Chapter 348
Chapter 348
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 348
Chapter Title: Night at Gongdong Mountain
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Dang Mujin and his group sat in a circle at the foot of Gongdong Mountain, where the moss grew thick and soft.
It was now entering summer, so even in the middle of the night, the weather was quite mild. But the conversation they now had to share was far from mild.
They had set aside prying into personal histories, and thanks to Seolhwa's lacking eloquence, they had appropriately postponed the talk.
It was time to hear about Seolhwa, the North Sea Ice Palace, and Baek Hyang-a.
Seolhwa began the story.
"As you all know, I'm the eldest daughter of the North Sea Ice Palace Lord. Among my siblings, I have outstanding martial arts achievements and a prominent position."
No sooner had the story started than Hyeon-gong interjected.
"Prominent position. So the North Sea Ice Palace has power struggles too?"
"No. It's not that kind of atmosphere. The North Sea Ice Palace isn't a nation. Think of it as a large clan or sect."
Unlike the imperial palace, where succession rivalries always simmered, it was rare for conflicts to arise over the next sect leader or clan head in the martial world.
First, martial artists spent their lives with their sect brothers, knowing each other's character and skills intimately. Second, they valued their own martial achievements more than the sect leader position.
Seolhwa cleared her throat and resumed.
"The Ice Palace has a place called the Grand Frostwall Pavilion. It's where the instructors who teach martial arts are based. There are instructors who teach low-level warriors, and at the top, the Grand Frostwall Pavilion Master who teaches the Ice Palace heirs. One day, I was talking with the Grand Frostwall Pavilion Master when the Vice Pavilion Master came and said something."
"What did he say?"
Hyeon-gong naturally chimed in. Seolhwa smiled faintly and replied.
"Some woman from the Central Plains appeared in the village and was staying there. She doesn't speak our language, but she has tremendous talent in ice arts. As you all probably guess, it was Baek Hyang-a."
"Hmm!"
Listening to the story in the dim mountain felt like hearing folktales from adults as a child.
The group listened to Seolhwa's tale with rapt interest.
Seolhwa continued.
"Actually, I brushed it off lightly at first."
"Why?"
"Talent is important, but talent can't surpass effort. The Ice Palace heirs devote enormous effort to cultivating ice arts from childhood. They train until they're utterly exhausted every day, and their lives revolve around martial arts. I never even tasted warm-natured foods like chicken or chestnuts until I was twenty."
Dang Mujin nodded.
Not long after first meeting Seolhwa, Dang Mujin had realized something odd about her eating habits.
When she found food to her liking, Seolhwa devoured more than any man. It wasn't forced; she genuinely enjoyed her meals with relish. Her appetite was clearly prodigious.
Yet contrary to her hearty eating at times, there were days when Seolhwa barely touched food. On those days, she pecked at it like a bird at grain, eating the bare minimum.
Watching her, Dang Mujin figured out the issue.
Seolhwa avoided warm-natured foods and ate cold-natured ones without hesitation. It must stem from her childhood diet.
Fortunately, thanks to Dang Mujin's subtle accommodations for her meals, Seolhwa managed a reasonably comfortable diet even in the Central Plains.
Hyeon-gong had a vague inkling, but Namgung Myeong and Hong Geolgae were hearing this for the first time.
"Anyway, the Grand Frostwall Pavilion Master took the Vice Master's words to heart and went to meet Baek Hyang-a. When he returned, he said her talent was truly tremendous. I even called Baek Hyang-a to the Ice Palace to examine her myself."
Seolhwa's expression grew slightly wistful as she recalled the memory.
"...It was astonishing talent. Yin energy bubbled endlessly within her body, like nurturing a living spiritual elixir. Even more terrifying, that wasn't her full state. It was suppressed by yang energy, like pressing a sprouting shoot with a stone, yet it was still that potent."
Seolhwa didn't know, but the one who had infused that yang energy into Baek Hyang-a was Dang Mujin and the Strange Physician.
Dang Mujin and the Strange Physician had concentrated medicinal herbs and spiritual elixirs brimming with yang energy and fed them to her. In that process, immense yin and yang energies harmonized, saving Baek Hyang-a's life and granting her vast inner power.
However, while the yin energy ceaselessly surged until her death, the yang energy infused by Dang Mujin and the Strange Physician had limits.
To maintain balance, she needed a diet focused on warm-natured foods and spiritual herbs containing yang energy.
Back when Gongdong Sect's Wuliangzi was alive, Baek Hyang-a must have received ample care.
