As Dong Bong-soo walked toward the newly built Main Hall, his mind was accelerating.
After disposing of the entire Sang Gwan-hwi gang last night, he had brought the village women to Gangdo. No particularly special additional quest had arisen, but in one way or another this sort of "surface-level reputation" mattered. For the time being, there was a need to always look good in Lumina's eyes. In that sense, it was a calculated move—if Bae Dal-pae were to take in the women and see to their salvation, various implicit effects could be gained.
Of course, he had made sure to keep them tight-lipped. There was no need for sensitive information—about Sang Gwan-hwi's gang's misdeeds, or about wielding powerful hidden power—to leak carelessly. He hadn't explained all the details to Bae Dal-pae, but the man would surely have surmised the general flow of events.
That part didn't concern him much either. Because of the "Second Belief," after all. That alone was enough to ensure the man would say or do nothing to the detriment of Hero Gate.
'The problem is...'
Those two. The pair who had followed him out from Formation Tower.
[The activation conditions for Spirit Eyes have been met, and Spirit Eyes will automatically activate.]
Their distance was fluctuating between three and four meters.
Whether it was both of them or just one, they were formidable opponents.
By now [Spirit Eyes] alone couldn't fully assess an opponent's full extent of ability... but at the very least, they had to be considered a person—or persons—whose inner power overwhelmingly surpassed his own by an immeasurable margin.
―Who are those people?
At some point Jeon Ra-hwa had sidled up next to him and asked via Sound Transmission.
[Guests.]
―They're not just ordinary guests, are they? They look incredibly strong.
[Yeah. Not "look strong"—they are strong.]
―They didn't come here to fight, did they?
[They came looking for someone.]
―Who? That painter?
[Yeah.]
―I don't see that person anywhere.
[Sent them somewhere for a bit.]
―...
Jeon Ra-hwa, who had pushed open the Main Hall door—its pungent fresh-wood scent still strong from having been opened only a few times—placed both hands on her hips and shook her head at Dong Bong-soo.
"No. You know the rules, right? This thing was only finished a few days ago."
"What's not allowed?"
"Don't play dumb."
"Alright, alright. I'll try to keep it together."
"You haven't forgotten there's the Founding Ceremony tomorrow, have you?"
"Aah. Right, there was that."
"Isn't this a bit too much, Guild Master Kim? You're the Guild Master here, you know?"
"I'll just be a figurehead Guild Master. That's fine."
"Ha.... I can't live like this. Anyway—."
Jeon Ra-hwa glanced once at the two people behind them and wrapped up her words.
"Don't cause any trouble. We suffered something awful building this place."
"I know, I know."
Dong Bong-soo roughly ruffled Jeon Ra-hwa's hair as a way of closing the matter, then looked at the two figures from Formation Tower and said:
"Please, come in."
Jeon Ra-hwa's grumbling could be heard from behind, but Dong Bong-soo dismissed it with a light smile and stepped inside the Main Hall first.
The interior was clean. One might say it was a space that reflected Jeon Ra-hwa's character directly. The walls still had the living grain of fresh timber, and the shelves were arranged without a single excess item. Nothing expensive, but nothing out of place either. Morning sunlight slanted in through a window at waist height, casting long wood-grain shadows across the round table placed at the center of the Main Hall.
On one wall hung a wooden plaque inscribed with "Hero Gate"—the letters quite crooked, which made it obvious Hо-ae had written it.
Various props for tomorrow's Founding Ceremony were also neatly stacked in one corner.
Squeak.
Dong Bong-soo pulled a stool to one side of the round table and sat. Even as he did so, the circuits of his thoughts continued to accelerate. All manner of scenarios were flowing through his mind, but no direction had been set. All of that would be decided during this conversation.
"Kim Rae-won."
Eom Bi-ryeong and Myo Jin-heo sat down side by side, precisely across from him, and spoke.
"I'm Eom Bi-ryeong."
"I am Myo Ga Jin-heo, Trigram Leader of the Thunder Formation Division of the Alliance Under Heaven Formation."
The brief exchange of names finished, and Eom Bi-ryeong immediately asked:
"Mu-toe. No—where has Trigram Leader Dong gone?"
"Formation Tower."
Dong Bong-soo resolved her question simply with those two syllables.
"He has departed for the Alliance Under Heaven Formation."
