Seol Unhwi felt it.
His life force was burning away.
His lifespan was shortening.
How much...
He could not calculate it.
Perhaps a few years.
At most, ten.
But it did not matter.
It had already been resolved.
Seol Unhwi continued to circulate the two energies.
Five cycles.
Ten cycles.
Twenty cycles.
Time passed.
His consciousness began to blur.
His body had recovered to a certain extent.
Not completely.
But it was certain he would no longer die.
At this point, it was right to entrust the rest to the regenerative power of the Void-Origin Energy.
Seol Unhwi slowly calmed the two energies.
The clear energy returned to his dantian.
The original blood force also returned to its place.
Everything fell silent.
His breathing stabilized, and his heartbeat returned to normal.
Seol Unhwi let go of consciousness.
He sank into a deep sleep.
The carriage continued onward.
Deep into the snowy mountains.
To a place where no one was.
***
A day passed.
The carriage had stopped deep within the snowy mountains, in a secluded valley where no trace of people could be found.
Chief Seong, Ju Soa, and Namgung Wonyang all stood guard around it.
No one spoke.
They simply waited.
Even now, Seol Unhwi’s overwhelming presence was something the three could not help but replay in their minds—it had shaken them that deeply.
Especially Chief Seong.
He had witnessed similar moments from Seol Unhwi before, but this time was entirely different.
White hair...
That was, in truth, no different from a mark of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace’s Polar Heirs. More precisely, it was a sign that appeared in the direct bloodline of the Snow Palace.
But Seol Unhwi—
Among that direct lineage, he alone possessed ash-gray hair.
It was the result of his mother’s black hair and Seol Jungcheon’s white hair intertwining, and yet, when he used the true chapter of the Primordial Innate Heart Method, Seol Unhwi’s hair turned white.
Chief Seong, who had spent a long time within the Snow Palace, could say it with certainty.
Seol Unhwi’s white hair was fundamentally different from that of the Snow Palace.
It looked as though it could absorb and embrace everything—
as if it were a transformation beyond the human realm.
And...
This was uncertain.
But strangely—truly strangely—it resembled that of a Heaven’s Chosen One.
...It must be a mistake.
Even if white hair was a mark of the Snow Palace, it was not as if there were only one or two white-haired individuals in all of Murim.
At that moment—
Thud.
Someone descended from the sky.
The instant the three moved to draw their weapons, they recognized who it was—and immediately dropped to their knees.
White robes.
White hair.
The supreme existence of the Snow Palace, whom Chief Seong had just been thinking of—
Seol Jungcheon.
“We greet the Palace Lord.”
Seol Jungcheon gave a slight nod and looked toward the carriage.
Chief Seong spoke cautiously.
“Palace Lord. The Mysterious Snow Palace Lord is currently—”
“I know.”
Seol Jungcheon’s voice was low.
He opened the carriage door and stepped inside.
No one could stop him. How could they—this was the Palace Lord of the Snow Palace.
Inside, Seol Jungcheon looked at Seol Unhwi, who sat with his eyes closed.
His breathing was steady.
Seol Jungcheon stood before him.
For a long while, he simply watched his son.
Then he slowly sat across from him.
Silently, he waited.
How much time passed?
Seol Unhwi’s eyelids trembled.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
And—
he saw Seol Jungcheon.
“...Father.”
“Yes.”
Seol Jungcheon answered briefly.
Seol Unhwi slowly raised his body.
“When did you arrive?”
“Just now.”
“Did you hear?”
“I did.”
Seol Jungcheon let out a sigh.
“To hear that my son shattered the Elder Council and killed my uncle... I had no choice but to come.”
Seol Unhwi opened his mouth to speak—
but Seol Jungcheon spoke first.
“No matter what you have done, I will always stand on your side.”
“...”
“As Hyeonsim told me, I entered secluded cultivation, and you acted. Does that not make us accomplices?”
Seol Unhwi shook his head.
“You did not know. And neither did my elder brother. This is something I carried out alone.”
Seol Jungcheon was no fool.
If everything was arranged as Seol Unhwi said, then as the Palace Lord, there was only one course of action.
Some form of punishment had to be declared—and Seol Unhwi already intended to go to the Chaotic Heaven Region.
“If I send you to the Chaotic Heaven Region and announce it as punishment, my dignity will be preserved.”
“Yes.”
“But at the same time, your dignity will fall.”
“I am prepared for that.”
Just as one cannot cover the sun with a hand, not all martial artists were fools.
Looking back—
why had Seol Unhwi gone to the Heavenly Alliance?
To raise the prestige of the Snow Palace.
He had returned, stopped by the Snow Palace, then gone to the Murim Alliance to raise his own name further.
And now, he had touched the Elder Council—and killed blood kin.
To exile him to the Chaotic Heaven Region as punishment?
Anyone would see it the same way.
That Seol Unhwi was a problem child of the Snow Palace—
and that Seol Jungcheon was in a position where he could neither discard him nor fully embrace him.
In truth, that was the intended impression.
“Am I correct in what I am thinking?”
Seol Unhwi nodded.
“Yes. You are.”
“...Then is this the best course?”
After a moment of thought, Seol Unhwi spoke quietly.
“A single game of Go requires only one central point.”
