Chapter 67

“Here!”

Hwang Seung-jong threw me the rope and hook.

Catching them, I shouted to Im Yeon and Ak Mu-jin.

“Draw that thing’s attention somehow!”

“W-what are you trying to do?”

“You’ll see!”

There was no time to explain in detail.

The dragon was unleashing powerful attacks even at this very moment.

Gritting their teeth, Im Yeon and Ak Mu-jin went for the dragon.

They poured out their full-force techniques when it dipped close to the ground and let out loud shouts.

Maybe that got on its nerves.

The dragon swung its tail, trying to swat the two of them away.

Watching that, I became certain.

There was a pattern to that thing’s movements.

It swung its head wide when it fired its beam, but it did the opposite when it swung its tail.

To keep its balance perhaps, its head stayed perfectly still.

“Make it keep attacking with its tail!”

Im Yeon and Ak Mu-jin desperately followed my orders.

Maybe thanks to that, the dragon slammed its tail into the ground once more.

Its head stayed fixed this time as well.

‘This time I move.’

I waited for an even surer moment.

Only when I saw the dragon’s tail twitch again did I start whirling the hook.

The roughly thirty-meter-long rope traced a circle.

The instant the dragon’s tail swung and its head locked in place, I threw the hook, not missing that opening.

Its target was the horn jutting from the dragon’s head.

The dragon’s core was in its forehead.

This was the only way to get close to it.

‘Please hook on!’

Kang!

Contrary to my hopes, the hook bounced off with a dull sound.

It had struck the horn instead of wrapping around it and rebounded.

I timed it and tried again, but failed this time as well.

The hook and rope fell helplessly through the air.

“Kh!”

At the same time, Ak Mu-jin spat blood and crashed into the ground.

It looked like he had been grazed by the tail.

Watching that, my heart grew impatient.

‘Not like this.’

I forced my impatience down and thought calmly.

Throwing it like I just had would fail no matter how many times I tried.

How to put it? I lacked the knack for throwing and controlling the rope.

I needed to throw it so it wrapped more cleanly. But how?

‘Wait.’

In that moment, a memory flashed through my mind.

The way Heuk Un-hwi had handled his whip.

Using his shoulder as a pivot, twisting his elbow and wrist, planting his feet firmly as if channeling power from his whole body into the whip.

I clearly remembered how the whip changed its path as if it were alive.

A whip and a rope differed in both length and weight.

But the trick of changing the path of a long line should be the same.

Before the hook hit the ground, I twisted my wrist and jerked hard.

The hook, which had lost its direction, traced a large arc as if it had regained life.

Just like Heuk Un-hwi, I planted my feet firmly, rotated my hips and waist, and swung the rope.

Shwoong!

A different tearing sound of air rang out compared to before.

Woosh, the rope wrapped around the horn several times, and then the hook caught with a solid Tuck!

‘Got it!’

The dragon shook its head violently, trying to shake off the hook hanging from its horn.

The rope bucked wildly.

Instead of resisting that motion, I let my body go with it.

My body rose up into the air.

“Young Lord!”

Im Yeon’s urgent shout rang in my ears.

I ignored it.

The only thing I needed to pay attention to now was the rope’s path.

The line between life and death hung on this rope alone.

‘Kh.’

My palms tore as they scraped along the rope.

I had no time to care.

Bright red blood ran down my hands, but I grit my teeth and endured it.

My body fell like a bird plummeting from the sky.

The moment I was about to skim the ground, the rope’s rebound sent me soaring up again.

The dragon’s head filled my vision.

‘Now!’

I let go of the rope, my only lifeline, without hesitation.

Clutching my cold-iron dagger tight, I shot toward the dragon’s core.

Piercing through the blizzard that filled my view, I poured everything into that cold-iron dagger!

Kwaddeuk!

With a flash, a bursting sound rang out.

It was so loud it felt like my eardrums had torn.

‘What happened to the dragon?’

I couldn’t tell if I had succeeded or not.

