My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 105

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 105. Northern Sea Ice Palace
“I have a question, if I may.”
The bitter cold of the harsh north.
In the relentless snowfall, an elderly man bundled in thick layers moved without pause, laboring steadily at his work.
When someone approached and spoke to him, the old man glanced over briefly before returning his attention to his task and answering.
“Of course. Ask what you will. If I know it, I’ll tell you.”
“I’m looking for the Northern Sea Ice Palace. I heard it was near here, so I’ve come this way.”
“The Northern Sea Ice Palace? You’ll find it that way—follow the main road to the right for about half a day and you’ll reach it.”
The old man merely pointed with one weathered hand and continued his work.
“I see. Thank you kindly.”
“Don’t mention it. The road ahead is treacherous, so mind yourself—eh?”
The old man finished what he was doing and turned to look, only to find the person he’d been speaking with moments before had vanished without a trace.
The old man’s face went blank.
“There was definitely someone here just now…”
A man who looked like he was from the Central Plains, dressed in thin clothing.
“Did I just see a ghost?”
A chill ran down the old man’s spine.
The thought that it might truly have been a specter took hold of him. How else could anyone wear such flimsy garments in a place this cold? It made no sense.
The old man rubbed his forearms vigorously and, desperate to push the encounter from his mind, threw himself back into his work with renewed fervor.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Only the soft sound of the old man’s hurried movements carried down the snow-lined path into the distance.
***
This was the Northern Sea.
Truly the cold continent of the north, a place where terrible freezing descended year-round without mercy.
Yet even in this frozen wasteland, there existed a place whose name shone brilliantly across the entire Martial World—the Northern Sea Ice Palace.
Indeed, the current Palace Master of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, Seol Ja-gang, bore the distinction of being counted among the Ten Great Masters, a testament to how immense the Northern Sea Ice Palace’s power remained in the current Martial World.
But now.
Unknown to anyone, a grave crisis had befallen that very palace.
“How! How could you do such a thing!”
In the Palace Master’s Hall of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.
A young man with skin pale as death, his face contorted in rage, stared at the sharp spear points arrayed before him and cried out.
Behind him stood a middle-aged man who bore his features, his dark complexion swaying unsteadily.
The Palace Master’s Hall was now caught in the grip of sudden rebellion, the warriors of both camps locked in tense standoff.
‘Damn it!’
The pale-skinned young man gnashed his teeth, his face twisted with fury.
He was Seol Jong-u, the Deputy Master of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.
And behind him, seated upon an ornately carved great chair and coughing without cease, was the sallow-faced man who was the current Palace Master of the Northern Sea Ice Palace—Seol Ja-gang himself.
How had it come to this?
The decline of that once robust man had begun roughly a year ago.
At first they believed it was illness and summoned every physician they could find to examine him.
But the condition only worsened, and no doctor could even name what afflicted him.
A persistent cough, limbs growing ever weaker, his face darkening with the approach of death, his body withering away.
No medicine brought relief, and Seol Ja-gang’s condition deepened with each passing day.
Then, only recently, they finally discovered the nature of his affliction.
Seol Ja-gang’s symptoms were not from disease—they were the unmistakable signs of poisoning by some lethal toxin.
He was being slowly killed by poison, his life ebbing away.
And the one responsible was none other than the Palace Master’s own brother.
Seol Jong-u, his eyes bloodshot with rage, glared beyond those arrayed against him at the middle-aged man who stood there laughing with arrogant contempt.
“This cannot be! How could you abandon all human decency!”
“Well now, what are you talking about?”
That man.
That man was the principal architect of this entire catastrophe.
His name was Seol Ja-gyun.
He was the brother of the Northern Sea Ice Palace’s Palace Master and held the position of Grand Uncle to Seol Jong-u.
He had orchestrated this scheme.
The elders had always warned that his greed and avarice knew no bounds.
Yet their father had shown him only compassion, saying he was his one and only brother, forgiving his every flaw.
And yet.
This ungrateful wretch had descended into attempting to assassinate his own brother, the Palace Master himself.
Seol Ja-gang’s darkened hand came to rest on Seol Jong-u’s trembling shoulder.
“Out of the way.”
“Father! You mustn’t. Not in your condition!”
“No. I cannot forgive what that wretch has done to my Ja-gyun.”
Though he had been poisoned for so long that his strength was severely diminished, the aura that Seol Ja-gang released when he made up his mind was still formidable.
“Heh. As expected of our elder brother. To command such presence even in this state—truly remarkable.”
He stroked the tip of his beard with a finger, grinning wickedly.
Under ordinary circumstances, Seol Ja-gyun would have tucked tail at the ferocity of Seol Ja-gang’s aura, but he still wore that insufferable smile.
He had something to rely on.
“But what of it? I’ve prepared more than mere poison, you see. I know all too well that my head will roll if I fail in this. Kekeke.”
Someone stepped from behind the snickering Seol Ja-gyun.
A man with a great scar running across his forehead.
“……!”
At his appearance, Seol Ja-gang’s face twitched involuntarily.
A Master. One could tell the moment he emerged.
His aura was extraordinary.
The man who had just revealed himself made his introduction.
“I am Maeng Ha-cheon, known as the Shooting Flying Twin Swords.”
“The Shooting Flying Twin Swords!”
