The Ice Essence and the Engagement
【 North Sea Ice Palace 】
It felt as though he had been caught in a very long dream.
His first dungeon dive in his previous life, his first brush with death, his final death, and everything that had happened since he opened his eyes into this one—each scene surfaced in his mind with vivid, aching clarity, like frames from a film.
A life flashing before my eyes….
So this was what they meant by that? He had died once already, so he'd thought death held little fear for him anymore. But now that it had actually come to this, fear was one thing—it was the regret that weighed on him more.
Well, what can I do about it…?
Wasn't that simply how life worked? Nothing ever went quite the way you wanted.
It hurts… and I'm so tired….
If he closed his eyes now, would a new life begin? Or would he wander the darkness forever? He couldn't say. The only thing he knew for certain was that he would be free of this pain.
Hm?
Just then, a chill swept through his entire body.
And before him appeared an enormous azure dragon.
The creature wheeled powerfully through a boundless sea of emptiness, then abruptly came to a stop and turned to regard him in silence.
Its eyes betrayed no emotion whatsoever. And yet, strangely, Sanlong found he couldn't look away from those sapphire depths.
Hm…? Light?
Before long, a soft radiance began to bloom around the azure dragon, and little by little, the cold receded.
Hm?
His hand reached toward the dragon of its own accord.
Huh?
The instant that brilliant light poured into his body, everything before his eyes flared white.
"Gah!"
"Kyaa!"
The moment Sanlong jolted upright with a ragged gasp, a woman's scream rang out alongside him.
"Ugh…."
His whole body felt like it was being torn apart, but even so, his gaze snapped toward the source of the scream.
"Hk!"
At that instant, Sanlong forgot his pain entirely and sucked in a breath of cold air.
Seol Mokyeon had fallen to the ground and was rubbing her aching head—but the problem wasn't that she had fallen. It was what she was wearing. Or rather, what she wasn't.
"Ah… my head…."
"Y-you… y-yo… you—you!"
She had thrown an outer robe over herself, but beneath it, she was utterly bare.
How did he know? Because glimpses of bare skin kept slipping through the gaps of that thin robe—he didn't want to see, but he couldn't not see.
Confronted with scenery more stimulating than anything his previous life had ever offered him, Sanlong felt his tongue go numb.
"Uhhh… uwa… aaaah? Uuuh?"
Had he lost the ability to speak? His brain simply stopped.
"Achoo!"
Then a sudden chill ran through him, and Sanlong realized that he was naked too.
"You're awake?"
"Ah… aaah! Th-that… uh… um…."
"What's wrong? Ah… oh…."
A moment later, Seol Mokyeon glanced down at her own state of undress, and her face flushed crimson.
"First of all! I am not some shameless person! This is… yes, a form of emergency treatment! It's a familiar method in the freezing Ice Palace, and… and…."
The moment the North Sea Ice Essence had melted into Sanlong's body, she had done everything she could to keep his rapidly chilling frame from turning to ice—a desperate measure, a last resort. Nothing more.
"I'm sorry… it's just…."
As she stammered out her apology with her head bowed, Sanlong—who had been watching her quietly—suddenly began coughing with exaggerated force.
"Cough! Cough! Ah… it's so cold! I think I'm going to freeze to death like this!"
"Cold?"
"Body heat… need to maintain…."
"Got it!"
She hurried over, flustered, and wrapped her arms around him with practiced ease.
To throw herself so completely into saving a friend—her boundless heart came through in every inch of her embrace.
Eheheh!
Sanlong tried to suppress the sly smile that crept onto his face at the soft warmth against him, but keeping his expression in check was no easy task.
"Ah! Something long just touched me! I think it's a big snake!"
Seol Mokyeon jolted in surprise as something brushed against her.
Sanlong managed, barely, to keep his face composed and spoke in his most serious voice.
"Ahem… it's not a snake…."
"Oh… I see…."
A suffocating silence settled over them.
"That's… it's a physiological thing, so… ahem… please understand…. Sorry."
"It's fine. I understand… it's part of the treatment."
At this rate he was going to suffocate from sheer embarrassment, so Sanlong decided to change the subject.
"So… how exactly did we end up like this?"
In response to his question, Seol Mokyeon told him everything that had happened since the moment he lost consciousness, up until they arrived here.
"So you're saying… it's been three whole days since I collapsed?"
"Yes."
"That talisman was actually a fragment of the North Sea Ice Essence?"
"Yeah."
"And you fed it to me?"
"That's right."
