“What in the world...?”
Wang Cheongeum stared at the fish he had ordered in utter disbelief.
His chief steward was equally stunned.
“It still looks alive.”
“Th-that’s impossible. And what is this cold?”
“There isn’t even any ice inside, yet the box is freezing.”
The chief steward examined it from every angle. Then he noticed the markings and exclaimed,
“There’s an intense chill coming from these.”
“What?”
Sure enough, the markings themselves were radiating powerful cold.
“What are these?”
“I-I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like them before....”
Wang Cheongeum studied the pattern carefully.
“This looks like a formation.”
“What? A formation can be made this small?”
“How would I know? Go fetch a formation expert. Now.”
“Understood.”
The formation expert came running as soon as Wang Cheongeum summoned him.
One look at the markings left him speechless.
“I have never seen such a flawless formation in my life.”
“So it is a formation?”
“Y-yes. B-but what is this? How could anyone compress a formation to this size?”
“What are you asking me for?”
“M-my apologies. I was simply too astonished.”
“Can you make one?”
“What? J-just a moment.”
The formation expert examined the markings from every possible angle before finally shaking his head.
“I cannot. Those characters are completely unfamiliar to me. I have no idea what principle they use to generate this cold.”
“You just said it was a formation.”
“The core of this formation lies in those characters, but I can’t decipher them.”
“Can’t you just copy them exactly?”
A curse almost escaped the formation expert’s mouth.
If it were that easy, anyone could make formations.
He barely managed to swallow his irritation.
“It is nowhere near that simple. A formation is a meticulously calculated universe unto itself. Look here. Do you see these tiny dots and lines? They weren’t carved there at random. Every one of them follows a specific law. And on top of that—”
“All right, enough. You don’t need to explain any more. I won’t understand it anyway. So the point is, you can’t copy it.”
“That is correct.”
“Then who do you think made this?”
“If I had to name people capable of something like this, only two come to mind in the entire Central Plains.”
“Who?”
“One is the Divine Calculator, whose current whereabouts are unknown. The other is the Divine Mechanism Scholar, known as the brains of the Zhuge Family.”
“Damn it! One has vanished off the face of the earth, and the other is the head of the Zhuge Family! Don’t recommend people I can’t touch! Give me someone I can hire with money!”
“They are not as gifted as the Divine Calculator or the Divine Mechanism Scholar, but if you want another exceptional formation master... there is the Hall Master known as Wondrous Arts Gentleman.”
“Where is he?”
“We would have to find him.”
Wang Cheongeum turned to the chief steward.
“You heard him. Find him immediately.”
“Understood.”
Then Wang Cheongeum addressed the formation expert.
“You try too. If you can reproduce this exactly, I’ll pay you five hundred gold taels.”
“F-five hundred gold taels?”
“Yes.”
“U-understood! I’ll do everything I can.”
It was far too much money to refuse.
Wondrous Arts Gentleman.
A man who lived and died for formations.
He was also a tragically unfortunate man.
Why had Heaven seen fit to bring both the Divine Calculator and the Divine Mechanism Scholar into the world?
Overshadowed by the two of them, he had been doomed to remain third best forever.
With the Divine Calculator currently missing, people now called him second best, but that rank had not been won through skill. If anything, it only made the humiliation worse.
He had once again buried himself in formation research, determined to surpass their reputations, when a voice came from outside.
“Is Wondrous Arts Gentleman here?”
He answered coldly.
“Whoever you are, I have no intention of receiving visitors. Leave.”
“Would you come out for a moment and decipher a formation for us? If you can solve it, we’ll pay you one hundred gold taels.”
It was not the hundred gold taels that caught his attention.
It was the word formation.
Even so, he soon shook his head.
“Find another formation master.”
“Every other formation master we consulted gave up. They said only three people in the entire Central Plains could solve this.”
His expression hardened at the word three.
He knew exactly who those three were supposed to be.
In the end, he rose from his seat.
If some worthless formation had wasted his time, he would throw the culprit into the Avici Screaming Hell Formation for a month.
He stepped outside.
But instead of a formation diagram, the visitor was holding a box.
“Is the diagram inside?”
The man nodded.
Then he opened the box.
A torrent of cold air poured out.
As the white mist produced by the chill faded, the markings beneath came into view.
Wondrous Arts Gentleman’s eyes bulged.
He rushed toward the box.
“Wh-what is this?”
He had spent his entire life studying formations, yet he had never seen one constructed in this manner.
“They fit equations this complicated into such a tiny space?”
How?
Then he noticed the characters moving almost imperceptibly, and his shock deepened.
“Well? Can you decipher it?”
Wondrous Arts Gentleman shook his head.
“This is not a formation I can solve.”
“Then can you copy it exactly?”
“This? Impossible. I can’t even tell what formulas were used or how they interact. How am I supposed to reproduce it? And can’t you see this? The characters and patterns are constantly changing by minute degrees. How could anyone copy that exactly?”
“They’re moving?”
“You didn’t even look closely. Here. Look.”
Wondrous Arts Gentleman held out a crystal orb, magnifying the characters.
They truly were shifting by tiny degrees, almost as though alive.
“Do you understand now why it cannot be copied? I don’t know who created this, but whoever it was is a genius. No... genius doesn’t begin to describe it. This person is a god of calculation, beyond anything words in this world can express.”
The level was so impossibly far beyond him that he could not even feel frustrated.
If anything, he was awestruck.
“Then who do you think created it?”
“I have no idea.”
“What about the Divine Calculator or the Divine Mechanism Scholar?”
“This is far beyond either of them.”
“Hmm.”
Wondrous Arts Gentleman asked in return,
“Where did you get this?”
“A merchant company called the True Martial Merchant Company is delivering fish in boxes like this.”
