The Secret of the Vajra Golems
Swoosh—!
The speed of the Vajra Bronze Golems had surged so explosively that it threatened to tear right through the sound-dampening threshold of the grand formation. Dokgo Jin's eyes narrowed, a tremor of astonishment rippling through his gaze.
The sheer presence of these steel monstrosities—eyes blazing with crimson light as they converged upon him in flawless unison from every direction—defied imagination. Yet Dokgo Jin was hardly one to stand by and endure the onslaught. Drawing up another surge of Ink Flame Qi from his dantian, he poured his focus into the footwork of the Nine Nether Trackless.
Why...?
Bizarrely enough, after only a brief flurry, the golems' frantic velocity began to bleed away. Before long, their movements settled back to roughly the same pace as when they had first activated.
Weaving through evasions and parries with his mind racing, Dokgo Jin arrived at an almost absurd deduction.
Don't tell me... did they absorb the shockwave channeled through the stone floor and convert it into propulsive energy?
Nothing else could explain their sudden surge into overdrive, followed by this abrupt deceleration.
As expected of something forged by the Divine Mechanist. It truly is in a class of its own.
A grand formation that swallowed an assault meant to destroy it, feeding on the force to strengthen itself—such a thing was unheard of under heaven. Yet no formation in existence was without a flaw.
Of course, an eccentric genius like Yu Byeok would never leave that vulnerability exposed in plain sight.
He must have buried the true core deep beneath the stone floor, far beyond the reach of internal energy.
Dokgo Jin barely suppressed the urge to strike the ground with everything he had once more.
I cannot smash the Vajra Bronze Golems, nor can I shatter the formation beneath my feet. In the first place, brute destruction was never the condition to pass Mugeuk Gate.
Even as he shifted through rapid footwork, Dokgo Jin observed the golems with relentless scrutiny. The formation beneath the floor was merely a support mechanism, a shell designed to assist them. The true heart of this trial lay within the automatons themselves.
His gaze swept over the twenty bronze figures encircling him, analyzing each in turn.
As a rule, tactical formations drew their framework from foundational principles: Yin and Yang, the Three Powers, the Five Elements, the Seven Stars, the Eight Trigrams, or the Nine Palaces. Advanced formations blended two or more of these principles to generate intricate variations—combining the Nine Palaces with the Three Powers, for instance, to produce twenty-seven permutations.
Yet twenty is an awkward number. No conventional combination of array principles yields twenty.
Instinct told him that unraveling the meaning of this number would be the key to conquering the gate.
Though their onslaught appears chaotic, there is an underlying structure, interlocking like the teeth of clockwork gears.
The problem was that the meaning behind that structure did not immediately reveal itself. Even as a split second of inattention nearly saw his shoulder crushed beneath an iron fist, Dokgo Jin maintained a superhuman level of concentration.
Wait...
Now that he was looking past the fury of their strikes, details that had previously escaped him began to surface. Strangely enough, the hand shapes of the Vajra Bronze Golems differed from one another in subtle ways.
Dokgo Jin widened his eyes, tracking the tips of their fingers.
Hardly any of them are clenched in simple fists. If anything... most of them are open hands.
What was more, the bend of their arm joints and the angles of their shoulders seemed markedly awkward for practical martial combat.
Every single one of the twenty is using only one hand.
At first, he had assumed they restricted themselves to a single limb to prevent their trajectories from tangling while ganging up on a single target. But that was not it at all. Out of forty metallic arms, only their right arms traced deliberate, predetermined arcs.
To only realize this now!
Yet it was hardly something to fault himself for. In the face of such suffocating pressure, scrutinizing the hand formations of twenty relentless automatons was a feat bordering on the impossible.
Could it be...? No, I still don't have enough.
Fragments of thought drifted through his mind, but he lacked the critical link that would thread them together.
Right at that moment—
Clank—!
As if governed by a shared command, the golems that had been pressing into every blind spot abruptly recoiled. Falling back in unison, they returned to their original positions along the perimeter and lined up in formation.
The crimson glow in their optical apertures died away. As a heavy stillness settled once more over the chamber, Ma Cheol's voice echoed through the dim hall.
