“They usually replenish the cold energy every four to five years, but since the deadline has passed, we have to hurry.”
“The deadline passed? Did something happen?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“I just didn’t feel like it.”
“…I see.”
That was certainly a remarkable reason.
Seo-jun clicked his tongue and observed the floating ice crystal hovering at about waist height.
Should it be called the sacred artifact of the Ice Palace? If Baek Seol-hyang’s words were true, then its output should have diminished compared to usual. However, the cold aura radiating from the ice crystal was anything but ordinary.
‘So this is how they achieve mastery in the Ice-White Divine Art?’
Seo-jun immediately grasped the principle.
Infusing one's inner energy with a specific nature was not as simple as it sounded.
There was no way a mere third-rate martial artist, just stepping onto the path of enlightenment, could imbue their energy with the essence of nature purely through will.
That was where mental cultivation techniques played a role. The formulas and imagery contained within these techniques guided martial artists, helping them gradually adapt until they could establish their own mental imprint.
As a result, a martial artist's mental landscape was inevitably influenced by the cultivation technique they practiced.
However, in the case of the Ice-White Divine Art, which dealt with extreme cold, a mental technique alone was insufficient for refining the Ice-White Divine Qi.
That deficiency was compensated for with the Ice Crystal.
By coming into contact with the crystal’s chilling aura, the practitioner could sharpen their mental imprint to be even colder, and if that wasn’t enough, they could directly absorb its cold energy into their inner reserves to supplement their training.
Simply put, the Ice-White Divine Art was a martial technique that refined Ice-White Divine Qi itself.
Since the very nature of their inner energy was divine, martial artists of the Ice Palace could exert overwhelming power simply by releasing their inner energy.
‘That’s not all there is to it.’
Seo-jun narrowed his eyes. His keen senses penetrated the essence of the Ice Crystal.
The presence embedded within it…
If he had to guess, this was something created by a Transcendent Realm martial artist.
Even if there were other objects imbued with such intense cold, it would be nearly impossible to refine Ice-White Divine Qi with them.
Without the Ice Crystal, anyone wishing to master the Ice-White Divine Art would have to abandon all they had cultivated and start anew from the very foundation.
That was nonsense.
If someone had reached the Grandmaster Realm, their martial art—whatever it may be—would have already transcended into the realm of divine techniques. No one in their right mind would throw all of that away just to cultivate the Ice-White Divine Art from scratch.
In other words, this Ice Crystal was everything to the Ice Palace. It should not be something casually revealed to just anyone.
Yet, Baek Seol-hyang had shown it to him without hesitation.
By all logical standards, Seo-jun found it utterly ridiculous.
“You’re really okay with showing this to me? What makes you trust me?”
“Didn’t I already say? I am the Palace Lord.”
“No, I understand that your authority surpasses all laws within the Ice Palace. What I’m asking is the basis for your judgment.”
“You are a terribly rigid man.”
Baek Seol-hyang clicked her tongue.
“I’m offering to do everything for you even if you just stay silent, yet you insist on asking why. What will you do if I take back my offer?”
“I’m saying this out of concern. If you keep showing the sacred artifact of the Ice Palace to just anyone, it will come back to bite you later.”
He meant it sincerely.
It was already worrisome that she was a bit of a pushover, but after losing the previous Palace Lord, it seemed like loneliness had made her far too trusting.
People like that usually ended up handing over their heart and soul to some bastard and then spending the rest of their life in solitude.
Seo-jun had no real business feeling sorry for the Ice Palace, but for some reason, just looking at Baek Seol-hyang lately made him feel an unbearable sense of pity.
‘How does she expect to survive in this cruel world?’
As Seo-jun clicked his tongue, Baek Seol-hyang let out a breathy laugh as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“What do you take me for? I am the Palace Lord of the Ice Palace, a martial artist of the Grandmaster Realm. I can judge a person’s character.”
“…I don’t think so.”
“Shut up. Besides, the Ice Crystal is useless outside of the North Sea.”
Baek Seol-hyang scoffed, but Seo-jun still wasn’t convinced.
Even if carrying the Ice Crystal elsewhere rendered it useless, that wouldn’t be the Ice Palace’s concern.
