Was there an established format for writing secret manuals?

He had never realized. He scarcely had enough time to reorganize his squad, yet it seemed he really would have to add annotations.

'Right... All the manuals in the Gold-Piercing Martial Repository were easy to follow.'

Before creating his own exclusive martial arts, he had learned the arts housed in the fortress's Gold-Piercing Martial Repository. Looking back, it made sense.

It had felt like a parent personally explaining each essential principle. Every passage in every book was painstakingly detailed, enough to convey a little warmth.

They were like the Movement Art he had written through repeated trial and error as a child.

The martial arts he had given away since then were the same. There had been ample space in the margins. They were unlike this countermeasure document, which brought together all manner of martial learning.

'I was careless this time. There's no rule saying only seasoned experts can learn from it.'

Jung Yeonshin nodded slowly, then spoke before his seniors, with their peculiar expressions, could say anything.

"An oversight on my part. Allow me."

He reached for the Comprehensive Compendium for Breaking the Righteous Path in Xiahou Weizhen's hand. There was no need to seize it with a grappling technique.

The moment his fingertips touched the book, he took it with perfect ease. The secret manual had been reclaimed by its rightful owner. No one could object.

He smoothly tucked a letter and a secret manual inside his robes: the Blood-Preserving Squad Captain's message and the sole copy of the Comprehensive Compendium for Breaking the Righteous Path.

The unfamiliar feel told him it was a handwritten copy. Its cover was a little stiffer.

The chief administrator had said he would have only one copy made, and it was already complete. He seemed to have carefully dried it with a breeze raised by waves of internal energy.

Of all the experts under the Divine Sword Squad, only Jung Yeonshin had been told of this. Apparently, the Desolate Fortress Master had taken the original.

'Did she notice something lacking?' Jung Yeonshin wondered.

Only after both documents had disappeared completely into his black robes did Xiahou react.

"Wait, hmm...?"

Xiahou Weizhen blinked. It had happened before he knew it. His grip had loosened more readily than when he resisted Ak Surim's grappling technique.

That was because the Radiant Demon Squad captain had used no martial arts. His junior had simply taken what he was entitled to take. Resisting would have been strange.

"I'll add separate annotations and return it. I should send it to the chief administrator, correct?"

"... Correct."

Xiahou Weizhen's reply came late.

Un Soyu's gaze sharpened around her jet-black eyes. She could not blame Jung Yeonshin.

Her silent reproach was directed at the Forest-Treading Squad Captain, who had caused this. Ak Surim merely laughed aloud.

"The big fellow will receive an appropriate punishment, disciplinary action or otherwise. Lightning Genius, take your time. Your condition matters more to me than the compendium. You've just completed quite a major mission. You've earned a rest."

"You're too kind."

Ak Surim waved away Jung Yeonshin's bow.

"Still, you'd better come well prepared for the captains' meeting. It's tomorrow at the hour of the Rooster. That's in the evening, so eat a good meal first. Meetings at the Hall of the Sword That Seeks Peace are practically sparring matches. We just don't draw our swords. This will be your first time attending properly as a captain, won't it?"

"What is on tomorrow's agenda?" Jung Yeonshin asked quietly.

Ak Surim rolled her eyes upward, apparently thinking for a moment, then spoke.

"Mission assignments, promotion evaluations for our subordinates, reports on the current state of the martial world—that sort of thing? There'll be fierce jockeying over getting the missions you want and securing promotions for your people. You need to choose not only your personal missions, but assignments for your subordinates too. You'll have to select people suited to each situation. Send someone with slow Mobility Arts against an enemy who practices martial archery, and they're finished."

"... Understood."

"Oh, and let me warn you now: keeping your voice down in the Hall of the Sword That Seeks Peace will only hurt you. Don't stand on ceremony because the other Blacks are your seniors. Raise your voice and stand your ground, no matter what. For your subordinates' sake, if nothing else."

She smiled and continued.

"None of us will hold it against you. We've all done it."

Xiahou Weizhen lowered his enormous torso slightly and interjected.

"The Divine Sword deputy commander was particularly bad. The former Azure Heaven Squad Captain wrote from his hometown that he still eats porridge for all three meals. The wave of force from her spear shaft tore apart his chewing muscles. He can barely move his jaw properly."

"That old geezer deserved it. Have you forgotten what he said to me?"

