Chapter 83: A Slave Can Become a Copy! (2)
Chapter 83: A Slave Can Become a Copy! (2)
We decided to share what we knew about sorcery. Jegal Seung had been gifted in sorcery to begin with, so it wasn't difficult for him to learn about the Sorcery Brands I possessed—the Restraint Seal and the Lewd Seal. In exchange, I learned how to make and heal Gu worms, along with sorcery for setting them on people.
After learning new sorcery from me, he wore an extremely uneasy expression.
"I never imagined that something created by Grandmaster Dharma would be one of these especially vile forms of sorcery, even among those considered wicked arts."
"Dharma may have been an extraordinary man, but he wasn't a god like the Jade Emperor up in the heavens. Still, he was certainly clever. He must have left it in place for the sake of future generations, but there's no way he didn't realize it could be abused in any number of ways. He must have just let it be."
"How can you be so sure?"
"If I were Grandmaster Dharma, I would have believed in the innate goodness of humanity."
There was something called the Theory of Innate Goodness. It held that all human beings were fundamentally good from birth.
Of course, there was also the exact opposite, the Theory of Innate Evilness, but I didn't believe in either of them.
There was only a difference between people who were strong and people who were weak. Someone could be born into a wealthy family with a silver spoon in their mouth and still live as an arrogant, unruly wastrel. Or they could become a kindhearted person who showed mercy to others.
Likewise, there were people who, though born as members of the Beggars' Sect, went hungry and yet always smiled and helped their neighbors. And then there were those who, just because they were beggars, had no qualms about stealing other people's purses.
In that sense, I believed people weren't born with an inherently good or evil nature.
I'd only thought that, if it had been Grandmaster Dharma, perhaps he would have wanted to believe in humanity's innate goodness. No matter how I looked at it, the Restraint Seal was sorcery that could be very easily abused if its user wasn't born with a good heart.
"He founded Thousand-Year Shaolin. A man who accomplished something that great would at least have put his brain to use instead of keeping it around as decoration. He couldn't have left behind sorcery so perfectly suited to abuse if he didn't trust humanity. Or perhaps he was testing human desire by setting out the Fruit of Good and Evil."
"What is this Fruit of Good and Evil?"
"Hmm? Well, it's a fruit that the Jade Emperor made grow because it looked delicious and appealing, but then forbade anyone from picking. The story goes that the moment you eat it, you learn good and evil—and you're sure to die."
The story was actually about Yahweh, God, but I'd dressed it up as something the Jade Emperor had done. In this smutty martial arts world, if you went beyond the Central Plains, there was Beyond the Frontier, and beyond that there was nothing but deserts, grasslands, or the sea.
In a world where the West didn't exist, there weren't any fanatics who would bring divine punishment down on me for passing off Yahweh's story as one about the Jade Emperor.
"Oh? I've never heard that legend before. How fascinating. The Fruit of Good and Evil, eh? It's a story that fits our situation perfectly. So, are we going to die now?"
"Old man, are you crazy? I'm going to live a long life with my women, even if I have to undergo rejuvenation to do it."
"Heh heh heh. Humans are bound to die someday. Besides, at my age, with death drawing near, I think it might not be so bad to eat that Fruit of Good and Evil, if there really is one. But rejuvenation? Aren't you the crazy one?"
Jegal Seung was still a lunatic old man. In a single day, the deranged thoughts lurking in his mind would be enough to stress out anyone listening.
Unlike me, with my modern upbringing and looser standards, the hidebound people of the Central Plains would find his way of thinking repellent.
"Come to think of it, combining this Restraint Seal with my Gu worm sorcery might produce something rather interesting. They're surprisingly compatible, so I could make something you'd like perfectly."
"Oh?"
Was he already picturing the end result? Even the alchemists of the various sects had to treat failure as their mother and endure a difficult stretch before succeeding whenever they tried to create a new elixir.
Yet Jegal Seung was a sorcery genius, and it seemed he could already see the result right before his eyes.
That had to be how he'd managed to claim the position of Blood Cult elder despite having not a shred of inner power.
"A thing that's perfect for me, huh? What is it?"
"You make it by inscribing the Restraint Seal onto a Gu worm as you create it."
"Then what changes?"
"A lot changes. First of all, my absolute-obedience Gu worms have a problem with the cost of their materials, but the time it takes to finish one is a problem too. I can only make one a year."
I'd read that in the original story too. The only reason the protagonist's group had been able to stop Jegal Seung was that making Gu worms took far too long.
But if he was putting it that way, did that mean he could mass-produce them now?
