Chapter 20
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Frost Palace Princess
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"So, that roof flying off... was a trace of an ancient evil spirit trying to awaken, only to fall back asleep?"
Emperor Hyeonjong's eyes widened round. Cheonwi nodded with a deliberately solemn expression.
"Yes, Your Majesty. It was fortunate that this humble servant hurriedly circulated my internal energy... no, offered prayers to reseal that evil spirit. Otherwise, the vital energies of the Imperial Palace might have suffered great damage. The roof tearing off a bit in the process was an unavoidable sacrifice."
"Oho...! I nearly suspected you without knowing that! As expected, Cheonwi, you're a talent sent from the heavens!"
Cheonwi inwardly cheered. In this Imperial Palace, the truth wasn't all that important. What mattered was how convincingly you packaged it.
Thanks to this 'spiritual phenomenon' bluff landing perfectly, Cheonwi suddenly found himself treated like some guardian deity of the palace. And the reward for that was this very mission.
VIP reception.
"Snowflower Princess from the northern Frost Palace is coming. If you greet her with that mystical aura of yours, there won't be any mishaps."
The emperor said that as he pushed Cheonwi on the back. Mystical aura my ass. It was just shoving off a hassle.
Cheonwi grumbled while standing at the entrance to Clear Moon Pavilion, the palace quarters for honored guests. The eunuch robes embroidered with lavish golden threads felt more cumbersome than usual today.
"Tch, not having to pay for roof repairs is nice, but what's this new ordeal?"
That was when it happened.
From afar, a grand palanquin procession came into view. But something felt off. It was clearly the blooming spring of the third month, yet as the procession approached, the air touching his skin grew rapidly colder.
It wasn't just the weather. The atmosphere within a ten-zhang radius around that palanquin was freezing solid. White frost visibly settled on the red carpet laid on the ground.
Cheonwi crossed his arms and shivered.
"Good grief, an air conditioner... no, a walking human freezer is coming. My bones are already chilling."
This level of cold. If even his body, trained in martial arts, instinctively recoiled, ordinary people might get frostbite just from being nearby.
Kiiiek-.
The palanquin stopped in front of Cheonwi. Even the escort warriors stood in pale-faced rows, blowing on their hands.
He straightened his robes and prepared to bow.
The palanquin door opened.
In that instant, a silence fell as if all surrounding noise had been cut off.
The woman who stepped out was less human and more like a sculpted statue. Her snow-white skin was transparently pale without a trace of color, and her silver hair cascading to her waist scattered dazzling light in the sunlight.
Most striking were her eyes. Cool blue eyes devoid of emotion. Wherever those eyes swept, only a chill like a knife wind remained.
Snowflower Princess. A woman who truly lived up to her name.
She wore classical ceremonial robes without the slightest disarray. Elegant, yet exuding an impregnable, unapproachable aura.
Cheonwi opened his mouth politely, fulfilling his duty as a palace eunuch.
"You've had a long journey, Princess. I am Cheonwi, a eunuch of the Imperial Palace. Allow me to guide you to your quarters."
As polite and gentle a tone as possible. He thought it was passing grade.
But Snowflower Princess's reaction missed his expectations entirely. Or rather, it was as if she had erased his very existence.
She didn't even glance at Cheonwi. Instead, she raised a hand gloved in long white silk and elegantly covered her nose. Her brow furrowed ever so slightly.
A blatant gesture, as if facing filthy trash or repulsed by the peculiar scent of eunuchs.
"......"
His eyebrow twitched. What's this now?
Ignoring his greeting completely, she whispered lowly only to her attendant nearby. Her voice was clear as jade beads rolling on a silver tray, but the content was colder than ice.
"The air here is turbid. I want to go inside quickly."
'Turbid? This pristine zone I wash and groom in every morning is turbid?'
The old eunuch attendant who received her words lifted his chin arrogantly toward Cheonwi.
"Hey, what are you doing? Step aside. Her Highness has a delicate constitution and cannot be delayed. Get out of the way and clear the path!"
They say an attendant takes after their master, and this pair was a matched set. Cheonwi swallowed the hot surge rising within and forcibly curled up the corners of his mouth.
'Ha, look at this? No idea where this ice lump rolled in from, but she's throwing her weight around in my turf.'
'I'm cosplaying as a eunuch right now, so I'll hold back. Let's see if that haughty gaze holds when she's sobbing and begging under me later.'
Cheonwi ground his teeth inwardly and bowed his head.
"Y-yes. Understood. This way, please."
He switched to fawning mode and took the lead. The rustle of robes and cold air hit the back of his neck. With every step, a chill crept up his back, like filming a summer horror special in midsummer.
