Hanseol and Ian were walking together through the inner court of the Ice Palace.
Hanseol had taken on the task of finding out to whom the former palace lord had brewed the Hyangseolbingju, but in truth, she was at a loss.
‘Who should I ask?’
This was not a matter of intelligence or stupidity. It was a matter of experience. She had never investigated an incident even once.
Even so, she had no intention of giving up. Asking her mother for help was also not an option she had considered.
“Let us start by returning to Baekju Seolwon.”
Her attitude toward Ian had grown somewhat more courteous. Until now, she had treated her as a subordinate of the Little Palace Lord, but now she had begun to treat her as the daughter of Gwonma. Even if she was an adopted daughter, one could not treat the daughter of the Demon Venerable carelessly.
“That is a good idea.”
“Why is that?”
“When I saw the late former palace lord’s room, I thought to myself, ah, this person truly loved brewing liquor. He likely spent more time at Baekju Seolwon than at home. So would not the answer we seek also be there?”
At Ian’s words, Hanseol nodded slightly.
‘Everyone is so sharp.’
This time, Geommugeuk, Chwima, and Ian had completely shattered her prejudices regarding demonic humans.
She had thought demonic humans were cruel, violent beings who did not hide their desires.
But these three were not the Little Palace Lord, the Demon Venerable, or the subordinate she had originally imagined.
‘Even so, I cannot lose to demonic humans.’
Since Chwima had investigated the missive and found a clue, she too had to show something. Not to the Little Palace Lord.
She wanted to show her mother.
The sight of a daughter overwhelming them. Though she was someone who had never wished to look good to others, toward her mother alone, such feelings still remained. Not that she liked her mother. No, perhaps her mother was the person she hated most.
“You have come again, Little Palace Lord.”
The acting lord of Baekju Seolwon welcomed the two, but Hanseol had not come to meet him.
There, Hanseol met Jo Myeong, the person in charge of the ingredients used in brewing.
Jo Myeong was extremely nervous at Hanseol’s visit.
“I have something to ask you.”
“Please speak.”
“As you must be busy, I will not speak in circles. Did the late former palace lord ever request ingredients to brew Hyangseolbingju?”
“No, never.”
Perhaps due to nerves, Jo Myeong’s voice trembled.
“This is important, so you must not deceive me.”
When Hanseol looked at him coldly, Jo Myeong bowed his head.
Then Ian stepped forward.
“I believe you must have promised the former palace lord. To tell no one.”
Jo Myeong, head still bowed, said nothing.
“We suspect that the former palace lord passed away because of that liquor.”
The moment she said that, Jo Myeong flinched.
“Would not finding those who caused the former palace lord’s death be more important than keeping a promise?”
Jo Myeong’s hesitation was palpable. He must have been deeply connected to the late former palace lord to deny it so adamantly. He was not the type to deceive people without batting an eye.
Jo Myeong raised his head and asked cautiously.
“Did he truly pass away because of that liquor?”
“I believe so.”
The Little Palace Lord took up Ian’s words.
“Opportunities do not always come. If you miss this chance, there will never be another to re-examine the former palace lord’s death.”
It was spoken in a rather cold tone, but the words had an effect.
Jo Myeong hid nothing more and revealed the truth.
“He quietly summoned only me and asked me to procure the ingredients to brew Hyangseolbingju. He said it was liquor covertly requested by a precious person. He asked me to keep it secret, so I did. I am sorry.”
“Did he say to whom it was being sent?”
“I do not know that either.”
“Was there anyone who was close to the former palace lord?”
“There is no one in particular to mention. He preferred to be alone.”
There was nothing more to ask, so Hanseol stopped her questioning.
“You tampered with the liquor ingredients and left no records, so you will be punished.”
“I am prepared.”
She could sense that he had always respected the former palace lord. Indeed, that must be why he had secretly provided the ingredients.
Ian warmly comforted him for speaking honestly.
“The former palace lord would undoubtedly be grateful as well.”
Thus the two came outside.
The words telling them not to punish him had risen to Ian’s throat, but she did not speak. Even if she felt forgiving, she might cause him to be punished by speaking up needlessly.
“You are kind to people in a way unbecoming of a demonic human.”
At that, Ian asked.
“In this martial world, between a ruthless person and a kind person, who survives longer?”
“Well, obviously.”
Hanseol did not finish. The answer was so clear that there was hardly any need to say it.
