The Three Venerables of the Demonic Cult

One of the Three Venerables of the Heavenly Demon Cult.

—The Ice White Demoness.

I already knew the name. Any tale about a martial artist found frozen solid near the Demonic Cult inevitably came with her name attached. A monster said to have taken ice-attribute martial arts to their absolute limit and achieved Reversion to Youth.

"The Ice White Demoness, huh."

An absolute master who would freeze anyone who rubbed her the wrong way—righteous sect or demonic, it made no difference. That was exactly how she'd earned the epithet.

I typed the name into the gallery's search bar without really thinking about it.

Related threads surged up at once.

The search results alone told me plenty. It hardly differed from what I remembered from the game.

After skimming a few threads, I went ahead and made a post of my own.

The comments started rolling in the moment it went up.

"So everyone thinks it's impossible."

And yet it didn't feel impossible to me. If anything, I'd have said the odds were good.

Well—I was the daughter of the Heavenly Demon, leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult, after all.

There was only one comment that actually nagged at me.

'She refused even the Heavenly Demon?'

Were the Three Venerables truly that powerful?

Then Eccentric Doctor dropped a comment of her own.

"..."

She had a point. I had nothing to say to that.

The level-headed reply gave me pause.

"Still, it seems worth a try."

Eccentric Doctor had been the one to offer a meaningful answer about my symptoms early on. Which meant her advice—that the Ice White Demoness would make an ideal master—probably ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠carried real weight too.

I deliberated a moment longer, then simply closed the gallery. In the end, my choice had already been made for me.

'First, I have to meet the Ice White Demoness.'

Surviving in Cheon Yu-hwa's body meant dealing with the Nine Yin Severed Meridians one way or another. And if Eccentric Doctor was right, then learning to properly handle the Yin energy inside me would be the greatest clue of all.

Once my direction was set, thought turned straight into action.

"Suran, are you outside?"

"Yes, my lady."

She had apparently grown used to my summons, because Suran stepped into the inner chamber right away.

"There is someone I must meet."

"And who might that be?"

My announcing that I wanted to meet someone must have caught her off guard, because Suran blinked for a moment.

"The Ice White Demoness."

"Ah—do you mean the Ice White Venerable?"

Suran faltered for an instant, then asked again with an awkward smile.

'So within the cult, they call her the Ice White Venerable?'

Come to think of it, "Demoness" wasn't exactly an epithet that sounded pleasant spoken aloud.

"Yes, that's right. She's inside the cult right now, isn't she?"

"I will need to look into her whereabouts, but... my lady, why would you suddenly wish to..."

"I want to meet her myself."

"You must not."

The answer came far too quickly.

I blinked, dumbfounded. This was the first time Suran—the girl who had bent to my every whim until now—had shown me such flat refusal.

"Why not?"

"As my lady is no doubt aware, the Ice White Venerable's temperament is rather..."

Suran paused, choosing her words with care.

"...free-spirited."

"You mean her personality is rotten."

"Th-this girl said no such thing!"

When Suran shook her head in a fluster, I couldn't help but smirk.

"I don't care what her personality is like. I've decided I need to meet her, so I will."

"My lady..."

Suran fell silent.

I rose from my seat. I still couldn't fully accept that I had become Cheon Yu-hwa, but I had adapted to it to a degree. Which is to say—I understood perfectly well that I no longer needed to watch anyone's eyes before acting or speaking as I pleased.

"So. Where is the Ice White Venerable right now?"

"M-my lady."

"Suran. Lead the way."

"Forgive my presumption, but the Ice White Venerable will show you no special courtesy, not even to you, my lady..."

"I know she won't treat me like royalty."

If anything, that suited me fine. The last thing I wanted was people fawning over me for no better reason than that I was the Heavenly Demon's daughter.

I simply needed to confirm, with my own eyes, whether this person was truly right for me or not.

"...Understood. I shall escort you personally."

Suran relented, though the worry never left her face. In the end, she could not break my resolve.

Before long we stepped out of the inner chamber, and Suran stole a careful glance at my complexion.

"Has your health held up well these past days?"

"Yeah, as you can see—three days now, fit as a fiddle."

When I raised both arms with a grin, Suran studied me for a moment before nodding. The worry still lingered, but she bowed her head all the same.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"The Ice White Venerable will most likely be at Seolbingwon."

"Seolbingwon?"

"The training grounds she uses whenever she resides within the cult."

The moment I escaped the inner chamber I'd been cooped up in for three days straight, one new truth hit me.

'Being the Heavenly Demon's daughter...'

...was a far, far grander station than I had imagined.

"We greet the Young Cult Leader!"

Passing warriors parted to either side in unison, bowing so deeply their spines looked ready to snap.

"...Uh."

At first I felt awkward enough to want to nod back, but Suran gave the tiniest shake of her head beside me. Apparently that was not the done thing.

'Another thing to get used to, I guess.'

It was the same in the corridors of the towering halls and down every flight of stairs. Nearly everyone, regardless of rank, stepped aside before I could reach them. Not a single soul blocked my path—as though daring to do so were simply unthinkable.

"I trust you have been in good health, Young Cult Leader."

