Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 34

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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 34
I’d been doing Near-Walking in the afternoon while Eun Hyun practiced alone.
We planned to meet around evening and help with his training just as we had the day before.
“Ah, what do I do?”
My plan to do nothing more than a quick survey of the Stone Cave and then meet Eun Hyun completely fell apart the moment I ran into Hwa Mu Yang.
How could I have forgotten about that?
The sun had already set, so he’d probably gone back to the Dormitory long ago.
Still, he was my first real friend here, and the guilt of standing him up weighed on me.
Even so, I thought I’d check just in case.
I hurried to the Training Grounds where we’d agreed to meet.
“Huh?”
Eun Hyun stood motionless with his arms raised, gazing into empty space.
Was he practicing Finger Technique?
“Sorry. I’m really late, aren’t I?”
When I called out to him, only then did his concentration break, and he turned to face me.
“…Ah, you’ve arrived?”
“I got trapped in some weird formation while I was doing Near-Walking at the Stone Cave. I’m really sorry.”
Even as I said it, I knew it sounded absurd, but Eun Hyun only tilted his head slightly to one side.
“You seem to have deep ties with formations… Are you alright?”
“Yeah. Luckily I managed to break through and get out, but somehow a lot of time had passed.”
…….
Eun Hyun stared at my face intently.
It wasn’t a look of disbelief.
Had he been so absorbed in his training that he hadn’t even thought about waiting?
He didn’t seem particularly hurt or angry, so I felt reassured.
“There must have been a reason. Since you’ve come, that’s what matters.”
The way he spoke didn’t sound like a boy barely past his childhood.
In a strange way, there was a lingering sadness to him—much like the melancholy I’d just dispelled in Hwa Mu Yang.
Had he been stood up by someone before?
We weren’t close enough for me to ask yet, so I just scratched my head.
“Let’s begin right away. I’m confident this time.”
Eun Hyun changed the subject and immediately dipped the tip of his sword into the ink.
* * *
What I’d planned as a brief look at his Finger Technique turned into quite a lengthy sparring match.
Since we both knew what the other was aiming for, we became careful as the distance between us narrowed enough that our fingers could touch.
“Ah!”
But in the end, Eun Hyun succeeded in marking my sleeve with a drop of ink no larger than a fingernail.
“What? How did you do that?”
“It’s Tan Ji Gong. A type of Finger Technique.”
I hadn’t felt any contact, yet a mark appeared—I wondered how he’d managed it.
Eun Hyun turned his palm upward and showed me how he flicked his ring finger as though bestowing a chestnut bump, sending drops of ink flying.
“You controlled that without any Internal Energy?”
If one could manipulate Internal Energy, one could refine it as thin as Sword Silk and perform miraculous attacks through Finger Technique.
But to control a single dot of ink so precisely that only it marked his clothing—all while poisoned by Mountain Empty Poison—felt like nothing short of sorcery.
“I’ve learned much from you.”
A faint smile crossed Eun Hyun’s face, then he bent his head low, breathing hard.
In just one day, he’d become so skilled at Finger Technique that he’d caught me off-guard—I was genuinely surprised.
He seemed not to have given any thought to grappling, and his eyes told me he truly believed he owed it all to me.
“Tomorrow morning, I will challenge my master and obtain the Antidote. I will not forget this debt, Miss Seol.”
“Don’t talk about debts so carelessly. If a Taoist from Huashan goes around speaking like that, someone will grab your ankle and demand repayment. I’d recommend just saying ‘help.'”
“…Thank you for helping me.”
In any case, I fulfilled my promise with Eun Hyun without trouble.
And for his sake, I corrected his word choice.
The way he’d performed today, I was fairly certain he’d obtain the Antidote from Myeong Gyeong without difficulty tomorrow.
Though it wasn’t exactly a debt repaid, I felt satisfied to have cleared away one obligation.
“It’s getting late. See you tomorrow.”
“Yes. Curfew will be here soon.”
Curfew? Was there actually such a thing?
I shrugged my shoulders and, parting ways with Eun Hyun, headed up to the Dormitory.
During the sparring, I’d been so focused I’d had no room for other thoughts.
The truth was, I’d been wanting to do something ever since a moment ago.
I needed to test whether I could put the Yang Qi I’d received from combat practice to use!
If I’d only received the secret manual, the road would be long—starting from building internal energy itself.
But starting with this much internal energy, I might be able to use the Red Dust Turbid Yang Gong before long.
“Would you like to try some of these mushroom skewers?”
“No, thanks. I’ve already taken a Grain-Avoidance Pill.”
“Just one bite, then! Just taste it!”
I popped the blue mushroom skewer So Un offered into my mouth and headed into the room.
I knew now that it wasn’t a poisonous mushroom, but the lingering bitterness remained regardless.
Maeng Ryeong Ji happened to be busy sparring with Dan Ri Hyang at the Training Grounds, so I seized the moment alone to unroll the manuscript in my room.
“Why are there so many characters I don’t know?”
Within five minutes, I was tearing my hair out.
Since being reborn and first grasping the reality that I’d have to live in a Sino-character cultural sphere, I’d never experienced such torment.
I’d thought that even if I couldn’t rattle off the Five Classics by heart, I’d at least understand the characters that appeared in martial manuals well enough.
Because the book’s binding style was old enough to have been made centuries ago, unfamiliar characters kept turning up.
“I can get the gist through guesswork, but…”
Still, it wasn’t as if I couldn’t read it at all.
Wasn’t it risky to try to master a martial manual by guessing my way through it?
I’d have to visit the Library Pavilion later and see if there were any books on the history of written characters.
