It was a desolate field.
Only a dry wind swept across the bare hillside where not a single blade of grass remained. The place where the Red-Red Alliance had once set up camp. Now only the remnants of collapsed wooden fences and tent stakes turned to charcoal were scattered here and there.
"This is it. Where Mu-toe was."
Eom Bi-ryeong stopped her horse and narrowed her eyes.
No killing intent, no sign of human presence—nothing was carried on the wind.
But the ground was different.
There were things visible only to a Formation Taoist's eyes.
Eom Bi-ryeong knelt on one knee and pressed her palm to the earth. The residual Formation Energy responded faintly. The energy had already dispersed considerably, but it had originally been so vast in scale that a slight trace still remained.
The vestiges of spatial distortion woven in overlapping layers across eight directions.
"This..."
Her brow grew progressively narrower.
"This looks like the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell."
"Are you certain?"
Myo Jin-heo folded his fan and approached.
"Yes, it does appear so. Looking at this residual structure, all Eight Trigrams are cross-layered and overlapping. And there is only one person who could realize such a deranged design over terrain this complex."
"Ha."
"Goodness, this lunatic. He actually deployed something like this? If the Grand Zenith Position finds out, it's an immediate research funding freeze for several years, at this level."
Myo Jin-heo also bent at the waist to trace the grain of the residual energy. The same conclusion.
However, there was one strange point.
"Trigram Leader Eom. Do you see this? Is it not remarkable?"
"What? Is there something more remarkable here?"
"There is. Did you not see it back then?"
"See what?"
"The Preliminary Discourse on Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell, in Trigram Leader Dong's room."
"Yes. I saw it. So?"
"That was a formation technique that, once deployed, no one could dismantle—not even Trigram Leader Dong, the very one who had opened it."
Only then did Eom Bi-ryeong notice the bizarre thing about this very site.
"Ah!"
"Look. The central axes of the eight directions are caved in. From the inside outward."
Myo Jin-heo's fingertips came to a stop.
From the inside outward.
That meant the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell had been 'broken through.'
"...Come on, surely not? That can't be."
Fearsome Formation Energy poured from her body without her realizing it.
Myo Jin-heo reflexively stepped back half a pace.
"Calm yourself."
Eom Bi-ryeong looked around the entire vicinity one more time and then let out a short, hollow laugh—'ha'—from the helplessness of it.
"Calm down? Who broke this from the inside?!"
Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell.
Dong Mu-toe himself had evaluated it as impossible to break, and Eom Bi-ryeong and Myo Jin-heo, having read the Preliminary Discourse, had also concluded it was impossible to dismantle.
In theory, escape was impossible. It had to be. The formations from all eight directions close in simultaneously, completely blocking the senses and spatial perception of whoever is trapped inside.
That 'force of nature'-level formation technique had been shattered...
And from the inside at that?
If it had been a trace of Dong Mu-toe dismantling it from the outside, she wouldn't have been this shocked. He was Dong Mu-toe, after all.
But this was proof that someone had been caught in this formation and still punched their way out.
'That's impossible.'
Eom Bi-ryeong, without lifting her palm from the ground, read deeper into the grain of the residual energy. A Trigram Leader's fingertips could reach layers that an ordinary Formation Taoist could not read.
It was readable.
Centered on the point where the central axes had collapsed—the trace of Dong Mu-toe's Formation Energy scattered abruptly. The residual marks strewn about in all directions were not those of an orderly dismantling.
"Ha... this reckless bastard."
They were those of someone who had been overpowered.
"Trigram Leader Eom."
Myo Jin-heo's fan had come to a standstill. His eyes had lost their usual composure.
Eom Bi-ryeong lifted her hand from the ground and rose to her feet. Flames were blazing fiercely in her eyes.
"I know. I do too."
"Trigram Leader Dong's Formation Energy is being dragged in one direction. He did not go on his own feet."
"I said I know. So stop talking."
She had even forgotten to brush the dirt from her palm as she turned her head in one direction.
Formation Energy traces do not lie. Dong Mu-toe had deployed the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell, someone had broken it from inside, and before long Dong Mu-toe had been overpowered and dragged somewhere. In that very direction.
"This madness..."
The curses surged up to her throat but she didn't bother to spit them out.
'There is someone who defeated Dong Mu-toe.'
Someone who broke through the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell from inside, overpowered a Trigram Leader—and Dong Mu-toe of all people—and dragged him away.
"What is in that direction?"
