Chapter 209: Chapter 209
The Grand Riding Ground of the Murim Academy.
The place where the horses used by the Murim Academy were normally managed and kept was now packed with people instead of horses.
At the center of the Grand Riding Ground stood a temporarily built pavilion.
It seemed they had probably made it as a symbolic existence for testing the Mystic Gate Formation.
“It is certainly…… strange.”
Just as Song Jeong-mu said, the shape of the Mystic Gate Formation spread across the Grand Riding Ground was extremely strange.
Normally, a Mystic Gate Formation first broke down people’s wariness with an ordinary outward appearance, such as trees and rocks.
Then its basic function was to confuse the reason of those who entered and guide them outside the Mystic Gate Formation.
The reason the Seven Stars Seven Seizures Formation was famous throughout the martial world was that it could freely adjust the Eight Gates and naturally cause those who entered the Mystic Gate Formation to fall into traps or drop into Prison.
However, the Two Principles Eight Trigrams Myriad Phenomena Formation currently spread across the Grand Riding Ground was surrounded by black mist, and its original form was plainly visible.
It was failing to do its original job of hiding its form and guiding people into a place of death.
Aaaaaaagh!
Ah, h-h-hah……
Please…… please……
Moreover, for some reason, agonized screams continued to come from inside the Mystic Gate Formation.
“What happened here?”
When I approached a Formation Master and asked, an irritated answer came back.
“We are handling it right now. Step back!”
Even at the rudeness of the Formation Master, whose complexion had turned pale, I took one more step closer.
“I am Jin So-un, the representative of the Murim Academy. I need to know what happened.”
Only then did the Formation Master, whose brow had been deeply furrowed, show a subtle change in expression.
“Jin So-un?”
“Yes. I am that Jin So-un.”
“……This is not something for you to concern yourself with. Step back.”
“……”
Ha, this conversation was going nowhere.
I infused a little internal qi and asked again.
“Where is Jegal Jeong-gi?”
“I-I told you to step back!”
“Do I sound like I am joking right now?”
At the overwhelming energy, the Formation Master and the warriors standing around him began rolling their eyes, not knowing what to do.
When the situation showed no sign of progressing, Song Jeong-mu eventually stepped forward.
“I am Song Jeong-mu of the Mount Heng Sect. I heard my help was needed.”
“Ah! Great Hero Seven-Kill Soul-Destroyer!”
The Formation Master suddenly brightened and bent at the waist.
Look at these people. This is so filthy I cannot put up with it.
When my face twisted, Song Jeong-mu glanced briefly at me, then asked the Formation Master,
“What exactly is happening inside the Mystic Gate Formation? And why did you call me here so suddenly?”
“T-that is……”
The Formation Master trailed off and watched my reaction.
Seriously? He was saying he would rather die than speak while I was here?
Just as I was about to say something, Song Jeong-mu’s thunderous rebuke erupted.
“What are you doing right now! If the situation is urgent enough to call even me here, then it must be dire. And yet you intend to keep fighting over power and let the people inside die?”
“……”
Song Jeong-mu drove in the wedge firmly.
“If this is how you intend to act, then I cannot help either.”
“N-no, that is not it.”
After watching the mood for quite some time, the Formation Master eventually let out a long sigh.
“The truth is, the Two Principles Eight Trigrams Myriad Phenomena Formation’s……”
Just as he was about to explain the inside story, another voice cut off the Formation Master’s words.
“What are you saying!”
The Academy students gathered where the roar had come from stepped aside, opening a path.
The person who had shouted with a reddened face was none other than Jegal Jeong-gi.
He huffed as he was about to reprimand the Formation Master.
“Are you planning to reveal the clan’s secrets to someone who is not involved……!”
The Formation Master’s gaze turned behind Jegal Jeong-gi, who was yapping like an angry puppy.
Following him, everyone’s gaze turned backward.
“Grand…… no, Grand Strategist?”
The Academy students who had been making a commotion all closed their mouths at once.
The Grand Riding Ground, which had been like a marketplace, instantly fell into silence like the inside of a scripture archive.
