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The Blood Cult Leader once said,
'A woman cooking is truly a beautiful sight.'
— When she ties an apron, pulls her hair back into a single ponytail, the nape of her neck... *tsss*.
I agreed wholeheartedly with those words. When a woman doesn't just leave her hair down but gathers it neatly into one tail and lets it fall behind her, her exposed nape has a certain provocative charm.
Of course, when the scene in front of you is on fire, you don't notice that charm at all.
"What were you two trying to fry?"
"......."
Sagong Hee and Lee Si-a stood far away from the cauldron placed in the middle of the courtyard. On the wide iron pan set over the firewood, something had been sizzling away until it exploded with a *pop*.
"I... we thought we'd try frying dumplings."
"We also tried tossing in a few other things... hehe."
Sagong Hee and Lee Si-a couldn't meet our eyes. I scattered Ice White Divine Palm energy around to suppress the flames, then cooled the pan to settle the boiling oil.
Dokgo Yeon quickly finished her on-site inspection. Between the blackened remains of what had been dumpling skins, the filling had oozed out and crumbled past recognition.
"Moisture...? I wiped them once before putting the wrappers in, though?"
"Water from the tofu and the ground meat."
"...Ah."
The two women fell silent. I went straight into the kitchen to check its state.
"...This isn't dumpling filling. It's porridge."
The so-called filling they had prepared glistened so much it looked more like porridge. We were at a loss for words at the kitchen's devastation.
"Yeon, still, it's a relief we didn't have to rebuild the kitchen."
The kitchen was overflowing with dishes to wash, but at least we wouldn't have to tear it down and rebuild it. I tidied up the cooking chaos the two of them had created.
"This is a huge improvement from last time. Let's salvage what's left and pan-fry some properly."
We strained the oil, cleaned up, then used the remaining wrappers and filling to patch a few together and fry them.
"To think you'd try deep-frying dumplings — that's ambitious."
"My lord..."
Sagong Hee's eyes reddened at the praise. Having mastered boiling, she had realized that "frying" is just dunking food into oil the way boiling dunks it into water, and had dared to attempt deep-frying.
'How could anyone scold someone who tries so hard?'
The fact that they'd dragged a pan from the kitchen and set it up in the wide courtyard — I couldn't bring myself to say a word about that.
"Just so we're clear, I didn't lay a finger on the cooking, you know?"
Lee Si-a, perhaps feeling a little guilty, started defending herself.
"I only chopped firewood, lit the fire, and pounded the dumpling dough!"
"......."
True to Demonic Cult form — expert at severance, arson, and violence — she had actually become a decent kitchen assistant. Thanks to Dokgo Yeon and me guiding them at their side, the two of them finally succeeded at their 'attempt' to fry dumplings.
"Gaga, when we have a child later, I think I'd be really good at teaching them one thing: cooking."
"Indeed."
The two of them had shown tremendous growth in the kitchen. Sagong Hee still hadn't learned anything beyond boiling and frying, but we'd made a surprising discovery about Lee Si-a's cooking talent.
"Shia, would you prep this?"
"Hm? A carp?"
Lee Si-a grinned from ear to ear at the chance to do something she could handle, and picked up a knife.
"Watch carefully — this is the Heavenly Demon Swift Blade!"
Lee Si-a spun her knife in circles and began separating the fish's bones from its flesh.
She was excellent at cutting, hacking, pounding, and beating. I was sincerely grateful that it was food ingredients on the cutting board and not a person.
"My lord, do we eat the carp raw again like last time?"
"No. Let's pan-fry it this time."
"Why? We can just eat it with liquor."
A difference of opinion arose between Sagong Hee and Lee Si-a.
"Still, eating fish raw is a little...."
"It was pretty good last time with that Sichuan-style sauce, remember? White liquor and raw food together... khuu, just thinking about it feels refreshing."
Sagong Hee showed resistance to eating fish as sashimi, while Lee Si-a swallowed hard at the thought of pairing it with alcohol.
"No alcohol tonight."
"...Did I do something wrong?"
Lee Si-a's face crumpled at my prohibition.
"Bursting the dumplings wasn't my fault!"
"No. Calm down. I meant we have no alcohol."
