The Miraculous Divorce Technique

Chapter 41

The place where Teacher Myo led Baili Huang and Sib-i-wol was a cliff located in the middle of a mountain.

And below that cliff, an old bridge was precariously hung, supported by two ropes.

"This is it."

Teacher Myo said, looking back at Baili Huang.

Baili Huang, facing the wind blowing from the bottomless cliff, was sweating.

"This... is a mechanism formation?"

"To be precise, that bridge is."

The bridge he was pointing at was hard to believe had a mechanism formation installed.

It just looked like an old bridge.

"The test you will take is to go to the end of that bridge."

"It's incredibly... old, but the bridge won't break, right?"

"It could break. It's been over ten years since that thing was made."

"What? Then there might be a defect, so shouldn't we check it and then take the test?"

Baili Huang said, stepping back.

"Even though I look like this, I am a master of mechanism formations who is counted among the best in the martial world. A master is called a master because they can calculate even the flow of time as a variable. If you just find the gate of life and enter, it won't break."

Teacher Myo said, placing his folded arms on his bulging stomach.

For some reason, Baili Huang didn't believe him, but when Sib-i-wol nodded, he sighed and moved his feet.

'Right. If he's an old man that a person like that acknowledges, the word 'master' must be right. Let's trust him.'

Baili Huang stood in front of the bridge, which was swaying in the wind, and swallowed hard.

It looked difficult to cross even without a mechanism formation.

CREAK.

He had only taken one step, but the wooden plank immediately reacted as if it were old.

Baili Huang, who was holding the ropes that stretched to the other side with both hands, thought it was a crazy thing to do.

'Calculate the flow of time as a variable? Is that even possible?'

The reality is that one doesn't even know the weather for tomorrow.

'Will it rain, will it snow, will the wind blow? Can the variables be calculated?'

It was then, as Baili Huang was looking back with a suspicious eye.

"Gasp! What is this!"

Teacher Myo and Sib-i-wol, who should have been there, were gone, and behind him was another cliff.

The formation had been deployed with just one step.

'I have no choice but to go forward. Damn it...'

Baili Huang moved his heavy feet with a face full of regret.

"What? That old man is actually fifteen?"

Teacher Myo asked Sib-i-wol back with a dumbfounded face.

As soon as Baili Huang had entered the formation, Sib-i-wol had told him about the current situation.

Including everything about Cheok Sagyeol.

"Moreover, the Lord's body has also been swapped like that guy? And with that old monster, the Drunken Buddha? Hahaha. That's impossible."

"It is possible. Because the master said so."

"Hey, you're saying the body was swapped, which means the soul was swapped. Is a soul a rice cake? You just pull it out and put it in?"

"If the master says so, then it is so."

At Sib-i-wol's words, Teacher Myo said as if he were fed up.

"Right, fuck. Are you guys ordinary people? Since you've confirmed that he is Lord Cheok, you'll follow him like crazy. But you know. Even though I look like this, I'm a guy who studies mechanism formations, analyzing and researching all sorts of supernatural phenomena. A person's soul is more abstruse and complex than predicting natural phenomena... anyway, it's fucking difficult! It's almost impossible."

"As expected of the Drunken Buddha, a monster worthy of being called the master's rival. Since he has accomplished that difficult thing."

"Why does that turn into praise for the Lord again... Phew."

Teacher Myo sighed in disbelief.

"Teacher. Whatever you say, this is a fact and a reality."

"Alright, I get it. I get it. Anyway, I'm just doing as the contract says. If that guy passes the test, what is it that I have to do?"

At Teacher Myo's words, Sib-i-wol smirked.

'He's tricky, but he's a reliable old man.'

'The master was right. Even if I reveal the truth, there seems to be no worry of the secret leaking out. It would have been better if he had joined the cult, tsk.'

Teacher Seo and Teacher Myo.

Those who had become Lord Cheok Sagyeol's subordinates but had not joined the cult.

Although it had happened due to a past connection, Sib-i-wol had not looked favorably on these two.

It was because they lacked the loyalty of a cult member.

But now that he saw it, although it was a master-servant relationship due to a contract, they seemed to have their own firm standards.

"The master is currently looking for a way to regain his original body. When he obtains that method, he plans to go to the Ten Thousand Great Mountains."

