What Did They Just Go and Poke? (4)
“The Ice Palace?!”
“They’re really coming.”
The crowd swallowed hard and fixed their eyes on the mountain gate.
The North Sea Ice Palace—one of the Five Outer Palaces, along with the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace—and a ruler among kings in the far North Sea. At last, after crossing an impossible distance and an even more impossible span of time, they had revealed themselves here on Mount Hua.
It was already common knowledge that the North Sea Ice Palace had taken up residence in the Heavenly Alliance. But merely standing together was one thing; the Ice Palace’s people personally making the journey all the way here from the distant North Sea carried an entirely different weight.
Expectant gazes poured over them for a moment, and then the warriors of the North Sea Ice Palace appeared, walking in from the path that had been opened to the left and right.
“……Oh.”
“T-those people are from the Ice Palace…….”
No one could even breathe loudly, let alone speak.
The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace’s arrival had been shocking, but not overbearing. It had only been unusual, novel, and fascinating.
But the feeling that radiated from the North Sea Ice Palace’s warriors was entirely different.
They’re completely honed to the bone.
Those are the famous swordsmen of the North Sea…….
The Ice Palace’s swordsmen were renowned for being as cold and sharp as the North Sea’s frigid wind. And the disciples gathered here today were proving that reputation with their own bodies.
Warriors dressed in white, their faces as cold as ice, advanced in perfectly aligned ranks, enough to make even those who had set aside their feelings about the North Sea stop and stare in admiration first.
Because they had been so long cut off from the Central Plains, some had wondered whether it was really justified for one of the Five Outer Palaces to be spoken of in the same breath as the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families. But if those people saw the North Sea Ice Palace now, they would have no choice but to nod in agreement.
Step. Step. Step. Step.
Their footfalls were disciplined and exact.
They looked less like a group arriving for a friendly ceremony than an army marching into war. Naturally, tension settled over the faces of everyone watching.
But then—
“Chung Myung dojaniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim!”
“Huh?”
At the sudden shout, the crowd tilted their heads in confusion.
“A kid?”
“Why is there a kid over there?”
From among the lined-up warriors, a boy with an still-youthful face suddenly sprang out and dashed full tilt into the mountain gate.
“P-Palace Lord! You have to keep some dignity, I told you……!”
And behind the boy, a middle-aged man followed in a panic.
What is this?
Everyone was thrown off by the completely unexpected turn of events, and all eyes swung that way, but the boy didn’t seem to notice the stares of the crowd at all.
He ran straight ahead, then came to an abrupt stop in front of one person.
“Haa…… hhk, huu……! Chung Myung dojanim!”
“…….”
Seeing Seol So-baek standing before him with his face flushed from exertion, Chung Myung gave a snort of laughter.
“You seem to have gotten taller?”
“Yes, Dojanim!”
“What, you came all the way out here yourself for no reason? You could’ve just sent people.”
“I tried to stop him, too.”
Han Yi-myung, who had followed behind, let out a deep sigh.
“I told him it was enough for only me to come, but the Palace Lord said he wanted to see Mount Hua with his own eyes…….”
Seol So-baek turned sharply toward Han Yi-myung, then spoke with complete seriousness.
“How can I discuss a matter that will last a hundred years, that will cross into a thousand, without first seeing for myself what kind of sect stands beside us?”
Seeing that, Chung Myung offered his honest assessment.
“……Your mouth’s gotten slick.”
Real polished, too.
“It’s truly good to see you again, Dojanim!”
“Yeah, yeah. You must’ve had a rough trip.”
Chung Myung grinned and pointed toward the back.
“But I think there’s something else you should handle first?”
“Ah! That person……!”
Seol So-baek nodded as if he understood. After waiting a moment for the swordsmen in the rear to all enter the mountain gate, he stepped forward and headed toward Hyun Jong.
At that, Tang Gun-ak and Maeng So quietly shifted aside. They had realized this was a moment when the Ice Palace and Mount Hua needed to exchange greetings on their own.
Hyun Jong smiled a little awkwardly, but Seol So-baek soon stood before him and bowed deeply with clasped fists.
“Seol So-baek, Palace Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace, greets the Sect Leader of the grand Mount Hua Sect!”
“Welcome, Palace Lord. I have heard much about you.”
