064
064
Kshaaaaah.
The snakes opened their mouths in unison, issuing a threat. Faced with the ominous menace of serpents brimming with venom of every kind, Dok-gwi—the man sheathed in serpents—circulated the Ten Thousand Streams Origin Divine Art to calm them.
"You ate not long ago. What reason do you have to be hungry?"
Dok-gwi retrieved a chunk of poison-injected fat from a sealed jar and placed it on his palm. But the snakes refused even a single morsel they would normally fight over. They had caught the scent of delicious prey and seethed with insatiable hunger, yet their fear of their master left them merely licking their fangs.
"Huh. You simply will not stay still. Fine, you may come along."
Dok-gwi stroked the snakes' heads as he rose. In answer, the snakes let out a chorus of triumph and slithered beneath his robes. Crawling over Dok-gwi's body as though it were a log, they coiled themselves around his arms, his legs, his torso—his entire frame.
"Is there no one out there?"
Dok-gwi straightened his clothing and stepped outside. Even members of the clan were reluctant to approach him, so a servant was standing at a respectful distance from his quarters.
"Ah, Elder?!"
"I am stepping out for a brief stroll."
"Y-yes!"
The servant bowed deeply at the waist as he saw Dok-gwi off. Fear and terror wafted from the man, who could not even meet his gaze. Dok-gwi clicked his tongue and left.
"Guide me."
Dok-gwi raised his right arm and subtly lifted his sleeve. A red venomous snake with a triangular head wound itself around his wrist and rested its jaw on the back of his hand, swaying its head left and right.
"...That direction leads to the Secret Vault?"
Kshaaaaah.
"Heh heh. I see. The wretch already intends to challenge the Fire Bone Mountain Snakes. How admirable... Hm? It is not that? I see."
Dok-gwi tilted his head and launched himself toward the Secret Vault. With effortless movements, he bounded across walls and the rooftops of pavilions, arriving near the Secret Vault in an instant. He took a single leap toward the spot the snakes indicated with their tongues.
"Halt."
"Hik!"
The clan warriors who had been switching guard duty hurriedly lowered their heads. Dok-gwi's gaze fell upon the warrior whose hands were hidden behind his back, the man who had been about to depart.
"You. Caught red-handed?"
"Y-yes, that's right!"
"What are you hiding behind your back?"
"Th-this is..."
Gara was clearly concealing something. Dok-gwi extended his hand forward, and the venomous snake coiled around his wrist sank its fangs into Gara's neck.
"Keuheok!"
Gara collapsed forward, his body convulsing. Where the red snake had buried its fangs, the blood vessels began turning a bluish hue. Dok-gwi traced a circle around the area with a leisurely hand.
"If you do not answer, I will spread the venom of the Red Three-headed Snake throughout your blood meridians."
"I-I'll talk! Th-this is it...!"
Gara dropped the object he had been clutching. At the scent wafting from the small medicine bottle, Dok-gwi's eyes gleamed and he thrust his foot forward.
Thud! Before delicious prey, the beast's instinct momentarily overcame its fear of the apex predator. The venomous snake coiled around Dok-gwi's ankle caught the scent from the bottle and launched itself without Dok-gwi's command. Dok-gwi extended his foot and crushed the snake's body using the Thousand Catty Hammer technique.
"Daring to covet what belongs to your master... tsk."
Crunch. Dok-gwi stomped the snake flat, bursting it. At this utterly merciless act, the other snakes tightened their coils around him in terror. Dok-gwi picked up the medicine bottle.
"Huh. The inner core of a Human Face Spider?"
Dok-gwi exhaled in admiration as he examined the flawlessly refined inner core of the Human Face Spider. To extract such an inner core so cleanly—something even masters of Poison Arts struggled to handle. Just who in the clan had accomplished such a feat?
"Did the Clan Head give you this to store in the Secret Vault?"
"W-well, that is..."
"Why no answer? Do you want to die?"
"So, you see..."
"Elder Brother, what is this commotion!"
The very person they were discussing arrived before the Secret Vault, his long robes billowing. His eyes and attire suggested he had just risen from sleep. Dok-gwi clicked his tongue and shook the medicine bottle.
"Does the Clan Head even stop to think? How could he entrust an inner core like this to a single guard and then go to sleep?!"
"Excuse me? ...What is that? Hik, a Human Face Spider?!"
"The Clan Head... does not know?"
Dok-gwi's expression hardened.
"No. If the Clan Head did not arrange this, who else could have procured a Human Face Spider inner core that has no record of being stored in the Secret Vault?"
"I do not know either. Until one watch ago, I was receiving the Alliance's strategist..."
The gazes of Dok-gwi and the Clan Head turned toward the fallen warrior, Gara. Dok-gwi hastily recalled the Red Three-headed Snake, and the Clan Head retrieved medicine from within his robes to suppress the poison.
