Chapter 36: Wolf Disciple (6)
Chapter 36: Wolf Disciple (6)
"You've worked hard again today, Master."
"......."
"Master?"
"Uh, huh? R-right! You've worked hard today too. Well then, I'll be going now!"
Even though the sparring had ended, Seol Yu-ran still hadn't fully regained her senses and was still dazed. She rambled incoherently before hastily stepping away from Geum Tae-yang as if fleeing. The further the distance grew between them, the more her face flushed red, as if her patience had been scraped down to the dregs.
And why wouldn't it? This time, her disciple's pants had been torn mid-spar!
'And that's what it looks like soft?!'
Her mind was in complete disarray because of Geum Tae-yang, who had continued the spar with his undergarments torn and his hefty member dangling freely. Just how much hardship had she endured because of this disciple who fought in his wolf form while swinging around that massive thing?
She had seen it before, but back then, it was when he was coupling with his wife, Chi-chi, so she hadn't seen the full extent of it. At that time, more than half of it had already been buried inside Chi-chi.
But this time—his lower garments had been completely shredded by the plum blossom petals made of ice, leaving him half-naked.
Thanks to that, Seol Yu-ran had seen her disciple's complete male anatomy, and she couldn't stop her heart from pounding wildly.
Lately, she had already been feeling restless because she had lightly climaxed while receiving massages from her disciple. Since her husband, Wi Ji-ja, was the one who had encouraged it in the first place, she didn't feel guilty, but that was the extent of it.
So she was already in a fraught state, trying desperately not to cross the line—and now, she had seen the fully solid proof of her disciple's manhood. It was utterly bewildering.
Seol Yu-ran found it irritating how her heart raced without any regard for her own feelings. Putting some distance between herself and the sparring grounds where the formation lay, she could no longer hold back and began swinging her sword.
Right now, focusing on martial arts—even if just through swinging her blade—seemed like the only way to calm the turmoil inside her.
Though she could no longer perfectly recall it, she conjured up the dearly missed scenery of the North Sea in her mind and used her sword's energy to make the plum blossoms her master had planted bloom anew.
Pristine white plum blossoms, formed from Yin Cold Qi, burst into lavish bloom. Seol Yu-ran stepped atop them.
An exclusive footwork technique, invented by her late master—a Mount Hua Sect elder who had passed away from old age—unfolded beneath her feet.
Her lithe form stretched across the blossoms she had manifested. She executed the Plum Blossom Shadow Step, a unique footwork skill optimized for the Plum Blossom Sword Technique. Like gliding across the shadows of plum blossoms, her body moved from one blossom to another in an instant, her movement unfolding like an illusion.
So dazzling and resplendent was her figure as she danced across the riot of blossoms that one might have mistaken her for a fairy.
The Plum Blossom Sword Technique was already an inherently flashy style, centered around illusions and swift strikes—but paired with the footwork that perfectly complemented it, the sight was akin to witnessing a celestial dancer from the Immortal Realm.
"Haaah. That's better."
Finishing her impromptu practice session—having swung her sword with all her might—Seol Yu-ran wiped the sweat from her brow with her sleeve and wore an expression of relief.
Indeed, when her inner turmoil was overwhelming, swinging her sword and clearing her mind seemed to work best. Having lightened her tangled emotions, as befitting a martial artist, she immediately felt them knotting up again.
The moment she stopped swinging her sword, Geum Tae-yang's thing resurfaced in her mind.
'I shouldn't overcomplicate this. It was just... an accident, the kind that commonly happens during sparring.'
Hadn't it been the same when she was young at the Ice Palace?
During sparring sessions where Ice Art was employed, it wasn't uncommon for the palace's martial artists to have their robes or undergarments torn. Back then, they had laughed it off lightly and moved on without fuss.
The only difference now was the matter of gender—but if she broadened her perspective, that was all there was to it. She didn't need to be this shocked.
Seol Yu-ran was just about to forcefully cut off these thoughts before they tangled into an even bigger mess—when suddenly—
Huhk.
Sensing someone's presence, she immediately shifted her stance and leveled the tip of her sword in their direction.
"Who goes there?"
"...Well, well. I was just wandering around to see if I could find more traces, but this is an unexpected windfall."
Emerging from the thicket was a middle-aged man with white hair. Strapped to his back were numerous weapons—an enormous axe, spears, a bow, swords, daggers, and more.
It was an exceedingly rare sight, even in the Rivers and Lakes, where people carried many weapons.
Because of that, Seol Yu-ran had no trouble guessing his identity.
