Divergence
The next day, at the main headquarters of the Mount Hua Sect.
The medical hall was still in chaos.
Endless screams and moans filled the air.
The pervasive stench of blood was so overpowering it made one wonder if this place had truly become a living hell.
It was right in the middle of this pandemonium.
Swish!
One of the thrashing Mount Hua disciples pulled out a dagger and slashed his own throat.
“You fool!”
The startled Medicine Sage rushed forward, trying to stem the fountain of blood gushing from his neck, but it was futile.
Everyone was overcome with despair at the sight of the disciple who had died in an instant.
“W-what is this…”
That was only the beginning.
Suddenly, the disciples receiving treatment began to smash their own heads or shatter medicine bowls and use the shards to slit their throats.
“What is going on!”
At the sudden uproar, Mu-geuk and Byeok-ryu came running together.
“You idiots! Get a hold of yourselves! What do you think you’re doing!”
The unaffected disciples of Mount Hua rushed in belatedly to restrain those attempting suicide.
But it was no use.
Even when prevented from killing themselves, they soon collapsed, dark red blood flowing from all seven orifices.
I too dashed over to stop their actions.
In that moment, I frowned at the absurd strength I felt.
What the…
First-generation disciples, second-generation, third-generation—all of Mount Hua’s disciples were mixed together here.
Yet they all shared one common trait: they were exerting far greater strength than usual.
Tears of blood streaming down their faces, they attempted to take their own lives.
“This is the peril of demonic arts! This is why I said treating them would be difficult…!”
The Medicine Sage shouted, forcibly striking the acupoints of a struggling disciple.
But the acupoints wouldn’t hold.
It was as if their meridians had vanished entirely; they didn’t budge an inch and only grew more frenzied.
“Damn…”
Right before my eyes, another one stabbed his own throat.
Blood sprayed like a fountain, splattering across my face and clothes.
This wasn’t suicide of their own volition.
Someone… no, something was erasing their will.
“It might be better to just cut them down…”
I drew my sword without hesitation.
Thud!
A disciple leaping from the air grabbed my nape.
The veins on his forearm bulged, and with his joints twisted as if they would snap, he pinned me down.
“Ugh.”
This was no power a human could possess.
Killing intent and energy intertwined, making it seem as if every single muscle was rampaging like a wild beast.
Bam!
I twisted my shoulder and slammed him into the floor.
Even as he fell, he howled.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”
Tears of blood burst forth as his fingers reached for his own throat.
Without hesitation, I snapped his wrist to halt the motion.
“Crazy. What the hell is this?”
The first true terror I had encountered.
No matter how much they were eroded by demonic energy, this made no sense.
Mu-geuk’s roars echoed throughout the medical hall, but it was already too late.
Blood splattered everywhere, accompanied by the sounds of flesh being sliced.
I caught my breath for a moment.
It didn’t feel like people were dying, but rather like the strings of puppets were being severed.
Their energy was being drained completely, leaving only empty husks to collapse.
“...It’s a formation.”
My teeth ground together on their own.
It seemed that only I could see this formation.
Moreover, both the pattern of the array and the orientation of its axes completely defied the basic principles of formations as I knew them.
Is something like this even possible?
Everything was twisted.
There was nothing where the axis points should be, while the positions meant to sustain the formation were instead obstructed by the axes themselves.
Rumble!
The vibrations began, growing increasingly violent.
The issue was that only I could feel these tremors.
The formation’s power was strengthening bit by bit.
And with each surge, the demon-eroded disciples of Mount Hua grew even more frenzied, spilling blood all around.
Simultaneously, the blood they shed soaked into the floor and flowed into the formation.
Only then did I realize.
The formation was being built.
Slowly. Gradually.
The accumulated blood formed a single pattern, while more blood served as the source of power to sustain the array.
It was indeed a blood formation, created through blood as its medium.
“Not bad at all.”
I steadied my breathing and maintained my composure.
The fact that such a formation had been set up in the medical hall meant they had been aiming for this very situation.
They must have known we would treat the demon-eroded disciples here and planned to use their blood to create this monstrous blood array.
“Everyone needs to get out of here immediately. Carry as many of the disciples who can still be saved as you can and run. Now!”
I shouted urgently.
The Mount Hua disciples quickly swarmed in, hoisting the afflicted onto their backs and beginning to flee.
“Do you understand why they’re acting this way?”
Mu-geuk approached my side and shouted.
A struggling disciple was already draped over his shoulder.
“It’s a formation. There’s a formation set up here.”
“A formation? Impossible. I don’t sense anything at all…”
“It’s in the process of being created. The blood they’ve shed will serve as the medium to maintain it. Once it’s complete… I can’t even begin to guess what might happen.”
With those words, I grabbed one of the trembling disciples and practically dragged him as I swiftly exited the medical hall.
As expected, the moment we left the hall, the demon-eroded disciples went completely limp, as if all their strength had been drained.
“Seal the medical hall at once!”