"Hold on a second…."
Sanlong gently pushed Seol Mokyeon away, then slowly began to circulate his Ten Poisons Divine Art.
"…Huh?"
No—it was no longer the Ten Poisons Divine Art at all.
He didn't need anyone to explain it. This was the Hundred Poisons Divine Art. He had broken through to the Peak Realm.
No way! What is this!
Compared to the Ten Poisons Divine Art, his internal energy was gathering at more than twice the speed, and his dantian had doubled in size.
So this is… the world that Peak Realm masters see?
It felt like being born anew. It was a world of an entirely different order from when he'd been First-Rate.
To think Peak Realm was this much… then Transcendent Peak, and the Profound Realm… no wait, could anyone who actually reached the Profound Realm even be called human?
After circulating his energy for a while, Sanlong slowly exhaled.
"Hoo…."
"Are you feeling better now?"
…Actually, he was still a bit cold.
"No… I still feel kind of cold… cough! Cough!"
"Sanlong!"
And so, hiding the grin on his face, Sanlong sank back into Seol Mokyeon's cozy embrace.
This is paradise. I really didn't die, did I?
Every part of his body ached like he'd been beaten head to toe, so he was definitely alive.
The warmth was wonderful, but his instincts kept stirring, which made things difficult.
This is treatment… it's just treatment….
He tried hypnotizing himself, but his youthful, vigorous instincts kept undoing the suggestion.
Calm down….
"It's… a little awkward, isn't it?"
Just then, Seol Mokyeon's warm breath tickled his ear.
"A little?"
"It's just… this is the best way to maintain body heat, so… that's why. It's treatment! Just like how you'd do it… haha…."
She offered her own rationalizations, but she was an adult too—old enough to know exactly what was what.
"This kind of treatment is… well, not something I'd do for just anyone. I'm doing it because it's you… no, because we're friends… that's all. Your back… the muscles are torn open."
Her hands moved busily over his wounds.
"Thank you. Ahem!"
He wanted to keep savoring this warmth, but he had the sinking feeling that if this went on, he'd end up committing a truly terrible act. So Sanlong spoke up carefully.
"I think I'm warm enough now?"
"Really? Hold on."
Seol Mokyeon ran her hands over his body here and there, checking his temperature.
Sure enough, warmth had returned to his once ice-cold flesh—his body heat seemed to be back.
"What a relief…. I suppose the Ice Essence worked."
"But was it really all right? Using something that precious on me?"
"Nothing is more precious than a human life. And thanks to you, I was able to have my revenge too… though, well, in exchange… no, never mind."
It seemed she had something she wanted to say but was holding back. Leaving her to it, Sanlong asked,
"Where are my clothes?"
"I hung them over there. They were pretty heavy, you know?"
"I have to carry my hidden weapons and a secret blade around."
"You moved around wearing all that weight? No wonder your body… hm…."
Only after a good deal of time had passed since waking did Sanlong finally get dressed, at which point he finally had the presence of mind to take stock of his surroundings.
Whoooo.
The bleak winter wind of the open plain cooled his overheated body and flushed face.
"Are you all right, standing in wind like this? Even if you've broken through, you shouldn't push yourself."
Despite the flesh-cutting cold and nothing but a thin robe over her shoulders, Seol Mokyeon looked utterly unbothered. If anything, to her, this biting wind was probably no more than a spring breeze.
"How did you know?"
"The martial arts the Young Palace Master learns are a little special."
Seol Mokyeon pointed to her own eyes.
Her lake-blue gaze, like light shimmering off the surface of a lake, carried a mystique that drew you in the longer you looked.
"They're beautiful."
Sanlong's inner thoughts slipped out before he could stop them, and Seol Mokyeon's face went blank, as if someone had struck her over the head with a hammer.
"Uh… wha…?"
"Ah! Ah! Um… ahem! Haha! Look, I think there's something over there!"
"I-is that so?"
Deciding to pull himself together, Sanlong shook off the awkward air.
"By the way… is this the direction of the camp?"
"No… actually, we were heading toward the Ice Palace."
"The Ice Palace?"
"Yeah… on the way here…."
Seol Mokyeon explained that she had met a merchant on the road and learned that the Northern Blades, furious at having their home base raided, had blocked every route leading into Ming.
"So I was going to the Ice Palace first to send word to the camp, and once the blockade lifted a little, I'd send you on your way. Did I overstep, deciding all that on my own?"
"Overstep? It was perfectly reasonable. Looks like I'll get to see the Ice Palace sooner than I expected."
