Inside the small box the old man had presented lay a single hairpin—worn and modest, bearing the unmistakable marks of age. Do Gyeong furrowed his brow and asked.
"What on earth is this?"
The Branch Chief gazed at the hairpin and curled the corner of his mouth.
"Consider it one of Ghost Hand's personal effects."
"His effects?"
"Yes. A long time ago, when we cast a Heaven-and-Earth Net to capture Ghost Hand. We never caught him in the end, but we did manage to seize some of the items he carried. This is one of them."
The Branch Chief paused and picked up the hairpin.
"You might wonder what an assassin was doing with a hairpin. To be precise, it belonged to Ghost Hand's mother. That cold-blooded man carried it on his person at all times."
He turned back to Do Gyeong.
"Ha Jin, was it? If he's Ghost Hand's disciple, he would have heard stories about his master's mother from time to time. Ghost Hand was surprisingly sentimental, after all."
A sly smile crossed the Branch Chief's face.
"He'll recognize it the instant he sees it. There's no way he wouldn't know the item his master treasured most. Use it to rattle him. Or better yet, dangle it as bait and turn him to your side."
"Will that work?"
"If the target is truly Ghost Hand's disciple, he won't be able to stay composed when he sees this."
"If it's that potent......"
Do Gyeong nodded at the Branch Chief's words and peered down at the hairpin in the box.
'A way to definitively control the variable known as Ha Jin.'
He lifted the hairpin and tucked it carefully inside his robes. Then he offered the Branch Chief a light clasped hands greeting.
"I'll take my leave. I'll return at the next scheduled report."
Do Gyeong rose and headed for the door, then paused as though something had occurred to him.
"By the way, what happened to the other operatives who infiltrated with me?"
"Fifty percent have established themselves as securely as you. Thirty percent failed the admission trial and have been recalled."
The Branch Chief stopped for a moment, then added in a cold voice.
"The remaining twenty percent have gone dark."
At the words "gone dark," Do Gyeong's steps halted. He turned to the Branch Chief and asked.
"Were the twenty percent exposed and eliminated? Or is it defection—betrayal?"
A level tone, carrying a thread of concern for his comrades and a sharp wariness toward the possibility of betrayal. For a spy, this was an unavoidable reality.
The Branch Chief shook his head.
"I can't say for certain. Which is exactly why we need to investigate, piece by piece."
"Shall I look into it?"
"No."
The Branch Chief fixed Do Gyeong with a penetrating stare.
"The full picture hasn't come together yet. Do not attempt to contact the other operatives rashly. We don't know who may have turned, who may be under surveillance—none of it. Focus solely on your own mission."
Even allies from the orthodox sects were not to be trusted here. Do Gyeong lowered his head once more and stepped outside without another word. The door creaked shut behind him.
After Do Gyeong had vanished completely into the darkness and the inn's back door had closed, perfect silence finally descended.
Left alone, the Branch Chief exhaled a deep sigh. Anxiety and inner turmoil were written plainly across his face.
"Whew."
He drove the vegetable knife in his hand straight into the wooden table beside him with a thunk. The table, unable to withstand the force, split with a crack.
There was no more time to waste.
The Branch Chief hurried to pull a sheet of paper from a drawer and unfurled it. Without even bothering to grind fresh ink, he plunged his brush into a pre-prepared inkwell.
Words began to storm across the paper.
—Multiple variables detected. Unpredictable developments. Risk of operational disruption. Immediate support requested.
A few terse lines encapsulated the entire situation. The Branch Chief folded the still-wet letter in half, his eyes glinting.
***
After parting with Do Gyeong, Ha Jin did not head to his quarters as he had claimed. His feet carried him in an entirely different direction—the Thousand Days Hall's Technique Archive.
'I'll need to visit my master eventually, but before that......'
He paused to think. Could he take the second-stage trial as he was?
They had clearly said the Demon Path Eight Extremes Formation had to be executed successfully.
That obviously required some understanding of martial arts. So Ha Jin had come to this archive—open to any cadet who had passed the first-stage trial—with the intention of picking up at least the basics.
'More importantly, if I'm going to survive the Demon Path Hall, I should learn at least some rudimentary self-defense. My mana could run out at any time.'
No matter how useful Shield magic was, he couldn't stake everything on that one spell. And so he came to stand naturally before the Technique Archive.
Ha Jin offered a clasped hands greeting to the instructor standing guard at the entrance, then pushed open the heavy door and stepped inside.
And in that moment, a gasp escaped him before he could stop it.
'Good lord, what is all this?'
The sight before him far exceeded his imagination. Shelves stretching so high and so long their ends were invisible. What had to be hundreds of thousands of volumes packed tightly into every inch of space.
'Is this more than the Tripitaka Koreana?'
Ha Jin murmured to himself. His brief flash of awe quickly gave way to focus, and he pressed forward. He scanned the shelves, searching for manuals classified under headings like "fundamentals" or "introductory."
He pulled out several books that appeared to cover basic heart methods and sword techniques, then settled at a worn desk tucked in a corner.
After all, if you've come to a martial arts world, swinging a sword at least once is the romance of it! But the moment Ha Jin opened the first book with a flutter of excitement, his face went rigid.
