Chapter 320
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 320
Chapter Title: Let's Begin
Han Seol-bing arrived at Palace Lord Bing Chwi-seol's office in an instant.
"Sister!"
The familiar term slipped out first.
Bing Chwi-seol greeted her with a bright smile.
"You've arrived. You've been through so much."
She had already heard about Han Seol-bing's plan from her younger sister, Bing So-seol, who had arrived ahead of her.
"I've made all the preparations."
Bing Chwi-seol rose from her seat as she spoke.
"Let's hurry. To where the Ice Crystal is."
She took the lead, with Han Seol-bing and Bing So-seol right behind her.
Following them were Han Go-jeok, Na Hong-ryeon, and Ji Heon-wi.
These were the ones who knew Han Seol-bing's plan in detail.
They had come along to witness the spectacle with their own eyes.
And so, the six of them arrived deep underground beneath the Palace Lord's Hall.
Even now, fierce battles raged along the walls of the Palace Lord's Hall.
Time was of the essence.
Bing Chwi-seol used her internal energy and a key to open the tightly sealed iron door.
An iron door that only the Palace Lord could open.
As the door swung open...
A tremendous chill, cold enough to freeze their bodies solid, poured out and engulfed the group.
However, those who cultivated the Ice Heaven Palace's internal arts absorbed the cold energy instead, pressing onward into the chamber.
The Ice Crystal took the form of an elongated hexagonal prism.
It floated in midair, radiating icy energy in all directions while absorbing it as well.
The Ice Crystal was about the size of a hundred-day-old infant.
"Recover your internal energy first."
Han Seol-bing had poured every last drop of the internal energy she had gathered during her final breakthrough.
It wasn't hard for Palace Lord Bing Chwi-seol to gauge her current condition from her pale, ashen face upon entering the office.
Still...
Circulating her qi here, where the Ice Crystal was, would be far more efficient, which was why they had come straightaway.
"Yes."
With that short reply, Han Seol-bing settled into meditation.
In that short time...
She recovered eighty percent of her internal energy.
The rapid recovery was thanks to the flow of icy energy emanating from and absorbed by the Ice Crystal.
When Han Seol-bing opened her eyes, the others were startled.
Even accounting for the Ice Crystal's presence, it had been far too quick.
"Are you alright?"
Bing So-seol asked worriedly.
Han Seol-bing nodded.
"Well, I'll have to pay the price later."
She had experienced such backlash countless times before.
Han Seol-bing immediately moved to the space before the Ice Crystal and sat cross-legged.
Behind her, Palace Lord Bing Chwi-seol did the same.
From this point on, the roles of these two women were crucial.
Han Seol-bing could manage it alone, but to unleash its ultimate power, Bing Chwi-seol's presence was absolutely necessary.
"Let's begin."
Bing Chwi-seol nodded at Han Seol-bing's words.
Ice Crystal Radiant Mist Great Heavenly Power.
An internal art passed down solely to the Palace Lords of the Ice Heaven Palace through the generations.
It was used to draw upon the Ice Crystal's power and pour it into a specific target.
Right now...
That target was the person sitting cross-legged before her.
Han Seol-bing.
Bing Chwi-seol placed her palm on Han Seol-bing's Gate of Life acupoint and channeled the Ice Crystal's power drawn forth by the Radiant Mist Great Heavenly Power directly into her.
A colossal force surged like a raging torrent.
Han Seol-bing directed it straight into her arms.
In her hands were now a pair of pristine white daggers she had drawn from her bosom.
The very daggers she had used to sever Dark Wind Corps Leader Tak Ga-han Pung-dae's neck.
Ice Dragon Cold Snow Daggers.
This pair of stilettos was one of the Ice Heaven Palace's treasures.
It had been a gift from the previous Palace Lord when she left for the Great Martial War.
At the same time...
It was also the key to the ultimate formation she was about to deploy.
She could deploy it without them, but just as the Palace Lord's Ice Crystal Radiant Mist Great Heavenly Power was needed for ultimate power, so too were the Ice Dragon Cold Snow Daggers essential.
Pfsh! Pfsh!
Han Seol-bing plunged the daggers into the ground on both sides simultaneously.
The immense energy of the Ice Crystal, flowing through her Gate of Life acupoint, coursed along her arms and hands before passing through her and into the earth.
Rumble... Rumble... Roooar.
At that moment, a massive vibration began throughout the entire Palace Lord's Hall.
