Chapter 323
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 323
Chapter Title: What a Mess
Boom! Bang!
Fire bombs detonated, sending vibrations rippling outward.
The roof of the lower floor in the palace hall shattered, scattering debris everywhere.
The Gale Corps was fighting desperately too.
The Tak Clan was dominating the Ice Heaven Palace and pushing into the Central Plains.
How long had they endured bone-grinding training for that ambition?
Their goal was right in front of them.
They couldn't let a mere formation stop them.
They had to hold out somehow until the next six reinforcements arrived.
They swung their swords, scattered hidden weapons, and detonated fire bombs.
They fought with the ferocity of cornered beasts.
The Tak Clan had surrounded the palace hall.
But it was the Gale Corps that found themselves besieged inside the hall's pavilion.
Gritting their teeth, they swung their swords.
Shing! Swoosh! Swoosh! Shing!
The encirclement seemed to loosen just a bit—then arrows rained down.
The six Gale Corps warriors gritted their teeth and deflected the arrows with their swords.
But they took wounds, bit by bit.
"Arrows! Arrows! Fire more!"
The Bing Clan warriors nocked their bows repeatedly at the sight.
"Tch."
Fling!
The Gale Corps leader hurled his last remaining fire bomb from his bosom.
Kaboom!!!
The explosion engulfed the archers in thick smoke.
Thanks to that, the arrow storm paused briefly.
"Throw everything you've got! Don't hold back!"
The Gale Corps leader barked the order at the sight.
Eight more fire bombs flew out simultaneously.
Bang! Boom boom! Kaboom!
"Urk."
"Argh."
"Those damn bastards..."
The Bing Clan warriors retaliated with another barrage of arrows.
The Han Clan warriors thrust their long spears relentlessly too.
They were pouring out desperate attacks of their own.
Then.
"Shit. Again..."
Six more figures plummeted from the sky, cloaks flapping like banners, just as before.
"Take those bastards first! Target them with the arrows!"
Some of the arrows streaked skyward.
Meanwhile.
The Iron Wind Corps warriors who had infiltrated the formation's three weak points fought fiercely against the illusions assailing them.
Some even attacked their comrades or tried to flee.
Still.
They seemed to be advancing, little by little.
But.
In truth, they weren't advancing at all.
They were just spinning in circles, trapped in the formation's maze.
Han Seol-bing focused her senses, directly manipulating the movements at the three weak points.
The grand formation laid by the founding palace lord made even that possible.
Because of it, the Iron Wind Corps faced greater hardships than Tak Pung-geon had anticipated.
"Hmm."
Tak Yo-beom stood with arms crossed, observing the situation.
He could feel the formation's vibrations too.
But there was no change in them.
Were those inside unable to press forward?
His gaze naturally turned to Tak Pung-geon.
Tak Pung-geon was already armed.
Curiously, he carried a shield.
"I'll head in as well."
Tak Yo-beom nodded.
Tak Pung-geon led his fifty loyal warriors toward the formation.
Wind Observation Corps.
A special force that wielded shields.
And Tak Pung-geon was none other than their corps leader.
Their role was to block and disrupt enemy charges.
Tak Pung-geon believed shields were essential to breach this formation.
Just before entering, he issued a command.
"Hide behind your shields, keep your heads down, and stare only at the ground—at your own toes. Nothing else. Advance only on my order. Wind Observation Corps, advance!"
Tak Pung-geon plunged straight into the formation.
He scanned his surroundings.
The formation truly wasn't fully deployed.
He could faintly make out paths of life.
It was supposed to be a formation where no paths of life could be found.
Yet.
The formation's movements were intense.
Movements that didn't match the current state.
That was why the Iron Wind Corps was floundering, unable to advance properly.
The Iron Wind Corps had advanced perhaps ten steps since entering.
Tak Pung-geon directed his subordinates to safe steps as he trod the paths of life.
Soon, he encountered the Iron Wind Corps.
Tak Pung-geon thrust his sword fiercely into the ground.
It was one of the points forming the Gate of Death.
With his sword planted, the Gate of Death's power weakened.
The faintly visible paths of life grew clearer.
Only then could the Iron Wind Corps warriors escape their illusions.
"W-Wind Observation leader..."
"Follow my lead."
"Yes, sir!"
Han Seol-bing furrowed her delicate brows.
