Chapter 194
Chapter 194: The True Tower's Report
Five hundred miles east of Gangdo.
At the border between Cloud West Province and Central Capital Province, a single great mountain range stretched long like a dividing line.
A mountain range given the name Cloud Ridge, for the clouds enveloped the entire range like a great collar—a chain of Mountain Ridges formed by a succession of precipitous peaks, with all manner of strange rocks and bizarre stones spread across it in countless numbers.
A natural terrain inevitably remote from the footsteps of ordinary people. Adding to that, what made it even more strictly forbidden for mortals to approach were the hundreds and thousands of layered formation techniques artificially installed in various spots throughout this region.
And.
At the Formation Eye that served as both the core and the driving force of all these layered formations, a single tower had been erected.
Standing tall on an octagonal foundation with eight faces soaring to a height of ninety meters—a tower that might be the grandest not only in Great Viet but in all of the Central Plains, perhaps in all the world.
Named, Formation Tower.
On each face of Formation Tower, Eight Trigrams patterns were engraved, and the tower as a whole pulsated while suffused with a Formation Energy color in which the Five Elements of Yin and Yang were wondrously intertwined.
This was because the energy of the countless formation techniques and Formation Path accumulated over three hundred years had seeped into the tower itself, so that now the tower itself had become a single enormous formation technique.
For that reason, even if someone were to break through all the formation techniques and Formation Path installed throughout Cloud Ridge Mountain Range and arrive in this vicinity, they could never discover the tower. No, it would be more accurate to say it could not be seen.
This was because the Bewilderment Formation built into the tower itself disrupted the perception of all outsiders. Even if one stood directly before it, it would only be perceived as a rocky mountain with nothing on it.
And so, among the denizens of the Martial World, the following saying had come to circulate:
— Formation Tower exists, yet does not exist.
This was because, though clearly numerous formation Taoists were active and operating covertly throughout the Central Plains, no one could reach Formation Tower. Even if one were to wring the arm of one of the formation Taoists and learn the location of this place, what force could possibly dare to infiltrate here through tens of thousands of formation Taoists without obtaining permission?
Above all, what force could survive in the Central Plains, in this world, after making an enemy of the Formation Tower?
Thus Formation Tower had persisted for a full three hundred years—a force that existed yet did not exist, neutral yet not middling.
And so this tower remained even now, enveloped in clouds, swathed in stillness.
However,
Unlike the quiet exterior of this tower where not even the sound of a dropping needle could be heard, inside it countless formation Taoists moved busily, working to attain the pinnacle of formation technique.
The moment one stepped into the first floor, the spectacle of dozens of formation Taoists moving to and fro in busy activity came into view.
On one side, formation Taoists returning from outside were reporting the completion of their commissions, and on the other side, the brushes of clerks sorting newly arrived commission papers by grade moved without pause.
On the walls hung a massive Formation Board on which a map of the entire Central Plains was drawn, over which hundreds of small points of light flickered, and the three or four floors above that were used as training spaces. On the wide floors were drawn patterns of the Eight Trigrams and Nine Palaces, and young formation Taoists on them were learning the methods of wielding Formation Energy.
Several floors further above that were the Research Pavilion, where a vast space had been arranged for researching new formation techniques and improving existing ones.
However,
From the Research Pavilion onward, the population density began to drop sharply.
Because from here, even the quality of the air itself changed. The Formation Energy was so dense that ordinary formation Taoists found even breathing a strain. Naturally, the upper floors could only become a space exclusively for elders or superior-ranked formation Taoists of even greater distinction.
Among those, a certain room on the topmost floor.
The room was spacious.
However, there was almost no furniture.
By contrast, the bookshelves filling one wall were densely packed with formation texts and ancient books, and across from them lay a large stone slab. On the stone slab, indecipherable patterns were carved densely, and if one looked closely, the patterns were moving ever so slightly.
A stone slab for formation technique research.
Made directly by the owner of this room, it was a tool for instantly carving in formation ideas that came to mind and immediately demonstrating them.
In the center of the room, on a red carpet, a single low table. On it lay several unrolled scrolls and an unfinished teacup.
What was peculiar was the window.
No, to be precise, the place where a window should have been.
