Chapter 305

PATTER! PATTER! RAT-A-TAT!

The sand-laden gale rattled noisily against their cloaks.

Kwak Yeon’s party had already been trudging through the fierce yellow sand for a full double-hour, yet they still had not found the Great Demon Prison.

Even allowing for how difficult the vicious sandstorm made it to keep their eyes open, something was wrong.

Unable to bear it any longer, Hu Gae shouted irritably.

“Brother Kwak, could the map be wrong?”

Kwak Yeon, who had been walking at the front, stopped for a moment.

“Brother, that cannot be. Every landmark along the route we have taken has matched the map exactly.”

“Then why can’t we see the Great Demon Prison when we should have reached it by now? We’ve been straining our eyes for a full double-hour.”

The moment Hu Gae snapped, he regretted it.

Of everyone in the party, Kwak Yeon must have been the most anxious. Hu Gae worried that he had taken out his frustration on him for no reason.

HONK!

Feeling awkward, Hu Gae loudly blew the yellow dust from his clogged nose.

“Damn it! Does this blasted wind have no intention of dying down?”

He was pretending that the only reason they had failed to find the Great Demon Prison was the vicious sandstorm—which, in truth, was not entirely wrong—when Jin Cheongha, who had been following with Taoist Cheongmu, spoke cautiously.

“Sub-Branch Master, I don’t think this wind is natural.”

“Hm?”

“...?”

Hu Gae and Kwak Yeon both turned to look at her.

“Sister Jin, what do you mean it doesn’t seem natural?”

“It has been blowing relentlessly for a full double-hour without easing even once. Wouldn’t that be impossible for a natural wind?”

She was right. No wind blew at full force without pause. No matter how fierce it was, there would always be brief lulls.

“I thought there was something strange about it too, but this part of the Gobi Desert is so barren that I assumed the wind was simply like this.”

Hu Gae nodded, then asked, “Do you think some kind of formation has been laid here?”

“I believe so.”

Hu Gae surveyed the yellow haze around them and tilted his head.

“This area seems rather too vast for a formation...”

He phrased it indirectly to avoid embarrassing her.

After entering this rocky region, Hu Gae had also found the unceasing wind suspicious and briefly wondered whether a formation had been installed here.

However, he had quickly dismissed that suspicion when he saw that they stood in the middle of a wide-open loess desert.

Reading his thoughts, Jin Cheongha said, “As you said, Sub-Branch Master, this is certainly a difficult place to establish a formation. Activating one across an area this vast would be nearly impossible.”

“The fact that you said ‘nearly’ rather than simply ‘impossible’ makes it sound as though you’re convinced this is a formation.”

“That’s right. Otherwise, there is no way to explain this relentless wind.”

Jin Cheongha nodded without hesitation.

“I think it may have been possible by taking advantage of the Gobi Desert’s unique environment.”

Hu Gae looked at her in surprise.

“Oh? I didn’t realize you were also well versed in formations.”

“Sub-Branch Master, concealment arts can be considered a branch of formation arts.”

“Mm. That is true.”

Studying formations was essential for using the terrain and surroundings to conceal one’s body.

Kwak Yeon, who had listened silently to their conversation, turned to Jin Cheongha.

“Lady Jin, if this wind was created by a formation, does that mean it can be broken and stilled?”

The terrain of the Gobi Desert looked the same in every direction. With the yellow sand restricting their vision, they were effectively searching for the Great Demon Prison blind.

Seeing the hope in Kwak Yeon’s eyes, Jin Cheongha answered in a subdued voice.

“Once you understand the principles of the energies underlying a formation, you can find a way to break it. But the formation laid here appears to be a compound formation, so breaking it will not be easy.”

Unlike the other Wudang disciples, Kwak Yeon had never received a proper education at the True Martial Hall and knew little about formations. He asked frankly, “Lady Jin, what is a compound formation?”

“Most formations are established using one of the four energies of fire, water, metal, and earth. A formation that uses two or more of them is called a compound formation. It is an extremely advanced formation art, so one rarely encounters it. But... the formation here appears to be using three of the four energies.”

Hu Gae flinched.