"Can't you just get to the point?"

"To secretly enter the Lord's Hall of the Demonic Heavenly Palace, we need your help, teacher. Please take on that task."

"It's called the Lord's Hall, but there's not a single secret passage?"

It was common sense for the space where the leader of a group stayed to have a secret passage.

A secret passage was a kind of lifeline.

It was because the group would not collapse if the leader's life could be preserved in preparation for a dangerous situation.

"There is none. Because it is the path of hegemony to fight to the death rather than make a dog hole and run away."

"You're so great, really. Then you're asking me to dig a rat hole that leads to the Lord's Hall? In what lifetime?"

Breaking through something that exists and creating something that doesn't are on different dimensions.

If it had to be done secretly, the latter was close to impossible.

"It doesn't exist in the Demonic Cult, but it did in the days when it was called the Demonic Sect. Although it has been closed for a long time, it won't be difficult for you, teacher, to restart and revive the mechanism."

The Ten Thousand Great Mountains was where the first Demonic Sect had been established.

But the Demonic Sect, which had been defeated in the war between the righteous and demonic factions at that time, had scattered, and after many years had passed, its descendants had settled in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains again.

Under the new name of the Demonic Cult.

"The past Demonic Sect... then it's been almost nine hundred years, right? You're telling me to operate something that old?"

Although Teacher Myo said it with a dumbfounded face, Sib-i-wol smirked.

"It is a place made by the best mechanism formation masters of that time. Didn't you say that masters calculate even the flow of time as a variable?"

"A master is a master. It's only possible for someone like me."

"That's right. Since you are a person of your level, teacher, please calculate the flow of time and operate it. Don't tell me you're not confident?"

"No, it's not that I'm not confident..."

"The original dog hole is old and worn out, but can you be called a master if you can't even make a rat hole with it? If you can't do it, please tell me in advance. I will tell the master and have him find someone else."

At Sib-i-wol's words, Teacher Myo got angry.

"Hey! Didn't you just say that Lord Cheok doesn't entrust a heavy responsibility to a guy who doesn't have the ability!?"

"That's why that guy is diligently crossing the bridge. But since you are showing a lack of confidence, what can I do? Even if someone else believes in you, you yourself don't want to."

"You bastard! I'll do it! I'll do it, alright! But it's only valid when that guy has crossed the bridge to the end! Let's be clear about that!"

"Is there any doubt?"

Sib-i-wol answered with a triumphant expression.

* * *

"Gah, I'm going to die from the trembling."

Baili Huang was holding on to a wooden plank with one hand under the bridge.

He hadn't even taken three steps before hundreds of arrows had flown in from the front, and he hadn't even walked five more steps before the wooden plank under his feet had given way, and his body had fallen.

If he hadn't reflexively grabbed the wooden plank in front of him, he would have free-fallen down the cliff.

SWISH.

As he grabbed the plank with both hands and shook his hands, his body floated up.

After mastering the lightness skill of the Drunken Eight Immortals Footwork, Baili Huang was showing feather-like movements.

THUD.

The place where Baili Huang's toes landed was not a wooden plank, but one of the two ropes that served as the main support of the bridge.

Although it was a precarious rope about the width of two fingers, Baili Huang stood lightly.

And then he began to run as if it were flat ground.

'Don't be scared. I'm a peak master. A peak master.'

It was the method Baili Huang had chosen because he was driven into a dangerous situation every time he stepped on a wooden plank.

Although it was incredibly scary, he felt that it was surprisingly manageable as he ran on the rope, repeating to himself that he was a peak master.

But it was at that moment.

SNAP. WHIRL.

The rope on the opposite side, which he was not stepping on, broke and wrapped around Baili Huang's entire body.

As the twisted rope unraveled, it became five thin strings, and soon they were tightening around Baili Huang's neck, arms, and legs.

Since the foothold he was stepping on was a rope, it was not easy to dodge.

'Damn it.'

Baili Huang resisted by raising his entire body's internal energy.

But as if the rope were sucking up his internal energy, the strength in his entire body was draining, but the tightening force was getting stronger.

'It's the path of death. The top of the rope was the real path of death.'

'I was foolish.'

'There was no way it would be that simple.'

Even if Baili Huang struggled, the rope did not come loose.

At this rate, his internal energy would run out, and he would surely die inside the formation.

