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003
Sam-gu.
The young man who made his living gathering medicinal herbs on the mountain and selling them to the medicine shop had a worry.
He wasn't middle-aged. He was a young man. He only looked that way because he'd been scrambling up and down the mountain since childhood.
His skin was wrinkled, half his head was bald, and his complexion was rough, but surprisingly he was only around thirty.
"Sam-gu, is dinner still a long way off?"
The young man—if one could call someone who looked at least forty that—prepared the meal while being spoken down to by a boy who seemed to have just come of age. As always, Sam-gu cooked and set the table for his 'master.'
"Sam-gu, the food is saltier than usual today."
"I-I'm sorry! Master!"
The small boy who had come into the hut built on the mountainside had grown so much physically that it was now difficult to call him a boy.
It had been thirteen years since Sam-gu had fished him out of the flowing river.
The boy went around claiming to be far younger than Sam-gu, and every time Sam-gu saw him putting on exaggerated respect outside the hut, his mood soured.
"Sam-gu, your face is full of worry today. What troubles you?"
"I—I fear I will burden you, Master, so it is difficult to speak."
"It's fine. Speak. Is your martial-arts training blocked? Or have you run out of money? Shall I go dig up a Hundred-Year Ginseng like last time?"
"I-It's not that! Thanks to your grace, my martial arts improve daily, and my wealth increases by the day. It's just...."
Sam-gu deliberately left a trail.
"Speak. What's your concern?"
"Your disciple, dare I offer a humble remonstrance, Master?"
"Why make it so complicated? Just tell me honestly what's on your mind. I am not so narrow a man. I am exceedingly magnanimous."
Sam-gu wanted to retort that he was beyond magnanimous—that he simply did whatever the hell his cock pleased. But he could not speak so rudely to a master who was like heaven to him.
"Your disciple, setting aside all shame—to you, Master—"
"Stop beating around the bush and get to the point!"
"I believe it is far too early for you to go to the Pleasure House with that face!"
He'd said it. Sam-gu squeezed his eyes shut. He was so terrified he almost thought he'd be expelled from the sect.
"Huh. Really. You built up all that atmosphere for this. Sam-gu. Since you spoke honestly, I'll tell you what I really think."
The boy, Seong-gi, threw the soup bowl he'd just emptied.
"I'm an adult now and want to do a little womanizing, so why are you picking a fight with me?!"
Smack!
Sam-gu, struck by the soup bowl laced with inner energy, passed out on the spot.
* * *
'The damn brat dares lecture me when I just want to hold a woman?'
I shoved the insolent servant into the room.
"You dodged the flying secret of the King of Flying Daggers, brat. You've become useful now."
I'd thrown the soup bowl after infusing it with inner energy and the subtlety of the Flying Dagger Art. Sam-gu instinctively tried to evade, but the bowl curved in flight and struck him exactly on the head.
"Heh. Am I not, in fact, an incredible master? I raised a simple herb gatherer to a first-rate warrior. Hey, you listening? You'd better treat me well."
I pushed the unconscious Sam-gu with my foot and flipped him onto the blanket. I owed my life to Sam-gu, who helped me survive, and in return I'd taught him martial arts beside me for thirteen years, raising him up.
'And as a bonus, I grew too.'
When I fed Sam-gu Hundred-Year Ginseng, I ate Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng. When we sparred under the name of training, I refined my bones and muscles and tempered my body by circulating inner energy.
Isn't this what they call a win for both sides? No matter how much I threw my weight around, Sam-gu sincerely regarded me as his master because he'd learned martial arts from me.
"But today he was especially insolent. Yes, he was."
I, his master, was finally about to use my hips for the first time in thirteen years—decades, if I included my past life—and he had the gall to interfere. I ran down the mountain, savoring the sensation of heat gathering in my lower dantian.
'How long I've waited just for the day I became an adult!'
Boom! Boom! Boom!
I alternated between Grass-top Flying and Void Step, riding the sheer mountain downward.
They were advanced martial arts that even peak masters, let alone first-rate warriors, couldn't properly use, but I could use them as much as I wanted without great strain.
'Good thing I watched and learned during my days as a Blood Jiangshi.'
Back when the Blood Cult Leader used me as a Blood Jiangshi and I killed countless Orthodox Faction masters. The Blood Cult Leader had mixed the blood of all kinds of warriors into my body, ostensibly to study me.