But after the Gongdong Sect faltered and Wuliangzi died, Baek Hyang-a couldn't afford such concerns.
Imbalance of yin and yang was inevitable, and it wasn't good for her.
Yet life's fortunes are unpredictable.
To the North Sea Ice Palace folk, Baek Hyang-a's uncontrollably surging yin energy must have looked like a once-in-a-millennium prodigy.
"...The moment I saw Baek Hyang-a, I was intrigued. Not just me—my siblings too. So we petitioned our father to take her as an adopted daughter."
Seolhwa spoke naturally, but puzzlement flickered across the group's faces.
"Adopted daughter? A sudden adopted daughter?"
They could understand Baek Hyang-a's tremendous talent.
But the outcome was strange. Just for that talent, adopting an outsider from distant lands?
"The North Sea Ice Palace differs from Central Plains sects. The dream of Ice Palace warriors is to leave their mark on the Ice Palace's martial arts."
"Central Plains warriors dream the same."
"No. It's different."
Seolhwa cut in sharply.
"What I felt coming to the Central Plains is that they have great founding ancestors. Like Shaolin's Patriarch Dharma, or Wudang's Chang Sanfeng..."
Hyeon-gong smiled contentedly.
Evidently, while staying with Seolhwa beside Fairy Huayan, he had regaled her with tales of Chang Sanfeng's greatness and Wudang's prowess.
But Hyeon-gong's stories weren't baseless lies. Some might scorn Wudang, but no martial artist disdained Chang Sanfeng.
A swordsman who founded a sect with one blade, became the world's greatest, and ultimately ascended as an immortal.
Who could belittle such a Chang Sanfeng?
"I've heard no Wudang Daoist has fully mastered Chang Sanfeng's teachings, nor any Shaolin monk fully embraced Dharma's. Central Plains martial artists are overwhelmed just mastering handed-down teachings. But the North Sea Ice Palace is different. Our inherited martial arts weren't created by some peerless genius."
"Then?"
"To survive the barren, frigid lands, everyone pooled their strength—that's the origin of the Ice Palace's martial arts."
Seolhwa paused thoughtfully, then said.
"As a metaphor, Central Plains martial arts are like intricately carved Buddha statues. An ordinary person can't add their own carving to a perfect statue without ruining it."
Seolhwa continued.
"But Ice Palace martial arts are like stone pagodas. Anyone can add a stone if they stand on tiptoe. Ice Palace warriors strive to add their trace to the Ice Palace's martial arts. And many succeed."
It was a fascinating tale. Yet it didn't fully explain things to the group.
"What does that have to do with Baek Hyang-a becoming the Ice Palace Lord's adopted daughter?"
"It's not who places the stone on the pagoda, but how large and splendid the stone is. To me and my siblings, Baek Hyang-a was the one who could place the grandest stone atop it."
Now the group understood Seolhwa's point.
Baek Hyang-a was an outsider, but possessed overwhelming ice arts talent.
Rather than leaving their own mark directly, Seolhwa and her siblings hoped Baek Hyang-a would elevate ice arts to the next realm.
Hong Geolgae, leaning obliquely against a tree, asked.
"So, Baek Hyang-a became the adopted daughter?"
"Yes. The Ice Palace often adopted outsiders. Baek Hyang-a was the first Central Plains person, though..."
"And taught her Ice Palace martial arts?"
"Right. My siblings and I yielded our allotted spiritual elixirs to her, even our best masters. The Grand Frostwall Pavilion Master personally instructed her. After that, things went as expected. Baek Hyang-a already had great achievements, plus perfect aptitude for ice arts, so she progressed swiftly. Up to there, it was fine."
Seolhwa's story halted.
The group didn't press for more. They roughly knew what happened next.
"...But Baek Hyang-a fled with the manuals and elixirs. I don't know how she persuaded them, but the Minor Frost Pavilion Master and Grand Frostwall Pavilion Master vanished with her. At first, I couldn't believe it. But days passed, and she never returned."
Seolhwa let out a deep sigh.
Hyeon-gong glanced around slyly, sidled closer, and sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
Seolhwa naturally leaned slightly into him. The gesture felt oddly natural, stirring faint envy.
The married Dang Mujin and Namgung Myeong with his betrothed merely eyed Hyeon-gong enviously, but Hong Geolgae felt inexplicable anger and sorrow too.
Hyeon-gong met their gazes without flinching, his face smug with superiority.
Half-embraced in Hyeon-gong's arms, Seolhwa said.