But Ian’s thoughts differed from hers.
“I am of the belief that kind people survive longer.”
Kindness? It was an emotion Hanseol had never experienced. She had never received kindness, nor had she ever treated anyone kindly.
In any case, Hanseol did not agree with her words. Preaching kindness in this ruthless martial world?
Just then, Jo Myeong ran up to them and said.
“I was too nervous earlier and could not recall, but I have seen the former palace lord drinking with Elder Seo several times. He was not one to keep company with others, so it stands out in my memory.”
Jo Myeong bowed and went back.
Ian said to Hanseol with a smile.
“This, too, is a result born of kindness.”
Even at her jest, Hanseol’s expression grew grave.
“Is something wrong?”
“It is nothing.”
But Ian could sense it. The moment she heard the name Elder Seo, something had weighed on Hanseol’s mind. Ian calmly said to her.
“Was it not the Little Palace Lord’s condition that we must hide nothing?”
“Don’t you hide anything, since I will hide” — you are not thinking this, are you?
When even Ian’s eyes asked this, Hanseol finally spoke the words she had been hesitant to say.
“Elder Seo is the person my mother trusts most.”
Elder Seo was a figure of great influence within the Ice Palace and could be called the Ice Palace Lord’s greatest supporter.
“Then the former palace lord may have felt at ease fulfilling his request.”
He was a fitting candidate for the condition that it would have been brewed for a trustworthy person. Elder Seo was also a person of excellent character.
But in a situation where they believed Hyangseolbingju was related to her death, that the recipient was Elder Seo?
Whether her mother knew was a problem, and whether she did not know was also a problem.
Surviving through kindness?
“Elder Seo is also the only person our mother treats kindly.”
* * *
Whooooooosh.
The wind grew ever stronger, but I kept moving my feet.
The reason it had originally been difficult to walk here was not merely the wind’s strength, but the terrifying cold carried on the wind.
It was a cold no human could endure, so blocking it consumed an enormous amount of internal energy.
Internal energy used to keep from being blown away, internal energy used to block the cold. One had to expend internal energy doubly.
Meanwhile, now I did not have to worry about the cold, only the wind’s strength.
Having already become impervious to cold and heat thanks to the Cheongidan, after consuming the Ten Thousand Year Snow Fruit as well, its efficacy was truly miraculous to an astonishing degree. This biting cold that could freeze blood felt like nothing at all.
So I had thought I could reach it easily.
Yet with every step forward, the wind grew fiercer. With each step, the sound of the wind changed.
I could swear to it. Unless one was a chosen person, one could never pass through this place.
I, too, am a chosen person.
After regressing, I had gained an enormous amount of internal energy and mastered the Nine Transformations Demonic Art and the Heavenly Demon Guardian Art. Moreover, I had consumed the Ten Thousand Year Snow Fruit. Even someone like me doubted whether I could reach the end—so who on earth could break through this place?
‘Why did they seek the extreme physique?’
The thought that perhaps it was to break through this place had briefly crossed my mind, and that was part of the reason I had tried coming.
But having actually tried it, that was definitely not the case. They had to be scheming something else entirely.
After advancing a bit more, the wind blew so fiercely that I could not think of anything else.
My internal energy and the distance to the end. The gradually strengthening wind. I calculated all of it. I could not recklessly push my internal energy to the limit, yet if I tried to conserve it, I would simply be blown away. Added to that, I calculated the minimum internal energy needed to protect my body when my strength gave out and I was sent flying.
Walking while using only that calculated amount of internal energy, pain began to set in. It hurt. It truly hurt. To think the wind could hurt this much.
But I could not raise my internal energy further to avoid the pain. Even greater pain awaited me later. I had to endure this pain to reach that place.
More internal energy was needed than I had anticipated. I had to muster internal energy to protect my eardrums. The wind was so loud it could damage my ears. The internal energy consumed in that way returned as pain.
Huuuuuuuuuung!
‘Why must I go there? At this rate, I might suffer internal injuries.’
The desire to avoid pain tempted me endlessly.
If this were not my life before the regression, I would never have been able to press forward like this.
Back then, I had suffered countless temptations. Give up. How could a human regress? Give up now and live my life.
Because I had overcome those endless temptations and walked that lonely path alone.
‘I can walk this path too.’
Walking and walking.
The abundant internal energy in my dantian was now nearly bottoming out.
‘Just a little, just a little more.’
