Seven days and nights had passed since the fall of the Azure Cold Serpent.
It had rampaged so wildly that a portion of the North Sea Ice Palace had been completely destroyed. Yet despite the scale of the destruction, there were surprisingly few casualties.
Likely because everyone in the North Sea Ice Palace was a trained martial artist and managed to escape more easily. Well, that and the fact that Seo Mun-Hwarin and I had stopped it relatively quickly.
During the past seven days, there’d been funerals, the dismbernt of the Azure Cold Serpent’s corpse, and for so reason, even Bing Yerin had prostrated herself and asked to persuade Seol Lihyang to beco the next Palace Lord.
A lot had happened. And at the center of it all was Seol Lihyang.
“Water.”
“Here.”
“Not like that—feed it to by hand.”
“I’ve injured my arm too, you know.”
“Oh! Well, in that case, I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Lying in bed, she was bossing around freely. Honestly, she might be the most extravagant patient I’ve ever had to care for.
Still, at least in this case, Seol Lihyang deserved it.
“Puhaha. Thanks. I was pretty thirsty. But why are you looking at like that?”
“It’s nothing.”
Watching her sip water from a floating cup—raised through Object-Grasping Through Empty Air—made feel…complicated in ways I couldn’t quite explain.
Maybe it was her carefree attitude that bothered . Seol Lihyang pouted, displeased.
“Haah. I pushed myself to the point I can’t even move a finger for soone, and this is how I get treated. Ahh, it’s all aningless, aningless.”
“Didn’t I do everything you asked? What more do you want?”
“Just thinking about eating that terrible dinner again makes angry.”
“Endure it. Thanks to that food, you’ve recovered this much.”
The “terrible dinner” she referred to was the soup made from the Azure Cold Serpent’s at.
Naturally, to suppress its energy, Seol Lihyang had pushed herself far beyond her limits—and collapsed. Not just collapsed, but with internal injuries so severe that even her Pure Yin Physique had been damaged.
Her life wasn’t in danger due to her unique constitution, but the aftereffects were so serious that she should’ve been bedridden for years.
If luck hadn’t been on our side, she might’ve even lost her martial arts.
Fortunately, it happened to be a ti when the North Sea Ice Palace was overflowing with… nourishing ingredients (?). The at soup, boiled with so dicinal herbs under Tang Sowol’s guidance, was practically a tonic.
Eating it at every al had remarkable effects. It didn’t boost internal energy much, but for healing and recovery, I’d never seen anything better.
That’s how Seol Lihyang, though unable to move her body well, recovered her consciousness quickly, and how I, whose left shoulder had been shattered, got back to walking around again.
Well, our injuries were from the Azure Cold Serpent to begin with.
Chuckling quietly, I sat down on the chair I’d placed beside her bed in advance.
Seol Lihyang stared quietly. She had just been pouting a mont ago, but now, with a mischievous grin, she began wiggling playfully.
“Cheon Hwi, I’m cold.”
“I’ll bring in another brazier.”
“No, there’s a faster and easier way.”
With slow, labored movent, she lifted half of her blanket.
“Get in here!”
She looked up at with a playful and expectant gaze. But when I just stood there staring, she let out a long, disappointed sigh.
“Haa, you’re no fun.”
“I’ll say this now—your condition is still serious. There’s no need to create unnecessary problems when you’ll recover just fine as is.”
“What?! Were you planning to do sothing problematic to ?!”
“...”
“Pfft. I was joking. So stop looking so grim.”
“What grim look?”
“A very troubled one?”
“…Can’t deny that.”
Of course I’m troubled. Seol Lihyang had overexerted herself trying to save , and now Tang Sowol had practically shoved into her room because of it.
Not without reminding , of course, that I should keep my promise.
The image of Tang Sowol taking care of various aftermath tasks with Seo Mun-Hwarin—who was at least relatively unscathed—while pushing into this room flashed in my mind, and I scratched my head.
The blanket Seol Lihyang had lifted sagged back down as she flopped over, facing away.
“By the way, Cheon Hwi, any interesting news? Or even just an update on what’s going on? I’ve been stuck in bed and totally out of the loop.”
“Hmm. It’s only been seven days, but quite a bit’s happened. Most of it’s North Sea Ice Palace business… Ah, but there is one story I think you’ll find interesting.”
“What is it, what is it?”
Suppressing the urge to tease her, I continued.
“You rember how we dismantled the Azure Cold Serpent’s corpse after we took it down?”
“Of course. A spiritual beast that size is nothing but treasure from head to tail.”
“Right. Since we were the ones who defeated it, they decided to give all of it to us.”
When the Palace Lord first told us that, both Seo Mun-Hwarin and I nodded like it was obvious. But Tang Sowol said she’d rather use it to treat the wounded, as a gesture of goodwill.
Naturally, that led to discussions about division of resources and future collaboration with the Tang Clan.
It reminded again that, despite having spent quite so ti at the Tang Clan and adapting to the mindset of an orthodox sect, I hadn’t really changed much from my old ways as a rogue martial artist.
“You only now realized that? I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but you’re just so straightforward. Rember how you told them to hand over everything they had if we dealt with the Azure Cold Serpent?”
“Is that a problem?”
“How’s that any different from bandits demanding tolls on mountain roads?”
“At least I don’t take lives unnecessarily. Usually.”
“...That last part is a bit worrying, but never mind—it was fun.”
“I haven’t even gotten to the main part yet.”
Seol Lihyang giggled, clearly satisfied with sothing. Shaking my head, I went on.
“Anyway, when we started dismbering the beast to get its core, I had to slice open its belly myself because the scales were too tough. Inside the stomach were countless corpses of Azure Cold Serpents.”
