By Zephyria 
HF 50
===
Ho-yeon’s blue-gray eyes widened in disbelief. Even as he confirmed the identity of the man who had pulled him in and embraced him as he fell from the horse, the sense of reality remained distant. His heart hammered rapidly, refusing to settle.
He couldn’t tell if it was the terror of the fall or the heartbeat racing toward the one who had saved him. Gazing at Mu-gyeong as if possessed, Ho-yeon only snapped back to his senses when his breath leaked out as white mist once more.
“It’s a misunderstanding! I wasn’t trying to run away…! Look here.”
In a rush to explain, Ho-yeon tried to show the seven-stringed zither he had brought wrapped in silk. However, thanks to Tae-pyeong’s crazed gallop, not only the bamboo hat but also the zither on his back had long since come undone and flown away, silk and all.
Dazed, white breaths scattered incessantly from Ho-yeon’s lips. Still held in Mu-gyeong’s arms, Ho-yeon looked up at him again. Mu-gyeong, too, was exhaling white breath. As a blizzard swirled within the Heavenly Demon Hall, filled with demonic energy, it felt as if the winter of the North Sea had arrived here.
“I see nothing,” Mu-gyeong said indifferently, whether he was doing it on purpose or truly didn’t know.
“It’s true… I’m not lying. I borrowed the seven-stringed zither from the Jade Pavilion. So I was on my way to return it when I met Tae-pyeong, and then—whoops!”
Ho-yeon, who had been practically embraced in Mu-gyeong’s arms, was suddenly hoisted up, draped across Mu-gyeong’s shoulder. It was the same position as when they had headed toward the Shadowless Pavilion. The difference now was that his blood paths were free, allowing him to resist.
As Ho-yeon gripped the robes on Mu-gyeong’s back, the embroidered image of the dragon froze over with a crisp crackle.
“Listen, I wasn’t trying to escape…!”
Fearing that the silent man might actually invade the North Sea at any moment, Ho-yeon let out a shout.
“If I were trying to run away, would I have ridden Tae-pyeong?”
Tae-pyeong was nowhere to be seen, having vanished cruelly in the meantime.
“I just wanted to go to the Jade Pavilion and return the zither. I was going to take Abok with me, but as soon as Tae-pyeong picked me up, he bolted like crazy…”
Ho-yeon’s lips, which had been explaining without pause, suddenly snapped shut. He realized that explaining himself to someone who gave no reaction was a waste of breath. Ho-yeon’s body, draped over the shoulder, was still filled with frost energy, but the fire energy emanating from Mu-gyeong was so immense that neither side gave way.
“Let me down. I’ll walk back to the Shadowless Pavilion.”
“Is there any reason to keep a hostage who attempted to flee in my quarters?”
Ho-yeon realized that telling him it wasn’t an escape was like reciting scriptures to a deaf man.
“Then… where are we going?”
This time, Ho-yeon asked with a voice full of anxiety. However, no answer came from Mu-gyeong. Far from turning back the way he had come on Tae-pyeong, he continued heading deeper into the Heavenly Demon Hall.
The Heavenly Demon Palace was a space where cult leaders had resided for centuries. It was filled with an aura so toxic that an ordinary person’s energy would twist and they would die instantly upon exposure to the demonic energy.
Ho-yeon found it much easier to breathe by opening his dantian to push out the demonic energy, but he was still insufficient to expel all the demonic energy that had seeped into his blood paths.
Come to think of it, Ho-yeon wondered why the cult leader resided in the Shadowless Pavilion, which was incredibly modest for a leader. He had heard that all previous cult leaders had resided in the Heavenly Demon Palace.
Exhausted from asking to be let down, Ho-yeon lifted his head. He saw frost settled throughout the Heavenly Demon Hall wherever they had passed.
Normally, releasing this much frost energy would be accompanied by unbearable pain, so he found it strange that it was currently tolerable.
Thump. Mu-gyeong set Ho-yeon down on the floor. Having been practically dumped onto the black floor, Ho-yeon looked up at Mu-gyeong with a slight frown. However, Mu-gyeong was not alone. There was the Right Guardian, Il Gang-gun, holding a fan, and the Left Guardian, Ji Hyeok-gyeong, with fox-like, narrow eyes.
They also seemed greatly surprised to see Ho-yeon appearing in the Heavenly Demon Great Hall. Sitting on the floor, Ho-yeon looked up at Mu-gyeong. Behind him, sixteen steps were visible, and at the very top, a massive black dragon encircling the throne was writhing.
The pillars extending in all directions of the Heavenly Demon Great Hall soared so high they seemed to support the sky, and the demon gods carved into them glared with eerie light as if monitoring Ho-yeon.
Ho-yeon swallowed hard. It was an intimidation he hadn’t felt while wandering the streets or staying at the Demonic Shadow Martial House. Had he not unlocked the seal on his dantian, he would have been consumed by the demonic energy and died a screaming death.
Ho-yeon realized instinctively. This place was not merely a hall where the Heavenly Demon’s throne sat, but a domain ruled by demonic energy.
A blue veil descended around Ho-yeon, who sat with both hands on the floor, preventing the demonic energy from encroaching. Unlike Mu-gyeong, who looked down with interest, the two guardians had looks of sheer astonishment.
