The middle-aged man in blue wanted to shout.
‘Do you ask because you don’t know? You’re the damned Drunken Demon, both would be dangerous.’
Of course, he couldn't do that, so he spoke as politely as possible.
“I didn’t know the Demon Sect was involved in this matter. If I had, I wouldn’t have helped.”
He was being sincere.
Nothing good could come from getting entangled with the damned Demon Sect.
The Drunken Demon asked him, “Who are you?”
The man glanced at the masked man.
It wasn’t the way one would look at a subordinate; he was watching his reaction.
When the masked man showed no response, the middle-aged man identified himself.
“I am Hwang Su. A scholar who studies the human body.”
“A scholar? More like a butcher. How many have died so far?”
Hwang Su couldn’t make an excuse.
Too many people had died.
He didn’t even know the number.
“What kind of test did you perform on them?”
Hwang Su hesitated to answer.
Just then, Yang Il, who was on the bed, mustered his courage and spoke.
“He said he was looking for a certain body type. What was it again? Ah, that’s right. An Extreme Cold Body. He said I could live if I had an Extreme Cold Body.”
Extreme Cold Body.
A constitution naturally born with strong resistance to cold is an Ice Cold Body.
Those born with this constitution live their entire lives without ever catching a cold.
And among those with an Ice Cold Body, a constitution even more specialized for the cold is the Extreme Cold Body.
A person born with an Extreme Cold Body will not die from the cold, at the very least.
For example, even if they were to enter icy water naked in the dead of winter, they might die of starvation, but not from freezing to death.
“This bed became terrifyingly cold.”
At Yang Il’s words, the Drunken Demon examined the bed.
It was no ordinary bed.
“This must be the bed used to find the Extreme Cold Body.”
The Drunken Demon turned back to Hwang Su and asked, “Why are you looking for an Extreme Cold Body?”
Seeing Hwang Su remain silent, the Drunken Demon wore a scornful expression.
“I believe I told you. I haven't had a drink, so my nerves are on edge.”
Hwang Su looked at the masked man beside him again.
The Drunken Demon had also noticed from the beginning that he was not a subordinate.
His gaze was never that of a subordinate.
“He must have been sent to watch over you.”
Finally, the masked man stepped forward.
“If you thought we would be scared just because you are a Demon Sovereign, you are mistaken.”
The word ‘we’ did not refer to Hwang Su.
Two more masked men entered the room.
Their presence was different from the martial artists the Drunken Demon had dealt with earlier.
Their eyes were as intense as the masked man he had just been speaking with.
From the start, three of them had come, taking turns to watch Hwang Su and assist in this mission.
They were of equal skill and similar in character.
At their appearance, Hwang Su’s expression brightened.
The reason the masked man had remained silent was that he was waiting for them to arrive.
‘If the three of them are together!’
Just as he thought they might stand a chance even against the Drunken Demon.
Whoosh.
The next moment, the wine spirit that had been shimmering around the Drunken Demon’s body scattered in all directions.
In an instant, a thick fog settled over the area.
Hwang Su couldn’t see a thing.
‘Please! Kill the Drunken Demon!’
As a brief silence fell, Hwang Su saw the glint of a blade.
It was the blade of one of the masked men.
The next moment.
Crack.
The sound of a bone breaking was heard.
The sword that had been visible in the air twitched once, then disappeared into the fog as if sucked in.
‘He got him!’
Silence fell once more.
Whoooosh.
Another masked man imbued his sword with inner energy and swung it in the air, causing the fog-like wine spirit to coil around his blade.
His intention was to draw in the vision-obscuring substance with his inner energy and expel it, but the Drunken Demon’s wine spirit was no ordinary fog or smoke.
It seemed to wrap around his sword for a moment, then scattered in all directions, growing even thicker.
In that instant, Hwang Su saw it.
The figure of the Drunken Demon, briefly brushing past in the fog.
He was moving with his hands leisurely clasped behind his back, and even grinned as he looked this way.
‘Be careful!’
Before the words could even escape his lips.
Crack.
The neck bone of the masked man who had tried to dispel the wine spirit snapped under the Drunken Demon’s hand-blade, and he collapsed on the spot.
Before he even hit the floor, the Drunken Demon had vanished back into the fog.
The last sword Hwang Su saw was flying towards him.
‘Killing to destroy evidence!’
The remaining masked man, realizing he could not face the Drunken Demon, had decided to kill him first.
It seemed he had received such orders from the start.
To kill him if a moment like this came.
The flying sword stopped right in front of Hwang Su’s heart.
Crack.
The sound of bone being crushed was heard right in front of him.
As the thick fog cleared, the figure of the masked man became visible.
The one who had thrust his sword at him had his neck twisted at a bizarre angle, and life had already drained from his eyes.
As he crumbled and fell, the Drunken Demon stood behind him.
It was truly an overwhelming difference in skill.
He hadn’t even touched the Blood Tears, his signature weapon, at his waist.
A match for him with three people? There was no greater miscalculation.
‘So this is the skill of the Demon Sovereigns I’ve only heard about!’
Hwang Su’s heart pounded as if it would burst.
