Two days passed.
Two days of silence, patrols, coded glances, and cold meals. Baek-Ha stopped sleeping more than an hour at a time. Sim didn't sleep at all. He trained. Meditated. Listened to the walls breathe.
The knife in the cake had changed things.
Not just for them.
For everyone.
Someone had declared open war on the Veil Root Path.
And Sim Gwan was the only one walking it without exploding yet.
That made him a target.
That made him valuable.
That made him… next.
---
The first mistake they made was sending someone pretty.
Her name was Hae-Ri.
Short hair. Quiet voice. Dark eyes like wet ink. She arrived at the inn with soft boots, a healer's satchel, and a fake limp.
Said she was a messenger from the Southern Serpent Sect, here to offer a warning, not a blade.
Said they were experimenting with pain-based qi refinement too.
Said they wanted a meeting.
Sim didn't trust her.
Baek-Ha hated her on sight.
But Sim said yes anyway.
Because the fastest way to learn the rules is to let someone try to cheat.
---
The meeting was set for midnight.
An abandoned granary near the city's south wall. Quiet. Damp. Isolated.
Sim arrived early.
Alone.
No blade. No armor. Just robes and the dull ache of warning in his gut.
He waited.
Then Hae-Ri arrived.
Followed by three others.
No healer's satchels now.
Swords. Poison needles. One with a chain whip tucked under their robe.
She smiled sadly. "Sorry. You really did seem like you'd survive."
Sim didn't move.
"I'll ask once," he said. "Why?"
She sighed. "You're not supposed to exist. Not you. You're… stable."
"And that's a threat?"
"To people who've spent twenty years trying and failing to make monsters behave?"
"You could become just like the others at any point."
She had a point.
Well not that Sim cared.
One of the swordsmen stepped forward.
Sim's breath slowed.
The qi in him pulsed.
It didn't wait. It offered.
---
The sword came first. Low slash. Trained. Precise.
Sim didn't block.
He moved through it.
One step. Drop. Slide. Elbow to wrist. The blade flipped.
He took it mid-air.
And cut.
His first cut.
Across the man's thigh. Deep. Messy.
The sword dropped.
The second attacker lunged. Needle-hand strike.
Sim caught the wrist. Yanked it wide.
Headbutt. Bone to nose.
Blood sprayed.
The third attacker flinched.
Too late.
Sim turned, slammed his foot into the ribs. Felt something give.
Three down.
Hae-Ri hadn't moved.
She just stared.
Then she said, softly, "You weren't supposed to be this fast."
He walked toward her.
Sword still bloody.
She stepped back.
Raised a small vial. "If I break this, we both die."
He stopped.
"Do you want to die here?" she asked.
"No."
"Then let me leave."
He looked at the blood on his blade. The warm pulse of qi still swirling in his spine. The silence.
He said, "This was your test."
She blinked.
"You weren't trying to kill me. You wanted to see if I'd kill you."
She didn't deny it.
"You wanted to know if the stories were true. That I could kill without breaking."
Her hand trembled slightly.
He stepped closer.
Whispered:
> "They're true now."
She didn't break the vial.
She just lowered it. Hand shaking.
And turned to run.
He let her go.
---
Later, Baek-Ha stitched his shoulder.
"You let her live?" she asked, not looking at him.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"She was a mirror."
Baek-Ha didn't answer.
Then, "Did it feel good?"
"Yes," he said honestly.
"Does that scare you?"
He shook his head.
"That's what scares me."
---
[Cultivation: Early Foundation – Qi Flow Hardened]
The pain no longer surged.
It answered.
---
The next morning, a letter was nailed to their door.
For a moment Sim wondered if he was blessed by the diety of letters but instantly got rid of that thought.
Not folded. Not sealed. Just one sentence:
> "You've passed the first gate. You're not prey anymore."
And beneath it, written in smaller script:
> "Come to Dustwind Pass.
If you want to make this power yours completely…
You'll need to shed the name Jin Mu."
Sim closed the door slowly.
Baek-Ha waited by the stairs, arms folded.
"Well?"
"We're leaving."
She raised a brow. "Where?"
"To another place we'll probally die," he said. "And I stop pretending to be who im not."
---