The Emperor's Legacy
A quiet, dark night.
It was an hour when most ordinary people would be fast asleep.
Yet, the Tongseong County branch of Sadocheon remained brightly lit.
To be precise, the light still burned in the branch leader's office.
"Sigh..."
Jeok-un cracked his neck and let out a long sigh.
He was a man who could fight for seven days and seven nights without tiring, but dealing with paperwork was a different story.
He had only been doing administrative work for a few days, yet he felt utterly exhausted.
Reports and documents were piled like mountains on his desk.
To think I'm actually doing this...
Originally, the branch leader of the Tongseong County branch of Sadocheon was Yang Gang.
Jeok-un wanted nothing more than to dump all of this onto Yang Gang or Jang Bo-heum.
But the matters at hand are too critical. I had no choice.
If these issues weren't resolved properly now, there was no telling what kind of backlash might arise later.
Still, after groaning in front of the desk for several days, he could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
All of this was for the normalization of Tongseong County.
The local government had recognized Sadocheon as the ruler of Tongseong County. However, official recognition and actual, effective control were two entirely different matters.
For the past few decades, Tongseong County had been a contested border region among three major factions, and countless grudges, big and small, had become tightly intertwined like sandstone.
Consequently, when Sadocheon became the ruler of Tongseong County, all of those deep-seated grudges fell onto their shoulders as well.
If they simply swept these conflicts under the rug, a massive backlash would undoubtedly follow.
Moreover, the price of that fallout would have to be paid by both the innocent commoners and Sadocheon itself.
This was why Jeok-un had personally wrestled with the documents, racking his brain. There were certain problems that simply could not be solved by brute force alone.
For the commoners, their daily lives and very survival hung in the balance.
Thus, Jeok-un took measures to ensure that the grudges accumulated among martial artists did not spill over to harm the ordinary people.
"It seems the pruning of the sects in Tongseong County is finally complete."
In highly contested border regions like Tongseong County, when a territory was integrated into another faction or when the defending faction failed to hold it and retreated, the standard procedure was to completely raze the area.
If people remained, regardless of how insignificant they seemed, they could become variables.
They might act as spies, or they could become the straw that broke the camel's back at a critical juncture.
Therefore, factions usually eliminated or expelled every organization, merchant group, and individual associated with hostile forces.
However, Jeok-un left the sects in Tongseong County that were friendly to the Murim Alliance or Heukpaeseong alone, excluding only those who did not hesitate to harm commoners.
It wasn't that he only left the small, harmless ones behind.
Even before his regression, when he organized the Evil Hegemony Alliance and expanded its territory, Jeok-un had acted in the exact same manner.
Will chasing them out blindly really make us safer? It will only breed new grudges and conflicts. Tolerance is absolutely necessary for stability.
This was a conviction Jeok-un had forged while working alongside subordinates from all walks of life, spanning both the Orthodox and Unorthodox paths.
If he were to reject others simply because they had once belonged to a hostile faction, then Jeok-un himself, who was born into an Orthodox family, would have no place here either.
For these reasons, Jeok-un had to remain in his office for several days after Daoist Hyeon-un and Dan Gyo-ik departed, sorting through these matters.
Such tasks had to be handled directly by the final decision-maker, who also had to bear the responsibility for them.
"This is finally the end of it."
Jeok-un spoke as he placed the last remaining scroll onto the pile of reports beside him.
With this, he had fulfilled all his duties as the person in charge.
Which meant...
He smirked.
From this moment on, he was free to do whatever he pleased.
"Heh, I can finally take *that* out."
A strange gleam flashed in Jeok-un's eyes.
Even while dealing with the reports, he had been waiting for this exact moment.
Wasn't that why he had dismissed all his guards and ordered them not to come anywhere near his office?
Thud.
Jeok-un pulled out a wooden box from beneath his bed.
Sssss.
Even though the box had been kept indoors, a thin layer of frost coated its surface.
At the same time, an overwhelming chill wafted from within.
It felt as though winter itself had been locked inside the box.
Click!
Jeok-un opened the box.
Inside, he stared at the object resting within.
"It's been a while, Seolhon Sutou."
Indeed, the item inside the box was the sacred relic retrieved from Heukpaeseong: the Snow Soul Gauntlets.
The Seolhon Sutou.
This bizarre relic boasted a truly turbulent history.
First of all, if one were to speak of its original owner, it would be the North Sea Ice Palace.
However, the Sichuan Dang Family had encountered the North Sea Ice Palace, slain them, and seized the relic.
The North Sea Ice Palace was one of the Four Outer Palaces located outside the Central Plains, and they had signed a peace treaty with the Murim Alliance.
They had agreed to recognize each other's existence, respect their respective territories, and refrain from trespassing.
This naturally raised a question.
The Sichuan Dang Family was a prominent member of the Murim Alliance, yet they had launched a preemptive strike against the North Sea Ice Palace and stolen the relic.
This was a clear violation of the treaty by the Murim Alliance's side.
So why did the Ice Palace endure it, despite their fury?
The reason lay in the place where the Ice Palace had obtained the relic.
They had terrible luck. They ran into the Dang Family on their way out after obtaining the gauntlets.
The place where the North Sea Ice Palace had found the relic was Sichuan—specifically, an unnamed cave that clearly fell within the territory of the Dang Family.
After a long search, the members of the Ice Palace had successfully retrieved the Seolhon Sutou from that cave.
However, they were intercepted by the Sichuan Dang Family while attempting to return to the Ice Palace.
Because they had violated the treaty first by infiltrating the Central Plains and conducting an operation within the Dang Family's territory, the North Sea Ice Palace had no choice but to swallow their tears and retreat, even after their people were killed and the relic was stolen.
The justification lay with the other side.
