Chapter 507
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 507
Chapter Title: Huh? Another One?
Jegal So-rin pulled out a book.
It was a single volume on formations.
The title read Radiant Phantasmal Celestial Radiance Array.
What a grandiose name.
Was there a manual like this?
Jegal So-rin tilted her head, rummaging through her memories.
Such an ostentatious and bombastic name didn't exist in her recollections.
Of course, she didn't know every formation manual in the library, but something with a title like that would have at least come up in jest among the clan members.
So what on earth was this manual that only her eyes could perceive its faint glow, drawing her hand toward it of its own accord?
In the end, Jegal So-rin took the manual to the librarian.
She planned to take it back to her private quarters and examine it carefully.
"Miss, you're borrowing this book today?"
"Yes. For about ten days, please."
At Jegal So-rin's response, the librarian recorded it in the ledger.
However.
Illusory Circuit Formation.
The title was just those four simple characters.
Jegal So-rin stared at the ledger in surprise, and the librarian tilted his head, asking.
"Is something wrong? Did I record it incorrectly? It clearly says Illusory Circuit Formation here."
"Oh, no, it's fine."
With that reply, Jegal So-rin grabbed the manual and headed to her annex.
What the hell is this?
Her mind brimmed with questions.
The name Radiant Phantasmal Celestial Radiance Array seemed visible only to her.
Otherwise, there was no way the librarian would have recorded it as the plain Illusory Circuit Formation.
One mystery was solved at last.
The reason such a flashy, grandiose name never passed the lips of her clanmates.
To them, it must have appeared simply as Illusory Circuit Formation, so they wouldn't have even known of a technique by that other name.
She had no idea what had happened to her body in a single day to cause all this strangeness today.
"Hmmm."
Ha Mu-baek let out a low groan from within the formation.
Darkness had descended on all sides.
And fierce energy relentlessly battered toward him.
A biting gale.
Cold and razor-sharp.
A wind that felt like it would flay the skin from his bones at any moment.
Ha Mu-baek circulated his internal energy to counter the formation's power.
Even as he did, he scanned his surroundings ceaselessly, but all he saw was an endless dark expanse.
A dark space filled with biting gales.
This was the formation.
Was there a formation like this?
He didn't know every formation under heaven, but Han Seol-bing had occasionally spoken of the world's famous ones.
None among them matched this.
Darkness and wind.
A formation brimming with those two elements.
Vast, wild energy blanketed the darkness on all sides and whipped up the gales.
Even the darkness wasn't pitch-black enough to blind him completely.
There was enough light left to make out nearby objects.
Not that it mattered.
There were no objects anywhere around.
This space seemed to contain only Ha Mu-baek, standing alone.
"No clue."
Even scattering his senses in all directions yielded no hint of energy capable of breaking through the formation.
Just immense power raging endlessly from every side.
In the end, I have to shatter it.
Ha Mu-baek gauged the total volume of the formation's energy and tilted his head.
At this level, even he would need to exert himself considerably.
Regardless, since it had to be destroyed, Ha Mu-baek gathered his energy.
If there had been a spot where the formation's energy was particularly dense, he would have targeted it, but nothing stood out.
Just the energy whipping around from all directions.
No reason to target just one spot.
If it came from all sides, then he would smash it all around.
Ha Mu-baek decided on a straightforward approach.
He gathered his energy.
To end it in one go, he drew seventy percent more power than the formation's sensed volume.
He drew his sword.
Intending to blast the incoming energy from all sides right back outward.
He recalled a sword stance.
"In a case like this, Thunder Split it is?"
Forked lightning.
The very stance from the Infinite Freedom Eight Severing Sword Wave that extended its power in all directions.
Ha Mu-baek swung his sword down.
Kwaaaaaang!
The energy bursting from his sword tip transformed into lightning and shot outward in all directions through the formation.
Lightning lancing out, obliterating the oncoming gales.
The dark space flared brilliantly for an instant.
The lightning illuminated the formation's interior for a split second before vanishing within it.
Darkness settled once more.
The difference from before?
The relentless gales had ceased.
In their place, only silent, windless darkness remained.
Crack. Craaaack.
At that moment.
A sound like the space cracking echoed, and fissures began spiderwebbing across the empty void around him.
"Whew."
Ha Mu-baek exhaled lightly and swung his hand casually.
Shatter.
With that, the space shattered and poured down in fragments.
What emerged was exactly where Ha Mu-baek had been moments ago: one spot in the valley within Yungzhong Mountain.
Except now, a massive formation loomed before his eyes.
He had clearly seen Jegal Nam-cheon and the pebbles on the ground, yet they were gone.
In their place stretched a blindingly white space crackling with lightning.
"A formation within a formation?"
Layered formation.
He had heard of it in passing from Han Seol-bing.
A formation nested inside another—an extremely advanced technique.
She could deploy it herself, but it required extensive preparation and had many constraints, making it impractical.
Such a formation now stood squarely before Ha Mu-baek's eyes.
As expected of the Jegal Clan.
And not just anyone, but the clan head, Jegal Nam-cheon.
The foremost clan in formations under heaven.
Even if their influence had waned recently, their knowledge and wisdom remained intact.
Ha Mu-baek pondered the formation before him.
Should he turn back now and check on the gathered crowd?
