1. I'm Telling You, It's Me!
The Rebirth was an opportunity granted only to masters of the Transformation Realm. And right now, deep inside a cave in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains—the very heart of the Demonic Cult—a man was undergoing that very Rebirth, having just crossed the threshold of the Transformation Realm. All without sensing the gaze fixed upon him.
Strained groans kept spilling from the lips of Yul Sogang, the Cult's master in the throes of his Rebirth. He had heard that the process was meant to drain the turbid energy from the body amid a flood of extreme exhilaration, purifying the flesh from within. What he was experiencing now, however, was nothing but the most excruciating pain he had ever felt in his life.
'Did something go wrong?'
A sense of foreboding flickered through his mind, but caught in a maelstrom of qi raging out of control, there was nothing left for him to do. And above him, something unidentifiable was slowly descending. It looked like a black shroud. No—it looked like a sticky, viscous fluid. Dropped from the ceiling, the nameless thing draped itself over Yul Sogang's body, but he was too absorbed in contemplating his own interior to feel it at all.
Writhing and squelching, it settled over him from head to toe, clinging as naturally as a transparent film. Only then did Yul Sogang register the foreign substance enveloping his body, though it did not strike him as particularly strange. The oncoming pain left no room for further thought.
Crack. Cra-crack.
Bones ground out of joint and the flesh of his entire body twisted, but Yul Sogang clenched his teeth and endured. 'Compared to the training I've been through, this is nothing.'
Just as he was barely holding out against the agony, a sudden tide of sleep crashed over him—as if to say, let's see you endure this too. He struggled against the cascading drowsiness, but it surpassed every limit a human could resist, and his eyes slid shut on their own.
Thump.
The moment his eyes closed, his neatly seated body tipped slowly sideways, and with it, Yul Sogang's consciousness sank into eternal darkness.
How much time had passed? Inside the pitch-black cave, the flow of time was impossible to gauge.
Yul Sogang dragged himself upright, barely enduring the pain that crushed his whole body.
"Where... am I? Ugh..."
A splitting headache struck without warning, and he clutched his head. Consciousness returned in slow degrees, and with it, his sight.
'But... my body feels far too light?'
"Huh...?"
Startled by how impossibly light he had become, Yul Sogang lowered his head and looked down at himself. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. It was unmistakably his body, and yet it was not his body at all.
A full, plump pair of breasts. Smooth, delicate limbs. A slim, cinched waist. Anyone who looked would see it plainly: this was a woman's body, through and through.
Yul Sogang's eyes went wider and wider until a scream tore from his lips—but even the scream was nothing like his old thunderous roar.
"Kiyaaaaaaah!!"
It was not a man's voice but the high, piercing cry of a woman, and it filled the cave from end to end.
That day, the Heavenly Demon Cult lost Yul Sogang, the peerless prodigy it had raised for the sole purpose of annihilating the orthodox sects—and gained, in his place, a woman.
"Master!"
"Eh?"
The hut's door burst open hard enough to splinter, and a naked woman he had never seen before came bounding inside. Baek Byeog-yeon blinked at her, dumbstruck.
Staring at the bare body of a woman in her early twenties—so young she did not even look old enough to be his granddaughter—Baek Byeog-yeon shook his head.
"Hmm. Oh dear. I've no idea how you found your way here, but clothes first. I'll hear the whole story from beginning to end after that..."
Then the woman exploded.
"Ah, damn it! Are clothes what matter right now? Master, why am I like this?!"
What words could possibly express the flabbergasted feelings of an old master suddenly cursed out by a naked woman?
"Heh heh... True enough. My own fault for thinking a madwoman who strolls about buck naked in broad daylight might be reasoned with."
Educating a deranged junior was, after all, a senior's natural duty and obligation. Blue veins standing out on his forehead, Baek Byeog-yeon picked up the cudgel he kept leaning at his side.
At the sight, the girl only shrieked louder and faster.