"...So it's the Green Forest King, Senior Ak-chang."
"Kkkk. You're more polite than I expected, enemy of the Green Forest."
"Enemy?"
The sudden label of enemy left Seol Yu-ran tilting her head in confusion. Ignoring her bewilderment, the Green Forest King continued speaking.
"You slaughtered every last member of Earth Dragon Fortress, our brothers of the Green Forest. If that doesn't make you an enemy of the Green Forest, what does?"
"I don't know what you've mistaken me for, but I've never laid a hand on the Green Forest. I think you must have misunderstood something, Senior. Let's stay calm and talk this through."
"I visited Earth Dragon Fortress just a moment ago, and every last one of them was dead. Their mute and paralysis points had been lightly pierced with a sharp tip, and their heads had been smashed like watermelons."
"You're saying I committed such a cruel act?"
Sealing the mute and paralysis points meant the victims had been rendered utterly powerless. And yet, crushing their heads underfoot afterward was the sort of thing only a demon whose mind had been consumed by Demonic Art would do.
Seol Yu-ran, suspected of being the culprit, could not help feeling deeply offended.
But with utter conviction on his face, the Green Forest King spoke with confidence.
"The technique behind the blade that pierced those points was incredibly delicate. In all my life, the only swordsmanship in Shaanxi capable of such precision that I've ever seen is the Plum Blossom Sword Technique. And there was a chill clinging to their other wounds, too. Is there any other master around here besides you who can wield cold with such freedom and perform a precise sword technique like the Plum Blossom Sword Technique?"
"...I can understand why you'd suspect me, but it wasn't me."
At the mention of cold, Seol Yu-ran immediately thought of her disciple, Geum Tae-yang. But at the Green Forest King's claim that the victims' Acupressure Sealing had been done with a blade, she promptly dismissed her suspicion. The claws of the Ice Wolf Body Transformation were as sharp as blades, but surely the Green Forest King couldn't mistake claw marks for sword marks.
The Green Forest King, known as the Hundred Weapons Mountain General, could hardly be an idiot who couldn't distinguish the traces left by different weapons.
Could her disciple have joined forces with someone?
For now, that seemed the most plausible explanation.
But Seol Yu-ran soon dismissed even that suspicion.
As his master, she could not suspect her disciple. A lingering unease remained, but more important than that now was not letting her guard down against the Green Forest King before her.
Tae-yang and I used up a great deal of internal energy during our spar. I can't afford to let my guard down.
In sheer numbers, the Green Forest boasted manpower on par with the Demonic Cult in Xinjiang and the Beggars' Sect in the Central Plains. Facing the man who led every last one of those Green Forest bandits, she could not afford to count on some lucky lapse on his part.
At Seol Yu-ran's upright, keen-edged bearing, the Green Forest King let out an admiring exclamation.
"Oh? Your edge and presence are far from ordinary. You certainly have the skill to subdue Earth Dragon Fortress and smash it to pieces with ease."
"I told you it wasn't me."
"Haha. Young one, that isn't for you to decide."
In that instant, the Green Forest King's hand moved like a flash of lightning.
"The strong decide!"
The moment it took him to pull the spear from his back and hurl it unfolded in the blink of an eye.
The thrown spear came hurtling toward her, its afterimage stretching out behind it like a long strand of taffy. Seol Yu-ran, who had not let down her guard, tilted her head slightly and evaded it.
At the same time, the Green Forest King appeared before her and brought down his enormous double-bladed axe.
The instant he threw the spear, he had taken up the axe and shot toward her with Bow-Body Springing Shadow.
The spear throw alone had been no ordinary feat, but as Seol Yu-ran saw the energy behind the descending axe, she furrowed her brow. Under normal circumstances, she would have knocked it aside with ease. But she had already spent a great deal of internal energy sparring with Geum Tae-yang, so she prioritized evasion.
She spun her body while keeping her Protective Aura in place. The axe missed and struck the earth, sending fragments flying, but she ignored them and drove a counterattack home.
With a great axe like that, its weight would leave the Green Forest King vulnerable right after a powerful attack missed.
But as if he had seen through Seol Yu-ran's calculations, the Green Forest King released the great axe without hesitation, drew a pair of daggers, and crossed them to block her strike.
Kwang-gwagwag!
The two daggers, infused with sword qi, grated against her one-handed sword.
Seol Yu-ran judged that she would lose if they continued to struggle for strength, since she was short on internal energy. Just as she was about to use the repelling force of her sword qi to put some distance between them—
Thud!
