Chapter 99: Secret Vault (1)
Chapter 99: Secret Vault (1)
City of Hezuo.
“It’s been a while.”
Woon-seong stood on the hills and smiled as he looked off into the distance. He had changed a lot since his last visit, but the hills and valleys remained the same.
What greeted Woon-seong was memories.
The hill he was standing on was one he used to frequent with his master.
Nok Yu-on loved the view from this cliff which overlooked the other hills, choosing to stand here and watch the sunset. Whenever they visited Hezuo, they would stand here and watch the sky.
After so long, Woon-seong began to love that view too.
Were there tears in his eyes or was the setting sun shining a little brighter today?
All sorts of emotions rose in him as the scenery made him remember precious memories. For once, his thoughts of the past did not center around pain and revenge.
“Master…”
I assume his remains are just lying abandoned somewhere back in that mountain. It’s been quite a long time. Can I recover it…?
That’s practically impossible.
Ten years is enough for even bones to wither away.
All I can do is make a memorial tablet and personally celebrate his anniversary in my memories.
I know this is the cold hard reality, but still…
Woon-seong could not help but be troubled.
As he sighed, the sun had already set and a glorious darkness was sweeping across the sky.
I shouldn’t waste any more time.
Woon-seong hurriedly entered Hezuo.
It was around evening, so many people were still walking around the market streets. Some people came out to buy snacks, other people walked around drunk.
Woon-seong quickly travelled through the town and to the outskirts.
In Hezuo, there were a total of three shrines for Guan Yu [1].
The one Woon-seong was headed towards was the oldest of the three.
Opening the old doors, Woon-seong could see the inside of a dusty tower. There were cobwebs everywhere, making it obvious that the shrine was poorly maintained.
The shrine was cold and damp, as if it had just been raining.
Inside, the statue of Lord Guan stood alone.
Even the floor was covered in dust, so Woon-seong’s steps left footprints behind.
Lord Guan Yu was the Martial God of Loyalty and Righteousness, but the shrine looked too dilapidated to be a place where a deity was worshipped.
That being said, there were two other shrines in Hezuo…
At least the praying mats and surrounding areas were still relatively clean.
Lord Guan Yu was a mortal warrior whose stories had been glorified after his death. Although he was a war hero when he was alive, it was only after his death that he received titles of nobility, each higher than the last.
This shrine, at least, was more of a proof of reverence towards a military prodigy than belief in a deity.
Woon-seong approached the statue with familiar steps.
Then, he tapped the fingers of the statue a few times.
They were very light taps.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Soon, whirring and thumping could be heard.
Of course, tapping on the statue a few times was not the only thing he needed to do. That was just preparation to get into the vault.
The door to the vault is hidden here.
After tapping the fingers, Woon-seong walked around the statue. Shuffling a few steps to the side, he lightly pushed the statue.
The statue was not as heavy as it seemed so it proved no problem to the well-trained Woon-seong.
And something amazing happened.
Krrr—
As the statue was pushed to the side, it revealed a passageway just wide enough for a singular person.
He spread his senses to look around, also turning his head to glance behind him. His qi spread through the area like a net, reaching about 5 li (2.5km). There’s no one here.
Woon-seong didn’t detect anything other than the movements of a few mountain beasts.
Few could deceive the senses of a Semi-Divine Being.
Thus, Woon-seong entered the passageway.
Once Woon-seong walked down the stairs, the passageway automatically closed behind him.
With a loud krrr, the statue of Lord Guan Yu moved, causing the entrance to the vault to disappear once more.
The stairs led to another long, dark passageway.
But this didn’t matter to Woon-seong.
Not only had he become accustomed to darkness during the training in the Cave of Latent Demons, his training with Chun Hwi had allowed his senses to become extremely sensitive.
As a Semi-Divine Being, Woon-seong had reached a point where he did not need light at all.
Not caring about the time, he walked forward.
His surroundings suddenly changed.
With a single step, the darkness disappeared. At the same time, he was suddenly faced with a cool breeze and a bamboo forest.
Such a perfect boundary could not be natural.
That’s because it wasn’t natural.
It was an illusion called the ‘Nine Hundred Bamboo’s installed by an ancestor of the Spear Master Sect.
