Free Web NovelPang Shihyeon did not stop and continued speaking.
“I sent letters to the Namgung Family Head several times. I asked him to help, saying we had to track down Cheonghae’s traces, but no reply ever came. Your father has always treated me as if I were invisible, so I just thought Namgung An was being stubborn again, and I got angry and resentful. I had no idea the Family Head had delegated his authority to you and told you to help with Cheonghae’s matter.”
The Four-Directions Hall Administrator let out a heavy breath.
“Since we didn’t know Cheonghae was dead, we kept trying to find him. We first tried to identify the intruder we’d lost at Gongdong Mountain. Cheonghae had written in his report that he suspected the man might be someone from the Northern Sea. So I was going to ask the Alliance Leader for permission to go to the Northern Sea. I wondered if perhaps the warriors of the Northern Sea Ice Palace who had survived their clan’s extermination had dug into the Central Plains and built up a power base.”
Looking at Namgung Jin, Pang Shihyeon said,
“But then the Tang Clan reported the Blood Cult’s rampage, and when I checked the report you had submitted, I realized Cheonghae’s death was tied not to the Northern Sea but to the Blood Cult. At the time, the Black Tortoise Pavilion Lord and I were thrown into great confusion. We had never heard of the Blood Cult using ice arts. The Pavilion Lord and I spent much time tracking the Blood Cult, but in the end, we couldn’t find a single Blood Cult member who used ice arts. Our doubts about ice arts grew deeper in a corner of our minds, and we began discussing whether we should go investigate the Northern Sea again. Not long after that conversation, a League member appeared in Shaanxi who had been struck by Yang-Heat Art.”
Pang Shihyeon’s voice turned frigid.
“If the descendants of the Great Desert Sun Palace are alive and helping the Blood Cult, it isn’t much of a stretch to think the descendants of the Northern Sea Ice Palace might be doing the same. So I decided to go investigate the Northern Sea. The timing was fortunate too, and in order not to draw outside attention, I came to the Northern Sea under the pretext of procuring medicinal ingredients for the Northern Sea Branch.”
As if she were running out of words, she walked deeper into the waterway.
“On the way to the Northern Sea, I thought about it. The Blood Demon annihilated the Outland Five Palaces, so why did he leave their descendants alive and allow their martial lineage to continue? Doesn’t it make no sense? When a war between sects ends, the very first thing you do is take down their signboard and erase all their martial arts and retainers. So why did the Blood Demon not only leave behind trouble for the future, but even leave their martial arts intact?”
Pang Shihyeon sounded as though she were voicing a doubt, but her tone was calm, as if she already knew the answer.
“If, as Young Lady Tang said, the Blood Demon has a body that cannot accumulate qi on its own, then it makes sense. The Northern Sea Ice Palace and the Great Desert Sun Palace are known for bodies that innately carry extreme yang and extreme yin. If he is someone who must rely on the energy of others for his entire life, his eyes would naturally be drawn to that kind of innate qi. The martial arts of the Sun Palace and the Ice Palace would have been crafted in the direction of allowing pure yang and pure yin qi to grow in the most optimal way, so even if the Blood Demon had to take risks, they would have been worth keeping alive.”
She pulled out the iron plate buried beneath the water.
“But if he is a creature who must forever lean on inner power others have accumulated, wouldn’t he covet the Central Plains’ martial world as well?”
Her dark voice continued.
Sssk.
A sigh-laden voice bored into Namgung Jin’s chest.
“It seems Cheonghae knew quite a lot. Sending a few children back to their homeland is something he could have handled alone. If he went so far as to ask the Family Head for help, he must have been preparing something bigger.”
Namgung Jin’s gaze rested on the cracked iron plate.
“It feels like the work Cheonghae meant to do has ended up in our hands by chance, so we’d better see it done properly.”
His eyes lifted to the Four-Directions Hall Administrator’s face. She tucked Han Cheol into a narrow crack in the stone and turned her body.
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? That you wanted to finish the work Cheonghae started.”
In an expressionless voice, Pang Shihyeon said,
“You should take part in the talks as well. I’m currently exercising the Alliance Leader’s authority on his behalf, so you can consider any discussions we have with the Northern Sea Ice Palace as the Martial Alliance’s official agreement.”
