057
057
"Did you hear? Emperor Shaolie's twin swords have been discovered!"
Jong-gu, a stooped man, chattered excitedly before the pair, their faces veiled. As the donkey cart ambled along the well-kept road, he turned into a garrulous storyteller, murmuring everything he knew.
"There was a bit of a stir over at Qingcheng Sect and Emei Sect—they found two swords in some cave, you see. Each took one to inspect, and lo and behold! It turned out to be Emperor Shaolie's twin swords!!"
"So many gapja have passed since Emperor Shaolie died—could those really still survive?"
"Maybe not a hundred generations, but they'd hold historical value. If they're genuine, collectors would drool."
The man was sarcastic, the woman blunt. Jong-gu struggled to hide his displeasure. But the fact that they answered at all meant they were listening, and more importantly, these were the people who had handed him a hefty sum of silver for information.
"Aigo! I'm telling you, they're not just rusty old iron swords!"
The better he ran his mouth, the more silver he'd get next time. He raised his voice to the fullest.
"The Go-eung Twin Swords! Their sharpness rivals swords forged by today's techniques—that's how fine they are! Why else would the Qingcheng Sect Leader and the Emei Sect Leader personally take up the swords and duel? Even the Sect Leaders were frantic to have them!"
"Oho. They're that exquisite, you say?"
It was the man who showed interest in martial world affairs. When the young man's curiosity surfaced, Jong-gu eagerly described exactly what he had witnessed with his own eyes.
"With Qingcheng's Clear Wind Sword Technique, Sect Leader Byeok Bak-ja unleashed a blue wind! And the Emei Sect Leader, Lust-Exorcising Abbess, countered with Jade Void 36 Swords! No victor emerged—their martial levels were too close, and the weapons they held made no difference either!"
"Strange. Neither of them is the type to just sheathe their swords."
"There must have been some reason they stopped. Right?"
"Of course!"
Jong-gu finally let loose the words that had been itching in his mouth.
"They found a secret tomb of Emperor Shaolie... well, not quite a tomb! Anyway, who discovered the map that revealed the hidden location of Emperor Shaolie's twin swords? It was none other than the Sichuan Tang Clan!"
"Oh my."
"What a mess."
Even when it was just Qingcheng and Emei it was already complicated, and now the Sichuan Tang Clan had butted in. The woman sighed; the young man chuckled and began to mock.
"Speaking of which, didn't Qingcheng, Emei, and the Tang Clan all fail to put forward anyone at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering this time?"
"Keu, you know well. Quite right. Because of that, all of Sichuan can't lift its head—so they're all the more desperate to unite the twin swords into one!"
"What do the twin swords have to do with reputation?"
"Because only by bringing the two swords together can you learn the sword technique left by Emperor Shaolie!"
"What?"
"The two swords used to be bound together by a golden rope attached to the hilts! But since Qingcheng and Emei each took one, it's as if the sword was split in two. And with that, the martial arts formula inscribed on the blades vanished—how lamentable is that!"
"Indeed. Twin swords aren't meant to be split."
The woman asked in an incredulous voice.
"Twin swords aside, a martial arts formula on Emperor Shaolie's swords? Are you saying Emperor Shaolie practiced martial arts?"
"It's not impossible. In ancient times, the boundary between sects and officials was blurred. Don't the descendants of Marquis Wu, who swore loyalty to Emperor Shaolie back then, still stand firmly in the martial world even now?"
"Keu-heu-heu. Wasn't he of imperial blood? He'd surely have been handed down imperial martial arts. But I tell you, this is... no ordinary matter."
The donkey slowly approached the city gate. Jong-gu twisted his lips into a smile at the clink of silver coming from behind and whispered low.
"Emperor Shaolie's twin sword technique, believe it or not, is said to be on the same level as the Taiji Wisdom Sword that Wudang recently revealed!!"
* * *
"What do you think, Bi-cheon?"
"It's true."
The Little Princess and I had settled into our room at the inn. When she asked, I answered without a single falsehood.
"The swords that Qingcheng and Emei each took are genuine. It's true that you can only obtain Emperor Shaolie's martial art by bringing the two swords together. And it's also true that the sword technique stands on par with the Taiji Wisdom Sword."
At my words, full of certainty, the Little Princess closed her eyes. Seeing her deep in thought, I deliberately didn't interrupt.
'I need to sort out my own thoughts, too.'
