Chapter 193
Chapter 193. The Third Heavenly Fortune
A fierce wind blew through the darkness, and a spark of light erupted. From the space torn apart in pure white, a martial artist dressed in black leapt out.
He flinched at the chill of the North Sea, but it wasn't fear. If anything, he looked pleased.
The man checked the formation carved into the stone floor and turned around.
"It's not sealed yet!"
At his shout, martial artists poured through the passage—it was the guard unit of Jin Yin Mountain.
Before the gate closed, over a hundred of the Blood Demon's guards had crossed over.
Because the central passage used by the Blood Demon himself had been sealed, the guard units had split into groups, searching for passages that were still open.
The one who appeared to be their leader surveyed the surroundings, the icy wind cutting against his face.
Since this was a passage located atop a southern mountain peak, both the sea and the islands were visible at a glance. He gazed at the frozen water surface and spoke.
"You. Go back and inform them that the southern passage remains open."
The subordinate standing beside the leader immediately turned and went back through the still-open passage.
At that very moment, the passage closed.
A man standing behind the leader asked cautiously,
"Leader, should we go ahead to the Ice Palace and clear the way?"
"Wait until the others cross over."
The leader's eyes fell upon the formation etched into the ground.
"The Ice Palace dogs might come and block it while we're gone."
"Yes, sir."
The subordinates positioned themselves around the formation, forming a tight perimeter.
The small area was packed so densely that it looked nearly impossible for anyone to break through.
But that was only an illusion.
The leader's gaze lifted upward. He sensed something approaching.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The body of the Blood Sect member beside him collapsed.
The leader drew his sword and twisted his body toward the disturbance—but saw nothing.
Thud.
Only the soft sound of something falling could be heard, like snow slipping off a tree branch.
There wasn't even time to scream.
In an instant, the front line crumbled.
Chaeeng—!
Then, the leader finally saw the intruder.
A white snow demon soared through the air, sword in hand, spinning midair. Its movements were light and graceful, as if performing a sword dance beneath the moon.
Chwaak—
The sword path, smooth and flowing like the ridges of a snow mountain, cut through the necks of five men.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
It was an unbelievable sight.
How could slaughter take place without sound, without even a single drop of filthy blood splattering?
"Ughhh!"
A few regaining their senses drew their swords and tried to counterattack—but before they could even locate the vanishing Bai Gwi, their bodies were torn apart.
All around, the bloodline of the Ice Palace appeared and disappeared, again and again.
Chaeeng!
A blade glimmering with moonlight shone blue.
Yin energy spread in a circle, severing the limbs of the Blood Sect members. The rippling sword paths overlapped, collapsing the Blood Sect's formation layer by layer.
Kaang!
The leader blocked the blue blade of the approaching Bai Gwi—or so he thought.
Thud.
A cold touch brushed the back of his neck, and then—he saw the growing pile of corpses.
His consciousness faded at once.
It was a moment short enough to be called a blink.
When that brief moment passed, only the sound of the wind lingered in the forest.
One of the Ice Palace martial artists near the formation struck the letters carved into the ground without hesitation.
Kaang.
The five martial artists exchanged glances.
They silently turned to look northward, toward the North Sea.
Though their eyes had long grown accustomed to the dark, the island surrounded by cliffs revealed nothing of its interior.
The Ice Palace martial artists stood still, waiting for someone.
After roughly a quarter of an hour, six more of their brethren appeared.
"The passage?"
"It's sealed."
"And those who crossed over?"
"There were none."
Before the newcomers could even finish their formal report, another group arrived.
The Ice Palace martial artist who had dismantled the passage glanced toward the new arrivals.
The one standing at the front bowed slightly and reported,
"There were traces of intruders crossing through, so we delayed while tracking them. All of them have been eliminated."
He delivered the report before the First Seat could even ask.
The First Seat gave a slight nod.
Before long, all twenty of the Ice Palace martial artists had gathered.
And yet, no one spoke.
They were a quiet order to begin with—but the silence now was far heavier than usual.
Their hearts weighed down, none could bring themselves to speak first.
While they had been absorbed in their training, the situation had turned dire.
The Extreme Yin Lands had always been supplied with ample food and medicine, so they assumed those left behind in the gorge were safe.
However, the member of the Second Division who came to find them was skin and bones, and the Blood Demon’s guard unit had crossed through the passage.
A little later, and the Blood Demon himself might have come.
Their entire bloodline could have been wiped out before they even realized it.
Having endured years of grueling training with the sole intent to reclaim the Ice Palace and protect their bloodline, the martial artists felt emotions that words could not express.
Then, a light sound of footsteps cut through the silence.
Step, step.
At the noise coming from below the mountain, the First Seat lowered his gaze.
Their master—and the greatest elder of their bloodline—was climbing toward them.
When the Fourth Seat reached the peak, all of the Ice Palace martial artists knelt and bowed to the ground—save for three.
The Fourth Seat had rebuilt the hierarchy of the Seven Seats of the North Sea, taking the fourth position himself.
He had once declared that he would raise three above him and three below, to serve as the pillars of balance in cultivation.
Formally, he occupied the fourth seat, but in truth, he stood above even the First Seat and the rest.
As the last disciple of the former Ice Palace Lord, he had personally taught the bloodline the martial arts of the North Sea Ice Palace.
