Chapter 552: Chapter 552

Northern King Yaryul.

An absolute being who suddenly manifested in the desolate lands.

Only now has he begun to draw the attention of the other Northern Kings, one by one.

A being of unknown origin and power who seized control of Yeoklu Fortress, then marched on Cheongeuk Fortress without «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» any clear motive.

The Lord of Cheongeuk Fortress heard that news in an unexpected place. Not from the North Sea Ice Palace Master, but from someone who, until recently, had merely been one of countless concubines.

Had the Ice Palace Master not intervened, she would have been reduced to a flattened heap of blood and flesh with just a few swipes. Just like the scattered fragments of corpses strewn about the area now.

Yet the transparent body of the Lord of Cheongeuk Fortress did not flinch. Nor did the face hidden beneath her black veil.

The silence of someone who had once completely annihilated the western Great Wall alongside the War God.

In that moment of unfathomable stillness, a voice boldly pierced through the atmosphere.

A question tinged with amusement.

The man who spoke it slowly revealed himself, shambling closer from afar.

Shrouded in the ochre mist unique to the northern wilderness like a loosened robe, flower petals frozen like ice clenched between his teeth.

Beneath his eyes, faint shadows cast a weary hue.

Yet unlike the other heads of the North Sea Ice Palace, he wore no fur garments.

On the contrary, he was bare-armed like a man of the Western Great Deserts, openly displaying the muscles of both arms—despite it being midwinter in the North.

The one beside him, however, did have white fur lining her collar. She was the true master of the Ice Palace's Grand Flame Dragon. A woman who descended from the icy southern flows of the far north, a land she considered the south.

“I didn’t kill him. It was a courtesy in return for the gift of friendship you offered.”

The woman spoke indifferently, as if she'd bestowed great mercy. With a slight jerk of her chin, she gestured to the young man standing nearby—his body faintly encrusted with frost—Cheongeuk’s Prince Consort.

She was the Grand Mistress of the Ice Palace.

Also known as the North Sea Ice Palace Master, yet everything about her appearance was strange.

Even her pitch-black hair, falling like a banner down to her ankles.

And her blue eyes shimmered like gemstones. Her characteristics were similar to Seonmok of Ipwang Fortress, famed for her ice arts.

The difference was her features.

More than any noble clan, she bore the striking traits of a Western foreigner. The contours of her eyes, nose, and lips were unusually pronounced.

In that sense, her pale skin and facial structure resembled that of Yeo Ui-cheon of Ipwang Fortress.

Yet her harmony with the Flame Dragon was undeniable, temperamentally balanced.

Even now, her gaze toward the frozen Prince Consort of Cheongeuk—regarding him as something utterly insignificant—reflected that harmony.

The Flame Dragon laughed.

“It’s a bit much, indeed. Not just anyone can feel the wind of the North Sea. You should have left it to me.”

“You should be tending to other matters, husband.”

In that instant, the Flame Dragon’s head twisted diagonally. Before he knew it, his gaze was forcibly directed to the Ice Palace Master’s abdomen.

An object drawn through the air by the power of Cold Ice Qi.

The force was overwhelming.

The Flame Dragon let out a low exclamation.

For a brief second, a flicker of complicated emotion passed through his eyes, but it vanished as soon as he raised his head again.

“Is that why you called us here? To go hunt this Northern King Yaryul?”

But the Queen of Cheongeuk had eyes only for the Ice Palace Master, not the Flame Dragon.

As though the man wasn’t even worth acknowledging. It wasn’t intentional disregard, but a reflection of the Northern King’s dignity flowing naturally from her transparent form.

The Queen of Cheongeuk spoke.

A command with unclear context.

In that moment, the Prince Consort’s body underwent a sudden change. A transparent aura leaked from his body, rippling like water.

It was Heavenly Radiant Armor.

With the sound of shattering ice, the frost encasing his body broke apart in pale shards. A cold gust swept past, even ruffling the Flame Dragon’s hair.

He had shattered the freezing force from supreme-level ice arts through sheer power.

And then came the Prince Consort’s exaggerated reaction.

“My meridians nearly froze solid! Do you know how many pressure points are in the human body? I almost got brain cramps trying to wrap them all in Heavenly Radiant Armor. I really almost died! Your Majesty, that Ice Palace Master clearly held back just a sliver of her strength.”

“If you had died from that, you would have been unworthy of being a sovereign. You would have been stripped of your title as Prince Consort.”

