Free Web NovelThe Chaotic Heaven Gate would no longer open.
That was a clear fact.
And from the moment that became fact, Unhwi’s work in the Snow Palace was now finished.
What had changed from his previous life?
It could be explained in one word.
Everything.
Everything had changed.
None of the Polar Heirs had died.
The eldest son had properly inherited the position of Young Palace Lord.
His talent was also extraordinary, and before even turning thirty, he was already looking toward the Heaven-Human realm.
Then what of the internal situation?
He had carved out every last one of the insects that had been eating away at it.
Not only the Elder Hall, but even the vermin inside.
Furthermore, the Snow Palace Triangle that would directly assist the Snow Palace, as well as the external family sects, all moved centered around Seol Horyeong.
That was not the end.
Seol Jungcheon, who had remained in the Taehumusal state in Unhwi’s previous life, had also ascended to the pinnacle and was showing the bearing of a true Ice Heaven Supreme. There was nothing left that could become a threat.
This Chaotic Heaven Region had been the final piece.
Now that this was finished, regardless of who praised Seol Unhwi or what they did, Unhwi had no choice but to carry out the decision he had made before.
“Young Master.”
At Chief Seong’s voice, suddenly heard, he turned his head.
Chief Seong, Ju Soa, and Namgung Wonyang were standing there with complicated expressions.
They were not fools either.
“Are you leaving?”
Unhwi nodded.
They were people who had been with him for longer than expected.
They were also people Unhwi had accepted as his own, and especially in Chief Seong’s case, it was fair to call him family.
Unhwi spoke in a quiet voice.
“I intend to go to the Blood Heaven Sect.”
At those words, Chief Seong nodded as though he had expected it, but Ju Soa and Namgung Wonyang were greatly startled.
“......The Blood...... Heaven Sect?”
“There is something I must do there.”
They did not dare ask what it was.
Honestly, even if they asked, it did not seem like he would answer, and fundamentally, if it was Unhwi, then as with this matter, he would do what was right.
But Unhwi’s following words exceeded everyone’s expectations.
“Will you come with me?”
They lost the ability to speak.
No, wait.
“To the Blood...... that Blood Heaven Sect? Us?”
“Were there two Blood Heaven Sects?”
“......”
“There should be only one. The Blood Heaven Sect located on One-Origin Plateau.”
Ju Soa swallowed hard.
“......It’s crawling with Blood people, and didn’t we kill quite a few of their people back in Yangryeong?”
“We did.”
“But...... can we go there?”
“If we intend to go, certainly.”
It was a fundamental question.
“What are you going to do there?”
“I will have to do what must be done.”
As with every organization in the world, no matter how remarkable the head was, there were bound to be problems inside.
The Blood Heaven Sect was certainly the largest organization in the Central Plains.
There were a few branch factions, but even if all those branches were combined into one, they would not amount to half of the Blood Heaven Sect.
At best, one third.
And the single organization called the Blood Heaven Sect overwhelmed the Murim Alliance, the Sichuan Alliance, and even the Heaven’s Will Alliance.
There were hundreds of masters of the Four States of Heaven and Earth within it, and more than a dozen masters of the Five Realms of Martial Divinity.
It was a monster organization in name and reality, and even if the Martial Supreme supported it, problems were unavoidable.
In his previous life, Unhwi had endured truly many hardships.
And in that process, he had made one choice.
That choice had ultimately resulted in the unification of the martial world, and this time, he intended to go slightly differently.
Chief Seong answered firmly.
“I will go no matter what. Even if I die and become a soul, I will go.”
After hesitating briefly, Ju Soa let out a sigh.
“I’m not going to say I’d follow even as a soul, but if there’s something I can do, tell me. I’ll go and help.”
There was one person who said nothing.
Namgung Wonyang.
Unhwi asked her.
“Are you hesitating?”
“......I’m worried that if I go, it may cause trouble.”
“Trouble...... Are you speaking of Namgung Hyeon?”
“......Yes.”
“There is no need to worry.”
Unhwi was certain.
“There will be no friction with him, and before long, you will avenge your parents.”
Namgung Wonyang’s eyes flashed.
That was her cherished desire.
A cherished desire anyone would want to fulfill, yet could not.
Unhwi was opening that path for her, and it would be stranger not to follow.
“I’ll go. Just tell me to do anything.”
Unhwi nodded.
Thus, it was decided.
Excluding Unhwi, a total of three people would go to the Blood Heaven Sect.
Ju Soa, Namgung Wonyang, and Chief Seong.
“Young Master, how will we proceed? Are we leaving immediately?”
Unhwi shook his head.
There was something he had to do before that.
“I intend to go to the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace.”
Because he had to report to his father.
And because they had to talk.
***
After leaving Windwall, Unhwi arrived here, at the main palace of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace.
The first place Unhwi headed was not the Palace Lord Hall.
The detached residence on the eastern outskirts.
In his childhood.
To be precise, until he was ten years old, Unhwi had lived here.
He walked around the area.
It was a region where cold waves raged, but this place alone was almost excessively warm.
A small training ground, a weapon rack as clean as new.
A great deal of time had passed, and thanks to the other chiefs who had continuously managed this place, all traces of the past had vanished. Even so, the locations themselves had not changed.
Everything in this world had a beginning.
Then where should the standard point of that beginning be set?
When he met the Heavenly Wayfarer? When he fled the Snow Palace?