At the last moment, I felt the sound of the wind vanish and my surroundings grow silent.
Could this be a hallucination? If I fell into qi deviation like this, it would be disastrous.
If it were such a precursor symptom, I had to give up and turn back immediately.
That was the final temptation.
I resolutely took another step. Because the way I had always overcome temptation was by silently taking that one step.
Guooooooo!
The moment I overcame the temptation, a sound of wind unlike anything I had heard before rang out again.
Thus I finally reached the source of the wind. The wind’s strength was at its peak. I used every last reserve of internal energy to bring my protective astral barrier and Heavenly Demon Guardian Art to their limits.
‘I’ve made it! Just here! Please!’
Enduring the pain of my whole body being torn apart, I took the final step.
The moment I passed through the wind valley and twisted my body aside, the pain vanished as if by a lie. I had escaped from that tremendous wind.
“I did it!”
A cry of ‘I survived’ escaped me.
Wind was blowing into the valley I had just escaped. How fiercely it must have been blowing for waves of wind to be visible to the eye.
The source of the wind was the sky. Wind descending diagonally from the far-off sky was rushing fiercely toward the valley. It looked as if a demon were sucking in all the world’s air through its mouth. It was truly a mystical, unfamiliar, and fearsome sight.
And I realized.
That reaching this place itself was a greater fortuitous encounter than any other.
Breaking through to this place, I had exerted all the internal power I possessed.
I had brought forth every ounce of potential a martial artist possessed. Having used that potential until not a single drop remained, I felt as though I could see the martial artist that was me transparently.
I felt as if my martial arts realm had risen. It seemed I, as a person, had grown stronger as well. It was a strange experience and sensation.
I was certain that this first-time experience would surely affect the Nine Transformations Demonic Art as well.
Leaving behind the demon’s mouth devouring the wind, I slowly moved my steps.
Far behind, a massive cliff blocked the way. It was so high that the top could not be seen. The ridgeline of the snow mountain blocked all directions behind. As if this were a place one could not enter without breaking through that wind valley.
Before it lay a spring landscape. Flowers bloomed and birds flew about. Rabbits and deer saw me but did not flee. They had the eyes of those seeing a human for the first time.
Mysterious energy overflowed. It was the primordial mystery of a place that had never admitted a human since the beginning.
And I saw.
A single person standing in the midst of it all.
He was an old man standing with his hands behind his back. An old man in such a place? He was clearly no ordinary person.
Someone came to mind in an instant. Surely not? It could not be him?
“Elder?”
I cautiously called out to the old man. Then he slowly turned toward me.
Astonishingly, he was the very old man who had sent me back in time.
“Elder!”
The old man grinned broadly and shook the liquor bottle he was holding.
“Did I not say we would share a drink next time we met?”
They were the words the old man had said right before sending me back.
So I had a premonition that the old man might appear before me again someday. I never thought it would be today.
“I am abstaining from alcohol, though. You came at this time on purpose, did you not? To tease me.”
The old man cackled loudly.
“You have brightened up a lot since then.”
“It is thanks to you.”
The old man, who had been looking at me with deep eyes, slowly approached and patted my shoulder.
“It has been hard, has it not? You are doing well.”
The moment I heard his words, my chest tightened.
To others, I tried so hard to express all sorts of things.
It seemed I had wanted to hear them too.
I must have wanted to be comforted by someone who knew my efforts from beginning to end. That I had lived this earnestly from before the regression until now. So please, just say those words—that I am doing well. That hearing just that one phrase would be enough.
“Since you are abstaining, let us drink next time.”
“Are you leaving already?”
“As you know, many people seek me, so I am very busy.”
Still, it sounded like he might come to meet me again, which made me feel glad.
Whooooooosh.
A sudden gust of wind blew.
The old man vanished before my eyes along with the wind. Along with him, the paradise-like scenery around me vanished as well. The trees, grass, and animals all disappeared with him.
Now the surroundings were nothing but snow and ice.
Because it came and went in an instant, it felt like a dream. Had I seen an illusion? I had exhausted both my mental strength and internal energy to the point of collapse.
But it was not. The hand that had patted my shoulder was all too vivid. I was so happy and glad to see him again.
Had I forgotten to look up at the sky these past few days, that you came to see me directly? I, too, shall look up often, so please watch over me until the very end. Stop pretending to be busy when we meet. And... I am truly grateful.