Snow Mountain (1)

The Snow Mountain Region of the 6th Layer was a place where blizzards raged without end — and it was also where one of the three great factions, the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace, made its home.

But the Ice Palace did not rule over the entirety of the Snow Mountain Region.

Most of the region was unfit for human habitation, riddled with danger zones that swallowed up anyone who set foot in them wrong, never to let them leave.

That was why the disciples of the Ice Palace, in ordinary times, never strayed far between their main hall and a handful of training grounds.

The ruins Oh Hwi-seong had headed for were located in one such place that no one ever approached under normal circumstances.

"It'll still be a little while before we arrive. You three should rest while you can."

While Wi Ju-seon piloted the flying vessel, Cheon Woo-jin and Seo Seol-ryeong entrusted the watch to Hoyeon Rin and took their rest.

The fierce battle they'd just fought had drained their spiritual energy heavily, and their physical stamina was running low as well.

Cheon Woo-jin had spent some time circulating his energy in meditation, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Seo Seol-ryeong sitting quietly nearby.

Her eyes were covered as they always were, making it impossible to tell whether she was simply sitting idle or deep in her own energy circulation.

"Why do you keep staring at me?"

Seo Seol-ryeong remarked in a cold voice.

So she had simply been sitting still, after all.

"Seo Seol-ryeong, there's something I'm curious about."

"Even with my eyes covered, I can sense it whenever you look at me with that strange gaze of yours."

"That's not it."

Cheon Woo-jin recalled the scene he had witnessed earlier and asked.

"What's your relationship with the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace?"

"Why do you ask?"

"When we went after the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner earlier, I saw you running alongside the Ice Palace's forces."

"It wasn't running alongside them. If anything, the Ice Palace was chasing me."

"How did that situation come about?"

The Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace was a place that practiced ice-attribute cultivation arts.

And Seo Seol-ryeong had also mastered an ice-attribute art.

Perhaps there was some connection there.

"I stopped by the Ice Palace to gather information. But things didn't go smoothly in our talks, so I set out on my own ahead of them — and the Ice Palace followed one step behind."

"You visited the Ice Palace?"

"There's a blood relation between us, so we've had dealings with each other from time to time over the years."

A blood relation.

That was information he had never been able to obtain from the game.

"The blood of one of my relatives flows ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the veins of the Ice Palace's Palace Lord."

"You mean the blood of the True Human Race?"

At Cheon Woo-jin's question, Seo Seol-ryeong's expression turned frosty.

"I never told you anything about my bloodline. How did you know?"

"……."

Cheon Woo-jin fell silent for a moment.

"I heard it from the Cheonryong Pavilion Master recently."

"From the Pavilion Master?"

"Yes. Just talk in passing, nothing more."

With that excuse, Cheon Woo-jin turned his gaze toward Hoyeon Rin.

"If you doubt me, ask Disciple Hoyeon later. She was there when it happened."

"……."

Seo Seol-ryeong looked uncertain.

Still, it was true that Oh Hwi-seong had actually called her "Seo Seol-ryeong of the True Human Race" at the time.

"That man goes around spreading other people's bloodlines without a second thought, doesn't he."

"He probably said it without thinking much of it. He never hides the fact that he's Dragon Clan anyway."

"I don't go around discussing my own background, for your information."

"Well, you seem to have told Sect Master Wi and Disciple Hoyeon."

"That's…… because we had a friendly relationship."

"Then I suppose that means you and I simply lack such friendship, since I'm the only one who never heard."

At Cheon Woo-jin's words, Seo Seol-ryeong let out a sigh.

"Fine. I apologize for never telling you about my background."

"No need to apologize."

Cheon Woo-jin hadn't told her about his own background either.

Not that there was anything he could have told her in the first place.

"I'm only asking because there might be something useful for our fight against the Ice Palace."

"……."

He had no intention of prying into what she wanted to keep hidden, question by question.

And if it were something he truly needed to know, Seo Seol-ryeong would tell him without being asked anyway.

"There's really nothing special to say about that matter."

"Good enough for me."

"However…… I think I should tell you about Baek Shin-yeong, the Palace Lord of the Ice Palace — a distant relative of mine."

Baek Shin-yeong.

When that name left her lips, Seo Seol-ryeong's voice turned slightly harder than usual.

