CHAPTER: Chapter 12
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Chapter 12
The scene from moments ago kept replaying in Yajin's mind, as though he still could not believe it.
'Impossible...'
For an ordinary cadet, it would have been natural not even to notice a surprise attack flying at him out of the darkness.
Even if one possessed keen enough senses to barely evade it, that alone would have been worthy of praise.
But Uncheon had gone far beyond mere evasion.
He had caught the incoming wooden pellet with his bare hand.
'My aim was to provide an example, yet I have only made a spectacle of myself.'
To teach a born genius nothing more than how to step on leaves without making a sound would have been an insult to his talent.
"There is no point in basic training any longer."
A bitter smile touched Yajin's lips, yet a strange heat also rose within him.
"Let us see just how far those senses of yours can truly go... I will find out now."
With those words, he flicked one of the beads on the training ground floor with the tip of his foot.
The bead ricocheted several times along unpredictable trajectories off the walls and pillars.
Then, behind Uncheon, it struck a bell hanging in the air with perfect accuracy and made it ring.
Jingle—
Only then did Uncheon realize it.
The bell was not hanging in midair at all, but suspended from a wire.
"As you can see, this room was built so that even the slightest movement produces noise."
By then, Uncheon's senses had also grown accustomed to the darkness.
Only then did he begin to make out the faint gleam of wires spread throughout the room like a spider's web.
Dry leaves and scattered beads were strewn all across the floor.
'Indeed... this is a facility meant to train an assassin to move without making a sound! There is not a single place where one may set foot without worry....'
While Uncheon was grasping the structure of the training ground,
Yajin's cold voice cut through the darkness.
"From this moment on, I will hunt you with everything in this training ground. Your task is simple. Evade every wooden pellet I throw with all your strength."
No sooner had Yajin finished speaking than his figure melted into the darkness.
"Ah, if you are curious what happens when you make a sound, then go ahead and make one yourself. Now then, begin."
Silence fell.
Perfect silence.
Yajin had erased his presence completely.
Uncheon operated the Life-Prolonging Breathing Method and sharpened every nerve, trying to detect even the faintest current of air brushing against his skin.
Then it came.
Whish!
A wooden pellet shot toward him with a sharp whistle through the air.
But it was not aimed at Uncheon.
Puff!
The pellet struck the pile of dry leaves at Uncheon's feet, scattering the brittle leaves into the air.
'It is not a frontal attack. He means to blind my vision!'
A thick cloud of leaf dust threw Uncheon's sight into confusion.
The eyes that had only just adjusted to the darkness became useless in an instant.
Uncheon immediately shut his eyes and sharpened his other senses to a razor's edge.
But in the very next moment, Yajin's second attack began.
Jingle! Rattle—
The wooden pellets Yajin threw struck the bells and beads installed throughout the training ground all at once.
A random discord of noise savagely battered Uncheon's hearing.
'This time, it is my hearing!'
He understood at once.
'Within this tide of noise, he will have hidden the true attack.'
And his prediction was correct.
Amid the spreading flood of sound, a single silent wooden pellet flew straight toward Uncheon's heart.
But Uncheon merely shifted half a step with light ease and twisted his torso, letting the pellet brush past him.
"Hoh...."
A low murmur of admiration escaped Yajin from within the darkness.
But the admiration lasted only for that instant.
Yajin immediately raised the level of his attack, making it even more devious.
Whiiish!
This time it came from the front.
An attack with a trajectory so straightforward it seemed almost honest.
But Uncheon's senses screamed their warning.
'This attack is a trap!'
Just as he expected, something came flying from his blind spot.
Tok—
But it was not aimed at Uncheon.
In that same instant, the wooden pellet flying toward him from the front collided with another pellet right before his face.
'A ricochet!'
Instead of instinctively retreating, Uncheon swiftly stepped half a pace forward.
The two colliding pellets spun off in utterly unpredictable trajectories and grazed past him.
Had he stepped back, he would have been struck without fail.
'An irregular concealed-weapon art... impressive!'
Uncheon barely managed to evade the attack, but he could not stop his breathing from growing harsher and harsher.
Moving soundlessly through darkness was by no means easy.
Even though he had reduced his evasive motions to the absolute minimum, the effort still gnawed steadily at his stamina.
'...It is not easy to maintain this level of tension without pause!'
Was it because he had been concentrating so intensely under these extreme conditions?
His foot lightly brushed a dry twig on the floor.
Rustle—
Ordinarily, it would have been no more than a whisper too faint to hear, no different from the wind.
