Among the orders he had received as a spy, the most critical was the neutralization of variables.
The emergence of an unexpected figure, the occurrence of an unpredictable situation—if such variables could not be controlled, report immediately.
For a spy who had entered the heart of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect at the risk of his life, it was a self-evident and ironclad rule.
'First, I revise the threat level.'
Do Gyeong changed Ha Jin's assessment from Low to Medium. This man was not a disposable chess piece to be used and discarded—he was a target to be watched and guarded against.
His judgment made, Do Gyeong plastered on a sly smile and turned away.
"Well then, I'll be on my way."
Prolonging the conversation further would be disadvantageous. He needed time to reorganize the information he had on this man.
It was then. Ha Jin strode forward and blocked Do Gyeong's path.
"What is it? Have you more business?"
"I thought maybe you had more questions for me."
"My questions are all finished, though......?"
Why did it feel as though he was being stopped?
Instinctively, Do Gyeong scanned Ha Jin's expression. Still unreadable—neither goodwill nor malice—yet right now, it felt like an eerie mask.
And the thought surfaced once more. The chilling speculation that Ha Jin might have already seen through his identity. It seemed unlikely, but if this entire exchange had been designed to coax Do Gyeong's plans out of his own mouth?
'Did he think that far ahead? If so, is this his way of silently telling me not to leave his sight?'
It was only a simple question, yet why was every sense in his body screaming? Moments ago, he had been the one steering the conversation, but now it felt as though the board had been flipped—an unpleasant sense of crisis crept in.
'What if that's what this is? Do I push through and break past him? But how? Can I overpower someone who's a step above Cheon Ha-rin? Impossible.'
And he couldn't run, either—the instant he tried, Ha Jin might split his skull open. The image of his own body cleaved in half flashed through Do Gyeong's mind.
A shudder of dread, and what felt like a trickle of cold sweat running down his spine. Do Gyeong moistened his dry lips with his tongue, barely maintaining his smile. The alarm bells in his head were shrieking.
His gaze drifted to Ha Jin's mouth. What words would come out? As Do Gyeong struggled to maintain composure while reading Ha Jin's intent, Ha Jin spoke first.
"If we're both done, then I should be going too."
With that, Ha Jin turned away without a trace of hesitation. Not a hint of reluctance in his step. Do Gyeong went blank for a moment.
'What? He's just letting me go?'
What had that spine-tingling pressure been just moments ago? Had it been nothing but his own overactive imagination? Or had it been a masterful psychological maneuver from the other man?
Do Gyeong watched Ha Jin's departing back with eyes full of suspicion. A sudden thought crossed his mind.
A perfectly unguarded back. If he struck now?
In a sliver of an instant, dozens of assassination techniques were drawn and erased inside Do Gyeong's mind. Could he win? Against someone skilled enough to escape the Sect Leader's daughter mid-fight?
But right now, the man had presented a perfect opening for a rear attack. If he could pull it off, he could eliminate a variable with high potential to become a thorn in the orthodox sects' side.
'Do I move?'
Do Gyeong's fingertips twitched, on the verge of gathering killing intent—
"You seem like a really good guy."
Ha Jin tossed the words over his shoulder without so much as turning his head.
"I hope we'll be seeing each other for a long time."
At this single remark, Do Gyeong flinched as though a hammer had struck the crown of his skull. The killing intent that had been rising a moment ago vanished without a trace, and goosebumps erupted down his spine.
"Oh, uh, yeah, I'd like that too......"
Do Gyeong stammered out his reply before he even realized it. His voice trembled faintly. Even after Ha Jin had completely disappeared from view, Do Gyeong stood rooted to the spot as though nailed to the ground.
'Hopes we'll be seeing each other for a long time......'
The words he'd just heard lingered in his ears. Coming from someone of that caliber, it couldn't possibly be simple goodwill. There had to be a hidden meaning. And so he had no choice but to search for the true intent.
His deliberation continued. Before long, Do Gyeong arrived at a possible interpretation.
'Is it a warning—"If you want to see me for a long time, don't even dream of pulling what you were just thinking"? Or is it a threat—"I'll kill you"? Damn it.'
