Outside the door of the lab, countless soldiers walking by held their noses tightly, as if a poisonous gas was seeping through the joints of the closed lab door.

"What's that?"

One question remained in the air as they, lot and lot of soldiers, rushed past the door and descended to the second floor.

Jinx, who stood at the base of the second-floor stairs, shook her head and smiled when she saw the junior soldiers look at her as they moved past her.

She inhaled deeply, tore her gaze to the second larger transparent window, and gazed at the stars in the sky.

Memories of Lieutenant Gray teaching her batch the constellations reeled in her mind so vividly that she could pinpoint all the locations Gray pointed out years back.

After staring at the stars for a good forty-five minutes, she closed her eyes and inhaled. When she cracked her eyes open, the sobbing, the traces of the tears, and reddened skin all vanished as if she wasn't the one whose face was filled with markings of sobs.

She descended from the second floor, moved to the down floor, then stopped as she spotted the elevator that led to the basement open.

"Oin," she said, brushing her fingers in her hair, then rushed into the door, which was nearly closing.

She pressed the down arrow button, letting the elevator move downward.

While she waited calmly in the elevator, she clapped her fingers together, closed her eyes, and kept on imagining what Oin's face would be like when he saw her coming.

Smiles tore on her lips as joyous moments of Gilgal Village reeled in her vision.

And in the vision, she smiled more when the day she saw Oin and Elena move out of the abandoned building, their clothes scattered and thick sperm-like liquid dressing Elena's thighs.

When the mechanical sound erupted as the elevator slowed, Jinx cracked her eyes open and walked through the open door into the darker hallways of the basement.

On every door she moved past in the dark hallway, shadows moved, crashing themselves on the thick metal doors and letting sharp metal-to-metal and claw-to-metal sounds erupt.

Jinx didn't turn or pause; she kept on moving until she saw one door marked with the name OIN.

She slowed her walking pace, neared the door, and placed her right palm softly on the centre of the door's surface.

At that instant, a loud roaring sound echoed from inside the door she stood at the front of, letting debris fall from the ceiling to Jinx's head, and then to the ground filled with clotted blood spots.

Though her heart heaved as the roaring sound erupted, Jinx tried all she could and calmed down her racing heart.

And as she peeked her eyes through the two-inch rectangular space at her head level on the door, sweat snaked down her temple, traced to her chin, then fell and slammed on the ground like thunder.

…

Meanwhile, as the morning's glittering lights from above the Shadow Cults gleamed on the stoned grounds, monks of different sizes and heights walked, wearing their normal black training outfits.

"Yyyyhh!"

"Yyyyhhhh!"

Screams tore through the air as they kept on training at the large courtyard, slamming their feet on the ground.

One by one, holes appeared on the ground as if metallic spears or staffs had been placed under their boots.

But as Yung Mai exited from the meditation chamber, all the monks stopped and bowed to him, then began praising him.

Jack moved out of the monks, neared Yung Mai, and bowed to him.

"Master, it's been days since we saw you smile in this way?" Jack's voice came low. But the more he raised his head, the more he saw the smile on Yung Mai's face.

"The dead has risen," Yung Mai said in a tone that made Jack's very soul seep out of him in an instant.

Seeing Jack's reaction, Yung Mai shook his head, stepped aside, and gestured to the side of the empty door.

The remaining monks moved toward Jack's back.

For some, they saw the exit well, but for the short ones like Jackson, they climbed on top of the bridge before they could actually see Yung Mai.

"Ahh! Nothing is there."

For the first five minutes, they turned confused faces to each other as they could only see the darkness behind the door.

But as Jackson descended from the fence he stood on and turned toward where they were training, gasps filled the air.

His face tensed with confusion as he paused and tuned his ears to the gasps.

And when he saw no one moving behind him, he rushed toward the fence he stood on, climbed it, and stretched his neck.

"WHAT!" he screamed in a loud voice that shook the red fish swimming in the river beneath the bridge.

…

Inside the dark section of the door, Kai walked out slowly, placing his steps as if being pulled backward by an invisible string.

And when he stopped by Yung Mai's side, he raised his head, yet his hair covered his entire face, letting only his body, which had now transformed from a skinny body to a perfect monk's body, show.

The light gleaming around threw on his face, followed by a strange wind that moved the strands of black and blue hair covering his face.

When the glow of the light fell on his facial skin, he moved his right arm, blocking the direct contact of the light to his eyes.

And when his body slowly registered with the gleaming light, he moved his arm down. But at that instant, the symbol that had been coming and vanishing from his skin remained there like a second layer of veins.

"Kai!" Jack screamed and shot forward toward the boy at great speed.

He wrapped his arms around the boy so tight it felt as if he wanted to crack the boy's bones.

A minute after Jack hugged the boy, all the other monks rushed in and hugged the boy as well, then raised him and began tossing him like a victorious king.

While they tossed the boy in the air, Yung Mai shifted aside and began smiling uncontrollably.

"Hey," he said, his voice echoing with joy, so intense that his laughter wasn't allowing him to. "Be careful not to let the cloth wrapped around his left side peel off."

Though his voice came in like a command, it sounded like a request to Jack and the monks tossing the boy.

The red fish in the river moved to the side of the bridge where Kai's shadow fell whenever he got tossed in the air, as if they also wanted to cheer the boy up.

…

Minutes turned into hours, days, and months. And within the first two months, Kai received theoretical teachings of the Shadow King.

From the wondrous things the Shadow King came in to do, performed, of which the time delay was an example.

They fed him like a newly crowned king, walked with him wherever he wanted to go, and aided him in bathing, since Yung Mai ordered him not to unwrap the white cloth, which had black dots on it, from his body.

On the second month, Kai was taken to the library of the Shadow Cult, where all the names of those who had passed through the discipleship remained in thick and long books.

One after another, he took his time, day and night, checking the names, their attributes, which included their skills, potentials, and the unique powers each and every one had.

But on the last day of the second month, as he shoved through the pages of the book, he saw two names that had the surnames "Yung Chin S" and "Yung Chin G."

Uniquely, the names clung to him like his own blood, repeating in his mind whenever he saw his master's face or heard his name.

But on the fifth day of the third month, after they had undergone the meditation for the day, Kai neared his master.

"Master," he said, his voice echoing in a question-filled tone as he brushed his fingers in his hair.

Yung Mai, who still sat there with his eyes closed even after completing all the meditation for the day, cracked his eyes open and looked at the boy with a calm facial expression.

Seeing the look of his master, Kai sat there in a lotus posture and straightened himself to match Yung Mai's level.

"Please, who are Yung Chin S and Yung Chin G?" Kai said and focused his gaze on his master's lips.

Yung Mai hesitated for a minute while his face tensed slightly. "Where did you find those names?"

Slowly, enlightenment filled his expression so vividly that Kai could sense there was some secret behind the names he had found.

And now, he was willing and ready to receive whatever history lay hidden beneath those two names.

…

Meanwhile, at a far distance in Gorg City, and in the large meeting ground, Jim, Marcus, Wang, Theo, and a few others bowed, pleading for their lives.

"Please, we will go there for the boy, we promise!"

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