But here, it shattered the pitch-black stillness.
It was a sound far too distinct.
At that moment, Yajin's low voice echoed through the darkness with chilling clarity.
"You wavered. Have you reached your limit?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than every sense in Uncheon's body screamed.
Though Yajin's figure remained unseen, Uncheon heard the pouch of wooden pellets in his hands empty all at once.
Rattle—
Dozens of black points came pouring from every direction like a torrential downpour.
This was not merely a matter of scattering a large number of hidden projectiles.
It was a net that sealed off every path of retreat Uncheon could possibly take.
'I cannot evade this...!'
Uncheon gave up on dodging.
Instead, he crossed his arms and covered his vital points, his face and heart among them.
THWACK THWACK THWACK! THUD THUD!
An uncountable number of wooden pellets flew in and lashed mercilessly against his gaunt body.
A searing pain surged through him, as though every joint in his body were shrieking.
Dark bruises bloomed across his emaciated frame in an instant.
"Urgh...!"
Without even managing a proper groan, Uncheon dropped to one knee on the floor.
After the last of the pellets had fallen, Yajin stepped slowly out of the shadows.
He stood before Uncheon and said in a voice cold as ice, "The smallest noise reveals your position completely."
His foot nudged one of the wooden pellets lying on the floor.
"If this had been a real battle, you would already be dead. Remember it well. The sound an assassin makes... is death itself. Now rise. This is the last."
From that moment onward, Yajin's full assault began.
Dust to block his sight.
Noise to cripple his hearing.
And unpredictable ricochet attacks raining in from every direction.
Yajin assailed Uncheon with every object in the training ground.
'Senior Head Instructor Yajin truly means to drive me to the limit!'
Uncheon responded by pushing Limitless Step and Shadowless Step to their utmost limits.
"Huff... huff...."
With each repeated evasive movement, his ragged breath climbed higher and higher into his throat.
As Uncheon reached the edge of physical collapse, he lost the ability to evade consciously and efficiently, and his body began to move on instinct alone.
With pain that felt as though his lungs were being torn apart, his skeletal frame screamed out the limits of its stamina.
'With this body, it is impossible... the difference in level is too great!'
The more exhausted Uncheon became, the more relentless and precise Yajin's attacks grew.
And as Uncheon forgot to think and simply hurled his body about on instinct,
he suddenly realized something.
Within this storm of attacks that seemed so merciless, there was a strange flow.
'Could it be...?'
If the first attack forced his left foot toward a certain point, then the next attack made it inevitable that he step forward with his right.
'Tch... I am not the one evading. I am merely walking the path that the Senior Head Instructor has opened for me.'
Senior Head Instructor Yajin's assault had never been meant merely to strike him.
He had been guiding Uncheon to evade in specific directions and with specific movements.
'This is not merely a test. It is training! Is he forcing me to fully absorb Shadowless Step through instinct alone?'
Uncheon shuddered with awe at Yajin's unimaginable method of instruction.
'It is utterly unlike the masters of Gonryun. And yet... it is practical.'
The moment Uncheon understood Yajin's intent, he wrung out every last scrap of strength he had left.
Within a trap where attacks seemed to come from three sides at once, he unfolded Shadowless Step perfectly and slipped through the space like a streak of light.
But that was the end of it.
The instant that perfect evasion ended, all strength drained from his legs.
'Tch... this damned garbage body.'
Uncheon's body collapsed straight to the floor.
Thud.
All attacks ceased, and silence returned to the training ground.
Yajin emerged from the darkness
and stood before Uncheon, who was dragging in harsh breaths.
Satisfaction and interest were mingled on his face.
"So this is as far as your stamina goes. I acknowledge your talent, but your vessel is utterly wretched...."
Yajin placed a hand on Uncheon's back to examine his condition.
"This... this is...?"
The instant he tried to confirm the state of Uncheon's exhausted body, a shocking truth flowed into him through his fingertips.
His meridians were twisted and blocked to a grotesque degree.
Not only was the flow of inner energy impossible, even life itself could barely move through them.
It was a body afflicted with Severed Meridian Affliction.
Yajin's eyes filled with astonishment.
'Th-this is Severed Meridian Affliction! Do not tell me... all this time, with a body like this, he caught the wooden pellets I threw at him and evaded them as well...?'
Once again, he examined Uncheon.
A boy who had endured the trial with no inner energy at all, relying solely on a body on the verge of collapse and a genius's senses.
