As always.
Dong Bong-soo was standing atop a mountain of corpses.
Strictly speaking, it would be more accurate to say he was surrounded by the dust of corpses.
For everything killed by [Faith Arrow] had been completely reduced to powder particles drifting through the air.
[『Faith Arrow』 Lv.2
[Basic Magic] [Projectile] [Linear] - When belief takes form, it will become light that pursues enemies.Condenses pure magic and fires it in the form of a shining arrow. When much faith from those who believe in the caster is imbued, it even gains the ability to track targets. Though the hero's most basic magic, it holds infinite possibilities according to faith level.
Mana Consumption: 10 MP
Cast Time: Instant Cast
Cooldown: 0.5 seconds
Range: 60mBase
Damage: 200 (+Faith Modifier)]
The Faith Modifier.
He had anticipated it... but it far exceeded even those expectations.
Every time [Faith Arrow] was activated, faint beams of light descended from the sky and added their strength to the arrow.
The critical point was that the number of beams had at some point surpassed several hundred. In other words, those who held 'faith' in him already numbered in the hundreds.
This is why being a hero is worthwhile.
This is why heroes punish evil.
To think one could grow stronger even through menial work like sweeping up insignificant insects that matter little either way.
[[Guild] First Commission: The goddess of fate has led you to command a group. That too is the destiny of a hero.Now, the first mission has been entrusted to you and those who follow you.
>Disband the Red-Red Alliance.
>Progress: 76.8%
>Reward: History +1, Bae Dal-pae's Trust Level slight increase]
[Faith Arrow] had grown too powerful-it was possible that the 'treatment' would conclude before he even had the chance to test all the skills and sharpened techniques he had acquired over the past three months.
Of course, this world still has plenty of insects, and cancers and incurable diseases abound as well.
I am a predator.
Now I am an omnivore at that.
I have become capable of consuming anything that comes my way, insects and cancers alike.
The very moment Dong Bong-soo's emotionless pupils were about to turn once more toward those insects going by the name of bandits—
A sound so similar to a system message that it could be mistaken for one at first enveloped the surroundings.
But it was not.
Neither [New Murim Online], nor [What is Hero].
It was merely the noise produced as the warmth of the Rainbow Lake vicinity, which had grown hot from the Blood Rain, died away in the cold.
Simultaneously.
A sense of wrongness emanating from the entire mountain.
Along with it, the mountain interior that had been blanketed in terror turned cold in an instant, as if it had become an ice cavern.
Roughly negative four or five degrees Celsius at a glance?
It was not over.
The cold did not stop-like an unbridled horse, it began charging sharply toward absolute zero.
To such a degree that icicles formed grain by grain even on Dong Bong-soo's eyebrows, chin, and fingertips.
"Hehehe."
Jaw trembling from the cold?
Of course not.
Simply from amusement.
What an entertaining world this is, after all.
He chuckled as he gazed from a distance at several bandits who had already become ice statues while standing upright.
[ >Disband the Red-Red Alliance.
>Progress: 87.8%
>Reward: History +1, Bae Dal-pae's Trust Level slight increase]
The deep, deep unpleasant cold that had swallowed the entire area was rapidly swallowing the bandits' lives as well.
None of his concern.
If anything, the cold that was hunting for free on his behalf could only be a welcome presence.
Automatic hunting, where someone else swats the flies for you, is always welcome.
However, if the owner of the flyswatter is also a creature that must be swatted, then one must pay a bit of attention.
*Whirrrrrrrrr-*
The naturally unfolding Super True Energy Field detected the energy felt from beyond the cold. A far too familiar feeling. A relentless succession of insufferably low-grade killing intent.
Within it, spreading outward as if to flaunt its presence.
A familiar energy he had felt once before.
'In this place, this is what they call Formation Energy, isn't it.'
Several formation techniques must be layered atop one another.
The aggregate of Formation Energies surrounding the entire mountain was pressing in on him.
It would be the air currents generated as the owner of the flyswatter also commenced the hunt.
As always, being hunted carries just as ambivalent emotions as doing the hunting.
Unsettling, unpleasant too...
But also, one might say, pleasurable.
The collaboration of killing intent like thousands of needles of different sizes pricking all over, and a thin layer of ice, was massaging his entire body.
Yes, this kind of pain is always welcome.
A massage is only satisfying when it's strong, but the earlier ones were far too bland.
[[Guild] First Commission
[Chain]: During a mission, unexpected additional enemies may appear at any time, so please always exercise caution.I hope you will not forget that cowardly ones are always targeting your back.
>Disband the Red-Red Alliance.
>Progress: 90.2%
>Reward: History +1, Bae Dal-pae's Trust Level slight increase
•Defeat all members of the Alliance Under Heaven Formation Dispatch Unit hired by the Red-Red Alliance.
>Progress: 0%
>Reward: History +1, Relationship with the Alliance Under Heaven Formation established]
"The Alliance Under Heaven Formation."
In the old days, when you bought hardtack, there used to be star candy inside.
He personally felt no particular excitement about it, but among children there were those who bought the hardtack just to eat the star candy.
Let's have a look then.
What flavor the star candy drawn in by the hardtack might be.
And.
Every time he experiences it, Goddess Lumina truly does not understand what a hero genuinely needs.
A hero always needs cowardly ones.
The more cowardly, the better.
Appearing anywhere and anytime is even better.
Because that is the reason for Chivalry.
*Swoosh-—*
His figure had already blasted toward the ice wall of the Cold Yin Ice Wind Formation that had become a massive barrier closing in and strangling the surroundings.
***
The Alliance Under Heaven Formation.
Commonly called Formation Tower.
The largest aggregate of formation Taoists in the Central Plains, established over three hundred years ago.
What distinguishes them from other Martial World sects is that they do not regard themselves as members of the Martial World. This was because the organization was not operated under an absolute hierarchy, but rather all members were bound in a kind of contractual relationship.
There does exist a position called the Tower Lord, referred to by the title Grand Zenith Position, but according to Formation Tower's charter, all formation Taoists are in principle 'equal.'
For that reason, the Grand Zenith Position is also elected once every five years through the Alliance Under Heaven Formation Grand Tournament. That is to say, anyone of excellent skill could ascend to the Grand Zenith Position or fall from it at any time.
A group bound in contractual relationships based entirely on ability. That was precisely Formation Tower, the Alliance Under Heaven Formation.
In that sense.
The official relationships they formed with the outside world were also all forged through contracts, and the very 'color' they publicly proclaimed was between Righteousness and Evil. That is to say, thorough neutrality.
In their own words, they were a permanently neutral force.
The sages of the Martial World comment on Formation Tower thus:
If ranked by Martial World standards, they are fully capable of rivaling the Ten Great Sects or the Seven Evil Grand Cults.
And yet, because they are thoroughly in the gray zone and do not themselves proclaim to be a Martial World sect, they had become one of the Three Forces Beyond Heaven.
The reason they came to be this way was that what they pursued was diametrically different from Martial World denizens.
— If you lose your honor, you have lost little; if you lose your courage, you have lost much. But if you have lost money, it is as if you have lost everything.
A contract is money.