Hyun Jong looked at Seol So-baek with warm eyes.
“You have come such a long way from beyond the seas. I can only imagine how arduous the journey was. That you have come here yourself to honor us, I truly do not know how to express my gratitude.”
“Not at all, Sect Leader!”
Seol So-baek lifted his head at once and spoke stoutly.
“Compared to the grace Mount Hua has shown the North Sea, coming here in person can hardly be called hardship.”
He paused for a moment, then glanced subtly back at Han Yi-myung.
Han Yi-myung gave a tiny nod, as though to say, This is the moment.
“First…….”
Seol So-baek drew a breath and said sharply,
“The North Sea has received a great debt from Mount Hua. Thanks to the Sect Leader sending Mount Hua’s Five Swords to the North Sea, we were able to settle the chaos there and save the people. Even Mount Hua’s noble spirit in giving up your own food to help the North Sea’s people is still spoken of there to this day!”
Chung Myung flinched slightly and looked at Han Yi-myung, who wore the faintest of smiles, not quite there and not quite gone.
He coached him.
That old man, seriously……. Ah, hell.
“And furthermore!”
As though he still had more prepared words left, Seol So-baek cried out in a voice that was just a little awkward. Anyone who knew him well would have caught it, but most of the people here were seeing him for the first time and had no idea what seemed strange.
“Above all, the North Sea will never forget that it was able to stop the wretched schemes of the Demonic Sect with Mount Hua’s help.”
At that, those listening nearby stared at one another blankly.
“Why is the Demonic Sect being mentioned here?”
The Demonic Sect.
They might not have heard anything else clearly, but they heard that much distinctly. Anyone who lived in the Jianghu could not miss that word.
“The Demonic Sect appeared in the North Sea?”
“Mount Hua helped the Ice Palace stop them?”
“That Demonic Sect?”
“Well, some remnant of them, probably.”
“No, no, hold on! Even if it was only remnants, stopping the Demonic Sect would be an enormous achievement! Why wasn’t that ever reported in the Central Plains?”
“……Because the people of the North Sea never came into the Central Plains and never had any contact with Central Plains people. Even if they wanted to tell someone, there was never a chance.”
“Then Mount Hua did something that huge and never once bragged about it?”
“W-well, that can’t be the point, can it?”
Everyone looked back and forth between Hyun Jong and Seol So-baek with disbelief.
It was hard to believe.
But no matter how young he looked, Seol So-baek was still the Palace Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace. He wouldn’t lie like that in front of so many people.
Besides, didn’t Han Yi-myung and the Ice Palace swordsmen behind him, all cutting, blade-like presence, lend Seol So-baek the dignity he lacked on his own?
“No matter how much a Daoist should not flaunt his deeds, heavens…… to accomplish something like that and never say a word about it.”
“If the Ice Palace Lord hadn’t said it himself, we’d never have known.”
“Amazing. Truly amazing.”
Hearing the whispering all around them, Seol So-baek’s shoulders straightened with pride.
“The North Sea never forgets a kindness. Everyone in the North Sea will carry this matter in their hearts and repay Mount Hua’s grace.”
As Seol So-baek bowed again, Hyun Jong reached out and took his hands. Then he smiled warmly.
“From what I have heard…….”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“Your disciples and the people of the Ice Palace have become friends, have they not?”
“Yes, Sect Leader. We would be honored to call ourselves friends of Mount Hua.”
Hyun Jong nodded.
“Then all this talk of debts is meaningless. What use is such a word between people who truly trust one another and share a bond of friendship?”
“Sect Leader…….”
“You are very welcome. Truly, very welcome.”
Seol So-baek had been staring at him somewhat dazedly, but then he broke into a bright smile. Hyun Jong gently drew him inward.
“Come inside. I imagine there are many things we must discuss.”
When Seol So-baek glanced back, Han Yi-myung nodded.
“Go on, Palace Lord. Leave the matters outside to me.”
“Then I’ll rely on you, Chief Officer.”
“This way.”
Hyun Jong, Tang Gun-ak, Maeng So, and Seol So-baek walked off together, exchanging cordial conversation as they headed toward the Sect Leader’s quarters.
Even after they had vanished from sight, the crowd still had not recovered from the shock.