“Sister Jin, a compound formation using three energies?”

“Judging by the combination of the unceasing wind and sand, I’m certain it uses fire, water, and earth.”

“Damn it!”

Hu Gae grimaced.

“Even a compound formation using two energies is difficult to break. One using three must be several times harder—especially when it covers an area this vast.”

“That’s right.”

Seeing Jin Cheongha nod listlessly, Kwak Yeon said, “Lady Jin, the fact that they established such a difficult formation must mean that the Eight Demonic Venerables truly are imprisoned inside the Great Demon Prison.”

Jin Cheongha inwardly admired Kwak Yeon’s optimism in treating their predicament as a favorable sign.

“You’re right.”

She knew he had said it to encourage her after seeing her lose heart, and her spirits lifted.

Hu Gae abruptly cut in.

“Brother Kwak, whatever the case, we have to do something about this sandstorm before we can find the Great Demon Prison.”

He had completely missed the mood, but his words struck directly at the heart of the problem.

“Brother, no matter how complex a three-energy compound formation may be, it was ultimately created by human hands. It must have flaws.”

“Talk about putting a hopeful spin on things. Still, it is good to see you so confident.”

Kwak Yeon glanced at Hu Gae, whose words were half praise and half despair, then turned back to Jin Cheongha.

“Lady Jin, why do you believe this formation uses those three particular energies?”

“Wind can only be generated through fire and water energies, while yellow sand this violent must be drawing on earth energy.”

“If your guess is correct and this is a three-energy compound formation, wouldn’t breaking the foundation of any one energy destroy it?”

Jin Cheongha shook her head.

“If only one energy is removed from a compound formation, the balance may break and cause the entire formation to implode. That is what makes compound formations even harder to dismantle. Of course, there would be no such danger in an open area like this. But the formation itself must have been laid over an enormous region by harnessing natural energies, so eliminating even one of them in a short time would be impossible.”

Her explanation helped Kwak Yeon understand why Hu Gae, normally so enterprising, had become so discouraged.

The formation posed no direct danger because it drew on natural energies across such a vast region, but that same scale made it exceptionally difficult to break.

“Then it must have even more flaws.”

“...?”

Jin Cheongha’s eyes widened.

“...?”

Hu Gae also stared at Kwak Yeon in confusion.

“If it is difficult to break, doesn’t that mean it must also have been difficult to establish? The harder a task is, the more likely it is to leave an opening.”

“That may be true, but...”

Hu Gae nodded with the expression of a defeated man.

“You always begin your thinking from the strangest place, Brother Kwak.”

Kwak Yeon asked Jin Cheongha, “Lady Jin, please tell me anything you suspect about those three energies.”

Finding the Great Demon Prison was urgent, so Kwak Yeon wanted to stop the sandstorm by any means possible.

More than anything, he refused to yield to a mere Wind-and-Sand Formation.

“Chief Secretary Kwak, it makes sense that earth energy would flourish here because this is a loess desert. Water energy, one of the forces generating the wind, could be supplied by an underground water vein. But I have no idea where the person who laid this formation drew the fire energy from. There doesn’t seem to be a volcano or hot spring nearby...”

Jin Cheongha had no choice but to voice her thoughts despite knowing that her reasoning barely scratched the surface.

She expected the light in Kwak Yeon’s bright eyes to fade with disappointment.

Instead, it grew even more intense.

“...?”

When Jin Cheongha looked at him in confusion, Kwak Yeon smiled faintly and raised one hand toward the sky.

“Isn’t the source of the fire energy you’re looking for right there?”

Jin Cheongha and Hu Gae looked up at the same time.

The sun hung high in the sky, appearing like a yellow lantern through the dense haze.

“...!”

“...!”

A quiet exclamation escaped Jin Cheongha.

“Ah! If the sun is the fire energy...”

Hu Gae completed her thought.

“Then once that thing disappears, this damned wind should disappear with it.”

The four of them used a massive boulder as a windbreak and waited for the sun to sink beyond the western mountains.

“Little Martial Uncle, eat this.”

Taoist Cheongmu held out a dried root of wild ginseng to Kwak Yeon.

