Darkest Under the Lamp
Mo Seyeong showed up at my room without warning.
Ever since I'd become her personal servant, the menial chores had fallen away and I'd found myself with far more free time than before. I spent those hours training, and the art I was working on now was the Yin-Yang Harmony Technique.
Luckily she hadn't caught me at it. Training in the Yin-Yang Harmony Technique looked nothing like ordinary martial practice.
"You…. You! What the hell are you doing!?"
I was in the middle of jerking off. Not to scratch an itch—if I'd wanted that, I could have just summoned one of my women. Masturbation was simply one of the foundational drills of the technique. To anyone walking in, it would have looked like nothing more than a man taking care of himself.
"Ah! Head Disciple! What brings you to my humble room…."
I yanked my trousers up as I spoke. Mo Seyeong started to say something, then shook her head and muttered to herself.
"Khh! This isn't what matters right now…."
Her temper seemed a notch milder than it used to be. The reason, of course, was my massage.
"So why the sudden visit…."
"You! Do you know where the Rakshasa Demoness is?"
She asked after Dan Yuha's house without so much as a greeting. I knew at once why she wanted her. One hundred percent Chu Pawol.
She thinks Dan Yuha broke Chu Pawol out, doesn't she? She'd never dream I was the one who sprung him. This actually works in my favor.
A perfect chance to slide clean off the suspect list. Not that she'd ever put me on it in the first place. Truly, it is darkest under the lamp.
"I do know, but…."
"Take me there. Right now!"
Chu Pawol had escaped, and people from the Murim Alliance would be arriving any day. She had every reason to be sweating. If word got out that Fairy Gate had lost the prisoner Chu Pawol, the disgrace would be enormous. Her claim on the next sect master's seat might even start to wobble.
That's what you get for not watching him properly while you had him. The security had been laughably thin. In her defense, she never would have imagined an insider would be the one to set him free.
I led her to Dan Yuha's house exactly as she demanded. Lying and steering her elsewhere wasn't an option, and if she pinned the blame on Dan Yuha, so much the better for me. The two of us arrived at the little hut.
"That one?"
"Yes. Right there."
"Coiling up on Mount Wudang of all places…. So this is what they mean by darkest under the lamp."
Heh. The real culprit is even closer than that.
I laughed at her inwardly.
Dan Yuha had made her home right beside the Wudang Sect, the very face of the orthodox faction. It was anything but ordinary. Mo Seyeong strode toward the hut with hard, purposeful steps.
Dan Yuha was several levels above her, and Mo Seyeong knew it. Coming alone anyway was almost certainly a matter of pride. She was acting sect master of Fairy Gate. She had to carry herself like one.
"Rakshasa Demoness Dan Yuha! I am Mo Seyeong, Head Disciple of Fairy Gate!"
She hammered on the door and bellowed loud enough to shake Mount Wudang. Even the northern barbarians had better manners. Then again, Mo Seyeong was in no position to worry about etiquette. A presence stirred inside the quiet hut.
The wooden door creaked open, and a beauty leaned out. It was, without question, the Rakshasa Demoness Dan Yuha. Her gaze landed on Mo Seyeong first, then slid past her to me.
The eyes that found me curved softly, like a crescent moon. I'd earned a fair amount of her favor; the reaction was only natural.
"What business does the Head Disciple of Fairy Gate have here? And you're far too loud. Didn't you startle every bird off the mountain?"
"That doesn't matter. I'll get to the point. Rakshasa Demoness. Did you help Chu Pawol escape?"
Mo Seyeong had no reverse gear. She jabbed a finger at Dan Yuha and stated her purpose at once. She looked every inch the ferocious career woman—which, in fairness, she was.
"Chu Pawol? That erotic demon? Ah. Fairy Gate was holding him, wasn't it. Escape, you say? First I've heard of it."
Dan Yuha spoke without a single false note. Mo Seyeong stared hard at her face, hunting for a lie, but without mind-reading or any similar art she had no hope of catching one.
Besides, Dan Yuha stood several rungs above her. If Dan Yuha chose to deceive her, it would be easier than taking a nap.
"Yes. That legendary erotic demon escaped. Last night. It shouldn't have been possible. Fairy Gate's prison is sealed three times over. Rakshasa Demoness…. No one short of a master of your caliber could have broken him out."
