< Chapter 605 > Curse of the Ice Spirit.
I had a dream.
A dream of simply walking across a field of white snow.
The weather was cold and biting.
Yet, I didn't feel it was entirely cold.
[Woooow!]
Guryeonghwa ran about as if thrilled by the falling snow.
Watching that, I said,
[You're going to fall if you keep that up.]
[Hehehe!]
It seemed he wasn't listening.
Running around like that, it wouldn't be long before….
[Waah!]
[Ah.]
As expected.
Guryeonghwa stopped running and fell flat with a thud.
[Waaaaah!]
Perhaps because he had fallen pretty hard, Guryeonghwa burst into tears.
Watching that, I sighed and approached.
[See, I told you not to run.]
[Owwww….]
His cheeks, face, and eyes were all covered.
I brushed them off with my hand.
[Hiii….]
[When are you ever going to grow up?]
He was only seven or eight years old at most.
Coming from someone who would never grow up for the rest of his life, it was an incredibly embarrassing thing to say.
Now that I thought about it, he seemed to speak pretty well and be pretty smart as a child.
It was a mystery why he had turned out that way while growing up.
After tending to Guryeonghwa for some time, suddenly.
Swish.
Someone placed a hand on my hair.
The hand was so large that it wrapped around my entire head with room to spare.
Feeling the rough palm, I slightly turned my head.
The first thing I saw was my mother.
Eyes that looked at us with a bright smile.
Naturally, the owner of the hand was not her. Mother's hands were on the smaller side.
Then who was the owner of the hand?
Shifting my gaze slightly, I met eyes with the owner of the hand.
A man with a tall stature, crimson-tinted pupils, and hair lightly dyed red.
The head of the Gu family.
It was my father.
Father was stroking my hair.
Had there ever been a time like this?
I couldn't remember. That's how I knew.
'It's a dream.'
So I thought it was a dream. It was so vivid, and I felt such longing, but.
This was surely a dream.
[Father.]
Young me spoke with a smile.
Smiling while looking at Father was something impossible now.
What was more surprising was.
'He's smiling?'
The corners of Father's mouth had risen slightly, if only faintly.
Father smiled at me.
I smiled, and Father smiled too.
[Oh! It's Dad!]
Guryeonghwa spotted Father and sprang up, running to embrace him.
Being small in stature, Guryeonghwa could only wrap around Father's thigh.
[Dad!]
At Guryeonghwa's cry, Father said nothing and stroked Guryeonghwa's head.
Really, what should I call this.
'It's not a bad sight.'
Watching that, it was a thought that came naturally.
Was it because I knew it was a dream?
Or was it.
'Because it was a scene I had wanted to see at least once.'
It was a strange emotion that couldn't be explained.
Also, a sense of embarrassment washed over me, as if I had witnessed something I wasn't meant to.
For some reason, that was how it felt.
If this was a dream, let's stop watching and wake up.
Now wasn't the time to be looking at such things.
Thinking so, I tried to somehow get up, when.
Stretch.
'…?'
My cheek suddenly stretched out long.
Wondering what it was, someone grabbed and pulled my cheek.
Mother? It must be Mother, of course.
The moment I thought that.
"Oh my. Look at that good skin."
From a rough and heavy voice came a tone that didn't match it.
"Is it because you're young? Your skin is certainly taut and supple."
It was Father.
Father was holding both my cheeks and speaking.
Even while using such a tone, his expression was the usual expressionless Father.
"If only I were ten years younger, would my skin have been like this too? Hoho."
'Wow, what the hell.'
Watching that sent shivers down my spine.
I had thought I was having a fairly decent dream for once.
There was no nightmare like this.
That tone in Father's voice with his expressionless face.
What a terrifying combination it was.
'I need to get out of here.'
I had to get away somehow.
That was my only thought.
"I thought you didn't look enough like me when I saw you before, but it seems you've come to resemble me more in the time we haven't seen each other?"
With even laughter mixed in, I hated it more.
In the increasingly dizzying situation.
I clenched my eyes shut and forcibly raised qi in my body.
Oong-!
It was my attempt to use qi to forcibly wake my body.
"You still look scary, though. At this rate, even your nephew…."
Oong-! As the qi circulated, a recoil hit my body.
Using that, my eyes snapped open.
"Keurk…."
I let out a hollow breath and came to my senses.
Only then was I barely able to escape the nightmare.
An unfamiliar ceiling came into view.
Seeing that, I could feel relief at having woken from the dream.
I had escaped a truly terrible, utterly terrible nightmare.
As that thought crossed my mind.
"Oh my."
The tone I had heard in my dream until just now reached my ears.
What was different was that it wasn't Father's low, thick voice, but a woman's lilting one.
Furthermore.
The cheek that had been held by Father was still being held.
"Are you awake?"
"…"
With my cheek held, I looked at the owner of the voice.
It was a familiar face.
"…Bwek…ryun…geum…?"
