022
022
"Damn it, damn it!"
Taoist Hyeonta, Sa Jeong-hu tore through the forest, racing down Wudang Mountain. The Wudang disciples following behind him glanced back with uncertain faces.
"Elder! Shouldn't we be protecting the secret manual?!"
"You fool! Is a secret manual more important than human lives?!"
Hyeon-ta roared at his disciples and drew his sword. At the edge of a stream, a man lay with his face submerged in the water.
"You bastard!"
"Kyaaah?!"
The man shrieked and lurched forward. Sa Jeong-hu seized the man's torn collar and flung him back, and the warriors leveled their swords and pinned him down.
"P-please, spare me!"
Yellow pustules clustered on the man's face. The warriors grimaced at the boil-covered face, and Sa Jeong-hu took a rope from a disciple and bound the man.
"L-let me go! How dare warriors of the Orthodox Faction threaten an innocent person like this! I-I'll report you to the Government Office!!"
"The Demonic Cult is scheming to scatter those infected with Smallpox in all directions. So what will you do? Will you become a pitiful victim, or a pawn of the Demonic Cult?"
At Hyeon-ta's words, part threat and part warning, the man meekly hung his head. The only guilt he bore was that he had caught Smallpox and then tried to flee while infected.
"I-I just wanted to contact my family..."
"Take him away."
Sa Jeong-hu pressed the man's pressure points. Disciples led him up the mountain, while others adjusted their masks and scanned the area.
"Elder Hyeon-ta."
A heavy-set old man with a weighty voice stood before Sa Jeong-hu. Sa Jeong-hu bowed respectfully.
"Chief Elder."
"All disciples, go search for demons. I will speak briefly with Elder Hyeon-ta and join you afterward."
The Chief Elder sent the disciples away. Left alone, Sa Jeong-hu bowed his head deeply.
"I am ashamed, Chief Elder."
"When it's just the two of us, you may speak freely, Hyeon-ta."
"...Senior Brother Hyeon-won. That."
Sa Jeong-hu hesitated, unable to answer. He had no idea how to speak to the senior brother before him, or where to even begin.
"I examined the battle traces near where you lost consciousness. The opponent's sword was also Taiji Sword."
"...It was not simply Taiji Sword."
"Indeed. That is why I wished to speak with you alone."
Taoist Hyeon-won took out a letter with the disciples' reports and handed it to Sa Jeong-hu.
After regaining consciousness, Hyeon-ta had been frantically hunting demons and Smallpox carriers alongside the other elders who had returned to the mountain, so this was the first he had seen of the letter.
"Most of the demons who were attacked were struck down by Taiji Sword, they say. But I inspected several sites myself. ...It was not Taiji Sword."
"Taiji Wisdom Sword."
If Taiji Sword was the martial art that laid the foundation of the Wudang Sect, then Taiji Wisdom Sword was the legendary martial art said to bring one to the realm of Half-Immortal.
Hyeon-won and Hyeon-ta both knew a little of the Taiji Wisdom Sword's forms, so they had instantly discerned that the sword traces were not those of ordinary Taiji Sword.
"Who was it?"
"Someone I had never seen before. He had the outward appearance of a youth, and seemed to have undergone Return to Youth."
"Return to Youth?"
"Yes. Otherwise, a boy not even of age could not possibly possess internal energy many times deeper and weightier than our own."
It had been the power of Spirit Medicine, but Sa Jeong-hu recalled the master of the Taiji Wisdom Sword, who had been beyond arrogant. After subduing the Smallpox-infected "demons," he had taken even Sa Jeong-hu's own sword, plunged it into a demon's back, and vanished.
"Without that person, we would undoubtedly have suffered a great calamity. Ah, it is a relief that my thinking was correct. A great senior assisted us."
"That..."
Should he say it? He was afraid to voice the nagging suspicion that troubled him.
"What is it? Speak freely. We must not offend the temper of one who returned having mastered the Taiji Wisdom Sword—"
"......That person used Demonic Arts."
"What?"
"Demonic Arts. He used the Moon Shadow Divine Cult's Movement Art."
Hiding in the shadows to assassinate enemies was the method of the Moon Shadow Divine Cult, an assassination group even within the Demonic Cult. Sa Jeong-hu, who had seen the Demonic Arts of the one who murdered his master decades ago, felt his hands tremble.
"What on earth is the meaning of this?"
"......Since it is impossible that you mistook the martial arts, the hidden master of the Taiji Wisdom Sword must have picked up Demonic Arts by some circumstance."