But even that silence seemed to bother the Grand Strategist, because he quietly said one sentence to the Academy Head standing beside him.
“It is noisy.”
“I will handle it.”
When Buk Won-pyeong nodded toward the instructors, they guided the Academy students outside the Grand Riding Ground in perfect order.
The Academy students also judged that this situation, with even the Grand Strategist appearing, was no ordinary matter and quickly left their places.
Complete silence settled over the Grand Riding Ground.
Only then did Jegal So-myeong, wearing a solemn expression, cast his gaze at Jegal Jeong-gi.
“Now, what is the situation?”
At the Grand Strategist’s question, asked with his hands clasped behind his back, Jegal Jeong-gi tried to answer quickly, but then glared at me again.
His guarded gaze asked why I was still there.
It was clearly an order to leave.
At that gaze, Jegal So-myeong’s eyebrows shot upward.
“I was told it was urgent enough that I had to be called. Was that not the case?”
At Jegal So-myeong’s indirect command to leave me alone, Jegal Jeong-gi bit his lip once, then opened his mouth.
“……A problem occurred with the Two Principles Eight Trigrams Myriad Phenomena Formation.”
“I have eyes. Do you not even know the basics of reporting?”
At Jegal So-myeong’s icy reprimand, Jegal Jeong-gi’s shoulders shrank.
“……We were trying to show the improved version……”
“Ha……! Even with a Mystic Gate Formation that has just been completed, we do not know what problems might occur, yet you touched an improved version that has not even finished testing?”
“I am sorry. Grandfather……”
“You fool!”
A rebuke burst from Jegal So-myeong’s mouth.
The air in the Grand Riding Ground instantly froze.
“Did I come here as your grandfather?”
“……”
At that moment.
Ah, h-h-hah.
S-stop! Please stop! I…… I was wrong!
I am sorry! I am sorry! I am truly sorry!
It was not me…… It was not me! I said I was not the one who did it!!
The screams coming from inside the Mystic Gate Formation instantly filled the Grand Riding Ground.
Jegal So-myeong let out a sigh and turned his head to look toward Song Jeong-mu and me.
“You brought the Mount Heng Sect because it seems the Steadfast Hearts of those inside are being shaken?”
Song Jeong-mu stepped forward and held a clasped hands greeting.
“It has been a long time, Grand Strategist.”
“It has indeed been a long time, and yet this is hardly a pleasant occasion. So, how does it look to you? Will the Mount Heng Sect’s Dispelling Evil be of help?”
“……”
At Song Jeong-mu’s silence, Jegal Jeong-gi snapped his head up and stepped forward.
“The Mount Heng Sect’s Dispelling Evil and Exorcism are the best under heaven! They will certainly help the people inside……”
“I did not ask you!”
“……”
Jegal So-myeong looked at Jegal Jeong-gi as if he were pathetic, then shifted his gaze back to Song Jeong-mu. Song Jeong-mu let out a small sigh.
“I am sure you already know, Grand Strategist. Regrettably, there is nothing I can do to help.”
Jegal Jeong-gi flinched in shock.
“W-what do you mean! C-could it be that because you are helping Jin So-un right now, you intend to turn your back on the Jegal Clan?!”
At Jegal Jeong-gi’s words, Song Jeong-mu’s eyes turned sharp.
It was a gaze of unmistakable contempt.
“Do I…… and does our Mount Heng Sect, look so laughable to you?”
“……”
Every time Jegal Jeong-gi opened his mouth, he worsened the situation in a direction unfavorable to himself.
For some reason, Jegal So-myeong seemed to look back and forth between his grandson and me before sighing.
“I apologize. Jin-myeong spoiled him too much. I told him several times not to do that.”
“Did you not come here as the Grand Strategist?”
“I will speak to the Sect Leader directly later.”
At the conversation between Jegal So-myeong and Song Jeong-mu, Jegal Jeong-gi wore a complicated expression.
“Grandfa…… no, Grand Strategist, what do you mean by that?”
