Geom Mugeuk examined the cross-section of the severed stone lantern.
Up close, the surface was not as smooth as he had expected.
Despite this, a smile formed on Geom Mugeuk's lips.
‘The Flying Heaven Sword Technique is trying to surpass the Ninth Star.’
It was like the final period of chaos that comes just before achieving Great Mastery.
A natural phenomenon that often occurs in those who reach Great Mastery in their martial arts too quickly.
If they fail to reach Great Mastery from this state, most of them end up regressing to a level lower than their original skill.
In this way, martial arts test a martial artist in various ways.
Geom Mugeuk believed in Lee Ahn.
He knew well how much blood and sweat she had poured into her efforts for this result.
Lee Ahn's efforts would never betray her.
Next, he examined the bloodstains on the floor.
‘Lee Ahn was angry.’
She had cut down those who attacked her without mercy.
Given Lee Ahn's personality, she wouldn't engage in unnecessary killing, so they must have been men who deserved to die.
As Geom Mugeuk looked around, he envisioned the battle of that day from the remaining traces and bloodstains.
This was possible because his martial arts mastery was exceptionally high, and he knew Lee Ahn's swordsmanship better than anyone.
He imagined them rushing at her from all sides, trying to kill her, and Lee Ahn drawing her sword to cut them down.
The imaginary blood splattering as the enemies fell landed precisely on the real bloodstains, merging with them.
Geom Mugeuk moved, tracing Lee Ahn's movements exactly.
“She cut down two here, stabbed the one rushing from this side. Then turned, blocked an attack, and pierced the heart.”
When Lee Ahn turned her head, she saw those preparing to throw hidden weapons.
As she unleashed her Sword Qi, the ones about to throw hidden weapons collapsed, and the tree and stone lantern behind them were sliced apart.
The stone lantern in Geom Mugeuk's imagination merged with the one now scattered on the ground.
The Drunken Demon was amazed by Geom Mugeuk's explanation.
He had a rough idea of the situation himself, but to reconstruct it so accurately?
Geom Mugeuk slowly entered the building.
The inside was empty.
There were also traces of a fight there.
Bloodstains remained here and there on the corridor floor.
Finally arriving at the great hall, Geom Mugeuk spoke.
“The final battle was here. She cut down two who blocked her way. She deflected a hidden weapon that flew from behind that pillar to eliminate the person standing over here.”
Geom Mugeuk slowly walked further inside.
“She fought the leader here.”
Geom Mugeuk quietly examined the area around the chair.
“She didn't kill him. Not killing him means she intended to find something out from him. In other words, the person here wasn't the final target. There must be a problem with one of the large sects in the Northern Sea. We need to find it.”
While this implied the problem had escalated, Geom Mugeuk did not seem overly concerned.
“Aren't you worried?”
“About whom? Lee Ahn? Or her opponent?”
After his jest, Geom Mugeuk revealed his true thoughts.
“I would have been worried if she'd gotten involved in something ambiguous. If there were no particular traces here, I'd actually be concerned. But right now, I can sense a clear objective. Lee Ahn is moving according to a plan.”
The Drunken Demon shook his head with a look that went beyond admiration to one of defeat.
Geom Mugeuk was truly different.
Was it only today? He had experienced this uniqueness several times on their journey here, so the time spent with Geom Mugeuk was incredibly interesting and enjoyable.
Was that why? He even felt a strange sense of security.
He used to feel this security when drinking together at the Drunken Dream Pavilion, but now that he had left the sect, he understood clearly what it was.
Normally, he should be a tense Demon Sovereign responsible for the Young Cult Master's safety, but instead, he felt protected.
It felt like traveling comfortably with a close younger brother.
Yes, Geom Mugeuk turned this perilous journey through the martial world into a simple trip.
Following the striding Geom Mugeuk, the Drunken Demon said loudly.
“You were here that day, weren't you? You saw everything, right? And now you're just showing off, aren't you?”
*
When Ju Gyu, the Black Fan Gang Leader, regained consciousness, he was in a dark, warehouse-like place.
His paralyzing points had been sealed, and he couldn't move his body at all.
But fortunately, his mute point hadn't been sealed, so he could still speak.
‘Why am I...?’
Then a thought suddenly occurred to him.
‘Ah! I was kidnapped, wasn't I?’
He couldn't believe he had been kidnapped.
