Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 4

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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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Episode 4
“……An outsider?”
Despite his brusque opening, the man flinched upon seeing me.
He jerked back, swept his eyes over me from head to toe, then opened his mouth with measured care.
“I don’t presume to know which family you hail from, miss, but this is a matter of Yugajang’s internal affairs. A worthless servant stole the young master’s possession and fled—surely such wrongs must be corrected?”
“No, that’s not true! It’s mine. The Daehyeop Neungwang gave it to me……!”
Perhaps because he’d watched me knock the sword from their grasp moments before.
The men didn’t treat me like a child but spoke with deliberate respect.
The way they stressed “Yugajang” suggested this family held some considerable influence in the region.
But unfortunately, in the martial world of the Central Plains, the families I knew numbered only five: Namgung Sega, Sichuan Dang Clan, Habuk Paeng Clan, Jegal Sega, and Moyong Sega.
Which meant if they weren’t among those five, I knew nothing of them.
I tilted my head upward, wondering if perhaps Baek-ung Daejoo might recognize the name.
……
He only sparkled with an enigmatic smile.
So he didn’t know either.
“If a child doesn’t understand propriety, you teach them—you don’t decide punishments on a whim, do you? And if my appetite’s been spoiled because of you lot, I suppose I could take an arm as recompense?”
“That’s……!”
The leader sensed something amiss and glanced at me warily.
“Whoever you are, miss, you cannot interfere with Yugajang’s affairs!”
The very one who’d been easily subdued before surged to his feet and charged at me.
Was this my first real bout against a martial artist who held genuine enmity toward me?
He seemed weaker than the nobles I usually sparred with.
In wuxia tales, minor descendants of prestigious sects always grew careless and paid the price.
I calmly analyzed the man’s footwork.
Snap—
I lifted a finger.
“Gaaaah!”
Cold Yin Finger.
A Finger Technique that drives chilling energy into an acupoint, disrupting the flow of qi and blood.
My father had taught it to me—even the most modest Ice Techniques caused my Internal Power to grow whenever I used them.
It was a skill that required barely any force at all to overwhelm an opponent.
“Witchcraft!”
The man, having had yin-cold energy injected into the Renzhong Acupoint on his forehead—where normally positive qi flows—shrieked and coughed blood.
Seeing him collapse so easily from a simple Acupoint Pressing technique, he clearly wasn’t anyone of great consequence.
“I didn’t even see it……”
I pointed the boy clutching his sack beneath the table.
“With—with one finger, you subdued him?”
The leader quickly withdrew, drawing his sword in one fluid motion.
As he gestured to the other fighters, five of them formed a respectable formation.
“What—what trickery was that!”
One of them flared up in anger.
But the leader silenced him with a menacing glare, then addressed me cautiously.
“……We didn’t realize a master was present. Our rudeness was inexcusable.”
“Hmm?”
“Yet surely, Daehyeop, you’d find it burdensome to make an enemy of all of Yugajang? We apologize for interrupting your meal, and we shall depart quietly with the boy. If you would likewise withdraw, we’d be most grateful.”
Baek-ung Daejoo had said ruffians flee at the slightest sign of superior strength—and here was the textbook example.
That same Daejoo leaned against the railing, watching this scene with keen interest.
He met my eyes and grinned—clearly he intended to spectate, not intervene.
‘Making an enemy of them wouldn’t burden me much, it seems.’
I surveyed the surroundings.
When the men drew their swords, the innkeeper and every guest had fled far to the edges or pressed themselves against walls, silent as mice.
There was ample space.
“Pointing blades and threatening someone isn’t the proper way to conduct a conversation.”
For all their talk of propriety and virtue, they didn’t know basic courtesy.
Even if I meant to teach them, first I’d need to put them in a state where dialogue was possible.
The leader shifted into middle stance.
He’d judged I had no intention of backing down and decided to strike first.
The first man had been subdued easily, but the leader’s posture was competent enough.
Whoosh—
He charged at me and brought his blade down.
The blade was pointed downward.
If there had been a bundle there, it would have been split clean in half.
‘Slow,’ I thought.
But for all the grace of his stance, the speed was embarrassingly sluggish.
A single light step.
I sidestepped with ease.
His blade whistled through empty air.
‘No need for the Frost White Divine Art at all.’
My father had said that once my Internal Power grew strong enough, I could use the Ice Technique when needed, but.
Since I hadn’t yet obtained the Ultimate Yang Elixir, I meant to avoid it as long as possible.
Of course, if the Yin energy built up and shortened my lifespan a little, surviving was what mattered—in truly dangerous situations I’d have to use the Frost White Divine Art.
But against a third-rate nobody like this, I wouldn’t even need to draw my sword.
Whoosh.
I raised my fingers again.
“Aaaaagh!”
Before I could even employ the Finger Technique, the leader clutched his head and screamed.
Thud.
I grabbed him from behind and struck the Dazhui Acupoint at the back of his neck—where Yang energy gathers—with the same Cold Yin Finger.
“Hnnngh!”
He couldn’t dodge or block. He collapsed where he stood.
“Oh, an absolute master…!”
With their leader down, the rest fell to pieces.
All their careful formation crumbled for nothing.
“Cough!”
“Hack!”
“Gahhh!”
I subdued the remaining four with just a few flicks of my fingers.
‘Hmm, nothing special after all.’
Six men lay sprawled across the floor.
I let out a quiet sigh of relief inside.
I’d thought I could win easily enough since Baek-ung Daejoo hadn’t stepped in.
