By Zephyria 
HF 34
===
HF 2. Pursuit
Wi Yeon-gang, the Palace Master of the Ice Palace, was racking his brain.
He was tormented by the question of whether sending Wi Ho-yeon—who was like a thunderclap bomb that could explode at any moment—to the Demon Sect had been a wise choice. The fact that several members of the Snow Eagle Squad sent along with Ho-yeon were overdue for their return and had yet to send word also contributed to his anxiety.
Given Ho-yeon’s temperament, Yeon-gang had expected him to send word out of concern for the children of Eumbyeol Hall, but there had been total silence. Wi Yeon-gang worried that some misfortune might have befallen Ho-yeon’s party on their way to the Demon Sect.
“Just how long must I wait…”
“Palace Master, please do not worry too much.”
At the Palace Master’s monologue, the Hall Master of Binghan Hall poured a cup of North Sea Snow Lotus tea, urging him to be at ease. The Binghan Hall Master had been the one most proactive in pushing for Ho-yeon to be sent to the Demon Sect.
Thin ice clung to the outside of the teacup, yet steam rose from the tea within. Because North Sea Snow Lotus tea possessed a strong yin nature, thin ice would form on the surface of whatever vessel it was poured into, even if it had been boiled. The Palace Master did not drink the tea, setting it back down on the tea table.
The Palace Master’s Hall, where Wi Yeon-gang resided, was not heated, and thus was filled only with a freezing chill. This was because only martial artists who had mastered ice arts were permitted to enter.
However, the Hall Master of Binghan Hall, who trained the Ice Palace’s martial artists, was draped in a wolf pelt. He hadn’t always been like that, but it seemed he had now grown complacent, neglecting his training.
“In the end, whether Wi Ho-yeon lives or dies, it doesn’t really matter to us, does it?”
“How can you say such a thing! Was he not one who sacrificed himself for the Ice Palace!”
With a sigh, Wi Yeon-gang dismissed the Binghan Hall Master, who continued to speak with such carefree indifference. The elders had long been displeased that Wi Ho-yeon, who had no connections to them, lived in Eumbyeol Hall. In truth, Wi Yeon-gang was the only one left in the North Sea Ice Palace who knew anything about Wi Ho-yeon, so their sentiment was understandable.
Rubbing his beard out of habit, Wi Yeon-gang recalled the memory of a day when the blizzard raged wildly.
Wi Yeon-gang was originally a distant relative of the previous Palace Master. In terms of kinship, they were eighth cousins, making them practically strangers. The place where he lived was not the Ice Palace, but the outskirts of the North Sea. As for how such a man rose to the position of Palace Master, it was because he had led a rebellion.
The former Palace Master had monopolized all the spirit medicine found in the Eternal Snow Mountains and provided full support to his son, the Young Palace Master. He had attempted to place a half-wit who lacked talent and did nothing but drink alcohol on the throne.
While he should have looked after the North Sea as Palace Master, he not only excessively collected the Hanteon Tax(1) but also monopolized the wood used for fuel, leading to countless North Sea people freezing or starving to death.
He had even shoved hundreds of children into a subterranean cavern in the Eternal Snow Mountains, known as the dwelling of the legendary divine beast, the Ice Dragon. It was to create a human elixir, much like the creation of a venomous concoction.
In a venomous concoction, various poisonous insects are placed in a jar and forced to devour one another until only one remains. The survivor, the ‘Go,’ absorbs all the resentment and toxicity of the other insects; the Ice Palace’s ‘Go’ was performed on humans. According to records, the surviving human themselves became a tremendous spirit medicine.
The former Palace Master intended to create a human elixir to feed to the Young Palace Master. However, as the Palace Master’s neglect of the North Sea became too extreme, a rebel force formed around Wi Yeon-gang, who possessed the highest level of ice art.
Thus, after bowing his head and gathering power for several years, Wi Yeon-gang struck the Ice Palace when the time was ripe and succeeded in his rebellion. After a fierce battle, the former Palace Master died in the Palace Master’s Hall, and the remaining remnants, including the Young Palace Master who had tried to flee, were all wiped out.
Even after ascending to the position of Palace Master, Wi Yeon-gang suffered from an excessive workload. It was because the previous Palace Master had left the North Sea in ruins. It was during the time he was stabilizing the North Sea gradually, without rushing.
