147
147
"Since Mount Hua Sect has issued a formal invitation, I truly hope you will go and return safely."
Hyeon-cheol, the Wudang Sect Leader, spoke with his head bowed, unable to lift it properly. A Sect Leader should have exuded dignity, but he could not muster it.
"Hrm..."
"......."
He could not meet the glare of Elder Hyeon-ta, who was staring at him from the side, nor could he meet the eyes of Sagong Hee, who had come without her human skin mask. He was plainly tiptoeing around both of them, even though they were his juniors in seniority.
"Senior Brother. Going along with Mount Hua's invitation is fine. Saving a life and making a brief visit makes sense, and being offered Plum Blossom Pills as a gift is certainly tempting. However."
Elder Hyeon-ta pointed at Sagong Hee's face.
"They say they will come to escort Hee personally. Do you think that is acceptable?"
"What do you mean, acceptable or unacceptable? Mount Hua's elders are coming to escort the Taiji Flower. Is this not an excellent opportunity to show Wudang's prestige to Mount Hua?"
"True. But the problem is that they would be taking only the Taiji Flower."
"...What problem could there be?"
Even as he spoke, Hyeon-cheol glanced repeatedly at Elder Hyeon-ta.
"Look. Look at the scale of the escort Mount Hua says it will send."
Mount Hua had announced they would dispatch a large retinue of guard warriors to escort the Taiji Flower Sagong Hee. An elder-level Peak Expert was being sent specifically as a guard, so they were clearly putting maximum effort into safety.
"'What problem'? Did I mishear? You're asking this knowing full well what it means for the world's greatest beauty to travel in times like these? When the Lust Demon is roaming about!"
Even as Elder Hyeon-ta spoke, his insides churned, but he raged without changing his expression.
"The Ice-Colored Demon! Abducting Dokgo Yeon! Violating the women of the Eul and Paeng clans! The bastard who declared he would ravish Swallow Maiden Phoenix Moyong Ran has vanished without a trace for four months! We don't know when or where he might appear again!"
"...After four whole months, perhaps someone stabbed him in the gut and he died?"
Elder Hyeon-ta almost nodded along without thinking but barely caught himself.
"He is not the only problem! Thanks to the Ice-Colored Demon's three successful rapes, the entire martial world is now swarming with lust-fiends who rampage as though they themselves are the Ice-Colored Demon!"
"Which is precisely why they are forming an escort—"
"What if!!"
Elder Hyeon-ta burst out with a Lion's Roar as well, snarling.
"What if the Ice-Colored Demon hears that the Taiji Flower is on the move and acts on it! The Swallow Maiden Phoenix he said he would target has gone missing, so he could easily set his sights on another mark!"
"......."
Send the Taiji Flower to Mount Hua and risk the danger, or keep her here to guard against the potential threat of the Lust Demon.
"Now, decide! Is it the Taiji Flower's safety, or the meager honor of lording it over Mount Hua in exchange for a single Plum Blossom Pill!"
"Elder Hyeon-ta. Hold your tongue. This is not about honor. It is an act to save a dying youth, and—"
"I will go."
Sagong Hee cut off the words of Wudang's two most senior figures, mediating their quarrel.
"I will go. But it will end with showing my face once, nothing more, nothing less. There must be no staying on at Mount Hua for a martial arts tour, no participation in any other events."
Sagong Hee narrowed her eyes and glared at Hyeon-cheol.
Hyeon-cheol had deployed Sagong Hee wherever it best served Wudang's interests because she was the Taiji Flower, but even the Sect Leader could not treat Sagong Hee as he pleased.
"Do you understand, Sect Leader?"
"...I understand."
By generation rank, Sagong Hee officially stood one tier below the Hyeon generation. But the Taiji Flower was a special existence within Wudang Sect in many respects, a being who transcended rank and seniority.
"Please don't try to use me any further."
It was Wudang Sect who stood to lose, not the Taiji Flower. At Sagong Hee's threat, the Sect Leader let out a low groan.
"...Understood. Then I shall send a reply to Mount Hua."
"Yes. But I have no need for an escort."
"Hee, what do you mean...?"
Toward the startled Elder Hyeon-ta, Sagong Hee smiled and continued.
"Because I will travel quietly and in secret, so the Lust Demon won't get wind of me."
* * *
"So it's just the two of us left again, Si-a."
"It is."
On the bed in Flying Heaven Palace, the naked Dokgo Yeon was lying hand in hand with the equally naked Lee Si-a. Neither of them had any strength left in their bodies.
"Excuse me, madams."