"It's me!! I'm telling you it's me! Master, I'm your disciple, Yul Sogang!"
"...Hmm. One blow clearly won't be enough, so you had best brace yourself for today. As the old saying goes, nothing cures madness like a sound thrashing. Now, offer up that head of yours."
So saying, Baek Byeog-yeon—regarding with contempt this madwoman impersonating his disciple—swung the cudgel fiercely at the girl's small, round head.
But the scene he expected never came.
Whoosh – smack.
With one light flick of the girl's hand, the cudgel slipped uselessly from Baek Byeog-yeon's grip and rolled away into a corner.
"Ugh, damn it! It's me, I said!"
Baek Byeog-yeon's eyes flew wide open. Jesting or not, how could anyone strip a weapon from his hand so easily? Baek Byeog-yeon's eyes flew wide open.
"Wh... what? A master of the Transformation Realm, here of all places...?"
"Exactly! That's what I keep telling you—it's me!"
Driven past all endurance by a master who could not follow a single word, Yul Sogang's fist finally exploded—packed full of rage, tracing a perfect arc, straight for his master's jaw.
WHAM—!
The ill-fated master, too slow to dodge the fist of the disciple he had raised with such painstaking care—grown up so very splendidly—went out clean, with the crisp crack of his head snapping back.
Yul Sogang stared blankly at Baek Byeog-yeon's crumpled form, then sank to the ground where he stood.
"Damn it all. That's what you get for not listening when a person is talking to you. Anyway, if he's my master, he'll know how to turn me back into a man, right? He will. He has to. Master's experienced plenty, after all."
"So let me see if I have this... You underwent the Rebirth in the cave, and when you opened your eyes, you had become a woman? And a beauty at that?"
"That's right! No—forget beautiful or not. Look at this cumbersome hunk of flesh. You know how to change me back, don't you? Tell me."
Having dug up what looked roughly like his old clothes from who knows where and thrown them on, Yul Sogang pointed at the two large breasts swaying distinctly above the fabric.
Watching the breasts sway alluringly before his eyes, Baek Byeog-yeon paused to consider.
A few exchanges had made it plain that this woman really was his disciple. She knew his secret savings came to five silver taels, and she even knew exactly where they were hidden.
"Don't know. You brat."
At the blunt answer, Yul Sogang—who had been jiggling his chest in playful demonstration—froze.
"What? Master, what am I supposed to do if you don't know?"
"You brat! You think I know everything just because I'm me, hmm? You think I've penetrated the principles of all creation? If I had, would I be rotting out here, fussing after your sorry hide? I'd be holding court as master of that illustrious Munhyang Pavilion, that's what! You brat!"
The Munhyang Pavilion was said to be a body that gathered only the finest strategists and advisors within the Heavenly Demon Cult.
"Then what am I supposed to do?!"
"Do about what? You live, that's what. You're young again, your martial arts are untouched, and on top of it all you've turned pretty. I'd call that a fine turn of events."
Flustered by his master's hopeless, smirking face, Yul Sogang asked, faltering.
"Master, is this about the jaw I punched earlier? Are you seriously being petty about that?"
"Pe... petty? PETTY? You brat. If this were the orthodox faction, you'd already have been expelled for the crime of betraying master and ancestors, every meridian in your body severed. You brat! You laid hands on your master's heavenly person, and you dare spout the nonsense word 'petty'!?"
Watching Baek Byeog-yeon tremble as he vented his wrath did stir a twinge of guilt—but did he have to carry on as if it were none of his affair?
"Well, that's because I told you the truth and you wouldn't believe me!"
"Ha! And if you'd been in my place, would you have believed it? Would you? Some naked madwoman bursts in out of nowhere and declares, 'I am your disciple, Yul Sogang'—and you'd have bought that?"
"Ha... oh, for the love of..."
Yul Sogang scratched his head raw, and the black hair that now reached his waist rippled like silk. Another deep sigh burst out of him. How was he supposed to train from here on in this frail body without a shred of muscle on it?
