Chapter 155. Even If I Have to Paint Myself with Lacquer or Swallow Charcoal

"Ahhh... ... Ah,

waaaahhhh

!”

She felt like she had to say something.

Yeo-Seol kept trying and trying, but all she could do was burst into tears.

“Huh?”

Seeing her cry so bitterly upon seeing him, Woo-Moon was both flustered and touched, leading him to scratch his head in confusion.

‘It’s a little scary and flustering to see a woman cry...’

“You, you, you, YOU BASTARD! Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” Yu Cho yelled.

He was truly surprised by the situation—more precisely,

very

unpleasantly surprised by the fact that Woo-Moon was alive.

Woo-Gang, traumatized by the death or disappearance of his entire family, had confined himself to his home and wasted his life away drinking.

With Woo-Moon dying and Woo-Gang becoming a useless piece of trash, Yu Cho had been happy, thinking that the world was getting back to the way it should be.

Thinking that he no longer had to worry about Bi Yeo-Jung and Woo-Gang's relationship, he had come to try his hand at the Marriage of the Snow Flowers.

It was only now that Woo-Moon caught sight of Yu Cho properly.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“Oh, so it’s you, Yu Cho. What are you doing here? Oh, are you here for the Marriage of the Snow Flowers?”

As far as he’d heard recently, Marriage of the Snow Flowers was quite popular with the younger generation talents of the

murim

of the Central Plains. The female disciples of the North Sea Ice Palace generally had beautiful pale skin and tall, shapely figures. Most of them were so beautiful that it made people’s eyes light up at their sight.

Jeong Gyeong herself was quite the beauty, and it was only because she was next to Yeo-Seol that she was largely ignored.

She stepped forward at this point, answering in Yu Cho’s stead.

"Yes, he is. Young Master Yu promised to hold the Marriage of the Snow Flowers with me.”

“But don’t you already have a fiance at Mount Hua, Yu Cho?”

Despite Woo-Moon's words, Yu Cho and Jeong Gyeong remained calm and relaxed.

“I have feelings for both Junior Sister Bi and Young Lady Jeong. I plan to get married to both and take them as my wives.”

“So what’s your problem if he does? A young hero as talented as Young Master Yu deserves to have multiple wives.”

Woo-Moon shrugged. It really was not his problem if these two got married.

“Well, if that’s how you feel, knock yourself out.”

Moving on, Woo-Moon turned to Yeo-Seol, who was still crying.

By this point, she was crying so hard that she couldn’t control herself.

The grief that she hadn’t been able to shed since hearing of Woo-Moon’s death, the sorrow of being outcast by her disciple sisters and ignored even further now that the Marriage of the Snow Flowers was drawing near, and the surprise, joy, and overwhelming emotion she felt when she saw Woo-Moon standing before her alive came together and led to her uncontrollable sobbing.

To make her feel better, Woo-Moon smiled mischievously.

“Did those brats bother you, Young Lady Ha? Then should I scold them?”

Of course, Woo-Moon was referring to Yu Cho, Jeong Gyeong, and their minions.

“You, you bastard, how dare you!”

Yu Cho knew how strong Woo-Moon actually was, better than anyone else here. Thus, he was so surprised and scared by Woo-Moon’s words that he felt his stomach churn, afraid that Woo-Moon might actually turn and attack him.

However, he still hid his true feelings and got outwardly angry, hoping that Woo-Moon would just let it go as long as he didn’t react

too

harshly.

Although Yu Cho’s pride was hurt by Woo-Moon even bringing up “scolding” him, he made the judgment call that Woo-Moon didn’t actually mean it and was just trying to make Yeo-Seol feel better.

However...

“What did you say? How dare you, arrogant bastard! How dare you speak like that to my darling, who will become the next Sect Master of the Mount Hua Sect?! How dare some insignificant attendant speak in this manner?!” Jeong Gyeong said.

She had come out with both fists swinging.

Yu Cho’s complexion turned pale.

‘N-no... Don’t provoke him anymore!’

“Yeah, well, I did used to be an attendant. But I’m not insignificant.”

Fortunately, Woo-Moon didn't seem to be angry.

However...

“I can’t stand it anymore! How can my darling be looked down on by some bastard like you?! Darling! Challenge him to a spar, and let everyone know your strength!”

