“What I want to say is…”
Han Seol, of course, and even Geom Mugeuk were curious as to what Ian’s answer would be. Her stepping forward had not been planned in advance.
Ian calmly conveyed her sincerity.
“Please try believing in our Young Cult Master just once.”
A flicker of surprise crossed Han Seol’s face, a face that rarely showed emotion. She truly had not expected a subordinate of the Young Cult Master to say such a thing.
“I know this is a situation where it’s difficult for us to trust one another.”
“Then why say such a thing?”
At Han Seol’s cold question, Ian answered gently.
“Because in this world, there are things that transcend all of that.”
From beginning to end, it was an answer that defied Han Seol’s expectations.
Han Seol’s gaze turned toward Geom Mugeuk.
“Are you saying that transcendent being is the Young Cult Master?”
“Yes. Though to you, Young Palace Mistress, it must sound like the words of a madwoman.”
Han Seol, who had been looking at Ian, looked at Geom Mugeuk. Her eyes seemed to say, Now you explain this madwoman.
Of course, Geom Mugeuk was not one to obediently follow her intent.
“This is how much respect I receive from my subordinates.”
Han Seol glared at Geom Mugeuk as if to pierce through him.
Even from the start, she had not believed the myths within the rumors surrounding Geom Mugeuk. But after hearing Ian’s words, that suspicion had now become certainty.
‘Perhaps it really was fabricated.’
Otherwise, there was no way a subordinate would tell someone to trust their leader because he was a “transcendent being.” She had either been brainwashed, ordered to say it, or was truly mad. Whatever the case, it did not suit a great hero who was changing the landscape of the martial world.
“The beginning is always difficult, but once you get used to it, doesn’t anything become easier? So, Young Palace Mistress, just go ahead and do it!”
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned toward Ian.
“Like that child just now.”
Ian lowered her head deeply. Because he was someone who would say that no matter what she did, perhaps that was why she could cause such trouble.
Ian mustered her courage and spoke once more.
“Please believe in the Young Cult Master. You will never regret it.”
Han Seol gave a cold snort, then bid Geom Mugeuk farewell and turned away.
“I will contact you again.”
After she left, Ian sighed.
“I ruined everything, didn’t I?”
“Transcendent was a bit much.”
“The words just came out without me realizing it. Though I don’t know why I wanted to help such a cold person.”
Were you not the one who came all this way after being given a single glass of water?
Geom Mugeuk already knew the answer.
Ian found her answer in the scenery around her.
While dealing with the Northern Blood Sect matter, she had not seen anything around her at all. But after meeting Geom Mugeuk, the landscape had begun to come into view.
“I think it was because the snowy scenery was beautiful after so long.”
* * *
“The Young Cult Master has made a new proposal.”
Han Seol acted differently from what she had told Geom Mugeuk.
“In exchange for handing over the young disciples of the Northern Blood Sect, he requested to stay at our palace for a short while. And I accepted that proposal.”
She had told Geom Mugeuk that she would discuss it with the Ice Palace Lord, but she spoke to her mother as though informing her that she had already accepted it. It was not because of Ian’s words telling her to try believing in Geom Mugeuk.
She was curious about her mother’s reaction. How would she respond when Han Seol made a decision on her own?
She had expected anger or a cold response, but unexpectedly, the Ice Palace Lord was calm.
At the Ice Palace Lord’s questioning gaze, asking for the reason, Han Seol answered.
“Because saving the young disciples of the Northern Blood Sect comes first.”
“No. Tell me the true reason you accepted. That is not the foremost reason, is it?”
She was right. It was her mother who had made a secret agreement with the Northern Blood Sect Master. There was a reason that came before the life and death of those who had been taken.
“I wanted to confirm something.”
“What?”
How you would react to my acting on my own.
But she gave another reason instead.
“The Young Cult Master as I saw him was different from the rumors. So I wanted to observe him from up close and confirm whether he truly is such an extraordinary person. And…”
Besides the reason that false rumors would not work on him, there was another reason as well.
“If the Institute Master really was murdered as they think, are you not curious? Who killed that person?”
The Ice Palace Lord looked at her daughter in silence. She might have said something about how different Han Seol seemed from usual, but instead—
“Handle this matter as you see fit.”
“Thank you, Palace Lord.”
Han Seol bowed respectfully and left the Palace Lord’s Hall.
The Ice Palace Lord walked to the window and looked outside. The snow-covered Ice Palace looked the same as it had yesterday, yet today she gazed upon it with a different heart.
* * *
Yang Yi, who had been pressing his ear to the iron door, let out a sigh.
The person in the cell across from him had been dragged away and had not returned.
Mr. Lin, who had been with him, had also been dragged away several days ago and had not come back. Nor did Yang Yi think they were resting somewhere clean and comfortable. If that were so, they would not have been imprisoned in this damp dungeon-like place to begin with.
“Hyeon, Min.”
Tears welled in Yang Yi’s eyes. He was a man who had never shed tears in his life.
He missed his children terribly.
He had not known it when they were together, but now that he thought he might never see them again, only their faces kept coming to mind.
His wife, who was already full of worries, must not be sleeping at all by now.
