032
032
Chirrrrp.
The cry of a bird announcing the morning tickled my ears. The start of a day is always best when it's refreshing, and I awoke savoring a richly satisfying morning.
Slurp. Lick.
From below came the sound of something being eaten with relish. A sweet honey fragrance teased my nose. Was this the sound of a bear that had caught the scent of a honey jar I'd stashed overnight, now lapping it up?
Not a chance. I lifted the blanket slightly.
"Ah, my lord."
The woman smiled and tapped my member with her tongue. The glans, slick with saliva, glistened with a sticky sheen.
"Gyeon-hui. Does it taste good?"
"Yes. It tastes like honey. Aaahm."
Sagong Hee opened her mouth and took my shaft between her lips. The way she worked her tongue—hooking her lips over the ridge of the glans, teasing the urethral opening—was second to none, a match for any top-tier courtesan.
"Haaaah."
From early morning I savored a deep languor and cozy warmth. Morning is when a man's Yang Energy brims fullest, just as the sun crests the horizon. My Yang Energy boiled over so fiercely that I could not begin the day's work without releasing at least once.
Splurrt.
I leisurely discharged my essence. Sagong Hee opened her mouth wide, holding the Yang Energy I had spurted in a full mouthful. Still beneath the blanket, she opened wide toward me and displayed the white pool of fluid resting on her tongue.
Gulp.
"Sa-wol has certainly taught you all sorts of things. Is it good?"
"Yes. Truly sweet."
The Blood Cult Leader had once said something. The white fluid that erupts from a man's organ tastes different from person to person. Usually it's fishy, but if a man eats plenty of vegetables and fruit, it grows relatively sweeter.
"You've set the breakfast table, I trust?"
"Of course. You told me to finish setting the table and then wake you with oral service, did you not, my lord? Hehe."
Sagong Hee drew back the blanket and sucked away the last of the white fluid pooling at my glans. She carefully wiped my member—soaked with her saliva and semen—with a silk cloth. I straightened my lower garments and turned my head to the table set beside me.
"Hmm."
It was piled high with vegetables and fruit so fresh they might have just been picked. The neatly cut fruit slices were cleanly arranged and looked appetizing. At the center sat yukhoe—beef I had bought yesterday, sliced into thin strips, tossed with an array of seasonings.
"Well made. You followed my instructions well."
"It is thanks to my lord personally demonstrating for me."
I had only imitated the dishes the Blood Cult Leader sometimes ate. The flavor was more balanced than I'd expected. Eating things raw rather than cooked over fire was quite off-putting, but if the taste was good, wasn't that enough?
I took up a bottle of liquor to rinse my mouth and knocked back a large mouthful.
"By the way, Gyeon-hui. There's no rice."
Uh-oh.
Sagong Hee had been wiping her lips with her fingers and froze mid-motion. She turned her head slightly to the side. There was the honey jar I had buried in the ground yesterday—lid wide open.
"Gyeon-hui. I did tell you yesterday that if I coated my organ with honey, you could enjoy it deliciously too."
"Yes, my lord."
"Good. Since I said so, putting it into practice is commendable. However..."
Sniff, sniff. I rose from the bed at the faint smell of something burning from the kitchen. I pulled down the pants I had just straightened and seized Sagong Hee's head, pressing it to my groin.
"There isn't a single trace of fire in this breakfast. Am I a Taoist of Wudang now? Eating nothing but greens."
"B-but you are Mubung!"
"Right. Playing the role of Wudang's Grandmaster."
"Mmph?!"
I pressed down firmly on the back of Sagong Hee's neck. She flinched in shock at having her throat violated before the morning had even settled in, but quickly relaxed and began bobbing her head back and forth obediently.
"This is your punishment for burning the rice. While I clear the table, you stay down there and suck on that."
Crunch, crunch.
Five months had passed since I claimed Sagong Hee's maidenhood.
As though I had truly become a Wudang Taoist, I had to chew on nothing but vegetables and fruit. There was a little meat, but I had to chew it raw—ungrilled, uncooked.
"Her skill with the member improves day by day, yet her handling of Yang Energy—how can it be like this? Sagong Hee had succeeded in learning the kitchen chores, but she still could not handle flame at all."
* * *
I receive Sagong Hee's morning greetings and service. I settle breakfast with raw food, and feed Sagong Hee a suitable mix of cooked fare.
After clearing the dishes, we rinse our mouths with tea brewed from fleeceflower root. Then Sagong Hee and I face each other in the courtyard. Neither of us carries a weapon; instead, various weapons lie spread across a wooden bench.
