Chapter 551: The Demon Realm (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 551: The Demon Realm (6)
Northern King Yelu.
An absolute powerhouse who had suddenly manifested in this harsh land.
He was a being who had only recently begun to draw the attention of the other Northern Kings. A powerhouse of unknown origin, he had captured Yeokru Fortress and then, without any warning or provocation, marched straight upon Chigeuk Fortress.
The Lord of Chigeuk Fortress had received this news in an unexpected place. It hadn't come from the North Sea Ice Palace Master herself, but from a man who, until recently, had been nothing more than one of her countless concubines.
Had it not been for the Ice Palace Master's presence, that man would have been reduced to a flattened lump of bloody flesh with a mere slap—just like the mangled corpse fragments currently scattered around them.
"..."
Yet, King Chigeuk's transparent body did not move an inch. The same went for her face, obscured behind a veil of pitch-black silk.
This was the crushing silence of a being who had once completely demolished the Western Great Wall alongside the Fighting God.
At that moment, a voice boldly pierced the inscrutable atmosphere.
"I guess you didn't know?"
The question carried a hint of laughter.
The man who spoke strolled over from afar with long, easy strides, slowly revealing his appearance. He wore the yellow-brown mist unique to the northern wilderness like a loose robe, a frozen petal clamped between his teeth like an icicle. Faint shadows lingered beneath his eyes.
Yet, unlike the other leaders of the North Sea Ice Palace, he wore no fur. Instead, much like a dweller of the Western Regions' great deserts, he wore a sleeveless top, leaving the bare muscles of his arms exposed despite the dead of the northern winter.
It was the woman beside him whose collar was lined with thick white fur. She was the true master of the Ice Palace's Lazy Flame Dragon. She had descended from frost-laden waters so frigid they made even the north feel like the south.
"I didn't kill him. Consider it a returned favor for the gift of friendship you offered us." The woman spoke nonchalantly, as if granting immense mercy. With a slight tilt of her chin, she gestured toward the young man—the Son-in-law of Chigeuk—whose body was dusted with faint shards of ice. "Am I being too generous?"
She was the Great Palace Master of the Ice Palace.
Though widely renowned as the North Sea Ice Palace Master, her appearance was strikingly bizarre.
It started with her black hair, which cascaded down to her ankles like a silken banner, and her blue eyes, which shone like precious gems. She shared these traits with the Lord of the Immortal Wood Spirit of the Desolate Fortress, who was also famous for her ice arts.
The difference lay in her facial features. She bore a much stronger resemblance to the colored-eye people of the Western Regions than any ordinary Brightfolk. The contours of the Great Palace Master's eyes, nose, and mouth were exceptionally sharp and deeply set.
With such a face and her snow-white skin, she somewhat resembled the portrait of the Lord of the Wish-Fulfilling Spring of the Desolate Fortress.
Even so, she matched the Lazy Flame Dragon perfectly, exuding a strong sense of temperamental harmony. The way she currently looked down at the frozen Son-in-law of Chigeuk—as if he were an utterly insignificant insect—was proof of that.
The Lazy Flame Dragon chuckled. "That's a bit harsh. Not just anyone can withstand the winds of the North Sea. You could have left him to me."
"My consort has other matters to attend to," she replied.
Whoosh!
A chilly wind blew.
In an instant, the Lazy Flame Dragon's head jerked to the side. Before he knew it, an unseen force had compelled his gaze downward, fixing it upon the Ice Palace Master's abdomen.
It was a Void Grab born from Cold Ice Energy.
Its power was world-shaking.
"Ah."
The Lazy Flame Dragon let out a low exclamation. For a split second, a complex emotion flickered in his eyes, but by the time he raised his head again, it had vanished without a trace.
"So," he drawled, "did you call me here to hunt down this Northern King Yelu fellow?"
However, King Chigeuk kept her eyes fixed solely on the Ice Palace Master, completely ignoring the Lazy Flame Dragon. It was as if he wasn't even worth addressing. This was not an intentional snub, but rather the inherent dignity of a Northern King emanating naturally from her transparent body.
"Get up," King Chigeuk commanded.
It was an order uttered without any apparent context.
At that moment, an anomaly occurred within her son-in-law. A transparent energy seeped from the Son-in-law of Chigeuk's entire body, shimmering like water ripples.
It was the Heavenly Silk Light Armor.
Crack!
With the sound of shattering ice, the white frost enveloping his body burst into pieces. A sudden gust of cold wind swept outward, brushing past the Lazy Flame Dragon's face and disheveling his hair.
He had shattered the freezing effect of a peerless ice art through his own sheer strength.
Immediately after, the Son-in-law of Chigeuk made a great fuss, sighing dramatically.
"I almost had my meridians frozen solid! Do you know how many acupoints are in the human body? Trying to cover them all with the Heavenly Silk Light Armor gave me a massive headache. I really almost died! My King, the Ice Palace Master definitely didn't hold back in the slightest."