When those people had brought him here, they had done so with smiles, yet they would not even allow him to send a single letter saying he had arrived safely.
The reason he had come here was that they had said a renowned physician was testing a newly developed medicine. At the largest clinic in the village, they gathered people and conducted various examinations. Since they paid several days’ wages just for being examined, many people had gathered.
And in the village, only he and Mr. Lin possessed the constitution they wanted.
They said that if he agreed to be experimented on for just two or three months, they would pay him a large sum. It was an amount he would have had to work for years to earn with his current income.
His wife had tried to stop him, saying it was dangerous. His body might be harmed, and it was suspicious that they were offering such a huge sum. On top of that, they were outsiders.
But after much thought, Yang Yi decided to go.
There were even people who wanted to go but could not because their constitution did not match.
Besides, those who had examined his body had been extremely courteous and refined. They had honestly told him that, depending on the case, his health might be harmed. Because of that, he trusted them even more.
No matter how hard he and his wife worked, they could not save much money. Just when they thought they had saved a little, something came up that required spending it. Just when they thought they had scraped together a bit more, something else came up.
If he received that lump sum, he planned to open even a small shop. He had lived his life doing every kind of rough and dirty work, but he did not want his children to live that way.
Would his children even be able to endure the hardships he had endured? His wife told him to have faith in them, but Yang Yi could not. No, he did not want to make them suffer like that. Just one small shop that could feed their family of four! Please!
But after leaving his hometown, he sensed that something had gone wrong.
It was not people from the clinic who took them away, but martial artists carrying swords who escorted them.
They had come all the way to the North Sea instead of the place they were originally supposed to go, and they had been confined not in a medical hall but in a secluded villa. They were not allowed to go outside, nor even step beyond the door. Then, not long ago, they had been moved to this place, which had been made to resemble a dungeon outright.
‘I should have listened to my wife.’
At that moment, a martial artist opened the iron door and came in.
“Let’s go.”
Yang Yi’s heart dropped. His turn had finally come.
His heart began to pound madly.
‘Am I going to die now? I can’t die like this.’
Should he ambush the martial artist before him and run? Even headbutt him?
But that would not have been easy even against an ordinary person, and his opponent was a martial artist. No matter how much his body had been tempered by construction work, he could not face a martial artist.
Yang Yi was dragged out.
As he walked down the corridor, he felt no gazes at all. Normally, there had been people in the cell in front of his, in the cell beside his, and in the one beside that as well. But those who had been dragged away had not returned.
‘I’m the last one!’
The place he was dragged to was filled with all manner of objects whose purpose he could not identify. There was a strange medicinal smell he had never smelled in his life.
And in the middle of the room was a bed made of jade.
The martial artist who had brought him said to Yang Yi,
“Take off your clothes and lie on the bed. Strip everything off. Leave nothing on.”
When Yang Yi hesitated, the martial artist glared at him coldly, as if to say he would not repeat himself.
At the fierce, chilling pressure, Yang Yi took off his clothes. Should he charge him even now, subdue the bastard, and flee? His instincts screamed that at him, but his body, which had never fought anyone in its life, could not obey those instincts.
Building houses, paving roads, piling embankments. Though he had spent his whole life doing rough and difficult labor, he was gentle by nature and had never once hit another person.
Yang Yi lay on the bed. It was far colder than he had expected. The martial artist bound Yang Yi’s arms and legs with leather straps connected to the bed so that he could not move.
Once he was ready, the door opened and four people entered.
A middle-aged man in a blue long robe and three martial artists guarding him. One of the martial artists wore a mask, and his gaze was even more intense than that of the middle-aged man in the blue robe.
The middle-aged man approached and looked down at Yang Yi. His gaze was colder than the chill of the bed Yang Yi felt against his back.
Yang Yi prayed desperately. He did not know what kind of test they were conducting, but please, let him be someone who matched their requirements.
‘Please, just let me live!’
He no longer needed money. If only he could return alive. If only he could see his wife and children again.
The middle-aged man began the test in earnest.
When he manipulated something beneath the bed, the bed began to grow even colder.
“Uuuuugh!”
It was so cold that a groan escaped him on its own. At this rate, he felt he would freeze to death.
“Please spare me!”
At Yang Yi’s plea, the man said coldly,
“Among those born with the Ice-Cold Physique, there is said to be one in a thousand who possesses the Extreme Cold Physique. If you are one of them, you will be able to survive.”
Yang Yi despaired. In other words, did that not mean that if he was not one in a thousand, he would die?
It was at that very moment. The middle-aged man in the room flared his nostrils.
“But what is that smell?”
A smell was entering through a small hole in the iron door.
“It smells like liquor.”
The middle-aged man’s expression immediately hardened.
“What bastard is swilling liquor in broad daylight?”
One of the three martial artists standing there went outside.
“I will check.”
The martial artist opened the door and went out. After checking the corridor, he was startled. The far end of the corridor looked as though it were covered in fog.
‘What is this?’
There was no way such fog could form indoors.
Sensing an unknown danger, the martial artist drew his sword.
In an instant, the fog surged in. The smell of liquor was coming from within this fog.
