Chapter 514
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 514
Chapter Title: Two Shichen?
“Haa.”
Jegal So-rin let out a deep sigh, her sword still gripped tightly in her hand.
She had read that the next formation lay somewhere deep in the forest, but she hadn’t expected it to be the sweltering jungle of the Southern Barbarians.
She had just beheaded a venomous snake moments ago, and the sight had been utterly gruesome.
Ssssk.
A faint rustling sound accompanied it.
A spider the size of a fist appeared before her eyes.
Its black-and-red body screamed of deadly poison.
“Kyaaak!”
With a scream, her sword moved on instinct, slicing the spider into eight pieces that plummeted to the ground with wet thuds.
For a reflexive sword technique, it was executed at an astonishing level of mastery.
“G-Gross……”
Jegal So-rin grimaced, lowering her sword as spider fluids dripped from the blade, muttering under her breath.
“Hoo, hoo.”
She took deep breaths and scanned her surroundings.
The formation had activated, separating her from Ha Mu-baek, but in reality, the two weren’t all that far apart.
Just a little over ten paces.
But the direction she was moving was gradually taking her farther from Ha Mu-baek’s current position.
She hadn’t found the straight path yet.
She was simply following the safe routes through the formation, heading toward the spot she remembered from before it fully activated.
“Please, just stay put there and don’t try to break the formation.”
Those were the words she had barely managed to convey to Ha Mu-baek before he could swing his sword—spoken with utmost caution.
She hoped he would understand her meaning.
According to her brother’s letter, he was a sharp-minded man, so she clung to that expectation as she pressed on.
With every step she took, venomous creatures lunged from all directions, drawing shriek after shriek from Jegal So-rin.
Yet despite it all, her position was steadily closing in on Ha Mu-baek.
Her initial path had led slightly away, but the subsequent routes she followed were aimed straight toward him.
Now, only about five paces separated them.
A little closer, and a swing of her sword would pierce through the illusions to strike Ha Mu-baek directly.
Jegal Nam-cheon watched the scene with crystal clarity.
“That girl was this capable?”
He hadn’t anticipated her finding her way through the formation so effortlessly.
There was no hesitation in her steps.
She only paused when the venomous beasts appeared.
Never once did she stop to ponder or calculate the safe paths.
It meant she grasped and computed them the instant she saw them.
By Jegal Nam-cheon’s knowledge, Jegal So-rin was exceptional, but not to this degree.
The formation she had entered wasn’t some ordinary array.
It was a supreme nine-layered overlapping formation that surpassed even the Jegal Clan’s pinnacle array, the Eight Gates Golden Lock Harmony Wind and Cloud Annihilation Array.
Even Jegal Nam-cheon wasn’t confident he could navigate its safe paths as swiftly as she was.
“How is this possible……”
The more he watched, the harder it was to believe.
It’s thanks to the power of the Primordial One.
Chaos’s words.
“That power also imparts knowledge of formations?”
Jegal Nam-cheon asked with a scoff.
[…….]
Chaos fell silent.
Unless Chaos itself infused knowledge into the energy, ordinary Primordial fragments didn’t carry such wisdom.
However.
-The lingering aura in that ancient tome called Genesis clearly bore traces of knowledge. It felt like energy infused by a human. Surprising that a human reached such heights.
Chaos kept the thought to itself, not sharing it with Jegal Nam-cheon.
It was Chaos’s private musing, after all.
Jegal Nam-cheon was merely an ally. Chaos had no obligation to reveal everything.
Even so, Chaos unleashed energy to send more venomous creatures at Ha Mu-baek and Jegal So-rin.
As if intent on delaying their reunion as long as possible.
Flames erupted ceaselessly around Ha Mu-baek’s body.
He didn’t expand their range.
One misstep, and he might unwittingly incinerate Jegal So-rin, who was drawing near via the formation’s safe paths, without sensing her.
The formation’s energy was disrupting his senses, leaving Ha Mu-baek blind to her exact position.
“Quite some time has passed, hasn’t it?”
Ha Mu-baek muttered, glancing around.
With no way to track time precisely, his senses told him roughly one shichen had elapsed.
Given the formation’s complexity, this was barely any time at all. He’d need to wait much longer.
“Hm?”
In that instant.
Ha Mu-baek sensed a sword hurtling toward him and casually tilted his head aside.
The blade tip pierced through space, emerging abruptly.
Ha Mu-baek reached out and seized it.
“You’ve arrived.”
With a firm yank on the sword.
“Eh? Eek.”
Jegal So-rin tumbled forward with a startled cry.
“Ah!”
Spotting Ha Mu-baek gripping her sword tip, she gasped in awe.
“Nearly took my head off there.”
At Ha Mu-baek’s words, Jegal So-rin bowed her head in haste.
“S-Sorry! I was as careful as I could be, but then dozens of venomous snakes came swarming……”
Indeed.
The moment Jegal So-rin reached within three paces of Ha Mu-baek, Chaos had manipulated the formation accordingly.
“If that’s the case, over there too.”
Ha Mu-baek pointed with his free hand, and sure enough, dozens of venomous snakes were charging from that direction.
“Ah, ah, ah……”
Just as a scream was about to burst from Jegal So-rin’s lips.
Roooar!
Flames surged fiercely, vaporizing the snakes in an instant.
“Ahh……”
The same sound, but laced with entirely different emotions than before.
Ha Mu-baek chuckled softly at the sight.
“Think you can break this formation?”
Jegal So-rin surveyed the surroundings thoughtfully before replying.
“Two shichen? I think I could unravel it by then.”
Ha Mu-baek was genuinely stunned.
Even accounting for this, it was an eight-layered overlapping formation.
Meaning it was that much more intricate and baffling—and she claimed two shichen to dismantle it.