Myo Jin-heo drew a line with the tip of his fan along the residual traces on the ground. That direction was, naturally, the same as Eom Bi-ryeong's.
True southeast.
There was only one place the tail of the energy pointed.
"Gangdo."
"Gangdo."
Eom Bi-ryeong's lips pressed together thinly.
She had heard that name once before.
"That's the place that was making all the noise in the recent activity report, right?"
"That is correct."
"I didn't think much of it at the time—"
Eom Bi-ryeong finally brushed the dirt from her hand and began walking in that direction.
"Looks like it's about to get truly noisy now."
No more words were needed.
Myo Jin-heo also snapped his fan shut and followed, setting off his own steps.
The two Trigram Leaders' footsteps turned to the southeast.
Treading along the trail of scattered Formation Energy.
***
Perhaps half a day of walking.
Dong Mu-toe's residual energy was growing thinner, but the direction remained unchanged. True southeast. Straight toward Gangdo.
But then.
Eom Bi-ryeong's steps stopped again.
"...Trigram Leader Myo."
"Why have you stopped?"
"Evil Energy."
Myo Jin-heo's fan, in the middle of opening, stopped.
"Evil Energy?"
"Yes, a stench worse than your bad breath is wafting through here, across this entire area."
"...What kind of rude thing is that to say? I clean my teeth regularly, I'll have you know."
"Then just talk less."
"..."
Eom Bi-ryeong simply silenced Myo Jin-heo and bent one knee to press her palm against the ground.
"It's faint, but it's spread widely across this area. It's a completely different grain from Dong Mu-toe's residual energy. It's also covering up his traces."
She had been following Dong Mu-toe's trail, only to catch something entirely unexpected.
Eom Bi-ryeong raised her knee and this time held her palm upright in the air to feel the flow of energy.
The lingering traces of Evil Energy.
The concentration itself was thin, but it was clear that a fairly dense Evil Energy had swept through this area at one point. This was not the Red-Red Alliance site—this was the plain outside Gangdo. A scene completely unrelated to Dong Mu-toe.
"And on top of that..."
"What else is there?"
Myo Jin-heo said this while spreading his fan to cover his mouth.
"There's something mixed into the Evil Energy."
Eom Bi-ryeong's brow narrowed.
"It's energy of extremely high purity. It's the trace of something that clashed head-on with the Evil Energy... but it doesn't match any system I know. It doesn't seem to be martial arts, and it doesn't seem to be Formation Path either."
Myo Jin-heo extended his own hand to trace the residual energy. The alien energy buried within the murky grain of Evil Energy. The sensation reaching a Formation Taoist's fingertips made classification itself impossible.
"...Ha."
Myo Jin-heo's fan came down.
"This is certainly strange. At this level of purity, it means something suppressed quite a significant level of Evil Energy in a direct confrontation."
"That's right, isn't it?"
Eom Bi-ryeong turned her gaze toward Gangdo.
The one who had overpowered Dong Mu-toe. An energy of unknown origin. A clash with Evil Energy. And the direction everything pointed.
"It has to be them, right?"
"Would it not have to be?"
The two nodded simultaneously.
It was too coincidental to be a coincidence.
Likely, the person who had overpowered Dong Mu-toe and the one who had crushed this Evil Energy were one and the same.
The answer was in there.
The two Trigram Leaders' strides quickened.
***
Treading the trail again and again, it was near dawn when the walls of Gangdo came into view.
Gangdo Castle in the predawn hour was quiet. The gates were open, but those coming and going were few.
Myo Jin-heo, still covering his mouth with his fan, looked around and opened his mouth.
"By the way."
"Stop sulking. For a Trigram Leader, no less."
"What sulking?"
"You're still showing you're upset because I said bad breath earlier, aren't you?"
"...Haha. Is that how it comes across?"
"Yes."
"..."
"Anyway. By the way—what's next?"
Only then did Myo Jin-heo clear his throat a couple of times and carefully folded the fan, revealing his mouth.
"Now that we've entered the city, all sorts of mixed energies make tracking impossible, do they not? What is your plan for finding Trigram Leader Dong?"
"Every city has a branch of the Great Beggar Sect."
Eom Bi-ryeong gave a bright smile that showed her teeth.
"Wouldn't you say so? Trigram Leader Myo?"
"Ah, yes. Quite right. An excellent idea."
Eom Bi-ryeong brought her modest eyes up to Myo Jin-heo's lower jaw.
"What is?"
"Wh-what?"
"What's excellent?"
