“To think they had this much food stored.”
The First Seat let out a groan as he looked at the cart piled high with grain.
“For a while, it seems we won’t need to go near the border.”
“Can we really trust it enough to eat? What if it’s poisoned?”
“I’m worried about that too, but even if there is poison, wouldn’t boiling it help a little?”
In truth, Baek Unhyeon thought that after starving so long, even if it was poison, they had to eat it. Better that than die from hunger.
After a moment of hesitation, the First Seat spoke.
“Let’s boil the grain first, and if there’s trouble tomorrow—”
Crunch.
The First Seat and Second Seat slowly turned their heads.
Crunch.
Another strange sound came from the cart. The First Seat quietly moved around to the back of it.
Rustle.
As he lifted one of the sacks, the First Seat shouted furiously.
“You little bastard!”
“Eeeek!”
The boy who had been poisoned by sulfur was hastily shoving an apple into his mouth.
“You pig of a brat! You almost died picking up discarded crops before, and now you’re stuffing something in your mouth again without even knowing what it is?”
When the First Seat smacked the boy’s head, the boy burst into tears but still forced the rest of the apple into his mouth.
“Hueegh, I-I’m sorry, Great Lord...”
The First Seat shook his head in disgust.
“You’re going to die from that gluttony, you fool!”
Though he looked at the boy with exasperation, he couldn’t scold him further. To hide the pity in his heart, he cursed a few more times and turned away.
Baek Unhyeon frowned faintly as he watched the two of them through cloudy eyes.
'...Didn’t they say he’d been exposed to the Second Seat’s curse?'
It was the first time Baek Unhyeon had seen someone survive that curse. Seeing the boy acting fine and eating greedily made him wonder if the First Seat had been mistaken.
Swish.
His gaze shifted sideways. Something was hastily crawling away behind a pillar.
Several small children were sneaking out of the cave, each with an apple in their mouths. They were the rest of the children who had supposedly fallen ill.
Taking advantage of their eldest brother being scolded, the other four had slipped away quickly.
“Ha...”
Baek Unhyeon exhaled in disbelief.
Once exposed to the Second Seat’s curse, a person vomited for an entire day before dying. Yet these children had already regained their appetites?
'...Are they really disciples of the Yeonjuda troupe?'
Baek Unhyeon rubbed his chin suspiciously.
Since crossing into the Northern Sea, he had lived in hiding and lost all contact with the Central Plains long ago.
The day before leaving, he had received a letter from Baek Unhae saying he was joining the Yeonjuda troupe—but after that, no further news ever came. That had been the last.
And he knew exactly what that meant.
The Second Seat took a sheet of paper from his robe.
On it were neatly written the names of those of his generation.
Baek Unjung. Baek Unhyeon. Baek Unhae. Baek Unsan. Baek Unho.
The five brothers who had survived the Blood Demon’s farm had been sent to the Central Plains. None had met the Blood Demon’s standard.
Still, he considered himself lucky.
Even if they couldn’t meet again, the thought that his brothers were alive somewhere in the Central Plains brought him comfort.
After all, compared to the breeding farms of the Northern Sea, the Central Plains was paradise.
He had always found Central Plains people laughable. Scholars who had never known deprivation yet wallowed in self-pity were pathetic, and the Martial Alliance fools who gave themselves titles like “orthodox” or “righteous” to look down on others were ridiculous.
And yet all of that had been peace.
But the day Baek Unho came to find him, that brief peace ended.
[Brother, I think I’ve found a way to remove the Blood Demon’s blood.]
Baek Unhyeon’s face darkened as he recalled the past.
[A while ago, a man from the Yoohyeon Unit was pretending to be the Blood Demon using one of the Blood Demon’s relics, and one of the cultists vomited blood.]
That day, Baek Unho had spoken nonsense as if he had discovered some great revelation.
[The Blood Demon’s poison never leaves the veins, right? Even if we bleed it out by force, it seeps back in and drives us mad.]
[What does that have to do with the relic?]
[Ah, I’m saying the cultist vomited out blood imbued with the Blood Demon’s poison. Using the relic made it tear through the veins and come out!]
Baek Unho’s eyes had burned with conviction.
[If we have the Blood Demon’s relic, we can make it leave the veins on its own. The Blood Demon’s will can grant freedom to the host!]
Those words were no “method.”
It had been an absurd, hopeless fantasy.
It was the Blood Demon’s relic, after all. To steal one, they would have to go to Geumeunsan—a task utterly impossible for lowly cultists like them. They might as well have shouted in the market that the Blood Demon planned to devour the Central Plains and died defying his will. At least then, death would have come quickly.
But his younger brother had smiled brightly, as if filled with hope.
[That man from the Yoohyeon Unit seems to have taken a liking to a woman from the Martial Alliance’s Hidden Pavilion. So he stole the relic kept in Geumeunsan’s Black Pavilion. Brother, do you know why I came to Hubei?]
Baek Unho’s eyes had gleamed.
[I reported that relic to the Martial Alliance as an evil artifact. The Sagye Hall accepts anonymous reports, right? The Alliance confiscated the relic from that Yoohyeon man, and now it’s being transported to the Martial Alliance headquarters. The Hidden Pavilion cultists in Guangdong have all come up to Hubei to retrieve it before it reaches headquarters.]
[...Don’t tell me.]
[Yes, Brother. Let’s steal it.]
Baek Unho, smiling kindly as always, had then spoken with sudden seriousness.
