Chapter 508
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 508
Chapter Title: I Did Something Unnecessary
Sararak.
Turning her gaze momentarily from the questions filling her mind, Jegal Sorin shifted her attention to the formation manual.
It was a bizarre and wondrous book where only she could see a different title.
Then surely, the contents would appear differently only in her eyes as well.
Everyone from the Jegal Clan studied formations.
Her older brother, Jegal Myeong, was particularly proficient in them.
He possessed an exceedingly high mastery over formations deployed by people, such as troop maneuvers or sword formations wielded by martial artists.
In contrast, Jegal Sorin herself was more interested in formations utilizing terrain and Qimen Dunjia techniques, and she had considerable expertise in those.
Since the Glorious Radiance Revolving Heavenly Array was a Qimen Dunjia formation, she quickly immersed herself in the book's contents.
The Radiance among the primordial fragments.
It was a formation containing the full power of that Radiance.
Not a mere fragment of the shard, but the complete power of the Radiance.
However, that power was contained not in a book, but in the formation itself.
Only by perfectly executing the formation could the power of the Radiance be properly manifested.
Thus, this formation held no will from the depths of the Radiance.
There was merely a tenuous thread connecting it to the abyss, allowing the Radiance's will to become aware solely of the fact that its practitioner had finally laid eyes upon this formation.
Jegal Sorin concentrated on the book as if boring into it.
After finishing her first read-through.
"Hoo. A formation like this exists?"
Though her mastery of formations was far from low, she simply couldn't believe it.
And she couldn't comprehend it either.
She hadn't understood about half of the contents but had read straight through to grasp the overall picture.
The power of the Glorious Radiance Revolving Heavenly Array as she envisioned it in her mind was beyond imagination.
An unbelievable might.
Was it truly possible to manifest such a world-shaking spectacle with just a formation?
Harboring such doubts, Jegal Sorin delved back into the book.
This time, she intended to pore over every character of the parts she hadn't understood.
A bone-chilling cold assailed Ha Mu-baek.
Of course, it had no effect on Ha Mu-baek, who was impervious to both frost and snow.
The blinding snow didn't hinder his vision either, though it was certainly annoying.
"Triple layered, huh..."
Ha Mu-baek muttered to himself and shook his head.
This might not even be the end of it.
Quadruple or quintuple layers couldn't be ruled out either.
"They said even overlapping two formations was an incredible feat..."
Recalling Han Seol-bing's words, Ha Mu-baek surveyed his surroundings.
As expected, there was nothing but an endless snowy expanse.
A blizzard raging with the ferocity to bury him in snow on the spot.
He took a step forward.
The snow buried him up to his calves.
"Hmmm."
Letting out a low hum, Ha Mu-baek pressed on.
He intended to experience firsthand just how formidable this formation was.
And so he walked and walked.
Life Gate, Rest Gate, Death Gate.
Paths of life and death.
Ignoring such principles of formations entirely, he simply walked.
He spread out his senses, orienting toward areas thick with the formation's energy, but since the energy shifted ceaselessly with the blizzard, it was meaningless.
So he just followed his whims.
His goal was to gauge the formation's vastness and power, ignoring everything else.
He explored roughly this much.
"No clue."
That was the result.
As expected, formations simply didn't suit Ha Mu-baek at all.
He had always countered them by sensing their energy flows with the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye and his senses to shatter them accordingly, but this overlapped formation rendered that useless.
In the end, brute force was the answer.
For Ha Mu-baek, at least.
"I did something unnecessary."
Jegal Namcheon had watched all of Ha Mu-baek's actions.
He had shattered it twice already, and now he was wandering inside the formation.
To Ha Mu-baek, it felt like he had walked nonstop for this long, but reality was different.
Three jang (about nine meters).
He had simply paced back and forth that exact distance.
Endlessly circling the same spot for this long.
That was the terror of formations.
They deceived even one's senses with illusions, making one unaware of where they were or how far they had moved.
"Looks like he's out of options this time."
The moment Jegal Namcheon murmured with a sly grin.
Ha Mu-baek raised his sword once more.
"That... that..."
Unaware of Jegal Namcheon watching him or the expression on his face.
Even if he knew, it wouldn't have mattered.
"This time should be a bit easier, at least."
Snowy plain.
An environment born from ice energy reaching its extreme.
In other words, the foundation of this formation was ice energy.
To shatter it, using a countering energy was the simplest way.
Conveniently, Ha Mu-baek had plenty of such countering energy coiled in his dantian.
The Imugi's fire energy.
This would save him strength compared to using other energies.
Hwarururuk.
Ha Mu-baek's sword burst into flames.
'What should I use this time...'
The eight stances of the Infinite Free Eight Ultimate Sword Sea.
He briefly pondered which to use to smash this formation.
Soon deciding, he lightly swung his sword.
First stance. Sky Opener.
A sword embodying the will to tear open this blizzard-filled sky.
Kuwaaaaaang!
A massive explosion roared as a storm of fiery blossoms raged.
The formation resisted with its whirlwind blizzard and storm of flame flowers.
Chaos even emitted light, lending its power.
However, it was a clash of counters.
When energies differed vastly in potency, the countering force became all the more lethal.
The Imugi's fire energy pouring from Ha Mu-baek far surpassed the formation's ice energy.
Moreover, didn't Ha Mu-baek possess ice crystal energy as well?
In the end, with Sky Opener—this single strike—the blizzard gradually subsided.