Jin Sa-wol wiped the sweat from their bodies with practiced hands. Her touch was so practiced and delicate that the two simply entrusted their naked forms to Jin Sa-wol.
"Estate Head Jin, you seem remarkably used to this."
"After Hee attended our lord, I often helped her groom herself."
Jin Sa-wol briefly recounted anecdotes of Sagong Hee and Sky-Soaring Lust Demon. Lee Si-a and Dokgo Yeon listened intently, their eyes sparkling at the past history Jin Sa-wol revealed.
"Hee's chest used to be smaller than it is now?"
"Yes. Of course, it wasn't exactly small before, but it has grown much larger now."
"...What in the world is the secret? She's older than us, too."
Lee Si-a chewed on her fingernail, and Dokgo Yeon dropped her head gloomily. Regrettably, even if Lee Si-a's and Dokgo Yeon's four were combined, they still couldn't match even one of Sagong Hee's.
"Hmm... calling it a secret is a bit of a stretch, but."
Jin Sa-wol shrugged and said,
"Our lord personally touched them every day for a year and told them to grow bigger."
"......!!"
* * *
Clatter, clatter.
The horse advanced slowly along the dirt road, and I tipped up my wide-brimmed hat as I drove the carriage. The sunlight was fairly strong, but the clouds were plentiful and the breeze was cool — truly perfect weather for a journey.
"This is the first time we've traveled like this, just the two of us."
"It really is. It's also the first time I've gone around showing my real face like this."
Sitting at the back of the carriage, Sagong Hee had removed her human skin mask and was savoring the wind. She wore a veil to cover her face, but it was surely far more comfortable than having a false skin laid over her own.
"Aside from going to Henan Province, I don't think I've ever been outside Wudang Mountain. Thank you, my lord."
"What for?"
"For showing me the world."
Sagong Hee had not traveled the Central Plains the way Lee Si-a had. Dokgo Yeon was no different, but Sagong Hee too had spent a long time in one place without the experience of frequently traveling elsewhere.
"This is your first time in Shaanxi, right?"
"Yes. When I went to the Murim Alliance, I went straight north."
Mount Hua Sect lay northwest of Hubei, where Wudang Sect was. About two-thirds of the route ran across flat plains without a single hill, but the road climbing up to Mount Hua had quite rugged terrain.
"I don't think there's any need to detour all the way back to Luoyang. Let's go quickly, so Si-a and Yeon won't have to feel sorry."
As though she felt a little guilty about monopolizing me, Sagong Hee proposed we take a straight line to Mount Hua and return. I too, even though it was the Cheon Family Estate, felt somewhat uneasy leaving only the two of them behind in Hubei and wanted to get back quickly.
For that to happen, no one we passed could learn our identities. We had to ensure that no one would suddenly show up and say something like, "Found you, Taiji Flower."
"Hm? Where are you coming from?"
"We're on the road from Hubei to Xi'an. We plan to cross along the ridgeline, but where are you headed, brothers?"
"Haha! We call ourselves the Five Heroes of Night Rain, gathered to capture the Lust Demon said to be appearing in Hubei! We've heard that Green Forest thugs have been emerging along this road...."
"Even like this, I'm a man who can handle a sword. Don't worry."
I emitted enough energy to overwhelm all five men blocking our path at once. The man who seemed to be the Five Heroes of Night Rain's representative stiffened his expression and stepped aside, pulling his companions with him.
"Haha, ha. With sword qi of that caliber, you're right not to worry. Travel safely."
"Excuse us."
The Five Heroes of Night Rain looked at me and let us pass without incident. If I had been in my original appearance — the physician's guise I'd shown Dokgo Yeon — there was no doubt a fight would have been picked.
To avoid troublesome issues, we had disguised ourselves. I became a coachman and guard warrior, and Sagong Hee became a young lady riding in the carriage under my protection.
"Still, Gyeon-hui, is there really a need to disguise ourselves this thoroughly?"
Once we reached a sparsely traveled road through rice paddies, I turned from driving and gestured with my eyes toward Sagong Hee's bulging stomach.
"A young lady and her guard warrior isn't enough — now it's an expectant mother and her husband. Hoho. This really looks like a guard warrior who got the clan's precious jewel of a daughter pregnant and is eloping with her."
"This way, we won't attract troublesome attention even when we travel with our faces exposed."
Sagong Hee had tightly bound spare clothes she'd brought from Wudang Sect over her own belly. She'd wrapped it so snugly that it genuinely looked like she was with child, so much that we'd even received fruit from kind-hearted farmers along the way.