Even though all the information remains in my memory, pulling it into the present and matching it to circumstances is no simple thing. Now that the future has begun to tangle little by little, starting with the Heavenly Rejuvenation Pill incident, I can't trust everything.
However, the 'Emperor Shaolie Twin Sword Uproar' was an affair I already knew well. Fortunately, the timing of the uproar wasn't much different, so I knew the overall course and progress all too well.
A treasure map had suddenly fallen into the Sichuan Tang Clan's hands.
Oddly—perhaps because of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering?—members of the Tang Clan, together with disciples of Qingcheng and Emei, gathered and, brimming with adventurous spirit, set off to find the treasure.
They entered expecting a secret manual or spirit medicine, or perhaps the arrangement of a hidden hermit, but what actually came out were two swords driven into the altar as though cleaving the character for '凶' (calamity) in half. The swords were embedded so that they each split half of the characters 'Yi' and 'Reung'.
The problem arose here.
If the Tang Clan member who discovered the map had gone with them, it would have ended peacefully—the Tang Clan would keep the swords and offer generous thanks. But by chance, that very person fell ill from mishandling his poison arts.
Ultimately, two disciples—one from Qingcheng, one from Emei—examined the map together and set out to find the treasure. And unfortunately, the map was so precise that they found it at once, or so they say.
— The treasure map was discovered by our Tang Clan, so it is ours!
roared the Sichuan Tang Clan.
— What nonsense! We are the ones who found it!
roared Qingcheng and Emei. From this it looked like a confrontation between the Sichuan Tang Clan and the Qingcheng-Emei alliance, but between Qingcheng and Emei themselves there was also plenty of argument.
— Qingcheng should know shame! Who disabled all the mechanical formations on the way to the altar? Our Emei Sect did!
— Hmph! And what happened at the very end?! Without our Qingcheng martial artist, you wouldn't have noticed the space behind the pillar!
Emei, who had accomplished nine-tenths but missed the decisive clue.
Qingcheng, which had performed barely one-tenth of the role but discovered the sole path leading to the swords thrust into the altar.
As the two sects began to oppose each other, the situation only worsened. This commotion spread so widely that it reached the ears of the Little Princess and me just after we entered Sichuan—and that was the very reason we deliberately came to Sichuan.
"Little Princess, where do you think the treasure map suddenly came from?"
"......Behind every commotion, the Demonic Cult stands. A vile, pathetic, underhanded wretch."
The Little Princess rarely frowned and ground her teeth.
"Am I right?"
"Yes. The Eldest Prince is behind it."
To stir conflict and strife so that three Orthodox Faction sects could not join forces. And thereby, when the Demonic Cult rises later, to prevent the Orthodox sects in the region from linking up with one another.
"The reason we came to Sichuan this time is to secure the twin swords ourselves and thwart the Eldest Prince's scheme."
It was the handiwork of the Eldest Prince—just the thought of him made my anger surge.
I am not trying to secure them as a gift for Sagong Hee. Absolutely not.
* * *
— I shall take a brief evening stroll.
Sky-Soaring Lust Demon went out like the wind. The moment the Little Princess was alone, she sat down—and slammed her fist into the bed.
BANG!
"Kuuu...!"
Her fist trembled. Blood seemed ready to well from her tightly clenched lips. The Little Princess had never been this angry in her life.
"So annoying!"
She pounded the bed alone, BANG BANG, throwing a tantrum. The intellectual demeanor she had displayed before the Sex Demon was nowhere to be found; her display of irritation and anger was unmistakably that of a girl her age.
"What the hell is with that man?!"
The Little Princess's anger boiled down to one point.
"He's a Sex Demon, yet how can he look at my body like that?! He dares look at this body and doesn't pounce?!"
Live up to your name. The Little Princess tore at her hair and screamed inwardly.
"If you're a Sex Demon, at least violate me or something!! What are you doing driving me insane!!"
What is a Sex Demon? Is it not one who violates women recklessly? Just as Blade Demon, one of the Flying Heaven Three Demons, had done—putting it in any hole he saw without a second thought—that was the essence of a Sex Demon.
'This bastard calls himself a Sex Demon, so why doesn't he violate me?'
But he didn't. Unlike his name, Sky-Soaring Lust Demon didn't lay a single finger on her.
'Am I not attractive? Or does he only strike when I let my guard down? Or is he enjoying the fact that I'm constantly on edge? Ugh, my head hurts...!'
