Still, Jin Cheon-hee didn’t answer. Only his blue eyes lifted to the Palace Lord’s, calm and pale as moonlight.
An ordinary person might’ve felt their soul skewered by that gaze alone, but the Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace kept talking.
“Then prove it, White-Robed Divine Dragon.”
“…” Only then did the young man’s low voice carry across the square. Calm, yet cold, like the silence inside a glacier. “How am I supposed to prove it?”
“He is a warrior who ranks among the top five in this palace. Do you have the heart to fight? This is a duel with life and death on the line. If you win, I’ll seriously consider your proposal.”
Jin Cheon-hee’s long lashes lowered once, then rose.
“Apart from reconsidering the alliance with the Unorthodox Alliance, I have a request.”
“What is it?”
“I confirmed an epidemic is circulating… Since I know the cause, I also know the preventive measures to stop the spread. I’ll tell you. In exchange, I want you to implement them.”
At once, the hall erupted into murmurs.
“He says Confusion Fever is treatable?”
“Isn’t Confusion Fever not much of a problem for young people anyway? Leave it alone and it’ll settle down.”
“But it’s the elderly and children who suffer.”
“Do we really need to chase a disease spreading through the slums?”
“To find a cure… The title Divine Physician isn’t an exaggeration after all.”
Words and thoughts churned together like snow in a gale.
“Quiet!”
At the Palace Lord’s command, every mouth snapped shut.
He leaned forward in his high chair, gaze pressing down on Jin Cheon-hee like a slab of ice.
“Fine. You really are like your master… What do you want in return for treating the epidemic?”
“…” Jin Cheon-hee didn’t flinch. “Nothing. If I had to choose, then mutual exchange. More trade.”
The Northern Sea Ice Palace buzzed again, voices threading together as everyone tried to pin down the Young Divine Physician’s intent.
Jin Cheon-hee made it plain.
“I just want people to get better.”
“…”
The Palace Lord stared at him for a long time. Jin Cheon-hee met his eyes without wavering.
It was strange. The man called the White-Robed Divine Dragon showed proper respect, yet his posture never bowed.
“…You’re completely different from your master.”
“My master and I are different.”
“Do you not respect him? You must know what he did in this palace.”
Jin Cheon-hee nodded.
“At the time, Master was standing on a blade’s edge. One more step and it would’ve been a thousand-gil cliff. He was desperate to live. As his disciple, I respect that.”
“Is that so. Good.” The Palace Lord’s smile sharpened. “Then wager the sword of this palace.”
Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes widened a fraction.
The Northern Sea Ice Palace Lord looked pleased, as if he’d finally landed a clean blow on this slippery Young Divine Physician. He pointed at the Ice Clarity Sword at Jin Cheon-hee’s waist.
“That was originally handed over in a deal with your master. So if you, an outsider, want to interfere in this palace’s affairs, stake that sword and enter the duel.”
“…!”
The hall stirred again.
Jin Cheon-hee glared at him, eyes still widened.
A sword was life to a martial artist. To demand it as collateral, no one could help but be shaken.
The Palace Lord continued, voice even.
“If you win, you’ll have what you want. If you lose, this palace will reclaim its sword. Will you do it? Even though it benefits you in no way at all. Will you risk your life and wager the sword of this palace?”
He wasn’t merely asking for a yes.
He was asking the question at the core of a physician: whether this was goodwill, or hypocrisy dressed in clean words. If Jin Cheon-hee wanted to walk this path without the resolve to sacrifice anything, then it was hypocrisy.
The physician answered calmly.
“Willingly. I just want to save people.”
It’s just a sword. A sword is a sword. Didn’t I decide not to give it value beyond that?
And yet, his chest tightened as if someone were tearing off an arm.
It’s fine. I’ll win. According to the calculations.
Jin Cheon-hee’s fingers slid over the hilt, quiet, steady.
