019
019
Sagong Hee fled.
Whether it was really Sagong Hee or a woman with a similar energy was murky, but the scent that set my blood boiling was definitely a woman's.
Lecherous Villain.
Sagong Hee called me a lecherous villain and fled. I honestly had no idea what part of me was lecherous.
'This is genuinely curious.'
Some misunderstandings I know I don't need to clear up, and others will keep me up at night if I can't settle the question. My Demonic Arts being discovered is the former. Someone seeing through my lustful heart is the latter.
'Is this a woman's intuition?'
If she ran because she sensed danger, so be it. But if she picked up even a hint from my appearance, I needed to fix it before I encountered other women.
While I was lost in thought for a moment, Sagong Hee had already put a good distance between us. She was running barefoot over dirt and fallen branches, and her feet were covered in fresh cuts.
"I cannot allow a woman's bare feet to be injured!!"
I burst out of the shadows and closed in behind her. Sagong Hee shrieked in terror and tumbled backward. I was on her in an instant, pinning both her wrists.
"Aaagh!"
She crashed to the ground, her hair covering her face. I straddled her stomach, pulled both her arms above her head, and held them with one hand. With my free hand, I grabbed her chin and swept her hair aside.
"Let me see your face. Hm...?"
Sagong Hee's face was split in two. To put it plainly, half was smooth skin, and half was covered with thick burn scars and weeping sores.
And the border between the scarred and smooth skin was peeling away in ragged strips.
"What in the world...."
Sagong Hee's eyes brimmed with tears, and she said nothing. I grabbed the raggedly torn skin. A sticky, pus-like substance clung to my palm, but the texture was so unnatural that I slowly peeled it back.
"A Human Skin Mask?"
Beneath the pockmarked skin lay flawless, smooth skin like white jade.
If she had possessed this beauty intact when she became the Sword Empress, she would have ranked among the five most beautiful women in the world—not merely for her sword, but for her looks.
'In the future, she didn't have a mask like this, did she?'
In the future, Sagong Hee's diseased skin had not been a Human Skin Mask but actual signs of illness. The strangeness of it nearly made my head spin, and I even began to suspect that the beauty I had pounced on was not Sagong Hee at all.
'No matter how different the past was, can it really be this different?'
Honestly, I had not known Sagong Hee was this pretty. Her sharp nose and large eyes reminded me of a fawn, and her face, flushed red from running, was so beautiful I wanted to keep it in my memory forever.
'If she's Sagong Hee, I'll take her right away. Even if she isn't Sagong Hee, I'll take her.'
I searched her gentle eyes for traces of the Taiji Sword Empress Sagong Hee. The scent of blood from the cuts on her body suggested she was indeed the real one, yet no matter how I thought about it, Sagong Hee did not have such flawless skin in the future.
Lick.
I licked the nape of Sagong Hee's neck. The sharp, bloody scent made me flinch, and I immediately infused my Yang Energy into my tongue.
"Eugh. I almost ruined myself."
I had nearly allowed smallpox to erupt on my own body. I reached down toward the spot where I sensed that foreign energy inside Sagong Hee.
Smoothly.
I parted Sagong Hee's robes left and right. With a firm grip, I tore the fabric covering her chest. Raised pustules were visible from her shoulders down.
"Ugh...!"
Sagong Hee squeezed her eyes shut briefly, then looked up at me. With a face full of shame at having her chest exposed as a woman, she pointed down the mountain with a desperate, pleading look.
"P-Please don't have wicked intentions toward me. Please, please come to your senses...!"
"Wicked intentions?"
"Th-that you intend to ravish me, h-hic...!"
Sagong Hee's eyes gestured toward the hill piled like a snowy field on a winter night—her own chest. My hand was resting gently atop her modest breast.
Since I had paused briefly because of the smallpox, my hand had already claimed dominion over Sagong Hee's breast. To anyone watching, I looked like a Lecherous Villain about to violate her.
"......Hup!!"
I barked a rebuke and squeezed her breast.
"Do I look like a man who intends to violate you?!"
"Yes!"
"Why?!"
"Well, obviously...."
Sagong Hee lowered her head and looked meaningfully at the spot where our bodies touched.
The look that said 'do I really need to spell it out' made my conscience prick for no reason, but even so, I had no intention of immediately achieving a Yin-Yang Union with the current Sagong Hee.