I pointed at our luggage. Regrettably, although we'd traveled far, there was no liquor.
"What? How can there be no alcohol? The Central Plains is crawling with liquor. Did they all go out of business or something?"
"On our way from Shaanxi to Hubei, we heard an escort bureau was attacked. So the liquor you were looking for isn't here."
"...Ugh, then do I have to drink that local cloudy rice wine again?"
Lee Si-a clicked her tongue at the absence of the famous brews she sought. True to her nature as a lover of fine drink and fine food, she was reluctant to touch anything that didn't cost at least a silver tael a bottle.
"This won't do. Tonight, at least, I have to use a good drinking vessel. Heu-heung."
Lee Si-a looked at me pointedly as she finished prepping the fish. I prepared the cleanly filleted flesh and pan-fried it as jeonyueo.
"It's almost ready."
Dinner, together. Preparation, together. The four of us set the evening table and sat down at once. On a wide, square dining table, a neat seven-dish table setting was laid out.
Clink, clink.
Under the setting sun, we ate dinner and gathered together. Swallowing the fruit Sagong Hee had peeled, I roughly assessed the three women's current realms.
Sagong Hee, Lee Si-a.
The two were now fully-fledged peak-level experts. It felt as if one more step forward would place them among the ranks of supreme peak-level experts.
And Dokgo Yeon.
After her trip to Shandong, she had devoted even more effort to personal cultivation and had reached the middle stage of the supreme peak realm. Now, there was practically no one who could defeat Dokgo Yeon — not just in the Hubei region, but in most places.
Far from merely being the strongest among the rising stars, Dokgo Yeon had grown so strong that comparing her to the average sect leader of any sect would be an insult to her.
And myself.
"......."
Every single day I gathered internal energy through a fixed amount of yin absorption from the three women. What I couldn't absorb or what overflowed was split among the three and turned into yang absorption.
As a result, my current internal energy had reached three Gapja. It had taken nearly two decades since my return to reach three Gapja, which did feel a little belated.
'Still, since it's a pure and pristine three Gapja built step by step, I'm satisfied.'
The Taiji Divine Art, the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, and the Dokgo Divine Art.
The Dokgo Clan's divine art — the name is so very Dokgo Clan — but it actually has another proper name.
'The exact name was... something like "Gu Something."'
The founding ancestor of the Dokgo Clan supposedly traveled through the nine great sects on a martial arts journey, studied the inner energy arts of all nine sects, and integrated them into a single method, or so I'd heard.
In any case, thanks to an inner energy art that could rival the Taiji Divine Art and the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, Dokgo Yeon had amassed massive internal energy, and through her I too had built up an immense amount of internal energy.
And this three Gapja was the internal energy I'd gained through "Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang."
In other words, the internal energy I used as my foundation was separate, and that energy had also reached two Gapja by now.
Usually, when measured purely by internal energy capacity, surpassing five Gapja is considered the Harmony Realm, and I had finally reached the point where I could wield my power without major depletion.
'Now I can fight prolonged battles too.'
A life-and-death duel lasting a full day — no, more than three days of all-out exchange — had become possible.
In the past, to use Profound Realm-level martial arts, I had to use them only for brief moments or conserve as much as possible within a single Gapja. Now, if I spent it freely and recklessly, it wouldn't even show. In short, the time I could sustain martial arts had increased.
The total repertoire of martial arts I'd mastered hadn't changed, but the duration I could employ them had.
Hypothetically, in a short decisive battle, if I poured all five Gapja of internal energy within a single two-hour watch, I could use techniques at the mid-Profound Realm or higher.
In the past, I would have had to aim for an ultra-short life-and-death duel against the Murim Alliance Leader or the Heavenly Demon. Now I could exchange blows with them for a full two-hour watch.
'It seems I've been growing in many ways too.'
As I grew, I felt all the more proud of the three women.
Building martial prowess of this degree at such a young age is no easy feat, yet even with my support in yang absorption, they were displaying astonishing speed in their growth.
"...Gyeon-hui, Shia, Yeon."
The three women, who had been chatting warmly among themselves, turned their heads toward me.
"I'm always grateful."
I drew all three of them into a single embrace.
"Please continue to take good care of me."
