Chapter 100 : Rebirth

Chapter 100: Rebirth

The moment he recalled her voice, Sewoon felt chills run down his spine.

It truly was a memory he wanted to forget.

For some unknown reason, Seori had been obsessively attached to him.

‘……She once said she wanted to turn me into an ice statue and keep me by her side.’

When he stiffened his expression, she had laughed it off as a joke.

But the madness in her eyes, half-hidden behind the White Fan, carried not even the slightest trace of jest.

‘Come to think of it, the Poison Demon was the same, and Seori too… Why do all these lunatics cling to me?’

Sewoon clicked his tongue, wondering if he should get a talisman to ward off evil spirits from the Shrine Maiden Sect Leader he would soon meet.

“Now, let’s begin.”

“Yes!!”

And so, the creation of the White Fan began in earnest.

Dong Cheonrip’s eyes brimmed with an excitement he could not conceal.

And it was only natural that he was so thrilled.

For someone who had reached Dong Cheonrip’s level, just being near Sewoon’s overwhelming talent, just feeling his breathing, could bring insights far deeper than any explanation in words.

“Master, do you intend to craft a folding fan or a round fan?”

A folding fan could be closed, while a round fan could not.

“Do you know much about fans?”

“Yes, only enough not to be ashamed.”

As Sewoon glanced at Dong Cheonrip while speaking, Dong Cheonrip scratched the back of his head and replied.

Ordinary fans in the Central Plains were usually made by binding two layers of bamboo bark together.

This made them light and flexible, able to stir the wind easily.

But of course, bamboo fans were not suitable for combat.

That was why most martial artists used Iron Fans instead.

As the name suggested, Iron Fans were made primarily of iron.

While they offered deadly power, their weight and thickness became incomparable.

When a folding fan’s ribs were closed into a straight line, it resembled nothing less than a club.

“I will make a folding fan.”

“Then, we must begin with crafting the fan ribs.”

“Indeed. I will melt down that cursed object and forge a fan that holds a power surpassing even the North Sea’s frozen hells.”

“What?! Do you mean to melt down the Frozen Shackles?”

Dong Cheonrip couldn’t help but be shocked.

For over two hundred years since the Frozen Shackles had been created, countless attempts to melt them had ended in failure.

“Then should I just let such fine material sit and rot?”

“……Ah, I thought, Divine Craftsman, that you intended to simply draw out its energy by some suitable means.”

“What good is nibbling at its energy? Stop spouting nonsense and watch carefully.”

“Hup, y-yes, sir!”

Sewoon shook his head at Dong Cheonrip and then turned his gaze toward the material.

The Frozen Shackles’ appearance was not much different from the restraints he himself had once been bound with.

The only difference was that their surface was covered with a layer of pure white frost.

Ssshh.

Sewoon reached his hand toward the Frozen Shackles on the floor.

“M-Master, if you touch that barehanded—!?”

Clang!

Dong Cheonrip flinched, fearing Sewoon would be injured by the chill, but Sewoon held them without the slightest harm.

No, how?

Dong Cheonrip blinked in disbelief.

Whoosh!

Sewoon tossed the Frozen Shackles straight into the Heavenly Flame Furnace.

Sssaaa!

Kwagaa!

As prey entered, the spiritual flames surged madly, burning even more fiercely.

The first task was to melt the material down into molten metal.

But even the very first step looked far from easy.

Ssshh—.

Even with the Heavenly Flame Furnace’s spiritual fire, the Frozen Shackles did not melt at all.

Oooong!

Sssaaa!!

The shackles exuded a violent yin energy, resisting the fire that sought to consume them.

This was why all attempts at dismantling had failed for two hundred years.

When placed on an enemy—

And when someone tried to melt them like now—

The Frozen Shackles would release a yin cold so extreme that even the Soulfreezing Divine Armor and Snow Blossom Herb paled in comparison.

‘If Wind Fiend had been here, he would’ve frozen solid before he could even be taken hostage.’

That chill was an uncontrollable tyrant of energy.

‘Well then, let’s see about devouring you.’

Of course, such a thing did not apply to Sewoon.

That extreme yin cold was precisely the reason he had received this object as a reward.

Chwaa!

Pussshh!

Sewoon, cloaked in Golden Qi, pulled harder on his strength as he worked the bellows.

The flames surged like a mountain wildfire, growing fiercer and fiercer.

Chiiik!

Chiiiik!

“O-Ohhh!!”

Dong Cheonrip gasped in awe.

At last, the surface of the Frozen Shackles began to change.

Silvery molten metal dripped down, pooling beneath.

‘Good.’

Seeing that brilliant light, reminiscent of radiant moonlight, Sewoon’s eyes glimmered with interest.

Before his regression, the Blood Cult had made the Frozen Shackles their first priority once the Murim Alliance fractured.

Their intelligence division had uncovered the secret behind the creation of the shackles.

Two hundred years ago, at the height of the Murim Alliance’s power—

By the command of the Moonlit Martial Emperor, every treasured weapon in the Central Plains that contained even a trace of yin or cold energy was gathered into the Alliance’s forges.

There, they were all melted and fused together, over and over.

Through the Shrine Maiden Sect’s founder’s sorcery, the yin energy from countless materials was concentrated into a single place.

And as they said, a Divine Artifact was born by fortune.

Among the gathered treasures was one peculiar item, discovered by chance by an herb gatherer on Jinmen Island in Fujian Province.

It was an ancient axe embedded deep within an old tree.

No one had realized—

But that weapon had once been wielded by a martial artist whose mastery of ice surpassed even the Palace Head of the North Sea Ice Palace.

Four hundred years ago, the sole man who had nearly established a Demonic World before the Blood Cult.

