Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 24

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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 24
The Huashan Sect disciples’ sparring match was entirely one-sided.
Since the rule was to mark only a single dot on the clothing, the only attack method Eun Hyun could choose was a thrust.
Whoosh!
Each time an opening came, Eun Hyun burrowed into Myeonggyeong’s embrace and drove his sword forward, attempting to stop the moment it grazed the fabric.
“Ugh!”
But how easy could that be?
To Myeonggyeong’s eyes, Eun Hyun’s intentions were perfectly transparent.
“Come now—do you think your opponent is a wooden dummy? I have feet too!”
The master sidestepped his disciple’s attack with the Huashan Sect’s characteristically fluid footwork.
He could have slipped back far enough to avoid the blade entirely.
Instead, Myeonggyeong shifted slightly to the side at the moment Eun Hyun tried to stop directly before him, deliberately tearing his own robe and letting the ink blur across the fabric.
‘Following him exactly would be a bit dangerous. Though it seems Master Guo doesn’t think so.’
I watched Myeonggyeong’s movements carefully.
Even if I couldn’t mimic them precisely, dodging enough to prevent a mark from being made didn’t seem particularly difficult.
“With that level of intensity, you won’t manage it even if you keep at it for a month! Go at him with explosive power—come on, drive in!”
Myeonggyeong knew all of Eun Hyun’s sword patterns.
He smoothly deflected the blade and led him to press inward.
Then moved with a speed my eyes couldn’t follow,
tearing just a fingernail-width of fabric from Eun Hyun’s sleeve.
‘That’s possible?’
Brutally precise—a pause suspended in a single moment.
A flower bloomed there.
“Let’s end it here.”
“……I’ve learned much.”
Though the sparring had lasted only moments, Eun Hyun gasped heavily, having pressed forward with continuous attacks.
Today, they’d taken only a brief time before the lesson began—
so at least his clothes weren’t left as tattered as they had been yesterday.
“Well then, did you observe it properly? What did you think, watching how this fellow moved?”
“I…… thinking it through was worthwhile. I believe I see how to approach this now.”
At this, Myeonggyeong looked startled.
“Truly?”
“Ah, of course it may not work, but…… when you spoke of doing it with explosive power, a method came to mind.”
“Well then, why don’t you both try challenging me together this evening? You could attack with a Coordinated Strike! The headmaster needn’t hear a thing anyway!”
He showed great interest in my counter-technique and was delighted.
Ah, if you could secretly teach something, why not just give your disciple one technique openly!
“That would not be possible.”
But Eun Hyun’s expression turned serious at the suggestion of attacking together.
He meant to challenge fairly and gain his master’s recognition.
“I hadn’t intended to challenge alongside you either. And I suspect my approach differs from what you have in mind, sir…… in any case, I shall give it thought so that Eun Hyun can mark you soon enough.”
“Ho, this is something. I never expected this fellow would bring back such a friend.”
Myeonggyeong seemed satisfied, waving us toward the lesson with a gesture.
Eun Hyun cleaned the ink from his sword and sheathed it.
“What counter-technique did you have in mind?”
The moment we descended from the Martial Training Ground, he asked urgently.
I’d thought he didn’t care much about the fact that he lacked Inner Force, but apparently that wasn’t so.
“Well……”
I was about to tell him directly, then paused mid-thought.
It seemed better for him to experience it firsthand than to hear it explained.
“No. After External Force class ends, I’ll show you myself. I want to see whether you can dodge without knowing what’s coming.”
“……Do you mean to say you can do this, Miss So Woon?”
Eun Hyun’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Of course I think I can manage it—that’s why I’m offering to teach you, isn’t it?”
Wondering what he was saying, I blinked.
Eun Hyun stared at me for a moment, then
his gaze shifted to the two swords at my waist.
“Are you marking the point using the Beihai Ice Palace method?”
“Mm? In a broad sense……? Ah, it’s not some remarkable technique. You’ll pick it up quickly.”
Only then did the light return to Eun Hyun’s eyes.
“I see…… I had thought you would need to fully unfold the Mei Kai Li Dao precisely and guide my master’s movements to strike at his weakness.”
Ah, I see—you mistook what I said. I never claimed I could mimic Huashan swordwork.
The Mei Kai Li Dao is probably a form name from the Twenty-Four Prunus Flower Sword Technique.
It seems to be the very form that Eun Hyun kept attempting all along, and the one Myeonggyeong demonstrated.
“Hmm, that may well be what Myeonggyeong intended, come to think of it.”
Since Eun Hyun happened to be Myeonggyeong’s direct disciple.
It looked quite likely that he’d been given such a task—a kind of pointed hint—to spark understanding in him.
But no one else had dared attempt it, and there was no rule forbidding other students from trying either.
In this academy, it seemed that as long as you got the answer right, the method hardly mattered.
“Still, it’s probably not the only answer.”
I knew nothing whatsoever about Huashan swordwork.
Or rather, I only knew what Myeonggyeong and Eun Hyun had shown me just now.
But I felt I might be able to offer some guidance to this stubborn boy.
* * *
“Tch, what’s this state you’re in after just two days? Yesterday you were all neat and tidy, cooped up in a lecture hall spouting Confucius and Mencius, weren’t you?”
When we arrived at the Martial Training Ground for the basic External Force class, Peng Zhong Geol greeted us with a booming laugh.
He seemed quite displeased with several of the younger students who, having done nothing more than shuttle back and forth between the dormitory and run a few laps without Inner Force, were already worn out.
