Unshackled
Incredible!
It was far more than mere admiration. However much he might have neglected formation arts in his youth, Zhuge Chim was still a scion of the Zhuge Clan. He could grasp all too well the absurd level of difficulty in what Namgung Yun was currently pulling off.
Once again, the formation’s qi surged in violent reverse. Noticing the shift with uncanny, ghostlike precision, Namgung Yun fired another burst of internal energy into the surrounding dark. The turbulent backlash dissolved into nothingness, yet throughout the entire exchange, his blade never once faltered in deflecting the onslaught of the beastmen.
Unlike before, the two carved through the monsters’ ranks with unstoppable momentum. Even so, with every passing breath, the swarming fiends threw themselves forward in increasingly frenzied waves.
“We must not stop!” Zhuge Chim cried out, his keen intellect swiftly piecing the battlefield together. “With their sheer numbers and strength, they have no reason to rely on this array! Nor should they need to herd us deeper into it like this!”
Over a dozen abominations possessed the physical might of First-rate martial artists, and among them lurked one with the terrifying prowess of a Peak-realm master. For such lethal hunters to launch disjointed, probing strikes rather than an all-out assault made no sense. What was more, the Peak-realm beastman had yet to even show its face.
“The search party must still be nearby! That is the only logical explanation!”
In other words, they had to break through right this second. If the search party gave up and withdrew, surviving would become an utter impossibility.
“We must punch through at all costs!”
“Agreed,” Namgung Yun replied calmly.
A path forward truly existed now. With Zhuge Chim channeling the environmental power of the formation, their piercing force was incomparable to moments ago. If they maintained this steady advance, the exit would soon be within reach.
I can do this. We can make it!
Zhuge Chim grew increasingly adept at drawing upon the formation’s ambient energies. So this is the true martial path of our Zhuge Clan!
Though he had learned the fundamentals of the Formation Sword, the martial world had long looked down on array techniques as secondary parlor tricks, and he had never devoted substantial effort to mastering them. His clan had shared that prevailing sentiment. Yet standing here now, Zhuge Chim felt its profound, devastating potency in every fiber of his being.
And I am not even drawing on a formation I laid myself. I am hijacking the enemy’s!
Surely few within his clan’s storied history had ever experienced such a feat. Immersion overtook him. His sword swept across the cardinal directions, staking claim to spatial coordinates, and the invisible ceiling that had long confined him to the early stages of the First-rate realm began to crack and splinter.
Before he realized it, his blade traced radiant trajectories through the murk, carving patterns like a constellation of drifting stars. It was, in the truest sense, a State of Selfless Trance.
Mnemonic verses flooded his mind in rapid succession, and his sword faithfully answered every revelation.
“Hah!”
Whether the breath escaped him in wonder at what he had attained or in lamentation that he could reach no higher, one fact remained undeniable: Zhuge Chim’s realm of martial cultivation had ascended to a whole new level.
“Congratulations,” Yun remarked casually.
“Thank you! It is all thanks to you, Little Chivalrous Hero!”
Namgung Yun had granted him the catalyst to comprehend his ancestral sword arts, and while Chim had been lost in that fleeting enlightenment, Yun had shielded him from harm. Considering that he would have been reduced to a cold corpse rotting on the cavern floor without Yun’s intervention in the first place, the debt was staggering.
I am buried in his grace.
Even with his sharp mind, he could scarcely fathom how he might ever repay it. But there was no leisure to dwell on such thoughts.
BOOM!
“What?!”
A massive fist grazed past Zhuge Chim’s cheek, kicking up a gust of wind that chilled him to the marrow. Had that strike landed cleanly, his skull would have burst open like a smashed melon.
“Are you all right?”
“Ah—yes! I am fine!”
Words tumbled out remarkably well for someone who had just stood on death’s doorstep, but Zhuge Chim knew better than to flatter himself. It was not courage keeping him steady; it was simply that the brush with death had been so sudden his senses had failed to register the terror in time.
