Chapter 322 : Potala Palace (2)
Chapter 322: Potala Palace (2)
Shaolin and Wudang were universally hailed as the titans of the Central Plains martial arts world. The former was called the Mount Tai of the Central Plains, and the latter was titled as the North Star of the Central Plains.
Among them, Shaolin's One Hundred Eight Arhat Formation was counted among the finest battle Formations in all the Central Plains.
The Potala Palace's Seventy-Two Vajra Lama Formation was considered the Potala Palace's crowning achievement, said to rival that very Arhat Formation.
"Ngh..."
The sheer energy radiating from the monks maintaining the Formation was enough to gradually rattle the Demonic Cult members from the inside out.
The only two who could withstand the Seventy-Two Vajra Lama Formation's crushing pressure without flinching were Il-mok and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang, both of whom had entered the Realm of Truth.
Il-mok spotted the building visible beyond the ring of monks and clicked his tongue.
"Tch."
According to the monk they'd interrogated in Damxung, that building was where the Left and Right Great Virtuous Ones resided.
They were just one step away from their destination, and a proper obstacle had appeared at the very last stretch.
'Guess this isn't going to be a walk in the park.'
Shaking off a brief pang of frustration, Il-mok channeled his Demonic Qi and pushed back the Vajra Lama Formation's pressure bearing down on him.
Tap!
In the very next instant, Il-mok launched himself straight at the vanguard of monks.
A piercing screech that sounded like hundreds of screeching birds filled the air as crackling Sword Thunder wrapped around the Ascension Sword.
One senior monk reacted to Il-mok's charge and stepped forward.
BOOM!!
Astonishingly, the monk managed to perfectly parry Il-mok's strike with a vajra.
Sure enough, a tremendous energy was flowing outward from the vajra in the monk's grip.
It was only possible because the collective, overwhelming power of the entire Vajra Lama Formation was actively reinforcing the high monk's already profound internal energy.
"Ngh."
While the first high monk grunted in pain as he struggled to hold back the Sword Thunder, a second monk lurking right behind him viciously thrust forward an iron staff.
Just like the vajra, a ridiculous amount of energy undulated along the length of the staff.
Il-mok rotated the Ascension Sword where it was locked against the vajra while simultaneously executing his lightness skill to narrowly dodge the staff.
The very next second, another senior monk slid into Il-mok's blind spot and launched a heavy right palm strike. Il-mok immediately fired back with a left palm of his own, meeting the strike head-on.
BOOM!!
While Il-mok clashed with three senior monks, Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang was also exchanging blows with three senior monks of his own.
CLANG!
Following their explosive initial charge, Il-mok and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang began chaining their manouever to to try to disrupt the Formation's rhythm.
But the Seventy-Two Vajra Lama Formation moved with the organic fluidity of a living creature.
If Il-mok pushed aggressively forward, the monks surrounding him would seamlessly fall back a few steps to support the three senior monks.
And as they retreated, the other monks behind them advanced to maintain the spacing in precise steps. All this despite Il-mok and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang attacking from two different directions at the same time.
"Annihilate!"
When the senior monk leading the array barked a second command, several monks on the side detached from the Formation and charged at the rest of the party.
The one silver lining was that compared to the senior monks blocking Il-mok and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang, these were relatively younger, middle-aged monks.
Jin Hayeon was the first to react to their assault.
With her mastery over the White Hand Demonic Art finally breaking past the stage of Extremity and inching toward Transcendence, she unleashed twin palm strikes overflowing with freezing qi to crush the monks' advance.
Acting as her direct support, Ju Seo-yeon and Hyeokryeon Seon-ah swung a short spear and claws respectively to keep the lamas in check.
Swoosh!
Every so often, Jeong Hyeon would loose an arrow from the backline, consistently targeting the monk's vital points.
But the flow of battle wasn't trending in their favor.
Thanks to the crushing pressure constantly radiating from the Vajra Lama Formation, everyone besides Il-mok and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang was slowly but surely accumulating internal injuries.
Explosions erupted from every direction as the monks forming the Formation chanted incomprehensible mantras.
Through it all, Il-mok was gradually deciphering the Seventy-Two Vajra Lama Formation, banking on his innate qi perception and years of combat experience.
'The base unit is a three-man team.'