On one face of the wall, a rectangle the size of a window had been drawn. It was not a mere picture. Within that rectangle, the view outside was being reflected in real time. Cloud Ridge's eternal snow, the earth spread out below the clouds, the plains of the distant Central Plains.
A kind of Surveillance Formation.
A formation technique enabling one to see outside even without a window—this too was the creation of this room's owner.
Before that window-that-was-not-a-window, a man stood.
Middle-aged.
A man of quite sturdy build who appeared to be in his early forties.
However, his impression, unlike his physique, was gentle. Slightly drooping eyes, a mild upward curl to his lips, the face of a scholar to which the folded fan in his hand suited well.
As he looked down at the scenery outside the 'window' and tapped the fan,
Bang!
The door was flung open roughly.
"Mu-toe! Mu-toe! Hey, Dong Mu-toe!"
The one who rushed into the room was a young woman.
Mid-twenties.
Her short-cut bob swayed with a swish each time she moved.
Her features were distinct and her gaze sharp, giving a prickly first impression. But look closely, and her small lips and round cheeks lent her face an unexpected charm.
Her frame was on the small side.
And yet, beneath her robe, the outline of tightly wound muscles showed through. Unlike the ordinary formation Taoists here, one could vaguely surmise that her martial arts were also formidable.
"Mu-toe! Where are you! Come out!"
She swept her gaze around the room and stopped short.
The person she had expected was not there.
In their place stood a completely unexpected other person.
"Oh? Why are you here?"
The scholarly middle-aged man spread his fan and smiled gently.
"Ah, welcome, Trigram Leader Eom."
"No. Don't go acting like the owner of this place and just answer my question."
"Ha ha. Is it not for the same reason as Trigram Leader Eom?"
Eom Bi-ryeong.
The woman was none other than the Trigram Leader of the Mountain Formation Division, that is, the Mountain Trigram among the Eight Trigrams.
The middle-aged man too was, like her, one of the Trigram Leaders.
The Thunder Trigram Thunder Formation Division's Trigram Leader, Myo Jin-heo.
Both were among the most capable of the Eight Trigram Leaders.
"Are you here about the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect and the Dark Net Rakshasa Path collision as well?"
"Indeed. It is a clash between one of the Ten Great Sects and one of the Seven Evil Grand Cults, so would it not be a great opportunity for us?"
One of the Ten Great Sects.
One of the Seven Evil Grand Cults.
Two pillars of the Martial World were on the verge of colliding head-on.
And in such a great war, the smell of money would as a matter of course waft thickly.
It had not yet come to full-scale collision, but it was only a matter of time—such was the conclusion of Formation Tower's internal analysis.
Eom Bi-ryeong merely gave a slight nod and without much reply swept her gaze quickly through the room.
The bookshelf.
The formation stone slab.
The low table.
The unfinished teacup.
The teacup had gone cold long ago. Some tea water still remained at the bottom, but given the clear mark of dried tea water far above that point, it meant the owner of this room had been away for quite some time.
Her gaze soon came to rest on the table.
An unrolled scroll. On it, writing was densely packed.
『Eight Direction Void……』
"It seems Trigram Leader Dong has made something tremendous once again."
Though she had not even finished reading the title yet, Eom Bi-ryeong quickly shifted her gaze to Myo Jin-heo.
"Tremendous, my foot. It'll just be another bizarre freak of a work that'll swallow up dozens and hundreds of useless formation Taoists again."
"Does not a freak work, when accumulated, become a masterwork?"
"Well, I have no interest in things like that."
In truth, she was not at all uninterested, absolutely not.
Because the owner of this room was an unparalleled genius of formation technique that everyone acknowledged. To borrow the words of the current Grand Zenith Position, as much as the founding patriarch who first opened this Formation Tower some three hundred years ago.
It was simply that she was unwilling to acknowledge it.
Whether she knew it or not, that Eight Direction Void something-or-other she had just glimpsed would also be a formation technique of an insane level 'in theory.'
Either way, this bastard was a brilliantly insane bastard.
Tap, tap.
Eom Bi-ryeong lightly tapped the upper part of the teacup twice and continued.
"Do you know where this eccentric bastard went?"
"Well, I heard roughly."
"Where did they say?"
"He has gone out for amusement, they say."
"Amusement……?"
