The Still Blade Law Realm Formation.
Taken by its characters, it meant that a stilled blade established a single law.
The original Five-Balance Formation created by Sa Giljin had already been superior to and more dangerous than any formation in the mortal world.
But the Five-Balance Formation perfected by Jin Mudo was completely different.
'Fledgling, I will be watching with anticipation!'
The Five-Balance Formation he had reinterpreted was no different from a testing ground before one could cultivate his Mad Heaven Demonic Art.
Put another way, if one could not pass the Five-Balance Formation, one could not cultivate the Mad Heaven Demonic Art either.
And that meant Murin would be of no use to him at all.
'If he cannot overcome it, he will never escape from within it.'
That was the terror of the Still Blade Law Realm Formation, the first chapter of the Five-Balance Formation Jin Mudo had now deployed.
It was a hellish formation from which even a peerless master could not escape without knowing the foundational breathing method of the Mad Heaven Demonic Art.
Jin Mudo turned his head toward Murin, who sat cross-legged on the floor without stirring.
It was a bizarre world.
Looking around, Murin first saw an open, level plain stretching in every direction.
Beyond it lay a hill thick with dense forest. The forest concealed what lay beyond, but he could immediately sense that something continued farther still.
'The Still Blade Law Realm Formation?'
He could not tell from the formation's name what it was intended to do.
But there was nothing ordinary about this place.
He could tell that merely by looking at the few ruffians standing before him.
And then....
"What in the world do you think you are doing? Give it back!"
What Murin saw made his vision go red.
Several burly ruffians were threatening someone he recognized.
'Uncle Yong!'
The man struggling desperately to keep the ruffians from taking his worn bundle was Yong Gang.
Murin instinctively stepped forward, then stopped short.
'It is an illusion!'
He knew only too well how Yong Gang had died.
The dead man appearing before him could only be another cruel trick by Jin Mudo.
"Give it back! I have a gift to give our Murin as well!"
Yet even as he knew it was an illusion, his heart churned.
How could he endure seeing Uncle Yong so vividly beaten and mocked before his eyes?
"Stop it!"
Unable to bear it any longer, he ground his teeth and rushed forward.
He did not know what Jin Mudo meant to test.
But a thousand times, ten thousand times, if Yong Gang was in danger, he would run to save him.
Crack—
After charging in and twisting one man's jaw aside, Murin hurried to Yong Gang and supported him.
"Are you all right, Uncle Yong?"
"Oh, it is Murin! Murin!"
His face a mess, Yong Gang embraced Murin and wept.
"Uncle Yong...."
Murin, too, softened and was about to help him stand when—
Stab!
"...Uncle Yong!"
Yong Gang's body lurched, and a terrible scream burst from him.
"M-Murin!"
"You bastards, I will kill both of you!"
The man Murin had struck only moments ago radiated killing intent as he pulled a sword out of Yong Gang's back.
"Urgh!"
Yong Gang crumpled to the ground and soon collapsed limply.
"...N-No! No, Uncle Yong!"
Then Murin suddenly spotted a familiar object hanging at Uncle Yong's waist.
A money pouch embroidered with paired fish.
How could he forget it?
"Aaaah!"
When Yong Gang twitched for a moment, then stopped moving, Murin's eyes rolled back.
"I will kill you all!"
He charged at the men.
He grabbed a stone lying nearby and smashed one man's head, then picked up the sword the man dropped.
The instant he did, he felt his heart pound heavily.
'Haa, haa!'
And the world before his eyes turned red.
"W-What's wrong with that bastard's eyes? Run!"
Horrified at Murin's crazed eyes, the men tried to flee.
But they did not get far before they came face-to-face with Murin's face, like that of an evil ghost.
"I-I will tear you apart and kill you."
Crunch—
Stab!
In an instant, Murin became completely mad and slaughtered the men.
Their earlier arrogance vanished, and they died with miserable screams.
Then it happened.
Wheee—
"Murder in broad daylight! I will kill you and set the martial world's order right!"
A man in white martial arts uniform appeared, drew his sword, and charged at him.
"Your killing intent is this strong. You are someone who must never be left alive!"
Before Murin could fully react, the man raised his sword and slashed him.
Murin hurriedly lifted his own sword to block, but the man's sword was far too fast.
In an instant, he felt the entire world turn dark.
Death.
That dreadful, terrifying moment came for him.
Murin regained consciousness not long afterward.
"...!"
His brow furrowed at the sight before him.
The same scene as before.
Neither the man in white martial arts uniform who had swung his sword at him nor Yong Gang's miserably dead body was there.
'Everything is false!'
Murin bit his lower lip and tried to cool his thoughts.
Everything before him now was an illusion.
But at the same time, it was real.
He was not a foolish person.
Judging by his intellect alone, he was extraordinarily clever. That was why he perfectly remembered the preferences and peculiarities of the countless guests who visited the inn.
'Think! What is Jin Mudo trying to test?'
