The Sale of Falling Moon Manor (3)
The next day.
I left Silent Sword Forest early in the morning, carrying two of the Maryeong Shindan pills.
What a shame. There really weren’t many spiritual medicines from the Demonic Cult side.
But there was nothing I could do about it. The Obliterating Origin Divine Art was a martial art from the Buddhist and Daoist traditions.
The spiritual medicines from the Demonic Cult had simply been ingredients for creating Wuji.
When I arrived at Falling Moon Manor, Na-rin was still asleep.
She looked incredibly defenseless. Of course, as a woman who had reached the Extreme Demon realm, she would probably wake up the moment she sensed any ordinary presence.
But to my eyes, it looked no different from someone sleeping on the side of the street.
She’d probably be dumbfounded if she heard me say that.
“Ahem.”
When I cleared my throat, I finally heard hurried movement from inside.
The door opened. She seemed embarrassed about having been caught sleeping; her face carried a slightly bashful expression.
“Were you tired? You must not have slept properly while you were on the run, right?”
“The problem is that you move without making any sound at all. It’s not that my senses have dulled.”
“Who said anything? Anyway, come inside.”
I stepped in and set two wooden boxes down on the table.
Na-rin’s eyes widened the moment she saw them. She even stuttered as she spoke to me.
“Y-you! Wh-where did you get those!? Those are definitely… Maryeong Shindan!? And two of them!?”
“I picked them up on the way.”
It was a line that wouldn’t have worked even in the 21st century, but Na-rin had no mental bandwidth left to care about something like that.
Still, reactions like this really were fun to watch.
If there hadn’t been so many spiritual medicines in the Black Wall Cavern, I probably never would have gotten to enjoy this kind of amusement.
“Sit down. And assume the lotus position.”
“What!? No way!? Are you really going to give these to me!?”
“Of course. Did you think I brought them here to eat them myself? Why else would I have carried them all the way here? To show off while I ate them?”
“N-no… that’s not…”
The haughty demeanor she’d shown at first had almost completely vanished.
Well, anyone would react like that. Even the leaders of most major sects would probably show an expression no different from Na-rin’s if they saw spiritual medicine of this caliber.
“Just what do you believe in that makes you willing to give me something like this?”
“Well, it’s because you can’t deceive or betray me. So I can invest in you without worry. Besides, the more power you have, the more information I’ll be able to hear, right?”
“You really… are an incomprehensible person.”
“So sit down. Opportunities like this don’t come around often.”
Na-rin swallowed once as she stared at the Maryeong Shindan on the table, then fidgeted for a moment before finally sitting on the bed and assuming the lotus position.
I opened one of the wooden boxes. The demonic energy that poured out was unmistakable as I picked up the pill.
Na-rin’s gaze followed the Maryeong Shindan in my hand like it was glued to it.
I smiled faintly at her, then immediately popped it into my own mouth.
Her expression turned bizarrely distorted.
Well, of course it would. Especially after what I’d just said.
“Relax your face. If you ate this directly, you’d end up wasting about half of it. It would simply scatter into the air. But if I refine it like this and pass it to you, you can absorb every single bit of it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Only then did Na-rin’s expression soften. That didn’t mean all her suspicion had disappeared, though.
I let out a small chuckle and wrapped the demonic energy of the Maryeong Shindan that had entered my body with my true energy.
For an ordinary person, this would be an act stupid enough to win first place in the year’s most idiotic suicide contest.
But I carried it out without the slightest difficulty.
“Here. I’m not sure if you can sense it, but if you focus, you should be able to feel it. This clump of demonic energy right here. Can you sense it?”
Since I wasn’t hiding it, the demonic energy gathered around my solar plexus should have been clearly perceptible.
Na-rin stared with her mouth slightly open, then nodded.
Seeing her like that made me suddenly want to tease her.
I couldn’t do it back at Silent Sword Forest because Seolha, Yeon-ha, and So-hye were there, but since it was just the two of us now, I could play around as much as I wanted.
“Normally, I’d have to use dual cultivation arts to transfer this into your body. But that would be too sudden, so let’s use a different method. I’ll pass it mouth to mouth. It’s not an easy task for me either, so don’t pull away or move carelessly in the middle. You understand that much, right?”
“Mouth… to mouth?”
“I didn’t kiss you yesterday for no reason.”
Na-rin’s face instantly turned bright red.
This really was fun. There was no way I could pass up the chance to see something like this. Though… was I being a bit perverted?
“Anyway, I’m not going to force you, so I’ll ask one more time. Will you do it?”
There probably wasn’t a single martial artist in the Wulin who would refuse in this situation.
Especially not Na-rin, a practitioner of the Demonic Path. This wasn’t some ordinary spiritual medicine; it was Maryeong Shindan.
A treasure of the Demonic Cult. An incredibly precious spiritual medicine.
Normally, the first thing she should have done was interrogate me about where I got it from, but now wasn’t the time for that.
“I-I’ll do it.”
“Good. Since you said you’d take it with your mouth, stay quiet and receive it properly.”
I approached Na-rin, who was sitting in the lotus position on the bed.
Unlike yesterday, I cupped both of her cheeks with my hands. Her face flushed so deeply it looked like it might burst.
“Here I go. Don’t let your tongue go limp. But you don’t have to try to move it on purpose either.”
Our lips met. Her parted lips tangled with my tongue.
At the same time, I compressed the energy of the Maryeong Shindan inside my body until it was the size of a candy, then slowly moved it through my mouth and passed it into hers.
Originally, this could have been done by placing a palm on her back. There was no reason for it to take this long.