"Baek Shin-yeong is a man of great ambition. He killed his own father, the previous Palace Lord, and usurped the seat for himself."

"He killed his own father?"

"Such things happen often in the cultivation world."

This was a world of righteous sects and immortal heroes, brimming with betrayal and intrigue.

A son murdering his father was a sin against nature, yes — but in this world, it was entirely possible.

"In truth, Baek Shin-yeong killed his father not for the seat of Palace Lord, but to steal something far more important. He wanted to take his father's power for himself."

Seo Seol-ryeong spoke in a rigid voice.

"Baek Shin-yeong is the owner of the Northern Darkness Divine Body. Combined with the Six Yang Snow-Melting Method, it allows him to devour the spiritual energy of others and raise his own cultivation realm."

"……."

The Northern Darkness Divine Body.

That was a constitution Cheon Woo-jin knew extremely well.

It was one of the random traits obtainable when creating a character in Yeongro Suseonjeon.

The Northern Darkness Divine Body was a physique specialized in absorbing the power of others and making it one's own — the so-called "Blood Devouring Art" style of ability. Used skillfully, it was an innate trait powerful enough to make the entire game trivially easy to clear.

"By devouring the spiritual energy of his father and countless others through the Northern Darkness Divine Body, Baek Shin-yeong reached Core Formation Great Circle at the young age of barely a hundred."

"……."

"But Baek Shin-yeong soon hit a wall. Because he had climbed to his realm through shortcuts without gaining any true enlightenment, his foundation became tangled midway. The conclusion was reached that even if he trained for another three hundred years as he was, he would die without ever reaching the Nascent Soul Realm."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

To commit the sin of killing his own father, spend a hundred years diligently building his strength, claw his way to Core Formation Great Circle — and then grow not a single step further, stagnating for the next three hundred years?

It was a despairing situation enough to drive a man mad.

"So that's why he wants the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner?"

"Yes. If he uses the banner to borrow the power of a higher realm, a limit like that loses all meaning."

Compared to Jongri Un, who could think of nothing but revenge against the Jongri Clan's main house, it was arguably a more befitting ambition for a cultivator.

"Still, even if he gains power through such a shortcut, he'll only hit another wall later on."

"In fact, I pointed that very thing out to him. I told him that if he truly harbored great ambitions, he'd be better off searching for another path, even at this late stage."

"If he were the kind of man to listen to that, he wouldn't have committed the sin of killing his father in the first place."

"That's part of it…… but it seems he took my words as empty noise — as though I were merely angling to have the banner handed over to me. And since it wasn't entirely untrue, I had nothing to say in rebuttal."

In the end, negotiations with Baek Shin-yeong had collapsed into failure.

Seo Seol-ryeong had set out to secure the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner on her own, and Baek Shin-yeong had ordered his subordinates to pursue her and bring the banner back.

After no small amount of trouble, Seo Seol-ryeong had secured the banner — but Baek Shin-yeong would not have given up yet.

He would do whatever it took to get the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner into his hands and overcome his limit.

"We are about to destroy the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner in the Snow Mountain Region, of all places. There's a high chance Baek Shin-yeong will show himself personally, so you'd best prepare yourselves in advance."

"Prepare ourselves, huh."

"Don't think of him as equal to any of the Core Formation disciples you've fought so far. And be especially careful — the Snow Mountain Region is a place highly favorable ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to ice-attribute arts."

She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had a point.

But it was a different matter that weighed on Cheon Woo-jin's mind.

The Northern Darkness Divine Body.

The Northern Darkness Divine Body possessed properties strikingly similar to the Body of the Dark True Abyss.

The "Dark" of the Northern Darkness Divine Body (冥) and the "Abyss" of the Body of the Dark True Abyss (溟) were, in essence, the same meaning — and the very word "Northern Darkness" referred to the pitch-black sea of the far north.

Because Baek Shin-yeong had been born with a body like that sea, he was capable of swallowing vast quantities of energy and making it his own — just as Cheon Woo-jin was.

Worse, he had mastered the Six Yang Snow-Melting Method, an art specialized for the Northern Darkness Divine Body. If Cheon Woo-jin wasn't careful, he could end up having his own power drained instead.

I'll need to be careful.