‘The smell of liquor in fog? Then this is!’
It was liquor qi.
Those weak to alcohol—no, even those who could hold their liquor well—would become so drunk on this energy that they could barely control their bodies. It was such intense liquor qi that it made one think this was what it might feel like if a dam holding back liquor collapsed and flooded up to one’s knees.
At that moment, before he could even sense anything approaching, an arm with a clenched fist suddenly shot out from within the fog.
The fist merely tapped him lightly, yet the martial artist flew back, slammed into the wall, and lost consciousness.
The person who emerged from the fog was none other than the Drunken Demon.
The liquor qi coiled around his body like protective qi. At the moment, it looked like ordinary fog, but in truth, it was the Drunken Demon’s liquor qi, capable of transforming into any form.
He opened the door to the place the martial artist had come from and entered.
Shiiik.
Another martial artist, sensing that the situation outside was unusual, sent his sword flying toward the Drunken Demon.
The Drunken Demon lightly avoided the incoming sword, then this time struck the martial artist’s neck lightly with the edge of his hand. He merely tapped him, yet the martial artist who collapsed could not get back up.
Whirrrr.
The fog-like liquor qi that had filled the corridor outside gathered entirely toward the Drunken Demon, then wrapped around his body and shimmered like a haze.
The middle-aged man in the blue long robe looked at the Drunken Demon with a startled expression. His two subordinates were not so weak as to be defeated this easily. That meant his opponent’s martial arts were truly powerful.
But he did not despair yet. Among the three martial artists, the real expert was the masked man.
The Drunken Demon glanced at the two of them, then immediately examined Yang Yi lying on the bed. Frozen cold, he looked as though his breath would cease at any moment.
It was a situation in which the masked man could have launched a surprise attack while he was paying attention to Yang Il, but the Drunken Demon did not care in the slightest. Even though the Drunken Demon had turned his back to look at Yang Il, the masked man did not dare attack. The liquor qi wavering around his body felt as though it were watching him.
After untying the leather binding Yang Il, the Drunken Demon took hold of his wrist. As a hot energy flowed into him, Yang Il let out a calm breath and came to his senses.
Even after confirming his opponent’s skill, the middle-aged man warned in a low voice.
“Do you know who we are, acting like this? If you withdraw now, you may be able to keep your life.”
At that, the Drunken Demon readily revealed his identity. Since the Northern Sea Ice Palace already knew that the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had intervened in this matter, there was no particular reason to hide it.
“I am the Drunken Demon.”
“!”
The middle-aged man froze, his face turning ashen. The masked man’s expression also hardened stiffly.
“Why are you here?”
If not for the move he had just shown against his subordinate, if not for the realm in which no opening could be found even when he turned his back, he would never have believed it.
But it was certainly the Drunken Demon. This deep liquor qi and faint aroma of alcohol drifting from him were energies that no one but the Drunken Demon could even imitate.
No, leaving all of that aside. The man before him was exuding a presence that no one dared approach.
Yang Il was just as astonished as they were.
This man was the famous Drunken Demon of the Demonic Cult’s Eight Demon Venerables? Who in the world did not know of them? There was even a saying that if children cried, a Demon Venerable would come and take them away.
“Is there perhaps someone named Yang Il among those who were brought here?”
When the Drunken Demon looked for him, Yang Il was startled.
“I am Yang Il. It’s me.”
He had never even been personally involved with a third-rate martial artist in his entire life, yet a Demon Venerable had been looking for him. How did he know my name?
“That’s a relief. Saving you was my purpose.”
Yang Il could not understand this situation at all.
‘A Demon Venerable came to save me?’
It felt as though he were dreaming. He looked down at the bed.
‘Ah, am I dreaming right before I die?’
He thought that perhaps his real self was freezing to death on the bed, and in his final moments, he was having a dream like this.
But it was far too vivid to be called a dream or illusion. Even the bed he was sitting on now was cold enough to chill his backside.
“You came to save me? Why would someone as honored as you come for me?”
Yang Il’s voice trembled violently. He had thought the man had come for some other matter and happened to be saving him.
Then an astonishing answer flowed from the Drunken Demon’s mouth. It was probably the most shocking thing Yang Il had ever heard in his life.
“Your wife asked me. She asked me to bring her husband home.”
“!”
Yang Il’s eyes widened in sheer shock. How could his wife possibly have made such a request of a Demon Venerable?
“My wife did? My wife is someone who hasn’t even left the village since marrying me……”
Soon, Yang Il shook his head. There was no way such a thing could happen.
‘Ah, I’m already dead. Wife, thank you for saving me, even if it’s in a dream. Raise the children well, and live well. I’m sorry I couldn’t stay with you to the end.’
Even amid that, the dreamlike reality continued.
“I haven’t had any liquor, so my nerves are a bit on edge.”
After placing the ice liquor Wonju had poured into the Blood Tear, the Drunken Demon had not yet drunk it. When he killed the one who had killed her, he intended to drink that ice liquor and kill him. So that she could be with him at the moment of revenge.
“Do you think I’m more dangerous when I’ve been drinking? Or when I haven’t?”