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There were no matches the next day.
After a day of competition came at least two days of rest, and thanks to Dokgo Ja-yeong's foolishness, Dokgo Yeon had considerable time until her next match.
Normally she'd have been asleep long before the moon rose, but tonight she lay awake.
It was well past midnight. The three still hadn't returned. And Dokgo Yeon had to have some kind of excuse ready for their disappearance, just in case Dokgo Ja-yeong came back.
The ideal scenario was Dokgo Ja-yeong not coming at all. To ensure that, and afraid that a lit lamp inside or her presence outside would arouse suspicion, Dokgo Yeon spent the night relying on nothing but moonlight inside her room, all the lights extinguished.
"When are they coming...?"
Three two-hour watches had passed, and there was still no sign of their return.
She was starting to worry they'd met with some accident outside, or perhaps the three were so engrossed in their 'medical practice' that they'd collapsed.
"...Physician, I wish you'd come back soon."
Dokgo Yeon was startled by her own inadvertent words. She'd been searching for various reasons why she was staying up through the night, but the true feeling that slipped out forced her to recognize it against her will.
"...Cough."
Dokgo Yeon's face turned pale with a short cough. It wasn't so much the chilly night air, but the sensation she'd forgotten for the past few days rising from below, making her feel utterly miserable.
The feeling of her whole body being torn apart. The sensation as if the poison inside her was being forcibly drawn out with her blood.
With the disease she'd suffered periodically since she was ten threatening to recur, Dokgo Yeon hurriedly rose. She stood before the door for a long moment, then squeezed her eyes shut and opened it.
"I apologize...!"
She was the owner, yet Dokgo Yeon apologized as she entered the room she'd yielded to a guest. The space was tidier than she'd expected, and she searched for the herbal medicine to calm the sensation that felt like she'd cough up blood at any moment.
"...Huh?"
A fragrant scent permeated the room. The windows were firmly shut in this sealed space, yet breathing was easier here than outside.
"Hoo... hoo... haa."
Most importantly, the coughing stopped. The feeling of a mouthful of blood about to burst out abruptly subsided and settled down. Dokgo Yeon blinked at the strange sensation and found herself shuffling toward the source of the pleasant fragrance.
"......."
The scent was coming from none other than Physician Mubung's bed. The sheets were still thick with the traces of the three who had tumbled naked and practiced their energy circulation breathing—traces Dokgo Yeon, preoccupied with the tournament and everything else, had been unable to wash.
That day. The day she first witnessed the three's lovemaking and was showered from face to body with the physician's spirit medicine.
Dokgo Yeon had only wiped away what fell on her lashes and obscured her vision; she hadn't even thought of cleaning the rest. She simply fell asleep on the bed without any sensation, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"...No way."
Dokgo Yeon shook her head in denial. No book she'd read had ever spoken of such a thing, but the bombardment of sexual knowledge that had increased exponentially recently made her self-diagnose her own symptoms.
"Sssip."
She took a deep breath. The pain, like her blood meridians tearing apart right before coughing up blood, began to subside, and a pleasant fluttering started to spread very slowly through her entire body.
"......."
Dokgo Yeon sat on the bed. Right next to the spot where the two women had simultaneously revealed their private parts and allowed the physician's examination—a spot where, if she turned her head slightly, she could rest it against the physician's back.
"......Haa."
Dokgo Yeon's head grew hazy. Her judgment began to cloud, and the backlash of staying awake and alert late into the night slowly washed over her.
Plop.
Dokgo Yeon collapsed onto the bed. She tossed and turned under the covers, hugging the blanket tightly.
"......."
The room filled with the sound of regular breathing, like a sleeping baby. She looked just like a celestial maiden who had found her lost wing-dress and fallen asleep clutching it.
* * *
The energy circulation breathing ended.
Sagong Hee, who had perfectly made the inner energy taken from the Ice Demon her own, felt sorry but couldn't bring herself to speak to the Ice Demon, and Lee Si-a was convincing Sagong Hee that this was only natural.
"But still, I feel bad... At least an apology..."
"That's humiliation. Apologizing only makes the other party angrier. At times like this, it's best to keep your mouth shut and pretend you don't know."
Sagong Hee was older than Lee Si-a, but she had lived far less time as a superior. So she still hesitated a little to accept the mindset a woman destined to be my wife should naturally possess.
"No matter how many women that bastard takes, we just have to gladly accept what he gives us. Understand? When a worker bee sucks nectar from other flowers, we just gladly suck it up ourselves."
"R-right. But, but still..."
"No buts! Whatever our husband does, it's the same as using the money he earns from outside."
"H-husband?! Oh, oh my... When you put it like that..."
