Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 48

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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 48
Since she’d mentioned herbs that grew on high mountains, Eun Hyeon and I headed straight up the slope.
Whoosh!
The Dormitory sat halfway up the mountainside, but even to the peak, this mountain was quite tall and steep.
Eun Hyeon deployed his Lightness Martial Art with the ease of someone walking flat ground.
Wow—is this the true strength of the Huashan Sect?
I was glad I’d helped him recover his Inner Power early on.
“Hmm……”
But the herb called Bujah didn’t reveal itself easily.
After wandering for nearly half a Shichen without finding anything, we realized we had less time than we’d thought.
Even if we kept searching until tomorrow night, we’d never manage to inspect the entire mountain.
“I think it’d be better to split up and search separately rather than stay together.”
“……Yes. It would be more efficient to search separately. Have you ever harvested medicinal herbs before?”
“Never Bujah. But when I dug up Amyu Herb and Byeokse Herb and showed them to Yak Seon, he said they were excellent.”
Eun Hyeon paused in thought before adding a word.
“Raw Bujah carries a potent poison dangerous even from a brush of the skin, so it’s best to approach with utmost care. If you spot anything suspected to be Bujah, please call me rather than harvest it directly yourself.”
I could probably manage to dig it out with tools from a distance, but—
His concern was endearing, so I nodded without protest.
‘He said it had pointed, dark-red shoots……’
But it wasn’t genuine cause for worry.
After parting with Eun Hyeon, I wandered the mountain earnestly for hours, but spotted neither flowers nor anything resembling dark-red shoots.
‘This is unexpectedly exhausting.’
It was tiresome in a way different from searching the Stone Cave.
The Stone Cave could at least be surveyed from one end forward, but wandering the mountain aimlessly left me confused about how far I’d already covered.
Still, there was no alternative, so I walked diligently, parted the undergrowth, and scanned carefully into crevices between tree roots and rocks.
For nearly three Shichen, I remained alone, searching and glancing about.
When stiffness began creeping up my neck from staring downward, I lifted my head to find the sun already setting.
……Could I actually find anything this way?
Overwhelmed by doubt, I sat on a rock to rest for a moment.
That’s when Eun Hyeon sensed my presence and came to find me.
“Hey, did you find it?”
I sprang up to greet him.
But contrary to my hopes, his face was grave.
And in his hand, instead of a Bujah Root, lay a single book.
“No, I didn’t.”
Huh? Not that you haven’t found it yet, but that it doesn’t exist? We still have until tomorrow night, plenty of time left?
It didn’t seem like he was giving up already.
As I blinked in confusion, he clarified his reasoning.
Unlike me, who’d been examining every corner between trees and grass all along,
Eun Hyeon had used his Lightness Martial Art to move swiftly and sweep the entire mountain.
“Structurally, Bujah spreads from its root. I thought it would surely exist in a colony. But…… I found no such thing.”
“You expected a colony? I naturally assumed maybe a single Bujah shoot would happen to be growing there.”
“It’s not entirely impossible, but…… even if there were one such plant across this entire mountain, wouldn’t we fail to find it anyway?”
That’s true.
Since I’d found the Byeokse Herb in a single day last time, I’d perhaps expected too much luck.
Listening to Eun Hyeon’s words, I considered how plants reproduce.
If by chance a bird had brought a seed and Bujah grew from it, the odds that I’d discover the single Bujah root across the entire mountain were slim.
“That’s why I went to the Library.”
He opened the book in his hands and offered it to me.
Like the Goeoryuhae, it seemed herbal texts didn’t require special credentials for borrowing.
“It says Bujah grows in the steep mountains of Sichuan—what they call the Bashu region—the high plateaus of Yunnan, and the valleys of the Zhenling Mountain Range. ……It doesn’t naturally grow in the Henan region.”
……?
I knew that Sichuan Bujah was considered the finest, but I hadn’t realized it didn’t exist here in Henan at all. When Yak Seon mentioned yesterday that it grew on high mountains, it seems he didn’t mean simply tall peaks—you’d need to venture into far more elevated terrain to obtain it.”
What are you saying?
