Nothing at All Is Happening (5)
The sled shot across the pure-white snowfield without the slightest hesitation.
He had not expected much from a dog-drawn sled, and yet seeing it slice forward at a far greater speed than he’d imagined was strangely impressive.
“Sago. These dogs are really fast.”
“They are.”
Even Yu I-seol, who was usually indifferent to everything, kept watching the dogs with curious eyes as they ran.
But there was one person who had no interest in any of it at all.
“Ughhh. I’m dying here!”
“……”
“I mean, come on! If it’s this windy, at least pitch a tent or something! What kind of sled has no cover on it? Are you people made of iron or what?”
“……”
Song Won’s face twitched with annoyance. He wanted to snap back and ask what kind of martial artist complained this much, but watching Chung Myung tremble nonstop as if he were truly freezing to death made the words die in his throat.
He really is an impossible one.
What was strange was that everyone else, aside from this bastard, was riding the sled with complete composure. There was no reason he should be especially different.
“We’re almost there, so bear with it a little longer.”
“How many times have you said that now?”
When Chung Myung answered irritably, Song Won finally snapped and shouted back.
“You’ve asked me five times in less than a quarter-hour! What else am I supposed to say? Just endure it!”
“I’m gonna freeze to death right now!”
“Grrr…”
Song Won clenched his jaw so hard it nearly cracked.
What the hell is wrong with this guy?
At this rate, he felt like he might collapse from rage before they even reached the mine.
What made it worse was that every time Chung Myung threw another fit, the weasel poking its head out and hissing along beside him only made the whole thing more unbearable.
Song Won gritted his teeth and urged the dogs onward. Reaching their destination as quickly as possible was the only solution.
“……Why does it keep getting colder the farther we go?”
“The place where the Ice Crystal is found is the most yin-filled region even in the North Sea. Of course it’s cold.”
“Isn’t it supposed to get colder the farther north you go? This doesn’t even feel like we’re heading north.”
“It’s a little different.”
The corner of Song Won’s mouth twisted faintly.
“You’ll see.”
Just then—
“Chung Myung, over there!”
Yoon Jong, riding on a sled to the side, shouted and pointed ahead.
“Huh?”
Chung Myung leaned far forward to look. Then his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
“Whoa. What the hell is that?”
What lay in his sight was a giant hole bored into the ground.
No—calling it a hole hardly did it justice. The cavern was far too massive for that. It was closer to a vast gorge, large enough to swallow several grand halls whole.
The disciples of Mount Hua fell speechless at the sight of the yawning void, its mouth gaping like the entrance to hell itself.
“That’s the mine where we dig out the Ice Crystal.”
The corner of Song Won’s mouth curled in cold amusement.
“……When you said mine, I thought you meant digging into a mountain.”
Chung Myung’s words voiced what everyone else was thinking. Who would have imagined that a mine for Ice Crystal would look like this?
Whiiiiiish!
From deep within the enormous pit, a bleak, ghostly wind moaned upward again and again.
“They dig the Ice Crystal down there?”
“Yes.”
“Looks dangerous.”
“It is extremely dangerous and grueling. Ordinary people can’t do it.”
Song Won jerked his chin toward the bottom of the gorge.
“The lower you go, the colder it gets, and the stronger the yin becomes. Ice Crystal can only be mined in an environment like that.”
The disciples of Mount Hua kept staring around with fascinated eyes at the snow-and-ice-covered surroundings. Men wrapped in thick furs were moving briskly here and there.
Chung Myung spoke in a light, almost casual voice.
“Let’s go.”
“Mm.”
The rest of the Mount Hua disciples, along with Hye Yeon, followed after him.
“……Now I get why Ice Crystal is so expensive.”
“Right?”
If it was something extracted in a place like this, then of course its price would be high—whether it was Ice Crystal or anything else.
“Come this way.”
Song Won led them toward the lip of the gorge.
The closer they got, the fiercer the wind became. And when they finally stood before the abyss, the bottomless pit seemed to spew darkness as if it meant to swallow them whole.
“We’ll be going down from here. Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll have to descend the cliff by rope, so be careful. If you slip and fall, you won’t even have bones left to collect.”
He had intended to scare them a little, but the Mount Hua disciples only nodded with bored expressions.
“……”
“It’s not a joke.”
“Yes, we know.”