Making sure Kwak Yeon ate his wild ginseng whenever the sun began to set had recently become the most important part of Taoist Cheongmu’s daily routine.

“They say medicine works best if you take it at the same time every day.”

No one knew who had told him that, but Taoist Cheongmu repeated it as though it were a sacred maxim. Regardless of who was present or what situation they were in, he never failed to look after Kwak Yeon.

“Ahem!”

Hu Gae, who was sitting beside Kwak Yeon, cleared his throat needlessly and looked away.

If their eyes met, Taoist Cheongmu would call him a “big beggar and ginseng thief” again.

“Little Martial Uncle, don’t leave even one fine root behind. Some beggar might scavenge it off the ground.”

Without looking over, Hu Gae could tell that Taoist Cheongmu was watching him with hawk-like eyes.

Damn it. Better to die than endure this. What kind of sorry sight is this for the future leader of the Beggar Clan, the greatest beggar organization under heaven?

Even so, he could not stop his mouth from watering.

Every root of wild ginseng was enormous, seemingly several centuries old.

After once being “forced” to eat a root, his body now reacted like that of a monk who had tasted meat.

Every day at this hour was pure torture.

If I’d known this would happen, I never would have accepted it back then.

When Hu Gae had entered closed-door seclusion aboard the ship, Taoist Cheongmu had apparently assumed his health was failing and handed him a root of wild ginseng.

Hu Gae could still hear Taoist Cheongmu adding, “You only get one root.”

At the time, he had inwardly rejoiced at the unexpected windfall. In hindsight, however, it had been little different from deadly poison.

As saliva continued to pool helplessly in his mouth, Hu Gae pulled out the jerky he had hidden in his sleeve for precisely such occasions and °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° chewed it vigorously.

With someone beside him eating wild ginseng while he gnawed on shriveled jerky, it was difficult not to feel a little pathetic.

RIP! CRACKLE!

Jin Cheongha looked over in surprise at the loud sound of him tearing into the jerky.

“Sister Jin, would you like some?”

“No, thank you.”

Jin Cheongha shook her head.

“Then give me that.”

A hand as large as a pot lid abruptly appeared beneath Hu Gae’s nose.

Damn it!

With the resignation of appeasing someone he disliked, Hu Gae handed Taoist Cheongmu a strip of jerky.

“Big Beggar, give me more.”

“Taoist Cheongmu, I bought this jerky separately with my own money. If you’re hungry, take some dried rations from that sack.”

It was, of course, an obvious lie born from his petty desire for revenge over the unequal treatment involving the wild ginseng.

“The dried rations taste bad. I want that.”

“Then I’ll give you just one more pie—urk?”

Something flashed before his eyes, and the wax-paper bundle of jerky vanished from his hand.

WHOOSH!

In an instant, Taoist Cheongmu had moved a considerable distance away and was already sitting down, tearing into the jerky.

Even after seeing it with his own eyes, Hu Gae could scarcely believe the Transcendent-stage grappling-hand technique and Body-Shifting Phantom Exchange lightness art he had just witnessed.

“Good heavens...”

As time passed, Hu Gae could not help growing increasingly curious about Taoist Cheongmu’s past.

Kwak Yeon was a monster, but Taoist Cheongmu was no less monstrous.

If Taoist Cheongmu ever regained his sanity and this martial uncle and nephew roamed the martial world together, no one under heaven would be able to stand against them.

“Brother, I’m sorry.”

At Kwak Yeon’s voice, Hu Gae quickly turned his head.

“Brother Kwak, I was only joking.”

“I know.”

“...!”

Only then did Hu Gae realize that Kwak Yeon was not apologizing over the jerky, but because he alone was eating the wild ginseng.

“Come now, there’s no need to worry about that. You had no choice. You’re being forced to eat it.”

Taoist Cheongmu would never leave until Kwak Yeon had eaten every last piece.

“Thank you for understanding.”

“There’s no need to thank me...”

Hu Gae shook his head, then noticed that Kwak Yeon’s expression remained troubled.

“But Brother Kwak, why the long face?”

The sun would soon set, and the Wind-and-Sand Formation should fall still with it. What was there left to worry about?