It wasn't just the vibrations.
The towering walls encircling the Palace Lord's Hall...
The amethysts embedded in them began to emit a faint glow.
"Wh-what is this?"
"What's going on...?"
The Tak Clan warriors attacking the Palace Lord's Hall recoiled in shock at the sudden change.
Meanwhile, the vibrations intensified...
Spreading beyond the Palace Lord's Hall to encompass the vast Ice Heaven Palace.
Roooar. Rumble.
The ground beneath the subtly quaking Ice Heaven Palace trembled.
Naturally, Tak Clan Leader Tak Yo-beom, Yang Jeok-san, and Tak Pung-geon felt it too.
"What is it?"
Tak Yo-beom frowned.
It didn't feel like an earthquake—the timing was off.
North Sea did have occasional quakes, but they followed a regular cycle.
And there were no precursor signs whatsoever before one hit.
The animals were going about their lives peacefully.
"Not an earthquake?"
Tak Pung-geon's face hardened at Tak Yo-beom's mutter.
Naturally...
Tak Yo-beom and Yang Jeok-san's eyes turned to him.
Tak Pung-geon's eyes trembled violently.
"Pung-geon. What is it?"
Tak Yo-beom demanded.
"It seems Han Seol-bing has entered the Palace Lord's Hall."
"What does that mean?"
"If it's not an earthquake... then the entire domain of the Ice Heaven Palace shaking means... the formation has been activated."
Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Myriad Shattering Array.
The strongest and final absolute formation of the Ice Heaven Palace.
True to its name, Ice Heaven, it required the North Sea's icy energy as an essential element, making it deployable only here.
With its spatial limitations, its power was truly earth-shattering.
Depending on the caster's will, the formation's nature could shift endlessly.
It could become an unprecedented annihilation array.
Or an inescapable labyrinth.
Or an illusion array driving those trapped within to madness in hallucinations.
It could protect those inside as a defensive array.
Or imprison and assault them as an offensive one.
Most terrifyingly, it could embody all those traits at once.
Tak Yo-beom had only known it as a legendary formation of immense power.
His face twisted grotesquely as Tak Pung-geon's explanation continued.
Yang Jeok-san said nothing. He too knew the Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Myriad Shattering Array's might.
Such an incredible formation?
Even as a legend...
Its power seemed utterly unbelievable.
Tak Pung-geon's insistence on blocking Han Seol-bing from the Palace Lord's Hall now made perfect sense.
"Wait. You mentioned earlier borrowing the Ice Crystal's power..."
Tak Yo-beom recalled Tak Pung-geon's frantic words.
Tak Pung-geon nodded gravely.
"Even using just the North Sea's icy energy creates a tremendous formation. But with the Ice Crystal's power added... its might would be..."
Tak Yo-beom bit his lip.
"The manual's final page described the conditions for deploying the ultimate form of the Myriad Shattering Array. I saw it out of curiosity when I reached the end."
"The ultimate form?"
What was this now?
"It was the founding Palace Lord's design. Millennial Ice Crystal, a pair of Ice Dragon Cold Snow Daggers, a Palace Lord versed in Ice Crystal Radiant Mist Great Heavenly Power, a caster who has mastered the Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Myriad Shattering Array to perfection, and finally, the Palace Lord's Hall. When all conditions align, the ultimate formation awakens."
"And its power?"
Tak Yo-beom asked in a slightly trembling voice.
"Heaven-annihilating. World-destroying."
A curt reply.
Tak Yo-beom and Yang Jeok-san's eyes widened.
"That's all it said."
"D-damn it..."
Tak Yo-beom muttered dazedly.
What in the world...
"M-mobilize every available fighter to the Palace Lord's Hall! Pung-geon, find a way to break the formation—no matter what it takes, even a tiny gap!"
Mist began to blanket the Palace Lord's Hall.
A frigid icy mist.
Ice Fog.
It seemed to layer around the hall, then completely enveloped it.
Han Seol-bing, sitting cross-legged, was inwardly astonished.
'To think such preparations were in place.'
The Myriad Shattering Array manual she had pored over in the library.
She had mastered everything.
But the description of the ultimate Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Myriad Shattering Array was just four characters.
Heaven-annihilating, world-destroying.
Believing in it, she had activated the ultimate formation.
Only those who read the manual to the end and the Palace Lord knew all the conditions.
She guessed she and the Palace Lord were the only ones now.