“Do they give you the box as well?”
“Apparently not. I hear they collect it afterward.”
“If they’re willing to retrieve the boxes later, they must be very confident no one can steal the technique. The True Martial Merchant Company....”
Wondrous Arts Gentleman rubbed his chin, deep in thought.
A moment later, he turned to the man.
“My apologies, but something urgent has come up. You should leave. There’s no point in my examining that any longer. You won’t find anyone anywhere in the Central Plains who can reproduce it. If you’re that curious, go ask the True Martial Merchant Company.”
“Hmm.”
“Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’m busy.”
After dismissing his visitor, Wondrous Arts Gentleman hurried back inside, changed his clothes, and immediately headed out.
“First, I need to find out where this True Martial Merchant Company is.”
His expression was resolute.
“Who’s this bastard?”
The sudden voice made Listening-Eye Beggar jump and whirl around.
The moment he saw who was standing behind him, he was so startled that he dropped to the ground.
“H-Heavenly Martial Emperor?”
“Heh heh heh. Judging by those knots, you’re one of the Beggars’ Union elders, aren’t you? What’s a bastard like you doing here?”
“We’ve joined forces with the Beggars’ Union. If we need to communicate with them from now on, we can do it through him.”
“Is that so? Then if he’s going to stay here, he needs a bath.”
Listening-Eye Beggar recoiled in horror at Jeok Mugun’s words.
“What? A bath? But I’m a beggar....”
“Is there some law saying beggars aren’t allowed to wash?”
“In the Beggars’ Union... there sort of is.”
“Is it actually written into your rules?”
“Not exactly....”
“Then you can wash.”
Listening-Eye Beggar had never bathed in his life.
“Do I... really have to?”
“You damn bastard. I’m telling you that you stink! Wait, you literally live by begging, so does calling you a damn beggar even count as an insult? Whatever! Take a bath!”
Listening-Eye Beggar turned a miserable face toward Jeok Wigang.
“Wash.”
“Young Master Jeok, this is part of the Beggars’ Union’s unique culture. Telling us to bathe is practically the same as telling us to die.”
“You won’t die from washing.”
“I refuse! I absolutely cannot bathe!”
Jeok Mugun snorted and stepped forward.
“What an amusing bastard. If you enter another man’s home, you follow the rules of his household.”
“My apologies. I’ll live outside.”
“Then Wigang will have to go looking for you every time he needs you.”
“Th-that’s....”
“You really don’t listen, do you?”
Jeok Mugun vanished and reappeared behind Listening-Eye Beggar in an instant.
WHUMP—
His hand struck the back of Listening-Eye Beggar’s neck.
THUD—
Listening-Eye Beggar collapsed unconscious.
“He might wake up again.”
TAP— TAP—
Jeok Mugun even sealed his pressure points for good measure.
“Hey. Take this bastard away, scrub him clean, and put him in clean clothes. If I smell so much as a trace of stink on him afterward, you’ll answer to me.”
“Yes! Understood!”
Jeok Wigang was enjoying a leisurely day for the first time in quite a while.
“Urgh!”
“Ghk!”
Unlike the relaxed Jeok Wigang, agonized groans kept sounding nearby.
Jeok Wiun and Tang Un were wearing black bands.
Together, the bands weighed nearly four hundred kilograms.
It was an absurd weight that an ordinary person could not even lift.
Trying to swing their swords while wearing them was pushing their bodies to the breaking point.
“B-Brother. A-are you sure this is right?”
“Brother, I-I feel like my entire body is breaking apart.”
Jeok Wigang grinned.
“Yeah. You won’t die. Don’t worry.”
SIP—
He smiled as he savored his Longjing tea.
Murderous intent rose in both men’s eyes.
If they had their way, they would have smashed those black bands straight into his smug face.
Unfortunately, being weak was their own fault.
The reason they were suffering under the black bands was simple.
Jeok Wigang was not satisfied with the results of their training.
Just then, Jeok Mugun entered and saw the two of them training.
“Are you sure that’s all right?”
“Yes. They need at least that much if they want to build their stamina properly.”
“Hmm. I thought I’d been training them hard....”
“You’ve been training properly too, right, Grandfather?”
Jeok Mugun flinched.
“O-of course! Naturally.”
“And Father?”
“Of course. He’s been training hard with me.”
“Really? Then show me.”
“What?”
Jeok Wigang rose from his seat.
“Oh! Would you look at me? There was something urgent I had to deal with at Heavenly Martial Castle. I-I’ll show you after I get back.”
“At Heavenly Martial Castle?”
“Y-yes. I completely forgot. I-I’ll be back shortly.”
“I’ll come with you. I’m curious to see how Heavenly Martial Castle has changed too.”
“Huh?”
“But before we go, let’s have a sparring match.”
Jeok Wigang grinned.
Jeok Mugun’s face twisted.
“You brat. Do you really have to spar with your old grandfather?”
“Oh, come on. What are you talking about? Who else in the entire martial world of the Central Plains can beat you besides me?”
“Exactly! Well said! You’re the only bastard who can beat me, so do you really have to keep beating your grandfather just to feel satisfied?”
“I’m only doing it for your sake.”
“How is beating me up supposed to be for my sake?”
“You said you were lonely because you had no worthy opponent all those years. Come on. Take all that loneliness out on me.”
“No. I’m not lonely anymore. Not even a little.”
“Come on. You said you were starved for a strong opponent.”
“That thirst is completely gone.”
“If you manage to land one proper hit on me, I’ll inherit Heavenly Martial Castle.”
Jeok Mugun’s expression changed instantly.
“You... mean that?”
“Yes.”
“Good! Excellent! A man’s word is worth a thousand gold pieces. You’d better keep yours.”
“I will.”

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