Chapter 16: 16

The dwelling place of Lim Sayeol and the instructors was made by remodeling a naturally formed cave. It was located on the opposite side of the area where Pyo-wol stayed, and it boasted an iron-clad border from the entrance.

The instructors who had been dispatched to this place took turns and stood guard directly. Because of that, no one dared to infiltrate this place.

It was the instructors who taught the children stealth and infiltration. 

The countermeasures against it were also best known by the instructors. 

The instructors looked around with sharp eyes.

As the children’s skills improved, the instructors in particular strengthened their vigilance.

They believed that no one would have the courage to sneak in here, but since anything can happen, they could never relax.

Little do they know that there would actually be a human being who would be moving cleverly out of their cognitive domain boundaries.

It was Pyo-wol who sneaked in without a sound or gesture.

Pyo-wol was performing both stealth and Turtle Breathing Technique at the same time.

In order to perform the original Turtle Breathing Technique, the biological activities of the body had to be almost stopped like a corpse. He literally has to keep the minimum amount of breathing to maintain his life.

Moving was, of course, unimaginable.

Of course, the instructors who taught them the Turtle Breathing Technique knew that, and the children who learned the technique used it as it was taught to them. But Pyo-wol was different.

Pyo-wol had his doubts after learning how to execute the Turtle Breathing Technique. 

Why would the Turtle Breathing Technique be undone if he moves? 

He wondered how he could move while simultaneously using the Turtle Breathing technique. 

The body had to breathe in order to move.

No matter how skilled he was, he could not live without breathing.

The greater the movement, the more breathing was required.

Turtle Breathing Technique is a method of hiding the presence by inhaling one’s breath for as long and thin as possible to lower the vital signs of the body. 

Because of this, it was impossible to move while using the Turtle Breathing Technique. 

Pyo-wol thought and tried countless times, but failed repeatedly.

Then one day, he found a solution.

The breakthrough was with the Thunder-Splitting Cultivation Technique. He thought about what it would be like to break his breath into small pieces through the Thunder-Splitting method.

If he can’t secretly move while he’s breathing anyway, it’s better to finely divide his breath continuously enough so that other people would not be able to feel it. Then, the body signs could drop significantly, and movement would then be possible, Pyo-wol thought.

Pyo-wol put his ideas into practice soon.

It wasn’t easy at first.

Breaking his breath into pieces almost to the point of stopping his breathing put a great strain on Pyo-wol’s body. Moreover, moving while maintaining such fine breathing placed a greater burden on him. 

However, Pyo-wol did not give up and kept trying. After trying so many times, it became possible to move using the Turtle Breathing Technique at some point.

He had succeeded several times against children, but this was the first time he used it against the instructors so he had no choice but to be nervous.

He had to maintain his hiding skills while practicing his Turtle Breathing technique. 

The burden on him had increased several times. Pyo-wol moved while simultaneously practicing Turtle Breathing technique and stealth techniques.

The instructors were looking straight ahead with their eyes wide open, but they did not notice the passing of the Pyo-wol.

This is because Pyo-wol cleverly moved along the areas of their cognitive domain. Ordinary people think that they perceive everything they see, but that was impossible in the first place.

Except for the focused area, the brain only sees, and if there is no unusual movement, the brain cannot recognize it. Blindness that cannot be recognized even by looking at it straight with the naked eye.

Pyo-wol moved using their blind spot (死角 sǐjiǎo or dead corner). 

Pyo-wol passed between the instructors like a ghost.

The instructors were completely unaware that Pyo-wol had passed in front of them.

Pyo-wol crept into the cave silently. Perhaps because the security at the entrance was so strict, the guards inside were less than expected. Still, Pyo-wol remained vigilant.

This was a sanctuary.

If his existence is exposed because of a little bit of carelessness, he will immediately get the attention of the instructors. No matter how much Pyo-wol possessed unrivaled abilities among children, he would be unable to survive turning numerous instructors as an enemy.

Pyo-wol calmly grasped his own abilities to that extent.

Any point between the near-death heat and the cusps (임사열과 교두들 사이의 어느 지점).

That was Pyo-wol’s evaluation of his own abilities. 

Pyo-wol looked around Lim Sayeol’s place with his senses sharpened.

