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"Gh—!"
Hwangbo Yeom clutched his churning stomach and staggered out of the martial arts arena. Overusing his internal energy had turned his insides into a mess, but he had endured the pain and knocked out a great many Sex Demons.
Half the Sex Demons had been incapacitated by his Thunder Divine Fist; the other half had snapped back to their senses.
The former group was seized by government troops. The latter, realizing they had been under some kind of spell, joined the effort to subdue the remaining Sex Demons.
Once a person had been poisoned by the Soul-Bewitching Incense and the aphrodisiac and then broken free, the same incenses and drugs no longer held power over them.
Thus order was restored within the clan grounds. Yet the number of people who had regained their senses or been captured was noticeably smaller than the number of invited guests.
Which meant several Sex Demons had slipped away in the chaos.
"The girls...!"
Hwangbo Yeom was seized by dread.
What if someone had used the confusion to sneak away and target his daughters?
What if Soul-Seizing Crashing Fist had failed to cope and fallen to paralysis poison or the aphrodisiac?
What if—he could barely stand the thought—Soul-Seizing Crashing Fist was in league with the Sex Demons?
"Clan Head, please calm yourself!"
The steward came running from the distance, his face and body covered in bruises.
"You must tend to your wounds!"
"I cannot!"
Hwangbo Yeom's body was riddled with minor injuries. The cuts and contusions were only a fraction of the damage, and if he did not receive prompt treatment he risked serious harm.
"Not until I confirm my daughters are safe!"
Shaking off the steward's protests, Hwangbo Yeom rushed toward the chambers where his six—no, seven—daughters and his son-in-law were staying.
The door was firmly shut, yet no sound came from within. Hwangbo Yeom's heart plummeted.
"It can't be...?"
"Clan Head!! Young Lady Hye-ji's door is open! She is nowhere to be found!"
"!!"
Hwangbo Yeom bolted into Hwangbo Hye-ji's room.
The window was flung wide open. The bed lay in disarray. And faint but unmistakable—the rank scent of blood.
"Ah... ahh...!"
Hwangbo Yeom's vision swam. The fate of the Dokgo Clan's legitimate daughter flashed through his mind.
"Hye-ji..."
—Hye... Hye-ji...!
"...Huh?"
A familiar voice reached him from somewhere. Hwangbo Yeom pricked up his ears at the strange noises coming from the adjacent room.
Slap. Slap.
The sound of flesh striking flesh. As if entranced, Hwangbo Yeom stepped back into the hallway and followed it. Raising a finger, he tore a small hole through the window paper and peered inside.
"......!!"
It was a battlefield where a great deed had been done. Soul-Seizing Crashing Fist lay sprawled on the floor, drained to skin and bones, groaning as though he might breathe his last at any moment.
"Heheheh..."
Beside him, the six sisters lay slumbering with the most peaceful expressions in the world. Every one of them wore disheveled clothes and bore unmistakable signs of having received a man.
The thick scent of aphrodisiac wafted from within. Only then did Hwangbo Yeom realize that his six daughters, too, had been poisoned by the same drug that had filled the martial arts arena.
Slap. Slap.
And then—
"Ah, darling... darling... Hye-ji, I feel like I'm losing my mind...!"
Hwangbo Hye-ji—by far the calmest and wisest of the seven sisters—was straddling the man with lust-clouded eyes, rocking her hips as if she meant to devour him whole.
"Hye-ji... I'm dying..."
"Hah, hah. No, you can't... You have to take care of me too, hah."
"C-Clan Head, perhaps...!"
"Hush."
Hwangbo Yeom shook his head at the steward, then slumped to the floor in hollow resignation.
"Ha, ha..."
A laugh of enlightenment burst from his lips.
"So my son-in-law... has been fighting his own grueling battle."
While Hwangbo Yeom had been swinging his fists against men overdosed on aphrodisiacs, Soul-Seizing Crashing Fist had been giving everything he had against seven sisters consumed by carnal hunger.
Had the man been drained of energy and unable to perform his duty, those women starved of lust would have bolted from the room and dragged the first man they could find into bed.
—Oooooh!! I'm going, my wife! Taste my thunderous might!
—Aaaah, yes, my lord! This time I'll surely bear an eighth child, a son—eeyaaahk!! ...Thud.
—Wife? Wife?! Wife!!!
"...Ha."
Or they might have died from cardiac arrest brought on by excessive sexual excitement. Hwangbo Yeom extended a hand toward the steward.
"One smoke."
"Clan Head."
"Hurry."
Hwangbo Yeom lit the cigarette the steward handed him with a spark of Samadhi True Fire. Gray smoke rose and drifted into the sky.
"Wife, are you watching?"
