The Dragon's Mist Parts

"Please stop."

At Jegal Seoyeon's words, the carriage rolled to a halt.

Where it stopped was the entrance to a mountain path, shrouded in a thick, hanging fog.

Wolong Ridge, Longzhong.

It was the sole gateway into the Zhuge Clan estate — a place known throughout the world as the most treacherous maze in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠existence.

"We can't simply walk in from here," Jegal Seoyeon said as she stepped down from the carriage. "The formation allows no one to set foot inside without the Clan Head's sanction. I'll go in first and speak with my grandfather. The formation must be temporarily lifted before you can enter."

She added with an apologetic expression, "Please wait just a little. I'll be back before you know it."

Without hesitation, she walked into the fog.

Strangely enough, wherever she stepped, the mist parted to either side, opening a path before her. And before she had taken more than a few strides, the white fog closed in behind her, swallowing her figure completely.

"Remarkable."

Mujin approached the mist with his face full of curiosity — then flinched and stumbled back. He had instinctively sensed that a few more steps would trigger the formation itself.

"Are you watching too, Young Master?"

Namgung Cheon answered with a silent nod. He gazed steadily into the fog, and gradually, its true nature revealed itself.

Thousands of strands of energy, each with its own distinct character, tangled and wound around one another like a vast unraveled skein.

Unchanged, as ever. This is the Mysterious Mechanism Illusion Grand Formation.

The legendary grand formation that, in his previous life during the Great War of Justice and Demons, had swallowed an entire army of One Heaven Realm demon cultivators whole. Its majesty had not dimmed with the passage of years.

Namgung Cheon and his companions remained by the carriage and waited.

After a considerable stretch of time had passed—

"……Isn't this taking rather long?"

Mujin finally spoke up, grumbling where he sat perched on a boulder. "She said she'd be right back, and it's already past half a sihn."

Tap.

Hopping down from the rock, he added, "Did she forget about us because she's catching up with her grandfather after so long?"

"Hardly," Namgung Cheon replied flatly, though he too was beginning to feel a flicker of doubt.

Just then, Baek Heon carefully ventured, his eyes anxious, "Young Master, could something have gone wrong?"

"Gone wrong……"

Namgung Cheon shook his head. An incident at the Zhuge Clan's main estate was all but inconceivable. Far more likely, as Mujin suggested, his grandfather had been delayed catching up with his granddaughter — fresh out of three months of secluded training and straight off to the River-Along Martial Assembly, no less.

But did that mean they simply had to keep waiting?

Namgung Cheon's gaze turned back toward the mist-shrouded woods.

The Mysterious Mechanism Illusion Grand Formation — the very formation he had, in the end, shattered in his past life.

Even so, he was not the man he had been then. In terms of raw realm, he fell short of what he once possessed.

However—

My understanding of the martial arts is deeper than it ever was.

And then there was the Great Void Heart-Protecting Art. He was curious whether that heart-protecting method would hold its power even within a formation like this.

Besides, waiting idly has never suited my temperament.

Failure wouldn't matter. The formation's master, the Heavenly Mechanism Wondrous Calculation, would hardly stand by and watch his own grandson wander lost inside it.

He had that much faith to lean on — so there was no reason to hesitate further.

Namgung Cheon rose from his seat and began striding forward with long, decisive steps.

"Young Master?"

"Young Master!"

Mujin and Baek Heon hurried after him in alarm, but Namgung Cheon raised a hand to stop them.

"Wait here," he said without looking back. "I'll return shortly."

With that, Namgung Cheon stepped boldly into the fog.

Swish.

The white mist closed over him as if swallowing him whole.

A smile tugged at Namgung Cheon's lips at the scene unfolding within the fog.

Ah, that's right. It was like this.

The sensation of floating, as though his feet pressed not upon earth but empty air. An endless expanse of sheer cliffs. And on top of it all, every manner of energy twisting his senses.

It was the formation exactly as he remembered experiencing it. If anything differed from his past ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠life, it was only that its intensity had diminished somewhat.

