Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 62

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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 62
“There’s a place like this, you know. Tired of chopping firewood? How about we slip in there and rake in some Merit Points instead?”
“Let’s go right now!”
Maeng Ryeong Ji was easy to persuade.
There wasn’t much persuasion required, really.
The moment I mentioned Gujoong Hwangcheon, she agreed without hesitation to join my party.
“Has your brother ever told you anything about it?”
“No.”
I’d never met Maeng Ryeong Ji’s brother, but he struck me as the type who’d been inside at least once, whether he wanted to be or not.
“Maybe he didn’t tell you because he didn’t want his younger sister going somewhere dangerous?”
“Ha! He definitely kept it secret on purpose so I wouldn’t earn Merit Points too easily and would have to struggle for them!”
Could that actually be the case?
No—it was far more likely he simply hadn’t thought it necessary to tell her.
He hadn’t known about Mountain Empty Poison, after all.
Though come to think of it, nobody seemed to have known about that—not even Namgung Min.
“Anyway, you’re in. Now I need to find two more people.”
“Why not take Gu Won and So Un?”
Gu Won was actually a decent prospect.
Though I’d only ever witnessed his martial prowess twice directly.
Once during the Entrance Exam, when he lost to Dan Ri Hyang, and once during Life-Death Combat Training, when he lost to Myeong Seong.
But the way he’d systematically searched the entire Academy upon admission and managed to find an escape route told me he was definitely no ordinary cadet.
“There’s a place called Gujoong Hwangcheon. Any interest in coming along?”
“What? You know where the entrance is?”
I told you—he was definitely hiding something.
Before I could even explain, Gu Won already knew what Gujoong Hwangcheon was.
“You know what it is? Where did you hear about it?”
“Well, ah… A friend of mine works at an inn, and students from the Academy pass through often. I overheard them talking about it.”
Hmm, a senior cadet had let a mere innkeeper in on the Academy’s secrets?
“But how exactly do you get into Gujoong Hwangcheon…?”
“We don’t sneak in. Once you exceed five hundred Merit Points, the Close Advisor tells you about it. I went to get approval from the Student Council President, and he said to bring four people.”
“Can you even accumulate five hundred Merit Points that quickly?”
“Oh, didn’t you hear? There was a tournament where you could earn Merit Points.”
Gu Won’s eyes went wide. His expression said he had no idea.
So the senior had told him about Gujoong Hwangcheon but not about the Martial Hall. That was strange.
The latter hardly seemed like a secret worth keeping, so why the suspicious silence?
“Anyway, there’s such a system, and I won some points off Jae Young this morning. In any case, consider yourself in!”
I didn’t press further.
If he were an innkeeper, I’d say he was a talented chef who kept too many secrets—and I had no reason to pry and scare him off.
I consulted with several other cadets about filling the last slot, and eventually brought up the idea to So Un.
“I’ll go!”
I’d estimated there was at least a fifty percent chance she’d say no.
Instead, she agreed to come without a moment’s hesitation.
“Are you sure? It could be dangerous.”
“I won’t step in when the Young Master and the others are fighting—I’ll just carry supplies! Please let me come along!”
Even Gu Won seemed worried about So Un, but she volunteered to be the pack carrier.
Now that I thought about it, in those hunter web novels I’d read in my past life, dungeon parties always had an F-rank hunter porter tagging along.
Some of them would even awaken while following the group.
“Since they said we need to retrieve treasures and such, maybe having someone who isn’t a combatant would actually be useful…?”
“Yes, yes! If the Young Master uses Mechanism Disassembly on things, I can pull a cart behind and follow! I’ll cook for us too! I promise I won’t get in the way!”
We probably wouldn’t be inside long enough to need regular meals, but there weren’t many other party options available anyway.
If I wanted to form a party with Maeng Ryeong Ji, I’d have to bring someone from Inbon Hall.
The senior cadets were avoiding Gujoong Hwangcheon, and most of the newer students lacked Internal Energy and were no better than So Un.
If one of them insisted on fighting and just made things harder, that would be annoying.
“How about this: Maeng Ryeong Ji and I take point, Gu Won protects So Un and handles the rear guard?”
“Sounds good! I’ll take the vanguard!”
“Mm…”
Maeng Ryeong Ji agreed immediately, while Gu Won rolled his eyes slightly before nodding.
“All right, let’s do that. Though if enemies keep pouring out from behind, we’ll have to fall back and retreat.”
Gu Won seemed reluctant to display that strange swordstyle of his anyway.
There was no reason to reject his staying in the rear.
“But miss, shouldn’t you be recruiting more than four? What if you asked the other cadets?”
“I already asked a few. Yeon Mu Jin turned pale and refused. Said he absolutely wouldn’t go.”
“What? Yeon Mu Jin? Why?”
“No idea. Something about ghosts appearing?”
Yeon Mu Jin seemed to be the strongest among the senior students at Inbon Hall, so naturally I’d approached him first, along with a few others.
But despite working as a Student Leader while short on Merit Points, he’d adamantly refused to enter Gujoong Hwangcheon under any circumstances.
“What?”
“……Ghosts?”
Maeng Ryeong Ji and So Un looked a little startled.
“Ghosts could certainly appear, couldn’t they?”
I shrugged.
Were ghosts really such a bad thing?