It should be screaming and thrashing, yet was it silent because it was a phantom beast?

Or had my eardrums really burst?

As if answering my thoughts, fragments of light scattered. The brutal blizzard wrapped around it vanished as if it had been a lie.

I had killed the dragon.

“Young Lord!”

Only when I heard Im Yeon’s voice did I realize my eardrums were fine.

I felt gravity dragging me down.

Having poured out all my internal energy, I no longer had the strength to use lightness arts, or even to land on my feet.

How much would it hurt if I slammed into the ground? My body wouldn’t shatter, would it?

Still, it had to be less painful than getting beaten by the Heavenly Demon.

As I indulged in such ridiculous thoughts, I felt a gentle force wrap around me.

“Young Lord, are you all right?”

What entered my sight was my dependable guard, Im Yeon.

She had caught me.

“I’m fine…”

“You don’t look fine at all! Your hands are bleeding…! Please stay still. I will stop the bleeding!”

With eyes that looked on the verge of spilling tears, Im Yeon hurriedly rummaged through her pack.

She sprinkled Golden Wound Powder on my palms and wrapped them in bandages.

“Thank you.”

I forced out my hoarse voice to express my thanks.

With her support I barely raised my upper body, when something lying on the ground caught my eye.

It was the dragon’s horn, tightly wrapped in the rope and hook I had thrown.

“What is this?”

Using lightness arts, Hwang Seung-jong darted over.

Picking up the horn and examining it from every angle, he furrowed his brow.

“A phantom beast’s body should disappear when its core is destroyed. So why did this horn not vanish?”

His voice was confused.

I was puzzled as well, but I was so drained I could not think at all.

I jerked my chin toward Hwang Seung-jong.

“Just hang onto it for now. We might have a use for it later.”

Nodding, Hwang Seung-jong put the horn in his pack.

At that moment, the middle of the sealed cliff split open, revealing a new path.

It seemed the dragon’s core and the eighth gate had been linked.

“Is everyone all right?”

I looked around at my companions with a weak tilt of my head.

They all looked terrible.

By some blessing, no one was seriously hurt. Even Ak Mu-jin, who had slammed into the ground earlier, didn’t seem badly injured.

The tail must have grazed him instead of striking him head-on.

“We are all fine. But you, Young Lord…”

Im Yeon trailed off, her voice full of worry.

I answered weakly.

“I’ll be fine after circulating my Qi. Let’s take a short rest before entering the ninth gate.”

“Understood, Young Lord.”

We sat there for a good while, circulating our Qi.

After that, we all regained our strength to some extent.

Then Hwang Seung-jong casually tossed out a comment.

“I wonder what’s coming next.”

“…”

No one opened their mouth.

We were all thinking the same thing.

A dragon had appeared at the eighth gate, so what on earth would show up after that?

“Relax your faces a bit. Whatever it is that’ll appear, I’ll take care of it like I just did.”

I said it while pretending to be confident.

At that, Im Yeon clenched both fists.

“I am not worried in the least. Whatever obstacle we face, our Young Lord will surely overcome it.”

“Aren’t you worshipping the Seventh Young Lord a bit too blindly?”

“The Young Lord has never once been wrong. Did he not just dispose of the dragon perfectly?”

“That’s because I found the core.”

“Isn’t that only because our Young Lord told you to?”

“Even so—”

“Was it not our Young Lord who told you to?”

“No—”

“Was it not our Young Lord who told you to?”

“…”

Hwang Seung-jong clamped his mouth shut.

Somehow, Im Yeon had gotten way too strong since earlier.

“Let’s go.”

We entered the ninth gate.

“What?”

All of our eyes widened.

It was a narrow chamber, with the core exposed from the start. There were no phantom beasts at all.

Hwang Seung-jong took out the Revealing Truth Treasure Mirror and shone it over the core and the inside of the room.

Finding nothing special, he immediately shattered the core.

A path leading to the tenth gate appeared.

He muttered under his breath.

“Looks like a freebie gate. Well, we’re bound to get one of these now and then.”