“Kukuk.” The Palace Lord chuckled. “Not even a little regretful about the Ice Palace’s treasure, the Ice Clarity Sword? Or are you confident you’ll win, like your master? Fine. Then fight!”
At his chin’s gesture, the prepared head disciple stepped forward.
“Yes, Palace Lord.”
He was tall, his physique and hair color distinct from those of the Central Plains, a body shaped by this region’s cold.
The Palace Lord spoke again.
“Step forward and bring back the sword of this palace.”
“I obey the Palace Lord’s command!”
Watching him, Jin Cheon-hee’s thoughts stayed cool.
Gangho logic always ends the same way. Force. The Outer Realm isn’t any different.
Jin Cheon-hee regarded his opponent with his arms crossed inside his sleeves, his profile neat and pale as porcelain.
In contrast, the head disciple looked like a Viking warrior, armed with a ten-geun (approx. 6kg) axe and a thick longsword. The blade was at least twice the thickness of the swords used in the Gangho.
“My name is Han-jeong. Let us compete!”
Han-jeong announced himself.
Jin Cheon-hee stepped forward instead of answering.
Gladius-type weapon? No, longer than the one I saw in documentaries.
As Han-jeong advanced, thick cold energy seeped from his body.
Glacial Soul Divine Art… And martial arts completely different from the Gangho. I can feel it. This really is the Outer Realm.
Jin Cheon-hee read his steps and breathing. The movement wasn’t footwork or a lightness skill. It was something else, something heavy and grounded.
“I am Jin Cheon-hee, the Young Pavilion Master of the White Qilin Medical Pavilion. I look forward to learning a move.”
He said it, but he didn’t draw the Ice Clarity Sword. Instead, he waited, hands still tucked in his sleeves, calmly inviting the first strike.
Did they take it as provocation?
The Northern Sea Ice Palace martial artists murmured.
“How arrogant! So the nickname One Light wasn’t empty talk!”
“Crazy and arrogant. You’ll see how vast the sky is, One Light!”
So it’s spreading already. Jin Cheon-hee didn’t move. Words really do travel faster than feet.
Following their roars, Han-jeong’s killing intent thickened. With each step, Hardened Qi formed along both weapons, glittering with frost.
Hardened Qi of the Glacial Soul Divine Art.
It wasn’t just sharp. It froze and cut. And if it entered the body, Extreme Yin Energy would ice the inside, sealing blood and breath alike.
Jin Cheon-hee had never received direct instruction in the Glacial Soul Divine Art, but he’d wielded the Ice Clarity Sword and studied his master’s Nine Yin Severed Meridians. He understood the nature of Extreme Yin Energy better than anyone.
A child who hates winter ends up knowing winter best.
Because of those properties, poison wouldn’t work well either. Glacial Soul Divine Art could freeze poison as well, at least the common kinds.
Swish.
Jin Cheon-hee’s left arm shifted.
What about the Profound Realm Poison in my left arm?
But if he did that, would they accept the result?
In the Central Plains, that would still count as skill. Here, in the Outer Realm… he couldn’t be sure.
No tricks.
Suppress with force.
Isn’t a clean, head-on contest the simplest answer?
Only then did Jin Cheon-hee take one leisurely step.
Variation of Heavenly Demon Descending Stride.
Five-Elemental Descending Stride!
Five Elements Energy surged outward. Brilliant motes of True Energy spiraled, rotating faster and faster until the air itself felt like a grinding wheel.
Boom!
An explosion blossomed around Han-jeong as he approached. In the same instant, his feet sank into the ground up to his ankles.
The shock made his body jerk. Even the thick chain mail split and tore, metal links snapping as if they’d been softened by heat.
The observing martial artists recoiled.
“To think cold-iron chains tear that easily!”
“He only took one step. How can it explode like that?”
“Is it sorcery?”
Heavenly Demon Descending Stride pressured the opponent with Formless Energy.
