The Little Palace Lord’s Appointment Ceremony
When I got to the training yard, I practiced my drawing technique against a straw dummy.
I lowered my stance, drew my sword in one smooth motion, and cut down at it.
It was my first time doing it, so my form was awkward and I wasn’t fast, but I figured I’d get quicker with repetition, so I kept swinging.
After a long while of practice, fatigue began to settle into my body.
Should I do some cultivation while I take a break? When I recite the mental method, my body always feels lighter and refreshed.
I sat down and began circulating my qi.
A chill of cold energy moved through my entire body, washing the weariness away.
As I was cultivating, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
Come to think of it, do I really need to sit down to do this?
At first, and even after that, I hadn’t felt any particular need to do it that way. I’d always practiced while meditating, so sitting still hadn’t bothered me.
But now my body itched with the urge to swing a sword, and sitting there motionless was unbearably dull.
The Ice Crystal Core Sutra is a mental method that draws cold energy into the body through breathing and gathers it in the lower abdomen. There’s no real reason I have to sit down. Father never said I absolutely had to, either.
I got to my feet and tried circulating my qi while holding my sword.
Compared to sitting with my eyes closed, I could definitely feel the surrounding cold energy less clearly.
Still, it wasn’t so faint that I couldn’t feel it at all, so it seemed perfectly doable.
Slowly and carefully, I sensed the flow of internal energy. Once I’d grown somewhat used to it, I began moving my sword little by little.
Is it just my imagination? I feel like the sword’s lighter somehow...
My whole body felt light enough that I thought I might even be able to move faster than usual.
But because I still wasn’t used to it, if I let my guard down even slightly, the sword would slow or the circulation of qi would break.
It isn’t easy. Still, somehow, this feels right.
From that day on, I started the difficult practice of reciting the Ice Crystal Core Sutra while swinging my sword.
At first, my movements were extremely slow, but as days passed and the seasons changed, they gradually became more natural and faster, until it felt as if I was far quicker than when I’d first started swinging a sword.
As I got older, my frame grew larger and I grew stronger too, and before long I couldn’t even practice on a wooden dummy anymore.
When I used my drawing technique, the dummy would split clean in two, so at some point I started practicing cuts into empty air instead.
Even though I was swinging my sword every day in exactly the same stance, for some reason I never got tired of it.
My form today felt better than yesterday’s. I was getting faster bit by bit, and above all, moving my body without thinking about anything felt incredibly refreshing.
Still, I’d occasionally visit my father or mother to eat snacks and chatter with them, and sometimes I’d play hide-and-seek with my brothers. Before I knew it, I was twelve years old.
I was still obsessing over nothing but my drawing technique, but Father only came by from time to time to watch my training and never said much.
I supposed it was because I was the youngest, so he let me do as I pleased.
And so the days went by, until my eldest brother’s appointment ceremony as Little Palace Lord drew near.
The title sounded grand, but my second brother and I had absolutely no interest in the position of Little Palace Lord, so in practice it was just a celebration formally introducing my eldest brother to the outside world.
While I spent every day polishing nothing but my drawing technique, my eldest brother was learning the North Sea Ice Palace’s secret sword art, the Cold White Divine Sword, as the heir.
Sometimes I watched him practice, and it was the sort of swordsmanship that made the back of your neck go cold.
My second brother apparently wasn’t just loafing around either; he was receiving direct fist training from Father.
I’d never known, because when they played with me they never talked about martial arts at all, but once the preparations for the appointment ceremony got underway and I started talking more with the servants, I found out.
Time flew by in a blur, and at last the day of my eldest brother’s Little Palace Lord appointment ceremony arrived.
From morning onward, the entire Ice Palace was bustling.
Guests invited from outside kept arriving one after another, and since I was one of the Ice Palace’s sons, I wandered around here and there greeting people.
Of course, I didn’t remember a single one of them.
That was how overwhelming it all was.
As time passed, increasingly formidable-looking people kept arriving.
Clan heads, the representatives of major merchant caravans, and other such figures all came in turn.
Among them, the one who stood out the most was the man called the sect leader of the Heavenly Sect.
He seemed to have been Father’s friend for a very long time, but the impression he gave off was the complete opposite.
“That’s my youngest son!”
At Father’s gesture, I approached hesitantly.
“Hello. My name is Han Yugang.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you. Mubaek was making such a fuss about how you were a genius.”
It was the first time I’d ever heard someone call Father by his name.
That alone told me there was no one in the North Sea who could stand alongside him, so this must have been someone every bit as remarkable as Father.
But I thought the Heavenly Sect was a really terrible organization in my past life... wasn’t it?
I searched my memories and worried over it, but the sect leader standing before me only had a cool, aloof air; he didn’t look like a villain at all.
“I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Cheon Muhyeok, here as the representative of the Heavenly Sect. It’s a pleasure. I happen to have a daughter around your age too, so if the chance ever comes, would you be willing to be her friend?”
At the sect leader’s kind greeting, I nodded and stepped away.
After getting out of the way, I looked around aimlessly, then climbed the platform when the host called for me.
