Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 64

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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 64
So Un had been right.
The moment I grasped the stone, my head spun for an instant, and then I found myself standing in an empty, rectangular chamber.
So I really had stepped inside the drawer.
In my hand lay the Qian Hexagram, three solid lines drawn neatly together.
Seeing two doors set into the walls, it seemed the stone had moved me to its original position—the lower right square of the grid.
Likely, if I placed it in the center position of the top row, where the Qian hexagram truly belonged within the nine squares, I could escape.
“Seol! So Un! Gu Won!”
“I’m here!”
Maeng Ryeong Ji’s voice answered at once.
Though the four of us had scattered to wherever our original stones had been,
the space wasn’t remotely enormous.
“Let’s meet in the center!”
If this place was divided into nine chambers just like the drawer, we’d have better luck finding our positions from there.
I called out loudly, then opened in turn the door leading upward and the one to the left.
“Huh—is this the hidden chamber?”
“There are so many books!”
The first chamber we’d entered stood completely empty.
The remaining eight chambers were much the same,
but the center chamber still bore the living traces of recent habitation.
“No treasure, then.”
Disappointing—I saw nothing that looked particularly valuable.
“There are a lot of scrolls, though.”
But gold alone doesn’t make something treasure.
Might these scrolls not contain a martial technique manual of some kind?
Since the Red Dust Turbid Yang Gong manuscript I’d received from Hwa Mu Yang had come in scroll form, I opened several with some hope.
“Hmm…….”
But sadly, none held anything related to martial arts.
[In the twelfth year of the Yingsheng Era, autumn month, third day. For the Prince of Qin, suffering from cold qi during the Hour of the Rat, one dose of Yang Qi Decoction was administered, and the pulse temporarily stabilized. Yet it recurred at dawn the following day. Report made to the Imperial Medical Office, further consultation sought.]
Medical texts? Records kept by a physician?
Most of the scrolls contained such utterly useless information,
“There’s a book called the Array Method Illustrated Guide!”
and it was only So Un who managed to unearth a single formation manual.
But given that So Un had heard only one lecture on formations, anything she could understand wouldn’t be of high caliber.
The likelihood the Academy would value it was slim.
“Hm…….”
“There’s not much worth cleaning here, anyway.”
“Still, since it’s a formation book, we’ll earn a few Merit Points if we carry it back in the cabinet.”
I picked up one of the scrolls stacked on the desk rather absently, feeling the disappointment.
“Wait—”
But as I lifted it, I realized it wasn’t multiple sheets layered atop one another, but rather a single long sheet of paper folded accordion-style into a Folded-Page Book.
Among the older texts in the Buk Hae Ice Palace’s archive, there were folded-style books in addition to scrolls.
Generally, though, both outer covers were wrapped with thick paper, silk, or leather, and a title written upon them.
But this one held only paper and characters, so I’d overlooked it as a book at all.
[Of late, rumor spreads that a Ten-Thousand Year Fire Carp has appeared in some lake upon the slopes of Kunlun. Should its inner elixir be refined, one might obtain the quintessence of utmost yang—worthy of trial upon the Prince. Accordingly, three emissaries were dispatched to verify the matter’s truth. Their reply shall take two months to arrive.]
The moment I lifted it, the paper unfolded dramatically.
And among the staggering number of characters, one phrase suddenly leaped out at me.
Ten-Thousand Year Fire Carp.
“……?!”
I thought my eyes would pop from my head.
The Ten-Thousand Year Fire Carp—wasn’t that a legendary creature famous throughout the ages for curing Severed Meridian Syndrome?
Yak-seon herself had said it hadn’t been sighted in the Central Plains in three hundred years.
And yet here suddenly was a record of it?
I began reading from the front of the long paper.
It appeared to be the journal of a physician who had treated some prince.
Given that the handwriting resembled that of the scroll, the official record lay rolled on the shelf,
while this Folded-Page Book was a personal diary written with far greater ease.
[I have sent word to my master. I feared no reply would come, he having withdrawn into the mountains and distanced himself from the world for so long—yet his letter arrived within the month. Regarding the Prince’s affliction, he wrote: “Employ yang to govern yin, yet should the vessel prove insufficient, calamity follows.”]
Could it be that this physician had been treating a prince who suffered from Severed Meridian Syndrome?
Suddenly, the ghostly figure in court robes that I’d glimpsed outside came back to me.
But for a patient with Severed Meridian Syndrome, his physique was far too robust and well-built.
In fact, had he truly suffered from Severed Meridian Syndrome, he could never have become emperor in the first place.
Perhaps the patient was the emperor’s son or brother?
“You planning to keep reading that?”
“Sorry, just a moment.”