“Do you not even know the difference between the qi of the Unorthodox Side Path and the qi of the orthodox right path?”
“……Pardon? What do you mean……?”
Jegal So-myeong clicked his tongue as if he found him pathetic.
“The Mount Heng Sect’s Dispelling Evil is the power to resolve wrongness with righteousness. I am asking whether the illusion of the Two Principles Eight Trigrams Myriad Phenomena Formation, which was made with upright qi from the beginning, can be resolved by the Mount Heng Sect’s energy.”
“……”
Only then did Jegal Jeong-gi’s face turn pale, as if he had finally realized it.
“How many are inside?”
At Jegal So-myeong’s question, the Formation Master spoke with tense stiffness.
“S-seventy-eight.”
At the number, which exceeded expectations, Jegal So-myeong’s eyes shone sharply.
“You put in quite a lot. How long has it been since they entered?”
“T-thirty minutes…… no, it is almost forty-five minutes now.”
“Hoo……. How long will it take to dissolve the formation?”
“T-that is……”
After the Formation Masters put their heads together and quietly discussed among themselves, one of them eventually swallowed hard and spoke.
“I-it seems it will take…… three days.”
Jegal So-myeong pressed his temples hard, as if his head hurt.
“And that would be the minimum, would it not?”
“……That is.”
“Because you do not know what effect the improved-version equipment is having inside.”
“Yes……”
At the Formation Master’s powerless answer, everyone in the area let out sighs in their own way.
The situation was taking a serious turn.
Since the Orthodox Path Association’s event had resumed, most of the people currently inside the Two Principles Eight Trigrams Myriad Phenomena Formation were closely connected to the Orthodox Path Association.
In other words, whether inside the Orthodox Path Association or across the entire martial world, they were people of positions that would not lose out anywhere.
And that immense pressure was what had made Jegal Jeong-gi bring even Jegal So-myeong here.
“Grandfa…… no, Grand Strategist. You have a method, don’t you?”
Even at that desperate question, Jegal So-myeong did not easily open his mouth.
‘Of course he cannot……. What kind of ultimate formation is the Two Principles Eight Trigrams Myriad Phenomena Formation?’
It was the rare Mystic Gate Formation that the Jegal Clan itself had created through twenty years of research.
Moreover, it was a Mystic Gate Formation that had reached a supreme level through endless improvements.
There was public criticism that the Jegal Clan had gone mad with money and played games with Mystic Gate Formations, but in any case, had countless people not survived the Demonic Cult’s clutches thanks to those improved versions?
But that was a matter of the distant future.
From the current Jegal Clan’s position, there was only one way to dissolve the Two Principles Eight Trigrams Myriad Phenomena Formation.
Jegal So-myeong looked into Jegal Jeong-gi’s hopeful eyes.
“There is!”
“T-then…… quickly use it!”
And he mercilessly extinguished that light of hope.
“But everyone inside will die.”
“Pardon? What does that mean……?”
“The stable Mystic Gate Formation is being shaken because of the improved equipment. That is why the Steadfast Hearts of the children who entered are being shaken.”
The people of the Jegal Clan listening to Jegal So-myeong’s explanation swallowed at the same time.
Jegal So-myeong spoke in an indifferent voice.
“But thanks to that, it can be destroyed.”
“Destroyed?!”
Jegal Jeong-gi was so shocked he looked as if he might leap forward at any moment.
However, Jegal So-myeong did not even blink.
“Then do you have another method?”
Breaking the Mystic Gate Formation right now meant collapsing all the gates, including the Eight Gates, in one stroke.
It was no different from setting fire to a thatched house with people inside because a flea had appeared.
Jegal Jeong-gi trembled as if he could not accept it.
“Then…… will the people inside not die?”
“Otherwise, we will see them emerge as madmen three days later.”
“……!”
Jegal So-myeong spoke with a gaze more cold and composed than ever.
“Choose. Will you see corpses? Or will you see children who have gone mad?”
“……Ugh.”
“You must have been prepared to take responsibility from the moment you ordered this.”
Jegal So-myeong was pressuring Jegal Jeong-gi not like his grandson, but like a criminal.