Hwa Mu Yang had said that if I were him, it wouldn’t matter if I learned dangerous ascendant martial arts in large quantities, but I wasn’t comfortable just taking that at face value.
I was still in the process of learning Zheng Qi Gong, so I was anxious about carelessly touching martial arts that carried a heterodox flavor.
Instead, I read the passages several times without Qi Circulation, just as I’d done in Buk Hae, trying to understand the punctuation marks, and I found a sheet of paper to copy down the characters I didn’t know separately.
* * *
The next day.
At last, the Life-and-Death Combat Practice session that countless students had been waiting for arrived.
“Finally we can crush the rising talents of the Nine Schools and One Faction and the Five Great Families!”
Maeng Ryeong Ji had been so itching for a fight since the day before that she kept swinging her axe through the air as we headed down to the Academy, wielding her weapon at the empty space multiple times.
Truth be told, I was quite curious about this class myself.
With a name like Life-and-Death Combat Practice, there was a good chance they’d tell us to fight each other, right?
I seemed to rank somewhere near the top among the students, but since only a few had gone through the entrance exam and we hadn’t been ranked in order, I couldn’t accurately gauge my peers’ abilities.
I had no way to know exactly how strong my classmates were.
Would it be one-on-one sparring? A free-for-all?
Filled with questions, we arrived at the Training Grounds.
“I’m Muk Jin Ha. I’ll be teaching this class.”
The martial instructor in charge of Life-and-Death Combat Practice spoke in a grave voice.
Since this was a class I was attending for the first time, I thought I wouldn’t have met the instructor before, but surprisingly, it was a face I’d seen once at the Administrative Building.
He’d been with Gwak Do Cheon, but unlike that kindly man, he was quiet and reserved—a martial instructor with a severe expression and a sword scar across his face.
He wrapped himself in black clothing from crown to toe, like some sort of assassin.
“I’ve taken on the role of Dormitory Supervisor for Inbon Hall this year.”
“What?”
Since he wasn’t wearing a sword, I was trying to guess what kind of weapon he wielded.
But into Muk Jin Ha’s brief self-introduction came something entirely unexpected.
“A dormitory supervisor existed?”
“We’ve never even met one until now?”
Of course, he was meeting all the Inbon Hall students except So Un and me for the first time.
We were thoroughly bewildered.
“So there was no dormitory supervisor until now?”
“How did we even pass our classes?”
At our confusion, even the students from Cheonmyeong Hall and Jijeong Hall dropped their jaws.
Remarkably, Paeng Jung Geol was serving as supervisor for Cheonmyeong Hall, and Heo Gong for Jijeong Hall.
And in their dormitories, discipline existed—including curfew and prohibitions on eating inside rooms.
“I prefer to sleep outdoors, but the duty has fallen to me by necessity. You can proceed as you have been—as if I don’t exist.”
But…
It was nice to have no rules, but did that mean no oversight at all was acceptable?
Was it possible that all the other students except ours somehow already knew you weren’t supposed to go freely into the Stone Cave?
Before I knew a dormitory supervisor could even exist, I’d assumed that was just how things were.
But now that I understood it had been benign neglect, I started to think there ought to be someone you could go to when you needed help.
Right—if So Un’s blue mushrooms had really been problematic, someone should have been able to handle it!
“Then we’ll begin class. Students with experience in a Life-and-Death Duel, raise your hands.”
But Muk Jin Ha gave the students no opportunity to respond to his question.
He launched into his lecture without ceremony.
“…….”
At the question, the murmur that had filled the Training Grounds fell silent.
The atmosphere wasn’t especially tense, but since none of the students had undergone a Life-and-Death Duel before, they simply looked at each other uncertainly.
“What, not a single one?”
Muk Jin Ha sounded disappointed.
It seemed the renowned martial families of the Central Plains didn’t drive their children into the jaws of death.
They all possessed the fighting spirit of true martial artists, but most were Post-Qi Realm students still shy of twenty summers, which meant their practical experience was as limited as my own.
‘Should I count yesterday as a Life-and-Death Duel?’
They were all so young—it would be unusual for any of them to have such experience.
“At your age, I’d already crossed the line between life and death hundreds of times, beyond counting.”
Perhaps the martial world had changed greatly after the Jungma Great War.
Or perhaps the vagrants on the streets still courted death without thinking.
In any case, the Academy was a rather safe garden.
Even our dormitory students—except for a rare few like So Un and Gu Won—all had some respectable sect name to claim.
“Well then, does anyone want to try?”
Muk Jin Ha posed the question to the students once more.
Did they want to experience a Life-and-Death Duel?
True, if you’ve chosen the path of a martial artist, there may come a day when you must stake your life in battle—but why would you volunteer for such a thing?
I remained still, but to my surprise, nearly half the students hesitantly raised their hands.
“I think I phrased that poorly.”
Muk Jin Ha laughed in disbelief as he watched them.
That’s right—I couldn’t claim to have no competitive spirit whatsoever.
But why would anyone want a Life-and-Death Duel?
I expected he would follow up with a lecture about understanding the weight of one’s own life.
“Who here has someone they want to kill?”
But Muk Jin Ha asked something different.
“…….”
At that heavy question, most of the students flinched and lowered their hands.
Only one.
The single student who had not responded to the question about wanting to try a Life-and-Death Duel kept his hand raised, unflinching.
“Yes, that’s what I thought. There should be at least one.”
It was Eun Hyun.
Surviving as a Young Lady with a Time Limit in the Buk Hae Palace of Ice (Serialized)
Author | Sa향 Noru
Publisher | Kim Ju Hyeong
Published by | J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing | Han Jae Hyeok
Address | 401, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8th)
Email | [email protected]
Website | www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Sa향 Noru 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and no part of its contents may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this 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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