"No. I believe the reverse is true."
As the one who had faced that sword directly, Sa Jeong-hu stated what he had felt with clarity.
"A demon has mastered the Taiji Wisdom Sword, Senior Brother."
"Nonsense. Then why would that demon go around subduing other demons with the Taiji Wisdom Sword??"
"That is..."
Sa Jeong-hu could not answer. As Chief Elder Hyeon-won had said, it was far easier to believe that a Return to Youth master who had just returned to Wudang Mountain had learned the Taiji Wisdom Sword and was tormenting the demons.
But if the reverse were true—that a demon wielding supreme assassination arts had mastered the Taiji Wisdom Sword—then how should he, and Wudang, deal with it going forward?
"Let us ascend the mountain for now. We will seek the opinion of the Sect Leader, who has stabilized her energy."
"Understood. Senior Brother, what about now...?"
"We must recover the bodies of the dead."
Hyeon-won turned and rejoined the disciples. Sa Jeong-hu clenched his fists and lifted his head to the sky, murmuring.
"Is that truly the truth...?"
While the returning elders and warriors sealed off the area so thoroughly that not even an ant could escape, no one could reveal the truth to Hyeon-ta.
* * *
An inn near Wudang Mountain.
Having slipped smoothly out of Wudang Mountain, we entered an inn near the port that led into the Yangtze River, disguised as a mother, her son, and her daughter, and secured a room.
"Thank you for saving my daughter and me, great hero. I am called Sa-wol."
The woman, who had covered her head with a scarf like a Buddhist nun, prostrated herself before me. Sagong Hee, whose wounds had been cleanly treated, lay prostrate beside her mother Sa-wol.
"I do not know how to repay this life-saving grace."
"You will repay it with your body. Your daughter, Sagong Hee, has already agreed to offer her body."
I bluntly laid out the bargain I had made with Sagong Hee. Sagong Hee had agreed to become a slave through a deal with me, and in exchange I had saved Sa-wol.
"Thank you. Even for curing my daughter's Smallpox."
Though I had declared I would use her daughter as a body servant, Sa-wol's voice held no agitation. Her brisk voice was instead laced with conviction and a desire to seize the opportunity.
"Great hero, may I speak with my daughter for a moment?"
"You're telling me to make myself scarce for a bit?"
"I am sorry. But I fear that showing this child's face outside will bring great trouble upon you as well, great hero."
"...Fine. I'll step out for a while."
I readily followed Sa-wol's words. I did feel a little sorry for having burned all her hair off, but I couldn't exactly stay beside a mother steeling herself to leave her dying words to her daughter and ruin the moment by snoring loudly.
"Thank you. It will not be a discourtesy to the great hero."
"I'll trust you."
I slipped out of the room through the window. Outside, the darkness had thickened into full night, and I sat upon the inn's roof and opened a bottle of wine.
"I did a good deed, uncharacteristically, for the first time in a while."
Purifying a single demon didn't even begin to make a dent in my overflowing Yang energy.
Just as a man likes to show off his strength in front of a woman, I had dashed all over the mountain burning up demons to display my martial prowess before Sagong Hee and her mother.
'Other bastards I might not care about, but if it's the work of that eldest prince bastard, I can't just stand by and watch.'
I didn't know the detailed middle process, but it was clear that this was a scheme to infect both ordinary folk and Murim Warriors with Smallpox and turn the area around Wudang Mountain into a wasteland. My accumulated grudges against the eldest prince ran too deep to let it slide.
'Anyway, what did she want to say that she sent me away?'
I listened in on the mother and daughter's conversation. I was curious what kind of talk they were so eager to have that they would make even the lecherous villain trying to take the daughter vacate the room.
- Hee. The first time I met your father was when I came to Hubei on a mission...
"Tch. Unsettled for no good reason."
I'll pass on the sappy melodrama. I dusted off my backside, rose from my spot, and leaped into an alleyway near the inn.
"Oh my, what brings you here? Did you come to buy flowers?"
Inside the alley, a woman reeking of perfume laughed at me, blowing out cigarette smoke. At her rude attitude, treating me like a lost child, I swept my eyes over her from top to bottom.
"How much?"
"What?"
"How much are you?"
"...Pfft. You've got a lot of nerve. One silver coin for one shichen. Otherwise, you can't touch..."
Snatch. I grabbed the hem of the woman's clothes. She frowned that I touched her without even producing a silver coin, but I pulled two silver coins from my chest and stuffed them into her bosom.
"...Oh my, boy. I was joking. No matter what I am, taking money from a child is..."