"Have you ever once heard of the Rebirth having a side effect like this?"
"No. Naturally I haven't. Be thankful the change left nothing grotesque dangling between your legs. If it had, you'd have been treated as a monster and hunted across the whole murim by public decree. As it stands, you're a complete woman either way, so what's the problem?"
"Would you... would you stop putting it that way?"
Here he was, taking it seriously and at a complete loss, and watching his master carry on so breezily made rage climb up from his very core.
In an instant, a monstrous aura that seemed ready to split the very air of the room spread outward from Yul Sogang's body.
But his master, too, was a dignified warrior who had rightfully attained the realm of Transcendent Peak.
"You brat. You brat. Still can't collect yourself, showing such discourtesy before your master! Where does a wench get off flaring her aura about so carelessly!"
"Don't... don't call me a wench."
"Then, young woman?"
"Don't..."
"Or shall I call you 'missy'? Haw haw haw."
Yul Sogang's fair hands trembled.
'If that detestable old codger weren't my master, I'd have snapped his arms and legs on the spot...!'
Watching him, his master's tone abruptly turned kindly, as if none of it had happened.
"Sogang."
"What."
"Well... there is one way."
At those words, Yul Sogang's face brightened as though it had never been dark at all.
Faintly reddened cheeks, slender eyes, a high straight nose, and lips like ripe cherries—all of it blended together into a loveliness like a living, breathing painting.
Baek Byeog-yeon found himself beginning, little by little, to warm to the sight. The thought would not leave the old master's head: better than a swarthy man, no?
"I knew it. Master, what is it? Come on, tell me."
"You need only reach the Mystic Realm. When you do, you will undergo the Rebirth once more—and if fortune favors you, you may return to your original self then."
"...The Mystic Realm?"
"That's right."
"You mean the Mystic Realm that has produced only two people in the entire recorded history of the murim?"
"You know that perfectly well, so why keep asking?"
"Easy for you to say. From someone who hasn't even reached the Transformation Realm, that's so~ very responsible of you. Yes, super easy. A walk in the park."
At his disciple's sulking, impudent face, Baek Byeog-yeon caught himself wearing a fond smile. When the boy had been a man, every one of those barbs had made him want to thrash him within an inch of his life—now, wasn't it almost cute?
"Your talent is the finest of anyone I have ever seen. No—dare I say it, in the history of the Cult, nay, of the entire murim, no one can stand comparison. So what harm is there in living toward a goal that high? And in truth, there isn't exactly an alternative."
"......"
Put that way, it did start to sound reasonable again. A needle's eye of a chance, yes—but wasn't it still one thread of hope? Of course, that road looked likely to be dirtier and more treacherous than he could imagine.
'No. I can't let myself be won over this easily. There has to be an easier way.'
Yul Sogang shook his head hard.
"By the way, child."
"What?"
"The Cult Leader has asked to see you tomorrow, to congratulate you on reaching the Transformation Realm. What will you do about that?"
"Ah... right. Damn it all!"
When his disciple had attained the Transformation Realm, his master had leapt for joy and reported it to the Cult Leader straightaway. Though retired now and teaching only a single disciple, Baek Byeog-yeon had once been Chief Instructor of the Blood Shadow Squad, and the report had come from him personally.
Naturally, the Cult Leader had been every bit as delighted, and was already assembling the Cult's followers to hold a grand banquet in celebration of Yul Sogang's brilliant achievement.
After all, within the Heavenly Demon Cult, only three people—including the Cult Leader—had reached the Transformation Realm. Vaulting in a single bound into the ranks of the Cult's Four Great Powers, Yul Sogang's future should have been a broad, open road.
He had seen the Rebirth through to the end and meant to stride into the banquet hall in the finest of spirits—and now, this damned predicament.
"I'm not going. I can't go. How do I walk in looking like this? Do you think the crowds of cultists gathered there will believe me? And what am I supposed to do, stand before them all and announce, 'I underwent the Rebirth, and behold—I have become this beautiful woman'?"
