Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Stealing Manuals from the Martial Alliance's Armory (2)
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The Martial Armory was a three-story wooden structure.
It was built of wood to prevent the tens of thousands of paper manuals from decaying or being damaged.
Though made of wood, it was constructed with layers of thick logs, making it several times stronger and more solid than brick.
The firmly shut entrance was always guarded by two masters, while four other masters patrolled the Armory's perimeter in pairs.
Hidden at the corner of a pavilion, I watched the side of the Armory, preparing to run.
Once the patrol passed, I had to dash a distance of fifty feet and crawl under the Armory before the next patrol arrived. There was enough time.
It was now around 8 PM. This area was a restricted zone, even within the Martial Alliance.
If discovered, I would pay a heavy price, no questions asked. My situation was particularly precarious.
Getting into the Armory was important, but ensuring my own safety was even more so.
Thankfully, the Armory was only about a hundred yards in a straight line from the infirmary. Of course, that was part of my calculation.
The Armory was built three feet off the ground, as moisture from the earth would be fatal to the manuals.
***
*Step, step!*
A two-man patrol, having rounded the corner near the Armory's entrance, was walking side by side toward me.
Around the Armory's perimeter, bright flames blazed in bronze braziers placed every thirty feet, illuminating the surroundings.
I pressed myself against the pavilion wall, crouching as low as possible.
*Step, step!*
The patrol passed. I could only move after they rounded the corner at the back of the Armory.
The patrol rounded the back corner. By now, the other patrol would have rounded the corner near the opposite entrance.
It would take them about fifteen breaths to reach my position.
*Rustle!*
I quickly and silently sprinted, diving under the Armory within two breaths.
Then, I crawled inward as fast as I could.
I safely reached the spot where I had cut one of the logs forming the foundation the night before.
The very bottom of the Armory was made of thick logs, each as wide as two adult arms could embrace.
By removing the cut log, I could create an opening large enough for one person to slip through.
For two nights, the day before yesterday and last night, from midnight to 4 AM, I had successfully sawed through both ends of the log with a small saw.
It had been a struggle, sawing slowly and gently, little by little, with extreme caution.
Having prepared the log over two days, tonight I would finally enter the Armory.
I had cut both sides of a foot-and-a-half length of the log, so it would come loose with a strong push.
Once the log was removed, the floorboards above were exposed. I had already cut a torso-sized section of those as well.
*Shhk!*
I climbed up to the first floor, then leaned back through the hole to fit the log back in place before carefully covering the opening with the floorboards.
The floorboards were planks a handspan wide and two feet long, fitted tightly together, so I only needed to cut along the grain of two of them.
Thus, after I finished my business and put them back properly, the floor wouldn't give way unless someone stomped on that exact spot.
The interior was pitch-black, but that was no problem for me.
I scanned my surroundings, spotted a staircase in the distance, and approached it slowly and cautiously.
***
*Rustle…*
In the jet-black darkness where I couldn't see an inch ahead, a very faint sound emerged.
It came from a secluded corner on the third floor of the Armory, so faint it was inaudible from just a few steps away.
Six hours had passed since I infiltrated the Armory and began reading the manuals. It was now around 2 AM.
The first and second floors housed a comprehensive collection of manuals from the Nine Sects and One Guild, the Five Great Families, and other major sects and factions.
As I meticulously examined the manuals on the first floor, I discovered something important.
There were a total of one hundred seventy-six bookshelves on the first floor, each marked with one of three colors: red, blue, or yellow.
Upon inspection, I found that the red shelves held the signature manuals of the Nine Sects and One Guild, the Five Great Families, and the most prominent sects and factions in the martial world.
The blue and yellow shelves contained manuals of lesser importance.
My investigation revealed that the second and third floors were organized in the same way.
The second floor held manuals that had been lost to the martial world, dating from a thousand years ago to a hundred years ago.
And the third floor was filled with shelves of manuals from the Demonic Path, the Unorthodox Path, the world of spirits, the borderlands, and foreign lands.
I ignored the blue and yellow shelves completely, focusing solely on the manuals from the red shelves.
Possessing a god-like mind that never forgot anything I glanced at, I didn't need to struggle with the manuals; a simple scan was enough.
I turned a page every three to four breaths, meaning I could read up to five manuals in a quarter of an hour if I was fast.
*Flip…*
Crouched in a corner of the third floor, I rhythmically turned the pages.
I tried my best to read all the manuals from the red shelves on the first, second, and third floors, and I had more or less succeeded.
The time was now a little past 5 AM. In one hour, at 6 AM, I had to leave this place before dawn broke.
I couldn't just come and go as I pleased from the Martial Alliance's Armory, one of the most heavily guarded places in the world.
There was only one chance, just one night, and I had to risk my life for it.
Including the one I was reading now, this was the one hundred eighty-sixth manual.
I had never read so many books in a single night, but I wasn't worried. I trusted my mind.
Besides the manual I was currently reading, only three more of my chosen manuals remained.
However, those three were not written in the language of the Central Plains, but in some squiggly script. I couldn't even guess which country they were from.
There were hundreds of manuals written in that script, but I had simply grabbed three at random from the red shelves.
*Thwack!*
I closed the manual I was reading and carefully placed it back in its original spot.
