Chapter 763: Hey, It’s Been a While

Geom Mugeuk stood in a new space.

In the darkness.

He activated the New Eye Technique and looked around. He was standing before a staircase that led downward.

When he let the wind carry his body, the mysterious formation had transported him here.

‘This is the place!’

Geom Mugeuk could tell that this was the entrance leading to the tomb of all the previous Alliance Leaders.

‘Thank you, Patriarch of the Dan Family.’

Danso Jin had indeed left behind a clue in his farewell. Though he could not break the family law, he must have hoped that someone would take that dangerous item away from the tomb.

Of course, he likely never imagined that Geom Mugeuk would truly find this place.

It was the perfect example of a deceptive strategy of illusion and reality.

Anyone would assume that the entrance to a secret tomb would be hidden deep within rugged mountains.

Who would ever imagine that it would be concealed in such an open, empty space?

And Geom Mugeuk was genuinely impressed by the formation.

A formation that could only be entered by fully entrusting oneself to the wind?

Truly, it was the first time he had experienced a formation that conveyed such elegance and artistry.

Whoever had created it, one thing was certain—the person who designed this formation had undoubtedly been a true master of formations, someone whom all current practitioners must know and respect.

That realization made Geom Mugeuk tense. Someone capable of such mastery had laid the formations below, waiting for him.

He carefully began descending the stairs.

Even now, he could feel the mysterious aura that the space exuded. It was incomparable to the fake Sword Tomb he had faced while fighting the Twelve Zodiac Kings.

The deeper he went, the brighter it became. At the bottom of the stairs was a long corridor, and at the far end, another staircase leading further underground.

‘The first gate!’

Geom Mugeuk examined the walls on both sides of the corridor. The floor, walls, and ceiling were riddled with countless holes. The moment one stepped into the passage, the mechanism would activate, launching blades or hidden weapons. Thankfully, it was a mechanical trap, not a formation.

After closely inspecting the device, Geom Mugeuk made a decision.

‘I’ll break through with Star Light Step.’

He had no intention of boasting about his strength by destroying the mechanism. He had come here as a quiet guest, intending to leave without a trace.

After calming his mind with a deep breath, Geom Mugeuk moved. Recently, his speed had reached an extreme level, and now he pushed it to its limit.

Swoooosh!

At that instant, the mechanisms all activated at once.

Swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish!

In the blink of an eye, Geom Mugeuk had reached the end of the corridor. His breathing remained steady—he hadn’t even taken a single breath during the entire passage.

The corridor he had just passed through was lined with hundreds of spearheads that had shot out from every direction like a spider’s web before retracting back into their hidden slots. Behind Geom Mugeuk, the storm of blades had followed like waves, like a blazing inferno. But no fire, no storm, could ever catch up to lightning.

Sring, srrring, srrng.

Geom Mugeuk’s breakthrough had surpassed the highest speed that the mechanism’s creator could have imagined from any intruder. No matter how skilled a martial artist, none could have moved faster than this. Yet Geom Mugeuk had exceeded even that limit.

His movement art had transcended even the imagination of the mechanism’s designer.

Passing through the trap without leaving even the smallest scratch on its structure, Geom Mugeuk descended the stairs once more.

The second underground floor.

There lay the second gate.

The second barrier that greeted him was far more dangerous than the first—at least, it would have been for anyone else.

The moment he stepped off the final stair, Geom Mugeuk sensed it.

A faint trace of poison entered his breath.

‘Formless Deadly Poison!’

The trap had been set to distract him with curiosity about what might await ahead, only to silently release the poison from the stairs’ end, so discreetly that one could not even tell how it had been dispersed.

Using such an expensive poison for a mere entrance test was the same as saying:

Just die here!

Even a master who had safely passed the first gate would not have survived this one.

Yet Geom Mugeuk lightly overcame both the first and second gates and continued down the stairs again.

The third underground floor.

There, a formation activated.

Sssssss.

The scenery around Geom Mugeuk changed. The area transformed into a desolate plain, and all around him appeared dark, shadow-like illusions. Illusions wielding countless weapons charged toward him.

Geom Mugeuk tilted his head slightly, curious.

Swaaaak.

He cut down the illusions that rushed at him from all directions. Their numbers were overwhelming, but Geom Mugeuk was no longer the man he once was.

The sword energy flying from the Black Demon Sword swept through them all. Even if another martial artist used the same internal energy, the number of enemies slain would have been far fewer.

The illusions kept charging over the fallen bodies. For an ordinary master, the sheer number alone would have been impossible to withstand—but the creator of this formation had miscalculated. Surely, they must have thought, “No one could possibly endure this many enemies.”