"You talk too much."
Standing behind the woman, I pulled my pants down as I lifted her side-slit skirt from behind.
"You'd better work hard for one shichen. Otherwise, I'll go find another woman."
Since the mother and daughter's sappy drama wasn't going to end in one ke anyway.
- ...Your father is...
'I can hear it all even from far away.'
Since the conversation was audible anyway, wasn't it better to listen while holding a woman rather than sitting still beside them? I eavesdropped on the mother and daughter's conversation while taking the courtesan right in the middle of the alley.
"Oh my, what are you, hyaaagoh?!"
"Hoo, you've got great tits."
* * *
"...So that is what happened."
Sagong Hee wiped her brimming tears with her sleeve. The story of a woman who had been fairly renowned within the Demonic Cult, blinded by love and running away with a man in an elopement drama, was a long epic that moved one to tears.
"But Mother, the reason you're telling me this is...."
"Yes. As your instincts tell you, it's because I don't have long to live. Hack!"
Sa-wol covered her mouth as a cough burst out. Dark red blood leaked between her fingers, and Sagong Hee, not knowing what to do, wiped the blood with her sleeve.
"Mother!"
"...Fufu, even though I am consumed by Bursting Blood and also caught Smallpox, you do not turn away. Hee. You are such a kind child. Since you were little, you've been a good child who followed me without complaint even though I hid your face."
"Please don't talk as if you're going to die soon!"
"Let go."
Sa-wol shook off Sagong Hee's hand. The Demonic Energy and Smallpox were gone, but she did not wish to stain her daughter with her own blood.
"...Hoo, yes. When countless men lost their reason, entranced by your beauty, I always protected you. When your father nearly committed acts worse than a beast in that prison, I took you and fled."
"Hik, heuk...."
"But now, that too is over. I can no longer protect you. However, if you are willing, I can give you the power to protect yourself."
Sa-wol swept back Sagong Hee's bangs with her unbloodied hand and smiled broadly at her daughter's face, which was the spitting image of her own.
"If your fate is to be violated anyway, then become the woman of the greatest man under heaven so that no one else can defile you. Train martial arts at his side, and become a woman that no one can dare approach!"
"What?"
"All men in this world are beasts! You are too tender and weak to live by human morals in a world of beasts. Rather than be bitten to death by cunning earth-snakes, ride on the back of a dragon!"
"Wh-what do you mean by that!"
"Why do you act like this! I didn't think my daughter was so foolish she couldn't understand these words, hack!"
Sa-wol vomited a mouthful of black blood. Sagong Hee tended to Sa-wol, not even caring that blood spattered all over her body.
"A physician, I'll call a physician!"
"No.... I know my own body better. I have already committed sins that cannot be washed away. I am just glad I can at least convey my words to you like this."
Sa-wol beamed and stroked Sagong Hee's head.
"This is this mother's final request before she dies. ...Our Hee is kind, so you can grant it, can't you?"
"Ah...."
Tears that had fallen from Sagong Hee's eyes ran down the back of Sa-wol's hand.
* * *
"Burp."
One shichen later.
Leaving behind the courtesan who had fainted, buried in the silver coins and the seed I'd sown, I wrapped my body in internal qi to dispel the scent of perfume and returned to the room. Inside the room, the stench of rotting blood was thick, and Sa-wol knelt in the center, prostrating herself before me.
"I entrust my daughter to you, great hero. Will you grant this worthless one's last request?"
"What is it?"
"Make her strong, so that no Lust Demon other than you, great hero, can lay a hand on my daughter."
"...That is troublesome."
At my words, Sa-wol's eyes widened as if she had not expected it. I walked to the bed and stroked the head of Sagong Hee, who was sitting demurely on the bed crying, and lulled her to sleep.
"If this child gives birth to my son, do you want me to raise a boy so unfilial he cannot even touch his own mother?"
"......Ha, haha."
Sa-wol let out a hollow laugh.
"Great hero, you are truly too much. Do you make such jokes to a dying person?"
"Of course."
Having laid Sagong Hee on the bed, I walked to Sa-wol and placed my hand on her head.
"It's regrettable. If you had only come a few days earlier, I could have taken both mother and daughter."
"......Truly, you are. Haah. But this too must be fate."
"Yes. I will make you one promise before you die."
I pressed firmly on the crown of Sa-wol's head with my palm, crouched down, and met her eyes.
"I will definitely make your daughter be called the Sword Empress."
Sa-wol smiled and slowly closed her eyes.