Silence settled over the dispensary. The Fourth Seat showed no change of expression.
Tang Sohwa turned attention to the food to sweep away the heavy mood.
“It’s done.”
“Ah, already? Leave it. I’ll bring it.”
While Namgung Jin stood and ladled the porridge, the Northern Sea martial artists separated the tables to make a place to eat. In the midst of that, when they tried to set aside a head seat, the Fourth Seat stopped them.
Thus, awkwardly, they all sat together around a round table.
It wasn’t anything one could call a dish, yet the Northern Sea martial artists emptied their bowls as if they had received a magnificent meal, wolfing it down. Namgung Jin, finding the sight pitiful, kept glancing at them.
Thud.
Just then, a faint sound of something cleaving the air came from outside.
Having grown used to that sound by now, Sohwa shut the window and put out the lamp. Thus only the brazier’s gentle glow remained indoors.
Thud.
The sound drew nearer and nearer.
When silence descended again, Sohwa opened her mouth.
“I heard the Northern Sea Ice Palace resisted the Blood Cult most fiercely. They say not only the Ice Palace, but the Northern Sea nobles also fought to the very end, prepared for annihilation.”
The Fourth Seat let out a hollow laugh.
“Forgive the disappointment, but the Blood Cult took the Northern Sea Ice Palace without great effort.”
“Do you know what happened?”
The Fourth Seat asked with the corners of his mouth softly curved.
“Do people of the Central Plains also know of the North Sea’s Seven Seats?”
“Yes, I know it as the term for the seven seats of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.”
“A ‘seat’ is only a word. The Seven Seats signifies a hierarchy.”
The Fourth Seat spoke of the North Sea’s Seven Seats. The Northern Sea Ice Palace did not fix ranks; they fought for precedence to fill those places.
“The North Sea is not like the Central Plains. The great sects of the Central Plains take part even in the lives of local commoners and pay mind to wealth and property, but the Ice Palace treats such matters as things outside the palace. If you were to enter the Northern Sea Ice Palace, you would likely be surprised. Its aspect is very different from the abode of an absolute expert as you imagine it. In the Ice Palace, there are mountains wrought of ice and spirit-creatures that do not die of cold, so it is like an icy-hell of icebergs. The Ice Palace people train within that. When those who have perfected the Five Peerless Arts number seven, only then does the gate of the Northern Sea Ice Palace open and the North Sea’s Seven Seats lead the Ice Palace.”
“What if seven do not perfect them?”
The old man gave a faint smile as if to say it was a pointless question.
“Then the Ice Palace’s gate does not open. And if one among the Seven Seats dies or steps down from that place of his own accord, the Ice Palace is closed again and training begins until the seven places are filled. While the gate is shut, if the number falls from Six Seats to Five, from Five to Four, the period of a sealed gate is lengthened until a new absolute appears.”
She had heard of the Northern Sea Ice Palace’s closed nature, but this was the first time she heard how the Seven Seats came to be.
She had simply thought it meant seven masters representative of that house, as one would speak of the sixteen elders who enter the Tang Clan’s Council of Elders.
Sects of the Central Plains that involve themselves in local affairs could not, as a matter of common sense, keep their gates sealed so long.
However, Namgung Jin showed a motionless attitude, as if he had heard of the training of the North Sea’s Seven Seats. If anything, the eyes that held the brazier’s fire glowed softly. Interest seemed to have stirred.
The Fourth Seat also seemed to like that gaze.
With a subtly relaxed face, he continued.
“The reason Northern Sea nobles came to settle on the island is that the period for opening the Northern Sea Ice Palace’s gate is not long. Those Ice Palace people who did not set their will on martial study procured food and necessary goods outside so that others could devote themselves to training, and at intervals supplied them into the palace. One cannot leave one’s family and comrades to starve or die of injury. For those living outside the palace, going off the island was bothersome, so they simply drew outsiders onto the island and made a system for goods to be supplied to the island without ceasing.”
Listening to the old man, Sohwa grasped the structure of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.
Compared to sects of the Central Plains, the Ice Palace itself was like an inner compound where direct blood and core forces resided, and outside the palace was like an outer compound where branch lines and outsiders were accepted.
Within, they carried out training to raise masters; without, they placed a general manager to handle people and goods, a Medical Division for treatment, and a pavilion that managed finances, maintaining the sect.
As she knew it, to learn the Northern Sea Ice Palace’s arts, one basically had to be born with an unusual body. Perhaps, to temper to a moderate level like One-Star or Two-Star, it could be done with the body of an ordinary martial artist, but to perfect arts that emit extreme yin—such as the Ice-White Divine Palm—one had to possess the Extreme Yin Body.
Seeing that he did not call them direct blood but said he gave Ice Palace people the chance to seize the Seven Seats, it looked similar to a sect that takes in disciples and raises them, rather than a great house that raises its own bloodline; yet, in the end, given that to perfect the art one had to be born with the Extreme Yin Body, the structure of the Ice Palace was closer to a great house.