"And if you don't go, won't the Cult Leader simply come looking for you himself?"
"Ar... aargh!! Seriously!!"
"Tch, enough noise! Just go, you brat. Screw your eyes shut once, give your explanation, and if they still won't believe you—if they treat you as a madwoman... hmph! Give a few jaws the same brisk twist you gave this heavenly master of yours a moment ago, and they'll believe every word without a peep. Heh heh."
'Damned old man. There is truly no end to the messes he leaves behind.'
Yul Sogang chewed down and swallowed the curse.
"I heard all of that. Cursing me with your eyes just now."
"I did no such thing."
"'I did no such thing, most venerable master.' That is how it is said. Heh heh heh."
"That's quite enough..."
Baek Byeog-yeon, snickering and poised to land one more jab, clamped his mouth shut the moment he saw the fist now wreathed in startlingly potent qi.
"Hm hm... Right. Well, it's a thing you must go through regardless. Off to bed with you, and we'll meet again tomorrow. Don't worry yourself too much. This master of yours will help."
"Understood..."
Watching his disciple's slumped back disappear into his room, Baek Byeog-yeon wondered for a heartbeat whether he had teased the boy too cruelly—but the dull ache still radiating from his jaw swept the thought away at once. In its place, he looked forward to tomorrow's banquet and a handsome reward.
"Aigoo~ raise one disciple well in my twilight years, and I'll live high on the hog. Heh. Heh heh heh."
And so Baek Byeog-yeon lay down to sleep in high spirits for the first time in an age.
The next morning.
When dazzling sunlight pierced the paper doors and spilled into the room, Baek Byeog-yeon rose at his leisure and tidied his bedding.
"Hoo. About time to ask for a proper house, and for maids to handle the cooking and the drudgery. Old age makes everything a bother, it does. Ahem. Sogang."
He called out to see whether his disciple had risen, but no answer came from the next room. No one who had reached the Transformation Realm could possibly have failed to hear a voice that loud calling from the room right beside his.
"You brat. Your body turned into a woman's, and now your temper has followed suit, has it? Sulking like this—clear as day. Petty to the very last. Heh heh heh heh."
But even that goading brought no irritated 'Master, enough already!' from his disciple. And somehow, the silence pressing in from every side felt far, far too complete.
"Don't tell me..."
In an instant, dread took possession of Baek Byeog-yeon's heart. The next moment he flung open Yul Sogang's door—but the bare room held nothing save a single short letter.
With trembling hands, the old master unfolded the letter and read.
Master,
I will not return until I have found my original body. Stay well.
— Your disciple
"This... this cannot be..."
The hand clutching his hopeless disciple's final(?) letter would not stop shaking. If the brat had gone flitting off like this, what was to become of Baek Byeog-yeon's reward?
No—the reward was beside the point. His precious disciple had deserted the Cult without leave, and unless he explained matters properly to the Cult Leader, guilt by association would see him too on the receiving end of a merciless disciplinary beating.
And how, exactly, was he to explain it?
If Yul Sogang were still at his side, even in a woman's form, and demonstrated that overwhelming Transformation Realm martial arts, the truth would have been believed readily enough.
But now that the damned brat had vanished, however earnestly he swore to the facts, the words 'my disciple turned from a man into a woman and ran away' would be written off as the senile prattle of a dottering old man.
The letter did not end there.
P.S. I have no money for the road, so I'm borrowing some. I'll pay you back.
Reading those words, Baek Byeog-yeon's eyes bulged as though they would leap from their sockets. He flung open his own door and tore through the jar enshrined in the corner like a man possessed.
Gone.
His life's savings—five silver taels, the whole of his fortune—had vanished without a trace.
"You... you... why, you brat! SOGAAAAAANG!"
Baek Byeog-yeon bellowed at the empty jar until his throat tore, but no answer came back.