The Night Visitor and Setongjeon
Shashashashashashak—
The faint sound of someone racing across the rooftops whispered through the night.
A fairly large senior, then. Seems there’s another assassin in the ranks who doesn’t much care for me.
Uncheon opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling.
This was no ordinary killer.
True to form for an assassin—sneaking in under cover of darkness, same as the rest.
He tracked the other’s movements without pause, waiting for a reaction.
Then he felt the presence settle on the roof of Hyulhwa Pavilion.
Whether the visitor was waiting for a chance to slip inside or simply watching, no further motion came after that landing.
Uncheon held his focus, facing the stranger across the thin span of roof and ceiling.
Impressive. Not a sound, not a tremor of movement. Skill on par with Master’s, maybe.
He had never imagined anyone in the Yaweol Sect besides his master possessed such ability.
Uncheon stilled every breath as if submerged underwater, vanishing from the chamber as completely as if he had never been there.
A faint stir rippled across the roof.
He thinks I’ve disappeared because I stopped breathing.
Uncheon remained motionless inside the room, simply waiting for the other to move.
The visitor’s patience was formidable as well.
Time stretched on.
At last the stranger acted.
Whoosh!
A black shadow slipped carefully into the bedchamber.
Eyes alone moved swiftly left and right behind the black face covering.
…!
Those eyes trembled in clear surprise.
He had sensed nothing on the way in. He had been certain the room was empty—yet his gaze locked with Uncheon’s, standing right before him.
“I was curious which member of Yaweol you might be. I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“…….”
The masked man simply stared, making no move.
“How did you know I was here?”
“I heard you. The sound of someone approaching in secret.”
He noticed me even though I’ve mastered the Silent Kill of Sal-ui-gong? This movement of the Horyeong Assassin?
The masked man’s eyes wavered in disbelief.
While the man wrestled with whether Uncheon truly was the prodigy the Sect Leader claimed, Uncheon had already placed him.
Horyeong Assassin… so not one of the Twelve Zodiac Assassins.
The masked man’s voice rolled out.
“I am Shin Hyeokmu, the Horyeong Assassin. I command the Yaweol Salhodan.”
“Yaweol Salhodan? What do they do?”
“We are the secret protective force that guards the Sect Leader.”
“I see. Still, I can’t imagine what business such a unit would have with me. I’ve done nothing that could harm the Sect Leader.”
“That is not why I came tonight. I heard you are learning Sal-ui-gong under Elder Yo. I came to confirm whether an outsider is truly capable of mastering it.”
“Only the Sect Leader and Hall Master Chae should know I am studying Sal-ui-gong. Do those two know of this visit?”
“Of course.”
Shin Hyeokmu pulled away the cloth covering his face.
A man in his mid-thirties. Sharp features, the sort of first impression that registered as handsome.
And somehow familiar.
“……What is your relationship to the Sect Leader?”
“Why ask that?”
“Anyone who saw the two of you would know at a glance.”
“Sharp eyes. As you suspect, we are half-siblings. She told me you are learning Sal-ui-gong.”
“Different surnames—so you took your mother’s, then?”
“No need to answer personal family matters. I will not stop you from learning Sal-ui-gong. But I do not want our sect’s arts spreading outside.”
Uncheon understood exactly what that meant and already knew how to settle it.
“Not a difficult problem. Simple, really.”
“What do you mean, simple?”
“It means only I need to know Sal-ui-gong. It will never leave these walls, just as you fear.”
“And I am to trust that word?”
“I consider myself a man of decent credit.”
Shin Hyeokmu gave a short, incredulous snort at the answer.
Then he met Uncheon’s still-confident gaze.
He truly believes he can master Sal-ui-gong completely… Well, I have to admit I never sensed his presence at all.
Uncheon had already proven more than enough ability to learn the art.
Even the concealment techniques taught by Yo Chusang were flawless; Shin Hyeokmu still could not fathom how the boy had hidden himself.