Five-Elemental Descending Stride went further, using the mutual generation and overcoming of the Five Elements to smash into the body, to shove and crush and throw.
He’d once bounced away a rush of enemies with it.
It devoured internal energy more greedily than the original stride, but it was still usable.
In that state, Jin Cheon-hee took the second step.
Han-jeong gritted his teeth, tore free, and sprang up, shattering the ground as he did. Then, without hesitation, he hurled his axe.
“Die!”
The axe, packed with Hardened Qi, screamed through the air.
Only then did Jin Cheon-hee draw the Ice Clarity Sword.
Softly, so softly there wasn’t even the sound of steel leaving the scabbard.
Supreme Unity Wisdom Sword, Jin Cheon-hee Style Variation.
Supreme Unity Flowing Water!
Clang!
He deflected the axe with Wudang’s softness, and in the same breath Han-jeong seized the thick longsword with both hands and brought it down like a guillotine.
Worthy of a head disciple. Offense and defense flowed without a break, like water that never stopped moving.
Jin Cheon-hee admired the exchange, the flexible shifts no ordinary person could follow.
A good opponent.
His stance changed.
Beastial Senses Blade Art.
A secret manual obtained from the Imperial Palace’s Secret Vault. He’d practiced it, but never used it in real combat.
The reason was simple: one of its martial principles required a sudden amplification of muscle strength, monstrous strength. Used clumsily, it would leave backlash in muscles and bone.
But at his current realm, he could substitute the burden with internal energy.
Jin Cheon-hee’s muscles swelled for a heartbeat, and he struck the Ice Clarity Sword upward as if a bomb went off in his arms.
Two swords met.
They collided.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
Strangely, the one who flew wasn’t Jin Cheon-hee, who had struck from below, but Han-jeong, who had attacked from above.
Han-jeong rocketed across the Great Hall, nearly twenty jang (approx. 66m), and crashed into the floor hard enough to crack it.
The watching martial artists’ eyes went wide.
“What kind of power is that?”
Han-jeong’s arm hung broken. One leg twisted at an awful angle. He still forced himself to tremble upright.
“Kugh… I… do not lose.”
Jin Cheon-hee looked past him to the Palace Lord, ignoring the man’s stubborn glare.
“I won, didn’t I?”
No matter how fierce the fighting spirit, the match was decided when limbs were shattered. Ending the duel here should’ve been enough.
But the Palace Lord’s eyes didn’t soften.
“This is a life and death duel.”
“…” Jin Cheon-hee’s voice dropped. “Pardon?”
“Do not make this Palace Lord speak twice.”
“If you insist…”
Jin Cheon-hee stepped toward Han-jeong, the Ice Clarity Sword hanging loosely at his side.
Innate True Energy surged from Han-jeong’s entire body, as if he were wrenching it out of his own organs by force.
“Kuaaaack! The Northern Sea Ice Palace… I will never lose!”
Jin Cheon-hee exhaled, barely moving his lips.
Troublesome.
The opponent’s fighting spirit didn’t matter. Victory and defeat had already been decided. Why did someone still have to throw their life away?
The physician couldn’t understand it.
And yet, in the next instant, Jin Cheon-hee’s body accelerated.
Profound Ultimate Great Stride, the absolute-level lightness art from the Imperial Palace’s Secret Vault.
As that distant martial principle manifested, even the Northern Sea Ice Palace Lord’s eyes widened.
“…Did a genius finally give birth to a genius?”
Jin Cheon-hee was beside Han-jeong in a blink.
Flutter.
For a beat, it felt as if time had stopped. Before Han-jeong could even react, Jin Cheon-hee used Seven Demon Seizing directly on his head.
Thud!
The skull shuddered. Han-jeong dropped like a stone, fainting where he stood.
The Hardened Qi, the Innate True Energy he’d been forcing out, vanished as if it had never existed.
“…”
“Th, this is…?”