Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 78

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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 78
Dang So Yeo brushed back her tangled hair, her face still drowsy as though she’d only just woken.
My, you’re radiant today as always.
“Good morning, Master Dang!”
“I’ve been waiting so long to attend your class! It’s been three years. What an honor!”
“So what are we eating today—I mean, which poison will we be practicing?”
But in this particular class, there were seniors far more excitable than I was.
They crowded around Dang So Yeo, peppering her with questions.
“Some of you may be seeing me for the first time, so let me start with an explanation of this class.”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
Dang So Yeo gave them a simple nod in response.
Then she called over the cadets who had been hesitating at the back.
Indifferent as her nature was, she clearly had some intention to actually teach.
“Have you heard the saying ‘Medicine and Food Share the Same Origin’?”
She posed the question to the students.
“Yes! It means that medicine and food have the same root!”
“For a person to be healthy, they must eat according to yin-yang and the five elements, and the saying contains the idea that whether it’s medicine or food, the only difference is the degree of imbalance in yin-yang and the five elements!”
The students’ engagement in this lesson exceeded anything I’d heard in previous lectures.
Separately from that, I recalled hearing something similar in my past life.
There was a banner in the elementary school cafeteria that read “Rice is better than medicine.”
“You understand well. Then have you heard the saying ‘All Medicine Contains Three Parts Poison’?”
I’d never heard that one before, but it wasn’t an obscure concept.
Does every medicine contain thirty percent poison?
I figured it probably meant that any medicine contains harmful components, so consuming too much could cause side effects.
“Yes, we’ve heard of it!”
“Medicine and poison are originally one and the same!”
“In the past, the Sage of Medicine said that what cannot become poison cannot become medicine either!”
Judging by the answers from the seniors who had apparently studied in advance, they seemed correct.
“Exactly. So poison is medicine, and medicine is food.”
Dang So Yeo nodded, confirming that everything the students had said was right.
“Therefore, poison is food. Isn’t it?”
She unfurled this miraculous logic: poison equals medicine equals food.
“Yes, that’s correct!”
“A most profound statement!”
And at these words, all twenty cadets—including those who’d been unable to answer before—erupted in cheers.
Of course, I was among them.
What did it matter if it made sense or not?
Everyone who came to this class did so expecting to eat.
“I’ll put what I just said on the exam, so memorize it. Now let’s move on to the practical lesson. Today you’ll be eating my hometown poison—well, not food, but poison from my hometown.”
Dang So Yeo had even revealed all the exam questions in advance.
Wow, I’d heard stories about this class from the seniors.
But honestly, up until just now, I’d been skeptical.
An Academy that serves feasts while teaching Mountain Empty Poison.
And now a poison class where you actually eat—it was rather ironic.
“Is this why Poison Arts is a secret teaching of the Sacheon Dang Family? Is that why the class is structured this way?”
I whispered softly to Gu Won as I followed Dang So Yeo toward Luoyang.
“Maybe?”
Gu Won shrugged.
Hmm, the Sacheon Dang Family was indeed rather reclusive by nature.
They’d dispatched a martial instructor from the family, whether because the Academy Master had dirt on them or for some other reason.
But perhaps they really didn’t want to teach, and were just going through the motions?
“Do you really want to learn the Poison Arts?”
But then Dang So Yeo, who had been walking some distance ahead, suddenly turned and came back toward me.
Oh no—even if this was a field practicum, it was still class. Had I been too careless with my remarks?
“No, Master. I will learn diligently according to your lesson plan.”
I made a proper bow and said I would follow the curriculum, whatever it might be.
But Dang So Yeo stopped in the middle of the road and fixed me with a steady gaze.
“Don’t concern yourself with such things. The Ice Arts would suit you far better.”
And then she said something that sounded thoroughly unlike the Sacheon Dang Family—indeed, unlike a martial artist at all.
Every martial artist—especially those from the Nine Schools and One Faction or the Five Great Houses—carried the pride that their own sect was supreme, didn’t they?
I’m not usually someone who runs out of words.
But this? I had no idea how to answer.
“Poison is really unremarkable. A martial art that’s weak against the strong and strong against the weak—isn’t that a bit shabby?”
Yet Dang So Yeo seemed not to expect an answer, speaking her mind freely.
“Including me among the Ten Heavenly Supremes is frankly absurd. They put my name there because I killed the most people, but if it came down to a one-on-one match with your father, he’d win.”
“During the Jungma Great War, you mean, ma’am?”
“I don’t kill people I meet on the road without reason.”
“Then wouldn’t your accomplishments in the war be quite considerable?”
Against weaker martial artists, poison’s lethal force was overwhelmingly superior.
But it was already common knowledge that Transcendent Masters of the caliber who contend for supremacy could expel poison through their own strength, rendering it nearly useless against them.
Even so, Dang So Yeo had killed the most enemies during the Jungma Great War.
She hardly looked like a martial artist—just some perpetually tired young lady from one of the great families—so it was hard to imagine.