Mo Seyeong made no effort to hide her hostility. Had the woman in front of her not been the Rakshasa Demoness, a blade might already have been flying. Dan Yuha only smiled, as if she found the whole scene entertaining.
"Is that so?"
"That's why I came. I don't know why you'd spring that erotic demon…. but you're the most likely suspect."
"Hmm. Say what you like—this woman knows nothing. And that erotic demon, Chu Pawol, is an enemy of women, is he not? What possible reason would I have to free him? Even among the unorthodox, few would claim to like him."
The logic was sound enough that Mo Seyeong shut her mouth. Even she couldn't invent a motive for Dan Yuha to have done it.
"What's more, last night this woman never left this house. Not a step. Of course, there are no witnesses."
To be precise, she'd holed up at home after we'd had anal sex.
"Is that true?"
"It is. Though you clearly have no intention of believing it."
She was right. The suspicion in Mo Seyeong's eyes never so much as flickered. Nothing Dan Yuha said would convince her.
"If you're innocent…. then I can look through this house, can't I?"
The instant the words left her mouth, a killing chill slammed through my entire body. My spine went ice-cold. It felt as if dozens of ghosts had closed in, driving sharp nails toward my flesh.
Mo Seyeong felt it too. Her face went paper-white and she dropped to one knee. Dan Yuha looked down at her with eyes colder than a north-wind blizzard.
"This woman dislikes children who do not know manners. That I lowered myself to your level was not because of your personal strength, but because of the name Fairy Gate. Yet you seem incapable of keeping to the line."
She was angry. Thoroughly, dangerously angry.
Mo Seyeong had gone too far. Demanding to search the house out of nowhere—even a government official would have earned a slap for that, and Mo Seyeong was far younger and far weaker. Of course Dan Yuha was furious. Directly under that killing intent, Mo Seyeong shook like an aspen.
"Child. What did you intend to do if you were wrong, charging about so rashly? Beware of liquor, beware of blades, beware of reckless speech. Have you not yet learned the Three Martial Admonitions of the martial world?"
Mo Seyeong seized her own trembling right arm with her left hand. She lifted her head, looked Dan Yuha straight in the eye, then straightened the kneeling knee and stood.
"Hnnngh!"
Fierce, pure inner energy rolled off her. After learning the erotic art I could sense a martial artist's power to some degree, and what came from Mo Seyeong felt like a clear, transparent waterfall. She used it to push back against Dan Yuha's killing intent.
"Haa…. haa…. haa…."
"Oh my. Not bad."
Dan Yuha offered the praise without a shred of feeling behind it.
"If you're innocent, showing the house shouldn't be a problem."
"Ridiculous coercion. The killing intent I released just now was not even thirty percent. You would do well not to grow proud merely for having shaken it off."
Dan Yuha moved to press her further. Then her eyes found me. The frost vanished from her face as if a warm spring breeze had blown through, and the killing intent that had been pricking our skin disappeared completely.
What's she playing at?
"Haa…."
Given a moment to collect herself, Mo Seyeong took a step back. Dan Yuha turned that same bright smile on her that she'd worn at the start. The speed of the change was so unnatural it sent a chill of its own.
"Very well. If you want it that badly, I'll show you the house."
The sudden reversal put Mo Seyeong on high alert. She could tell a scheme was forming.
"Why? Changed your mind?"
"Why the sudden change?"
"Hehe. I'll show you the house. If it proves I have no guilt in this, you will pay the price."
"The price…?"
"Is that not only fair? Reckless conduct deserves a reckoning, does it not?"
Sweat beaded on Mo Seyeong's brow. Innocent, or bluffing? Watching her grind through the calculation was rather entertaining.
"What's the price? You want me to kneel and beg forgiveness in front of you?"
"That would be amusing too. But rather than that…."
Dan Yuha's gaze slid to me. I already knew what she was going to say.
"I'll take that child."
Mo Seyeong followed the pointing finger to me and her face went slack with disbelief.
"You've taken quite a liking to that one, haven't you?"
"He's wasted on Fairy Gate."
Dan Yuha made no attempt to hide it.
Mo Seyeong hesitated. She was thoroughly addicted to my massages; giving me up was the last thing she wanted. But finding Chu Pawol came first. The honor of the entire sect hung on it. In the end she made the only choice she could.
"Fine. We'll do it your way."
"Hehe. Come in, then."
Dan Yuha threw the door wide and welcomed us as if we were honored guests.