“...The central point.”
“Yes. The center of the board—the position that stands as the supreme point beneath heaven.”
He paused briefly.
“At present, that seat belongs to you.”
“...So it does.”
“And the next to sit upon that central point is my elder brother. Because he is the Young Palace Lord.”
“...”
“But ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) as long as I remain in the snowy mountains, people will believe there are two who will inherit that central point after you.”
Seol Jungcheon nodded.
It was true.
“When two great stones occupy the same position—”
Seol Unhwi continued,
“—they weaken each other’s influence. My withdrawal is the decisive move that will solidify my elder brother’s position.”
Seol Jungcheon said nothing.
Neither did Seol Unhwi.
Because both of them had left one truth unspoken.
Seol Unhwi was no longer merely a threat to the position of Young Palace Lord.
He had already become someone who could threaten the seat of the Palace Lord itself.
No matter how close they were—
no matter how strong the bond among the Polar Heirs—
that was how the outside world saw it.
Even within, there were those who saw it the same way.
Such was the flow of the world.
To go against it required a great price.
And Seol Unhwi had no intention of paying that price.
What he desired was the eternal stability of the Snow Palace.
If that required him to leave it, he would do so without hesitation.
“I cannot stop you. My son is too exceptional.”
“You already know. The reason I am exceptional is because I returned through time.”
Seol Jungcheon shook his head.
“That is a result, not the cause.”
“It is still the truth.”
Seol Jungcheon sighed.
“...So you truly intend to go to the Chaotic Heaven Region.”
“Yes.”
“I would like to ask your reason.”
The reason.
After a brief silence, Seol Unhwi spoke.
“Because something is strange.”
“Strange?”
“Yes. There is a reasonable explanation for why I knew little of the Chaotic Heaven Region in my past life. But when you said that the timing of its opening had changed... even now, I cannot understand why.”
“To learn that reason?”
“Yes. Even if I was ignorant of it before, I had never once heard that its timing had changed. If that is the case, there must be a reason. And no matter how I think of it, it feels connected to my reversal of time.”
“A mere intuition?”
“A deduction based on experience.”
Seol Jungcheon looked at him for a moment, then nodded.
“Very well. Do as you will. If you need anything, tell me at any time.”
Seol Unhwi smiled.
“As I said before, I need nothing.”
“Hm?”
“Your heart, and the warmth of the snowy mountains—I have already received more than enough.”
A debt that could never be repaid.
Endless trust. Endless love.
He was sincere.
Seol Jungcheon gave no reply.
Instead, he silently reached into his robes and took out a small box, placing it into Seol Unhwi’s hand.
Seol Unhwi looked at him with a questioning gaze.
Seol Jungcheon shook his head.
“Say nothing. Just consume it.”
With that, he stood and stepped outside.
Then, through voice transmission, he sent a final message.
—Tomorrow, it will be announced. Rest for one more day.
After he disappeared—
Seol Unhwi carefully opened the box.
A faint hiss of cold escaped.
Cold—but warm.
Inside—
there was a single medicinal pellet.
Transparent, yet tinged with blue.
As if a thousand years of ice had been condensed into one form.
“...This.”
Seol Unhwi’s eyes widened.
Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Crystal.
There was no doubt.
With trembling hands, he lifted it.
When he and Seol Jungcheon had unraveled the legend of the first Palace Lord, they had seen it—
what treasure had been left behind.
There had been an enormous quantity of Ice Crystals.
And among them, only one—
the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Crystal.
This—
was that very one.
The only treasure of its kind in the world.
And in his current state, Seol Unhwi could never consume it.
It required refinement—careful shaping.
But the one before him—
had already been refined.
He could feel it.
His father’s heart.
What had his father done all this time, while he had been in the Central Plains?
This was the answer.
Day and night, he must have refined it.
Only someone who had reached the pinnacle could accomplish such a thing.
Even so, it would have required relentless effort.
Refining, purifying, condensing—
not a single day missed.
“...Father...”
He could feel it.
Why he had told him to consume it alone.
Why he had told him to say nothing.
His chest burned.
It was a feeling he had not known for a long time—
emotion.
Silently, he placed the pellet into his mouth.
It melted.
Cold flowed down his throat and settled in his dantian.
Boom!
It was cold—
yet warm.
The essence of the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Crystal spread throughout his body.
His torn blood vessels were completely restored.
His damaged organs regenerated as if new.
His shattered meridians reconnected—stronger than before.
The wounds he had recovered using the Clear Void Returning Life Heart Method and the Blood Origin Regeneration Art—
were completely healed.
No—
they surpassed healing.
His body became stronger.
His dantian expanded, and his internal energy deepened.
And it did not end there.
The Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Crystal was, as its name implied, a treasure containing ten thousand years of essence.
That power would not vanish after merely restoring one body.
An almost complete form of the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Crystal settled within his dantian.
This was life itself.
Each time he was injured, it would naturally be consumed, aiding his recovery.
Seol Unhwi opened his eyes.
His body in perfect condition.
Once again, he had received an unrepayable grace from his father.
He opened the carriage door and stepped out.
Without a word, he turned toward the direction where his father had been and bowed.
Though they could not understand his action, the others followed suit and bowed as well.