“Unlike your father, you know how to speak pleasant words too, then?”
Ugh, she’s quite difficult to converse with.
I carry memories from the modern era, so I’m not entirely without discomfort at the thought of killing—but still.
For most martial artists, especially those who participated in the Jungma Great War, how many influential figures from the Demonic Cult one had killed, and how many overall, was as good as a medal of honor.
My own father became famous for beheading Hyeol Yeom Ma Je.
But listening to what Dang So Yeo said today,
even though she was from the Demonic Cult, having so much blood on her hands didn’t seem to feel like mere accomplishment.
“Still, thanks to Master Dang, common people live in a peaceful world, don’t they?”
“It’s said you sent more Demonic Cult members to their deaths than even the Master of the Sect!”
But this lecture had quite a few flatterers, unlike the Martial Arts Grand Lecture that only our cohort attends.
There were those who lifted the mood without my saying anything.
“Right. Eat well and train hard.”
Dang So Yeo didn’t seem to dislike such students either.
She gave them a faint smile.
* * *
We chatted a bit as we walked, and soon we arrived in Luoyang.
Dang So Yeo went into a fairly large restaurant in Luoyang, then bounded up to the second floor.
Whether she’d reserved it beforehand, there were no other guests on the second floor.
“Bring us broth, and ten bottles of the strongest liquor.”
Dang So Yeo placed her order with the server and went to sit in the most secluded corner.
She’s buying us liquor too?
I was taken aback, but she drank all ten bottles herself.
“Is it that you don’t get drunk easily because you’ve cultivated the Poison Arts?”
Despite me having whispered just moments before and being caught, one of the students opened their mouth.
“That’s right.”
“Oh! My apologies!”
“Why apologize?”
Dang So Yeo answered him without concern this time either,
and began drinking from the bottle before the food even arrived.
And before long, the food came out.
A broth bubbling gently, steam rising white and thick.
“Wait, this is Sacheon cuisine?”
But it wasn’t what I’d expected.
Since Dang So Yeo said she was going to eat food from her hometown, I naturally thought they’d serve dishes like mapo tofu, hot pot, or spicy mixed vegetables.
Why is the broth clear? Where’s the chili?
“It’s Sacheon cuisine, so what else?”
Dammit!
I’d completely forgotten that chili hadn’t yet become commercialized as a food ingredient in this era.
When I was young in Buk Hae, I’d even asked if someone could find chili for me because I wanted to eat something spicy.
Most merchants didn’t know what I was describing, and only a couple recognized it as an ornamental plant that came from the southern regions.
“…I thought it would be spicier.”
I’d almost cried out loudly asking them to bring chili and gotten branded as a strange person.
Sure, it was spicy.
There was the heat of ginger, the numbing tingle of Sichuan peppercorn,
but it wasn’t the burn of chili—for me it felt about 2 percent, or honestly maybe 60 percent, lacking.
“It’s plenty spicy, though?”
“I’ve never had so much Sichuan peppercorn in a dish before. I feel like my tongue’s going numb!”
I ate hot pot—though not quite hot pot—while swallowing back tears.
……Still, the more I ate, the more palatable it became.
‘Hmm? Wait—wasn’t she the one looking for chili peppers in Seok Gyo Village last time?’
Was there really such a difference between the merchants traveling through the northern reaches of the Central Plains on the way to Buk Hae and those in Luoyang?
“Still, I can’t remember the last time I had proper food like this. The meat is so tender……!”
“It’s unusual and delicious.”
But Gu Won was doing a complete impression of a model student fresh out of the Academy for the first time, right there in front of So Un.
So I couldn’t very well ask about the chili peppers here.
I put off the question for later and applied myself to eating with genuine enthusiasm.
The flavor was unlike anything I’d ever tasted before, so at first I couldn’t quite adjust to it—but the more I ate, the more I genuinely enjoyed it.
I began to understand why this might be called a culinary lesson.
“All finished?”
As the broth began to show the bottom of the pot, Dang So Yeo rose from her seat and surveyed the students.
She came close beside me once more, and whether she’d absorbed all the wine through some secret method or not, there was no sign of drunkenness about her, nor even the faintest smell of alcohol.
“Yes!”
She simply nodded, her expression languid.
“You should have about half a watch of time. I’ll give you free time—go amuse yourselves as you see fit. But stay quiet and don’t cause trouble, or you’ll end up pulling weeds on the mountain for the next practical session if the master takes notice.”
She even graciously granted the students free time.
What frame of mind had led her to decide on a lesson like this, I couldn’t say.
But from a student’s perspective, it was the most blessed of easy classes.
“Thank you so much!”
Dang So Yeo ordered more wine for herself alone.
Following her warning, the students dispersed swiftly and with perfect discipline.
A small concern gnawed at me—a very small one.
But my body was already down in the marketplace.
Surviving as a Doomed Young Lady of Buk Hae Bing Palace (Serialized)
Author │ Sayang Noru
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
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ⓒ Sayang Noru 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and the content cannot be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
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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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