036
036
As good as my cooking is, we couldn't survive on my dishes, vegetables, and fruit alone forever.
We needed to eat out now and then, and whenever we did, I made Sagong Hee wear the Human Skin Mask to hide her face.
Loose robes could disguise her body, but without the Human Skin Mask, concealing her beauty was utterly impossible.
"Yeon-hui, look at that woman over there. Isn't she rather pretty?"
"I'm prettier."
"How can you compare a Celestial Maiden to a mere mortal? You are already a flower of the heavenly realm. Hmm, according to the Flower Guidebook's information on the mortal realm, she's known as the Plum Blossom Swordwoman of the Mount Hua Sect."
Sagong Hee's lips curled into a smirk as she scoffed at the woman, drawing on the intelligence I'd shared.
"She's no match for me anyway. I am my lord's maidservant, after all."
Since the day she revealed her true feelings to me, Sagong Hee's obsession had deepened in a new direction. She expressed pride by flaunting her superiority over other women and showing off her own charms.
"My lord, am I more beautiful?"
"Of course you are."
"Then, are my martial arts superior?"
"Naturally. You're a Peak Expert, and judging by her looks alone, that girl seems to be at best a second-rate martial artist."
"And naturally, I'm better in bed too, right?"
"Yeon-hui certainly is better than others at nighttime activities."
"Then I win. Another one defeated, fufu."
'She's cute, so I'll let it slide.'
Sagong Hee took pride in comparing herself to other women, basking in her own superiority. I laughed at the way she actively sought my favor by flaunting what she saw as superior charms.
'If the future Taiji Sword Empress saw this, she'd faint.'
The Taiji Sword Empress who had sworn to kill me if she were ever reborn had vanished. The woman before me was nothing more than a girl desperate to monopolize my affection.
'Not that I'd ever be satisfied with just you.'
Inciting jealousy, shock therapy, and my own eye candy.
On those three pretexts, I brought Sagong Hee to a bustling inn. Part of it was that I couldn't be bothered to cook, but Sagong Hee also needed a chance to experience the food of the ordinary world.
"Here is your order."
The serving woman laid out a bountiful table before us. It was a slightly overwhelming amount for two people, but a perfectly suitable portion for two martial artists.
"My lord, say ah."
"Aren't you embarrassed to do that in such an open place?"
Sagong Hee lifted her chopsticks, intending to feed me herself. I gestured toward our window-side seat and the countless people passing by, but Sagong Hee simply smiled languidly and extended the chopsticks toward my mouth.
"No one is looking at us anyway."
"True enough."
I opened my mouth and accepted the food Sagong Hee offered. Thanks to the thick fog of qi I had spread around us, no one's eyes fell on our table.
"Oh, look at the woman passing over there. From her gait, she seems to be from the Unorthodox Faction. A first-rate expert."
"Looks like a swordsman who uses Quick Sword forms. I could subdue her within three exchanges."
"Good confidence. But real combat always holds unpredictable variables. Just as there are times you can't face me alone, that woman likely has others with her."
Around the woman were many others dressed in the same martial attire, clearly members of her sect. All had grim expressions and eyes that warily watched the men nearby. Their faces were fairly decent, assuming they ever relaxed their scowls.
"The First Tears Victory Sect. That's the name of their sect."
"The side that sheds tears first wins...?"
"Yes. They use particularly brutal methods. Their founding principle is that before a woman can be violated by a lust demon, they capture the lust demon first and make him weep through horrific torture. Their methods are so cruel that the First Tears Victory Sect was classified as Unorthodox despite originating from Orthodox faction martial arts."
Aside from the brutality, its members were victims of lust demons or their families. However, by the time of the Great Righteous-Demonic War, it had devolved into a mad group that enjoyed labeling anyone a lust demon and torturing men to death.
Ultimately, a Blood Jiangshi smashed the First Tears Victory Sect to pieces. In that moment, even the Orthodox Faction was conveniently slow to respond to the attack, treating it like a natural disaster, and the Demonic Cult also turned away to assault other Blood Cult warriors.
'About seventy percent of them were fakes.'
