By Zephyria 
Mu-gyeong felt a tingling sensation at the nape of his neck from the touch of the hand resting against his forearm. He felt a strange sense of helplessness under the touch that moved as it pleased. It felt as though he had experienced a similar sensation a very long time ago.
However, wasn’t it only natural for his body to stiffen whenever Ho-yeon’s skin brushed against his? Cheon Mu-gyeong dismissed the strangeness drifting within him as something trivial.
“And if so?”
Ho-yeon’s eyes widened as he looked at Mu-gyeong. The fact that the blazing fire that seemed to burn his body originated from the fire dragon’s inner core was a truth known to only a very small few within the cult.
No matter how much Chief Han had cherished Wi Ho-yeon, she was a cultist to her very marrow and would never have let such information slip. Therefore, it was content that Wi Ho-yeon, while in the demon sect, could not have encountered in any way.
Though rumors once spread during the great war of righteous and demonic that the demon sect had returned to the hundred thousand great mountains to subjugate the fire dragon, it had been dismissed as mere baseless folklore.
Few believed in the existence of divine beasts. Those who knew the truth were exclusively the leaders of the Murim Alliance.
Wi Ho-yeon was naive, but he was not lacking in intelligence. It was possible he had deduced the fact while staying with him. Furthermore, he already knew that the ice dragon had existed. If such a person as Wi Ho-yeon had encountered rumors of the fire dragon somewhere, he would not have dismissed them as mere hearsay.
“The inner core… is it true that you devoured the inner core as well?”
As the already pale man turned even whiter, Mu-gyeong grasped Ho-yeon’s hand that had been touching his forearm and tucked it back inside the snow leopard pelt.
“Do you think I only ate the inner core? I chewed up and swallowed its heart as well.”
He couldn’t recall it now. Since he had fed the Heavenly Demon’s Wrath into the fire dragon’s heart, it must have exploded in all directions, leaving nothing behind. In the midst of being completely covered in the heart’s remnants, he might have eaten a few pieces.
Mu-gyeong placed the back of his hand against Ho-yeon’s face. He thought Ho-yeon was still cold because he kept trembling, but a moderate warmth lingered thanks to his fire energy.
Ho-yeon looked up at Mu-gyeong with blue eyes, his lips fluttering several times. The two moles on Ho-yeon’s chin moved along with them. They looked like small drops of ink that had fallen from a brush onto snow.
“I’ll… sleep for just one more shijin.”
Mu-gyeong was simply speechless at what he said.
“Uncle Wi, you distribute promises you cannot keep far too freely.”
Cheon Mu-gyeong lifted the hand that had been on his cheek and covered Ho-yeon’s eyes. In the darkness, where even the dim light of the luminous stones was completely blocked, Ho-yeon’s eyelids flickered a few times.
The eyelashes tickling his hardened palm almost made Mu-gyeong seize Ho-yeon’s entire face. It was a sensation that was both ticklish and agonizing.
However, the eyelids that had swept down across his palm did not rise again. Despite his words, Ho-yeon could not fall asleep for a long time. Even within the cozy heat provided by Mu-gyeong, sleep did not come easily. The reason he wanted to sleep was that he wanted to dream once more.
Perhaps he could meet him again in the dream. If so, would he then be able to tell if it was truly a dream or reality?
But Ho-yeon did not have the same dream again.
Mu-gyeong placed his hand against the wall of the underground cave and spread his demonic energy wide. It was to find a way out, but he was surrounded by thick ice walls on all sides. He figured it would be easier to exit the cavern and go back to where they had fallen.
Would it be enough to carry Wi Ho-yeon on his back and climb up? The problem was the soft rock walls that would not withstand his fire energy. Mu-gyeong turned to face Ho-yeon, who was sitting on a boulder staring blankly at him.
Usually, he would chatter away as if thorns would grow on his tongue if he didn’t speak, but since waking up after sleeping for at least half a day—let alone one shijin—his mouth had remained tightly shut.
Wi Ho-yeon held a fasting pill in his hand, which Cheon Mu-gyeong had practically thrown at him upon hearing his stomach growl. He must have been quite hungry, yet Ho-yeon merely held the fasting pill without bringing it to his mouth.
He had fallen silent after asking if he had subjugated the fire dragon and devoured its inner core. Mu-gyeong could anticipate this to some extent.
“You can’t expect to act comfortably while hiding that much yin energy in a body without martial arts.”
“……Because I have no choice but to hide it.”
“Does the ice dragon exist in the North Sea this time?”
“……No longer. It doesn’t exist.”
While suffering from sleepwalking in the lands of the barbarians before reaching the North Sea, Ho-yeon answered his questions honestly, yet he avoided the truly important ones. It was enough for Mu-gyeong to suspect there was some connection between Wi Ho-yeon and the ice dragon. For some reason, he seemed to hope that Mu-gyeong would not harm the ice dragon.
