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I have a family.
Though for now I shuttle between Hubei and Hebei as if keeping two households, there is a family that will one day unite into a single small home of my own—the Cheon Clan Estate.
I will take Sagong Hee, Lee Si-a, and Dokgo Yeon as my wives, and I will formally propose to the Hebei Paeng Clan to welcome Paeng Yuwol.
'Four isn't enough.'
I have the dream of three wives and four concubines. Since it would feel wrong to call one a concubine right now while having three wives, I'm simply aiming for "seven wives."
One might ask what more I could want after making four women mine, but it isn't me—these four can't withstand me. One woman per day, spending a long night with each of seven women in turn, is the most effective method.
For efficient absorption of yin to nourish yang.
The yin energy built up over seven days is best for absorption. It doesn't strain the body, yields the strongest pleasure, and provides the ideal cycle for a woman to absorb yang and nourish her own yin from me.
That is why, for the perfect harmony of the Cheon Clan Estate, I must find the remaining three women. To achieve the harmonization of yin and yang against a being such as myself, seven female experts of the Profound Realm were necessary.
I, as Heaven, exist at the very top, and right now, together with Sagong Hee, Lee Si-a, and Dokgo Yeon, I form the Four Symbols.
Because my yang energy is overly strong, the Two Modes are somewhat disharmonious. However, since I vent that much yang energy outside before entering the Cheon Clan Estate, the estate maintains harmony.
Right now, if I welcome Paeng Yuwol, these Four Symbols will collapse. In a structure precisely guarding four cardinal directions, Paeng Yuwol's entry would tilt one axis and bring about collapse.
Therefore, to welcome Paeng Yuwol into the Cheon Clan Estate, I needed women to fill the remaining three positions.
Namely, the Eight Trigrams.
The yang energy of a single being like myself and the yin energy of seven women harmonize, and the Cheon Clan Estate achieves perfection. Within the small world called the Cheon Clan Estate, self-cultivation, regulating the family, governing the country, and pacifying the world are all fulfilled.
That was why I couldn't keep my lower half in check.
After sampling this woman and that woman, I had to find, according to my own ranking, the women to fill the three remaining positions of the Eight Trigrams.
Seon Ju-hee, Hwangbo Hye-ji, Dang Seo-hee, Yoo Seol-ra.
Even the women that come to mind right away number four, and from among them, I had to find three who could dare measure up to my four wives. No—including them, I must find three out of the hundreds and thousands of women in the world.
These four are merely at the "candidate" stage. The world is full of women, and I knew women even more alluring than these.
So I was seeking out other candidates—
"Sky-Soaring Lust Demon, do not flee!"
"We won't lose you! If you flee to the netherworld, I will follow you even there!"
'Maybe I shouldn't have been so good.'
Because I performed the dual cultivation too well, two women ended up following me. Because I was too exceptional, these two demons were staking their lives on entering the Cheon Clan Estate.
"If you follow me, I'll kill you!"
"If you mean to abandon me like this, then kill me instead!"
Even the threat of death didn't work. The two vehemently insisted that I accept them, but compared to the other women, they had far too many disqualifying traits.
Are they as innocent as Seon Ju-hee? No!
Are they as kind-hearted as Hwangbo Hye-ji? No!
Are they as skilled in the bedroom arts as the Flame Demon, able to lick a man's backside with their tongue? No!
Do they have a voluptuous chest and wide hips like the Ice Demon's Western-influenced figure? No!
'In the first place, even all four of those put together can't surpass the age of those two!'
Though one of them holds an overwhelmingly large share, how dare women who can't even make the candidate list speak of wives and consorts!
'I have no choice but to show them the dignity of the main wife.'
This much is needed to become my wife. To protect the peace of the Cheon Clan Estate and reinforce discipline among the women, I drew upon the energy of the woman who had personally borne my child.
Slashing Demon Sword, Paeng Yuwol.
Thanks to Sky-Shattering Divine Sword Dokgo Yeon and Taiji Sword Empress Sagong Hee, I've mainly used the sword, but I am not one who knows only the sword. It's simply that the Central Plains Murim has so many swordsmen that sword arts hold an extremely high proportion among the martial arts I know.
Even if the sword is called the king of all weapons, those who challenge to reach the world's best aren't all swordsmen!
"Get lost!"