Thanks to their innate physiques and their extraordinary teacher, they had quickly mastered the Five Absolute Arts.
Each of them was capable of becoming one of the Seven Seats.
The twenty Ice Palace martial artists fought brutal duels day after day to challenge the hierarchy, yet the order never changed.
Perhaps believing it would never change, the Fourth Seat had raised the three most exceptional ones above himself.
Now, the Fourth Seat knelt before the three who stood before him and asked.
"Have all the passages been sealed?"
"Yes, they're closed... closed, sir."
The First Seat answered habitually in formal speech, but when the Fourth Seat's cold gaze lifted, he quickly corrected himself to the informal tone required of subordinates.
It felt unbearably awkward to speak that way to someone who had once been his master.
Still, he forced himself to accept it.
Such was the culture of the North Sea Ice Palace, where martial ability stood above all else, and the Seven Seats were regarded as the foundation of their order.
Then, the Fifth Seat, who was bowing behind them, asked the Fourth Seat,
"Fourth Seat, I heard there was trouble on the island. Is everything all right?"
His tone was natural, casual even.
"The members of the Second Division said there was also trouble in the gorge, and that they were afflicted by the Second Seat’s curse. I was worried."
The First Seat felt a hint of envy toward the Fifth Seat.
Unlike how he spoke to the First Seat, the Fourth Seat replied to the Fifth with a voice devoid of emotion.
"There was a problem within the island, but it has been resolved. The Second Seat's curse has also been neutralized, so there's no need for concern."
After that succinct reply, the Fourth Seat turned to look at the twenty martial artists of the Ice Palace.
All of them were children who bore his blood.
He knew that those born of his bloodline had a high likelihood of inheriting the Extreme Yin Body.
That was why he had accepted being used by the Blood Demon like a breeding beast—so he could leave behind as many descendants as possible.
But after losing several children with the Extreme Yin Body to the Blood Demon, he began to deliberately seal their meridians with his own yin energy whenever such a child was born.
The extreme yin he implanted partially blocked their meridians, making them appear as though afflicted with a chronic illness.
The Blood Demon deemed such bodies useless garbage.
He knew that patients with Severed Meridian Syndrome rarely lived past thirty, and so he sent those showing the symptoms away to the Central Plains without hesitation.
Though it had been the Fourth Seat himself who had blocked their meridians, if he could not unblock it before they turned thirty, they would truly die like sufferers of the disease.
When the time came for those afflicted to leave, he told them—no matter what—to seek out the Yeonju Group in the Central Plains. There, they would find a cure for their condition.
That advice had come from an offhand remark by a boastful member of the Han Clan, but since that clan traveled most frequently between the regions of the Central Plains, it seemed believable enough.
And in any case, it was far better than being drained by the Blood Demon.
He had told those children to wait for their time, to continue training diligently. Those born with the Extreme Yin Body were destined to become one of the Seven Seats of the Ice Palace, and the Seven Seats bore the duty of protecting the North Sea.
Anyone grounded in reality might have dismissed those words as empty comfort, but to the wounded hearts of those children, his words became a light they could not abandon.
The bloodline of the Ice Palace that had been sent to the Central Plains had twice been blessed by heaven's fortune.
The first heavenly fortune was when the bloodline of the North Sea Ice Palace obtained a divine artifact belonging to the Blood Demon.
The second heavenly fortune came when Bai Woon-Hyun, who had been wandering the Central Plains to free their kin, found and gathered all the descendants with the Extreme Yin Body that the Fourth Seat had scattered.
The Fourth Seat gazed at the twenty martial artists who had mastered the Five Absolute Arts.
Each of them possessed martial prowess worthy of ascending to the ranks of the Seven Seats.
Never before in the history of the North Sea Ice Palace had so many achieved such mastery.
Ironically, it was thanks to the Blood Demon—the very being who had destroyed the Ice Palace—that they had gained such unprecedented strength.
They had escaped the Blood Demon's control and achieved the greatest power the Ice Palace had ever known.
To wish for more fortune would be greed.
The Fourth Seat looked upon the Ice Palace martial artists—pale as the snowscape itself—and felt a surge of emotion rising in his chest.
He spoke unconsciously, in the familiar informal tone that had once been natural to him.
"The Second Leader is waiting on the island."
All the martial artists, of varying ages, knew who that was—Bai Woon-Hyun, the Second Leader.
A faint glimmer lit their otherwise cold eyes.
"Those who are not among the Seven Seats, go to the gorge and guide the survivors back to the Ice Palace."
The martial artists who had not ascended to the Seven Seats bowed their heads.
The Fourth Seat's gaze fell upon the six remaining martial artists.
"The Seven Seats are the pride of the North Sea and its blade of protection. When you return to the island, never again... never again allow it to fall."
They had long been trained to suppress their speech, so they gave no verbal reply. But their eyes and their aura spoke for them.
A heavy determination filled the air, a vow that they would never again lose their home.
Looking at the Ice Palace martial artists before him, the Fourth Seat spoke in a trembling voice.
"Let us return to the North Sea Ice Palace."
He was the first to turn his back.
Facing the North Sea as dawn broke, the Fourth Seat looked once more upon the island that had been stolen from them long ago.
And again, desire stirred within him.
He descended toward the sea, silently praying that the third heavenly fortune would bless the North Sea once more.