The old man's story began.
It was too short to be called one man's life, and in the martial world, where all manner of sinister schemes ran rampant, it was a hidden history one might call commonplace.
“In my youth, I believed formations were a tremendous field of study that could sway the world, and I wanted many people to recognize that.”
And so he had worked vigorously to make his brilliance known.
“But reality did not go as I wished, and hard times continued. Around then, people claiming to come from certain sects or clans began sending letters asking about formations.”
His exchanges with them had been comforting, allowing him to tell himself that his work was not entirely useless.
“After ten years passed and I achieved modest results, my ambition returned.”
He wanted to make his studies known to the world and meet his friends.
“I kept insisting that we needed to speak in person, if only for the rapid advancement of formation arts... Then one day, they said the formations we had been restoring might not have been several separate formations at all, but fragments based on a single formation. They proposed that we investigate it before meeting.”
He could not say how eagerly he had awaited that day.
“I immersed myself in formations without even noticing my exhaustion. Since Buil Academy had taken the lead in the group exchanging letters, I swore that I would present myself to my other friends without shame. Then I collapsed, and afterward, I could never again see the sun rise the next day.”
The physician had clicked his tongue, saying that pushing his body to its limit had led to his blindness and asking whether he had ignored the symptoms he must have experienced.
He actually remembered his hands trembling and his vision flickering from time to time, so he could not blame anyone else.
“I despaired and suffered, and I tried to cancel the gathering. But by then, the appointed date was close, and I thought no one would receive a letter sent so late, so I went to the meeting place with the help of a servant.”
Contrary to his expectations, he was warmly welcomed.
He could not see who they were, but all of them worried over his injury and promised to help him.
They told him that even though he was blind, formation arts were about sensing energy, and since the basic framework was already engraved in his mind, he should continue studying with them all.
That day, he also learned the formation's name.
‘Myriad-Heaven Illusion Formation.’
Out of gratitude, he delved even more deeply into formations.
Never knowing that it might all have been their scheme.
“I devoted another fifteen years to it. I abandoned my wife and son as if all my worth lay in that alone. Then one day, someone happened to mention that he had business in the region where one of them lived, so I asked him to take a little time to visit my friend and deliver an item. But when he returned, he said.......”
There was no such sect.
When he next met that friend at one of their regular gatherings, he could not bring himself to mention what had happened, probably because he already sensed something ominous by then.
“If I suddenly tried to withdraw, they might sense something amiss and harm my family. So I brought up how the formation had made no progress for some time and made the excuse that its growing difficulty had become too much for me, then postponed the gathering. Once, twice, three times. I gradually lengthened the intervals.”
Recalling that time, he clenched his damp palm into a tight fist and continued.
“Then I told them that calculations alone had given us practically the whole answer. I said we now needed to implement it in reality rather than rely on theory, find what was wrong, and correct it. I believed that if a problem arose during actual use, they would have to seek me out again and therefore could not kill me or my family.”
Whether those words worked or there was some other reason.
The next gathering never took place, nor did any assassins come for him.
And then ten years passed.
Just when he finally believed everyone had forgotten him.
The Demon Alliance Leader came to Buil Academy.
To ask whether he knew anything about the formation he had restored.
The old man turned his face toward the place where the Demon Alliance Leader's voice had come from earlier.
“Has my story answered your question sufficiently?”
Wi So-baek met the old man's wrinkled eyes and cloudy, faded pupils.
“It answered me about your life, but it was not a particularly good answer to what I wanted to know.”
“Heh heh. Is that so?”
“The bastards who blinded you must have done it hoping for exactly that.”
They had hidden their identities, exploited him to their hearts' content, and restricted his movements so that he could learn only what they gave him.
“In any case, the years when our lives took sharp turns overlap remarkably well. Besides the twenty-five years ago I mentioned earlier, thirty-five years ago was when I was born, and ten years ago was when I had just escaped the Divine Cult and founded the Demon Alliance.”
Could such an astonishing coincidence exist in the world?
No. Could such a fucking fate possibly exist?!
“It is as if they spent an entire lifetime carefully weaving a trap tailored precisely to me.”
Hands had been reaching out since then, trying to fasten an invisible leash around Wi So-baek's neck while he rampaged about proclaiming the world too small for him.
The fact that he had nearly been leashed and thrown into the mire once was unbearably unpleasant.
“But that means they must have left their stench all over the place. There should be traces here and there as well.”
They had probably refrained from cleaning up Buil Academy before because, as the old man had hoped, he might still prove useful.......
But the reason they could not do so now was likely that they could not move rashly.
Whether they had made an anxious attempt or carried it out successfully, if they had done anything at all, the Dark Wheel would have found some clue and followed it back toward the culprit behind it.
Therefore.
“You and Buil Academy can rest easy now.”
The old man had been thinking it fortunate enough if Wi So-baek let matters pass and he suffered no retaliation later, since although he had caused no direct harm, it seemed certain that the formation he had restored had caused the problem. He started in surprise.
Sensing the middle-aged man pacing anxiously beyond the closed door behind the old man's shoulder, Wi So-baek continued.
