Seo-jun released his grip on Baek Yoon's neck.
Thud. The tattered body collapsed to the ground, rolling lifelessly.
It hadn’t been difficult to make him talk.
By using Northern Myung Divine Art to drain his qi until he was no different from a mere mortal, then forcefully injecting demonic energy into him—ordering him as the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons to obey—everything was settled.
Simple as that.
Of course, Baek Yoon was still a martial artist who had reached a high level. He resisted for a while with his sheer willpower, but once his mind was broken, it didn't take long for him to crumble.
In the end, Baek Yoon, reduced to nothing more than a puppet tainted with demonic energy, spilled everything he knew.
However...
"A martial artist at the Transcendence Realm burdened with so many restrictions, huh?"
Even when Baek Yoon tried—whether willingly or not—to reveal information about Myeolshinhwe, the moment he opened his mouth, a restriction activated.
He was speaking, but the words that came out were nothing but incomprehensible gibberish.
Typically, these kinds of restrictions were difficult to deal with. If someone tried to forcibly break them, it often resulted in the target's death, making interrogation tricky.
But for New Lee Seo-jun, it wasn’t much of a problem.
A restriction was ultimately just another technique that relied on qi.
And since it wasn’t particularly sophisticated, Seo-jun was able to unravel it with his own hands and extract Baek Yoon’s confession.
Meaning, Baek Yoon had outlived his usefulness.
Crack. Crack.
The countless jaws devouring Baek Yoon’s body made sickening noises.
"AAAAAGH...!!"
From deep within his consciousness, Baek Yoon’s soul screamed in agony.
Seo-jun stepped on Neungwol’s head and crushed it.
Crunch.
Just like that, two martial artists at the Transcendence Realm from Myeolshinhwe had been erased from existence.
"That makes three at the Transcendence Realm already, counting the ones from Bloodstained Sky and Ten Thousand Rivers... Looks like there are still a few more left."
Despite having such considerable power, why did they remain hidden?
Baek Yoon seemed content simply hiding within Beihai Ice Palace, not thinking much beyond that. But Seo-jun couldn't ignore the implications.
Were they afraid of those who had reached the Manifestation Realm? Or perhaps, since they had inherited the remnants of Blood Cult, they were being cautious?
Seo-jun shook his head. There was no point dwelling on a question that wouldn't yield immediate answers.
What mattered now was the truth behind the extermination of the Geum Clan.
"Baek Yoon was there, but Neungwol wasn’t."
It wasn’t Neungwol who participated in the destruction of the Geum Clan alongside Baek Yoon—it was someone else.
Through Baek Yoon’s confession, Seo-jun had obtained some clues regarding their whereabouts. However, he hadn’t been able to pinpoint the exact location.
"Troublesome bastards."
Myeolshinhwe operated in a thoroughly compartmentalized cell structure. Even its own members often didn’t know each other’s locations.
Apparently, Baek Yoon and Neungwol had used a crystal sphere to communicate and had only met at a separate location before traveling to Beihai.
"Tsk."
Clicking his tongue, Seo-jun withdrew his domain.
With a flash—whoosh—the vast area that had been engulfed in his energy disappeared in an instant.
The original snowy field reappeared, nearly untouched by the battle.
Aside from a few small indentations, there was little sign of the fierce conflict that had taken place.
Seo-jun glanced at the floating Ice Crystal in midair and poured more of Beihai’s cold energy into it, continuing his thoughts.
"A so-called Divine Human, huh...?"
The name was laughable, but after hearing the explanation, it wasn’t entirely unfounded.
Seo-jun recalled what the Emperor had told him.
Six hundred years ago, some of the martial artists at the Transcendence Realm who had set out to annihilate the Blood Cult witnessed a glimpse of divine power. Their spirits broke.
Many of them chose to go into seclusion, and in doing so, they smuggled away the Blood Cult’s martial arts and sorcery.
Over time, through relentless research, one of them discovered a possibility—a way to oppose the gods.
That person then sought out others who had also gone into hiding.
This was the Emperor’s speculation.
And given his status, perhaps he had the insight to back it up—because shockingly, his assumption had been right.
What Seo-jun learned from Baek Yoon and Neungwol provided even more details.
Someone had discovered a possibility—but what exactly was that possibility?
The answer wasn’t too far from what he had expected. It was the Grand Technique of the Blood Cult.
Baek Yoon, before he had become the Sect Master of the Spirit Lotus Sect and gotten himself a roommate, had explained:
“...To be precise, that person modified the Blood Cult’s Grand Technique to align with Myeolshinhwe’s goals.”
"And who is that person?"
"I don’t know."
Baek Yoon had answered while under Seo-jun’s control, tainted by demonic energy. There hadn’t been any trace of deception—he genuinely didn’t know.
"The technique is called the Divine Human Ascension Technique. It’s a method that alters a child's constitution by applying it to their parents before they are even born."
Whoever had founded Myeolshinhwe had spent an enormous amount of time preparing this Grand Technique—and apparently, three hundred years ago, they had finally succeeded.
"Should I be impressed or just call them idiots?"
Even thinking about it again, it was absurd.
Afraid of gods, so they decided to create their own?
The feasibility aside, the idea itself was laughable.
"Myeolshinhwe prepared several pairs of men and women, applied the technique to them, then bred them to produce children."
The second generation.
When Myeolshinhwe saw potential in these children, they continued the process.
"After the second generation grew old enough, they applied the technique again, made them reproduce, and repeated the cycle. Over time, the effects of the technique gradually became apparent."
By condensing the power of the Grand Technique, the final generation produced a being that surpassed humanity—a Divine Human Among Humans.