“Are you perhaps planning to take me back to the main house?”
“Yes. I intend to bring you into the Four-Directions Hall. Once we return, I’ll put you in charge of the Northern Sea matter. Whether you scale it down to what you can handle, or act your age and kick up a fuss and turn the Black Tortoise Pavilion Lord’s insides upside down, do as you like.”
Pang Shihyeon cracked a joke to loosen the heavy atmosphere.
But Namgung Jin’s face did not relax.
After a moment of hesitation, he opened his mouth.
“I’m grateful for the offer, but I’ve been expelled from the main house. I’m currently banned from entering for a year.”
“The main house drove out the Heavenly Palace Sword?”
Pang Shihyeon’s eyes flew wide, as if she hadn’t imagined it.
“Yes. I was expelled under the false charge of molesting Young Lady Tang in an attempt to leave the main house.”
“...Was that Young Lady Tang’s idea?”
When Namgung Jin fell silent, Pang Shihyeon let out a deep sigh.
“How did that airheaded Tang Ji-ha end up with a child like her?”
Namgung Jin could not agree with calling the Tang Clan Head an airhead, so he held his tongue.
Slinging her sabre, Pang Shihyeon stepped out of the cave.
“For now, let’s go to the Ice Palace. We can think about how to get you into the main house later. Right now, the fact that Young Lady Tang is in the Ice Palace with the Northern Sea’s Seven Seats worries me more than the Blood Demon does.”
Since Namgung Jin shared that concern, he buried his confusion and set off as well.
***
By the time Namgung Jin and the Four-Directions Hall Administrator arrived at the Ice Palace, they regretted not hurrying more.
Once they climbed the mountain, they saw nobles of the Han family gathered in front of a stone building.
On the white snow, about thirty martial artists and a good dozen nobles were kneeling.
In front of those who had stripped off their upper garments stood a sturdy man in blue; from that, they realized the Ice Palace warriors had captured the Han family nobles as well.
Now that the bloodline of the Northern Sea Ice Palace had taken back the palace, a purge of the nobles was only to be expected.
Namgung Jin and the Four-Directions Hall Administrator were not flustered because of the Han nobles.
It was because the Ice Palace warriors standing around the prisoners had drawn their swords.
They looked ready to cut off heads at any moment.
“Damn.”
The Four-Directions Hall Administrator muttered a curse.
She understood how the Ice Palace warriors felt, but there was much they needed to extract from those nobles.
They absolutely had to learn not only information about the Blood Cult, but the channels by which the cult had been getting information in the Central Plains.
Judging by the look on his face, Namgung Jin was thinking the same thing, and the two of them hurtled down the mountain at the speed of light.
Sensing their presence, the Ice Palace warriors turned their eyes toward the slope.
Only then did Pang Shihyeon stop and ask,
“What is going on here?”
To her question, the First Seat replied,
“It is hard to tell what you mean to ask.”
“The disposition of the Northern Sea nobles is the Northern Sea Ice Palace’s affair, and I understand how you feel. But these people are important sources of information. We cannot allow them to die so easily.”
At that, the First Seat slowly nodded.
“I agree.”
Fixing Pang Shihyeon with an unreadable gaze, the First Seat added,
“We too have no intention of granting them an easy death.”
The First Seat sounded sincere. Pang Shihyeon closed her mouth.
'So they were just threatening them?'
But the killing intent she had felt back on the snowfield had been anything but light. They truly meant to kill.
After gauging the atmosphere, Pang Shihyeon cautiously asked,
“Where are our officers?”
“The Four-Directions Hall officers have moved north with the Bloodline Master. We plan to keep the Eom family and Dong family prisoners over there for the time being, so they are helping transport them.”
The answer was brief, but his tone held goodwill. At the very least, he was more flexible than those Han family bastards who had been playing Branch Lord of the Northern Sea.
When they had first gone inside that building, the Northern Sea Branch Lord had been arrogant, treating the Four-Directions Hall Administrator as someone on his level or a step below.