Excluding the elder-level or deeply established masters, seventy percent were simply opportunists drawn to the First Tears Victory Sect's formidable power. Left unchecked, countless innocents across the Central Plains would suffer unjust harm from them in the future.
'Not my business, though.'
The First Tears Victory Sect had no woman memorable enough for me to care about. I accepted another bite from Sagong Hee and turned my head elsewhere.
"Tch, my eyes have been ruined."
"Oh my."
While I grimaced, Sagong Hee breathed an exclamation of admiration.
Directly across from the spot the First Tears Victory Sect warriors were passing, men in dark blue martial robes were approaching. At their head, a handsome young master of striking stature strode down the center of the main street, face brimming with confidence.
"The Namgung Clan. That fellow there is rated as the top among the Nine Dragons. What do you see when you look at him?"
"His martial arts seem slightly below mine, but compared to you, my lord, everything about him is vastly inferior. His face, his martial arts, all of it."
"Well, that much is obvious. Heh heh."
I wet my throat with alcohol. The fact that both the Namgung Clan and the First Tears Victory Sect had arrived already was an unusual occurrence, and if the two groups met, trouble was bound to break out in various ways.
"Inter...esting."
In that instant, one woman among the Namgung Clan warriors caught my eye. The moment I saw her face, my mouth watered instinctively.
"False Tear Flower?"
"Hm? Isn't that a name that doesn't exist?"
"Who am I? Mubung. At my level, I can read the Heavenly Secrets. Give me a person's physiognomy, birth-chart, upbringing, and so on, and I can see what title they will earn in the future."
I opened the Flower Directory. The flower of Namgung I had dubbed the False Tear Flower occupied two full pages of the cleanly written directory.
"Namgung Yurin?"
"Twenty-one this year. Ah, I see now where the deep karma begins."
I saw exactly how the witch who would one day use her family's power to twist the First Tears Victory Sect's founding purpose, and later make countless men weep tears of blood, had been born.
"A fateful encounter."
Clank.
The two fiercely proud sects confronted each other in the middle of the main road. Together with Sagong Hee, I looked down upon the meeting of the two factions from the inn above.
"Such beautiful people! It is an honor to meet you all this way."
The young man opened with a greeting. He was Namgung Pae, the foremost Rising Star featured as the prime example in the 'handsome men' supplement I'd added to the Flower Directory—something I hadn't really needed, but I couldn't stand to throw it out after spending the money on it.
'Seeing as I don't remember him, he must have died somewhere in the future.'
If I, who had memorized the Kill List down to the very last character to assassinate countless warriors as a Demonic Cult pawn, couldn't recall a figure from the Eight Great Families, then he was a person who was never on the Kill List.
'Compared to him, the woman stepping out to greet them now...'
"It is an honor to meet the Namgung Clan's Young Clan Head. I am Ok Seon-ru, leader of the First Tears Victory Sect and holder of the title Seven Star Sword."
"Seven Star Sword! It is an honor to meet you, senior."
Namgung Pae bowed first. The warriors of the Namgung Clan lowered their heads, faces all wearing expressions like they'd bitten into a rotten persimmon.
"My lord, what just happened?"
"In the Murim, a martial title is everything."
"Pardon?"
"On the surface they might seem similar in status, but the leader of the First Tears Victory Sect is a heroine already famous throughout the martial world. She is a vastly senior figure whom a mere Murim Novice here to earn the title of 'Dragon' can't even compare to. No matter how great the Namgung Clan's prestige, they cannot disrespect a woman who has served in the Murim Alliance."
Seven Star Sword Ok Seon-ru.
The founder of the First Tears Victory Sect and a heroine who styled herself as its 'leader.' She was twenty-eight this year, technically still eligible for the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, but she already possessed her own title for slaying a lust demon originating from the Demonic Cult.
"She looks delicious."
"My lord, don't tell me..."
"I'm only licking my lips. It doesn't necessarily mean I have to devour her."
There was food I never tired of, no matter how often I ate it, and food I'd never tasted but could imagine the flavor of. There was no real need to debate which was more delicious, but taking a single bite wouldn't be a bad thing. While we exchanged words about the people of the two factions, they were also introducing themselves and trading greetings.