And yet, even as he thought this, Cheon Woo-jin felt a flicker of anticipation stir in a corner of his chest.

He had only begun wielding the Body of the Dark True Abyss less than two years ago.

But Baek Shin-yeong had lived alongside the Northern Darkness Divine Body for a hundred years.

Seeing how Baek Shin-yeong used his physique might allow Cheon Woo-jin to push his own mastery of the Body of the Dark True Abyss to a new level.

"Miss Seo, Disciple Cheon."

Just then, Hoyeon Rin's voice rang out.

"There's a lot of footprints in the snowfield below. They're heading the same direction we are — but there are no tracks coming back."

"……."

Looking down, Cheon Woo-jin saw that the snowfield below was indeed littered with the traces of many who had pressed through the snow.

At least forty or fifty of them, he estimated.

"Looks like we're too late, I'm afraid."

Wi Ju-seon, gripping the helm at the head of the vessel, spoke in a grave voice.

"The blizzard of the Binghua Hell is starting to become visible over there in the distance."

"Then……"

"The ruins are already surrounded by the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace."

The Ice Palace had caught wind of Oh Hwi-seong's true intentions and moved to seize the ruins.

The one mercy was that the battle was still ongoing.

Oh Hwi-seong, who had entered ahead of them, had fortified the ruins into a stronghold and was holding out.

"Then this isn't the worst-case scenario."

Seo Seol-ryeong rose from her seat and spoke.

"We strike the Ice Palace from behind to break their encirclement, enter the ruins, and hand the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner over to the Cheonryong Pavilion Master. That is our victory."

"Hmm, that's right."

Hoyeon Rin nodded.

"Once the banner is destroyed, the Ice Palace will lose the will to fight. After that, the Pavilion Master will negotiate everything to a close."

"I hope it wraps up that smoothly."

Wi Ju-seon said with a smile, still holding the helm.

"If it does, I'd appreciate it if our Corpse Ghost Extreme Jade Gate got a proper payment too. We've helped quite a bit, I'd say."

"That…… the Pavilion Master will surely take care of it. I'll bring it up as well."

Having answered, Hoyeon Rin glanced at Cheon Woo-jin.

"I'll tell him to pay you generously too, Disciple Cheon."

"Don't worry about it. Seo Seol-ryeong here will handle the negotiations."

At Cheon Woo-jin's words, Seo Seol-ryeong nodded, and Hoyeon Rin's face turned troubled.

She was already fretting over how much Seo Seol-ryeong would bleed out of the Cheonryong Pavilion.

"We're getting close now…… what should we do? Should we halt the vessel and approach quietly on the ground?"

"No. If we waste time doing that, they'll breach the ruins before we arrive. We dive in right now."

"Then a full-speed charge it is……!"

Wi Ju-seon, receiving Cheon Woo-jin's answer, formed a hand seal while gripping the helm.

At once, the entire flying vessel was bathed in light and began accelerating violently.

The Ice Palace disciples surrounding the ruins snapped around in shock at the sight.

The flying vessel, appearing out of nowhere and charging at them with terrifying momentum, had thrown them into confusion.

He had to seize the initiative before they could grasp the situation and react.

Cheon Woo-jin drew forth, within his spiritual domain, the image he had long since grown accustomed to shaping.

The black spirit energy that led all things to death.

He honed it into a lethal blade. Again and again, and again, until this Body of the Dark True Abyss was filled to its brim.

Then he drew it out and brought it descending upon this world.

Even after creating such a scene, Cheon Woo-jin's spiritual energy expenditure was not all that great.

He had minimized his own consumption by drawing as much as possible on the water-attribute spirit energy that saturated this Snow Mountain Region.

The water-attribute energy is cold.

Even among water-attribute energies, there was a vast difference between the energy of a steaming jungle region and the energy of a snowfield like this one.

Drawn into his body with each deep breath, the water-attribute energy pierced his lungs like shards of freezing ice.

Feeling that eerie stimulus spread through his entire body, Cheon Woo-jin realized that a cold, fresh inspiration was beginning to stir within him.

The ice attribute… I think I can grasp it.

The flying vessel plunged into the hellish pandemonium carved out by the Black Thunder Extermination Vista.

Standing on its deck, receiving the frigid wind with his whole body, Cheon Woo-jin felt the premonition of a new growth taking root.