Na Hong-ryeon seemed to know they could deploy a powerful Myriad Shattering Array together with the Ice Crystal and Palace Lord.
Bing So-seol as well.
However...
The conditions for the ultimate formation went beyond that.
She sat cross-legged in the designated spot, continuously channeling energy into the ground through the daggers in her hands to activate the formation.
Han Seol-bing felt as if she herself had become the formation.
She could sense everywhere the formation had spread.
The manual had no description of this sensation.
It was something known only by deploying it.
The Palace Lord's Hall itself was a massive Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Myriad Shattering Array.
Missing only the final key.
The Ice Heaven Palace's founder, the first Palace Lord, had designed it this way.
The building layout, the amethysts in the walls.
All of it components of the formation.
That was why...
'It's not perfect.'
Han Seol-bing realized the truth.
Centuries had passed.
The erosion of time.
Damage had accumulated in the formation as a result.
Repairs over time had slightly altered the founder's design.
Done by those ignorant of the formation.
Han Seol-bing, having mastered the Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Myriad Shattering Array to perfection, would need to fix it herself.
No, even she might not have noticed without deploying it.
Only by activating the formation did she realize the entire Palace Lord's Hall was the formation itself.
Now, she felt she could properly restore it.
But that would come after surviving this crisis.
She sensed countless warriors converging on the Palace Lord's Hall.
Tak Yo-beom had appeared.
Seeing his warriors at a loss amid the sudden layers of ice fog, he bellowed.
"What are you doing? Attack!"
Tak Yo-beom's shout.
Even knowing the formation's terrifying power, he pushed his subordinates in.
Attempting to overwhelm it with sheer numbers first.
Thus, some thirty vanguard warriors vanished into the formation.
An hour passed.
Yet no change occurred.
Tak Yo-beom ground his teeth.
Blindly throwing numbers at it would just sacrifice them all.
He had to accept that reality.
Attacking would lead to defeat.
They needed to halt for now.
"Pung-geon!"
"Yes, Clan Leader."
"Find a way. Somehow. Until then, maintain the encirclement."
Tak Yo-beom's eyes blazed fiercely.
"It's a Palace Lord's Hall out of supplies anyway. I don't know how much they've stockpiled, but they'll either come out and die by our hands or starve inside."
And so, countless tents and barracks sprang up around the Palace Lord's Hall.
The Tak Clan's full forces mobilized in sequence as they readied, gathering to surround it completely.
Without a single gap.
A declaration of intent to capture anyone who emerged and divine a path into the formation.
Tak Pung-geon prowled the formation's perimeter.
He had studied the Myriad Shattering Array a little and mobilized all his knowledge and insights.
The heaven- and world-annihilating ultimate formation.
Just how powerful was it?
He couldn't know.
To learn, one had to enter the formation.
But that meant never returning.
Just like the first group sent in by the Clan Leader's order.
'Tak Pung-geon.'
Han Seol-bing, eyes closed, slightly frowned.
That man was there.
The one obsessed with the formation to surpass her through ambition.
Ten years had passed, so perhaps he had delved into the Myriad Shattering Array.
If so...
He might notice.
The formation's vulnerable spots inevitably created by time's erosion.
With the formation deployed, the battle halted for now.
The Han and Bing Clan warriors finally collapsed, able to rest.
"That's one hell of a formation."
"Can't even see those bastards anymore."
"Did we come here because of this formation?"
They traded guesses and talk of the formation.
Then...
Someone voiced unease.
"But we still can't get out. The Tak Clan bastards are waiting outside."
At that, they checked their rations.
"How long do we have to stay holed up?"
Anxiety began to spread.
They couldn't enter, but neither could they leave.
Trapped like rats in a cage, they realized.
Bing So-seol was the first to sense that anxiety.
After Han Seol-bing activated the formation...
She had gone out to check the situation and witnessed the unrest.
"Don't worry. Reinforcements will come!"
It was something she had discussed with her sister.
To dispel the trapped feeling, they decided to reveal the reinforcements' existence.
Han Seol-bing had said it with conviction.
But only Han Seol-bing knew what those reinforcements truly were.
Well, Na Hong-ryeon knew too.
But she hadn't said it was just one person.
Announcing that...
Would let anxiety and chaos spiral uncontrollably.
For now, she had protected the many from the Tak Clan's clutches.
Now, it was a battle of time.
Would reinforcements arrive before their food and supplies ran out?
Or not?