In other words, to them, having money is righteousness, and having no money is evil, and also Demonic.
— In Formation Tower, there is no Orthodox, Evil, or Demonic. Money is Self, and no Money is Other.
There were those who lumped this very directive together and criticized it as the thinking of Evil Demons and Heretics, but they paid it no mind whatsoever.
Because Formation Techniques and Formation Path would inevitably be an all-powerful mercenary force needed in the Martial World yesterday, today, and tomorrow alike.
For that reason.
This time as well, they had taken on the commission of the Red-Red Alliance, which amounted to nothing more than a group of bandits.
And.
The one leading this day's commission was Dong Mu-toe.
Perhaps twenty-five or twenty-six years of age. A bloodlessly pallid face, slender frame, an impression that looked as though it might snap in the wind.
And yet, beyond the sickly fragility, there was hidden sharpness, cruelty.
Like a flower containing poison, he was the kind of person who gave off the strong impression of being beautiful but inevitably fatal if approached.
His eyes in particular.
Black pupils of unfathomable depth.
To look at, they appeared dreamily hazy, yet inside them the pupils trembled ceaselessly, rather like calculating needles that were perpetually computing something.
Profit and loss, cost and revenue, worth killing and worth keeping alive.
Weighing everything, judging it, and deciding-like that.
Below those eyes, the handsome face and neckline extending straight down were enough for anyone to call him a beautiful man.
Continuing below that, a large black robe-disproportionate to his lean build-was draped over him.
Upon it was embroidered Formation Tower's insignia-the shape of a tower encircled by the Eight Trigrams.
The color of the embroidery was silver, or was it not...
Dong Mu-toe and all unit members deployed this time were waiting at Rainbow Peak-the peak rising next to Red Peak where the bandits were deployed-precisely near the summit point.
Although the battle was unfolding several miles from here, the battle situation itself was being grasped as clearly as reading the lines of a palm. Because the individual estimated to be the enemy was only a single person.
"Hoo-. To think there was something like that in such a remote frontier?"
The apex of the summit peak.
Dong Mu-toe stood perfectly upright atop it, watching from a distance as Dong Bong-soo moved freely even within the Cold Yin Ice Wind Formation.
Cold Yin Ice Wind Formation.
A Alarge-scale freezing formation technique that maximizes Yin Energy to absorb all heat within a set range.
Merely by being deployed, it creates a ferocious cold so harsh that living creatures absolutely cannot survive within it. The particularly fearsome aspect of this formation is that it does not simply make the area where the formation is spread cold-it also freezes the Blood Passages of those trapped within the formation.
Before the blood pumped from the heart can even stop, the Acupoints freeze first.
That is why those caught in the Cold Yin Ice Wind Formation mostly become ice statues, their expressions frozen in agony while in Qi Deviation.
Even most first-rate masters, if perfectly caught in this formation, would be more than sufficiently reduced to a single lump of ice-it is a high-grade formation technique.
"Ha, Bronze Formation Contract? For dealing with something like that? Formation Tower is no longer something to be trusted."
Bronze Formation Contract.
One of Formation Tower's contract systems.
Commonly, it referred to the level of commission that the lower-grade formation Taoists called Formation Apprentices entered into with Formation Tower.
In other words, Formation Tower's assessed level of this Red-Red Alliance commission was Bronze Formation Contract.
Dong Mu-toe clicked his tongue lightly, but had no intention of moving whatsoever.
"The clients are all getting killed, Squad Leader."
One of the formation Taoists deployed in this commission approached and spoke.
Underlying discontent toward Dong Mu-toe was coming through in his tone.
Because judging by the silver embroidery thread on the robe, he was a mere Formation Master grade at most, and appeared to be in his mid-twenties at best. The thought that such a greenhorn was ruining the commission made the tone inevitably sullen.
Even so.
Without even a glance, Dong Mu-toe simply continued watching the massacre unfolding at the neighboring peak and replied.
"I know. That's why I activated it."
Only then did Dong Mu-toe tilt his head downward-that is, in the direction of the discontented formation Taoist's face.
"Did you not know?"
His pupils turned precisely toward the junior formation Taoist currently speaking with him.
"Originally, a commission, you see. It becomes the finest commission when the client dies."
In that instant.
A change cracked across Dong Mu-toe's outstanding yet expressionless face.
The pupils that had appeared hazy also became stained blood-red.
As if blood were spreading through a clear lake.
An earthquake seemed to strike across the whites of his eyes as the pupils became bloodshot. Exactly like those of a wicked spirit.
"As many as possible."
-x-X-x-
Five hundred miles east of Gangdo.
At the border between Cloud West Province and Central Capital Province, a single great mountain range stretched long like a dividing line.
A mountain range given the name Cloud Ridge, for the clouds enveloped the entire range like a great collar-a chain of Mountain Ridges formed by a succession of precipitous peaks, with all manner of strange rocks and bizarre stones spread across it in countless numbers.
A natural terrain inevitably remote from the footsteps of ordinary people. Adding to that, what made it even more strictly forbidden for mortals to approach were the hundreds and thousands of layered formation techniques artificially installed in various spots throughout this region.
And.
At the Formation Eye that served as both the core and the driving force of all these layered formations, a single tower had been erected.
Standing tall on an octagonal foundation with eight faces soaring to a height of ninety meters-a tower that might be the grandest not only in Great Viet but in all of the Central Plains, perhaps in all the world.
Named, Formation Tower.
On each face of Formation Tower, Eight Trigrams patterns were engraved, and the tower as a whole pulsated while suffused with a Formation Energy color in which the Five Elements of Yin and Yang were wondrously intertwined.
This was because the energy of the countless formation techniques and Formation Path accumulated over three hundred years had seeped into the tower itself, so that now the tower itself had become a single enormous formation technique.
For that reason, even if someone were to break through all the formation techniques and Formation Path installed throughout Cloud Ridge Mountain Range and arrive in this vicinity, they could never discover the tower. No, it would be more accurate to say it could not be seen.
This was because the Bewilderment Formation built into the tower itself disrupted the perception of all outsiders. Even if one stood directly before it, it would only be perceived as a rocky mountain with nothing on it.
And so, among the denizens of the Martial World, the following saying had come to circulate:
- Formation Tower exists, yet does not exist.
This was because, though clearly numerous formation Taoists were active and operating covertly throughout the Central Plains, no one could reach Formation Tower. Even if one were to wring the arm of one of the formation Taoists and learn the location of this place, what force could possibly dare to infiltrate here through tens of thousands of formation Taoists without obtaining permission?
Above all, what force could survive in the Central Plains, in this world, after making an enemy of the Formation Tower?
Thus Formation Tower had persisted for a full three hundred years-a force that existed yet did not exist, neutral yet not middling.
And so this tower remained even now, enveloped in clouds, swathed in stillness.
However,
Unlike the quiet exterior of this tower where not even the sound of a dropping needle could be heard, inside it countless formation Taoists moved busily, working to attain the pinnacle of formation technique.
The moment one stepped into the first floor, the spectacle of dozens of formation Taoists moving to and fro in busy activity came into view.