But here he was.

Puaaaak!

When Geom Mugeuk cut down the final illusion, the formation was broken.

Sssssss.

Geom Mugeuk’s strength had completely overwhelmed the trial. Each of the three gates demanded something that surpassed human limits—speed, poison resistance, and internal energy—and Geom Mugeuk was like the natural nemesis of this entire test.

Well, it couldn’t be helped. No one could have imagined that someone this powerful would ever come here.

When he broke through the third gate, a massive stone door appeared before his eyes.

He had finally reached the tomb.

As Geom Mugeuk opened the stone door and stepped inside, a vast interior unfolded before him.

The towering ceiling loomed overhead, overwhelming anyone who entered, and statues stood solemnly on every side.

There were statues shaped like warriors carrying swords, others holding sabers, some with fists thrust forward, and others seated with the composure of dignitaries upon their mats of authority.

From their dignified presences alone, he could tell—they were the successive Alliance Leaders of the Unorthodox Alliance.

Murals were painted across all four walls.

Had a Great War between orthodox and unorthodox forces taken place?

Flames blazed in the murals, and corpses lay strewn across the ground. At the center stood a lone martial figure. He, too, must have been one of the past Alliance Leaders.

At the very center of the chamber stood a display case, and within it lay the legacies the past Alliance Leaders had left behind—martial arts manuals and divine weapons they once wielded.

Just knowing these were the martial techniques and weapons of those masters across generations was enough to realize how precious they must be.

And among them, it was there.

Resting upon a pure white cloth was unmistakably the final violet orb—Purple Essence.

“Our youngest is right there!”

Geom Mugeuk strode forward without hesitation.

He picked up Purple Essence and quietly gazed down at it.

The sixth and final orb.

Those lurking behind the scenes had gone to every length imaginable to obtain the power sealed within this orb.

Geom Mugeuk looked at it deeply for a moment—

Clang!

Then, suddenly hurled Purple Essence to the ground.

It shattered completely, breaking into countless fragments.

Ssssss.

Even as the violet energy spread in waves throughout the chamber, Geom Mugeuk only watched in silence.

And at that moment—

“Why are you doing this?”

A secret door in the wall slid open, and someone rushed out.

To his surprise, it was Danso Jin, the Patriarch of the Baekchong Family, who oversaw this tomb’s maintenance. It seemed he had been hiding there, secretly observing everything that had transpired.

“Wasn’t that the orb you’ve been searching for?”

“It was. I fought them for this very thing.”

“Then why destroy it?”

Looking down at the shattered remains of Purple Essence, Geom Mugeuk answered calmly.

“Because it’s fake.”

Danso Jin asked in shock, “Fake?”

Geom Mugeuk gave a silent nod.

“How did you know it was fake?”

As he quietly met Danso Jin’s eyes, Geom Mugeuk, for some reason, chose to answer honestly.

“I obtained the other orbs before this one. Those were hidden in places nearly impossible to find. But this one was displayed as if it wanted to be discovered—set right in the most obvious spot.”

“You shattered it just because of that? Couldn’t there have been another reason it was placed so openly?”

“Of course, that wasn’t the only reason.”

When he had accepted the final orb, neither the Secret Box nor the energy within his body had shown any reaction at all. How could that be possible? It was the final essence—there was no way it should have remained silent.

Then, a shocking statement came from Geom Mugeuk’s lips.

“This tomb is also fake.”

Danso Jin looked utterly bewildered.

“Fake? What do you mean by that? I’m standing right here—what nonsense is this?”

Geom Mugeuk’s gaze fell upon him.

“It’s fake because you’re here.”

“...!”

Danso Jin’s expression hardened.

“What are you talking about?”

“The moment I saw you, I was certain.”

Danso Jin’s voice trembled with anger.

“Is this how you repay the kindness I showed you?”

He was beyond disbelief—furious now.

But Geom Mugeuk’s calm explanation continued.

“The wind formation at the entrance was truly extraordinary.”

Indeed, he had never before experienced a formation so wondrous.

“But compared to that, the formations inside were far too ordinary. For an entrance of that caliber, would the inner defenses really be so simple? Spears shooting out, poison gas, illusions attacking inside a formation—those are the sort of mechanisms and traps anyone could create.”

Geom Mugeuk spoke with conviction.

“If the one who crafted the formation at the entrance also created the rest, there is no way they would have made something so common.”

That was why Geom Mugeuk had tilted his head in doubt while breaking through the third gate.

“So I wondered—if he truly built a formation here, what kind of formation would it be? Anyone entering this place would surely come seeking the legacies of the past Alliance Leaders. And then, one legendary formation came to mind.”

