Chapter 147: Formation Arts (2)

After answering Il-mok's question, An Jeok-un spoke in a nonchalant tone.

“If there are no more questions, let’s begin. Today, we’ll cover one of the most basic Formations, the Illusory Dream Formation."

An Jeok-un swept his gaze across the training ground and picked up a few stones before circling the training ground.

"I'll set up an Illusory Dream Formation that will last for the duration of our class. Watch carefully. It'll be especially helpful if you focus your qi perception to feel how the energy flow changes."

He didn’t even look at the disciples and just walked the perimeter of the training ground, placing stones in a few spots.

"Hmm."

After surveying the area as if reading the qi flow, he nodded once and returned to the first stone he’d put down.

He pulled a blank talisman and a brush from his sleeve, then dipped the brush into a gourd hanging at his waist.

‘That doesn't look like ink. What is it?’

The brush came out stained a dark blood-red and An Jeok-un started painting on the talisman with it.

Il-mok's eyes lit up as he followed An Jeok-un's advice to sense the qi flow.

‘Interesting.’

A thread of qi was emitted from An Jeok-un’s fingertips and sank into the talisman with every single brushstroke.

An Jeok-un stuck the talisman to the rock, then continued making a new one for each stone.

A couple of the other disciples from the Hall of the Demonic Way watched with interest.

Each time An Jeok-un attached a talisman to a stone, they could feel the qi flow in the area subtly distorting.

With every new talisman, the qi became more unstable until it thrashed around like a wild animal. And by the time he slapped down the last one, it was at a fever pitch.

Then, An Jeok-un stepped outside the strange polygonal area created by the stones and suddenly began moving his hands through the air, forming hand seals as if performing some ritual.

The qi that gathered around him in response to his hand seals transformed into lightning the moment he thrust his hand forward, striking the first stone with its talisman.

Pop!

Immediately after, the chaotic qi flow stabilized.

The whole setup took maybe a few minutes.

An Jeok-un finally turned to face the students again.

"Hmm. Since Disciple Il-mok is the only student whose name I know so far. I ask you, Disciple Il-mok, have you noticed anything? Tell me what you observed."

It was an odd question.

The chaotic qi had stabilized, and from the outside, the training ground looked like a normal yard with some rocks with paper stuck to them.

‘He isn’t asking about the stones with talismans on them.’

Il-mok figured he’d sound like a world-class moron if he said that.

He didn't need long to figure out the real answer.

“The flow of qi inside the Formation you built and the flow outside it are separate now. They're not connected at all.”

An Jeok-un nodded.

"Correct. I made it obvious so you could feel it. The rest of you should be able to notice it too if you just pay attention for once.”

A few disciples nodded like they knew all along while a few others went “ohhh” like a lightbulb finally went on.

"Of course, a proper Formation wouldn't be this obvious since you need to trap your opponents inside. You could make it huge so the boundary between inside and outside can't be distinguished, or make the Formation much more complex so it blends in with the world’s natural energy.”

"Then why start with a useless, obvious formation like this?" Dokgo Pae asked, looking utterly confused.

An Jeok-un answered in his dry tone, "You have to start with Formations you can notice and feel before you can deal with subtle ones later."

While An Jeok-un answered kindly, he was thinking something else entirely inside.

‘What a complete moron.’

He'd explicitly advised them to feel the qi flow at the beginning. Anyone with half a brain should be able to figure out his intention from that.

As a member of the An Family—a clan known for its sharp intellect—he simply couldn’t fathom how the heir to the Dokgo Family even managed to survive.

But since he'd already known the Dokgo heir would be among the students, he decided to just let it slide. Getting worked up about it would only waste his own energy.

“The Illusionary Dream Formation creates illusions, just as the name implies. Now I’ll teach you how to escape it. Memorize the method, then each of you will go in one by one and find your way out.”

An Jeok-un calmly explained how to detect artificial qi flows within a Formation and how to use those flows to find the Life Gate.

"Even though the qi flow appears stable, it's still artificial. A better formation would hide that fakery, but spotting it gets easier once you know what you’re looking for.”

After explaining how to find the Life Gate, An Jeok-un gave them a final warning.

"The Illusory Dream Formation I've created is the most basic type; it shows everyone the same illusion. Also, even if you get hurt by the illusions, you won't actually be injured, so don't worry. You're more likely to hurt yourself by panicking.”

A proper Illusory Dream Formation could slip into someone's Upper Dantian to resurrect their worst nightmare, or make injuries from illusions manifest on the real body, among other effects.

Of course, he didn’t create such a vicious Formation for the students' first practice.

It wasn’t because he was compassionate. The people of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult weren't exactly sticklers for safety.

‘I could manage with other materials, but making it with just talismans doesn't give me enough time.’

He couldn't have built a proper one within the time limit of the class even if he wanted to.

"Also, don't trust your sense of direction inside. Even this basic Illusory Dream Formation will mess with your directional sense. If you think you can just return the way you came, you’ll be stuck there forever.”

After finishing his explanation, An Jeok-un scanned the students and pointed at Gwak Sul.

"You go in first."

He'd been watching their faces throughout his explanation, so he knew this student was one of the few who'd fully understood everything he'd said.

At An Jeok-un's instruction, Gwak Sul carefully approached the Formation area.

He stepped through what felt like an invisible wall and vanished into the area.

A second later…

"Hiiik!?"

Gwak Sul let out a terrified scream and jumped in shock as if he'd seen something.

From the outside, though, it just looked like he was freaking out at nothing.

