A Fateful Encounter on the Snowfield (7): The Encounter with the Strange Being in the Frozen Cave

So… this is what I'm supposed to do?

Quite some time had passed since I'd dragged the man back to the cave. Digging through his clothes, I'd found a strange ointment and a roll of bandages, so I'd smeared the medicine over his wounds and wrapped them as best I could.

Of course… it might already be infected. But he's a martial artist. Something like this won't kill him.

And then… a week went by.

This guy… just would not wake up. I'd start thinking he was dead, lean in to check if he was breathing — and sure enough, he was.

Just when is he going to open his eyes…?

I was turning that thought over while flipping through a martial arts manual when—

Grrrrowl.

Ah… I'm hungry.

Mealtime. I slipped out of the cave to go hunting.

"Nngh…… where……?"

I opened my eyes to the inside of a bitterly cold cave.

I was fighting Muk-hyeol Seon-woo, and then…

I scanned the surroundings. No one in sight. Not even a hint of another presence.

As the minutes passed, my thoughts settled and my mind began to clear.

"So I fought him to the end…… and got driven out onto the snowfield."

Muk-hyeol Seon-woo.

The instant that name surfaced, my fingertips tightened. The scene from that day still burned behind my eyes — the endless ranks of soldiers beneath the Xiongnu banners. The black arrows screaming through the blizzard. The Ice Palace warriors, pierced one after another, collapsing into the snow.

"That damned bow……"

I bit down on my lip. Rage surged up — and then a cold laugh slipped out after it.

"Still. I made him pay for it."

I looked down at my right hand.

That last moment. I'd staked my life on a single plunge and cut. Muk-hyeol Seon-woo's right arm had come off right then and there.

"He won't be handling that precious bow of his the way he used to."

I muttered it under my breath and tried to sit up. My knees shook. I couldn't do it. The wounds ran deeper than I'd thought, and my strength was all but gone.

"Ten years……"

The war with the Xiongnu had dragged on for a full decade now. At the beginning, no one had been particularly worried. The North Sea itself was a natural fortress. Blizzards that howled in every season. A cold that carved the flesh from your bones. An environment so extreme that outsiders couldn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠last more than a few days. All of it had been a shield protecting the Ice Palace.

But a war that long had begun to wear even that shield down, flake by flake.

"Food running low…… not enough people left to hold the line, either..."

The past rose unbidden, and with it the faces of the disciples who had died. Children who had taken up the sword at a tender age to defend their home. Juniors who were supposed to lead the Ice Palace one day. Most of them had never come back.

We had won this last battle, so they said — but we had bled far too much for it. All we had really bought was a moment to catch our breath.

"I have to get back… I have to request reinforcements from Murim before those bastards return…"

I forced myself upright and was about to take a step when something snagged at the edge of my vision.

Three volumes. Covers I knew.

"……It can't be."

My reaching fingers hesitated. I brushed the dust from the worn covers, and familiar characters emerged beneath.

For a moment, it felt as though my breath had stopped.

"This is……"

There was no mistaking it. These were the arts I had known since I was a child. The secret techniques of the Ice Palace — the ones my father had mastered himself, and had never passed on lightly to anyone.

"These are the manuals Father took with him when he vanished……"

Only then did the rest of the cave come into focus. Night-glowing pearls were set into the ceiling, and the whole place was thick with the traces of someone who had lived here.

"It can't be……"

My voice dropped, trembling.

"Was this where Father stayed?"

It was almost impossible to believe. My father had already been erased from the martial world.

The North Sea Ice Emperor.

Once the strongest master the Ice Palace had ever produced — until qi deviation took him, and everything changed. Seized by madness, he had abandoned the Ice Palace and gone south into Murim. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠What followed left a wound in martial history that had never closed.

The Five Great Clans suffered catastrophic losses. Countless sects were trampled under his hand, and martial artists bled without end. In the end he was named a public enemy of the martial world, and because of him, the Ice Palace had never again been welcomed in Murim.