Wi Yeon-gang and his wife had not been able to conceive children as they aged, but for some reason, a late-born child was born to them. His wife rejoiced, wondering if all these blessings were a grace bestowed by the Ice Dragon.
The origin of ice arts was known to be the Ice Dragon, but since no one had ever seen one in person, it was effectively nothing more than a legend. However, at that moment, the underground cave came to Wi Yeon-gang’s mind, and naturally, the human elixir flashed through his thoughts as well. Now that he had a child of his own, the sacrificed children weighed on his mind.
Wishing to soothe the souls of the dead children, Wi Yeon-gang sought out the cave where the human elixirs were made, but as he descended, the path was blocked by a massive wall of ice.
What the Young Palace Master had said before he died was true.
“The moment the children were thrown underground, the floor sank deeper and the passage was blocked by ice! They all died! It was a dog’s death from the start!”
He had wondered if the Young Palace Master had lied to avoid giving up the human elixir, but it was the truth. Of course, even if Wi Yeon-gang had discovered a human elixir, he would never have committed such an inhuman act as to take it. Wi Yeon-gang could only erect a memorial stone in front of the ice wall, presumed to be the entrance to the underground cave.
Hundreds of children were trapped. Since most had no connections, he could not carve each of their names, but he could firmly write at least one three-character name.
Wi Ho-yeon.
Wi Ho-yeon’s father had been a cousin of the previous sect leader. He had been framed for attempting a rebellion, leading to the execution of all his kin, and only Wi Ho-yeon survived to be offered as a sacrifice for the elixir. Perhaps they expected that since the blood of the Wi family flowed in him, Wi Ho-yeon would become an even greater elixir if he survived.
Wi Yeon-gang had never seen Wi Ho-yeon, but he knew that his parents had been exterminated because they never stopped advising the former Palace Master. Perhaps it was a relief now. For due to the strong opinion of the rebel forces, Wi Yeon-gang had to massacre everyone up to the fourth cousins of the former Palace Master.
After praying for the repose of Wi Ho-yeon and the other children for a brief moment, he soon forgot about the human elixir.
On a night like any other, as he slept with his wife and child. Suddenly, a blizzard scattered inside the Palace Master’s bedchamber, where the firewood should have burned all night.
Cold was a very familiar sensation to Wi Yeon-gang, but not to his wife and child. For his wife, who had not yet been a year since giving birth, he had ordered that the fire in the bedchamber never be extinguished. Thus, he wondered if what he was seeing now was a dream.
Haa. A man exhaling white breath stood in the center of the bedchamber. Had it not been for his tall stature, he was so beautiful that one might have mistaken his gender. The man, with hair like eternal snow, wore a lavish blue robe of the kind seen at coming-of-age ceremonies or weddings.
As if someone who cherished the man had crafted it with great care, the snow lotus flowers delicately embroidered on the robe looked like a feast of snow flowing on the wind.
In reality, a fierce blizzard raged around the man. Though the ceiling was completely closed and there was no sky or clouds to be found, the scattering snow contained an intense frost energy.
It was not a dream. Wi Yeon-gang realized it only after he bled from a snowflake that grazed his cheek. He stood in front of his wife and child, facing the swirling blizzard.
Since each snowflake was like a blade, Wi Yeon-gang deployed the Eternal Ice Wall Palm to shield the bed. Meanwhile, he was torn here and there by the blizzard, bleeding incessantly. He couldn’t even find the voice to shout who it was. The breath he drew in to breathe was freezing his windpipe bit by bit.
Crack, crack! Centered around the white-haired man, the surroundings were being covered in deep blue ice. The Eternal Ice Wall Palm that Wi Yeon-gang had erected collapsed with a crash, as if it were nothing more than thin ice before the man’s energy.
Wi Yeon-gang pushed his internal power to the limit to use the Absolute Ice Spirit Palm, a technique passed down only to Palace Masters. Yet, even as he did, Wi Yeon-gang lacked the confidence that he could defeat the man before him.
Though the man stood so precariously, Wi Yeon-gang felt like a mere insignificant creature standing before a giant Ice Dragon. He thought that if the legendary divine beast he had never seen were to manifest as a human, it would look like this.
A single breath triggered a snowstorm, a gaze that did not blink seemed to freeze his entire body, and every single strand of hair looked like the scales of an Ice Dragon.
He could only conclude that the Heavenly Ice Polar Dragon had manifested here.
==
Hanteon Tax: A tax paid in exchange for the protection of the Ice Palace.