‘Wasn’t the basic External Force class supposed to be taught by Guo Dao Chuan?’
Yesterday, when we were cleaning the Administrative Hall, that’s what he’d said.
“From now on, we’ll have to work you all hard. Ahem—in the first semester, External Force makes up the most hours. Correct?”
“Yes!”
“There’s much to do in this time. Far too much, in fact. As the training master, I’ll oversee you new students and conduct examinations, and as you build your physical strength and learn Movement Technique, Sword Technique, Saber Technique, Spear Technique, Fist and Stick Technique, Finger Technique, and Hidden Technique, different martial instructors will rotate in.”
Even if Peng Zhong Geol handled the Saber Technique himself, that was at least seven different instructors?
No wonder I’d thought I’d be seeing Guo Dao Chuan often, given that nearly half of the new required courses on the schedule were listed as basic External Force.
At this rate, I’d see him only a handful of times per semester.
“Now then, what do you think is the foundation of External Force?”
Peng Zhong Geol briskly finished his explanation and called out loudly.
Since he’d mentioned building physical strength, was it that?
“Um… proper forms, sir?”
A Wudang disciple whose name I still didn’t know, caught by Peng Zhong Geol’s gaze, offered his answer.
Whoosh!
In the next instant, Peng Zhong Geol swung his saber at him.
“Gasp!”
It wasn’t a speed he couldn’t respond to.
The student from Wudang quickly drew his sword and parried Peng Zhong Geol’s blade.
“…Ugh!”
But that was as far as he could go.
The Wudang disciple was no match for Peng Zhong Geol in raw strength.
He couldn’t hold for even five seconds before being driven back and crashing to the ground.
“What do you think is the foundation of External Force?”
Peng Zhong Geol posed the same question once more.
Then he swung his saber with equal force at the youth from the Hebei Peng Clan, his own relative.
“Strength, sir!”
The boy answered confidently and met Peng Zhong Geol’s saber with his own.
“Hmm.”
Meng Ling Zhi beside me raised his eyebrows approvingly.
“…!”
Yet he lasted barely thirty seconds before giving way.
He’d held up longer than the Wudang disciple, but even with both arms and all his body weight, he couldn’t withstand a saber swung lightly one-handed by Peng Zhong Geol.
“Correct. Strength. Strength, endurance, speed—and of those three, strength is paramount.”
Honestly, I doubted such questions had a real answer, but schools being schools, when different instructors teach different material, you simply memorize each instructor’s perspective for the exam.
So I made a mental note: that’s how Peng Zhong Geol thinks.
“Many of you look soft as butter. What on earth have you been doing all this time? If you’re determined to become martial artists, you should have trained while lifting rocks. Right now, strap Iron Rings to your hands and feet and run ten laps around this academy!”
That said, Peng Zhong Geol didn’t seem to be asking the question for an actual written exam.
It looked as though we’d be running circles during the entire basic strength-training period.
“…!”
The students’ faces twisted.
But unlike during the fasting ordeal, no one voiced a protest.
Since I’d already resigned myself to this sort of training when I decided to come to the Murim Academy, I didn’t bother complaining—I simply went to strap on the Iron Rings, whatever they were, around my wrists and ankles.
“Ugh.”
“They’re heavier than I expected.”
So Woon, seeing this for the first time, felt a flutter of vertigo.
“Light on your feet, aren’t you.”
Meng Ling Zhi appeared unbothered.
As for me, I’d never trained with iron rings hanging from my wrists and ankles, but—
following Peng Zhong Geol’s method, I’d built up considerable muscle through repeated lifts of heavy stones in various stances.
“You’ll wear two at a time!”
The moment I thought this degree of exertion was manageable, Peng Zhong Geol handed four more Iron Rings to the boy from his own clan.
Ah, for someone that size, he was trying to slip by far too easily.
“Hmm, you could handle two apiece as well, don’t you think?”
“Yes, understood.”
Myeong Seong was called upon by Peng Zhong Geol too.
All the children who showed even a modicum of obvious strength were sorted into differentiated training levels.
Nearly a third of the students from Tianming Hall and Zhiding Hall were selected, along with Eun Hyun, Namgung Min, and the taller of Namgung Min’s followers.
‘Namgung A Young just walked past? Ah, Eun Hyun drained himself this morning—I wonder if he’ll be all right?’
Peng Zhong Geol approached where our dormitory students had gathered.
“You’re getting two, naturally.”
“Yes!”
He tapped Meng Ling Zhi on the shoulder.
In truth, Meng Ling Zhi was practically the only student in Renben Hall with a powerfully built frame,
and few others, even those like Eun Hyun with reasonably solid muscle, stood out in comparison.
“Hmm….”
Peng Zhong Geol stopped before me.
Then, as if uncertain, he looked me up and down.
I’d made considerable effort to build muscle, but unfortunately, I hadn’t been blessed with the physique for it.
“When our swords clashed, you had decent strength, though….”
Well, even if I were stronger than I appeared,
it wouldn’t quite match the level of those just called.
I rolled up my sleeve slightly to showcase my slender wrist,
“Go ahead and try wearing them.”
Peng Zhong Geol simply fastened the additional Iron Rings onto my wrist.
Surviving as the Young Mistress of Beihai Ice Palace (Serialized)
Author │ Sha Xiang Lu
Publisher │ Kim Joo Hyung
Publishing House │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae Hyuk
Address │ 401, Ace Tech Tower 8th, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Sha Xiang Lu 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and the contents may not be used in any form or manner without permission from the publisher and author.
Violations may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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