On one side, formation Taoists returning from outside were reporting the completion of their commissions, and on the other side, the brushes of clerks sorting newly arrived commission papers by grade moved without pause.
On the walls hung a massive Formation Board on which a map of the entire Central Plains was drawn, over which hundreds of small points of light flickered, and the three or four floors above that were used as training spaces. On the wide floors were drawn patterns of the Eight Trigrams and Nine Palaces, and young formation Taoists on them were learning the methods of wielding Formation Energy.
Several floors further above that were the Research Pavilion, where a vast space had been arranged for researching new formation techniques and improving existing ones.
However,
From the Research Pavilion onward, the population density began to drop sharply.
Because from here, even the quality of the air itself changed. The Formation Energy was so dense that ordinary formation Taoists found even breathing a strain. Naturally, the upper floors could only become a space exclusively for elders or superior-ranked formation Taoists of even greater distinction.
Among those, a certain room on the topmost floor.
The room was spacious.
However, there was almost no furniture.
By contrast, the bookshelves filling one wall were densely packed with formation texts and ancient books, and across from them lay a large stone slab. On the stone slab, indecipherable patterns were carved densely, and if one looked closely, the patterns were moving ever so slightly.
A stone slab for formation technique research.
Made directly by the owner of this room, it was a tool for instantly carving in formation ideas that came to mind and immediately demonstrating them.
In the center of the room, on a red carpet, a single low table. On it lay several unrolled scrolls and an unfinished teacup.
What was peculiar was the window.
No, to be precise, the place where a window should have been.
On one face of the wall, a rectangle the size of a window had been drawn. It was not a mere picture. Within that rectangle, the view outside was being reflected in real time. Cloud Ridge's eternal snow, the earth spread out below the clouds, the plains of the distant Central Plains.
A kind of Surveillance Formation.
A formation technique enabling one to see outside even without a window-this too was the creation of this room's owner.
Before that window-that-was-not-a-window, a man stood.
Middle-aged.
A man of quite sturdy build who appeared to be in his early forties.
However, his impression, unlike his physique, was gentle. Slightly drooping eyes, a mild upward curl to his lips, the face of a scholar to which the folded fan in his hand suited well.
As he looked down at the scenery outside the 'window' and tapped the fan,
Bang!
The door was flung open roughly.
'Mu-toe! Mu-toe! Hey, Dong Mu-toe!"
The one who rushed into the room was a young woman.
Mid-twenties.
Her short-cut bob swayed with a swish each time she moved.
4G
Her features were distinct and her gaze sharp, giving a prickly first impression. But look closely, and her small lips and round cheeks lent her face an unexpected charm.
Her frame was on the small side.
And yet, beneath her robe, the outline of tightly wound muscles showed through. Unlike the ordinary formation Taoists here, one could vaguely surmise that her martial arts were also formidable.
'Mu-toe! Where are you! Come out!"
She swept her gaze around the room and stopped short.
The person she had expected was not there.
In their place stood a completely unexpected other person.
'Oh? Why are you here?"
The scholarly middle-aged man spread his fan and smiled gently.
'Ah, welcome, Trigram Leader Eom."
'No. Don't go acting like the owner of this place and just answer my question."
"Ha ha. Is it not for the same reason as Trigram Leader Eom?"
Eom Bi-ryeong.
The woman was none other than the Trigram Leader of the Mountain Formation Division, that is, the Mountain Trigram among the Eight Trigrams.
The middle-aged man too was, like her, one of the Trigram Leaders.
The Thunder Trigram Thunder Formation Division's Trigram Leader, Myo Jin-heo.
Both were among the most capable of the Eight Trigram Leaders.
'Are you here about the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect and the Dark Net Rakshasa Path collision as well?"
"Indeed. It is a clash between one of the Ten Great Sects and one of the Seven Evil Grand Cults, so would it not be a great opportunity for us?"
One of the Ten Great Sects.
One of the Seven Evil Grand Cults.
Two pillars of the Martial World were on the verge of colliding head-on.
And in such a great war, the smell of money would as a matter of course waft thickly.
It had not yet come to full-scale collision, but it was only a matter of time-such was the conclusion of Formation Tower's internal analysis.
Eom Bi-ryeong merely gave a slight nod and without much reply swept her gaze quickly through the room.
The bookshelf.
The formation stone slab.
The low table.
The unfinished teacup.
The teacup had gone cold long ago. Some tea water still remained at the bottom, but given the clear mark of dried tea water far above that point, it meant the owner of this room had been away for quite some time.
Her gaze soon came to rest on the table.
An unrolled scroll. On it, writing was densely packed.
|Eight Direction Void.....|
"It seems Trigram Leader Dong has made something tremendous once again."
Though she had not even finished reading the title yet, Eom Bi-ryeong quickly shifted her gaze to Myo Jin-heo.
"Tremendous, my foot. It'll just be another bizarre freak of a work that'll swallow up dozens and hundreds of useless formation Taoists again."
"Does not a freak work, when accumulated, become a masterwork?"
"Well, I have no interest in things like that."
In truth, she was not at all uninterested, absolutely not.
Because the owner of this room was an unparalleled genius of formation technique that everyone acknowledged. To borrow the words of the current Grand Zenith Position, as much as the founding patriarch who first opened this Formation Tower some three hundred years ago.
It was simply that she was unwilling to acknowledge it.
Whether she knew it or not, that Eight Direction Void something-or-other she had just glimpsed would also be a formation technique of an insane level 'in theory.
Either way, this bastard was a brilliantly insane bastard.
Tap, tap.
Eom Bi-ryeong lightly tapped the upper part of the teacup twice and continued.
"Do you know where this eccentric bastard went?"
'Well, I heard roughly."
"Where did they say?"
"He has gone out for amusement, they say."
"Amusement...?"
Myo Jin-heo suddenly gave a chuckling laugh.
Eom Bi-ryeong knitted her brows at that.
"No, why are you laughing in that unpleasant way?"
Myo Jin-heo quickly gave a dry cough and spread the fan he held to cover his mouth.
"Ah, my apologies. A laugh simply came out. Even so, 'unpleasant way' is a bit much, is it not? Between fellow Trigram Leaders."
"It's precisely because we're fellow Trigram Leaders that I can speak this way. I could hardly say 'unpleasant way' to the Grand Zenith Position."
"Ha ha. Well, that is true indeed."
Myo Jin-heo assented with a light laugh and lowered his fan again, looking at Eom Bi-ryeong.
"It seems some foolish few made an error in judgment, they say."
"Hm? What do you mean by that?"
"Ah, that is to say, some among the commission grade committee members mistook the platinum embroidered on Trigram Leader Dong's back for silver, I am told."
"What?"
Silver and platinum look similar at a glance..
But look carefully, and the depth of color and hue is entirely different. Is it not a problem for the very committee members who determine commission grades to make such a mistake? Even granting that Dong Mu-toe does not attend all external events for health reasons. How could they fail to recognize a Trigram Leader's face?
Eom Bi-ryeong opened her mouth in bewilderment and then soon asked again.
"Surely... Dong Mu-toe, that person, no? It wouldn't be, would it? You're not saying that person accepted a Silver Formation Contract commission, are you?"
