A bombshell declaration out of nowhere.
As the air inside froze over, a voice colder still flowed on with icy composure.
"You seem to be laboring under a very serious misunderstanding. I've already broken four of the nine ice walls and turned them into power on my own. In just five years, no less. Do you truly believe it's impossible for me to shatter the rest?"
"That's—!"
"The only reason I was willing to overlook the enemies of my family and enter the Sun and Moon Gate was to shorten the timeframe and learn efficient martial arts. I have absolutely no intention of begging for instruction while enduring this kind of arrogant, shameless mistreatment."
"...!"
"I rescued the sworn enemies who annihilated my family from the brink of destruction, and this is how I'm repaid — you might as well be beasts. They say you can judge the purity of the headwaters by the muddiness of the stream below, and at this rate, I'm not sure joining the Sun and Moon Gate is the right choice at all."
"How dare you speak of our sect—!"
"Shut that foul mouth of yours before I— GAKH!"
"E-Elder! You—!"
Just as the Sixth Elder — who had been frantically trying to defuse the situation with a sharp rebuke — choked on a bubble of bloody foam, the Ice Jade Unit Captain, who had been focused solely on the unconscious Fourth Elder in the center, immediately unleashed a blaze of killing intent.
"Are you trying to sabotage the Moon Vein's mission?"
"S-Senior Sister! I wasn't, I didn't mean to—!"
"If you don't shut your mouth this instant, I will tear you to shreds where you stand."
Under the weight of that sincerely dense, concentrated killing intent, the Vice Captain — who had been carrying on like a venomous wildcat the entire time — finally slammed her forehead to the floor.
"I-I'm sorry! I'm truly sorr—!"
"Ha! I have no idea why you're apologizing to her."
"?!"
"Shouldn't this tearful spectacle of groveling prostration be directed at me?"
"Y-you...!"
Despite the deliberately needling sarcasm, the Vice Captain could not erupt as easily as before.
"Do as the young master says."
"......"
With even her Captain pressing the apology with a frigid glare, there was no escape.
In the end, the Vice Captain swallowed the resentment that had risen to the base of her throat, painfully turned to face Yul Hwi, and bowed her head in formal deference.
"I-I offer my sincerest apologies, young master. Please, j-just this once, forgive—"
"Not a shred of sincerity in that apology."
"......"
"Forget it. Go back to tending your patients. We need to either get out of here as fast as possible or come up with another plan."
"......Thank you for your mercy."
Tremble, tremble, tremble!
Shuddering as if seized by a sudden chill, the Vice Captain nevertheless feigned composure and devoted herself to aiding the Elders' recovery from their internal injuries.
She had finally realized that the more words she exchanged, the more one-sided her losses became.
'If she's willing to accept even this much, then I can completely set aside the possibility of being double-crossed.'
And as Yul Hwi glanced down at her, his pupils flickered with their original dispassion for the briefest instant.
The reason he had deliberately performed the role of an arrogant brat —
It was to properly gauge just how badly the Sun and Moon Gate — or rather, the Moon Vein — wanted him.
'The Vice Captain of the Ice Jade Unit should hold a position of no small standing within the Gate, yet she's groveling this unconditionally.'
He did not know exactly where the Ice Jade Unit sat within the Sun and Moon Gate's hierarchy.
But as a unit in its own right by designation, its second-in-command was certainly not someone who should be subjected to such treatment in silence.
'In terms of the Nine Great Sects, that would be equivalent to an elder or above. Going forward, I only need to show deference to those at that level.'
From the very outset of his entry, he was already laying the groundwork to secure the strongest martial arts possible — methodically building his own standing in advance.
Just as he was inwardly relieved at having achieved this preliminary objective —
"...Heh heh. A loftiness befitting a talent for the ages."
"Elder! You — are you conscious?!"
"Yes, yes. My stomach's churning, so keep the volume down."
The Fourth Elder, propped upright with the Ice Jade Unit Captain's support while wheezing labored breaths, revealed eyes that were profoundly deep and contemplative despite the pallor of her face.
"Child of the Yul Family. I apologize on behalf of the Ice Jade Vice Captain for her discourtesy."
"It's quite all right."
The chin-tilting arrogance from moments ago had vanished without a trace, replaced by a markedly respectful bearing.
The Vice Captain, whose blood was boiling at the whiplash, snorted furiously through her nostrils — but no one around her spared a single thought for her feelings anymore.
"I heard all of your conditions from the Ice Jade Unit Captain earlier. And so, the three of us old women have reached a unanimous agreement."
"That's good to hear. Since our minds are aligned. Then, while we're on the subject — may I ask which elder of the Moon Vein will instruct me in the martial art to wield extreme yin qi?"
'Well...?'
A faint tremor of tension and anticipation in his pupils.
Part of it was deliberate performance, but at the same time, roughly half was genuinely felt.
The best possible answer here would be the Moon Master — the head of the Moon Vein. Conversely, the lowest acceptable floor would be the Elders affiliated with the Moon Vein.
Being assigned a martial artist of any lower caliber as his master would mean a clear ceiling had been drawn on his future standing within the Sun and Moon Gate.
