Chapter 512
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 512
Chapter Title: Sharp One
Whoooong.
The protective aura surrounding Ha Mu-baek expanded its range.
It formed a spherical barrier that enveloped not only Ha Mu-baek himself but also the small boat he rode upon.
"What to do?"
Ha Mu-baek muttered as he gazed at the tidal wave crashing toward him like a tsunami.
There were two options.
Go with the wave or resist it.
Whichever he chose, the wave posed no threat to him.
"Let's see just how impressive it is."
Ha Mu-baek chose resistance.
He unleashed the Thousand Weight Anchor.
The boat's wild rocking gradually subsided.
Amid the churning currents, the small craft steadied itself, holding firm.
Then, a massive wave came crashing down upon it.
Kuoooo!
The ferocious wave looked ready to sweep the boat away and smash it to splinters, but it maintained its stability.
Under the influence of Ha Mu-baek's Thousand Weight Anchor, its movements grew heavy.
The wave, which seemed poised to crush everything in its path, failed to pierce Ha Mu-baek's protective aura.
Instead, it split apart to either side of him, swirling violently.
And then.
A whale revealed itself.
Its enormous tail fin, raised high above the water, came plummeting down toward Ha Mu-baek.
Kuooooong!
A thunderous boom echoed as the whale's tail fin rebounded upward with equal speed.
The repulsive force of the protective aura was at work.
Ha Mu-baek's small boat still floated steadily in place.
"Hmm, not bad."
Ha Mu-baek murmured.
This all seemed like the immense power of nature itself, but it wasn't.
The reality was different.
The formation's illusion wielded power akin to the real thing, yet its limits were clear.
The power of the formation.
It only manifested up to that limit.
In other words, though Ha Mu-baek had never seen or experienced a real whale, the actual creature might be far beyond this.
If the formation fell short of replicating a whale's full might, it simply produced only as much as the formation could manage.
Thus, Ha Mu-baek's assessment was of the formation's energy alone.
Ha Mu-baek drew his sword.
A massive blade aura of pure white blazed forth.
It was as enormous as the whale's bulk.
"Farewell. It'd be nice to see the real thing someday."
A whale.
A sea beast known only from hearsay.
Even this illusory version conjured by the formation was a truly colossal and bizarre creature.
He found himself wanting to behold the genuine article.
But that was that, and this was this.
Ha Mu-baek's sword descended.
Infinite Formless Eight Severings Sword Sea.
Second Severance: Sunset Cleave.
A colossal white blade aura plummeted down, poised to bisect the whale and the entire sea like a sunset split in two.
Kiiiiik.
Yet before it could reach the whale, a strange noise rang out.
The energy of chaos—this formation—was resisting Ha Mu-baek's Sunset Cleave.
Kiiiiik!
The noise grew louder.
The formation began to crack bit by bit.
The whale halted. The sea halted.
With all its energy focused on blocking Ha Mu-baek's sword, the formation's illusions froze in place.
The blade aura's glow intensified.
Grgrgrgrk.
A grinding roar erupted as the sword tore into the formation, shredding rather than merely slicing.
In that instant.
Kuooooong!!!
The supposedly frozen illusions of the formation stirred, and a massive monster emerged from beneath the sea.
An octopus rivaling the whale in size.
"What the hell is that?"
Ha Mu-baek muttered in disbelief.
An octopus, sure—but in that monstrous size?
"Krooooar!!"
With an unearthly roar from who-knows-where, three enormous tentacles coiled toward Ha Mu-baek.
A motion clearly meant to disrupt his sword strike.
"Begone."
Ha Mu-baek growled lowly, releasing his left hand from the sword hilt and unleashing a palm strike toward the monstrous octopus.
Peng!
The creature slid backward in a straight line.
"Kraaaang!"
Another cry echoed as a dragon surged from the depths.
The sea dragon gaped its maw wide toward Ha Mu-baek.
Intense energy gathered at the center of its mouth and shot forth.
"Desperate struggles."
Chaos was pouring energy into sustaining the formation, desperately weaving its illusions together.
Ha Mu-baek's left hand moved once more.
He unleashed a single palm toward the oncoming breath-like energy of the sea dragon.
It seemed a simple palm strike, yet it contained the profound essence of the Infinite Formless Eight Severings Sword Sea.
Kuooooong!
A massive boom rang out, churning the sea as if it might flip upside down.
In that moment, Ha Mu-baek tensed his right arm and drove the sword down further.
Krkrrkgrgrk.
A deafening clamor accompanied the formation tearing apart.
The whale, the monstrous octopus, and the sea dragon all lunged toward Ha Mu-baek at once.
"Annoying."
In the end, Ha Mu-baek had no choice but to swing his sword again.
He whipped it around from mid-clash with the formation, slashing toward the three beasts hurtling his way.
Infinite Formless Eight Severings Sword Sea.
Fifth Severance: Heaven Rending.
The strike, said to shatter the heavens, extended forth to obliterate not just the three beasts but the formation itself in one go.
Kukukukukukukwang!!!
Though chaos resisted with all its might.
The power of Heaven Rending proved too overwhelming.
With a colossal explosion, the formation shattered outright.
The sea vanished.
The forest reappeared.
Having broken the sixth formation, the seventh now manifested.
