Side Story 26. The Three Newcomers (3)

Who was the current Grand Library Master of the Five Flower Great Library?
Since Yu Jeong-shin, the original Library Master, had now become the young Forest Lord, the position of Grand Library Master had naturally passed to someone else.
That Grand Library Master was none other than Dam Hyun.
When Yu Jeong-shin chose his successor, he agonized for quite a while between Yi-gang and Dam Hyun.

If one judged by character and meticulousness, Yi-gang had been the better choice, but Yu Jeong-shin boldly chose Dam Hyun.
Yi-gang had too many things he had to do.
He spent most of the year traveling outside Azure Forest, so he could not remain and guard the library.
Fortunately, Dam Hyun carried out the role of Grand Library Master very well.

But Dam Hyun, like Yu Jeong-shin before him, could not remain in the Grand Library forever.
An age of chaos had arrived.
And in all of Azure Forest, Dam Hyun was the one most knowledgeable in matters of heterodox and side-path arts.

Once the Grand Library Master began leaving Azure Forest, problems naturally arose in the management of the Grand Library as well.
Other disciples had managed the Ink-Eating Worms from time to time, but even so, quite a few of them had probably infested the Grand Library by now.
Finding and eliminating them was the test given to the three newcomers.

“The original time limit is a full day. But for the three of you, I’ll give each of you only two hours. Find the Ink-Eating Worms within that time.”

The Golden Needle Phantom grinned.

“For reference, your master caught the Ink-Eating Worms with absurd ease. I hear it didn’t even take him a quarter of an hour.”
“How are we supposed to find bugs like Ink-Eating Worms?”

Tsering raised her hand carefully as she asked.
It was a very necessary question.

“A good question. There are several methods, but the orthodox one is to use your sixth sense. The important thing is to detect the life force or yokai energy those tiny creatures give off.”

The Golden Needle Phantom recalled a story he had once heard about Yi-gang.
Apparently, Yi-gang had found the Ink-Eating Worms in an instant.
When asked how, he had said, “I could hear them.”
He answered that he could hear the sound of the Ink-Eating Worms nibbling at the characters.
In truth, there was no way such tiny things chewing on written characters would make an audible sound.
That must only have been possible because Yi-gang’s sixth sense was so highly developed.
His sixth sense must have naturally translated itself into hearing, allowing him to perceive the Ink-Eating Worms that way.

The Golden Needle Phantom quietly looked at Cheongho.
Choosing Cheongho to go first had not been some idle whim.
He had been curious.

‘Ho ho, for that little yokai to come here wanting to become human…….’

Cheongho, the Heavenly Thunder White-Tailed Fox, had once in a previous life been a human woman.
Cheong Seo-ho, the Blue-Eyed Mad Demon. A woman who had wanted to go from being human to becoming a yokai.
She had been reborn as a yokai through attaining Buddhahood, yet Cheongho had come all the way here to Azure Forest because he wanted to become human.
If Cheongho was still, in essence, a yokai, would he not be able to find the Ink-Eating Worms easily?

And indeed, the Golden Needle Phantom’s expectation was not misplaced.
Cheongho had already sensed the Ink-Eating Worms in this place long ago.
Even though he had gained a human body, there was no way he could be compared to an ordinary human.
Sagak sagak, he could hear the sound of the insects nibbling at the writing.
He heard them from all over the place. In this Grand Library, with its tens of thousands of books, just how many Ink-Eating Worms were hidden inside?

Was he supposed to find all of them?
That was what Cheongho thought. If given enough time, he could probably do it.
But that would not satisfy him.

This was a test to decide Yi-gang’s first disciple.
His determination now was greater than ever.
The other two claiming to be first was utterly absurd.

And so Cheongho showed his ‘true seriousness.’
Clear yokai energy began to ripple around his body.

‘Just a little, only a little.’

There was no need to use much strength.
Compared to when he had intimidated the Green Beast before, drawing out only a quarter of that yokai energy would be enough.
His ears and tail did not need to emerge.
Only around his throat and mouth, enough to produce a voice…….
His fangs sharpened ever so slightly.

Cheongho spoke a single word.

“Come out.”

Though not loud, his voice echoed throughout the Grand Library.
It wandered between the shelves and brushed past the tens of thousands of books like a soft breeze.