He had always considered himself the finest qi-seeker among Yaweol’s assassins.
If he could not find this one, then Uncheon’s talent was more than sufficient for Sal-ui-gong.
“Very well. I permit you to learn it. But if you are going to learn it, learn it thoroughly—perfectly. Half-baked mastery would only stain our sect’s name.”
“I will. Thank you for the permission.”
“I did not grant it to hear thanks. Had you failed to notice me, I would have killed you.”
“So that was the faint killing intent I felt.”
“You… noticed that as well?”
“I’m rather sensitive. But killing me would have caused problems, wouldn’t it?”
“If you lacked the ability, it could not be helped.”
“Haa. Even as family of the Sect Leader, you are something else.”
“Hmph. I guard the Sect Leader, but I also hold the status of a Yaweol Assassin who may kill anyone within these walls. You understand my meaning? If I ever see you looking down on us simply because you come from the Namgung Family, be prepared.”
There was nothing more to say to Uncheon.
Shin Hyeokmu turned and vanished as swiftly as he had come.
“……He came purely to threaten me. No need to visit at this hour. I was sleeping well.”
Uncheon muttered as he watched the presence fade into the distance.
A full month had already passed since Uncheon became Yo Chusang’s disciple.
Time within the Yaweol Sect slipped by swiftly.
With each day Uncheon grew more familiar with the training of Sal-ui-gong.
“Concealment is silence, formlessness, and shadowlessness. Master those three perfectly and no one will ever find where you hide.”
“Master, is that truly possible?”
“If you take Sal-ui-gong to its peak, it is more than enough. In my eyes, a disciple like you can do it.”
Yo Chusang meant every word.
He had long hoped that one day the assassin sects, too, would produce the greatest under heaven.
If Uncheon could unfold the ultimate of Sal-ui-gong—the divine ability whispered of among assassins—
Uncheon read the thought.
“Master, I will give it everything I have.”
“I leave it to you. But before training, there is something you must do first. Come with me to Setongjeon.”
Outside, night already lay thick and deep.
But… where is Setongjeon?
Half a gak later.
Uncheon followed Yo Chusang and arrived at Setongjeon.
Strange earth-qi drifted through the air around them.
“Master, what is this place for?”
“You will know once you go inside.”
As his master said, a broad chamber opened before them.
Uncheon had never expected Setongjeon to be a library.
One wall held shelves packed solid with books.
A place more urgent than training turned out to be a library—hardly fitting for an assassin sect.
“Master, what does Setongjeon mean?”
“Setong means the ability to enter any place under heaven.”
“Then these books are…?”
“Exactly. Manuals on infiltration methods that let you go anywhere. Formations, civil works, mechanisms, and Qimen Dunjia. For assassins like us, martial skill alone is not enough. We need the means to go anywhere and escape any danger.”
Yo Chusang drew a single volume from the shelf and handed it to Uncheon.
Cheonseo Mechanism Method.
A mechanism art he had never seen.
Uncheon turned the cover and began reading the contents page by page.
Hmm… this isn’t even in the great families.
Completely new material.
It detailed how to install traps so that no one could casually enter important places.
“Well?”
“Remarkable. This is the first mechanism manual I’ve ever seen.”
Yo Chusang gestured at the shelves overflowing with books.
“Once we accept a contract, we must complete the mission no matter where the target hides. That is our fate.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Then should we not be able to enter any place under heaven to find our mark? To truly master Sal-ui-gong, you must learn everything here.”
“Everything… all of it? Is there anyone in Yaweol who has mastered all of these?”
“No one. Not even me. If I had managed even half, I would already be the greatest assassin in the Central Plains.”
“Then why gather so many if they cannot be mastered?”
“Because one day someone with a truly exceptional mind might appear, might they not? We prepared and prepared again for that day.”
“Impressive. To this disciple’s eyes, the books gathered here look like precious treasures.”