[I’ll set you free, Brother. Then you’ll set me free.]
They were five brothers, born of the same father but different mothers. Baek Unho was the youngest. That innocent face had been marked by lifelong resentment.
[And we’ll find our other brothers too. We’ll all free ourselves from this blood.]
[...]
[We’ll go back to the Northern Sea, release Hoseok and Jagyeong, release everyone... Just once, even for a moment, let’s live as people.]
Even as he said it, Baek Unho had been trembling with fear.
When Baek Unhyeon’s gaze dropped, his younger brother had hidden his hands and forced a laugh.
[Ah, well. Even if it goes wrong and we die, we’ll at least strike back at those Yoohyeon bastards. That’s a good death, isn’t it?]
But Baek Unho never found freedom.
He died at the hand of a woman from the Four-Directions Hall. He had never escaped the Blood Demon’s blood he so desperately wished to erase.
Baek Unhyeon stared at the paper listing the brothers’ names.
Now, he alone remained alive among the five.
At that thought, his eyes sank into shadow.
“Second Seat!”
A subordinate rushed in, panting. But then the man suddenly gagged.
“Ugh!”
He hadn’t eaten anything, so he only vomited bile.
The First Seat looked at him with a scolding expression and walked over.
“What’s wrong with you now?”
“Hah, Great Lord. You must come to the Second Cave right away—ugh.”
The First Seat patted his back.
“The Second Seat is exhausted, and you dare order him around?”
Struggling to hold back his retching, the subordinate barely spoke.
“N-no, that’s not it... It seems the Second Cave has been exposed to the Second Seat’s curse.”
At those words, the First Seat’s face went pale.
“The curse has already reached the Second Cave? How many have fallen? How many are still fine?”
The First Seat stamped his foot anxiously and looked toward the Second Seat.
“Lord, go find that physician from the Yeonjuda troupe. That healer can cure the Second Seat’s curse!”
“Two have lost consciousness, and about four are showing vomiting symptoms. Twenty are fine, but I should probably be excluded from that count now.”
The Second Seat let out a long breath.
“When you return, select six men whose bodies still seem sound. If we carry them, we can reach the harbor before sunset.”
“Yes.”
Once the subordinate ran back into the cave, Baek Unhyeon turned toward the First Seat and spoke quietly.
“...I think I must send a message to the Seventh Seat.”
“What are you saying? We must never disturb the Seventh Seat’s training!”
The First Seat objected sharply.
“I don’t mean to interrupt his training. But I can’t find the answer myself. I wish to seek the Fourth Seat’s insight.”
Baek Unhyeon handed him the paper he had taken from his robe.
“What’s this?”
“It’s said to be the genealogy of the Northern Sea Ice Palace. Unhae was carrying it and asked that it be delivered to the rightful master of the Baek family.”
Recognizing a familiar name, the First Seat’s hands trembled.
“It seems Unhae wanted us to have this genealogy. He said to give it to whoever knows how to drive out the Blood Demon’s poison.”
Baek Unhyeon believed that this record had been smuggled out by Unhae, who had often helped the Yoohyeon Unit with their private dealings.
“That’s why I wish to seek the Fourth Seat’s wisdom—whether it’s right to tell outsiders about it.”
The First Seat knew the story of the brothers, so he couldn’t openly object, but his discomfort showed.
“Can we really trust those Central Plains people? They might have other schemes.”
Yet even in his tone, there was no conviction. Seeing how they had saved them and hadn’t revealed the gorge’s location, they didn’t seem like Blood Cult members.
If they wanted hostages, they could’ve easily used that to summon the Blood Demon’s breeding mold here.
Besides, those from the Red Blood Hall didn’t have the brains—or the patience—for such subtle games.
“I know it’s hard to trust Central Plains people, but...”
Baek Unhyeon touched the aching wound on his cheek.
“If this truly is Unhae’s last will, I can’t ignore it.”
“......”
“But if the Fourth Seat objects, I’ll trust and follow him. That’s why I need his opinion.”
The First Seat could no longer insist. That mere piece of paper was nothing compared to the Northern Sea’s Seven Seats—but it was still the dying will of a brother who had freed them.
At the very least, they could ask the Fourth Seat’s opinion.
The First Seat spoke in a resolute voice.
“I’ll send a message to the Fourth Seat. Don’t worry—just go see the physician.”
“Yes, thank you.”
As soon as Baek Unhyeon left, the First Seat took out his treasured paper and brush and began to write a letter.
“Najin.”
At his call, Najin came out from where she had been mixing herbs.
“Yes, Great Lord.”
“Go to the training site. This is an important letter—deliver it to the Fourth Seat yourself.”
“Yes. Don’t worry.”
Najin had overheard part of the Second Seat’s words by chance, so she was determined to help him.
Najin was one of the children the Second Seat had rescued from the breeding farm—and she was a little different.
She wasn’t an outcast meant to be exploited by the Hidden Pavilion but a mold meant to be absorbed by the Blood Demon. The cold of the Northern Sea didn’t bother her at all.
Though she wasn’t yet ready to join the Seven Seats’ training, she was destined to one day claim one of those seven positions. Because of that, Najin could freely enter the far northwestern region of the Northern Sea—a place of extreme yin energy that ordinary people could barely approach.
And so, the genealogy held in the hand of the last mold of the Northern Sea Ice Palace entered that place of extreme yin where the Northern Sea’s Seven Seats were formed.