"What in the world…… did this to you…… Father……"

After the Ice Emperor fled, the Ice Palace immediately raised me — his son — as Palace Lord. But the absence of the man who had been our unshakable shield was a pain we felt in our bones. The moment the Xiongnu learned the Ice Emperor was gone, they struck.

The first three years, we held them off without much trouble. The problem came in the fourth.

"Hold the line!! Do not let them breach the walls!!"

The shout had barely left someone's mouth before the war drums answered.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

Thousands of Xiongnu moved as one. Cavalry in black armor tore through the blizzard at a gallop. Snow exploded from under the hooves, and the earth shuddered as though some colossal beast were drawing near.

At the vanguard rode the Heavenly Wolf Division — the finest of the elite, the ones who had survived among all the tribes the Xiongnu had conquered.

"Archers!"

A Xiongnu commander raised his hand and swept it down. Thousands of bows tilted toward the sky.

"Loose."

The order fell a heartbeat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠later.

Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!

A rain of black arrows poured down on the North Sea Ice Palace.

"Ice Wall Formation!"

The elders' cry went up, and the warriors on the walls wrenched their internal energy to the surface. A blast of killing cold exploded outward, and a vast curtain of ice surged into being —

CRACK!

The first arrow punched in.

CRACK!

The second.

CRACK!

The third.

They held, at first. But the Xiongnu bows had no end. It was never one man shooting and being done. When the man in front fell, the one behind stepped into his place. They planted their feet on the corpses of their own and drew again.

"Those lunatics……"

An Ice Palace disciple clenched his teeth.

"They just keep coming even when their own people die?"

They had no choice. For the Xiongnu of that time, defeat meant death. Behind them lay the steppes they had already conquered. Ahead of them lay the North Sea — a wall they had to cross, no matter the cost.

"Ready the ram!"

The shout rolled up from the Xiongnu ranks, and a massive iron engine was dragged forward. An elder took one look at it.

"Can we stop that?"

I didn't answer. I didn't need to. We had to stop it. That was why I was standing here.

Every eye turned to me.

Blue frost qi bloomed along the edge of my sword.

"Yes!"

The disciples roared it back.

And then the Xiongnu army slammed into the walls.

KRA-BOOM!

The ice gates shuddered.

A second blow.

KRA-BOOM!

Cracks spidered out.

A third.

KRA-BOOM!

A section of the gate came down.

"They're coming through!"

Xiongnu soldiers began hauling themselves up over the ramparts. Ice Palace warriors swept their swords. Blades of cold ice sword qi carved through the blizzard. A Xiongnu axe came down. An Ice Palace disciple's sword caught it.

CLANG!

Steel met steel. On one side, a cold and measured killing art. On the other, a raw, savage bloodlust. Two utterly different peoples colliding head-on.

But the numbers were brutal.

"Palace Lord! The eastern line is collapsing!"

"The west is in danger as well!"

The reports kept coming. I clenched my jaw. At this rate, we would be pushed back. Inevitably.

And then —

A colossal presence bloomed at the foot of the wall.

Muk-hyeol Seon-woo.

He had come forward himself.

"Palace Lord."

His voice rolled across the field.

"Your old man used to swat my arrows aside like they were nothing… so this time, why don't you try blocking them yourself."

THOOOM!!!!

It came at me with a roar far too enormous to belong to any arrow, and all I could do was catch its path on my blade and wrench it aside —

SKREEEEE!!

That was everything I could manage.

And then —

"Muk-hyeol Seon-woo!!!! I will be the one to kill you!!!"

A disciple broke ranks and charged him.

He hurled the technique at him.

But —

"A brat whose milk hasn't even dried on his lips."

CRACK.

He died where he stood, without so much as scratching the man.

"Hyung-nim!!!!!"

The one they had called the next great fighter of the Ice Palace was gone, and the other disciples surged toward Muk-hyeol Seon-woo in a fury.

But —

"Boring… brats like you are just boring!!!!!!"

"Ghk!!!!"

A single Lion's Roar blasted every last one of them off their feet.

"All forces!!!! Pour everything you have into the Ice Palace!!!!"

"AAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!"

At his command the Xiongnu army charged, swarming up the walls.

