Chapter 222: The Master of the Cave
Deep within the Heavenly Heat Ice Palace.
In this bizarre space where freezing cold that could ice over everything tangled with boiling heat, a woman stood.
Her crimson hair rippled and danced in the air like a living fla.
Each ti she exhaled, heat swept through the cave, causing the ice walls to drip and lt away. Every step she took turned the frozen ground into steam that scattered into the air.
Like a small sun that had risen inside the cave, she was a woman of blazing fire that lted all things frozen.
In her hand, she held the legendary spiritual elixir—the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng—sothing herbalists of the Central Plains desperately searched for.
She brushed back her flickering sunset-like hair and casually crushed the precious item.
Then, she let a single drop of the milky-white Mita Sacred Water—said to be found only in ice caves of extre yin—fall onto it.
Lastly, she added the Spirit-Clear Stone Essence, which gathered only beneath the Ten-Thousand-Year Extre Cold Zone, and wrapped the crushed mixture into a round form.
An indescribable energy seeped out from her fingertips, and a supre yin elixir capable of shaking the Central Plains was completed.
A woman who handled treasures that would make martial artists lose their minds over even a single one—yet wore an utterly indifferent expression.
“Boring.”
She swallowed the completed elixir whole and muttered.
She had settled into this cave intending to remain in seclusion for about a hundred years, but the silence of this place had begun to seep boredom into her emotions.
But perhaps the heavens had taken notice of her boredom—because commotion arose from the distant cave entrance.
A faint presence, brushing footsteps, and a peculiar fluctuation of energy stimulated her sensitive senses.
At that, she tried to recall the Heavenly chanism she had glimpsed before entering this cave.
At that ti, the divination had shown only the Palace Head of the North Sea Ice Palace briefly stepping into this place before disappearing.
Finding this strange, she opened her Divine Eye Insight, said to perceive the workings of heaven and the flow of fate.
But what was this?
Her vision was hazy, as though obscured by fog.
“Hmm…?”
The Heavenly chanism she had foreseen long ago had twisted, and even her Divine Eye Insight was blocked by sothing alien, preventing her from reading the flow.
As if soone capable of distorting fate existed within this space.
And she imdiately noticed that presence.
A very familiar—and tireso—energy was flowing in from the cave entrance.
“Interesting.”
The corner of her lips curled upward.
Even if she could not read fate, that intense energy was unmistakable.
A single human who held within him the energy of countless stars hanging across the night sky—Star Spiritual Energy so dense it seed to have lted those stars into himself.
But that human did not possess only the energy of stars.
Though faint, there was also a trace of the moon’s energy—said to shake human reason—mixed within him.
“Fufu, to think there’s one who holds both Star Spiritual Energy and Moon Spiritual Energy.”
A truly contradictory existence.
Feeling intense interest, she shook her shoulders and let out a light laugh.
Her crimson hair swayed richly over her shoulders along with that laughter.
“Those two old n couldn’t have joined forces… What on earth has been happening outside all this ti?”
Unlike the two elders who wandered the world, rejecting even ascension to immortality to fulfill their own wills, she had chosen seclusion and settled in this remote northern region.
Yet perhaps this was the twisted guidance of fate.
To think that soone who was either their disciple—or had received their power—would walk into this cave on their own.
“The Star Spiritual Energy is abundant, but the Moon Spiritual Energy has only just sprouted. Did he begin cultivating it recently?”
She drew her finger through the air.
Blazing Yang Energy swept through the cave, lting the ice walls and boiling the hot spring waters.
Ilwol was at least acceptable. Though inscrutable, he did not cause harm.
But Ilseong—the eccentric old man who bore a star in his na yet spread the power of the moon—was different.
Not only him, but all those who inherited that eerie power caused chaos wherever they went.
Moreover, fragnted stars knew their place and did not dare challenge her—but the vast moon, believing itself the sun of the night sky, envied the brilliance of daylight.
“Hmph, how arrogant.”
With blazing eyes, she fixed her gaze toward the cave’s entrance.
If she stepped outside and confird that the one approaching was truly a disciple carrying the arrangents of that old man Ilseong—
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to kill him right here!”
She twisted her lips into a grin and sprang to her feet.
At that mont, like a beast awakening from slumber and stretching—
Scorching heat swept through every direction.
Even the supre yin elixir ford from extre yin energy could not calm her heat.
“Fufufufu.”
Until now, the only interesting thing in this ice cave had been a strange monkey.
So she had even given it a staff as a toy—
But now, sothing far more entertaining had entered.
“This too must be so kind of fate. That life… this Crimson Sun shall personally reap it.”
Her presence shook the entire cave violently, enough to awaken even ancient spirit beasts.
The Heavenly Heat Ice Palace would no longer remain silent.
“We must catch that spirit creature no matter what!”
The Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp revealed itself before us, shimring with a brilliant glow.
Palace Head Seol Jindo urgently shouted for us and the disciples to catch it.
“Got it—! Huh?”