The Heavenly Demon Palace consisted of a wide plaza leading to a corridor, and beyond that stood the pavilion called the Heavenly Demon Hall, looming with a presence that suppressed the demonic cult headquarters.
And inside that was the Heavenly Demon Great Hall, the place where the cult leader’s throne resided. Mu-gyeong had personally stepped out of the hall to bring Ho-yeon into the Great Hall.
Why was it called the Heavenly Demon Palace? It was a space filled with poisonous mist that those who had not learned demonic arts could not even set foot in; even for a demonic practitioner, if they had not reached a certain level, they would be consumed by the demonic energy and become madmen.
Ho-yeon momentarily glared with his drooping eyes at the two guardians who had deceived him, but soon focused back on Mu-gyeong. The Heavenly Demon Hall was a space where demonic energy had accumulated over a long time. It was also a space that could, to some extent, suppress Mu-gyeong’s fire energy.
Even so, it could not suppress all the blazing fire within him. Yet, Ho-yeon was currently protecting himself by blocking both the fire energy and the demonic energy of the Heavenly Demon Hall.
Il Gang-gun intended to offer the counsel that something terrible would happen if Young Master Wi Ho-yeon, whom the cult leader cherished, continued to be left like this, but his mouth seemed to freeze shut at the level of ice art Ho-yeon displayed.
Contrary to what the Ice Palace had first reported, Wi Ho-yeon did not lack martial arts. Whether the Ice Palace had lied or Wi Ho-yeon had hidden his own level, it was certain that he was not someone with ordinary internal power.
Ji Hyeok-gyeong, standing beside him, also looked aghast. However, he inwardly judged that the cult leader must have already known Wi Ho-yeon’s martial prowess. That was likely why the cult leader had ordered the Haeun Express to be sent to the Ice Palace to investigate Wi Ho-yeon.
In fact, the report sent by the Haeun Express, which had returned safely to the Blue Sea, had already been delivered to the cult leader. In the midst of this, Wi Ho-yeon, riding the Mad Horse—no, the Mad Heavenly Black Horse—had entered the Heavenly Demon Hall.
Ho-yeon gazed at Cheon Mu-gyeong with anxious eyes. He repeatedly took deep breaths, and each time, the chest of the open black dragon robes swelled and receded threateningly.
Cheon Mu-gyeong stood beneath the Heavenly Demon Great Hall, which seemed as endless as the night sky. Yet, he looked as if he were gazing down at the place as if it were resting on the palm of his hand. The existence of Cheon Mu-gyeong provided an intimidation that transcended space. Ho-yeon felt as if he finally understood, even if only slightly, the concept of ‘transcending demonicity’ spoken of in the demonic cult.
Just as a mere structure cannot contain nature, he was a being who could not be contained even by the massive Heavenly Demon Palace. As soon as he realized this, the reality of who Cheon Mu-gyeong was became even more vivid. That such a being was not free from fire energy—Ho-yeon couldn’t even guess what kind of terrible dark arts or curse he was under.
As Cheon Mu-gyeong took a step forward, transparent cracks formed on the black floor where thin ice had settled because of Ho-yeon. The cracks spread in several directions, reaching Ho-yeon like a river breaking during the thaw. Unconsciously, Ho-yeon didn’t just freeze the cracks back; the ice extended toward Mu-gyeong.
Crack. However, another crack was etched by his footstep. A faint, barely visible smile seemed to hang on Mu-gyeong’s lips.
“Is the fake Young Master Wi challenging me?”
The words ‘I can’t’ clung to the tip of his tongue. This was because the pain that had been creeping in since a while ago finally felt as if it were tearing every organ in his body to shreds. Ho-yeon tried to expel the last handful of demonic energy within him, but he was preoccupied with blocking the red energy filling the Heavenly Demon Great Hall.
‘But… fake Young Master Wi?’
Due to the excessive pain, Ho-yeon struggled to look at Mu-gyeong, wondering if he had misheard.
As Mu-gyeong reached his hand toward the throne, a rolled-up letter landed instantly in his hand. Even though he hadn’t made a distinct movement, the letter unfurled and dropped in front of Ho-yeon.
Ho-yeon, pressing the black floor with his white hands, looked at the letter spread before him.
[It is suspected that Wi Ho-yeon is not the biological child of Wi Yeon-gang, and it is confirmed that there is no connection between them. Furthermore, it is said that only those who have reached a high level of ice art or the bloodline of the Palace Lord possess hair and eyes of a similar color to Wi Ho-yeon.
However, since Wi Ho-yeon has never learned ice art, it appears that a look-alike who could be mistaken for the Palace Lord’s bloodline was found and offered to the divine cult…]
The blue-gray eyes of Ho-yeon, reading the letter, trembled violently.
“Even after this, should this seat leave the Ice Palace alone?”
The letter returned to Mu-gyeong’s hand, and as flames enveloped it, it vanished without even leaving a handful of ash. The moment Mu-gyeong turned around, Ho-yeon shouted.
“You… you have to leave them alone!”
Ho-yeon looked at Mu-gyeong desperately, his fists clenched tight. To think he had sent people to dig into things in the far-off Ice Palace. Moreover, there was nothing to be gained from letting it be known that the Ice Palace and the demonic cult were interacting.
“I… I’m not the Palace Lord’s child, but we are of the same bloodline…”