"W-well… haa…."
She seemed to have something more to say, but kept hesitating.
"What is it?"
"When we get there… there might be something rather… startling."
Startling enough to top seeing her naked? At her words, one possibility occurred to Sanlong.
Somehow, he had a feeling it was connected to the Ice Palace's treasure he'd swallowed—the North Sea Ice Essence.
"Th-that Ice Essence… it was expensive, wasn't it?"
Sanlong couldn't even begin to imagine what such a thing would cost. It had saved his life and raised his cultivation a full realm—no payment would be too much—but he couldn't help worrying.
"It's less that it's expensive, and more that my Ice Essence is a bit… special? No—unusual, I suppose."
"More concentrated internal energy?"
"Well…."
"Just say it straight. If I hear it out of nowhere at the Ice Palace, I'll be caught completely off guard."
At his insistence, Seol Mokyeon finally squeezed her eyes shut and blurted it out.
"The thing is… my Ice Essence is the kind you're supposed to give to your destined partner… the, um…."
"What?"
"I mean… it's an Ice Essence meant to be given to the person you marry…."
It was a blow harder than Oyangga cracking him over the back of the head. Sanlong found himself at a loss for words.
"D-did you attach that meaning to it? Or…?"
"Well…."
To summarize what Seol Mokyeon told him: an unmarried Young Palace Master, whether man or woman, carried with them an Ice Essence meant for the person they would one day marry.
It was, she said, a long-standing tradition of the Ice Palace.
"So… I ate it. That one."
"Yes… um… I was going to explain everything. I almost didn't tell you at all, because I thought if you knew, you'd insist on coming back to the camp no matter the cost… but I can't keep secrets from a friend."
"I'm sorry…."
He might have managed to shrug it off if he'd never known—but now that he'd heard it, it wasn't something he could simply let pass.
"Even though we… kissed, and…."
"When did we kiss…?"
"…When you'd passed out. I had to feed you the Ice Essence, so I…."
A first kiss he couldn't even remember! The one consolation was that it had been stolen by a beauty like Seol Mokyeon.
If anything, I should be grateful.
Then again, simply holding a conversation with a beauty like her was extraordinary in itself.
"Hm…."
Smack!
Sanlong slapped his own cheek for wasting his thoughts on such things.
"I… I see…."
"And even though it was for treatment, we… pressed our bare skin together, and…."
Somehow, the more she said, the stranger it all sounded.
She's got something more she wants to say, doesn't she?
Sanlong saw through it immediately—there was something she actually wanted to tell him.
Maybe it was that she wasn't very good at controlling her expressions? For all her cold looks, her face shifted like open weather.
"Mokyeon… you said it yourself, remember? We're friends. We have nothing to hide from each other."
"Yeah…."
"Tell me. Whatever it is you really want to say."
Realizing she had nowhere left to run, she finally made up her mind.
"Th-then—since it's come to this! Become my fiancé!"
"Huh?"
Stunned by the sudden confession, it took Seol Mokyeon a moment to gather herself before she spoke again.
"Ah! I cut out way too much of the beginning and end there, didn't I?"
"You… startled me a little."
"Well, you see…."
Her explanation went as follows.
Having come of age as the Young Palace Master, she was now expected to find a partner. Not yet ready to think about marriage, she had thrown up excuse after excuse.
"Eventually I said that if it had to happen, I would marry the strongest man among them. The threat of the Northern Blades was growing worse by the day, after all."
"You don't mean… one of those marriage tournaments, where the victor wins the bride?"
"Similar, but not quite—I don't have to beat me, just the other suitors. My mother had already sent word here and there, but then everything fell apart, so I managed to put it off… until now."
"So you have to go back. And that's why you want me—the man you chose, who bears the token of your choosing, the Ice Essence—to take part in it?"
At his words, Seol Mokyeon lowered her head.
"I'm sorry…. But feeding you the Ice Essence wasn't some scheme to make you do this for me. Please, don't misunderstand."
Misunderstand? If anything, he owed her his life—and thanks to the Ice Essence, his cultivation had climbed a full realm. This was a debt he had to repay.
"What kind of man wouldn't, for the one who saved his life? If anything, this lets me return the favor. Do you know the family precept of the Tang Clan?"
"No…."
"Grace is repaid twofold, and grudges tenfold. I'll pay back what I owe you—guaranteed."
"Really?"
"Of course."
Seol Mokyeon gazed quietly up at him with those lake-blue eyes as he grinned with easy confidence.