"Do I... need to say it? Hic."
"That's different. Because you're trying to run away despite having contracted smallpox."
"Small... pox...?"
Terror of a different kind settled in Sagong Hee's eyes. At the news that she had caught a disease with at least a thirty percent fatality rate, she grew disoriented and pointed at the Human Skin Mask that had fallen beside her face.
"N-No! This is—my parents made me wear it to hide my face...!"
"Why your face?"
"Because when men see my face, hic, they become overcome with lust...!"
"I acknowledge that."
Who could look upon the face of a Celestial Maiden who had descended into the secular world and still possess the will to restrain themselves? I took Sagong Hee's fragmentary words and combined them with the information I already knew, forming a hypothesis.
'They say the wife of Marquis Wu of Zhuge, Lady Hwang, hid her face with mud.'
As unofficial histories record, it is common in the murim for people to disguise their faces to conceal their beauty.
Just as Paeng Yuwol covered her face with a veil when she descended from her carriage, some women of the martial world occasionally hide their appearance—by attaching a beard, for instance—to prepare for the misfortunes their beautiful faces might bring.
'Still, a Human Skin Mask caked with something like pus is a bit....'
The Human Skin Mask, with yellow pig's fat artfully applied so that it looked exactly like a real, severe burn, had been intricately crafted.
When a hideousness that provoked unspeakable revulsion blanketed the entire face, onlookers would avert their eyes from the loathsomeness before ever noticing the beauty hidden beneath.
Then why did this woman, so beautiful now, turn into someone whose fake Human Skin Mask became real skin in the future? The answer lay in the smallpox energy coiled around her shoulder.
'She came to Wudang Mountain and caught smallpox.'
The beauty she had tried to hide with pus and blood was fated never to see the light again. Her vitality in surviving smallpox was certainly remarkable, but the Taiji Sword Empress was forced to live her whole life not as a woman, but as a martial artist.
'I cannot permit such a tragedy.'
To allow the beauty of the Moon Palace Chang'e to be buried in pus would be a loss for the Central Plains—no, for all of humanity. Therefore, I have a duty to guide her unhappy future onto a new path.
"Hey, why are you... staring like that...?"
Perhaps because I'd been lost in thought for a while, Sagong Hee looked up at me and began stealing glances. Since I was still frozen in a pose about to violate her, she seemed to be reconsidering something herself.
"S-So, is it possible... that you aren't planning... to ravish me?"
"No? I am planning to ravish you, actually."
"......Sob!"
I did not hide my true intentions. Tears streamed from Sagong Hee's eyes, and she wept sorrowfully.
"Mother, sniffle, you were right...! All men are beasts...! Even so, how can you—you wicked villain—commit deeds worse than an animal in a place where plague is spreading?!"
"Your spirit is impressive. Other women would have just kept crying or cursed me out. But it means nothing. Do not expect morality from me. The moment I saw you, I already resolved to become a beast."
"You're insane... you're insane!"
"Heh heh. I wonder how long that defiance will last."
I stealthily moved the hand that had been gripping Sagong Hee's chest up toward her shoulder.
"I told you that you've caught smallpox. Do you think I meant the Human Skin Mask?"
"What...?"
"You have smallpox. Doesn't it sting right here?"
I poked the spot where red skin had erupted. Sagong Hee furrowed her brow and trembled with fear.
"Th-that's just a scratch from the branches...."
"No. It's smallpox. If this isn't smallpox, I'll strip naked, hand over my clothes, and not lay a finger on you."
"Th-then! I-I've caught smallpox...!"
Sagong Hee sank into confusion. The tears welling in her eyes kept falling without end.
"What kind of holy mountain is this...! Hic, it's just spreading plagues...!"
"Does a plague ever pick its time and place?"
"Hic, huaaa...! I have smallpox... Ah!"
Suddenly, Sagong Hee cried out as if she'd realized something and curled her lips into a triumphant smile.
"Haaah, you say I caught smallpox? Lies! Where is there a madman who would ravish a woman with smallpox...?"
Grinning, I slid my fingers further down with each word she spoke.
"That madman is right here, isn't he?"
"You're... not normal...! Smallpox is contagious! No matter how insane you are, this is too much!"
"Ah, I'm immune to smallpox, so it's fine."
"Huh...?"
"Don't you know about Immunity to All Poisons? Smallpox is ultimately a type of poison. Poisons don't work on me."