"Isn't this swollen belly the clearest proof that I'm yours, my lord?"
Pregnancy.
If I was at her side, anyone looking would think I was Sagong Hee's husband. Sagong Hee and I could already give off the atmosphere of a married couple just through the way we looked at each other.
There was just one small issue. While Sagong Hee was in her true appearance with only her belly padded with clothes, I had changed my appearance — not to my true age, but into the visage of the 'middle-aged Sky-Soaring Lust Demon.'
"Haa. Hiding one's identity is truly exhausting."
"But you're not going to sweep me into your arms and fly like a beam of light, either."
"That's true."
The reason we had gone as far as to disguise ourselves, misleading our trail on the way to Mount Hua, lay in the significance of 'traveling together' with Sagong Hee. Meeting a good number of people along the way, making companions of nature, traveling a long distance by carriage and on foot — the act itself held meaning.
"My lord. I've always wanted to take a trip like this, just the two of us as lovers, at least once."
She had spent her childhood trapped, and even after meeting me, her period in Hubei had been enormously long. So whenever she had the free time, Sagong Hee had hoped we could travel together.
"Heuheung, do you know how much I cried inside when the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering ended and you left me all alone at Wudang Sect and departed with Si-a?"
"I'm truly sorry about that."
Sagong Hee held grudges fiercely.
"Huhut, it's all right. Because you came back to me like this. And you kept your promise, didn't you?"
"Thank you for understanding, Gyeon-hui."
She'd kept in her heart that I'd left her at Wudang Sect and roamed around with Lee Si-a as Sky-Soaring Lust Demon, and she too wanted to wander the Central Plains with me alone. This trip was partly at Sagong Hee's request, but it was also a way to thank her for waiting silently after the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.
"Ah, my lord. You mustn't forget. After you go traveling with me, you can just go travel with Yeon next. Understood?"
"Huu, understood."
...And Sagong Hee wasn't looking out only for herself — she was looking out for Dokgo Yeon too. It was the sympathy born from shared suffering, and at the same time, the considerateness of an older figure looking after the youngest.
'But then what about the Cheon Family Estate?'
...Could Jin Sa-wol handle the estate all by herself with Dokgo Yeon gone?
"Hee. When I go with Yeon—"
"Hwuhahaha!"
A wild laugh echoed from the distance. I stopped mid-sentence and the moment I saw the clothing of the group that appeared, my mood turned foul.
Not just displeased — it turned foul. Even in this hot weather, their garments were covered in tiger pelts and fur hides, the quintessential attire of 'bandits.'
"Who goes there?"
"Hwuhaha! I am the Chief of Tiger Bone Stockade, of the Green Forest 72 Stockades!"
"And what is it that you want?"
I raised my energy and pressed down on the Green Forest ruffians. At that, the one calling himself Tiger Bone Stockade's chief lifted a huge iron whip and grinned fiercely.
"We are—"
"Wait."
Thud, thud.
A voice I'd heard somewhere before. And a familiar presence.
I swallowed hard as the giant approached, cutting through the bandits. A giant several hands taller than the others, who, had she been born in ancient times, might have stood comparison without shame next to a warrior like Fan Kuai or Zhang Fei.
Twitch, twitch.
Muscles she couldn't hide writhed beneath her leather clothing. At the force emanating from her — from this woman—if that was the right word — my throat bobbed.
Peak.
That was the martial intuition I felt.
And according to the sense I felt as the Lust Demon, the true identity of this giant, who stood taller than me, was... a virgin...?
"You... who are you?"
"Me?"
Boom!
The woman — astonishingly — slammed together fists the size of a man's head and exploded with a Lion's Roar.
"Daughter of the Green Forest King, Bang Yeong-hui-----!!"
The super expert in external arts who had lost to Dokgo Yeon at the Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle.
The daughter of the Green Forest King, who called to mind Vaiśravaṇa, and whose name — no matter how I thought about it — made me wonder whether it had been swapped with the current Six Phoenixes' Mountain Lord Phoenix Bang Cheol-su.
"What's your purpose?"
I placed my hand on the scabbard. If her intent was to violate Sagong Hee, then even the Green Forest King's daughter wouldn't be spared.
Thump, thump, biceps.
...Violating her was a bit iffy, so I'd just end it at thoroughly showing her a lesson. The moment I resolved that and drew my sword—
"You, you're handsome! Become my husband!"
"......What?"
At Bang Yeong-hui's declaration of intent, I froze, my hand still resting on my sword.
"Oh my.... I didn't expect this at all."
Click.
From behind my back, murderous intent that raised goosebumps along my spine came flooding out.