021
021
The Orthodox Faction.
The Demonic Cult.
The Blood Cult.
I've belonged to all three—Orthodox, Demonic, and Unorthodox—one after another. I spent the longest as the Blood Cult's Blood Jiangshi, but the life experiences that shaped my values came from my time as a low-rank martial artist in the Orthodox Faction.
A hunchback whose bloodline was poor and martial prowess abysmal, someone stuck doing menial chores.
Even before I took the name Chu Ma-gwi as a Demonic Cult grunt, plenty of people had already called me an ugly creature. But in my Orthodox days, I was unquestionably a man brimming with righteousness, one who revered chivalry and loyalty.
'Come forth, past me!'
That's why, to solve the problem right now, my Orthodox self must take the lead, while my Demonic Cult Chu Ma-gwi and my Blood Cult Blood Jiangshi support from behind.
'Sagong Hee is a fairly clever woman.'
And beside me stands Sagong Hee. The future Taiji Sword Empress isn't a realm any average Five Stars brute can reach. So I casually tossed the one possibility I'd organized in my head to Sagong Hee.
"I suspect the Demonic Cult is behind this."
"The... Demonic Cult...?"
I could feel the confusion in Sagong Hee's voice, the look that asked what the hell I was talking about. But at the same time, I caught a flicker of recognition—like she was thinking, 'You too?'
"Deliberately spreading an infectious disease. If smallpox didn't break out then a person did it."
"Th-that can't be. That's just, no matter what...!"
"Why do you think a person's arse is split into two?"
I pulled Sagong Hee's buttocks apart to either side. She buried her face into my shoulder, teeth chattering.
"Human beings inevitably split into two sides. Men and women, old and young, Orthodox and Demonic. The Demonic Cult is no different. Right now, the Demonic Cult is split in two. Just like your backside."
"Why use that, of all metaphors...?"
"Because they can't be made one. If you want to make them one, the only way is to cut one side off. Power struggles are ordinary things, aren't they? Happen all the time."
The first and second heirs fight for the Demonic Cult's next cult leader's seat.
The first is the Eldest Prince, the second is the Little Princess. The brother and sister, born from the same womb, strain every nerve to kill each other, each desperate to win the Demonic Cult Leader's favor so they can sit on the cult's throne—the Heavenly Demon's seat.
"That Demonic Cult Eldest Son is infamous for his cruel and filthy methods. He's the kind of bastard who wouldn't hesitate at anything to gain the Heavenly Demon's power."
"How do you know that?"
"I know because I know. Anyway, if this is that bastard's doing, then it's an artificial method. He's the only one who would deliberately spread smallpox in the Central Plains."
Later, a woman even worse than the Demonic Cult Eldest Son would appear, but that's a story for another time. For now, to confirm whether it was that bastard's work, we had to chase after Sagong Hee's mother.
"Mother..."
"She's gone a long way down."
The trail the Demon left as she plowed down the mountain was gruesome and wretched. The slope lay wrecked as if massive boulders had tumbled down, and the trees and undergrowth were splattered with the bloody pus of smallpox.
If things stay like this, the energy of smallpox will linger all over Wudang Mountain. Wudang might end up in a situation where they have to rip out the sect's main pillar from the mountain itself.
"Is there anything that raises your suspicion? Even something trivial is fine."
"...The warriors were muttering that all this started after a Demon from the Demonic Cult had a single spar with the Sect Leader."
"That's not trivial at all."
"H-how would I know? The cause and effect might not be connected."
"In Murim, that sort of thing usually becomes the omen of a calamity."
A fight that begins with a small act of revenge can sometimes lead to a martial sect's annihilation. Considering the Eldest Son's temperament and methods, there's more than enough possibility.
"Either the Demon was infected with smallpox. Or he infiltrated Wudang Mountain with a smallpox-infected corpse and threw it into the river to contaminate it. Or he came pretending to be a commoner making a donation to Wudang Sect and passed the disease to many people along the way."
Just off the top of my head, the methods easily numbered more than three. Sagong Hee did nothing but tremble and stay quiet, but she was already fulfilling her role just by making my hand warm and snug.
"That prison is surely a place where Wudang locks up those who break the rules. How did the patients escape from the prison?"
"...My mother swung her fists."
"As expected. If you've trained in Demonic Arts, that's possible. Though I don't know what sent her berserk."
Sagong Hee had said she didn't know her mother was a Demon.
The heartbeat I felt through her breasts pressed against my back was honest. She must have been the protagonist of one of those common, love-struck tales where someone 'falls for a man and flees the Demonic Cult'.
"Why did you come here?"