The Yang Energy in my body burns poison away before it can even manifest. Those "germs" the Blood Cult Leader talks about exert no influence and perish inside me.
"That means the energy currently flowing in your blood, and this hand that touched the rash on your skin, cause me no harm whatsoever. Shall I prove it? By whether I catch the disease or not after having an Affair of Mutual Joy with you."
"Ah, aah...."
Sagong Hee despaired and gave up in earnest. Reason never works against madmen. Avoiding them is the best policy, but Sagong Hee could not escape me.
"Hehehe, now then, it's about time—"
"Please... spare me... hic."
"Huh?"
Sagong Hee begged me through tears. Beneath my grip on her chest, her heartbeat began to race, and sobbing as if she were choking, she pleaded with me.
"Please, you may ravish me, so please, hic, let me live... I don't want to die...."
"Well, smallpox isn't necessarily fatal...."
"It is! When I was locked up in the prison here on the mountain, hic, I saw it all! Everyone who got smallpox died!"
"Locked up?"
Locked up in prison. I couldn't grasp what that meant for a moment. Then my nose tickled. I smelled a plot.
Not a natural outbreak—an artificial scent wafted from somewhere. From the clothing of the man I'd passed before meeting Taoist Hyeonta, an unsettling energy had been clinging to Wudang Mountain.
"Please, I'm begging you...!"
"Hmm. This is a problem. Fine. Let's do this."
Slowly.
I placed my hand on Sagong Hee's lower dantian and infused my Inner Qi. Her breathing gradually settled as the warm Yang Energy circulated through her blood meridians.
"I need one slave. You, become my slave."
"A sla-ve...?"
"Different from a servant. You will serve me and attend to my needs for life. Then I will let you live."
"Th-this...!"
A flash of hostility flickered through Sagong Hee's eyes. At my proposal for a deal that utterly trampled human dignity and tossed morality to the dogs, she began to roll her eyes, weighing the bargain.
"My patience is short."
"I-I...."
Kyaaaak—!!
Another woman's scream sounded in the distance. For a moment I thought she had screamed after seeing us, but the cry came from farther away.
"Mother!!"
Sagong Hee recognized the owner of the voice. Then, fixing me with an unwavering gaze, she swallowed her resentment and nodded at me.
"...If you save my parents and also cure me of smallpox, I will become your slave...!"
"I feel like I'm taking a huge loss. Fine, heh heh. Then to seal the contract, we must stamp a seal."
Swoosh. I thrust my face in front of Sagong Hee's. Once we were close enough to feel each other's breath, I indicated my lips with a glance.
"First, I'll take your upper lip."
"Th-this...."
"Do it yourself. If you haven't done it by the count of ten—"
Crunch.
Sagong Hee raised her head and bit my mouth. I told her to stamp a seal with her lips, but she bit my lips instead, and she glared at me with blazing eyes without a single blink.
"Heh heh, the contract is established. Congratulations, Sagong Hee. You are now my slave."
The taste of raw blood spread, and after my lips were stained red, I left a blood-soaked lip mark on Sagong Hee's cheek.
"It seems you bit my lips hoping to transmit smallpox, but didn't I tell you? It's useless. Heh heh, that little tantrum."
"...Please, my mother, hurry...!"
"Alright, alright."
I struck Sagong Hee's acupoints and lifted her onto my back. With both hands, I supported her feather-light buttocks from below.
"Your chest is still small, but your hips are at least plump. You look like you'd bear children well."
"You... Sex Demon...."
"Keh heh heh. This is the fate of one who's caught by a Sex Demon. By your own account, weren't you fated to die of smallpox anyway? Meeting me has given you a new life."
I will shred the first act of her life with my own hands, and the second act will bloom splendidly anew as my slave.
"I look forward to what you'll say with your lower lips."
"You...."
What must it feel like inside the heart of a woman who has to beg for her own life and her parents' from the Sex Demon who plans to ravish her?
'If she's Sagong Hee's mother, she must be a beauty too, right?'
If she finds out I'm also aiming for the mother, what will she end up saying?
She might try to take her own life from the shock of selling her mother, like someone else did, or she might commit the sin of depravity by selling her mother to protect her own life.
'If I try to take the mother, Sagong Hee would surely do that.'
—I'll do it myself, so please leave my mother alone!
Consensual sex established.