Even here in the distant Northern Sea, far from the Central Plains, that name was well known.
Though he had not yet earned a place among the Ten Great Masters, he was renowned as a supreme Master destined for that rank in the years to come.
Perhaps he was a Master scarcely inferior to Seol Ja-gang at his full strength.
Maeng Ha-cheon surveyed the situation briefly, then licked his lips.
“Tsk. I had hoped to taste the legendary Ice White Divine Art of the Ice Emperor himself, but what a waste. Here I am, forced to make do with a corpse already on death’s door.”
He swaggered as though the battle were already won.
And with good reason—Seol Ja-gang’s condition was dire indeed.
Even a Master ranked far below Maeng Ha-cheon could have defeated him in his current state.
So his words were hardly unreasonable.
Seol Jong-u gazed at Seol Ja-gyun with an expression beyond anger—one of pure exasperation.
“Poisoning Father was cowardly enough. But to drag in outsiders? Have you truly lost your mind? How could you perpetrate such horrors without it?”
“Bah. What would you know? You who have had everything promised to you from the start!”
As Seol Jong-u condemned him without restraint, Seol Ja-gyun—the instigator of this entire rebellion—twisted his face in fury.
As though his reasons were entirely justified.
“Do you know how I’ve lived, constantly compared to you because of him, constantly scorned and pitied? All because I was born second! I had to bear all that contempt simply for being the younger son!”
His eyes had begun to gleam with madness.
“If I had been the eldest! If that insufferable, self-righteous brother of mine had never existed, I would never have become this! And moreover, I could have grown the Ice Palace far greater than it is now. Yes, far greater! So what I do here is for the Palace’s future! Do you understand?”
Absurd.
It was utter nonsense.
He had been a problem child from youth, lacking talent while possessed of arrogance and pride, and thus had long since fallen from the former Palace Master’s favor.
Even as he came of age, his nature never changed.
He committed every misdeed and folly imaginable.
In truth, every disadvantage he had suffered was one he had brought upon himself.
Yet he believed all of it stemmed from discrimination and contempt for being second-born.
How could someone be so blind to themselves?
It was contradiction incarnate.
Merely the rambling of a fool blinded by greed.
The problem was that fool held a sword in his hand.
‘I was far too careless.’
Since a year ago, when Father’s health had begun to deteriorate rapidly, something had felt wrong.
Back then, I should not have ignored that premonition. I should have devised countermeasures.
I never imagined Ja-gyun had prepared to this extent for today’s rebellion.
Neither Father nor I, the Deputy Palace Master, had anticipated this.
“Seol Ja-gyun! You wretched, miserable fool! How dare you—!”
Outraged by his shameless younger brother’s petty justifications, Seol Ja-gang forced his inner strength to its limit and collapsed, spewing blood.
“Guh—gah! Cough, cough!”
“Father!”
“Tsk. Well then. No need to prolong this further. Dispatch them quickly, if you would.”
As Seol Ja-gyun urged him on, Maeng Ha-cheon nodded at once.
He drew his twin swords from his back and began striding toward Seol Ja-gang with measured steps.
“Stop him!”
Unable to stand idle, Seol Jong-u threw himself in the way alongside the Palace Master’s direct guard, but they were powerless to resist.
Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.
Maeng Ha-cheon dispatched them all with just a few sweeps of his blade—they were subdued in an instant.
Yet he did not take their lives. Why?
It was because Seol Ja-gyun had given him an order to spare all but the Palace Master.
When he officially took possession of the Palace Master, he needed the scene to look convincing.
Whoosh.
Maeng Ha-cheon, having cleared away all those blocking his path, now stood before Seol Ja-gang, who lay on the ground coughing blood.
“Don’t harbor resentment toward me—I’m merely a man who works for coin. It’s nothing personal, you understand.”
He raised his sword high.
“No, please! Father!”
Seol Jong-u, sprawled on the ground, stretched his hand toward Seol Ja-gang.
Seol Ja-gang closed his eyes, fixing that image of his son in his mind one last time.
His heart felt strangely hollow.
Had he instead met his end in honest combat with a worthy foe, he would not feel this emptiness as a martial master. But a death like this…
This sort of death.
As a warrior, he could not help but think how bitterly his fortune had abandoned him.
Just as Maeng Ha-cheon began to swing his blade with full force,
Crash!
The doors of the Palace Master’s Hall suddenly exploded inward, and armed men tumbled through.
Every eye in the room snapped toward the entrance.
“Now what? I just wanted to go in and have a word, but why’s there all this commotion? Doesn’t look like anything good’s happening here.”
The man who stepped inside, brushing dust from his hands, wore the dress of a Central Plains gentleman and had a handsome face.
What struck everyone as odd, however, was the thin clothing he wore—wholly unsuited to the Northern Sea.
Whether they found him strange or not, the man opened his mouth.
“Ah, you all look busy, and I’m sorry to intrude, but I’m in rather a hurry myself. This shouldn’t take long.”
Who—who is this?
Everyone stared at him with the same expression of bewilderment.
Then he smiled and spoke.
“I’ve come to purchase a single stalk of Ice Emperor Grass.”
The entire Northern Sea Ice Palace, which had been rushing headlong toward chaos, fell suddenly silent.
The man was Yeo Un-hwi.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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