'That is correct. It is not that."
Hoo-
Eom Bi-ryeong let out a sigh and closed the mouth she had opened.
Well, no matter how recklessly Dong Mu-toe conducts himself, being a Trigram Leader, he would hardly agree to a Silver Formation Contract.
"That's a relief. Then I had better go and find that person quickly."
In the middle of the conversation, Eom Bi-ryeong flicked her gaze back to that scroll.
|Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell - A Preliminary Discourse on Compound Layered Formation Path Based on the Grand Zenith Return to Unity Theorys.|
Naturally, it was part of the new research result of this room's owner, Dong Mu-toe.
|A formation is, fundamentally, the restructuring of space by borrowing the principles of heaven and earth.|
A single formation realizes only one principle, and thus there is a limit to its power.
However, what if opposing principles could be confined within a single framework?
Water and Fire are opposing, yet what connects the two is Energy.
At the moment when Cold and Heat alternate, the subject's physical body cannot sustain itself and collapses.
This is termed the First Principle, Extreme Opposition Mutual Clash'.....
"Before he burrows off somewhere and starts recklessly deploying these half-baked monstrosities of formations all over the place, that is."
She shifted her gaze back from the scroll to Myo Jin-heo.
"Anyway, a commission of this magnitude would warrant mobilizing at least four of us, so you're included too. Understood?"
Myo Jin-heo shook his head and smiled meaningfully.
"My participation is of course appropriate... but going now, you will not find him inside Formation Tower."
"What? You said that person did not go out having accepted a Silver Formation Contract, didn't you?"
"That is so."
"...?"
As Eom Bi-ryeong tilted her head quizzically, Myo Jin-heo lightly tossed out:
"Bronze Formation Contract."
"...Pardon?"
"Hoo hoo hoo. Dong Mu-toe. That is to say, Trigram Leader Dong-he has accepted a Bronze Formation Contract commission and gone out to handle it, I am told."
Myo Jin-heo's laughing-eyed gaze turned toward the final portion of the scroll.
The above four principles are layered within the framework of the Eight Trigrams.
|Heaven, Earth, Water, Fire hold the Four Cardinal Directions,|
|Thunder, Wind, Mountain, Lake hold the Four Diagonal Directions.|
|From eight directions, eight layers of formation close in.|
|There is no escape.|
This is the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell.
It permits no one who has entered the formation to exit it.
Even should that one be an Immortal.s
"If Trigram Leader Eom's prediction hits the mark, by now he would already be laying waste to that place with these half-baked monstrosities of formations from within that Bronze Formation Contract commission. Ha ha ha."
At the end of the scroll, a short passage in sharp brushwork had been appended.
|However, that is the greatest strength and simultaneously the problem. Since the formation cannot be dissolved, any area in which it has once been opened transforms into barren wasteland...|
-x-X-x-
The moment she heard Myo Jin-heo's words.
Eom Bi-ryeong's face stiffened.
For a moment, she could not comprehend what she had just heard.
Her mouth fell half open, her eyes went round, and her brow creased.
"..."
One beat.
Two beats.
Gradually, understanding came.
The instant it did, her face began to shift between red and pale.
"...What did you say?"
A trembling that could not be distinguished as anger or bewilderment.
'A Bronze Formation Contract, you said? A Bronze, Bronze Formation Contract?"
Her voice rose higher and higher.
'That person? A Trigram Leader? A Bronze Formation Contract?!"
By the end, it was nearly a scream.
Myo Jin-heo covered his ear lightly with his fan and stepped back.
'Good heavens, you'll burst my eardrum."
"What the hell! What kind of Trigram Leader accepts a Bronze Formation Contract!"
Eom Bi-ryeong exploded.
Bronze Formation Contract.
The lowest grade in Formation Tower's commission system.
A commission amounting to menial work that only lower-grade formation Taoists would take on.
That.
That, a Trigram Leader had accepted.
Dong Mu-toe, one of the Eight Trigram Leaders, had accepted it.
A Trigram Leader.
A supreme-rank formation Taoist, of whom there were only eight even in the vast Formation Tower.
Each holding one position among the Eight Trigrams.
The true rulers of Formation Tower.
Below the Grand Zenith Position, yet beings who reigned above hundreds and thousands of formation Taoists.
That was precisely why this matter was a problem.
Because of the supremely elevated standing of the person involved.
The Bronze Formation Contract being a menial job was not itself the problem. The problem was that a Trigram Leader accepting a Bronze Formation Contract was an act that violated Formation Tower's
Eight Great Commandments.
Formation Tower's Eight Great Commandments.
Prohibition on divulging contract contents (violation results in Formation Energy sealing)
Prohibition on accepting contracts differing by 2 grades or more.
Prohibition on simultaneous multiple contracts
Prohibition on accepting commissions under a personal name
Prohibition on transmitting Formation Tower secret formation techniques externally
Prohibition on killing the client (self-defense excepted)
Prohibition on withdrawal during an ongoing contract (however, withdrawal is permitted upon client's death)
Prohibition on individual judgment regarding the above seven items
In other words, the Eight Strict Prohibitions.
Among these, the second had been plainly violated.
And not just barely-by accepting a Bronze Formation Contract, a grade far, far below.
"Ugh, he's insane! This person is truly insane!"
Eom Bi-ryeong pulled at her hair with one hand and pressed the other to her forehead.
"If the Grand Zenith Position finds out, he may very well get a proper disciplinary sanction."
"Well. The Eight Great Commandments are important, but in this case, since the starting point was the fault of the grade committee members, would there not be some room for consideration?"
'Room for consideration, my foot. Even if the grade committee members said so, he himself! That person, Dong Mu-toe, knows perfectly well. He knows. That he is not some ordinary formation Taoist!"
"Ha ha. That is true, and yet, does the Grand Zenith Position not place particularly great expectations on Trigram Leader Dong? I believe the Grand Zenith Position would not be greatly angered by a matter of this degree."
Dong Mu-toe.
Trigram Leader of the Fire Formation Division, specializing in illusion techniques.
However, a figure who displayed genius talent in compound formation techniques rather than in illusion techniques themselves. The unprecedented and unmatched record of having become a Trigram Leader at twenty-three.
Whether as the next, or the one after, or the one after that-someone everyone acknowledged would inevitably become Grand Zenith Position someday, Formation Tower's supreme eccentric... no, genius.
Looked at that way, Myo Jin-heo's words might well be correct.
For a matter of this degree, it did seem unlikely that the Grand Zenith Position would impose any great disadvantage or sanction on Dong Mu-toe.
"Ha.... I hope that's the case. But just in case, the Grand Zenith Position could invoke collective responsibility or some such thing and freeze the Trigram Leaders' research funds for several months."
The aspect that outsiders greatly misunderstand about Formation Tower.
It was true that Formation Tower and its formation Taoists pursued money.
But to be more precise, what they pursued was the formation itself.
Just as martial artists have the ultimate goal of ascending to immortality through 'martial arts' to take their place among immortals, the formation Taoists' final purpose was to develop 'formations' to their utmost extremity, to completely confine and control the world within the logic of the Eight Trigrams, Nine Palaces, and Five Elements of Yin and Yang.