Jeong Gyeong knew nothing of Woo-Moon’s strength. Yes, she had heard rumors, but she had dismissed them all as nonsense due to the preconceptions she had already accepted as hard facts.

And with every word, she slowly pushed Yu Cho closer and closer to the pits of hell.

‘You, you, you s-stupid bitch! Why are you making this a big deal?!’

Just as he was sweating and panicking, someone unexpected suddenly saved him.

Yeo-Seol.

She shook her head, tears glistening on her skin. Even when her face was swollen from crying, she was beautiful.

“Is that so? Then, what can I do to make you feel better?”

Yeo-Seol, who had become so emotional and forgot herself from crying so much, screamed almost uncontrollably, “Young Master Song! Please attend the Marriage of the Snow Flowers with me!”

“...?”

Everyone gathered there, even Yeo-Seol, was surprised by what she had just asked.

“Kya!!!”

Her face turned bright red, and Yeo-Seol screamed. She used her movement technique to bolt away from the scene as fast as possible.

Yu Cho looked at Woo-Moon with a clearly nervous expression.

‘There’s no way... you’re not really going to attend the Marriage of the Snow Flowers with Yeo-Seol, are you?’

If so, that would really be the worst possible situation to arise.

For both himself and Jeong Gyeong.

“Uh...”

Woo-Moon scratched his head with a clearly flustered expression.

Half an hour later.

After officially informing the North Sea Ice Palace of his visit, Woo-Moon waited inside a reception room for someone to greet him.

As he was sitting there cross-legged with a relaxed expression, he suddenly opened his eyes. His figure disappeared from within the reception room before quickly reappearing high in the sky above the North Sea Ice Palace.

He made sure to memorize the face of the person who had just sent out a homing pigeon and disappeared.

Moments later, the homing pigeon seemed to have been caught in an invisible net of some sort, and landed in Woo-Moon’s hand without the slightest of sounds.

He untied the letter on the pigeon’s leg and read its contents.

—Song Woo-Moon is alive. Currently at the North Sea Ice Palace.

At least from the content alone, it was impossible to tell if the person was from Martial Heaven or not.

‘Was this the seventeenth homing pigeon?’

Still, while it was understandable that those of the Justice Coalition, Hegemon Clan, and other forces would send news of his return home, it was definitely suspicious for a member of the North Sea Ice Palace to announce his return to some unknown party. And judging by her uniform, the woman who had just sent this pigeon was a member of the North Sea Ice Palace.

Killing the pigeon with a single knock to the head, Woo-Moon flew over far away from the palace and disposed of it where no one would find it.

‘In the next life, be reborn as a human.’

[1]

Woo-Moon sat cross-legged again and expanded his senses to their fullest extent.

‘Oh, and what’s this?’

This time, it wasn’t a pigeon but a person.

Someone was running toward the Central Plains as fast as they could.

‘I’m sorry, but I can’t let even a single one of you go.’

Woo-Moon quickly left the reception room, and a few moments later, he was blocking the masked man’s path, even though the man had started far ahead of him.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

Surprise and despair flashed in the eyes of the masked man when he saw Woo-Moon.

"Bastard!"

Revealing a cultivation nearing the Transcendent stage, the masked man coated his sword in aura and rushed toward Woo-Moon.

“Looking at your aura, you really are a dog of Martial Heaven. I presume you won’t speak even if I torture you, so...”

Tap.

Woo-Moon’s eyes were full of bloodlust. He snapped the sword he had caught with his fingers and redirected the broken half of the blade toward the masked man.

Squelch!

The blade pierced the man’s chest and punctured through, lodging itself in the snowy field behind him.

Brightly colored blood dropped to the ground first, soon followed by the masked man’s body slumping to the side.

By the time the man’s body hit the ground, the blood he had shed was already frozen solid.

At that time, twenty additional masked people appeared around Woo-Moon.

“Thank you for showing up on your own. And here I was planning on hunting you one by one. Looking at your reaction, this bastard must have been a Mu Heon too.”

Some of the masked people were surprised at Woo-Moon's words. Their reactions amounted to nothing but lightly tensing up for an instant, but even so, they could not escape Woo-Moon’s senses.

‘I guessed he was a Mu Heon when I saw that twenty people were waiting for him. Turns out I was right.’

The masked people followed Mu Heon in the dark and served as guards.

Of course, they were late this time as Mu Heon had died so quickly and unexpectedly.

