The rooftop Dragon Vein Gate had been stable for two weeks.
Han-Ho had added it to the Tuesday and Friday route monitoring.
The monitoring on Tuesday morning had been uneventful since the old man's arrival.
On Wednesday the Gate had a visitor.
Then Thursday another.
Then Friday two more.
By the following Monday the Gate had seen eight individual crossings in six days and the Registry had updated the Dragon Vein Gate protocols four times and Ms. Yoon had created a dedicated intake desk on the sixth floor of a building adjacent to the rooftop because having people appear on a rooftop in northern Mapo with no reception infrastructure was, as she put it in her report, operationally insufficient.
Park Sung-Jin had arranged the desk.
It had forms.
Very good forms.
The first Wednesday visitor was the Sword Saint.
Wei Liang. Ten Thousand Cuts.
He came through the Gate at seven AM.
Han-Ho was on the rooftop because Wednesday route included the rooftop at seven AM now.
The Sword Saint stepped through.
Looked at Seoul.
Looked at Han-Ho.
Han-Ho looked at him.
Looked at the Gate residue.
"Step slightly to the left," said Han-Ho.
The Sword Saint stepped slightly to the left.
Han-Ho cleaned the residue.
Made a note.
Looked at the Sword Saint.
The Sword Saint was looking at Han-Ho with the specific focused attention he gave to watching someone whose technique he wanted to understand.
"You are the one who cleared the Dragon Veins," said the Sword Saint.
"Yes," said Han-Ho.
"I could feel the clearing from six months ago," said the Sword Saint. "Through the Dragon Vein network on our side. The sections clearing one by one." He paused. "It was like watching someone practice a sword form. The same movement. Repeated. Precise. No variation."
Han-Ho made a note.
"I came to see the technique," said the Sword Saint.
"It is called Stain Removal," said Han-Ho.
"I know," said the Sword Saint. "The old man told us."
"You spoke to the old man."
"He came through the martial world Gate yesterday. Coordinated with the sect leaders about the breakthrough management." The Sword Saint looked at Han-Ho's hand. "He described your technique. I wanted to see it."
"It is a cleaning technique," said Han-Ho.
"Yes," said the Sword Saint. "I know. Show me."
Han-Ho looked at him.
At the greatest sword martial artist in history.
Standing on a rooftop in northern Mapo at seven AM asking to see a cleaning technique.
Han-Ho pressed his hand against the rooftop surface.
The glow started.
The Sword Saint watched.
For seventeen minutes he watched Han-Ho clean the rooftop surface. Not because it needed significant cleaning. It needed moderate cleaning. The Gate activity over the past two weeks had left trace residue even after individual cleanings and the accumulation warranted a thorough session.
The Sword Saint watched every movement.
Every decision Han-Ho made about where to start. Where to work outward from. How to address the edges. How to handle the corners.
He said nothing.
Han-Ho said nothing.
After seventeen minutes Han-Ho stood up.
The rooftop was clean.
The Sword Saint looked at it.
"Your technique," said the Sword Saint. "Has no unnecessary movements."
"Unnecessary movements spread the contamination," said Han-Ho.
The Sword Saint nodded once.
"Same principle as the sword," said the Sword Saint. "Unnecessary movement creates openings. In combat. In cleaning. Same principle."
"Yes," said Han-Ho.
They stood on the clean rooftop.
"I will need to go through the Registry intake process," said the Sword Saint.
"Sixth floor. Adjacent building. Ms. Yoon has the desk set up."
"The old man mentioned Ms. Yoon."
"Everyone does eventually," said Han-Ho.
"He said she is very efficient."
"She is," said Han-Ho.
"He also said she has a file on everything."
"She does," said Han-Ho.
"Including me."
"Including your sect technique," said Han-Ho. "The River That Cuts Heaven. She documented it from the old man's technique assessment paper."
The Sword Saint looked at him.
"She documented my technique from a paper written by the Unmoving Mountain."