The Queen of Cheongeuk’s reply was calm. By now, she was already lifting a puddle of blood with air-manipulation, splashing it over her body once again.

Regardless of who might arrive at any moment, she prioritized her task above all.

“...The War God’s martial arts?”

The Ice Palace Master muttered with interest. It was nearly a self-directed question, but the Flame Dragon beside her nodded.

“Something like Heavenly Radiant... whatever.”

No one praised the Prince Consort’s skillful use of defensive qi.

Even though it was a marvel of divine technique and natural talent, not a single person present lacked the capacity to replicate it with the same amount of energy.

The Queen of Cheongeuk and her Prince Consort.

The North Sea Ice Palace Master and her First Husband.

The Northern Kings and those of equal standing had come together, each accompanied by their sovereigns.

Whether this was a secret meeting or the verge of a clash, it was a matter bound to capture the world’s attention.

Now that the War God’s whereabouts were unknown, every move made by the Northern Kings—free of his influence—was under scrutiny from the entire world.

The moment they stood face to face, the surrounding area began to tremble with a thick windstorm.

Heat and cold mixed together inside it, causing sporadic explosions with booming echoes, while the War God’s martial pulse—its irregular surges—flickered through the region, distorting the air.

It was like a demonic battlefield.

And clearly, the Flame Dragon was contributing to this anomaly. So much so that the Prince Consort casually brushed frost from his shoulder and chuckled.

“I underestimated you.”

“If you rebuilt Hocheonseong, you'd be more than fit to be its lord. Yes, a sovereign. You could house one of our northern fortresses.”

“There’s nothing more to house. Except my wife.”

At those words, the corners of the Ice Palace Grand Mistress’s lips faintly curled. Her snow-white skin made her dimples stand out.

It was a monster’s smile.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Naturally, the Prince Consort didn’t dare return a laugh. The ice art he had just suffered through wasn’t human skill.

‘How the hell did he tame that frozen beast? That wastrel from the Hwangbo Clan... is he even human?’

The Prince Consort glanced at his queen. A silent nudge—as a ruler fit to discuss matters of the vast northern lands with the other Northern Kings. At last, the Queen of Cheongeuk opened her mouth slowly.

“I meant to meet this new Northern King with my mighty comrades and determine his status then and there. The War God’s absence should not be an excuse for further chaos. And yet, he disregarded the laws engraved upon our land for decades, and suddenly trespassed into my territory...”

She poured blood over herself once more and muttered in a low voice.

“Return? After calling us all here?”

The Flame Dragon abruptly asked a question.

But once again, it was the Ice Palace Master who responded, not the Queen of Cheongeuk.

“The pact still holds. According to the will of myself, Yong-eum, and the late Flameblood King, the former site of Hocheonseong belongs wholly to the North Sea Ice Palace. How you choose to live on that land is of no concern to us. However, there is one thing you must honor.”

The Ice Palace Master, who had been staring solely at the Flame Dragon beside her for quite some time, asked the question without turning her head toward the Queen of Cheongeuk and her entourage.

The Queen didn’t mind.

“Declare your king. Choose your sovereign and proclaim them across this land. Let us know the name of your king and ruler, and what martial arts grant them the right to claim that land.”

“I thought the North lacked pomp and ceremony... This is worse than the South.”

At the Flame Dragon’s mocking tone, the Queen of Cheongeuk reacted for the first time—with a sudden, booming laugh.

Likewise, the Prince Consort of Cheongeuk burst into laughter, tears even brimming in his eyes. After a while, he explained the cause of his amusement.

“No matter how strong you become, aren’t you all still fools who don’t even own land of your own? You possess the power of rulers yet can rule over nothing. A nation of the enlightened! You come crawling from that pitiful place, and yet you can’t even recognize the true Peach Blossom Land of the mighty!”

Still wiping away tears with his knuckle, the Prince Consort continued, voice tinged with lingering laughter.

“Back in your land, I hear if someone’s a bit strong, they get called Sword King or Blade Sovereign or whatever, showered with praise. It’s different here. One can ascend to true kingship with martial skill alone. The Northern King—that title signifies the king of the highest direction. But you all thought we simply call this land the ‘North’ for poetic flair, didn’t you? Are you the same? Now that you're lord of Hocheonseong, do you plan to elevate your wife to Northern Queen?”

Now a man no longer tied to Ipwang Fortress.