Though, in truth, they didn't just back down; they were biding their time, grinding their teeth for revenge.
In any case, as was well known, the Seolhon Sutou subsequently changed hands from the Dang Family to Sadocheon, and from Sadocheon to Heukpaeseong.
Ultimately, it had ended up in Jeok-un's hands.
Looking at the pattern of its changing ownership, the Seolhon Sutou seemed like a cursed object.
After all, it had driven every single one of its owners to their deaths.
"Well, that's not entirely wrong," Jeok-un muttered softly, recalling the secret of the Seolhon Sutou.
At that moment, the last words of Seo Do-yeom, the Sea Overflowing Fist Madman whom he had killed, flashed through his mind.
"P-please, spare my life! If you do, I'll tell you the secret of the Seolhon Sutou that I discovered!"
"This is a secret even the Ice Palace bastards, the original owners, don't know! W-with this power, I saw the path to the Grandmaster realm!"
Seo Do-yeom had begged for his life with those words.
Although it might have sounded like the desperate ramblings of a dying man, it was an undeniable fact that he had uncovered a secret within the Seolhon Sutou.
He obtained a mere fragment of that power and managed to rise to the rank of Elder in Heukpaeseong.
Though he had been beaten to death by Jeok-un on Geukrak Island in this life, before the regression, Seo Do-yeom had risen to become an Elder of Heukpaeseong.
He had become one of the top ten strongest experts among the hundreds of thousands of members in Heukpaeseong.
Seo Do-yeom had truly found the secret hidden within the Seolhon Sutou.
Yet, his end had been miserable.
During the fierce war between Sadocheon and Heukpaeseong, he had been torn to pieces by that "witch" who had become the new ruler of the North Sea Ice Palace.
If Jeok-un claimed this power, it was obvious he would face the same threat.
However...
Let them come.
Jeok-un did not care in the slightest.
In fact, was it not better if they came to him?
Either way, to retrieve another of the Seven Divine Weapons, he would eventually have to clash with the North Sea Ice Palace anyway.
"Now, let's devour this."
Swoosh!
Jeok-un spoke as he circulated his energy.
At the same time, he focused his gaze on the Seolhon Sutou.
He did not wear them; he merely held them in his lap.
Sssss!
The cold qi of the Seolhon Sutou surged as if trying to pierce through Jeok-un, but it could not breach the barrier of his internal energy.
Whoosh!
Then, a change occurred.
The patterns engraved on the surface of the Seolhon Sutou began to shift erratically.
The shapes, which had appeared to be simple engravings or decorations, vibrated and rearranged themselves.
After repeating this process of splitting and merging countless times, they finally settled.
It's writing.
They formed characters he had never seen before in his life.
The moment the unfamiliar lines of text were completed...
Sssssst!
An incomparably powerful energy began to emanate from the Seolhon Sutou.
This was the secret and the essence contained within the gauntlets.
A fiery heat filled Jeok-un's eyes.
To complete the mission, I must hand over the Seolhon Sutou to Sadocheon. But I will take the essence for myself.
The objective of this mission was strictly the Seolhon Sutou itself.
There was no instruction to bring back the power contained within it.
He would gladly hand over the empty shell.
Swoosh!
Jeok-un released the barrier of internal energy.
As if it had been waiting for this, the energy radiating from the characters instantly enveloped his entire body.
Whoosh!
A cold wave poured over him, so intense that it wouldn't have been strange if he froze to death on the spot.
Yet, to Jeok-un, it felt like nothing more than a tickle.
It has already been proven that your power is inferior to Moon Under.
Jeok-un waited until all the energy of the Seolhon Sutou entered his body.
Submit to my will.
He grabbed the cold energy by the scruff of its neck and began to bend it to his whim.
Shhh!
The cold energy thrashed as if trying to resist his command.
However, Jeok-un had no intention of allowing such rebellion.
He seized the thrashing energy by the hair and forced it to flow in reverse.
And so, the Grand Circulation began.
As the Grand Circulation fell into orbit, the Yin energy of the gauntlets began to rise ominously.
The ancient, frozen energy of the North Sea Ice Palace circulates through the meridians, submitting to the absolute dominance of Moon Under.
This was not merely the power of the relic itself.
It was a fortuitous opportunity arranged for posterity by the original creator of the gauntlets, as well as a dormant true power sealed within the relic.
That energy was far from ordinary.
By its very structure, the true power sealed in the gauntlets could only be a fraction of the creator's total strength.
Yet, looking at the whole through this single fragment...
...It is equal to the level of achievement I reached before my regression?
Jeok-un smiled slightly at this unexpected surprise, a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time.
You were far more incredible than I thought, Ice-White Martial Emperor.
The first Palace Master of the North Sea Ice Palace, the Ice-White Martial Emperor.
Centuries ago, he had ventured into the Central Plains alone and shaken the entire Jianghu.
The energy left behind by the Ice-White Martial Emperor was the true essence of the Seolhon Sutou.
He truly deserved the title of Emperor.
The titles of Sovereign and Emperor originated from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of the Central Plains.
For a figure from the outer regions to be bestowed the title of Emperor was proof of just how terrifyingly powerful he had been.
Whoosh!
At that moment, a massive change occurred within Jeok-un's body.
This is...!
It was something even Jeok-un had not anticipated.
Suddenly, the harmony of Yin and Yang began to form within his body.
The cause of this unexpected anomaly was none other than a latent power sleeping deep within his meridians.
It's resonating with the dormant energy of the Golden Elixir Thread!
The energy of the Golden Elixir Thread, half of which still remained in his body, had met the energy of the Ice-White Martial Emperor and was now running wild.
The dormant energy of the Golden Elixir Thread reacts violently to the extreme Yin energy of the Ice-White Martial Emperor, initiating a sudden harmony of Yin and Yang.