Money was merely a means necessary for endlessly pursuing those formations.
For researching formations, and for procuring the formation stones and various materials for that research.
'Either way, just wait until that person returns. I'll trap him immediately in the Eight Yang Five Yin Formation and make sure he never acts rashly again."
Then, after composing her mind and spirit with a long breath in and out, Eom Bi-ryeong looked at Myo Jin-heo with a settled expression.
'Anyway, that person will be back soon, won't he?'
'Well, of course... it's a Bronze Formation Contract, so it will be finished quickly, will it not? For Trigram Leader Dong, it would be an easier commission than drinking that cold, stale cup of tea over there."
Myo Jin-heo folded his fan.
'Surely no accident could occur during a Bronze Formation Contract commission, could it?"
"Well, that's true. But where exactly did he go?"
"Near Gangdo, they say."
"Gangdo? The intelligence report from not long ago said it's been absolutely chaotic there lately?"
'However chaotic it may be, what of it?"
Myo Jin-heo shifted his gaze back toward the 'window.'
Whether there was truly some problem on the Gangdo side, the Formation Path's Formation Energy was scattered and nothing could be seen at all.
Of course, that was not a major problem.
Because the Martial World was a place where thousands and tens of thousands of such problems arose in a single day.
It had been so yesterday, was so today, and would be so tomorrow.
"Unless some natural calamity were to occur, at any rate."
Even among natural calamities, typhoons, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions would not be enough to affect a Trigram Leader.
Unless the heavens themselves were to collapse, that might be another matter.
"Natural calamity, please. Didn't you see this?"
Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell - A Preliminary Discourse on Compound Layered Formation Path Based on the Grand Zenith Return to Unity Theory
"This is the natural calamity. This is. Deploying something like this near Gangdo?"
Eom Bi-ryeong said, holding up and shaking Dong Mu-toe's new 'madness.'
"It's already hell over there."
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She jabbed her index finger repeatedly at the area Myo Jin-heo was gazing at-precisely at Gangdo-and twisted her expression.
"A living. hell."
***
Fwoooooosh-
"Interesting."
This is, after all, an interesting world.
After smashing through the ice wall and emerging, it is now a Scorching Hell.
When he had first arrived here, it had been nothing more than an ordinary mountain peak, but now it had become a place that seethed and boiled as if he were trapped in an ultra-high-temperature steam room.
Fwoooooosh-
In an instant, hair singeing, skin browning and cooking to a golden color.
Had he not been channeling heat away with the Super True Energy Field, he would have already been sublimated into a handful of ash.
[. Disband the Red-Red Alliance.
Progress: 100%
Reward: History +1, Bae Dal-pae's trust slightly increased]
Thanks to that, disbanding the Red-Red Alliance was complete.
To be precise, it had been completed for him.
Surely all remaining enemies had been annihilated by the preceding formation and by this current formation technique.
They had brought it on themselves.
If you signed a contract wrong, you should die.
That is the natural order of the Martial World, of nature.
[Defeat all Alliance Under Heaven Formation Dispatch Unit hired by the Red-Red Alliance.
- Progress: 0%
Reward: History +1, Relationship with Alliance Under Heaven Formation established]
"..."
The remaining objective was clear.
Those hired by the rabble that had just been exterminated-the Alliance Under Heaven Formation's Dispatch Unit.
Dong Bong-soo quietly surveyed his surroundings.
A space so hot it could humble even a hell of fire.
Even though he had deployed the Super True Energy Field carefully to block all Fire Energy and heat from invading the surroundings whatsoever, the heat continued to intensify.
At this rate, perhaps one quarter-hour?
That would be about the limit.
Even so, he was focused on examining his surroundings.
Because he needed to determine his direction.
Where the remaining enemies were, and which way he would need to go in order to exit this formation.
- Are you looking for me?
A Sound Transmission that struck his ears without warning.
No, more than a Sound Transmission...
'Is this the will of this formation.'
The will generated by the formation as a whole was conveying its intent.
In other words, this formation's designer was addressing him.
"..."
- It's simple. If you break through all eight formations I've deployed, you'll be able to meet me.
"..."
- But that will be impossible. Because this Formation Path is in itself an absolutely unbreakable Formation Path.
"..."
- Why won't you say anything?
Because there is no need to reply.
Thud. Thud.
Dong Bong-soo simply walked forward.
- So you were a mute.... In any case, it seems you're awfully full of yourself just because you broke through that one Cold Yin Ice Wind Formation, but in the Scorching Hell Net Formation, Yang Energy is maximized and the earth seethes like a blast furnace, until ultimately the air itself ignites and the space itself becomes flame. On top of that, your feeble body, which has just adapted to extreme cold, suddenly confronting such extreme heat? Extreme Opposition Mutual Clash. Water and Fire are opposing, yet what connects the two is Energy. At the moment when Cold and Heat alternate, your body cannot sustain itself and collapses. Because of this marvel...
An exposition addict.
Thud. Thud.
- Due to the sudden temperature change, your bones will crack and your skin will tear and your organs will rupture and your eighty-four thousand pores will repeat expansion and contraction until finally every last pore throughout your entire body will burst apart into pieces.
The ground was turning red and glowing ever brighter. The air too shimmered, and a dense heat haze had begun to rise that made it utterly impossible to make out the surroundings properly.
Trees and grass had all become ash, and rocks were melting away into a soft slurry.
'At this level, it should make for a proper pilot test.'
Flash-
With a sweeping gesture scanning all four directions around him, a suddenly bright light radiated outward to the surrounding area.
Range: precisely 5m.
[Shield of Faith Lv.1
[Active][Buff][Radial] - Faith is always the eternal will and armor. Extends pure divine power to protect those around the hero. When much faith from those who believe in the caster is imbued, an additional function of driving away evil is installed. Though the hero's most basic means of defense, it holds infinite possibilities according to faith level.
Mana Consumption: 10 MP/min
Cast Time: Instant Cast
Cooldown: None
Range: 5m Base
Damage Reduction: 10 (+Faith Modifier)]
The heat that had been assailing his skin had certainly eased.
At the same time, he could tell that the various 'Faith Modifiers' pouring down from the heavens made the effect considerably better than he had expected.
Of course, this alone could by no means block all the heat of this degree, but its combined performance with the Super True Energy Field felt quite excellent.
At his current state, one hour?
He had become capable of enduring fully four times longer than before.
Even so, there was no intention of remaining here any longer.
Once the test was done, moving on was the principle.
Dong Bong-soo.
Sshk-
— You will pay the price...
Sliced through some part of the heat haze.
To be precise, severed the vein of the formation.
His figure slid into the air that gaped open like the maw of a monster.
Without any reply whatsoever.
'Eight formations, he said.
Two had been severed.
Six remained.
Afterward.
The exposition addict would have to pay the price.
Because making someone listen to words they do not wish to hear comes at a steep price.
-x-X-x-
'You will pay the price..."
Dong Mu-toe was still standing tall and motionless at the peak of Rainbow Peak.
His words had stopped in the same way.