“The head of the academy did not seem particularly gifted, so if he does not enjoy it, you do not need to force him to study formations. You no longer need to fear that those bastards will consider your family useless and kill them if they know nothing about formations.”
“Fortunately, that son of mine still considers even this insignificant blind man his father, and he does not dislike carrying on his father's and his family's studies.”
“Then that is fortunate.”
“Still... thanks to you, a weight has been lifted. I will be able to teach with more joy, and he will be able to learn the same way. Thank you.”
“Enough. Do not make that face.”
The old man traced his cheekbones with his wrinkled fingertips and felt along his puckered mouth.
As if he wished he could see what expression he was wearing.
“Is it terribly ugly?”
“Nothing like that. It merely feels unfamiliar because I have seen only old men who would devour even their own children. He should be right there if you just turn around and open the door. Your son is over fifty, yet is he still so precious and lovable to you?”
“Is that not only natural?”
“There you go again. That is a face your son outside ought to see, not me. The moment he sees it, he will know how dearly his parent treasures him. So save it. It would be a waste.”
The corners of the old man's eyes grew damp.
“...Emotions do not wear away with use, so it is all right.”
Wi So-baek had been about to shake his head, but deliberately made the movement audible instead.
“Enough. Who do you think I am? Why would I covet the scraps left over after someone else has had his share?”
Then he curled the corners of his mouth and murmured a little more quietly.
“Now I have family like yours as well. I think I understand what it is like.”
Something precious and good.
“Is that so?”
Perhaps that was why the Demon Alliance Leader the old man had heard about and the man directly before him seemed like completely different people.
The old man sincerely congratulated him and considered it truly fortunate for himself and Buil Academy.
Once the story had been settled, the old man took a book he had made himself from inside his robe and held it out.
When Wi So-baek reached out, the book in the old man's hands floated into the air and passed over to him.
The old man could not tell what had happened, but everything that occurred within this room would be under the Demon Alliance Leader's permission, so he was not surprised.
Wi So-baek flipped through the pages.
“You said restoring the formation took so much effort that you poured thirty-five years into it, yet the conditions for activating it are even more demanding.”
It required an immense power to erupt from the formation's center on a day when heaven and earth were in harmony, with the formation drawn using a mixture of a spirit creature's blood and a martial artist's inner arts.
“Those are estimated values. They never told me the results of their actual experiments. I do have values that were revised several times, but I doubt they will mean very much.”
“Knowing the approximate scale is helpful enough. Examining the materials that went into it will also help us catch their trail.”
Wi So-baek tucked the book inside his robe and rose.
“Are you leaving?”
“I should.”
“Please visit us again someday.”
Wi So-baek shook his head at the old man's words.
“It is better for you if you never see me. It would mean you can live peacefully with the son you treasure so dearly, without anything happening.”
“Even so, I would be glad if you came.”
“We will see.”
Wi So-baek answered vaguely, then went outside.
“Father!”
The head of the academy bowed to Wi So-baek, then approached the old man behind him.
For someone who claimed to have cast aside both son and wife to immerse himself in formations, the old man was treated well.
Either he had not neglected his family as much as he thought, or his later regret and good treatment had still gotten through to them.
In any case, Wi So-baek had finished his business and felt no lingering attachment whatsoever.
When he strode toward the main gate without hesitation, the father and son of Buil Academy belatedly hurried after him and saw him off.
In the carriage returning to Hunan, Wi So-baek took out the book again and examined the Myriad-Heaven Illusion Formation.
“After all that, they failed and I returned perfectly fine. Those bastards must have lost everything they had and ended up beggars with nothing to show for it.”
Furthermore, while formations required extremely demanding conditions to use, were they not a highly useful field of study?
They might never dare use something like the Myriad-Heaven Illusion Formation again.......
But the knowledge they had acquired while restoring and using the Myriad-Heaven Illusion Formation would not simply disappear.
It would be of a lower order by comparison, but they might have devised ways to make modest use of other formations.
However, so long as Wi So-baek remained in the present martial world.
Whether on the Black Path, the White Path, or in the Imperial Palace, anyone using formations would be unable to evade Wi So-baek's eyes.
Who would dare do something that would place them at the very top of Wi So-baek's list of enemies the moment they were caught using one?
So, honestly, Wi So-baek would have preferred it if some fool committed such a stupid act.
As he entertained one thought after another, Wi So-baek rested his head against the window.
The carriage wheels struck stones and bounced repeatedly, and the jolting grew worse. It seemed they had entered a mountain road at some point.
The guard seated in the driver's box tried to handle the carriage as carefully as possible, but with the road narrow and rugged, there was only so much he could do.
The warriors who had been surrounding the carriage on all sides changed formation and moved to its front and rear.
That did not mean they left the sides open; they kept some men riding parallel with the carriage.
WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH!
A fierce wind blew, coiling around the trees and sweeping up the dirt.
RUSTLE, RUSTLE!
Wi So-baek opened his eyes when an unnatural sound mingled within it.
“Bastards pretending to be clever enough to plot for decades would hardly attack me the moment I left Buil Academy. Could this be the pack of hounds I have been waiting for after all?”
It seemed they had come for their dog food after a long absence.
“Then I should welcome them.”
Wi So-baek spoke while staring somewhere beyond the window.