Do Gyeong scrubbed his face with both hands and exhaled roughly. A chilling warning that seemed to say he had seen right through Do Gyeong's thoughts. Inwardly, he upgraded Ha Jin to an Upper-tier threat.
'I need to report to the Alliance first......'
Do Gyeong trudged away, his steps heavy.
Meanwhile, Ha Jin was also walking at a leisurely pace, turning over the encounter in his mind. Do Gyeong's words came back to him.
'He shared all that information with me—seems like a decent guy.'
The various details about the Demon Path Hall, the people to watch out for, and a tone that sounded genuinely concerned for him.
'I thought the Demonic Sect was full of nothing but lunatics, but there are actually people you can have a normal conversation with.'
It would be nice to stay on good terms with someone like that. Ha Jin offered a light farewell in his mind, then turned his attention to his own physical state. It was time to start preparing.
The first-stage trial would begin soon. On top of that, the moment was approaching when he'd have to choose between the Transcendence Hall and the Thousand Days Hall. But in his current condition, it was out of the question.
'My mana's completely bottomed out. I can barely stay on my feet.'
Outwardly he had maintained composure, but his body had already reached its limit. His legs were shaking and his vision was dimming—he was barely holding on through sheer willpower.
'No choice. It'll take a while, but I'll find somewhere quiet and meditate to recover bit by bit.'
The most effective method for restoring mana was, without question, a mana potion. But he couldn't get one right now.
'All I can do is meditate and wait for it to come back.'
Of course, he fully intended to search for something that could replace the potion in the long run. He couldn't rely on meditation forever.
Ha Jin quickened his pace toward a secluded, out-of-the-way spot. During meditation, one was vulnerable to ambush—he needed to stockpile his strength somewhere safe.
'Where should I go? I don't have a private room yet.'
Private quarters were only granted after passing at least the third-stage trial in the Demon Path Hall. Until then, everyone shared communal barracks, which could hardly be called secure.
Then his eyes fell on a shed. A place that looked as though it had been abandoned for quite some time.
"This is it......!"
Ha Jin promptly pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Moments later, he closed the door, assumed a familiar cross-legged position on the floor, and shut his eyes.
"Whew."
He exhaled a ragged breath and steadied his scattered mind and body. Now it was time to focus.
Ha Jin's consciousness sank deep into his body, toward the dried-up wellspring of mana. He poured every ounce of mental energy into drawing ambient energy inward, trying to fill the well with even a single drop.
HUMMMMM—
How long had passed?
One shichen, two shichen—as the sun sank and dusk crept across the window, Ha Jin continued his meditation without the slightest movement. But the results were miserable.
The mana wellspring, cracked like a parched riverbed, refused to accept even the faintest wisp of energy. No matter how hard he tried, the scattered mana refused to coalesce—it simply dispersed like grains of sand.
In the end, Ha Jin's patience gave out.
"Argh! Damn it all!"
Don't be dramatic?
This wasn't being dramatic. Ha Jin slammed his fist against the floor in frustration and shot to his feet. The composure he'd been clinging to shattered, and agitation mixed with anger spread across his face.
"At this pathetic rate, when will I ever fill it up?!"
He could feel it. The tiniest speck of mana trickling into the wellspring. Right now, with a bit of time to spare, he could force himself to replenish it. But thinking about what lay ahead left him speechless. If another sudden fight broke out like earlier and his mana ran dry after just a few spells, he'd be in serious trouble.
It was the moment he realized, bone-deep, that orthodox methods like meditation were utterly inadequate for sustaining his mana through life in the Demon Path Hall.
He had no choice but to find another way. Something fast and reliable. And in the same instant, a thought struck him like lightning.
'I absolutely need a mana potion......!'
The brewing process was finicky and the ingredients hard to come by, but once he managed to produce one, it would be the sole trump card that could replenish his depleted mana in a single gulp.
'But can I even make one here......?'
This martial arts world did have ingredients analogous to those of the modern world, so it wasn't impossible in theory. Whether they'd produce the same effect, however, was another matter entirely.