If the Ice Crystal were to disappear, the next generation of the Ice Palace would be unable to cultivate the Ice-White Divine Art.
Seo-jun shot Baek Seol-hyang a dubious look, but she merely waved at the Ice Crystal dismissively.
“Anyway, you understand what I’m asking you to do, right?”
“You want me to replenish the Ice Crystal’s cold energy.”
“Exactly. There is a place in the North Sea where cold energy naturally gathers. I’ll give you the location, so go there and meditate for a while.”
Baek Seol-hyang rummaged through the corner of the chamber and pulled something out, handing it to Seo-jun.
“A map. It’s not far, so this should be enough.”
As Seo-jun took the map, Baek Seol-hyang continued.
“The Ice Crystal is an enormous mass of pure energy. It cannot be manipulated with elemental telekinesis, so you’ll have to carry it by hand and wait there for about a week— Wait a minute. What are you…?”
Baek Seol-hyang suddenly froze, staring blankly at Seo-jun.
Seo-jun, scratching his head, stared back with the same blank expression.
“Well, I don’t like getting my hands cold.”
Baek Seol-hyang’s jaw dropped. The Ice Crystal was floating mid-air, orbiting Seo-jun.
Just a moment ago, she had explicitly stated that the Ice Crystal could not be affected by elemental telekinesis. And yet, this bastard had effortlessly lifted it with his telekinesis.
This was an absolute disaster.
Baek Seol-hyang’s face turned red with frustration.
“Y-you…! Are you challenging the authority of the Palace Lord right now? A master of the Ice-White Divine Art complaining about cold hands?!”
How the hell did he do that? Even as she fumed, her mind was drowning in confusion.
Seo-jun, who had simply used elemental telekinesis as he always did, felt deeply wronged.
“Anyone can see that touching it would be freezing.”
“Shut up…!”
“Sigh… Whatever. I’ll be off now.”
“Off where?! It’s already night. Leave in the morning!”
“Hm. That makes sense. Fine, I’ll do that.”
And that was that.
The next morning, Seo-jun departed from the Ice Palace, taking the Ice Crystal with him.
****
A Few Hours Later
Seo-jun hovered midair, the Ice Crystal lazily floating beside him as he walked through the sky.
‘The location should be…’
With his eyes narrowed, he studied the map for a while. Eventually, he grasped the path he needed to take and kicked off into the air.
Boom—!
His form stretched out like a streak across the sky.
In terms of distance, it felt like he had traveled five times the distance between the Ice Palace and the nearest village. Soon, he could feel the cold seeping through his clothes.
But Cold Immunity was something he had achieved long ago. He followed the frigid air without much concern, and before long, he arrived at the location Baek Seol-hyang had mentioned.
“…Now that’s a sight.”
It was quite the spectacle.
This was the place where all the cold energy of the North Sea converged. The vast snowfield, revered as the sacred ground of the Ice Palace, stretched endlessly in a blindingly pure white.
The snow was frozen solid, so much so that even those who had not achieved the Realm of Traceless Steps would leave no footprints. Ice pillars, sporadically rising from the ground, stretched their jagged branches like ancient trees.
Standing at the center of this expanse, Seo-jun released the Ice Crystal, which had been floating midair under his control.
Wuuuung—
As if guided by an unseen force, the Ice Crystal began absorbing the surrounding cold energy. At this rate, it would take about a week, just as Baek Seol-hyang had predicted.
Seo-jun, however, had no intention of waiting that long. Instead, he took control of the surrounding cold energy and forcefully channeled it into the Ice Crystal.
KUUUUUOOOOHH—!!
The chilling energy of the North Sea surged into the Ice Crystal in an overwhelming torrent.
It was a rather disrespectful way to handle a sacred artifact of a martial sect, but the efficiency was undeniable.
‘At this rate, it’ll only take about two hours.’
A groundbreaking reduction in time.
Seo-jun grinned, watching the Ice Crystal greedily absorb the frigid energy.
“…Hm?”
Just then, he sensed something.
Two mounds of snow, subtly different from their surroundings.
Crunch—!
Frozen snow shattered, and two figures emerged.
“You there. The current Palace Lord should be Baek Seol-hyang, if I’m not mistaken.”