The wine spirit flickered around the Drunken Demon like flames before disappearing completely into his body.
“What is the reason for seeking an Extreme Cold Body?”
Now, Hwang Su had no reason to watch his back anymore.
“That, I do not know either. I was only tasked with finding an Extreme Cold Body and received payment for it.”
“From whom?”
To the hesitating Hwang Su, the Drunken Demon stated the reality.
“You were already dead a moment ago.”
Hwang Su looked at the corpse of the fallen masked man, then finally decided to reveal who had made the request.
“The person who gave me the money was…”
It was at that very moment.
Whoosh.
Both sides of Hwang Su’s forehead swelled up in an instant, and then.
Pop! Pop!
Both sides burst, spewing blood.
Hwang Su died instantly.
Shockingly, a seal had been placed on him that would cause him to die like this if he tried to mention his backer.
The Drunken Demon looked down at the corpse with a grave expression.
Making someone die when they tried to give a specific answer was a truly difficult suggestion and a powerful seal.
It meant that a formidable figure was behind this.
The Drunken Demon spoke to Yang Il, who sat trembling in fear.
“Get dressed.”
Yang Il, who had been naked until then, hurriedly put on his clothes.
‘So this wasn't a dream.’
Once fully dressed, Yang Il followed the Drunken Demon out of that place.
Yang Il realized anew how reckless his idea to ambush the martial artist who brought him here and escape had been.
As they rounded a corner in the hallway, about a dozen martial artists lay fallen.
It was the same outside the building.
Dozens of martial artists lay scattered everywhere.
Seeing how many martial artists had been guarding this place, Yang Il realized that this matter was no ordinary affair.
‘If I had been an Extreme Cold Body, what on earth were they planning to make me do?’
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure it out.
A short distance away, a single carriage was waiting.
It was a carriage from the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect’s Northern Sea Divsion, which would take Yang Il back to his hometown.
The escorts would cooperate with the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect’s branch in Yang Il’s hometown to protect his family, so he no longer needed to worry.
“You don’t have to worry about retaliation, so live well with your family.”
Even if that wasn’t the case, by the time Yang Il arrived in his hometown, things here would be all wrapped up.
Yang Il couldn’t believe he had survived.
“It still feels like a dream. To think that a Demon Sovereign, of all people, would save me!”
“I am not the one who saved you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“If not for the earnest heart of your wife wishing to save her husband, who could have been sent all the way to this distant Northern Sea? You can hear the details from your wife when you return.”
At the thought of being able to go home, Yang Il felt like he could fly.
To be able to see his wife and children again?
While he was confined, he had resolved it countless times.
He would no longer be greedy and try to obtain happiness all at once.
Instead of the desire to make them happy by earning money, he would be there for every moment of his children’s growth.
‘Thank you, I will definitely live that way.’
He bowed deeply.
“Thank you so much for saving me.”
Yang Il planned to have a drink of wine on this day every year and think of the Drunken Demon.
“I will pass this bow on to the one who deserves it.”
As the carriage departed, the Drunken Demon began to walk in the opposite direction.
Crunch, crunch.
The Drunken Demon’s footsteps, leaving the first marks on the pristine white snow, gradually quickened.
Soon, his footprints no longer remained in the snow.
Geom Mugeuk and Lee Ahn rented a carriage and returned to Silver Moon’s safehouse.
The trio, whose vital points had been subdued, were still asleep.
The two of them loaded them into the carriage.
“As soon as Drunken Demon gets back, let’s go straight to the Ice Palace.”
Lee Ahn could tell.
Geom Mugeuk had complete faith that the Drunken Demon would handle the matter well and return.
Though he usually treated him like a comfortable older brother, at least for now, he regarded him as a Demon Sovereign.
Lee Ahn wasn’t worried about the Drunken Demon either.
Rather, the one she was concerned about was the Young Palace Master they had met.
“But will the Ice Palace accept Young Master’s proposal?”
Even if the Drunken Demon rescued the captured person, it would be a problem if the Ice Palace didn’t accept it.
“They will.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Didn’t you say to the Young Palace Master? He is the Transcendent One, so believe him!”
“Don’t joke around. Why?”
Geom Mugeuk explained the reason.
“We had two conditions. Not to punish you, and to let us investigate the death of the brewer at the Ice Palace.”
“Right.”
“First of all, they can’t touch you anyway. Not only can they not carelessly lay a hand on you, my subordinate, but you also have a justification for having to kidnap their young master. Crucially, the Northern Blood Sect wants to hide this incident, so they can’t escalate it by punishing you.”
“What about the second condition? The Ice Palace might not accept us, you know?”
“The Ice Palace Master is likely well aware of the relationship between their brewer and Brother Drunken Demon. It’s a relationship built over many years of exchanging letters and wine. For someone like that to show interest in this death, and for them to refuse? If that happens, Brother Drunken Demon will become even more suspicious of the death and start digging in earnest. In that process, he might uncover information the Ice Palace doesn’t want to be known. The Ice Palace Master will anticipate that, so they can’t easily refuse.”
Lee Ahn was impressed.
