North Sea Martial Arts Warrior - Chapter 60

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

60. The Locked Door.

Dawn in Bing Sim Hall.
Grey light settled on the window.
Mukara sat before the Ice Crystal Mirror. Before that mirror, cold as a lake, the face of a woman who had yearned to be Bing Gong Master for thirty years was ashen.
She held a comb in her hand.
The teeth of the comb drew through her black hair. A few white strands… and the comb stopped. A small shadow flickered suddenly at the window.
The flutter of a Delivery Bird’s wings.
Hurried footsteps approached beyond the chamber door, then ceased.
“Palace Master, a message has arrived.”
“Bring it.”
The door opened.
A maidservant entered, holding with both hands a slip of paper no larger than a pinky finger.
“The seal is blurred, Master. It comes from far away.”
“Withdraw.”
The maidservant left. The door closed again.
Mukara broke the seal and unfolded the paper.
Characters were written upon it.

– Majeon headquarters, utterly destroyed. Clan Master deceased.

The hand holding the letter trembled.
The woman in the mirror did not move her lips. Her expression remained composed. But her unseen heart plummeted into the abyss.
‘Even Majeon!’
Mukara set the paper down on the table.
She looked at it again through the mirror.
The characters remained the same. Majeon headquarters was no longer a name spoken in this world. The Clan Master was no longer alive.
Her fingertips trembled faintly.
The mirror reflected that tremor perfectly.
Mukara stared at her own face before the mirror. Beneath that pallid expression lay another face. A face touched by death.
Mukara muttered, watching her reflection.
“If Majeon has fallen… there is nothing more to send.”
Now she had to admit the truth to herself.
If the fact that she killed Karani came to light… she would die without mercy. At Aelak’s hand.
The lips in the mirror received her words.
The face in the mirror did not waver. Where the name Majeon had left her lips, a small void remained.
A small void… hope. Is there no hope?
The lips in the mirror moved again.
“Yes. The Il-seom Dan-hong. Cheok Un-hui. Even Aelak cannot face the Joong-won Je-il Geom. Cheok Un-hui will finish it. He simply won’t return to the North Sea.”
What Majeon could not accomplish, a single blade from the Central Plains would.
A sufficiently plausible picture. But… the man who killed Han Bing Sam-su and Seol Nyeo. The man who orchestrated a massacre of Majeon’s thousands… could Cheok Un-hui manage it? Even as the Joong-won Je-il Geom…
The face in the mirror could not accept the hopeful image. Her reflection was still contorted.
Doubt crept in.
“What if he loses?”
Han Bing Sam-su and the three thousand of Majeon—neither could overcome him. Can a single blade truly suffice?
The face in the mirror did not deny the doubt. It answered far too clearly.
It was not enough.
The answer in the mirror was the answer outside it as well.
Mukara withdrew her gaze from the mirror. A resolve formed in her words.
“Before he fights Cheok Un-hui… I must injure him. Destroy at least one knee… so that Cheok Un-hui can win with certainty.”
The moment her resolve left her lips, the trembling in her hands subsided.
Mukara rose and opened the inner chamber door.
The entrance to the Bing Gong Secret Archive.
Cold air rushed in.
Inside, only a single lamp burned. A leather box rested at the end of a shelf… and Mukara saw it locked with clasps.
The box had occupied that same place for more than thirty years.
Before Karani became Bing Gong Master, and after her death.
A thin layer of dust lay across the box. The lock was corroded with rust—the mark of hands that had never touched it.
The smell of old leather and dry ink stung her nostrils.
The scent of paper sealed away for thirty years.
Mukara’s hand moved to the lock on the leather box. A moment of hesitation seized her. Was this truly… wise? But the doubt didn’t linger.
The year Karani ascended to Bing Gong Master, the previous Master had shown her this box—and her alone. From her post as Deputy Palace Master, Mukara had stolen that glimpse.
The shape of the lock, the leather binding within, the characters on the title.
For thirty years, Mukara had never forgotten that sight.
From the year Karani stole her place, this box had been among the things she called to mind every single night.
Her hands had long since memorized the lock’s shape.
Click!
Thirty years and more had passed. Today, Mukara finally opened it.
Mukara was a woman who had yearned for the position of Bing Gong Master for three decades. She could hardly fail to know what lay inside. If not for Aelak, she would never have opened it.
Her low voice echoed through the Secret Archive.
“So it comes to this.”
She opened the book, inscribed in ages long past.
A single volume bound in leather.
The title read: Record of Extermination of North Sea’s Three Great Families.
The script bore the hand of a former Bing Gong Master—Karani’s predecessor, or someone before her still.
Mukara’s palm brushed gently across the leather cover.
A killing intent exploded outward.
She hadn’t even turned a page, yet rage poured forth—as though commanding her to seal it again, to lock it away once more.
Mukara turned to the first page.
The margins of each entry were filled with notes in the former Master’s hand.
Characters whose ink had long since dried.

