Chapter 159
Chapter 159
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: Serpentine Dawn Formation
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The dawn light wrapped around the entirety of Baek Clan Manor.
Twisting beams of light traced out a consistent pattern.
There was only one reason why light, which normally shot in straight lines, could meander like this.
"I told you punks to watch out for the traps."
The Black Dao forces from Honam had come charging in with enough numbers to raze Baek Clan Manor even without their main force.
Yet he had known this in advance.
Even so, the reason he chose to face them without requesting aid...
It was because he was confident he could take on superior numbers with a smaller force if he secured the terrain advantage.
For the record, in the martial world, terrain advantage didn't simply mean the layout of the land and features.
There was a more core, destructive element.
Formations.
"Formation! Everyone, be careful!"
Hyeongsan Yinblood bellowed, but it was already too late.
The moment they surged up to the main gate of Baek Clan Manor, they had already entered the formation's range of effect.
'In the past, Zhuge Liang overcame numerical inferiority with formations.'
These days, his descendants were making their name across the world with their formation arts.
And Zhuge Seol-ha was one of the Zhuge Clan's direct lineage.
She had even mastered the Mysterious Origin Forward Divine Art.
"You idiots, with the young lady of the Zhuge Clan right here, you couldn't even predict something this basic?"
The Mysterious Origin Forward Divine Art. An absolute art that stimulated and awakened the upper dantian from the very start.
It was unusual.
Normally, all martial arts began from the lower dantian, and defying the martial framework would inevitably cause side effects.
Yet the Mysterious Origin Forward Divine Art had elevated the Zhuge Clan to one of the Five Great Clans of the world.
"Seol-ha! Second formation, change!"
"Yes, senior brother!"
Zhuge Seol-ha circulated the Mysterious Origin Forward Divine Art to its limit.
Her upper dantian opened, revealing flows of mystical qi that even her current realm couldn't normally discern.
They said Zhuge Liang, upon displaying his divine arts, told the awestruck crowd that he merely saw the heavenly qi and read the mystical qi to respond accordingly.
'If you can read the flows between heaven, earth, and spirit, you can interfere with them as needed.'
That was what a formation was.
Reading the natural flows of heaven and earth invisible to the naked eye, then using objects imbued with unique energies to distort natural harmony.
All formation masters wielded the upper dantian, calculating nature with human formulas.
Turning that harmony into a weapon.
"If the leader makes a misjudgment, his underlings suffer for it. Pay the price with your lives."
A pale mist spread in all directions.
A fog so thick it obscured vision just a foot ahead.
Hyeongsan Yinblood ground his teeth at the faint echo of Baek Yang-hui's voice from afar.
"How can these mere Baek Clan bastards wield such a powerful formation?!"
No one would raid a martial clan's manor without considering formations.
The formations lurking in the manor had been within Hyeongsan Yinblood's calculations.
He had anticipated them all.
The problem was that the formation was far more powerful than expected.
Pfbt! Pfbt! Pfbt!
"Kaaack!"
"Argh!"
Screams erupted from various spots.
'Baek Clan is a place where even their most treasured hereditary arts are mere third-rate trash due to their lineage dying out! How in the world?!'
It was absolutely impossible for them to orchestrate this level of harmony just because they had one direct descendant from the Zhuge Clan.
"Curious, aren't you?"
The taunting voice echoed mockingly.
Hyeongsan Yinblood's eyes bulged.
"Shut your mouth! I'll chew up your guts for sure!"
Baek Yang-hui smirked at the fury-laden shout.
"Seol-ha, they want to suffer more harshly?"
"Shall I give them a taste of fire, then?"
Zhuge Seol-ha plucked the strings of her Heavenly Sound Pipa in a complex pattern.
As if connected by invisible threads, the formation's embedded objects reacted all at once.
"Kaaack!"
"Fire! It's fire!"
"Snap out of it! It's an illusion!"
"But it feels so real... hot... Kaaack!"
Zhuge Seol-ha stuck out her tongue playfully.
"Telling them to snap out of it inside an illusion formation. How foolish."
"Right?"