Lim Sayeol’s residence was located in the deepest part of the cave. Fortunately, Lim Sayeol was not staying in his room. Pyo-wol began to search Lim Sayeol’s residence.

Pyo-wol wanted to get out of the underground place. But in order to do so, he needs to remove the restriction that binds the children by identifying the affiliation of the instructors and the three swords. He needs to know which groups they belonged to. 

If he can figure out who their master is and where his base is, it will be easier to get out of their grasp. However, no matter how much he searched the residence of Lim Sayeol, there was no data related to the instructors.

Instead, what he found was a letter with a request written on it.

[Privy only to the leader of the Blood Phantom Group

Duration: Seven years.

Reward: 500,000 gold.

Condition: Leave no traces related to the Blood Phantom Group.]

‘Woo Gunsang?’

Pyo-wol frowned.

He did not know what kind of person Woo Gunsang was. 

He was curious as to how great Woo Gunsang could be for them to spend 7 years raising children to become assassins. 270 out of 300 have already died during the training just to kill one person. 

He wondered if that one person’s life was as valuable as the sum of the lives of two hundred and seventy, or even three hundred children who entered this place.

That was then.

Thud!

He could feel a presence in the cave outside the door. Pyo-wol hurriedly returned the letter to its original place and then left the room. From the entrance of the cave, he saw a person walking his way.

It was difficult to distinguish the figure of the incoming person because of the darkness, but Pyo-wol recognized that it was Lim Sayeol, the owner of this room.

Lim Sayeol possessed unparalleled martial arts skills compared to other instructors. His senses were also very sensitive.

But Lim Sayeol was not good enough as to detect Pyo-wol who was using his stealth skills and Turtle Breathing technique. 

There was no time to think.

Pyo-wol immediately jumped to the ceiling.

The artificially trimmed ceiling was so smooth that there was no room to hit a finger. Even if he raised his inner qi  and slammed his finger into the wall, there was no choice but to make a sound.

Lim Sayeol wasn’t so numb that he couldn’t hear the sound echoing from a short distance away.

Pyo-wol hung his nails in the micro grooves. One fingernail was literally the only one supporting the weight of his entire body.

He couldn’t even breathe. The moment his breathing becomes even a little rough, the Lim Sayeol will notice him.

Pyo-wol looked down at his feet, with his one fingernail supporting his whole body.

Lim Sayeol was passing under his feet. He looked around to see if he felt something strange. But he didn’t look up because he didn’t think anyone would be hanging from the ceiling.

Pyo-wol concentrated all his nerves on his fingertips.

If it had been him in the past, he would not have been able to endure it with only the power of one finger.

After So Yeowol’s advice, Pyo-wol abandoned the sword and focused on training his bare hands. While practicing unknown swordsmanship with his bare hands, his grip strength and the delicate sense of his fingers were not the same as before. So now it is possible for him to perform a stunt like this. 

At Pyo-wol’s feet, Lim Sayeol furrowed his brows.

Although he is said to have retired from the front line, his senses are not dead yet. As an assassin, the sense he had forged for decades was warning him that something was strange.

But he couldn’t figure out what exactly it was.

Lim Sayeol looked around again. But he couldn’t find anything odd.

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“Was I mistaken?”

Lim Sayeol shook his head, opened the door and went inside. But the moment he entered the room, the sense of abnormality he felt grew even stronger.

His eyes turned sharp.

Lim Sayeol hurriedly looked around the room. Outwardly, nothing had changed. But the owner of the room could feel it. Something has changed although it was subtle.

“Someone came in.”

Without his permission, both the Second sword and Third sword, let alone the instructors, could not enter his dwelling.

The sense of disparity he felt a while ago was not an illusion at all.

Bang!

Lim Sayeol kicked the door out.

When a loud noise resounded in the quiet cave, some instructors jumped out in surprised. 

“What’s going on?”

“An intruder has entered my room. He may not have completely escaped the cave yet, so find them quickly.”

“Huh?”

A look of disbelief appeared on the faces of the instructors. There was only one entrance to this place. And the entrance was always guarded by the pairs taking turns. It was difficult to admit that someone had penetrated through such a tight-knit security. 

