Maid of Yeonun Pavilion
The Jade Yin Sect was one of the four great sects of the State of Jeong, a sect where women made up the overwhelming majority.
According to the records, its founding Matriarch had killed the lust demon who once ruled over her, then gathered other women of similar plight under her banner — and so the sect grew.
In any case, after arriving at the Jade Yin Sect and looking around, I found that everywhere I turned, there was nothing but women as far as the eye could see.
And since every one of them was a cultivator, the average level of beauty was staggeringly high. My eyes were feasting like never before.
Is there like... a public bathhouse around here or something?
Because of that, I wandered along lost in more absurd thoughts than usual, until before I knew it the crowds had thinned out and I found myself stopped in front of a grand estate.
"Mind your conduct from here on."
Having given me that warning, my great-grandmother helped me down from the palanquin.
Hanging at the entrance of the estate was a name plaque that read Yeonun Pavilion.
Even from outside, the grounds looked expansive. The ornamentation and architecture of the great buildings visible beyond the walls were more beautiful than anything I'd seen anywhere else in the Jade Yin Sect on the way here.
There were especially many carvings, each one so meticulous and intricate that they seemed ready to leap to life.
While I drank in the scenery, my great-grandmother's hand drew me along until we reached the central building.
It must have been an important place, because it bore an even greater degree of care than anywhere else we had passed.
My great-grandmother drew a talisman from her robes, held it for a moment, then sent it flying into the building.
Before long, the doors opened and a woman appeared.
She came gliding toward us with an impossibly graceful bearing.
Beautiful.
The woman's elegance was extraordinary — the most beautiful woman I had laid eyes on since being born into this world. Set beside a first-life idol, she wouldn't have lost an inch.
Soon the woman drew near enough to touch and spoke.
"I will escort you to the Pavilion Master."
Saying only that, as though she were a mere servant, she turned her back and began leading the way.
The corridors of the building displayed all manner of artworks, giving me the strange feeling of walking through an art museum.
Each piece hung at a different height, under different lighting, as though the owner had agonized over every placement.
We soon reached the end of the corridor, where our guide came to a halt before a set of doors.
"Please, enter."
The moment the words left her lips, the doors swung open from both sides.
Two maids held the doors from within, and both of them were every bit as breathtaking as the woman who had guided us.
At the center of the room stood a couch-bed of the kind one saw in historical dramas.
A sheer gauze curtain hung draped over it, revealing only the silhouette of the woman reclining within.
"We come to pay our respects to the Pavilion Master of Yeonun. I am Song Aejo, steward of the Mission Pavilion. I have committed this breach of etiquette and come to request an audience with you, Elder, bearing words I must deliver."
The instant she entered the room, my great-grandmother pressed down lightly on my head and bowed deep, and I bowed along with her.
"Is that so? Then let us hear what business brings you here."
At my great-grandmother's greeting, the woman on the couch — Elder of Core Formation and Master of Yeonun Pavilion — stirred upright.
Whether she wore nothing at all or only the thinnest of garments, the silhouette showing through the gauze was remarkably unrestrained.
"That you possess the finest aesthetic eye in all the Jade Yin Sect, Elder, is something every disciple of the sect knows."
"And?"
"Some time ago, one of my descendants awakened her spiritual root, and her beauty transformed beyond all reckoning. That loveliness of hers seemed hardly of this world — and I confess, fear took hold of me."
"Oho..."
As my great-grandmother began telling my story, the woman seemed to grow interested. The scenery we had passed on the way in, the maids nearby — everything pointed to a personality obsessed with art and beauty.
"As it happens, word reached me that you, Elder, take in women of exceptional beauty. She is not one of the Vanessa-touched, but I have brought my great-granddaughter here all the same."
"Draw back the curtain."
At those words, I drew back the canopy above my head.
"Oh! So your words were true. Beautiful. How beautiful she is."
"Yes. That is why I have come to ask — might you accept her into your service, Elder?"
"Now I understand why you were afraid, looking upon this child. From the very aura flowing off her, her talent is plainly no ordinary thing."
The conversation was heading somewhere strange. A maid, all of a sudden?
Weren't you supposed to beg her to take me as her personal disciple? And what do you mean, afraid? Is it because of the Cold Yin Physique?
"Let me examine her closely for a moment."
When the woman finished speaking, a tickling sensation spread through my head. So this was what cultivators' divine senses felt like.
"Hmmm. Now that I have looked, I see it clearly. This child is more than you can shoulder, certainly. I will take her in, so fret no longer."
"Thank you, Elder."
So saying, my great-grandmother bowed her head deep.
I had absolutely no idea how the situation had managed to unfold this way.
"That I have taken her in shall be known to no one but you and me. Now, withdraw."
And with that, my great-grandmother abandoned me and vanished.
