Tatata!

Under the leader’s orders, the 3rd Elder of the North Sea Ice Palace was moving to the location of the North Sea Ice clan using Light Footwork along with 6 other escorts. However, their facial expressions showed mixed feelings…

‘What is all this?’

Ha Jong-oh, the 3rd Elder of the North Sea Ice Palace, couldn’t understand the situation that was unfolding. At the moment, the entire Olkhon island was threatened by the lava to the point that it looked like a sea of fire, but the destination was frozen as if it hadn’t been touched by the heat.

“Elder, this is strange.”

“This is much different from what we expected.”

They were expecting the North Sea Ice clan to be desperate for help from the lava, and thus were rightfully puzzled when they saw that the land was frozen a hundred meters away from the nearest side of the lake, as if the lava that should have been flowing in was blocked by something.

“Did their leader do this?”

“No way. Unless there were dozens of people at his level, they never could have frozen such a wide area.”

Ha Jong-oh intervened the escorts’ conversation with a calm voice,

“It doesn’t matter. No matter how long they try, what can they do to get out of there? Under the command of the Royal Court, I will ensure their end today.”

It didn’t matter if the location was frozen: as long as the lava was still flowing, everything would slowly melt away.

Tak!

They finally arrived where the clan was gathered.

‘What’s happening?’

3rd Elder Ha Jong-oh frowned. He didn’t realize it initially, but the North Sea Ice clan members seemed to be bowing to someone.

In the direction they faced, only one man was standing.

Ho Jong-oh looked at Dan Cho-jin’s bowing and asked,

“Lord Dan, what are you doing right now?”

Hearing the question, Dan Cho-jin raised his head and asked for Chun Yeowun’s permission to respond.

“Lord Chun Ma, please excuse me for a moment.”

He then urged the 3rd Elder,

“Elder Ha, bow your head.”

The 3rd Elder was beyond flustered at this point and raised his voice,

“What are you trying to say?! Why would an Elder such as I bow to this man?!”

“Huh?! How can you use such disrespectful words towards the Chun Ma of the Sky Demon Order!”

No matter how great the North Sea Ice Palace was, Dan Cho-jin insisted that the elder refrain from disrespecting the Chun Ma.

Hearing the title “Chun Ma”, Ha Jong-oh turned his head and looked at Chun Yeowun.

“Chun Ma? Are you talking about the Sky Demon Order’s Chun Ma?”

“Right. Hurry up and–”

Before Dan Cho-jin could even finish talking, Ha Jong-oh suddenly burst into laughter.

“Hahahahaha!”

Hearing the elder’s response, Dan Cho-jin’s face went stiff as he asked,

“Why are you laughing?”

“What, don’t you think this is funny? It is absurd to me. What are you upto by bowing down to a fallen clan? It is just so funny hahaha.”

As if sympathizing, the other escorts too laughed along. Dan Cho-jin was happy they came but he couldn’t control his anger at their insulting actions.

“How dare you!”

It was then.

Woong!

“Uhk!”

Ha Jong-oh, who was laughing, suddenly began to float in the air. Out of shock, he tried to raise his internal energy and tried to fight against the energy holding him up, but his body then flew as if the thread holding him to the ground was cut and he was being thrown into the air.

Grab!

“Kuak!”

Chun Yeowun, obviously the one moving Ha Jong-Oh as if he were a child’s toy, spoke in his usual cold manner,

“You’re talking shit with that dirty mouth of yours. You call us a fallen clan?”

“Kuak! Kuak!”

Ha Jong-oh tried to make Chun Yeowun release the grasp, but no matter how hard he tried, his internal energy didn’t work and he couldn’t move.

‘_W-what is he?’_

The 3rd Elder of the North Sea Ice Palace was known to be the strongest warrior of the North Sea Ice Palace, and he was rightfully shocked that someone who looked like a young man was able to control him.

“Do you think you have two lives?”

Grab!

“Kuak!”

Ha Jong-oh, who continued to suffocate, grunted in pain as Chun Yeowun tightened the grasp on him.

“How dare you!”

“Release the Elder now!”

Shhh!

To protect Ha Jong-oh, the 6 escorts drew out their swords at the same time but were blocked by Dan Cho-ja.

“Those swords… if you pull those out, you won’t make it out alive!”

Hearing the threatening warning, the oldest of the escorts shouted in anger.

“You dogs are all crazy! The King is showing mercy because, despite being hybrids, you have the same blood of the North Sea Ice Palace. However, if you hurt the eld–”

Shh!

A freezing chill spread around, and the shouting escort was so started he didn’t speak any further and just peered at the coldness.

The freezing atmosphere came from Dan Cho-jin.

“What are you saying? Dogs? Mercy?”

Dogs and hybrids were words that the Palace used to demean the “outsider” group. Dan Cho-jin couldn’t contain his anger any longer.

‘These bastards!’

He wanted to kill the subordinate to the Palace right away but decided against it because they shared the same blood as him.

Flinch!

The escort was already exhausted from the coldness spreading and said in a low voice,

“You think you can do this? We… we are giving you one last chance.”

“Chance?”

Dan Cho-ja thought everything they were saying was absurd. The fact that these people, the culprits, were the ones giving a chance was absurd.

“You bastards!”

“A chance, you say?”

The North Sea Ice clan members looked at the escort with enraged eyes. In response to the horrendous energy, the escort hurriedly spoke,

“Ugh! Do you all want to be swept away by the lava and burn to death?”

“Do all of you people speak like this?”

Dan So-young then got up and pulled out her sheath. The palace escort, feeling a sense of crisis, hurriedly shouted,

“There is an undersea tunnel to the North Sea Ice Palace!”

