Chapter 586
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 586
Chapter Title: Oh! It's Begun!
Everlasting Ghoul Forest Myriad Demons Formation.
A Demonic Cult ritual array.
Spread across a vast expanse, it was a terrifying formation that implanted demonic energy into everyone inside, driving them into a frenzy.
But its power came at a steep price in terms of activation conditions, so it had never actually manifested in the world.
Well, almost.
It was back when Hocheon Corps Leader Ha Mu-baek had only recently joined the Hocheon Corps.
Near a battlefield where the Righteous Heaven Alliance and Demonic Cult's massive forces were locked in bloody combat, the Demonic Cult had prepared one as a trap.
They discovered it by sheer luck.
Spotting covert Demonic Cult movements away from the main battlefield, it was the Hocheon Corps that took them out.
At that time.
While drafting a post-battle report for submission—Han Seol-bing, who had also just joined the Hocheon Corps, tilted her head in puzzlement.
As she looked over the map marking the combat zone, which she'd drawn to attach to the report.
"Are they setting up some kind of formation here?"
That question made its way straight to the Heavenly Eye Pavilion, where Heavenly Eye Pavilion Lord Gong Son Dan-gyeong identified it.
Countless informants from the Heavenly Eye Pavilion lost their lives in the process.
The moment the formation was complete, the Demonic Cult planned to intentionally retreat, luring the Righteous Heaven Alliance's main force inside before activating it.
But thanks to Han Seol-bing's chance discovery, the Hocheon Corps destroyed it before it could finish.
The formation had been on the verge of completion at the time.
All it needed was for the Eight Dharma Protectors to arrive and infuse it with demonic energy to trigger it.
The first to show up was the Ghoul King.
Having grasped that all Eight Dharma Protectors were required, Gong Son Dan-gyeong proposed to Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong a plan to intercept the Ghoul King, who had arrived first.
The plan was approved, the Hocheon Corps mobilized, and in that battle, Ha Mu-baek suffered a grievous wound from the Ghoul King.
Of course, the Ghoul King took heavy damage too, so in the end, they prevented the formation's activation.
The instant he laid eyes on the map Wi Su-yeon had brought.
Ha Mu-baek couldn't help but be stunned.
He'd seen the complex directional patterns marked by those points before.
They were identical to the ones on the map from that operation.
The map showing the key nodes of the Everlasting Ghoul Forest Myriad Demons Formation.
It was exactly the same.
Meaning it was already complete.
At minimum, they had to destroy thirty nodes to stop activation, but back then, by the time they realized, there wasn't enough time.
That's why they targeted the Ghoul King.
"Damn it. If only I'd remembered when I first heard the news..."
He could've explained everything and razed thirty training caves in no time.
Or even if he had realized back then, it might've still been this desperate.
Since they didn't know when the completed formation would activate.
They knew it needed demonic energy to trigger.
But seeing such a perfect formation laid out, he figured the Ghoul King must've solved that part too.
That's why he was rushing like this now.
They had to destroy it before activation, so Ha Mu-baek ran at full speed.
The southern training cave, supposedly completed most recently.
This one first.
The moment he arrived, Ha Mu-baek swung his sword at the ground.
Since it hadn't activated yet, destruction came first.
He didn't know exactly which spots formed the formation's core.
Ha Mu-baek had no real expertise in formations.
Still, he instinctively targeted one spot.
Recalling the footprints that had severed the formation's energy flow.
Boom!
A deafening explosion flipped the earth.
And out popped a sealed metal box.
That spot was right in the middle of the three footprints that had disrupted the sword energy flow.
From there.
Demonic energy began to rise.
"Hey! What the..."
Gyu Hwi arrived then.
He jolted at the sudden demonic energy.
His gaze fixed on the metal box.
"Th-this is..."
His voice trembled.
The moment he sensed the demonic energy, Ha Mu-baek expanded his energy sense.
Toward every point on the map.
"Shit. Too late..."
A curse and a sigh.
Demonic energy was leaking bit by bit from the eight key nodes that supplied it.
"This is enough to trigger it?"
Ha Mu-baek muttered incredulously at the box jutting from the ground.
A demonic casket, they called it.
A Demonic Cult artifact that released demonic energy in response to specific spells.
Often used to sow chaos among righteous sect warriors during ambushes.
Limited capacity meant it was mainly for skirmishes with ten or so fighters.
When a few Demonic Cult warriors faced many from the righteous sects.
Judging by the amount leaking from this one, it was filled to the brim—but so what?
Only about as much as a third-rate demon could emit.
Even if eight spots released that much at once, it couldn't power this massive formation.
He hadn't even considered it as a possibility.
But then.
Hummm.
Centered on the Huashan Sect, a heavy resonance echoed from Lianhua Peak.
The formation was activating.
The demonic energy from the casket seeped into the training cave's outer walls, tracing bizarre patterns as it grew faint and vanished.
"Wha... what..."
Gyu Hwi gawked, breathless in shock.
His face full of confusion and bewilderment.
"Old man. We need to head back."
Ha Mu-baek said gravely.
"Corps Leader Ha. What... what is this?"
