Chapter 108. Nine Flowing Army Formation
ED: Chrysanthemum
After exiting the Sichuan Branch of the Heavenly Demon Church, Ju Ho Yu observed the changes in the formation for quite a while.
He was curious of how that boy would use the formation.
Thanks to that, Ju Ho Yu saw the Four Powers gather and quabble in front of the gates.
And once they all entered the formation, he widened his eyes and clapped his hands in admiration.
He had realized what the secret of the formation was.
* * *
The fire was hot.
In an instant, the air burned out and the heat quickly began to take over.
The moment when everyone’s eyes were turned towards Juk Hyul Myung, the man stepped out and waved his hand.
Kuaa-
The cold energy that came out of his hands struck the area and subdued the flames for a moment.
Seeing the people of the North Sea Ice Palace sighed in relief, Juk Hyul Myung looked at them and opened his mouth.
“Keep your guard up. This isn’t the end.”
Just as Juk Hyul Myung had said that, copper statues appeared in the place where the fire subdued.
There were countless statues surrounding them.
Juk Hyul Myung looked around for a moment and then smirked.
“I’ve already passed the age which I played with toys, though.”
Crack-
As he cracked his fingers, Juk Hyul Myung opened his mouth.
“Frigid Wind Leader.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Get rid of those.”
“Understood.”
20 martial artists moved along with the Frigid Wind Leader.
Kuakuakua-!
With each stroke, a copper statue would broke apart.
A white light glinted off from their weapons.
This was the sword qi, which proved that these experts were peak experts.
‘Where are you?’
As the Frigid Wind Brigade took care of the statues, Juk Hyul Ayung stretched out his senses in order to search for something.
‘Where did you hide?’
Juk Hyul Ayung wasn’t alerted by petty tricks like the statues.
What alerted him was the giant presence he felt right before the fire.
He was chasing after the giant presence that had touched the far edges of his senses.
‘Shit.’
His senses weren’t normal.
It was almost like he was trying to find something in a pool of mud.
Around the time when he began to frown, he felt something grab onto his sleeves.
When he looked back, he was able to see Ju Da Hye grabbing onto him with a stiff face.
“What is it?”
“Your face…… is scary.”
“Don’t you mean handsome?”
“Wow…… To think you’d be able to joke at a time like this…… Amazing.”
“I don’t joke about stuff like this.”
After saying this, Juk Hyul Ayung tried touching his face for a moment. As he did so, he smiled.
“Ahh, you’re right. I might get wrinkles at this rate.”
He didn’t want to admit it, but he must’ve seen to be anxious.
When was the last time when he was anxious like this?
He couldn’t remember.
This wasn’t the way he operated, either.
Juk Hyul Ayung managed to calm himself after Ju Da Hye’s words.
But right then.
Kiing-
Something had been caught in his senses once again.
A small light glinted off from Juk Hyul Myung’s eyes.
‘Found you.’
At the same time, Juk Hyul Myung swung his sword.
Chuaa-!
In an empty space, a small crack appeared.
A ‘wound’ was created in the air.
Juk Hyul Myung looked at this for a moment, then frowned.
The ‘wound’ had disappeared as if it had never existed before.
‘I definitely struck something, right?’
It felt like he had sliced flesh.
But that thing that he had sliced disappeared.
What happened?
Juk Hyul Myung tried to chase after the presence, but flinched before he actually did so.
“Oh, shit……”
The members of the Frigid Wind Division had completely disappeared.
After looking around for a bit, Juk Hyul Myung grabbed onto Ju Da Hye’s hand.
“Looks like the formation tries to separate people whenever possible. If you want to live, don’t move too far away from me.”
Ju Da Hye nodded.
That was just what she had wanted, wasn’t it?
“What the hell is that giant lump of muscle doing?”
Juk Hyul Myung stretched out his senses as he swore at Gu Hui.
He would wait till the presence appeared again.
* * *
“Ah.”
No Jin Nyung became confused when Cho Ryu Hyang’s finger suddenly began to bleed.
Un Hui quickly appeared from the shadows and patched up Cho Ryu Hyang’s finger.
“Are you alright?”
Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.
“I’m fine. I was a little surprised that’s all.”
Right.
Cho Ryu Hyang was extremely surprised at the moment.
He didn’t know who was in the formation.
But that person just managed to do the impossible.
‘The world inside the formation and the world outside are both completely separated, so how?’
This was extremely strange.
After thinking for a bit, Cho Ryu Hyang stared at the small circle in front of him intently.
Right now, Cho Ryu Hyang was able to see everyone who were trapped inside the formation.
He was using the scrying formation in front of him to observe the Nine Flowing Army Formation that was surrounding the Sichuan branch.
Through the use of the scrying formation, he was able to control the giant formation of Sichuan.
‘But……’
At the current moment, Cho Ryu Hyang was outside the formation.
But somehow, the man inside managed to attack him.
It wasn’t a big wound, but this was something extremely new to Cho Ryu Hyang.
‘There’s some kind of a variable that I failed to take into account?’
This was a formation that was created after thousands of calculations, but he still managed to end up in a situation that he hadn’t expected at all. He must’ve underestimated the enemy quite a bit.
Cho Ryu Hyang calculated for a moment.
He just couldn’t understand how the man attacked him.
In a moment, he had found his answer and had become immensely surprised.
‘He attacked the moment I controlled the formation?’
In the moment when he takes control of the formation.