He turned his gaze toward the towering monstrosity that would have ferried him straight to the underworld if not for Yun.
The Peak-realm beastman!
The monster that had kept to the shadows until now finally barred their path.
Despair threatened to choke him. Fighting through the standard beastmen had already pushed them to their limits; with this creature joining the fray, their odds plummeted into the abyss. Yet paradoxically, the monster’s appearance brought a glimmer of hope.
The search party must be just beyond this wall!
Just a little further. If they pushed just a fraction more, they would reach safety.
That spark of hope lasted only an instant.
Whoosh!
KABOOM!
“Ugh!”
Another punch tore through the air. Devoid of technique or finesse, it was a blunt thrust that any five-year-old child could mimic. Yet the raw, catastrophic force driving it was accompanied by terrifying speed. Zhuge Chim could not even track the trajectory, let alone react. He could only stare blankly as Namgung Yun stepped in once more to intercept the blow.
The exhilaration from his recent martial breakthrough vanished in a heartbeat. Against a monster of this caliber, his modest growth meant nothing at all.
Clang! Crash! BOOM!
A relentless flurry of strikes rained down from the Peak-realm beastman, each one deflected by Yun’s dancing sword.
It was a breathtaking sight. There was no way Namgung Yun’s compressed Sword Thread could endure a direct collision against the thick shroud of Sword Gangqi encasing the beastman’s fists. Yet Yun never allowed their strikes to clash head-on. With sublime, breathtaking precision, his blade twisted at miraculous angles, striking the creature’s wrists and forearms to deflect the trajectory of every lethal blow.
Even so, deflection had its limits. As the remaining beastmen swarmed in coordination with their Peak-realm leader, the suffocating pressure forced even Yun to yield ground.
“Young Master Zhuge.”
“Yes!”
“Go on ahead.”
“Pardon?”
“I told you to go first.”
Zhuge Chim stared at Namgung Yun. Not a single trace of hesitation shadowed the youth’s features. Telling him to flee alone was utter madness, yet no retort came to Chim’s lips.
His brilliant mind coldly whispered the truth: he was nothing more than dead weight dragging Yun down. Had he not just stood frozen like a fool, utterly helpless against the Peak-realm beastman’s fists? Could he buy time instead? Self-sacrifice required martial competence; the Jianghu was far too brutal a place for a mere life to purchase victory without the strength to back it up.
If even one of them was to survive, the only viable option was for him to leave. Armed with the formation knowledge Yun had imparted and his newly refined perception of the surrounding qi flows, locating the Gate of Life was now entirely within his grasp. The chaotic backlash of energy that Yun had previously suppressed for him could now be managed through his elevated realm of swordsmanship.
He had to run. It was the only rational choice.
Yet his boots felt nailed to the cavern floor.
Namgung Yun spoke again, his tone cutting through the din with deliberate emphasis: “Go. First!”
“...!”
The pointed emphasis on the word first left no doubt. Yun was telling him that he intended to follow right behind.
Is that even possible?
Common sense screamed that it was suicide. But this was Namgung Yun—a prodigy who had displayed one miracle after another from the moment he breached the cavern, the undisputed rising dragon of the Namgung Clan.
“...I place my trust in you!”
Leaving those words behind, Zhuge Chim turned and bolted. Once the decision was made, there was no room for doubt; second-guessing now would be the height of stupidity. He tore through the murky formation, evading and parrying the scattered beasts that lunged from the gloom.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the oppressive darkness peeled away.
He tumbled out into an expansive junction where several cavern tunnels converged. Standing in the center was a contingent of armed martial artists.
“Chim!”
Someone shouted his name in disbelief. It was his uncle, flanked by the seasoned experts of the joint search party. Just as he had deduced, they had not abandoned the search.
Zhuge Chim pointed desperately toward the darkened tunnel behind him and cried out, “The Little Chivalrous Hero is still trapped inside! We must save him immediately!”
Alone within the depths of the formation, Namgung Yun surveyed his surroundings.
Well, at least I won’t be lonely.
