Chapter 98: Xi'an (10)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 98: Xi'an (10)
“Oh? May I ask what you find so regrettable?”
“...”
A thick, cloying killing intent washed over me. For a moment, I had the illusion that my head had been cut off. At the sound of a voice colder than winter snow, I slowly turned my head.
Just then, clouds gathered and blocked the sun.
I met Cheon Yeo-hwa's impossibly calm eyes. Her crimson pupils seemed to glow faintly.
The air around us chilled in an instant. The sweat covering my body cooled rapidly.
“Hyun-woo, this one is asking you a question.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa's fingertips moved toward the sword at her waist.
“What is it that you regret so much?”
“...That I couldn't go to the market with you, Yeo-hwa?”
“Huhu, how pleasant to hear.”
A faint smile bloomed on Cheon Yeo-hwa's icy expression, which had looked sharp enough to cut me with a glance. But her eyes were not smiling.
“However, that is the wrong answer.”
Thwack—
An explosive blow struck my side before I had a chance to dodge, and I collapsed. I didn't even see her draw the sword from its sheath. To think she hit me not with the blade or the flat, but with a sword wave.
I was once again reminded of the vast difference in skill between Cheon Yeo-hwa and me as swordsmen. However, since I passed out immediately, I couldn't dwell on it for long.
*
“Oh my, Lady Yeon-hee, you’ve returned? But you’re sweating so much...”
Slam! Jo Yeon-hee ignored the maids calling out to her and stormed straight into her room. She leaned against the door and slumped to the floor.
“Hah, hah, hah!”
Sweat streamed down her cheeks and soaked the floor, but Jo Yeon-hee was preoccupied with touching her own lips. As time passed, her face grew redder and redder.
Jo Yeon-hee recalled what had just happened.
As soon as she heard news of a Transcendent master around her age, she had slipped away from her maids at dawn and headed for the annex where the guests were staying.
She had never once skipped her dawn training, but today was an exception. It was a moment where curiosity triumphed over diligence.
As the sun began to rise, she climbed over the wall and arrived at the annex's training ground, where a man was engaged in physical training. And he was shirtless.
...Gulp.
Having trained in martial arts with the other disciples of her sect since she was a child, she had seen men's bare torsos hundreds of times.
But he was different.
Truthfully, it wasn't easy for martial artists, who trained under the scorching sun from a young age, to be handsome.
In that respect, she could say he was the most handsome martial artist she had ever met. Even among the pampered sons of escort agencies or merchant guilds, he would rank among the top few.
His features were a bit sharp, but even that looked good to her. On top of that, his skin was fair, and his overall proportions were excellent. He had a good physique for practicing martial arts.
Of course, it wasn't just his looks that captured her attention. He looked four or five years younger than her, yet he was already a Transcendent master?
Considering that her father, the Hundred Flowers Sect Leader, had only just reached the very beginning of the Transcendent master realm, it was hard to believe.
For a while, she watched his training as if mesmerized. She knew her actions were a grave sin against the code of the Murim, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from him.
It was just common training, consisting of nothing more than ordinary horizontal slashes, vertical slashes, and thrusts, but the more she watched, the more she felt herself being drawn in.
In the sword that moved along a set path, she could glimpse a fragment of his talent. In a simple horizontal slash, she could feel the gap in skill between them.
—How long are you going to keep peeking?
Perhaps she had been staring too intently, as she was quickly discovered. She swallowed hard. Spying on another's training was a grave sin among grave sins; if he challenged her to a life-or-death duel, she would have to accept.
The thought made her feel like her blood was running dry.
But thankfully, he readily accepted her apology. Unlike his sharp appearance, he was a broad-minded person.
—Miss Jo.
And he was a man who smelled sweet. As he suddenly approached, an indescribable scent wafted from him. It was an ecstatic scent, incomparable to the unpleasant smell of sweat. Just inhaling it made her head feel hazy.
Up close, his body was even better than she had imagined. His firm abs and well-defined shoulders kept stealing her gaze. The scent emanating from him made her heart pound, and it felt as if her reason was being paralyzed.
Even when he forcefully pulled her into an embrace, she couldn't even put up a proper resistance. Worse, when he stole her first kiss, far from resisting, she had unconsciously moved her tongue and responded to him.
“Hk, ugh...♡”
Squish, squish♡
Recalling the moment she was held against Kang Hyun-woo's chest, their lips pressed together, tongues entwined, craving each other's saliva, Jo Yeon-hee stroked her vulva. It was the first time she had ever masturbated.
To any observer, her masturbation was clumsy beyond belief. Penetration was out of the question; she could only soothe herself by rubbing her poor, innocent clit. Even so, it was not enough to calm her thoroughly aroused body.
“Ahh... Young Master... you mustn't do this...♡”
Jo Yeon-hee couldn't forget the sensation of her buttocks being toyed with in Kang Hyun-woo's large hands.
She had never shown the slightest interest in men, having dedicated herself solely to martial arts, but from the moment she fled his arms until she reached her room, she couldn't forget Kang Hyun-woo for a single second.
“Haaah...!!♡”
Finally, Jo Yeon-hee's body trembled as she reached a light climax. She felt a sense of self-loathing at the sight of herself, like a prostitute, soothing her own vulva while recalling a strange man's touch, but that feeling didn't last long.
Jo Yeon-hee soon immersed herself in masturbation again. And she wondered.
What would have happened to her if she hadn't run away when his hand touched her vulva?
A deep sense of regret was etched on Jo Yeon-hee's face as she reminisced about the past that was already gone.
*
The day to depart for Jinheung Village had finally arrived.