But the Ice Palace warrior speaking with her now, though not talkative, treated the Four-Directions Hall with respect. It had been the same when they discussed moving the prisoners on the causeway.
Pang Shihyeon felt a sense of déjà vu.
He was someone she felt she had seen somewhere before.
At that moment, Tang Sohwa, who had been quiet, opened her mouth.
“Administrator, the Han family is far more useful than the Eom and Dong families. As the Blood Demon’s servants, they have proven their worth. I intend for the Northern Sea Ice Palace to take them in.”
Pang Shihyeon wanted to ask why she was standing there speaking like an Ice Palace warrior, but her curiosity about Tang Sohwa’s words won out, and she kept her mouth shut and waited.
“The Blood Demon can use Dokgo arts to force his will upon a host. It is a sorcery where defying the Blood Demon’s Will means death—but there is an antidote.”
Tang Sohwa spoke in a calm voice.
“Please watch closely. I’ve been waiting until you arrived, Administrator.”
No sooner had Tang Sohwa finished speaking than an Ice Palace warrior swung his sword.
Sssk.
A blade without yin energy °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° sliced across the upper bodies of the Han family martial artists.
Tang Sohwa approached the bleeding martial artists. In her hands were a jar and a brush. She dipped the brush into the ink in the jar and spread it over their wounds.
After she brushed the black liquid over the wounds of about ten martial artists, Tang Sohwa stepped back a pace.
Fixing her eyes on the martial artists, she spoke.
“When the Blood Demon’s Will disappears, you will follow mine.”
At those words, the martial artists showed signs of tension.
Pang Shihyeon and Namgung Jin watched Tang Sohwa and the Han family retainers with faces that said, What kind of nonsense is this supposed to be?
Soon, a deep furrow formed between Pang Shihyeon’s brows. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
It was because black lines had appeared around the martial artists’ wounds. Black veins darkened and lightened in repeated waves.
“Aaaagh!”
The martial artists screamed.
They twisted their bodies in pain, some pressing their backs into the snowy ground.
Watching the changes in the veins, Tang Sohwa opened her mouth.
“Stand up.”
At her words, most of the martial artists snapped to their feet. But one of them, who had been far from Sohwa and hadn’t heard her voice, kept screaming and rubbing his body in the snow.
Before long, blood poured from the mouth and nose of the martial artist rolling on the ground. Then he stopped breathing.
Silence fell among the snow-covered peaks.
The faces of the Han family retainers watching the scene turned pale.
Without giving them time to sink fully into fear, Tang Sohwa gave an order.
“Sit back down on the ground.”
The moment Sohwa spoke, every one of them dropped with a thud, pressing their bodies to the ground.
They had survived this long by reading the Blood Cult’s mood, so their adaptation was quick. You would expect at least one person to resist or act rashly, but all of them obeyed Tang Sohwa’s words without delay.
She fell silent.
A moment later, the martial artists began to breathe in ragged gasps.
Black veins bulged across their chests, and their faces turned a purplish hue. It was as if the vessels leading to the heart and lungs had been blocked.
Only then did Tang Sohwa speak again.
“I meant for you to lie down with your backs on the ground, but I forgot to say it.”
In a rush, the Han family martial artists lay on their backs in the snow. Then the black veins gradually faded and disappeared.
A heavy silence settled.
Sohwa lifted her gaze and looked at the Four-Directions Hall Administrator.
To the shocked administrator, Tang Sohwa explained why she had shown her this sight.
“There are many in the Central Plains who carry the Blood Demon’s Dokgo. As you can see, if they defy the Blood Demon’s Will, they die, so they have no choice but to follow his commands. The Martial Alliance is no exception, and there are already people in the main house who carry the Blood Demon’s blood.”
Her eyes slid briefly toward Namgung Jin. He knew what this Dokgo was. It was the Dokgo he himself had handed over to Tang Sohwa.
“But not all of them are enemies. Many of them want to escape the Blood Demon’s Will.”
Hoping that her sincerity would be conveyed, Sohwa spoke with grave earnestness.
“Now that I’ve found the antidote, once we return to the Central Plains, I intend to free them from the Blood Demon’s Will.”