Sagong Hee's hesitation was forcibly crushed by Lee Si-a's overbearing attitude. Lee Si-a herself had some guilty feelings, but without this, Sagong Hee would have nearly made a huge mistake.
"......?"
The actual person who had been violated and had her inner energy stolen by me didn't notice at all that she was almost unintentionally insulted. The Ice Demon, who had retracted the Heavenly Demon Divine Art and reverted to an ice doll, simply blinked, awaiting my words.
"Ice Demon. How much inner energy do you have left?"
"1 Gapja...?"
I hadn't drained that much. Just as I'd only taken a portion of the yin energy from Sagong Hee when it exceeded 1 Gapja, I had to leave the Ice Demon a minimum amount as priming water.
If her level of enlightenment had reached the Harmony Realm, at least 2 Gapja should be left, but at the Peak and Peak Realm stages, even taking up to 1 Gapja doesn't significantly drop her martial prowess.
In other words, the current Ice Demon hadn't been weakened excessively. That was because she wasn't the type who suppressed opponents with sheer inner energy like the Flame Demon, but more a martial artist who mastered a variety of techniques.
She was a woman who had learned martial arts not inferior to Sagong Hee and Lee Si-a's, such as the Ice White Divine Palm, Ice White Divine Sword, and Ice White Divine Step.
"Then as long as you don't meet Dokgo Yeon in the Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle, you can reach the Second Phoenix. Your opponents are all so-so; you can easily ascend with your peak-level martial power."
"What? Wait, taking the Second Phoenix seat is that bastard's plan."
Lee Si-a, who was brainwashing Sagong Hee, turned her head, her eyes blazing.
"Are you saying we turn that to our advantage?"
"Indeed. The Ice Demon is now on our side. If the Eldest Prince's operation goes awry, he will definitely try some trick on the Alliance, by any means necessary."
"Huh? Sir, how is that possible? The Demonic Cult's Eldest Prince, right in the middle of the Murim Alliance, of all places?"
"If it's that bastard, he certainly will. He's definitely going to pull some stunt."
Lee Si-a knew the Eldest Prince too well. The Ice Demon also nodded heavily.
"So, Ice Demon, here's what we do. Listen carefully from now on."
We would instantly piggyback on the plan the Eldest Prince had told the Ice Demon and launch a counter-operation favorable to us.
"Ice Demon, what identity did the Eldest Prince tell you to assume?"
"Ah, that I inherited the true transmission from Emei Sect's Exterminating Treasure Grandmaster..."
"Ah."
Lee Si-a's mouth dropped open and her face contorted. I clicked my tongue and nodded to the two.
"Ice Demon, when is your match?"
"Late afternoon. My bracket was pushed back..."
"Then that's plenty of time."
It's as good a time as any to properly disguise someone's identity.
"Lee Si-a, place the Forbidden Restraint on the Ice Demon. And let's head back to the estate."
The night was late. It was about time to return. Thanks to the restriction Lee Si-a had placed with her illusion technique, the Ice Demon could no longer betray us, so we could return at ease.
"E-excuse me..."
The Ice Demon fidgeted with her fingers as she read our expressions. She especially glanced at me, then smiled at Lee Si-a while scratching her silver hair.
"U-um, when do you think the next energy extraction will be...? O-oh, no! It's not that I want the extraction, I mean, how should I put it, I need to prepare in my own way, or rather, it's troublesome if you just suddenly drag me into it..."
The babbling Ice Demon placed her fidgeting hand over her mouth and shyly asked.
"......N-next time, a little more gently..."
"Goddammit!"
Crash!
Lee Si-a kicked an innocent wooden crate.
* * *
Chirp-chirp—
The sound of birds chirping tickled her ears. Dokgo Yeon woke from her drowsy state and gathered her wits.
"......?"
An unfamiliar ceiling—no, a ceiling that wasn't familiar. It was the ceiling of a guest room in the Dokgo Clan estate, a room originally meant for VIPs.
Dokgo Yeon was lying in a perfectly straight posture on that bed. Her head was buried in the pillow, and she'd pulled the blanket up to her neck.
"......!"
Startled, Dokgo Yeon quickly sat up. Her last memory before losing consciousness was definitely that she'd passed out here, and had fallen utterly fast asleep.
'Did I just, right now, in the physician's scent...?'
And that she'd become aware of her own perverted nature.
She grabbed her head and despaired. Would she have passed out and then lain down in such a neat posture? In a room that wasn't hers, a room someone else had used for days?
No. Someone had seen Dokgo Yeon sleeping here and yielded the spot. Dokgo Yeon could intuit it from the sound coming from right beside her.
"Are you awake?"
"Sagong Hee...?"