Gyu Hwi asked again.
"Sigh. I'll explain on the way."
Ha Mu-baek turned.
The two unleashed their lightness skills toward the Huashan Sect once more.
"The Ghoul King's scheme at Huashan... you'll see for yourself, but it's a formation."
Gyu Hwi nodded.
"I dealt with this one back in the Hocheon Corps days. Everlasting Ghoul Forest Myriad Demons Formation."
A chilling, ominous name.
Gyu Hwi frowned.
"Mission was to stop its activation, and we succeeded, so it never triggered during the last war. This is my first time seeing it actually go off."
Gyu Hwi's face grew more serious by the moment.
No wonder.
Mobilizing the Hocheon Corps to stop it meant it was that dangerous.
"According to Pavilion Lord Gong Son, once activated, it implants demonic energy in everyone inside, making them rampage."
"N-no way..."
"They said it needed a massive amount of demonic energy. All Eight Dharma Protectors had to pitch in. But here? Just demonic caskets..."
Ha Mu-baek muttered, still baffled.
"Anyway, it's activating, right? What do we do? Any way to break it? Block the demonic energy infiltration?"
Gyu Hwi pressed urgently.
The formation centered on Mount Hua.
Affecting everyone inside meant every Huashan disciple was at risk.
"Still thinking. Pavilion Lord Gong Son said something, but back then I was just a regular squad member."
Not Gong Son Dan-gyeong's words, but instructions from the Hocheon Corps Leader on handling activation.
"Right after activation, you've got about half a gak before the demonic surge hits. Use it to take down the dharma protectors supplying the energy."
First method.
Failed before activation—now do it after?
By then, their full guard details would arrive.
"Flee beyond the formation's range at full speed."
Second method.
Unrealistic.
"Circulate your internal energy to the max to resist the demonic energy."
Third.
No guarantee it'd work.
"Destroy the thirty key nodes."
Viable before activation, and supposedly still after.
But smashing thirty scattered nodes while demonic energy was already infiltrating?
Impossible.
So the Hocheon Corps members' reaction back then was unanimous.
"If it activates, you're just supposed to go mad and die..."
That's why they fought even more desperately.
And now it had activated.
Gyu Hwi paled as he heard Ha Mu-baek mutter it all to himself.
"N-no countermeasures?"
"We find some. Somehow."
Even he couldn't destroy thirty nodes in half a gak.
Destroying the energy sources? The demonic energy there was already absorbed into the formation and gone.
So for now, head to Huashan.
To at least protect the disciples when the demonic storm hit.
Ha Mu-baek monitored the formation-wide demonic flow with his energy sense as he raced toward the Huashan Sect.
"Oh! It's begun!"
From the second floor of the inn, he faintly glimpsed the demonic energy enveloping Lianhua Peak through the window.
At the time the Ghoul King had arranged, the eight demonic caskets simultaneously spewed their energy, and the formation activated as planned.
"They never imagined I'd improved it. Heh heh heh. That it could trigger with so little demonic energy. Of course, fewer targets made it possible."
Huashan Sect residents numbered less than a thousand at most.
A few hundred, really.
Enough for the caskets' output.
Plus improvements to the formation.
To wield greater power with less energy.
Not without drawbacks, though.
"Still takes time, as expected. Less energy means more time to amplify."
Key nodes unchanged, but the ritual spells' incantations altered.
Circulating scant demonic energy endlessly through the spells to amplify it massively.
Compared to the last great war, more amplification stages, delaying the release.
"About one gak?"
Half before—now double, one full gak.
Akcho tilted his cup, lost in thought.
Pondering.
Stick to the original plan, or change due to Ha Mu-baek's appearance?
"No matter how I look at it, that bastard's gonna survive..."
Why the Ghoul King Akcho's true body was at Huashan.
The real purpose of the Everlasting Ghoul Forest Myriad Demons Formation.
Akcho smacked his lips.
"That much energy should breach the walls. Then I could kill that damn bastard too."
His greedy, conflicted face muttered.
The formation's demonic amplification happened in two phases.
First: circulating through the nodes.
Second: from the frenzied people inside.
Turning the interior into a dense demonic plain, where demons operating their arts gained immense internal energy.
The Eight Dharma Protectors' plan during the great war had two goals.
Annihilate the righteous forces, then absorb the thickened demonic energy to grow stronger.
Why the Ghoul King schemed at Huashan for years.
Smash the sect, topple a pillar of the Righteous Heaven Alliance, and absorb vast demonic energy to power up.
Two birds, one stone.
That's why, when Ha Mu-baek leaked demonic energy to lure him, he showed near-rage irritation, expecting other protectors to muscle in.
That shameless last-second spoon-grab.
Ha Mu-baek leaving empty-handed would've been ideal.
But he lingered.
Right before activation.
Fighting Ha Mu-baek in his aged vessel, Akcho decided to cut losses and bail.
Stayed at the roadside inn to witness activation as a traveler.
Now that he had, greed crept in.
A tiny hope: even Ha Mu-baek might succumb to the demonic baptism.
"Demonic baptism... too tempting to pass up."
Akcho murmured softly.