Geom Mugeuk stood in a new space.
In the darkness.
He activated his Divine Eye Art and looked around. He was standing before a staircase leading downward.
When he had entrusted his body to the wind, a wondrous formation had transported him here.
‘This is the place!’
Geom Mugeuk could tell that this was the entrance leading to the tombs of the past Alliance Lords.
‘Thank you, Family Head Dan.’
Dan Sojin truly had left a clue in his farewell. He could not break his family law, but he must have hoped for it—that the dangerous object would be taken away from the tomb.
Of course, he likely had not thought Geom Mugeuk would actually find this place.
The location of this place was, in every sense, a strategy of emptiness and reality.
If it were a secret cemetery, one would naturally assume the entrance was hidden deep somewhere in rugged mountains.
Who would ever imagine that the entrance was hidden in such an open, unobstructed place?
And Geom Mugeuk was sincerely impressed by the formation.
A formation one could enter only by fully entrusting one’s body to the wind?
Truly, it was the first time he had experienced a formation that carried such elegance and refined taste.
Whoever had made it, at least one thing was certain. The person who had created this formation in the past must have been called a master of formations. He was likely someone known and respected by all who learned and used formations even now.
At that, Geom Mugeuk grew tense inside. Down below, formations made by such a person would be waiting.
Geom Mugeuk carefully began descending the stairs.
Already, he could feel the mysteriousness exuded by the space itself. It was an energy that could not be compared to the fake Sword Tomb where he had fought the Twelve Zodiac Kings.
The farther he went down the stairs, the brighter his surroundings became. And at the bottom of the stairs, a long corridor awaited him; at its far end was another staircase leading underground.
‘The first trial!’
Geom Mugeuk examined the walls on both sides of the corridor. Countless holes dotted the floor, walls, and ceiling. The moment he set foot in that corridor, mechanisms would activate, and hidden weapons or blades would spring out. Fortunately, it was not a formation but a mechanical trap.
After carefully inspecting the mechanism, Geom Mugeuk made his decision.
‘I’ll break through with Swift Step.’
He had no intention of damaging the mechanism out of some needless desire to show off his skill. After all, he had come here as a quiet guest. He intended to leave without anyone knowing he had ever visited.
After calming his mind with a deep breath, Geom Mugeuk launched himself forward. He, whose speed had recently reached an extreme, now moved with full intent.
Shiiiiik!
At the same time, the mechanisms all reacted at once.
Shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk!
In a flash, Geom Mugeuk landed at the end of the corridor. His breathing was not disturbed. He had arrived before he could even take a single breath.
The corridor he had passed through had hundreds of spearheads jutting out from all directions like a spiderweb before returning to their original positions. Behind the charging Geom Mugeuk, the spearheads had followed like waves, like flames. But they could not catch up to lightning.
Sreung, seureureung, seureureung.
Geom Mugeuk’s breakthrough had exceeded the highest speed of an intruder imagined by the person who had made the mechanism. No matter how great an expert was, surely he could not be faster than this. But Geom Mugeuk was faster still.
In every sense, Geom Mugeuk’s movement art had surpassed even the imagination of the mechanism’s creator.
Having passed through without leaving a single scratch on the trap, Geom Mugeuk descended the stairs again.
The second underground floor.
There, the second trial awaited.
The second trial that greeted Geom Mugeuk was far more dangerous than the previous one. Of course, that was if its target had not been Geom Mugeuk.
The moment he stepped off the last stair, Geom Mugeuk could feel it.
A single strand of poison entering with his breath.
‘Formless Poison!’
It had made anyone who came this far focus on what might be waiting in the passage ahead, then poisoned them at the end of the stairs. Quietly, without letting them know where or how the poison had been administered.
This trial, which used extremely expensive Formless Poison, was saying this:
Just die here.
Even an expert who safely passed the first trial would not have been able to survive here.
Geom Mugeuk lightly broke through the first and second trials, then descended the stairs again.
The third underground floor.
At the third trial, a formation activated.
Ssssss.
The place where Geom Mugeuk stood changed. His surroundings turned into a desolate field, and around him, illusions like pitch-black shadows began to appear. Illusions wielding all manner of weapons rushed toward Geom Mugeuk.
As if wondering what this was supposed to mean, Geom Mugeuk tilted his head.
Swaaaaaak.
Geom Mugeuk cut down the illusions charging at him from every direction. An immense number rushed in, but Geom Mugeuk was no longer who he once had been.
Sword energy that flew from the Black Demon Sword swept through them. Even when using the same internal energy, the number he killed was different.
The illusions continued charging over the corpses. It was a number that an ordinary expert’s internal energy could never endure, but the person who had created this formation had also miscalculated the numbers. Surely there was no one who could withstand this many enemies? There was.