"The trial of Mugeuk Gate has concluded."
The iron grating lifted, and Ma Cheol stepped back inside. Dokgo Jin turned toward him.
"Don't tell me I actually passed?"
"Hardly. The prescribed duration of the trial has merely run its course."
Dokgo Jin said nothing.
"Still, it is astonishing," Ma Cheol remarked, shaking his head. "Rarely does anyone remain standing unscathed without spilling a single drop of blood by the end. The title of Dragon Tiger Plaque Master is well deserved."
Dokgo Jin's brow furrowed into a sharp, cold line. "Which means I failed."
"Indeed. But do not be disheartened. Those who have managed to endure on their own two feet until the end can be counted on one hand."
A heavy silence fell between them before Dokgo Jin asked in a quiet voice, "Is there a limit to how many attempts one may take?"
"There is no such rule, but..." Answering offhandedly, Ma Cheol's eyes suddenly widened. "Wait, you don't mean...?"
Standing in the dim chamber, Dokgo Jin's eyes burned with incisive brilliance.
"I will challenge it again. Right now."
So long as there was a challenger, Mugeuk Gate had to remain open. That was the absolute rule established by the Limitless Hall Master, leaving Ma Cheol with no authority to refuse. He frowned, watching Dokgo Jin step back into the marked circle.
Is he letting his pride get the better of him?
Four years ago, there had been others like him—martial artists who, unable to accept that simply enduring the bronze golems' onslaught was not enough to pass, stubbornly demanded trial after trial. Yet without exception, they had ended up completely exhausted or severely injured from pushing beyond their limits.
Dragon Tiger Plaque Master, are you of the same breed after all?
With little expectation, Ma Cheol watched Dokgo Jin take his stance within the boundary.
As the Vajra Bronze Golems stirred to life once more, Dokgo Jin watched them intently, paying particular heed to the hand shapes they formed in sequence.
Thud! Boooom!
The order of attack, and the peculiar hand seals they formed as they struck—weaving the flashes of information darting through his mind into a cohesive tapestry, a faint smile touched the corner of Dokgo Jin's lips.
...I see.
At last, he saw through the riddle hidden within Mugeuk Gate.
What terrible taste. Or perhaps... should I call it wondrous?
Calmly assessed, he had grasped roughly eighty percent of it; he had not yet mastered the entire whole. Yet Dokgo Jin was unhurried.
Now that I know the direction, the rest will come swiftly.
The golems surged forward again. Gliding across the stone floor with the Nine Nether Trackless, Dokgo Jin committed every motion to memory. This time, his focus fell upon the cardinal coordinates of their movement and the precise order in which each automaton attacked.
A deep admiration welled within him.
Now that I see it, it is all the more astonishing. To think it could be crafted with such exquisite precision!
The Divine Mechanist was one thing, but the Limitless Hall Master, who had co-designed this test, was clearly an extraordinary monster in his own right.
I look forward to meeting you shortly, Limitless Hall Master.
Suddenly, Dokgo Jin came to an abrupt halt. As if waiting for this very opening, the bronze golems lunged from all directions. Yet Dokgo Jin simply closed his eyes, paying no heed to the incoming metal fists.
The bizarre martial forms executed by twenty right arms, each ending in a distinct hand shape—in Dokgo Jin's mind, they connected into a single, unbroken thread.
This is it!
His eyes snapped open, and his hand traced the path laid out by that mental line.
Whoosh—!
Shrouded in Ink Flame Qi, his palm swept out in a fluid arc, lightly striking the torso of the nearest bronze golem.
Thump!
Unlike before, there was virtually no recoil. It had not even been a heavy strike, yet the golem faltered and stumbled backward. And that was not all. As though its duty had been fulfilled, the automaton lowered its stance and retreated from the fray.
Thump! Thump! Clang—!
Swinging his hands in rapid succession, Dokgo Jin struck each rushing golem in turn. In the span of a single breath, every automaton pressing the assault was struck in the chest and sent reeling back.
Then, an astounding sight unfolded.
Having retreated, all twenty steel behemoths dropped to one knee before Dokgo Jin and bowed their heads in unison. Though they were soulless mechanical contraptions, their posture was unmistakable—a solemn display of homage, acknowledging one who had conquered the trial.