A man draped in pure white robes approached with an unhurried stride. As he brushed off the frost clinging to his body, his icy gaze locked onto Seo-jun.
“The Ice Crystal is supposed to be handled only by the Palace Lord. Did the leadership change while I was away?”
Beside him, another man—his face marked with a long scar from his forehead to his cheek—shivered slightly. Judging by his appearance, he had been hiding here for at least several days.
The only person who had any reason to come to this place was Baek Seol-hyang herself.
Which meant…
These men had buried themselves under the snow and waited an absurd amount of time just for a chance to meet her.
There was no way they had come with good intentions.
Seo-jun’s eyes narrowed.
‘They’ve been suppressing their presence completely.’
At the Grandmaster Realm, a martial artist could control every function of their body.
By sealing off all external qi flow while buried under the snow, even someone like Seo-jun would have had difficulty detecting them in advance.
As he scrutinized the two men, they began conversing among themselves.
“There’s no way. For a man to fully master the Ice-White Divine Art, he would need to meet too many conditions. Not enough time has passed.”
“Then what? Are you saying this bastard stole the Ice Crystal?”
“Impossible. Once outside the North Sea, the Ice Crystal becomes useless. Hiding something of that magnitude is no easy feat. If he had carried it beyond the North Sea, the surrounding area would have froze over instantly, and the Ice Palace would have easily tracked him down.”
“Then what the hell are we looking at? A man, who has mastered the Ice-White Divine Art, standing here with the Ice Crystal?”
“…We’ll have to figure that out now.”
The man in white turned his gaze to Seo-jun.
“I am Baek Yoon. You should show proper respect to your distant elder.”
Seo-jun stared at him in silence. His nose twitched.
A strong stench of blood.
His brow furrowed.
“Well, I’m Baek Seo-jun, but… before anything else, let me ask you something.”
Rather than paying respect, Seo-jun spoke with an unmistakably rude tone.
Baek Yoon raised an eyebrow.
“What is it?”
“Just checking—are you, by any chance, a woman?”
“…What?”
“The stench of blood is suffocating. It’s fine, you can tell me. If you identify as a woman, I’m ready to accept that.”
Baek Yoon exchanged looks with his companion before letting out a dry laugh.
“Neung-wol.”
“Yeah, he’s out of his damn mind.”
The man called Neung-wol chuckled, unslinging the spear from his back.
At the same time, Baek Yoon and Neung-wol released their killing intent, pressing down on Seo-jun.
Seo-jun, however, ignored their intimidation and simply observed Baek Yoon.
“So, you’re not a woman.”
Seo-jun’s eyes turned red.
The frigid winds that had been raging across the snowfield suddenly came to a halt.
HUUUUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOHHH—!!
The entire area was suddenly dyed in darkness—an overwhelming manifestation of pure killing intent.
Baek Yoon’s eyes widened as he locked gazes with Seo-jun.
Seo-jun’s lips curled into a menacing grin.
“So you’re the one, huh?”
The residual traces of Ice-White Divine Qi in Chun-bong’s body.
The Myeolshinhwe, who had stolen away her lifeblood.
The stench of blood rolling off the man in front of him.
Everything pointed to one conclusion.
This bastard played a part in the Geum Clan’s extermination.
“Lucky me.”
Seo-jun had planned to gather clues one by one and track them down—but his target had walked right up to him.
Seo-jun extended his fist forward.
The previously stilled winds began to rotate around him, coiling into a spiraling vortex.
The cold energy of the North Sea fell completely under Seo-jun’s control.
And in that moment, all expression vanished from his face.
“I suppose I should praise your courage for not having killed yourself yet.”
Sensing something ominous, Baek Yoon and Neung-wol immediately raised their guard.
Seo-jun did not care.
No matter what they did…
The outcome had already been decided.
—Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh…!!
From the deepest depths of Seo-jun’s mental world, the agonized screams of the Crimson Lotus Sect’s Leader still echoed.
Now, there was room for one more.
“Then die.”
Seo-jun spread his fingers.
The entire area froze over instantly.
Beneath the pale-dyed sky, he muttered:
“Eight Cold Hells.”
CRAAAAAAAACK—!!