The Wrath of the Ice Soul
“Dodge!”
“Whoa!”
As a fierce blade qi came hurtling toward them, the two scattered in opposite directions.
KWA-KWANG!
Blade qi so powerful it gouged a crater into the earth!
Samryong flung hidden weapons at the charging man.
“Youak-sal!”
The projectiles traced elegant arcs, hunting for openings—but to a Peak Realm master like Oyangga, they were hardly a threat.
KA-GA-GANG!
Upon reaching the Peak Realm, one instinctively perceives trajectories that others cannot see—and he read every one.
“Frost-White Divine Sword!”
But his opponent wasn't Samryong alone.
Appearing in a flash, Seol Mokyeon scattered frost-like sword qi as she aimed for the gaps in Oyangga's guard.
“I'll send your head to the Young Palace Master!”
BOOM!
A saber came screaming in. But Seol Mokyeon braced her sword against the ground and bent her body backward to evade it, then used the flex of her bent blade to launch herself high into the air and strike downward.
KKANG!
Was it because she was exhausted? As she was pushed back a step, Oyangga's mouth twitched violently, as if his pride had been wounded.
“You little….”
“Wind-Blood Flight!”
Dozens of razor-sharp qi projections came flying at his back, forcing Oyangga to retract his saber and spin his body into a defense.
“Enough with these cheap tricks! Blood Light Shatter!”
A crimson mass of blade qi shot toward Samryong.
“Break!”
With Oyangga's shout, the rounded blade qi burst apart, and its fragments rained down on Samryong like a storm.
“Damn it! Poison Dragon Step! Poison Wind Palm!”
Samryong evaded the fragments with his footwork, swatting aside the ones he couldn't dodge with poison-infused palms.
“Kgh!”
But every time he knocked away a single blade of qi, the impact reverberated through his core and drove him back a step.
“Blast it! Poison Wind Palm!”
A green-tinted palm force flew at Oyangga.
“You're one of the Tang Clan, are you!”
No matter how great a Peak Realm master he was, he wasn't perfectly immune to poison—so he retreated while unleashing waves of saber wind.
Swaaak! Chwaaak!
The saber wind that shredded Samryong's palm force carried on with its remaining force, hurtling straight at him.
“Triple Ice Wall!”
KA-GA-GANG!
Just then, Seol Mokyeon stepped in front of Samryong and raised a massive wall of ice to block the saber wind.
“Thanks.”
“Hoo….”
It had been a brief engagement, but unlike the two who had defended with everything they had, Oyangga—despite being winded—had barely spent any real strength.
This won't be easy….
He could feel it clearly now: the wall between First-Rate and Peak Realm was a towering one.
This… is no time to be sparing the poison.
But fights in the jianghu were never decided by realms alone. No matter how high one's realm, the moment you let your guard down, you fall—that is what the jianghu is.
Samryong resolved to use the Black Stone Bee venom and the Blood Shadow Serpent's poison, of which he had so little left.
I only need to land one hit!
As a Peak Realm master, the man could certainly suppress poison with his internal energy—but doing so would burden his qi circulation, and that was all Samryong needed.
“Hiding behind your ice like a rat! I've changed my mind—you both die here!”
Terrifying crimson blade qi cleaved through even the solid ice wall and came at the pair like a crashing wave.
“Look out!”
“You too!”
KWA-KWA-KWANG!
Along with a haze of dust, the ice wall shattered into pieces.
“Scattered-Rain Strike!”
Samryong flung more hidden weapons and drew out his iron fan.
“Running low on your little needles, are we?”
“Why? Scared?!”
“You brat!”
KKANG! KKANG!
Every time he caught Oyangga's saber, Samryong's arm was flung far back.
Still not as bad as General Yeo!
Having sparred with Yeo Cheolgi all this time, Samryong was gradually growing used to Oyangga's strength, and he parried the saber with growing skill.
“You little pest!”
Anyone else would have been sent flying by now, but seeing Samryong close the distance instead, Oyangga gripped his saber with both hands.
“Then I'll cut you both down at once!”
“Kgh!”
KWA-KWANG!
He barely evaded the saber, and the blade qi that lost its target tore up the earth for nothing.
“Ha!”
Samryong thrust out the iron fan; Oyangga dodged it lightly—but that hadn't been what Samryong was aiming for at all.
Chwaaak!
The moment he snapped the fan open, poison venom flew straight at Oyangga's face.
“GAAH! Damn it!”
Oyangga's vision flared white!
Samryong channeled his internal energy into the iron fan and swung it down at the wrist holding the saber.
“You dare—!”
THWACK!