"We're the ones who should ask that of you."
"Heu-heung, just with words?"
"Gaga, we've finished dessert too, you know...."
The three sent me subtle signals with their eyes, and I nodded gravely.
"Time for internal energy cultivation too."
I'd already proven I could easily handle up to seven.
"Oh, right. Did you know that the carp we ate earlier was a Solar Fire Carp?"
Flex, flex.
I'd already fully absorbed the yang energy of the Solar Fire Carp. And now I poured the surplus inner energy that would otherwise dissipate into nature straight into my lower half.
With my member hotter than usual, the three women's bodies heated up just as quickly.
"Don't any of you think about sleeping tonight."
Without a moment's sleep, I'd pour internal energy into them all night long.
To grow stronger.
* * *
Late at night.
A woman clad entirely in red clothing was crossing a deserted mountain path. Beneath a red-brimmed hat, she wore clothing that was distinctly not a hanbok — it clung tightly to her body, and both sides of her legs were daringly slit open. She sighed as she glanced around.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Ku-ha-ha!"
As soon as the red-clad woman spoke, bandits rushed out and surrounded her.
"Kheu, what a piece of hot ass!"
"The way she's swinging those hips, practically begging for it — top-notch!"
"Showing off your legs like that means you want us to know you're a slut, right? Kheu, let me embrace you!"
The men didn't bother hiding their lust as they eyed the woman's outfit. She sighed as if the world were ending.
"Annoying... I have no intention of embracing men weaker than me."
"Ku-ha-ha! Even her trash talk is first-rate for a slut! Let's see if her body is as impressive as her mouth, shall we?"
The men seized their weapons and rushed the woman. That several men would gang up on one woman didn't embarrass them in the slightest.
"There are too many sex demons in the Murim."
The woman swept her gaze over the men and tilted her hat up slightly. The men flinched at the sight of her face.
"What the—?!"
"A ghost?!"
The woman's hair was red as blood. Even her pupils were stained crimson. There was not a trace of "black" on her, something every human should possess.
As if black had been exchanged for the color of blood, the woman under the hat shook her long red hair, which cascaded down to her waist, and raised a hand.
"If you back off now, I'll let it go as heatstroke."
"Heatstroke?"
"...Honestly, these Murim folk."
The woman clicked her tongue again and sighed.
"Fine. I'll make you half-paralyzed."
"Keu-heu-heu, in that case, we'll make you a woman who knows nothing but cock!"
The sex demons charged at the woman once more. Ghost with red hair or not, the woman was a beauty rarely seen in this region — no, rarely seen under heaven.
"......."
Just as the woman subtly spread her legs and reached a hand toward her thigh.
Seogeok, seogeok!
The sex demons' throats were cut in a single stroke. Amidst the erupting fountains of blood from all directions, the woman lightly executed a Quake Step, and the whirlwind it kicked up deflected every drop of blood that sprayed toward her.
"Are you all right?"
From between the dark trees, a swordswoman appeared. With her flowing black hair, she was a beauty who rivaled the crimson-haired woman, but the blade in her hand was stained red.
"You killed them mercilessly. Are you a demon?"
"No. I am of the orthodox faction, but there is one thing I govern only with blood — sex demons."
The red-haired woman gave a bitter smile. The dizzying scent of blood around them spread like a sinister energy seeping into her clothes.
"Thank you for saving me, little sister."
"Little sister...?"
"Oh... or aren't you? I assumed you were younger than me...?"
"...Pfft."
The black-haired woman laughed as brightly as could be.
"This year, I've passed the age of forty."
"Excuse me? ...Oh my, heavens. Big Sister, I honestly thought you were younger than me!"
The red-haired woman approached with her eyes shining like a child's.
"How do you take care of yourself, Big Sister?"
"Big... Sister?"
The black-haired woman simply smiled at the overly familiar form of address.
"...Huh, very well. From now on, call me Big Sister."
"Yes, Big Sister! Ah... what is your name?"
"I am called Ryu... Mia. Ryu Mia."
"Ryu Mia... such a pretty name! I'm...."
The red-haired woman placed a hand on her chest and inclined her head slightly.
"I am called Kim... Geum So-ye."