Chapter 403 : Guest from the North (3)
The three great powers outside of Jianghu.
There were different kinds of martial arts established and followed by the people there.
Of course, from the point of view of the Jianghu people, though they were people outside the region, their martial arts and fighting style were not too different from Jianghu martial arts.
The three powers, who were considered an outside power, were East, West and North. First was the Boudala palace, where Buddhism was spread to the Tibetan plateau. The second was the Imperial region, where the Shaolin temple became famous for its martial palace. Last but not least was the North Ice Palace, which was also called the Northern Sea (Lake Baikal), a land of cold snow fields.
Of course, in addition to those, there were the South Yunan forces, Indo forces and the Pasa warriors. There were known to be various groups of armed people, however the mentioned three were the only ones known to be gaining strength consistently.
‘North Sea Ice Palace…’
At one point, around 30 years ago, among the outside forces, there was a group that moved to the south to seek power over the Jianghu.
They were the North Sea Ice Palace.
Less than a month after entering the Central Plains (Jianghu), they gave up on their plans due to the climate and food culture, which was too different for them to get used to in a long war.
At that time, the North Sea Ice Palace became famous for signing a peace treaty with the Wulin, which was about giving up the confrontation and not continuing the war.
“An envoy from the North Sea Ice Palace?”
Chun Yeowun’s eyes lit up.
It was surprising to hear that the person who brought in the missing former Lord Chun Inji’s ident.i.ty slate was someone from the North Sea Ice Palace.
‘Envoy? Ugh.’
Hu Bong looked at the young man with distrust.
If he really was an envoy of such a famous place, then he should have come with some people behind him, but this man was shabby looking, lean, scar faced and looked like a total rogue.
“If you really are the envoy from the North Sea Ice Palace, shouldn’t you be holding something to symbolize your status and role?”
Great Guardian Marakim, who had been suspicious of the young man since the beginning, asked.
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
When referring to themselves as envoys, they would usually carry around at least a letter from the palace or, in the case of the North Sea Ice Palace, an ident.i.ty slate.
“Ah…”
At Marakim’s question, Baekhyun, who called himself the envoy, looked puzzled.
Come to think of it, the letter from the Palace requesting the help was taken by his uncle to the Yulin.
“T-that is with my uncle, not me…”
“Uncle?”
“Ahh, how do I begin to explain this…”
In fact, the letter to Yulin was an official request, but the request from the Demonic Cult was being done by Baekhyun on his own volition.
It felt like if the truth was told, then the atmosphere which was already sour would turn into a big mess.
‘Suspicious.’
As he hesitated to answer, Marakim’s distrust grew.
Baekhyun, who was confused about what had to be done, spoke out as soon as he thought of something.
“Ah! I will show you proof that I am a person from the North Sea Ice Palace.”
The simplest way.
Dan Baekyun, who was standing next to Ko w.a.n.ghur, asked him.
“Would you mind releasing the control on my internal energy?”
“Release of internal energy?”
Ko w.a.n.ghur’s eyebrows rose.
This young man didn’t seem like a dangerous man and also didn’t look like he had reached Super Master level, however, he couldn’t help but wonder if the control over his internal energy should be released before even verifying his ident.i.ty.
However, Chun Yeowun allowed it, so it had to be released.
Tatata!
“Sigh!”
The moment the control was released, mist flowed out of his mouth.
It was a phenomenon that happened when the control was released.
Dan Baekhyun, who took a deep breath, pointed to a teacup placed on the table.
“Uh?”
“Look there.”
He held the half full teacup, and then started to expand his internal energy.
After a while, a change occurred.
Swoos.h.!.+ Crack!
Cold energy rose from his hand, and the half full teacup froze immediately along with a light vapor appearing above it.
It was a typical cold energy show, a symbol to prove that he belonged to the North Sea Ice Palace.
‘There was such an easy way, but I was too confused and ended up looking suspicious in their eyes. Ugh.’
Baekhyun sighed out of relief.
Since he went ahead and showed them his ability, he thought that they would no longer doubt his ident.i.ty.
‘Huh?’