“Now, dogs of Martial Heaven, could you kindly die for me?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Woo-Moon's eyes raged with bloodlust and madness as he unsheathed his sword.

Shing!

The Sword Sphere made an eerie sound as it flew forward, landing at the center of the group, where six masked men were gathered in a formation.

Although they managed to see it, they couldn’t avoid it. The Sword Sphere's speed far exceeded their reflexes and the speed of their movement techniques.

BOOM!

A massive explosion rang out, and bone fragments, flesh, and blood flew everywhere.

The clear contrast between the pure white snow and the bright red blood was, in a way, beautiful.

“UGH!!!”

Two of the masked men were far enough from the Sword Sphere’s explosion that it did not pulverize them, but not far enough to escape; the shockwave broke every bone in their bodies, throwing them onto the frozen snow as they vomited blood.

Swish!

As that happened, Woo-Moon disappeared and reappeared in front of ten of the masked men, swinging his blade.

Shing! Squelch!

Although he swung his sword ten times, there were only two sounds.

The sound of a single sword swing and the splitting of flesh that came right after.

All of the masked people who were attacked died with blood gushing out from the left side of their necks.

Now, there were only two people left.

One of them had their head crushed by the Nine Yin White Bone Claw, while the other had his chest struck by palm force and his organs pulverized into a paste.

However, in addition to the twenty escorts, every Mu Heon had a single observer.

They would hide and watch the Mu Heon from a distance and were responsible for reporting to Martial Heaven if the Mu Heon happened to be killed.

‘How did Mu Heon and his guards die so powerlessly?! That bastard’s much stronger than before. I have to report to Martial Heaven as fast as I can.’

The observer ran away as fast as he could. Suddenly, however, he fell forward and rolled to the ground, a deluge of blood and brain matter following in his tracks.

His head had simply exploded while he was running at full speed.

“Tsk, you really can’t let your guard down with these bastards, not even a little.”

Suppressing his bloodlust, Woo-Moon levitated all of the corpses lying on the ground, gathered them together, and buried them under the snow.

He kicked off the ground at this point and flew into the sky, making sure no one had ventured outside the North Sea Ice Palace while he had been slaughtering the Mu Heon and his guards.

‘Luckily, no one’s tried to leave.’

Most likely, the mole of Martial Heaven who had infiltrated the North Sea Ice Palace assumed that the report had been relayed to Martial Heaven.

Woo-Moon returned to the reception room, spending the rest of his time waiting to collect all of the homing pigeons that had been sent out of the palace.

At first, a large number of pigeons were sent out at the same time, but as time went by, the number of pigeons gradually decreased. By the time dusk fell, not a single pigeon flew through the air anymore.

Yet even after dusk had set, the Otherworldly Ice Fairy Ah Hee, the person Woo-Moon had requested to meet, hadn’t yet appeared.

‘Are you trying to piss me off? Or do you have no intention of meeting with me at all?’

Either way, Woo-Moon wasn’t happy about what was happening.

At that very moment, the door to the reception room opened, and an expert of the North Sea Ice Palace, one who could be considered quite strong within the Transcendent stage, entered.

She looked to be roughly in her late forties and had a rather cold look about her.

“The Marriage of the Snow Flowers is currently just around the corner. For the sake of fairness, the palace lord has established an ironclad rule that she would not meet any of the younger generation that may enter the competition of the Marriage of the Snow Flowers.”

“I’m not here for the Marriage of the Snow Flowers. I just have something to inform her, so if you could please—”

The middle-aged woman cut off Woo-Moon’s words with sharp hostility.

“No, it's not possible. The palace lord cannot say a single word to you until the end of the Marriage of Snow Flowers. Moreover, we are unable to accept any requests from outsiders. Thus, if there is something that you want, the palace lord has informed me to tell you to join the Marriage of the Snow Flowers and achieve a high rank there. If you can do so, then...”

The moment the middle-aged woman began to discuss their agenda, Woo-Moon ignored her and passed her by, heading toward where he could feel the aura of the Otherworldly Ice Fairy.

“Y-you!”

1. An apology for the senseless death of an animal. Being reborn as a human (one of the three superior paths of reincarnation) is a reward for animals that do meritorious service. Similarly, being reborn as an animal (one of the three inferior paths) is a punishment for humans who behave atrociously. ☜