What greeted him was not the basic pictographic characters he had learned for survival. The pages were crammed edge to edge with dense, tiny classical Chinese characters, devoid of any annotation or commentary.
"Hmm......"
White is paper, black is ink. Just staring at it made his head spin.
'Is it supposed to be this hard? This is on a completely different level from the cheap manuals you can buy in the marketplace.'
He tried to push through a few more lines, but it only made his headache worse. In the end, Ha Jin closed the book without regret.
"This isn't going to work."
His ambitious plan to learn self-defense arts was scrapped the instant it began. But another plan could take its place.
'Let me focus on solving the mana problem first. If I want to make medicines I can use like potions, I should start with herbology or alchemy texts.'
Ha Jin rose from his seat and headed not for the martial arts shelves but for the medical section. He had decided to tackle the most immediate problem first.
'In that case......'
He carefully selected a few books from the shelves. His idea was to look up herbs that grew naturally in the area around the Hundred Thousand Mountains—the Celestial Mountains.
The books looked as intimidating as the martial arts manuals at first glance, but thankfully their contents were different. Each herb's properties were accompanied by simple illustrations for easy identification, and approximate habitats were helpfully noted.
'Good—this is plenty workable.'
He pored over the contents with care.
'I don't have a furnace or the skill to refine pills right now, so actual pill production is out of the question. I need to find things like raw herbs or spirit plants that can be consumed as-is.'
Ha Jin jotted down the important details on a spare sheet of paper. After recording the names, appearances, and habitats of several promising herbs, he rose with a look of satisfaction.
All that remained was legwork. He returned the books to their places and walked out of the Technique Archive with a light step.
And the moment he pushed through the door—
"Hmm?"
A familiar voice reached his ears. He turned his head, and there before him stood a woman with folded arms, leaning at a crooked angle.
Violet eyes, gleaming with an unnerving light, fixed squarely on him. Ha Jin's feet stopped dead. It was the Mad Demon.
"Well now, disciple—what brings you to the Technique Archive? Already devoting yourself to martial arts training?"
Her voice carried a subtle blend of pride and expectation toward her new student. Ha Jin was about to answer reflexively.
"Oh, I was looking up some information on medicinal herbs......"
But mid-sentence, a memory struck him like lightning. The Mad Demon before him. And the spiritual medicine.
"Oh, right!"
"Hm?"
Ha Jin's expression brightened instantly. He turned to the Mad Demon with undisguised enthusiasm.
"Master! Didn't you say you'd give me a spiritual medicine once I entered the Thousand Days Hall?"
At this guileless yet brazen demand, a thick vein bulged on the Mad Demon's forehead. The smile vanished from her face.
"You little—! The first thing out of your mouth when you see your master is that?!"
She looked ready to seize him by the collar, her voice sharp enough to cut. Far from a touching reunion between master and disciple—it was more like a debtor being hounded by a creditor. Her insides roiled.
Ha Jin grumbled to himself in silent protest.
'You're the one who offered in the first place.'
Left with no choice, he was about to offer a cursory greeting and excuse himself to go herb-hunting when—
FLICK—!
"GYAAAH!"
The Mad Demon's finger struck Ha Jin's forehead with pinpoint accuracy. The blow came too fast for him to deploy a Shield, and Ha Jin clutched his forehead as he tumbled to the ground, rolling across the floor.
"Stop being dramatic, you pathetic creature. With your external arts, that shouldn't even hurt."
The Mad Demon clicked her tongue, but Ha Jin was genuinely trembling in pain. And it truly did hurt. He hadn't been able to use Shield magic.
"I-I think my skull cracked......"
"I barely tapped you! Stop the theatrics and get up!"
The Mad Demon looked down at Ha Jin, sprawled on the ground, with a mixture of exasperation and pity.
"So the only thing you wanted from your master was a spiritual medicine?"
"Well...... No matter how much you are my master, it's not as though I can ask for anything else."
Requesting that she pull strings with his trial results, for instance, was out of the question. With her personality, she'd be more likely to refuse than comply. Forget pulling strings—she might take his head off.
The Mad Demon, of course, interpreted this differently.
'He truly had nothing he wanted from yours truly?'
If anything, it was the Mad Demon who felt a pang of something almost like disappointment. In the end, she raised the white flag. With a sigh, she jerked her chin as if to say "follow me."
"Come. I'll teach you the basics of the Boundless Heart Method before the second-stage trial starts."
At those words, Ha Jin's eyes—which had been half-dead a moment ago—flew open.
'The heart method? Mana recovery! Right—that takes priority over any spiritual medicine!'
Every thought of pills and herbs evaporated from his mind. Ha Jin sprang to his feet as though he'd never been hurt, color flooding back into his face as he met the Mad Demon's eyes.
"What are you waiting for, Master? Your disciple will follow right behind you."
The Mad Demon stared at him with an expression caught between disbelief and resignation, then muttered.
"......Wonderful."
She clicked her tongue and started walking. Ha Jin trotted happily after her. It might have looked a bit mercenary, but what could he do?
'This, I can't pass up!'
It was the chance to obtain the key to freely recovering his mana.