I asked my companions for patience and finished reading the journal to the end.
There was a chance this physician had actually succeeded in treating the imperial prince’s Severed Meridian Syndrome.
[Master Bu Yo Ja has sent correspondence once more, stating there is something he must examine himself. He says I must consult a certain Elixir Scripture kept in the Tai Qing Temple on Lao Jun Mountain, and I cannot refuse his command. The journey will not be long, but to be safe, I am sealing all my records here before I depart. I shall organize them again upon my return.]
But the journal ended mid-entry.
Judging by the pattern, this was someone who wrote in his journal faithfully once every few days without fail—so why would it break off so soon after he’d written about the Ten-Thousand Year Fire Carp?
“……Do you think you could search around and see if there are any other journals or records like this?”
“Yes!”
“Hmm? Looks like you found something interesting.”
“Excellent!”
I asked my companions to help me search through all the remaining scrolls and scraps of paper.
“That folded-page book was written last of all.”
However, all the medical records in scroll form had been written before the folded-page book, and we could find no continuation of the account in this room.
Considering the script was neater on the scrolls and the phrase about organizing upon his return.
It seemed this physician would first sketch out rough notes in the folded-page book, then organize them properly on scrolls.
“What if the palace burned down right in the interval after he finished writing this?”
“……Is that so?”
Gu Won’s conjecture struck me as quite plausible.
“For now, why don’t we clean up the outer room and then head out to investigate? I know we’re supposed to submit what we found here to the Academy, but since we discovered it ourselves, couldn’t we ask them to let us come back in later?”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
I set aside my reluctance and covered the papers.
I’d already searched through all the scrolls, so lingering longer wouldn’t uncover any new clues about the Ten-Thousand Year Fire Carp.
Only by leaving the Nine-Layered Yellow Spring could we find out who this physician and the prince really were.
I tucked only the folded-page book into my sleeve and returned all the scrolls to their proper places.
“Gu Won, you head this way. Maeng Ryeong Ji, you go the opposite direction. Yes, and you, Gu Won.”
So Un pointed out which direction each of us should take.
The moment we pushed the door open and stepped through, the same dizzying sensation washed over me as when we’d entered.
A moment later, we were standing before the decorative cabinet again.
The stones had scattered throughout the drawers.
“Wow, this really is amazing.”
“So Un, if you studied the Mechanism Formation, could you make something like this?”
“Well…… I’ve heard it’s easy to dismantle, but difficult to construct.”
Hmm, I suppose that makes sense.
If you could carry around a space like this in a bottle-gourd, you could use it like an inventory.
But if it were easy to make, everyone would be carrying one around.
“Let’s start cleaning now.”
“Yes!”
The four of us each picked up cleaning tools and scattered throughout the room, sweeping and wiping.
I cleaned with particular diligence, apologizing to myself for wasting time reading the journal.
No other formations besides the decorative cabinet appeared in the room.
We gathered the decorative cabinet along with other relatively valuable items like the flower vase and mirror, then prepared to leave the Nine-Layered Yellow Spring.
‘Ugh!’
The emperor’s ghost still sat upon that jade throne, so I passed by without looking in that direction.
Once was more than enough when it came to dealing with ghosts!
“Why on earth did they install a blade on the exit path?”
“It must have broken when the place burned.”
Most Mechanism Formations only activate when entering from outside to inside.
But this time, as we left, a large hook-like blade hanging from above came flying down at us.
Of course, the senior disciples had already pinpointed its location and marked it on the map, so dodging wasn’t particularly difficult.
While Maeng Ryeong Ji intercepted the blade, the rest of us made it through the corridor.
“We’re almost there. The stairs.”
“Let’s hurry up.”
When we’d come down, we’d taken each step carefully, but going up was actually faster.
Maeng Ryeong Ji wasn’t the type to tire from merely deflecting a few blades and arrows.
As for the rest of us, including myself, we hadn’t exerted ourselves at all beyond the cleaning.
So we managed to escape the Nine-Layered Yellow Spring without any trouble whatsoever.
“Oh, the sun hasn’t set yet.”
The last time I’d stumbled into Stone Cave and met Hwa Mu Yang, time had seemed to slip away from me entirely.
But this time, I’d seen daylight again in just a little over two hours.
On the walk back to the Academy, I found myself glancing at the decorative cabinet several times.
An inventory… I wanted one so badly.
But with three witnesses? It was hopeless, of course.
All I could do was hope they’d award me generous Merit Points.
Surviving as a Short-Lived Heiress of Buk Hae Ice Palace (Serialized)
Author │ Musk Deer
Publisher │ Kim Ju Hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae Hyeok
Address │ 401, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
© Musk Deer 2026
※ This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and its contents may not 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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