Chapter 432: The Five Spirit Beasts (1)

It has been more than a month since the Lord of the Demonic Cult, Chun Yeowun, took the North Sea Ice Palace.

The Ice Palace, which lost its structure, ended up in ruin and in water.

The palace had been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years, but rebuilding something which collapsed wasn’t an easy task.

Everyone moved to the east from the old site and started to rebuild the palace.

Of course, even if they were planning to build a new palace, making a palace from nothing is still difficult.

Since more than half of the site was submerged in water, working on the site would be difficult. So how could they do it?

“This is great.”

People were looking down from a hill towards the place where many people in white clothes worked.

They were the elders of the North Sea Ice Palace and Baekhyun.

Baekhyun couldn’t help but be in awe at the ruins of the palace.

‘Is it possible to achieve that level of greatness if I constantly practiced martial arts?’

It was natural for him to think that way.

The huge hole in the ruined Ice Palace where water began to emerge from was now completely frozen with no trace of water.

Chun Yeowun made it possible.

‘He really is not human.’

He still remembered how Chun Yeowun froze it.

Chun Yeowun, who created ice swords that were as strong as cold steel, froze the water-filled hole by exuding cold qi along with the Sky Flash.

Thanks to that, they were able to start construction without any problem.

“Even if he isn’t related to the North, there is no one else other than him who can do that, right?”

At Baekhyun’s words, Sol Am-baek, who was next to him, nodded and answered.

“He isn’t in a stage where normal people can even be compared to him. Still, it’s only because of him that things went smoothly. King.”

Shockingly, Sol Am-baek called him king.

How did this man turn into the king?

“Right. I ended up misunderstanding the master until I realized his true wisdom.”

Baekhyun thought that everything had been stolen away from him.

He hated how a situation occurred where the throne was being taken away by someone other than a blood relative.

However, in front of the council, Chun Yeowun made an unexpected announcement.

[I will take Prince Dan Baekhyun as my disciple and pass on the Ice Cold of Heaven to him.]

Baekhyun and all the others were puzzled.

But that wasn’t the end.

Chun Yeowun, who had promised to take Baekhyun as his disciple, announced that he would step back from being king and pass on the post to his disciple.

Although they acknowledged the Divine Object choosing its owner, the palace people rejoiced when they heard that outsiders weren't going to control them.

‘Maybe he was aiming for that since the beginning.’

It didn’t matter since one way or another, they knew that they would end up as subordinates of the Demonic Cult.

Just because he entered the academy as Chun Yeowun’s disciple, it didn’t mean the person in charge would change.

However, Baekhyun, who became the palace king, wasn’t countered by any palace officials.

“King. Are there no lessons today?”

One of the elders asked him.

After becoming his disciple, he was taught the Ice Cold of Heaven from Chun Yeowun.

And it was about time for his class.

“They said that they would be interrogating him today.”

Everyone knew who that was.

“… why don’t you ask the Lord to execute Dan Jucheon? It’s better to get rid of him, even if the elders object to it.”

“That’s how the elders think.”

The majority of the elders wanted Dan Jucheon to be executed.

However, along with, elder Seol Young-gwi, one of the instigators, he was currently being confined with his blood points sealed.

“If he is executed, the backlash from him and those who support him will increase.”

“Hmm…”

Baekhyun didn’t know if the elders thought of that.

However, the problem was that there were still many followers of Dan Jucheon.

Baekhyun’s supporter, Chun Yeowun, displayed the martial arts of the North Sea Ice palace and eroded some dissatisfaction, but the words of Dan Jucheon, in the end, caused a big stir.

[Kill me! I will never follow you!]

From his stand, he said that he would never work under the Lord of the Demonic Cult and asked to be executed.

Judging that he had lost everything, he was ready to accept death and even gained the support of a few officials.

Moyong Kang and Jegal Sohi of the Yulin thought that Chun Yeowun would get rid of the ones who rebelled, but shockingly, he did no such thing.

[I’m not a resident of this place, if I execute him here, will you and your men be able to handle the consequences?]

Baekhyun was unable to respond to Chun Yeowun’s question.

Right now, the Ice Palace was oppressed under the power of Chun Yeowun, but one day, when he leaves, the backlash will resurface.

At that time, Baekhyun accepted Chun Yeowun’s decision.

‘… I don’t know. But keeping him alive is dangerous. Wouldn’t it be better to deal with the opposition?’