The high monks fighting him were following that exact pattern, and so were the ones brawling with Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang.
Even the squad that broke off to ambush the rest of the party was fundamentally coordinating their strikes in groups of three.
'And six of those three-man teams link up to form a larger unit.'
Eighteen monks, divided into groups of three, formed one smaller Formation.
Furthermore, each of the six teams within the lesser Formations was assigned a distinct role.
While one team acted as the vanguard and engaged in direct combat, another team stood back and funneled their qi to empower the fighters. This was while yet another team focused entirely on exuding the crushing pressure meant to suffocate anyone trapped inside.
Four such units of eighteen, moving organically and supporting one another as a single cohesive whole.
That was the Seventy-Two Vajra Lama Formation.
While actively suppressing the high monks by unleashing his Sword Thunder, and occasionally mimicking Taragai’s trick of stretching his Force Qi and cracking it like a whip, Il-mok noticed something odd as he analyzed the Formation.
'Some of these are too young to be called Lamas.'
By definition, the title of 'Lama' was a sacred Tibetan term reserved exclusively for highly virtuous monks who had actually achieved enlightenment.
Yet, scattered throughout this Vajra Lama Formation were men entirely too young to have earned such a prestigious title.
Thanks to the intelligence he'd gathered on the way here, Il-mok could figure out why.
'They said everyone who resisted was killed.'
The Potala Palace must have had its share of senior monks with sound judgment, just like the Dalai Lama who'd been killed by the Left and Right Great Virtuous Ones.
With so many high-ranking monks dead, the leaders had clearly been forced to rapidly promote inexperienced youngsters just to fill the vacant slots in their ultimate Formation.
And every one of those young monks was positioned in the rear, tasked with channeling energy into the Formation.
Realizing this, Il-mok made a bold move.
Vrriiiing.
A massive surge of energy gathered into the Ascension Sword, forming an elongated Sword Force.
Il-mok swung it straight at the three senior monks blocking his path.
Faced with a Sword Force that bent and whipped through the air like a lash, the three monks hastily countered with all their efforts to barely manage to block it.
Capitalizing on the split second the high monks were frozen in place, Il-mok launched a surprise attack with a flick of his left wrist.
He shoved his hand into his inner robes and hurled something.
It was a throwing dagger.
It was the very same dagger he had looted from the corpse of the Hao Clan Lord.
It was a weapon boasting such terrifying durability and sharpness that it could easily rival any renowned sword.
Because the high monks were still stunned from blocking Il-mok's Sword Force, they didn't have the luxury of tracking the projectile.
Bypassing the frontline defenders entirely, the dagger rocketed toward one of the young monks in the back at a terrifying speed.
In sheer panic, the young monk hurriedly thrust his vajra forward to intercept it.
Even with panic evidence in his eyes, the vajra in his hands was coated with a formidable amount of qi.
He too was benefiting from the Vajra Lama Formation's support.
'Cut through it!'
The energy-wreathed vajra was cleaved apart with pathetic ease.
Despite the enormous energy boost, the young monk's realm was simply too shallow. He couldn't withstand the qi coating the dagger.
That qi was one of the fruits of Il-mok's training during his travels between the Western Regions and Gansu.
True Sword Telekinesis was still a distant goal, but Il-mok had reached the point where he could briefly coat a weapon that left his hand with Force Qi and guide its trajectory.
Without losing an ounce of momentum after cleanly severing the vajra, Il-mok's dagger buried itself straight into the young monk's heart with ease.
CRUNCH!
Immediately after, the dense energy flowing toward the three senior monks fighting Il-mok began to waver.
"Brilliant."
Clearly having picked up on the Formation's fatal flaw thanks to Il-mok's demonstration, Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang let out a grunt of admiration and ferociously swung his sword.
CLANG!
CLANG!!
After driving back the three senior monks with rapid strikes, Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang suddenly swung his sword in a direction that had nothing to do with the senior monks.
The Sword Force that had formed on his blade flew at incredible speed, exploiting the principles of swift swordwork and headed straight to a young monk.
Just like the casualty before him, the young monk's face twisted in sheer panic as he frantically tried to react, but his meager skills were nowhere near enough to block or dodge Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang's lethal strike.
SHRRK!!!
