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170
About two weeks had passed since I'd left the Cheon Family Estate and come back.
"Did you two have a good trip?"
"You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
Lee Si-a greeted me with a grumble, while Dokgo Yeon fretted over whether I was injured. Two very different reactions, but both full of concern for me.
"Of course we are. ...Ah, and I'm sorry to bring this up the moment I return, but."
I mentioned the feeling of distance—or whatever you'd call it—that Sagong Hee had felt. It was a little odd to call it a problem, but it had to do with the way I spoke formally to her.
"She did mention that once. Just speak comfortably. The Heavenly Demon doesn't care about things like that."
"Please, call me comfortably as well. And honestly, isn't it nice? You're my Gaga, after all."
"...Look at her, subtly showing off how young she is again?"
Lee Si-a grabbed Dokgo Yeon's cheeks and pulled them every which way, and Dokgo Yeon just giggled.
"Don't you think they've gotten incredibly close?"
"I know, right."
They had been surprisingly quiet. Two weeks isn't exactly a short time, but they'd stayed peacefully within the estate without causing any major incidents.
"You two seem to have gotten quite close."
"Last time the circumstances were a little extreme, but this time they weren't."
"We got along well thanks to Jin Sa-wol. She's like an older sister, and she really knows a lot—like Gaga's weak spots."
I never imagined that was the thing they bonded over, but I couldn't help feeling a bit excited about how amazing the two of them might have become while I was away.
"For now, let's go inside and talk over tea."
As long as nothing special had happened between them, I needed to tell them about our trip to Mount Hua. I revealed everything Sagong Hee and I had been through, without embellishment.
"The Five Heroes of Night Rain? I've never heard of those people...."
"Aren't they that Sex Demon bunch, not the Five Heroes of Night Rain? They're the ones who've been sniffing around, wanting to join the Demonic Cult."
What a surprise. The Five Heroes of Night Rain who had so kindly meddled in our affairs were actually a pack of Sex Demons, not righteous heroes.
"I heard one of them died while doing Sex Demon things."
"The youngest, you say.... They're either raising a new Sex Demon, or one of them has a taste for men and plans to trick this 'youngest' and assault him. How pitiful."
As expected of the future Heavenly Demon and Murim Alliance Leader. Based on the clues in the anecdotes we shared, the two of them began deducing and grasping all sorts of information. Sagong Hee, who had no particular talent in this area, just quietly peeled fruit.
"Sister Hee, what's that sword?"
"It's a gift my lord gave me during our trip to Mount Hua. It's called the Silver Rainbow Sword."
The Silver Rainbow Sword, she said.
I understand the desire to show it off, but wasn't using the Silver Rainbow Sword with Sword Control Art to peel fruit a bit much?
"My lord, say ah."
Seeing the fruit arranged so beautifully on the plate, I just held my tongue. I was in no position to lecture, having once used Sword Control Art to chop green onions for soup after scolding her forehead.
"...After that, the Green Forest bandits blocked our path, and Bang Yeong-hui herself appeared. So I violated her."
The moment the name Bang Yeong-hui came out, both their expressions hardened sharply.
"So in the end, you decided to just screw any woman you see?"
"Bang Yeong-hui... I know her martial arts are strong... but... that...."
"You misunderstand. Hear me out."
I realized what they were misunderstanding.
"She, too, was a user of the Body Transformation Art. I learned that Bang Yeong-hui's older sister, Bang Cheol-su, is also a master of the Body Transformation Art. In truth, Bang Yeong-hui's outward appearance is Bang Cheol-su's, and Bang Cheol-su's outward appearance is Bang Yeong-hui's."
"My lord, that's not right. Bang Yeong-hui was definitely prettier than Mountain Lord Phoenix."
If you ask 'who is prettier' between a man cross-dressing as a woman and a woman cross-dressing as a man, the latter is prettier in the vast majority of cases.
"This won't do. Wait a moment."
I borrowed the Silver Rainbow Sword from Sagong Hee and drew a picture on the floor. As Bang Yeong-hui's face took shape through a clean sword dance, Dokgo Yeon shook her head.
"...There are truly many strange and wondrous things in this world."
Having faced Bang Yeong-hui herself and become a member of the Six Phoenixes, she seemed deeply shocked by Bang Yeong-hui's true identity. Well, I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. It was like a bear-like beast transforming into a beautiful woman.
"So, after we arrived at Mount Hua...."
Once the story of Mount Hua began, the two of them showed considerable interest.
Starting from the fact that the Plum Blossom Swordwoman who'd supposedly been lovesick was actually a woman, to the revelation that Seon Ju-hee had fallen in love with the Taiji Flower—the two of them couldn't hide their ambiguous reactions and burst out laughing.