Whenever the elders were concerned, such thoughts would enter their minds.

But, the final decision would be made today.

‘Because this is going to be the last interrogation…’

It wasn’t known why Chun Yeowun was interrogating Dan Jucheon for the last time today.

At the same time, the temporary detention room in the reconstruction site of the Ice Palace.

In the middle of the site, which was full of barracks, there was only one building made of ice, an ice prison built by Chun Yeowun with the newly found Ice Cold of Heaven technique.

An ice prison that was cold enough to make even Dan Jucheon’s body go numb and unable to move.

‘This is really the Ice Cold of Heaven technique.’

Cold qi couldn’t be produced to such an extent.

It was lucky that the technique was found, but learning it would be impossible.

‘Did he have no problems learning it because he is past human limitations?’

In the past, one of the five strongest warriors of Wulin used cold qi. Despite being above Dan Jucheon in strength, he wasn’t exemplary in cold qi.

There was no other way to say it, but Chun Yeowun is a true monster.

‘I thought I would die from the cold.’

Regret.

Being imprisoned like that, it was hard waiting for death.

It was then.

Keek!

The entrance to the ice prison was opened, and someone entered.

It was hard to see the man because of the light behind him, but he could guess who he was by looking at his long hair.

‘Lord Chun.’

Chun Yeowun, the Lord of the Demonic Cult who visited him just three days ago.

However, the atmosphere was different from when he first saw him.

Gooooo!

‘Kuk!’

He wasn’t sure since he had been inside the ice prison for a long time, but being close to Yeowun made him run out of breath.

‘… he completely absorbed the core!’

Dan Jucheon bit his tongue.

He never knew that the core, which held humongous energy, could be absorbed in such a short time.

He was a monster before absorbing the core. Dan Jucheon couldn’t even imagine what Chun Yeowun was now.

At that time, Chun Yeowun approached,

Step!

He unsealed Dan Jucheon’s blood points.

Chun Yeowun, who unsealed the blood points, spoke first.

“We found the body of Wong Sangho, the elder of the Ice Palace who disappeared.”

“…”

“Based on your words, one charge on them for the missing dragon head has been dropped.”

At Chun Yeowun's words, he bit his lip.

“… No.”

He said one charge.

It was said that one of the heads of the Dragon Turtle, which should have been on the western side of the ruins near the Demonic Cult’s barracks, had disappeared.

At that time, the whereabouts of Won Sangho, an elder who followed Dan Jucheon, were unknown, and then his body was found.

Dan Jucheon claimed that it wasn’t him, but his innocence wasn’t proven. Fortunately, the palace officials who were working on the reconstruction found Won Sangho’s frozen body.

“It could be the Yulin.”

Dan Jucheon argued that it must be Yulin who stole the head.

And it made sense.

The Blade God Six Martial clan could have stolen it too, but they later found that a few people of the Yulin had gone missing.

Lieutenant Mak Wijong, the temporary captain of the Black Shadow troops, had disappeared along with some other men.

Moyong Kang and Jegal Sohi claimed that they disappeared to find the core, but since they couldn’t find Mak Wijong in the underground despite coming across the Blade God Six Martial clan, Yulin was at the top of the suspect list.

However, Chun Yeowun didn’t think like that.

“No. It isn’t the Yulin.”

“… what do you mean by that? Weren’t there people of that faction who disappeared?”

“Some of their bodies have been found.”

“What?”

Shockingly, the bodies of some of the men of the Black Shadow troops were found two days ago.

A hundred miles to the southeast, people found their corpses which were left behind after animals ate them.

The corpses were extremely damaged, but there was one thing that couldn’t be hidden.

“There were traces of the Blade God Six Martial clans’ martial arts on their bodies.”

“No? … So they stole it?”

Dan Jucheon’s eyes trembled at the results.

The Red Mountains of Lhasa.

The Potala Palace which was located on an alpine mountain at an altitude of 12,139 feet.

The Potala Palace was known to be the sacred place of the Bodhisattva.

It was a mystery how the palace was built in such a high place.

The building, made of a mixture of granite and wood, had a white exterior wall and a dark red roof.

The majestic palace towering over the mountain left viewers in awe.

Normally, everyone would look at it in awe.

However, there was a problem with the palace.

The Potala Palace was divided into two parts; the White Palace and the Red Palace. The ruler, the Dalai Lama, was in charge of the affairs and held religious ceremonies in the Red Palace.