When he encountered a fortuitous opportunity and awakened his own talent?
Or when he performed something resembling regression through the Primordial Spirit of Heaven and Earth?
If one established a clear standard point, the things just mentioned absolutely could not become the “beginning.”
Everything began from this place.
From this place, rejection began, and isolation began. It was the place where the weakness of his childhood was formed, and that weakness made him leave the Snow Palace and led to desperation when he found his fortuitous opportunity.
This place was right.
Unhwi stood for a moment at the center of the training ground and closed his eyes.
When he had told his father that the Young Palace Lord of the Snow Palace should be his eldest brother, Horyeong.
From that moment, he had foreseen this situation.
Because he himself had grown far too large, if he remained in the Snow Palace, the Snow Palace would not be able to endure it.
He was not looking down on the organization called the Snow Palace. It was because of its special nature.
An organization that was neither a nation nor a sect.
This place had to consider public sentiment and maintain its center.
Two suns could not rise in one sky.
One sun, one moon.
That was appropriate.
His father, Seol Jungcheon, was the sun.
Unhwi’s eldest brother, Seol Horyeong, was the moon.
If Unhwi took a place there, both sun and moon would be damaged. They would waver, and that would eventually develop into civil war.
Even if Unhwi did not want that, there would be people who tried to move matters in that direction, and if Unhwi began killing them, that would become another problem.
In the end.
It was Unhwi alone.
If Unhwi disappeared, all those problems would disappear. Then there was no helping it. He had to do what was right.
Unhwi had not the slightest hesitation when it came to sacrificing himself.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Before him stood one man. freёwebnovel.com
“It has been a long time, Chief Commander.”
Baekryeong Guard Chief Commander, Thousand-Li Divine Eye Hyun Sim.
He smiled faintly.
“It has indeed been a long time. And...... thank you.”
“For what?”
“You resolved the Chaotic Heaven Region, did you not? Hyun Seollin, you saved the Snow Mountain.”
Saying that, he respectfully cupped his fist.
“As the leader of the Baekryeong Guard, and as a divine guardian who protects the Snow Mountain, I offer my deep gratitude to you, Hyun Seollin.”
Unhwi silently received the salute, then nodded.
He had no intention of lowering himself so much that he denied even the achievement he had accomplished.
He merely spoke briefly.
“I only did what had to be done.”
“No one else could do that thing that had to be done.”
“Someone would have done it eventually.”
“......”
“It was a matter of time, and I think what I did was not something worthy of praise, but rather a model answer showing what one should do as a Polar Heir.”
“Huh......”
“So there is no need to raise me so highly, Chief Commander.”
Hyun Sim scratched his head.
He thought that this man had truly changed a great deal.
Hyun Sim had also been in the Snow Palace for quite a long time.
He was among those who had watched Unhwi grow.
That child who had once held a sword in his tiny hands in this small training ground and struck a scarecrow.
Now he had become one of the peerless masters of the martial world, dignified beyond measure.
It was enough to overturn heaven and earth, yet it was merely regrettable that those who did not know Unhwi in detail did not think so.
“More importantly, your head seems especially shiny today.”
Hyun Sim’s eyes widened.
“Ah...... Is that so? This must be because the sunlight is strong.”
“It looks better because it shines.”
Haha, Hyun Sim laughed like that.
It was strange.
He had always exchanged only official conversations with Unhwi, but surprisingly, ordinary conversation like this was not bad either.
“I wish to see my father.”
At Unhwi’s words, Hyun Sim came to his senses.
“As it happens, the Palace Lord ordered me to bring you, Hyun Seollin.”
Hyun Sim turned his body to the side and spoke.
“I will guide you. Let us go.”
Unhwi nodded.
The place they arrived at that way was the “study” located at the far end of the center of the main palace.
Seol Jungcheon’s study.
In this place, Seol Jungcheon had explored and explored all kinds of books to uncover the secret of Seol Heun, the first Palace Lord.
In Unhwi’s previous life, he had almost never left this place, and after hearing that fact from Unhwi, this study had become something like a shackle for Seol Jungcheon.
He had not even approached it afterward, so the fact that he had called him here meant Seol Jungcheon had also undergone his own deep anguish.
Standing before the study door, he knocked.
“Come in.”
A low, deep voice.
The absolute ruler of the Snow Palace.
Ice Heaven Supreme Seol Jungcheon.
And Unhwi’s father.
Unhwi opened the door and entered.
Seol Jungcheon was sitting alone before a Go board.
A slight glance showed he was replaying a game. Seol Jungcheon raised his head and looked at Unhwi. His hand stopped.
“You have come.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Sit.”
Unhwi sat opposite him with the Go board between them.
Seol Jungcheon cleared away the Go stones.
Slowly.
One by one.
“I heard the news.”
“Did you?”
“That the Chaotic Heaven Gate disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“After five hundred years.”
Seol Jungcheon placed down one Go stone.
“You have accomplished something extraordinary.”
“It is more than I deserve.”
“It is not.”
Seol Jungcheon looked at Unhwi.
“You accomplished what the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace could not for five hundred years.”
“......”
“I am proud of you.”
Unhwi lowered his head.
“Thank you.”
“Raise your head.”
Unhwi raised his head.
His eyes met Seol Jungcheon’s.
A deep gaze.
A gaze that read one another.
Seol Jungcheon lowered his eyes. The black stone he had just placed sat alone beside the center point.