A woman in a bamboo hat had stormed his manor, cut down his subordinates in an instant, and subdued him.
She was wearing a veil with the bamboo hat, so he couldn't see her face.
No, even if she hadn't worn a veil, her movements were so fast that he probably wouldn't have been able to see her face.
If her purpose wasn't to kill him, she should have at least asked him something.
The woman had subdued him without asking a thing and just thrown him here.
‘What's this about?’
He had committed so many evil deeds in his life that he couldn't guess what grudge this was for.
The important thing for now was that he was still alive.
‘You shouldn't have left me alive. I'll make you realize who you dared to touch.’
He had a reliable backer.
He was in the middle of an important business with one group in particular.
Once they learned his manor had been attacked, they would dispatch their masters to find him.
The Northern Blood Sect.
The Northern Blood Sect was one of the Three Great Powers of the Northern Sea.
Among them, the one that boasted unparalleled power was the Northern Sea Ice Palace, and the remaining two, the Northern Blood Sect and the Ice Sword Sect, were rivals of equal standing.
The three powers were both friends and enemies, competing for supremacy internally, but joining hands as friends when pressured by the Central Plains.
The Northern Blood Sect, in particular, was a gathering place for cruel and fierce martial artists, a place that even the Northern Sea Ice Palace did not dare to provoke rashly.
The person Ju Gyu had partnered with was none other than Yang Jung, the second son of the Northern Blood Sect Master.
‘You try to touch Yang Jung, and it'll be your head that falls first.’
He believed Yang Jung would come to rescue him soon.
To him, he was a business partner who must be saved.
As the second son, he had to make this business succeed if he wanted to become the successor of the Northern Blood Sect.
It was at that moment.
“Ughhh.”
A groan came from beside him.
Startled, he turned his head and saw someone sitting in a chair a short distance away.
It was dark, he couldn't use his inner energy, and he had been so focused on his own capture that he hadn't realized someone else was with him.
Ju Gyu studied the other person carefully.
The person's facial outline became visible.
“Gasp!”
Ju Gyu let out a sharp cry after identifying the person.
“Young Master Yang!”
To his shock, it was Yang Jung.
How wonderful it would have been if he had come to rescue him, but he too had been captured.
You're supposed to be saving me, what are you doing captured here?
“Get a hold of yourself! Young Master Yang!”
After he shouted several times, Yang Jung finally woke up.
“Ju Gyu! How dare you!”
He misunderstood, thinking Ju Gyu had captured him.
Having just woken up in the dark, he had only recognized Ju Gyu's voice.
“Don't misunderstand! I've been captured too.” Ju Gyu shouted to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding.
During the distrustful silence, Ju Gyu spoke quickly.
“Wasn't the person who kidnapped Young Master Yang a woman in a bamboo hat?”
At the mention of a woman in a bamboo hat, Yang Jung recalled his kidnapper.
That's right.
It was a woman in a bamboo hat.
The woman had subdued his escort warriors in an instant, but her movements were so swift that he couldn't discern her methods.
He hadn't even gotten a good look at her face.
“Then you too?”
“My manor was completely wiped out.”
Yang Jung didn't just guess who was behind it; he was certain.
“It was my brother. It must be his doing.”
There was no one in this Northern Sea who would dare touch him.
If he had to name someone, it would be the Northern Sea Ice Palace and the Ice Sword Sect.
If it were the Northern Sea Ice Palace, they could achieve their goals without resorting to kidnapping him like this.
A single summons, "Come to the Northern Sea Ice Palace by such and such a time," would be enough to make him do as they bid.
Most importantly, kidnapping wasn't their way.
The possibility of it being the Ice Sword Sect was also slim.
They were the ones who had joined hands with them to keep the Northern Sea Ice Palace in check.
Their relationship was like that of teeth and lips.
They both knew well that without the lips, the teeth would get cold.
However, Ju Gyu seemed to doubt that the Northern Blood Sect's First Young Master was behind this.
“He must know that if Young Master Yang is kidnapped, he himself would be the prime suspect. I don't think he would do such a thing. Besides, I've never heard of such a female master under the First Young Master.”
“Then whose doing could it be?”
After a moment of thought, Ju Gyu lowered his voice and spoke secretively.
“Don't you and I have that business we're working on?”
Yang Jung's expression hardened.