I spun my body and swung the saber. I deflected the Demonic Sword Consort's flying sword that had aimed for my back, and with a slash of blade aura, I held off the Thunder Demon who was trying to bind my feet from a distance.
"Kyaaak!!"
"Kgh...!"
Under the overwhelming power of the Five Tiger Door-Breaking Blade infused with Heavenly Demon Divine Art, the two ceased their pursuit. In that gap, I cast aside the tree branch and ran forward.
"I won't... lose you!!"
The two dodged the slash and chased after me again. I seized a tree branch that looked perfectly suited for swinging in front of me.
"Haaap!"
I swung the tree branch with force. Not to cut, but to bludgeon. At the sight of the azure blade aura coiling around the bent branch, the Demonic Sword Consort's face twisted as if she might cry.
"My lord!"
"I'm not your lord!"
"How can you do this!"
The Demonic Sword Consort swung her sword with a voice full of shrieking anguish. Though her internal energy had been stolen by me and her martial tier had markedly dropped, her sword qi that seemed to cleave the moon remained unchanged.
"Why do you not use the sword?!"
She was furious that I was not using sword arts right now. She was sincerely outraged that I was using saber arts, not sword arts, against her.
"Then violate me one more time instead! How can you humiliate me like this!! How, with so many sword arts at your disposal, can you face me with something other than the sword?!"
"Ah, this crazy bitch, seriously!!"
More than losing her virginity, she felt profoundly humiliated that I was using a saber to fight her.
"I cannot endure such disgrace! Even if you brought another woman and coupled with her before my eyes, I would not feel this wronged!"
"It's not like using sword arts would make me any weaker, you know!!"
"Yes! Then I could delightfully discuss the sword with you a bit more, my lord, couldn't I?!"
Claaang---!!
The Wol Yeong Seonghui Sword and the Five Tiger Door-Breaking Blade are similar in nature. Meaning, both are rooted in the "slash." Every time sword qi and blade aura clashed, the surroundings became devastated as if blade-winds were whipping in all directions.
'She's truly lost it.'
The more blades clashed, the more precise and tenacious the Demonic Sword Consort's sword became. Her obsession with drawing sword arts out of me tempered her ever more fiercely. Even though I had sheathed my sword and ruined it, the Demonic Sword Consort had no trouble swinging a sword at all.
She overlaid sword qi onto her bent sword and created a perfect blade with sword aura.
Yes, the Demonic Sword Consort had reached the realm of filling the bent portion of her sword with sword aura.
"Hey!! If you properly reached the Harmony Realm thanks to me, you should be grateful!!"
"I am grateful, so I'm letting the matter of deflowering me slide!"
She had gained enlightenment. Thanks to waging heart sword spars against the swordsmen of the Bloody Era of Calamity, her sword art had advanced a step further and she had reached the realm of cleanly forming sword aura.
'This is why those orthodox faction bastards!'
Though she is now with the Demonic Cult, she once led the Sword Pavilion, a massive sect of female swordsmen on the White Path.
A powerful obsession with marriage, the experience of losing for the first time by the sword, and the self-awareness to cast off a layer of the constraints she had as a woman and honestly face her own heart!
Through the adversity called the Sky-Soaring Lust Demon, she had become a perfect Harmony Realm expert!
"Fuck!"
I couldn't hold back the curse.
'If it had been my women who reached the Harmony Realm and not these two, I'd be getting them pregnant by now!'
If Hee-a-Yeon had reached the Harmony Realm, I wouldn't even be here. I would have stayed in bed until pregnancy symptoms appeared.
"Haa, haa...! As expected, you are strong, my lord!"
"Can't we just agree that I'm not strong and you go find some other man?"
"Impossible...! To turn you from a sword-lout into a true sword-talent, I, the Demonic Sword Consort, will stake my life!"
'It's checkmate.'
If I fight with anything but the sword, she clings and demands sword arts. If I fight with the sword, she clings wanting to fight more through sword arts.
Even so, simply running away wasn't an option since I'm not facing only the Demonic Sword Consort.
Crackle!!
A lightning bolt struck from the clear sky. The bolt precisely used the saber—the tree branch—I was holding as a lightning rod, and I urgently swept the branch and hurled it like a flying dagger.
Slick!
The branch, scorched by the electric strike, sliced through several layers of trees before hitting the ground. The Thunder Demon, hidden among the trees, leaned her upper body back to dodge my slash. Like a crane dancing gracefully upon water, she planted her hands on the ground, flipped into a handstand, and passed over.