At those words, Eom Bi-ryeong let out a breath of relief—but simultaneously lit fire in her eyes and swung her words like a sharpened blade.
"You keep saying 'departed, departed'—Trigram Leader Dong is plainly a member of Formation Tower."
Dong Bong-soo quietly looked into Eom Bi-ryeong's eyes.
A hasty temperament, yet the type to share deep affection. A type that revealed herself without concealment, to an almost bewildering degree.
He immediately shifted his gaze to Myo Jin-heo seated beside her.
A gentle disposition with deep thought, eyes that harbored many doubts yet almost never let them show.
'This one is the complete opposite type from Eom Bi-ryeong.'
Not only that, but he was also a person Dong Bong-soo could not read completely. He could grasp the general scent that emanated from him as a human being, but beyond that, this was a person who was fundamentally "blocked" from being read.
'So that's also possible. To deploy a Formation technique within one's pupils.'
Myo Jin-heo seemed to do it deliberately, opening his fan to cover half his face, then took up Eom Bi-ryeong's words.
"Quite right. Trigram Leader Dong is most unambiguously the Alliance Under Heaven Formation's highest-ranked Formation Taoist. In that regard, Guild Master Kim's word choice of 'departed' does seem rather overbearing. However, more than that, this Trigram Leader has something he is more curious about... might I ask?"
"Of course. Please ask away."
The moment permission was granted, the conjunctival blood vessels tangled around Myo Jin-heo's pupils rotated almost imperceptibly. A tiny movement so small that no one but Dong Bong-soo would have noticed.
"Did you not say that Guild Master Kim's given name was Rae-won?"
[An unidentified domain has been deployed around you.]
"That is so."
"Is it your real name?"
[Conditions have been met, and 'Shield of Faith Lv.2' automatically activates.]
An extremely thin membrane of light was layered over Dong Bong-soo's pupils. So minuscule that ordinary powers of observation could not even detect it.
Interesting. I thought it was only an Active Skill, but it seems reaching Level 2 also added this kind of effect.
Of course, even without 『Shield of Faith』 activating, defending against that Formation technique wouldn't have posed much difficulty. After all, the absolute natural defense of his Super True Energy Field was always present.
"Of course. Is there some problem?"
"...No. This Trigram Leader has heard of someone by the same name as Guild Master Kim and asked out of curiosity."
"Aah. I've also heard that name. People sometimes mistake me for that person, but honestly, I don't know either. Whether I am that person—"
Dong Bong-soo stared at Myo Jin-heo piercingly, then gave a faint smile.
"—or whether that person is me."
Myo Jin-heo, not to be outdone, stared straight back as if to discern the truth of Dong Bong-soo's words.
But.
"...Ugh."
The blood vessels over Myo Jin-heo's whites twisted this way and that, and at last a faint trace of blood seeped down the corner of his eye. Whatever had been done, the Formation technique layered over his pupils had been destroyed.
Watching Myo Jin-heo bow his head hurriedly, Eom Bi-ryeong apparently sensed something had gone wrong, and she sprang to her feet with the corners of her eyes arched sharply upward.
"What are you doing?!"
"Ha. Ha. I have done nothing. If anything, it was that one there who deployed a hidden technique with ill intent, was it not?"
"What do you mean?"
"Ha ha ha. Should you not direct that question to your own companion, in the proper order?"
Eom Bi-ryeong's gaze fixed on Myo Jin-heo.
Myo Jin-heo wiped the blood from the corner of his eye with his sleeve and smiled bitterly.
"...Correct. This was this Trigram Leader's mistake, Trigram Leader Eom."
"A mistake?"
"Guild Master Kim is right. It was our side that moved first."
"Don't tell me... you used Soul-Reading Eyes?"
"My apologies, Trigram Leader Eom."
"Ha—."
Eom Bi-ryeong's expression twisted in complicated ways.
A face that had lost its sense of direction for its anger. Getting angry at Myo Jin-heo was warranted by the facts; getting angry at Kim Rae-won had no grounds.
She ended up sitting back down. But her back did not touch the back of the chair. It was a posture with tension still remaining throughout her entire body.
Dong Bong-soo quietly observed all of it.
Myo Jin-heo had moved first, and Dong Bong-soo had done nothing. With this single fact, the moral high ground had already been seized by his side.
"Care for a cup of tea?"
Dong Bong-soo spun the teacup on the round table as if nothing had happened. It was something Jeon Ra-hwa had prepared in advance.