Zhuge Seol-ha was a direct descendant of the famed formation house Wayong House and a prized disciple of the Pure Sound Jade Command School.
And the Pure Sound Jade Command School, as evident from their testing rite of the Five Pure Sounds, possessed peerless mastery in mechanism and formation arts.
'Even now, it's dizzying. To use such a powerful illusion formation just to test a disciple.'
Back then, inside that illusion formation, Baek Yang-hui had encountered his past life's Namgung Cheon-yeong and fought a life-or-death duel.
He had won and escaped, but it was true that even he, with insights up to the super peak realm, couldn't break it.
"You've worked hard these past three months, Seol-ha."
"No big deal. The location being Baek Clan Manor made it pretty easy."
Glancing down at the main gate after her response.
The grand doors carved with dozens, hundreds of clouds from black hardwood.
His father's words came to mind.
"The main gate is special, isn't it? Our founder made and carved it himself."
Even in decline, Baek Clan Manor had once held a seat among the Five Great Clans of the world, founded by none other than the World's Greatest himself.
For a clan of that stature, building the manor with structures aligned to formation principles was standard, and the Baek Clan had never abandoned their manor even in downfall.
"The layout of the halls centered on the main building. And the main gate. Though the old formations were all broken, the gate alone retained its power as the formation's core object."
"Makes sense. It was made by the World's Greatest of his era, after all."
That was how Zhuge Seol-ha could erect such a powerful formation single-handedly.
A remnant of their glorious past.
A legacy the Baek Clan had guarded through generations without yielding even in decline.
Now shining in their time of crisis.
'The downside is that it's unstable, so we can't fight inside the formation.'
It would have been ideal if allies were unaffected inside while slaughtering enemies.
With more time, it might have been possible, allowing total annihilation with minimal losses.
'Well, can't do what can't be done.'
"Senior brother. The objects are starting to get destroyed. The formation will break soon."
"Already? Well, they're only peak experts in their fifties."
Peak experts could read distorted qi flows and locate the objects maintaining the formation.
A more advanced, bizarre formation would have turned even peak experts into frogs in boiling water.
But it was beyond Seol-ha's current capabilities.
"Good work. This is more than enough."
"Got it. I'll prepare the next phase."
"Thanks, junior sister."
Zhuge Seol-ha smiled brightly and moved to another position.
Meanwhile, the surviving Black Dao fighters revealed themselves up front.
"Baek Yang-hui. You resorted to petty tricks."
Baek Yang-hui couldn't help but feel a bit absurd.
Petty?
He glanced around and asked.
"Then don't you feel sorry for your underlings who died to those 'petty tricks'?"
Hyeongsan Yinblood seemed done talking.
The Black Dao fighters reformed ranks, spread out widely, and leaped onto Baek Clan's walls all at once.
One even swung a sword at Baek Yang-hui perched atop the main gate; he severed its head and launched his body into the air.
Spinning in a graceful arc, Baek Yang-hui landed on the roof of the main Baek Clan building.
"Not coming at me? I figured with me right out front, even you, Hyeongsan Yinblood, would send at least one guy worth killing to charge."
He clicked his tongue in mock disappointment, but Hyeongsan Yinblood just kept issuing orders to his men.
"There are surely formations inside the walls too. Stay alert and slaughter them all!"
"Yes, my lord!"
"Yes, my lord!"
Seeing that, Baek Yang-hui chuckled.
'Too bad, no formations inside.'
At Baek Yang-hui's request, Zhuge Seol-ha had invested even the internal structural distortions into strengthening the outer wall formation.
The moment they crossed the walls, no formation advantage remained.
'Well, that doesn't mean we can't gain formation benefits.'
"Hyeongsan Yinblood. Answer one question."
He'd been ignored throughout, but that was fine.
Now they had no choice but to respond.
"For a low-realm sect with many fighters, what's the fastest way to bolster overall strength?"
The answer was simple. A formation.
Precisely, a joint attack formation.
'Even the most famous Wayong's Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation was ultimately a joint attack formation built with soldiers.'
The character for formation itself meant to array troops in battle.