Leaving the Hundred Flowers Sect in the early dawn, the investigation team cut through the forest southeast of Xi'an. Since the entire team was composed of martial artists, they ran without rest, using their Lightness Skill.
They covered a distance that would normally take a full day in just half a day. That was how tight their schedule was.
For the record, I don't know how to use the Lightness Skill. How could I, when I haven't even learned an internal energy cultivation method?
Instead, I ran by reinforcing my body with magic. That alone allowed me to move faster than most Lightness Skills, so I had no trouble keeping up with the investigation team.
—Hyun-woo, from now on, run without using magic.
—...
Of course, my training didn't stop even while we were on the move. Whenever the path became rough, Cheon Yeo-hwa would tell me via walkie-talkie to stop using magic. Thanks to that, my stamina improved daily, but the other team members gave me strange looks.
They thought I was a Transcendent master. A master of that level panting after using a bit of the Lightness Skill? It didn't add up, but no one had the guts to say anything to my face.
[Remaining Matching Time: 77:27:52]
After much trial and tribulation, we finally arrived at Jinheung Village. The journey would have normally taken three days, but by running with the Lightness Skill, we made it in less than one.
Of course, because of that, some members started dry-heaving and passed out upon arrival. I wanted to collapse right there with them, but Cheon Yeo-hwa forced me to my feet.
Something about how in the Murim, ruled by the law of the jungle, you must never show weakness, anytime, anywhere.
“Great Hero Kang, could you come with us for a moment?”
The leader of the investigation team came to find me.
“Where to?”
“We are going to pay our respects to the Elder of the Mount Hua Sect.”
For a moment, my brow furrowed.
“So what, you want me to go bow to some elder too?”
Although I had joined the investigation team at the request of the Hundred Flowers Sect, that didn't mean I was going to become a lackey of the Mount Hua Sect like them.
“N-No, that's not it. I am the only one who will be greeting the Elder. Great Hero, you are just going to hear the plans for the upcoming exploration of the old temple.”
Seeing my twisted expression, the team leader frantically waved his hands. I was annoyed, but there was no harm in hearing the plan, so I followed him toward the Mount Hua Sect's camp.
I left Cheon Yeo-hwa to rest in her tent. Others might not have noticed, but I could see her condition. The forehead and cheeks of the woman who had never shed a single drop of sweat before were now clearly marked with perspiration.
It was only natural for Cheon Yeo-hwa, who had not yet fully detoxified the poison, to be in poor condition after such a grueling march.
“Here we are.”
I followed the team leader into a rather spacious tent. Inside were an old man with a white beard that reached his solar plexus and a bunch of middle-aged guys who looked like thugs. For a second, I thought I'd walked into a gangster hideout, not the Mount Hua Sect's camp.
The team leader offered them a respectful cupped fist salute.
“I am Mak Yongmyeong, Leader of the Hundred Flowers Sect and the head of this investigation team. We have just arrived in response to the Mount Hua Sect's request for support.”
“I am Hyunjin, the 6th Elder of the Mount Hua Sect. You've worked hard to get here so quickly.”
“Not at all.”
The white-bearded old man smiled benevolently and stroked his beard. He reminded me of the Shih Tzu an old man in my neighborhood used to have.
“But... who might this Young Hero be?”
A faint look of bewilderment crossed the old man's eyes as they swept over me. Even though I was suppressing my magic, he seemed to have a rough grasp of my level.
“Ah, he is a guest of our Hundred Flowers Sect. He graciously agreed to join our investigation team at our request.”
“...I am Kang Hyun-woo.”
“Hoh...”
When I gave a simple cupped fist salute, the old man stroked his beard and marveled.
“How old might you be?”
“I am twenty-one this year.”
As a decent young man who knew how to respect his elders, I couldn't bring myself to speak informally to an old man who looked like he'd die of natural causes if I so much as poked him.
“What...?! You mean to say you've reached that realm at the tender age of twenty?!”
“Yes, well... I suppose so?”
“Primordial Heavenly Venerable, Primordial Heavenly Venerable... This is truly a great fortune for the Murim...”
Ignoring the old man's over-the-top reaction, I looked around at the gazes I had been feeling for a while. As expected, it was all middle-aged men.
‘Didn't that cloth merchant say something about the Five Flowers of Murim?’
In a typical wuxia novel, it was a given that the Mount Hua Sect would have a pretty girl called a phoenix or one of the Five Flowers of Murim, but it seemed that wasn't the case in this world.
My mood suddenly soured. Being surrounded by stinky old guys was starting to make me feel sick.
‘...I'm just gonna leave.’
I could ask the team leader about the exploration plan later. I came to the conclusion that to fix my mood, I needed to bury my head in Cheon Yeo-hwa's large breasts.
I made a quick excuse to the team leader about feeling unwell and left the tent. Of course, the guys inside glared at me with displeasure, but that wasn't my problem.
“First, I'll eat with Yeo-hwa, and then we'll have sex until she calls for me later...”
“Young Lady!”
A greasy man's voice, disgusting just to listen to, made my brow furrow instinctively. I wanted to ignore it, but the fact that the voice came from the direction of Cheon Yeo-hwa's tent was a problem I couldn't overlook.
I hurried toward the tent, and a fucking ridiculous sight unfolded before my eyes. Some guy was kneeling on one knee before Cheon Yeo-hwa.
“Oh, beautiful lady, like a scattering plum blossom! Would you grant me the honor of knowing your name?”
At the cheesy line that felt like it was defiling my ears, my magic sparked and surged like lightning. A strange sense of déjà vu soured my mood, and before I knew it, the Black Killing Mad Demon Sword was in my hand.
The Mad Demon Sword spat out Sword Qi.