— Seol Ung Family: Human Heart Bond.

The entry was brief.
They replenish cold force through human hearts. A single clansman must consume seven hearts within a year to achieve a killing strike. That power can shatter the greatest mountains.
‘A martial art Aelak cannot perform.’
Mukara’s finger traced across those words.
The ink didn’t smudge. Her hand, which had trembled before the mirror, trembled now—but for a different reason. The book grew heavy in her grasp.
The characters were pressed deep into the paper.

— Bing Pyo Family: Lost Soul Technique.

This entry was longer.
They capture the living and raise them through drugs. Bones thicken. Flesh grows dense. Then the soul is extracted. They become Lost Soul Persons—obedient to command alone. They feel no pain. They do not stop.
‘This is enough. With this, I can seize Aelak and those dogs. No matter how bleak it looks, I’ll carve away at least an arm.’
Hope kindled within her.
The tremor that had seized her before the mirror ceased upon the page. A tremor replaced by absolute calm.
She turned to the next page.

— The Circumstances of Extermination.

From here, it was secret history.
The Clan Master of a previous Aelak generation had settled both families. The warriors of Seol Ung, who wielded the Human Heart Bond, fell to a single North Ming Blade. The Bing Pyo, who commanded Lost Soul Persons, were uprooted entirely.
Below, a single line more.
After that, the North Sea was the Aelak Clan’s domain alone, for a time.
Mukara’s eyes moved across those characters without expression.
Yes. Seol Ung and Bing Pyo had been exterminated by Aelak. In North Sea terms, they had been sealed beneath the Underground Palace Beneath Ice.
This had been the work of an ancestor Clan Master. Not Aelak’s doing.
Moreover, during that period, Bing Gong had surrendered much intelligence to Aelak. They had joined hands with Aelak to submerge both families.
Bing Gong itself bore the blood-debt of both fallen houses.
At last, the final page—the part Mukara had most longed to read.

— Survivors.

The moment her eyes fell upon the final line, a fierce light blazed across Mukara’s gaze.
‘There were survivors, after all.’
The records marked it as extermination, but they’d left the children alive. One cannot wipe out an entire clan. They’d provided them with a place to settle, and…
Mukara laid her finger on that final line.
There her finger stopped. The location where they’d left the survivors… the consideration of the previous Bing Gong Master… it had been reborn as hope.
She spoke in a low voice.
“More than thirty years have passed, so they must have moved. Still harboring their resentment. I need to find them. Once I locate these people… hohoho!”
Mukara closed the book.
Now that she knew the survivors’ first settlement, finding them would be child’s play.
The leather cover closed with a light, brief sound within the Secret Archive.

