Chapter 357
The passage to the next gate was completely different from the ones before.
The patterns carved on the walls gave off a faint light, and those patterns were constantly changing. The symbols of the Eight Trigrams rotated, and the characters of the Heavenly-Stems Earthly-Branches drifted across the surface.
Chief Seong spoke cautiously.
“Young master. These patterns are—”
“Of the Cheongseong Sect.”
Seol Unhwi said, looking at the wall.
“It appears to have been carved by the Clear-Void Adept himself.”
The Cheongseong Sect had been annihilated during the Thousand-Year Cataclysm, but little was known about the group.
It was hard to call them distinctive.
Although a sword sect within the Daoist tradition, they had been near the bottom of the Nine Great Schools, had never produced a single head of the Martial Alliance in history, and in their thousands of years only once had anyone from the sect reached the legendary innate Triple-Profound realm.
The Clear-Void Adept had been the sect’s chief instructor at the time of the cataclysm and its last head.
His attainment had been Supreme Void of Non-Being.
“The Clear-Void Adept was the era’s foremost elixir-master. He was the one who grafted Daoist principles onto elixir-craft.”
“A remarkable figure, then.”
Seol Unhwi nodded.
“Let us keep moving.”
“Yes, young master.”
Walking on, the two of them reached the end of the passage.
There stood a massive stone gate, with a Great Polarity Sigil carved large in its center and the Eight Trigrams arranged around it.
“The Yin-Yang Great-Polarity Eight-Trigrams Formation.”
“I’ve heard of it. Isn’t that a formation that approaches the Martial-God level?”
Seol Unhwi nodded.
A small stone tablet lay before the gate, its surface inscribed.
-Those who know the Way do not speak of it, and those who speak do not know the Way. But to pass this place, one must understand the Way.
Seol Unhwi read the tablet and sighed.
Chief Seong asked him, “Young master, what does this mean?”
“It’s the Clear-Void Adept’s taste. He built a gate that cannot be forced through by mere martial might.”
Seol Unhwi began to inspect the stone gate in detail.
There was a small hole at the center of the Great Polarity Sigil, and each of the surrounding trigrams pointed in a different direction.
‘Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Zhen, Xun, Gen, Dui... the order is shuffled.’
Seol Unhwi touched each trigram with his finger as he analyzed them.
“It’s arranged not in the correct order but in reverse, and the Early-Heaven trigrams and the Later-Heaven trigrams are mixed.”
Chief Seong could not fully grasp the meaning of Seol Unhwi’s words, but he watched in silence.
Seol Unhwi stretched out his hand.
“Silver needle.”
Chief Seong immediately produced a small silver needle from his robes and handed it to Seol Unhwi.
After a moment’s thought, Seol Unhwi placed the silver needle into the hole at the center of the Great Polarity Sigil.
Click.
With a faint sound, one of the trigrams popped out. Qian.
Seol Unhwi then turned the Qian trigram three times clockwise. The next trigram that emerged was Dui.
“A nail appears in the sky... Qian-as-Heaven, the Trigram of Decisive Heaven.”
Seol Unhwi turned the trigrams one by one as if solving a riddle.
Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, Kun in that order.
Each time he shifted a trigram, a subtle vibration ran through the stone gate.
When he set the final Kun trigram in place.
Kraaa — rumble.
The stone gate slowly began to open.
But beyond it was not another chamber.
It was a gigantic maze.
“Go.”
“...Yes.”
The moment they stepped into the maze entrance, the surrounding landscape changed entirely.
The walls were mirrors, and the mirrors reflected countless images of Seol Unhwi and Chief Seong.
“It looks like an Illusion Formation, but not a simple one.”
Seol Unhwi touched one mirror with his hand. The Seol Unhwi in the mirror began to move.
In a direction different from the real Seol Unhwi.
“What did the records say?”
After a moment’s thought, Seol Unhwi spoke slowly.
“They said the mirror phantoms move independently.”
“Do they have names?”
“They’re the Clone Formation the Clear-Void Adept made using his elixir-craft.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Possibly. If you cannot distinguish the real from the fake, it could be.”
“Do you know how to solve it?”
Seol Unhwi walked forward slowly. The mirror phantoms all began to move as well.
Some phantoms went right, some went left, and some walked backward.
“Follow my lead.”
“Understood.”
The two entered the maze.
The first few forks were relatively simple, but the maze grew increasingly complex and the number of mirrors multiplied exponentially.
Still, nothing felt threatening.
They only displayed images.
“...A thought occurred to me.”
“What thought?”
“You certainly know the path and are avoiding traps, but if you did not—”
“Those clones would attack.”
“...There are hundreds of them, though.”
“I told you: about a hundred entered this hidden realm, and fewer than ten have ever come out alive.”
Given the situation, a true catastrophe could easily have occurred.
Seol Unhwi resumed walking and Chief Seong followed.
Ahead lay three paths, but each had a mirror showing a different scene.
The left mirror glowed with bright light, as if an exit.
The middle mirror was shrouded in darkness.
The right mirror showed yet another maze.
“Which one?” Chief Seong asked.
“All are fake.”
Seol Unhwi looked down at the floor. Fine scratches marked the surface.
