Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 95

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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 95
“Salt Lake?”
Cheong Song, a disciple of the Kunlun Sect, blinked several times.
“I’m not sure, but……”
Unable to recall anything, he eventually shook his head.
“But why are you asking all of a sudden?”
“Oh, I heard someone saw a spiritual creature there.”
If I mentioned the Eternal Flame Herb, he’d find it odd that someone trained in Ice Attack would be searching for it, so I glazed over the details by saying spiritual creature instead.
Since spiritual creatures came in grades, vague spiritual plants were often discovered here and there.
Besides, the Kunlun Mountains had always felt somewhat mystical, so neither of us questioned it further.
“If he’d found something, wouldn’t he have taken it all?”
“That’s possible, but I’m curious.”
When I made a disappointed face, Cheong Song scratched his head and asked a few more questions.
“Do you happen to know which peak the lake is on?”
“All I know is that it’s somewhere in the Kunlun Mountains.”
“So it’s not near the Kunlun Sect itself, but somewhere in the Kunlun range?”
“Right, that’s it.”
“Well…… the Kunlun Mountains are enormous, so if that’s all you know, I wouldn’t be able to help. The entire mountain range stretches from Luoyang all the way down to the southern seas.”
Though he’d thought hard and seemed like a good fellow,
his conclusion ultimately came down to not knowing.
The Kunlun Mountains weren’t a single peak.
It was a collective name for an extraordinarily long chain, so no one could know it in its entirety,
and especially since he’d spent his time almost entirely within the sect before coming to the Academy, he only knew the area around the sect itself.
Good heavens, it was that vast?
If Wang Yao Luo hadn’t recorded the lake’s name, I never would’ve found it.
“Still, wouldn’t a lake that doesn’t freeze even in the depths of winter be quite unusual?”
“The Kunlun Sect is cut off from worldly rumors, and we don’t have a tradition of wandering from peak to peak for training.”
Still, as Myeong Seong had said, there was a distinctive feature here.
If I went to Qinghai City and asked around, surely someone there had heard of it.
“……Ah, Cheong Hye might know something about it.”
Just then, Cheong Song mentioned someone’s name.
“A senior from the Kunlun Sect?”
“Yes. That senior came from outside and entered the Kunlun Sect as a disciple, and while at Kunlun, traveled far and wide across the mountains and even went to Xinjiang, I’ve heard. If such a lake truly exists, they might have at least heard the rumors.”
Oh, if that person knows the region so well, I should definitely meet them first.
“While at Kunlun? Did they go off on some distant training or something?”
“No, they’re here at the Academy. Just someone whose graduation has been greatly delayed.”
“What?”
I’d thought they might be hard to find even during breaks, but surprisingly, this person was already at the Academy.
If their graduation was delayed, that meant they were a senior, didn’t it?
“Would you be able to introduce me? I’d like to have a word with them!”
I might not learn about the Eternal Flame Herb, but couldn’t I at least find out where Salt Lake was?
Since they were at the Academy, meeting them shouldn’t seem that difficult, so I asked lightly for an introduction.
“Ah, I haven’t actually met them since coming to the Academy.”
“Don’t they stay at Jijeong Hall?”
Unexpectedly, Cheong Song looked reluctant.
What was this about? It wasn’t as if they were on bad terms, and yet they were from the same sect—how could he never have met them?
If a junior from the Buk Hae Ice Palace joined next year, I’d make sure to take good care of them.
Were Daoist sects just naturally distant with each other?
“They don’t stay at Jijeong Hall. That senior built a thatched cottage on the neighboring mountain and lives there, I’m told.”
“……?”
But what came out was even more unexpected than what I’d been thinking.
Leaving behind a perfectly good dormitory—what on earth was that about?
“From here on, there’s solid ground! Come this way!”
Just then, a cadet leading the way at some distance ahead shouted loudly.
“We should go.”
“Ugh……”
Myeong Seong urged me to hurry over to where that cadet had pointed.
“It’s not even far—why can’t we just use Light Body Technique in the water?”
“Here? Well…… it consumes too much energy if it’s not Water Technique, and the water might splash everywhere.”
I suggested we cross this section using Light Body Technique entirely.
“What’s wrong with standing out a bit? Can’t we just take a different route? Running underwater isn’t exactly easy anyway. If I use Light Body Technique, I think I can just close my eyes and take a few steps.”
It seemed doable, so I demonstrated the Snow Wind Step first, moving through the water.
Splash! Whoosh! Splash!
There was certainly more resistance from the water than cutting through empty air on land.
But it wasn’t something I couldn’t push through with my Internal Force.
“Wow!”
Seeing me use Light Body Technique a short distance from the group, Maeng Ryeong Ji cheered first.
The other students showed interest and began attempting it themselves.
“…I did it!”
Cheong Song quickly grasped the technique of holding his breath and using Light Body Technique underwater.