"If you had died from that, you would have proven yourself unworthy of being a lord. Your status as my son-in-law would have been stripped away as well."
King Chigeuk's response was flat. Before anyone realized it, she was using Void Grab to scoop up blood from a nearby pool, painting her transparent body with the crimson fluid once more. It was an attitude that prioritized her own affairs above all else, completely disregarding the guests before her.
"...The Fighting God's martial arts?" the Ice Palace Master murmured with interest. It was a question spoken mostly to herself, but the Lazy Flame Dragon beside her nodded.
"They call it Heavenly Silk something-or-other."
No one marveled at the Son-in-law of Chigeuk's exquisite manipulation of his Body Protection Qi. Even if it was a feat born from the combination of a divine art and sheer genius, there was no one present who could not achieve the exact same result given an equivalent accumulation of Qi.
King Chigeuk and the Son-in-law of Chigeuk.
The North Sea Ice Palace Master and her First Consort.
A Northern King and an absolute powerhouse of equivalent rank had met, each accompanied by their subordinate lords. Whether this meeting would end in an alliance or a clash, it was an event bound to draw the intense gaze of the world.
With the Fighting God's whereabouts currently unknown, every single move made by the Northern Kings—who had finally broken free from his influence—was of paramount interest to the entire world.
Wuuuung!
From the moment they stood fully facing each other, a thick dust storm began to churn wildly around them.
Heat and cold violently clashed within the maelstrom, causing sporadic, rumbling explosions. Meanwhile, the irregular energy waves unique to the Fighting God Martial Pulse overlapped repeatedly, distorting the surrounding space.
It was a scene of absolute pandemonium.
At the same time, the Lazy Flame Dragon was clearly contributing to this atmospheric anomaly—enough to make the Son-in-law of Chigeuk brush the frost off his shoulders and chuckle softly.
"I misjudged you."
"What?"
"If Hocheon Fortress is rebuilt, you are more than capable of becoming its lord. Yes, you possess the vessel of a ruler. You are fit to hold a fortress in our land."
"I have nothing more to hold. Except for my wife."
"..."
At the Lazy Flame Dragon's words, the corners of the Great Palace Master's mouth twitched into a very faint smile. Against her snow-white skin, her dimples stood out prominently.
It was the smile of a monster.
Naturally, the Son-in-law of Chigeuk couldn't bring himself to let out even a dry laugh. The ice art he had just experienced was still fresh in his mind. That was simply not a human technique.
How did she tame that supernatural horror of the frozen lake...? And that guy, that idler of the Hwangbo Clan, is he not human either?
It was impossible to tell.
The Son-in-law of Chigeuk shot a glance toward his King. It was a silent prompt from a lord who held the right to discuss the affairs of this vast land alongside the other Northern Kings. Soon, King Chigeuk slowly opened her mouth.
"My intention was to meet the new Northern King alongside my powerful allies and decide his fate on the spot. We cannot allow chaos to escalate while the Fighting God is absent. However, he has ignored the laws carved into our land for decades and suddenly encroached upon my territory..."
Splash.
Splashing the gathered blood over her body once more, she spoke softly.
"I must return."
"Return? After calling us all this way?" the Lazy Flame Dragon asked abruptly.
Yet, this time too, King Chigeuk directed her answer solely to the Ice Palace Master.
"Our agreement remains valid. In accordance with the wishes of myself, the Dragon Sound Sasa King, and the deceased Flame Heat God King, the former site of Hocheon Fortress belongs entirely to the North Sea Ice Palace. How you live on that land is of no concern to us, but there is one thing you must uphold."
"What is it?" the Ice Palace Master asked. She had been staring intently at the Lazy Flame Dragon beside her for a long while, and still hadn't bothered to turn her head toward King Chigeuk's party.
King Chigeuk did not mind the slight.
"Appoint a King, choose your lords, and declare them to this land. Let us know what titles your King and lords bear, and by what martial arts they claim mastery over that territory."
"I thought the north was free of empty formalities... but this is even worse than the south."
At the Lazy Flame Dragon's sarcastic remark, King Chigeuk reacted for the first time. She suddenly burst into a loud, booming laugh.
Similarly, the Son-in-law of Chigeuk roared with laughter, even shedding tears of mirth. Only after chuckling for a while did he explain himself.
"Aren't you fools from the south unable to possess even your own land, no matter how strong you become? A place where those with the power of rulers cannot govern anything—the land of the Brightfolk! To think you came up from that pitiful land and yet fail to recognize the true utopia of the strong!"
Wiping his tears with his knuckles, the Son-in-law of Chigeuk continued, his voice still laced with amusement.
"In your land, you flatter each other with titles like Sword King or Blade King just because someone is slightly skilled, don't you? It's different here. One can ascend to a true throne solely through their personal martial prowess. The title 'Northern King' refers to a king of the highest cardinal direction, yet you people seem to think we simply call our own land 'the north.' Is it the same for you? You, who must now serve your wife as a Northern King while acting as the lord of Hocheon Fortress?"