"Yes."
"Before I arrived."
"Yes."
"She was prepared."
"She is always prepared," said Han-Ho.
The Sword Saint was quiet for a moment.
"I like this world," said the Sword Saint.
"The documentation system," said Han-Ho.
"Among other things," said the Sword Saint.
They went to the sixth floor intake desk.
The Thursday visitor was a formal orthodox sect delegation.
Seven martial artists.
The sect leader. Five senior disciples. One junior disciple who had been included as a learning exercise and was currently experiencing everything as extraordinary in a way that made River feel a kinship.
They came through the Gate with ceremony.
Specific formation. Specific order. The senior disciples flanking the sect leader. The junior disciple behind. The formal arrival posture of a delegation presenting itself to a foreign power.
Han-Ho was on the rooftop.
He looked at the formation.
At the seven people in formation.
At the Gate residue they had collectively left.
"The residue zone is the three meter radius around the Gate," said Han-Ho. "You are standing in it."
The formation looked at him.
"If you could all step back four meters that would help," said Han-Ho.
The formation stepped back four meters.
The sect leader looked at the junior disciple.
The junior disciple shrugged in the specific way of a young person who does not have more information than the person asking.
The sect leader looked at Han-Ho.
"I am Sect Leader Cheon Daehyun of the—"
"Sixth floor," said Han-Ho. "Adjacent building. Ms. Yoon has the intake desk. She will need registration information for all seven of you including sect affiliation, realm level, and primary technique classification."
"We have brought gifts," said Sect Leader Cheon Daehyun.
"Thank you," said Han-Ho. "The intake desk has a gift registration field. Ms. Yoon will process them appropriately."
The sect leader looked at Han-Ho.
"The Unmoving Mountain said you would be brief," said Sect Leader Cheon Daehyun.
"The residue is spreading," said Han-Ho. "Four meters was not enough. Can you go to six."
The formation went to six meters.
Han-Ho cleaned the residue.
Made a note.
Looked at the formation.
"Sixth floor," said Han-Ho.
They went.
The junior disciple looked back at Han-Ho as they went through the rooftop door.
Han-Ho was already making notes.
The junior disciple had the expression that everyone had the first time.
She went inside.
The Friday visitors were different.
Two of them.
Not a formal delegation.
Not a famous martial artist.
Two young women approximately eighteen years old.
From a small village sect in the western territories.
They had felt the Dragon Vein activation strongly because their village sat directly above a Dragon Vein junction point and the activation had been particularly intense there.
They had heard about the Gate.
They had come to see.
They stepped through together.
Looked at Seoul.
Looked at each other.
Looked at Seoul again.
"Extraordinary," said one of them.
From Han-Ho's bag pocket River said: "Extraordinary."
The two young women looked at the bag pocket.
River looked back.
"You said it," said the first young woman.
"Yes," said River. "Everything is extraordinary."
"Yes," said the second young woman. "It is."
Han-Ho looked at them.
Looked at the Gate residue.
Looked at them.
"You are very young to be crossing dimensional Gates," said Han-Ho.
"We are seventeen," said the first young woman.
"That is very young," said Han-Ho.
"We are second realm martial artists," said the second young woman. "We have been training for four years."
"That is also very young," said Han-Ho.
"The Dragon Vein activation was very strong at our village," said the first young woman. "We felt it. We followed it. The Gate was on the Hill of Morning Qi above our village."
Han-Ho made a note.
Dragon Vein activation created accessible Gate above village in western territories. Second realm martial artists age seventeen crossed without formal sect backing. Gate emergence at Dragon Vein junction points — not all of them are on isolated rooftops. Village gates possible. Filing report.
He filed it.
Looked at the two young women.
"Sixth floor," said Han-Ho. "Adjacent building. There is a waiting area. I am going to call someone."
He called Min-Seo.
"There are two seventeen year old martial artists from the western territories at the intake desk," said Han-Ho.
"Okay," said Min-Seo.
