026
026
Dawn.
I gave the bed to the two women who had fallen asleep holding hands, then sat alone on the flat wooden bench in the courtyard and tilted a cup of wine. I'd already devoured the snacks with relish; all I needed was the liquor to burn the blood-energy in my body.
"Grr, that hit the spot."
The courtesan Jin Sa-wol had passed out, forgetting she even had to return to the pleasure house after the lessons.
She had taken my organ while we switched positions evenly—from behind, from the front, from the side—and Sagong Hee had imitated Jin Sa-wol's movements to the letter, treating my fingers as a member and climaxing several times.
Jin Sa-wol fainted from exhaustion after truly receiving me, and Sagong Hee collapsed from sheer educational fervor. Later on I only inserted my fingers without moving, but she imitated Jin Sa-wol's movements and shook her own waist.
'When I do it for real, I'll have to go gentle.'
Thinking that putting in just two fingers is true Yin-Yang Union is a grave mistake. When it actually goes in later, it'll be closer to four fingers thick. If she thinks two fingers is all there is to dual cultivation, how will she endure the real thing later?
'Should I just take her virginity as is?'
Taking a virgin isn't exactly a huge problem. To begin with, the fundamental duty of a body-servant—nightly attendance—starts with offering her virginity. If I meant to protect her chastity, why would I even bring her here and tie her to my side?
'But then I can't leech her internal energy.'
Only a pure body that still preserves its virginity lets me build internal energy faster. If I take her virginity, the time before I can begin extracting her yin energy gets pushed further back.
'About one year until Sagong Hee's internal energy reaches one Gapja.'
If I don't take her virginity for that year, I can absorb her yin energy without any burden afterward through Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang. That's precisely why I set up a house in an out-of-the-way place and focus entirely on raising Sagong Hee's internal energy.
'Her own effort is part of it, but my assistance is hardly insignificant.'
Wudang Mountain is an excellent place to cultivate the primal qi of the Taiji using the Taiji Divine Art, and all sorts of spirit medicines are scattered across the world.
I had already roamed Wudang Mountain, plucked every kind of body-fortifying spirit medicine, and cooked them up as stir-fried wild greens without damaging my internal qi. Everything she ate was packed with spirit medicines the likes of which you'd never see in any great clan.
'But if I take her virginity, the internal-energy extraction gets pushed back three years.'
The speed at which a woman with an intact hymen accumulates yin energy is roughly three times faster than that of a woman who has been opened. If I break through her virginity right now, the one-Gapja mark could be delayed until three years later. I found myself at a crossroads of choice and plucked a small flower blooming by the wall, tearing off its petals one by one.
"Take her, wait, take her, wait......."
Rustle. The petals fell. I burned the stem to ash with Samadhi True Fire. As the smoldering thoughts inside me were swept clean by a neat cup of wine, my head cleared.
"Fine. I'll take her virginity at the right time."
I'm not the kind of man who weighs everything and chews on greens while leaving the meat in the storehouse. I decided I simply wouldn't take her virginity until Sagong Hee had fully learned Jin Sa-wol's waist movements.
'A virgin body with bedroom arts at the level of a top-tier courtesan.'
The mere thought made my mouth water. Even the virginity of the Taiji Sword Empress, back when she knew nothing of pleasing a man, still remains so vivid and good—so taking Sagong Hee's virginity after she's learned how to move her hips?
Just thinking about it felt like my yang energy would explode. My lower body grew tight of its own accord.
"For the time being I'll be indebted to Jin Sa-wol. A chicken instead of a pheasant... tch, still, it isn't the same as young chicken, so I'm not fully satisfied."
Even though I couldn't take a virgin, I had brought Jin Sa-wol and held her because I still craved the inside of a female body.
But Jin Sa-wol's insides were not on the level of Sagong Hee—the future Taiji Sword Empress.
Though their ages ought to be similar, the fact that my union with the Taiji Sword Empress in my memories felt better seems to confirm that the popular saying—that martial artists are more vividly alluring than ordinary people—isn't wrong.
— Doing it with a woman who's learned martial arts is so damn hot! In that sense, the Murim is a paradise unto itself. Ahaha! The way they all squeeze their vaginal muscles is top-notch!
'Blood Cult Leader, you were right.'
A courtesan is merely a substitute for a martial artist.
Just as Hong-ryeon could not replace Paeng Yuwol, Jin Sa-wol could not replace Sagong Hee, though she could momentarily lull my lust.
I slipped back inside and, using the sight of the two lying face down as my drinking snack, tilted my cup. Sticky semen had dried beneath Jin Sa-wol; transparent love fluid had dried beneath Sagong Hee.
