Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 81

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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 81
Whoosh! Whoosh!
I cut across the Academy grounds using the Light Movement Technique, then bounded up the mountainside.
Usually I don’t push myself to maximum speed, keeping to a moderate pace instead.
But driving off hard against the earth, the distance to the Dormitory closed in no time at all.
Swish! Bang!
The other students and seniors who could channel Inner Energy all deployed the Light Movement Technique on the mountain, moving like they were flying.
But now I noticed some classmates making their way down at barely faster than a commoner’s walk—hardly more than a brisk pace.
Until now I hadn’t paid much attention to how they were managing life at the Academy.
They must have envied those of us moving at much greater speed.
“Oh? Eun Hyun!”
“……?”
Eun Hyun happened to be at the fork in the path where it branched away from Jijeong Hall.
I stopped him briefly and pressed the Dang Ho Ro into his hands.
“Where did you suddenly—”
“Enjoy it!”
After heading up to the Dormitory and setting down the fruit,
I descended again to attend the External Martial Arts class.
Whoosh!
On the way down I launched myself an even greater distance in a single bound,
and as I leaped, the entire Academy sprawled beneath my gaze.
‘Still, with grounds this vast, why won’t they give students even one place to store things?’
The university in my past life had lockers, at least.
That must be why Je Gal Moon Yu had been so proud boasting that the Student Council could use the Student Council Hall.
Maybe if I joined a club, there’d be a clubroom?
Tap!
I landed firmly the moment I shook off the idle thoughts.
By the time I returned to the Training Grounds, more than half the students had gathered.
“You got here incredibly fast……? Doesn’t look like it took a quarter of an hour.”
“Well, it was more than a quarter hour.”
Dan Ri Hyang looked at me uncertainly,
“but once you lot find your Inner Energy, you’ll be capable too. Not much longer now.”
“We won’t reach Young Lady’s level though.”
Dan Ri Hyang came from the Dan Ri Family, and Jeong Ha Rin beside her from the Bota Sect.
They’d only struggled because the Mountain Empty Poison had blocked their path.
Once they could channel Inner Energy, they’d likely display considerable martial skill.
“All right! Today let’s build strength by lifting the staff again!”
“Ugh……”
During the class today, I stole glances at how much the other students were managing.
In basic External Martial Arts, I’d thought there wouldn’t be much difference anyway, since we weren’t allowed to use Inner Energy while wearing Iron Rings or lifting staffs.
“Ha!”
“Fourteen!”
“Fifteen!”
Even without conducting formal Breath Circulation,
the gap was stark between those who could use Inner Energy to recover during brief rest periods after completing their reps, and those who couldn’t.
“Huff, huff……”
“I’m, I’m going to die.”
“Agh, huff! Cough!”
The children who couldn’t channel Inner Energy had no choice but to gasp for breath,
and no matter how much water they gulped down, after an hour they’d lost all coherence.
“Uhhh, uh, uh……”
“Just hold on a few more days.”
“Aaahhh!”
Not a single student lying sprawled across the Training Grounds looked comfortable,
but Dan Ri Hyang seemed to be struggling particularly hard.
“Tsk. How long have they been at the Academy and they’re still such a mess?”
Paeng Jung Geol clicked his tongue as he looked down at the collapsed students,
but they lacked even the strength to answer.
“In a few more days they’ll find their Inner Energy, so surely it will improve soon.”
“That remains to be seen.”
So I shrug my shoulders and answer in his place.
Paeng Jung Geol wore a knowing smile.
“……Could it be that the poison doesn’t detoxify on its own?”
Wasn’t there only a few days left?
Is this a toxin that dissolves with time, or is there another trap hidden within?
At Paeng Jung Geol’s words, every child who’d been catching their breath snapped to attention.
Once he had the students’ focus entirely fixed,
“The Hunting Tournament is being held five days from now!”
Paeng Jung Geol shouted loud enough for his voice to carry to the far end of the Training Grounds.
“A Hunting Tournament?”
“A hunting competition?”
“Are we going on a trip?”
The moment the word hunting left his lips, Maeng Ryeong Ji’s face lit up.
The other students too welcomed the announcement of an event that sounded like it would happen outside the Academy.
“You could say that. However! The bottom ten will have to consume the Mountain Empty Poison one more time.”
But Paeng Jung Geol swiftly burst that bubble.
Yeah, there’s no way it could be just a simple outing.
“On the other hand, whoever survives to the very end might actually get to eat decent meals. If you wish, you could receive a sword, a Miraculous Elixir, or martial techniques. There are substantial Achievement Points at stake, so do your very best!”
……What?
Just as I was cursing the Academy’s cruelty for planning to administer poison again the moment the Mountain Empty Poison detoxifies,
my eyes flew open at what Paeng Jung Geol said.
Being able to eat proper meals right away meant gaining access to Jinmi Hall, in other words—
Was he staking 500 points on this single event?
“So all we have to do is hunt well?”
“Are we ranked by the number of animals we catch?”
Students who seemed confident in their hunting skills fired off questions with gleaming eyes.
“How could that be? Cheonmu Academy is not a hunter-training ground.”