"They came through a village Gate. Their sect is not aware they are here."
"Oh," said Min-Seo.
"Can you call the old man. He coordinated with the sect leaders. He may know the village sect."
"Yes."
"Also they look like they have not eaten since yesterday."
"I will bring food," said Min-Seo.
"Thank you."
Han-Ho hung up.
Looked at the two young women.
"Are you hungry," said Han-Ho.
"Yes," said both of them simultaneously.
"GS25 on the way," said Han-Ho. "We will get something before the intake desk."
The first young woman looked at the second.
The second looked at the first.
"Is it extraordinary," said the first one, quietly.
"The GS25," said the second one.
"Yes," said the first one.
"Everything is extraordinary," said River helpfully, from the bag pocket.
They went to the GS25.
Cho Hyun was on shift.
He looked at the two young women.
Looked at Han-Ho.
Added Rule Seven to The System.
Rule Seven: sometimes they are very young and have come a long way. Give them the chips.
He gave them the chips.
The Monday visitor after the six-day rush was the Sword Saint again.
He came at seven AM.
Stepped off the residue zone immediately.
Han-Ho nodded.
Cleaned the minimal residue from the crossing.
The Sword Saint had a scroll.
"The River That Cuts Heaven," said the Sword Saint. "The full technique. All ten thousand movements."
Han-Ho looked at the scroll.
"You are giving me your sword technique," said Han-Ho.
"Not to use," said the Sword Saint. "To clean."
Han-Ho looked at him.
"The technique has accumulated contamination over ninety years of use," said the Sword Saint. "The Dragon Vein activation will clean some of it naturally. But the deep contamination in the technique's fundamental structure—" He held out the scroll. "I want you to clean it. Properly."
Han-Ho took the scroll.
Pressed his hand against it.
Read it.
The technique was extraordinary.
Not in the way of power. In the way of refinement. Ninety years of practice had built layer upon layer of qi into the scroll's structural encoding. The ten thousand movements were there. Perfect. But underneath them, in the foundation, there were indeed micro-blockages. Old contamination from decades of training in contaminated ambient mana.
The same problem as the S-Ranks' meridians but concentrated into the technique itself.
Han-Ho cleaned it.
Took four minutes.
Handed it back.
The Sword Saint took the scroll.
Opened it.
Read the first movement.
Felt the difference.
He was quiet for a long time.
"Ten thousand movements," said the Sword Saint quietly. "In ninety years I have used at most forty seven in a single engagement." He looked at the scroll. "I have wondered since the fifteenth movement what the technique was supposed to feel like without the accumulated weight of practice contamination." He looked at Han-Ho. "Now I know."
"Is it better," said Han-Ho.
"It is what it was always supposed to be," said the Sword Saint. "Not better. Correct."
Han-Ho made a note.
Sword technique cleaning: technique contamination from years of training in contaminated ambient mana. Cleaning restores technique to original intended state not improved state. Correct not better. Distinction matters. Filing.
He filed it.
The Sword Saint rolled the scroll.
"Thank you," said the Sword Saint.
"You are welcome," said Han-Ho.
"I would like to bring other martial artists with techniques that need cleaning."
Han-Ho thought about this.
"Wednesday afternoons," said Han-Ho. "After two. Before four. I have the route in the mornings and the Registry meetings on Wednesday evenings sometimes."
"I will arrange it," said the Sword Saint.
"Ms. Yoon will need to add a technique cleaning appointment system to the intake desk."
"Of course," said the Sword Saint.
He went to the sixth floor.
Han-Ho made a note.
Wednesday afternoons: technique cleaning appointments. Need to inform Ms. Yoon. Route adjustment: Wednesday mornings must finish by one thirty PM to allow preparation time.
He adjusted the Wednesday route.
Filed the adjustment.
The rooftop Gate hummed quietly.
The Dragon Vein network pulsed clean energy through the system.
The world was getting busier.
Han-Ho had a schedule.
The schedule would handle it.