Tak Pung-geon had entered personally and was dismantling the formation fairly well.
To be precise, he was exploiting sections eroded and damaged by time.
Han Seol-bing concentrated all her senses on where Tak Pung-geon had entered.
All she could do now was manipulate the formation's energy to make their path even more treacherous.
But if Tak Pung-geon severed another vein of the Gate of Death and advanced using the weathered paths of life...
Han Seol-bing shook her head vigorously.
No.
This was the ultimate Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Ten Thousand Shattering Array.
She could stop him.
And soon.
'Today. Probably today, the corps leader will arrive.'
Ha Mu-baek was nearly at the North Sea.
"Argh..."
One Gale Corps warrior screamed as he plummeted from the hall.
They'd finally taken one down.
However.
The number gathered on the topmost roof of the hall was eleven.
In the time it took to down one, six more had landed successfully.
They were wounded here and there, but.
More fire bombs came flying.
"Damn bastards."
A Han Clan warrior spat curses.
"Signal flare?"
"Here."
At the Gale Corps leader's words, a subordinate who had just landed handed over a signal flare.
The Gale Corps leader swiftly arranged the sequence and fired it skyward.
Bang boom boom! Boom! Bang!
A signal demanding as many fire bombs as possible.
In this hopelessly outnumbered situation, nothing beat fire bombs.
Fierce combat raged around the hall.
The Bing and Han Clan warriors bent on annihilating the enemy.
The Gale Corps desperately defending their perch.
The Iron Wind and Wind Observation Corps trying to breach the formation.
The non-combatants—family retainers and common folk—scrambled to safety under the warriors' directions, minds consumed with evacuation.
Im Dae-chi's youngest brother, Im Jang-mu, had entered the area and was holding his sister Im Seo-wol's hand as they moved.
"Huh?"
Then his steps halted.
'Damn you, Tak Pung-geon.'
Han Seol-bing gritted her teeth.
She'd mobilized everything she could to halt him.
But the bastard was slyly navigating the formation's damaged sections.
If she could just patch even one spot temporarily, scum like him wouldn't dare attempt to breach the Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Ten Thousand Shattering Array.
She couldn't.
Han Seol-bing couldn't move from her position.
"Krahk."
One Iron Wind Corps warrior screamed and perished on the spot.
He'd ultimately failed to endure the illusions.
The paths of life were narrow.
Not everyone could tread them at once.
They had to rotate through.
Sacrifices occurred in the process.
It was unavoidable.
Breaching the formation came first.
'What the hell is going on?'
Tak Pung-geon bit his lip.
He was clearly exploiting weakened sections eroded over long years.
Yet the formation surged with energy toward them like a living thing.
As if determined to drive them out.
As if refusing to let them proceed.
However.
The energy was fierce, but severing the Gate of Death's veins made the paths of life clearer.
That neutralized the onslaught.
Of course, sacrifices like the one who just fell increased slightly.
'Halfway now. Just a bit more.'
Halfway.
A meaningful milestone.
The remaining half would be easier than the first.
The more sections dismantled, the weaker the formation became exponentially.
A formation at ninety percent versus fifty percent.
Which was easier was obvious.
'Han Seol-bing. See you soon.'
And so Tak Pung-geon pressed deeper into the formation, step by step.
From the sky, the Gale Corps kept descending.
Their numbers had swelled to thirteen before long.
The Han and Bing Clan warriors were felling them, but the count kept growing.
The newcomers brought even more fire bombs, making defense increasingly difficult.
From above and the sides.
The Tak Clan was tightening the noose.
Ha Mu-baek spread his senses far and wide.
Soon, the Ice Heaven Palace entered his perception.
In this frozen wasteland, no other place would gather so many warriors.
"What a mess."
A sigh escaped Ha Mu-baek's lips unbidden.
He'd faintly sensed Han Seol-bing's energy too.
Ha Mu-baek accelerated toward it.
The place he reached after racing onward.
The sight before his eyes.
Ice fog blanketing everything, dominating all directions.
He knew at a glance.
Han Seol-bing's formation.
But.
Even Ha Mu-baek had never seen a formation of this scale before.
Not even during the Martial World Great War, amid countless battles against the Blood Cult and Demonic Cult, where he'd witnessed her formations plenty.
'Not on the level of the Ice Soul Gate Shattering Array...'