Puaaaak!
When Geom Mugeuk cut down the final illusion, the formation was broken.
Sssssss.
In every sense, Geom Mugeuk’s ability overwhelmed the trials. The three trials each demanded speed, resistance to poison, and internal energy beyond human limits, and Geom Mugeuk was like the natural enemy of these trials.
Yes, it could not be helped. They would never have imagined that someone this strong would enter.
When he broke the third trial, an enormous stone gate appeared before his eyes.
He had finally reached the tomb.
When Geom Mugeuk opened the stone gate and entered, a magnificent interior revealed itself.
The incomparably high ceiling overwhelmed all who stepped inside, and stone statues stood in every direction.
There was a statue depicting a martial artist wearing a sword, and another statue holding a saber. One statue had its fist thrust forward, while another was seated in a grand armchair.
From their dignified appearances, every one of them, he could tell that they were the past Lords of the Sado Alliance.
And murals were painted on the walls in every direction.
Had an Orthodox-Unorthodox Great War broken out?
Flames were blazing, and corpses filled every side. In the midst of them, a martial artist stood tall. He too was likely one of the past Lords of the Sado Alliance.
And in the center was a display cabinet, where the legacies left behind by the Lords of the Sado Alliance had been placed. There were martial arts manuals, and there were also divine weapons and rare armaments they had used.
They were the martial arts learned and weapons used by Alliance Lords of each era, so one did not need to look to know how precious they were.
And among them was that thing.
Placed atop a snow-white cloth, it was surely the final purple bead, the Jajeong.
“Our youngest is over there!”
Geom Mugeuk strode toward it.
Then he picked up the Jajeong and silently looked down at it.
The sixth and final bead.
To obtain the energy of this bead, those behind the scenes had made every effort imaginable.
Geom Mugeuk looked down at it with a deepened gaze.
Crash.
Suddenly, he hurled the Jajeong he was holding to the floor.
The Jajeong shattered to pieces.
Sssssss.
Even as purple energy spread in every direction, Geom Mugeuk merely watched in silence.
It was then.
“Why are you doing this?”
A hidden door opened in the wall, and someone rushed out.
Amazingly, it was Dan Sojin, the head of the Baekchong Family, who managed this tomb. It seemed he had been hiding there, secretly watching what was happening inside.
“Was that bead not what you were searching for?”
“It was. I fought them because of this.”
“Then why did you break it?”
Looking down at the shattered Jajeong, Geom Mugeuk calmly said,
“Because it was fake.”
Dan Sojin asked with a startled expression,
“It was fake?”
Geom Mugeuk silently nodded.
“How did you know it was fake?”
Geom Mugeuk quietly stared at him, then for some reason answered honestly.
“I obtained the other beads before this. Those beads were hidden in places difficult to find. But the bead here was displayed openly, as if to show it off. It was in the most conspicuous place.”
“You broke it for that reason alone? Could it not have been displayed openly for some other reason?”
“Of course, it wasn’t only because of that.”
When he had received the final bead, neither the secret coffer nor the energy within his body had reacted at all. Could that make sense? It was the final energy—there was no way there would be no reaction.
Shocking words flowed from Geom Mugeuk’s mouth.
“This tomb here is fake as well.”
Dan Sojin wore an expression of disbelief.
“Fake? I am here, so what in the world are you saying?”
Geom Mugeuk looked at Dan Sojin.
“It is fake because you are here.”
“!”
Dan Sojin’s expression hardened.
“What exactly do you mean?”
“The moment I saw you, I became certain.”
Dan Sojin did not hide his displeasure.
“Is this how you repay the grace I showed you?”
He was beyond dumbfounded, now enraged.
Geom Mugeuk’s calm explanation followed.
“The wind formation created at the entrance was an extraordinary formation.”
It truly had been the first time he had experienced such an incredible formation.
“And yet, compared to that, the formation inside was far too ordinary. The formation that brought me through the entrance was that remarkable, but the trials guarding the inside were merely things like these? Spearheads being fired, poison being released, illusions attacking within a formation. They were common mechanisms and formations one could see anywhere.”
Geom Mugeuk said as if concluding the matter,
“I thought that if it was the person who made the entrance formation, he would absolutely never have made such ordinary formations.”
That was also why Geom Mugeuk had tilted his head while breaking the formation of the final, third trial.
“So I thought about it. If he had truly made a formation here, what kind of formation would he have made? If someone were to enter this place, it would surely be because they were aiming for the legacies of the past Alliance Lords here. Then one legendary formation came to mind.”
One formation flowed from Geom Mugeuk’s mouth.