But they knew best that Lim Sayeol was not a liar.

“Who’s went inside First Sword-sama’s residence without permission?”

“Maybe one of the children?”

The children were the only ones who could infiltrate Lim Sayeol’s residence without permission.

The complexion of the instructors turned white. They hurriedly searched the cave. But no matter how much they searched, no intruder was found.

They questioned the people guarding the entrance to the cave, but they also said they didn’t see anyone coming out.

Some people might say that Lim Sayeol might be mistaken, but those who knew him well will never thought of that.  The person who was more thorough and sensitive than anyone here was Lim Sayeol.

If Lim Sa-yeol said that there’s an intruder, then it was clear that there was an intruder.

“Who the hell is it?”

The question is, who broke into this place?

No matter how much the instructors thoroughly survey the area, no evidence was found to determine the identity of the intruder.

Lim Sayeol invited the Second sword Gu Shinhaeng and the Third sword Sang Ilshin to his residence.

“Are you really saying that one of the children broke into this place?”

“Who might it be?”

Their faces were gloomy.

It was because they thought that one day, when children’s growth rise, there might come the time that they will instigate a rebellion. If anyone were to be treated in this way and to be abused, there was bound to be a resentment.

Although some kind of restriction was put in place when the time comes, given the children’s growth, the backlash might happen much faster than they expected.

It was a very serious problem.

If the children resist before they could even get to the mission, all their efforts over the past six years will go to waste.

So before that happens, they have to suppress the resistance of the children.

Gu Shinhaeng asked Lim Sayeol.

“Does anyone have a clue on who might the intruder be?”

“Pyo-wol!”

“Yes? But he…”

“There is no one more gifted at infiltration than him among the children.”

“Then…?”

“Yes, it’s Pyo-wol.”

Lim Sa-yeol was certain.

There was no evidence, but that was what his senses were telling him.

“That’s ridiculous. To think he’d infiltrate this place while everyone is chasing him.”

“He came in when no one was inside the residence.”

Shame appeared on the faces of Gu Shinhaeng and Sang Ilshin. 

They accepted Lim Sayeol’s speculation as a fact.

If they left him like this, Pyo-wol might look down even more on the instructors and attack them. So before that, they had to go find and punish him.

The problem is that they don’t know where Pyo-wol is hiding now.

Even though all the children were chasing after him, Pyo-wol could not be found. They couldn’t be sure that the instructors who had left the front line were better at tracking than the children.

Lim Sayeol looked at the two with sharp eyes.

“If we leave Pyo-wol like this, it’s sure to cause big problems.”

“But there’s no solid evidence that he came in here. It’s definitely burdensome to punish him without evidence. I’m also concerned about the backlash of other children.”

“So we have to deal with him in another way. We could direct the children’s opposition to Pyo-wol.”

“How?”

Sang Ilshin looked at Lim Sayeol in surprise.

Lim Sa-yeol nodded his head.

“That’s right! I’m thinking of using Hell Call (地獄籍).”

“But it is the last resort restriction…”

“The time has come to show Pyo-wol and all the children who is holding their lives. Who their true owner is.” 

“Well!”

“It’s a process that we have to go through at least once, and it’s hard to take this opportunity to break the spirit of not only Pyo-Wol but all of the children.”

Lim Sa-yeol’s eyes gleamed eerily.

Gu Shinhaeng and Sang Ilshin looked at each other’s faces. And they nodded at the same time.

With what Lim Sayeol said, the atmosphere of the children these days is not serious. At this point, it didn’t seem too bad to confirm with the children who had the upper hand.

Lim Sayeol asked.

“Do you agree to the use of hell call?”

“I agree.”

“I agree.”

“Then we shall use it now. Bring it out.”

“Yes!”

Gu Shinhaeng got up from his seat and went to his room. When he returned after a while, he had flute in his hand.

He handed the flute to Lim Sayeol.

Lim Sayeol, who was handed the flute, took the two of them out of the cave.

As they left the entrance, they saw a huge underground cavity.

It was invisible, but there were children hiding in every nook and cranny.

“I’ll show you hell.”

Lim Sayeol bring the Hell Call into his mouth. 

Suddenly, an inaudible sound echoed through the underground cavity.

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