“Obtaining them cost no small amount of trouble. But I always expected a day like this would come. Others I cannot say, yet for my disciple… I believe it is possible.”
“……Me?”
Uncheon saw the sincerity in his master’s eyes.
I thought I only needed to train martial arts… and now, out of nowhere, I’m stuck studying…
He had taken formation classes at the family estate, but those hours had been deadly dull.
I can’t exactly refuse either.
The mere thought of reading every volume filling half the chamber made his chest tighten.
“I want my disciple to begin learning these starting today.”
“Haha… yes. But it looks as if it will take an enormous amount of time.”
“Mastering them all may be difficult, yet simply memorizing them should be fine for now. You can manage that much, can you not?”
“…….”
“I believe my disciple can. Even if you cannot memorize them completely, I want you to commit as many as possible to memory.”
“Understood. Then how long am I to stay here?”
“I will come for you when the proper time arrives. You should be able to manage well enough in the meantime.”
Yo Chusang withdrew without naming an exact duration.
Once a month, he said it opens?
Uncheon tilted his head, recalling the last thought he had read before his master vanished.
Four categories, he said.
The first task was sorting the books.
Mechanism methods, civil-engineering methods, formations, and Qimen Dunjia.
Exactly one hundred volumes in total, yet divided into four groups they no longer looked quite so overwhelming.
“Whew. Mastering this many at once is impossible, so I’ll start with whatever I can memorize.”
Uncheon sat on the floor and opened a mechanism manual first.
Unlike ordinary study, it felt almost like play.
“……This is actually interesting.”
As he read the mechanism methods, knowledge he had never known before unfolded before him.
“There are so many ways to make tools move on their own.”
After finishing twenty-five volumes of mechanism arts, the material settled into natural order in his mind.
Gears, heavy metal counterweights, levers designed to tip when weight shifted to one side, even methods that used differences in water weight and pressure to drive mechanisms.
“Hmm… so first you examine the terrain of the place where the mechanism will be built, then decide which method to use.”
Understanding the principles, Uncheon continued through new mechanism manuals.
At first comprehension did not come instantly, yet once he grasped the underlying principles the speed of memorization increased volume by volume.
And he realized that to pass safely through a place filled with mechanisms, the most important skill was predicting what traps lay in the surroundings.
“Poisoned darts and hidden weapons raining from the walls, massive boulders or metal slabs dropping from above, floors that crack open or vanish entirely, spinning circular blades shooting out from the front…”
Uncheon suddenly thought of the secret vault left by the Merchant Lord of the Central Plains Empire.
“That place will certainly have mechanisms hidden to keep people from entering freely. A great many could be hurt.”
He knew the great families had already sealed the mountain, yet there was no guarantee they would never go to Cheonhwangdo.
The joint declaration had listed conditions under which the seal could be lifted—specifically if the whereabouts of the missing Cheonhwangdo Map from Baekcheon Gate ever came to light.
Amazed and occasionally awed, Uncheon kept reading the mechanism manuals.
To dismantle a mechanism one had to understand the terrain and features completely, down to the last detail.
He drew another volume and opened it.
“Sucheonhyeol Mechanism Method… so this one uses water to create mechanisms.”
When a level balance tipped, a hole holding back water opened and the water fell.
That falling force activated a mechanism designed so that a colossal Crimson Blood Circular Slash would bisect every intruder at the waist.
“This is a truly terrifying mechanism art.”
To defeat something like the Sucheonhyeol Mechanism Method, one had to move without ever letting that level balance tip.
If additional mechanisms were layered on top of this, surviving would be nearly impossible.
A month was nearly up.
Thud.
Uncheon collapsed onto the floor as if every bit of energy had drained from his body.
Studying is far harder work than I expected.
Physical martial training had always been grueling, of course.
He had taken formation classes as a child in the family, yet he had only half-listened, so it had never truly taxed him.
There had been little need for hidden weapons either, so he had paid them scant attention.
This time, however, felt different.