Jung Yeonshin had no desire to watch his two seniors quarrel.

"I'll bear that in mind."

He swiftly brought the conversation to a close.

And he meant it. So seniority did not matter inside the Hall of the Sword That Seeks Peace.

That meant he could behave as plainly as he had outside the fortress.

This struck him as tremendously important. He had no intention of yielding either missions or subordinates. His respect for his senior Blacks was a separate matter.

'I'll just do what I always do.'

Jung Yeonshin gave a faint smile. Glancing at their new junior, Ak Surim smiled a little more deeply.

"How did such an adorable boy end up in one of those stone seats? You'll brighten that dreary atmosphere. This is going to be so much fun."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

He brought his hands together in salute. There was nothing else to say.

HUM.

The curtain of qi Xiahou Weizhen had raised dissolved. The view, from the yellow earth to the stone wall and the bushes beyond, grew clear in an instant.

His control over the release and withdrawal of internal energy was astonishing no matter how often Jung Yeonshin saw it.

"See you tomorrow! The martial world is in a very grim state right now, so it won't be a particularly cheerful gathering! Keep that in mind!"

"That captain's robe of yours has a certain style... but I believe it needs pressing. Come with it properly ironed."

Ak Surim and Xiahou Weizhen turned away.

Law Enforcement Squad Captain Un Soyu parted her lips several times, but ultimately said nothing. Her gaze rested on Jung Yeonshin's chest.

She seemed to have had business concerning the compendium. Come to think of it, she was said to be a supreme master of countering martial arts. Perhaps she had come with an unusual request.

'I'll just submit the annotated version quickly.'

Jung Yeonshin bade his seniors farewell, wishing them a peaceful night.

* * *

It was an exceedingly lavish hall.

It seemed as though an inner imperial palace had been transplanted here, beginning with the stone trees that reached from floor to ceiling.

This was the residence of the emperor's grandson and heir within the Desolate Fortress. Moonlight streamed in, pooling blue along the window frames. It was exceedingly quiet.

The master of the audience chamber commanded the power of wind. Only the occasional chirping of insects rang out forlornly.

"Im Jinmyeong."

A young man of peerless beauty called the Desolate Fortress's chief administrator. He sat in a grand armchair carved from marble.

His ears resembled the blades of divine swords. The light in his eyes was like black lightning.

His inscrutable face wore an air of cold indifference. Looking down upon the enormous chief administrator kneeling before him seemed perfectly natural.

One of noble birth.

The grandson and heir of the Ming emperor.

"A difficult tale to believe."

"You must believe it."

The chief administrator answered calmly.

The imperial grandson spoke slowly amid the moonlight slanting through the window. He spoke as though he existed alone beneath heaven.

"The Indomitable Hero has regained his youth? There have been no such rumors within the fortress. You know very well that I have more than two ears. Yet the covert swordsmen authorized by the Grand Preceptor have brought me no word of this."

"We have imposed strict secrecy. The loss of two purple robes has been quietly spreading, and many sects beneath heaven know of the fortress's weakened position. The movements of the orthodox sects as they gather and disperse, and of the Thirteen skies, are troubling. We intend to conceal the Indomitable Hero's Rejuvenation for a time, then cut down a great swath of those with ill intentions. Is he not a divine sword by nature?"

"So it truly happened."

"Yes."

The imperial grandson fell silent for a while.

He did not ask how it had happened. It was already done. The chief administrator knew him well.

He was inclined to consider what would happen next before anything else. His own world was clearly defined.

Only after a while did he speak again.

"The Forbidden City in Beijing had been lamenting the loss. Purple robes have duties befitting their rank. They said it was a grievous blow to have no hands available to undertake those exalted missions at all times."

"As for the Ma clan's Lady Ju..."

"Yes. The Indomitable Hero destroyed two of Ju Yeonjeong's energy cores."

"Indeed."

"The Forbidden City will find that useful. They would hardly dare do anything to a peerless purple-robed master, but they will believe they have gained leverage over him. The justification is clear enough: injuring a member of the imperial family."

"..."

"My junior brother may be saddened, with the Indomitable Hero for a grandfather. I hear he has accomplished much of late."

The imperial grandson's fingers tapped slowly against the armrest.