There was the business he was working on with Ju Gyu.
If they were captured together, he thought it might be because of that business.
“No matter whose doing it is, we will be freed soon. The sect must know I've been kidnapped and have started a search. Plus, we have Hwang Chu.”
Ju Gyu knew about Hwang Chu as well.
He was Yang Jung's right-hand man and a master of tracking techniques.
Not only his tracking techniques but also his martial arts were formidable, so whenever something like this happened, Hwang Chu would step in and resolve it.
“We can trust him, can't we, Great Warrior Hwang.”
“So don't worry. They will realize that leaving us alive was a big mistake. When we get out of here, I will flay the flesh from that bitch's bones while she's still alive.”
Just then, the groan of someone waking up was heard from behind them.
Startled by the fact that there was another person, the two turned around.
It felt as if someone was hiding in the darkness, waking them up one by one at the perfect moment.
Overwhelmed by anxiety, Ju Gyu pleaded.
‘Could it be? No, right? Please!’
The two were now accustomed to the darkness.
Their surprise immediately turned into a lament.
The person leaning against the wall in the back corner, his paralyzing points sealed, was none other than Hwang Chu.
Seeing him captured here, it seemed he had been looking for them.
The problem, however, was this.
Then who is going to find you?
*
Geom Mugeuk and the Drunken Demon were sitting in a tavern in a busy town in the Northern Sea.
The two had moved here from the first village where the manor was located.
It was because they predicted the next event would occur in this area, where the large sects were located.
As expected, they were able to hear the news they were waiting for here.
Many people were talking about it.
“I hear the Northern Blood Sect's Second Young Master has disappeared.”
“I heard that too. It seems the Northern Blood Sect is in an uproar over it.”
Geom Mugeuk and the Drunken Demon were listening to their conversation from a short distance away.
The Drunken Demon poured wine into Geom Mugeuk's cup and said.
“To take on the Northern Blood Sect by herself. What nerves of steel, truly nerves of steel.”
Both Geom Mugeuk and the Drunken Demon knew about the Northern Blood Sect.
It was one of the three powers representing the Northern Sea.
“Lee Ahn takes after me; she's fearless.”
“What on earth is going on that she would even kidnap a blood relative of the Northern Blood Sect?”
“I guess she wanted to make her first trip into the martial world a proper one.”
The Drunken Demon took a sip of wine and asked with interest.
“So? Are you just going to watch?”
Having touched a blood relative of the Northern Blood Sect Master, they would not let this matter slide.
Considering the number of masters and their overall scale, they were by no means an opponent to be taken lightly.
“For now.”
He intended to watch and see how she would handle it.
He knew better than anyone how important this experience was.
Lee Ahn, how are you going to solve this?
Just then, the people on the street began to murmur.
“It's the masters from the Ice Palace!”
Looking outside, he saw martial artists in white robes walking towards them from a distance.
The Northern Sea Ice Palace.
They were called the foremost among the mysterious powers of the martial world.
They belonged to neither the Righteous, Demonic, nor Unorthodox Sects, having walked their own independent path.
By not falling throughout their long history, they had proven their strength.
The aura emanating from the Ice Palace martial artists was clear yet cold.
The young woman at the head of the group, in particular, was the very picture of cold beauty.
Geom Mugeuk knew who she was.
Han Seol, the only daughter of the Northern Sea Ice Palace Master.
It was said she had a heartless personality, much like the current Ice Palace Master.
She was known for never having opened her heart to anyone in her life.
Rumor had it she trusted no one in the world, not even her own parents.
The rumors associated with her were all harsh and cold like this.
A dozen or so masters followed behind her.
Every one of them was a master of the Ice Palace, revealing a formidable presence.
As they walked, drawing everyone's eyes, they stopped in front of the tavern.
They had been heading for the tavern from the start.
After having her subordinates wait outside, Han Seol entered the tavern alone.
When she entered the tavern, the patrons lowered their heads and didn't even dare to breathe.
With every step she took, a chill settled in the air.
Han Seol stopped in front of Geom Mugeuk.
He couldn't tell if her disposition was as the rumors said, but at least one thing was certain.
If the phrase "cold charm" existed, it was surely meant for her.
Han Seol gazed at Geom Mugeuk with her clear, cold eyes and spoke, forgoing a greeting.
“Young Cult Master, how about a glass of Ice Wine with me?”