"Ahaha! So, what, you got dumped?"
"Heh, the Plum Blossom Swordwoman... she was a powerful rival. I was worried Gaga might have had his eye on her."
"We slept together though?"
Sagong Hee dropped a Thunderclap Bomb. She said it so casually, but the two of them stiffened, unable to touch the fruit they were eating.
"Hehe, my lord became A-bung, you see...."
From her perspective, Sagong Hee told them everything exactly as it was, truly 'everything.'
The fact that I'd taken her virginity twice, that we'd become love rivals over Sagong Hee, that we weren't awkward about subtly sharing our bodies with each other, and that we'd kissed in the middle of the night without her knowing—all of it.
"Wait. You were awake too?"
"I could hear the sounds of lips meeting, followed by the sounds of tongues intertwining."
"......."
"Hehe, and then I went back to sleep. I can yield Ju-hee a single night, can't I? I'm not that clueless of a woman."
Sagong Hee, terrifying woman. I never imagined she would stay still right beside me while I fooled around with Seon Ju-hee.
"Sis Hee, it's already too much, and now you add a Plum Blossom Swordwoman on top of it?!"
"Exactly. A Plum Blossom Swordwoman, of all things.... Father always said that Mount Hua's hidden potential can suddenly burst forth, and you never know when some powerful figure might emerge."
That's true. In fact, when I went to retrieve the Silver Rainbow Sword, I met the Sword Immortal, who had suddenly appeared, and dueled.
"Right. Mount Hua will change now."
"Because my lord passed down the Violet Mist Divine Art to Mount Hua."
The two of them listened intently to our conversation with serious faces.
"Fifteen years ago... there was definitely an incident where the great-great Sect Leader of Mount Hua died suddenly from poison, wasn't there?"
"Yes. There was a lot of talk at the time about whether it was the Demonic Cult's doing. But that incident, no matter how you look at it, was impossible unless it was done by people within the same sect."
"Now that the lost Violet Mist Divine Art has suddenly surfaced, the perpetrator of the assassination must be quite shocked. They'd never imagine that the Violet Mist Divine Art, whose lineage they cut off, would still have its formula left in a book."
"The fact that they couldn't dispose of what was left in a book means they probably couldn't understand the Violet Mist Divine Art themselves, either. Pfuf, serves them right. Did they think Mount Hua Sect would just wither and die just because they destroyed the Violet Mist Divine Art?"
Lee Si-a laughed it off as a joke, but without the Violet Mist Divine Art, Mount Hua Sect had collapsed all too easily against the Blood Cult.
The martial world had hoped that the Mount Hua Sect Leader would fight, unleashing the Violet Mist Divine Art at its peak, but the sword he swung was only the Supreme Purity Qi Aura.
The Mount Hua Grandmother and the 108 Plum Blossom Swordsmen tried hard to fill that void, but Mount Hua without the Violet Mist Divine Art was like a dumpling without filling.
"Hmm... something feels off. Did you happen to run into any Demonic Cult brats on the way? I was sure that this summons to Mount Hua was a scheme by the Eldest Prince."
"If it had been Jawooyang or Ja Cheong-ha, I'd have thought the same. But since it was Seon Ju-hee, it wasn't that either."
If a man had been lying sick with lovesickness over Sagong Hee, I would have rooted out whatever Demonic Cult scheme he was entangled in. And as a bonus, I'd have made sure that bastard could never use Sagong Hee against her again, for daring to involve himself with her.
But unfortunately, it was neither Jawooyang nor Ja Cheong-ha. They were just rivals vying for the single position of Sect Leader, with a filthy bad relationship between them.
"The two of them have never gotten along, but they likely have no connection to the Demonic Cult. Well... unless they're unjustly pushed aside in the selection for the next Sect Leader, there's no reason a martial artist of Mount Hua would join hands with the Demonic Cult."
"Why do you think that? Variables always exist. It's not like we know everything."
"That's true. We're not in a position to know everything.... I'm just speculating. Gaga, please just take it as a reference."
"...Though I said that, what Yeoni suggested isn't entirely impossible. As far as I know, I've never heard of a Mount Hua martial artist joining the Demonic Cult, but who knows. Cases of working for the Demonic Cult without ever setting foot on Heavenly Mountain... they aren't exactly non-existent, are they?"
That's true.
Just like Chu So-gwang of the Chuso Escort Agency, Flame Demon Dang Seo-hee of the Sichuan Tang Clan and Hao Sect, and Ice Demon Yoo Seol-ra of the North Sea Ice Palace, the Demonic Cult's reach extends quite deeply throughout the martial world. Even if Lee Si-a didn't know, there were surely forces planted by the current Heavenly Demon or Grand Duke Ju-ji lurking somewhere.
