Baek Jin-ah
There was still a little time left before dawn.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
"Uncle-disciple! Are you awake? I'm coming in!"
Mae Yeong-ok didn’t even wait for an answer. She flung the door open and strode into the lodging where Byeokunja was staying.
"Hey, you! If you were just going to barge in, why did you ask in the first place?"
"You were awake, so what’s the problem? Anyway, get up! Let’s go!"
"Really now—ugh. With a temper like yours, is it any wonder no man ever liked you?"
Byeokunja blurted it out, then immediately felt a chill run down his spine.
Oh, no. You idiot. There are some things you just don’t say.
A moment ago, Mae Yeong-ok had been blazing hot like a furnace.
But now she seemed to be radiating an aura as cold as Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Crystal.
"...I’ll get ready quickly. Go on out for a bit."
Knowing he’d misspoken, Byeokunja obediently complied, and Mae Yeong-ok, not wanting to make a bigger fuss at least over her own uncle-disciple, quietly turned and left.
Watching that, Byeokunja silently dressed himself, worrying about how on earth he was supposed to soothe that girl’s mood.
After they stepped outside, Byeokunja and Mae Yeong-ok set off together.
Byeokunja kept sneaking glances at Mae Yeong-ok before finally saying, very carefully, "But, Yeong-ok."
"What is it?"
"Are we going straight to the Jegal Clan Manor? Wouldn’t it be better to find that child from the Ice Palace first?"
Mae Yeong-ok stared at him for a long moment.
Eyes utterly devoid of emotion.
Byeokunja once again thought hard about what he should do to cool off his niece-disciple’s temper.
"Then let’s do that."
Fortunately, even for Mae Yeong-ok in a foul mood, Byeokunja’s suggestion was flawless.
There was nothing to do at the Jegal Clan Manor anyway except interrogate the child.
Better to bring them both in, confront them together, and hear the whole story at once.
So Mae Yeong-ok took the lead, and Byeokunja quietly followed behind her.
Once they had left Kaifeng, the two of them pushed their lightness skill to the limit and flew across the sky.
The distance from Kaifeng to Luoyang was more than 450 li.
Roughly 180 kilometers. In Korea, it’d be like being able to see the East Sea from Seoul.
But the two of them arrived before midday, looking as though they hadn’t even worked up a sweat.
They seemed so at ease that you could almost believe they’d spent the morning drinking tea and chatting.
In any case, Mae Yeong-ok boldly took the lead and headed for a guesthouse.
And not long after, she came back out and scanned the surroundings with her usual icy expression.
Then, spotting the person she’d been looking for, she strode over in long, decisive steps.
Following behind her, Byeokunja silently offered a moment of mourning to the beggar asleep in the shade up ahead.
Thwack.
At Mae Yeong-ok’s rough kick, the beggar with two knots tied to his waistband rolled across the ground, then snapped his head up and shouted in outrage.
"Hey! What kind of bastard kicks a sleeping beggar like that—... Huh? N-old hag!? N-no, wait! Th-Thorny Immortal!?"
Byeokunja squeezed his eyes shut.
Ai, you poor beggar. You really should’ve chosen your words more carefully.
Even he didn’t use the term "old hag" to her, no matter what.
But contrary to Byeokunja’s expectations, Mae Yeong-ok did not continue kicking him.
She simply said in a cold voice, "The child from the Ice Palace. Where did she go?"
"T-the Ice Palace!? I, I don’t know that part... "
"What’s the point of a useless beggar who doesn’t know anything!"
Mae Yeong-ok, her anger flaring anew, stepped forward and, with a sharp thud, kicked the Beggars' Sect junior disciple in the leg.
It was a marvelous display of skill—inflicting severe pain without harming the bones or muscles at all.
After kicking him a few more times, she still hadn’t fully vented her anger, but she spoke again in that same frigid voice.
"Let’s go to the branch chief. Now."
The junior disciple scrambled to his feet, limping, and hurriedly took the lead.
When the junior disciple, Mae Yeong-ok, and Byeokunja reached the bridge, a third junior disciple came running from ahead, dropped to the ground in a full bow, and blurted out, "The, the young lady from North Sea Ice Palace that Thorny Immortal is looking for left Luoyang yesterday and headed northeast! She should probably be around the Alliance Leader’s area by now!"
If he was a third junior disciple of the Beggars' Sect, he was a branch chief, and a branch chief in Luoyang had enough road-grit to survive on the streets.
Maybe that was why he answered before even being asked, offering Mae Yeong-ok exactly the reply she wanted.
True expertise, honed by years of beatings and begging. Truly a model beggar’s social skills.
"Let’s go! Uncle-disciple!"
Perhaps because her mood had improved a little, Mae Yeong-ok said nothing more and simply turned around.
Byeokunja took out a few coins, tossed them to the junior disciple who’d been kicked earlier and to the one who’d handled himself well, then sent a brief telepathic message.
I’d like to buy you steamed buns, at least, but I’m in a hurry. I’ll be off now.
Seeing that, the two beggars felt many things.
Even the famously foul-tempered Byeokunja became one of Jongnam’s elders before the Thorny Immortal... was what they realized.
In any case, Mae Yeong-ok and Byeokunja found the person they were looking for by shaking down beggars along the way.
Baek Jin-ah.
A woman from North Sea Ice Palace.
