Survival Guide for the Reincarnated - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 30

The unity of these four sects was solid.

They were already the ones who had been dominating Yang-ryeong County.

That period wasn’t just one or two years, but had reached several decades.

“The county magistrate said he would completely withdraw from this matter.”

“…He’s received so much from us over the years, but if he withdraws from such matters, we have no reason to treat him well either, don’t we?”

“Still, what can we do? He’s the county magistrate.”

Tsk.

Jang Mu-hwi clicked his tongue and stood up from his seat.

With this, their meeting was over.

There was only one answer to the letter from Seol-ap.

Refusal.

And they were determined to see Seol Woon-hwi kneel before them and apologize.

Arrogant bastard.

* * *

In the training ground of the Seol-ap Branch, covered with the smell of sweat, five branch members were moving in perfect unison.

Woon-hwi, who had been watching them with a somewhat dissatisfied expression, spoke up.

“The Five Snow Ice Flower Formation requires you five to move as one body. At your current speed, your necks will be severed before you can even deploy the formation.”

Five Snow Ice Flower Formation.

This was a formation technique newly created by Seol Woon-hwi.

In his previous life when he was active in the Blood Cult, he had created a formation technique called the Blood Lotus Flower Formation, and this was a modification of that technique for five people to deploy.

Originally, it was a very complex formation technique that organically carried out more than six variations, and the Blood Cult members of the past who deployed this formation knew no defeat.

The incantation was simple.

Blood drops form a path, blood path reddens the heavens – droplets of blood gather to form a blood path, and the blood path stains heaven and earth with blood.

The incantation for the modified Five Snow Ice Flower Formation was as follows.

Five snows become frost.

Five snowflakes gather to become a blizzard.

Five colds become ice.

Five streams of cold energy gather to become a glacier.

From the beginning, Woon-hwi had no intention of greatly increasing the number of branch members.

A formation technique that could be deployed by five people, and a formation technique that could achieve maximum efficiency with five.

That was the Five Snow Ice Flower Formation.

The Five Snow Ice Flower Formation consisted of three variations in total.

The basic pentagonal formation, the Snow Pressure Formation, was the first.

The Snow Pressure Formation was the basic form capable of omnidirectional defense and attack, and next was the Ice Peak Formation.

This was a breakthrough formation designed to strongly attack a single point, created to pierce through clustered enemies in one strike.

The last third was the Snow Waterfall Formation. Specialized in rapid movement and continuous attacks, this existed not only in the Five Snow Ice Flower Formation but also in the original Blood Lotus Flower Formation.

Though the names were different, what they pursued was the same.

It could be called the core of formation techniques, and honestly, it wouldn’t be wrong to say the formation technique was created because of this Snow Waterfall Formation.

“Stop.”

At Woon-hwi’s words, the five branch members stopped in place all at once.

Watching them catch their breath, he slowly drew his sword.

“You’ve memorized the movements, but they’re still not organically connected.”

In times like this, there was no choice.

He would make them learn through actual combat.

Woon-hwi spoke briefly.

“Pressure Formation.”

When deploying the Snow Pressure Formation, “Pressure Formation”; when deploying the Ice Peak Formation, “Peak Formation”; when deploying the Snow Waterfall Formation, “Waterfall Formation”.

Since these three had already been drilled into them beforehand, the five branch members who heard “Pressure Formation” lit up their eyes and began to move. In an instant, they took positions in a pentagonal formation, their eyes burning with intensity.

Centered around the large-framed Cheon Pung, Won Yang, Han Mu-rin, Jin So-hyeop, and Baek Myeong-gaek all began gathering their internal energy from their respective positions.

“Don’t start gathering internal energy after forming the formation – keep it gathered from the beginning. You must be able to deploy this formation technique anytime, anywhere.”

Seol Woon-hwi’s sword flashed as he said this. A blue-white sword light cut through the air. It struck Cheon Pung’s forehead with lightning speed, then lashed Han Mu-rin’s thigh. It was before the groans of the two men had even finished.

“The core of the Five Snow Ice Flower Formation must be as natural as snow flowers blooming. Internal energy aside, right now you’re moving like pieces of metal.”

The sword light rotated and pierced between the formation. In an instant, Won Yang’s sword flew toward Woon-hwi. But it was futile.

Seol Woon-hwi’s sword spine deflected Won Yang’s sword.

Clang!

With the hard metallic sound, Won Yang’s body staggered. Immediately, Woon-hwi’s shoulder twitched.

His sword, stopped in mid-air, struck the shoulder of Jin So-hyeop, who was beside Won Yang.

Thwack—!

“Ugh!”

Since it was the sword spine, this was the extent of it, but if it had been the actual blade, Won Yang’s neck would have flown off and Jin So-hyeop’s arm would have been severed.

“When Won Yang attacked, Jin So-hyeop, why didn’t you move?”

He brought down the sword raised high toward Jin So-hyeop’s opposite shoulder. Crash.

In that brief moment when he was about to collapse to the ground, Won Yang quickly began to fill that position.

But this time too, it was futile.

Clang—! Thud—!

Won Yang took a hit to the face, Cheon Pung to the abdomen, Baek Myeong-gaek to the left thigh, and Han Mu-rin was struck in the ribs with a foot.

Woon-hwi’s sword didn’t stop, sweeping like a blizzard and striking the branch members.

“Respond.”

Woon-hwi kept moving. Unless they were fools, they couldn’t fail to notice that he was going easy on these five.

Though he hit them, he didn’t hit them hard enough to kill. He was matching their level so they could respond.