“Now then, we’ll officially begin the Little Palace Lord appointment ceremony!”
At the host’s words, everyone cheered and sat down.
I hurried back to my seat and sat down as well.
“Please welcome Han Yugeom, the eldest son of Han Palace Lord and the new Little Palace Lord of the Ice Palace, to the stage.”
Han Yugeom stood and walked up to the platform at the center of the training yard.
“Greetings. I am Han Yugeom, and I am honored to stand before you as the new Little Palace Lord.”
With Han Yugeom’s appearance, everyone broke into thunderous applause and cheers.
“From this day forward, I will serve as Little Palace Lord and help my father lead the Ice Palace, so I ask for your continued support.”
Just as Han Yugeom finished his greeting and was about to return to his seat, Father sprang to his feet and shouted,
“Now that the greetings are over, shouldn’t you show us the skill worthy of a Little Palace Lord?”
It seemed he hadn’t discussed this with Han Yugeom in advance, because my eldest brother looked thoroughly flustered.
“Some people might think I never gave your younger brothers a chance, so prove to everyone, against your brothers, that you have the qualifications of a Little Palace Lord!”
I was staring at Father in bewilderment when my second brother leapt out to the platform, practically glowing with excitement.
“Hah! I’m not interested in the Little Palace Lord position, but I did want to test myself against my brother at least once.”
Han Yubyeok slapped a fist into his palm, grinning broadly.
“It’s been a while, so let me see what you’ve got.”
Han Yugeom set aside the sword at his waist and went to the weapons rack to take up a wooden sword.
“A real blade would be dangerous, so I’ll meet you with this.”
“I appreciate the consideration, but don’t go crying later and saying you lost, all right?”
Han Yubyeok smiled and clenched his fists.
“Then begin the match!”
At Father’s cry, cold energy burst from both brothers’ bodies.
“Then I’ll go first!”
Ice armor formed around Han Yubyeok’s body.
“That’s Father’s Ice Armor Technique?”
“You think I’ve just been playing around all this time?”
Glacier Fist Art, first form: Ice Essence Strike!
Han Yubyeok’s right fist hardened into an ice crystal as he drove straight toward Han Yugeom without the slightest hesitation.
“To think you’ve already reached the second-class realm. You’ve worked hard, but you’re still far from me.”
Cold White Divine Sword, third form: White Mist Fills the Heavens.
White mist rose around Han Yugeom, and before long his form vanished from sight.
The training yard filled entirely with pale fog, until not even a hand’s breadth ahead could be seen.
Han Yubyeok stopped his thrusting fist and looked around in confusion.
In that instant, something flashed from one corner, and Han Yugeom appeared beside him, pressing the wooden sword to his throat.
“Will you admit defeat?”
“Ha, I thought only the youngest was a monster, but my brother’s a monster too!”
Han Yubyeok raised both hands and surrendered.
“At that level, the eldest really does have impressive talent. He takes after his father.”
“He’s even better than his father! Palace Lord Han didn’t have much talent in swordsmanship, after all.”
Watching the brothers spar had the audience buzzing with excitement.
The uproar quieted almost at once at a single word from Father.
“Then I suppose we should see what the youngest can do as well?”
I felt in my bones that I couldn’t escape the gaze Father had turned on me.
I trudged down to the training yard with heavy steps.
“I haven’t learned anything, though? And there’s a big age gap between my brothers and me...”
Then my eldest brother laughed and said,
“The youngest has a point. What should we do?”
“Youngest, haven’t you only been practicing your cuts all this time? If the eldest brother can endure the cut you’ve been practicing, we’ll count that as your victory. All you need to do is show us the cut you’ve always been practicing.”
“So all I have to do is use my drawing technique?”
Could he block my strike or not?
As long as that was the condition, I wouldn’t be in danger, and all I had to do was show the drawing technique I’d practiced until now, so I agreed.
“Then I’ll use a wooden sword too, just to be safe.”
As I trotted over to the weapons rack and took out a wooden Japanese sword, the onlookers watched with interest.
“That’s the famous youngest son of the Ice Palace?”
“But the sword he’s bringing out is a little unusual, isn’t it? It’s thin, and curved?”
“From what I heard, they’ve only taught him the mental method so far, and he hasn’t learned any other martial arts yet.”
“He’s twelve and they haven’t taught him anything? Isn’t that a little late?”
“Maybe they’re cherishing him because he’s the youngest?”
Ignoring the murmurs behind me, I took my place in front of my eldest brother.
“Then begin the match!”
At Father’s cry, I lowered my stance as much as possible and twisted my body.
The one strike I had researched and swung countless times over the past several years.
I couldn’t create mist around me the way my brother could, but through the Ice Crystal Core Sutra, I could draw on the surrounding cold and transform it, at least a little.
All right, here I go.
I unwound my twisted body and rushed forward at the same time.
I formed a layer of frigid air with my internal energy in front of me to minimize air resistance, and as I began to sprint, I froze the ground little by little, sliding forward as though I were skimming across ice.
It was the finest drawing technique I had come up with so far.
I shot toward my eldest brother like a bullet and drew my sword.
Drawing