At least, that’s what the rumors spreading across the North claimed.

He had undergone countless trials in the North Sea, severing himself from Seomye’s martial bloodline.

Each of those trials had forced submission to the North Sea and mastery of its ice arts.

A kind of spiritual interdiction. The history of the Ice Palace rivaled that of a nation. Even a supreme master would likely lose their mind in the process.

Anyone familiar with the rumors thought as much—and the Flame Dragon’s actions had never contradicted that assumption.

He had repeatedly crushed the schemes of the Second and Third Mistresses vying for the position of Grand Mistress within the Ice Palace.

It was well-known that his affection for the Grand Mistress was sincere—confirmed by those with advanced spiritual insight into the upper danjeon.

Conversely, the Grand Mistress cared just as deeply for the Flame Dragon.

“Let’s go to Cheongeuk Fortress. This Yaryul fellow may have emerged from the same place as my husband.”

The Grand Mistress spoke with an expressionless face.

And without the slightest movement, she froze the Prince Consort of Cheongeuk once again.

A technique akin to Mind-Controlled Sword within the art of Yi Gi Yu Geom. But this time, there was a response from the Queen of Cheongeuk. Her black veil fluttered faintly.

A thunderous noise echoed as shards of ice scattered in every direction.

The freezing chill that had nearly pierced through the Prince Consort’s body was repelled in full. His entire form was now sheathed in formless defensive qi—the Heavenly Radiant Armor—granted by none other than the Queen of Cheongeuk.

For the first time, surprise flickered across the Flame Dragon’s face.

“You can imbue someone else with a divine qi armor...?”

A divine technique worthy of one who called herself a king.

What would happen if a supreme master like the Queen of Cheongeuk overlaid her defensive qi atop a martial formation?

She was already a monster known for her impossibly dense and profound internal energy barrier, rendering her body transparent.

The Flame Dragon muttered under his breath.

“Seems like I’ve run into every kind of lunatic here.”

“Our Queen’s martial arts are sublime. But the one who’s truly crazy might be you.”

The Prince Consort muttered with a baffled look, while the Queen of Cheongeuk spoke.

“You may accompany us.”

They had confirmed each other’s martial prowess. And if they were to encounter the one who killed the Flameblood King, it was best to have as many people as possible to avoid unnecessary casualties.

Thus, the four of them set out together.

Their destination: Cheongeuk Fortress, where Northern King Yaryul was waging his campaign.

As they traveled, the Flame Dragon and the Prince Consort exchanged words that melted into the chilly wind.

“Weren’t we expecting someone else? Like Yong-eum?”

“That frozen Yang Guifei wannabe’s been calling the Northern King by name all day. She’s currently chasing the Southern beggars’ leader. That old man who’s supposed to be the fastest in the world. He crossed the Great Wall like a rat, snooping around our lands—got caught red-handed. It’s only a matter of time before she captures him... but it won’t be now.”

“What a funny bastard. Not even the Queen of Cheongeuk herself, but her son-in-law, dares to speak so casually of the World’s Swiftest? Cheongeuk Fortress must be a very big well.”

“It is. Very big. Isn’t it a place invisible to your Southern eyes? Even those martial artists of Ipwang’s Cheonryong Unit—whose heads now roll from my hand—would agree with me. Don’t you?”

“What a cheap provocation. If your origins are lowly, I suppose I can forgive you.”

Their voices tested each other beneath the fading light of dusk.

The northern twilight was cold, and the peculiar group closed a vast distance in an instant.

And there, they stood before Cheongeuk Fortress—already seized.

The massive earthen walls, stretching so far they were impossible to trace to either end, had partially collapsed.

Only the civilian homes remained intact through the acrid smoke. The Ice Palace Master briefly closed her eyes, then tilted her head slightly.

Meanwhile, the Flame Dragon was reading the inscription on the fortress wall with a strange expression.

“To the Lord of Yeoklu Fortress, the one who smeared his bare hands with the warm blood of the Flameblood King.

A man who bears countless grudges and infamy from the South, all unjustly.

Possessing hands among the strongest in the world,

I aim to bring order to this land with martial arts yet unnamed.

I shall show you what true hegemony is.

There is not a single lie in this inscription.

I have no need to ask anyone’s permission to ascend the throne.

—Northern King Yaryul.”

That handwriting... it looks familiar.

The Flame Dragon muttered silently to himself.