“Aren’t those its offspring? You’re saying it ate its own children because it lacked power? Ugh, beast or human, there’s no difference…”
Given her own past—sold off to a courtesan house by her gambling-addicted father—it was no surprise Seol Lihyang had a skewed view. But this ti, it was different.
“Not quite. According to Tang Sowol, who ca to help since I couldn’t use one arm properly, the Azure Cold Serpent had swallowed them after they were already dead.”
“Already dead?”
“Yeah. Rember, the Python Poison was originally created to poison the Azure Cold Serpents. But it was concentrated several tis to use against the Serpent.”
“Oh! So it was so potent that it killed the serpents instantly?”
“Exactly. Tang Sowol suspects the reason the Serpent went berserk after escaping wasn’t because of any wound, but because all its children had died.”
“Mm... that does make feel a bit conflicted.”
“No need to overthink it. We were enemies who had to fight anyway—it just happened sooner than expected due to unforeseen circumstances.”
“Yeah. It’s not like we were going to live peacefully as neighbors or anything.”
Seol Lihyang nodded with effort. I rembered how she once said she wanted to beco a better parent than her father had been.
Maybe that’s why she felt conflicted now. Even if we had to fight, in the end, we had annihilated its offspring first.
Still, with her bedridden as it is, giving her more emotional weight to carry would only make recovery harder.
So I shrugged and changed the mood with a lighter tone.
“Now, here’s the good part. You rember how the Azure Cold Serpent looked like it went mad near the end?”
“Yeah. How could I forget the sight of a beast that huge conjuring blizzards?”
“Well, turns out it wasn’t just ‘like’ it had gone mad—it actually had. According to our findings, it had entered a state similar to energy deviation. And because of that... its core fused with those of the Cold Serpents it ate.”
“…Wait. We did say all the spoils belong to us, right?”
“Congratulations. You now have access to a training environnt overflowing with cold energy—even in the Central Plains.”
“If I eat that thing, my body’s going to explode!!”
Seol Lihyang dove under the covers in panic. I gently tapped the round lump she had beco.
“No one’s saying you need to eat it. Even the Ice Essence had to be absorbed gradually by the Palace Lords—no one ever swallowed it whole.”
“Oh.”
With a short exclamation, her head peeked out from under the covers.
“If enough ti passes and the energy weakens, then maybe—but for now, we should use it by placing it in a training chamber to create a cold-rich environnt.”
“Yeah, that’d be great. I always felt like I gained twice as much internal energy training here than in the Central Plains.”
“If we design the chamber well enough to prevent the cold from leaking out, it’ll be even better.”
Though Seol Lihyang’s martial art uses sound as its dium, it operates like any other internal energy technique. What matters most is how much internal energy one holds and how much one can circulate at once.
She may have overexerted herself this ti, but if she fully recovers, her blood pathways will be wider and stronger than ever.
Add in her newfound experience in manipulating massive amounts of cold energy, and—
Her cultivation level might not leap instantly, but the foundation for reaching the next level would be firmly set.
If nothing goes wrong, she should reach the Sub-Perfection master level soon enough.
She’s now clearly surpassed the Seol Lihyang from before her regression. Which makes a little curious—
—just how far she can grow if she doesn’t waste her talent this ti.
If, like Tang Sowol, she could reach the Flowering Stage...
That hopeful thought didn’t last long. Seol Lihyang, uncharacteristically hesitant, finally spoke.
“So, um... Cheon Hwi. Do you rember what I said the other day?”
“The other day? About what?”
“You know... about doing things properly if the timing and reason are right.”
I finally understood what she ant. She was referring to what she said that night when she barged into my room.
I gave a dry laugh and stood up. As I moved to sit at the edge of her bed—
“W-Wait!”
“Don’t tell … again, like last ti—”
“Ugh! No! I an, before that, just open that cloth over there.”
“…Cloth?”
I turned to where she gestured. There, neatly wrapped, was a cloth bundle.
I untied it as she instructed, revealing sothing I hadn’t expected at all.
“Seolli?”
“Oh? You already knew? It was pretty hard to find around here.”
“Yeah. I know it.”
A white pear-like fruit. Expensive, with snow-colored flesh. But to , it held a very different, personal aning.
A sudden torrent of emotion welled up—tenderness, guilt, gratitude, longing... so many things at once that I couldn’t even na what I felt.
Swallowing it all down, I looked at Seol Lihyang. She seed slightly flustered, as if she hadn’t expected to recognize it.
I gently placed the Seolli in my robes and strode toward her bed.
“Eh? W-Wait…”
Was it the flood of emotions showing on my face? Or was she simply surprised by my silent approach?
Either way, it didn’t matter. Because from this mont on, there was only one thing to do.
“Don’t worry. I intend to keep my promise.”
“Uuugh! This wasn’t how it was supposed to go!”
Half resigned, half expectant, her voice trembled.
As I gently brushed her cheek, she flinched, then slowly closed her eyes.
Then ca the kiss.
A slightly cool body temperature. A soft texture. A body trembling minutely with tension.
Breathing in her scent that lingered near my nose, I slowly pulled away.
A long, silver thread of saliva stretched between us and broke. Seol Lihyang, staring blankly at it—
Clang!
“Hiieeee!”
A crashing sound of broken dishes—and a familiar scream—snapped us both back to reality.
We both turned our creaking heads.
“Th-The lady has seen nothing! So don’t mind her! Carry on!”
There stood Seo Mun-Hwarin, hands covering her face.
Though her fingers were spread wide open, so it really didn’t help at all.
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