What in the world just happened?
"Child, what is your name?"
"Uh, ah. I am called Seol Jihwa."
I had been standing there in a daze, missed her words entirely, and answered only belatedly.
"A lovely name. Hongryeon, take this child and see to her education yourself."
"As you command, Mistress."
At the woman's call, the maid who had guided us earlier appeared.
"Follow me, please."
"Y-yes, ma'am."
And so my life at the Jade Yin Sect began.
Not as an outer disciple, not as an inner disciple, not as a personal disciple — but as a simple maid.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Chae Hongryeon. The maids here, myself included, are all mortals, so there is no need to be overly formal with us. However, our Mistress has entrusted your education entirely to me, and in that respect alone, I must beg your understanding that I will be strict with you, Jihwa."
"Understood. I look forward to working with you. Um — how should I address you?"
"However is comfortable for you."
"Hongryeon... unni?"
"...If that is what you find comfortable."
As she guided me along, the woman introduced herself. As it turned out, she and the other maids were all mortals.
First, she showed me to the room where I would be staying.
The room was tidy, though nearly every piece of furniture bore delicate carvings or ornaments of some kind.
"Your clothes will be kept here, so please change and come out."
Hongryeon handed me a set of clothes, identical to the ones she and the other maids wore.
Once I had changed, she began delivering my list of instructions.
"Our Mistress is exacting in all matters of beauty. She despises unseemly conduct, so this is the point upon which you must be most careful."
The Elder's name was Cheongryu, and according to Hongryeon's explanation, she was something of an aesthete who worshipped beauty above all else.
"Yeonun Pavilion is the body that oversees the Jade Yin Sect's ceremonies, and outside of event seasons it always stands empty. We do not truly concern ourselves with the sect's affairs — our only duty is to attend upon the Mistress. Keep that in mind."
Yeonun Pavilion had no disciples of its own; its structure was such that it merely borrowed disciples for the duration of events. And even the preparations for those ceremonies were rarely carried out by the Pavilion itself — apparently Cheongryu simply showed up and directed on-site.
In a word, Yeonun Pavilion was nothing less than Cheongryu's personal residence and fiefdom.
"Starting tomorrow, you will undergo correction in gait, posture, voice, and manner of speech — everything required before you may attend upon the Mistress. Your training in her service will only begin once that foundation is complete, so for today you may rest."
Just how insufferably fastidious could one woman be, to demand education on this level?
Once I confirmed Hongryeon had left, I flopped onto the bed.
A maid, not a disciple... What is Grandma thinking?
Wondering what the future might hold, I drifted off to sleep.
The next day, while the sky was still dark and the sun had yet to fully rise, Hongryeon woke me.
"Rise, please. We have a great deal to accomplish today."
"Haaam..."
"Tsk. From this moment onward, such breaches of decorum are forbidden. Even when you yawn, you must be mindful of how it appears."
The very instant I was up, the nagging began. She'd said training started today, but I hadn't expected it to kick off this immediately.
I wasn't normally one to sleep much, but this child's body grew weary without ample rest, so I forced my eyes half-open and finished washing my face with the basin of water Hongryeon had brought.
When I toweled off and turned around, Hongryeon was seated on a cushion. Beside her sat some manner of rod, shaped for all the world like a disciplinary switch.
No way... It can't be. A switch, at my age?
"Today we shall begin with your gait. Observe me first."
Finishing her words, Hongryeon rose and demonstrated a swaying, gliding stride. Her walk had caught my eye from the very first moment I saw her — and evidently hers, too, had been acquired through deliberate practice.
Unexaggerated yet elegant, it was movement that maximized the feminine curve of the body.
"At first I will correct your posture by hand, but once past that stage, this switch will come into use. So walk with care, and mind the gait I have shown you."
So I really was getting switched, then. Counting my past life, I was in my thirties — and here I was, about to be beaten with a switch.
"Like this?"
The beginning was anything but easy. I creaked and lurched along like a total klutz, wondering if I'd always been this hopeless with my body. Hongryeon's corrections came down to the width of a fingertip.
The correction drills continued even after breakfast and lunch had come and gone. Only then did I apparently earn a passing grade, for her corrections finally ceased.
Seen in the mirror, my form — being that of a young child — didn't carry itself quite the way Hongryeon's did, but it was passable enough.
"It is not yet sufficient, but it will do for daily life. I will be at your side from now on, so should you err, I will correct you on the spot."
"With that switch?"
"Naturally."
The gentle phase, it seemed, was officially over.
"I will grant you a period of rest, and we shall continue with other training after the evening meal. By the way — there is something our Mistress has asked me to pass along to you. I think it would serve you well to read it in the meantime."
What she handed me was a book inscribed Jade Yin Ice Bind.
Don't tell me... it's actually a cultivation manual?