If he was to shore up internal control over the Sun and Moon Gate — which he would need as his foremost chess piece and shield going forward — he needed, at the very minimum, to secure the position of an Elder's personal disciple.
Obtaining an elemental martial art was important, but depending on the quality of that art, it might actually be better to focus solely on the Phantom Slaughter Demonic Art.
'Just look at the people in front of me.'
Remarkably, that sharp-tempered wench of a Vice Captain was not a supreme master.
That meant four supreme masters had held off ninety-nine pinnacle masters.
Especially recalling the terrifying prowess the three Elders had displayed when reduced to just three at the end — becoming a disciple of anyone below their level would yield more loss than gain.
"Before I answer, let me ask one thing."
"...?"
At that moment, a gentle voice unexpectedly reached his ears.
"Do you know what it means when you call the energy you wield extreme yin qi? Are you using that term with understanding?"
'So that's what this is about.'
Having braced for something tense, Yul Hwi relaxed and gave a light shrug.
"It signifies a potency and potential far beyond mere yin-cold qi. The Nine Yin Severed Meridians are the Nine Yin Severed Meridians for good reason, are they not?"
"My...!"
"Having pried those dreadful things loose one by one and turned them into power with my own hands — how could I treat them the same as yin-cold qi cultivated and forged after the fact? That would be a contradiction in terms."
A statement that was plainly arrogant beyond mere pride.
But because it was also the truth, the Fourth Elder who had posed the question — and the two Elders who had been listening from their prone positions — all showed looks of concurrence.
"That's right."
"The Nine Yin Severed Meridians are the Nine Yin Severed Meridians for good reason, she says. Well, well."
The other two Elders, their internal injuries seemingly stabilized enough to stop coughing blood, broke into wry grins.
"Then let me ask just one more thing."
"You keep asking questions without answering the one I posed. You keep asking."
"Answer this one, and I'll give you my answer right away."
"......Please, ask."
No sooner had Yul Hwi expressed a hint of youthful pique through his jutting lip than words he could not comprehend flowed from the Fourth Elder's mouth.
"Do you, by any chance, have some connection to the Frozen Lands beyond the Great Wall?"
'Beyond the Great Wall? What is this about?'
"...I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."
When his genuinely puzzled look revealed honest bewilderment, the Fourth Elder elaborated in plainer terms.
"The North Sea Ice Palace — once known as one of the Four Palaces Beyond the Borders. Judging by your jade-white skin and vivid blue eyes, you seem to bear some relation to their bloodline, which is why I ask."
"...I wouldn't know. I was born in the Taewon Yul Family and never left it until the day it was annihilated."
"Ah! F-forgive me."
The hopeful gleam on the Fourth Elder's face immediately gave way to an awkward wince.
Though it had been entirely unrelated to the Moon Vein's intentions —
The fact remained that the Infernal King Unit, part of the same Sun and Moon Gate, had committed the deed that cost him his family and his household.
Wherever he had spent the past five years and however he had achieved that remarkable growth, the Elder recognized she could not pry any further into his origins.
In truth, Yul Hwi — who had never formed an attachment to a single soul during his one year in the Taewon Yul Family — was perfectly unruffled.
"Then, may I have your answer to my question?"
"Yes, of course. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the Moon Master herself — the head of our Vein — will personally bestow instruction upon you."
"Ah...!"
'Done!'
Had he not already witnessed firsthand what level of martial arts a Sun and Moon Gate Elder could wield?
And if the Moon Master stood above even them — a superior master who had cultivated those same arts to an even more formidable degree —
'At the very minimum, she'd rank in the single digits on the Martial World Registry.'
He had succeeded in personally assassinating the Fist God — ranked third — an old monk who had been nearing the end of his natural span.
Yet the mere defensive qi barrier Hyejong had hastily mustered — not even his full combat strength — had left Annihilation with grievous wounds, internal and external alike, that had refused to heal easily.
A single-digit rank on the Martial World Registry — the registry that the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's Military Affairs Bureau updated annually — meant a master of precisely that caliber.
Peerless warriors who would not be found lacking even when measured against the inhuman demons within the Cult.
The Elders here, who had just demonstrated extraordinary prowess against the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, would comfortably rank within the top fifty at the very least — confirming that the Sun and Moon Gate's hidden depth exceeded his projections.
But he must not drink too eagerly.
The weighty words that followed carried a subtly ominous possibility.
"However, I cannot give you an unqualified guarantee. The unrestricted freedom you demand and the transmission of our Vein's most precious supreme art are, in truth, mutually incompatible matters."
"......"
'This is something I'll need to think over more carefully.'
He had no intention of merely residing at the Sun and Moon Gate and training — he planned to seize every opportunity to sow discord and conflict through killing missions.
So this was not something Yul Hwi could answer rashly on the spot.
One wrong step, and he could end up becoming the Moon Master's disciple at the cost of being permanently severed from his vengeance, trapped in a life that was not his own.
"...Let's find a compromise as we go, for now. And more pressing than that —"
Having swiftly concluded the discussion, his gaze turned toward the Shrine's weathered door.
"The Plum Blossom Swordsmen will be upon us soon. We should move — now."