"Who did you face yesterday?"
"I faced the Plum Blossom Swordwoman. I trained to find the true sword hidden among the plum blossoms and subdue it with two swords."
"Well done. You have now reached the level of Mount Hua Sect's senior disciple. Among rising stars, you could be called the finest."
"I am still..."
"Still? Gyeon-hui, it has been barely half a year since you began learning martial arts. Even a genius cannot become a Peak Expert in half a year. A woman who had never even learned the basics of martial arts?"
"Forgive me."
Sagong Hee stiffened her expression and bowed her head. She still held respect and fear toward me, but she also quietly harbored pride in her own skills, which advanced by leaps and bounds with each passing day.
"First, practice your forms. Today it's the Five Elements Sword Formation."
"What? I've already completed the Five Elements Sword Formation—"
"Enough! In learning there is no end! Did your Five Elements Sword Formation pierce my Five Tiger Door-Breaking Blade?! Collapsing before the supreme Tyrant Sword and you claim 'already completed?!' Nonsense! Take up your sword and execute it, now!"
"Yes..."
Pride is acceptable, but conceit I will not tolerate. The Taiji Sword Empress had trusted too completely in her own martial arts and ability, and thus she lost to me. The defeat of many martial artists stems from overconfidence in their own strength, and I had worn her down countless times in training.
"My lord, how is this...?"
"Again. I can feel your impatience—you want to perform ascension-level martial arts through your sword. This time, execute the Taiji Sword from Form 1 to Form 5. Repeat endlessly until I say it is enough."
"The Taiji Sword? That is..."
"It is less than basic arithmetic to you. But where is anything as important as the fundamentals? Enough talk. Do as you are told."
Whenever conceit surfaced, I scolded her, and Sagong Hee would shrink her shoulders. She began working through the forms of the Taiji Sword one by one, polishing each stance. Beneath the Wudang Sect Leader's Taoist robe, her breasts swayed, and I swallowed a dry breath.
'With a body like that, she's earned the right to some pride!'
I had told her to embody yin-yang and the five elements in her body, but it seemed she absorbed them only into her chest.
Thanks to my excellent cooking, Sagong Hee ate even more than I did, yet I suspected every ounce of energy in her food flowed straight from her stomach to her breasts.
'In the chest department, she's already the Taiji Sword Empress.'
I compared the Sagong Hee before me with the Taiji Sword Empress in my memories.
'Still, apart from the chest, she's not the Taiji Sword Empress yet.'
Her Inner Energy had accumulated to only about twenty years of martial power. For an ordinary person, building twenty years of Internal Energy in half a year was a shocking pace—but considering all the spirit medicines of Wudang Mountain she had consumed so far, it was actually quite slow.
'If only her Maiden Blood had remained intact.'
Was breaking her maidenhead, along with the Governing and Conception Vessels, the root of the trouble?
The accumulation of Internal Energy after claiming her virginity was slower than I had anticipated.
Every night I injected my Yang Energy to prevent her qi from leaking, but as time passed, the Internal Energy from the spirit medicines would regularly leak out of her body along with the Yang Energy, trickling down her thighs.
'Her martial arts haven't reached the Peak yet, either.'
She had become First-Rate in a single month, yet she'd been stalled at the First-Rate level for half a year now. She might have experienced the peak of pleasure countless times by night, but she still had not reached the rank of Peak Expert.
The matter of her Internal Energy was one problem, but her actual combat ability still fell short in many ways.
'She's never been in a real fight.'
Sagong Hee had yet to face a life-and-death struggle. Since I had never truly tried to kill her, she was well aware that my attacks—dangerous as they were—carried no lethal intent. Just then, clouds drifted across the sky, and I slowly concealed myself within the shadows.
"Stop. Set aside the Taiji Sword and execute the Taiji Wisdom Sword. This time I will attack at the Peak Expert level. Deflect this single strike. Do that, and I will teach you the next technique."
"Yes!"
Sagong Hee, ever eager to learn, stretched both hands out at my bargain. Along with the sword she already gripped, another blade resting on the bench rose and settled above her two hands.
Did Wudang have a dual-sword art? No. But it did possess martial arts for wielding multiple swords.
"Haaaat!"
Two swords infused with Sagong Hee's Internal Qi floated up into the sky. It was the Sword Control Art of the Taiji Wisdom Sword that allowed even a First-Rate martial artist to wield sword control. As she reached the Peak and Transcendent Peak in the future, she would gain one more sword at each stage.