And even his final movement had seemed to pierce through the hidden purpose behind the training itself.
'This is beyond the level of genius. This is... a monster. If that ruined vessel could somehow be repaired, just how far would this boy grow...?'
Within Yajin's mind, a firm and fearsome resolve took shape.
He would train Uncheon.
'Did Young Master Yuha know even this...?'
A monster like this would become the finest hidden blade imaginable, one no one else could even conceive of.
'A blade capable of killing a Peak Realm master, perhaps even one beyond... He has the makings of a top-grade assassin.'
Yajin extended a hand toward Uncheon.
"Rise. Heaven may have granted you talent, but if the vessel meant to hold it is in such miserable condition, you will only shatter before your edge is even honed."
As he helped Uncheon back to his feet, Yajin spoke in a voice that was cold, yet filled with a strange fervor.
"Starting tomorrow, I will not only sharpen your blade. At the same time, I will forge your broken vessel anew."
At those words, the eyes of the exhausted and fallen Uncheon regained their light.
Though he staggered, he stood upright and asked, as if confirming Yajin's intent,
"...Is there a way to mend my body?"
Yajin shook his head.
"There is none in my hands. But...."
His gaze shifted beyond the training ground, toward a deeper and darker place within the Demonic Martial Hall.
"One of the eccentrics of our Cult... the Demon Physician, might be able to."
"The Demon Physician...?"
A rumor the children had once whispered brushed across Uncheon's mind.
A practitioner of a secret art that altered one's constitution, a figure whose very existence had been uncertain.
"Yes. The greatest physician in the Cult... and the maddest eccentric of them all."
Yajin clicked his tongue as though recalling something dreadful, then continued.
"It was that person who created the Demonic Bone Rebirth Art. If the power of that secret art is real, then even you might be reborn with Demonic Bones."
Yajin's explanation was terrifying enough to make one's flesh crawl from hearing it alone.
"But that secret art is unfinished. If it succeeds, you will gain a vessel capable of containing the talent heaven gave you...."
His voice sank even lower.
"If it fails, then you will become nothing more than one of the Demon Physician's experimental subjects. Nine out of ten never return...."
But Uncheon's eyes did not waver in the slightest.
'...I chose from the beginning to live for Gonryun's vengeance. I have no fear.'
On the contrary, his eyes blazed with the light of hope.
"I will do it. What must I do to receive treatment from the Demon Physician?"
At that immediate answer, devoid of the slightest hesitation, even Yajin stared at him in surprise.
"...Will you not regret it?"
"...I would rather not suffer a greater regret."
He had barely managed to reincarnate through borrowing the power of an Immortal.
If he failed to avenge and rebuild Gonryun, what greater grievance could there be?
"Very well. But not just anyone may undergo the Demonic Bone Rebirth Art. The world is full of Demonic Practitioners who lack the proper physical foundation. You must first prove your worth."
"If I must prove it, then how?"
Yajin laid before Uncheon a harsh yet unmistakable milestone for the path ahead.
"The first gate is the Comprehensive Evaluation, which will be held one year from now. In that evaluation, you must place within the top ten."
"...The top ten."
Uncheon repeated the words in a low voice.
To enter the top ten among the several hundred cadets of Hidden Demon Cave was by no means an easy goal.
"Those top-ranking cadets are granted various benefits... and with that, you may be able to earn an audience with the Demon Physician."
Several hundred boys born and raised in the martial families of the Demonic Cult, who had trained in martial arts all their lives and possessed the highest-grade natural foundations.
And yet, with a worthless body, he would have to surpass them within a single month.
'...I am not optimistic. Even so, I have no choice but to accomplish it somehow.'
And yet a faint smile touched Uncheon's lips.
A clear marker had finally been planted upon the road that had once been as vague as fog.
"I understand."
His voice was astonishingly calm.
As though how difficult that goal might be did not matter to him in the least.
At that answer, a smile rose to Yajin's lips.
'This boy... I truly like him. For an assassin, it does not matter how difficult the mission is. Once the mission is given, one simply finds a way.'
Expectation toward the existence called Uncheon began to swell within Yajin's chest.
'Had the Young Master marked this boy as a candidate for the Demonic Bone Rebirth Art from the very beginning...?'
"Good."
He grabbed the collapsed Uncheon by the collar and hauled him upright, then whispered into his ear.
"Then from tomorrow onward... aside from the hours you sleep, you will know hell."
The corner of Uncheon's mouth curved upward.
"...I shall be in your care."
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