The Path of Radiant Ascension
Splash! Splash!
Yeon Ye-ha and I dove into the lake one after the other, packing as much air into our mouths as we could. Having gone under first, I took her hand. The moment we entered the underwater passage the current would almost certainly turn vicious, so we locked our fingers tight to keep from being torn apart.
The air in our lungs was finite. There was no time to waste. We swam straight into the passage.
It was pitch black—no light reached this far. But I had the Heavenly Eye. I cut through the darkness and pressed forward. Yeon Ye-ha was the worry. In this cold, lightless place she had no choice but to rely on me alone.
I could raise sword-qi to light the way… but that would be a ridiculous waste of energy.
We swam on. The current carried us, so the effort was not as brutal as it might have been.
Fish. That means this passage definitely connects to the outside.
Maybe ten minutes later I spotted something grotesque. It hung upside-down from the ceiling of the tunnel—pale flesh, black hair writhing like worms. The shape of the body was closer to a woman’s.
…A water ghost.
The ghost twisted its neck and fixed empty eyes on me. Shreds of fish flesh clung to its torn mouth. Closer inspection showed scales rising across its skin. It moved, thrashing its legs like a fish’s tail and stretching razor nails toward us.
Tch. Underwater, Chamgwi Dobeop alone won’t cut it. Heavenly Demon Divine Art is out of the question… Screw it. Noecheonryu it is.
Whatever the cost, it had to be better than letting a water ghost take us.
A sphere of condensed lightning blazed into existence before me, flooding the tunnel with blue-white light.
The water ghost recoiled from the sudden glare. The orb streaked toward it on my will and detonated. Hundreds of lightning threads raced through the water. I poured every scrap of focus into control, forcing every single arc to strike only the ghost and leave Yeon Ye-ha and me untouched.
It worked.
The electrocuted water ghost sank to the floor.
Leaving it without a finishing blow feels wrong… but if it comes back I’ll just fry it again.
We swam on. I glanced at Yeon Ye-ha; her face was as blank as ever.
The passage stretched far longer than I had expected.
I should have remembered this world’s background is a filthy huge xianxia setting…!
I was fine. Thanks to the skill Water’s Blessing I didn’t need to breathe, and the water itself felt almost comfortable. Yeon Ye-ha was the problem. Her limit was closing in.
Thirty minutes after we entered the tunnel her body began to fail. I stopped swimming, pulled her against me, wrapped one arm around her waist, and pressed my mouth to hers. Her eyes went wide. I breathed a portion of the air I still held into her lungs—only a portion, in case she fumbled.
With fresh air her strokes strengthened. We kept going. Whenever her limbs slowed I fed her more air.
The end of the passage appeared—a bright blue light. We drove toward it hard.
The moment we broke free the world opened into a broad, flowing river. Yeon Ye-ha’s body jerked; her speed dropped. I seized her waist and kicked for the surface.
“Puhah!”
She broke the surface and gulped huge, desperate breaths. I scanned our surroundings. Far off I could make out the buildings of the Heavenly Demon Cult—roughly three kilometers away. Close enough. Lucky.
Yeon Ye-ha hung limp in my arms, strength gone. I carried her to the bank. Trees crowded the river’s edge.
Splash, splash.
We were still wading the shallows when sharp stings bloomed across my body. I snapped my head around. Her index finger was already pressed to my pressure points. My internal energy sealed; my body locked. She dragged me onto dry ground and laid me flat.
“…Yeon Ye-ha. What the hell is this all of a sudden?”
“Can’t you tell? I’m going to rape you.”
Her hands yanked my pants down. She stood, stripped her own lower garments, peeled off the soaked panties, and bared her pink pussy. Thick outer lips glistened; a droplet slid down between them. I knew at once it wasn’t river water—it was arousal.
“…Right now? We have to get back to the Heavenly Demon Cult.”
“You raped me whenever you felt like it. I’ll rape you whenever I feel like it.”
She squatted, gripped my half-hard cock, and sank onto it. Even soft I was thick enough to fill her; inside her heat I swelled fully. She shuddered at the sensation.
“…This is all your fault.”
“Mine?”
“You wrapped your arm around my waist.”
“I don’t follow. I held your waist to get you to shore. What’s the problem?”
“Do you realize that every time you hold my waist you casually stroke my lower belly?”
Of course I did. I did it on purpose. The feel of a woman’s lower belly under my palm was pleasant—especially a trained one like hers. The texture was oddly addictive.
“…Couldn’t be helped. Holding the waist securely means the hand ends up on the lower belly.”
“The problem is that every time your hand touches my lower belly… the inside of me turns hot. As if my womb itself is being stimulated.”
“…What? Don’t talk nonsense. Rubbing a belly doesn’t do that.”
I was genuinely baffled. I hadn’t used Erogenous Amplification when I held her. And her erogenous zones weren’t her waist or lower belly.
Yeon Ye-ha’s Erogenous Zones:
Pussy, Clitoris, Breasts, Armpits, Ass
Just to be sure I checked. Waist and lower belly still weren’t on the list.
“Aaahn. Your cock’s gotten big. Now… I can move. Stay still. I’m using your cock for myself. Hnnngh…”
Squatting, she planted her hands on her knees and began slamming her hips up and down, grinding hard.
Squelch-slap-squelch-slap!
“Looking at your face, you still don’t believe me.”
“Your excuse is so ridiculous I almost feel sorry for you. Just admit you got horny and jumped me.”
“I’ll free your right arm. Touch my lower belly the way you did earlier.”
I set my palm on her belly. The violent rebound of her thrusting hips traveled through my hand. That was all.
“Touch it the way you did before.”
“The way I did before… how exactly did I…?”
I couldn’t remember clearly. I simply let my hand follow its own memory and stroked her lower belly.
