Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 58

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

Episode 58
Swish!
Before Jin Young Hou could even finish his first descending strike, I slipped in and struck his wrist.
Bing Hwa Jeol Ji!
Like delicate ice petals settling softly to snap a rough branch.
The fastest strike-and-retreat technique in the Bing Baek Shin Geom arsenal.
“Ugh!”
I’d channeled enough Internal Energy that if Jin Young Hou hadn’t redirected and taken the blow head-on, it would have been over right there.
But Jin Young Hou was no amateur.
He withdrew his hand toward himself with barely a handspan to spare, protecting his wrist.
The price was that his technique remained incomplete, and the Sword Energy he’d channeled through the Heavy Sword scattered into the air.
Whoosh! Clang!
I immediately closed the distance and deployed the same technique again.
Bing Hwa Jeol Ji!
Jin Young Hou, unprepared for the same attack twice, hastily blocked and retreated.
“She dodged it!”
Boom! Whistle!
He tried to capitalize on the recoil to bring his Heavy Sword down again.
Bing Hwa Jeol Ji!
I blocked his finishing move once more.
“Wow, you’re incredibly fast?”
Mm, my Light Skill is a bit quicker than most, I suppose.
I applied the first and second strategies Gwak Do Cheon had taught me in turn, interrupting Jin Young Hou every time he attempted to deploy a major technique.
I kept him scattered—closing the distance one moment, falling back sharply the next.
This is actually rather entertaining.
“……Are you just going to keep using the same technique?”
“Maybe she’s watching for the perfect moment to overwhelm Jin Young Hou!”
“That’s not Bing energy, is it?”
“I heard the Polar Star Emperor can make ten paces feel like the depths of winter if he deploys the Bing Baek Shin technique?”
“Nah, surely not.”
As the same pattern repeated, the spectators grew confused.
Yes, there won’t be much to see, really.
I care about winning.
And I won’t use my Ice Energy unless I have to.
“Huff…… huff…… How long do you plan to peck away like that? Come at me properly!”
“It’s my choice, isn’t it? Why don’t you ask me to bind my hands and blindfold myself while you’re at it?”
Gwak Do Cheon had predicted yesterday that Jin Young Hou’s stamina would likely exceed mine.
But each time he swung his blade, he burned enormous Internal Energy, whereas I only drew power at that single point where sword met sword.
Boom! Clang!
Boom-boom-boom! Clang!
Of course, the Bok Ma Geom Beop techniques are quite varied.
And I had no doubt Jin Young Hou was highly proficient in each of them.
Bing Hwa Jeol Ji!
Yet every single technique was cut off before completion by my blade.
He could never fully display his capabilities.
“Is Seol Su Ryeo just toying with Jin Young Hou?”
Someone’s murmur caught my ear.
Jin Young Hou likely heard the same thing.
“Damn it! You keep fighting so cowardly……!”
“Yep.”
Bing Hwa Jeol Ji~
Jin Young Hou swung his blade in frustration.
But the more he did, the more transparent his patterns became.
After crossing blades for a bit over one watch of time, I’d begun to memorize not just the major techniques of the Bok Ma Geom Beop—but the opening sequence of each one.
“Is that how you barbarians from the north fight? At least Maeng Ho Jin didn’t run away!”
“Perhaps your swordsmanship simply isn’t good enough to break a single technique?”
Yes. You’re the one who can’t do it.
I said as much in my mind, then closed the distance again and drove my blade toward Jin Young Hou’s ribs.
Bing~ Hwa~ Jeol~ Ji~!
“Gaah!”
Shifting his Sword Path abruptly, Jin Young Hou failed to complete the technique once more.
Whoooosh!
A furious cry tore from his throat.
He was pouring out his Internal Energy with mounting rage.
I evaded three times out of five by retreating, and
twice I responded by deflecting the trajectory with Bing Hwa Jeol Ji.
“Heavens, deflecting a Heavy Sword like that? How on earth do you counter it?”
“Either deploy your technique rapidly before the forms break, or apply enough weight that the trajectory won’t warp even if the blade wedges in. You could also mix in false moves to bait the technique and strike from behind.”
“Could you do it?”
“…….”
Unlike Jin Young Hou, who was under assault, the students observing the Sparring Match from an objective vantage point offered their analysis with precision.
They were not wrong.
Even if I deployed the same swordplay, had I been facing the sect leader of the Gong Dong Faction, I could never have broken the techniques so decisively.
“Hear that? They’re saying you’re a fool for taking it?”
Jin Young Hou’s head whipped around, fixing a glare on the student who’d offered such an accurate analysis.
Oops. Did I look away for just a moment?
Bing Hwa Jeol Ji!
Whoosh!
In that instant—
Jin Young Hou’s blade came screaming in like a flash of light.
‘Ah, so he faked the turn-around?’
He had shifted patterns, abandoning the heavy, solid techniques of moments before.
Even the swifter blade now carried considerable Internal Energy flowing through it progressively.
The Sword Path traced a brilliant, dazzling arc—like the Hwan Geom of the Hwa San Faction—and then
Jin Young Hou’s blade suddenly pointed skyward.
‘Oh.’
What technique is this?
The blade had become enormous.