“You said the ice dragon no longer exists.”
Without opening his mouth, Ho-yeon simply nodded slowly.
Since one cannot kill something that doesn’t exist, why did he look so miserable? Ho-yeon’s crestfallen appearance began to grate on Cheon Mu-gyeong’s nerves.
“You came to find the origin of the ice art… but since it’s gone, what are you going to do?”
Ho-yeon asked in a small voice as Cheon Mu-gyeong approached him.
“……So, when are you going back?”
“Once I take what I want.”
“What you want…?”
“The origin of the ice art. If it exists, that is.”
“There’s no way it exists. It’s been so long since the first Palace Master passed away.”
The origin of the ice art was not the first Palace Master of the North Sea, but the heavenly ice polar dragon. However, at the time, Ho-yeon had pretended not to know and changed the subject.
“Didn’t you say there’s no way it exists because it’s been so long since the first Palace Master died?”
He repeated Ho-yeon’s previous words exactly. Ho-yeon tightly gripped the fasting pill, which was frozen solid in his hand.
“The origin of the ice art isn’t the first Palace Master. It’s the ice dragon.”
“If it’s not here, I’ll have to return to this cult.”
“I…”
Ho-yeon had the illusion that thick demonic energy was spreading wherever he passed. However, there were only sunken red eyes; Mu-gyeong’s energy was restrained as usual.
“As you know, I also have to look after the children of the eumbyeol hall.”
As if cutting off Ho-yeon’s words, a frostfish leaped from the pond, slapped the surface of the water, and dove back in. At times like this, Mu-gyeong wondered if Wi Ho-yeon had a memory worse than that of a frostfish.
“It’s almost impressive how you forget what kind of existence I am every single time.”
Mu-gyeong considered catching every single frostfish in the pond and grilling them for Ho-yeon, who loathed fasting pills, but he stopped himself. He thought that if he handed him grilled frostfish, Ho-yeon would get excited and start chattering again, but he had no desire to actually do it.
“Do I need to make you realize once again that I can create as many eumbyeol halls as I want within this cult?”
“You will become the Hall Master of the eumbyeol hall, responsible for all the artists of this cult.”
Ho-yeon’s brow furrowed deeply as he looked at Mu-gyeong, who had stepped in front of him. He was quite different from the Cheon Mu-gyeong in the dream, who had smiled confidently and promised him a future. Even though the same person presented the same situation, it felt entirely different.
Back then, it had been to respect and cherish him, but this time, it sounded more like a command from the heavenly demon, regardless of his own will.
‘If you… if there is someone who received the energy of the ice dragon, what would you do? Would you kill that person to take the inner core?’
Ho-yeon could not easily ask what was in his heart.
As his mind gradually cooled and became rational, he realized it hadn’t been a simple dream. Seeing the man confront the fire dragon within the open barrier had been a definite reality.
Having succeeded in subjugating the fire dragon, he had likely tracked the energy of the ice dragon to find this underground cave. There, he had met him…
He had come to subjugate the ice dragon, yet they had built a deep affection for one another, without him knowing that Ho-yeon had inherited the energy of that very ice dragon. Ho-yeon felt truly pathetic for having foolishly eaten three frostfish and lost consciousness.
But what had happened after that?
Seeing that he had fully received the energy of the ice dragon, it meant Cheon Mu-gyeong had not succeeded in the subjugation. And one more thing—strangely, Cheon Mu-gyeong also remembered nothing, just like him.
The only certain part was that Cheon Mu-gyeong was searching for the ice dragon’s inner core. Only then would he be able to find stability.
In a way, he had deceived him. If he had known the whole truth, Cheon Mu-gyeong would have killed him the moment they faced each other in this space. He wouldn’t have pitied him for shivering in the cold and willingly shared his body heat, nor would he have grilled frostfish for him.
Eumbyeol hall…
Perhaps he had liked those words very much. That was why his oath—that he would cherish him far more than Baek-ah or Jong Jagi—had remained even in his subconscious.
“Baek-ah and Jong Jagi…”
At Ho-yeon’s mysterious mutterings, Mu-gyeong cast a glance toward the seven-stringed zither. He knew that Baek-ah was the one who played the seven-stringed zither.
“I like high mountains.”
Wondering if he was asking for the seven-stringed zither, Mu-gyeong gave Ho-yeon another indifferent look. Not wanting to leave him sitting on the cold boulder any longer, he picked Ho-yeon up in his arms without a word.
Ho-yeon leaned his body into Mu-gyeong’s embrace, which soothed his falling body temperature once again. Even if he had forgotten everything, he kept the promise he made to him. Because he had become the Cult Leader and the heavenly demon.
It was just that they had both forgotten each other.