In other words, its origin was the joint attack formation.
"Baek Division Leader!"
Baek Heon-so responded vigorously.
"Yes, sir!"
"Deploy the Thousand Feathers Blade Transformation Formation!"
A joint attack formation where a thousand feathers turned to blades.
This was another card Baek Yang-hui had prepared.
"Hahaha! A joint attack formation? You think that'll stop us?!"
'Right on cue with the mockery.'
No way he'd miss a chance to sneer.
And not just Hyeongsan Yinblood—most of the Black Dao fighters were cackling.
"Joint attack formations are indeed for few against many. But did you think we don't know how to deploy them?!"
In truth, those skilled in joint attack formations were mostly from the Black Dao.
They didn't find it shameful to swarm a single strong foe like a pack of dogs, so it was only natural.
At Hyeongsan Yinblood's hand signals, the Black Dao fighters moved in unison.
A joint attack formation anchored by peak experts.
"Superior prowess and numbers on our side! To think you'd rely on something like this!"
"The brat miscalculated!"
"Hahaha, kid, you've realized your sin!"
"You brought death on yourself—don't complain even in hell!"
Amid the barrage of mockery, Baek Yang-hui remained unflappable.
"Superior prowess and numbers on your side. But..."
There was one more factor that determined a joint attack formation's strength.
Its quality.
"No need for words! Everyone, charge!"
At Hyeongsan Yinblood's command, the Black Dao fighters surged forward swiftly.
Their formation held firm even in the chaos, proving no small degree of proficiency.
But.
'Doesn't matter.'
"Feathers! Transform to blades!"
At Baek Heon-so's order, the Baek Division members unleashed their momentum in unison.
Then, something wondrous happened.
The Baek Division members were all around thirty at most.
A few had reached first-rate, but none were geniuses who had grasped unified spirit and will.
Yet.
They unleashed a momentum infused with righteousness and resolve.
The clash followed.
"Impossible!"
"What kind of knights are these?!"
"Sorcery! It's sorcery!"
Superior numbers and quality favored the Black Dao.
Yet the victor of the clash was Baek Clan's Thousand Feathers Blade Transformation Formation.
"What are you surprised about? It's only natural."
Hyeongsan Yinblood and his brainless thugs stopped their ghostly retorts once their men fell into disadvantage.
But Baek Yang-hui kept needling.
"Daring to challenge the Thousand Feathers Blade Transformation with that garbage joint attack formation?"
In his past life, Baek Yang-hui had wandered the world to elevate his hereditary arts to divine ones.
In that time, he had witnessed countless martial arts and never ignored any teaching that contained martial truths.
'You bastards, this was forged by burying my head in Shaolin's 108 Arhat Formation.'
The 108 Arhat Formation, built by 108 Arhat monks, was a legendary joint attack formation said to hold even one of the Ten Heavenly Martial Venerables.
Most Shaolin techniques were mythical nonsense that existed only in legends, but Baek Yang-hui had personally experienced even that 108 Arhat Formation.
'Nearly died for real back then.'
Overwhelming qualitative and quantitative superiority as martial artists?
That was precisely what joint attack formations overturned.
Of course, if peak experts stepped forward, it would change things.
"Damn it! Peak experts, advance and dismantle that accursed formation!"
'Moving as expected.'
Joint attack formations were formations too, so anchors were key.
Hyeongsan Yinblood knew this, and with numbers more than double Baek Clan's even after formation losses, even the Thousand Feathers Blade Transformation couldn't hold forever.
'Well, if the enemy calls 'general,' we just call 'blind general' and be done.'
And it wasn't just a blind general—they even had a counter checkmate prepared.
"Let's move to the next phase, junior sister."
"Yes, senior brother!"
Zhuge Seol-ha fiddled briefly with the necklace around her neck, took a deep breath, then plucked the strings of her Heavenly Sound Pipa, bringing out its innate timbre to the fullest.
Ding-a-ling!
A sound that was soft yet heated, with fiery energy riding the melody to spread everywhere.
At the same time.
The necklace of unknown metal began to glow.