A long time by some measures, but absurdly short for this array.
Han Seol-bing had often taken over one shichen to break even a single formation.
Sometimes even longer.
Shorter attempts were rare.
The issue, however.
“Can you keep moving through here for two shichen?”
Even now, Jegal So-rin swung her sword to cleave a grotesque poison spider crawling toward her.
Blood sprayed in all directions.
She dodged nimbly.
“It’d be tough.”
She answered uncertainly.
“Better to smash it, then.”
Ha Mu-baek raised his sword, flames from all directions racing along the blade in a roaring blaze.
He swung it down simply.
Jegal So-rin watched every moment intently.
Infinite As-You-Will Eight Severing Sword Sea.
Fifth Severing. Heaven Rending.
Bwoooom!
A sword of fire tore through space.
Ha Mu-baek’s expression shifted slightly.
There had been no resistance this time.
Chaos hadn’t defended against his strike.
Then.
Jegal So-rin bit her lip and darted swiftly to Ha Mu-baek’s side.
To a spot that wouldn’t hinder his swing.
The spatial resistance had slowed the sword enough to make it possible.
Space shredded apart, and the formation crumbled into scattering wisps.
“No way……”
Jegal So-rin muttered in disbelief, even after seeing it.
The world flipped upside down.
And they returned to the foothills of Yungzhong Mountain.
Ha Mu-baek glanced around and murmured.
“Is it over now?”
No more formations were visible.
The eighth one had apparently been the last.
In the end, an eight-layered array.
“But where’s Jegal Nam-cheon?”
He had assumed destroying all the formations would let them meet, but the man was nowhere in sight.
The stone where he’d stood remained, though.
Step.
The moment Ha Mu-baek took a step forward.
“Stop!”
He turned to see Jegal So-rin clutching the hem of his robe from right behind him.
“We’re still inside a formation. The ninth one. This place is overlaid with a nine-layered overlapping array.”
At her words, Ha Mu-baek halted.
He scanned the surroundings again.
Only now did the sense of wrongness hit him.
It was the right place, yet not.
Impressive. To reach this point so quickly.
A voice echoed in Ha Mu-baek and Jegal So-rin’s minds.
“Chaos?”
Ha Mu-baek asked calmly.
[That’s right. I am Chaos.]
“Remarkable. To manifest the Abyss’s will without borrowing a human vessel.”
Chaos replied as if surprised by Ha Mu-baek’s words.
[Ha Mu-baek, was it? You know quite a bit. Indeed, the Primordial and Myriad Desolation powers within you are no mere trifles.]
Chaos’s admiration was genuine.
It transmitted directly into their minds.
“Well, for now, I need to clean up you lot.”
Ha Mu-baek’s hand moved toward his sword hilt.
[Infinite? As-You-Will?]
Chaos inquired knowingly.
The sword’s motion halted.
“Ho?”
[I sensed power derived from Infinite and As-You-Will in the sword strokes that shattered the formation.]
Chaos stated matter-of-factly.
[You’ve met at least one of them. I sense no Abyss from either in you, though.]
Reaching the ninth formation meant Ha Mu-baek was now as close to Chaos as could be.
Allowing Chaos a closer inspection.
The formation Ha Mu-baek had entered.
Its true name: Chaos Nine Heavens Nine Illusions Blood Tribulation Array.
A formation crafted directly by Chaos.
Passed to Jegal Nam-cheon.
More precisely, using Jegal Nam-cheon like a limb to enact its will.
Among them, the true formation was the final ninth one.
The one Ha Mu-baek now stood within—fitting its name as the genuine Blood Tribulation Array.
Ruuuuumble.
A deafening roar emanated from the formation.
[Time to part ways. Well done reaching this far. Now die.]
The moment the words ended.
Kaboooom!
An earthquake split the ground, charging toward Ha Mu-baek.
He lightly leaped into the air, evading the quake’s reach.
Using Energy Absorption to lift Jegal So-rin into the air alongside him.
Kaaaang!
A stone dragon erupted from the cracked earth.
“A Stone Dragon this time?”
The dragon barreled straight at Ha Mu-baek.
Boom!
Its head crashed into his protective aura.
“Tch.”
A heavy impact pierced through his aura.
This was unmistakably Primordial power.
Utterly unlike anything from the previous formations.
It was the exact energy Hyun-wang had spewed.
No—far denser and purer.
Like the essence of the Primordial itself.
Just like the energy of the sword Mu-geuk had shown him in that mental realm.
As Ha Mu-baek reeled back midair from the headbutt, leaves shot toward him like hidden weapons.
A casual sweep of his hand deflected them all, but a faint ache lingered in his palm.
This too.
Ruuuuumble.
A boulder flew in from somewhere and crashed down.
Ha Mu-baek glanced over.
A massive octopus-like monster hurled it with its eight tentacles.
That one too?
Whoooosh.
In that instant.
A freezing snowstorm, sharp as blades, howled toward Ha Mu-baek.
Laden with Chaos’s pure energy.
Roooar!
Ha Mu-baek summoned flames to resist the blizzard.
Then.
Kaboooom!
Magma erupted right beneath him.
Like a volcano in full eruption, immense power.
“Ngh.”
Ha Mu-baek thrust one hand downward.
Ice essence clashed against the magma.
BOOM!
A massive explosion rang out.
Ha Mu-baek was pushed back once more.
He glanced at Jegal So-rin.
Fortunately, no attacks targeted her yet.
Troublesome.
Alone, he could manage.
But with Jegal So-rin there.
It was fine for now, but if Chaos turned on her too, he wasn’t sure he could protect her unscathed.
The energy Chaos exuded was that overwhelming.
Unlike fighting someone who’d merely absorbed a Chaos fragment and encountered the Abyss.
This was battling Chaos itself.