Chapter 156
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 156
Chapter Title: Retreat (1)
The garden pavilion, shrouded in poison powder, was a place where not even birds dared to fly.
Though some detoxification had been achieved using flower pollen, it was limited to mere isolated spots... The entire pavilion could not be cleansed.
The garden pavilion had become a land of death.
No living creature would set foot here in the future.
How long would it take? Until all the poison dispersed. Days? Months? Years? If heavy rain poured down, would it wash the powder away? If snow fell, the drifting flakes might act like flower pollen.
Since no one in the world had ever witnessed the Heavenly Annihilation Powder, nothing could be stated with certainty.
"How long are we going to wait?"
Hanbi asked, growing impatient.
No bird calls or insect chirps could be heard in the garden pavilion. Only a deathly silence prevailed.
Though he didn't particularly want to hear it, even Four Thousand Four's breathing reached his ears clearly.
In this extreme stillness, simply waiting without action grated on his nerves.
"It's done."
Four Thousand Four said calmly.
"I can't hear a thing with my ears, but you seem to hear something?"
"I do."
"Short answers are nice. Heh heh! I hear it..."
Hanbi perked up his ears again, half-disbelieving until he heard the confirmation.
Vanguard was inside the cave. Moving around. So any sound would carry. With the silence so profound that even Four Thousand Four's breathing was audible, human movement would surely be detectable.
Yet Hanbi heard nothing.
He shook his head in disbelief.
The gap has widened so much.
At first, when they had dragged Four Thousand Four out of the Nineteen Hells, he hadn't been some powerhouse that inspired fear. Hanbi had only seen him as someone versed in the dark, wielding some bizarre martial arts.
But now, he had no choice but to admit it. Four Thousand Four had surpassed even the top elites of the Martial Camp.
When had Four Thousand Four grown this strong?
Four Thousand Four was always on the move. He never had time to sit quietly and cultivate his arts or reflect deeply. Yet he had grown beyond imagination, into a giant neither he nor Vanguard could match.
Four Thousand Four's martial arts weren't something cultivated through training. They were insights gained spontaneously in the midst of action.
It wasn't that new things were being created from nothing; rather, seals were unraveling one after another.
That was the only way Hanbi could make sense of it.
Watching Four Thousand Four's meteoric rise, no other explanation fit.
"Let's go."
Four Thousand Four stood up.
"Is it really over?"
"Yes."
Four Thousand Four spoke with confidence, but Hanbi still hadn't heard so much as a single scream.
The moment he saw Four Thousand Four and Hanbi, Vanguard spoke up immediately.
"The layout here is peculiar."
"What makes it peculiar, if I may ask?"
"Not precisely, but... it feels just like the Martial Camp."
"The Martial Camp?"
Hanbi looked around the cave in confusion.
The Martial Camp was filled with numerous halls where countless people trained in martial arts. But this was just a cave— no halls, no training grounds.
"Thanks to that, once we found one, the others were easy to locate."
"I see."
Four Thousand Four narrowed his eyes.
"Could it be... you sent me in here just to figure that out? Killing them wasn't the goal."
"I had my suspicions."
"Suspicions?"
"Zhuge Soso once gave me a secret manual. It included explanations of the Heavenly Annihilation Division's mechanisms."
"I know."
"Comparing the structures of that place and this garden pavilion, something suddenly came to mind."
"Another sudden insight?"
Four Thousand Four had far too many of these "sudden" thoughts lately.
He recalled things about the world that no one else knew, effortlessly.
Sometimes it was martial arts, sometimes mechanisms, and now, building layouts.
"Have you heard of the Calculation Gate?"
"Calculation Gate? First time I've heard of it. Was there such a sect?"
"If my hunch is right... No, if this place mirrors the Martial Camp's layout exactly, then a formation links the Heavenly Annihilation Division to the garden pavilion. Of course, that formation requires the garden pavilion at its center... which means it shouldn't be on the outskirts like this."
Vanguard and Hanbi just listened.
These "sudden thoughts" felt utterly foreign to them.
"There was a sect that designed massive formations with the garden pavilion at the core. The Calculation Gate, experts in mathematics and literature... When people wouldn't listen, they took to architecture themselves, or so I've heard."
"Such a thing happened..."
"This place seems to be one of those very buildings they created."
"Didn't you just say the formation requires the garden pavilion at the center?"
"If so, we wouldn't have made it this far. The original formation by the Calculation Gate seems to have vanished... but someone unearthed the remnants and put them to use."
"Who...? Bukmyeong!"
"Bukmyeong must have found it. Strictly speaking, the secret manuals Zhuge Soso gave me were originally from the Calculation Gate. He might have added a few mechanisms or formations on top."
"You... remembering this Calculation Gate formation or whatever... that was another sudden recollection?"
"Yes."
"The details of the formation too?"
Four Thousand Four nodded.
'Impossible!'
Vanguard and Hanbi exchanged glances, sharing the same shock.