Though the Fourth Seat did not point it out, Sohwa surmised that, among those who lived outside the palace, most Ice Palace people were not blood kin but outsiders.
“There was a time when the sealed-gate period grew long, and then Ice Palace people who absorbed the outsiders that had come onto the island divided into factions and fell into conflict. When the seven places of the North Sea’s Seven Seats were filled and the Ice Palace opened again after twenty years, the Ice Palace Lord, the First Seat, mediated the strife. However, feeling that the split Ice Palace people could not be joined again, he granted them new surnames and acknowledged them as houses that inherited the roots of the Northern Sea Ice Palace. As subordinates of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, master of the North Sea, they called themselves the nobles of the North Sea and swore loyalty to the Ice Palace, and they tried to exercise a good influence, paying mind not only to the Ice Palace but even to the commoners along the Northern Sea coast.”
Sohwa found the Fourth Seat’s words puzzling.
So did Namgung Jin.
In the Central Plains, it was known that the Northern Sea nobles possessed martial skill to rival even the bloodline of the Northern Sea Ice Palace. People said the Ice Palace, disliking conflict with the nobles, shared real power with them.
Yet now the Fourth Seat did not regard the Northern Sea nobles as martial artists.
An attached organ of the sect. He thought of them as only that much.
The characteristic arrogance of martial noble houses that looks down on household staff who are not martial artists showed itself. Those who managed people and goods as general managers or the Medical Division, and those who managed wealth in the hall of accounts—though they basically learned martial arts as well, within martial houses they were distinguished from the fighting units.
If, before Han-won of the Black Tiger Unit, Tang Hae-han of Gujeong Pavilion asserted stealth techniques as a Sichuan Tang Clan martial artist, Han-won would openly clutch his belly and laugh.
Even direct blood were no exception. If Tang Sohwa, who had been Head of Gujeong Pavilion in her previous life, recited the formulae of Mancheonhawoo before Tang Hak, the Young Clan Head, and tried to teach him the principle of emission, that kind Tang Hak would surely worry for his sister’s mental health, asking whether she was unwell.
Sohwa’s expression darkened.
It was not because of a false rumor.
The Blood Demon called molds “unbelievers,” and if the mold was not excellent, he did not care even if it died.
And yet the Northern Sea nobles survived even after warring with the Blood Demon.
If the North Sea’s Seven Seats were martial artists possessing yin-natured bodies, they were objects the Blood Demon would covet, but the Northern Sea nobles were bodies to be thrown away as useless.
‘And yet, is it not now said that the Ice Palace is ruled by Central Plains people and those nobles?’
The Fourth Seat seemed to read the silence.
Realizing that the Central Plains people wanted to hear more of the story, he brought up the war with the Blood Cult.
“About ninety years ago, when the Blood Cult came to the North Sea, the Seven Seats were not yet filled. Only two of the seven had owners. Thus, the First Seat and the Second Seat broke the sealed gate and came out to block the Blood Cult. The First Seat guarded the island, and the Second Seat crossed to the mainland and guarded the Western Mountain. Hundreds of blood fiends appeared, but they all met their end under the Second Seat’s blade and could not cross the mountain. Even after the Blood Demon himself appeared, the Second Seat held the mountain for three days. The battle was so fierce that the mountain range split into two. If you go to the Western Mountain you can see the gorge split by the Second Seat’s blade—go and see it. Ah, I believe you said you already had?”
The Fourth Seat, pretending not to remember, spoke as if to slip in a boast about his forebear.
All his intent was plain to see.
Sohwa was used to that manner of speaking, as she had an old man at home who, embarrassed by boasting, feigned indifference.
“That was the Second Seat’s sword art. Remarkable. It seems the saying that the Northern Sea’s sword can cleave Mount Tai is no empty talk.”
When Namgung Jin ladled on an extra spoonful of flattery, the Fourth Seat smiled.
It was only natural. Was it not a history one could take pride in?
It was astonishing that they had contended with the Blood Demon for three days.
Sohwa had seen the Alliance Leader, even while accompanied by a top master counted among the Central Plains, bow to the Blood Demon.
Judging from “Second Seat,” he seemed the second in the hierarchy of the North Sea’s Seven Seats; to fight the absolute who had devoured the Outland and endure for three days—was that not extraordinary?
Yet soon a bitter note seeped into the Fourth Seat’s voice.
“But in the end, the front was pushed back to the coast. According to the scouts, the First Seat opened the gate and went out of the island, and the Ice Palace people climbed the castle gate and prepared for a counterattack. Even on the island one could clearly see the Second Seat’s line being pushed back, little by little. When the Blood Demon dragged the Second Seat by the hair and appeared at the water’s edge, one’s heart felt as if it dropped. The bastard, as if toying with the Second Seat, bit the arm of the dying lord and drank the blood greedily.”
