Chapter 29
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Desire
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"...Wh-what is this?"
The lust drained from the bandit leader's face.
He might have been crude, but he was still a peak master. There was no way he couldn't recognize the exquisite finesse in her movements just now.
And when he glanced around, all his subordinates had somehow been subdued.
While his men were being taken down one by one, he hadn't noticed a thing!
Despite her overwhelming presence that drew every eye, he hadn't sensed even a hint of anything amiss. There was a limit to stealthiness.
The bandit leader's eyes began to waver.
Disorientation and terror from the surreal situation, compounded by cognitive dissonance that the source was the very woman he'd been about to ravish moments ago.
In his short life, whenever this happened, there was only one thing to do.
Swing the axe.
"Raaargh!!!"
"Wait, let's talk first...!"
Ignoring the Escort Leader's words, the bandit leader let out a guttural roar and swung his axe with full force at So-hyang's head.
And then.
"Ho, you've got some real strength there."
It was caught between her elegantly extended index and middle fingers.
The massive axe blade, infused with verdant axe qi, couldn't even scratch the fingers glowing with pure white spirit energy.
"Wh-what."
Block, counter, dodge—none of his expected responses included this.
"Urk!?"
To make matters worse, immense inner power flooded in from the point of contact.
Before he knew it, their clash had turned into a contest of internal energy, pushing against each other through touching bodies and weapons.
"...Grrrh!?"
Unable to pry his fingers from the axe due to the connected energy, the bandit leader focused everything on resisting the force churning his insides.
"Ah, so this is an internal energy contest?"
"Ah..."
Even amid the struggle, her smiling face was so breathtakingly beautiful that it stole his gaze.
"Hey! Snap out of it!"
Unable to watch any longer, the Escort Leader shot out his sword like a beam of light, trying to save his ally.
Her milky-white eyes leisurely tracked the sword's path, and she raised her other hand.
Her index and middle fingers formed a sword gesture. A metallic clang rang out—impossible for mere fingers meeting a blade.
"...You blocked my sword... with just fingers?"
She was still locked in the internal energy contest while moving her body. The Escort Leader's face twisted.
The gap was wider than he'd thought.
At least two realms above him—possibly even transcendent peak.
But he'd already made rude remarks about borrowing her body, and he'd even tried to kill her.
Begging for mercy was unlikely to work; death was the more probable outcome.
"...Damn it all!!!"
He focused his internal energy to amplify his sword qi, drew a deep breath to explode into motion.
The essence of his lifelong martial pursuit.
Swift and flashy, cunning yet sharp, he unleashed a barrage of a hundred strikes in an instant—
"Hmm, swordplay mixing speed and illusion?"
All blocked by So-hyang's casually swung fingers.
"Muddling it all together doesn't make it better. Didn't you feel how disjointed your swordsmanship was?"
"Wh-what...!"
Her scathing critique denied his entire life. Fury surged as he tried to retort—
"Here, this is how you use an illusion sword."
Somehow, the sword slipped from his grip like an eel and ended up in So-hyang's hand.
"And this is how you use a swift sword."
She flicked her fingers while gripping the blade, sending it flying back to its owner.
"Cough, hack."
The blade, gleaming wickedly as it cleaved the air, pierced the Escort Leader's heart before he could react.
"...Can't you dodge this?"
She hadn't thrown it to kill, yet So-hyang looked oddly disappointed as she gazed down at the Escort Leader vomiting blood.
And rightly so—the standard for swift swordsmanship in her mind was Moon Shadow, a natural genius who served as the Imperial Scion's guard.
They might both be at peak realm, but they weren't on the same level.
"Gr, grrrgh...!"
Meanwhile, the bandit leader—still losing the internal energy contest—had a face turning from red to purple-black.
"Oh dear, you look like you're about to die."
So-hyang mercifully released her fingers from the axe blade.
His connected channels loosened like a snapped thread; he exhaled heavily, and the axe—which would normally feel light—dragged his arm down.
"Kuh...! Urgh...!"
She'd toyed with the Escort Leader—a superior master—like a child, killed him effortlessly, then spared his life like charity.
Faced with an indescribable terror he'd never known, the bandit leader's face turned ashen blue.
It was an irrational power gap unlike anything since he'd reached peak realm and earned the title of master—something he'd never experienced or even imagined.
"Uh, uwaa...!"
Despair, fear—there was no fighting spirit left on his face, only the intent to flee in panic.
Reading his expression, So-hyang's face cooled coldly.
"Hmm, that's no fun."
She'd spared his life instead of churning his organs to death via internal energy because his martial arts looked entertaining.
Who knew he'd cower like a rat, glancing back for an escape chance rather than fighting for survival.
"Tch, such a waste of your build."
So-hyang furrowed her brow slightly, pondering. Should she just kill him?
His innate strength made his hearty axe swings worth watching for a few exchanges, but what thrill could a fear-driven swing bring?
His spirit was already broken; reigniting it wouldn't be easy.
Reigniting it...
"...Oh?"
A sudden idea flashed in her mind.
The power to overcome fear of death was always a denser desire.
For her, it was a thirst for martial prowess; for him, sticky lust.
It had withered in terror now, but at the fight's start, this brute had burned with desire for her body.
"One promise: if you beat me, you can do whatever you want with my body?"
So-hyang decided to fan those flames.