"So I handled the aftermath. Among siblings, I had the highest achievements, and I was the first to advocate adopting her."
"You've suffered far from home."
"But I'm still not convinced. Baek Hyang-a wasn't the type to flee, and she had no reason to."
Hearing it, it made sense.
They had already poured elixirs into her anyway—whether she could digest them was secondary, but the Ten Thousand Year Ice Crystal was likely hers.
In that situation, why would Baek Hyang-a steal manuals and elixirs to flee the Ice Palace?
Unclear.
That was the end of Seolhwa's tale. Silence fell as it concluded.
A full moon hung large in the sky, stars twinkling as if to rival it. Cicadas chirped noisily.
Seolhwa remained nestled in Hyeon-gong's arms.
Hyeon-gong, arm around her shoulders, slowly inhaled. A soft, pleasant fragrance wafted; her shoulder felt supple under his hand. Through a layer of clothing, admittedly.
Friends and Seolhwa. Bright moon and cicada song. Occasional cool breezes.
A perfect night. Individually ordinary, but together, one of a lifetime's rare moments. Even Hyeon-gong felt unusually sentimental.
Cicadas quieted. In the stillness, Hyeon-gong clearly heard his heartbeat.
Thump, thump, thump.
Then, through Seolhwa's back leaning against him, he faintly felt her heartbeat.
One can't control their heartbeat at will. Yet their mismatched rhythms slowly synchronized.
Hyeon-gong's chest trembled. Something must be said.
He had words he wanted to say. But Hyeon-gong couldn't voice them.
With a slender sigh, he posed another question to Seolhwa.
"Seolhwa. What are you thinking?"
"Did Baek Hyang-a take the Ten Thousand Year Ice Crystal?"
"Who knows."
"She must not have, since she's alive? Taking just the manual isn't bad, but ideally, if she takes both and returns home..."
"Home."
Hearing of returning home, Hyeon-gong's heart sank.
Try as he might not to imagine, his mind pictured Seolhwa leaving for home with the manuals—her back receding.
Without thinking, Hyeon-gong asked.
"If you go back, will we never meet again?"
Still obliquely nestled in his arms, Seolhwa turned only her head to look at him.
"Why think that?"
"North Sea Ice Palace and Wudang Mountain are too far."
Once, Seolhwa being from the North Sea Ice Palace pleased him. Now, her status as the Palace Lord's daughter felt like shackles.
A strange feeling.
Hyeon-gong usually scored people by ability and background. Higher scores were better, no exceptions till now.
But now, an exception.
What mattered her high-scoring background? No background might be preferable.
If Seolhwa were just a commoner's daughter, not the Ice Palace Lord's, it might be better.
Yet Seolhwa said.
"We can go together?"
"I—"
Hyeon-gong's mind grew tangled.
North Sea Ice Palace and Wudang.
Seolhwa and Youngbo Taoist.
Both too vital to him.
If forced to choose, which would he pick?
His reason screamed.
Wudang is certain, but the North Sea Ice Palace offers no guarantee it's yours!
Hyeon-gong scowled. But he couldn't clear his mind. He was too accustomed to calculation. Couldn't lightly compute as usual, nor discard regrets by result.
Seolhwa repeated.
"It'd take at most a year round trip. You can endure that, right?"
"...Huh?"
"Go and come back. Gotta meet my dad, after all."
Hyeon-gong gaped foolishly.
A woman introducing her father holds weight. Same in Central Plains or distant north.
"You had no intention of returning? Living at the Ice Palace suits me fine."
Seolhwa's words carried a huge premise: staying with Hyeon-gong henceforth.
Stammering, Hyeon-gong asked.
"Th-that talk. With me...?"
Seolhwa turned fully, lying across his lap. Wrapping arms around his neck, she asked.
"Was I the only serious one?"
Hyeon-gong's heart pounded wildly.
He couldn't tell if their hearts now beat in unison. But somehow, he felt they did.
Hyeon-gong always smiled when happy—sinisterly or satisfied.
But now, joy brought tears. Choking up, he said.
"N-no, no... It can't be..."
Seolhwa inhaled deeply, sighed "Ahh...", then hugged him tight, gently patting his back.
Nestled in her embrace, Hyeon-gong sobbed.
A perfect night. He'd hoped for such a moment, but never dreamed it'd come so suddenly.
Even his three friends eyeing him with faint envy was good.
Hyeon-gong thought.
He'd never forget this night spent at Gongdong Mountain.