"Please get up. The physician said skipping breakfast is bad for your health."
"Ah, yes, yes..."
Dokgo Yeon, about to rise, suddenly snapped alert.
"D-did something happen yesterday?!"
"Yesterday? ...Well, a lot of things did happen, but..."
Sagong Hee trailed off with an awkward smile. Dokgo Yeon's heart truly sank, wondering if her expression stemmed from embarrassment about the three going out for an external examination, or if perhaps Dokgo Ja-yeong or someone else had found out.
"What exactly were you curious about?"
"E-erm..."
"Don't tease her."
At the voice whose owner lightly tapped Sagong Hee's head, Dokgo Yeon's heart began to race.
"Are you awake?"
"Ph-physician. This is, so that's..."
"You seemed to have fainted while looking for medicine last night. It seemed a shame to wake you, so I just neatly straightened your bedding."
"...I'm sorry."
"No need to be sorry. I'm just a lodger who's been a burden on you. I apologize. There won't be any more late-night secret excursions."
At Physician Mubung's words, Dokgo Yeon quietly mulled them over.
"Physician, I'll go prepare the table."
"Please do."
Sagong Hee left the room laughing to herself, and Dokgo Yeon realized she was alone with the physician. Being just the two of them kept bringing strange thoughts to mind, and she needed to quickly change the subject.
"Physician. You weren't caught by anyone or anything, were you?"
"Nothing of the sort. We kept well-hidden. Have you ever heard any scandalous rumor among Physician Mubung, the Young Heavenly Demon, and the Taiji Flower?"
"...No."
Dokgo Yeon rarely heard worldly gossip in the first place, but if someone had actually found out, it was such an absurd matter that even Dokgo Yeon would certainly have heard of it. But there was no scandal among the three.
"Fufu. Don't worry. From now on, we'll only do it at home. It's a shame I couldn't show Miss Yeon my examination as well. I will certainly show you today."
Isn't that also problematic in its own way? Dokgo Yeon felt a strange sense of trust in Mubung's confident demeanor.
"More importantly, Miss Yeon, you seem anemic this morning. I think you need acupuncture."
"Ac-acupuncture?!"
Thump, thump. Dokgo Yeon swallowed the saliva pooling in her mouth without realizing. It must be due to the savory smell wafting from the kitchen. It had to be.
"Indeed. The Cold Ice Needle. It's a needle carved from millennia-old snow in the Northern Sea, and this—"
"Ah..."
Dokgo Yeon felt a vague regret she didn't understand. Then Mubung, who had been about to pull something from his robes, smiled a mysterious smile and closed the distance between them.
"......!!"
His face came close. Before the visage of the handsome young man looking down at her, Dokgo Yeon fidgeted with her hand tucked inside her sleeve.
"Miss Yeon. The coming matches will only get harder. Since Miss Yeon is so strong, you'll expend great energy holding back to spare your opponents. That will make you more fatigued in crowded places, and even candied fruit won't suffice."
"Th-then what should I do?"
"Like this."
Slip.
Dokgo Yeon shuddered at the feeling of her hand touching something hard. At the strangely cold sensation, she lowered her head.
"Heeek?!"
"Keep holding it. That's the only way to ensure a full recovery."
Dokgo Yeon's hand was gripping a hard, large, massive phallus the likes of which she'd never seen in her entire life.
A phallus made of ice. The first phallus she had ever seen in her life, and the very same shape as the one attached to the man before her eyes.
"It's the Cold Ice Needle. Holding it is said to quell any fire, so it's also called the Thousand-Hand Guanyin Rod."
"Don't tell me this shape is...?"
"...? What's wrong? Taiji Flower, come here for a moment. Is something wrong with this shape?"
"It's gallant and splendid."
"......."
As the cool energy transmitted from the Thousand-Hand Guanyin Rod stabilized her body and made her feel languid, she was genuinely creeped out.
"Ah, sorry. I forgot to insert the skewer at the bottom."
"......."
A thick, large wooden stick slid right into the Thousand-Hand Guanyin Rod. With a squelching sound.
"Actually, you eat it. Here, suck."
"......Is this really something you eat?"
Dokgo Yeon was put off by the shape that looked like that no matter how she saw it. But the other two simply tilted their heads as if it were nothing.
"Miss Taiji Flower, would you demonstrate how to take this medicine?"
"Yes. Excuse me."
Rustle. Sweeping a strand of hair behind one ear, Sagong Hee opened her mouth toward the Thousand-Hand Guanyin Rod that Mubung was holding.
Lick, lick, slurp.
Sllp, ssllurp.
Ssswwaaaaaap.
"......."
Dokgo Yeon got her hands on the spirit medicine.