'No—I'll find a way, whatever it takes.'
He would find an answer. He always had.
Ha Jin clenched his jaw, steeled his resolve, and let out a shout. For now, though, recovery had to come first.
"Haah."
Of course, sighing didn't speed up the process, so all he could do was scrub his face vigorously with both hands.
***
A week passed.
Toward the entrance of the Demon Path Hall, where only desolate winds had blown, a heavy carriage came rumbling through a cloud of dust.
With a creak, the carriage halted and its door swung open. A man stepped down. Salt-and-pepper white hair swept neatly back, a keen, blade-sharp bearing—a middle-aged figure who commanded attention.
The moment he alighted, a man who had been waiting at the entrance hurried over. A neatly turbaned figure—Chae Un-ryang, one of the Demon Path Hall's martial arts instructors.
Chae Un-ryang approached the white-haired man and bowed deeply at the waist.
"Welcome, Lord Blade Demon."
Reverence seeped through his voice. The Blade Demon before him was one of the five masters who upheld the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect—a man who could, without exaggeration, be called the Greatest Blade Master Under Heaven.
Just the piercing gleam of his eyes was enough to send chills down one's spine.
"Good work."
The Blade Demon responded to the greeting with a perfunctory nod, then gave Chae Un-ryang a brief once-over. Chae Un-ryang gulped. Had something gone wrong?
GULP.
As the tension lingered, the Blade Demon grimaced slightly and rapped his lower back with his knuckles.
"Seriously though, why did they build the Demon Path Hall in such a godforsaken place? The road was so bumpy I thought my rear end would fall off."
"Ha ha, then let me escort you to your quarters right away. You must be terribly sore after such a long journey......"
The instructor hastened his pace. The Blade Demon watched him go in silence. More precisely, he was staring at the Demon Path Hall building itself.
'I really don't like it.'
The idea that his only daughter would be living in a building this shabby did not sit well with him at all. He was mulling over whether to order an expansion when someone approached from the opposite direction.
Jet-black hair. Enigmatic violet eyes that radiated a mysterious aura. A woman whose mere presence drew the air around her taut. The Mad Demon.
The Mad Demon sauntered toward the Blade Demon, a mocking smile playing at her lips.
"My, my, what a rare and precious face to see in a backwater like this. Was your little girl that much of a worry? Enough to drag the great Blade Demon all the way here as a guest instructor for the Transcendence Hall."
At the Mad Demon's needling, the Blade Demon replied with a look of weary irritation.
"I'm the only one who can properly teach my daughter, So-yeon."
"How noble an excuse. She must be quite the darling. Makes yours truly wonder if she should get married herself, just to understand the feeling."
"You......?"
For an instant, the Blade Demon's expression froze. The Mad Demon, as if putting on a show, trailed a finger languidly from the nape of her neck down to her collarbone along the pale skin.
"Where else would you find a woman as skilled in martial arts and as highly placed as yours truly? The perfect role model for your little girl, wouldn't you say?"
Any ordinary man would have lost his senses at such a bewitching display, but the Blade Demon merely heaved a deep sigh.
"I'm saying this for your own good, Mad Demon. Having a child at your age is terrible for the body. And my daughter, unlike you, is sane."
In an instant, the smile vanished from the Mad Demon's face. A hair-raising killing intent erupted from her eyes.
"You bastard, you want to die? How about a life-or-death duel right here, right now?"
As she looked ready to launch herself at him any second, the Blade Demon waved his hand dismissively.
"Enough. More to the point, why are you at a Demon Path Hall like this? You were never the type to care one whit about education."
"Because Ghost Hand's disciple is in this year's class, obviously."
Her violet eyes flashed with intrigue and madness.
"I'm curious. How useful the senile old man's final masterpiece will turn out to be."
The Mad Demon licked her lips slowly with a crimson tongue, murmuring as though she'd never radiated killing intent at all. The Blade Demon watched and sighed once more.
The words "You're more senile than Ghost Hand" nearly escaped his lips—but he swallowed them back at the last possible moment.