“Tunnel?”

“Exactly! The king of the palace said that if you accept the proposal sent by the palace, he will open the tunnel out of hismercy and generosity.”

“Seriously, you people!”

Srng!

Dan So-young, unable to contain her anger, pulled the sword out and tried to stab the escort, prompting Dan Cho-ja to stop her.

“Father!”

“Pull back your sword.”

“What do you mean?! Are you going to ignore what these bastards just said? If we accept their proposal, the generations of our family will be meaningless because we’ll need to destroy our dantians and we swear our allegiance to them. Were you even listening to what he said?”

Right. This was the reason the father and daughter were trying to oppose the proposal until the end. The requirement to enter into the North Sea Ice Palace was to destroy their own dantian, which was formed by their own Cold Ice cultivation technique.

Didn’t that mean that the palace wanted only their people to live and flourish as Murim warriors?

Grunt!

Dan Cho-ja grunted. Like his daughter, he was unable to hold back the anger.

However, there was no other way to save the clan members around him.

‘Even if he is Chun Ma, he can’t save all of us in this situation.’

This was why he stopped her; if he was going to be a leader, he had to prioritize the people below him.

Dan Cho-jin, too, held back his anger when he heard the word ‘tunnel’. The 3rd Elder, who was caught by Chun Yeowun, struggled to open his mouth,

“Kuak, d-did you hear what I said? If you want to live, let go of me and apologize—”

It was then.

Grab!

“Uh?”

Chun Yeowun grabbed his chin.

“W-what are you doing—.”

Before the escort could even finish asking, Chun Yeowun poured more strength into his hand.

Crack!

“Kuaaaaak!”

His jaw was ripped out as a strange scream tore the sky.

“Eik!”

Dan So-young turned her head away at the cruel sight. Ha Jong-oh, whose mouth was torn out, let out a groan and then shook his head in pain.

’!!!’

Everyone was stunned at what had happened so suddenly and was at a loss for words. Chun Yeowun said to them,

“I listened very patiently to what was going on, but in the end, it all sounded like bullshit.”

Phat!

Chun Yeowun wiped the blood off his hands and threw away the body on its side.

Pak!

The escorts trembled, looking at the corpse that had died in immense pain. One shouted,

“This crazy bastard seems to want everyone here dead—”

Shhh!

At that moment, Chun Yeowun appeared in front of him. Flustered, the escort tried to draw out his sword, but Chun Yeowun’s hand went for his forehead.

It seemed like a:

‘Forehead flick?’

Chun Yeowun flicked his finger.

Pang!

The head of the escort promptly exploded.

’!?’

The other escorts couldn’t understand what happened: the moment the finger was flicked, the head was completely blown away.

Shh!

One of the escorts even had to wipe the blood and flesh remains off his body, as it seemed like a piece of brain had splattered on him.

“Eik!”

Thud!

The escort fell to the floor, but what the escorts saw was so overwhelming that they took a step back.

Sh!

When Chun Yeowun raised his hand, all their bodies floated into the air and were pulled close together. With their bodies imprisoned, they couldn’t move and looked at Chun Yeowun with fear in their eyes.

“Are you going to spout bullshit too?”

At Chun Yeowun’s question, they all shook their heads at the same time. They had just seen two horrible things happen right in front of their faces; who would dare speak?

Dan So-young spoke out,

“W-wait, Chun Ma — Lord Chun Ma — if we kill all of them, we can’t get out of here.”

She was worried that this action might provoke the Ice Palace and cause her clan to be stuck in here, to which Chun Yeowun smirked.

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

“Huh?”

Chun Yeowun pulled out his right sleeve and held out his right hand.

Shhh!

A gloomy, blue light flashed from the black iron wrist guard as something hazy came out.

“S-spirit!”

Dan So-young, surprised at it, covered her mouth. The appearance of a Ghost was something one would almost never see. Chun Yeowun said to the Ghost,

“Get all of them off the island.”

Woong!

As soon as the words were said, Dan So-young’s vision changed. She staggered at the sudden change and then closed her eyes.

‘What is happening here?’

For a moment when she opened her eyes, she trembled, unable to understand what was unfolding.

“How is thi—”

She wasn’t the only one surprised. Dan Cho-jin, the leader of the clan, and Dan Cho-ja as well were looking around in shock.

Their location had definitely changed.

“T-that?”

What they were looking at now was Olkhon Island covered in lava. For a second, they thought they were hallucinating.

Whisper!

The members of the clan too began to talk about what had happened so suddenly.

“No way!”

Dan So-young looked at Chun Yeowun in disbelief.

In the blink of an eye, more than 200 members of the clan were moved away from the island. The people who realized it a little later shouted,

“Woaaahhhhhh!”

“We’re out of there!”

They were moved by the man who saved their lives. Dan Cho-jin looked at Chun Yeowun.

‘_Y-You are God! The God of our clan has descended!’_

“Oooh! Demon God”

Dan Cho-jin was in awe of this tremendous ability, raised his hands high, and bowed to the ground, which made the others follow him.

“Demon God!!”

Chun Yeowun was being worshiped as their God in an instant.

‘H-How did this even happen?’

Unlike the clan, which was happy about this, the escorts of the North Sea Ice Palace who were still under the pressure of Chun Yeowun’s energy were going crazy.

Fortunately, the only way to save their lives was gone. And to them, Chun Yeowun was a monster, not a God.

Chun Yeowun slowly approached them and asked,

“I will ask only once. The North Sea Ice Palace… where is it?”