“……?”
They called it a Hunting Tournament, so I wondered what it meant.
“Of course, you hunt each other!”
Ah, I knew it would come to this!
Despite the name “Hunting Tournament,” it seemed to be a kind of survival game designed to make the students fight more actively than they did during the Entrance Ceremony.
“Ugh!”
“What kind of sudden thing is that!”
Some of the younger students frowned.
“Oh, this is exciting.”
“At least they gave us warning this time.”
But there were those, including Myeong Seong, who looked forward to it.
“Finally, I can have a proper match in the Dense Forest.”
Maeng Ryeong Ji was equally delighted—whether hunting animals or hunting people, it made no difference; she’d finally get to show the Nine Factions and those Family brats what she was made of.
“I’ll need to stay away from the bottom ten.”
Gu Won, who concealed his strength, smiled faintly, thinking he at least had to avoid the Mountain Empty Poison.
“Um…… I’ll need to avoid being eliminated quickly.”
I expected So Un to seem burdened,
but perhaps because she’d passed the Entrance Ceremony easily, she actually seemed intrigued.
“Yeah, if we’re unlucky and get eliminated too fast, that’d be bad.”
Like So Un, I was turning over in my head how to come in first, and I pretended to be weak to lower their guard—
“The proprietor of Luoyang Premier House worrying about missing a meal tomorrow won’t convince anyone.”
Gu Won gave me a peculiar look.
Tch, it doesn’t work?
* * *
The next day.
“Yaaaay! Finally I can use my Inner Energy!”
Someone shouted loudly from Inbon Hall early in the morning.
When I looked into it, it turned out to be my classmate Ju Pyeong Sam whose Inner Energy had finally recovered.
There were individual differences, and I’d heard the toxins generally cleared out completely within about a month—
Ah, it seems the time for recovery has begun to arrive.
If I recall correctly, he was the first student to succeed in natural recovery.
“Congratulations!”
“I’m envious!”
“Ugh… I still can’t move a muscle.”
The other cadets who’d come out early to depart watched him with envious eyes.
“Could you carry me down instead?”
“Ha ha, fat chance. Rough it out!”
Whoosh! Boom!
Ju Pyeong Sam flaunted his Inner Energy, swinging his fist through the air.
He deployed the Light Movement Technique and bounded down the mountain in a single breath.
“Huh? That fellow’s pretty quick too?”
“Well, he did pass the Entrance Ceremony test.”
Maeng Ryeong Ji was eating a tangerine while I savored an apple, both of us lost in admiration.
“Hack! Cough cough!”
Dan Ri Hyang, who’d been eating a Grain-Avoidance Pill, suddenly broke into violent coughing.
“What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
“Is there poison in the Grain-Avoidance Pills too?”
Maeng Ryeong Ji and I hurried over.
All the cadets in the first floor of Inbon Hall were startled.
But Dan Ri Hyang’s face flushed, and she waved a hand at the staring cadets.
“Ah, it’s nothing at all. I was simply trying to see if I could draw upon my Inner Energy, but I did it wrong.”
Right—on Entrance Ceremony day too, someone had coughed up blood trying to force their Inner Energy.
I’d never even attempted it, worried it might strain my already frail body, so I didn’t truly understand the mechanism.
“It should come back in a few days. Don’t rush things.”
Sigh—people this healthy have no idea what true fragility costs.
I patted her shoulder, telling her not to overextend herself, but Dan Ri Hyang’s expression remained troubled.
“I’m just anxious… that my Inner Energy won’t return by the time of the Hunting Gathering.”
Wait?
“If things stay like this……”
She looked almost ready to cry.
“Right. So if the Hunting Gathering starts like this, they’ll target those without Inner Energy first.”
If someone like Ju Pyeong Sam managed to recover his Inner Energy just barely, there’d be no problem.
But with only four days left, the worry was well-founded.
It’s miserable enough to recover your Inner Energy late, but to have a whole month added to that powerless period because you were targeted? The sorrow of it would be unbearable.
“It will come back, won’t it?”
“By tomorrow, maybe……?”
Dan Ri Hyang nodding, the other Inbon Hall cadets who’d envied Ju Pyeong Sam—they all seemed to harbor the same worry.
“Of course it will. They’d have scheduled the Hunting Gathering to coincide with everyone’s recovery!”
That’s what Maeng Ryeong Ji said.
But the Academy isn’t that lenient.
It was possible they’d deliberately timed this to send some cadets into the hunt still bereft of their Inner Energy—as prey.
……
The cadets exchanged glances, each sensing an ominous future.
“I should head down and see what I can do.”
After wiping the blood from the floor, Dan Ri Hyang put another Grain-Avoidance Pill in her mouth and left the Dormitory.
Well, how will this turn out?
Surviving as the Doomed Young Lady of Buk Hae Bing Palace (Serialized)
Author │ Sah Hyang No Ru
Publisher │ Kim Ju Hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae Hyuk
Address │ 401, Ace Tech Tower 8th, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
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ⓒ Sah Hyang No Ru 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and no part of its contents may 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 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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