I had tried to say Baekryeongeom, but because my cheek was held, the pronunciation didn't come out properly.
Hearing my words, Baekryeongeom spoke with a smile.
"It's been a while."
With the uniquely aloof face of the Murong family.
A woman with an appearance far younger than her age.
The younger sister of the current head of the Murong family, the Baekcheon Sword Lord. It was Baekryeongeom.
'Why is this lady here?'
She was someone I had never expected.
Could this be a dream too?
It was a meeting as bewildering as that.
So I tried to first raise my upper body, but.
"…Kkh…."
"Oh my, are you alright?"
A heavy sense of fatigue gripped my entire body.
It wasn't painful, but my body was very heavy.
What was the reason for this?
I recalled the situation right before I collapsed.
The time I rampaged and fought the Patriarch.
The time I encountered the Blood Qi.
Stepping into the mental realm because of it, and being unable to overcome the recoil and fainting against the Patriarch.
And.
'Nangong Bia.'
I immediately put my hand into my bosom.
Something brushed against my fingertips. I grasped it and pulled it out.
It was the ornament I had picked up before.
"…"
Looking at it, I bit my lips involuntarily.
The thing I had most hoped to be a dream seemed not to be a dream after all.
'Why is this.'
Why was this there of all places?
Could it simply be an ornament that looked the same?
I considered that thought, but I knew better than anyone that it couldn't be.
Why on earth was this in that place?
It was a place filled with chilling corpses.
The smell of blood was so thick that it couldn't be erased even as the snowstorm raged.
Had she perhaps met with some disaster?
As that thought began to grip my body.
"That child's body was not found."
I turned my head at Baekryeongeom's words.
"Therefore, I cannot tell you not to worry. But first, won't you calm yourself?"
"…"
There was no corpse.
Did that mean she had already checked?
However, even so.
'How could I calm down?'
Emotions don't die down easily.
I merely try not to express them.
Ironically, just as Baekryeongeom said.
The news that no corpse had been seen was somewhat helpful.
I looked around the surroundings with cold eyes.
'A cave?'
All sides were blocked.
The unique scent mixed in the air indicated it was a cave.
Having grasped that, I asked Baekryeongeom.
"…Where is this place?"
"It's about two shichen away from where you were."
Two shichen.
Whether by running or walking.
It wasn't a detailed location.
"How is your body?"
"It's fine…."
As we conversed, I circulated my qi.
My qi was filled about halfway in my heart. Other than severe fatigue, there were no major problems.
The internal injuries I had sustained before.
'Haven't gotten too severe.'
Even though I had rampaged to the point of using all my qi.
Fortunately, my internal injuries hadn't worsened significantly.
While I was diligently checking my body.
Baekryeongeom spoke to me.
"The time since you collapsed is…."
"I suppose about a day has passed."
I answered in her stead.
At that, Baekryeongeom's eyes widened. It was a look of asking how I knew.
Since she seemed curious, I repeatedly clenched and unclenched my fist as I spoke to Baekryeongeom.
"Because the amount of qi I had recovered was just about that much."
"…Do you have all of that figured out in such detail?"
Normally, one wouldn't have so much qi stored to be able to identify the amount recovered so precisely.
Unless one possessed truly sensitive senses to identify it.
An ordinary martial artist would find that impossible.
'You'd need to have an enormous amount.'
Having consumed so much in the past, it was at a level where I couldn't help but know.
"You're still amazing. Even this…."
Baekryeongeom looked at me as if impressed.
"It's just… a trivial skill."
I replied awkwardly, brushing off the praise.
"Anyway, Senior, why are you here?"
"…"
At my question, Baekryeongeom fell silent for a moment.
I had heard that Baekryeongeom had left for the North Sea with Nangong Bia, Uhyeok, and Gwaeseon.
I had also heard that Baekryeongeom had created a path that could reach the North Sea immediately.
Therefore, it wasn't strange for Baekryeongeom to be in the North Sea.
'But the situation is what it is.'
Now was a time when something unusual had occurred in the North Sea.
I needed to ascertain the reason she was here after I collapsed.
That was why I had asked Baekryeongeom.
Why she was here.
'In other words.'
How are you involved in this matter?
That was the question.
"…"
Hearing this, Baekryeongeom still didn't give an answer and simply looked at me.
Was there something difficult to answer?
The doubt crossed my mind.
Then.
"Can you move right now?"
"Pardon?"
Instead of answering my question, she returned with a question.
Could I move? I pondered briefly and answered.
"Yes. I can move."
Though I wasn't certain since I had just woken up.
Aside from being tired, I was in a state with no problems.
"Then, I think it would be better to talk while we go."
Go?
Where were we going when the story hadn't even finished yet?
The moment I slightly frowned at Baekryeongeom's words.
"The Palace Lord is waiting for you."
"…"
"I'll explain on the way. Won't you follow me for now?"
At Baekryeongeom's words spoken with a smile, I decided to get up for now.