Eom Bi-ryeong did not accept the tea. Myo Jin-heo, one beat late, quietly lifted his cup.
"...Let's get to the point."
Eom Bi-ryeong exhaled deeply and continued.
"Why was Trigram Leader Dong here?"
"Because he came to kill me."
Twitch.
The composure Eom Bi-ryeong had barely managed to gather crumpled in an instant.
"Ha—. Mu-toe tried to kill you?"
"That is so."
"Then how are you still alive?"
Clearly a simple and shallow type. He had given some thought to how he would convince them of the Dong Mu-toe matter, but it turned out there was no need for any thought at all.
Dong Bong-soo, arms crossed, met Eom Bi-ryeong's eyes squarely and answered, pressing weight into each and every word.
"Because I won."
"..."
The expression vanished from Eom Bi-ryeong's face.
Dong Bong-soo did not stop there.
"After winning, I forgave him, and upon being forgiven, he remained here."
"That... makes sense?"
"Why would it not? You tracked him here precisely by following the traces of my fight with Dong Mu-toe, did you not?"
Dong Bong-soo had already finished his calculations.
Both in terms of timing and from the very start, the fact that these two were searching for Dong Mu-toe here meant they had clearly followed his trail. Then someone had broken through the Formation technique Dong Mu-toe had deployed, and even a fool could infer that the party responsible was "Kim Rae-won."
And yet they were reacting like this.
"Your Trigram Leader Dong has already submitted to our Hero Gate. That's precisely why I used the word 'departed' earlier as well."
Then he simply had to play along accordingly.
"Submitted?"
Myo Jin-heo's fan snapped shut with a clack. This was the first time in this meeting he had closed the fan he had been leisurely keeping open. His eyes narrowed. The look was actually sharper than when the pupil Formation technique had been broken earlier.
"Guild Master Kim. Do you know the weight of those words?"
"Weight? What of it."
Dong Bong-soo gave a faint smile.
"I merely spoke the truth."
Myo Jin-heo's lips closed. The hand gripping the fan was taut with force.
Eom Bi-ryeong had already gone crimson. When that beautiful face twisted to look like a vengeful spirit, the anger within it appeared all the more vivid.
"...Are you insane?"
A low voice. Somehow more frightening than a shout.
"Why—! For what reason would Trigram Leader Dong join a pathetic fledgling sect like this where only children run around?! Huh?!"
Energy burst from her body.
Whether intentional or not, raw unbridled True Energy at the level of a Trigram Leader, carried on pure emotion and poured out unrestrained. The round table vibrated, the teacups clattered, and one tipped over, spreading its contents. The wooden plaque with Hо-ae's writing on the wall tilted crookedly.
Only around Dong Bong-soo was the air still. The Super True Energy Field was automatically nullifying the air pressure around his body. Not a single ripple disturbed his teacup.
"Calm yourself."
"Calm down?! A One of the Eight Trigram Leaders! To a fledgling sect of all things—!"
Eom Bi-ryeong placed her hands on the round table and rose from her seat. From the grain of the wood where her palms touched the table, threads of True Energy spread like spider silk. Whether conscious or unconscious, it was the habit of a Formation Taoist showing itself—attempting to read the opponent's energy channels through the table as a medium.
Nothing was read. Same as before. Nothing at all flowed from this man's body.
That, paradoxically, poured oil on the fire.
"Fine."
One of Eom Bi-ryeong's hands traced a pattern through the air. In that instant, a line of True Energy was drawn taut across the round table. An improvised Formation technique. Not a probe—a restraint. The Mountain Formation Division's distinctive suppression formation designed to pin down an opponent's upper body.
"It'll be faster to confirm this directly."
The Kim Rae-won mask really does come in handy at times like these.
A positioning like this—declaring 'in the name of justice, I will not forgive you.'
Wouldn't it be so enjoyable if only this could be completed perfectly?
"Trigram Leader Eom!"
Myo Jin-heo cried out, but it was already too late.
"What interesting people you are."
Smirk—
The corner of Dong Bong-soo's mouth rose in pleasant satisfaction.
It was a smile where outside and inside were in perfect alignment.
"If this is the meaning of Formation Tower's chivalry and righteousness—"
I'll play along with you.
Zap—!
Dong Bong-soo's figure shot toward the two of them like a bolt of lightning.