Chapter 47
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Here It Is, You Bastard (3)
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“Cough!”
The elder guarding the Metal Gate of the Five Elements Binding Formation was flung out beyond the array.
His face, rolling on the ground, was vividly crisscrossed with red veins. It was a sign that reversed qi had pushed him to the brink of qi deviation.
“...!?”
Yun Byok-jin gaped in shock, forgetting all decorum.
“W-What happened?!”
He had seen the Five Elements Binding Formation more than a hundred times, deployed it himself, and even been trapped inside it on occasion.
But in all those experiences, he had never witnessed anything like this.
An elder maintaining the formation being bounced out of it?!
What madness was this?!
“Cough... F-Family Head.”
“Speak. Is there a flaw in the formation?”
The elder in charge of the Metal Gate shook his pale face.
“N-No, it's not that.”
“Then what? What the hell is going on inside!?”
“That madman... threw a rock at us.”
“...?”
Yun Byok-jin blinked in stunned disbelief.
...He did what?
Threw... a rock?!
* * *
Shuuuuk-!
The rock streaked through the air like a meteor and smashed straight into the sun.
“Kuhak!”
An elder's scream echoed in tandem.
“Hm. So that's the spot.”
After hurling about ten rocks and pinpointing the position, Kang Moo-jin flashed a satisfied smile and redoubled his efforts.
Pishuuung-! Pishuuung-!
Dozens of rocks sliced through the sky, battering the sun until it shattered.
“Kwaaaak!”
With the Fire Gate elder's scream, one sun vanished.
“Three left now?”
Kang Moo-jin's gaze shifted after crudely demolishing the Metal and Fire Gates by hurling rocks from the boulder pile.
Brrr-
One of the trees emerging from the sea trembled faintly the moment his eyes landed on it.
“That's the one.”
He had nearly missed the subtle vibration, but Moo-jin caught it sharply and hoisted a rock overhead.
“H-Hiiik!”
The tree shuddered in terror and vanished from his sight.
- Y-You fool! What do you think you're doing running away!
- Idiot! If even one more slips out, the formation collapses!
Furious voices reverberated inside the formation.
“You lunatics! You expect me to stand there and take a house-sized rock to the skull? No way! I'm not ready to die!”
Elder Yun Mu-chang, unwilling to risk his head exploding against a massive boulder, hastily fled the Wood Gate.
With three of the five elders maintaining the Five Elements gone, the formation's interior began to shake violently.
Unable to be sustained by just two, it started collapsing on its own.
Kugugugu-
Darkness swallowed the interior in an instant, thousands of fragments rained from the sky, and the formation shattered.
“Nothing special.”
Kang Moo-jin snorted as he returned to the familiar world outside.
“Is that it?”
“...”
Silence blanketed the area beyond the formation.
No one had imagined the Sichuan Yun Family's proud Five Elements Binding Formation would be dismantled so bizarrely and easily.
Not even Won Yu-hwa, who knew Moo-jin's prowess.
“N-No way. What... what just happened?!”
Yun Byok-jin stared back and forth between the elders and Moo-jin in disbelief.
“Elder Yun Mu-chang. Explain. What the hell went on in there?”
“Family Head. It was...”
Yun Mu-chang, who had guarded the Wood Gate, recounted the events inside—how Moo-jin had shattered the formation by throwing rocks.
Even he stuttered repeatedly, feeling how absurd it sounded as he spoke.
“So... he used the formation's own constructs to deliver shocks from within.”
An exclamation escaped Yun Byok-jin.
Theoretically, the best way to break a formation was to strike the sorcerers controlling it from inside and cause a collapse.
But attacking those dominating the formation—easy in theory?
“One thing I don't get, though. How did he even lift and throw those rocks?”
“Pardon? He just picked them up with both arms and chucked them...”
“No. Wasn't his qi sealed by the Five Elements Binding Formation?”
“...Eh?!”
Elder Yun Mu-chang's pupils dilated massively.
Now that he thought about it, yes. Moo-jin's qi sealed by the formation should have left him a powerless mortal inside.
So how...?
Scratching his head, Yun Mu-chang ventured cautiously,
“Maybe he's just naturally built like an ox?”
“...”
Yun Byok-jin eyed the elder beside him like the world's most pathetic fool.
* * *
“A splendid match. I can only express my admiration.”
“I enjoyed it too. Fighting inside a formation without damaging my windbreaker robe was a nice bonus.”
Moo-jin smiled contentedly at his pristine robe.
Not a single scratch—how could he not grin?
“...?”
Yun Byok-jin cocked his head at the baffling remark.
“Anyway. I concede. It's your victory. The Yun Family accepts defeat.”
Family Head Yun Byok-jin cupped his hands in salute and bowed slightly.
A gesture embodying the dignity of the Sichuan Yun Family Head, respect for Moo-jin, and an apology.
“I accept. And I apologize for my rudeness as well.”
Moo-jin mirrored the cupped-hands salute and bow.
No reason not to show respect to an opponent who conceded so cleanly when he could have dragged it out disgracefully.