"Young punk, your guess is right. It seems I can now produce one a month. I'll simply leave out the time it takes to cultivate most of my Gu worm's important functions, then use the Restraint Seal to slip in only the functions that suit your tastes and finish it off."
"And just to be clear, what's this effect of yours that's supposed to suit my tastes?"
"You can force your opponent to climax whenever you want."
"...Oh, damn."
Jegal Seung. Is he a god? He is.
A Gu worm that forces its target to climax.
"The name Lustful Gu worm will do. It's a Gu worm you'll be spreading, Thousand-Faced Lust Demon."
"Hm? You're not going to spread them yourself, old man?"
"Heh heh. I'm still an elder of the Blood Cult. If I let my activities drop off, the other elders—or the Cult Leader—will grow suspicious and come to deal with this old man themselves. For now, I have to at least pretend to be doing my job."
"Hmm. Fair enough. Then while we're at it, how about bringing down the Jegal Clan, like you wanted?"
"That... does sound very tempting. What is your plan?"
I shared the plan that had come to me after hearing about his Lustful Gu worm, which he could now make one of every month. The corners of Jegal Seung's mouth curled upward as he listened, and there was something wicked about it.
Who knew a man could look so much like a mastermind just by smiling? That old geezer's face really was something else.
"Heh heh heh. It would be quite a sight to see the Jegal Clan reduced to such a state. I'll push myself and make even more Lustful Gu worms to send your way."
"I'm thinking of making my move during the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly. How many Gu worms can you manage?"
"Hmm. If I push myself, I should be able to make as many as four."
If Jegal Seung put it that way, then he really would be pushing himself.
"Good. I'll send you plenty of funding from this side, too, so send me the Lustful Gu worms as soon as you finish making them. I'll be attending the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly, so you can send them then."
"I'll do that."
After we finished discussing things, Jegal Seung left.
I'd proposed a plan to bring down the Jegal Clan, and he was so fired up about it that you could practically see it with the naked eye. The corners of his mouth kept twisting into a sneer, as if he could hardly wait for the Jegal Clan's downfall.
As long as he supplied me with Lustful Gu worms faithfully, I had no complaints.
They'd be useful for getting my women's cunts warmed up, and they'd also make a fine threat to use against the cunts I planned to keep as snacks.
And so, the Myriad Deaths Divine Physician, Jegal Seung, left.
Between discussing plans and exchanging sorcery and the like, I'd ended up spending two whole days with him after capturing him.
That meant I had less time to spend with Chi-chi or Seol Yu-ran, but I could guarantee that the time had been worth it.
I knew capturing him was the right call. A slave-duplication bug, seriously...!
I already knew from the original that the guy carried around one extra Solitary Puppet as a spare. I'd planned to feed it to him and then threaten him, but, unexpectedly, he cooperated without much fuss.
Thanks to that, it was easy to put the plan together.
Could this be the protagonist's plot armor? It felt as if the world was trying to revolve around me.
Whispering that I should make even more females mine.
That I should fuck even more cunts.
"Then I suppose it's finally time to go welcome my third wife."
I'm coming to see you now.
***
In most murim stories, Reversion of Youth means that a master becomes younger and lives longer. Sometimes their martial arts weaken a little because their body has reached its limits, but they gain more than that in return.
Having more time to grow stronger, and being able to refine those skills all over again from a young age, was a considerable advantage for a master.
There was a reason hermit masters in the murim genre were so fixated on Reversion of Youth.
But in Wind and Cloud Harem Record, it was never a good thing. Here, Reversion of Youth was the very definition of defying the heavens.
If you undergo Reversion of Youth, you're punished by heaven through the Law of Causality.
The punishment depended on how much you reverted your body. One person had only wanted to become a little younger, but ended up turning into a baby and forgetting all their martial arts completely, as if someone had splashed black ink over them.
Another had restored their body to a healthy state, only to lose their internal energy and be left with nothing but external techniques.
There was a reason there were almost no masters who had undergone Reversion of Youth in this world's history of the murim. Some made the mistake of undergoing it rashly and met a sudden, violent death. Others hid themselves away after becoming so disfigured that they couldn't bear to be seen by anyone.
But even among them, there were some who were lucky.
And the third woman I was going to make my wife was a female master who had been lucky enough to undergo Reversion of Youth.
"Disciple. I still don't know if this is the right thing to do."
"What is?"
"Tricking and fucking a female hero who's lost her memory because of Reversion of Youth... Are you really sure it's all right?"
A female master whose Reversion of Youth had caused her to suffer severe memory loss.
She was the third cunt I was going to fuck.