With the final gate before us, I fell into brief reflection.

It had only been two days, but our time in the Frozen Plain felt incredibly long.

‘Once we get through this, it’s over.’

With that hope, we stepped into the tenth gate.

The first thing I felt was a vicious cold. Far worse than anything up to now, even more than out on the snowfield.

My upper and lower teeth chattered against each other.

It was the same for everyone, so we split two Cold-Blocking Pills into halves and took them.

“It’s better, but still freezing.”

Shivering, Im Yeon spoke.

That was probably because we had halved them, but there was no helping it.

We had only one Cold-Blocking Pill left now.

We had to save that one as much as possible. We could take it right before we froze to death.

Was it thanks to the cold easing a little?

Only then did my surroundings come into view.

On both sides rose ice walls so tall you could not see their tops, and up ahead was a bend.

Frowning, Hwang Seung-jong spoke.

“It’s a maze.”

“A maze?”

“It was in the old texts. If you go all the way, an exit appears.”

“Then our only choice is to brute-force our way through. Tsk.”

I clicked my tongue as I spoke.

There was only one sure way to escape a maze: you kept one hand on one wall and walked.

If you did that, you would eventually reach the end.

The problem was that it took a lot of time, so we had to hurry our steps.

We started walking without another word.

After passing several forks, about half a day had gone by.

Our pace had slowed noticeably.

It had been a long time since the Cold-Blocking Pills’ effects had worn off. We had even quartered and taken the last remaining pill.

In the bone-piercing chill, white frost had gathered on everyone’s eyebrows and at the corners of their mouths.

With only a little exaggeration, it looked like four giant ice sculptures were moving.

Of us, my condition was the worst.

I had endured this far thanks to the stamina built up from my training with the Heavenly Demon, but my toes were so completely frozen I simply could not walk.

In the end I dropped to my knees, stiff as a block of wood.

“Young Lord!”

Im Yeon tried to help me up, but her legs gave out as well and she collapsed with me.

“This is bad. When is the exit going to show up?”

Lamenting, Hwang Seung-jong spoke.

Then, as if realizing something, he continued.

“Also, doesn’t it seem like the fog’s been getting thicker for a while now?”

In truth, I had been thinking the same.

At first I thought my vision was going hazy because of the brutal cold, but the fog really did seem to be thickening.

“…Keep going.”

I forced my body upright.

Whether my toes froze or my legs froze, I could not stop here. I had something I absolutely had to do.

Worried, Im Yeon asked.

“Should we not rest for a little while before we go on?”

“If we rest now, it’ll be forever.”

I wanted to smile, but the muscles in my face would not move.

We started walking again in silence.

But little by little, my companions started acting strange.

“Huff, huff.”

Everyone’s breathing, except mine, grew rough.

“What’s wrong with you all?”

“I suddenly feel incredibly dizzy…”

At my question, Im Yeon answered, pressing a hand to her forehead.

The others were worse off.

“F-First Young Lord? How are you here…?”

Hwang Seung-jong was staring at empty air in terror.

“You guys! I have not forgotten you…!”

Ak Mu-jin was shouting, eyes bloodshot.

Then Im Yeon suddenly collapsed, calling for her grandfather as she sobbed.

“I’m sorry, Grandfather. Huhuhu…”

Goosebumps rose on my forearms.

Were they all seeing hallucinations? What was going on?

‘Could it be the fog?’

Somehow, it felt like that guess was right.

“Get a hold of yourselves…! Hwang Seung-jong! Guard Im! Chief Ak!”

My faint voice did not reach them.

I shouted several times, but I was at my limit as well.

I had to hold on. I couldn’t collapse here. I had a goal I absolutely had to achieve…

Even those thoughts were useless.

My consciousness grew hazier and hazier.

But then.

“…!”

I flinched in shock.

The Heavenly Demon appeared before my eyes.

Unlike back in the Sacred Flame Cave, he was looking straight at me and saying something.