It seemed he had no intention of letting this pass even after this matter ended.
‘What should I do……?’
Meanwhile, I was also racking my brain no less than Jegal Jeong-gi.
The question was whether it was right to step forward in this situation or not.
If I stepped forward unnecessarily, I might end up opposing the Jegal Clan, with whom my relationship was not that bad.
On the other hand, if I did not step forward, I could use this as an opportunity for the Orthodox Path Association to collapse and to solidify my position.
‘That is certainly true, but……’
Aaaaaaagh!
M-mother! Father!!!!
I am sorry! I was wrong!
Screams burst out from inside the Two Principles Eight Trigrams Myriad Phenomena Formation once again.
The answer I had to choose was clear.
After organizing my thoughts, I let out a small sigh.
“Grand Strategist.”
Everyone’s gazes turned to me at once.
I looked straight at Jegal So-myeong.
“I do not think now is the time to assign responsibility.”
“……”
“……”
“……”
At my one sentence, a cold silence filled the inside of the Grand Riding Ground.
Not only the Academy’s Training Masters, but even the Formation Masters of the Jegal Clan looked at me as if they were looking at a madman.
However, only one person.
Only Jegal So-myeong asked me back with a straight gaze.
“Then?”
“Should we not first save the people inside?”
For some reason, the corner of Jegal So-myeong’s mouth seemed to rise slightly.
“……Do you have a way to save them? Because the internal pillars have twisted, the Formation Paths keep changing. No matter how good your memory is, what use is it if the paths change?”
“I am not confident I can go inside and find them either.”
Puzzlement appeared in his eyes.
“Then?”
I slowly looked over the Jegal Clan Formation Masters, then asked Jegal So-myeong,
“May I…… break the formation?”
“Break the formation?”
At that moment, Jegal Jeong-gi’s eyes flew open, and he struggled desperately.
“Jin So-un! How dare you put Formation Breaking in your mouth! What do you take the Jegal Clan’s Mystic Gate Formation for……! What are you doing? Seize that bastard immediately……!”
Slap!
With the clear sound of a cheek being struck, Jegal Jeong-gi looked at Jegal So-myeong with a shocked face.
“G-grandfather……”
Jegal Jeong-gi’s face became filled with betrayal, as if he had been stabbed by a comrade he trusted.
Jegal So-myeong thundered with an expression more enraged than ever.
“You fool!!! People’s lives hang by a thread right now! Is the prestige of a mere clan so important to you!”
“……”
His gaze rested on me briefly, then shifted back to Jegal Jeong-gi.
“You do not even have the right to be here! What are you doing! Drag this fool out immediately!”
Another thunderous order flew at the hesitating warriors.
“Did I not say to drag him out immediately!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Jegal Jeong-gi was dragged away, limp like a corpse, both feet scraping along the ground.
Jegal So-myeong looked at me with a hardened face and asked, “Can you break the formation?”
Jegal So-myeong and the Formation Masters of the Jegal Clan alike looked at me with eyes that could not easily believe it.
If not for Jegal So-myeong, their expressions said they wanted to rush at me.
That was only natural. “Formation Breaking” referred to knowing the weakness of a formation and forcibly dismantling it from the outside.
They would not want to easily believe that I could neutralize the Two Principles Eight Trigrams Myriad Phenomena Formation, which contained the essence of twenty years of geniuses.
Even in my past life, until the Demon Brain appeared, no one had ever “broken” the Two Principles Eight Trigrams Myriad Phenomena Formation.
Of course, I did not know whether I could break it exactly like the Demon Brain.
Still, rather than seeing dozens of corpses crushed to death inside the Mystic Gate Formation, and rather than seeing Academy students emerge as madmen.
‘Would this not be better?’
I could not even predict what kind of relationship I would have with the Jegal Clan because of this.
Aaaaaaagh!
Ah, h-h-hah.
Please…… please……
Forgive me! I was wrong!
For now, saving people first was the right choice.
“Yes. I think it is possible.”
Right now, I thought only of that.
Only that.