Thanks to that, I was able to learn the martial arts of all manner of warriors through the dark arts of the Blood Cult.
The Cult Leader controlled my body, but my mind remained perfectly clear. With nothing to do but think, I learned all kinds of martial arts with my eyes and mind while living as a Blood Jiangshi.
'They'd be horrified if they knew. That their martial arts are being used like this.'
The sole reason I ran down the mountain in a single breath:
To hold a woman.
She wasn't a woman I mutually loved—merely one I bought with money—but I'm no castrated man, and who's to say anything if I just want to get some release?
"Sam-gu must have been jealous. Surely. A virgin worrying about his master's private life before his own... tsk."
I'm not one to stop just because my servant blocks me. I slowed down near the village, set foot on the ground, and walked the main road.
"It's been a while, Brother Kim!"
"Oh my, Master Seong has come."
The man addressing me as "master" was a military officer of the fortress, a guard who kept the peace in the town. I secretly slipped a pouch into his bosom.
"I've come to do that again today. Please pretend you didn't see."
"Cough. I don't know what you mean, but I'll take it. Ah, right. I almost forgot about that matter."
The officer clasped his hands together and began muttering to himself. I listened.
"A high-ranking person is supposed to come to the Pleasure House today~"
"A high-ranking person... hmm."
I safely passed the officer's search and entered the fortress. From the entrance, the voices of merchants selling goods resounded noisily.
'It's definitely more tense than when I visited recently.'
The market merchants, who normally cared only about making money, were quite on edge. Feeling the stiff atmosphere spreading throughout the streets, I packed up the herbs I'd brought in my bundle and quickly headed to the medicine shop.
"Come here."
"Insolent bastard."
The old man of the medicine shop spat out a curse the moment he heard my voice. His back was usually bent, but he greeted me with a straight posture and spat on the floor.
"Oh ho? Spitting in your own shop? The sanitation is abysmal. I'd better sell these elsewhere."
"Crazy fool. As if you could get full price anywhere else. Shut your mouth and bring it over."
"Anyway, your mouth is filthy as ever, old man. Here."
I set the bundle down on the table and picked up a leaf. Then I randomly stuffed some of the medicinal herbs inside the leaf at my whim, mixed them in suitable proportions, rolled it up, and put it in my mouth.
"I found a good one this time, so I trust you've got plenty of silver ready."
"What did you find? Something separately wrapped inside this?"
The old man pulled out a double-wrapped cloth from the bundle. I nodded, flicking my fingers, and conjured Samadhi True Fire at the tip of my index finger to light the end of the leaf-wrapped tobacco.
"I really worked hard for this, so use it well. It's hard to come by in this region."
"Unless it's Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng. Utterly insolent... it's fleeceflower root."
With a serious face, the old man carefully examined the flawless fleeceflower root. The white root, as long as my arm, looked ancient at a glance.
"T-Then, could this be...!"
"If you start talking about Thousand-Year Fleeceflower Root I'll quit being a physician."
"It's a hundred-year-old fleeceflower root."
"Kahaha! So that's why it's white?! ...Cough. D-Don't look at me with those eyes."
I took a deep drag from the leaf tobacco. The unique scent of the herb pierced deep into my lungs, and I exhaled, mixing the accumulated impurities in my body with my breath to regulate my breathing.
"I desire a swift transaction, like a hawk. Just give me three taels of silver."
"...Such a rapid decision makes me feel like I'm being cut by a blade."
The old man rummaged around and pulled out a box. Inside were a full eight heavy silver coins.
A full five more than the price I'd named—the 'fair market price' at which the fleeceflower root I'd dug up was sold around here.
"Leaving no profit for yourself? What's the point of buying it at that price? Your spine's straightened for the first time in a while, so you should show your wife some husbandly dignity."
"Shut up, you brat. My conscience won't let me cheat a kid. This is worth eight taels."
"That damned conscience of yours makes you five taels of silver? Fine by me."
I packed the box into the cloth bundle. Now that I'd secured some war funds, it was time to go spend them.
"Wait a moment."
"Now what?"
"You little bastard, you're not thinking of going to fuck again, are you?"
At the old man's words, my feet stopped on their own. My appetite had soured since morning, and I hadn't expected to hear the same thing here.
"Honestly. Do you think I dug up hard-earned fleeceflower root just to hold a woman? And what do you mean, 'fuck'? How vulgar."
