Conquest of Amisa (1)
— Swish, swish! The massive shears hacked away at Seon-a's already short hair, which had declared her break from the precepts. “Hic, sob……” Her silent tears fell alongside the strands of hair onto the stone path of Amisa Temple's inner courtyard, a sight that left Abbot Hyeon-gong no choice but to watch with sorrowful eyes.
“Heh, Seon-a, that's enough. I'll trim it nicely for you~” Unlike the abbot, Hyeon-so wore a sadistic smile as she summoned Samadhi True Fire from her fingertips, cleanly burning away the remaining tufts of hair protruding from Seon-a's scalp along with the roots beneath.
— Bubble, bubble! Seon-a's once-smooth scalp now oozed a pus-like residue from the scorched roots, the sight enough to turn any onlooker's stomach.
— Whoosh! “Kghhh…… Haaah……” At Hyeon-so's gesture, a nun from the Discipline Hall dumped a bucket of cold water over Seon-a's head. The chill of the water and the unpleasant cling of her soaked robes against her skin paled in comparison to the deeper anguish of having her dignity as a woman stripped away. Yet Seon-a forced back her tears, knowing that if she broke down and wailed here, it would only bring greater sin upon the final moment she could show her face to Abbot Hyeon-gong, the master who had raised and trusted her without limit.
“Haa~ Looks much cleaner now. Hohoho.”
— Drip, drop! Though droplets still clung to Seon-a's head, the traces of burned roots had been washed away, leaving her scalp gleaming like that of a venerable monk who had long since shaved. With the roots burned away so thoroughly, even if she returned to the secular world, not a single hair would grow for nearly half a year. Hyeon-so placed a white pointed hat over Seon-a's now-bare head and spoke.
“Now then, shall we get to the main matter?”
In orthodox sects, formal disciples—especially those who had learned secret arts—typically underwent a ritual of destroying their dantian if they wished to leave of their own accord, unless the sect was hereditary. It was a custom meant to prevent the leakage of core techniques, but the side effects of instantly shattering a martial artist's dantian, the very heart of their power, had long been a problem. Thus, in the current murim, the usual procedure involved having the departing disciple drink a potent scattering poison prepared by the sect, then confirming through high-level elders or the sect leader that the dantian had permanently lost function before finalizing the expulsion.
Yet here, in Amisa Temple—one of the pillars of the orthodox murim that prided itself on righteousness—they rejected that standard method and proceeded to destroy the dantian on the spot.
“Well then, Seon-a. This is the last thing I'll say. Bring your dantian here.” A golden aura of hand blade rose from Hyeon-so's palm.
“Hyeon-so! What do you think you're doing!”
“Oh, come now, Senior Sister. What else? I'm just blessing Seon-a's departure by cleanly cutting out her dantian.”
“W-what are you saying! Cutting it out?!”
“Do you really think a dantian belonging to a master like Seon-a would vanish neatly from mere scattering poison? From what I can see, she's already reached the early stages of the Transcendent Realm, hasn't she?”
“T-that's!”
Indeed, Seon-a had clearly achieved something during her recent journey into the murim. Even to her master Hyeon-gong's eyes, her internal energy had been refined to the point of just entering the Transcendent Realm. Faced with this sudden crisis, Hyeon-gong found herself at a loss for words and tried to urge Seon-a to resolve the situation.
“Seon-a! Why are you silent? You can still retract your decision to leave and wash away the karma of breaking your precepts in the Punishment Hall, can't you?! Well?!”
Yet the person in question, Seon-a, wore an expression that was both sorrowful and strangely detached.
‘Master, I'm sorry…… Now that I've tasted that pleasure, I can no longer live as a nun……’
Seon-a calmly parted her robes and exposed her abdomen toward Hyeon-so. Hyeon-so caught the lingering scent of a man's thick essence from Seon-a's lower body and immediately shifted the aura of her hand blade.
— Whoosh! The golden light of the hand blade gradually darkened until it turned pitch black, darker than night itself. It carried an unmistakably foul, demonic energy that anyone standing near Hyeon-so could feel. Even though this clearly un-Buddhist, sinister aura rippled through the air, the Amisa disciples watching from the inner courtyard—including Hyeon-gong—could not identify its true nature. They were simply overwhelmed by Hyeon-so's domineering presence and remained silent.
“Sniff, sniff! Haa, Seon-a! So you really did accumulate the karma of breaking your precepts by fooling around with a man! You filthy slut! I was going to make this at least a little less painful out of what little affection I had left, but now I can't even show my face to the other disciples, can I?”
Seon-a briefly recalled all the petty cruelties Hyeon-so had inflicted on her over the years, but the desire to end this ordeal quickly won out. She slowly nodded.
“Good! Then here I go!”
“Nooo~!”
Abbot Hyeon-gong's futile shout could not stop Hyeon-so's hand. All she could do was watch as it struck Seon-a's lower abdomen.
— Thud!
— Sizzle! Hyeon-so's cruel fingertips pierced straight through the fabric of Seon-a's lower abdomen, just above where the womb should be and a finger's width below the navel. She seized a small yellow lump the size of two fingers and mercilessly tore it out.
— Splat! “Hnnngh……” Hyeon-so pulled a small wooden box from her robes, placed the lump inside, and snapped the lid shut before shouting at the surrounding disciples.
“What are you all standing around for?! Stitch her up and throw her out already!”
The wound in Seon-a's collapsed abdomen was so deep that her internal organs could be seen writhing within, yet no blood or fluids flowed. Hyeon-so's sinister energy had apparently cauterized the blood vessels it touched. Only a single trickle of blood ran from the corner of Seon-a's mouth before stopping—perhaps from damage to another organ during the tearing.