'Three swords would still be too much for her.'
If she could handle three swords, she would be able to fend off my attacks handily. Just before the shadows vanished, I launched my body and closed in on Sagong Hee.
Shiiiing!
One sword traced an arc as it intercepted me. The tip, drawing a clean circle, grazed my hair, and I ducked to evade the blade.
"Oh ho. Duality Sword in one hand."
The other sword thrust toward me. I extended my arm and rolled my shoulder aside, and the blade slid past through the gap beneath my armpit.
"And the Five Elements Sword with the other! Magnificent! Wielding two sword arts with Sword Control Art!"
Even if the forms were low-level techniques, handling two separate sword arts through Sword Control—how could that be anything but astonishing? I raised both index fingers.
"But you still have far to go. Finger Kill."
I thrust forward fingers laden with Inner Energy. Sagong Hee, about to recall both swords, flinched in alarm and froze.
"Eek?!"
A Killing Stroke. At the finger strike imbued with full intent to kill, Sagong Hee squeezed her eyes shut. I pulled back the fingers that had been flying toward her throat—and poked her nipples instead. Poke, poke.
"You—have just—died—once. Do you understand?!"
Sway, sway, boing, sway — sway
"M-my lord!!"
As I prodded her nipples left and right, Sagong Hee stumbled backward and shrieked.
"You aren't going to do it anyway, so please stop touching me there!"
"Oh? A serving girl daring to raise her voice at me—and on top of that, 'you aren't going to do it anyway'?"
"Th-that's..."
"You little wench. The nighttime duties have become more enjoyable to you than learning martial arts."
I pulled Sagong Hee by the waist. Over the past half year, her breasts had ripened further, but my own height had also grown daily, and my eye level now sat slightly above hers.
"Shall I ravish you right here?"
"W-well..."
Sagong Hee twisted her body with a gaze that secretly anticipated it. I slipped my hand beneath her robes and pushed it down below her lower abdomen.
"Heh heh. You're wet. But about that..."
Prod. I poked Sagong Hee's nipple once more and shoved her toward the kitchen.
"If you wanted the Yin-Yang Union, you should have won. You lost, so go slice some fruit."
"Yes... sniff."
I chased Sagong Hee into the kitchen. Then I inspected the condition of the swords she had infused with her energy.
'Ruined.'
They looked ready to shatter at any moment, unable to contain the energy of the Taiji Wisdom Sword. Although they had been forged in the lower village only two weeks ago, they were already notched and damaged, unable to withstand the mighty force of the Taiji.
'She'll need a proper weapon.'
A martial artist requires a weapon suited to her own realm. Just as common scrap iron cannot endure the Taiji Wisdom Sword of the Taiji Sword Empress, Sagong Hee—now walking the path toward becoming the Taiji Sword Empress—needed a worthy weapon.
"Hee. This afternoon is self-study."
"Huh? Wh-why?"
"I will step out to the mountain for a while."
I pointed toward the summit of Wudang Mountain.
* * *
Five months had already passed since Sect Leader Hyeongi began his closed-door training.
The atmosphere, somewhat unsettled at first, had now calmed. Taoist Hyeoncheol, acting as Sect Leader pro tempore, had swiftly brought the internal affairs of Wudang under his control and was competently fulfilling the role of Sect Leader.
"Ugh..."
One man—the one who knew what Taoist Hyeoncheol had done, Taoist Hyeonta, Sa Jeong-hu—had spent the past several months feeling as though he might go mad.
'That bastard colluded with a Demonic Cult agent!'
...He wanted to shout it from the rooftops, but he could not resolve the problem alone. At the very least, he needed the Sect Leader to emerge from closed-door training, or the 'Grandmaster' whom the Sect Leader had hidden in utmost secrecy to lend his aid. Without that, Taoist Hyeoncheol's misdeeds could not be set right.
The deeper his anguish grew, the more Sa Jeong-hu groaned alone.
"Senior Brother, I've brought next week's supply—"
"—cannot give you the sword?"
Sa Jeong-hu, who had brought Fasting Pills and approached the Secret Vault, pricked up his ears at the stranger's voice coming from within. No one but the Sect Leader should be able to enter the Secret Vault. What was going on?
"Even for the Grandmaster, I cannot hand this over."
"You wretch. That sword is wasted on the likes of you. Hand it over at once."
"Grandmaster Mubung!!"
"The Jabo Sword."
Along with the Uicheon Sword, a divine heirloom of Wudang passed down solely to the Sect Leader.
"Yield it willingly, and there need be no bloodshed."