023
023
Sect Sealing
The reason: an outbreak of smallpox.
Though fewer than twenty people actually caught the disease, every one of them died in agony as their skin rotted and sores burst with pus.
Foot traffic to Wudang Mountain ceased entirely, and for a time the Wudang Sect's own martial artists did not descend the mountain either. Even investigating rumors that something unsavory had occurred within Wudang Mountain proved difficult.
No matter how much the higher-ups ordered it, marching straight into ground where an epidemic had broken out... wasn't that asking too much?
The investigations were always handled by low-ranking martial artists, and it was only natural to fear a deadly plague. Even the beggars of the Beggar Sect were reluctant to gather intelligence inside Wudang; until the disease subsided, the Wudang Sect endured a terrible ordeal.
About a month passed.
A month had already gone by since Wudang's prison collapsed, and those who had never been infected since the earliest days of the outbreak finally came down from the mountain.
Outwardly, their mission was to inform the Murim Alliance and various other parties about the internal situation of a sect that had been sealed shut for a month, but their real mission was something else.
"...The number of people locked up in the prison and the number of smallpox demon corpses we recovered are off by two."
One month.
During the month they spent scouring every corner of Wudang Mountain, recovering the bodies of the smallpox demons, cleaning up, and gathering and burning every trace of the epidemic they had spread in order to disinfect the mountain, the martial artists of the Wudang Sect made a grim discovery.
"I-it was definitely a mother and daughter! One was a peerless beauty, but the daughter's skin was already covered in boils as if she'd caught smallpox herself!"
"The body of the man presumed to be the husband was found halfway down the mountain path. He is believed to have fled pursuit from our martial artists, lost his footing, and died in the fall. His... the state of the body was extraordinarily bizarre..."
"We confirmed the identities of the escaped demons, but... they are suspected to have used false identities. The disciple who investigated their backgrounds... ugh, he fell victim to the demons...!"
The Daoists of the Wudang Sect were thrown into chaos.
If those two women, potentially already infected with smallpox, had hidden in some cave on Wudang Mountain only to emerge later, the disease could break out again and poison all of Hubei Province.
They had to be found.
Ultimately, they combed through the entire interior of Wudang Mountain for a month without success, and the elders finally—and belatedly—turned their eyes outward.
"We must find those women. If those who may be infected have left the mountain, Wudang will never be able to show its face in the Central Plains again."
They had to exploit Wudang Mountain's chaos and track down the women who had escaped without anyone noticing. The warriors who began the search with nothing but the most fragmentary of clues never once imagined—
"You call this food?!"
—that one woman was already dead and buried in a sunny spot, and her daughter was right here and now being scolded by a young man who looked even younger than she was.
"This mountain is full of wild greens, and how many times have you already reduced them to ash! At this rate, the whole of Wudang Mountain will become nothing but charcoal!"
"M-my apologies! Dearest!"
"Damn it, see for yourself how one actually cooks!"
"Yes...!"
The very woman the warriors were desperately hunting—Sagong Hee—followed the young man into the kitchen with her beautiful face fully exposed, sweat pouring down her brow, yet a faint smile secretly tugging at her lips.
"Did you see that?! Now it's your turn! Move the chopsticks so the salt soaks in evenly! Infuse the spiral's principle with fire qi and stir-fry it in oil!"
"I'm sorry, my lord. My powers of observation are so feeble that I couldn't properly see you stir-frying the greens..."
"Gaaaah!!"
The young man screamed and seethed. His fists swinging through the empty air carried the martial art of the Fist King, who could pacify the Central Plains with a single fist technique, but to Sagong Hee it simply looked as though he was venting his pent-up frustration at the void.
"Ah, the greens are delicious. As expected of you, my lord."
"Damn it! Sam-gu, where are you?!"
The young man despaired.
"This girl, she's a young lady who's never even dipped a hand in water! We're doomed!"
Chew chew.
* * *
"Over here, senior."
The sharp-featured man in an official uniform wearing a necklace that identified him as "Inspector" pointed toward the city gate of Hubei Province. Divine Spear, drained from the long march, gestured wearily toward an inn outside the province.
"Let's get a drink."
"That won't do. First we must pay our respects to the governor of Hubei."
