Chapter 146

The four warriors who simultaneously burst out from other locations were in the same situation.

They were bewildered by the fact that there was no one in front of them.

They had definitely driven him this far. They had tracked Snake Scorpion Poison King’s movements with certainty, using the warriors’ lives as collateral.

But why wasn’t he where he should be?

The five warriors looked at each other with confused gazes. With the flames above their heads becoming severe, they looked ridiculous crouching with their waists bent awkwardly.

The warrior who came to his senses first shouted.

“He… he’s not here!”

* * *

The situation was conveyed to Yi Rim through hand signals and whistles.

Yi Rim was greatly flustered.

“What, what? You’re saying he’s not inside the Death Gate?”

Though he thought it couldn’t be possible, his hands trembled.

There had been cases where those with excellent martial arts broke through formations with force and escaped, but there had never been cases of someone disappearing in the middle. How could he slip out when dozens of people were surrounding and moving!

Yi Rim looked at the tea tree field that was burning much more fiercely than before. As it began burning in earnest, the flames became much stronger and the smoke became severe.

“That bastard’s fire after all… cough.”

Yi Rim coughed due to the burning smell and frowned. Cold sweat ran down his spine.

Losing Snake Scorpion Poison King in a tea tree field with nowhere to flee even after deploying the Nine Palace Eight Trigram Formation?

If they failed to catch him even using the Zhuge family’s representative formation, Yi Rim would have to pay a heavy price for that responsibility.

“That idiot! If only that idiot hadn’t interfered!”

If only Jeok Yul hadn’t stepped forward unnecessarily and gotten poisoned, they could have caught Snake Scorpion Poison King much more easily by now. He was the only master who could freely move through the burning flames that seared flesh and the suffocating smoke.

Yi Rim raised red and white flags.

Since it had come to this, he had no choice but to change the formation more quickly and weave the warp and weft of the net more tightly.

* * *

Jin Ja-gang was looking down at the warriors who had rushed into the Death Gate from atop the tea tree branches.

Whoosh.

He had climbed up the tea tree that was least on fire, but even so, fire caught on his clothes and burned and charred his flesh. His eyes stung and he couldn’t breathe from the continuously rising smoke.

However, Jin Ja-gang didn’t make a single coughing sound.

While the warriors were confused and wandering around unable to find Jin Ja-gang, whistle sounds rang out.

The warriors began moving again.

Through the sickeningly billowing smoke, he could see the enemies moving. Even though several had died and flames were engulfing all sides, the warriors’ movements remained orderly.

Seeing from above, the formation’s changes were truly mysterious.

Groups of several people each moved separately and precisely, yet they meshed together perfectly to create the formation.

‘The View Gate contains the Death Gate, and the Death Gate contains the Life Gate…’

Just moments ago, Jin Ja-gang had felt tremendous pressure inside the formation. All the warriors’ attention had been focused on that previous position. However, the moment they began moving, the place where Jin Ja-gang stood became empty and safe.

‘Does this mean the Life Gate?’

Even though he understood the meaning of those words, he wasn’t yet at a level where he could use that to break through the formation. He had to find a way to escape the formation again from the Life Gate, but he had only gained a brief respite.

In any case, now was his opportunity.

He couldn’t understand the formation by observing partial changes, but one thing was certain.

They had lost track of Jin Ja-gang.

That formation moved based on Jin Ja-gang’s position. When Jin Ja-gang acted, the formation changed accordingly.

However, since they had lost Jin Ja-gang, it was just changing without a center point. There was sufficient room to penetrate.

Jin Ja-gang rolled up his sleeves and took out his short knife and needles.

Now they too would learn how much of a burden it would be for them that Jin Ja-gang used weapons that didn’t require direct physical confrontation.

Jin Ja-gang came down from the tea tree. His entire body was charred and burned with blisters and peeling skin.

Jin Ja-gang took out a bamboo tube and wedged it between tree branches.

And then…

He looked toward the direction of the entrance to the tea tree field.

Though nothing could be seen due to the smoke, it was the place where the most whistle sounds could be heard.

When whistles sounded first from there, corresponding whistles would sound from all directions.

The person responsible for moving this formation was probably there.

* * *

“Aah!”

The Wood Element warrior was walking while concentrating on the front when he screamed at the unpleasant foreign sensation felt under his foot. While walking bent over, he suddenly received an impact on his sole and rolled on the ground.

A long needle was embedded in his sole.

“Wh-what is this…”

The needle was so vicious that it pierced through the shoe sole and embedded deeply in his foot. When he pulled out the needle, blood flowed steadily.

The warrior frowned and stood up limping.

He had to advance until the next signal, then meet allies twice for confirmation procedures. Otherwise, he would be treated as dead and excluded from the formation.

“That, that b*st*rd…!”

But suddenly he became short of breath.

“Huff… huff… gasp.”

It was already difficult to breathe due to the acrid smoke and hot heat. He couldn’t even walk a few steps before collapsing with foam at his mouth.

Rumble rumble rumble…

The Earth Element warrior was walking with his waist bent.

The fires blazing on all sides were so hot that sweat poured down his entire body.

Then he heard a comrade’s scream from far away. Someone dying was a chilling thing, but it was always fortunate that it wasn’t oneself. Since it happened farther away than expected, he felt momentarily relieved thinking he was somewhat safe.

“Huff huff.”

The warrior wiped sweat with his sleeve. His face was completely red from the fires, and wiping sweat was agonizing because his lips were parched from the heat. Salt had soaked in, making his face feel gritty.