So……
“……Isn’t it possible he told us to bring something unobtainable precisely because he didn’t want to accept us?”
So I’ve been wasting over three Shichen of effort?
And tomorrow until the You Hour, he was planning to put me through dog training, was he?
Ha, that old codger Yak Seon.
I thought he’d backed off, but he’s deceived me like this?
Eun Hyeon gritted his teeth, his expression darkening with disappointment.
He’d come to understand that Bujah didn’t grow in this land, and the helplessness weighed on him.
But I had no intention of giving up here.
“So that’s how it is, then? Well, I’ll find a way to get it no matter what.”
I clenched my fist and muttered under my breath.
Until a moment ago, I hadn’t felt this surge of determination.
My original purpose had simply been to grow closer to Yak Seon, and while attending his lectures would be helpful, it was never a desperate need.
I’d even mentioned I could research it later, so waiting would have been acceptable.
But now that things had come to this, stubbornness flared up in me.
“How, though?”
I’d have to think about that from here on out.
I folded my arms and paced the surrounding area, lost in thought.
Less than a full day remained until the You Hour tomorrow.
So I had to gather medicinal herbs from Sichuan and Yunnan within that time?
Was there anyone at the Academy who had a Bujah Root of good quality?
Among the students, Maeng Ryeong Ji was from Yunnan, but asking her was pointless—she’d never have exactly what I needed.
And if we’re talking about Sichuan, that meant the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Our cohort didn’t have any students with the surname Dang.
The moment I imagined approaching Dang So Yeo, a clear future of rejection unfolded before me.
‘Steal it from the Medical Hall?’
Earlier, Yak Seon had shown me a Bujah Root directly.
What if I slipped into the Medical Hall in the dead of night and took it?
But… unless I wanted to be caught, that wouldn’t work.
Guwon-ui had mentioned there were guards at Jinmi Hall, so the Medical Hall probably had something similar.
‘If not within the Academy, what places could I reach and return from in a single day?’
I widened the scope of locations my Lightness Martial Art could cover.
Of course, making the journey to Sichuan in a single morning was impossible.
But another idea occurred to me.
“Wait. If Yak Seon possesses herbs that don’t grow in Henan, that means he bought them from somewhere, right?”
“He didn’t seem to have harvested them himself, so that must be it.”
Eun Hyeon nodded in agreement.
“If the books in the Library list the collection sites, then these herbs must be fairly common in Sichuan or Yunnan.”
“They probably cultivate it in Sichuan as well.”
Oh, is that so?
It seemed to be a more common medicinal material than I’d thought.
It didn’t grow at all in the Northern Sea, and since the Ice Palace disciples took no interest in medicine, I knew nothing of it.
But Eun Hyeon was aware that Sichuan Bujah was considered the finest quality.
It appeared to be far from rare in that region.
“So it’s traded commercially too, then?”
“Yes. The Amyu Herb and Byeokse Herb you mentioned earlier, I’d never heard of before, but Bujah isn’t a Spirit Herb. It appears regularly in medical texts, and I’ve even fed it to a child I know, as it’s said to replenish vital energy.”
Ah, perfect.
“Then there’s no problem. You didn’t say the test specifically required harvesting it directly yourself, did you?”
What, there was a simple way all along.
I didn’t need to get so elaborate as to break into the Medical Hall.
“Pardon?”
Eun Hyeon’s eyes flickered with confusion at my meaning.
Hmm, perhaps that was too enterprising a notion for a model new student who’d only been here less than a month?
It made sense, given he’d lived under the strict discipline of the Doga Daemunpa.
Never mind, never mind.
Sneaking out of school was typically a delinquent student’s job.
In situations like this, a model young gentleman had a different role to play.
I shifted my weight onto one leg in a somewhat unruly manner.
Then I asked Eun Hyeon if there was any particular resource necessary to acquire Bujah in Luoyang.
“Do you have any money on you?”
Surviving as a Limited-Time Young Noble Lady at the Northern Sea Ice Palace (Serialized)
Author │ Saha Yang-Nok
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong
Published by │ J. PL Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok
Address │ 401, Acetech Tower 8th, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
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© Sayang Noru 2026
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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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