A woman with pure white hair, blue eyes, and extraordinary beauty.
Baek Jin-ah felt a familiar presence and turned around.
She could see a woman approaching from far away as though she were flying, with an old man behind her.
"Baek Jin-ah of North Sea Ice Palace greets Senior Thorny Immortal again. And..."
"The person behind me is called Byeokunja. He’s my uncle-disciple."
"Ah! Baek Jin-ah of North Sea Ice Palace greets Senior Sword Venerable Byeokunja."
A polite greeting. Looking at Baek Jin-ah, Byeokunja was genuinely startled.
"Ho. How can you look so much alike?"
"Pardon?"
"No, never mind. You’ll understand soon enough."
With that, Byeokunja fell silent, and Mae Yeong-ok spoke at once.
"Jin-ah. I know you’re busy, but you need to come with me to the Jegal Clan Manor right now."
"To the Jegal Clan Manor? Is there perhaps something there that I’m looking for?"
"No. If you want to clear your suspicions, that’s what must be done."
"My... suspicions?"
"I’ll explain on the way. We don’t have time to stand here."
Baek Jin-ah had spent the last few days with Mae Yeong-ok, so she knew exactly what kind of woman she was.
Besides, she had learned that however brusque and eccentric she might be, she never spoke nonsense.
In other words, this was not something she could refuse.
"Understood. I’ll do as you say."
Mae Yeong-ok nodded and turned on her heel immediately.
Byeokunja was dissatisfied with the fact that she was always in such a rush and never even seemed to rest, but since Baek Jin-ah was coming with them, he figured they could take things a little more leisurely and didn’t bother voicing his complaint.
Indeed, Baek Jin-ah’s cultivation was nowhere near theirs, so the three of them had no choice but to slow down somewhat.
Moreover, the road from the northeast of Luoyang to Xiangyang, where the Jegal Clan Manor stood, was more than eight hundred li.
Even if Baek Jin-ah used her internal energy and lightness skill, it wasn’t a distance she could cover all at once.
So they traveled for two and a half days.
Mae Yeong-ok had wanted to arrive within two days, but since that wasn’t possible, she had no choice but to spend one night in a place a little short of the manor.
And once again, they departed before dawn and only reached the Jegal Clan Manor in the late morning.
The Jegal clan head was startled to see Byeokunja, Mae Yeong-ok, and Baek Jin-ah suddenly arriving at the manor.
It was surprising enough that Byeokunja and Mae Yeong-ok had appeared without prior arrangement.
But wasn’t the young woman with them an exact match for the girl named Baek Harin, who had arrived here yesterday?
"What on earth is going on? And is that young lady, by any chance, from North Sea Ice Palace?"
"That’s right. I apologize for dropping in so suddenly without so much as a word. Clan Head. Please understand; this is urgent. By any chance, hasn’t a child with white hair and blue eyes come here? I came after hearing that she’d arrived with the Paeng family child and the Moyong family child."
At Mae Yeong-ok’s words, the Jegal clan head, though he didn’t know the situation, decided it must be urgent and spoke frankly.
"She has. She came yesterday. But what is this about?"
"Then please call that child first."
The Jegal clan head clasped his hands behind his back, looking faintly displeased, and spoke in a stern voice.
"Listen here, Thorny Immortal. I’d be willing to overlook your rudeness since it seems you’re in a rush, but this is the Jegal Clan Manor. How can you expect me to call our honored guest here and there without even explaining the matter?"
Then even the fiery Mae Yeong-ok realized she had overstepped and corrected her posture. She cleared her throat before speaking.
"I have been discourteous to you, Clan Head. I apologize for that. But I want to make it clear that I did not mean to slight you—only that the matter is so urgent."
"That may well be. Very well. It seems I should first hear the full story after you come inside. Senior, please come in. Thorny Immortal, you as well. And the child there too."
So the Jegal clan head led the three of them inside and soon heard the full explanation from Mae Yeong-ok.
"Hmm. I understand. Ah, but before that... the young lady with you. Was it Baek Jin-ah?"
"Yes, Clan Head."
"By any chance, is this what you were looking for?"
The Jegal clan head produced the manual for the Ice Soul Divine Art, and Baek Jin-ah’s eyes widened as she snatched it up.
She quickly skimmed the contents, and then, her hands trembling, answered, "Y-yes! How did this object end up here!?"
"You’d be better off hearing that directly from the child you all came looking for. Wait a moment. I’ll have someone bring her here. Is anyone outside?"
"Yes, Clan Head! This is Seongjin!"
"Good! Go and tell the young lady Baek to come here!"
"Y-yes, sir! Understood!"
They heard the sound of Jegal Seongjin receding into the distance, and Baek Jin-ah still clutched the Ice Soul Divine Art tightly, wearing a look that said she couldn’t understand the situation at all.
And the same went for Byeokunja and Mae Yeong-ok. No, they wore expressions that said: Why is the Ice Soul Divine Art here?
And then, a short while later, they heard two people approaching from outside, followed by Jegal Seongjin’s voice.
"Clan Head. I’ve brought the young lady Baek."
"Tell her to come in."
As the door opened, a woman stepped into the room, then froze with her eyes going wide.
And Baek Jin-ah saw that woman too, and her expression turned even more shocked than it had when she first saw the manual for the Ice Soul Divine Art.