Because I had torn her lower garments, she exposed her jade-white legs to the whole world. If only I hadn't known her original age, if only I hadn't known her original disposition—they were legs I'd want to hook over my shoulders and pound with the Mating Thousand-pound Hammer.
"Tsk."
I grabbed another fallen tree branch from the ground. While the Demonic Sword Consort fought me head-on in direct weapon clashes, the Thunder Demon hid in the surrounding environment and occasionally hurled electric bolts like hidden weapons.
"Their teamwork is disgustingly good."
As befits two who were both active in the same era as members of the Ten Demons, their coordinated assault against me had no wasted movements. If both hadn't suffered the absorption of their yin energy by me, they would have seized the advantage against the Five Tiger Door-Breaking Blade I was using now.
'Mid Peak Realm.'
The two women, robbed of their internal energy, were pressuring me through numerical advantage, indomitable willpower, and the experience they had accumulated so far. The limitations of the martial art I was using also played a part in my inability to shake them off easily.
The Slashing Demon Sword Paeng Yuwol was an expert of the Peak Realm.
While those among the hundred masters of the Bloody Era of Calamity who hadn't reached the Peak Realm could be counted on one hand, Paeng Yuwol's martial tier was low even among them.
Because she took up the saber not as a martial artist but as a mother. That is why this interminable fight drags on.
Even if I raise my internal energy to the Profound Realm level through the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, the saber art can't support me enough to overwhelm them with martial skill. The vast reservoir is full of water, but the waterway drawing from it is only at the level of a river.
'To keep chasing even when I flee with the Sky-Soaring Lust Demon's speed—these terrifying creatures.'
When I flee, the Thunder Demon sprays electric bolts to buy time, and in that gap the pursuing Demonic Sword Consort swings her sword at me. The end of this hunting chase, born from the repetition of this vicious cycle, would come the moment I reached Sichuan.
'If Lee Si-a sees this, it's over.'
The soft-hearted Lee Si-a will permit the taking of concubines in order to make these two women part of her own faction.
—What? The former Sword Demon and even the Thunder Demon become Bi-cheon's women? Can't you just give them dick a few times and make them my subordinates? Wouldn't you like having maidservants too?
Then I'd be helpless and would have to place these two women at least in the Jin Family Manor, among the candidates for my wives!
'Rotten eggs must be discarded.'
I don't know how far south I fled in my frenzy, but before I knew it, the outskirts of Chengdu had begun to come into view. A little further south and the Sichuan Tang Clan would appear, and Lee Si-a would be warming her lips, waiting for me.
"The game is over. Thunder Demon, and Demonic Sword Consort. Listen well."
I aimed the tree branch newly coated in blade aura at the two. Dawn was just beginning to break behind me, and my hair reflected in the blade aura shimmered brilliantly like sunlight.
"I understand your devotion well. I understand well why you wish to become my wife, and why you wish to become the wet nurse of my son."
"If that is so...!"
"My lord, at last!"
"However!"
I raised the Heavenly Demon Divine Art to its utmost. The forms and tier of the Slashing Demon Sword's Five Tiger Door-Breaking Blade still remained only at the Peak Realm, but I had a way to wield it as if it were at least at the Harmony Realm level.
"If you truly intend to serve me as your heaven, there is something you must engrave in your hearts."
Crackle!
Electric bolts began to surge with me at the center. The thunder qi was wholly different from the Thunder Demon's—fiercer and more ominous—and the two women's expressions hardened. A black tiger wreathed in demonic energy, centered on the tree branch, erupted upward toward the heavens, spewing lightning.
"How dare those who would become my woman cling to a man's trouser leg when he says he is going out to do the work of the outside world!!"
If asked to name the single most domineering martial art in the Central Plains Murim, one might get a slight headache, but if asked to name the most "masculine" martial art, I would confidently answer the Hebei Paeng Clan's.
"To obstruct the path of a husband who is like the heavens—you are unworthy to be my wives!!"
Slash.
I put all my power into a downward swing of the saber.
And the power of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, wreathed in both lightning and demonic energy, became a savage tiger and let out a roar.
Simple and brutish.
"One Blade Severs the Heavens!"
Under the slash that poured every ounce of internal energy into a single saber strike with full force, heaven and earth were overturned.