The eyes looking at him were still suspicious.
They seemed upset too.
‘Wh-what went wrong? I even showed them my cold energy, so what?’
They still were in disbelief.
What he showed was the North Sea Ice Palace, Ice Palm, but the situation didn’t seem to lighten up.
He couldn’t understand, but Chun Yeowun placed his hand on the table.
Swoos.h.!.+
‘!?’
Crack!
‘Wh-what was that!!!’
In that moment, intense cold energy radiated, cooling the entire room. Then white frost started to form on the table, which froze the table completely.
When Chun Yeowun lightly slammed the completely frozen table, cracks formed around the part, like it was ready to shatter.
Crack!
Looking at the pieces of the ice which fell to the floor, Baekyun mumbled in a fl.u.s.tered manner.
“H-how could you do this?”
The extent of cold energy produced was unbelievable.
Moreover, it was much faster than the internal energy’s Ice Palm technique he showed.
As he lived in the north, he was exposed to the cold all year around, but he was surprised to see Chun Yeowun, who had never been to the North, perform techniques which needed Yin energy in his body.
“If that is the case, then I must be from the North Sea Ice Palace too, right?”
“…”
Asking something like that, left the man speechless.
Baekhyun, who was dumbfounded for a moment, opened his mouth while stuttering.
“H-how… do you have so much Yin energy?”
“Is that important? I don’t think that showing your ident.i.ty to prove that you were from the North Sea Ice Palace was such a tough thing.”
Baekhyun was embarra.s.sed.
In the beginning, he did seem suspicious.
He came in with the ident.i.ty slate of the former Lord, so it was very hard to believe that it wasn’t a trap. Especially from the Lord of the Demonic Cult‘s perspective. It seemed like Baekhyun was trying to isolate him.
“Lord, isn’t there an easier way than to do all of this?”
Hu Bong asked with a sneaky smile.
He knew that Chun Yeowun had something he liked using to clearly tell if someone was lying or not.
Seeing that uneasy smile, Baekhyun spoke out.
“Wait a minute! You must know this right? Those who have mastered the martials arts in the main palace have silver hair due to the influence of the internal energy in their body.”
“… your hair is black.”
It had a faint in it grey, but still, it was of black color.
“It is because I still haven’t mastered it yet. However, if the 5th level could be reached out of the 8 levels, silver hair will start to appear once one uses cold energy.”
At those words, Chun Yeowun looked at Great Guardian Marakim.
However, even Marakim, who was the most aware of martial arts, shook his head as if he wasn’t familiar with it.
The North Sea Ice Palace had practically little to no interaction with people of Jianghu, except for the incident that happened many years ago.
And with the Demonic Cult being in the south of the Yellow River, there was no chance of them encountering or interacting with the people of the north, so it was practically impossible to know the details of the Cold energy, the techniques or the martial levels they used.
Elder Huan Yi, who was the type to gather information, might have known about this.
At that time, Marakim remembered a person who knew about this.
“Maybe w.a.n.g Jing might know.”
“Ah… that could be.”
Chun Yeowun nodded as if it felt reasonable.
Martial Dual Sword w.a.n.g Jing was living in secret after he became one of the five strongest warriors of Wulin, right after annihilating the pirates.
And 30 years ago, w.a.n.g Jing was a member of the Wulin, so he could know about it.
“Hu Bong. Bring w.a.n.g Jing.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
At Chun Yeowun’s command, Hu Bong left.
‘w.a.n.g Jing… w.a.n.g Jing… where did I hear that before… w.a.n.g Jing… I definitely heard that name a lot…ah!’
Baekhyun, who was contemplating the name which felt familiar, yelled out.
“Martial Dual Sword w.a.n.g Jing!”
Come to think of it, he heard something when he entered Jianghu.
In addition to Chun Yeowun who reached Divine Master level, there was the news about w.a.n.g Jing joining the Demonic Cult.
‘The rumors were true.’
Baekhyun, a member of the North Sea Ice Palace, also dreamed of taking over the Wulin in Jianghu, so he knew about the famous people in Jianghu.
Though his memory was still fuzzy.