It was because the 'target' had broken through the second formation in an instant.
His black long robe fluttered in the wind.
The embroidered tassels of Formation Tower's insignia on his back absorbed the sunlight and gave off a heavy, sunken grayish-white sheen. By now, it was clearly recognizable as platinum-colored.
Of course, Dong Mu-toe didn't particularly care whether he was treated as a Trigram Leader or just an ordinary formation Taoist.
So long as it alleviated his boredom and allowed him to experiment with new formations, it didn't matter what the commission was.
And.
Unexpectedly, this Bronze Formation Contract job was already satisfying him.
Look there.
The target had already broken through not only the Cold Yin Ice Wind Formation, but the Scorching Hell Net Formation as well.
Of course, even having broken through the Scorching Hell Net Formation, they were still inside the formation, so saying they were trapped would be the right expression-but even that alone meant the target was already giving him more than enough amusement. Of course, since the opponent gave no response whatsoever-nine times out of ten a mute-his interest had been slightly diminished, but that was no great problem.
Had they not entered, that would be one thing.
But the moment they stepped inside the formation, that person was already as good as dead.
He was merely curious how many formations this little source of entertainment would manage to unravel.
Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell.
A masterwork-the total culmination of everything he had conceived from the moment he first began learning formation arts until now.
- Ha ha ha. Impressive. But the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell has only just begun. It is a hell with no escape, where eight layers of formations from eight directions close in upon you. Not even an Immortal can break free. If you manage to shatter this, I shall become your slave for li-fe!?
Dong-
[The quest target has voluntarily made a 'vow'...]
[A vow made to a hero, under the blessing of goddess Lumina, carries binding force...]
A mechanical sound heard only by a certain someone.
Separately from that, Dong Mu-toe's hazy eyes lit up with clarity.
The third formation, Ten Thousand Thunder Heaven-Collapsing Formation.
A thunder formation in which countless lightning bolts pour down from the sky.
Originally the domain of the Thunder Formation Division, but reinterpreted in his own way into a supremely powerful formation-or so he had believed.
The sky inside the formation had certainly split open.
Hundreds and thousands of lightning bolts had poured toward the target.
And every single one had struck, and they were striking now, and it was obvious they would continue striking going forward.
Yet there was no reaction whatsoever...
No, it wasn't merely no reaction.
A strange transparent barrier coiled around the figure and then proceeded to absorb every single bolt of lightning that occurred.
"...How is something like that even possible?"
As if to mock Dong Mu-toe's murmur, the target's sword swept a circular arc downward and sliced clean through the formation core of the Ten Thousand Thunder Heaven-Collapsing Formation.
"...Insane."
The fourth formation, Thousand Rock Crushing Kill Formation.
A crushing formation that draws upon the earth's energy to move the rocks on all four sides.
The entire mountain shook.
The ground rumbled, and strange jagged boulders began to move as if alive.
Dozens of massive rocks bore down on the target from all four directions.
It wasn't simply a matter of dying if struck.
The vibrations produced by the rocks themselves paralyze one's sense of balance.
It renders you unable even to stand, then crushes you to death in a defenseless state.
Boom! Boom! Kaboom!
The rocks collided, and, Clouds of dust surged upward.
But the target was still pressing forward...
No, it wasn't that.
They had already destroyed the fourth formation's core and were entering the territory of the fifth formation, the Bewilderment Formation.
The corner of his mouth, which had been trembling with bewilderment, slowly curled upward before long.
'Regardless, it's fine. Now it's over.'
Because the first through fourth formations were, frankly speaking, nothing more than appetizers.
Cold energy, heat energy, lightning, rock.
In the end, they are all in the domain of physical force.
If one is strong, one can endure it; if one is stronger still, one can break through.
But the fifth formation is different.
The peerless formation arts created by the first Grand Zenith Position, the Bewilderment Formation.
A formation that became one of the cells of Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell, utilizing the principle of Illusion-Emptiness-Reality-Confusion.
A mental assault formation that dominates the five senses to create hallucinations and auditory illusions, seeping in like the wind to disturb the mind.
No matter how strong a person may be, the mind is something that cannot be hidden.
Fear, rage, regret, desire, guilt.
The darkness that every human being inevitably carries.
It draws that out and amplifies it dozens of times over.
Even masters widely acclaimed throughout the Martial World had fallen to their knees before this formation.
There was once a man who bore the epithet Sword Emperor, who grew so horrified by his own illusions that he slit his own throat.
There was once an elder of the Blood Sacrifice Sect who went mad, crushed by a guilt he had hidden all his life.
A person cannot overcome their own self.'
That was the truth Dong Mu-toe had come to understand while studying this formation.
'No matter how strong you may be.'
His eyes lit up.
'The darkness within you will be even stronger.
That target had killed countless people up until now.
They would likely carry in their heart the intent to take even more lives going forward.
All those deaths.
All that resentment.
All that malice.
Starting now-it would all consume that figure whole.
This should be entertaining.'
Dong Mu-toe folded his arms and settled into a spectator's pose.
He would be able to savor this one slowly, at last.
Because no matter how swift and powerful a predator, it is inevitably prey to the monster that is its own self, lurking deep within.
'If they are human...
This formation is something that can never be passed.
No matter who among humans it may be.
***
"..."
Dong Bong-soo momentarily stopped in his tracks and looked all around.
It was because he sensed the 'substance' of the newly entered formation drawing close.
Whizzzzzzzz...
He immediately scattered Super True Energy Sense in all directions.
The busy sounds of ants deep underground diligently guarding their queen, the smell of corpses still burning in the flames, the energy of the previous formations mixed like winter and summer blended together, the natural energy this mountain exudes...
All manner of sensations seeped in as though melting into his super-senses. But no particular danger factor was detected.
Immediately, he instead extinguished all of the Super True Energy Sense entirely.
Human beings possess the instinct called intuition.
Certainly the five senses account for 99 percent of all sensation.
But the remaining 1 percent.
There are times when that one mile of intuition and sixth sense stands above all rational perception and the five senses combined.
More than seeing, more than hearing, more than smelling, more than feeling.
Sometimes even more than the soul's eye like [Spirit Eyes].
Right now his survival instinct was telling him.
That 'something' was coming.
And then, just as he arrived at what he judged to be the formation's origin point.
Moan... moan... moan-
Whimper... whimper... whimper-
Screee! Screee! Haaah! Screee!
The wailing and sobbing of ghosts, seeping in to engulf all four directions.
It wasn't merely a sound that came.
At the same time, countless grayish-pale things that defied counting appeared around Dong Bong-soo and began to orbit.
"..."
Along with that.
Grit-
The cord of tension was sharply drawn taut as great force flooded into his jawbones. Simultaneously, the blood vessels all across his body bulged out heavily.
In his right eye, capillaries swelled as though about to burst, and eyes already bloodshot grew even more bloodshot. It seemed as though at any moment the veins might erupt through his skin and pour out blood like a waterfall. It was as though his eyes themselves might melt away, dissolving into a pool of blood.
"..."