Slap. Slap. Slap.
"Please... pray from up there that at least one of the seven will bear a son."
Hye-ji... I'm seriously dying...
Aaaah! Darling, you can do more. Right? I'll tighten better this time, haah...!
"It seems... Hye-ji takes after me."
The smoke Hwangbo Yeom exhaled scattered emptily into the heavens.
The cigarette burned white.
* * *
"...It failed?"
Thunder Demon chewed on her fingernails.
"Was this really done properly...?"
Thunder Demon's mind churned with two possibilities.
If the plan succeeded, No Demon's objective was to attack the Hwangbo Clan while posing as Ju-ji—to violate the seven sisters, ruin the Hwangbo Clan, and thereby spark a war between the Orthodox and Demonic factions. That was what she had assumed.
But if the plan failed, then No Demon's objective could be said to be sabotaging the plan while also posing as Ju-ji.
"He really did wreck the plan on purpose...?"
The movements of the government troops, the potency of the Soul-Bewitching Incense, the handling of Hwangbo Yeom—the most dangerous figure of them all.
Everything about it was so sloppy and crude, utterly unbefitting the one figure among the Ten Demons who took no orders from the Heavenly Demon.
"What happened here?"
Thunder Demon raised her pressure and pressed Dokgo Yeon. With No Demon's whereabouts unknown, interrogating his handmaiden was her only option.
"...The plan is a success."
Dokgo Yeon gazed toward an open window in one of the Hwangbo Clan's distant buildings and nodded.
"No Demon moved exactly according to plan."
"May I hear the details?"
"Those Sex Demons were all disposable pieces."
Dokgo Yeon watched Thunder Demon's reactions carefully as she chose her words. Knowing that Thunder Demon harbored a certain fixation on No Demon and the plan, she unfurled the story exactly as the Sky-Soaring Lust Demon had instructed her.
"While the Sex Demons caused a commotion, No Demon intended to violate Hwangbo Hye-ji. And that open window over there... is the window of Hwangbo Hye-ji's room."
"No Demon took Hwangbo Hye-ji...?"
"Yes."
How would she react? Dokgo Yeon's mouth had gone dry, but she resolved to buy time for the man who still had not emerged even though the incident was winding down.
He hadn't come out even after the appointed time? Obviously he was too busy with Hwangbo Hye-ji to think straight. And she shouldn't ruin his enjoyment just because she was facing someone else's hostility.
"No Demon had already infiltrated the Hwangbo Clan under the name Soul-Seizing Crashing Fist."
"......Wow."
Thunder Demon blinked in surprise.
"Then..."
"Let no other man taste them—but you may violate the Hwangbo Clan's Gold Branch Jade Leaf. That was the plan, and No Demon simply acted on it with perfect fidelity."
"......Ah-heut."
Thunder Demon folded her arms and sank to the ground. At the sudden collapse, Dokgo Yeon's hand moved to her sword hilt, wary that this woman's convulsing posture might be the prelude to some technique.
"What incredible... trash."
Dokgo Yeon felt a surge of temper at Thunder Demon's words, but she couldn't exactly say they were wrong.
"What's the next part of the plan? He's not actually going to stay on as a matrilocal son-in-law in the Hwangbo Clan, is he?"
"...The original plan was for him to escape through the window at this very moment and leave with me. However..."
Dokgo Yeon swept her gaze over Thunder Demon and the demon practitioners crowded around them.
"It appears someone has caused a disruption."
"......."
Thunder Demon's face went pale. Like a child who had meant to do a good deed but caused a huge accident, she fidgeted with her fingers while reading Dokgo Yeon's expression.
"...If the outcome is good, isn't that all that matters?"
"Who can say? The chaos has certainly deepened. Because you scattered the aphrodisiac, what should have been a minor disturbance at the Hwangbo Clan escalated into something far worse."
The drug Thunder Demon had scattered had amplified the effects of the Soul-Bewitching Incense exponentially.
"His interest lies in the Hwangbo Clan's women. He does not wish for the Hwangbo Clan to collapse completely on that account."
"...Why not? Why the Hwangbo Clan in particular?"
"Because she was a virgin."
Had Hwangbo Hye-ji not been a virgin, even at Dokgo Yeon's request, the Sky-Soaring Lust Demon would have been far less enthusiastic.
"By now, Hwangbo Hye-ji will have lost her virginity to Lord No Demon."
"He takes her virginity... and then abandons her?"
"Naturally."
"...Magnificent."
Thunder Demon pulled herself up with effort. Her eyes were already glistening with yin energy.
"Hah, hah. Please... be sure to tell him. Thunder Demon is by no means your enemy. On the contrary, 'Thunder Demon' wishes to build a close relationship with you."
