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When a man finishes his business outside and wants to hurry straight home?
It means one of two things.
Either he's done something wrong to his wife, or he wants to fuck his wife senseless.
"Wife! You lucky dog!"
Since I hadn't done anything wrong to Sagong Hee, there was only one reason to rush straight back.
To take Sagong Hee's virginity. I wrapped the secret manuals carefully inside the Wudang Sect Leader's robes so they wouldn't slip out, stepped across the treetops, and sprinted down the mountain path.
"I have arrived!"
By the time the sun was slipping behind the mountains, I threw the door open the moment I reached home. And then I froze.
"...A magnificent sight!"
"Oh my, you're back?"
Inside the room, Sagong Hee was lying in a position as if giving birth, while Jin Sa-wol was using her fingers to moisten Sagong Hee's petals. Sagong Hee was unconscious, breathing in irregular intervals.
"I thought she'd need to loosen up a bit more to accept Gaga's member, so I took the liberty of preparing her."
"Well done. I was actually worried that just putting it in as is might tear something unnecessarily."
"Don't mention it. But Gaga, considering you went to a pleasure house, you're a little late, aren't you?"
"A man doing business outside can come home a little late. Get up. I'll escort you back."
I grabbed Jin Sa-wol's coat from the wall and handed it to her. She meekly accepted the clothes, then took out a piece of black silk and covered her own eyes.
"Everything's ready, Gaga. You'll take me back to the pleasure house, yes?"
"Of course. That's the agreement."
The house I had found was located beneath Wudang Mountain, but in a place no ordinary person could ever reach. Just yesterday, a boar the size of a house had charged out. Spirit creatures thronged the surrounding area to the point where an average courtesan couldn't come and go.
Because of that, I had to escort her to the pleasure house personally. I took Jin Sa-wol into my arms, stepped outside, and spread my internal qi in all directions.
"Oh my...?"
"What's wrong?"
"Something feels strange."
"Of course it does. I'm fondling your breasts."
I had bought Jin Sa-wol's time, and until we arrived at the pleasure house, Jin Sa-wol was my woman.
So the way I carried her—facing me, one hand gripping her chest and the other forearm supporting her bottom—was perfectly fine. That was included in the silver I had paid.
"Did Gyeon-hui train well?"
"Yes. If she hadn't been a virgin, I would have practiced with a carved phallus, but unfortunately, I couldn't go that far."
"Obviously. If you had torn a virgin with something like that, I would have ripped you to shreds."
"Hoho, I didn't do it precisely because of that. Instead...."
Jin Sa-wol draped her arms around my neck and whispered low.
"I definitely made a woman of her by about a finger's length. If my instruction was good enough, please let me know the results next time."
"Hah, already preparing for your next business engagement?"
"Naturally. Gaga, you wouldn't let me take other customers, would you?"
"That's true. So, you do have an eye for men after all?"
About a two-hour watch had passed since I started running along the mountain path with Jin Sa-wol in my arms. I set her down at a suitable spot and let her untie her blindfold.
"Oh my, this place...?"
"Heh heh, I'm rather fast, you see."
I had set her down in the very alley where Jin Sa-wol and I first met.
"See you next time. I have a ripe fruit to pluck and eat."
"Gaga, may I ask one thing?"
"Just ask straight out!"
"......Gaga, just how strong are you?"
I felt my breath catch at Jin Sa-wol's question. It was too abstract, and for me, a somewhat difficult question to answer.
"How strong... Are you asking about my martial arts level?"
"Yes. Even with my worthless eyes, I'd say you're someone who easily enters the ranks of the Hundred Great Masters of the world."
"Kuhaha! Hundred? A mere hundred?! Huhaha!!"
I couldn't hold back my laughter.
"Khm, this lord is a strong enough expert to place within the top ten."
"How impressive."
"I'll ask you something. Why are you curious about that?"
"To boast about it. That so-and-so was one of the men who visited me. For a courtesan, there's no greater source of pride, is there?"
I admired Jin Sa-wol's words. She hadn't learned a single martial art, yet her mind was so sharp I wanted to learn it all from her.
"If I tell you my epithet, you'll pretend you're not boasting while subtly bragging all over. Whether to other courtesans, or against other martial artists."
"I wouldn't dare hope for the epithet. This is what I'd want to say. One of the Ten Great Masters of the World has visited this place! Huhu."
Jin Sa-wol placed both hands on her lower abdomen and smiled slyly. She looked at me with eyes full of quiet expectation, but I turned my body around at once.
"I'll call for you again soon. Be sure to bring plenty of silver then too."
"How cold-hearted. Please go in peace."