“Heuung?!”
Her wild bouncing stopped cold. Yeon Ye-ha’s mouth fell open; she exhaled hard. With every breath her pussy clenched and released around me.
Spurt!
A jet of clear fluid shot out and soaked my lower belly.
“…Hoooot. …See? Your hand just stimulated my womb. It feels good, but how did you do that? Some kind of technique?”
After the brief climax she resumed riding me hard.
“Is there even a technique like that?”
I was just as confused. Erogenous Amplification could produce a similar effect, but I hadn’t used it.
…It was this exact sensation when I touched her before.
I rubbed her lower belly with my fingers again.
“Haaaang?!”
Her waist bucked. Startled, she sealed my right arm with a pressure-point strike.
“That hand technique is dangerous. Forbidden. Just lie there and be raped.”
She moaned and rode me with vulgar, lewd abandon.
We returned to Ipmaso around evening. We carried two Blackwood Tokens and had escaped the Demon Entry Cave by an alternate route, so we passed the trial.
“The graduation ceremony begins in five days. Rest until then. If you have a preferred unit, inform an instructor in advance. Of course, there is no guarantee you will be assigned where you wish.”
I intended to enter the Extinction Unit—the same unit the original Yeom Gu-seok had joined. It was infamous as the most brutal force inside the Heavenly Demon Cult, yet ranked among the top five combat units by pure martial strength. The Extinction Unit was notorious even within the cult for its hardship, which meant one could pile up merit and climb faster than anywhere else.
Three days before the ceremony the Ipmaso director gathered the trainees and announced final rankings.
First: Cheon Yu-un. Second: Yeon Ye-ha. Third: Jegal Mo-sun. Fourth: me. Fifth: Seomun So-ryeo.
Every graduate received a spirit pill; higher ranks received better ones. First-place Cheon Yu-un was given a Taiji Demon Pill. Second through tenth received Life-Awakening Pills.
The Life-Awakening Pill barely increased internal energy, but it granted ten extra years of lifespan.
A lifespan-extending pill… I’ll give this to Elena.
Elena burned lifespan to cast her illusions; to her, lifespan was MP. A Life-Awakening Pill would permanently expand her pool and let her weave stronger illusions.
“Ranks one through ten already have their unit assignments. Report after the ceremony. Numbers 88 and 366 are assigned to the Flame Demon Unit.”
The Flame Demon Unit was essentially an internal audit force.
…Cheon Yu-un and Jegal Mo-sun going to the Flame Demon Unit matches the original novel. Yeon Ye-ha should have been called there too… why wasn’t she?
As if answering my thought, Instructor Baek Taek-ju spoke.
“Numbers 567 and 123 are assigned to the Extinction Unit.”
“……!!”
I stared at Yeon Ye-ha in shock. She kept her blank face fixed straight ahead.
“…That is all. Dismissed.”
With Baek Taek-ju’s final words the instructors and trainees scattered. Yeon Ye-ha strode off without hesitation; I followed.
The moment we entered a deserted alley she spun around and sealed my pressure points. Internal energy refused to move. She yanked my pants down; my lower half hung bare.
“You’ve got to be kidding. You’re going to fuck in this alley?”
“Don’t you remember? You raped me here like a dog. I had to bark like a bitch.”
Rustle.
She stripped her own pants and panties. That pussy still looked delicious no matter how many times I saw it. My mouth watered.
“…Ah, right. I remember. One question before we start.”
“What?”
“Why did you request the Extinction Unit?”
“Because you requested it.”
“You followed me…? Why?”
“To rape you it’s more convenient if we’re in the same unit. Don’t even think about running. For my own sake I’ll chase you to the ends of hell and rape you there.”
“…….”
My cock twitched hard.
Yeon Ye-ha dropped to her hands and knees on the dirt—exactly the posture I had forced her into when I took her like a dog. She pushed her ass toward me. Clear arousal slowly dripped from between her thick pink lips.
“Weren’t you supposed to be taking revenge? Why the bitch pose?”
“Things are different now. You’re my personal stud dog. Satisfy me with that cock in heat. And don’t forget to bark like a dog.”
She spoke in that same expressionless voice. Did she even understand the words coming out of her mouth? I swallowed a laugh, draped myself over her back, and drove into her pussy.
Squelch.
“Woof! Woof-woof-woof!”
“Eut, haang. Ang…!”
She was trying to shame me, but I’d played this game dozens of times already.
Night fell.
Even so, I couldn’t keep taking it forever. My pride wouldn’t allow it. I slipped into Yeon Ye-ha’s room, sealed her points, and mounted her. I lifted her body and fucked her pussy the way one uses a fleshlight.
“Hnn… D-do you really think I’ll just let this go?”
“That’s my line. Don’t get too comfortable. I can rape you whenever I want.”
“Hauk, haang…!”
I took her until dawn.
Around noon she kidnapped me. In her private bath she bound me with rope and forced herself on me.
“Haak. Yesterday’s revenge…! I’m milking you at least five times.”
Yeon Ye-ha rode me like a madwoman, hips whipping.
After dinner we sat side by side in an unused warehouse no one ever visited. Her right hand stroked the cock between my legs; my left hand fingered her pussy. We turned only our heads, stuck our tongues out past our lips, and tangled them in mid-air. Mixed saliva dripped down.
“Hau, haa…. I’m the one raping you right now. Understand?”
“Bullshit. I’m the one raping you.”
“…….”
“…….”
We glared at each other and kept fighting with our tongues.
At last I shuddered and came; Yeon Ye-ha twitched and spasmed, gushing fluid.
“Haa…, haa.”
“Haa…, haa.”
Two sets of heated breath overlapped.
Without either of us claiming first move, we raped each other.