The name left Geom Mugeuk’s mouth.

“The As-You-Wish Illusion Formation!”

An ancient formation that granted whatever its victim most desperately desired.

To those who sought treasure, it offered treasure; to those who sought martial manuals, it offered manuals.

But the moment one claimed those things, they could never escape the formation again. While rejoicing over their gain, their real body in the physical world would have its qi drained away, dying within the illusion.

There was only one method to break it.

One had to reject the gift at the exact moment they received it—just as Geom Mugeuk had shattered Purple Essence.

It was the most difficult form of resistance imaginable for a human being.

“From the very first gate, I was already inside the formation.”

The formation had been activated the moment he had fallen into the darkness at the beginning.

“The Linked Activation Formation.”

A technique befitting the one who had created the wind formation. Whoever they were, they truly deserved to be called a god of formations.

“What’s even more astounding,” Geom Mugeuk continued, “is that even though I rejected what I desired, the formation still hasn’t broken.”

At that moment, Danso Jin’s expression changed completely.

“You truly are extraordinary, Young Cult Leader!”

It was as if he had been testing Geom Mugeuk all along—his tone was filled with admiration.

He took another box from his robe and handed it to Geom Mugeuk.

“Here is the real orb. Forgive me for testing you. I wanted to see whether you could truly break the As-You-Wish Illusion Formation.”

Geom Mugeuk accepted the box and opened it. Inside lay another violet orb, radiating an even more dazzling light than the previous one.

“Remarkable.”

Danso Jin looked curious at Geom Mugeuk’s quiet praise.

“Is that orb really so special? What sort of power does it hold?”

“I wasn’t talking about the orb.”

Geom Mugeuk picked it up—

Clang.

—and shattered it without the slightest hesitation.

Danso Jin’s eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at him.

“He didn’t just create a Linked Activation Formation. He designed a formation that requires a double-breaking sequence.”

“Double-breaking? What are you talking about?”

Then Geom Mugeuk revealed the shocking truth.

“It’s you. You are part of the formation itself—the second layer of the barrier meant to prevent the formation from being broken.”

“...!”

“You don’t even seem to realize that you’re serving that function.”

Danso Jin shouted angrily, “What kind of madness are you spouting!?”

Geom Mugeuk abruptly asked,

“Who are you?”

“What?”

“Try to remember what kind of person you are.”

After a brief pause, Geom Mugeuk spoke again.

“You are a loyal man. Someone willing to give his life to protect this tomb. That final message you left me—that was the best you could do, the greatest kindness you were capable of. You must have agonized deeply even over that. But now you’re saying you waited here for me? That you found the nearly impossible-to-locate orb and kept it to test me? Here, in this sacred tomb you treasure more than your own life? Does that sound like you?”

Danso Jin looked confused, then murmured,

“I... I am not that kind of person.”

The moment he admitted it—

Ssssss!

His figure began to fade away. He truly had been the second layer of the formation. Had anyone else reached this point, the formation would have manifested someone deeply connected to them in Danso Jin’s place.

To pass through this tomb, one had to overcome the three gates within the formation, reject the thing they most desired, and even resist the second temptation that followed.

It was a formation utterly impossible for anyone driven by greed to escape.

Thud.

At the spot where Danso Jin vanished, a single book dropped to the ground.

—The Complete Understanding of the Absolute Heaven Formation.

When Geom Mugeuk opened the pages, he found the following written within:

—My final enlightenment is left to the one who breaks my Linked Activation Formation.

Gui Heoja.

Geom Mugeuk had never heard of Gui Heoja before. But if this was the person who had created not just one, but two such masterful formations, then this manual must be the ‘Nine Calamities Demon Art’ of the formation world itself.

He carefully tucked the book into his robe. To encounter such a heavenly opportunity at this moment—he could only believe it to be the will of the heavens.

“I shall use this for the good of the world.”

At that declaration, the formation finally began to fade away.

Srrrrrk—

The space around Geom Mugeuk shifted. The tomb interior vanished, and once again, he stood within the same darkness he had first fallen into.

Before him now stood a massive stone gate.

It was the true entrance to the tomb.

As proof, the face of a wolf—the guardian statue that stood at the path leading to the Hall of the Alliance Leaders of the Unorthodox Alliance—was engraved at the gate’s center.

Its fierce expression seemed to embody its vow to protect the souls of the past Alliance Leaders.

“Hey, it’s been a while.”

Geom Mugeuk pressed his hands against the door.

Krrrung—

The layers of history built by generations of the Unorthodox Martial World opened before him. Even the air that flowed out carried the weight and scent of time itself—so different from before.