I was drinking tea in a tea house, watching the people passing by.
People walked along the snow-covered road without so much as slipping. Just as those who lived beneath the sandstorms beyond the frontier made their lives there, the people of this North Sea lived alongside the snow.
The person I was to meet here was someone I would be seeing for the first time today. So I had no idea which of the passersby might suddenly enter the tea house and sit before me.
The reason I had pulled my bamboo hat low so as not to stand out was not to hide myself, but because of the person I was meeting. For him, secrecy was life itself.
How long had I been there?
A middle-aged man naturally took the seat across from me.
“Goodness, it’s cold.”
The ordinary-looking man with a generous face was none other than the head of Eunwol’s North Sea branch.
All of Tongcheon Pavilion and Eunwol’s intelligence networks were now focused on the North Blood Gate and the North Sea Ice Palace, and Eunwol had sent word that there was something urgent to report. It was something that could have been conveyed from afar through voice transmission, but I had wanted to meet the branch head at least once.
“Have a cup of warm tea first. You’ve been working hard.”
I poured tea into his cup. Even if I could not offer liquor to a subordinate who had been toiling away, I at least wanted to give him a cup of warm tea.
Liquor would have been better, but the reason I had chosen a tea house rather than an inn as the meeting place was because of Chwima. I had told Hanseol that we would drink next time, but until Chwima drank, I intended not to drink either.
While I poured the tea, the man swiftly sent a voice transmission.
—Yang Jung, the second young master of the North Blood Gate, is dead.
It was unexpected news. I had anticipated that Yang Jung would be pushed out of the succession because of this incident, but still.
Dead? The courteous figure of the North Blood Gate Master, who had said he would invite me, came to mind.
‘He was far more ruthless than he appeared.’
Just what was he plotting, to the point of even killing his own child?
There would be any number of reasons they could attach to his death. It was the death of the North Blood Gate Master’s son, so there would be no one to step forward and investigate the cause.
This report allowed me to infer one thing with certainty.
That the North Blood Gate was connected to the Blood King.
Otherwise, he would not have dealt with this matter so hastily, even to the point of killing his own child.
—From now on, focus on the movements of the North Blood Gate’s eldest son.
—I will send word as soon as we detect any unusual movements.
—Thank you.
The man left first.
I remained a little longer, drank the rest of my tea, then left the tea house.
As I opened the door and stepped outside, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
The name North Blood Gate had been chosen by fate.
A gate that would guide me to the Blood King.
Ah, Blood King. Do you know this? The northern gate is the gate to the underworld.
* * *
When Geom Mugeuk returned, Chwima conveyed welcome news.
“I found out why that person was killed.”
He had not told Ian or Hanseol yet, intending to speak of it once Geom Mugeuk returned and everyone was present.
“I knew our Demon Venerable would uncover it.”
In front of Hanseol, Geom Mugeuk treated Chwima not as his older brother, but as the Demon Venerable.
Now that everyone had gathered, Chwima revealed how he had discovered it.
“First, believing that the matter was definitely related to liquor, I examined the letters she and I had exchanged recently. Most of our conversations were about liquor.”
Since they were letters Wonju had collected, naturally what he read were the letters he himself had sent. That had made it extremely difficult to find a clue.
“Then I discovered this passage.”
Chwima showed them a line.
—I, too, would like to taste Fragrant Snow Ice Wine.
Fragrant Snow Ice Wine was a liquor neither Geom Mugeuk nor Ian had ever heard of. Hanseol, on the other hand, knew it well.
“Fragrant Snow Ice Wine isn’t just ordinary liquor. It’s liquor with a special effect.”
“What effect?”
“It helps one endure the cold. Of course, drinking alcohol normally warms the body and makes the cold less noticeable, but with Fragrant Snow Ice Wine, that effect is remarkable.”
Chwima, too, knew well the effects of Fragrant Snow Ice Wine. And the moment he saw the words Fragrant Snow Ice Wine, one fact came to mind.
“The constitution those bastards were trying to find this time was the Extreme Cold Physique, wasn’t it?”
The Extreme Cold Physique and Fragrant Snow Ice Wine. Both shared the common point of resisting the cold.
“Isn’t that rather coincidental?”
Geom Mugeuk and Ian nodded.
At that moment, Hanseol raised a question.
“Isn’t that reason alone insufficient to say that Wonju died because of it?”
“You’re right. It is.”
Chwima readily acknowledged it, then added another decisive reason.
“As far as I know, Fragrant Snow Ice Wine can only be made with permission from the Ice Palace.”
“That’s right. Liquor with special effects must be made with the palace’s permission.”
“But earlier, when I looked into the recent liquor production at Baekju Seolwon, there was nothing about Fragrant Snow Ice Wine.”
“There wasn’t? That can’t be.”
If that was the case, it was certainly suspicious.
“She must have made it secretly for someone.”
Chwima agreed with Geom Mugeuk’s conjecture.
“The fact that she told me about it means she never imagined that liquor would be used for something wicked. Most likely, someone she knew well asked her to make it. Someone she trusted.”