But his surprise was brief.

He must have remembered Ahn Jeok-un’s warning because he quickly calmed himself down and began moving carefully.

It was a strange sight to behold.

He was clearly in the middle of a flat, empty training ground, but he was moving like he was tiptoeing across a narrow cliff or a rickety bridge, shuffling and taking weird, roundabout paths.

After fumbling around for a few minutes, Gwak Sul finally stumbled out of the Illusory Dream Formation. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead as he let out a sigh of relief.

"Not bad for a first attempt." An Jeok-un’s flat tone made it hard to tell if that was praise or sarcasm.

An Jeok-un turned his head and looked at Il-mok next.

"Now Disciple Il-mok goes in."

"Yes, Chamber Master."

Il-mok gave a perfunctory bow and approached the Formation.

‘Tch. What a pain. But I guess I have to.’

He'd rather just coast through the lesson and relax, but Formation Arts was actually quite useful.

‘I can’t let what happened back then happen again.’

Just thinking about what went down in the Peach Blossom Ridge was enough to make him take this seriously.

The moment he took that final step into the Formation area—

Screeeech!

Il-mok understood why Gwak Sul had screamed.

His vision completely warped and he suddenly found himself on a mountainside with a warrior bursting out of the bushes to launch a surprise sword attack.

Whoosh!

But Il-mok didn't scream like Gwak Sul. He just habitually twisted his upper body slightly and easily dodged the strike.

‘Ambushes? Please. I’m used to them.’

He calmly avoided the warrior's attacks a few more times.

Then a thought occurred to him.

‘Hmm? Do I really need to find the Life Gate? This guy doesn't seem that strong anyway.’

Curiosity stirred within him. What would happen if he defeated this warrior? Or better yet, could he shatter this basic formation with his swordsmanship?

A cold sneer spread across Il-mok's lips as that thought crossed his mind.

‘This fucking side effect is trying to get me to draw my sword.’

Drawing his sword out of curiosity? That wasn’t him at all.

The moment Il-mok realized this—

—Tsk.

A faint clicking sound, like someone sucking their teeth in annoyance, echoed in his mind.

Having sidestepped the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword's trap, Il-mok followed An Jeok-un's advice and began moving with his qi perception sharpened.

Meanwhile, An Jeok-un's eyes lit up as he watched Il-mok from outside the Formation.

He had seen it.

He had seen Il-mok’s blatant sneer the exact moment he must have recognized the trap.

‘Ho. A sneer. Does he think this level of Formation is nothing?’

Most people would have been offended by the sight but An Jeok-un actually gets more intrigued.

After all, this was just something he'd casually made for educational purposes. He knew it was pretty shoddy work.

‘Well, he did experience the Illusory Dream Bewildering Formation at Peach Blossom Ridge, so this would seem laughable by comparison.’

Indeed, An Jeok-un's interest grew even more about just how talented the famous Eighth Young Master really was.

As if to answer that unspoken question, Il-mok exited the formation even faster than Gwak Sul had.

"Excellent."

It was higher praise than he’d given Gwak Sul. After that, An Jeok-un acted like he’d lost all interest in Il-mok and started sending the other trainees one after another.

Thanks to the examples set by Gwak Sul and Il-mok, the others managed to find their way out without too much trouble.

Eventually, after a few more turns, it was finally Dokgo Pae's time.

With a swagger that screamed 'I'm not afraid of any stupid Formation', Dokgo Pae strode right in and—

"Hah!"

Immediately drew his greatsword to swing it at thin air.

It was in response to the surprise attack from the illusory warrior.

Most students had shown surprise at that attack but quickly regained their composure and escaped the Formation.

But Dokgo Pae was different.

“HAAAH!”

“UWAHAHAHA! TRY AND BLOCK THIS!”

He shouted boisterously as if having a conversation with the illusion while swinging his greatsword.

"Hahaha! Excellent!"

“Urk!”

He even started using his footwork and lightness skills at full power, leaping and dodging all over the place.

The sight of a buff guy yelling and flailing about while swinging his sword at nothing made him look completely insane.

After watching this for a while, An Jeok-un finally couldn't hold back and sighed deeply.

‘Ugh. Damn Dokgo Family.’

He'd expected this, but not to this degree.

The bastard definitely hadn't listened to a word of the explanation before going in.

After watching Dokgo Pae’s shitshow for a few more minutes, An Jeok-un finally had enough and stepped in himself.

He flicked his hands through the air, forming the same signs he used to create the formation.

Pop!

When he thrust out his right hand, a jet of fire-qi shot out and instantly incinerated one of the talismans.

The moment it burned, the artificial energy flow dissipated, and Dokgo Pae, ripped from his illusion, roared in outrage.

"Why did you interrupt my life-and-death battle!!"

"......."

For once, An Jeok-un was actually speechless.

He barely managed to choke back a stream of curses and forced his face into a mask of indifference. "Life-and-death battle? You were having a life-and-death battle with an illusion?"

"That's right! I felt frustrated since private sparring between students isn't allowed in the Hall of the Demonic Way. But you can kill an illusion without any consequences! What better opponent could there be?!”

An Jeok-un frowned at Dokgo Pae's insane words and asked with a 'please tell me this isn't true' expression, "So you kept fighting while knowing it was an illusion?"

"Of course! Isn't that obvious?"

“I believe I stated that the goal of today’s training was to safely exit the Formation.”

“Hahaha! But smashing the illusion to bits is just another way of getting out, isn’t it?”

"......."