Dokgo Jin lowered his hands, a faint smile gracing his face.
My deduction was right.
The Vajra Bronze Golems embodied a complete martial art.
Their varying hand shapes were the forms and stances that manifested the technique, while the number twenty symbolized the human body's Eight Extraordinary Meridians and Twelve Standard Meridians combined. In essence, the collective movements of the golems served as a massive, living anatomical chart visualizing the flow of internal energy.
The Divine Mechanist and the Limitless Hall Master had woven those principles into the twenty bronze automata, silently demanding that any challenger demonstrate the martial art with their own hands. Striking the golems using this hidden technique signaled the completion of the trial, commanding them to stand down.
Behind the iron grating, Ma Cheol's eyes stretched wide with disbelief.
"H-How can this be?!"
Though he had never witnessed it with his own eyes, he knew by word what occurred when someone truly cleared Mugeuk Gate.
The Dragon Tiger Plaque Master actually did it!
Years ago, whenever someone dared to challenge Mugeuk Gate, the martial artists of Mugeuk Hall would gather in droves to watch. But as months passed without a single soul clearing the trial, spectator numbers dwindled until Ma Cheol, as the administrator, was left observing alone. And even those solitary visits had ceased four years prior.
To think I am the only one here to witness such a momentous sight! What a waste!
Dokgo Jin turned to Ma Cheol, who stood rooted to the spot, and asked, "It seems to have ended much faster than before. Does this count as passing?"
Swallowing the exclamation rising in his throat, Ma Cheol gave a vigorous nod.
"Dokgo Jin, Dragon Tiger Plaque Master! I officially recognize you as the very first challenger to clear Mugeuk Gate!"
Led by a martial artist of Mugeuk Hall, Dokgo Jin arrived not at the main hall itself, but at an open pavilion perched atop a nearby knoll.
Within the pavilion, a man sat leaning against a wooden pillar, absorbed in a booklet. He radiated no outward aura, yet an intangible majesty naturally emanated from his posture—the kind of presence that warned others not to approach lightly. By pure instinct, Dokgo Jin knew this man was the Limitless Hall Master.
Is that Jin Cheonseong, whose martial genius was said to have captivated the Alliance Leader at first glance?
Jin Cheonseong, known as the 'Martial Addict.'
As the eldest disciple of the Alliance Leader of the Northern Heaven Alliance—a man whose martial obsession and talent were hailed as peerless under heaven—it was widely accepted that within the Northern Heavenly Alliance, none save the Five Pillars could rival him.
Yet for all that renown, he looks remarkably plain.
Clad in worn training clothes, the Limitless Hall Master had the sort of unremarkable countenance one might pass on any street in Northern Heavens Fortress without a second glance.
The guiding martial artist clasped his fists in greeting. "Hall Master, I have brought the one who cleared Mugeuk Gate."
There was no reply. As if he had heard nothing, the Limitless Hall Master kept his eyes glued to the pages.
"He appears to be deeply absorbed, unfortunately. This is troublesome..." The martial artist scratched his head with an awkward expression, then turned to Dokgo Jin. "Once he enters that state, no amount of calling will draw an answer. Let's see..."
Glancing at the booklet in the Hall Master's hands, he continued, "Given how thin the volume is, it should not take terribly long. Would you prefer to return another time?"
"How long do you expect it will take?"
"An hour or two at the absolute most."
Dokgo Jin nodded readily. "Then I shall wait."
"Very well. No one is permitted up here aside from the Hall Master, so make yourself comfortable."
With those parting words, the martial artist withdrew, leaving only Dokgo Jin and the Limitless Hall Master on the hilltop.
Jin Cheonseong remained entirely lost in his reading, not so much as sparing Dokgo Jin a single glance.
I needed some time to myself anyway. This works out well.
Dokgo Jin lowered himself into a cross-legged meditative posture right there on the ground. Closing his eyes, he brought to mind the martial art he had just acquired within Mugeuk Gate.
Dark Sky Martial Emperor
Author | Jeong Cheon
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Managing Editor | Editorial Department
Published by | Samyang C&C - Dreambooks
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