Remembering the first trial, Murin knew Jin Mudo had no intention of recognizing him easily.
No, if Murin failed to meet his standards, Jin Mudo would not bat an eye even if he died here, Heavenly Kill Star or not.
This time was the same.
If Murin could not see through Jin Mudo's hidden purpose in this formation, he would die.
'Wait!'
After thinking and thinking, Murin realized something and looked at the scene unfolding before him.
Yong Gang was being beaten by the ruffians.
The beating was so vicious that, even knowing it was an illusion, Murin's heart began to boil again.
But Murin immediately cooled his thoughts.
"Uncle Yong!"
Then he strode forward.
Every event that occurred in this formation would have a different result depending on his choices.
"M-Murin!"
Desperation was written all over Yong Gang's face.
Whoosh—
But without saying a word, Murin picked up a stone from the roadside and rushed at one of the ruffians.
So far, it was the same decision as before.
Thud!
And it was the same when he knocked the man to the ground in an instant and drove the stone down onto his head.
"Urk!"
Clang—
The man, unable to bear the pain, dropped the sword in his hand. This, too, was the same.
In that instant, Murin reached for the sword, then stopped at once.
'Not yet!'
If he grasped that sword, he would immediately go mad. He did not yet have the power to control that madness.
So he waited for a moment.
Then, once he had resolved himself, he picked up the sword.
"Dieee!"
In an instant, the blood throughout his body boiled hot, and maddening killing intent poured from him.
"Stop! I can see from this vile killing intent that you are one who must not be left alone!"
The man in white martial arts uniform appeared.
Murin stared with all his strength in the direction from which the man had appeared.
What was he trying to see?
Slash—
Until the man swung his sword down savagely, Murin's eyes remained fixed firmly on him.
As though he were waiting to be killed by the man.
Thud.
Death came once more.
"..."
His head felt as though it would split apart.
His strength had already declined to its limit; compared with when he first entered, he was considerably more exhausted.
In that state, Murin immediately steadied his breathing.
He needed to clear his mind.
"Hoo."
After recovering some strength, Murin slowly rose.
'Jin Mudo did not throw me in here for no reason.'
He had no time.
Even if he did nothing all day, he was still an old man dying.
On the other hand, he had no time to train Murin to exact his revenge.
So he would not have done even a trivial thing carelessly.
'There are several arrangements here, you sly old man.'
First, he had taught Murin the Mad Heaven Demonic Art's breathing method, then thrown him in here.
It must mean he was meant to use it.
Then where was he meant to use it? A breathing method was not something that yielded enlightenment and power in one instant.
'I understand the meaning of Still Blade.'
The man in white martial arts uniform had certainly moved the instant Murin picked up the sword and released killing intent.
'To avoid provoking him, I have to hide my killing intent.'
He could find that clue in the man's words as well.
'Still Blade must mean to conceal that killing intent. A quiet blade must kill so that even the one being killed does not know he is dying.'
At the inn as well, Murin's killing intent had been so dense that a master of the Martial Alliance struck him down and dragged him here.
Jin Mudo had seen straight through that point.
'Now that I understand the problem, the next step!'
The breathing method.
Although he had no time, Jin Mudo had made Murin memorize the breathing method's verses first, then forced him into this place.
In other words, the breathing method was necessary to break the formation here.
Step—
Murin sat cross-legged.
His brilliant mind, sharp enough to contend with the greatest intellects under heaven, busily turned as he searched for the answer.
—One who has slaughtered tens of thousands of chickens has reached a realm where the killing is done before intention stirs. That breath is called still.
A passage concerning someone who had slaughtered tens of thousands of chickens throughout his life.
A man who caught and cut off the heads of exceedingly sensitive chickens in the silent dawn.
It was said that he carried out the act of killing before the chickens could notice, leaving the other chickens nearby without even a twitch.
In other words, they died without sensing any killing intent at all.
The Mad Heaven Demonic Art's breathing method described this as stillness, or quietness.
'This is it!'
It was from the verses of the Mad Heaven Demonic Art's breathing method, composed of a thousand characters.
Had he not memorized them properly and perfectly, he would never have found a way out of the Still Blade Law Realm Formation.
It was an arrangement that could not have been more terrifying and vicious.
'Let us try it.'
He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
He heard Yong Gang being assaulted by the ruffians in the distance, but he paid it no mind.
After all, if he did not reveal his killing intent, the man in white martial arts uniform would not appear.
'Hoo....'
Following the verses, he moved his breath.
His consciousness repeatedly sank deep down, then rose again.
It was breathing he had performed countless times before, but something was different.
It felt as though the breath he drew in transformed into a hot ember and raced deep into his belly.
At the scorching, numbing sensation he had never felt in his life, Murin trembled all over.
His heart, mind, and body were slowly settling into stillness.
The Mad Heaven Demonic Art's breathing method was passing on, after a hundred years, to a young man with a Heavenly Kill Physique.