"Ghk!"
The Hundred Weapons Mountain General's foot slammed into her abdomen. Unable to redirect the impact, Seol Yu-ran was sent flying. She rolled several times before finally managing to stop.
She had kept her Protective Aura active, so she was not badly hurt, but a fierce shock seeped into her internal organs, leaving her with a minor internal injury.
She reversed her grip on her sword and leaned on it like a cane. If she collapsed here, she did not know what the Green Forest King might do to her.
"Ugh... coughcough!"
Perhaps taking that unexpected blow while already low on internal energy had been too much.
The Green Forest King, having sheathed his twin daggers once more, pulled his great axe from the ground and slung it over his shoulder as he approached Seol Yu-ran.
"Hahaha. Not bad in skill, but sorely lacking in real combat experience. Yet to have broken through the wall despite that—you must be exceptionally talented."
"Huff. Please shut up."
"How enviable. Truly enviable. I had to roll through battlefields past the age of forty just to break through the wall, and it wasn't until my fifties that I met my master and learned the Divine Martial Absolute Arts."
"It seems my words go in one ear and out the other..."
The Green Forest King chuckled darkly. The malice dripping from his bloodthirsty smirk made Seol Yu-ran instinctively shrink back without realizing it.
"Truth be told, I don't care whether you're the one who wiped out Earth Dragon Fortress or not. A shame about the stronghold, but losses like that replenish themselves with time. Bandits sprout up like weeds in a beggar's yard, after all."
"Then why go this far—?"
"Because—"
The Green Forest King's face twisted with malice. It was the expression of pure evil—no, of someone who knew full well his actions were vile and reveled in them with genuine delight.
Whether Seol Yu-ran grimaced in instinctive disgust at that look or not, the Green Forest King paid no mind.
"A high-level martial artist like you—if I brainwash you with soul-addling drugs and pass you around among my men, I can turn you into my subordinate. There's nothing quite like watching a beautiful, talented female martial artist despair, grieve, and break as she's passed around by lowly bandits. The younger, the better."
"...You're the worst kind of trash."
"Haha. You just don't understand the pleasure of it."
The reason the Green Forest King, Ak-chang, who had crawled through countless battlefields, had turned to banditry was simple: it made evil easier to commit—and easier to get away with.
"Do you know the expressions of those being plundered on the battlefield? The way they break so easily when their children are taken, when their loved ones are treated as tools—even the most wretched of men. Those shattered faces alone fill me with ecstasy. Especially a child's. When I kill their parents and take them, they scream at first, but soon their eyes go dead, like dolls. That moment—when I harvest every last shred of their future! Ahh, even I lose myself in it....But it's never enough."
A viscous, oozing wickedness dripped from the corners of his grinning mouth.
"I wanted toys that would last longer, but the weaklings I plundered were all too fragile. So I thought—why not capture a talented child with exceptional mental fortitude and try it out? That's why I turned to the Green Forest. Failed in the end, so I decided to make my own."
"Make... your own?"
"Oops. Got carried away there. Been a while since I've talked this much."
The Green Forest King feigned regret at having let slip more than he should have as he hefted his axe. Though no martial energy flowed through it, the sheer size of the great axe made it more intimidating than any weapon. He smirked down at Seol Yu-ran as he raised it.
"Then let's meet again once you've become a little more... pliant, little one."
The axe descended. It wouldn't kill her, but a blow to the head from that massive thing would knock her out cold—and if that happened, her life as she knew it would be over. That much was certain.
Gritting her teeth, Seol Yu-ran prepared to tap into her Innate True Qi, consequences be damned—when suddenly...
[Dear.]
[Mom!]
She froze.
The voices of Wi Ji-ja and her daughter, calling out to her so tenderly, flashed through her mind unbidden.
I don't want to die.
It wasn't strange. The more one had to lose, the more terrifying death became.
Even if it meant tumbling down a cliff and ending up covered in mud, disgraced and battered—
Those who had something precious to leave behind would always choose to survive.
Plum blossoms endure winter to bloom. They withstand harsh conditions to achieve their flowering. But just as all beginnings must end, plum blossoms too must eventually wither.
Was she now to become a falling plum blossom?
If she could see her family's faces just once more, she might have been willing to burn her very life as kindling.
I miss you... Darling. Bo-a.
Soon, she might no longer be herself.
Before that happened, she resolved never to forget her family—to sear their images into her mind—
But—
"Master!"
"...Disciple?"
Suddenly, it was Geum Tae-yang's face that burned itself into her thoughts instead.