"...Father was about to be promoted. He said he'd get busier, so we should take a family trip to receive the spiritual energy of Wudang Mountain and spend some peaceful time together... hck."
"Tragic."
Smallpox just so happened to break out right then, and just as they got locked up in prison, Sagong Hee's family caught the disease. Sagong Hee, who had hidden her beauty behind a human-skin mask smeared with bloody pus to suppress men's lustful stares, had now genuinely contracted smallpox.
Perhaps that was the trace left behind by the future Taiji Sword Empress's past.
"Then let's run a little faster before this becomes an even bigger tragedy. Keep your mouth shut tight."
I pressed both feet against the ground on the downhill slope. The earth caved in, and I leaped high above the treetops, then wrapped Inner Energy around the soles of my feet and sprinted forward.
"Cho— mmph?!"
Sagong Hee, who had been about to say something, sealed her mouth shut the moment the blade-like wind struck her. She was already holding onto me tight on her own so she wouldn't fall, but now that I was racing over the treetops with grass-top flying, she couldn't make any sound at all.
"Slowly coming into view."
I stepped on a thick tree branch of a broad-leafed ancient tree and vaulted up high. Even carrying another person, by erupting my Inner Energy and sprinting, I could overtake the Demon's path. I could catch up right behind the Demon.
"Sagong Hee, do you know the saying?"
Shake shake. Her eyes squeezed shut, Sagong Hee didn't even see who was in front of her.
I stretched my legs forward, aiming at the Demon who still hadn't noticed me, and kicked. The leg I thrust out blazed with Yang Energy like a roaring flame.
"In life-and-death combat, victory goes to the one who strikes first!"
Thu-u-d.
Skimming over dozens of zhang, my kick slammed into the Demon's back.
"Flying Heaven Flame Immorality Kick!"
Kyaaaaak!!
Sagong Hee's mother, whom I'd been carrying on my back.
"I can wait no longer."
While the Wudang Sect elders were still arguing back and forth with the government soldiers, the giant old man with the graying hair among the elders stepped forward and stopped his fellow elders.
"I shall enter the mountain."
"G-Grand Elder?!"
"This is problematic! No matter how much you are the Grand Elder, if you break the law and disrupt order...!"
"Look here."
As the Grand Elder emitted his profound and weighty Inner Energy, the soldiers stiffened like rabbits before a predator.
"What is the reason you blocked passage? Is your main objective to prevent people from climbing up, or to prevent the people on Wudang Mountain from coming down?"
"Well, it's both..."
"The latter purpose is the stronger one, Grand Elder."
The people on the main road parted to the left and right, and a sickly-looking man in official robes stepped forward, bowing his head. The Grand Elder also bowed his head in return.
"There was no need for you to come in person when you could have sent a subordinate."
"If the Governor of Hubei Province were too afraid of catching the disease to show himself, the common folk would only grow more uneasy. But Grand Elder, do you truly intend to enter the mountain?"
"Of course."
If a Murim warrior—the Grand Elder of Wudang—wanted to climb Wudang Mountain, there was no physical way to stop him. The well-trained government soldiers were only marginally stronger than third-rate martial artists; they had held back the Wudang elders from entering the mountain only because of the invisible force of law and order.
The Inviolability of Government and Martial Arts.
Government and Murim keep their domains firm, but in the face of an epidemic, neither side could pretend not to notice. That was why Wudang had been cooperating obediently with the government's investigation. But the situation had changed.
"I sense Demonic Energy on the mountain. Hyeon-ta's qi has been severed. Demonic Energy is stirring everywhere."
"Are you saying this is the work of Demons?"
"Whether they are after Wudang's secret manuals or wish for Wudang's destruction—we do not know. But what is certain is that Demons carrying Demonic Energy are descending from the mountain one by one right now."
The Governor felt his guts twist at the Grand Elder's quiet voice.
Whether they were Orthodox, Unorthodox, or Demonic, Murim people were all equally troublesome from the perspective of maintaining the province's public order. But among them, the Demonic Cult's lot—who showed no hesitation in causing slaughter—were more than just troublesome. They were people he wanted to turn into execution-ground dew on the spot.
Regrettably, it would still be a while before the Imperial Palace's martial artists capable of suppressing Demons arrived. If Demons really were coming down Wudang Mountain, then the only ones who could subdue them were the warriors of Wudang.
"......Very well. However, once you enter the mountain, you will not be able to come down again until the smallpox is fully subsided."
"Understood. We will settle this Demon incident and seal the mountain until the Divine Doctor arrives."