Because of that, the Demonic Cult's Little Princess, Lee Si-a, always had to be tense, never knowing when Sky-Soaring Lust Demon would violate her.
The moment she tensed, her hair would—
BANG!!!
"What 'heart first'! This isn't some romantic fantasy novel for girls!!"
The Murim is the strong devouring the weak, and the Little Princess did not deny that logic. So even if a Sex Demon defiled her, she could accept it perfectly well. A woman's body was merely one weapon, and she didn't hold any stuffy notion that she must offer her first experience to someone she loved.
She was still a virgin, though!
'Still, if I'm going to do it, with a man stronger than me.'
The weak being eaten by the strong is the law of nature. It was a logic you might see among wild beasts, but as the Heavenly Demon's daughter, the life she'd seen of martial artists was exactly that.
The Heavenly Demon took any woman he wanted by force of his own power—even those who already had husbands. He took them, and they became the Heavenly Demon's women.
Having grown up seeing such scenes since childhood, the Little Princess's thinking was simple.
If in the end both men and women are dominated by the strong, then all she had to do was become strong herself. She would become not the Little Princess but the Young Heavenly Demon, and someday the one to inherit the Heavenly Demon's throne—that was all.
"But...!!"
The Little Princess recalled every part of the journey she had taken with Sky-Soaring Lust Demon after meeting him, while he escorted her all the way to Sichuan.
— Little Princess, if we press on just one sichen further instead of stopping here, an inn will appear. Let us rest there for a day.
— What inn is there in these mountains? Laying a robe in a cave and sleeping rough will do.
— Welcome. Two of you? We have only one room available.
The Little Princess had not once slept rough. Moreover, even the inn was fully equipped with everything needed to wash herself.
— Are you weak in the morning? That's unexpected. Come, pick up your spoon.
— What is this? Did you raid a nearby village and steal food?
— I made it. Today it's a traditional dish from Hubei.
The Little Princess did not miss three meals a day. On top of that, between meals, she was served fruit, beautifully peeled and prepared, under the name of snacks.
— Your robes are quite worn. Let's have new clothes made. Follow me.
— Here? This place is far too expensive! We don't have the silver to buy clothes at a high-end shop like this!
— Welcome. Pardon? Custom-made? A promissory note...? I shall have the goods prepared as items to be delivered to the Imperial Palace.
The Little Princess discarded all her old, ragged clothes and dressed herself anew. A tight-fitting suit blending black and red, and a thin veil to cover her head—she simply couldn't bring herself to take the clothes off.
'Isn't this like being fattened for slaughter?'
The Little Princess fell into genuine confusion over the circumstances she'd been given.
Every single day, he fed her delicious meals, bought her brand-new clothes, secured every lodging, and on top of that, unlike the Flying Heaven Three Demons, the Sex Demon—contrary to his name—was positively upright in conduct.
— Uu, please save me....
— It seems he's been poisoned by a young Human Face Spider. Miss, what shall we do?
— ...If you can heal him, please do.
Even in front of others, he acted like a servant attending her, bending his waist. Since he had taken the position of 'Bi-cheon', it was true that he must serve as her supporter within the Demonic Cult, standing in for the role of the Flying Heaven Three Demons, but Sky-Soaring Lust Demon's actions went beyond support to the conduct of a loyal servant.
'Why would a man whose martial arts are many times stronger than mine...?'
What complicated the Little Princess's mind was precisely the difference in 'power' between herself and Sky-Soaring Lust Demon.
'If my body is his aim, he could just violate me—could he really be doing all that to win my heart?'
He might clearly not reach the Heavenly Demon, but it wasn't a bad thing at all that a master who had entered the Profound Realm held her in his heart and never stopped courting her. In truth, at least in appearance, he was somewhat to her taste.
However.
"......Still, I don't like older men."
Older men have their limits, and wasn't this man a master who'd returned to his youth? The Little Princess tore at her hair again and agonized over and over.
"Uugh... My head hurts so much I feel like my hair's going to fall out. Just why does that man treat me... Ah."
Swish. The Little Princess gaped as she looked at the black curves traced on her own palm as if in play.
"Could he be a pedophile?! ...No, no way. Uugh, just what is it? Just what kind of favor am I supposed to have done him?"
What help had she given him that he would charge forward declaring he'd repay a favor that would take a lifetime to settle?
The Little Princess's troubles only deepened.