The corridor to Clear Moon Pavilion was long. Cheonwi deliberately quickened his pace a bit. He could hear their breathing growing ragged behind him.
'Delicate constitution? Yeah, let's test just how delicate.'
But his petty revenge was cut short by an unexpected situation.
"Kuh...!"
A short groan came from behind. Turning, he saw Snowflower Princess staggering.
Her already pale face had turned bluish. It wasn't mere fatigue. Something uncontrollable rampaged inside her body; she trembled like an aspen leaf.
The attendants rushed in panic, but they were too far.
"Your Highness!"
Cheonwi instinctively leaped forward. Reflexes honed by martial arts moved his body before his mind.
Thud.
His hand caught her arm, supporting her falling body.
But in that moment.
"......!"
Cheonwi nearly yanked his hand back in shock.
Cold.
Not just low body temperature. What touched his palm wasn't human flesh but a chunk of ice from the depths of millennia-old snow.
A stinging pain shot from his palm up to his elbow. White frost rapidly formed over the thick sleeve of her ceremonial robe. His body heat clashed with her cold, producing faint steam with a sizzle.
This was an illness. A vicious one.
Before he could assess, Snowflower Princess cried out like a scream.
"Don't touch me...!"
She roughly shook off his hand. No real strength behind it, but the rejection was fierce. Stumbling back, she glared at him with eyes mixed with terror, shame, and pain.
"Remove your filthy hand...! How dare a wretch like you...!"
Panting harshly, she clutched her arm. The spot he'd grabbed felt burning hot, like fire. No—for her, even his faint body heat seared like a burn amid her extreme internal cold.
The attendants hurriedly rushed over and supported her.
"Your Highness! Are you alright?!"
"You insolent cur! How dare you touch the noble body!"
The attendant pointed and bellowed at Cheonwi, but it didn't register. He stood dazed, recalling the sensation in his fingertips.
Fleeting as it was, Cheonwi had felt it.
The pulse from her wrist. Less a beat of life, more like a dying ember's final flicker.
'An extreme yin constitution.'
Things like Nine Yin Severed Meridians or Ice Crystal Body from stories. Cursed physiques where frigid yin energy clogs the meridians, freezing the blood solid unto death.
She was a walking corpse. Traveling from the north in that state was a miracle. No, she was probably enduring with some poison qi.
"Quickly... inside..."
Snowflower Princess gritted her teeth, swallowing groans as she leaned on her attendants. Her gaze at Cheonwi still held contempt, but beneath lurked the fear of a beast exposed in its weakness.
She vanished into Clear Moon Pavilion, supported like fleeing.
Bang!
The heavy door shut, leaving only cold wind.
Alone in the corridor, Cheonwi looked at his palm. White frost still clung. A chill piercing to the bone.
"Hmm."
He circulated a bit of internal energy from his dantian.
Whoosh.
Invisible heat enveloped his palm, melting and vaporizing the frost instantly.
A sly, intrigued smile spread on Cheonwi's lips.
Things were getting interesting.
He'd thought her just a snooty princess at first, but she turned out to have a terminal illness. And that condition couldn't be cured by ordinary medicine.
To control such frigid yin energy required a correspondingly hot yang energy. Intense, pure yang qi.
Who in this Imperial Palace had such qi?
Eunuchs were castrated, yang scattered. The emperor's vitality waned. Ordinary warriors' crude internal energy wouldn't cut it.
In the end, one answer.
"Acting all noble, but she's rotting inside on the verge of bursting."
Cheonwi giggled at the closed door.
"That... without this seat's 'hot yang qi,' she's got no hope."
It was like a premium meal kit prepared just for him. Unwrap, cook, perfect nourishment.
'She despises me? Treats me like lowly eunuch trash?'
'Fine. Let's see how long that arrogance lasts. If she wants to live, she'll end up clinging to my pant leg... no, my internal energy.'
Cheonwi whistled and turned away. Tonight promised to be quite entertaining.
That night.
The palace night deepened, and few souls stirred around Clear Moon Pavilion.
But shattering the silence, bizarre phenomena occurred.
White cold leaked from the gaps in the bedroom windows. As if a blizzard raged inside, thick frost formed on the paper screens.
And from within, stifled groans leaked out.
"Ugh... uuu..."
"Your Highness, please endure just a bit longer! I'll fetch the medicinal decoction!"
"Cold... so cold... my bones... uwaaaang!"
Layer upon layer of blankets, roaring braziers—none availed against the absolute chill.
From Snowflower Princess's bedroom poured cold frost and anguished groans unceasing through the night.
It was the prelude heralding the fateful 'treatment' soon to come.