If Four Thousand Four was telling the truth... If the Heavenly Annihilation Division and garden pavilion were using structures unearthed by the Calculation Gate... and Four Thousand Four remembered them...
The formations of the Calculation Gate were so vast they could fill over ten volumes if compiled into books.
Just explaining the mechanisms in the garden pavilion would take an entire volume.
Zhuge Soso's manual on mechanisms was so intricate that even the sharpest minds couldn't memorize it.
If Four Thousand Four suddenly "recalled" the Calculation Gate's formations, it meant hundreds of architectural blueprints had resurfaced in his mind.
At this point, the question had to be asked again.
Four Thousand Four, what are you?
Creak! Rumble! Clunk!
As Four Thousand Four moved the rock, the sealed cave mouth groaned open with a mighty roar.
Such feats no longer surprised them.
With the Calculation Gate's formations in his memory, Four Thousand Four could navigate the Heavenly Annihilation Division at will—better than their own disciples.
"Where does this lead?"
"Looks like I'll finally get to tour the Martial Camp after all this time."
Vanguard and Hanbi spoke differently.
But just as Four Thousand Four was about to step into the newly opened cave, he halted abruptly.
"What now?"
"..."
Instead of answering, Four Thousand Four turned back.
His gaze was toward the cave entrance, pitch black except for the round glimpse of the outside world.
They're not following.
Incomprehensible things kept happening. Why... weren't they pursuing?
He knew Jaja and Fox were tailing them.
They thought they were shadowing discreetly, but they couldn't fool Four Thousand Four's hearing.
Close your eyes and sit, listening to the grass sprouting. No need to do anything. Just sit still, and the grass grows while your ears catch the sounds.
Four Thousand Four's hearing had sharpened even beyond his time in the Nineteen Hells.
Jaja and Fox couldn't hide their movements. Despite declaring they wouldn't interfere, they had slunk after him covertly. Of course, Four Thousand Four had pretended not to notice.
But now, they weren't following.
Did they lack the detoxification method to enter the garden pavilion?
No. Vanguard and Hanbi had roamed everywhere gathering flower pollen for over a day.
They knew the method.
Yet they weren't following... There was only one explanation. Something had happened to them.
Four Thousand Four turned his head and said,
"It's nothing. Let's go in."
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The cave echoed loudly. Even cautious, light steps boomed thunderously.
"Hah! Am I really this hopeless?"
Hanbi muttered, spreading his internal energy evenly.
Every sect had lightness skills to muffle footsteps, varying by their teachings.
Hanbi possessed such a technique.
As an assassin, he had trained it diligently for sneaking like a stray cat.
Yet,
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Each step produced an inevitable clamor.
No way to stay undetected like this. If guards were posted anywhere, they'd hear it from afar instantly.
"This place... it's no ordinary spot. No matter how you move, you can't silence the noise. Right?"
Vanguard asked casually as he walked normally.
Whether stepping carefully or boldly, the footsteps echoed the same—spreading loudly far and wide.
"It's called the Iron Plate Bridge, a corridor."
"Iron Plate Bridge?"
"Double-layered iron plates. As you said, any way you walk produces sound."
"What about the sides?"
Vanguard eyed the cave walls left and right.
The walls were sheer rock, smoothed like polished wood, without a single protrusion to grip.
He was thinking of using daggers.
Gripping blades in both hands and stabbing into the walls to advance— it would make noise, but probably not as resounding as walking the Iron Plate Bridge.
Four Thousand Four shook his head.
"The sides are the same. The ceiling too. Think of it as two concentric cylinders layered together."
"Then passing without sound is..."
"Impossible."
"Are the other paths like this too? Well..."
Vanguard trailed off, recalling Zhuge Soso's words when handing over the manual.
Traps upon traps, enough to make one's teeth chatter.
Infiltrating such a place undetected seemed impossible even for a god.
Four Thousand Four knew all the Calculation Gate's formations. For him to choose this path, the alternatives must be worse—far worse.
"What about the guards...?"
Hanbi asked hopefully.
If no one was there to hear, even the echoes wouldn't matter. With the garden pavilion as a sturdy barrier ahead, maybe no warriors stood guard here.
Four Thousand Four shattered that hope instantly.
"They've already heard. Probably reported it too."
"What!"
"This passage ends soon. We'll have to fight nonstop after. Let's rest while we can."
Four Thousand Four plopped down mid-path.
"Shake off the fatigue as best you can. I guarantee we'll go at least two or three days without sleep. It's all out in the open now, so no rush to start—rest while you can."
With that, Four Thousand Four sat cross-legged and immersed himself in energy circulation.
Jaja, Fox.
Four Thousand Four thought of the two.
They lingered in his mind. More than the Heavenly Annihilation Division warriors waiting ahead, more than the mechanisms and formations... those two weighed on him.
I might have to make the hardest choice... I hope it doesn't come to that...
Pretending to circulate his energy, Four Thousand Four calmed his inner turmoil.