Then, I pulled out one of the three manuals in the foreign script and turned to the first page.
I had intended to just skim through them, but I ended up reading all three.
No, I didn't read them. I engraved the squiggly characters into my mind as if they were pictures.
And so, in the Martial Alliance's Armory, I read one hundred eighty-six manuals and three foreign books, for a total of one hundred eighty-nine volumes. No, I memorized them entirely.
***
A little before 6 AM, I slipped out of the Armory with several times more caution than when I had entered and hurried toward the infirmary.
The infirmary was a hundred yards in a straight line, but the distance doubled if I had to wind around several pavilions.
Because I had read the three extra foreign manuals, I was about a quarter of an hour later than planned.
Outside, dawn was already breaking, the sky turning a hazy white, and people were starting to move about.
Fortunately, they were servants and maids doing menial tasks, so encountering them wouldn't be a problem.
I rounded a corner at a brisk pace.
‘Huh!’
But in the distance, two warriors walking side by side were heading my way, and we came face to face.
We had met head-on at a distance of twenty feet, leaving me no room to flee or turn back.
The only saving grace was that this location was quite a distance from the Armory.
As I faltered to a stop, the warriors quickly approached and beckoned to me.
“Who are you? Come here!”
‘Foolish…’
Hesitating upon seeing the warriors was a mistake.
To show that I hadn't been hesitating, I deliberately limped as I walked toward them.
The two warriors stood their ground menacingly, waiting for me.
“Who are you and what are you doing?”
I leaned a hand against the wall as if exhausted and answered confidently.
“Hey! Can't you tell? I'm exercising.”
My confidence seemed to take the warriors aback.
“What division are you from?”
“Sure-Victory Hall, Ninth Division, Fourth Team.”
The warriors flinched. Rumors were rampant that the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Divisions of the Sure-Victory Hall had been annihilated in the battle at Mount Wutai.
“So what are you doing wandering around at dawn?”
“Did you not hear me say I was exercising?”
“Exercising?”
Seeing their incredulous expressions, I raised my voice and spoke in a scolding tone.
“Do you know that four divisions of the Sure-Victory Hall—the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth—were wiped out in the battle at Mount Wutai?”
“We've heard.”
“I was the sole survivor of that battle. I spent the last three months in the infirmary, barely clinging to life.”
“Hmph!”
“That's why I'm out here at dawn, practicing how to walk. I was bedridden for so long I developed bedsores.”
My aggressive demeanor left the warriors speechless.
“You guys just patrol within the main headquarters, but I'm a combat warrior. Once my body heals, I have to go out and fight again. Understand?”
I waved my hand dismissively as I limped past.
“Out of my way!”
The two warriors didn't dare make a sound and stepped aside.
If they had looked up, they would have seen the towering Armory in the distance and might have suspected I came from that direction.
The area around the Armory was restricted. Survivor or not, I would have been subdued on the spot.
Cold sweat trickled down my back, and a silent sigh of relief escaped my lips.
***
“Ninth Division, Fourth Team, Number Fourteen, where will you be going?”
“I plan to go to my hometown.”
“You mean Qingyang County?”
“Yes.”
I answered politely, lowering my posture, to the Altar Lord in charge of accounting at the General Affairs Hall.
When my master enrolled me in the Martial Alliance, he had listed his own hometown, Qingyang County in Anhui Province, as mine.
“Ninth Division, Fourth Team, Number Fourteen, who do you have there?”
I was never once called Ak Bi-ryong in the Martial Alliance. Here, my name was 'Ninth Division, Fourth Team, Number Fourteen.'
“I have family there.”
“Understood. When you arrive, you must report to the nearest Alliance branch or regional office.”
“I will.”
I had once heard from my comrades that you only received your severance pay if you stated your destination upon leaving the Martial Alliance.
The severance was said to accumulate at a rate of one tael of silver per month. Since I had served for about two years and five months, I expected to receive twenty-seven taels of silver.
I had no intention of going to Qingyang County, but I had to say so to get my pay.
I needed money to prepare for a period of seclusion deep in the mountains, where I would now begin learning martial arts.
*Clink!*
“Take it. Your severance pay and injury compensation, forty-seven taels of silver.”
That was unexpected. I didn't know they would include compensation.
“What's wrong? Is the amount too small?”
“No, sir. I am overwhelmed with gratitude.”
I groveled, adopting the most humble posture possible.
“Hmph! The Alliance does not neglect its members who have fought and bled for the sake of justice in the martial world.”
Letting the Altar Lord's bullshit go in one ear and out the other, I left the Martial Alliance a quarter of an hour later.
***
I departed from Luoyang and headed east.
East of Henan Province is Anhui Province, where my master's family lived and where I had lived for twelve years in Qingyang County.
However, I wasn't going to Qingyang County. My destination was south of the Yangtze River.
I intended to search among the hundreds of high, rugged mountains for a place where I could train in martial arts in peace for a long time.
My destination was south, but there was a reason I was heading east.
Having just left the Martial Alliance, they might have someone tail me to confirm if I was really going to my hometown.
Since I had told the accounting Altar Lord at the General Affairs Hall that I was going to my hometown of Qingyang County, I had to pretend to head there for now.