Her hand moved toward the bell.
Ding-ding! Ding!
She rang it. The sound echoed briefly through the Secret Archive before cutting off.
Shortly after, quick footsteps approached from beyond the curtain partition.
Hyeong Dang-ju entered. He knelt and bowed his head, waiting for her command.
A Secret Decree passed from Mukara’s hands to his.
“The descendants of the Seol Ung Family and the Bing Pyo Family survived there. By now, they’ve likely moved their base. Search the furthest reaches of the North Sea. Whether Seol Ung descendants or Bing Pyo descendants—if any are alive, bring them to me.”
Hyeong Dang-ju’s head moved slightly in acknowledgment.
“It has been more than thirty years since then. I understood it to be complete extermination.”
Mukara let out a soft laugh.
“The Aelak Clan’s extermination doesn’t mean everyone died. They spared the children. Even villains don’t sever the root entirely. That is the North Sea Law. There was someone who honored that law faithfully.”
Hyeong Dang-ju’s head moved slightly again.
“To them… Bing Gong is also an enemy. Calling them here would serve little purpose…”
“Bring them to me.”
“Master…”
“Should I have someone else do it?”
At that falter, Hyeong Dang-ju asked quickly.
“Ah! Understood. Should I begin searching from there?”
Hyeong Dang-ju looked at the Secret Decree.
“They won’t be there. Even children are dangerous beasts. They sense danger by instinct. Search the Former Territory of Seol Ung Family, the Former Territory of Bing Pyo Family, and all the mountain passes between them—every place Bing Gong’s reach extends to. Search them all.”
“What about places beyond Bing Gong’s reach?”
“Make them reachable. Even if it takes time.”
“How much time may I use?”
Mukara’s gaze shifted from Hyeong Dang-ju to the blade hanging on the wall.
“Until Aelak stands before Cheok Un-hui. Bring me at least one within that time.”
Hyeong Dang-ju bowed deeper. Then he asked.
“How extensively may I deploy our intelligence network?”
“Use Hyeong Dang’s network fully. Don’t touch anything else. Let no word of this spread beyond Hyeong Dang.”
“Understood.”
“Don’t inform the other Clan Masters.”
“…Understood.”
Hyeong Dang-ju’s throat moved slightly.
Mukara saw it. And she continued.
“This is not Bing Gong’s affair. It is mine. My personal matter.”
Hyeong Dang-ju bowed even deeper.
“I shall honor that, Master.”
“Good. Does Hyeong Dang’s intelligence network extend branches all the way to the far north?”
“Yes. Though not quite to the very end.”
“Then extend it to the very end. Use Hyeong Dang’s treasury for the expense. If it runs short, I’ll open my own.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t only hunt those with known names. Bring those without names. Bring children. Bring the elderly. Bring anyone at all who survived crossing the mountains.”
“…Yes.”
“Mistakes are acceptable. Don’t fear wasted effort. What I fear is letting the real ones slip away.”
Hyeong Dang-ju bowed even deeper still.
“Hyeong Dang does not make wasted efforts.”
Mukara gave a brief reply to that assurance.
“Good. There is one more thing I must tell you.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t let those you capture hear Bing Gong’s name. Don’t let them know who summoned them. They must never learn to the very end that it was Bing Gong who called them.”
“I understand.”
“If you capture someone alive, don’t bring them into Bing Gong. Set up temporary quarters outside. Somewhere beyond the sight of those within the palace.”
“You mean to avoid drawing the attention of the other Clan Masters?”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
“If… you should encounter someone beyond your capacity to handle… don’t speak Bing Gong’s name. Speak of the Aelak Clan instead. Just tell me, and that will suffice.”
“Vengeance burns in—”
“Just tell me, and he’ll know to go of his own accord. To the Central Plains. Provide him with ample funds to travel there. Enough to move freely. See that poverty never stops his journey.”
“Yes.”
“Go.”
Hyeong Dang-ju rose to his feet.
The chamber door closed… and his footsteps faded into distance.
Bing Gong’s information network stretches its branches to the frozen reaches of the north. Even Hyeong Dang-ju does not know precisely where those branches end.
Click.
The Secret Archive door sealed shut.
Mukara returned to stand before the mirror.
The face reflected there—pale texture, a single tremor along the edge. A faint smile had taken shape at the corners of her mouth. Was it the wrinkle of sorrow?
Good. The smile within the mirror and the smile without have aligned to the same measure. Now inside and outside are at peace. Because there is hope.
Her hand touched the mirror’s surface.
The mirror was cold. Her fingertips left a mark upon its glass.
“…I will open the door that the Aelak Clan has closed.”
The contrast between ‘I’ and ‘the Aelak Clan’ bent and refracted within the mirror. Beyond the windows of Bing Sim Hall, darkness from the north poured in.
Somewhere in that darkness, someone opened their eyes.
The Seol Ung Family or the Bing Pyo Family—those who had lived concealed until now… when they wake… the Aelak Clan will pay the price.
The darkness deepened.

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