"......What are you suddenly talking about?"
"I may be 'Jilin' Thunder Demon now, but my future depends on what actions No Demon takes."
Thunder Demon snapped her fingers. The demon practitioners who had surrounded them all dispersed at once, scattering in every direction.
"I will keep what happened here in Shandong a secret. In exchange, promise me. Tell him Thunder Demon is counting the days until she can meet him."
"I don't understand. Aren't you on the Eldest Prince's side?"
Dokgo Yeon drew her sword and leveled it at Thunder Demon.
"If you're thinking of dragging Lord No Demon onto the Eldest Prince's side and turning him into some 'Jilin No Demon,' you'd better drop it now. I won't stand idly by."
"Oh my, how terrifying. Don't worry. I have no desire to show an ugly side of myself to a man I fancy."
Before she knew it, Dokgo Yeon's sword was radiating killing intent.
"You... what exactly do you fancy about Lord No Demon?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
Thunder Demon giggled and covered her mouth.
"I... have a taste for men who are absolute trash."
"!!"
Dokgo Yeon involuntarily took a step backward. Thunder Demon's body, trembling and crackling with electric discharge, radiated a madness that Dokgo Yeon found difficult to confront.
"Ah, have you perhaps heard?"
Thunder Demon spread her arms wide with a smile of pure innocence.
"In this world, there are women who simply cannot love any man who isn't the most irredeemable piece of garbage."
Dokgo Yeon felt genuine hostility toward her.
* * *
Flutter. Flutter.
"...Are they gone?"
I let out a relieved sigh, tracking the situation outside with my qi sense. As the tension left my body, I released once more, and Hwangbo Hye-ji—who had been riding on top of me, shaking her hips—collapsed forward and covered her face with both hands.
"I can't get married now."
"Ha. After all this?"
For a first-timer, that was a remarkably respectable Riding Position Thousand-Pound Hammer. Lee Si-a aside, most women who trained in Fist and Foot Techniques rather than weapons seemed to have a natural talent for being on top.
"It's not because of that... You're going to run away now, aren't you?"
Exhausted, Hwangbo Hye-ji collapsed over me. I couldn't tell whether this was a move to restrain me or simply to feel my warmth against the chill night air.
"......Are you sure I really won't get pregnant?"
"Of course not. And if by some chance you do..."
Hwangbo Hye-ji already understood the situation to some extent. I stroked her hair and patted her gently.
"Come to Jin Family Manor in Hubei, Hye-ji."
"...Not 'Hwangbo' Hye-ji."
"Naturally."
If she were welcomed as Hwangbo Hye-ji, it would be Cheon Clan, not Jin Family Manor.
'There's no chance she's pregnant.'
The Blood Cult Leader would not lie, and I hadn't gone at it with her for nine days straight without restraint like I had with Paeng Yuwol.
"Think it over carefully. Whether the man who whispered love to you truly did it out of love."
Hwangbo Hye-ji believed he was dead. But I deliberately refrained from telling her that the man might have been the Demonic Cult's Eldest Prince.
"If you become pregnant, then I spoke falsely. If you do not, then he spoke falsely."
I lifted Hwangbo Hye-ji in my arms and carried her to the bed. Completely spent, she lay flat on her back.
"I finished inside you twice. If your body is truly capable of conceiving, don't you think you would?"
"...That's true. ...Hey."
Hwangbo Hye-ji caught my sleeve as I turned to leave.
"If... I bear your child and come to you as Hye-ji..."
"Sleep well."
I pressed my lips to Hwangbo Hye-ji's forehead and sprayed Soul-Bewitching Incense into her ear.
"I don't pretend not to know a woman who bears my child."
"......I'll believe you."
Hwangbo Hye-ji lost consciousness with a smile on her lips. After tucking her in, I picked up the brush that lay on the desk.
'I can't resist leaving a review.'
★☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
★★★★☆
★★☆☆☆
★★★☆☆
★★★★☆
★★★☆☆
The portions are generous, the flavor is excellent, and above all the host is generous.
Among them all, Hye-ji was the most delicious....
"...Tsk."
I incinerated what I had written with the Zhongli Divine Fire Well. Then I pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and wrote a new phrase.
"I won't be able to use Soul-Seizing Crashing Fist anymore."
Ultimately, so long as the conclusion was simply that I had eaten and run, wasn't that enough?
—I fear the Lust Wind.
"Who'd blame a man for bolting because he thought his dick was gonna get sucked to death?"
Soul-Seizing Crashing Fist would be cursed for ages as the worst kind of man, but...
'From now on, there is no more Soul-Seizing Crashing Fist.'
I'll shave off a little of my pride and build a future where everyone is happy.