The frost on the morning leaves hadn't yet melted.
Baek Sun-Ho crouched by the brook, washing his face with the frigid water. A sharp inhale tightened his chest—then cleared it. Lightning qi hummed faintly within, but he didn't call it. Not yet.
So-Ri joined him, stepping lightly across the mossy stones. "You slept with your eyes open again."
"Only half-open," he muttered. "I'm trying to dream with discipline."
She laughed. "Let me know if that ever works."
Behind them, the others packed up camp with quiet efficiency. Ma-Rok's deep voice carried as he tested the balance of his new war hammer. "Feels off. Must be the air up here. Or the curse Ji-Mun put on it."
"I did not curse your hammer," Ji-Mun snapped. "That would be unethical. I merely blessed it… with chaotic luck."
"That explains everything," Yul-Rin said, sipping her morning herbal brew.
Yeon handed Sun-Ho a folded map, eyes still half-asleep. His fingers had dark ink stains again—he'd been drawing through the night. A habit Sun-Ho noticed, but never questioned.
Master Jang sipped tea on a rock as though the mountain owed him tribute.
"So," Ji-Mun said, hands on hips. "We keep heading northeast. Two more days to the eastern border stronghold, where rumor says the Wraith Doctrine's agent passed through. Yes?"
Sun-Ho nodded. "Correct. And the ruins near that border are old… maybe older than Murim itself. Someone is trying to stir ghosts best left buried."
Yul-Rin tapped her fan on her knee. "Any guess who?"
"No. But the direction tells me enough. Whoever's leading this… isn't just interested in war. They want history to scream again."
---
Later – On the Trail
The mountainside narrowed into a frozen ledge. Wind screamed through the peaks, carrying the scent of ozone and old pine. Their breath misted in the cold.
"So quiet," So-Ri murmured, stepping carefully along the edge. "Too quiet."
"Don't say that," Ji-Mun hissed. "That's how snow beasts show up."
"There's no such thing as snow beasts," Yul-Rin said.
"Tell that to the thing that tried to eat my foot last winter."
Ma-Rok snorted. "That was a goat."
"It had red eyes!"
"Still a goat."
Sun-Ho's focus never wavered. His senses spread, tapping lightly against the air. Qi threads. Tension. Shifts in the flow.
There.
Just beyond the ridge, qi signatures. Five. No—six. Hiding, but not well enough.
He raised one finger slightly.
Everyone halted.
He whispered, "Bandits. Or worse. Two behind the boulders, one in the snowdrift."
"Ambush?" So-Ri asked.
"Looks like they're waiting for something."
"Or someone," Master Jang added, still sipping tea.
Sun-Ho's eyes narrowed. "Let's move forward. Slowly. No aggression unless they act first."
They continued, cautiously.
---
Near the Bend – The Warning
A stone clattered ahead. Then a figure stepped into view, arms raised. He wore furs, ragged but warm, and bore no weapon.
"I don't want trouble!" he called out. "But you're heading straight into a deathtrap."
Sun-Ho didn't move. "Who are you?"
"A survivor. Or bait, depending on who you ask." He spat into the snow. "There's a fortress ahead—abandoned, they say. But it's crawling with shadows. Wraiths. Or worse."
So-Ri stepped beside Sun-Ho, fan half-open. "You saw them?"
"I saw enough. Red-eyed figures. Whispering walls. Qi twisted like knotted rope."
Ji-Mun exhaled. "Sounds cozy."
Sun-Ho looked the man over. His fear was real. His trembling was not performance. But his timing…
"Follow us," he said quietly. "At a distance."
The man blinked. "You're still going?"
"We don't avoid shadows," Sun-Ho replied. "We light torches."
---
That Night – At the Cliffside Camp
The group camped by a sheer cliff overlooking an icy valley. The stranger, who gave his name as Dan-Gi, sat alone at the edge, staring into the mist.
Sun-Ho, standing nearby, approached quietly.
"You weren't just warning us," he said. "You were hoping we'd fight them."
Dan-Gi didn't deny it. "You don't know what it's like. Seeing people taken and… twisted. They move like dolls. No breath. No mind."
Sun-Ho sat beside him. "And you escaped?"
"Barely. I knew a formation that broke their hold. I was an outer sect disciple once, long ago. They called me a coward for studying theory instead of swordplay."
"That cowardice saved your life."
Dan-Gi looked at him, startled. Then he chuckled. "You're not what I expected."
Sun-Ho smiled faintly. "Few people think I am."
Behind them, laughter rippled from the group as Ma-Rok tried to juggle snowballs and failed miserably. Ji-Mun and Yeon built an igloo, or tried to, while Yul-Rin quietly added a smoke trap under the roof—"for fun."
So-Ri watched it all with a fond, tired smile.
Dan-Gi murmured, "You trust them."
"They're why I still breathe."
Dan-Gi looked out into the night. "Then I hope you all survive."
---
Later – Sun-Ho's Inner Thoughts
That night, Sun-Ho couldn't sleep.
He sat by the dying fire, lightning qi coiling around his hand like a restless cat.
Two elements. Three to go. But it wasn't just power he needed.
He remembered the words of his past master—the one from a lifetime ago:
"You will know you are worthy of transcendence not when you win… but when you choose not to destroy what you could."
His eyes narrowed as he looked to the east, toward the fortress ahead.
There was something waiting in the dark.
And it was not of this era.
---
End of Chapter 103 – Embers Beneath the Ice