Instead of looking nervous, Woon-seong’s face showed that he had actually missed this bamboo grove.
Due to it being an illusion, the bamboo grove would always look the same — from the day it was installed to the day it would be destroyed.
It made him sentimental.
But he could not stay for long.
The Nine Hundred Bamboos was an illusion art designed so that the target became distracted by the bamboo forest, spending time watching the scenery until they lost their sense of time and direction.
Woon-seong walked a bit faster.
In fact, if he wanted to, he could tear up the whole illusion formation with his strength. The Nine Hundred Bamboos was a powerful illusion, but it wasn’t much before Woon-seong. With his knowledge of the formation itself, he could easily disable and destroy it.
But that was not an option.
The illusion was an important way to protect the Spear Master Sect’s legacy.
Woon-seong would never compromise that.
After walking a few more minutes, the landscape changed once more.
Again, it was a sudden change, but he did not panic.
It was only natural for the landscape to change as soon as he stepped out of the illusion.
What stood out in this new area?
A steel door locked with three layers of mechanical devices.
The pattern to unlock it was… Move the handle left three times and right five times, I believe.
Kacha—
From inside, Woon-seong could hear the locks of the machine opening in succession. Shortly after that, the door began to open.
The safehouse of the Spear Master Sect stored records of martial arts and martial studies, documenting all the glorious achievements and unscrupulous conspiracies of decades past.
The complicated security measures were necessary.
In the past, there were many who targeted these records kept by the Spear Master Sect.
Even one of the texts flowing into Kangho would cause a fuss.
It might not be a major blood-shedding event, but there would still be casualties.
To protect such precious records, the Spear Master Sect had built such a hideout.
Klang—
Once the door was opened, the interior of the vault was revealed. On the surface, the secret vault was reminiscent of an ordinary library.
This place… Although it’s nothing comparable to the Shaolin’s Record House or the Divine Cult’s Divine Vault of Demonic Sea, if we take into account the interpretations made through martial studies, its value is nothing short of those two.
Woon-seong walked inside, ignoring all of the shelves. And if my master wanted to hide something here, there is only one place.
Soon, he arrived at the bookshelf farthest to the back.
While all the other shelves showed the traces of time, this one and the one next to it were slightly different.
The shelf at the very end seemed to have been created very recently. The one next to it was a little older, but not as old as the others.
“Master.”
Woon-seong bowed before the bookshelf.
The slightly older bookshelf had the name ‘Nok Yu-on’ carved into it, the name of Woon-seong’s master.
The newest bookshelf had the name ‘Hyuk Woon-seong’.
Woon-seong’s bookshelf was only a tenth full.
It had been bought on the day Woon-seong was officially registered as the apprentice of Nok Yu-on, inheritor of the Spear Master Sect.
At the time, Nok Yu-on had shown Woon-seong his own bookshelf, saying: “My goal is to fill this bookshelf with my own martial studies. The predecessors of the Spear Master Sect have done so too. You should also aim to fill your own shelf.”
Of course, Nok Yu-on had not achieved his goal. His shelf was only about half full.
Woon-seong carefully examined the shelf.
It’s mostly filled with books related to martial studies.
But there is just one item which isn’t a book, that red wooden box.
Woon-seong carefully grabbed it. Clicking it open, he found a neatly folded letter and a long knife.
On the side of the knife was inlaid with seven pieces of jade. Of them, the fifth one was black, while all the others were white.
What is this knife?
Woon-seong glanced at the knife for a moment, before lowering it to open the letter.
It was a message left for Woon-seong by Nok Yu-on.
“If you have reached this place, then it must mean you have survived. And it would also mean that I no longer live in this world. However, I am glad at least you survived, my apprentice.”
Apparently that was a must for a teacher.
Woon-seong seemed to shed tears as soon as he saw Nok Yu-on’s writing. Although it was a written letter, he could almost hear his master’s voice.
Even as he wrote this letter, Nok Yu-on had been worried about his disciple.
“Master…”
Woon-seong grit his teeth.
Then, fighting back his tears, he continued to read the letter.
[1] Guan Yu was a Chinese military general who served under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He was immortalized in the popular novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and deified as the Martial God of Loyalty and Righteousness