Chapter 322
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 322
Chapter Title: Success
Savage winds howled from all directions.
July.
The height of summer, yet the night breeze of the North Sea was bitingly cold.
'They should be ready by now, right?'
Tak Pung-geon sought out the Flying Wind Corps.
They attacked from the air using kites to launch hidden weapons or arrows, or swooped down directly in special garb to strike.
Since they required massive kites capable of carrying a single person aloft, they had taken the longest to prepare even for this expedition.
With insufficient kites ready...
Had they been prepared earlier, they would have taken to the skies on the day they spotted the pigeon—clearly a messenger bird—vanish into the formation.
From yesterday's check, a few should be complete by today.
And indeed, preparations were finished.
Tak Pung-geon boarded a kite and soared into the sky.
The fierce winds carried him effortlessly upward.
From high above, the formation's layout sprang into view at a glance.
At the center.
A tiny space devoid of ice fog.
Confirming it, Tak Pung-geon's eyes gleamed.
'As expected, it's incomplete. Which means the spots I found are too.'
He had seen it with his own eyes. Every hypothesis was settled.
Now it was time to act on the ones he had devised.
He soon located the tent where Tak Yo-beom was staying.
"Have you found a way?"
He had waited anxiously for news.
He wanted to urge him on endlessly, but with no method save Tak Pung-geon's, he had gritted his teeth and endured.
Four days of patience.
At last, Tak Pung-geon had come to him first.
A question laced with faith that he surely had a solution.
Tak Pung-geon nodded faintly.
Joy lit Tak Yo-beom's face.
"Really?"
"Just a small clue."
Tak Yo-beom stared piercingly at Tak Pung-geon's words.
"First, this formation wasn't laid by Han Seol-bing."
Doubt flickered across Tak Yo-beom's face.
Hadn't he insisted they block her from the Palace Lord's Hall to prevent her from activating it?
"Based on the Iron Wind Corps' testimony... The time from her entering the hall to the formation activating was too short. It triggered in less than half a shichen after she went in. No formation can be set in that span."
"Then?"
"It was pre-installed in the Palace Lord's Hall, and Han Seol-bing merely triggered it. That's the right assumption."
This was Tak Pung-geon's first hypothesis.
And he was convinced it was truth.
An eternal absolute formation that no one had mastered. Who else could have installed it in the Palace Lord's Hall?
"N-No way?"
Yang Jeok-san's face twisted in shock as realization dawned.
"The one who built the Palace Lord's Hall. Likely the founding Palace Lord laid the Ice Heaven Myriad Phenomena Binding Formation alongside it."
Yang Jeok-san nodded vigorously at Tak Pung-geon's words.
No other inference fit the present circumstance.
Ice Heaven Palace records showed no instance of the formation ever being deployed in history.
No records of anyone mastering it either.
Han Seol-bing had accomplished the impossible.
Yang Jeok-san's mind raced.
"Then there must be flaws in the formation. Ages have passed since the hall was built. No array from then could remain pristine."
"From the sky, I spotted a hole dead center. The ice fog should blanket the entire formation like a roof, yet there's a gap two cheok in diameter."
A two-cheok diameter.
Just wide enough for a person to squeeze through perilously.
"We target that hole first."
Tak Yo-beom nodded.
"And I found three spots where the formation isn't fully active."
Tak Pung-geon continued.
Tak Yo-beom's eyes sharpened.
"Certain?"
"Tested with three beast types, then confirmed with a man. They're not fully inert—the formation still reacts. Just higher odds of breaching than elsewhere, not guaranteed."
Tak Yo-beom nodded.
"Prepare the Flying Wind Corps. Iron Wind Corps advances on those three points."
His decision was swift.
"Execution at dawn tomorrow. Then we sweep those damned things away."
Yang Jeok-san and Tak Pung-geon bowed at Tak Yo-beom's command.
Yang Jeok-san hurried out to relay it.
"You've labored hard these past days."
"No, lord. Probing the formation firsthand brought me small gains."
Simply observing and analyzing an absolute formation at the pinnacle had yielded Tak Pung-geon insights.
Thus another day passed.
Early dawn.
Tension gripped the Tak Clan camp.
Yesterday's late order.
Assault the formation at dawn.
They still remembered.
Those who entered when it first activated.
They hadn't returned.
The formation remained silent.
That silence terrified them.
It had devoured over thirty lives, yet showed no change, no stir.
The Flying Wind Corps numbered a hundred.
Losing a hundred from the Cold Wind Corps was devastating.
Yet the Tak Clan's forces still outmatched Bing and Han combined.
Six kites rode the savage winds skyward.
All they had managed to complete.
They confirmed the central hole.
Maneuvered the kites there.
Then leaped.
Spreading limbs wide billowed their garb, slowing descent.
They circulated inner energy to lighten their bodies as much as possible.
Near the hole, they tucked limbs and plunged through the two-cheok gap.
Avoiding the ice fog utmost.
Touching it risked entrapment.
The Flying Wind Corps leader leaped first.
He passed safely, landing on the Palace Lord's Hall roof.
A smile curled his lips.
This method worked.
He fired a signal flare upward through the hole.
To alert those outside.
Han and Bing warriors inside spotted him too.
They had fretted over that hole since the bird flew in days ago.