The Red Palace, where one would normally hear the recitation of sutras, was completely gone.

Half of the palace was in ruins as there had been a war, and in the middle of it, more than a thousand bodies were burning.

Fire!

“Ugh.”

A man shook his head at the smell of the burning flesh.

Among the black soot, a bunch of sparkling white marbles could be seen.

They were called Sarira or relics and they gave off a mysterious light.

“They came out in large numbers because there were a lot of monks.”

The Potala Palace was full of the monks’ disciples.

When the dead Dalai Lama was burned in the perpetrator’s hands, the relics that came out of him were equal to what came out of ten disciples.

That was proof of how strong he was.

However, even the Dalai Lama wasn’t able to withstand more than three sword techniques and died.

“How long will it take for the Blade Lord to completely absorb it?”

Two days ago, he locked himself in the Dalai Lama’s room in the White Palace.

He informed his men to never disturb him unless it was something urgent, as he dealt with something difficult.

At that time.

Flap! Flap!

“Uh!”

A hawk flew across the blue sky towards a man.

It wasn’t a wild hawk, he naturally lowered his claws and settled down on the arm of the bandaged man.

This hawk was trained to deliver letters.

There was a small cylinder tied to its toenail, and when untied and opened, a rolled-up paper came out.

Swoosh!

When the paper was opened, there was nothing written on it.

It was empty, but the bandaged man, who was accustomed to it, took out a reagent from his pocket and dripped a drop of it on the paper and strangely the paper began to turn dark at places.

“Let’s see.”

The eyes of the bandaged man who was examining the content were unusual.

Soaked in embarrassment, he gave the hawk over to a subordinate and entered the White Palace.

Entering the White Palace, he rushed towards the Dalai Lama’s room, which was towards the basement.

After going downstairs, there was a thick and large door.

Gulp!

The bandaged man, who gulped, carefully knocked on the iron door.

Knock!

After knocking a couple times, instead of hearing any answer from inside, the tightly shut door began to open.

Kiiik!

Swoosh!

As the door opened, cold air escaped out.

The bandaged man entered the room with trembling footsteps, looking at everything which had frozen as if they were in the North Sea.

In the middle of the room, a giant bird with its head cut off and an enormous body came into view.

It was one of the five Spirit Beasts, the carcass of the Great Bird, which is known to transform into a large fish in the Arctic.

‘Where is he… ah!’

As he looked around, he saw a middle-aged man meditating on the corpse of the Great Bird.

He was the Blade Lord.

An intense cold qi emanated from his body, and it seemed like he had absorbed the beast’s core in two days.

‘Kuk, how do I explain this?’

Scary.

There were supposed to be no more problems.

However, never in his wildest of dreams would the man have thought that their plans would go awry.

As he was hesitating, the Blade Lord, who was seated with his eyes closed, opened his mouth.

“I told you to not disturb me unless it’s something important.”

“Bl-Blade Lord!”

Thud!

The man fell flat on the ground and apologized.

“What happened?”

“Th-that…”

“Do you want me to aim for your heart?”

Swoosh!

With a voice full of displeasure, intense energy surrounded him.

In the end, the man decided to tell him what he read.

“Bl-Blade Lord! The men of the Slaughter Blade Master and the Spirit squad were all killed.”

Woong!

“Uhk!”

As soon as his words finished, the body of the bandaged man floated into the air and was dragged towards Blade Lord, who was sitting on the dead bird.

“What are you talking about now? Did they all die unable to take down the Ice Palace warriors and the Dragon Turtle?”

“N-not that. Two masters and a couple more are alive…”

Wheeing!

“Kuk!”

Blade Lord grabbed the neck of the man and asked.

“Doesn’t that mean they failed?”

“Kuk… Kuk… Demon… Demon God… in… North Sea… Ice Palace…”

‘!?’

The grip on the man weakened with those words.

The man decided to let him explain.

“Demon… God?”

“Ye-yes! If he hadn’t intervened, they would have safely brought the dragon to our place… a- a young prince of the palace seems to have requested the Demonic Cult to send reinforcements! Even then, our people ended up colliding with him and one of the dragon’s heads…”

Phut!

With strong force, the man’s body was thrown to the side.

The power was so strong that after the impact the man began to cough up blood.

“Kuak! Kuah!”

Not caring, Blade Lord jumped up from his seat and mumbled in a voice filled with anger.

“… it can’t be. Is he also aiming for the five Spirit Beasts!”