Namgung Cheon exhaled slowly.

What the eyes see is a lie. What the ears hear, what the body feels — all lies as well.

The terror of the Mysterious Mechanism Illusion Grand Formation did not stop at merely making one lose the way. It threw an intruder's five senses into disarray and let him collapse from within; it dragged the fear buried deep in his heart out into the open and gnawed at his very soul.

That was the formation's true face.

Then—

Hisss—

A sinister hiss of snakes brushed against his ears. In the same instant, thousands of venomous serpents came crawling up the face of the cliff.

The unsettling rasp of scales, the fishy stench crawling up into his nostrils — everything was vivid, unbearably real.

Any ordinary warrior would have shrieked and swung his sword in blind panic.

But Namgung Cheon, instead, closed his eyes.

Do not be deceived by what appears before you.

He recited the mantra of the Great Void Heart-Protecting Art.

As he stilled the tremors within his heart, the false sensations lost their strength one by one and faded away. The hiss of the serpents dissolved into the whisper of wind, and the sheer cliffs settled back into an ordinary dirt road.

Namgung Cheon opened his eyes once more.

The fog still hung thick, but now, within it, he could see the faint currents of energy as they flowed. The formation's qi veins, tangled like thousands of unraveled threads — and among them, a single strand stretching on without end.

The energy leading to the Gate of Life, I take it.

Namgung Cheon set his foot along that current.

Thud.

The moment he took his first step, the formation responded.

Kuguuguung!

Screee—

He drew his sword.

No more illusions from this point on.

Kwaaaang!

Sharpened stone pillars suddenly shot up from beneath his feet. It was a scene reminiscent of the Sword Mountain Hell, one of the many hells of the underworld.

Tak!

He planted his foot on the flank of a surging pillar and leapt into the open air. No sooner was he airborne than a torrent of crimson flame rushed at him.

Fwoooosh—!

The formation's attack, laden with searing fire-qi. Namgung Cheon raised his sword.

Unhae Jangcheon — Cloud Sea Veils the Heavens.

A soft, yielding energy spread out from his blade and wrapped around the flames. The fire-qi lost its force and scattered in every direction, and in that opening, Namgung Cheon descended back to the ground.

But there was no time to relax.

Shwaaaaaek—!

From the fog on all sides, formless blades came pouring down like rain. Invisible to the eye, yet sharp enough to flay skin from bone — thousands of such energies surging toward him all at once.

The instant every avenue of evasion was sealed shut, Namgung Cheon's eyes flashed.

There.

Amid the deluge of energies, he caught the one thread that did not move. A blind spot in the formation — the Gate of Life leading to the next stage.

Without a moment's hesitation, he slashed his sword toward it.

Changcheon Mansangryu — Heavenly Thunder.

A flash of azure light pierced a single point in the empty air.

Crrrash!

With a sound like a pane of glass shattering, the formless blades that had bound him exploded into fragments all at once. He had crushed one of the formation's cores.

"Whew."

But he could not afford to feel at ease.

It isn't over yet.

The moment Namgung Cheon took another step, the formation reacted with fury.

Fwoooosh!

Scarlet flames erupted from dead ahead once more, heat rolling off them as though to sear his skin away. Namgung Cheon lifted his sword, and soft energy poured from the blade to embrace the inferno.

Like a raging wave shattering against rock, the ferocious blaze scattered in all directions — and a path opened. Through that gap, Namgung Cheon threw himself forward.

Kuguguung!

This time, darkness fell over his head. Boulders the size of houses came raining down by the dozens, while at the same moment the ground beneath him split open with a crack, a bottomless chasm yawning wide.

Blocked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠above and below at once — the very moment of life and death.

Now!

Tak!

He kicked off the surface of a falling boulder and shot into the air. Heavenly Walking Steps.

Using the stones suspended midair as stepping-stones, he crossed gracefully over the collapsing earth.

Tap.

At last, his feet touched solid, unbroken ground. And in that instant, black shadows burst from the fog.

Dozens of sword-wielding warriors.