"I've been feeling much better lately."

"Heh heh, to hear your condition has improved is truly a relief."

Some of them—ones who looked to hold fairly high rank themselves—even struck up warm conversation as they passed. And so, walking, I gradually acclimated to just how exalted Cheon Yu-hwa's position really was.

"It's even bigger than I thought."

The cult's scenery beyond the windows dwarfed anything I'd seen in the game. Halls carved from what looked like an entire mountain. Martial artists training in the distance. Black bridges linking district to district. All of it drove home the fact that I truly was inside Murim World Records.

How long had we been walking? My legs were just beginning to ache when the air around us abruptly turned cold.

"...It's freezing?"

At first I blamed the biting wind. But a few steps further on, one stretch of the ground gleamed white with frost.

"My lady, Seolbingwon begins here."

Suran straightened her posture and spoke carefully.

"Already?"

"Yes."

I looked around. By feel, the season was closer to late summer—yet this place alone, marked as Seolbingwon, was cold as deep winter. Frost clung white to the tips of the leaves, and a thin sheet of ice glazed the gaps between the flagstones.

Farther in, a training ground of pure, blinding white opened before us, and my gaze snapped to its center in an instant.

A woman stood there.

"..."

The moment I saw her, my feet stopped on their own.

Hair white as fresh snow was bound neatly with a blue ribbon. Her exquisite snow-white robes and skin so pale it looked frost-kissed filled my eyes before my gaze finally climbed to her face—and there, for the first time, I beheld the beauty of a woman who looked barely past twenty.

'Absurdly pretty.'

It was the first time the impression I'd had looking into a mirror came back to me courtesy of another woman's face.

But that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fleeting admiration vanished in a heartbeat.

"My lady, that is the Ice White Venerable."

When Suran whispered at my side, I gave a slow nod. I had half expected as much.

The Ice White Venerable stood at the heart of the training ground, eyes closed. There was something about her bearing—like a single flower blooming alone on a cliff face.

Shaaaa...!

Then, all at once, a white chill began to swirl slowly around her. Even the frost on the ground stirred, following that current. She was doing nothing at all, and yet the entire space felt as though it were freezing over.

That was the moment.

"Turn back now."

A woman's voice, cold as a whisper at my ear.

"...!"

My breath stopped outright.

The Ice White Venerable's eyes were still shut.

"Can you see me, by any chance?"

The question slipped out before I knew it, and only then did she slowly open her eyes. A blue so pale it was nearly transparent—eyes far too mystical to belong to any ordinary martial artist.

Whoosh!

Her gaze, brimming with bottomless cold, pinned me where I stood. The vicious chill that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had settled against my nape vanished in an instant.

"To what do I owe the honor of the Young Cult Leader walking all this way?"

The words were perfectly courteous, yet something in that frigid tone made them sound like a slight.

"..."

Rather than answer rashly, I glanced sideways. Suran's expression practically screamed I told you so. But judging by how she couldn't quite bring herself to speak, answering fell to me and me alone.

"I wished to see with my own eyes what manner of person you are—one called one of the Three Venerables."

I put weight into my voice, playing myself up. I hadn't come all this way just to turn tail now, so I dressed the words up a little.

"You mean me?"

The Ice White Venerable's snow-white eyes turned toward me, unreadable.

"Yes, Ice White Venerable. You are one of the cult's Three Venerables, and I'm told no one under heaven handles Yin energy better than you."

And despite facing one of the Demonic Cult's Three Venerables, the words came out more smoothly than I'd expected.

"..."

Her gaze swept over me, slow and deliberate. From crown to toe it drifted down so gradually that it felt as though she were seeing through every last thing I was.

But one thing was certain.

'She can't treat me lightly.'

However mighty a Venerable of the Demonic Cult she might be, I was still the Heavenly Demon's only daughter—and the Young Cult Leader of this cult.

"Young Cult Leader."

Then the Ice White Venerable's lips stirred faintly.

"Speak."

"Did the Cult Leader not give you instructions long ago? Then you, too, must be most careful about approaching me, Young Cult Leader. Bearing Yin energy that powerful, you should be all the more cautious."

At that admonishing tone, my eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

'So because I suffer from Yin energy, I've been warned to steer extra clear of the Ice White Venerable?'

The ones called renowned physicians had all prescribed treatments of Yang energy to suppress the violent Yin of my Nine Yin Severed Meridians. And as Eccentric Doctor had said, those prescriptions had worked on me like poison.

I knew that now. But the Heavenly Demon would not. Every physician had sung the same tune in unison, so of course she had believed them—and she must have made me swallow every rare elixir and precious herb packed with Yang energy besides.

Small wonder, then, that the Ice White Venerable would consider it only right that she never come near me—or I near her.

I took a sudden step forward.

"The truth is, I've come to a realization."

Even with the Ice White Venerable staring me down, there was no fear in me, no hesitation.

"That I—and no one else—must be the one to control this terrible Yin energy lodged inside my body."

I raised my voice and pressed on, meeting those distinctive ice-blue eyes head-on.

"...You mean to say you intend to control your Extreme Yin Qi?"

But the Ice White Venerable's lovely brows had drawn faintly together as she answered.