“The real path is here.”
He struck the floor hard with his foot.
A crack split the ground and it shattered, revealing a hidden passage.
“The Clear-Void Adept worshipped effortless naturalness. The most ornate is false; the most ordinary is # Nоvеlight # true.”
The two entered the hidden corridor.
But another trial awaited them there.
A huge elixir furnace stood in the center of the corridor, radiating intense heat.
“Modeled after the Supreme Elder’s Eight-Trigrams Furnace, perhaps.”
Seol Unhwi muttered.
Eight stone slabs surrounded the furnace, each engraved with a trigram.
This was a combination of the Five-Elements Formation and the Eight Trigrams.
Seol Unhwi examined each slab.
“Metal generates Water; Water generates Wood; Wood generates Fire; Fire generates Earth; Earth generates Metal...”
“The Five Elements.”
“Specifically, it’s using the generating relationships of the Five Elements.”
“And by ‘using’, you mean...?”
“This is not currently set to generation but to overcoming. We must change it back to generation to extinguish the furnace.”
Chief Seong rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward.
“How do we do that?”
After a brief look, Seol Unhwi spoke in a quiet voice.
“Change Metal-over-Wood, Wood-over-Earth, Earth-over-Water, Water-over-Fire, Fire-over-Metal—reverse them.”
“What if we fail?”
“Inside is True Fire. It will burst forth. It’s the Clear-Void Adept’s final defense.”
“...”
“Moreover, because it’s a fire created by elixir-craft, it is far hotter than ordinary flames and cannot be extinguished with water. Even a Celestial Being hit directly would be grievously injured.”
Seol Unhwi folded his arms and continued.
“Start with Metal.”
Metal symbolizes autumn and the west.
Chief Seong turned the corresponding slab counterclockwise. With a click, it settled back into place.
“Next, Water. Winter, north.”
He turned the second slab.
“Wood. Spring, east.”
The third.
“Fire. Summer, south.”
The fourth.
“Earth. Change-season, center.”
The final slab rotated into place, and the furnace’s flames began to subside.
Ssshh...
Smoke rose and the lid of the furnace slowly opened.
Inside lay a small jade casket.
The contents of that casket were intended as a farewell gift to Flame King Hwa Munyeom.
“It will restore his realm and help exact revenge, and on top of that, such a precious gift... Lord Hwa truly owes a great debt to you, young master.”
From Chief Seong’s perspective, all this hardship was for Hwa Munyeom.
Frankly.
To be blunt, Hwa Munyeom deserved to die once or twice on Seol Unhwi’s behalf.
“Is Lord Hwa... really that important?”
Seol Unhwi turned his head.
“Does it not seem so?”
“There are not that many warriors of the Peachblossom True Dominion, but I didn’t think he was worth such trouble.”
Seol Unhwi chuckled.
“I have never taken ties lightly.”
“...”
“Regardless of a person’s worth, once a bond is made, if there is something you can give, you should give it. Something will come back in return.”
“What if Hwa Munyeom keeps his mouth shut?”
“Do you think he would?”
“Not sure.”
Seol Unhwi knew Chief Seong’s thoughts. The desire for him to remain by Seol Unhwi’s side had elevated Chief Seong to Celestial Being, but it had become an obsession of another sort.
“Don’t think too deeply; just look forward.”
Chief Seong scratched his head.
“All right, young master.”
Seol Unhwi placed the jade casket into the dusk pouch and moved on.
“Let us go outside.”
According to the records, this elixir furnace was the final gate.
Passing it should lead to an exit.
Believing that, Seol Unhwi proceeded through the furnace—and stiffened the instant he passed.
“...Young master...?”
Seol Unhwi stared straight ahead without speaking.
Where a passage should have been, there was a huge cavern.
Nine statues stood in a circle at its center, each posed differently—and that was truly strange.
Seol Unhwi’s records had contained nothing like this.
“Is this the Nine-Palaces Eight-Trigrams Formation?”
Seol Unhwi instantly mapped the statues’ arrangement and grasped their identity, but what followed was something he had not anticipated.
-The sky’s paths are nine, the earth’s paths are eight. Truth lies where nine and eight meet.
Chief Seong immediately drew his dagger, and Seol Unhwi silently stared at the center of the Eight-Trigrams Formation.
There was a figure he had not seen moments ago.
An old man in a Daoist robe. White hair, white beard; he looked like an immortal, faint blue light flowing from him.
A thought-body.
A fully-formed one at that.
“...The Clear-Void Adept.”
The old man smiled at Seol Unhwi’s low murmur.
-This is the first descendant I see in the war-ended world.
The Clear-Void Adept’s voice was gentle and majestic, but Seol Unhwi was unusually taken aback.
He could not make sense of the situation.
This was too sudden.
Nothing in the records mentioned a thought-body in a hidden realm, much less a complete one like those of the Venerable Monk Gongmyeong or the Red-Horse General.
Was there some undisclosed truth about this hidden realm?
There must be a reason for everything.
Seol Unhwi took a deep breath, composed his thoughts, and replied quietly.
“I merely passed through the hidden realm you left behind, Clear-Void Adept.”