An agonizing pain that made him want to collapse and lose consciousness swept over and embraced his entire body all at once. Even for Dong Bong-soo it was unimaginable-a sensation as though hundreds of iron stakes had been driven into his very soul and thousands of hammers were pounding away at them.
[Why did you kill me?]
A voice that drove itself into the soul like a stake.
Ghost's Wail-wail that seemed to have crawled up from Hell itself.
But the moment that voice was heard.
The trembling of his cheeks, which had been shuddering violently, instead went still.
Black began to slowly return to the bloodshot eyes where veins had erupted mercilessly.
[Why did you kill me?]
[Why did you kill me?]
[Why did you kill me?]
...
..
.
The 'substances' that his intuition had seized upon thrash wildly around Dong Bong-soo like mad things leaping around.
[Why did you kill me?]
Dong Bong-soo passed through the shimmer.
Because I had to.
The distorted shimmer quickly gathered into another face and stood blocking his path.
The faces of those killed when he induced the suicide epidemic.
[Why did you kill me?]
[Why did you kill me?]
He passed through again.
Because I had to.
The northern enemy soldiers killed at the time of the Ear Ghost.
[Why did you kill me?]
[Why did you kill me?]
The illusions continued without end.
He kept passing through without pause.
Because I had to kill, and kill again.
The lingering shadows that had been scattered into fragments reassembled themselves one after another into hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands.
Children, adults, the elderly, men and women of every age...
Every one of them wore a different face, but the emotion flowing from their eyes was the same kind.
Resentment.
Those who had distorted and passed by rallied to surround him once more.
Now fully materialized, they reached out their hands to him, grabbed at him, and murmured.
[Why did you kill me?]
[Why did you kill me?]
[Why did you kill me?]
[Why did you kill me?]
Why, why, why, why...
The resentments flowed and encircled him.
The wraiths screamed, clinging to and pulling at his arms, his feet, his face, his entire body.
[You should die too.]
[You should die too.]
[You should die too.]
[You should die too.]
***
The peak of Rainbow Peak.
Dong Mu-toe's expression had stiffened.
... What is this?'
It was strange.
The Bewilderment Formation had certainly been activated.
Tens of thousands of grudge-bearing souls had swarmed around the target.
And yet.
'Why isn't it breaking down?"
Normally, it ends the instant the grudge souls appear.
No matter how strong a person, when they face the faces of those they have killed, they waver.
Whether guilt, fear, or revulsion.
They feel something.
And those feelings amplify and shatter the mind.
Yet that figure.
Was passing through them.
Through the grudge souls.
With no reaction whatsoever.
No.
They could be seen growing stronger.
Whatever this person's mind was made of... the more faces of those they had killed they passed through, the stronger they were becoming.
'Impossible...'
Dong Mu-toe's fingers trembled.
'That's impossible.'
For a human being.
For a human being, it's impossible.
...Insane.
Dong Mu-toe's eyes trembled.
For the first time.
An emotion arose within him-something he could not tell whether to call reverence or excitement.
'That is not a human being.'
***
"No."
All manner of cruel agonies could be felt, but he was emotionless.
On the contrary, the more it came, the more emotionless he became. The more numb.
Because.
He had to be.
Because he had to live.
Because he had to survive.
Because he would survive.
You are dead, and I will go on living from here on and grow stronger.
Because that is what a 'hero' is supposed to do.
'If you want to kill me, you should have resurrected instead of conjuring up these worthless delusions."
Shhhhk-
Dong Bong-soo's sword suddenly flashed.
In an instant a sharp sword wind swept through and blew away every illusion.
Along with the Bewilderment Formation's formation core.
Whooooosh...
The grayish-white wraiths like heat shimmers vanished every last one, and the endlessly stretching sky
once more registered into the neural pathways of his retinas.
And.
He could see it from afar.
The source of all this chaos.
"Found you. Little Star Candy."
-x-X-x-
The target was fast.
Far too fast.
No man's land.
He was breaking through every formation in the blink of an eye, leaving no room to carefully study and digest the principles behind the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell's formation arts.
As if.
'Why...?'
As if the formations were not functioning.
For anyone with a heart, the unease and terror should have been maximized until their mind shattered.
Was there no fear?
No anxiety either?
In reality, not a single ripple of any emotion whatsoever was detected.
As though trying to pour water into an empty vessel, only to find the vessel itself did not exist.
"Huh...?"
At some point, their eyes met directly.
It was something that could never have happened if the formations were doing their job.
Eyes whose depth was unfathomable, like a bottomless pit, looked this way.
A laugh slipped out.
"Ah, so that was it."
That was why he had made it through the first through fourth formations unscathed.
With no fear, he was not cowed by the cold energy.
With no rage, he was not swept away by the heat energy.
With no anxiety, he could calmly evade the lightning.
With no bewilderment, he could composedly shatter the rocks.
A being without emotion.
Because he was such a being, even the Bewilderment Formation had been meaningless.
"Interesting. How interesting!"
Dong Mu-toe moved his fingers.
'Then what about this?"
The sixth formation, Star-Absorbing Meridian-Severing Formation.
West. Trigram. Lake.
A vicious formation that forcibly sucks out the target's internal energy and severs their meridians.
Just as water flows to lower ground, energy too flows to where the pressure is low.
The Star-Absorbing Meridian-Severing Formation artificially lowers the energy pressure around the target, causing their internal energy to drain out regardless of their own will.
And into the void left behind by that drained internal energy, turbid energy seeps in. In this way the meridians become blocked, and martial arts are slowly lost.
The third principle, Meridian-Locking Energy Sealing.
A formation that kills slowly, like water evaporating away.
This has nothing to do with the flow of emotions, it's a...huh!?
The target bent their knees.
No-the moment he sensed them bending, they snapped back and the figure shot forward like a projectile.
"... What?"
Dong Mu-toe's eyes sharpened to a keen edge.
His vision, honed to extreme precision, caught something strange.
A faint fog-like thing was rising around the target.
True energy.
The suction force emitted by the Star-Absorbing Meridian-Severing Formation.
The instant it made contact with the target.
It was being sucked in the reverse direction.
Swoosh-!
The target's footsteps grew faster and faster.
As though the absorbed energy were refilling them in return.
...He's eating it.
The formation's energy.
My formation.
Strangely.
Not irritation, but excitement surged forth.
'That's it! That's the one! This is what a proper experiment should be! Heh-heh-heh."
Having broken through the sixth formation in an instant, the target entered the seventh.
The seventh formation, Space-Time Turbulence Formation.
Southwest. Trigram. Earth.
A labyrinth formation that warps the sense of space to prevent finding the exit.
The core of the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell.
The fourth principle, Spatial Reversal.
Go forward and end up in the same place.
Go backward and end up in the same place.
This space, composed of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, is folded through the logic of the Nine
Palaces and Eight Trigrams.
There is a hole to escape through.
However, that hole cannot be reached.
Ever.
And.
As anticipated, the target, who had been running furiously, stopped dead in their tracks.
Unable to move a single step.
One.
Two.
Three.
"Got them. Got them. Heh-heh."
Now it's impossible to break through this formation by physical force alone.
Doesn't matter if there are no emotions.
Doesn't matter if they absorb the energy permeating the formation.