‘Damn it! How long do we have to keep doing this!’

Since someone had died, the formation would change again. The constant changing of Life Gates and Death Gates was troublesome for the target, but it wasn’t easy for the warriors who had to keep moving to maintain that formation either.

Thud.

Suddenly a burning branch fell on his head.

“Eek!”

The warrior was startled and dropped his sword to frantically shake his head.

Comrades asked from positions not clearly visible due to smoke.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! Cough cough.”

The warrior answered irritably and tried to pick up his sword. Tried to pick it up.

Someone pounced on the back of the warrior who had just bent his waist. Someone’s hand covered the warrior’s mouth from on top of his back.

“Mmph!”

The warrior reached back to grab the head of whoever was clinging to his back. With his other hand, he flailed wildly trying to gouge out his opponent’s eyes.

However, his opponent bit the warrior’s finger first. There was pain as if his finger was being severed.

Then, realizing his neck was becoming cool, the warrior threw himself backward. The opponent clinging to his back was crushed underneath. Even though he rubbed his back vigorously against the ground, his opponent stuck like a leech and wouldn’t fall off.

‘Mmph! Mmph!’

While struggling, a burning sensation arose in the warrior’s neck. Something hot flowed down from his neck and he began losing strength.

His body convulsed against his will.

Thud, thud.

Only then did his opponent’s hand fall away from the warrior’s mouth. The warrior tried to make a sound with all his strength before dying, but only the sound of escaping air flowed from his mouth.

The Fire Element warrior was moving forward while looking around in a duck walk.

Peep peep!

Someone’s shout was heard along with formation commander Yi Rim’s whistle sound. The Fire Element warrior turned his steps at a right angle to the right and moved. This signal meant to change the formation at a right angle to the right.

Even if the target remained still, by having the formation surrounding the target move on its own, they could make the target enter a completely different gate.

However, as the formation’s direction changed, he still hadn’t met the allies he should have encountered.

Since he was just an individual warrior, he couldn’t know details about the formation’s situation, but he knew something was wrong.

The Fire Element warrior tried to shout. However, he saw someone pass by in a completely unexpected direction through the smoke. If it wasn’t an ally, it was the target.

The Fire Element warrior hurriedly followed to confirm. He tried to hide behind a tea tree pillar by putting his hand on the tea tree, but his palm stung when he touched the tree.

A small needle was embedded in the tree trunk, and he had been pricked by it. It was a thin, short needle that was hard to see unless you looked carefully. This was definitely Snake Scorpion Poison King’s doing.

“Here… here!”

The warrior shouted to announce Snake Scorpion Poison King’s position, then staggered and collapsed not long after.

* * *

Yi Rim’s expression hardened.

Something was strange.

There was a hole somewhere.

Warriors were dying in places where they absolutely shouldn’t be. Sometimes they died almost simultaneously.

Deaths appeared from all directions as if Snake Scorpion Poison King wasn’t just one person but two or three.

‘What on earth is this…’

When Snake Scorpion Poison King was discovered at the View Gate and he tried to operate the formation centered on that location, casualties suddenly appeared at the Rest Gate. When he thought it was the Rest Gate, it was the Wound Gate again.

He was moving unpredictably, appearing here and there like lightning.

Since losing track of him once at the Death Gate, the formation’s coordination seemed subtly off.

It felt like gears not meshing properly and making unpleasant rattling sounds. Instead of immediately pursuing Snake Scorpion Poison King, they were always following behind too late.

“Hmm.”

Was it because the warriors couldn’t properly follow commands due to the increasingly severe flames and smoke?

Yi Rim decided to tighten the formation’s spacing as much as possible. If the encirclement’s range decreased, changes would become duller but the walls would become thicker.

In any case, the fire was becoming too fierce for the warriors to endure any longer. At most one or two more moments.

“Even if everyone dies, you absolutely cannot escape!”

But even at that moment, shouts announcing Snake Scorpion Poison King’s position and screams were echoing from all directions.

Whether it was his imagination, some of the screams seemed to be approaching toward him.

* * *

Jin Ja-gang realized that at some point he was frequently seeing the warriors’ backs. Seeing backs instead of fronts meant he had caught them from behind.

‘Escaped the formation?’

No, he probably hadn’t completely escaped the formation, but he had certainly deviated from the formation’s flow.

Planting poison needles everywhere and moving had been effective. The enemies couldn’t properly track Jin Ja-gang’s movements. Before he knew it, Jin Ja-gang was close to the outermost edge of the encirclement.

If he could draw their attention elsewhere just once, if he could stop the formation’s changes even briefly, he could run to the tea tree field’s entrance.

And if he killed the one commanding this formation, the formation would become useless!

Jin Ja-gang lay as flat as possible on the ground and waited.

While moving, he had wedged bamboo tubes between burning tea tree branches in various places. When they caught fire, they would explode and draw their attention.

Soon!

BOOM!

With an intense explosion sound, one bamboo tube exploded in the distance. Someone screamed as if hit by the scattered hidden weapons from the explosion.

“Aaaaah!”

BANG!

Timely, another one exploded in succession. No, he had originally adjusted the distance when wedging them in burning branches so they would explode almost simultaneously.

As bamboo tubes exploded from all directions and hidden weapons flew about, the warriors became agitated.

The same was true for Yi Rim. Only then did Yi Rim realize that Snake Scorpion Poison King had been moving around while setting up hidden weapons and traps, which was why they couldn’t properly track his movements.