A Fateful Encounter on the Snowfield (2)

Even after the old man’s breathing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had fully stopped, I stood there for a long time, rooted to the spot.

He was… really dead.

The man who had been speaking to me only moments ago no longer moved at all.

"…"

If I had still been human, I would have closed his eyes and given him a proper funeral.

But I was not human anymore.

I was nothing more than a single small penguin.

Still… I can’t just leave him like this.

I slowly approached, intending to move the old man’s body.

"Nngh…!"

He was far heavier than I expected.

As a human, I could have propped him up or dragged him somehow. Things were different now.

Short legs. Wings that could not grip anything. A tiny beak. Everything about me was hopelessly inconvenient.

I clamped the hem of his robes in my beak and shoved at his body with my wings, shifting the corpse little by little. After slipping and nearly toppling over more times than I could count, I finally managed to get him outside the cave.

Would anyone have believed this if they saw it?

A tiny penguin, grunting and straining to haul a massive old man. I had no room for thoughts like that, though.

I started digging into the snow near the cave with my beak and feet. It was not deep, but I managed a hollow large enough to lay a body in. Carefully, I settled the old man into it and pushed snow over him handful by handful.

I wish I could give you a proper burial, but…

I looked down at my stubby wings.

This is the best I can do as I am now.

I piled the snow on thick so that no beast would dig him up. It was a miserable grave—no headstone, not even a single flower. At least I had not simply left him discarded.

Rest in peace.

After a brief moment of silence, I turned away.

When I stepped back into the cave, a heavy stillness settled over everything. I was alone here now.

"…"

Then my eyes fell on the books neatly stacked against one wall—the secret manuals the old man had left behind. I picked up the topmost volume with my beak and tried to open it, only to run straight into trouble.

"…I’m supposed to turn pages with wings?"

It was much harder than it looked. The book snapped shut again and again; only by hooking a corner with the tip of my beak could I manage one leaf at a time. When I finally got it open, I looked at the cover.

Ice Soul Divine Art.

Before he died, the old man had called this the ultimate art of the North Sea Ice Palace. Beside it lay two more manuals: Ice Heaven Steps and Ice White Divine Palm. Just from the names, they were clearly no ordinary martial arts.

I should start with the internal cultivation method first.

I opened the Ice Soul Divine Art—and something strange happened.

…I can read this?

The script was completely unfamiliar, and yet the meaning poured into my head as if it belonged there.

Come to think of it, I understood every word the old man said without any trouble either.

In a wuxia world, people ought to be speaking Chinese, but language had never been a problem. Maybe some force had intervened when I reincarnated.

I turned the next page. Dense columns of characters filled the leaf, and those, too, I read without stumbling.

This secret art has been passed down through generations of the North Sea Ice Palace.

That much I understood. The lines that followed were another matter entirely.

Tai Xu Wu Ji, Bing Sheng Yu Kong.

Wan Xiang Gui Yi, Han Nai Qi Zong.

I could read the characters. The meaning, however, refused to come into focus.

Great Emptiness Without Limit… Ice is born from the void…

Even taking the words one by one, I could not grasp what they were trying to say.

Right. Martial arts aren’t something you learn just by reading the text.

I quietly let out a sigh. Even if I somehow understood it all at once, another problem remained.

My body was not human. It was a penguin’s.

I definitely received his inner energy, but I have no idea how to circulate it.

I did not even know how to move qi in the first place. I carefully closed the manual. Martial arts were not what mattered most right now.

What mattered most was surviving—and figuring out where exactly I was.

The old man had introduced himself as the North Sea Ice Emperor. That made it most likely that this place was somewhere near the North Sea Ice Palace.

I slowly looked out of the cave. An endless snowfield. A biting wind. A frozen sea.

At first I had thought this was Antarctica—because I had become a penguin. Now I was certain. This was not Antarctica, and I could not even be sure it was Earth at all.

If this is a martial ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠arts world… at least it’s not an immortal-cultivation one.

In an immortal-cultivation setting, I might be treated as a spiritual beast and hunted by humans. In a proper martial world, that sort of thing should be rarer.

…Probably.

I snorted a dry little laugh and shook my head. Worrying about it now would not produce any answers.

The cave blocked the wind. It could shelter me from blizzards. And it even held the secret manuals the North Sea Ice Emperor had left behind. As a survival base, I would be hard-pressed to find anywhere better.

All right.

I quietly made up my mind.

From today on, this is home.

That was the moment I claimed my new nest.

"GROOOOAAAAAR!!"

A sudden roar shook the cave.

"…!"

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠flinched on pure instinct. A thunderous bellow rolled across the snowfield that had been silent until a second ago. The sound alone made every feather on my body stand on end.

I carefully peered outside—and froze solid.

A massive beast was cutting across the pure white snowfield, walking straight toward me. Fur as white as snow. A frame as solid as rock. A huge jaw that looked ready to swallow bloodstains whole.

…A polar bear?

My mind went blank for a moment.

No. Wait. This isn’t the North Pole.

Then I realized how pointless that thought was. I could not even be sure this world was Earth. In a martial arts realm called the North Sea, a polar bear living here would not be strange at all.

The real problem was…

That thing was looking straight at me.

"…Eep."

A penguin’s cry slipped out of me before I could stop it.

The polar bear’s nose twitched, and then the corners of its mouth slowly pulled open—the expression of a predator that had just found its meal.

…I have to run!!

My legs were moving before the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thought even finished.

Thump-thump-thump-thump!!

I tore across the snowfield with everything I had. Behind me, enormous footfalls pounded the snow.