His eldest son, Seol Cheonsang, rushed forward and reached out—but in that instant, the Fire Carp’s body blurred and it shot away in a flash.
Its speed was like a fired arrow, leaving behind a long crimson afterimage beneath the water.
“Damn it, what was that just now?!”
Seol Cheonsang shouted in disbelief after losing it right in front of him.
“Wow… that thing’s insanely fast.”
I muttered in shock.
That speed was about the sa as when I used Whirlwind Steps—and it did that underwater.
No wonder. A creature that had lived for ten thousand years wouldn’t be ordinary.
“It should be at least that capable to be called a spirit creature that can save a life.”
“…It’s nice that you’re admiring it, but how exactly are we supposed to catch that, Captain?”
“Hmm… maybe throw a fishing rod?”
At my random suggestion, Jo Harang scoffed.
“You think that’ll work?”
Yeah, no way a ten-thousand-year-old spirit creature would be that stupid.
While we stood there awkwardly, unsure what to do—
Seol Jindo shouted to his children and disciples.
“Surround it! Like casting a Celestial Net—tighten the encirclent without giving it any escape!”
His thod was simple.
Like spreading a net in a stream and driving fish toward it—
They would overwhelm it from all sides and hunt it down.
“What are you doing?! Move!”
“Hold your positions! Don’t let it slip out!”
Using sheer numbers, the disciples of the North Sea Ice Palace spread out in all directions.
And so, we splashed around in ankle-deep hot spring water, running like idiots.
“There! Catch it!”
But the opponent was a ten-thousand-year spirit creature that vanished in an instant if you lost focus.
Despite our overwhelming numbers, we failed to catch it several tis.
Still, as we grew more accustod and more desperate, we managed to brush its tail or scales once or twice.
“Ah! I almost had it…!”
Seol Sakhwa, already drenched, lanted as the carp slipped from her grasp.
And from afar, Seol Soyoung cheered with clenched fists.
“What is this ss…”
I muttered while wringing out my soaked martial uniform.
Going back and forth between freezing and boiling temperatures was one thing—but running around in hot water after braving the cold was making sweat.
“Huff, huff.”
Unless I fully subrged my body, the water dragged at my legs every step, making it hard to maintain speed.
As I caught my breath, I suddenly locked eyes with the Fire Carp.
And then I noticed its gaze shift sowhere behind .
Glancing over, I saw a tunnel that seed to connect to another area.
“That bastard fish… don’t tell —”
Like any encirclent, Seol Jindo’s thod had a simple principle.
The narrower its escape space, the higher the chance of capture.
The wider it beca, the lower the chance.
“That bastard! It’s trying to escape through that tunnel! Block it!”
I shouted, seeing through its plan.
Experts of the North Sea Ice Palace rushed over like skipping stones.
But the creature, sensing my urgency, imdiately surged toward .
Swoooosh—!
“Damn it!”
I visualized its trajectory and plunged both hands into the water.
Splash!
My fingers caught the firm sensation of its scales.
As it slipped from my left hand, I grabbed its tail tightly with my right.
This was a move imbued with the subtle principles of the Hundred-Knot Divine Fist I learned from Hwang Geolgae.
“Got you—!”
Just as I was about to pull it out—
“Ukkit?”
I locked eyes with a strange eight-chi-tall beast that suddenly poked its head out from the opposite side of the tunnel.
A beast covered in soaked white fur, quietly observing the chaotic hot spring.
“What the hell is that—?!”
Smack—!
Sothing struck my chest before I could react.
It was a long staff swung by a monkey-like spirit beast.
A massive monkey spirit beast stood up before everyone, emanating a ferocious aura.
“Ukiiik—!”
It seed the true master of this cave had appeared.
“Captain, are you alright?!”
The force at the tip of the staff was trendous—I was sent flying and crashed into the water.
Ilhong rushed over and helped up in panic.
Knowing how tough I was, Jo Harang drew her great saber glowing with Blade Flux and faced the monkey spirit beast.
“Ugh… Ilhong, stay back for now.”
Judging from that monstrous strength, this wouldn’t be an easy opponent.
“It’s the White-Furred Lion King!”
“Do not fear! If we execute what we practiced, we can defeat it!”
“Everyone, form the White-Furred Monkey Beating Formation!”
A crude formation exactly as its na implied—surround and beat the white monkey.
Seol Jindo commanded calmly, suppressing fear.
“Today is your funeral, you damned monkey.”
Step. Splash.
Everyone tightened the encirclent.
A coordinated formation normally attacked from all directions in rotation—
“Ukkik?”
But there was one flaw.
That beast wielded a long weapon like a human.
Smack!
“Gah!”
Its staff suddenly doubled in length and smashed the front-line martial artist away.
The formation collapsed—and the beast charged in.
“Ukiiiik—!”
“Argh!”
The White-Furred Lion King rampaged, swinging its staff wildly.
“What the hell, is it Sun Wukong or sothing?!”
I rushed in, raising the Hell-Piercing Demon-Slaying Staff.
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