Myo Jin-heo suddenly gave a chuckling laugh.
Eom Bi-ryeong knitted her brows at that.
"No, why are you laughing in that unpleasant way?"
Myo Jin-heo quickly gave a dry cough and spread the fan he held to cover his mouth.
"Ah, my apologies. A laugh simply came out. Even so, 'unpleasant way' is a bit much, is it not? Between fellow Trigram Leaders."
"It's precisely because we're fellow Trigram Leaders that I can speak this way. I could hardly say 'unpleasant way' to the Grand Zenith Position."
"Ha ha. Well, that is true indeed."
Myo Jin-heo assented with a light laugh and lowered his fan again, looking at Eom Bi-ryeong.
"It seems some foolish few made an error in judgment, they say."
"Hm? What do you mean by that?"
"Ah, that is to say, some among the commission grade committee members mistook the platinum embroidered on Trigram Leader Dong's back for silver, I am told."
"What?"
Silver and platinum look similar at a glance.
But look carefully, and the depth of color and hue is entirely different. Is it not a problem for the very committee members who determine commission grades to make such a mistake? Even granting that Dong Mu-toe does not attend all external events for health reasons. How could they fail to recognize a Trigram Leader's face?
Eom Bi-ryeong opened her mouth in bewilderment and then soon asked again.
"Surely…… Dong Mu-toe, that person, no? It wouldn't be, would it? You're not saying that person accepted a Silver Formation Contract commission, are you?"
"That is correct. It is not that."
Hoo—
Eom Bi-ryeong let out a sigh and closed the mouth she had opened.
Well, no matter how recklessly Dong Mu-toe conducts himself, being a Trigram Leader, he would hardly agree to a Silver Formation Contract.
"That's a relief. Then I had better go and find that person quickly."
In the middle of the conversation, Eom Bi-ryeong flicked her gaze back to that scroll.
『Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell — A Preliminary Discourse on Compound Layered Formation Path Based on the Grand Zenith Return to Unity Theory』
Naturally, it was part of the new research result of this room's owner, Dong Mu-toe.
『A formation is, fundamentally, the restructuring of space by borrowing the principles of heaven and earth.
A single formation realizes only one principle, and thus there is a limit to its power.
However, what if opposing principles could be confined within a single framework?
Water and Fire are opposing, yet what connects the two is Energy.
At the moment when Cold and Heat alternate, the subject's physical body cannot sustain itself and collapses.
This is termed the First Principle, 'Extreme Opposition Mutual Clash'……』
"Before he burrows off somewhere and starts recklessly deploying these half-baked monstrosities of formations all over the place, that is."
She shifted her gaze back from the scroll to Myo Jin-heo.
"Anyway, a commission of this magnitude would warrant mobilizing at least four of us, so you're included too. Understood?"
Myo Jin-heo shook his head and smiled meaningfully.
"My participation is of course appropriate…… but going now, you will not find him inside Formation Tower."
"What? You said that person did not go out having accepted a Silver Formation Contract, didn't you?"
"That is so."
"……?"
As Eom Bi-ryeong tilted her head quizzically, Myo Jin-heo lightly tossed out:
"Bronze Formation Contract."
"……Pardon?"
"Hoo hoo hoo. Dong Mu-toe. That is to say, Trigram Leader Dong—he has accepted a Bronze Formation Contract commission and gone out to handle it, I am told."
Myo Jin-heo's laughing-eyed gaze turned toward the final portion of the scroll.
『The above four principles are layered within the framework of the Eight Trigrams.
Heaven, Earth, Water, Fire hold the Four Cardinal Directions,
Thunder, Wind, Mountain, Lake hold the Four Diagonal Directions.
From eight directions, eight layers of formation close in.
There is no escape.
This is the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell.
It permits no one who has entered the formation to exit it.
Even should that one be an Immortal.』
"If Trigram Leader Eom's prediction hits the mark, by now he would already be laying waste to that place with these half-baked monstrosities of formations from within that Bronze Formation Contract commission. Ha ha ha."
At the end of the scroll, a short passage in sharp brushwork had been appended.
『However, that is the greatest strength and simultaneously the problem. Since the formation cannot be dissolved, any area in which it has once been opened transforms into barren wasteland.』