There was no warmth in his gaze. His face was as cool and composed as always.

‘Is this a hallucination too?’

“□□□ □□□□.”

The hallucination of the Heavenly Demon said something again.

I tried to shout back at him since I could not hear his voice—or so I thought, but no sound came out. The words only echoed inside my head.

‘What did you say?’

“□□□ □□□□.”

‘I don’t know what you’re saying!’

The Heavenly Demon shook his head ever so slightly.

He was clearly finding me pathetic.

He shortened his length of words into a single syllable.

“ㅇ.”

I focused desperately on the shape of his mouth.

For some reason, it felt like I had to.

Then, as if time slowed, I began to read the shape of his mouth.

It was.

“Sul¹.”

In that moment, something the Heavenly Demon had said in the past surfaced in my mind.

–In a place of deadly cold, a single mouthful of wine can be as precious as a life.

I moved like a man possessed.

With numb fingers I fumbled through my pack.

My stiff hands barely obeyed me, but after several tries I finally pulled out the flask wedged in a corner.

Perhaps because it was strong liquor, it had not frozen in the least.

I broke the seal and gulped down a mouthful.

In that instant, a blazing heat like a fireball spread through my whole body.

The frost on my face melted away, and a tingling pain like thousands of needles pricked my fingers and toes.

My senses were returning.

Amazingly, the hallucinations vanished at the same time.

‘I’m alive.’

I realized it then.

The fact that I had almost frozen to death.

The fact that the Heavenly Demon’s words had saved me.

And that what he had given me was not just some random liquor.

‘Just what is this wine?’

Staring blankly at the flask, I thought.

Had the Heavenly Demon foreseen this situation?

Had he known I would come to the Frozen Plain and prepared this wine in advance?

‘Master…’

It was a feeling I could not explain.

I was both curious and frustrated as to why the Heavenly Demon cared this much about me.

I had vowed to save the Heavenly Demon, yet I was the one constantly being helped.

I bit down hard on my lower lip.

This would not do.

‘…First, I need to save my companions.’

With my sharpened vision, I scanned my surroundings.

Closest to me, Im Yeon was sobbing.

“I’m sorry, Grandfather. But Heaven Rebelling Society… Heaven Rebelling Society… aaah!”

Grandfather and the Heaven Rebelling Society.

The two phrases that seized my ears.

Of the two, “Heaven Rebelling Society” startled me without me realizing it.

Because it was a name I had never expected to hear from Im Yeon’s mouth.

–In the name of Heaven Rebelling, we sever the old heavens.

In the name of the Heaven Rebelling Society, we shatter the old heavens.

It was the slogan of the secret organization that had thrown the Demon Cult into chaos before my regression.

More than a few big shots had been purged when their membership in it was discovered.

So how on earth did Im Yeon know about the Heaven Rebelling Society?

“Grandfather…”

While I was lost in thought, Im Yeon’s voice was growing fainter.

She was on the verge of freezing to death, so I went to her and shouted.

“Guard Im!”

“Grand… Young Lord?”

“Are you coming to your senses?”

“Are we… dead? Have you and I come together to a peach blossom paradise…?”

Her eyes were unfocused and hazy.

Without any preamble, I pressed the flask to her lips.

“Drink this.”

“What is thi— mmph.”

Im Yeon’s expression twisted.

It was strong liquor, so it was incredibly bitter.

Soon, focus returned to her blurry gaze.

“Huh? Young Lord? Why… was I crying?”

“Guard Im.”

“Yes, Young Lord.”

I was about to ask her about the Heaven Rebelling Society, but I shook my head. This was not the time.

“How do you feel right now?”

“My condition is… huh? I-I don’t feel the cold at all! My whole body is full of warmth. How is this…!”

“You can move well, right?”

“Yes!”

“You can be surprised later. Let’s deal with those two first.”

With our revitalized bodies, Im Yeon and I forced wine down Hwang Seung-jong, who was flinging talismans, and did the same to Ak Mu-jin.

At last, our whole party came back to their senses.