The Amisa disciples rushed forward, crudely stitching Seon-a's gaping wound with silk thread without any disinfection. Without waiting for her to wake, they hurled the unconscious Seon-a beyond the wall separating the inner and outer courtyards. Through the gap in the iron gate as it opened to expel her, the dawn of Mount Amisa was already breaking.
**
— Whoosh! After satisfying the three Chastity Unit girls to the point of fainting in order to dispel an inexplicable unease, and only after the early morning haze had settled, I finally returned via portal to the guest house in Amisa's outer courtyard. The sleep spell cast on Dang Seo-rin was still in effect, so I left her to rest. Ju Yeon-hwa was likewise still unconscious.
“Haa……” I stepped out of the guest house and strolled leisurely through the outer courtyard.
— Step…… step…… Even after last night's intense sessions, a lingering, unpleasant sensation remained, as though I hadn't quite finished. Yet the thought of grabbing another woman just to relieve this discomfort felt strangely distasteful.
The outer courtyard was quiet, devoid of even Amisa disciples, guests, or gatekeepers. I had assumed the expulsion from an orthodox sect would be nothing serious, having no idea how such things worked in the righteous factions—unlike the Heavenly Demon Cult, where defection meant death, or the Sex Demon Cult, which allowed free departure. I had taken Seon-a noona's calm demeanor at face value.
“I wonder if Noona will come out in a few days……”
As if my words had summoned it, a sound broke the quiet dawn stillness from not far away.
— Creak!
— Thud!
— Boom! It sounded as though someone had been thrown out like discarded trash. Judging by the energy, the person wasn't a martial artist.
‘Huh? Can non-martial artists even enter there?’
Yet through my heightened senses rather than qi perception, I detected irregular breathing and a familiar scent of flesh.
An uneasy feeling grew rapidly, and my steps quickened.
— Tap, tap, tap, tap! I rounded the alley between the outer courtyard buildings and arrived before the firmly shut iron gate in the wall leading to the inner courtyard. There, lying like a dead butterfly, was Seon-a noona—her head cleanly shaven beneath a pointed hat, her entire inner energy completely lost.
Seon-a noona lay soaked from head to toe as though she had fallen into water, a single streak of dried blood at the corner of her mouth.
“Noona!!” I rushed to her side and laid her head on my lap, pressing my fingers to her pulse.
“……” Her breathing was faint and irregular, trembling as though it might stop at any moment.
“Noona! Wake up!”
I shouted desperately, trying to rouse her, but Seon-a noona's eyes remained closed. With no one watching and no presence beyond the gate, I cast healing and drying spells.
“Cure! Dry!”
Her wet clothes dried, color returned to her pale face, and her eyes slowly opened.
“Noona! Are you okay? Can you hear me?!”
“Haa, haa…… My darling……” She reached out with a trembling hand, gasping for breath.
“Do I…… look hideous? Hehe……” Even now, she stroked my chin, embarrassed by her lack of hair.
I placed my hand over her chest and attempted to take her pulse.
— Thump, thump…… Her circulation was disturbed, and even her heartbeat was irregular. Her severe internal injuries were beyond what my healing magic could fully handle.
“Noona, let's get you to a physician! Come on!”
“Cough!”
As I tried to lift her, a small clot of blood trickled from her lips.
“!”
Upon closer inspection, it contained fragments of internal organs. Logically, if left like this, she would die before reaching any physician.
“This…… this is what the pillar of the orthodox faction amounts to?!”
Furious, I abandoned the playful act of pretending to be a peak expert. Unfortunately, the peak expert Wang Geo-geun of the Lightning Gate died here today.
“Noona. No matter what I do from now on, don't be surprised.”
She gave a faint smile and nodded slowly. I began preparing a powerful dark magic spell.
— Flash!
— Drip…… My own Samadhi True Fire burst from the tip of my index finger, sending a thin stream of blood flowing down.
— Swish, swish…… I drew a complex magic circle on the ground with my blood. The surrounding air began to swirl around it. Even in this murim world, where mana density was far lower than in the Rohan Continent of the fantasy world, mana was not entirely absent—making this possible.
A dark glow, darker than blood, rose from the completed circle. I placed my palm over it and chanted.
“Hand of Recovery.”
The churning air instantly compressed into a pitch-black light darker than demonic energy and gathered in my palm. Unlike ordinary healing magic, which merely accelerated cell division in the target, this dark magic created something from nothing at the cost of a portion of my own life force. At first glance, it might seem to shorten my remaining lifespan, but that was precisely why few would ever attempt to reach the 7th Circle. Lower-circle dark magic truly took a portion of one's lifespan, but this spell merely substituted blood for life force while delivering overwhelmingly superior effects. The price was that my blood was drained at a rate akin to severe blood loss, and my hand—now radiating saint-like healing power—appeared even more sinister than demonic energy itself. This was one of the pinnacles of the dark magic I had researched for nearly thirty years at the Magic Tower of the Rohan Continent to restore sexual function.
“Noona, stay still.”
“Haa…… So that's how you took down those bandits alone…… My darling really is a great demon lord……”
Even in this situation, she joked. I grinned and asked,
“Yeah. I am a great demon lord. So, do you hate it?”
“No…… I actually like it♡”
When my hand touched her chest, I felt the soft sensation along with mana being rapidly drained. My heart's mana wasn't enough—I had to draw from my dantian and even a portion of the sexual energy in my testicles to complete the recovery spell.
“M-my dantian! It's back! Though it's empty……”
Just as she exclaimed in wonder, having regained some strength, the iron gate suddenly burst open.
— Rumble! “I sensed evil demonic energy from the outer courtyard, and sure enough, Seon-a, you've finally offered yourself to a demon!”
Dozens of furious bald nuns poured through the open gate.