Jin Sa-wol bowed deeply at the waist, a full ninety degrees, to see me off. I leaped toward Wudang Mountain in a single bound and left the pleasure house district behind.
"One of the Ten Great Masters of the World, huh."
The comment about the Hundred Great Masters had stung my pride a little and made me flare up without realizing it, but my own statement about being in the top ten was definitely not wrong.
Considering my current realm, the martial arts of the warriors scattered across the current Central Plains, and my memories altogether, I could confidently claim I ranked within the top ten.
'In the first place, Divine Spear is around tenth, and since I'm stronger than him right now, I naturally fall among the Ten Great Masters.'
If you went by the Blood Jiangshi standard, I was second. But my conscience wouldn't quite let me call myself the best under heaven.
Gucheon Hyeonnyeo.
As long as she existed, I couldn't discuss being the world's best. The Murim Alliance Leader, Heavenly Demon, and even the Blood Cult Leader were opponents I felt I could manage somehow, but her—even if I fought her again, I didn't think I could win.
"......There's no need at all to worry. I was executed because I was a Blood Jiangshi, not because I was a Lust Demon."
I soothed myself.
In my previous life, during my Blood Jiangshi days, I had killed too many people, so Gucheon Hyeonnyeo appeared and killed me.
In that case, in this life, if I just avoid excessive slaughter and content myself with plucking only a few of the world's most beautiful flowers, that should be enough.
'Not too many. I'll just take exactly three wives and four concubines. Selected from the most beautiful women in the world.'
If, once I peeled off her human skin mask, she turned out to be a woman of absolute beauty, then she was more than qualified to remain by my side. If she could handle domestic affairs perfectly, she'd even be considered for the position of one of the three wives.
"I have arrived!"
I returned to the house where Sagong Hee—the monumental existence who would become the first woman of my orchard—had collapsed, and opened the door.
"Gyeon-hui! I've come ba...."
Shik!
A lock of my bangs was snipped off. I saw the owner of the sword that had aimed for my throat, and my jaw dropped open.
A sword was flying through the air. Though it was only a single sword scattering through the Taiji Wisdom Sword's Qi-Controlled Sword Art, I saw where the Taiji Divine Art's energy, linked to the blade, was positioned, and my heart sank.
"......."
Sagong Hee, her eyes practically glued to the stack of secret manuals piled inside the robes, was learning martial arts straight from the book without even noticing my arrival.
And not just reading—she was physically manifesting the sword art techniques in midair with the Taiji Wisdom Sword's sword control!
"You...?"
"Drag, draw a circle and subdue the opponent...."
Clang!
Fast. And strong. Speed and weight—two powerful forces that are difficult to blend together—came at me. I deflected the first martial form with my sword, then settled into a stance.
"...No wonder you are the Taiji Sword Empress."
Even when she first learned the Taiji Wisdom Sword, she had shown remarkable achievement within a month. Now, just by reading the secret manuals, she was flawlessly reproducing Wudang's martial arts for all to see. The manual she was staring at was labeled 'Yang-ui-mu...'—with the rest of the title worn away.
'This is a transcendent-grade martial art.'
Far from being suppressed by the Taiji Wisdom Sword, it became even more threatening when used alongside it. If she mastered both to their utmost extremes alongside the Taiji Wisdom Sword, the expected achievement was enough to aim for the top four or so in the world.
'But is this wench testing it on me?'
She had fallen into a state of no self while learning a high-level martial art, but that was no excuse. As her master, I had to firmly establish discipline.
"......Fine, yes. Today, give it everything you have."
Wudang's sword principle is to counter after the opponent moves first. In other words, receiving an attack is more advantageous.
"This is exactly yin-yang union!"
The man thrusts, and the woman receives. For the sake of Sagong Hee's enlightenment, I resolved to personally unfold my martial arts and be her opponent.
"Shall we start lightly with this!"
Namgung's Emperor Sword Art.
* * *
From a young age, Sagong Hee had loved books. Her body's condition forced her to wear a human skin mask and prevented her from going outside, which certainly created an environment where she had no choice but to love books, but she genuinely enjoyed the books themselves and harbored no complaints.
Inside books, another world unfolded.
Through books, Sagong Hee acquired vast knowledge, embraced new worlds, and further awakened to the truths of the universe.
...She had also learned about the affairs of mutual joy between man and woman through books, and had even practiced the basics with her body.
If learning by seeing was knowing ten things from one, then learning by seeing with a written text, understanding and mastering it, was knowing a hundred things from one—no, knowing a thousand things from one. It was no exaggeration. That was how gifted Sagong Hee was at comprehending through the written word.
- My lord... Oh my, what are all these books. To just toss them aside and leave....