"Well, that's true. Demons don't exactly walk around openly, do they?"
"Oh my? You came back from Shaanxi and didn't hear?"
"...Sis Shia, maybe it's better not to talk about this?"
Lee Si-a and Dokgo Yeon exchanged glances, then smiled slyly. Oddly, I felt something odd in their gaze, as if they were looking at me thinking "serves you right."
Was I perhaps missing something important?
—There are three things in the world that piss a person off the most. One is the bastard who pours sweet and sour sauce all over the sweet and sour pork I bought with my own money without even asking. Another is the bastard who starts saying something and then stops. And the last one is.
'Blood Cult Leader, you are right.'
I narrowed my eyes and demanded an answer from the two of them. Looking genuinely apologetic, they opened their mouths.
"Too bad for you. I was secretly hoping you'd come back after bedding the Demonic Sword Consort."
"...Demonic Sword Consort? ...The one who was a Sword Demon, the Sword Pavilion Master Wang So-hyeon? What does that Old Demon want?"
"She's not that old, Gaga. She was a contemporary of the Emei Sect Leader, you know? In other sects, she'd be around the age of a sect leader, in her prime."
"So, what's this about me bedding that woman?"
"You didn't know? The Demonic Sword Consort is in Xi'an right now, burning to bed the Sky-Soaring Lust Demon."
"...What, did... you say...?"
I stood up without realizing it. Then the three women, as if they'd been waiting for it, clung to me and made me sit back down.
"My lord, listen to the end. They say she's staying in Xi'an for about three months, waiting for the Sex Demon to come."
"Yeah, yeah. You've still got time. Is the former Sword Demon some dog's name? That woman, by now, might have even surpassed the Peak Realm and reached the Harmony Realm."
"I talked it over with Sister Shia, and she probably came out to the Central Plains after learning you used a sword in Sichuan as Geom-je. To change you not into a Sex Demon... but into a Sword Demon?"
I barely managed to calm down and sit.
Demonic Sword Consort Wang So-hyeon.
I know this woman. Baby Sex Demon is yelling at me to fly to Xi'an right this instant, recalling the image of her bare skin, hidden within my memories.
'She's a virgin, so how could I be picky!'
The sexually provocative virgin had its own appeal. Was a slightly older virgin impossible to take?!
'When you think about it, she's not much different in age from these girls, even in the future.'
The future Taiji Sword Empress, the future Heavenly Demon, and the Sky-Shattering Divine Sword were about the same age as—or a few years older than—the Lust-Exorcising Abbess or the Demonic Sword Consort.
I'd already consoled my regret over losing Ryu Seo-si's virginity before my Second Nature Awakening by forming a relationship with her as Saek-bung, but Wang So-hyeon still carefully preserves her virginity!
Because, in the future, I had partaken of her virginity.
Even as she approached sixty, she maintained the appearance of a beautiful, mature woman in her thirties or forties. She had bought time with her body for the future Heavenly Demon and the Sword Pavilion descendants to escape the Heavenly Demon Divine Palace.
'At this point, it's even more possible.'
Ryu Seo-si had already been taken. Female martial artists in their forties, once they reach the Harmony Realm, can practically be considered to be in their late twenties, with a little exaggeration!
"Hypothetically speaking, what would happen if I were to take the Demonic Sword Consort as a concubine?"
"...Wouldn't the entire Sword Pavilion rise up? How dare he take the Sword Pavilion Master as a concubine? I've heard the women there are extremely fierce."
"Not just the Sword Pavilion. You know the Demonic Sword Consort has a lot of followers in the Demonic Cult too, right? You're already a Public Enemy of the White Path, and if you bed the Demonic Sword Consort on top of that, you'll really become a Public Enemy of the Martial World."
"Gaga, are you really going to go?"
The three of them clung to me and pushed me back into my seat. I recalled my original resolution and calmed my heart.
'I already know that taste.'
Even if it's said that so many years haven't passed yet, perhaps that means I should taste it even more... but still, I had to soothe the Baby Sex Demon by thinking of my three wives before my eyes—my cow-like woman and my rabbit-like child.
"Hoo. Understood. I doubt the Demonic Sword Consort would lose if it came to swords. For the time being, I shall rest here."
"Gaga, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about...."
Dokgo Yeon approached me and took my hand.
"If you're already wanting to embrace a new woman, would you like to go on a Sex Demon Journey with me?"
Dokgo Yeon, of all people, was asking me to go on a Sex Demon Journey with her?
"Where to?"
"Shandong."
Dokgo Yeon squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth.
"To the Hwangbo Clan."