Because space itself is folded.
Try to go forward and you move backward.
Try to go backward and you move sideways.
Escape is logically impossible.
This is the core of the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell.
Without breaking through the seventh formation, the eighth cannot even be touched.
They will wander forever within the seventh formation until dying of exhaustion.
To be more precise, it makes no difference whether they reach the eighth formation or the ninth formation or the hundredth formation.
'Truly the end."
Dong Mu-toe released the tension from his shoulders.
Honestly, he was quite disappointed.
Just making it this far was already remarkable.
If only they had given him just a little more amusement...if only they had helped a little more with the experiment.
- Is this all? Is this all you've got?
Dong Mu-toe's voice echoed throughout the entire formation.
- Let me tell you, regretfully. Even if you were to somehow break through the seventh formation and reach the eighth, you're designed to return back to the first formation. Because the eighth formation is the first formation. And the first formation is also the eighth. In other words, the logic and principles of the seventh formation fold space and connect the exit of the first formation to its entrance. An infinite loop. To escape, you'd have to shatter the Formation Eye...but that's impossible. Because...huh?
The target gave no response.
Only a finger rose.
Pointing toward Dong Mu-toe-or more precisely, toward the peak of Rainbow Peak where Dong Mu-toe stood.
"... ! "
Space was folded.
The sense of direction was twisted.
Logically, from there, it was impossible to see here.
And yet.
Eyes met again with the target.
"Just how...how does that one keep seeing me, every single time?"
In that split instant.
The target's index finger flicked.
Whoosh.
Something flew over.
Something invisible.
In a straight line, disregarding the warping of space.
Dong Mu-toe reflexively twisted his head to the side.
Slice.
A single streak of blood ran down his cheek.
"... "
Dong Mu-toe wiped his cheek with a finger.
A red liquid staining his fingertip.
His own blood.
How long had it been?
Since he had last seen his own blood.
"Ha ha."
A laugh slipped out.
"Ha ha ha ha."
The laughter grew.
Space was folded, yet an attack had come flying in a straight line.
It was an impossible thing.
'Is the formation wrong?"
No, there was no way.
There was no way it could...
In that instant.
A presence was felt directly behind him.
Dong Mu-toe's eyes widened.
It was as though his heart had stopped.
A sensation he had never felt once in his entire life.
'Is this...what they call fear?'
So I was capable of feeling such an emotion too.
He slowly turned his body.
The target was standing there.
"No."
A flat, toneless voice.
The target-no, Dong Bong-soo, who had by now fully reclaimed the position of hunter, spoke.
"It wasn't wrong."
'... Then what was the problem?"
'It just didn't know."
"...?"
"Someone like me...that a person could be like me."
'What do you mean?"
'That I was never trapped to begin with."
'Faith does not fold. Thanks to that, the direction that belief points is not warped either."
"Faith? Belief?"
"A principle that an ordinary soul like you cannot comprehend."
*... Ordinary soul?"
"..."
"Me?"
Dong Bong-soo gave no further reply and swept his gaze around the surroundings.
Among the flustered dispatch unit members, some tried to flee and some hurried to set up their formations.
First.
Slice.
Into the backs of the formation Taoists attempting to flee, an invisible energy shot and lodged itself.
Unable to even scream, they all collapsed at once.
Slice.
Second.
The wrists of those hastily trying to deploy their formations were severed in midair.
Before those wrists could even fall to the ground, every last one of their heads had flown off.
The rest did not need to be counted.
Because there were no survivors.
With a light swing of his hand twice, all acts of resistance ceased.
As is the usual fate of those who defy a 'hero.
Either dead or worse.
And then.
Once more, Dong Bong-soo's cool eyes returned to Dong Mu-toe.
'Are you Dong Mu-toe?"
"... You know me?"
'Watch your tone."
'Even our Rank Committee couldn't figure out-"
Sensing that the blabbermouth was about to go on at length, Dong Bong-soo immediately cleaved straight through the middle of the man's words.
"You made a promise earlier, didn't you?"
*...What? Ah."
- Ha ha ha. Impressive. But the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell has only just begun. It is a hell with no escape, where eight layers of formations from eight directions close in upon you. Not even an Immortal can break free. If you manage to shatter this, I shall become your slave for li-fe!?
[The quest target has voluntarily declared a 'vow.']
[A vow made to a hero carries binding force under the blessing of goddess Lumina.]
An absolute promise that Dong Mu-toe himself could never have heard-one that only Dong Bong-soo was aware of.
Crack.
Dong Mu-toe's waist buckled.
For the first time in his life, his knees touched the ground.
...What is this?'
It was strange.
He had clearly not knelt of his own will.
His body had moved on its own.
As if being controlled by someone.
No.
... The promise.
If you shatter it, I shall become your slave.
It had been a joke.
It could not have been sincere.
Because logically, the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell could not be broken through. Because it was a formation that was not supposed to be breakable.
And yet.
More than the fact of what had happened and how, what mattered right now was that he could not take any action whatsoever.
'This is...being compelled? When did he do it? How did he do it? Is it some new formation? Or a curse! It
can't be a martial art!?'
He didn't know what it was.
He was merely fascinated.
Not resentful.
On the contrary.
'How interesting.
Dong Mu-toe, on his knees, laughed Heh-heh.
Crack.
Of course, the feelings of Dong Mu-toe were of no concern to Dong Bong-soo. Dong Bong-soo's foot lightly came to rest on the man's face. Regardless of how the man himself felt about it.
Ding
[Guild] First Commission
[Chain]
: During a mission, unexpected additional enemies may appear at any time, so please always exercise caution. I hope you will not forget that cowardly ones are always targeting your back.
Disband the Red-Red Alliance.
Progress: 100%
Reward: History +1, Bae Dal-pae's Trust Level slight increase
. Defeat all members of the Alliance Under Heaven Formation Dispatch Unit hired by the Red-Red Alliance.
- Progress: 100%
Additional Condition: Complete full breakthrough of the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell
Reward: History +1, Relationship with the Alliance Under Heaven Formation established: Vow relationship formed with one of the Eight Trigram Leaders, Dong Mu-toe
[Your heroic march advances Hero History considerably. A reward is given.][+2]
[The world has become quite a bit more beautiful.]
[A relationship with the Alliance Under Heaven Formation has been established.]
[In accordance with the vow, Dong Mu-toe has become your 'Subordinate.']
[A vow made to a hero carries binding force under the blessing of goddess Lumina.]
[The vow-maker cannot refuse.]
[However, if the subordinate's will is strong, partial resistance is possible.]
[Even a forced bond can sometimes become a good connection.]
[Because belief always brings corresponding rewards.]
Dong Bong-soo quickly dismissed the irritating heart hologram text. And then, swinging the collapsing Dong Mu-toe over his shoulder atop it.
A Formation Taoist.
And going by what he had just personally experienced, one of a very formidable caliber at that.
'Should be useful."
For a little star candy, quite the premium grade as well.
The fact that his mouth runs nonstop is something that can be fixed gradually.
Thud
Soon his figure stretched rapidly in the direction of Gangdo and disappeared.