“Truly impressive. I haven't seen a martial artist like you in ages.”
Yun Byok-jin was genuinely awed by Moo-jin.
He had met many so-called later-generation prodigies, but none matched this level of skill and boldness.
He even wanted to invite him to the Yun Family and make him one of their own.
“Forgive the elders' reactions. They haven't recovered yet.”
“It's fine.”
The elders behind Yun Byok-jin all wore dazed expressions.
They hadn't snapped out of the shock of their full-powered Five Elements Binding Formation being smashed.
“Since we've crossed paths like this, may I speak casually?”
“Of course.”
“Ha ha. Love the straightforwardness. Brother Kang, you're definitely not like the kids these days.”
Yun Byok-jin grinned broadly and slung an arm around Moo-jin's shoulders.
The two men, each a head taller than average, looked like old friends of a decade.
“Here, Brother Kang. Take this.”
Yun Byok-jin pulled a small wooden plaque from his bosom and handed it over. It bore the Yun Family's cloud glyph engraved on it.
“This plaque lets you call on our family's support. You won, so claim your prize.”
Like most families, the Yun Family didn't hand out such plaques lightly.
With family law mandating full mobilization to aid the bearer, they were far more cautious than others.
“F-Family Head...!”
The elders panicked to protest, but shrank back at Yun Byok-jin's piercing gaze, clamping their mouths shut.
“We lost. Shut up and accept it. Tch. Acting like you did something right.”
With one line silencing the elders, Yun Byok-jin beckoned his waiting bodyguard.
“While you were sparring, Brother Kang, I looked into it. Your brother went missing in a restricted area. That's why the underlings ignored your request.”
“A restricted area?”
Moo-jin frowned and tilted his head.
Restricted access?
Like some forbidden zone?
“The site of the fiercest clashes between the Yun and Tang Families. Drenched in the blood of countless souls. Their deaths seem to have birthed strange phenomena.”
“...What's it called?”
Moo-jin's expression grew grave. Worry surged at the thought of his second brother there.
“A ravine linked to Sword Horn Mountain. We call it Ghost Cloud Ridge.”
* * *
Kang Moo-jin headed straight for Ghost Cloud Ridge, where his brother had vanished, without a moment's hesitation.
A bizarre mist billowing eerie qi blanketed the ridgeline scarred by the families' endless bloodbath.
“This is... a formation!”
Won Yu-hwa crouched at the edge of the dense mist.
“The mist marks the formation's boundary. The earth veins beneath feel off, and artifacts are arrayed in the Eight Gates pattern.”
“Hm. You studied that too?”
Moo-jin stroked his chin in surprise.
“Yes. Grandpa made me study all sorts of things. Formations included.”
“Impressive.”
“It's nothing, Brother-in-Law.”
Yu-hwa squirmed bashfully.
'That's what supporting you means!' she wanted to say, but shame kept the words inside.
Pfft-
Moo-jin smiled at how her stern face melted with one compliment.
“Huh? But Brother-in-Law, you're not surprised it's a formation? Did you know?”
“I had a rough sense.”
“You can feel formations?”
Surprise flickered in Yu-hwa's eyes.
Formations were discerned through knowledge and observation, not raw sensation—that was the creed.
“I dealt with them so often in that other world, it nearly killed me.”
Moo-jin's formation sense was less notification, more warning.
Dozens of near-death brushes had honed it into instinct.
“Did someone set this formation?”
“No, Brother-in-Law. The artifacts' positions are too natural for that.”
Yu-hwa examined it carefully with a serious face.
“It's a naturally formed one. Probably from the death qi of the fallen piling up.”
Formations could be manmade or arise spontaneously where qi amassed abnormally.
In truth, most Central Plains formation masters merely mimicked nature's handiwork.
“I see. Good— not some bastard's malice, then.”
“Well... Brother-in-Law, natural formations are dozens of times more dangerous than manmade ones.”
“I know. Central Plains has spots like that. The Ten Great Forbidden Zones, right?”
Yu-hwa bit her lip worriedly.
“Yes. This could be as bad.”
“Think my brother’s still alive in there?”
At Moo-jin's question, she bit her lip harder.
“Probably... If Elder Mun-soong's intel holds, he is.”
“Right. Let's head in.”
Moo-jin stepped into the mist without hesitation.
No danger fazed him.
“B-Brother-in-Law. Wait.”
Yu-hwa urgently grabbed his windbreaker robe.
“Can I come too?”
Her face lacked confidence as she wet her dry lips.
“Won't I just get in your way?”
Moo-jin snorted with utter assurance.
“Of course not. Yu-hwa, with me here, who’d dare touch you?”
“Brother-in-Law...”
Emotion flooded Yu-hwa's face.
“And you're a peak expert now. Time to clash with real threats and fight for your life. Brushing death—that's true training.”
“...Brother-in-Law.”
Yu-hwa's expression brightened more than before.
“I'll give it my all! So I won't be a burden to you!”
Flames ignited in Yu-hwa's eyes as she steeled herself.
Fighting her best at his side.
'That's what supporting you means!'