No, a monster.

‘The First Heavenly Demon.’

The Faint Silver Heavenly Demon.

The true martial art of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s master, the Heavenly Demon, had been Ice Arts.

Four hundred years ago, right before the rise of a Demonic World, the Heavenly Demon suddenly disappeared.

Freed from the terror of the Demonic Cult, the jianghu gradually began erasing all records related to them.

To prevent people—who feared even uttering the Heavenly Demon’s name—from recalling him, all traces in records about the Heavenly Demon were wiped away.

And after two hundred years, everyone had forgotten.

His name, his martial arts, even his weapon.

That was why the Murim Alliance had gained heavenly fortune.

The heavenly fortune of using the Heavenly Demon’s last legacy, the Silver Moon Great Axe (銀月大斧), as material for the Frozen Shackles.

‘Now comes the refining.’

Sewoon moved on to the next task.

He briefly stopped the bellows, drew out molten metal from the completely melted Frozen Shackles with a ladle—

Ssshhraaa!

Then in his other hand, he unfurled a long strand of Heavenly Thread.

And immediately, he dropped the thread into the ladle.

Srrrk!

Dong Cheonrip was utterly stunned.

The impurities began to vanish the moment the Heavenly Thread, infused with Golden Qi, touched the molten metal.

He did not know, but only the essence of the Silver Moon Great Axe was being refined into purity.

‘Success.’

At the very moment the purity reached perfection, Sewoon poured the molten metal into the casting mold.

Chiiik!

Perhaps due to excessive yin energy, the ingot hardened instantly. Sewoon set it on the anvil—

Kkang!

Kang!

And immediately began tempering it with his hammer.

With every strike of Sewoon’s hands, the ingot grew thinner, bent, and began to take on the precise shape of fan ribs.

The beauty of the process was so breathtaking that Dong Cheonrip felt as though struck by a hammer himself.

When he saw the work gradually taking shape according to his master’s will, a shiver like lightning coursed through his body.

‘……Like silk!!’

The fan ribs being formed at Sewoon’s fingertips were impossibly thin.

So thin they looked like paper or cloth.

A folding fan as light as cicada wings—so sharp it would surpass even a bamboo fan once folded.

‘But if its hardness is preserved……!’

Dong Cheonrip shuddered once more.

Whoever would become the owner of this folding fan, he felt a maddening envy.

At that moment, Sewoon’s tempering was finished.

Ten fan ribs were already complete upon the anvil.

Sewoon picked them up with both hands—

Fwaaah!

And suddenly cast them high into the air.

Dong Cheonrip worried that Sewoon might be injured by the falling blades, but—

Chwararara!

Chwara!

Strands of Heavenly Thread, dozens in number, extended from Sewoon’s hands and seized every rib in the air.

Like a celestial maiden wrapping herself in silken robes, it was a sight of pure beauty.

And in the next instant—

Srrrk!

Srrrk!

Sewoon began engraving with the Heavenly Thread.

On the surface of each rib appeared mysterious lines and patterns.

‘Ahh.’

Dong Cheonrip could only marvel once more.

He could not fully grasp the meaning behind the engravings, but he gained a fragment of insight.

Sewoon’s work was not for appearance’s sake.

He was smoothing the surface, shaping it for the best grip, and imbuing it with hidden power.

Then, Sewoon entered the final stage of Divine Weapon Creation.

He breathed his ‘will and intent’ into the White Fan.

‘This time, it’s different.’

Before his regression, he had crafted a demonic weapon to fulfill the demand of the Ice White Demon Lord, Seori.

Thus he had been forced to add the dreadful prefix ‘Snow-Destroying (滅雪)’ to the White Fan’s name.

But thankfully, in this life, its owner was not her.

Instead, one precious person came to Sewoon’s mind.

‘So that my sister will never be hurt again……!’

That his sister, Tang Serin, would never suffer the same pain again.

That was the sole intent Sewoon wished to place into the White Fan.

Ten fan ribs overlapped and merged into a single folding fan.

Fwaaah!

Chwaaaa!

As the Divine Weapon Creation completed, a brilliant blue light filled the forge.

And in an instant, that light streamed into the White Fan, reborn with an intent utterly unlike before regression—

The White Water Fan (水白扇).

Uwoooong!

Uwoong!

The White Fan floated proudly in midair, showing its elegant form.

Dong Cheonrip’s trembling eyes captured the sight.

“……This is a true Divine Artifact.”

Drip.

Tears ran down his cheeks.

They were tears of nothing but awe and joy.

But only briefly, for Dong Cheonrip’s eyes closed and his body collapsed.

Sewoon quickly caught him to prevent injury and laid him gently down.

Seeing Dong Cheonrip faint with a face full of bliss, Sewoon chuckled softly.

“Well, you’ll walk away with something valuable.”

With Dong Cheonrip’s mental strength, this much was already beyond his limit.

After moving him to a safe place, Sewoon returned to the Heavenly Flame Furnace.

Ssshh.

He retrieved the finished Divine Artifact, still floating in the air—

The White Fan.

‘Come to think of it, Baek Yacha once mistook me for inheriting the Demonic Cult’s legacy.’

Realizing that Heo So-chang’s words had accidentally come true, Sewoon let out a small laugh.

But sadly, even in his past life, this had been the only legacy of the Demonic Cult that ever came into his possession.

Naturally, his gaze turned back to the furnace.

‘Now then…….’

Half of the molten metal from the Frozen Shackles still remained inside the Heavenly Flame Furnace.

Sewoon’s eyes gleamed with new light.

‘Now it’s time to claim mine.’

Sssaaa!

Fwaaah!

Heavenly Thread shot forth boldly into the furnace’s interior.