"I should submit a memorial asking that the matter be handled as leniently as possible. Even so, the Indomitable Hero will have no choice but to reside in Beijing for a time. The duties of a Desolate Fortress purple robe have gone unattended too long. There was one occasion when we desperately needed one, yet no one could go."

"My apologies."

"You must find it regrettable. I know the martial world is in turmoil. To my limited understanding, at such times the Blacks who lead the seventeen squads have a greater role than the few purple robes. That is why rising talents like my junior brother are precious. The Indomitable Hero is still only one man, after all, even if he has worked the miracle of Rejuvenation."

He murmured in an archaic manner, as though reciting his private thoughts. It was an old habit.

'I'm itching to tell him,' the chief administrator thought.

Lightning Genius, the Radiant Demon Squad captain, was the very person responsible for that miracle. He had surpassed the level of a Black, if only briefly.

The chief administrator had been overwhelmed with astonishment and joy, even as the question of how to reward him made his head spin, when the imperial grandson summoned him here.

'I'd better tell him after all.'

The chief administrator gathered his thoughts. This was not something he could pass over simply because he had not been asked. That would earn him a furious reprimand someday.

He spoke at once.

"It was brought about by the hands of the current Radiant Demon Squad captain."

"What was? Speak in context."

"Your Highness's junior brother turned back time for the Indomitable Hero."

At one side of the audience chamber, the moonlight surrounding the window frame trembled.

* * *

The next day dawned.

The newborn season settled in clear sunlight. A pure chill drifted through the square window of the Radiant Demon Squad captain's office, brushing coolly past his sleeves and the nape of his neck.

It was the wind of early winter.

'Time flies.'

Jung Yeonshin leaned back against his stone chair.

Pung Ran and Na Ilcheon of the Blood-Preserving Squad stood opposite him.

"As your hands and feet, Captain... we look forward to learning much from you."

"We earnestly seek your guidance and correction."

Their words and conduct were impeccably respectful. Precision seemed to breathe within their gentle bearing.

For various reasons, the Blood-Preserving Squad was a combat unit kept at arm's length even within the Divine Sword Squad.

He had heard that this made them all the more faithful to law and etiquette. They were closer to a military organization than any other combat unit.

'The Law Enforcement Squad and the Blood-Preserving Squad. They say those are the two units people most avoid.'

They had left Jung Yeonshin with a favorable impression instead.

Blood-Preserving Squad Captain Jin Myeongjo had not sparred with him. He had sent his subordinates without warning.

Jung Yeonshin had read the captain's letter the previous evening. At his bedside, as cold night air seeped through the door, he had engraved its unusually moving words upon his heart.

Now it lay carefully tucked into a drawer of his office desk.

That was where he kept the letters and written orders received from various seniors since entering the Desolate Fortress, along with messages from the Fortress Master.

Jin Myeongjo's letter was more than worthy of a place among them.

[... I had the same experience. Immediately after the previous captain suddenly died away from home, I was made responsible for the squad just as I became a Black. No one helped me save the chief administrator.

It is a truly unfamiliar world, is it not?

A captain's single word determines the fate of elite blue-robed experts, while across the land, common people plunged into misery by martial artists' tyranny desperately await our intervention.

So much was bewildering. That is why your difficulties have weighed particularly heavily on my mind.]

[Once one begins going through cumbersome procedures, there is no end to them.

I feared it would prolong the time you needed to reorganize the Radiant Demon Squad as its new captain. Thus, I decided to send people who could become an immediate fighting force.

Blood Saber Demon Pung Ran and Asura Demon Soul Na Ilcheon are renowned experts even within my squad.

If anything, blue robes hardly do them justice. Not that I mean they are Blacks.]

[At any rate, Pung Ran's Blood-Wielding Saber Art is truly exceptional, and Na Ilcheon's Dark Night Iron Claw displays terrifying power in night battles.

They have also absorbed the skills of your martial lineage very well. They are forever growing stronger.

Those two will easily do the work of three.

Pung Ran and Na Ilcheon practice supreme arts of cold yin qi. Their power grows stronger still in the dead of night.

I believe you will find good use for them. Please cherish them. I shall end here.]

[With boundless joy at welcoming the fortress's most brilliant and promising new junior,

Blood-Preserving Squad Captain Jin Myeongjo.]

The words had been written in one flowing sweep. They remained vivid in his mind.

Even the strokes that wavered here and there, as though emotion had overcome the captain while sending his subordinates for his junior's sake, had felt touchingly human.