She hadn’t thought of any of the reasons Geom Mugeuk had mentioned.
“I’m going to retire. I don’t have the confidence to survive in this Martial World. It’s a miracle I’ve survived this long. I’m going to retire and go to some countryside village where martial artists don’t go and sell noodles for a living.”
“Do you think selling noodles is easy? After being swamped by people all day, you’ll be thinking, ah! It was better when I was just thoughtlessly swinging a sword next to the Young Master, you’ll want to come running back immediately.”
Lee Ahn let out a sigh.
“Speaking of which, would you like some noodles? There are ingredients in the kitchen.”
“You know how to make them?”
“Of course I can make noodles.”
“Let’s eat. I was getting hungry anyway.”
“I’ll go whip some up right away.”
As Lee Ahn disappeared into the kitchen, Geom Mugeuk leaped onto the roof of the carriage.
Even as he landed on the roof, not a sound, like a feather falling, was made.
Geom Mugeuk lay there and looked up at the sky.
He suddenly missed his father.
He missed the Demon Sovereigns too, but he always missed his father first.
He would be sitting stoically in the Grand Advisor's seat of the Heavenly Demon Hall, attending to his duties.
‘Father, your son misses you like this.
Are you thinking of me, Father?’
As he was thinking of his father, Lee Ahn came back with freshly made noodles.
“Where would you like to eat?”
“Let’s eat here.”
Lee Ahn, holding the noodles, leaped lightly onto the carriage roof.
With her gentle lightness arts, not a single drop of broth was spilled.
Her martial arts mastery was improving day by day.
“Have some.”
For something made so quickly, it tasted excellent.
“Delicious. With this kind of skill, you won’t starve even if you retire. Let me invest in that noodle shop too!”
Lee Ahn was in a good mood.
She had been secretly worried that Geom Mugeuk would say it tasted bad.
It was just as the two of them were slurping their noodles.
The Drunken Demon entered the premises.
Geom Mugeuk and Lee Ahn looked at him.
The Drunken Demon gave them a single nod.
The moment she saw that nod, Lee Ahn felt relieved.
She knew he had succeeded in the rescue.
Of course, there was also some disappointing news.
“I only saved that person.”
Lee Ahn felt it was a great pity, but it couldn't be helped.
She wasn’t going to blame herself, thinking that if she had done better, she could have saved more people.
She intended to add that anger to the punishment of the one who planned this incident.
“Are there any noodles left?”
“I can make some right away. But will noodles be enough? I’ll buy you something delicious.”
When it came down to it, he had stepped up for her sake.
“It’s fine, noodles are enough.”
“Understood. I’ll go boil some right away.”
“I’ll have another bowl too!”
“Yes!”
As Lee Ahn ran to the kitchen, this time the Drunken Demon leaped onto the carriage roof.
“You worked hard, brother.”
“What work.”
“But why were they capturing people?”
“They were looking for an Extreme Cold Body.”
“An Extreme Cold Body?”
Among the various human constitutions, the Extreme Cold Body was an extremely rare one to find.
“The moment he tried to answer who gave the order, his head exploded and he died. It was a very powerful seal.”
The moment he heard that, Geom Mugeuk recalled an organization he knew of before his regression.
The Blood Death Alliance.
Bound by blood, they did not fear death.
They would readily give up their individual lives for the sake of the organization.
Everyone feared the Blood Death Alliance.
But it was later revealed.
They did not offer their lives out of sincere loyalty.
They were under a powerful seal that caused their bodies to explode if they betrayed.
The one who led that Blood Death Alliance.
The Ninth King of the Twelve Zodiac Kings.
The Blood King.
Another one of the Twelve Zodiac Kings had appeared.
A king with a lower number wasn’t necessarily weaker than those with higher numbers.
The Zodiac King who best fit this description was the Blood King.
It was said that he himself became the Ninth King because he liked the number nine.
The Blood King was a powerful figure.
For one, he commanded countless subordinates, and those subordinates did not fear death.
They couldn’t betray, and they were beings who would use the Self-Destruction Art without hesitation.
Because of this, it was not known what martial arts the Blood King actually used, or how strong he was.
All of history related to the Blood King was the history of his subordinates, their history of blood.
‘That Blood King is looking for an Extreme Cold Body? Why?’
Geom Mugeuk looked around at the snow-covered surroundings.
‘How much blood will have to be spilled on this pure snow.’
Lee Ahn, who brought the noodles, saw Geom Mugeuk’s serious expression.
From that expression, she could tell.
This business at the Ice Palace would by no means be an easy one.
Her heart boiled with fighting spirit.
Just then, her eyes met Geom Mugeuk’s.
“I’ll just work hard on boiling noodles.”
At her jest, Geom Mugeuk smiled faintly.
Just then, the Drunken Demon spoke abruptly.
“Don’t worry.”
When Geom Mugeuk looked back, the Drunken Demon was lying on his side, looking up at the sky, as if he were drinking at the Drunken Dream Pavilion.
His posture was relaxed, but the gaze seen through his fallen hair was deeper and more intense than ever before.
“This brother will solve everything.”