Enter the formation as Jegal Nam-cheon called?
Or smash it right here without bothering to step inside?
"Not much to mull over."
His decision came swiftly and easily.
The pebble he had dismissed as ordinary, embedded casually in the ground.
Primordial power emanated from it.
Clearly just a mundane stone devoid of energy, yet in an instant, it unleashed that ancient force.
At the same moment, Jegal Nam-cheon moved, and the formation activated.
Leave this place unchecked to investigate elsewhere first?
Absurd.
The Jegal clan head, Jegal Nam-cheon, was surely the mastermind behind all this.
With the culprit and primordial energy right here, where else would he go?
The suspected lair of the Soundless Observers' emissary was merely a branch.
The root lay with Jegal Nam-cheon here.
Dive into the formation to catch him?
When he could plainly see what lay ahead?
Destroying it from inside would be a hassle.
The simplest way: shatter it from outside.
Right here, right now.
So he raised his sword once more.
Internal energy surged from his dantian, coursing through his body and into the blade.
With the intent to cleave it in one stroke, he brought the sword down.
Infinite Freedom Eight Severing Sword Wave.
This stance: Danha.
Like slicing the evening glow in a single cut, the sword descended through the air to bisect the formation.
He had no doubt this single stroke would sever the formation before him.
[Impressive.]
The moment Ha Mu-baek unleashed Thunder Split to shatter the outermost of the nine layered formations, Chaos marveled inwardly.
Jegal Nam-cheon widened his eyes.
No matter that it was the first outer layer—he never imagined it could be destroyed so effortlessly.
He didn't want to believe the scene before him.
Chaos continued observing Ha Mu-baek's actions.
He seemed to regard the second formation that appeared before him, then raised his sword again.
[He plans to destroy the formation from outside without entering.]
"In-insane..."
Jegal Nam-cheon's voice trembled out.
[Well, a rational choice. Destroying from outside is more efficient than from within.]
The efficiency gap wasn't minor.
Once inside, the formation's every attack would focus on the intruder.
Destroying it amid that onslaught differed vastly from striking freely from outside.
The outside was far easier.
[Can't just watch this unfold.]
The core of Chaos glowed faintly.
At that instant, the formation emitted a subtle light, but Ha Mu-baek didn't notice.
The formation was a world of pure white.
The faint light blended into the white radiance, indistinguishable.
However.
As he swung his sword down, he sensed a shift in the formation's energy.
His senses remained extended.
But Danha was already in motion.
Altering it mid-execution was possible but came at a cost.
It wasn't worth the loss.
Executing Danha anew would incur far less penalty, so Ha Mu-baek swung through without pause.
Kwaaaaaang!
A massive explosion roared from the clash of formation and sword art.
The valley trembled, and birds scattered from the mountains with frantic wingbeats.
Wuuuuuum.
The formation quivered.
Kwang! Kwakwang!
The external impact reverberated inside, sending lightning scattering wildly as changes rippled through.
Yet the formation held firm.
Ha Mu-baek stared at it impassively, then grinned.
"Interesting. So the Jegal Clan has a fragment of primordial power too."
The formation had briefly surged with primordial force, withstanding his attack.
He couldn't pinpoint its type.
"Chaos or Nihility?"
He had encountered Infinite, Freedom, Radiance, and Darkness before.
The power Hyunwang had wielded was a mix of Darkness and Chaos, but Darkness dominated, so that's what Ha Mu-baek sensed.
He had felt traces of Nihility through the Nihility Lake Flame Heart Formula and found a fragment in Shaolin's Sutra Pavilion.
But he had never experienced fully realized Chaos or Nihility.
The feel of a mere fragment differed from a complete force, so he couldn't identify whether the power bolstering this formation was Chaos or Nihility.
"Probably Chaos, higher odds."
Knowing Nihility underpinned the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, he leaned toward Chaos.
Complete Chaos.
Existing in the Jegal Clan.
Not cultivated as a martial art by a person, but residing in a mere pebble.
He itched to return to the investigation cave right now and ask Infinite what was going on.
Impossible in this situation, so Ha Mu-baek opted to clash and find out.
He raised his sword again.
Infusing even more energy than before.
Abyss could shatter it instantly, but with the enemy's presumed Chaos power unknown, he held back his trump card.
Danha, laden with greater power, unfurled once more.
"What the...?"
Watching this, Jegal Nam-cheon muttered in disbelief.
Shattering the first formation and even the prior strike—he moved lightly, as if expending no real effort.
Yet the results were cataclysmic explosions of power.
At least beyond what Jegal Nam-cheon knew of Ha Mu-baek's level.
When he single-handedly routed two hundred Blood Cult elites on Yungzhong Mountain, he seemed monstrously strong but still human.
He had steadily gathered intel on Ha Mu-baek since, but this display far exceeded his calculated prowess.
The second strike fell, and Chaos flared once more.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!!!
The result?
The second formation began crumbling away.
[The second formation's limit is this much.]
The strike had exceeded the maximum power Chaos could supply.
[Well, plenty remain.]
"Huh? Another one?"
Ha Mu-baek muttered at the sight before him.
He expected Jegal Nam-cheon to appear, but instead, he stood in the midst of a snowy expanse.
As the second formation shattered, the third activated, drawing Ha Mu-baek into its depths.