With two crucial links in the Vajra Lama Formation completely severed in rapid succession, Il-mok and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang were finally able to run wild with far more breathing room.
The six senior monks trying to contain them grew increasingly disoriented, and every time they fell back, another young monk lost his life.
As the foundation crumbled, the suffocating pressure that had been slowly crushing the Demonic Cultists began to rapidly fluctuate and fade.
As the pressure on her lightened, Jeong Hyeon swapped out her short arrows and nocked a short spear onto her monstrous bow instead.
Creeeeeak.
THWANH!
The moment she released the string, the short spear flew toward a young monk with a crisp snap.
Maybe because the Vajra Lama Formation still had some power left, the monk she'd targeted managed to swing his staff and barely deflect the spear.
BOOM!!
But he failed to fully absorb the force behind it and was forced one step backward.
But for the Vajra Lama Formation, which was already wobbling on the brink of collapse, that single, unsynchronized step completely shattered its delicate balance.
SHRRK!
Il-mok and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang were not amateurs who would let such an opening slip.
With Jeong Hyeon joining Il-mok and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang's efforts, the dozen or so young monks forming the Vajra Lama Formation were all dead before long.
Only eleven out of the seventy-two monks had died. It was a casualty rate of less than twenty percent, but as was the fatal nature of all Formations, the Vajra Lama Formation collapsed like a house of cards.
The moment it did, the wolves that had been suppressed were unleashed.
Freed from the Formation's influence, Il-mok's maids and the Hyeokryeon Family warriors began pressing the monks in return.
No longer held back by the formation's interference, Il-mok and Cheon-gang began to bear down on the high monks.
To be fair, every single one of those high monks was a formidable master who would easily be classified as a Supreme Peak Master back in the Central Plains. But stripped of their formation's massive buffs, they simply stood no chance against those two monsters at the Realm of Truth.
"Gkh..."
The senior monk who had clashed vajra against Il-mok's sword suffered internal injuries and coughed up blood with a groan.
Horrified by the sight of their leader losing, a handful of regular monks threw themselves into the fray to protect him.
With the Vajra Lama Formation no longer viable, their desperate logic was to simply act as human meat shields to buy time.
But it was a terrible move.
Employing the profound martial principles of extreme softness, Il-mok casually caught the staff swung by an intruding monk and smoothly redirected its momentum.
"Get out of the way!"
The senior monk who had already committed to a lethal palm strike aimed directly at Il-mok's head screamed in panic.
THWACK!
But it was too late. The senior monk's twin palm strike slammed squarely into the back of the monk who had blundered in.
"Gkh..."
While the monk choked out a strangled groan, his organs and spine shattered, Il-mok mercilessly swung his lightning-wreathed Ascension Sword at the severely injured senior monk.
CRUNCH!!
The Ascension Sword pierced straight through the high monk's abdomen, and the demonic blade greedily gorged itself on his blood like a starving ghost.
With his internal energy replenished from the absorbed Blood Qi, Il-mok swung the Ascension Sword again and cut down the remaining monks.
SHRRK!
On the opposite flank, the sickening, wet sounds of Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang effortlessly cleaving through the flesh and bone of the terrified monks echoed out without pause.
If the rest of the Demonic Cultists were bloodthirsty wolves, then Il-mok and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang were no different from ravenous tigers unleashed into a helpless flock of sheep.
After slaughtering the senior monks, Il-mok and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang indiscriminately cut down every monk in their path as they pressed forward.
It didn't take long for them to completely shatter the encirclement, allowing the rest of the party to rush through the bloody path the two monsters had carved.
Just as they finally stood before the Left and Right Great Virtuous Ones' building, Jin Hayeon's calm voice came from behind.
"Young Master, Family Head Hyeokryeon. We'll hold the rear."
Glancing back over his shoulder, Il-mok saw a massive wave of over a hundred monk reinforcements desperately charging up the mountain in pursuit.
Looking back and forth between the tidal wave of monks and Jin Hayeon's unbothered expression, Il-mok gave a firm nod and replied.
"Just hold on a little longer. I'll finish this quickly and come back."
"I'll finish quickly and rejoin you."
Hearing Jin Hayeon confidently parrot his exact words right back at him, Il-mok let out a faint smirk before turning back around and striding toward the pavilion.