Now a Tak warrior dropped through.
"Block him!"
Warriors who had guarded outward leaped for the roof.
As they rushed up.
One by one.
Flying Wind Corps members rained from the sky.
"Success."
The flare burst from the formation's heart, slicing the void.
Tak Yo-beom smiled at the sight.
"Iron Wind Corps, advance!"
From two hundred, down to one hundred fifty after fifty losses.
They split into three fifties, heading for the three points Tak Pung-geon marked.
Ha Mu-baek spurred his horse.
At full gallop.
His path north mirrored Han Seol-bing's method.
The fastest way.
Procure swift steeds and ride flat out.
When a horse collapsed, unfold lightness skill to the nearest stable for another.
Ride again.
The difference with Han Seol-bing: lightness skill speed.
Ha Mu-baek was far swifter.
Thus he raced toward the North Sea, relentlessly.
He barely slept.
Possible at his realm.
He could go sleepless entirely.
But unknown what awaited at the North Sea.
To preserve minimal condition, he snatched half a shichen's rest every two days.
The extreme North Sea land.
Ruled by Ice Heaven Palace, its overlord.
Ha Mu-baek hurtled toward it.
Unsure of the palace's precise spot, but he knew the North Sea.
Inquiries upon arrival would reveal it swiftly.
Reaching the North Sea, Ha Mu-baek learned the location and headed there.
Spreading his senses maximally, he kicked off the frozen earth and dashed.
His form, executing Radiant Light Thousand-Li Stride, shot forward ceaselessly.
Han Seol-bing bit her lip.
These past days.
Something prodded and poked the formation's edges.
'Tak Pung-geon. That bastard.'
The Tak Clan man who burned with rivalry to surpass her in formations.
She sensed him from fleeting touches.
Then he hurled in a dog, a cat, a pigeon.
Finally, a man.
The spot was uncanny.
Three vulnerabilities eroded by time.
He had pinpointed them.
She doubted he had deciphered Ice Heaven Myriad Phenomena Binding Formation.
Endless trial and error.
Winnowing spots with differing reactions.
Yet the precision chilled her.
Time had flawed the ultimate, true.
But not easily breached.
Ice Heaven Myriad Phenomena Binding Formation.
Its pinnacle stage.
Even vulnerabilities outmatched Ice Soul Gate Binding Formation's complexity.
'Even those, you'll have to come yourself, Tak Pung-geon.'
Han Seol-bing focused her senses deeper on operating the formation.
Meanwhile, Na Hong-ryeon and Ji Hyeon-wi arrived, feeding rice balls to Han Seol-bing and Bing Chwi-seol.
The pair couldn't move.
Han Seol-bing releasing hands dissolved the formation; Bing Chwi-seol withdrawing weakened it sharply.
Four days in that state.
Faces growing haggard.
They endured without food or sleep.
But excretion...
A major issue.
Suppressing with inner energy, expelling via sweat, minimal rice balls to stave it.
Even that neared limit in two days.
When the formation's greatest flaw would show.
Unless Ha Mu-baek arrived in time.
Another day passed, into early dawn.
"Damn it."
Han Seol-bing cursed.
The tiny central hole.
She felt someone pass through.
Two-cheok width; garment brushed the formation as they squeezed.
The biggest vulnerability.
Yet positional, deemed unassailable.
"What's wrong?"
"An intruder through the sky hole."
Han Seol-bing answered Bing Chwi-seol's question darkly.
Bing Chwi-seol knew of the center hole from her.
Pondering, Bing Chwi-seol spoke.
"Likely the Flying Wind Corps."
"Flying Wind Corps?"
"Formed last year by the Tak Clan. They ride giant kites aloft, attacking with hidden weapons, bombs, arrows from air."
Han Seol-bing hadn't known.
No such unit when she left Ice Heaven Palace.
A perfect miscalculation.
"Ah..."
"Even so, kites are hard to build and handle. Can't send many at once, they said..."
"Six."
"...Trust your subordinates."
Bing Chwi-seol infused more ice essence as she spoke.
"Block them!"
"Where do these bastards think they are!"
Bing and Han warriors drew swords and leaped.
The Flying Wind leader and five others.
Strongest in the corps now.
Hold until the next six arrived.
Gather numbers.
Then deal with the woman powering the formation.
'Underground, right?'
The Flying Wind leader recalled Tak Pung-geon's words.
Since the formation needed ice essence, underground beneath the hall.
Clang! Clang!
Swords clashed.
"Urk."
Someone groaned, retreating.
"H-Hidden weapons! Dodge!"
Warriors evaded the scattered darts.
The Flying Wind Corps fought desperately.
Only six kites complete today.
A few more would ease this vastly.
Yet breaching this damned formation heartened them.
They clung tenaciously, believing numbers would turn the tide.
Han and Bing warriors struck full force.
Unarmed retainers dodged per orders.
Four peaceful days.
Now chaos at dawn.
Some muttered blame at Han Seol-bing for luring them here.
That moment.
Iron Wind Corps entered the formation.
Targeting vulnerabilities?
Woooom!
It vibrated, resounding.
"Wh-What?"
Han and Bing folk startled.
Dawn's start in uproar.
Han Seol-bing concentrated.
Masses entering, the formation roiled.
"...They won't get in. Not a chance."