But even with his sight compromised, Oyangga deflected the fan on pure reflex and kicked Samryong away.
“Kugh!”
Samryong went flying backward!
Just then, Seol Mokyeon's sword came flashing in from behind.
“HAAAP!”
“Worthless Ice Palace girl!”
THOK!
Oyangga seized Seol Mokyeon's wrist and was about to snap her arm right then and there—when Samryong, sprawled on the ground, hurled a throwing blade.
KKANG!
The saber was knocked from Oyangga's grip, and in the instant of time that bought her, Seol Mokyeon went for his wrist.
“AAAAH! Damn you!”
He could not let his wrist be severed like this—so Oyangga flung Seol Mokyeon far away like a discarded tree branch.
“Kyaah!”
CRASH!
Tumbling across the rough ground, she barely regained her footing—
—but Oyangga had already closed the distance in an instant and brought his saber down.
“Die!”
“Triple Ice Wall! Kyaah!”
KWAANG! JANG!
Had there simply been too little time to defend? Oyangga's saber shattered the ice wall to pieces.
The shockwave flung Seol Mokyeon backward, and she rolled across the ground like a ball, tumbling on and on.
“Kgh! Hrgh!”
CRASH!
She rolled until she finally came to a stop. As if she had suffered internal injuries, she coughed up dark red blood.
Oyangga flung his broken saber to the ground and activated the Blood Cloud Art.
“I'll send you to your dead comrades!”
A trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth, as if he were pushing himself too far—but Oyangga paid it no mind and kept circulating the blood within his body.
Then his muscles swelled as if they would burst.
One blow from that fist, and you would be torn to shreds.
“Now… die.”
POOM! POOM!
Just then, something came flying from behind Oyangga.
“What the—! Damn it! Poison… kgh!”
Samryong, wielding the poison pellet launcher!
Oyangga immediately tried to swallow an antidote pellet, but Samryong wasn't about to let him.
“Butterfly-Blood Flight!”
“You pest!”
KA-GA-GANG!
As he deflected the throwing blades, Oyangga felt the poison slowly seeping into his body, and his complexion grew paler by the moment.
“Damn it… accursed poison smoke….”
“Hah… hah….”
POOM!
Just as the smoke began to disperse, Samryong fired another poison pellet!
Oyangga's movements were slowing until even his eyes could track them.
“Ha!”
“Kgh! This poison—!”
And then, at last, a projectile coated in the Black Stone Bee's venom struck home.
“KKEUK!”
Oyangga yanked the projectile from his arm and sealed the acupoints before the poison could spread.
“Coward!”
Yes, just like this… keep going….
Plip… plip….
A sudden sound. Samryong looked at his own palm with an expression that said he refused to believe it.
One tiny raindrop… two… three… then they began pouring down faster than he could count.
SWAAAAH!
A sudden downpour!
The poison smoke that had bloomed like a mist was slowly washed away by the rain.
“KHAHAHAHA! O Tengri! HAHAHA!”
Oyangga couldn't stop the laughter erupting from him; he roared with mirth loud enough to shake heaven and earth.
At the sight, Samryong bit his lip until it bled.
Damn it all….
Did a god of fate truly exist? And if so, why would it help a man like that? Samryong drew in the breath that had risen to the very base of his throat.
“Die!”
But Oyangga showed no intention of granting him even that moment to recover!
His movements had slowed somewhat as he suppressed the poison, but the exhausted Samryong could barely withstand him.
“Hah… hah… kgh!”
“Not bad, for a whelp!”
Even without a saber in hand, Oyangga was strong.
“Kgh!”
KA-GANG!
The iron fan that had been blocking Oyangga's fist could endure no more and shattered outright.
CRIIIICK!
As the fan burst apart, the poison venom hidden within it spilled to the ground, oxidizing rapidly with the rainwater.
“HAHAHA!”
“Kgh!”
THWACK!
Oyangga kicked him in the side, and Samryong went bouncing across the ground like a ball.
“Aargh… that hurts like hell….”
With his whole body screaming as if it were breaking apart, cries spilled from Samryong's mouth of their own accord.
— Samryong….
Just then, Seol Mokyeon's voice transmission reached his ear. Had she regained her senses? Samryong quickly transmitted back.
— I'll buy you time—run!
— No… it's already too late to run….
— We can't just die here together….
— Just make me one opening… right now, I… can use it….
— What?
— Hold his movements for even half a breath—no, even a split second!
He had no idea what she was preparing, but if things went on like this, dying together was the only ending. So Samryong decided to do as she proposed.
There's only one way to pin that man's movements down for certain.
“Hm?”
Had Oyangga sensed something too? He flinched and glanced back—and spotted Seol Mokyeon raising her energy in the distance.