But right now, I was doing it slowly on purpose. Just because it was fun. Because this moment felt thrilling.
The moment she felt the energy of the Maryeong Shindan flowing into her, Na-rin’s body began to tremble violently.
I wondered if she might collapse. The stimulation seemed a bit too intense.
After the Maryeong Shindan had been completely transferred, I kept our lips together a little longer before finally pulling away.
Her eyes were hazy and unfocused. Her face was red like a ripe persimmon. Her lips were slightly parted.
“Alright. Now close your mouth and sit up straight. Keep your eyes half-closed. Yes, like that. I’m going to place my hand on your back now.”
I moved behind her and sat down, then sent my true energy into her to control the Maryeong Shindan’s power.
Compared to handling Wuji, this was incredibly easy.
Wuji could explode if I made even the slightest mistake, but this wouldn’t.
After all, Na-rin already had a dantian full of demonic energy, and the Maryeong Shindan was itself a crystallized form of demonic energy.
It was like pouring a river into a lake.
All I had to do was adjust the flow so that it didn’t overflow all at once and devastate the surroundings.
I created several holes in the true energy that had sealed the Maryeong Shindan within her dantian, allowing the demonic energy to slowly leak out.
That was it.
Now Na-rin would be able to absorb this demonic energy just by breathing, without needing to do any separate circulation.
“Done. You can relax now. The demonic energy flowing out will be completely absorbed just through your breathing. Over time, your internal energy will grow on its own.”
“How… is there a method like this… in this world.”
It was only natural that everyone who received this was shocked.
This was similar to —transmitting energy through the body. The only difference was that the method was far more radical than the traditional technique.
It was a way of transferring internal energy while bodies were pressed together.
Usually, it was something an old master on the verge of death would do to pass on their energy to a young disciple or child.
However, it was extremely difficult, so it wasn’t something that could be done recklessly.
Even if two people cultivated the same mental technique, the nature of the energy each person’s dantian produced was different, making complete transfer impossible.
Moreover, even if the energy was wrapped in true energy and passed along, a great deal was lost in the process.
At best, only about half could be transferred. And that was only when they used the same mental technique.
If the mental techniques were different, the efficiency dropped dramatically.
Since internal energy took a long time to accumulate in the first place, that was only to be expected.
If there were no such losses, internal energy would have been passed down through generations until it grew monstrously large, and the world would be full of nothing but monsters.
Especially in the case of major sects or great families.
So it was only natural that Na-rin was shocked.
On top of that, she had received the full, untainted efficacy of a spiritual medicine that even eating directly wouldn’t allow one to absorb completely. It was no wonder she was stunned.
Perhaps because of that, the way she looked at me had grown noticeably softer.
Honestly, from her perspective, just this one act had brought her an enormous benefit.
“Now then, it’s your turn, right?”
“Ah! Yes. Then…”
Na-rin thought for a long time before finally opening her mouth.
She was probably calculating how much information she needed to offer in exchange for the spiritual medicine.
“There have been three families that have supported our sect since ancient times. The Wi, Gal, and Cheon clans. When the Heavenly Demon Divine Lord… enters eternal sleep, the next Heavenly Demon is decided through a contest among the three families.”
“Survival of the fittest, I suppose?”
“Yes, that’s correct. Occasionally someone from outside the three surnames emerges, but in the long history of our divine sect, that has only happened twice.”
“So the current Heavenly Demon was your father.”
“…Yes. My family, the Wi clan, had held the seat of the Supreme for three generations. Naturally, the Gal and Cheon clans held quite a bit of resentment. But that was simply because their own strength was lacking. There was nothing they could say. If they were upset, they should have won.”
“I suppose so. And then?”
“Once the seat of the Supreme is decided, the representatives of the other two families become the heads of Ji-mil-won and the Council of Elders respectively. It’s to prevent any one family from gaining sole dominance.”
“What is Ji-mil-won? Some kind of surveillance organization?”
“That’s right. It holds the authority to audit all matters and conduct covert operations.”
“I see. I understand up to there. And?”
“…The ones who poisoned my father were the head of the Council of Elders, Gal Seong-ho, and the chief of Ji-mil-won, Cheon Yeong-bu.”
“The Demonic Cult really is running smoothly, isn’t it? Those two should have been pillars of the sect. And they poisoned the cult leader? With something whose origin isn’t even known?”
“So how could I not feel like my insides are burning with rage? Moreover, there was no evidence, so with nothing but suspicion, I couldn’t do anything.”
“What about your siblings? Seeing how you ended up like this, I doubt they’re all safe.”
Na-rin’s expression darkened considerably.
Oops. Did I say that too bluntly? Maybe I dug too deep into a painful wound.
“Even if you call them siblings, we had different mothers, so we weren’t particularly close. Still, that doesn’t mean I’m not sad. They probably… aren’t all safe.”
“How did you manage to escape?”
“My mother was a wife my father took rather late. So I, being relatively young, wasn’t seen as much of a threat to them. Most of all… they didn’t try to kill me recklessly.”
“Because you’re the greatest beauty in the Demonic Cult?”
“Thanks to the appearance I inherited from my mother, I was able to keep my life.”
“What a mess.”
That was my honest impression.
These were supposed to be the rough, manly bastards of the Demonic Cult.
Yet they coveted the seat of the Heavenly Demon and assassinated the current one by poisoning him?
I really had no idea what the world was coming to.
I didn’t know who created that Muyeongdok, but I’d like to ask them. Just what exactly were they aiming for by doing something like this?