With a mischievous smile and coquettish voice, she provoked him—then tugged her loose robes back to blatantly emphasize her curves.
Two massive mounds nearly as big as her head, a slender waist contrasting voluptuous hips.
Pressed against her pure white robes, her body revealed an indescribably violent allure.
"Wh-what."
His panicked mind couldn't think straight; survival instinct clashed with exploding breeding urge; her shocking, seductive form addled his senses.
"...Ur, urgh!"
Logically, it was absurd, but his thoughts didn't reach there.
"Raaargh!!"
Blood surged fiercely; his manhood swelled massively; his cooled body heated rapidly.
Face flushed crimson, he gripped the axe crushingly and charged at So-hyang.
"Oh, it worked."
Her first time trying such provocation, but her innate body made it wildly effective.
This was his final desperate bid to leave offspring—like a cornered rat biting a cat.
Sometimes such struggles birthed miracles, but only against a mere cat.
"Ahaha, you should've mustered that vigor from the start."
Had he known she was no tiger but something beyond reason, he'd have quietly abandoned hope.
-----
The bandit leader's skills were decently entertaining.
Innate height, frame, and musculature—a body born for what folks called heavenly strength or merchant's build.
Talent to fully incorporate those advantages into his martial arts.
His seemingly crude, brutish attacks instinctively grasped the principles of power and weight, mastering how to overwhelm foes.
"You know how to properly infuse power into the axe. Were you a lumberjack?"
Many dismissed axes as crude and simple, but fully wielding the concentrated weight on its narrow blade was fiendishly tricky.
In that sense, his axework was flawless. He knew how to explode from the waist into the perfect impact point.
"You have a habit of bulldozing with excessive brute force, but that's fixable with training."
"—Why, why won't you die!!"
So-hyang murmured lost in thought while fluidly dodging the relentless axe strikes.
It seemed sure to hit, yet it missed by a hair; she was in sight, then suddenly gone.
A tap on the axe's side with her palm disrupted his balance, twisting the trajectory.
The bandit leader felt like he was swinging at a ghost.
"Ah, what a shame..."
Minus his hulking build, unkempt skin, and beard, he wasn't that old.
A bit young for "youth"—impressive to reach peak at that age.
Objectively, better talent than the shaman girl collapsed behind.
With a purer heart, she might've considered teaching him. So-hyang clicked her tongue regretfully.
"I've seen enough of your axework. Time to go."
Youth was no excuse. He wasn't a child incapable of judgment; he'd chosen his path.
With graceful handwork, she seized the axe haft, twisted lightly, and wrenched it free.
"...Wh-what?"
His mind blanked at the incomprehensible; So-hyang gave no reprieve.
With a clean slash, the unhesitating swing severed his neck smoothly.
A neatly sliced cross-section—not smashed, but cleanly beheaded; blood oozed slowly, didn't spray.
His puzzled face, eyes still open, rolled across the ground.
So-hyang pressed her palm to it, closing the eyes with a somber expression.
"Live righteously in your next life."
In truth, So-hyang welcomed fights but didn't enjoy killing.
No matter how deserving, beheading a fresh young life felt unpleasant.
After brief silence and mourning.
"Well then..."
Time to clean up.
"What to do with this?"
The merchant group members, including the sturdy warrior, stared at her like she was otherworldly.
-----
"Ur, urgh..."
Regaining consciousness brought agony like torn veins and burning guts.
Small price for the madness of using qi deviation to break into peak realm.
Unthinkable for a famed orthodox sect disciple—heterodox antics indeed.
But she was alive. Lucky.
...Wait, alive?
"—Gasp!"
Song Seol-ryeong—Wudang lay disciple and Songwol Merchant Group leader—bolted upright in panic.
Recalling before blackout.
Ambush, betrayal, dire straits; miraculously broke through realm, but situation irreversible.
Resigned, about to shatter an enemy's innate true qi to take one down—
"Ah, you're awake?"
"Yes! That voice!"
She'd lost consciousness to a soft, gentle, jade-pearl voice.
Her head pillowed on that woman's soft thigh, stroked tenderly—!?
"Kyaaah!?"
Seol-ryeong startled like a cat leaping away, putting distance between them.
"Oh, nice body control!"
Instinctive, elastic muscle response. So-hyang clapped approvingly.
"Wh-what, this, what...!"
Seol-ryeong couldn't grasp the situation. A warrior's response in this was singular.
"—Miss! Wait!"
As she surged internal energy into combat stance, the ashen-faced sturdy warrior explained everything.
"Y-yes...?"
Her stunned reply spilled out.
The bandits who'd ambushed them, the traitorous escorts—all subdued. Even the two peak masters dead.
By this breathtakingly beautiful woman smiling softly, patting her thigh invitingly.
"Wha, hu, uh?"
Overcome by cognitive dissonance, Seol-ryeong muttered broken questions like a malfunctioning toy.
"Shall we lie back down for now?"
Meanwhile, So-hyang's gentle touch shifted her center of gravity naturally; Seol-ryeong's head settled back on the thigh.
"???"
Her mind filled with question marks.
"Hngh."
The nape's sensation was too soft, plush. Extreme fatigue and demonic comfort overwhelmed her; she blacked out again.
"Good girl~."
So-hyang smiled warmly, stroking Seol-ryeong's hair softly.