'I'll have to clean them up later.'
This wasn't a relationship where I could blow my load once and leave, but one where we'd keep spending nights together. If I didn't clean that up for them, I'd get an earful of abuse. I dampened a piece of silk with wine and wiped their buttocks, thighs, and private areas.
"Ah, ahn."
"Haaah...."
"Seeing them like this, they really look just like mother and daughter."
Is it because of their ages, or because their names are similar?
Or is it that Sagong Hee, who lost her mother and has no place to rest her heart, is craving a bit of maternity from Jin Sa-wol, her teacher in the bedroom arts?
Whichever it is, it's hardly bad for me. Jin Sa-wol will surely become a good nocturnal mother to Sagong Hee.
'And Jin Sa-wol isn't a reckless bitch who oversteps the line like Hong-ryeon.'
The women of the pleasure house are supposed to know their boundaries.
I discarded Hong-ryeon because she tried to use me, and Jin Sa-wol had paid her due in full from the silver I'd given her. The day after I held Jin Sa-wol in that alleyway and met her again, I recalled the deal I had made with her.
— I want to teach my female body-servant the nightly duties, and I'd like you to show her by doing it with me yourself.
— ...Are you telling me right now to let another woman watch while I have intercourse with you, Gaga?
— Yes. I want you to teach that child how to exalt a man. That child will serve me for life.
What courtesan would ever agree to such a mad request? But Jin Sa-wol accepted.
— If you pay me double the price of one night as a premium, I shall humbly accept.
— Depending on the results, I could give you three times as well.
— Shall I take off my clothes here and now, or shall I go to your residence and spread my legs?
— First strip and do it with me one more time, then come tomorrow evening and spread them.
Jin Sa-wol's and my deal was a success. Although Sagong Hee had only learned for a single day today, like blank paper drinking ink she had swiftly absorbed Jin Sa-wol's bedroom arts. She learned so well that she convulsed from just my fingers as if we were truly coupling.
Her martial arts are extraordinary, her five stars are good, she's clever, and she even shows talent in nightly affairs. I half-thought, this is the kind of woman they call an all-around beauty.
"Honestly, if she were just good at housework, I'd even consider taking her as a wife."
A body I'd never get tired of no matter how many times I devour it.
Internal energy that, no matter how much I extract essence, won't drop below one Gapja.
A mind method that, depending on the occasion, can transform my yang energy into her yin energy and build her internal energy to three Gapja or more.
And a bearer of martial arts who might one day stand unbowed even against the Murim Alliance Leader, the Heavenly Demon, the Blood Cult Leader, and the Gucheon Celestial Maiden—if she ever became my enemy.
...A woman like that ought to be cooking rice and washing clothes for me. It makes no sense for me to handle all the household duties for her. I'm not raising a daughter or training a disciple; I'm cultivating a body-servant, a nighttime attendant, and a housekeeper.
"Sam-gu, I miss you today."
Sam-gu wasn't especially skilled at housework either. His abilities were at the level of a man living alone, so I'd personally taught him everything from cooking rice to mending clothes.
Sam-gu learned everything I taught him.
Compared to Sagong Hee, he didn't grasp even one star of the martial arts I taught, but in household work he became so adept in half a year that I'd say he nearly reached my heels.
Even if he didn't know martial arts, in the ways of surviving I felt no pangs of conscience in boldly calling Sam-gu my disciple.
"Right. Sam-gu, you proved it. If you try, you can do it. If you can't, I just have to make you do it until you can."
She does fine in martial arts even if I leave her alone. Her nightly affairs will quickly become proficient as long as Jin Sa-wol is here. All that remains is housework—at the very least, making her good at cooking and laundry.
"I will absolutely make her cook Five-spice Jangyuk. Absolutely!"
For me, this is a new trial. "Somehow, I'll make her into the Taiji Sword Empress—no, beyond even that."
I picked up the empty wine bottle and slowly rose to my feet. The chilly night air lay bleakly around me, and a massive shape with glowing yellow eyes was trudging through the darkness.
"Heh-heh. I wasn't even talking to you, so why are you getting so angry? Do you want to become Five-spice Jangyuk?"
Grrrr.
Outside the gate, a wild boar more than half the size of the house was twitching its snout and glowering at me. From its gaunt build and savage glare, it looked like it had crawled down the mountain because there was nothing to eat.
A spirit beast.
But a monster that hunts humans.
"You're thinking of devouring a person? That means you're baring your teeth knowing full well you could be devoured yourself, right?"
Sniff sniff!