The eyes of the five lit up, and they swung their swords, forgetting their pain.

But even Cheon Pung’s massive frame was useless before Seol Woon-hwi’s sword spine, Han Mu-rin with his optimistic personality and irregular swordsmanship could only deflect Woon-hwi’s sword once, Jin So-hyeop with his precise swordsmanship and calm, analytical personality quite uniquely struck Woon-hwi’s sword surface exactly once with his sole, and Baek Myeong-gaek, skilled in orthodox swordsmanship, blocked Woon-hwi’s sword exactly once.

Little by little, they were adapting, and eventually Cheon Pung’s sword deflected Woon-hwi’s sword to the side, and Won Yang’s sword, seizing that gap, flew toward Woon-hwi’s neck.

It was satisfying.

In an instant, Woon-hwi’s body disappeared from that spot.

Whoosh—!

Won Yang’s sword cut through empty air.

The five branch members turned their heads.

From a distance, Woon-hwi wiped the sweat from his forehead and spoke briefly.

“Peak Formation.”

The five branch members hurriedly reorganized into a sharp spear-point formation. It was an assault formation targeting a single point. But Seol Woon-hwi’s sword was already extending forward.

Cheon Pung’s forehead, positioned at the very front, was thrown back once more, and the four branch members behind him were struck in the abdomen and ribs by Woon-hwi’s sword that swept like lightning.

The formation collapsed in an instant.

Tsk.

“If even a momentary gap appears when the formation changes, that becomes death itself.”

Seol Woon-hwi sheathed his sword.

“The enemy will be targeting that moment. Stand up.”

The branch members, soaked in sweat all over, nodded and stood up from their positions.

“Waterfall Formation.”

It was the final formation. The five poured down like a waterfall, attempting continuous attacks. Black shadows moved swiftly. It was an improved showing compared to the beginning.

But it was still insufficient.

Seol Woon-hwi blocked all of their attacks with a single Revolving Heaven Sword.

“Hmm….”

Seol Woon-hwi muttered as he lowered his sword.

“Not entirely satisfactory, but….”

His gaze turned toward the five panting men.

“This much is at least usable.”

Faint smiles spread across the sweat-soaked faces of the branch members.

They knew it too.

The fact that such an evaluation came from Seol Woon-hwi’s mouth meant that much had already changed.

“Practice until you perfect it.”

Woon-hwi’s gaze turned toward Won Yang after his brief words.

At first, he hadn’t noticed it well.

But watching the way she swung her sword and moved, he was getting a sense of it.

He didn’t bother asking why she was disguised as a man, but he thought he understood the reason.

It wasn’t about her talent.

It was unexpected.

This place, Seol-ap, was remote among remote places to begin with.

Far from the Central Plains, yet not completely separated from them.

How should he put it.

It was a place where those who fled from the Central Plains stayed, unable to abandon their attachment to it.

“Rest for half an hour, and Won Yang, you follow me.”

The one who had been panting nodded.

* * *

They moved to a very quiet corner of the training ground, the most secluded spot.

There was a small table and several chairs for resting, and he pulled one over and sat astride it.

Won Yang, with a bewildered expression, seemed truly unaware of why he had called her aside.

He asked her.

“How long were you planning to hide your identity?”

At his words, Won Yang swallowed hard and spoke in a small voice.

“…I wasn’t planning to hide it until the very end… I’m sorry for deceiving you about my gender.”

He shook his head.

That wasn’t what he was asking about.

In a quiet voice, he recited the incantation of a certain martial art.

Observing the sword clarifies the mind, reflected in the azure sky.

Observing the sword brings clarity to the mind, and the azure heaven reflects.

As soon as the incantation ended, Won Yang pointed her sword at his throat.

This needed to be addressed—he hadn’t failed to respond, he simply chose not to.

“…How… do you know….”

The sword was trembling, and Won Yang’s eyes were filled with ‘fear.’

What he had just recited was from one of the long-destroyed ‘Five Great Families.’

It was the mental cultivation method of the Namgung Family.

What kind of place had the Namgung Family been?

In the primordial era, it had been the leader among the Five Great Families that stood shoulder to shoulder with the Nine Sects and One Gang.

Its name was the Azure Heaven Sword Heart Formula.

He gazed steadily and placed his hand on the sword pointed at his throat.

“The sword tip is shaking.”

“….”

“The momentum when you drew it was the best among all your movements I’ve seen so far. But the fact that it trembles this much means your heart cannot find its direction.”

“…I am….”

“Put it away. You won’t be able to cut anyway.”

As he quietly lowered his hand, Won Yang also lowered her sword.

He had known from early on that he—no, she—was a woman. He had never once referred to her as a woman.

Because she seemed to want to be seen as a man.

But it was clumsy.

Cheon Pung’s talent was decent too, but Won Yang’s talent before his eyes was extraordinary.

It was truly regrettable that such talent was being devoured by invisible fears and unable to shine.

“How did… you know… about me?”

“I saw traces of the Namgung Family in your movements.”

“…What?”

It was an illogical story by common sense, but that was only from Won Yang’s perspective; by his standards, it was beyond reasonable—it was the truth of truths.

When he was in the Blood Cult, there had been one madman.

“What is your relationship with Namgung Ho?”

“…He’s my… uncle.”

“Your parents?”

“…They’re dead.”

“So that’s why you came all the way to this distant Snow Mountain, beyond his reach?”

“…Yes.”

He understood roughly.

He had wondered why she was disguised as a man when it didn’t suit her, but Namgung, of all things.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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