It was a coincidence. After fainting and waking up, Sagong Hee had been looking for her master when she discovered the secret manuals stacked inside the robes. While tidying up the roughly discarded books, curiosity got the better of her and she opened one.
And inside it, there was a world, a universe.
The principles of the cosmos, represented by yin-yang and the five elements, expressed through sword and fist—and all sorts of martial principles unfolding from the doctrine of countering after the opponent moves first—drove themselves cleanly into Sagong Hee's mind.
- Watch and learn.
The movements her master had shown her fused with the theory and burrowed deep into Sagong Hee's soul. She imagined herself swinging a sword within the world of the book and honed the secret manual's martial forms.
An imaginary enemy appeared before her eyes. The opponent dodged a preemptive strike and began to press her fiercely, sword in hand. The lightning-like onslaught was akin to a raging wave, and Sagong Hee unfolded one after another the martial arts she had learned while reading the secret manual.
Drawing a circle.
Deflecting the enemy's attack.
Receiving the opponent's strike and then using it in reverse to subdue them.
She let the lightning-bolt sword strike slide off her blade, turned her body, and swung her sword in a wide arc. Because she had swung it at a distance close enough for the tip of the sword's curve to graze the opponent's throat, red blood burst out. The blood was a fragrant plum blossom—
Plum blossom?
What she'd thought was blood was actually plum blossoms. Red flowers burst like gore and bloomed in every direction, and Sagong Hee's head began to spin.
Unlike the earlier lightning-like onslaught, the sword path began mixing feints into the trajectory, pressing her from all sides. Her two feet retreated, tracing the shape of a curved jade, but the twenty-four plum blossoms blooming brilliantly pursued her evasive trajectory.
Clang, clang!
Sword clashed against sword. Whenever she cut down one plum blossom, another bloomed; cut down two, and four bloomed. However many she cut down, the blossoms endlessly bloomed, and the sharp sword hidden among the plum blossom petals stabbed like a snake trying to smash her circle.
'Deflect!'
She set her blade at an angle and let the thrusting sword slide off, as if bouncing it away. The opponent's strike slipped to the side, and she caught a glimpse of an opening to counterattack and receive the next strike.
One slash, and it would be over. Just as Sagong Hee was about to swing her sword in her imagination, a blue qi shimmered over her opponent's blade, and its form changed.
'A saber?'
The enemy's weapon, transformed into an edged blade with a different shape than a sword, slashed as though to knock Sagong Hee's sword aside. Just moments ago, it had been a series of linear thrusts, but now it flashed repeatedly like a crescent moon, seeming intent on cutting the circular sword path she was tracing.
Clang, clang!
It waxed from a new crescent to a quarter moon. Even using every martial form she had learned from the secret manual, she gradually began to struggle to hold on.
Shik.
The full moon rose. The arc of the full moon traced across her chest, splitting her clothes open left and right. Sagong Hee gritted her teeth and knocked the saber away. A waxing moon must eventually wane, and as expected, the full moon connected into a waning quarter, its aggressive momentum beginning to ebb.
The dark moon, and the moment the moon vanished.
'Now!'
Sagong Hee thrust her sword first. The instant she was sure she had triumphed over the invisible foe, a single woman appeared before Sagong Hee's eyes.
Dressed in a Taoist robe woven of black and white, her sword slowly hanging down as she swung it in a wide circle—in one breath, she deflected and knocked away Sagong Hee's attack. At the moment she saw the face of the woman who had drawn such an effortlessly beautiful sword path, Sagong Hee awoke from her dream.
"So, did you enjoy the sparring match?"
"Ah...."
The one she had thought was a woman was a man—her master. The strength drained from Sagong Hee's legs and she collapsed. Having awakened to such a vast number of martial arts at once, and so perfectly, she sat stunned, lost in the lingering afterglow.
"Congratulations on reaching a higher realm. You are now a fine first-rate warrior."
"......I'm, first-rate...?"
She had only learned martial arts for one month. Sagong Hee felt a chill, as if her master were lying. No matter how much spirit medicine one consumed and how outstanding a martial art one learned, she doubted whether this was realistically possible.
"The world is full of geniuses, and there exist people with talent beyond heaven. You are a woman whose talent is as great as your face. Under the whole sky, there will be no woman more versed in the sword of Wudang than you."
Her master gave a soft smile. It was a smile utterly different from his usual biting, scornful grins—a pure, youthful smile befitting a man his age—and Sagong Hee found herself smiling back without knowing it.
"Now then, let's experience something at the peak, shall we?"
"......Excuse me?"
The young man stripped his pants off in one smooth motion and pushed Sagong Hee down onto the robes covering the secret manuals.