North Sea Martial Arts Warrior - Chapter 24

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

24. Battle with Eyes Closed

“Incoming!”
Airak shouted. In that same instant, the air erupted with sharp cutting sounds from all directions.
Whish…!
Dozens of Ice Needles tore through the blizzard, hurtling forward in a deadly swarm.
Pure white shadows, indistinguishable from the falling snow, rose like phantoms from the ice walls of the gorge.
“Ambush!”
Garkan roared, hurling his massive frame forward to shield Airak.
His heavy Ice-Iron Chain swept through the air in a wide arc, savagely batting aside the incoming needles.
“Where are they coming from?”
Harku swung his Dual Crescent Blades as he called out.
“Can’t see them! They’re hidden in the blizzard!”
Taikan raised his Curved Evil Bow but found no target to draw on.
The attackers’ white robes had become one with the snow itself—impossible to distinguish with the naked eye.
They were the Snow Maidens, an assassin sect from the Northern Sea.
Their movements were founded on perfect Concealment Art: light as snowflakes, swift as wind, cold as ice. They knew how to wait with patience, and when an opening appeared, they never let it slip through their fingers.
Crack…!
One Ice Needle grazed Garkan’s shoulder.
“Ugh…!”
Garkan gasped.
The Ice Needles were vicious. Merely grazed—yet the vile Cold Energy condensed within the needle penetrated his skin and burrowed along his blood vessels the moment it made contact.

“Garkan!”
Harku cried out.
“Your shoulder…!”
“I’m fine! Don’t worry about it!”
Garkan’s boulder-like shoulder muscle froze white in an instant. The Cold Energy that seeped to the bone numbed sensation. His arm began to tingle. The tips of his fingers felt locked in ice.
“The Ice Needles freeze your Blood Meridians when they strike!”
Arko shouted.
“They’re Snow Maidens! This Ice Needle is a weapon only they wield! Concentrated Yin Cold Energy is embedded in it—the moment it touches skin, your Internal Energy reverses! Even a graze is dangerous!”
“Then how do we defend?”
Taikan asked.
“We have to avoid being hit!”
“How can we avoid what we can’t even see?”
Harku crossed his Dual Crescent Blades and threw himself into the mist.
The moment he moved, the Snow Maidens dissolved into the blizzard like morning frost, vanishing without a trace.
“Damned vermin…!”
“Only death. Only to be frozen upon this land—nothing else is permitted!”

The Snow Maidens’ voices echoed from all around.
There was no way to gauge their direction. Every sound, every voice bounced off the ice walls and returned distorted.
“Where is it coming from?”
“No idea! All around us! This is maddening.”
“Stay calm.”
Airak’s quiet voice settled the chaos of the battlefield.
Airak’s eyes were closed.
With his sight cut off by the blizzard, he read the grain of the air itself through the keen perception of the Northern Sea Ice Purity Divine Art alone. Where the wind’s flow bent. The faint trace of where snowflakes scattered unnaturally for an instant. All of it painted itself as a clear map in his mind.
“Three paces to the right, one step back.”
“What?”
“Move.”
Garkan’s body responded on instinct.
In that instant, an Ice Needle passed through the space where he had stood.
“How did you…”
“Taikan.”
Airak called out sharply.
“Yes!”
“Ten o’clock direction, at the edge of the ice wall. Aim for the gap.”
“I can’t see it!”
“Trust me. Shoot.”
Taikan released the bowstring of the Curved Evil Bow without hesitation.
An arrow humming with the power of the Arrow-Wind Unity tore through the mist with a sharp whistle.
Thwack!
Blood sprayed from the empty air where nothing had been visible. Like a crimson flower blooming across the white snow, the scent of iron hung in the air. One of the Snow Maidens, an arrow lodged in her chest, plummeted over the cliff edge.
“Got one!”
Harku cried out in triumph.
“We brought one down!”
Yet the Snow Maidens showed no grief for their fallen comrade. Instead, they intensified their ambush, ricocheting Ice Needles off the walls to send them hurtling along unpredictable trajectories.
“Left side!”
Airak’s voice cut through the chaos.
“Garkan, defend!”
Garkan swung the Ice-Iron Chain in a broad arc.
Screech! Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Metal rang against metal as the needles bounced away.
“Harku, fall back!”
“Understood!”
“Arko, cover the right flank!”
Airak’s commands dominated the battlefield. Eyes closed. Guided by sound and presence alone.

* * *

At that same moment, in the Ice Heart Palace.
Mukara sat upon her jade throne, gnawing at her fingernails.
Her lips were bitten raw, and the sharp taste of blood spread across her tongue.
“Still nothing?”
“No word yet, Your Majesty.”
Tarhan answered carefully.
“Half a watch has passed since the Snow Maidens entered Danhon Gorge.”
“Half a watch should have been more than enough.”
Mukara’s voice trembled.
“Why is there no report? Why?”
“They’re likely still in combat, perhaps—”
“Combat?”
Mukara rose abruptly. A wild gleam flickered across her eyes.
“Twelve Snow Maidens are locked in battle with just five men?”
“Is Airak ordinary? He bears the title of Northern Sea Combat Warrior. He has lived thirty years in the Extreme Yin Realm.”
“So?”
“Even Binghua might find it difficult to—”
“Silence!”
Mukara’s voice cracked like a whip.
The Ice Flower Vase beside the jade throne cracked under the pressure of her Internal Energy. A sharp snap, and fragments of ice scattered across the floor.
“Binghua is a Supreme Assassin who has never once failed. The fact that she brought along eleven other Snow Maidens must mean she was taking Airak seriously. The plan for certain victory must already be in place.”
“But—”
“If she fails—”
Her voice dropped lower. Cold. Merciless.
“If she fails, it will be a problem. If Airak has endured this much, he must already suspect there’s someone in the Ice Palace. He has to be eliminated before he leaves this land. And if he can’t be eliminated, then he must be made not to return from the Central Plains. No matter what. Even if it means joining hands with the Demon Hall.”
“My lady, surely that’s going too far—”
“Airak must die. He must.”
Mukara’s hands trembled uncontrollably. Whether from fear or fury, it was impossible to tell. Perhaps both.
“If he returns alive—”
she whispered.
“Everything I’ve done will be exposed.”