Yet another hemispherical space dominated by the formation.
"Tch."
Ha Mu-baek clicked his tongue.
By now, it was starting to grate on him a bit.
Even double-layered ones were considered impressive, yet these kept emerging no matter how many layers he peeled away.
"Wh-what is all this? And who are you?"
At that moment, a mysterious woman's voice came from behind him.
Ha Mu-baek glanced back casually.
He had sensed her presence the instant he broke through the formation and emerged, but he'd pretended not to notice.
She was the owner of the chamber he'd sneaked into.
Jegal So-rin could scarcely believe the scene unfolding before her eyes.
How could such a formation exist?
By reverse-engineering the traces left scattered around, she could roughly infer its original structure.
Something impossible before, but after studying the manual of the Lightwheel Supreme Heaven Formation for mere hours, her proficiency in formations had leaped several levels.
"Ha Mu-baek."
He gave only his name, curtly.
She had likely witnessed him sneaking into her chamber to read the book called Genesis, so he was adopting a different demeanor than usual.
Ha Mu-baek felt no shame.
He hadn't done anything indecent, and entering the place to begin with had been due to the suspicious eyes of numerous watchers.
He'd visited covertly to investigate the suspicious circumstances and gained the crucial insight of confirming the contents of the book left by Jegal Mu-gun.
He had even detected faint traces of genesis energy.
And that energy had seeped into this woman.
Yet despite all that, Ha Mu-baek felt an inexplicable distance from Jegal So-rin.
That manifested now in his behavior.
Jegal So-rin flinched at the name Ha Mu-baek.
And rightly so—it was a name mentioned countless times in her brother's letters.
Even his recent activities were noted.
He was supposed to have become the Fierce Dragon Corps Leader and left the Dragon Training Pavilion.
"What brings the Fierce Dragon Corps Leader here?"
Ha Mu-baek looked surprised.
He hadn't expected her to know his position as well.
"And who might you be?"
Come to think of it, he didn't know her identity.
Only that she was a direct descendant of the Jegal Clan.
"I'm Jegal So-rin. Brother to Lord Myeong."
From her words, Ha Mu-baek could guess how she knew his rank.
She must exchange regular letters with Jegal Myeong.
Given Jegal Myeong's temperament from their time at the Dragon Training Pavilion, he'd likely shared stories about him with his sister.
'Close siblings, it seems.'
"So, what's going on here?"
Jegal So-rin asked again.
"I chased your grandfather here. Ask him about this formation."
Ha Mu-baek said, nodding toward the formation.
"Why would the Fierce Dragon Corps Leader be after Grandfather...?"
Jegal So-rin trailed off.
She had a hunch.
"Don't tell me this is the Righteous Heaven Alliance's will?"
She asked directly.
Ha Mu-baek shook his head.
"Just my personal whim."
As relief began to wash over her at the answer, Jegal So-rin tilted her head.
Was this truly fortunate? Or worse?
She couldn't gauge it.
If her brother's letters were accurate, this might be bigger trouble than the Alliance's involvement.
"What even is this formation? How could something this immense exist... Setting it up alone would cost a fortune and take no small amount of time. Our clan has never expended resources on this scale..."
Jegal So-rin murmured, unsure if she was asking Ha Mu-baek or herself, then fell silent again.
She was piecing it together alone, seeking answers on her own.
Her face hardened. She'd inferred the source of the funds.
"And why is this formation so..."
Looking around once more, even the remnants hinted at an even vaster original array.
That array had been shattered.
By overwhelming, devastating force.
Jegal So-rin's eyes naturally turned to Ha Mu-baek.
He was the only one here battling the formation.
She paled.
Her brother had called him a monster, but could it really end at that?
The explosions and tremors that had drawn her here.
And just moments ago, that earth-shaking blast like an earthquake.
Thanks to them, she'd pinpointed the location and found this place.
Realizing it was all the work of this one man sent chills down her spine.
'Sharp one. As expected of Jegal Myeong's sister.'
Ha Mu-baek nodded at how she'd grasped and understood everything from mere clues, without needing the full story spelled out.
Of course, he wouldn't have explained in detail even if she hadn't.
"What now?"
"Finish what I started, of course? I paused only because you showed up."
At Ha Mu-baek's reply, Jegal So-rin's gaze shifted back to the formation.
"How can a formation like this even exist in the world?"
She had some grasp of its principles but couldn't accept it.
It defied everything she knew about formations.
The pinnacle among all formations in the Jegal Clan.
The Eight Gates Golden Lock Harmony Wind Cloud Annihilation Severance Formation.
Even that was merely triple-layered.
Thus, crafting something with nine layers like this was impossible.
Not a matter of cost—the very principles were absent from the Jegal Clan.
"Chaos."
Ha Mu-baek murmured shortly.
Was it an answer to her question?
"About time I got a look at its true form."
Or words to the enemy itself?
Unclear.
But Jegal So-rin reacted to Ha Mu-baek's words.
"Even the Fierce Dragon Corps Leader knows of this 'chaos' entity?"
Her eyes brimmed with questions.
A secret of the world's underbelly she'd only learned today.
One she still struggled to believe.
"Well, I know such a thing exists."
Ha Mu-baek replied indifferently, turning his gaze to the formation.
His right hand reached for the sword hilt.