"...This is the child from our sect who will be participating in the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering this time."
"Pleased to meet you."
"...Haha, pleased to meet you."
The young woman, who wore a rather prickly expression, returned the greeting with clipped words. Ok Seon-ru frowned and seemed about to scold the woman who looked like a younger sister or disciple, but aside from Ok Seon-ru, every one of the women was intensely wary of the Namgung Clan's warriors.
"Haha, does the Namgung Clan somehow...?"
"That is not the case, young hero. These girls simply share heavy and bitter karma with men."
"...Ah! My apologies. I was thoughtless, senior. Please, go ahead."
Namgung Pae moved his warriors aside to the left and right. In the battle of pride between the two sects, Namgung Pae yielded the path first, and Ok Seon-ru nodded as she walked forward.
"That's a relief. At least the Wudang Sect disciples won't end up bleeding for nothing in the middle of this."
The Wudang Sect disciples, who had rushed over to the main road, heaved a great sigh of relief that the standoff had ended thanks to the Namgung Clan, and quickly withdrew. If Namgung Pae had not stepped aside, the two factions would have kept the entire road occupied, engaging in a battle of nerves until Wudang intervened to mediate.
"Observe, Yeon-hui. This is the reality of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering. Sects clash in pride battles against each other, then decide who ranks higher at the Martial Arts Tournament that decides the Nine Dragons and Six Phoenixes."
"Seems like such a fuss over nothing..."
"And it is for that very 'nothing' that wars between sects break out."
Warriors are beings who live and breathe for self-respect and pride.
Neither the Namgung Clan nor the First Tears Victory Sect would yield the path first because of pride, and Namgung Pae gave way by excusing it as deference to a Murim senior in Ok Seon-ru. He managed, at least, to make a show of honoring a 'senior' and salvaged a shred of his bruised pride.
"Tsk, tsk. You've awakened a lesser demon."
"Pardon?"
"It seems a witch has just been born who has realized how to weaponize consideration."
Surrounded by the Namgung Clan warriors, the woman, Namgung Yurin, glared for a long time at the retreating backs of the First Tears Victory Sect's female warriors. Due to her naturally sharp eyes, it merely looked like a glare, but in truth, it was different.
She was destined to become the leader of the First Tears Victory Sect one day. She had just grasped how to wield femininity alongside the sword as a weapon.
"A truly terrifying bitch. To turn one's own sex into a weapon."
"My lord, am I the same then? Since I try to defeat you with my body too?"
Sagong Hee leaned her body against me. A soft breast pressed against my arm, and I countered Sagong Hee's physical assault by squeezing her bottom to calm her down.
"You're different. But more to the point, you're quite bold yourself. To openly flirt like this in front of others."
"You brought me to a place like this on purpose. To make me jealous."
"I did. So, how do you feel, looking at other women?"
"......Fufu, my lord."
While no one was looking, Sagong Hee slightly lifted the edge of her Human Skin Mask and smiled brightly at me with her true face.
"I can defeat them all."
"Oh, can you?"
Though she hadn't been a Murim warrior for long, Sagong Hee was a born martial artist after all.
"That may be true for everyone else, but I don't think you can defeat the cook at this inn."
"......."
Sagong Hee fell silent. She pulled her Human Skin Mask back down to cover her flushed face, grumbled, and shoved a piece of fruit into my mouth. I caught her fruit-stabbing chopstick-attack with my mouth, then squeezed her bottom again.
"Ahem, who told you to use the Taiji Sword with chopsticks?"
"Hmph, just you wait. Someday I'll become the master of that kitchen, you'll see."
"I look forward to it."
I finished the meal while chatting idly with Sagong Hee. It didn't taste as good as my own cooking, but food always tastes best when someone else makes it for you.
"My lord."
"What?"
"I-if the flower viewing is over, how about we head back home...?"
The sight of Sagong Hee tempting me with her meaningful gaze made me ache down below. I drained my final cup and started to rise.
"Is that so? Then let's leave right—"
"Excuse me."
Toward those who had committed an exceedingly great discourtesy, I turned my head.