meant—

‘Is he already at Master Level at that age?’

And that was being conservative.

If it were the Jin Clan’s peak-level demonic arts, then maybe such power could be achieved at Master Level—but generally, you’d need to be beyond Master Level to pull off something like this.

‘That can’t be right.’

The Pavilion Master chuckled and dismissed the wild thought.

If someone had reached Master Level at that age, they’d already surpass the Six Demonic Dragons and be hailed as the top young martial artist in all of Murim.

In all his seventy years, the Pavilion Master had only ever seen two people reach Master Level at such a young age:

The current Cult Leader, Cheon Taejong, who had earned the title of Heavenly Demon,

And his daughter, the Young Cult Leader, Cheon Yura.

Just those two.

It was more reasonable to assume that a Master Level assassin had to flee for some unknown reason after attempting an assassination.

“What about tracking?”

“We’ve deployed our forces along the suspected entry paths and are performing a reverse sweep. We did manage to find one trace, however…”

The Pavilion Master clicked his tongue at the look on Baek Gyu’s face.

“Not going well, is it?”

“My apologies. He must be an extraordinary individual.”

“If he came in from the outside, that could explain it. This is partially my mistake.”

Lately, the Pavilion Master had allocated more personnel to monitor every trainee and instructor within the Pass, which had left them more vulnerable to outside infiltration.

“Still, do your best. There’s a chance a spy has infiltrated the cult.”

“Understood! I swear on my honor, I’ll uncover them!”

Baek Gyu’s eyes blazed with determination.

***

“There’s no internal damage, and the wounds should be fine as long as you apply some Golden Wound Ointment properly.”

“Thank you, physician.”

“No need to thank me. If you folks didn’t get injured, I wouldn’t have any work! Hahaha!”

The elderly man before me was a physician dispatched from the Medicine Hall, one of the Seventeen Parties.

“If I send you back right away, it’ll make me look bad to the Pavilion Master. Rest up and return tomorrow.”

“Thank you for the consideration.”

With the physician gone, I was left alone in the spacious patient ward.

‘He didn’t notice, did he?’

Wrecking the training hall during a mock battle with the illusion was clearly my mistake.

‘It’s best that no one finds out I can wield Sword Aura yet.’

Normally, I would have been exposed right away, no matter how suspicious things looked—but thankfully, I’d prepared a little insurance.

“Young Master.”

That “insurance” had just finished its job and came looking for me.

As I lifted my upper body off the bed, a bald young man with a now-familiar face was kneeling before me.

“So, Gu Chil.”

I grinned and asked him,

“Did you leave any traces?”

If I’d just thrown a fit and that was the end of it, nothing could be done. But if there were signs left outside, we could pin it on an assassination attempt.

That’s why, before everyone arrived, I ordered Gu Chil to leave subtle but detectable traces leading toward the outside of the Thousand-Day Pass.

But—

“Uh, about that…”  

Gu Chil scratched the back of his head, his expression awkward.

“What is it? Something wrong?”

“I did as you ordered and left some traces leading outside the Thousand-Day Pass, but…”

He had carried out the mission successfully—so why did he look like that?

“And?”

“Well… I think there might be someone else.”

“…What?”

Gu Chil’s words hit me like a club to the back of the head.

“I really think an outsider has infiltrated.”

According to him, he had gone to several exterior routes he had secretly scouted in advance to leave some signs of activity.

And at one of those places, there were already traces—faint but clear—of someone passing through there regularly.

“Any chance it’s not a spy?”

“Highly unlikely. That path goes through a gap in the formation net surrounding the area. Who else would bother going through all that unless they were a spy?”

Given that Gu Chil was once a top-class assassin—a true First-rate Martial Artist—his words carried weight.

I let out a hollow laugh.

“Ha… like a cow stepping backward and catching a rat.”

“Not just any rat. You just caught the king rat.”

“Can you track them?”

Gu Chil grinned.

“Do you even need to ask?”