It was a conjecture possible because he knew her well.
“Did she say who asked her to make it?”
Chwima shook his head, revealing his regret.
“She didn’t tell me that much. She said it was her first time making Fragrant Snow Ice Wine and that it had been a truly valuable experience, and I replied that I wanted to taste it.”
“To find the answer from just that passage. Impressive.”
Geom Mugeuk praised Chwima. It was not empty flattery, but sincere praise. Chwima was certainly more intelligent than he had expected.
“Since I’m not drinking, it seems my head is spinning nice and clear!”
Smiling at Chwima’s joke, Geom Mugeuk looked at Hanseol.
Hanseol understood what Geom Mugeuk wanted.
“I’ll look into who asked her to make Fragrant Snow Ice Wine.”
She answered, but could she truly find out? If it had been made without the palace’s permission, they would have thoroughly hidden the process. Had he read her thoughts?
“Move together with Ian.”
Hanseol refused Geom Mugeuk’s suggestion.
“It’s more convenient to investigate alone.”
Sleeping in the same room together was already enough of a burden. Now he wanted them to go around together during the day as well? She wanted no part of that.
“I know.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because you may be in danger.”
It was an unexpected reason not only to Hanseol, but also to Ian and Chwima.
“You’re worried about my safety, the Young Palace Mistress, inside the Ice Palace?”
At that, Geom Mugeuk conveyed the news he had just learned.
“Yang Jung is dead.”
The most surprised person was Ian.
“He died? Why?”
“To the North Blood Gate Master, perhaps even he was a tail to be cut off.”
Those words contained everything.
In any case, Yang Jung was someone who had deceived and brought in so many people, then killed them through experiments, so he deserved to die. But the fact that the person who killed him was his father was shocking.
Hanseol was shocked as well, but not because of Yang Jung’s death. She was shocked because Geom Mugeuk knew of his death before she did.
‘Their intelligence is better than ours? Not anywhere else, but here in the North Sea? Does Mother know of this news?’
Geom Mugeuk warned Hanseol, who had briefly fallen into thought.
“You must never let your guard down. The essence of this fight is that a child of the North Blood Gate Master has met death within the North Blood Gate.”
To put it more broadly, it meant this was a fight in which the blood kin of the Ice Palace Master might die within the North Sea Ice Palace.
“So move together with Ian.”
From the look in Geom Mugeuk’s eyes as he gazed at her, Hanseol felt an authority she could not defy. It was not an overbearing attitude. It was a compulsion born from a sincere desire to protect her.
“Very well.”
Hanseol did not refuse any further. After all, even as the daughter of the Ice Palace Master, this was the first time she had felt such tension.
Geom Mugeuk looked at Ian. There was no need for words, voice transmission, or even a nod. She would handle it well on her own. A single meeting of their eyes was enough.
Once the two women left the room, only Geom Mugeuk and Chwima remained.
“They’re searching for a way to endure extreme cold. Why? Are they trying to cultivate some evil art we don’t know about? Or are they plotting a conspiracy related to the North Sea Ice Palace?”
At Chwima’s question, Geom Mugeuk rose from his seat.
“There’s somewhere I need to go. Hyung, secretly protect Ian and the Young Palace Mistress.”
“Where are you suddenly going?”
Geom Mugeuk spoke with an inscrutable smile.
“I’m going to prepare for the cold as well.”
“What does that mean?”
Leaving behind the curious Chwima, Geom Mugeuk also left the room.
“Answer me before you go! Hurry! I told you, I’m sensitive because I haven’t been drinking!”
* * *
Even if I had wanted to answer him, it was something I absolutely could not tell him. I had come to handle something related to my life before the regression.
The place I had flown to in an instant with Swift Steps was a snow mountain.
Among those vast snow mountains, it was the place where the wind blew coldest and fiercest: Daepunggok. The Great Wind Valley, said to be where the strongest wind in the world blew.
Whoooooooooosh.
A terrifyingly powerful wind blew through the valley. It was a valley of wind known to be impassable even to experts who had mastered martial arts. A place where the wind tore apart human bone and flesh. On top of that, snow whipped through the wind, making it difficult to see.
The people of the North Sea also called the wind here the Mad Killing Wind. As the name suggested, it truly was a mad wind, a wind of death. It was so cold and fierce that even if one raised internal energy to protect the body, crossing the valley was no easy task. It was truly a mystery crafted by nature.
After hearing the conjecture that those bastards were searching for a way to prepare against cold energy, I finally realized that the moment had come for me to visit this place.
Before the regression, when I wandered in search of materials for the Great Art, I traveled everywhere. If I encountered a place like this, I would instead go in all the more tenaciously.
I had even come as far as this place.
Whew. I truly have no confidence I could live that life again.
Whoooooosh.
I pushed through the wind and continued walking into the valley.
The deeper I went, the stronger the wind became.
The wind blew so fiercely it seemed it would even shred my protective qi aura, and because I had to use internal energy just to keep from being blown away, advancing inward was truly difficult.
‘It was around here.’
