The Shield of Northern Heaven
Boom!
A thunderous roar tore through the hall, violently rattling the pavilion as if an earthquake had struck. It was the instant Dokgo Jin's fist slammed into the vanguard shield of the Black Armor Unit. Any ordinary shield would have crumpled like scrap paper under the blow, but the outcome defied all expectation.
"...!"
Instead, it was Dokgo Jin who was driven skidding backward across the flagstones, acrid smoke curling from the soles of his boots as they scraped against the stone. The armored soldiers who took the hit, however, had not budged an inch. Or rather, to be precise, the thirty men bracing behind the shields had shuddered in unison, dispersing the ferocious kinetic force among themselves without yielding so much as an inch of their formation.
From behind the iron wall, Ma Dong-il's deep, sonorous voice boomed across the chamber. "It's useless. The wall of the Northern Heaven Alliance cannot be breached through brute force."
Dokgo Jin shook out his throbbing wrist, his brow furrowing slightly. A rebounding technique? It was far more than mere hardness. Beneath the surface of their black shields, he could sense a faint, nearly imperceptible film of qi stretching across the iron. Astonishingly, that barrier was linked from shield to shield. The moment impact made contact, the barrier channeled the shockwave through the entire formation and weaponized the rebound to fling the attacker away. Thirty men of the Black Armor Unit were bound together, functioning as a single, massive shock-absorbing sphere.
They call them the Shield of Northern Heaven for a reason... A formidable defense indeed.
Dokgo Jin's eyes narrowed. It was not as though he was without recourse. If he unleashed the abyssal martial art of the Nine Nether Dark Sky Scripture, its overwhelming might would tear straight through their qi barrier and shatter the shields in a single stroke. Breaching the initial barrier was the only hurdle; once a crack appeared, the Iron Turtle Linked Formation would collapse far more easily than expected.
However... Dokgo Jin shook his head, clamping down on the cold darkness threatening to surge from his dantian. This is merely the first gate.
"Hesitate, and you'll be brought down in an instant," Ma Dong-il warned.
As the commander raised his hand, the massive forest of steel began to grind into motion once more.
Rumble!
"Advance!"
At the command, the Black Armor Unit surged toward Dokgo Jin. Shield upon shield meshed and rotated like interlocking cogs, relentlessly eating away at the open space. Through the narrow seams, dozens of long spears thrust outward simultaneously, their gleaming points converging on every vital point across his body with a chorus of piercing shrieks.
It was an offensive that few martial artists could hope to weather.
They certainly live up to their name. This trial at the Dragon Tiger Pavilion was not to be taken lightly.
In that case...
Ssssshh!
The chilling energy of the abyss—Ink Flame Qi—coiled around Dokgo Jin's feet. Instantly, his frame blurred into motion, gliding across the floor like an ethereal specter. It was the legendary movement art of the Nine Nether Dark Sky Scripture, revived after centuries of silence: Nine Nether Trackless.
Dokgo Jin's silhouette vanished and reappeared in rapid flickers. He traversed distances in the blink of an eye, lightly treading upon the thrusting spear tips and kicking off the corners of the shields to weave through the air. In doing so, he rendered the deadly barrage of spears entirely harmless.
Faced with such dazzling agility, most would have panicked, but the warriors of the Black Armor Unit remained steadfast. They did not rush. Silently, methodically, they tightened their perimeter like a great serpent coiling around stone. A distance of thirty feet shrank to twenty, and then to ten. The room to maneuver dwindled with alarming speed.
Yet even within that claustrophobic pocket of space, Dokgo Jin continued to dance between the lunging spearheads with Nine Nether Trackless. His ghostly footwork was breathtaking enough to draw gasps of admiration from any onlooker, but with every passing second, the floor beneath him disappeared.
Ma Dong-il's eyes flashed with certainty. Remarkable. But you've reached your limit, Dokgo Jin.