Of course, the actual steel couldn’t lengthen,
but the Sword Energy rising from it was rippling outward, swelling to twice, no, three times its normal size.
No, I can’t block this with Bing Hwa Jeol Ji.
“T-the Mu Ryang Bok Ma……! If you get caught in that technique, you can barely breathe!”
“You’re not planning to evade?”
“Until now, only Namgung Cheon has ever taken that technique head-on!”
It was apparently a well-known killing technique—the students’ voices overlapped all at once.
Booooom—!
A devastatingly heavy ashen blade descended,
and with it came the crushing sensation of a mountain collapsing.
A grand, majestic technique that pressed down upon the entire space.
This can’t be—
Seol Su Ryeo, a desperate crisis……though not quite unto death.
Clink! Ring! Crash!
Well, I’m sorry, but the Bing Baek Shin Geom only has one form, it doesn’t.
“……?!”
The Frost-Bone Pierce!
Unlike when I’d broken the technique with Bing Hwa Jeol Ji, I now unleashed the entirety of my pure Internal Energy.
I’d considered mixing in a touch of Yin Cold Energy, but I calculated that I could block it without that.
The method of countering wasn’t fundamentally different.
Our blades met at the point where the trajectory could be shattered,
and Jin Young Hou cried out in pain.
The Flying Snow, Endless Sky.
Without pause, I pressed my advantage relentlessly, driving him back.
“Urgh, cough, ugh…….”
Hmm?
I’d thought he’d manage to block most of it even so,
but he offered no resistance whatsoever.
His shoulder, chest, and belly opened—blood soaking through his garments.
“Cough!”
Then he spat up far more blood than the sum total of all his small wounds, and dropped to one knee.
‘Did I overdo it?’
I kept the incantation behind my teeth and waited in a defensive stance.
For all I knew, he might feign collapse and trigger a second phase.
In real Sparring Matches at Buk Hae, there were plenty of practitioners who would rise despite such injuries and press the attack.
And here at the Academy, with Recovery Pills readily available from the Medicine Hall, wouldn’t he have the freedom to counterattack without fear of wounds?
“Nngh—cough!”
But he didn’t get up.
“…Could he have taken an Internal Injury?”
Had his killing technique been interrupted mid-execution, causing his Internal Energy to backlash?
I asked Jin Young Hou cautiously.
“Aargh! Ugh, damn it! Seol Su Ryeo! Cough!”
He gasped and writhed, unable to control his Internal Energy.
“…It’s over.”
“Seol…she…”
“A Sparring Match like this…!”
“What on earth is her Ice Technique…?”
The crowd murmured amongst itself.
But I drew my blade once more to make the outcome unmistakable.
“Are you not going to forfeit?”
It seemed to be finished.
But he might hesitate to yield out of concern for Achievement Points.
Or perhaps, with the Gong Dong Faction’s pride on the line, he intended to fight to unconsciousness rather than admit defeat.
Seizing my advantage, I gathered every ounce of pure Internal Energy into my blade and swung it toward Jin Young Hou’s head, determined to finish decisively.
“…I—I lost! I lost!”
Whoosh!
But in that instant, he cried out his surrender.
If he was going to yield, he should have done it faster!
I’d nearly dealt him a serious wound after he’d already forfeited.
I twisted my Sword Path at the last instant, and the blade caught only a few strands of his hair instead.
With that, the Sparring Match ended.
Hah! Unbelievable!
A four-times Achievement Points multiplier event!
“Uh…ah…uh…”
I had held back on my direct thrust to some degree.
But Jin Young Hou trembled violently, as if the Internal Injury was more severe than expected.
Swish!
I flicked the bloodstained blade clean in the air and slid it into its sheath.
‘Clean victory.’
It had all been according to Gwak Do Cheon’s teachings.
He couldn’t cope with the technique of cutting short before full deployment.
And despite my not channeling Yin Cold Energy, he collapsed helplessly before a form he’d never seen before.
“How could…this…”
What, wondering how I won?
Since that’s what I’d been thinking just then, I answered plainly.
“I stayed true to fundamentals.”
I’d waited for my opening according to the four strategies Gwak Do Cheon taught—how the Quick Sword Method counters the Heavy Sword.
In other words, I’d simply mastered the textbook thoroughly.
“Ah…!”
Jin Young Hou’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open.
His face took on the expression of someone who had grasped something profound.
‘…?’
Then, while still seated, his upper body pitched suddenly backward.
“Hm?”
The match was over, so I cautiously approached to see what was wrong.
“…He’s unconscious.”
Ah, the Internal Injury must have been quite severe.
Jin Young Hou lay there with his eyes closed.
He hadn’t soiled himself or foamed at the mouth—nothing unseemly like that.
But when I waved my hand in front of his face, he didn’t respond at all.
“Seol Su Ryeo really did win!”
“How high is her level? She didn’t even use Bing Baek Shin Geom!”
“Ice Energy isn’t taking the form we imagined……!”
At once, the crowd’s cheers and exclamations erupted.
Surviving as the Doomed Young Lady of the Buk Hae Ice Palace (Serialized)
Author │ Fragrant Deer
Publisher │ Kim Ju 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 (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Fragrant Deer 2026
※This work has been published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the permission of the publisher and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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