He was retaining the contents of every book without forgetting a single line.
Have I always had such a good memory?
Having never studied with true fervor before, he was a little confused.
Hmm… come to think of it, I keep recalling the book contents without losing them…
Uncheon shrugged.
Well, if my memory has improved, that’s a good thing.
From the moment he realized his memory had sharpened, he never stopped memorizing.
After finishing every mechanism manual he moved straight on to formations.
He already possessed a fair amount of knowledge about formations.
Formations were less physical traps one could see and more mental snares that employed the Five Elements, the Eight Trigrams, and the interplay of yin and yang.
The formation manuals in Setongjeon fell into three broad types.
Illusion formations that made one see phantoms the moment one stepped inside, Internal Force Chaos formations that scrambled an intruder’s inner energy, and Death-Blood formations that led straight to death.
Uncheon memorized and memorized while reading the formation books.
Fifteen days later the volume in his hand was no longer a formation manual but a civil-engineering method.
Similar in concept to mechanisms, yet these referred to large-scale traps that used natural terrain itself.
They shaped nature into traps, or turned entire buildings into traps by means of waterways and contour lines.
Even while memorizing, Uncheon nodded whenever understanding clicked into place.
“Hmm… so that was it. The method that sealed the approaches through Yaweol Sect Valley used civil-engineering arts.”
Moreover, even while memorizing the civil-engineering manuals he could feel his memory growing sharper still.
Concentrating every waking hour except for the briefest sleep, he finished all of them in five days.
Last came the most fascinating set of trap manuals.
The Qimen Dunjia methods were dense with material that was difficult to grasp from the first glance.
In the truest sense, methods for controlling and manipulating time and space.
Mechanisms, civil works, and formations could be breached at any hour once the hidden devices or traps were overcome, but Qimen Dunjia required the precise space and the precise hour when the trap opened or closed.
“Whoa… I have to memorize the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches as well?”
Just as life was said to revolve around the sexagenary cycle, mastering Qimen Dunjia demanded perfect memorization of the sixty Jiazi and complete understanding of countless astronomical principles.
This is far too hard. …Still, I’ll just memorize it first.
Uncheon forced the Qimen Dunjia methods into his head before the month ended.
When he finally set down the last volume, he looked at the shelves now fully restocked.
Not a single book remained on the floor.
He had crammed so much into his mind that he could not even tell whether he had memorized it correctly.
“I think I’ve memorized everything… yet I have no idea if it’s solid.”
Uncheon could only wear a vague expression.
Strangely, it felt as if he remembered nothing at all.
After a moment’s thought he pulled a volume from the shelf and opened it.
At once the contents rose clearly from memory.
“So this works like inner energy—memories surface only when needed? If so, that’s fortunate… Still. Even assassins turn out to be a profession that requires systematic study. Truly, nothing in this world is easy.”
Uncheon opened the door and stepped outside.
Just as when he had first entered with Master Yo Chusang, the night was thick with darkness.
Exactly one month since he had entered Setongjeon.
A full moon rose into the sky and bathed the ground in clear light.
Then it happened.
Wooooong.
The floor began to hum like a living creature.
At the same time the scenery in every direction seemed to blur and spread.
As I thought… this place too…
Uncheon lifted his head to the night sky.
The gentle moonlight of the full moon was slowly sliding aside.
Setongjeon was a place created by Qimen Dunjia.
Whoosh.
Once outside Setongjeon he surveyed the surroundings.
I only need to escape before the moonlight is swallowed by that ancient tree.
Uncheon unfolded the Cheonpung Divine Technique and rode the wind out of Setongjeon.
Sssrrr.
When he turned fully around after emerging, only a cliff remained where Setongjeon had stood.
“So Qimen Dunjia is real after all… Had I stayed inside I would have been locked away for another month. No wonder there was only about two months’ worth of water and food—that felt strange.”
Uncheon set off toward the Elders’ Hall to find his master, Yo Chusang.