“The Wish-Fulfilling Illusory Formation!”
It was an ancient formation that allowed those trapped within it to obtain what they most longed for.
To someone who wanted treasure, it gave treasure; to someone who wanted martial arts manuals, it gave manuals.
But the moment they took possession of it, they would never escape the formation. As they rejoiced in obtaining it and wandered within the formation, their real body would eventually die from exhaustion of true qi.
There was only one way to break it.
The moment one obtained it, one had to reject it. Just as Geom Mugeuk had shattered the Jajeong earlier.
That method of breaking it was the most difficult method of all for human beings.
“I was already inside the formation from the first trial.”
From the moment he had first fallen into the darkness, the formation had already activated.
“A Linked Activation Formation.”
It was a level of skill befitting the person who had made the wind formation. Whoever he was, he was truly someone worthy of being called a god of formations.
“What is even more astonishing is that even though I rejected what I wanted, the formation was not broken.”
At that moment, Dan Sojin displayed an attitude different from before.
“Young Cult Leader, you truly are remarkable!”
As if all of this had been a test, he exclaimed in deep admiration.
He took another box from his robe and gave it to Geom Mugeuk.
“Here is the real bead. I apologize for testing you, Young Cult Leader. I wanted to confirm whether you could break the Wish-Fulfilling Illusory Formation.”
Geom Mugeuk received the box and opened it. Inside was a purple bead that shone even more brilliantly than the one from before.
“Truly remarkable.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s admiration, Dan Sojin asked with a curious expression,
“Is that bead truly so remarkable? What role does it play, exactly?”
“I wasn’t talking about the bead.”
Geom Mugeuk picked up the bead.
Crash.
This time as well, he shattered it without hesitation.
Dan Sojin stared at Geom Mugeuk in shock.
“He created not only a linked formation, but also a formation that requires a double breaking.”
“A double breaking? What does that mean?”
Then Geom Mugeuk revealed a shocking truth.
“It is you. You are part of the formation, and you are the second method of breaking it, arranged to prevent the formation from being broken.”
“!”
“It even seems that you yourself do not know you are playing such a role.”
Dan Sojin shouted angrily,
“What kind of mad nonsense is that?”
Then Geom Mugeuk abruptly asked,
“What kind of person are you?”
“What?”
“Try to recall what kind of person you are.”
After a brief pause, Geom Mugeuk asked again.
“You are a loyal person. Someone who would willingly give his life to protect this tomb. Those final words you gave me were the best you could do, and the utmost consideration you could offer. You must have done it after making a truly great resolve. And yet you would wait for me here? You found that hard-to-find bead and kept it in your robe, then tested me? In this sacred tomb that you value more than your life? Are you that kind of person?”
At that question, Dan Sojin became confused.
“I… I am not that kind of person.”
The moment he admitted it,
Ssssss!
Dan Sojin’s form began to disappear. He truly had been the second method of breaking the formation. If someone else had broken through to this point, the method of breaking it would not have appeared as Dan Sojin, but as someone else with whom that person had formed a bond.
A person who entered this place not only had to pass the three trials within the formation, but also had to reject what they desperately desired.
Even if they rejected it, they then had to reject a second temptation as well.
Ultimately, it was a formation that could never be broken by anyone who had intruded with any greed from the start.
Thud.
At that moment, a single booklet fell where Dan Sojin had disappeared.
—Heavenly Qi Compendium of Peerless Formations.
Geom Mugeuk opened the booklet and saw these words written inside.
—I leave the enlightenment of my final years to the later generation who has broken my linked formation. Gui Xuzi.
Geom Mugeuk did not know of Gui Xuzi. But if he was someone who had created at least these two formations, then was this secret manual he left behind not the Nine-Flame Demonic Art of the formation world?
Geom Mugeuk carefully tucked the booklet into his robe. He considered obtaining such a fortuitous encounter at a time like this to be entirely the will of the heavens.
“I will use it so that it may help the world.”
Only then did the formation begin to vanish.
Srrrk.
The surroundings around Geom Mugeuk changed. The place that had been the inside of the tomb disappeared, and he was back in the darkness where Geom Mugeuk had first fallen.
And before his eyes, he saw an enormous stone gate.
As if to prove that it was the entrance to the true tomb, the face of the wolf—the guardian statue standing on the path to the Sado Alliance Lord’s Hall—was carved at the center of the stone gate.
It looked incomparably valiant, as if guarding the souls of the previous Alliance Lords.
“Hey, it’s been a while.”
Geom Mugeuk pushed the door with both hands.
Grrrrrr.
It was the moment when the many-layered history of the Sado martial world opened. Even the scent of time was different from before.