The boar pawed the ground with its forelegs. With the air of an imminent charge, I leaped forward and seized its horns. It tried to butt me with its horns and head, but it couldn't budge an inch against my strength.
"First let's go over by the river. I have to go to the riverside to wash out its guts."
Crrrack.
I infused strength throughout my whole body. The boar, whose horns were caught and couldn't pull free from my hand, only then dimly sensed my true power; its eyes began to waver. Only when I gathered up the energy I'd let disperse to blend into nature did it finally realize what sort of existence it had touched.
"Your eyes are brimming with fear."
The law of the jungle.
The weak are simply devoured by the strong.
"Impudent brat."
I smacked the struggling boar's head with the ridge of my hand, then grabbed its horns and dragged it to the riverside. Lacking a dagger to skin and carve the flesh, I picked up a thin branch and poured my internal qi into it. The sword qi, imbued into a branch heated red-hot by yang energy, easily severed the boar's limbs.
"What to make... yeah, bossam sounds good. Early breakfast would be a bit much, so if I want it ready around lunchtime I'll have to start boiling it at dawn. For butchering...."
Crack.
"Fuck, now that I think about it, I've never even taught Sam-gu how to butcher a wild boar!!"
Crack, crack.
"Five Tiger Door-Breaking Blade!!"
* * *
Morning came.
While the two women tidied themselves, I busied myself in the kitchen from early dawn, having already butchered the wild boar that had attacked me in the night. While Jin Sa-wol used the room to apply her makeup before heading out to the pleasure house, I instructed Sagong Hee to bring in the table I'd set in the kitchen.
"Gaga, the young lady's cooking is quite good, isn't it?"
"I made it."
"......Pardon?"
"Her cooking is so abysmal that I did it myself."
On the table, fashioned into a round shape, rice, greens, and succulent slices of boiled wild boar—whose gamey odor had been removed with all manner of spices—were neatly arranged.
I picked up my spoon and chopsticks first, and Jin Sa-wol was the one to lift her chopsticks and put a piece of the boiled pork into her mouth.
"...Gaga, are you really expecting the young lady to reach this standard?"
"Yes."
"......Are you thinking of raising the young lady into the world's greatest chef?"
"No. A woman of mine should be able to do at least this much. She's a body that might one day bear my child. If she can't even properly make food to feed my child, how could she call herself a mother?"
Sagong Hee pursed her lips and couldn't say a word. Even Jin Sa-wol nodded; my words were sound argument.
"Enough. Let's eat comfortably. Gyeon-hui, eat at ease right now."
Munch munch.
Sagong Hee nodded without a word.
After finishing the late breakfast and while Sagong Hee cleared the dishes, I had a brief talk with Jin Sa-wol to discuss the direction of Sagong Hee's nightly training.
"I gave it some thought last night. I want to raise her as a woman with a virgin body but bedroom arts at the level of a top-tier courtesan. To put it plainly, I want her to have already mastered waist work on your level by the time I take her virginity."
"You're making her sound like some new hire with loads of experience?"
"Gyeon-hui has talent, that's why!"
"She certainly seems to have talent, of course. If she had been registered in a pleasure house, she might have become a woman who could command all of Hubei—no, the entire Central Plains. She might even have been summoned to the imperial palace and become a consort. Hmm... maintaining her virginity while learning bedroom arts... Ah!"
Jin Sa-wol clapped her hands and presented a new path to me.
"How about taking her virginity first, and then doing it from behind later after she's in the middle of learning the bedroom arts?"
"Behind?"
"Yes. Women have more than one hole, don't they? There are two virginities, so you can take the rear one later. Take it easy. Is the young lady someone who's going to run away? There's absolutely no reason to rush."
"......!!"
Enlightenment.
The Master said, 'When three walk together.' It means that among three people walking, there is surely a teacher. I received a tremendous enlightenment from the courtesan Jin Sa-wol.
Breaking her virginity slows down the accumulation of internal energy?
The point where I can freely increase her energy through Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang gets pushed back?
'Then I just have to wait!'
— If a man sees a spread pussy, he should just ram it in. Are you a eunuch? You do your thinking after you've fucked and come and become a sage, you idiot!
Blood Cult Leader, you were indeed right.
"Thank you! Thanks to you, I've had a great awakening. Heh-heh, hahaha!! Time, that's it! Time! Is there anything so urgent that I need to rush? I was indecisive! Thank you for making me reach a decision! Gyeon-hui!!"
"Eek!"
I grabbed Sagong Hee's arm the moment she returned carrying the tea tray and pulled her into my embrace.
"Tonight, you and I shall reach the Taiji!"
At long last, Yin-Yang Union.