"Trigram Leader Eom's...idea, of course."
"Yes, of course. No matter where you go in this world, local matters are best known by locals. If that local happens to be a beggar, what more is there to say."
Eom Bi-ryeong's index finger pointed down one of the alleyways. The traces of a Great Beggar Sect branch were easy to recognize. Where beggars gather, there are distinctive markers.
Even so, the two had to rummage through Gangdo's spider web-like back alleys for quite some time before they could pinpoint one location.
Ten Thousand Things Known.
An old teahouse with a modest wooden plaque that was barely adequate to be called a sign.
No doubt about it.
That place would be Gangdo's Great Beggar Sect branch.
In front of it was a man bustling about even at this early hour.
A grimy middle-aged man with an unkempt beard.
"Guests?"
Bae Dal-pae squinted at the two of them.
"We have come from the Alliance Under Heaven Formation."
Myo Jin-heo said this directly, without preamble.
Bae Dal-pae's eyes changed subtly.
"Come inside. Let's talk over a cup of tea."
The moment they followed him inside, Eom Bi-ryeong's gaze stopped at one side of the room.
A corner table.
Three women were sitting there.
Holding warm cups of tea in both hands, not one of them was speaking. One was staring only at her teacup, one had her arms wrapped around her own shoulders, and the last had her eyes unfocused.
Thick robes hastily thrown on rested on their shoulders, but what showed beneath the robes was speaking for itself. Of what had happened to these people.
Eom Bi-ryeong withdrew her gaze.
There was no need to look further. This Martial World overflows with misfortune. There are not many people with enough spare capacity to step into misfortune that isn't their own and lend a hand, and she was not that kind of person.
Bae Dal-pae brought tea and naturally guided them to the opposite table.
"You've come from Formation Tower, so I won't beat around the bush. What kind of tea?"
Eom Bi-ryeong answered immediately.
"Human Tea."
"Here to drink it, or buy it?"
"Buy."
"Which kind?"
"Special Type."
"Special Type."
Bae Dal-pae let the corner of his mouth curve up slightly.
"The Guild Master did say someone from Formation Tower would come... didn't expect it this quickly though."
"...?"
"By any chance, is the person you're looking for named Dong Mu-toe?"
Eom Bi-ryeong leaned forward.
"You know him?"
"Of course."
"Where is he?"
***
Hero Gate.
The two Trigram Leaders stood before the main gate of the sect built over the site of the former Iron God Society.
Children were doing their morning training in the wide Training Grounds. A neat voice was calling out commands on one side. A young woman.
A peaceful morning.
And then.
Below the eaves of the Main Hall.
A man sitting in a chair, drinking tea.
Black hair, upright posture.
The man turned his head toward the main gate.
Eyes carrying no emotion at all reflected the appearance of the two Trigram Leaders, and then a gentle smile was layered over them.
"Welcome."
The movement of setting down the teacup and rising was unhurried.
"From Formation Tower, I hear?"
Eom Bi-ryeong's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
At that, the man smiled with deliberate softness.
"If you're looking for Dong Mu-toe, you've come to the right place."
"Meaning he's here?"
"Don't worry. He's alive."
It was a reassuring thing to say.
Even so, Eom Bi-ryeong's spine only grew colder.
Alive.
That phrase, flipped over, was simple. It meant he was in this man's hands.
She secretly opened her Upper Dantian and connected her Formation Energy to her entire body and the earth's energy channels simultaneously.
"...Where is he?"
"He's not here right now. He went out on some business."
Out on business? He had business?
A tone that made it sound as though permission had been obtained.
A Trigram Leader—one of the Eight Trigram Leaders—had left after receiving this man's permission?
Eom Bi-ryeong mobilized every last Formation Taoist sense to try to read the man before her.
She couldn't read him.
Nothing at all.
If this man were the owner of the energy that had crushed and flattened the Evil Energy out on that field, the one who broke the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell from inside—he couldn't possibly be this still?
He was still. Still to the point of being uncanny.
"Let's talk inside."
The man turned and walked into the Main Hall.
The act of showing his back carried not the faintest trace of wariness.
Even so, she could not strike the man.
Myo Jin-heo's gaze came from beside her. Looking at him, the hand gripping his fan had tension in it. He too had felt it. Whatever this man was, he was not someone to be trifled with—that much was certain.
Eom Bi-ryeong stepped forward first.
Dong Mu-toe. She didn't know what state that reckless bastard would be in, but she had to verify it.