Boom.

Boom!!

Boom!!!

Every step felt like it was shaking the ground.

"GROOOOAAAAAR!!"

The roar came from right at my back. The distance was closing.

Damn it!

These short legs could not run for long—but luckily the coast was not far. The deep blue sea opened up ahead of me.

There!

I threw myself forward without a second of hesitation.

Splash!!

Icy seawater swallowed my whole body. For an instant my lungs felt like they were freezing solid—but my body was already moving on its own. Both wings instinctively carved through the current, and I shot forward like an arrow.

A huge spray erupted behind me. The polar bear had leaped into the sea as well.

Of course it followed me!

I clenched my beak, then forced myself calm again.

It’s fine.

Underwater, the story changed. On land this body was slow, but in the ocean it was faster than anything. I beat my wings with all my strength. The freezing water parted to either side as my body slid forward like a loosed shaft.

A short while later, the sound of thrashing water behind me began to fade.

Yes!

I did not ease up for a second. If I got careless and it caught me, that was the end. I swam without rest, until even my sense of time grew hazy.

How long had it been? After maybe ten-odd minutes, I carefully glanced back. Far off on the shore, the polar bear glared at me, then slowly turned its bulk away.

"Kngh…"

It gave a low growl and vanished beyond the snowfield.

"…I’m alive."

Only then did the strength drain out of my entire body. I dragged myself up onto a nearby floe of drift ice.

"Hah… hah…"

My chest heaved violently. My heart was hammering like mad.

I really thought I was going to die.

I had not even been reincarnated a full day, and I had already nearly been eaten by a predator.

This world… is a lot more dangerous than I thought.

While I was catching my breath, a sound rose from my stomach.

Grrrgl.

"…I’m hungry."

Of course I was—I had just swum for my life. The moment I stopped moving, hunger crashed over me all at once.

I need to find food.

I threw myself back into the sea, and a school of silver fish swept past right in front of me.

There.

I lowered my body and approached in silence. Then—

Whoosh!

I snapped my beak forward.

Smack!

One of them was clamped perfectly between my beak.

Got it!

Even after swallowing the first one, I did not stop. I chased the school the way instinct told me to. Two. Three. Four. As my belly filled, strength began to return to my body.

I made it.

I climbed back onto the ice floe and steadied my breathing against the cold wind.

First… I need to learn martial arts as fast as I can…

If I wanted to survive in this insane place, I was going to need martial arts of some kind.

For now… back to the cave.

Once I had rested enough, I slipped into the water again and swam for home.

Flutter-flutter-flutter.

I hauled myself out of the sea, shook off the water, and trudged toward the cave I had claimed.

Good—it didn’t come here.

Before going in, I checked carefully for any sign the polar bear had visited. No scent. No tracks.

All right… inside, quick.

I hurried in and brought over the martial arts manuals I had set aside earlier.

Hmm… let’s just keep reading for now.

Tai Xu Wu Ji, Bing Sheng Yu Kong. Wan Xiang Gui Yi, Han Nai Qi Zong.

I turned the opening lines of the manual over and over in my mind.

Tai Xu Wu Ji… so that reads as… a vast emptiness with no end?

That doesn’t feel right…

I stared at the sentence for a long time, then sighed.

No, that’s way too literal.

Even in the wuxia novels I used to read, they always wrote this kind of thing so you couldn’t understand it on the first pass. It sounded incredibly profound, and when you actually read it you had no idea what it meant.

I slowly went over the first verse again.

Tai Xu Wu Ji, Bing Sheng Yu Kong.

Great Emptiness Without Limit… Ice is born from the void.

Ice is born from empty space?

"…Does that even make sense?"

Ice forms when water freezes. Ice does not just appear out of thin air.

I tilted my head—then suddenly stopped.

…Wait.

What if it doesn’t mean water? What if it means inner energy?

The old man had transferred his inner energy to me, and martial arts were almost always performed with inner energy. So maybe the ice was not made from water at all, but from inner energy.

…Is that right?

Honestly, I had no confidence. I had read plenty of martial arts novels, but I had only ever been a reader. I had never actually learned martial arts.

I wanted to scratch my head, but with nothing but wings I just wriggled uselessly in place.

Ugh, this is so frustrating.

I still had not gotten used to this body.

I lowered my eyes again.

Wan Xiang Gui Yi, Han Nai Qi Zong.

All phenomena return to one… cold is their origin.

…Even harder.

Everything returns to one, and cold is the root of it.

So… creating ice isn’t what matters—cold itself is what matters?

Or am I completely off the mark again?

The more I thought about it, the more tangled my head became.

Haaah.

So this is why the masters in those stories always go on about enlightenment, enlightenment…

Would it kill them to just write it like a manual? ‘Do it like this.’

I was still grumbling down at the page when it happened.

Ssshhh.

…Huh?

A faint coolness stirred deep in my belly. At first I thought I was imagining it. Then the cold sensation began to spread, slow and steady.

Wait… this… no way.

And then—

"Gah!!!! Gah!!!!"

My body suddenly turned freezing cold.

Why… is this… kuh!

The chill deepened, and ice began to form from the tips of my feet upward.

Nngh… what is this… my toes…

I was thrashing in panic, with no idea what to do, when—

Whoooooosh—

A sudden wind swept through the cave.

Flip-flip-flip-flip-flip!

The pages of the book turned in the gust and stopped on a certain leaf.

Where did that wind… nngh… what’s that?

On the page that had opened was written:

Written there was the exact solution to the situation I was in.