And the Ink-Eating Worms hidden among those books.
Those tiny things did not even possess true intelligence, yet they unmistakably sensed the presence of a Great Yokai.

Pasuseuseuseu-

The Ink-Eating Worms crumbled out from the books like hardened lime dust.
Everyone in the library saw it.
They watched the stiffened Ink-Eating Worms spilling from the shelves in little bursts.
In a single move, Cheongho had found every Ink-Eating Worm in the Grand Library and subdued them.

“Uh…….”

Baek Sang-ye’s dazed exclamation broke the silence.
The Golden Needle Phantom punched the air.

“Paaass!”

Of course he passed.
It had been an even faster and more decisive response than Yi-gang’s.
The Golden Needle Phantom gave an evaluation worthy of Cheongho’s performance.

“Results of the first test. Cheongho gets 10 points. The other two get 0!”

“What?!”
“What do you mean by that?!”

Both Tsering and Baek Sang-ye protested in disbelief.
But the Golden Needle Phantom merely raised both hands and shrugged.

“That brat Cheongho already caught all the Ink-Eating Worms, so how are the two of you supposed to take the test?”
“Even so, giving us zero points is a bit…….”
“Then why didn’t you volunteer to go first? None of you raised a hand, so I picked the order myself.”
“……”

The two of them looked stunned.

“Don’t worry, there are still more tests left.”
“I’ll go first on the next one.”
“Me too!”

It seemed a fire had been lit under both Tsering and Baek Sang-ye as well.
The Golden Needle Phantom grinned.

The next tests were prepared quickly.
The first test, “Ink-Eating Worm detection,’ tested the sixth sense.
There had been many other tests Yi-gang had gone through besides that one.
One of them was the ‘bell-chime test,’ which measured internal energy.

“No, Martial Uncle, do you know how expensive this thing is…….”
“You little punk, are you trying to imitate Senior Brother Do-gyeong too? I’ll smooth things over with the Management Pavilion, so get lost!”

The Golden Needle Phantom all but robbed the current Bright Sun Pavilion Master of a set of jade bell chimes.
He then kicked the Bright Sun Pavilion Master in the backside and chased him away outright.

“These punks, do they know how much budget I bring in here, always grumbling and grumbling.”

As one of the Three Great Divine Physicians Under Heaven, the Golden Needle Phantom took on jobs for enormous fees.
Since most of that income went straight into Azure Forest’s finances, even the Management Pavilion Master, who oversaw the money, could not complain too much to him.

“Now then, grasp the dragon head on the bell-chime set and gently release your internal energy into it.”

A bell-chime set was an instrument in which twelve bells hung in a row from a single beam.
The Golden Needle Phantom grabbed the carved dragon head at one end of the beam and demonstrated.

Dedededeng-

The twelve bells rang one after another, producing a beautiful melody.

“Your goal is to make as many of the bells ring as possible.”
“How many did Master Yi-gang ring?”
“Hm, when he first tried it around your age……”

As far as the Golden Needle Phantom remembered, the result had been anything but ordinary.

“He smashed the whole bell-chime set to pieces.”
“What?”
“Now then, begin!”

Baek Sang-ye was the first one to take this test.
She stepped forward proudly and grasped the dragon head of the bianzhong.

It was a test of internal energy.
And though it had already been emphasized several times, Baek Sang-ye possessed the greatest internal energy in the imperial palace.
Most likely, among all the younger rising talents of her age, there was no one with deeper internal energy than hers.

So to Baek Sang-ye, a test of internal power was a field in which she was extremely confident.
And since that confidence was now paired with the determination that she absolutely had to stand out, the moment she released her internal energy….

Peopeopeopeopung!

The twelve bells exploded one after another.
Instead of producing a beautiful melody, the expensive jade bell-chime set shattered to pieces.
If the Management Pavilion Master had seen it, he would have screamed in horror, but the Golden Needle Phantom roared with laughter.

“Euheoheoheoheo! Pass! 11 out of 10 points!”
“Waaah!”

Baek Sang-ye forgot even her dignity and threw her hands up in celebration.

“No, if 10 is the maximum, how do you get 11?!”
“Eh-heh! If your martial ancestor says so, then so it is.”