'Senior Jin of the Blood-Preserving Squad is a truly magnanimous man.'

He was worthy of respect.

He had readily sent over two blue-robed experts. Perhaps he was the most exemplary of all Jung Yeonshin's senior Blacks.

There was no measuring the breadth of his generosity. Had he belonged to another sect, Jung Yeonshin would have addressed him as a great hero.

He had once addressed Zhongnan Sect's Sword Dragon, wiji myohwa, that way.

"Welcome to the family. What martial arts have you learned besides your famed ultimate techniques?"

Jung Yeonshin asked despite knowing the answer. This was something he had learned from Heon Wonchang and Baek Miryeo.

They had told him that building relationships required conversation, even when there was no particular purpose behind it.

["You are now much like the head of a sect. Leading a combat unit of the Divine Sword Squad is a position of immense authority. Remember that you stand above the leaders of most sects, and lead us well. Your fruit will surely await you at the end."]

Those had been Baek Miryeo's words. She had told him to broaden his perspective a little, with the mindset of a sect leader guiding an entire school.

"I have trained in the Evading Swift Step, and Pung Ran is practicing the Classic of Initiating Transcendence."

Na Ilcheon spoke. Beside him, Pung Ran nodded.

With their narrow jawlines and pale complexions, they looked like siblings. The waves emanating irregularly from their bodies were strangely sinister.

They also seemed accustomed to carrying out orders exactly as given, like soldiers.

'That makes twenty-three blue robes.'

Chung Myung and Baek Miryeo had spoken of twenty-four, the same number as Mount Hua's Plum Blossom Swordsmen.

They said that with that many blue robes, the squad could contend with the elite forces of any major sect.

He was one short, but he could hardly demand another from the Blood-Preserving Squad Captain, who had already shown him such kindness.

'It's fine.'

The strongest opium addict under heaven was lying sprawled on the roof.

The only problem was his cotton clothing. Jung Yeonshin intended to propose a Promotion Exam for him this time.

'We have the minimum strength we need. Once they master the compendium, and I improve the radiant demon arts and teach them, they'll become a tremendous force.'

It was time to put their internal affairs in order.

He had been told the Radiant Demon Squad had its own conflicts and unfulfilled desires. At the City of Master Artisans, they had undergone events momentous enough to change captains.

They could hardly be entirely harmonious. His white-robed junior Shin Sobin was also being detained by the Shin Clan. He had to get her out one way or another.

Chung Myung's words remained vivid.

["Regardless of her robe color, you could call her a pioneer of your martial lineage. She uses the Infinite Blossom Fist Strike and the Evading Swift Step extremely well. She practically worships you. I hear she recently beat her older sister in the Suncheon Wing to a pulp. Shin Binbin, that is. Apparently, she complained that you were taking White Qilin around as though he were your subordinate."]

As soon as the captains' meeting ended, he would send word to the Shin Clan demanding the release of his subordinate.

'If they refuse, saying it's a family matter... '​

Jung Yeonshin did not pursue that unpleasant possibility. He could think about it when the time came.

He cleared his thoughts and rose, speaking slowly.

"I'll examine your martial arts tomorrow. Keep your qi honed and await orders."

Pung Ran and Na Ilcheon bowed silently.

"You may go."

After dismissing them, Jung Yeonshin took a letter from inside his robes. The paper was backed with lavish pink silk.

Unfolding it vertically revealed the handwriting of his maternal grandfather, Ma Yeonjeok.

The phrase "soaring dragons and leaping serpents" suited those strokes. They looked, quite literally, like a living dragon in motion.

[I hear the underlings are gathering at the Hall of the Sword That Seeks Peace.

Your grandfather ought to show his face as well. Shall we go together? I will come to the Radiant Demon Squad's hall.

The imperial household will surely summon these old bones in utmost secrecy... so I wish to spend as much time with you as I can, Yeonshin. I also wish to witness your first captains' meeting.]

Jung Yeonshin recoiled. This had absolutely nothing to do with his affection for Ma Yeonjeok.

A grandson going to work with his grandfather in tow.

The very image was enough to make him kick his bed in mortification. And it would happen this very evening.

'I'll leave first.'

STEP.

He set off at once.

The new Radiant Demon Squad captain's jet-black robes fluttered behind him.