Mansang Realm
When I opened my eyes that morning, Seo Ran was there beside me, still fast asleep with her body wrapped tightly around mine.
I reached out and played with her breasts, kneading them, poking her nipples, tugging them lightly.
“Mmm. Still a great pair of tits today.”
I slowly massaged her chest while my thoughts drifted.
It was about time we left Hongyeon Valley.
For more than a week I had been continuously draining Seo Ran’s spiritual energy through the Yin-Yang Dual Cultivation Scripture. Foundation Establishment was right in front of me.
At this level I could protect her, deal with the demonic beasts, and get us out of here.
Or we could wait a little longer until her poison was completely gone before moving.
Are the beasts still watching outside?
I had known from the first day that demonic beasts were circling the shrine, probing for our presence. For some reason, though, they never came closer than a certain distance from the Fairy Shrine. That was the only reason we had lasted a full week.
Maybe the shrine itself has some kind of seal or barrier.
Or maybe something else. Either way, we had been able to take it easy.
“Time to stop playing around and get moving.”
“Thinking of getting out of here already?”
Seo Ran looked up at me with half-lidded eyes, her voice still thick with sleep.
“We can’t stay here forever.”
“…Outside Hongyeon Valley is still dangerous. That bastard Wang O will be making his move.”
“Then should we wait until your body recovers first?”
“…That would be better. I’ve already recovered quite a bit. Tomorrow at the earliest, two days at the latest.”
I frowned at her words.
“Hold on. You’ve already recovered ‘quite a bit’?”
“Ah… no. It just suddenly came back today!”
Her flustered excuse made the corner of my mouth curl up.
“Wow… so you were already able to use spiritual energy, yet you still didn’t resist and just enjoyed yourself with me?”
Seo Ran’s face turned bright red in an instant.
“Ugh, no, you idiot!”
Thud!
“Guh.”
She punched me square in the solar plexus. No spiritual energy behind it, but a fist still hurt plenty.
“Water. Now!”
She snapped her head away and spoke curtly.
I held back a laugh, got up, pulled a few bottles of water from storage, and held them out to her. Seo Ran snatched one, twisted the cap off, and gulped it down greedily.
Even the way she drinks water is hot.
When she finished she set the bottle down and caught her breath.
“So… you’re not planning to kill me anymore?”
Seo Ran whipped her head around. One eyebrow arched slightly.
“Hmph. I’m only keeping you alive because you’re useful.”
“Liar. There’s another reason, isn’t there?”
“No there isn’t. I still need time to recover. Trying to survive alone in Hongyeon Valley without you would be inefficient. That’s all.”
Her tone was firm, but the tips of her ears had gone faintly pink.
I sat down beside her and asked lightly,
“Really? That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“Even after sleeping together every single day for a week?”
“……”
“And the way you were already clinging to me every morning?”
“That was just in my sleep!”
“Sure. We’ll go with that.”
“No! It’s not! I’ll just kill you right now!”
She lunged at me like a hissing cat. I easily slipped her arms, activated Sensory Amplification at a hundred times, and pinched her nipple hard.
“Nnghyaaaaah!”
Seo Ran came spectacularly, even squirting a little, tears and drool running down her face in a completely undignified climax. She might not realize it, but constant training under me had made her body hypersensitive. With every one of her weak points already mapped out, she never stood a chance against me.
I immediately flipped her onto her stomach and shoved my cock into her pussy.
Morning sex is non-negotiable.
Slap! Slap, slap! Slap!
“Ahngh♡ Hic…♡ Ang, ah, aahng… I’m… coming again…♡”
After morning sex I held Seo Ran as she lay sprawled across my body and asked,
“Seo Ran.”
“What.”
“What are you going to do once we leave Hongyeon Valley?”
“Find my daughter.”
“You have a daughter?”
My eyes widened at the first I’d heard of it.
“I do.”
“Then why keep it hidden all this time?”
“It’s complicated. And… in this world, family is a weakness. Especially if you’re the master of a place like the Red Blood Sect…”
Neither orthodox nor demonic—an awkward middle power. To hold the sect leader’s seat with enemies on every side, you had to hide anything that could become a liability. That much I understood.
“What about a husband?”
“None. I killed him.”
Her expression was dark enough that I didn’t ask why.
“How old is your daughter?”
“…Twenty-two.”
“Her name?”
“Seo Ha…”
“And where is she now?”
“I don’t know. You made her run away.”
“Me?”
“Yes. I saw you pull her out from a distance.”
Her words made no sense. My brow furrowed on its own.
Me?
The only people I had pulled out were Dan Ha and So Ryeong.
Seo Ha… Dan Ha…?
Something clicked in my head like a flash of lightning.
“…Dan Ha is your daughter?”
“Yes.”
I had thought she was unusual from the moment I first saw her in the Poison Cave, but I never imagined she was Seo Ran’s daughter.
“But why go to such lengths to hide her identity? With your strength you could have just protected her by force, right?”
Seo Ran let out a long sigh and pushed herself up a little.