“So this is how they move around inside the lake at Buk Hae?”
“No, I’d never done it underwater before just now—only on ice, maybe.”
“Really?”
“The lake at Buk Hae is so cold that people there don’t really care much for entering the water, actually.”
The disciples of the Ice Palace tend to be more interested in freezing lakes than swimming in them.
“That sounds almost as if non-human things prefer to go in?”
“Oh, nothing ghostly like that. I used to play with a bear we kept—in the lake pretty often.”
……
Cheong Song and Myeong Seong were taken aback.
But since land was already coming into view, they said nothing more.
Cheong Song thanked me instead, saying he’d safely crossed the Yellow River thanks to me and had even learned how to use Light Body Technique underwater.
“Why are you so late?”
Shortly after, we reached land.
We lined up before Paeng Jung Geol, who grumbled about being late after abandoning the students earlier.
Still, he counted heads and praised everyone for becoming sufficiently accustomed to the water without any stragglers.
After wringing out our clothes, we continued south again.
We camped for another night, just as we had on the way up, but unlike then, the students collapsed from exhaustion almost immediately.
“I suppose I had something I was better at than the other students.”
Before falling asleep, So Un seemed rather proud of having endured the Hunting Competition to the end.
“In the end, even that Namgung clan bastard fell beneath my feet!”
Maeng Ryeong Ji shouted with vigor.
The next day, we returned to the Academy.
* * *
“Here, Mountain Palace Poison!”
The moment we returned to the Academy, Paeng Jung Geol shoved Mountain Palace Poison into the mouths of the ten students who had been the first to be eliminated from the Hunting Competition.
“Ugh—Uncle, this is too much!”
“Call me Master at the Academy!”
“Master, last time there was a way to challenge you, but…!”
“Not this time!”
Most of the students accompanying Paeng Ho had to take the Mountain Palace Poison.
And those I’d dealt with while keeping Paeng Jin Cheol company were included in the list too.
Eight out of the ten were students I’d taken down.
“Ngh…!”
“Of all places, to meet the young lady So at that moment.”
“Well, there’s nothing for it. It was an act of nature.”
Perhaps it was because everyone had crossed the Yellow River in such harmony?
No students harbored particular resentment toward me.
“Thanks to the young lady So, there are no students from Inbon Hall taking Mountain Palace Poison this time.”
When we returned to the Dormitory, some of the students even came to thank me.
I hadn’t exactly done it for their sake.
“Heh heh, the best defense really is offense, isn’t it?”
Since the topic had come up, I took a bit of credit for it.
After all, I’d snatched the Cheonmyeong Hall students’ tags before they were caught, so it was because of me.
“Hmm… I’ve worked here since Keun Haeng Gak was first established, but this is the first time I’ve seen a student accumulate a thousand points in a month.”
The next day, when I went to Keun Haeng Gak, my 560 Merit Points were immediately credited.
The keeper of Keun Haeng Gak made a fuss, calling it an unprecedented achievement.
‘1,184 points.’
Since I’d passed the halfway mark toward the Great Heaven Pellet, it might be good to buy a Lieyang Pellet just in case, in preparation for when Yin Energy amplifies should I ever need to use Ice Attack.
“Would you like me to assign you a Meritorious Task right away? There aren’t any with particularly high scores at the moment.”
“No. I’ll come back tomorrow to receive it. I have somewhere to be this afternoon.”
With a lighter heart, I checked my points and left Keun Haeng Gak.
I wanted to seek out a senior from the Kunlun Sect.
Cheong Song wasn’t sure exactly where Cheong Hye was, so instead he introduced me to another Kunlun senior who’d entered the academy two years prior.
“Cheong Hye would be living in a thatched cottage somewhere up on the Eastern Mountain, across that river over there. When I first arrived, I thought I should pay my respects, so I went to find them once, but they wouldn’t receive me, so I haven’t set foot that way since. I’m not sure if they’re still there…… but since they haven’t graduated, they probably are.”
He spoke in a way that was somehow even stranger than Cheong Song.
He said Cheong Hye lived in a thatched hut on a mountain beside the one where Cheonmu Academy stood.
“You’re allowed to live outside the academy……?”
“Any student who goes this long without graduating is basically eccentric. Some people like Master Muk stay in Stone Cave and cultivate there, I hear…… the Eastern Mountain isn’t technically academy grounds, but since all this area belongs to the Director anyway, they probably just leave them alone.”
The more I heard, the less I could picture it.
Well, I’d find out once I met them.
Surviving as the Doomed Young Lady of the Buk Hae Ice Palace (Serial)
Author │ Sa Hyang Noru
Publisher │ Kim Ju Hyeong
Publishing House │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae Hyeok
Address │ 401, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Sa Hyang Noru 2026
※ This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and the contents may not be used in any form or by any means without the permission of 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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