'My strength is not enough. Why on earth did he entrust this task to me?'

Baili Huang thought of Cheok Sagyeol and made a tearful face.

But it was then that the words from his training suddenly came to mind.

"In a fight, the flow is important. The match is decided by how you create the flow and seize the initiative. But there is a way to turn the tables in one blow even if you've lost the flow."

"What is that?"

"It's to shake and break the board."

"What? What does that mean?"

"It means to change the situation."

He hadn't understood it at the time.

But Baili Huang was beginning to realize Cheok Sagyeol's last words, 'change the situation.'

"Change the situation. The situation!"

Baili Huang threw off the shoe on his right foot.

And then he gripped the rope with his toes.

"Hyaaaap!"

As strong qi was concentrated in his toes, a tremendous force pressed down on the rope.

SNAP, SNAP, SNAP.

As he twisted the rope between his toes, he began to hear the sound of the string breaking.

When he put all his strength into his toes, the string finally broke completely.

"It worked!"

As the remaining rope also broke, perhaps because the formation had been broken, the rope that had been restraining him slid down.

But Baili Huang's body also began to descend.

'Gasp. It's scary. But I have to get my act together, Baili Huang!'

Perhaps because his life was on the line, Baili Huang's concentration increased, and his surroundings flowed slowly.

In Baili Huang's eyes, the rope that had been cut by his toe's strong qi was passing by, shaking.

'Grab it!'

Along with the thought, the Drunken Eight Immortals Fist was reflexively deployed.

Although it was a rope with irregular movements, the Drunken Eight Immortals Fist also had the advantage of changing stances, which was not suitable for a fist art.

The fist, which was staggering as if drunk, was able to reach the end of the rope.

GRAB.

'Good! Ugh!'

As soon as he grabbed the rope, Baili Huang's figure crossed between the cliffs.

As he flew, hanging from the end of the rope from about the middle of the cliff, a terrifying piercing sound brushed past his ears.

'Gasp. It's scary!'

It was truly a tremendous speed.

At this rate, he would be smashed into the cliff and become a dried squid.

But the current Baili Huang was a peak master, and he could use the protective qi, an advanced defensive qi art.

ROAR.

One side of the cliff caved in, and shattered rocks fell with a patter.

Baili Huang was hanging limp, but his two hands were clutching the rope.

"Gasp, gasp. I'm alive."

'If it weren't for the protective qi, if it weren't for the grip of a peak master.'

'All the bones in my body would have been shattered, or I would have bounced off the wall.'

'The only reason I survived was the peak realm, that one thing.'

THUD. THUD.

Baili Huang's two hands moved quickly.

It was because he wanted to get away from the disgusting cliff as soon as possible.

As he climbed up the rope with a speed similar to a monkey's and reached the end of the cliff, the surrounding scenery changed.

"What is this!"

Baili Huang's mouth fell open at the sight before his eyes.

The cliff, which was about fifty zhang, was a pit less than one zhang, and the old bridge was two straw ropes stretched across the pit.

And beyond the pit, Teacher Myo and Sib-i-wol were smirking and looking at him.

'I... went through all that trouble to cross this?'

Baili Huang looked back and forth between the pit and Teacher Myo with a dazed face.

Teacher Myo scowled and shouted.

"Wipe that pathetic look off your face. Although it was ten years ago, it took me over a month to make that. You've experienced it yourself, so you should know, right?"

Perhaps because he knew Baili Huang's identity, Teacher Myo's words had completely changed to informal speech.

But Baili Huang was so out of it that he didn't even notice.

"What? Yes... I really thought I was going to die."

"If you had died in there, you would have really died. In reality, you would have died by falling into that pit, not the cliff. What do you think? Isn't it amazing?"

"It's... amazing. I don't know how this is possible."

"That's a formation. A study that makes you die by hitting your nose in a plate of water while swimming with your hands on the ground. Hehehe."

It was then, as Teacher Myo was puffing out his chest.

"Since you've passed the test, you should get ready, teacher."

Sib-i-wol began to urge Teacher Myo.

"I have nothing to pack! I can just go! Can't I even brag! Phew!"

Teacher Myo moved his feet, his bulging stomach jiggling.

"Aren't you coming!? You said we should go quickly!"

(End of Chapter)