The Northern Sea martial artists did not agitate, perhaps because they knew this tale. They only lowered their gazes to the table with gloomy faces.
The Fourth Seat stroked his white cheek with a hand and spoke.
“The enraged First Seat could not wait for the Blood Demon to cross the sea and raced across the North Sea in a single bound. The palace folk, in case of unforeseen events, shut every gate of the island to protect the Northern Sea nobles and outsiders, and waited for the First Seat to butcher the Blood Demon.”
The grain of the silence changed.
Was it the wound the Blood Demon had left on the clan? Sohwa felt the calm old man be swallowed by emotion and lose his reason.
Knowing how the war the old man spoke of ended, neither Namgung Jin nor Tang Sohwa could open their mouths.
“The sea froze over where the First Seat’s sword force passed, and at the Blood Demon’s fist strikes the ice shattered, repeating. The waves surged up and the spread of blood in the water made it hard to track the fight with the naked eye. Strangely, the Blood Demon did not fear falling into the sea; rather, he kept seizing the First Seat’s ankle and tried to drag him beneath the surface. The First Seat cut off the bastard’s arm and even hewed the neck, but the bastard was a monster.”
Thud.
The sound of the surface breaking drew near.
For some reason gooseflesh rose, and Sohwa quietly rubbed her arm.
The Fourth Seat, fixing his gaze on her, went on.
“Even if an arm fell, it grew again; even if the neck was raggedly severed, it reattached at once. When even his legs froze so he could not move, he cut off his own legs. Not long after, he had perfectly restored his body. The First Seat did not yield even a single move, and though every strike landed perfectly, he could not cut off the bastard’s breath. The Blood Demon, even when butchered to pieces, recovered unscathed, so as time passed the situation grew unfavorable. Everyone understood how it was that even that strong Second Seat became a corpse after three days.”
In the Blood Demon’s body there was internal energy that a martial artist would have to build over a lifetime, and he had a body that ceaselessly recovered even when cut and severed; cutting the Blood Demon must have been no different from cutting water with a blade.
As the Fourth Seat said, it was a battlefield that could only grow more favorable to the Blood Demon as time went on.
‘Why is time on that monster’s side?’
Listening to the old man, Sohwa clenched her trembling hand.
Perhaps thinking she was sympathizing with him, the old man, even more carried away by his anger, poured out his words.
“Only, each time the Blood Demon’s attack landed once, a great wound opened on the First Seat’s body. The instant the First Seat’s form slipped, the Blood Demon, fallen into the sea, drove his claws into the First Seat’s leg and yanked. The First Seat was dragged beneath the surface. Under the water a fierce current rose and blood spread, but no one emerged. After quite some time, what rose to the quieted sea was the Blood Demon, and the bastard smiled brightly with a look as if he had gained the whole world and hugged the First Seat.”
A rasping sound came from the old man’s throat.
“Like a fisherman who has landed a prize catch.”
Unable to suppress his anger, the sound leaked out. Forcing down his fury, the old man spoke.
“Surely we feared the Blood Demon, yet the moment we saw the First Seat treated like a hunk of meat, our minds went blank. The hot-tempered ones even leaped straight from the castle gate and rushed toward the sea. Not having properly trained ice arts, they could not freeze a path and went directly into the water. Seeing that, the Blood Demon reached out a hand, and the ice, shattered by his palm wind, butchered the Ice Palace people. Even while their entire bodies were ripped by the sharp fragments and stained with blood, they, indignant and grief-stricken, only increased their speed. And yet the Blood Demon, far from fleeing, smirked and watched the vigorous Ice Palace people coming at him.”
The Fourth Seat fell silent for a moment. Soon the old man continued in a sunken voice.
“When close to a hundred sturdy martial artists thrashed their limbs, foam rose and the sound was as loud as a typhoon. It was a sight to make anyone feel fear, but the Blood Demon, with a very tranquil face, stared at the Ice Palace people surging toward him. And when the Ice Palace people drew within arm’s reach, he extended one hand forward. He did not use palm wind, nor did he drive a fist. He merely showed his palm.”
The old man let out a laugh, as if it were absurd.
“He warned them to halt with a hand instead of words, as one does to a dog.”
The laughter vanished from his voice.
“And with just that single gesture, every sound disappeared.”
The Fourth Seat’s ash-gray gaze rose slowly.
“Like a school of fish turned belly-up, close to a hundred Ice Palace people, not even able to scream, floated up over the blood-dyed sea.”
As the sound of ice being broken faded away, the Fourth Seat spoke.
“I still cannot forget that stillness.”
A space filled only by the old man’s voice.
When he closed his mouth, silence fell.
It felt as if one could sense the stillness that spread over the Northern Sea coast that day.
Fixing Sohwa with dark eyes, the old man added,
“That was the first time the Northern Sea Ice Palace faced the Blood Demon’s Will.”