"Everyone!!!! Strike down from the ramparts!!!!"

At my order, the Ice Palace warriors dragged up every last drop of internal energy they had left.

KRAAAAAASH!

A colossal ice storm scoured the foot of the wall and swallowed the soldiers at the front — and still the Xiongnu advance did not stop. When the man ahead fell, the one behind took his place. Soldiers who had climbed over the corpses of their own comrades raised their weapons again and hurled themselves at the walls.

They did not look like an army that did not fear death. They looked like an army of the dead, marching with death already on their backs.

"Palace Lord! The eastern line has fallen!"

"The western wall can't hold much longer either!"

Report after report. I clenched my teeth until they ached. If time kept bleeding away like this, the Ice Palace would fall.

And then —

KRA-BOOM!

A last, enormous impact, and the final crack split the ice gates. Moments later a whole section of them came down entirely.

"They're inside!"

The Xiongnu poured through the breach into the palace. The Ice Palace warriors did not give ground. They swung their swords even as they bled, and when one man fell, the one behind him stepped into the gap. But no amount of will could easily close a gap in numbers like that. Minute by minute, the Ice Palace's lines were crumbling — slowly, and without any doubt at all.

That was when it happened.

"Palace Lord."

The elder beside me — soaked in blood — opened his mouth.

"A decision has to be made."

I said nothing. I already knew what he was about to ask. Fall back with the remaining elites — or fight here to the last and lose everything.

But in that instant, a young disciple filled my vision. His body was shaking with fear, but he had not let go of his sword. He was holding on with everything he had, just to protect the people behind him.

Looking at him, I understood.

What we had to defend was never just a wall. It was the people who lived inside it. And the name they would carry forward — the North Sea Ice Palace.

I tightened my grip on my sword.

"This is not over."

The elder looked at me.

"Palace Lord."

"The moment we fall back from here, the North Sea is finished."

The last of the frost qi rose from the tip of my blade.

"Yes!"

The Ice Palace warriors wrung out what little they had left and hurled themselves at the Xiongnu once more. I drove through the gap with them, straight toward Muk-hyeol Seon-woo. I swung at the man standing alone among a sea of soldiers.

But I was not enough. Not then. The gulf between Muk-hyeol Seon-woo and myself was far too wide. Every time our blades met, my fingertips went numb. Every attack I weathered pushed my body closer to its limit. In the end I had no choice but to fall back, coughing blood.

Even so, I did not give up.

What we needed was not victory. It was to survive. And to buy time.

After a long, grinding fight, the sun went down and night came on, and the Xiongnu — realizing they too had taken savage losses — began to pull back.

"Chanyu. If we keep pushing, we can bring the Ice Palace down."

A Xiongnu commander said it. But Muk-hyeol Seon-woo looked out over the shattered walls and the blood-soaked snowfield, and shook his head.

"No."

"That's enough for today."

His gaze found me on the wall.

"They're already at their limit. Once we've resupplied, we finish this. Next time. Without fail."

With that, Muk-hyeol Seon-woo led the Xiongnu army away into the blizzard, and was gone.

That day, the North Sea Ice Palace survived. No one called it a victory. Countless disciples were dead. Countless elders had fallen. What remained was a broken wall and a handful of exhausted survivors.

I stood for a long time on that blood-dark snowfield, unable to move. And I had no choice but to admit it.

The Ice Palace could no longer hold the North Sea alone.

In the end, I made my decision. I would ask Murim for help. It was the only path left.

"……."

I opened my eyes slowly. The cold cave again. The Ice Soul Divine Art was still in my hand.

"Four years ago, too…… all we managed was to survive."

The memory of that day was still sharp. The disciples who had died. The Ice Palace as it crumbled. And the look in Muk-hyeol Seon-woo's eyes as he stared up at me.

But this time was different. In a war where we had done nothing but lose for ten years, I had finally made him pay a price.

I set the book down carefully.

And then —

Crunch.

Crunch.

Footsteps. Something was coming.

What is that… the owner of this cave?

I tensed, watching the mouth of the cave — and what appeared there was

"Kyak?"

a creature I could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not begin to name.