“Ha? Do you want to die?”
If she so much as disturbed her circulation now, the backlash of her own internal energy would kill her on the spot.
Ssshhhhaaaa.
Then, the surrounding air began slowly to freeze. Perhaps it was the rain—but the temperature plunged even faster, and the falling raindrops froze into sharp points as they dropped.
“It can't be… this is… the Ice Palace's ultimate art… Soul of Ice, Calamity of the Great Blizzard!”
A technique that transformed a whole region into a frozen waste, turning every drop of water in the space into razor-sharp blades, then whipping them into a storm that shredded the enemy to ribbons.
Ordinarily it demanded a vast reservoir of internal energy—but with this rain, even incomplete, she could manifest it at a level capable of killing a Peak Realm master like Oyangga.
“Damn it all!”
Manipulating the very environment around them! What kind of martial art made by human hands was this?
“Did you think I'd just stand by and let you use it?”
“Your opponent is ME!”
Just then, Samryong stretched out his hand, channeling the Poison Dragon Palm.
“You wretch!”
Oyangga had no intention of simply taking the hit, so he thrust out his own hand.
KOOM!
An impact so fierce it knocked the falling raindrops aside erupted from Samryong's body.
“Kkeuk….”
Blood trickling from his mouth, Samryong rapidly raised his internal energy.
“You—kgh!”
Oyangga wanted to pull his hand back, but Samryong's poison-laced energy crawled up his palm and burrowed into his body, forcing him into a clash of internal energy he had never wanted.
“Do you really think my exhausted self will fall to that paltry energy of yours!”
“Running your mouth? Scared, huh? Huh?”
At Samryong's provocation, veins burst out across Oyangga's forehead.
“I'll burst every one of your organs and watch you die!”
VRMMM! KWA-KWANG!
As he activated the Blood Cloud Art, a crimson haze rose from his body. His blood began circulating at a furious pace, and his frame swelled as if it would burst.
There would be a price—but the sheer tidal wave of internal energy that followed crashed down over Samryong.
“Kgh! KUAAGH!”
Even vomiting blood, Samryong held on with everything he had—but his body was reaching its limit.
Just a little more! Just a little more!
“Die!”
“UAAAAAH!”
Samryong strained, dragging up every last scrap of his remaining energy—but the dam holding back Oyangga's power could endure no more and collapsed in an instant.
“Kgh! KUAAGH!”
KWANG!
With a sound of something rupturing inside him, Samryong vomited blood and lost consciousness, his body crumpling powerlessly to the ground.
“Ha… haha! You fool! You dared to contest ME in internal energy—….”
He was barely savoring his triumph when a chill wind came swirling around Oyangga.
“It can't be….”
“Die… you monster!”
It was Seol Mokyeon, tears streaming down her face as she moved her sword.
“Soul of Ice, Calamity of the Great Blizzard!”
“AAAAGH—AAAAH!”
A blizzard of ice blades began to swallow Oyangga whole.
“N—no! NO!”
He hardened his body with the Blood Cloud Art, but the ice blades burrowed into his flesh one by one. Their number was beyond anything the eye could count.
“GAAAAH!”
“Die!”
PWOONG!
Oyangga's body was torn apart, fiber by fiber, until not even a corpse remained—he became a mist of blood that vanished into the blizzard.
Whiiiiing….
The pristine white snowfield melted away into the rain as if it had never existed, and only one figure remained standing: Seol Mokyeon.
Tsiing….
Her sword, unable to withstand the vast energy it had channeled, shattered.
“Hah… hah… Samryong… Samryong!”
Casting the broken sword to the ground, she rushed to Samryong's side.
“Samryong! Please!”
She examined the fallen man. Fortunately, faint but unmistakably, he was still breathing.
But to her untrained, non-physician eyes, his condition looked grave.
“Thank goodness… you're still breathing! Why did you push yourself so hard, you fool! Samryong! Samryong!”
But the unconscious Samryong could not answer.
Left like this, death was certain!
Seol Mokyeon quickly drew out her necklace.
The blue stone that had glowed even in the dark of night. It was the treasure that had helped her unleash the Soul of Ice, Calamity of the Great Blizzard—and a fragment of the North Sea Ice Essence, the treasure of the Ice Palace itself.
“Please!”
She tore the blue stone from the necklace without a moment's hesitation and slowly placed it into Samryong's mouth.
“He has… to swallow it.”
Then, without faltering, she pressed her lips to his and breathed air into his mouth.
“Haa… please… live….”
Once she confirmed the blue stone had been swallowed, she lifted Samryong onto her back and left the camp behind.