Tarhan said nothing. He only bowed his head.

* * *

“My Internal Energy… is freezing solid…!”
Arko wrapped his arms around himself and fell to his knees.
“Arko!”
Harku rushed toward him.
“Are you all right?”
“The Ice Needle… grazed me…”
Arko’s face was turning a sickly blue-black.
The Cold Energy that had been injected through the wound from the Ice Needle was seeping into his blood meridians.
“Hold on! Stay with me!”
“My Internal Energy is blocked… I can’t move…”
“Let me draw out the poison!”
Harku seized Arko’s arm.
“No!”
Arko pulled his hand away.
“This isn’t poison… it’s Cold Energy… you can’t extract it…”
“Then what do we do…”
“When time passes… it will loosen on its own… I just have to endure until then…”
“Damn it!”
Garkan clenched his teeth.
“We’re going to die at this rate! How many of them are left?”
“I don’t know! They’re hidden in the mist…”
Taikan glanced around in all directions. White shadows flickered through the blizzard. He couldn’t tell if there were three or four of them.
Just as his followers seemed about to fall into absolute desperation, Airak walked forward slowly.
“Chieftain?”
Beyond his closed eyelids poured a chilling killing intent. The presence that had always been suffused with boredom and emptiness faded away, leaving only an overwhelming aura of combat—as if he could freeze the very earth beneath him.
“Infiltration and ambush…”
Airak let out a soft sneer.
“How shabby the Snow Maiden’s tactics have become.”
As he took a step forward, the snow beneath his feet scattered outward in concentric circles.
His fists, long held in check, trembled slightly.
It wasn’t anger. It was a primal urge to destroy, surging up to wring the necks of these cowardly assassins.
Whoosh…!
Three assassins, seemingly the leaders of the Snow Maiden contingent, plummeted from mid-air at once, wielding Ice Swords. But no one had sensed them coming—not a soul within fifty paces had known they were there.
“Die!”
Airak did not open his eyes. Instead, he gripped the hilt of his Asura Curve Blade.
“Left flank.”
His body blurred.
“Execute.”
In an instant, the Asura Curve Blade carved a deep crimson arc through the void.
Crunch…!
It was not the sound of air being torn. The dull, weighty crack of solid glacial ice splitting in two reverberated through the gorge.
The Snow Maiden assassins rushing through the blizzard froze mid-stride. Then, with blood spraying like a fountain, their bodies crumpled onto the snow.
Airak opened his eyes slowly.
In his pupils gleamed a cruel light that transcended indifference.
“…He’s a monster.”
Harku murmured.
“Without even opening his eyes…”
The bodies of the Snow Maiden assassins lay heaped at Airak’s feet.
Blood bloomed like flowers across the white snow. But the remaining Snow Maiden assassins did not retreat.
The Snow Maiden assassins’ voices rang out.
“Binghua comes! You are already dead!”
“Binghua?”
Garkan’s face hardened.
“You mean the Snow Maiden leader herself is coming?”
“Yes.”
Airak answered curtly.
“At last the true Ice Sword moves.”
The Snow Maiden assassins withdrew deeper into the mist, beginning to emit an eerie trembling sound. It was like the sound of ice cracking. Or rather, the sound of space itself freezing.
The temperature across the entire gorge plummeted sharply.
The very space itself seemed frozen and suspended, pressing down unbearably… with each breath, her lungs felt as though they were crystallizing.
“This is…”
Taikan murmured.
“I can’t breathe…”
“It’s Binghua’s martial skill—she drops the temperature by a factor of three.”
Airak’s gaze fixed on the deepest darkness beyond the mist, where danger lurked.
“Clan leader, from that direction—”
Garkan’s words caught short. Something was moving through the fog, drawing closer. Slowly. But with overwhelming force. There were no footfalls. No presence at all. Only the taste of killing intent pricked against their skin.
“All of you, fall back.”
Airak spoke quietly.
“But clan leader—”
“You’ve all grown rather talkative.”
His voice carried an irresistible pressure, brooking no argument.
The air grew heavier. An absolute, crushing freeze descended upon the party—breathing itself had become agony. From within the mist, a white shadow began slowly to take shape.

* * *

Cheok Unhui placed a hand against his sleeping daughter Harin’s forehead.
The fever had broken. Her color had returned. Yet his heart found no ease.
“Father…”
Harin murmured in her sleep.
“Cold… so cold…”
Cheok Unhui’s eyes wavered.
He touched her forehead again. There was no heat. Then why was she calling out in cold?
The wind blowing through the window was unusually bitter.
Not even the depths of winter—yet it was as if the restless spirits of the Northern Sea were calling him across the walls of the Central Plains.
“The Cold Energy of the Northern Sea… is it reaching this far?”
He gripped the Jeolhui Sword.
His fingertips had gone cold. A chill ran down his spine. A dark foreboding pressed against his chest.
He knew.
The blood price for the life he had taken from the Ice Palace lord—it had only just begun to come due. Someday, someone would come seeking him from the Northern Sea.

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