Zhuge Chim was gone, but the cavern remained crawling with shadows. The problem was that these wretched creatures were far closer to feral beasts than men, their dilated eyes burning with the singular urge to tear his flesh and crunch his bones.
The tactical array still draped the cavern in disorienting gloom. Chim—who, despite being a burden, had at least served as an extra blade—had departed. Worse, the horde circling him was vastly larger than any group they had clashed with thus far, anchored by the hulking Peak-realm beastman.
By any objective measure, he was trapped in an absolute, fatal crisis.
“Let me ask you something,” Namgung Yun said, his voice ringing flatly across the darkness. “Are you bastards specifically aiming for me?”
It was a doubt that had gnawed at him ever since the ambush inside the formation began. He had noticed an unnatural concentration of attacks directed at his person. In group combat, eliminating the weakest link first was the golden rule; swarming Zhuge Chim should have been their primary strategy. Some might argue that these brainless brutes were incapable of tactical thought, but Yun knew better.
Predators understand the law of the hunt better than anyone.
Which meant their focus was deliberate.
The beastmen offered no reply. They lacked the intellect to speak, and Yun had not expected an answer in the first place.
If this trap was laid specifically for me, who set it?
Honestly, the answer required no deep contemplation.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult? Why would they? While Yun’s growth would undoubtedly threaten the Cult in the distant future, there was no conceivable way they could know that yet.
They aren’t gods.
Having reigned as the Heavenly Demon for over a century, he knew the limits of their intelligence network better than anyone in existence. That left only a single plausible culprit.
The Anhui Mo Clan.
The beastmen before him and the sinister formation veiling the cavern carried unmistakable ties to the Mo Clan’s clandestine dealings.
A smirk curled the corner of Yun’s lips. Do these fools have any idea who they’re picking a fight with?
The current Namgung Clan ground their teeth in blind hatred against the Mo Clan, but Yun’s perspective transcended such petty clan rivalries. Until now, he had merely suspected the Mo Clan of consorting with Yoma—and by extension, the corrupted modern Demonic Cult. But if they were going to bare their fangs at him so brazenly...
Then I have every reason to treat them as my mortal enemies, don't I?
Of course, that premise hinged on walking out of this cavern alive. But Yun had never doubted the outcome for a second.
I wasn’t running earlier because I lacked the power to kill you.
Judging by the beasts’ sluggish reaction to Zhuge Chim’s departure, they seemed unbothered by the young master’s escape. But the monsters had gravely miscalculated.
If you truly wanted to bring me down, you should have forced that dead weight to stay glued to my side!
“KROOAAAR!”
“SCREEECH!
The horde surged forward in unison. At the vanguard, the Peak-realm beastman drove a devastating, Gangqi-clad fist straight toward Yun’s chest.
FWOOSH!
The fist struck empty air.
“Graugh?” A guttural grunt of bewilderment tore from the creature’s throat.
Namgung Yun had vanished from plain sight. Blending into the impenetrable murk as if his very flesh had dissolved into shadow, he erased his presence entirely. The surrounding beasts snapped their heads frantically, emitting confused snarls as they searched the void.
Then—
FLASH!
A silver arc materialized from the dark, cleaving cleanly through the torso of an unsuspecting beastman.
“SKRRRGH!”
The shriek of agony was abruptly cut short. Monster or not, nothing survived being sliced cleanly in two.
“ROAAAR!”
“GRAAAH!”
The pack converged on the point where Yun had struck, utterly indifferent to the death of their kin. Driven by primal programming, they lashed out with rabid fury. Yet before their claws could find purchase, Yun melted into the shadows once more, leaving only silence in his wake.
“KROOOAAARGH!”
Driven mad by humiliation and bloodlust, the Peak-realm beastman unleashed a deafening roar that shook the cavern walls.
Concealed within the living darkness, Namgung Yun looked down upon the raging brute with cold, mocking eyes.
I know this formation far better than you ever could.
The Demon Spirit Dark Robe Formation.
That was the true name of the shroud cloaking this tomb.