Ha Mu-baek recalled a story Han Seol-bing had once told him.
'A grand formation possible only in the North Sea's environment. The Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Ten Thousand Shattering Array... I think that's what she called it.'
It required the North Sea's ice energy, usable only there.
Or at least a millennium ice crystal.
With such spatial constraints, its power was earth-shaking, she'd said.
Of course, not just anyone could do it.
'Only a formation genius like me, after perfecting the Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Ten Thousand Shattering Array to the extreme, with all conditions met. Even the corps leader couldn't breach it then.'
Han Seol-bing had boasted confidently.
Ha Mu-baek observed the formation quietly.
No one in the Ice Heaven Palace noticed his arrival.
Their attention was wholly consumed by the formation.
The predawn assault on the formation had them fully occupied.
It was nearing the end of morning now.
Yet the formation encircling the palace hall showed no change.
The Gale Corps warriors merely glided down from kites flying overhead.
"No wonder she boasted."
Ha Mu-baek murmured lowly after observing for a while.
He'd wondered why her energy was so faint in his senses.
The formation was the cause.
It perfectly severed internal and external energies, blocking even Ha Mu-baek from easily sensing inside.
Only the kite-flying bastards.
A trickle of internal energy leaked through the gaps where they descended.
"Seol-bing. So that's why they urgently sought you back at the Ice Heaven Palace."
Watching the Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Ten Thousand Shattering Array, the thought came naturally.
No matter how closely he examined it, no path through was visible.
Attempting entry without knowing the paths of life—who knew what fate awaited.
Right now.
The formation before him was the one Han Seol-bing had described, unbreakable even by him.
Heaven's energy: the sky.
Earth's ice energy: the North Sea land.
Man: Han Seol-bing, who had mastered the formation to perfection.
The ultimate form where heaven, earth, and man aligned perfectly.
Han Seol-bing had spoken of it during the war against the Demonic Cult, after toppling the Blood Cult.
While setting up an Ice Soul Gate Shattering Array during operations in the northern Central Plains near the North Sea.
Ha Mu-baek's current realm was incomparable to then.
He was far stronger, at a higher level.
Yet even now, no path of life to breach it was apparent, just as she'd claimed.
By the standards of that time's Ha Mu-baek, her boast held true.
No method would have let the old him pierce the Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Ten Thousand Shattering Array.
'But now it's different.'
There were ways.
Finding and dismantling paths of life was impossible.
But nullifying a formation wasn't limited to that.
Overwhelming force to shatter it was another.
Possible with Ha Mu-baek's current power.
The array's power was immense too.
It had to be.
Drawing on the North Sea land's energy, its potency was vast.
Plus—unknown to Ha Mu-baek—a full ten-thousand-year ice crystal's energy.
Only Ha Mu-baek could conceive of brute force, and succeed.
But it wasn't viable.
Countless warriors surrounded the formation, plain to see.
And those descending from it.
They were surely why Han Seol-bing had returned to the Ice Heaven Palace.
The "incident" she'd mentioned was them.
If Ha Mu-baek entered the formation to meet her or smashed it, he'd only be doing those bastards a favor.
The ones who'd forced him all the way to the North Sea.
"Ultimate... but incomplete. Why?"
Ha Mu-baek tilted his head, murmuring.
The Han Seol-bing he knew wouldn't deploy it imperfectly.
The flies descending through the sky.
There must be a hole there.
Ha Mu-baek sensed the array's energy severed at that point.
An entrance, of sorts.
What on earth had happened?
"I'll know once I go in."
What was there to ponder?
He could just ask her directly.
He could sweep away those bastards right now, too.
But he needed the full context first.
He had to meet Han Seol-bing.
Meaning enter the Ice Heaven Myriad Forms Ten Thousand Shattering Array.
Frankly.
'Not confident.'
What he'd face inside was unknown.
Maze, illusions, and lethal annihilation besides.
No telling what state he'd end up in against them.
'But I want to try.'
A strange fighting spirit welled up.
Not just from her old boast.
A mighty existence loomed before him.
One so mighty even he felt unconfident.
How long had it been since something like this?
His desire to challenge it blazed in his chest.
However.
He couldn't now.
Helping Han Seol-bing was most urgent.
That's why he'd come all the way to the North Sea.
Ha Mu-baek looked up at the sky.