“I’m not the legitimate master of the Red Blood Sect. I killed the previous master and took the seat myself, so more than a few people have been after me. They pretend to submit on the surface while watching for any chance to strike.”
She poked my chest with a finger as she continued.
“If they found out that girl was my daughter, she would have been taken as a hostage immediately and used against me. So I hid her completely. Name, face, even her existence.”
“So Dan Ha doesn’t even know you’re her mother?”
“She doesn’t. I never told her.”
There was sadness in her voice.
“I planned to reveal everything once I reached Nascent Soul…”
“And the plan fell apart.”
“Yes. Because of those fucking bastards…”
The killing intent that rolled off her as she ground her teeth thinking of Wang O and Wang Tae-ho made my legs go weak.
What kind of murderous aura is that?
Even in her incomplete recovery the air around us grew noticeably heavier. I regretted bringing up Wang O at all.
I carefully changed the subject.
“You knew Dan Ha was with me?”
“Yes. I also saw you help her in the Poison Cave.”
“You saw that too?”
“What kind of sect master doesn’t know what happens inside her own sect?”
“You didn’t know about Wang O and Wang Tae-ho.”
“Why are you bringing that up now?!”
“Because the two inner disciples closest to you stabbed you in the back.”
Thud.
“Ugh.”
Another fist buried itself in my solar plexus.
“Hmph. That was a mistake. I never expected them to get their hands on the Spirit Vein Mountain.”
“Well, true enough.”
“…More importantly, where is she now?”
“Somewhere safe. Whether she’s still there after a whole week, though, I can’t say.”
“I can only hope she ran as far as possible…”
“And if you can’t find her?”
“Then that will be fate. Nothing to be done about it. More importantly, Lee Seo-jun. We need to train in the time we have left.”
“With dual cultivation?”
“Not that!”
“Then what?”
“The basics. You’ve piled up spiritual energy, but you still don’t know how to use it properly.”
She wasn’t wrong. I had absorbed plenty of energy through the Yin-Yang Dual Cultivation Scripture, but I still had no real sense of how to wield it in actual combat.
“Are you going to teach me Blood Qi Art or something?”
“No. What you’ll learn is the Red Blood Heart Scripture.”
“Isn’t that a technique only the sect master can cultivate? Is it okay to teach it to me?”
She jabbed a finger into my cheek.
“…Honestly, I really, really don’t want to pass this on to you.”
“But?”
“…You need to get stronger. Only then can I aim for Nascent Soul and beyond.”
Because of the nature of the Yin-Yang Dual Cultivation Scripture, the higher the partner’s realm, the more spiritual energy could be absorbed. In other words, the stronger I became, the more Seo Ran would gain as well. In the end it was a calculation that benefited both of us.
I snorted and sat up.
“Oh-ho. So basically, I get stronger, we dual cultivate with the scripture, and we both get stronger together. Is this a marriage proposal?”
“No!!!”
Seo Ran’s face went scarlet in a flash.
“I-I was just talking about an efficient training method! It’s not a proposal, absolutely not!”
She crossed her arms and whipped her head away, but she couldn’t hide the red tips of her ears.
I couldn’t hold back my laughter as I pulled her waist toward me.
“Understood. I’ll believe it’s not a proposal. So when do we start, Master?”
“Master? What master?!”
“Then what should I call you?”
“…Just call me Seo Ran.”
“Seo Ran?”
“…Who said you could drop the honorifics.”
“You told me to call you Seo Ran. Doesn’t that mean we’re dropping formalities?”
She glared at my sly face, then sighed.
“Do whatever you want.”
“Then from today, take care of me, Seo Ran.”
“Ha… huh?”
Seo Ran, who had been sighing, suddenly snapped her head up toward the shrine entrance.
“…Enemies.”
I rose at once and followed her gaze.
The red mist of Hongyeon Valley slowly parted. A massive wolf stood at the front, and behind it a pack of hundreds of wolves surged forward like a tide.
“Demonic beasts…”
The numbers were overwhelming.
The timing couldn’t be worse.
Then the giant wolf at the very front stepped forward alone. The rest of the pack stopped where they were, unable to come any closer.
“Male and female.”
“The dog… talked?”
The fact that a wolf had spoken made me turn to Seo Ran without thinking.
“A beastkin…?”
“Yes.”
The wolf slowly planted a forepaw and straightened its body. It was easily three times the size of a normal wolf. Crimson eyes swept over the two of us in turn.
“Lady Ho Hwa-rin seeks the two of you.”
A mere beast ordering people around. I was already late Qi Condensation. I needed real combat experience sooner or later, and a few hundred of them wouldn’t be bad for experience points.
I took a step forward and opened my mouth.
“You mutt son of a— mmph!”
Seo Ran slapped her palm over my mouth and answered the wolf.
“Understood.”
“Mmph?!”
I stared at her with wide eyes. She removed her hand and whispered,
“Could you please just stay quiet? From here on we could actually die.”
“……”
The seriousness in her voice made me nod without meaning to.
Seo Ran looked back at the wolf.
“Lead the way.”
The wolf pack began to surround us.
I made this because I was bored.