"Myeolshinhwe gave that being the title of Divine Human. Officially, they serve as the organization’s leader."
That so-called Divine Human had been born three hundred years ago. From childhood, they had been subjected to brainwashing and restrictions to make them an obedient Injungshin.
But honestly, Seo-jun didn’t fully believe it.
A being bound by brainwashing and restrictions reaching the realm of gods?
Ridiculous.
If that were true, then by now, Myeolshinhwe would have already conquered Zhongyuan or emerged as a fourth power, alongside the Orthodox, Unorthodox, and Demonic factions.
"At best, they’re just a peak Transcendence Realm martial artist."
At least for now. If they had already reached the Manifestation Realm, there would be no need for them to remain in hiding.
"Still... they can’t be stronger than my father-in-law, right?"
Even with his current strength, Seo-jun wasn’t confident in defeating his father-in-law.
Not that it mattered.
For now, he had enough information.
And he had just come up with the perfect way to lure out the last remaining key figure.
"Shouldn’t be too difficult."
Crack.
Seo-jun looked at his reflection in the frozen ice plate hovering in midair.
The face of Baek Seo-jun, distinct from Lee Seo-jun, was clearly visible.
"Looks like I’ll be making a new friend soon."
He tapped his chest and chuckled.
****
Baek Seolhyang, the Palace Lord of Beihai Ice Palace, lounged in her massive chair, meticulously rereading the secret manual of the Frozen Snow Celestial Formation for what felt like the hundredth time.
When she had first received the manual, she had been too stunned by the speed at which the formation had been completed to fully analyze it. But the deeper she delved into its intricacies, the more she couldn't help but admire its brilliance.
“Ohh... As expected.”
The original Frozen Snow Celestial Formation operated by having eight martial artists at its core, emitting their Ice-White Divine Qi to restrict the movements of any enemy caught within.
However, this new Frozen Snow Celestial Formation was different.
It retained all the subtleties of the original while completely reducing them to mere stepping stones.
In other words—it maintained the previous functionality while adding additional effects: applying immense pressure on enemies within the formation, hindering the flow of internal energy, forcefully embedding cold into their bodies, dulling their five senses, and using this very energy flow to protect the eight martial artists forming the array.
Simply put, it was a formation designed to utterly crush anyone unfortunate enough to be caught inside—one that perfectly embodied Baek Seo-jun’s twisted personality.
"Judging from this, he seems to have considerable knowledge of sorcery as well."
It was hard to believe. A martial artist who had reached the Transcendence Realm, and yet also proficient in sorcery?
Even the Sect Master of Spirit Lotus had martial prowess that was merely ‘decent’ at best. And yet, even with that level of skill, he had been praised for being able to wield both martial arts and sorcery simultaneously.
“Then... how ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the hell do I capture this bastard?”
It was only natural that Baek Seolhyang found herself lost in thought.
If she could just capture Baek Seo-jun, she wouldn’t have to worry about the future of Beihai Ice Palace for at least the next few hundred years.
That is... if she could capture him.
He had no interest in women.
He hated banquets.
Wealth? The Ice Palace was too poor to tempt him with that.
Martial arts? He had already reached the Transcendence Realm.
“Hmm.”
If she were him, she wouldn’t have bothered staying in the Ice Palace either.
She had been mindlessly nodding to herself in agreement when she suddenly snapped back to her senses.
“...No, that’s not the point.”
Baek Seolhyang bit down on her lip. She had to capture him—if only for the sake of her comfortable retirement.
She wasn’t even asking him to take on the position of Palace Lord. If he would just stay by her side and handle all the bothersome work, that would be more than enough.
To do that...
‘There’s no other way.’
In the end, she resolved to put her plan into action.
Having him infuse the Ice Crystal with cold energy had also been part of that plan.
No matter how powerful a martial artist was, even one at the Transcendence Realm, sitting in one place doing nothing but staring at an Ice Crystal for days on end would eventually become unbearably dull.
There were plenty of insane martial artists in the world who would say, “Why not use that time to train?” but Baek Seolhyang could not, in any way, relate to such absurdity.
She had spent hundreds of years doing nothing but training.
Sure, the Path of Martial Arts was endless, and every step forward granted a supreme sense of accomplishment...
But that was only true when one actually made progress.
At her level, taking even a single step forward wasn’t easy.
Spending decades training just to take one step forward was considered an extraordinary achievement at the Transcendence Realm.
Did they have any idea how it felt to stare at a wall, train for years, and still not move forward?
It was mind-numbingly boring.
In other words, unless Baek Seo-jun was a complete lunatic, he wouldn’t be training for a whole week—he would just sit there and stare blankly at the Ice Crystal!
“Heh... Hehehe...”
Baek Seolhyang chuckled darkly as she prepared a lunchbox.
Yes. A lunchbox.
This was the pinnacle of Beihai Ice Palace’s villainous cunning—the diabolical strategy she had spent days devising.
A conversation partner appearing during such mind-numbing boredom would be like light in the darkness, hope in the depths of despair.
If she were in his position, she would have sworn loyalty to the merciful Palace Lord on the spot and willingly taken on all her chores.
“From now on, you’ll be the one cleaning the Ice Palace, Baek Seo-jun.”
And she would follow after him, inspecting every corner with her finger for any remaining dust...!
—At least, that had been her plan up until a few moments ago.
“...You’re leaving?”
“Yeah. I’ve finished my business here, and I don’t need any more information about that bastard Baek Yoon. It’s time to go.”
With just that one sentence, Baek Seolhyang’s entire world collapsed.
“N-No...! You can’t leave! We haven’t even cleaned the Ice Palace together yet...!”