"We didn't arrange a meeting. There's no harm in unpacking a little first. What's the rush?"
"The rush is that we're already far too late."
The Inspector openly frowned and pointed at the face coverings worn by those entering and leaving the gate.
"If the Demonic Cult deliberately spread this smallpox, then this is treason against the state."
"You have a tendency to think to excess."
"There's a saying: be prepared and you won't regret it. ...Hm? Senior, over there."
The Inspector observed the Wudang Sect disciples busily posting notices all around. The disciples, who were not wearing face coverings, recoiled in alarm as the Inspector and Divine Spear approached.
"In times like these, not wearing a face covering...!"
"Senior, they're looking for people."
The Inspector and Divine Spear examined the notices the disciples had put up. The disciples, thoroughly spooked, backed away to keep their distance.
"The epidemic must really have taken hold. Looks like we won't be able to enter the city without face coverings either."
"They're even saying not to remove them for a moment. More importantly, doesn't this disappearance case pique your interest?"
The Inspector gestured at the notices posted by the Wudang Sect disciples, his eyes glinting with keen interest.
"A missing mother and daughter—doesn't this reek?"
"The only stench stabbing my nose right now is the one from my own body because I haven't washed properly for days and nights."
"........."
* * *
Looking back on my life, it had been a continuous string of menial labor.
As the abandoned young master of the Baek Family, I'd survived in a warehouse treated worse than the servants, subsisting on water swimming with bugs and other people's leftovers—and if I didn't do the menial work, I couldn't even get that.
Even when I became a disciple of the Orthodox Faction and was only at the level of a third-rate martial artist, I still had to train in martial arts while waiting on my senior and junior brothers hand and foot.
I kowtowed beside people younger than me but of higher rank, and in truth I was little more than a glorified custodian who had learned some martial arts.
When I was a low-level grunt in the Demonic Cult, sleeping rough and self-sufficiency were the bare essentials.
Because no supplies were provided to grunts under the convenient pretext that all they needed was passion, I had to learn how to secure my own food, clothing, and shelter just to survive.
'I can't live that way in this life either!'
After returning, I ran away from home chasing a life where I wouldn't have to lift a finger.
And in exchange for teaching martial arts to the young man who fished me out with a hook—Sam-gu—I entrusted all the household duties to him.
I recited to Sagong Hee, who was meant to take over Sam-gu's role, exactly what Sam-gu had done, and she answered me back in a crisp, sharp tone.
- Isn't that labor exploitation...? Ow!
- You wench! Just because you've learned to hold a brush, you think you can talk back about anything!
I hadn't taken on a disciple.
I had hired a servant named Sam-gu. He provided me with food, clothing, and shelter, and I provided him with martial arts and internal energy. It was a trade where each of us gave the other what they needed.
Sagong Hee's duties would include the nighttime work on top of what Sam-gu did—the very reason I kept her at my side was for those nights—but that didn't mean she could completely abandon the housework.
She had to prepare my morning meals, set out the drinks after martial training, and at night share her flesh with me under the moonlight's company.
'Other than that body of hers, she's completely useless! If only I could suck out her inner qi right this moment, but I can't even do that now.'
When I take a woman, it isn't simply to satisfy sexual urges.
The martial art I could proudly call my life's signature technique—one that everyone possesses—was Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang.
Absorbing a woman's qi and making it my own was my specialty. Not just during my time as a Blood Jiangshi; even as a Demonic Cult grunt, I had learned Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang and stolen the qi of countless women to survive the cracks of the Great Righteous-Demonic War.
If it hadn't been for the seduction art known as Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang, I would have lost my head long before ever becoming a Blood Jiangshi.
I had resolved to live a different life from my previous one. And so I intended to claim the many women I hadn't been able to have in that past life, and since I was going to claim them anyway, I figured I might as well use Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang to fortify my own internal energy as well.
'If that's the case, why not keep a woman full of yin energy by my side, have her cultivate internal energy directly, and then I could absorb it every night?'
It was back during the days when I was bossing Sam-gu around that I had the epiphany. If I needed a live-in servant anyway, it would be best if she were a woman from whom I could practice Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang every day, and if the worst came to pass, I could make her mine and turn her into insurance for the future.