But this was my first real combat, so I’d been somewhat nervous.
Was I already among the stronger ones even in the Central Plains?
“W-wonderful! How did you do it?”
“You subdued the Yuho Six Swords with a single finger!”
As the fight ended, onlookers who’d been pressed against the walls began stepping forward one by one.
Some still watched the men warily.
But one spoke out loudly in my praise.
“They were famous enough to have an epithet?”
“Of course!”
“You’re not from around here, are you? If there were a beauty like you—a Daehyeop, rather—in these parts, we’d surely have heard the rumors. Where are you from?”
“Khhhuuugh!”
As I was about to answer.
The leader suddenly vomited blood violently, soiling the Inn floor.
“What—what will happen to these people?”
A boy who’d since slipped away from the table asked.
He’d been thoroughly beaten just moments ago.
Yet seeing someone he’d known look like death itself had stirred his concern regardless.
“Don’t worry. I only lodged a touch of cold Yin energy into his acupoints—think of it like acupoint sealing, if that helps you understand. Anyway, once I withdraw it later, there won’t be any problem.”
I spoke gently to reassure the boy.
“But Jangju surely won’t overlook this!”
One of the men, not yet aware of the situation, suddenly shouted.
“…Of course there’ll be problems if I don’t remove it. If the Du Meridian stays blocked with Yin energy, they’ll die within a double-hour. The two who kept trying to draw more Internal Power—they probably have less than a quarter-hour left.”
Some people really do take kindness for weakness.
“In other words, you all now have a limited lifespan.”
I smiled brightly as I spoke.
Of course, the Cold Yin Finger was merely a parlor trick, and any martial artist stronger than me or skilled in handling Internal Power could brush it aside like releasing an acupoint seal.
But with the meager Internal Power these men had accumulated, not a chance.
At my declaration of their death sentence, all six men fell silent.
“Please, spare us, Daehyeop!”
His demeanor shifted at once, becoming perfectly courteous.
Indeed, the Cold Yin Finger had a remarkable gift for softening the mood in an instant.
“Now you’re ready to talk sense. Come, sit over here. As long as you don’t disturb your Internal Power, it won’t hurt.”
I offered them a ceasefire, politely.
“Yes, yes.”
“Of course, naturally.”
They accepted it.
And about half a quarter of an hour later.
“We beg your pardon. It’s true that Neungwang Daehyeop gave the tablet to So-un. Our lord Jangju said the servant’s boy would be useless even if he went to the academy, so he intended to send the First Young Master in his place instead.”
“Lord Jangju ordered us to retrieve the tablet, and we had no choice but to obey.”
“We never wanted to strike a child…….”
The truth of the matter came to light with perfect clarity.
So the boy had been wronged all along, as he kept insisting.
Someone had given the child a tablet, Jangju had forcibly taken it from him, and the boy had stolen it back and run away before being caught.
“Please, spare us.”
“We failed to recognize your skill.”
“We shall uphold righteousness, care for the weak and defenseless, and walk the path of honor and righteousness.”
The men all bowed deeply and earnestly, begging me to lift the Cold Yin Finger technique.
Well, I hadn’t actually intended to kill them anyway.
“Hmm, So-un? We’ll treat it as if we never found him here.”
“Yes, yes. Of course we will.”
“We saw nothing at all.”
The one who’d borne the brunt of my attack first, coughing blood repeatedly as I’d tried to draw out his Internal Power, now trembled violently on the ground, prostrating himself in supplication.
“Please, spare me, please, please.”
Was it the cold? Or the terror of death?
Well, with only moments left, I suppose fear would be justified.
“Hmm…….”
I crossed my legs and let the silence stretch.
“Very well. Pay for the broken table, the cleaning cost for the blood on the floor, and compensation for spoiling the other guests’ meals today at the inn. That will do.”
I added one more condition to the negotiation.
“Of course, if you’d rather not, you’re free to leave.”
Feeling death breathing down his neck, the man didn’t quibble over anything and hastily produced a coin purse, offering it up.
I hadn’t even said I would spare the last one.
The other five, not wanting to be outdone, quickly unfastened their coin purses from their sleeves and waists.
“Uh, uh-ah. Uh.”
But one of them seemed to have come without a coin purse.
Click, tap-tap. Tap-tap.
His teeth chattered at rapid speed.
He looked desperately toward his companions, but they had already thrown their purses down.
“Please, sir innkeeper. I will surely repay you…….”
Well, that wouldn’t do him any good borrowing money from a commoner.
“Then you’ll settle it with your body. Scrub and clean every trace of blood, and I’ll forgive you.”
“Th-thank you, Daehyeop!”
I lifted the Cold Yin Finger technique from each of them in the order they’d handed over their coin purses.
They bowed deeply and hurried away from the inn.
“Daehyeop, might I be so bold as to ask your name?”
The leader seemed different from the rest, somehow.
Unlike his subordinates, who fled without a word, he added one more line.
“My name?”
“Yes. I wish to remember crossing blades with the Daehyeop as the greatest honor of my lifetime.”
I hadn’t even drawn my sword, for heaven’s sake.
But there was no need to hide it.
If they thought I was nobody, they might gather more people and trouble me again, which would be tiresome.
“Seol Su-ryeo, daughter of the Master of Beihai Binggong.”
I gave my name with confidence.
Surviving as the Heiress of Beihai Binggong with a Limited Lifespan (Serialized)
Author │ Sachyang Noru
Publisher │ Kim Joo-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ Suite 401, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
© Sayang Noru 2026
※ This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder. The contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this shall 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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