Shwaek!

Sword strikes came surging in from every direction. Rather than meet blade with blade, Namgung Cheon sharpened his senses to their limit and read their energies.

Phantoms.

Figures with form but no substance. He plunged through the gaps in the oncoming sword strikes — then drove his blade down hard upon a single point of the ground.

KWAANG!

With a thunderous report, the formation's sigil carved into the earth shattered apart. The warriors that had been bearing down on him scattered like smoke and vanished.

"Whew."

Namgung Cheon released a short breath. Every attack had ceased. The flames, the falling stones, the phantom warriors — all of them were gone. Only the dense fog remained.

The physical trials are finished.

What remained was the final trial — the battle against the heart demon.

And that was—

Something I conquered long ago.

Namgung Cheon's eyes gleamed like a drawn blade.

Jegal Seoyeon sat watching the old man across from her, so absorbed that she never noticed her tea going cold.

A beard as long as a Daoist hermit's, a head of snowy white hair, eyes calm and untroubled — and yet lined about them with the deep wrinkles of long-carried years. He looked like any ordinary old man.

But the Murim League — no, everyone who truly moved the world — knew better. They ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knew that behind those tranquil eyes, all things in the world were read like open pages, and within that white-haired head, the very map of the realm was being cut and tailored.

The Clan Head of the Zhuge Clan, and the greatest strategist under heaven.

Heavenly Mechanism Wondrous Calculation, Jegal Myeong.

"Well now," Jegal Myeong said, tilting his teacup with leisurely ease. "I've already heard of your research, so tell me about the River-Along Martial Assembly this time. I gather there were quite a few interesting goings-on?"

Jegal Seoyeon sighed inwardly.

It had already been half a sihn. Her grandfather, who normally would have asked his business and finished in three sentences, was dragging things out today with one trifling anecdote after another — all while knowing perfectly well that Namgung Cheon was waiting below the mountain.

Then it struck her.

You know, and yet you're doing this on purpose?

Her eyes narrowed. A man called the Heavenly Mechanism Wondrous Calculation did not waste time without reason. Which meant—

"Grandfather," she said carefully. "Is there a reason for this?"

The question was abrupt and the manners lacking, but Jegal Myeong only smiled. "Is waiting not part of one's cultivation as well?"

Tilting his teacup, he continued in a low voice, "And judging by his recent movements, I suspect he will not be content to simply wait."

"I beg your pardon?"

Before she could ask what he meant—

Tak, tak.

Frantic footsteps sounded from outside. One of the elders charged with maintaining the clan's formation came sprinting in, his face drained white.

"Clan Head!"

"Speak."

Jegal Myeong asked with perfect calm, without a trace of surprise. Panting, the elder made his report.

"The grand formation…… the Mysterious Mechanism Illusion Grand Formation has been broken through!"

"……!"

Jegal Seoyeon's eyes went round. Broken through — the grand formation itself.

But Jegal Myeong's reaction was different. Setting his teacup down slowly, he curled the corners of his mouth upward.

"Faster than I expected."

It was the reaction of a man who had foreseen every part of this.

Only then did Jegal Seoyeon understand — the true reason her grandfather had been stalling for time.

He was testing him.

Jegal Myeong rose from his seat, a subtle anticipation glimmering in his eyes.

"Come along. He's kicked open our gates with his own two feet, so the least we can do is go out to greet him, wouldn't you say?"

Hands clasped behind his back, Jegal Myeong walked unhurriedly from the Family Head Hall, and Jegal Seoyeon hurried after him.

By the time the two arrived before the mountain gate, the fog that should have enshrouded the entrance had melted away as if it had never been. And standing in the place where that mist had vanished was Namgung Cheon.

Upon spotting Jegal Myeong, he approached slowly. Then, with a formal, respectful bow of clasped fists, he spoke.

"It has been a long time, Grandfather."

At that quiet greeting, a light kindled deep within Jegal Myeong's eyes. He offered his grandson a broad, warm smile.

"Yes. It has been a long time indeed."