Even as he weaved through the spears, Dokgo Jin's gaze remained sharp, dissecting the squad's movements. His eyes, dark as the deepest trench of the abyss, grasped the overarching current of the formation. Every formation is bound to the flow of a single grand mechanism.
The soldiers rotated through overlapping circles, moving in intricate concert. One could scarcely imagine the grueling discipline and endless drills required to master such synchronized warfare.
No. That isn't the core of it.
Beneath the many interlocking circuits, Dokgo Jin discerned a singular, encompassing circle. It was like a colossal millstone, churning relentlessly, poised to grind anything caught within it to dust. And his Black Eyes saw straight through to the millstone's governing principle.
Every rotation must have an axis.
Time seemed to decelerate in Dokgo Jin's perception. The ragged breaths of the warriors, the tightening sinews in hands gripping their shields, the depth of each footstep pressed into the flagstones—he analyzed it all, searching among thirty interlocking cogs for the one bearing the heaviest load.
Just as the formation swung rightward to crush him against the perimeter, Dokgo Jin's gaze sharpened.
Found you.
It was not Ma Dong-il. It was a slight, compact warrior stationed at the far corner of the formation's right flank. While the other men shifted by half-steps, this man alone planted his feet deep into the stone, anchoring the tremendous torque of the rotating formation. He was the main pillar of the Iron Turtle Linked Formation.
The moment he identified his mark, Dokgo Jin's figure dissolved into a phantom haze. Instead of retreating, he lunged straight into the deadly thicket of spearheads.
To the onlookers, it looked like a moth hurling itself into an open flame. The soldiers thrust their spears forward in a frantic flurry, but Dokgo Jin slipped past the steel tips by a hair's breadth, slicing deep into the heart of their defense. The warriors gasped, chilled by a mastery of Nine Nether Trackless that proved far sharper than anything he had displayed before.
How can this be?!
Don't tell me—!
Dokgo Jin had only one target: the pillar.
Coming face-to-face with the man, Dokgo Jin immediately understood why he bore the burden of the axis. The soldier's temples bulged conspicuously, a clear sign of deep, refined internal energy.
"...!" The warrior's eyes dilated in shock.
With a faint, icy curve on his lips, Dokgo Jin surprisingly held back his strike. Instead, at the precise fraction of a second when the soldier shifted his center of gravity to redirect the formation's momentum, Dokgo Jin tapped the inner side of the man's ankle. Simultaneously, his open palm nudged the corner of the heavy shield.
It was the sublime principle of Shifting Flowers Joining Wood.
Tremendous power was unnecessary; all it took was a featherlight touch against an overdrawn bowstring.
"...?!"
The pillar wavered. As the warrior anchoring the formation's massive momentum lost his balance, the resulting disruption surged violently along their linked internal energy, cascading through all thirty men.
Whirrrr!
Like sand tossed into the gears of a running clock, the smooth rotation seized in violent tremors. Their energies backlashed, clashing chaotically against one another.
"Ugh!"
"H-Hold the line!"
Clang! Clatter!
Shields scraped and crashed into one another with jarring shrieks of metal. Ordinary martial artists would have crumbled into shambles right then and there, and Dokgo Jin had prepared to simply stroll through the gap once it opened.
However—
Thud!
The warrior on the verge of toppling swallowed back a scream and slammed his knee onto the stone floor with bone-shattering force. The agony must have been excruciating, yet he refused to fall. Gritting his teeth until blood seeped from his gums, he drove the bottom rim of his shield into the flagstones, throwing his body into the breach to prevent a hole from opening.
"We are... the Black Armor Unit!"
Nor was he alone. His comrades instantly thrust their shoulders forward, throwing their own weight against his trembling frame to brace him. Even as backlashing qi forced blood past their lips and the muscles in their arms screamed under the strain, not a single man released his shield.
Skrrrt!
With the sickening screech of twisting steel, the fractured formation forcibly hauled itself back into shape through sheer grit.
"...!"