“……”
Song Won frowned at their completely unexpected reaction.
Have they all gone mad?
Anyone seeing this cliff for the first time would usually go weak at the knees and be unable to stand properly. Yet these people showed only curiosity, not the slightest trace of fear.
The Mount Hua disciples craned their necks and peered down into the gorge, muttering to one another.
“Looks about half the height of Mount Hua’s cliffs.”
“No way. It looks that way because it’s so dark. Not even close to half.”
“You think so?”
“……”
Song Won stared at them in utter disbelief.
How could he know that these were people who trained by hauling boulders up cliffs?
For Mount Hua’s disciples, a cliff of this size was little different from a front yard.
“……Ahem. Well, in any case, be careful.”
Frowning, Song Won grabbed one of the ropes fixed to the cliff and began descending.
Both hands wrapped around the rope, feet planted firmly against the rock, he moved down one careful step at a time, every motion deliberate and cautious.
After descending for quite some time, he suddenly scowled and looked up. The Mount Hua disciples still had not followed him; they were standing above, staring down at him.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you coming down? There are plenty of ropes prepared, so just take another one.”
“……You mean we just go down?”
“Yes! As long as you don’t look only at the ground, you’ll be fine. Hurry up and come down!”
Baek Cheon turned to look at Chung Myung.
“Go?”
“Might as well.”
Nodding, Baek Cheon grabbed the rope in front of him.
“Everyone, follow me.”
“Yes!”
Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he launched himself toward the cliff.
“Wh—what!”
Song Won nearly lost his grip on the rope from sheer shock. But what was even more astonishing was that not only Baek Cheon, but the rest of the Mount Hua disciples and even the monk were all doing the same thing, each snatching a rope with one hand and hurling themselves down the cliff.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!
They raced down the cliff as though it were flat ground, descending faster and faster. It was a truly astonishing speed.
“……”
Song Won stared blankly at the Mount Hua disciples, who were already racing far ahead. Then a curt voice came from right beside him.
“Could you hurry up a little? Did you boil and eat a slug or something?”
“……”
“Tsk.”
Worse yet, Chung Myung was running down the cliff without even holding the rope. He even had the leisure to toss a remark while passing by.
Song Won, watching Chung Myung’s back vanish below, looked up at the sky with a dazed face.
I really can’t do this.
A short while later—
“Heave-ho.”
“……That took a while.”
“You ought to train harder.”
Song Won, now on the ground, desperately ignored the voices coming from both sides. Under normal circumstances, he would have snapped back at them, but in a situation like this, he had no words at all.
“……This is where we mine the Ice Crystal.”
“Changing the subject.”
“Leave him alone. He’d be embarrassed.”
The one who said that last was the most irritating of all.
That pale-faced bastard……
Just then, Jo Gul tucked both arms under his armpits and shivered violently.
“Sasuk, this place is no joke. I’ve been feeling this weird chill in my bones since a moment ago.”
“……I see.”
It wasn’t merely cold. The knife-like wind cutting into their bodies was stealing away their body heat, and beneath it all was a strange, gloomy force pressing in to the very marrow of their bones.
So this is what they mean when they say the yin is strong.
If a person were exposed to this kind of environment for long, their body would be ruined in no time.
“To mine Ice Crystal here……”
Looking up, the sky seemed tiny, as if they were peering out from the bottom of a well. Along the two sides of the long, split gorge, hundreds of caves of all sizes had been gouged into the rock.
So this is a mine dug out by human hands.
To think they carved through a place like this, searching for Ice Crystal……
It was harsher than he had imagined.
“They must have it rough.”
Among the workers wrapped in animal hides, there were people in the Ice Palace’s martial uniforms moving around like supervisors. It seemed the laborers and martial artists were working together to extract the Ice Crystal.
“Ah! Over there!”
Jo Gul, who had been looking around nonstop, suddenly pointed somewhere as if he had spotted something.
One of the laborers heading toward the caves swayed, exhausted, then collapsed to the ground. A martial artist from the Ice Palace who had been overseeing him rushed over in a panic.
“We should help them……”
Baek Cheon, speaking with concern, suddenly widened his eyes.
“You bastard!”
Swish!
The Ice Palace martial artist suddenly pulled a whip from inside his sleeve and began lashing the fallen laborer mercilessly.