- Raise it and then devour it... So a master diligently raises a disciple, and when that disciple reaches a level the master acknowledges, the master-disciple relationship becomes a marital one? That's some sick devotee shit.
Even the Blood Cult Leader had acknowledged this.
Just as there are those self-loathing deviants among demonic practitioners who raise a disciple to defeat them and long to be struck down by that disciple's hand, I too was simply raising a servant so I could consume her myself.
You water crops in the field so that one day you can harvest and eat the fruit; I had absolutely no intention of growing them for decoration.
'It's still too early to absorb. At the very least, her Taiji Divine Art needs to reach one gapja. Only then can I absorb her yin energy without stealing her true qi!'
Chopping down a fruit tree to eat the fruit is a fool's act. You pour yang energy and water on it generously until its luscious fruit swells again, then harvest the next—that is truly eternal exploitation.
In other words, the Taiji Divine Art I had Sagong Hee learning would not cause her true qi to be stolen during Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang unless her internal energy had reached at least one gapja.
I would take Sagong Hee's yin energy that exceeded the vessel of one gapja as my own, and in this way Sagong Hee would not wither and die from Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang, but could offer her yin energy to me for the rest of her life.
To put it plainly, one could say I expected three things from my servant Sagong Hee.
One: domestic labor.
All the housework I found too bothersome was Sagong Hee's responsibility. This was only natural in exchange for teaching her martial arts. If I ever offered to teach the Taiji Wisdom Sword, even the Wudang Sect Leader would come running to attend on me day and night.
Two: nighttime work.
This was something the current Sagong Hee was perfectly capable of doing. For the time being, I put off taking her virginity due to the issue of Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang, but whether mouth, chest, or rear entrance, there were any number of ways to satisfy my desires.
Three: Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang.
Once her Taiji Divine Art surpassed one gapja and Sagong Hee cultivated her internal energy, half of it would become mine. If she accumulated 10 units of inner qi in a day, I would steal 5 of them—and the more inner energy Sagong Hee built up each day, the more my own inner qi could grow without limit.
Was this not the true meaning of Yin-Yang Union?
The reason I singled out Taiji Sword Empress Sagong Hee among all those women was precisely because the Taiji Wisdom Sword and Taiji Divine Art she would master were the martial arts best suited for mixing and circulating yin and yang energies in the vicinity of the Dantian.
Yin and yang would become one, drawing the Taiji diagram as their resonance exploded; I would bestow upon Sagong Hee my overflowing yang energy—essence—and Sagong Hee would offer her yin energy to me.
Exchanging semen for internal energy might seem overwhelmingly disadvantageous for the woman, but one must always remember that it was my teaching that enabled the woman to build up over one gapja of internal energy in the first place.
- Why don't you become a farmer?
My master once told me that. To put aside martial arts and become a farmer. So in this life, I resolved to follow my master's words and become a farmer.
The owner of an orchard.
Like the Peach Garden of the Queen Mother of the West, which even immortals begged to taste but could not, I would raise countless women who would offer their internal energy to me.
Just as a bee sinks into a beautiful flower and sucks the nectar, I planned to personally cultivate women and raise my internal energy through Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang.
To that end, I chose Sagong Hee as my first female servant—yet her abilities were abysmal. Her talent for housekeeping was worse than that of the neighborhood shop girl; instead, I was the one who ended up having to take responsibility for her food, clothing, and shelter.
"At this rate, she'll become the Taiji Sword Empress before she ever learns her way around a kitchen."
If only she could use even half of her five-star talent for mastering martial arts to learn housework, how wonderful that would be.
My heart felt like it would burst as Sagong Hee's martial arts improved with nearly every passing day. At times like this, the Blood Cult Leader's habitual phrase came to mind.
"This feels like a total loss for me, don't you think?"
Why did I keep missing Sam-gu so much? Tears blurred my vision. And it was absolutely not because I was standing in the kitchen, preparing the evening meal that Sagong Hee herself was going to eat.
"My lord! Please observe my Five Elements Sword Formation! I've finally mastered the forms you taught me!"
"Forget mastering the Five Elements Sword Formation in a month—master the stir-fried mushrooms!!"
Faced with a servant whose martial talent was absolutely extraordinary, I could only bring my knife down on the innocent pork with a thud.