The Lazy Flame Dragon.
He was a man who now had nothing to do with the Desolate Fortress. At least, that was according to the rumors circulating in the north.
He had undergone countless trials in the North Sea, drifting far from the Flash Art lineage. Every single one of those trials forced submission to the North Sea and demanded the acquisition of its ice arts.
It was a kind of mental restriction. The history of an indigenous sect comparable to an entire nation lay within those arts. Even for a peerless expert, it would be difficult to keep one's mind intact through such a grueling process.
Anyone well-versed in the rumors believed this, and the Lazy Flame Dragon's behavior certainly aligned with that logic.
He had repeatedly crushed the schemes of the Second Palace Master and Third Palace Master, who had both coveted the position of Great Palace Master within the Ice Palace. His sincere affection for the Great Palace Master had also been thoroughly verified by experts possessing highly developed insight abilities of the Upper Dantian.
Conversely, the Great Palace Master cherished the Lazy Flame Dragon just as fiercely.
Screeech—
"Let us go to Chigeuk Fortress. This Yelu fellow might have come up from the same place as my consort," the Great Palace Master said, her face completely expressionless.
She had just frozen the Son-in-law of Chigeuk once again without making a single distinct movement.
It was a terrifying talent—if compared to Sword Control, it could be called the Heart-Governed Sword. But this time, King Chigeuk reacted. Her pitch-black veil fluttered slightly.
Thud!
With a booming sound, ice shards scattered in all directions.
The cold energy that had been about to penetrate deep into the Son-in-law of Chigeuk's body was entirely repelled. An intangible Body Protection Qi had been draped over his entire body—none other than King Chigeuk's Heavenly Silk Light Armor.
For the first time, a look of genuine surprise crossed the Lazy Flame Dragon's face.
"You can clad someone else in an armor of True Qi...?"
It was a divine art technique worthy of one who called herself a king.
What would happen if the Body Protection Qi of a peerless expert like King Chigeuk were draped over the vanguard of a martial arts army? It was a terrifying thought, especially since King Chigeuk was a monster rumored to possess a completely transparent body due to an absurdly dense and mysterious internal energy barrier.
In that moment, the Lazy Flame Dragon muttered under his breath, "I've been seeing all kinds of crazy bastards since coming here."
"Our King's martial arts are simply profound. It seems the truly crazy one is you," the Son-in-law of Chigeuk retorted with an incredulous look.
Then, King Chigeuk spoke. "I permit you to accompany us."
This was only after they had mutually verified each other's martial prowess. If they had to summarily execute the one who killed the Flame Heat God King, having more powerhouses in their party would ensure they suffered no significant damage.
Thus, the four beings set off together.
Their destination was Chigeuk Fortress, where Northern King Yelu was reportedly waging his war of conquest.
As they traveled, the conversation between the Lazy Flame Dragon and the Son-in-law of Chigeuk drifted into the chilly wind.
"Wasn't there someone else supposed to come? Like the Dragon Sound Sasa King."
"That frozen poppy addict has been casually throwing around the names of Northern Kings for a while now. That lord is currently pursuing the leader of the southern beggars. You know, that old man rumored to be the fastest under heaven. He crossed the Great Wall like a rat and got caught red-handed spying on our land. It's only a matter of time before he's captured... but he won't be joining us right now."
"What a joke. Not even King Chigeuk, but her mere son-in-law speaks so lightly of the World's Greatest Swift Sword. It seems Chigeuk Fortress is quite a wide well."
"It is wide. Extremely wide. After all, isn't it a place that can't even be seen from the south? The martial artists of the Desolate Fortress's Dragon-Treading Unit whose heads rolled by my hand would surely agree with me... Don't you agree?"
"Your provocation is rather cheap. Though, if your birth is lowly, this young master can understand."
Their voices probed each other in the fading sunset.
The northern twilight was bitterly cold, and the highly disparate group blended into it, crossing a vast distance in an instant.
Soon, they stood before Chigeuk Fortress, which had already been captured.
"..."
The grand earthen walls, stretching so far it was hard to see either end, were half-collapsed.
Amidst the acrid smoke, only the civilian houses remained intact. The Ice Palace Master slowly closed and opened her eyes, then tilted her head slightly to the side.
"It seems they have already left," she said.
Meanwhile, the Lazy Flame Dragon was reading the massive writing inscribed on the ruined earthen wall with a peculiar expression.
[The Lord of Yeokru Fortress, the King who stained his bare hands with the warm blood of the Flame Heat God King, the one who unjustly bore countless grudges and infamy in the south.
Possessing hands that are among the strongest and most ferocious under heaven, I intend to pacify this land with a martial art that has yet to be named.
Acknowledge me.
I will show you what the Tyrannical Way of the world truly is.
There is absolutely no falsehood in these words.
I do not need anyone's permission to ascend to the throne.
—Northern King Yelu.]
That handwriting looks familiar, the Lazy Flame Dragon muttered to himself.