If anything, I could impart Internal Force through Energy Transfer while teaching them secret martial techniques.
Of course, if a ghost had a nasty habit of startling living people, that would be rather annoying.
But honestly, being startled was better than becoming a ghost myself.
“I see!”
Maeng Ryeong Ji was convinced.
“……With you there, miss, you’d surely handle any ghosts.”
So Un set her jaw and nodded firmly.
Gu Won didn’t seem to care either way whether ghosts appeared or not.
In any case, I’d managed to recruit a full four-person party in just one day.
* * *
Jegal Mun Yu expressed some concern about inexperienced cadets heading down without anyone who’d been to Gujoong Hwangcheon before.
But he approved, saying that with my abilities, there shouldn’t be any major problems down to the third sublevel.
Still, to be thorough, I invested a good twenty Merit Points and bought a Recovery Pill as well.
If I got hurt, I’d eat it and recover; if any of my companions got hurt, I’d carry them out of Gujoong Hwangcheon immediately.
The next afternoon, since everyone happened to have no classes, we gathered at the entrance to Gujoong Hwangcheon under the guidance of the Student Council’s secretary.
“It’s a stone cave?”
“Yes! The Stone Cave is both the entrance and the lid of Gujoong Hwangcheon!”
Wait—if we’re starting here and digging underground, then the Dormitory is built right on top of Gujoong Hwangcheon?
I felt oddly unsettled by this, smacking my lips as Jegal Mun Yu kicked a boulder aside.
“I really, really hope you all don’t go in……! But if you do come back, remember the location!”
Huh?
I looked up in confusion, and where the rock face had been perfectly smooth just moments before, a hollow now gaped open.
Incredible. So with thousands of stone caves scattered here, the real entrance to Gujoong Hwangcheon was hidden all along.
“Wow…… Is Gujoong Hwangcheon a Mechanism Disassembly trap right from the entrance?”
So Un, who was taking Mechanism Disassembly as an elective, looked utterly fascinated as she peered around.
“That’s right! But it’s not Gujoong Hwangcheon’s own formation—it’s a Hidden Formation that the Jegal Family set up to keep just anyone from approaching carelessly.”
“Wow!”
I found it just as fascinating.
How on earth a hole suddenly appeared like that.
I made a mental note to watch more carefully next time the boulder moved, then stepped into the Stone Cave.
“Don’t go to any dangerous places—just clear the section you’re assigned and come back out!”
“Understood!”
The secretary gave us a final list of warnings.
Essentially, be careful, and any treasures we found inside shouldn’t be taken carelessly—we’d bring them straight to the Student Council Building when we emerged, or there’d be hell to pay.
Gu Won, Maeng Ryeong Ji, and So Un came inside with me.
The secretary didn’t follow us all the way in—he just repositioned the boulder and left.
“Wow…….”
So Un’s jaw dropped even inside the Stone Cave.
Ah, she must be visiting a stone cave for the first time.
Like the other caves, Gujoong Hwangcheon’s entrance also had countless intricate Buddha statues carved into the stone walls.
This place was unusually spacious and ornate compared to everywhere else I’d been.
But even so, the carved section didn’t extend very deep.
Once we ventured a little further, the artisan’s handiwork ended abruptly, and we entered a natural cavern.
The walls grew rougher, the ground beneath our feet more uneven.
As we descended gradually, the light from the entrance faded until it was almost gone.
“Miss, should we light a lamp soon?”
“Oh, you have a light?”
“Yes. I brought a lantern.”
Ah.
If I hadn’t brought So Un along, we’d have been in real trouble.
I thought I’d prepared everything—two swords and a Recovery Pill—but I’d overlooked something crucial.
So Un used a Fire Starter to light the lantern, and suddenly the darkness lifted.
The path beneath our feet became clear, visible in every detail.
I remembered the Stone Cave where I’d met Hwa Mu Yang—I’d been frustrated by the lack of light there too. Why hadn’t this occurred to me then?
“This is suffocating. Let’s move faster!”
“It’s unfamiliar terrain. Don’t rush.”
Maeng Ryeong Ji grew impatient in the oppressive darkness, but both I and Gu Won held her back.
They said that once you’d traveled this passage a few times, you could cross the trapless sections using Light Footwork without worry.
But if someone stumbled over a loose stone and we had to turn back without even attempting the Mechanism Disassembly, that would be a wasted trip. So we chose to move slowly and carefully.
Besides, the passage wasn’t that long.
We walked for just over an hour at the measured pace marked in the map book, and then artificial traces appeared again.
Stone steps, unmistakably carved by human hands.
“I’ll lead.”
“Go ahead.”
The night before, in the Dormitory, I’d drilled the map into Maeng Ryeong Ji thoroughly, so I readily gave her that role.
Forty-nine steps down into Gujoong Hwangcheon.
It felt strange, almost eerie—like descending into the realm of the dead.
“Forty-eight, forty-nine!”
But Maeng Ryeong Ji showed no sign of being unnerved by the grim atmosphere; she bounded down the stairs with energy.
So Un, Gu Won, and I followed in turn, arriving at the first basement level of Gujoong Hwangcheon.
Surviving as the Short-Lived Young Lady of Buk Hae Ice Palace (Serialized)
Author │ Sa Hyang Noru
Publisher │ Kim Ju Hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae Hyeok
Address │ Suite 401, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Sa Hyang 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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