He was once Byeok Cheon-un, commander of the Ghost Command Unit under the direct control of the Cheon Clan—codename Doom-Wielding Ghost Commander, Nine Hidden Ghost.

That was Gu Chil’s former identity.

***

At the same time.

Somewhere within the Thousand-Day Pass.

“Second Order, it’s been a month since the directive was issued.”

“…”

“Those above want this resolved quickly. Why haven’t you taken action yet?”

The shadow in black was clearly displeased with the Second Order’s recent inactivity.

Just months ago, he had acted so confidently, claiming he’d handle everything perfectly—yet no news since then?

But the Second Order had his reasons.

“I’m under surveillance.”

“Surveillance…?”

The shadow visibly wavered at the reply.

“It’s not just me. Ever since the directive was issued, at least dozens of people have been monitoring movements day and night. From what I’ve found, it’s not just me—it’s the entire trainee force.”

“Did we get exposed somehow?”

“Of course not!”

The Second Order snapped, his voice rough and angry.

“I haven’t even done anything yet, and there hasn’t been any sign that anything’s been discovered. If someone had been exposed, there’d be no reason to cast the net over the entire group!”

He clenched his teeth in frustration.

“You should be cautious too. The surveillance isn’t just on the trainees.”

“Well, I’m an internal staff member after all.”

The shadow held a position as an instructor, though not one that involved directly teaching trainees.

“And if anyone got exposed, shouldn’t it be your side, not mine?”

The only reason the two of them were even able to have this conversation despite the surveillance was thanks to the recent strange incident at the Thousand-Day Pass.

With the guards dispatched to investigate that incident, the usual monitoring had temporarily loosened, giving them a rare opportunity to talk.

“Rumors are spreading among the trainees that an assassin infiltrated the Thousand-Day Pass. Isn’t that more likely to have come from your side?”

The shadow trembled visibly at those words.

“H-Hem. I thought it might be related, so I ran some checks internally…”

“And?”

“No one acted on their own. I’m sure of it.”

“Absolutely sure?”

“I swear on the name of the Dark King Squad I lead.”

Only when he invoked the name of his unit did the Second Order’s expression soften slightly.

“Then who the hell is it?”

“We’re looking into that as well. Looks like some reckless brat popped up from another line.”

The “organization” was strictly compartmentalized into a cell structure.

It had to be, because the surveillance net cast by the Heavenly Demonic Cult was far too wide and meticulous for any centralized body to operate freely.

That was why even when someone acted rashly, it was hard to trace.

“Still, Second Order, if you continue to stall despite the situation, expect repercussions.”

“I know. I’ve been working to draw him into my faction. Even if I fail…”

The Second Order’s eyes turned cold.

“I can just kill him outside. The ‘field training’ is coming up.”

The shadow nodded.

Field training for the Thousand-Day Pass didn’t take place inside, but outside the institution.

It was the perfect time to make a move.

“The Eighth Lord places great importance on this matter. Do not fail and ruin the grand design.”

At the mention of the Eighth Lord, the Second Order’s expression hardened immediately.

The Eighth Lord was a high-ranking executive even within the organization—a man who had proven himself and earned recognition for achieving tangible results under the nose of the vigilant Heavenly Demon Cult.

But what made him most fearsome wasn’t his ability—it was his temperament.

He didn’t interfere much with his subordinates, but he was infamous for discarding failures without hesitation.

“I’ll handle it as quickly as possible.”

“Very well. I shouldn’t be away from my post too long either, so I’ll take my leave.”

Not long after, the shadow opposite the Second Order disappeared.

“Damn it…”

The Second Order cursed quietly as he noticed sweat dripping from his clenched palms.

The assassination should’ve been done long ago, but this unexpected commotion in the Thousand-Day Pass had completely derailed the plan.

“Where the hell is that mountain bandit?”

If he wanted to take care of it quietly, he needed to keep the target close.

But the mountain bandit he’d sent to win over the target had, a few months ago, not only saved the assassination target—he now stuck to him like glue as if they were best friends.

The Second Order’s headache only deepened.

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