Dokgo Jin checked his follow-up blow, lowering his raised hand. The frosty detachment in his gaze melted away, replaced by an unexpected respect.
Impressive.
He had struck their vital point. By all physical and tactical logic, the formation should have shattered. Yet these men had endured bone-breaking torment to keep their ranks intact. A fierce, unyielding conviction—that if one man fell, his brothers beside him would die—was the sole pillar keeping them on their feet.
"..."
Dokgo Jin slowly uncurled his clenched fist. There was no longer any meaning in striking again. To do so would be an insult to the warrior spirit they had just displayed.
A quiet smile touched the corners of his lips. To dismiss such an effort as mere obstinacy would be wrong; the resolve they had shown carried undeniable weight.
So these are the warriors of the Northern Heaven Alliance. Even in an examination designed merely to test a challenger, they fought to defend their formation with everything they had, as if standing on a real battlefield. I think I understand what kind of place this alliance is.
Dokgo Jin locked eyes with Ma Dong-il, who was glaring at him with bloodshot eyes through a gap between the shields.
"Splendid," Dokgo Jin said, his tone measured and sincere. "You have every right to take pride in your squad."
It was not mockery, but genuine recognition from one martial artist to another.
"I shall conclude the trial here."
Stepping around the perimeter of the Black Armor Unit, Dokgo Jin walked toward the brass bell. Pushed past their physical limits, the exhausted soldiers could do nothing to bar his way.
Bong—!
The deep, resonant chime rang out, signaling the clearance of the first gate.
"Phew..."
Only then did the soldiers sink to the floor, gasping for breath. Even so, their spirits remained unbroken, their defiant gazes tracking Dokgo Jin until the very end.
Ma Dong-il offered a wry, bitter smile. "Congratulations on passing the first gate." He nodded toward the heavy iron door resting in shadow behind the brass bell. "Go on. The next trial awaits you."
"Until next time."
Dokgo Jin offered a brief, respectful bow and turned away.
Skrrr—clack!
With a grating groan of rusted iron, the massive door swung open, revealing a pitch-black corridor that yawned before him like the maw of a beast. Without a shred of hesitation, Dokgo Jin stepped into the dark.
Thud.
The iron door slammed shut behind him, plunging the hall once more into silence.
"All hands, lower your shields and begin breathing exercises to treat your internal injuries," Ma Dong-il commanded.
"Understood!"
At the vice-commander's order, the soldiers crossed their legs on the stone floor, their ragged breaths gradually steadying as they circulated their qi to soothe their shaken meridians.
Ma Dong-il's gaze lingered on the closed iron door long after Dokgo Jin had vanished.
What a monster. Not only is his footwork divine, but his ability to read the battlefield is second to none.
In truth, clearing the first gate had never required a challenger to completely dismantle the Iron Turtle Linked Formation. For a single martial artist to break an array powered by thirty interconnected experts of the Peak Realm was a feat considered practically impossible. The standard protocol was merely to test the challenger's composure under the grinding pressure of the formation. If they demonstrated sufficient poise and adaptability, they were granted passage.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine he would actually bring the Iron Turtle Linked Formation to its knees.
Ma Dong-il shook his head with a hollow chuckle. Dokgo Jin had not relied on overwhelming brute force. Identifying the formation's hidden axis was astonishing enough, but targeting that exact focal point to make the entire formation collapse under its own weight was something pure martial power could never achieve.
Just how far will that young man go?
The trial of the second gate was formidable in its own right, yet Ma Dong-il found it hard to believe it could halt Dokgo Jin's stride.
Perhaps... the third gate, sealed for so long, might finally open today.
His eyes gleamed with quiet anticipation.
Dark Sky Martial Emperor
Author | Jeong Cheon
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Managing Editor | Editorial Department
Published by | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. - Dreambooks
Address | 7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI | G720:N+A063-20260403145
Blog | blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) | @dreambookss
Submissions | [email protected]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. - Dreambooks.