Tsering protested, but the Golden Needle Phantom did not so much as blink.
This time too, things unfolded much like the first test.
Baek Sang-ye, who had gone first, received points, but Cheongho and Tsering were both given zero.
Since the bell-chime setI’ve chan had been destroyed, there was no helping it.

“Kuh, then you’re making me go first on the next test.”
“Of course, heuheu, it has to go fairly in turn.”

There was one more test left.
The Golden Needle Phantom immediately took the three of them to the site of the next test.
It was the training ground inside the Five Flower Great Library.

The open space was lit as brightly as day with torches and luminous pearls.
On the stone-laid floor, strange banners, gemstones, and wooden pieces of unknown purpose had been arranged in geometric patterns.
It was clearly a formation.
The one who had prepared that formation in advance at the Golden Needle Phantom’s command was none other than Yu Su-rin.

“Is the Mixed Illusion Formation ready?”
“Yes, I’ve set it up properly.”

She looked over the three newcomers, Cheongho included, with interested eyes.
The Golden Needle Phantom grinned.

“What is laid out here is called the Mixed Illusion Formation. It is one used when selecting Honor Flower Disciples.”

Mixed Illusion Formation.
It was a mysterious formation that confused a person’s senses and showed them illusions.
Yu Su-rin added an explanation.

“I reinforced it a little. It should be harder than it used to be.”
“You heard that, right? You just have to get out of it within two hours.”

When the Golden Needle Phantom said that, the same question came up again.

“How long did Master Yi-gang take?”
“I hear it didn’t even take him a quarter of an hour. Of course, it can’t really be compared to then. This Mixed Illusion Formation has been constructed to be more difficult than it was back then.”

The Golden Needle Phantom was telling the truth.

“Then I’ll go first!”

It was the moment Tsering, stepping forward boldly, entered through the Open Gate of the Mixed Illusion Formation.
Five-colored mist rose up from the floor.
Even from outside, Tsering’s figure was half concealed.

“By now, all five of that girl’s senses should be distorted, and she’ll have lost her sense of direction.”

It certainly looked that way.
The training ground where the Mixed Illusion Formation had been set up was not especially large.
Tsering seemed to have completely lost her sense of direction, doing nothing but circling around inside.
The basics of breaking a formation were to avoid the dangerous Death Gate, pass through the Rest Gate, and find the Life Gate.

But no matter how talented Tsering was, she had never learned Mysterious Gates Escape Technique.
As if frustrated, Tsering suddenly leaped straight upward from where she stood.

Koong!

She struck her head against an invisible ceiling and fell back down.
For a moment, they could see her clutching her head.

“Ho ho, so the entertaining part ended earlier, did it?”

The Golden Needle Phantom chuckled as he muttered that.

But Tsering did not give up.
The moment she hit her head, she recalled Divine Monk’s teachings.
He had said that what mattered was breaking free from the bewilderment that clouded one’s eyes.
In a chaotic situation where one could not see the way ahead, he had said that letting out a great shout could jolt the mind awake.
And Divine Monk had kindly gone so far as to teach her even that vocalization method.

“Huuuuup!”

She drew in a deep breath and packed her abdomen tight with pressure.
Then all she had to do was release a shout while filling it with pure internal energy.
In truth, this process of filling it with that pure internal energy was extremely difficult, yet for some reason Divine Monk had carefully taught it to her.
He had warned her to use it carefully, since it contained the power to break evil.
Divine Monk had not gone so far as to tell her that this sound technique was called the Lion’s Roar.
Tsering let out her shout.

“Hah!”

And the Mixed Illusion Formation shattered apart.
The five-colored mist scattered as though swept away by a gale, and the formation cores placed on the ground were blown aside by the force of the Lion’s Roar.
Tsering was revealed standing there proudly.
The Golden Needle Phantom burst out laughing, while Yu Su-rin was appalled.

“Wahahahat!”
“Aaagh! It took me two whole hours to set that up!”

To think she had broken a formation with the Lion’s Roar. No one had imagined using such a method.

“Out of ten points, that’s a hundred!”
“Yahoo!”

The Golden Needle Phantom was delighted.

“Then that means I become the eldest, right? I’m the senior sister?”

Tsering asked that excitedly.

“Huhu, settle down. I’ll tell you now.”

The Golden Needle Phantom grinned.