And then.
Pasasak.
Once more, the formation shattered and scattered.
The scene before him was the same as when he had broken the first formation.
Back outside the formation, in a valley of Mount Yungzhong.
"Interesting."
A fourth formation awaited Ha Mu-baek right before his eyes.
Ha Mu-baek smirked at the change different from when he shattered the second, then fixed his sharp gaze on one spot.
During the process of Ha Mu-baek breaking the formation here, immense explosions and tremors had spread through Mount Yungzhong.
Naturally, someone curious about the commotion would come investigating.
And indeed, one such person was at the spot Ha Mu-baek now eyed.
The problem was.
That he wasn't from the Jegal Clan.
Though he had concealed his presence to near nothingness, he couldn't fool Ha Mu-baek's senses.
That the energy he possessed was demonic qi.
That Ha Mu-baek had sensed his presence en route here and briefly debated pursuing him.
Such things.
He had considered tracking the bastard down, and now here he was, appearing on his own.
Ha Mu-baek decided to put the formation on hold for now.
If he got trapped in it again, that would be one thing, but out here, the choice of how to deal with that one was entirely his.
Swish.
The moment Ha Mu-baek lightly stepped forward, his figure vanished.
About to reveal himself before the one lurking and observing the formation and Ha Mu-baek.
The Demonic Cult subordinate hiding there flinched and swiftly retreated.
"Hoo? Not bad?"
Surprise flickered in Ha Mu-baek's eyes.
Though it was at near point-blank range, he had sensed Ha Mu-baek's presence and tried to pull back.
It meant the guy had decent skill.
Ha Mu-baek reached out his hand.
Intending to seize the bastard by the throat.
Kang!
But the foe drew his sword and deflected Ha Mu-baek's hand.
A viscous, unpleasant demonic qi surged from the blade in the form of sword gang.
Demonic Gang.
Sword gang formed of demonic qi.
"Tch."
Clicking his tongue once, Ha Mu-baek moved again.
The foe, having deflected his hand, was now fleeing at full speed.
He was a practitioner of fairly swift lightness skill.
Comparatively, on par with the Blood Shadow Guard's Do Munwi, one of the Blood Cult's Ten Shadows.
'The Demonic Cult had a pretty fast one too.'
A fact he hadn't realized during the previous war.
Mupung was utterly terrified.
He had discovered the place where the Jegal Clan—called the Detailed Kwan-eum Church—raised its envoys.
From An'gang in Shaanxi Province, where Jegal Cheolsan was, he had come all the way to Mount Yungzhong.
A guy named Jegal Gopung was overseeing the entire operation here.
Mupung guessed that what the Young Cult Leader desired was whatever was needed to deploy the Soul-Devouring Great Law on Jegal Cheolsan.
In his judgment, deploying it on Jegal Gopung would be even better than on Jegal Cheolsan, so he was gathering necessities here as well.
He had the authority to make such judgments and act accordingly.
As the sole member—and leader—of the Wind comprising just one person among those possessed by the Young Cult Leader, Mupung could do this.
While observing Jegal Gopung on Mount Yungzhong, he sensed not only a massive explosion but also tremendous energy fluctuations.
So he came to investigate.
Wondering if the Jegal Clan was up to something else.
Who would have thought he'd run into that monster here.
At first, what appeared before him was a formation.
A scene he could only interpret as such.
No matter that it was still winter, there was no way an endless snowy expanse would stretch across one valley in Mount Yungzhong.
Suspecting it was a new Jegal Clan formation, he observed closely when another massive explosion rang out, followed by a heavy tremor.
Suddenly, the formation vanished, revealing a figure.
Ha Mu-baek.
Why the hell was that bastard here like this?
The moment he realized his presence had been detected, he chose to flee at full speed.
Back then, during the war, he had been one of the Cult Leader's many winds; now he served the Young Cult Leader.
It was a judgment born from having clashed with Ha Mu-baek before.
The monster had surely grown even stronger since.
Yet he couldn't shake him off.
To evade that casual reaching hand, he had unleashed his demonic gang at full power.
Even deploying his lightness skill at full force—faster, he was confident, than the Blood Cult's so-called World's Fastest, their Blood Shadow Guard Do Munwi—he still couldn't escape.
"Come to think of it, the Demonic Cult had a pretty fast one during the last war too. Not quite Do Munwi level, but similar enough that he slipped away."
Ha Mu-baek's muttering came from behind.
A chill ran down his spine.
"Looks like that was you. There can't be two that fast. Actually, you might even be quicker than Do Munwi?"
Ha Mu-baek sounded surprised.
His voice seemed even closer now.
Mupung poured all his internal energy into his legs and ran faster.
If he got caught here, he was dead.
That was the kind of guy he was.
He had to complete the Young Cult Leader's command, so he needed to escape this bastard's grasp no matter what.
And report back to the Cult what he had seen here.
'Damn it all.'
Now, more than ever, he regretted that Mupung consisted of only him.
If he had subordinates, he could have used himself as bait to let one escape.
He had kept Mupung solo because no one had met his standards, and now it haunted him.
"Know how I can even compare you to Do Munwi?"
Ha Mu-baek's voice rang out again.
It was right behind him now, as if he were there already.
"Not long ago? Or was it last year? Anyway, I ran into him. Guess what happened? Naturally, I caught and killed him."
No more words came from behind.
Instead, Ha Mu-baek stood waiting ahead, grinning.