In that short timeframe, the man had attacked him…… this was something that Cho Ryu Hyang had never taken into account.
There was an immensely strong expert inside the formation.
‘An unexpected variable……’
Something didn’t feel right.
After taking a deep breath, Cho Ryu Hyang observed the formation even more carefully than before.
He was able to find two people inside.
Cho Ryu Hyang distanced himself away from them and observed.
Then, he nodded.
‘So it’s them.’
A handsome man and a woman who was hiding behind him.
The man was looking straight ahead with squinted eyes.
He didn’t have a very oppressive aura around him or anything, but there was still something about him that made him seem quite different from others.
Seeing the white dragon that was engraved into his clothing, he seemed to be from the North Sea Ice Palace.
‘He must be the heir of the North Sea Ice Palace.’
Cho Ryu Hyang’s prediction was correct.
After looking at the man for a moment, Cho Ryu Hyang became quite anxious.
He then bit his lips subconsciously.
’87.’
The man’s potential was extremely large.
This was big enough for him to do something unpredictable.
Cho Ryu Hyang exited the formation and sighed.
His neck hurt.
Cho Ryu Hyang made his decision as he rubbed the back of his neck.
‘I need to control the formation as little as possible.’
It would be easy for that man to attack if Cho Ryu Hyang entered the formation more.
But lessening the amount of times he controlled the formation was easier said than done.
It would be hard to use the formation to its full potential otherwise.
The formation in Sichuan was big and powerful, but the length of time it could be sustained was very small.
‘Just a day.’
Within that time, he would need to take care of all his enemies.
Cho Ryu Hyang loosened his muscles and focused on the formation completely.
* * *
Gu Hui stopped in his spot as he rubbed his ear.
He looked around with an annoyed face.
Around the time when Juk Hyul Myung had been looking for him, he had been looking for Juk Hyul Myung as well.
But Juk Hyul Myung’s presence had completely disappeared once he entered the formation.
‘How strange.’
He had maintained a certain distance from the North Sea Ice Palace when he entered.
But then, those in front of him had disappeared.
At the same time, an immensely cold air struck the Nanman Beast Gate.
‘This is……’
By the looks of it, the formation had just activated.
The first change had occurred, after all.
After looking around for a bit, Gu Hui looked back at his people and opened his mouth.
“We’ll break through using pure strength, so you better be ready.”
“Understood.”
Gu Hui breathed carefully and looked somewhere.
‘So it’s there.’
Gu Hui had studied formations a long time ago.
He had felt attracted to the subject as much as he was attracted to martial arts.
But he gave up on learning it in the middle.
There was never really a need to delve deeper into the subject, and he knew that he needed to focus more on martial arts.
‘The formation here is amazing, but……’
Of course, Gu Hui was unable to create nor destroy a formation like this.
But he knew he could protect himself inside a place like this.
‘And……’
If his prediction was right, this formation would not last long.
This formation was definitely something that was created in a relatively short period of time.
It wasn’t made over a long period of time with extreme care.
And the fact that something this big was made in such a short time must mean that there was a flaw in it.
After all, nothing was perfect.
‘This is a battle with time.’
Gu Hui decided that the biggest flaw of this formation was time.
This was a won battle as long as they could endure.
‘For now……’
He needed to break through the first change.
Gu Hui made a low posture and pulled his right arm backwards.
He put strength into his belly and punched forward.
Kwaaaa-!
It was a simple punch.
But the weight contained in that one punch seemed to rival even Mt. Tai.
The air ripped apart, and a pathway big enough for a single man had appeared.
Gu Hui quickly walked into the hole, and his subordinates followed.
And Cho Ryu Hyang’s focus immediately shifted from Juk Hyul Myung to Gu Hui.
* * *
‘This time, it’s the Nanman Beast Gate……’
Cho Ryu Hyang smiled bitterly.
Problems just seemed to be rising one after the other.
It seemed that there was more than just one variable he hadn’t accounted for.
‘At least two.’
It was almost nonsensical.
That punch just now was aimed right at the spot where the formation was the weakest.
The first change was destroyed in an instant.
The man here was definitely more dangerous than Juk Hyul Myung.
‘He definitely knows about formations.’
His instincts were screaming warnings at him.
That man who punched just now had to know about formations.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to throw a punch at such a precise location.
Cho Ryu Hyang focused at the spot where Gu Hui was.
At that moment, he was able to see a muscular man who seemed to be exuded an oppressive aura.
‘Nanman Beast Gate’s heir……’
He knew the moment he saw.
He knew that the man was Gu Hui, the heir of the Nanman Beast Gate.
Cho Ryu Hyang touched his glasses and made his decision.
‘I didn’t want to control the formation, but……’
Things would only get worse if the man managed to make his way here.
That man was simply too strong.
Cho Ryu Hyang steadied his breath and took out a single gem.
He watched Gu Hui for a moment, then stuck the gem in the direction he was moving.
‘This one will be hard to destroy.’
No matter how knowledgeable the Nanman Beast Gate’s heir was, there was no way the man found out everything about the formation.
He wouldn’t know how the formation was controlled, nor would he know what kind of traps were contained in it.
The same went for Cho Ryu Hyang.
‘A formation with an extremely large degree of freedom.’
That was what made this formation scary.
The Nine Flowing Army Formation was a formation that changed according to the circumstances.
And for Gu Hui, who did not know about such a thing, this was the beginning of his misfortunes.