"Am I wrong? If you're not using this fleeceflower root to go to the Pleasure House, I'll give it right back."
"I'm not going to fuck; I'm going to share cloud and rain affection."
The old man gave me an unsurprised look. Since this was nothing new, I tied the cloth containing the box firmly.
"I thought only the head on top was cracked, but the dick-head is cracked too... tsk tsk tsk. The world's ending, ending."
"Isn't that too harsh? A kid, you say! I am now a full-grown adult!"
"Shouldn't you usually be angrier about the latter?"
"Being called a kid makes me angrier! I already heard an earful this morning! That if I enter a brothel with this face, I'll be misunderstood!"
I looked at the mirror hung in the medicine shop. My build had grown sturdy to a point where it was ambiguous to call me a young man, yet just before adulthood.
My age was definitely adult. My age.
"Look at this robust body! Isn't it the very image of a supreme External Martial Arts master?!"
"With that pretty face, if you just dress up in some fancy clothes, you'd be exactly like a girl."
"A girl... cough. As I thought, should I grow a beard?"
Maybe it's because half the blood of Anhui's greatest beauty flows within me. My unblemished face was quite pretty, just as the old man said. So much so that if I truly cross-dressed, people would mistake me for a woman.
"Well, what does the face matter anyway? Do you need a face to embrace a woman? Just this is enough by law!"
I lightly flicked the front of my trousers with my finger.
"Look! Is this a little kid? It's a kid-maker!"
"...Sounds like you're saying 'son of a bitch'."
The old man openly frowned, but even when my Heavenly Horse (天馬) inside my pants wasn't erect, its presence was visible from the outside.
"Even if the face is a kid's, as long as this is an adult's, isn't that fine?"
"I know your foul temper, so it ends here, but I'm telling you to be careful of those etiquette-obsessed types coming here today."
"Wait, I'm planning to go to the Pleasure House, and you're telling me to watch out for Confucian-minded scholars? You mean those guys are coming to the Pleasure House?"
"Aren't they the type who discuss the affairs of Murim in front while coveting women's bodies behind?"
"Indeed. So they take care of the affairs... cough. I get it, I get it. Honestly. My servant always just rolled with this stuff."
I turned and left the medicine shop. Right outside, on the open main road, numerous people were standing aside on the roadside, looking around nervously.
"What's this?"
Rattle, rattle.
The sound of horse hooves and wheels rolling could be heard. I looked toward the sound and the profound inner energy came from.
"Oh."
Inside the carriage. My mouth went dry at the sight of the elegant, black-haired beauty visible through a gap in the paper window attached to the frame.
"Paeng Yuwol?"
Slashing Demon Sword (斬魔刀).
A daughter of the Hebei Paeng Clan, a woman whose martial arts were so exceptional she would rise to the ranks of the Hundred Great Masters.
A heroine who would master the Five Tiger Door-Breaking Blade to the utmost, greatly distinguishing herself in the Great Righteous-Demonic War, then later fall in love with the martial artist who had saved her life, marry him, and give birth to the heir who would lead the Hebei Paeng Clan.
'She's pretty even when young. I'd only ever seen her looking like a blood-drenched Rakshasa.'
I feasted my eyes on her face until the carriage passed the main road. She had covered the window with paper and veiled her face with a face veil, but she couldn't evade my eyes, which I'd enhanced with inner energy and clairvoyance.
"As expected of one of the Six Phoenixes...!"
"Huh? What do you mean, boss?"
"What do you mean? Isn't the daughter of the Paeng Clan riding in the carriage that just passed one of the Six Phoenixes?"
"Crazy talk."
"...The Six Phoenixes are at least around young adulthood—ah, shoot."
I waved my hand and cleared out. The image of her brandishing her sword and charging out to slaughter demons when her husband was injured while pregnant had left such a strong impression that I'd momentarily mistaken her age.
'This is the problem with returning to the past.'
Having returned decades, a chill ran through me to realize the people I remembered were completely different now.
Take Paeng Yuwol right now: she wasn't one of the Hundred Great Masters, let alone one of the Six Phoenixes; she only seemed to possess martial arts slightly outstanding among the Rising Stars.
"......Alright, I've decided."
I gripped my bundle tightly and moved my feet toward my original destination, the Pleasure House.
"Tonight, it's a long night with a courtesan who looks like Paeng Yuwol."
One round won't be enough, so I'll just buy the entire night.