As each side conceded one step, the conclusion was reached quickly. The soldiers opened the path for the Wudang warriors, and the Daoists stirred their Inner Energy with a determination as if they'd never set foot in Hubei Province again.
"Let's go!"
"Yes!!"
The Wudang warriors who had remained at the foot of Wudang Mountain in Hubei Province began sprinting up the slope in unison.
"Hm-hmm, this is troublesome if it keeps up."
The young man sipping wine with a woman at the inn—the Demonic Cult's Eldest Son—scratched his head as he watched the Wudang Daoists climbing the mountain. Across from him, the woman hid the curve of her lips behind her wine cup, as if she had expected as much.
"What's so amusing?"
"Fufu, I told you. Don't try to understand Orthodox martial artists with a cult member's common sense."
The Eldest Son stabbed repeatedly at a dumpling with his chopsticks.
Each time he tore into the dumpling with his chopsticks, the juices spurted to the side like blood, making the act look uncannily like stabbing a person with a blade—enough to chill the people around him. Fortunately, no one was paying them any attention.
"Even an epidemic can't stop their disease of righteousness. If they think their actions are just, they go insane and lose the ability to make level-headed judgments."
"Tch, these chivalry-and-loyalty-obsessed folk, honestly."
Even though his plan had gone slightly awry, the Eldest Son didn't care in the slightest. All he had expended for this operation was a few sheets of paper to write letters and a little bit of ink.
"With a stroke or two of a brush, I made Wudang seal itself off. What do you suppose the Cult Leader will say?"
"He will surely praise you greatly this time. After all, it was none other than Wudang—one of the Nine Sects and One Gang—that you forced to seal its doors."
"Right. And it's not an ordinary sealing either. Once you catch smallpox, even martial artists don't stay intact. Heh heh."
"Oh my, then I should probably flee from here. If I stay around here any longer, won't I catch smallpox too?"
"Don't worry. Isn't Flame Demon with us? If you receive her care for a single night, there'll be no problem at all."
"Flame Demon? Ugh..."
The woman grimaced and covered her mouth with her fan.
"I don't like her. As a woman, she's a deeply unpleasant person. And what connection does Flame Demon have with smallpox to begin with?"
"Flowers are meant to burn in heat. The same goes for smallpox."
"Oh my, do you mean...?"
"I've heard that if it's a Solar Body imbued with extreme Yang Energy, even smallpox can be burned away. But still, is that the kind of thing that actually happens?"
The Eldest Son raised his wine cup.
"Let's stick to talking within our own common sense. Someone who overcomes smallpox—does such a person even exist?"
"Wahaha! The Demon—defeated!"
"Kyaaaaaaah!!"
Sagong Hee screamed and headbutted me with her forehead. When she opened her eyes and saw her mother on fire, she erupted her Inner Energy with enough force to break through the acupoint I had sealed, screaming all the while.
"Kghk, this is totally—"
"You lunatic! You piece of trash! You son of a bitch!"
"Wait, you asked me to save her!"
I grabbed Sagong Hee by the neck and tossed her upward. While she was hanging in the air, I slammed her flat onto the ground in a spread-eagle and pressed her acupoint again.
"Khurk!"
I even forced her into a proper breakfall, so she didn't vomit blood, but she definitely took a shock from being thrown onto the dirt. I hoisted the dazed Sagong Hee back up and pointed at the Demon blazing in the flames of the Flying Heaven Flame Immorality Kick.
"You'd better be grateful to me."
"After setting someone's mother on fire... huh...?"
Whup, crackle.
In the place where the flames had burned away, only smooth skin remained. The marks of the smallpox that had begun bursting all over her body had also definitely subsided, leaving nothing more than slightly reddened skin.
"Handling Demonic Energy is nothing to me."
If there is rampant Demonic Energy and the symptoms of smallpox, you just have to forcefully suppress and burn everything with overwhelming power. Even though the Demonic Energy-laden Inner Energy was completely incinerated in the process, I had saved Sagong Hee's mother just as she'd asked.
"......Hee?"
"M-Mother?!"
Sagong Hee embraced her mother in tears. The woman's eyes were so calm you couldn't imagine that she had been tearing warriors apart with her bare hands just a quarter of an hour ago.
"I... how...?"
"I burned away all the Inner Energy boiling from the Bursting Blood technique, and while I was at it, I burned away the cause of the smallpox as well."
"Ah..."
"But I must apologize. I burned too thoroughly in some places."
"Huh?"
I looked away toward the distant mountain.
"......I'm sorry I couldn't save your hair and eyebrows."
No, well.
The bloody pus of the smallpox had splattered onto her hair and eyebrows too—there was no helping it.