Of course, that was only possible for those who had come with no particular purpose. Those who had come to Mount Hua with intentions of their own were whispering with hard faces.
“Elder. The bond between Mount Hua and the outer sects seems stronger than expected.”
“……So it does.”
Frowning, Pang-ak looked toward the Sect Leader’s quarters.
The Heavenly Alliance was an extremely unusual thing.
Mount Hua, once one of the Nine Great Sects; the Sichuan Tang Family, one of the Five Great Families; and then the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace and the North Sea Ice Palace, both among the Five Outer Palaces.
The Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families were not exactly enemies, but neither were they especially warm toward one another. And as for the Five Outer Palaces, no one would have found it strange to call their relationship with the Central Plains one of dog and cat.
Yet the sects belonging to those three powers had gathered to form a single alliance.
I thought the trade routes linking Yunnan, the Central Plains, and the North Sea were the core of this alliance.
Money could even move ghosts. If the profits were big enough, there was no reason sworn enemies couldn’t clasp hands.
So he had assumed the Heavenly Alliance had been formed along those same lines.
But anyone who had watched the situation unfold now had to revise that thought entirely.
“So it wasn’t the Tang Family using Mount Hua as a figurehead. Mount Hua really is the center of the Heavenly Alliance.”
That was a much bigger matter than he had expected.
Those who gathered for profit abandoned one another without hesitation the moment the profits dried up. But those who gathered through loyalty did not turn their backs when trouble came.
“Send word back to the main sect. It seems we’ll have to report this situation.”
“Yes!”
After giving the order, Pang-ak listened closely. By now, the crowd had come to its senses, and everyone was raising their voices over the matter.
“So if that Beast Palace Lord is right, then in the past Mount Hua’s Plum Blossom Sword Saint saved Yunnan?”
“Nonsense. How could something like that be true? How would the people of Yunnan know about some event even we didn’t know?”
“What idiot said that? If it wasn’t even certain, would the Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace have bowed so respectfully to Mount Hua’s Sect Leader?”
“……Wasn’t it just for show?”
“The Beast Palace bowing to Mount Hua just to put on a show? What on earth does the Beast Palace lack compared to Mount Hua?”
“W-well, that’s true, but…….”
“The Beast Palace is a sect that never forgot a grudge even while starving to death. That’s why they severed trade with the Central Plains for nearly a hundred years! And you think a sect like that would lie and bow before others just for profit? Don’t be ridiculous!”
“……Then that means all of it is true. If so, what kind of person was that Plum Blossom Sword Saint?”
Some were busy talking about the Plum Blossom Sword Saint.
“The Demonic Sect…… My heavens, there were still remnants of the Demonic Sect left?”
“I don’t know about the Central Plains, but for the North Sea, that would make sense. Isn’t the North Sea famously vast?”
“Even if they were remnants, they were the Demonic Sect! Dealing with the Demonic Sect’s remnants is an incredible feat! And they kept their mouths shut about it until now?”
“It’s Mount Hua! It’s the same sect that destroyed the Dae-byeol Bandit Band of the Green Forest and then gave away all the spoils to the people nearby!”
“Hahaha…… So that’s what chivalry is. In this world?”
After hearing all the murmuring, Pang-ak let out a low sigh.
It looks like the news will spread like wildfire.
Neither the Beast Palace’s words nor the Ice Palace’s words were the sort people could ignore.
The people gathered here were either senior figures from each sect or the sort who cared so much about Jianghu affairs that they’d traveled when they had no real need to come.
And if all those people had heard it, then what kind of storm would follow?
If this was arranged to exploit that situation…….
Pang-ak’s gaze shot fiercely toward the Sect Leader’s quarters.
Mount Hua is a much more frightening sect than I thought…… No, I should say the Heavenly Alliance is a much more frightening place than I thought.
He would have to revise his evaluation of the Heavenly Alliance entirely.
“Heeheeheeheehee.”
“…….”
Then, unexpectedly, a laugh utterly out of place for the moment reached his ears, and Pang-ak turned his head slightly.
Mount Hua Divine Dragon was snickering with a face so wicked it seemed almost evil.
“This is why people ought to live honestly, you know. Heeheeheehee.”
“…….”
For some reason, Pang-ak felt inexplicably irritated.