‘Two great masters of Wulin in one place, the Demonic Cult. It was no exaggeration to say that he is coveting all the strength.’
The five strongest warriors were always a group of people he heard a lot about.
And now he would see them.
“Stop being so shocked and prove it.”
“Ah, I understand.”
He didn’t learn the use of cold energy to use it for such a situation, but it was the only way to prove his ident.i.ty.
Goooo!
Unlike the cold energy that was used before, this time a noticeable change occurred in Baekhyun’s body.
At the frost, which began to appear, his skin turned white and the black hair began to turn silver from the root.
“Oh!”
Ko w.a.n.ghur and Hou Sanghwa began to exclaim their emotions at the sight that was unfolding in front of their eyes.
Baekhyun’s hair, which was black until recently, turned silver giving off a mysterious feeling to the people around.
‘It is amazing.’
They weren’t sure what kind of phenomenon it was, but it surely was shocking.
Until a moment ago, they were feeling skeptical, but if w.a.n.g Jing could see it, he would definitely believe that this man’s ident.i.ty was indeed true.
Swoooo!
When Baekhyun stopped, the silver hair lost its color and changed back to black.
It was as if they were seeing a magic trick happen.
“Did you see it?”
Baekhyun was pleased to see their shocked expression.
When it came to silver hair, he was sure that it would be accepted since that was something only those who use cold energy could do.
“My Lord, w.a.n.g Jing is here.”
Right that moment, Hu Bong brought w.a.n.g Jing with him.
w.a.n.g Jing, the Dual Martial Sword, could only prove his ident.i.ty once the issue would be solved, but there was another difficulty: he had to convince Lord Chun Yeowun to help them.
‘Still, since the former Lord’s slate is with me, he might help me.’
The door opened first, with Hu Bong coming in followed by someone else.
‘Ah… it really is w.a.n.g Jing!’
Baekhyun was happy to see w.a.n.g Jing, one of the five strongest warriors, whom he had heard of since his childhood. He quickly turned around to look at him.
“North Sea Ice Palace’s Baekhyun greets w.a.n.g Jing, who is one of the five strongest warriors of…”
Baekhyun’s eyes shook when he turned.
A white faced, silver haired beauty, w.a.n.g Yogun, was walking alongside w.a.n.g Jing and entered his eyes.
‘Ugh, what is that?’
Baekhyun was confused for a moment, so he wasn’t sure what to say.
He was already confused at Chun Yeowun using cold energy a while back. Now he was afraid that the same thing would happen again, and because of the woman, he felt his feet go numb.
“Wh, something doesn’t seem right. How could this happen? For someone who is unaware of our skills…”
He was speaking in gibberish, even tears began to fall.
Baekhyun thought that everything would go smoothly if he showed the ident.i.ty slate of Chun Inji, but everything was turning into a mess.
At the same time within Yulin.
In the room of the Great Leader, Yi Mok and four other leaders were discussing the current matter with serious faces looking at the content in the long booklet that was on the table.
There was someone impatiently waiting in another room, Dan Juseong, uncle of Dan Baekhyun, from the North Sea Ice Palace.
He delivered the letter he got from the palace and informed them.
Yi Mok called in for an urgent meeting with the available leaders.
They all had anxious expressions, and so did the man seated in the other room.
He heard numerous rumors as he headed to this place.
‘Why did such an incident have to happen at a time like this? Ahhh.’
It was about the war in Jin Castle.
He heard about the damage the Yulin and the Forces of Justice took.
After the signing of the treaty, regular information was being exchanged, but he was concerned if Yulin and the Forces of Justice might be of any help this time.
In the room, opinions were divided in half, and the discussions were severe.
Hong Palwoo raised his voice by pointing the finger at the contents of the book.
“This is very dangerous, Great Leader. A dragon?”
“I agree with leader Hong. What on earth is this spirit beast that has lived for so many years after being sealed in the North Sea Ice Palace? I don’t understand this!”
The opinions were divided.
A plea for help in killing a dragon, the Dragon Turtle, which was the same as the Imoogi and Qilin: A spiritual beast.