Having seen this, Mu-geuk shouted to the first-generation disciples.
They immediately rushed to pull out those who hadn’t yet escaped and locked the doors of the medical hall.
In a mere instant, over fifty had died.
“Those Demon Cult bastards…”
Mu-geuk ground his teeth.
His face burned crimson, as though it might burst at any second.
He was truly furious.
After the first invasion, this was the second wave sweeping away his disciples.
It was a humiliation and shame for Mount Hua.
He wanted nothing more than to rush out and swing his sword at every demonic practitioner in sight.
But he couldn’t.
For Mu-geuk, the disciples before his eyes were far more important.
That formation.
I carefully examined the blood array by peering inside from the entrance of the medical hall.
I had thought the formation would stop with no one inside, but that wasn’t the case.
It continued to operate fiercely, absorbing the surrounding energy at random.
In the end, I have to destroy that thing to finish this.
As long as it remained, no one could use this medical hall.
The vile scheme of the Demon Cult lurking within Mount Hua Sect.
So that’s what it was.
The future sealing of Mount Hua.
It was far more likely caused by this blood formation than by any plague.
After all, the idea of a plague suddenly afflicting only Mount Hua had never made sense.
This battle would only end once that blood formation was destroyed.
I first checked my surroundings.
Everyone was too busy to pay me any attention.
Taking advantage of that, I slipped back into the medical hall.
The blood formation, red as fresh blood.
As if possessing a will of its own, it erupted with ferocious energy the moment I entered.
I slowly drew closer and reached out my hand.
Crack!
Then, as though it had been waiting, a dark crimson materialized energy coiled around my hand and bound my entire body.
“Ugh.”
My skin prickled with numbness.
Along with a crushing pressure, strength rapidly drained from my whole body.
“Damn it all.”
I hurriedly roused my internal energy.
To counter the invading force, I quickly circulated my qi to expel the energies that had infiltrated me.
However, the resistance was overwhelming.
The dark crimson energies ignored mine completely and advanced slowly toward my heart.
“Huk!”
At that instant, I felt all strength leave me as the qi in my dantian was completely sucked away.
The blood formation devoured every last bit of that energy.
One cycle. Two cycles.
In the end, it swallowed the immense power of two and a half cycles whole.
Rumble! Rumble!
The vibrations intensified even further.
Not a shred of internal energy remained.
My vision blurred, and my mind fell into disarray.
To the point where I could hardly tell if this was a dream or reality.
“This… can’t happen…”
Even as I exerted every effort to regain my senses, it was useless.
Gradually, my vision… was sucked into the darkness.
How much time had passed?
Thump!
The sound of my heartbeat pounded in my ears.
Thump! Thump!
As the beating grew louder, I slowly opened my eyes.
A vast space.
I knew exactly what kind of place this was without needing to examine it.
“So I’ve been pulled inside the formation?”
I rose to my feet.
Looking down at my body, I seemed to be in perfect condition.
Had I simply been dragged into the formation?
For now, I took a few cautious steps.
My limbs moved without issue, responding as they should.
However, the sword I’d been holding was gone, and nothing but unknown darkness existed here.
Rather than walking blindly, I stopped where I was.
If this was the interior of a formation, it was better to sense the flow of energy than to move recklessly.
“What?”
But then I realized something in an instant.
Not a single trace of true qi remained within my body.
The formation that had devoured more than two and a half cycles of my internal energy now lay silent.
Like a predator sated after a feast, drowsily seeking slumber.
I had no way of knowing why it appeared that way only to me, nor what the situation was like outside.
“I need to get out.”
I slowly surveyed my surroundings.
There should have been at least some small traces to determine direction.
That was the fundamental principle behind creating formations.
Coordinating energy according to the cardinal directions.
And through the formation axes established there, natural qi could be absorbed and transformed into the desired array.
This principle was an absolute law that no formation could escape.
Yet this formation was shaking the very foundations of my understanding.
There’s nothing.
No directions.
No way to tell north from south.
There wasn’t even the slightest marker.
“Heh heh heh.”
It was then.
A spine-chilling laugh echoed from somewhere.
It was a bizarre voice—sounding at times like a man’s, at others like a woman’s melodious tone.
“Who are you?”
I slowly assumed a stance, raising my senses to their peak.
Yet I couldn’t detect any presence whatsoever.
“To walk knowingly into danger—what foolishness.”
Swish!
Along with the voice, someone suddenly appeared before me.
Quite literally materializing from thin air.
Like a ghost.
The faint presence that seemed to exist and not exist at the same time now vanished completely.
And in the middle of the empty space, something was embedded there.
Without thinking, I approached and took it in my hand.
And at that moment.
“Kyaaaaaaaack!”
An incredible pain exploded in my head.
Starting from the forehead he had touched, the pain spread instantly, as if my brain was being burned, bringing terror worse than death.
My body turned to ash and vanished.
Yet strangely, my mind remained perfectly clear.
In this way, I was once again witnessing my own death.