As I went on, I entered a crevice in the right wall. It was a space where one could hide for a very brief moment from the wind outside.
Back then, I had hidden myself like this as well.
It was probably fate that I discovered there was a passage leading elsewhere at the far corner of this crevice. After all, that had been a time when I went around inspecting every nook and cranny.
There was another gap in a place utterly impossible to notice with the eye. It was a narrow crevice behind a place blocked by thick vines.
It looked like somewhere one would never want to enter. The thought naturally came to me that if one got stuck while going in, it would be the perfect place to die.
I went inside. I kept moving through that passage where a single person could barely squeeze through.
After passing all the way through, a slightly wider space emerged.
As though I had entered another world, sunlight streamed in there, and grass and trees grew. Outside, a knife-like wind was blowing, yet here, a stream trickled gently. It was a place where one could feel the mystery of primordial times.
“It’s been a while.”
At the center stood a single tree. Hanging from that tree was a white fruit. It looked as though a lump of ice had been suspended there. This was the legendary elixir.
The Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit.
It could grant far more internal energy than the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, and on top of that, it had one astonishing effect.
Not only would one become resistant to cold, but one could also comfortably accept any energy of the cold attribute. That was not all. It could allow one to withstand attacks imbued with extremely cold internal energy.
For example, even if one were struck by the Ice Palm, it meant the cold energy would not damage one’s blood vessels and meridians. Conversely, one could master the Ice Palm more easily than anyone else.
Through the Heavenly Secret Pill I had obtained from the Poison King in the past, I had gained a body impervious to cold and heat, but this Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit was an elixir specialized in warding off cold. If the two elixirs overlapped, I would be able to overcome even extreme cold that surpassed the limits.
In my life before the regression, I had been unable to consume the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit.
The cold energy contained within the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit was so powerful that it could not be consumed as is. The moment one greedily swallowed it, one’s blood vessels and meridians would freeze solid. It was probably an elixir that only the Ice Palace Master, who had reached great completion in the Ice-Cold Divine Art, could consume.
I still remember it.
The words I said as I left the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit behind.
If we are fated, let us meet again next time.
Back then, I had believed that, after my regression, I might come back to this place again.
Now I could try. I had gained internal energy incomparable to what I had before, my meridians had grown sturdy, and above all, I had achieved great completion in the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art. I believed that the perfected Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art would shield my body from the cold energy emitted by this Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit.
If that belief were lacking even in the slightest, I must not consume the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit. It was certain I would suffer severe internal injuries.
But I felt that all of this was fate. Before my regression, I had discovered this place; I had achieved great completion in the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art; and my enemies had found an Extreme Cold Constitution and were trying to use it.
Fate was telling me.
That now was the time to consume the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit. No—not merely that I could, but that I absolutely had to.
Along with fate, my instincts said the same.
If you are preparing for the utmost cold, then I too shall prepare.
“Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art, I’m counting on you.”
The moment I grasped the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit in my hand, a chill spread through me as though my entire body would freeze solid. Merely touching it, the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit was warning me of its danger. If you eat me, you will die.
Without hesitation, I consumed the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit. The instant it entered my mouth, I felt a cold unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life. I had thought it would be hard and would not melt easily, but I was wrong. The moment it entered my mouth, it melted in an instant, and an extreme chill spread through my body.
The Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art had already activated, resisting the frigid cold energy.
Sssssssssss.
It was a cold that made a scream rise of its own accord. Truly, it was hard to believe that something so cold could exist in this world. Even with the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art activated, I felt pain as if my entire body were freezing over. I wanted to expel this energy from my body at once. Fear seized me that I might actually die like this.
“Endure it. I have to endure.”
The entire time I melted the energy of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit, I recited the formulas of the Nine Flames Demonic Art and called the evil spirits to mind. I thought of east, west, south, and north, and I thought of the Heavenly Demon Souls I had seen in the illusion.
I thought of everything related to the Nine Flames Demonic Art and the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art. When that still was not enough to endure it, I thought of my father. I pictured him looking at me and sneering.
It worked. Even in that agonizing situation, astonishingly, a smile formed on my lips.
I endured, and endured again.
And the result was a tremendous success.
I had succeeded in melting all of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit’s energy.
A great quantity of internal energy was added to my dantian, and above all, I achieved what I had wanted. The cold energy of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit had settled permanently throughout my meridians.
Now, unless an energy even colder than the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit invaded my body, no cold energy would be able to do anything to me.
I was delighted at the thought that I had gained another weapon with which to oppose them. This was how I would grow stronger, step by step.
“I will be sure to use this power for a good purpose.”
After clasping both hands and bowing to the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Fruit tree, I left that place.
Passing through the narrow passage, I emerged once more into the valley where the violent wind blew.
Whooooooooosh.
An incredible wind assaulted me.
Though I had not raised my internal energy to protect my body, the flesh-cutting wind did not feel cold at all. With a slight exaggeration, the murderous gale had now become a spring breeze to me, a warm wind.
Before my regression, I had turned back the way I came from here. I could not go any farther into the valley.
But today, I was curious. What lay at the end?
And so I began walking toward the source of the wind.