“W-what are you doing!”
Baek Cheon couldn’t finish his sentence from the shock.
Even though the laborer was already sprawled on the ground and writhing, the Ice Palace martial artist showed no mercy and continued striking him over and over.
“How dare you slack off!”
Crack! Crack!
Each time the whip cut through the air, the laborer’s clothes split open in jagged strips, soaking dark red with blood.
“Hey—!”
As Baek Cheon started to rush forward, Song Won quietly stretched out a hand and blocked him.
“Don’t act rashly.”
Baek Cheon glanced at the hand barring his way, then glared at Song Won with a fierce expression.
“What on earth is he doing? That man doesn’t seem to have done anything wrong!”
“That isn’t for you to judge.”
Even after hearing the answer, Baek Cheon still did not relax, so Song Won clicked his tongue lightly.
“You clearly didn’t understand what I said. Didn’t I tell you? Ordinary people can’t work in this place.”
“……What do you mean?”
He nodded toward the laborers.
“They aren’t ordinary laborers. They’re people who committed crimes against the Ice Palace and are paying for them through hard labor.”
Baek Cheon looked over the workers again, more carefully this time.
From a distance, he hadn’t noticed, but now that he saw them properly, they all looked utterly worn out.
“What kind of crimes could they have committed……”
“Rebellion.”
At that short answer, delivered without hesitation, Baek Cheon fell silent.
“There were others, too.”
The gazes of the Mount Hua disciples and Hye Yeon shifted to the workers…… no, to the prisoners.
Their faces were deathly pale, their eyes dull and listless, their gaunt bodies barely concealed by their thick clothing.
They were all walking on as if they might collapse at any moment.
Just as Baek Cheon was losing his footing, unsure what to say, Chung Myung spoke with complete indifference.
“So they’re all martial artists?”
Song Won’s eyes flickered with surprise. Chung Myung shrugged.
“Their inner power’s been sealed, though.”
“……Correct.”
“Hmph.”
Chung Myung looked around with clear interest.
Rebellion, huh.
In truth, the one who had rebelled was the current palace lord. Which meant the people laboring here were those who had followed the former palace lord.
Either they had been defeated and captured on the day of the uprising, or they had resisted afterward and been crushed.
So the Ice Palace is completely under control, and they’ve dumped every opponent down here.
Those who had been captured were here, while those who had escaped, like Han Yi-myung, would be hiding somewhere, wandering the North Sea all this time.
Yoon Jong spoke in a low voice.
“However guilty they may be, isn’t this treatment a little too cruel?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But Song Won cut him off firmly.
“These are people who should have atoned for their crimes with their lives. But Palace Lord showed mercy and granted them a chance to redeem themselves through labor.”
“……”
“So there’s no reason to pity them.”
Yoon Jong looked as if he wanted to say more, but after seeing Jo Gul tugging at his sleeve with warning eyes, he finally shook his head.
It was true that it was rude to interfere in another faction’s affairs.
“Does it seem harsh?”
“Honestly, yes.”
When Yoon Jong answered with a stiff expression, Song Won smirked.
“Ice Crystal is something that must be mined while enduring the most extreme yin. If we didn’t do it this way, it would be hard to obtain.”
“Still……”
When Yoon Jong tried to object, Song Won smiled thinly.
“You came here for Ice Crystal too, didn’t you?”
“……”
“Interesting. People who traveled all this way to the far North Sea for Ice Crystal are pitying the very ones who mine it. If there were no people like you wanting Ice Crystal, these men might already be free, no?”
At the open mockery, Jo Gul stiffened his face.
“That’s……”
But he couldn’t find the words to answer.
Song Won shook his head and said,
“If they look that pitiful to you, why don’t you help with the work yourselves? Mining has dropped, so their labor hours have only grown longer. If you can mine even one piece of Ice Crystal, maybe they’ll have it a little easier.”
Then Chung Myung, who had been listening quietly, let out a snort.
“How much do we need to dig up?”
“……What did you say?”
“You’re not the type to say one thing and mean another, are you? Go fetch the person in charge. I need to hear how much we’d have to mine before these people get to rest.”
Chung Myung curled the corners of his mouth in a grin.
“I’ll wipe out every last scrap of Ice Crystal for you.”
At that brazenly confident voice, Song Won couldn’t help frowning.