"You there, pull yourself together!"
"Keureok, keureoreok...!"
"Th-this! Red Three-headed Snake, why did you inject so much venom?! This is unlike you!"
Kshaaaaa. Dok-gwi's snake was extremely agitated. As a result, far more venom had been injected than intended, and the poison was spreading beyond what any standard remedy could counter.
"Young mas..."
Thud. Gara's head dropped. He had not died, but the agony of the Red Three-headed Snake's venom had overwhelmed his consciousness.
"Young master...?"
"Th-this...!!"
Dok-gwi's face flushed crimson as he roared.
"Bring Geonmyeon here at once! Hurry!!"
* * *
"Hoo. Ha. We have finally arrived."
I groped along the Little Princess's legs to pull myself up as she exited the narrow passageway first. Even in the darkness, the Little Princess glared fiercely at me with eyes that glowed red.
'Well, she would have to be a fool not to notice.'
I had deliberately sent her ahead. I had deliberately lifted my head and crawled forward. And to top it off, I was wearing a Stealth Garment made of a special form-fitting material.
"I felt a rather hot breath from behind."
"Ah dear, my apologies. My Inner Energy happens to be Extreme Yang Energy, you see."
"......Since you did not touch anything, I will let it go."
Should I have touched? Or maybe rubbed my face against it? Overcome with regret, I clenched my hand around her backside.
"Eut...! Stop doing that without warning!"
"So you are saying it is fine if I give warning first? If you had taken one step sideways, it would have been a trap."
"Then could you not have chosen a more... decent area?!"
"My hand just happened to be there. And it is so easy to grab—what is not to like?"
"Grr...!!"
The Little Princess ground her teeth, but I had said nothing wrong. To prove it, I rubbed my fingers together and conjured the Samadhi True Fire.
"Look. The mechanism on the floor."
"......How can someone who can even use Samadhi True Fire be this obsessed with lust...?"
"I do not simply indulge for no reason. I only sincerely involve myself with the Ten Great Beauties of the World."
"How very gracious of you to say so."
The Little Princess spoke sarcastically, but she did not deny it. I stifled the laughter threatening to burst out and slowly began dusting her off, starting from her hair. But the moment my hand moved down past her shoulders, she seized my wrist and snarled.
"Stop trying to covertly grope me."
"Ah dear. What a shame."
So the backside was acceptable but the chest was absolutely forbidden. The future Heavenly Demon had been proud of even her modest bosom, but the Young Heavenly Demon's vessel was still exceedingly small.
'No, rather, she must have given up and accepted it in the future.'
Just as the current Heavenly Demon had accepted at his final moment that he could not overcome his weakness and embraced death, the Little Princess had undoubtedly accepted the limitations of her own middle dantian's growth as she accumulated years and experience.
'But is that really a problem?'
The vessel of the body is but a stream flowing beside a brook, but the vessel of the heart is a boundless ocean wider than the Yangtze River. If someone asked how to prove something invisible, I am tired of repeating that my past-life memories and the taking of virginity serve as proof.
'As long as the milk flows, that is what matters.'
As long as the mother's love to nourish her child flows forth, even the smallest is no issue. As for touching, I could simply touch Sagong Hee's instead. If it is difficult to get the black cow to nurse, then you make the spotted cow nurse. Only the bellies they come from are different—they will all be my children regardless.
"You seem to be indulging in some indecent fantasies."
"Ahem. You have already lit the candles, I see."
While I had been envisioning my future with her through the Dragon Eye, the Little Princess had used my Samadhi True Fire to find a candlestick and kindle a flame. The Sichuan Tang Clan's Secret Vault was packed with even more volumes of texts than the Wudang Sect's Secret Vault.
"It is remarkable, now that I see it. All of these are methods for concocting poisons."
"From poisons that have been neutralized in the modern era to poisons yet to be revealed to the world. There must be at least tens of thousands of varieties. And the reason I brought you here..."
Should I say it, or should I not? Either way, the Little Princess would eventually arrive at the answer. In that case, speaking in a way that benefited me was only natural.
"...If the secret map was discovered here, then where exactly was it found? Find that. Then you will immediately understand why I guided you to the Sichuan Tang Clan's Secret Vault. It will be somewhere easy to locate."
"What on earth..."
"It is getting noisy above."
I pointed at the ceiling. The Little Princess could not perceive it at all, but people were beginning to gather one by one near the Fire Bone Mountain Rain Formation.
"I will buy you time. You, Little Princess, search for the clue inside. You must... find it. Even if I said it with my own mouth, you would not believe it."
"What in the world—"
I patted the Little Princess's bottom and pushed her forward. At the same time, I turned my body and kicked the hole we had crawled out of, collapsing it.
"The way out—"
Creeeeak.
I unbolted the door from the inside and threw it wide open. Beyond it, a staircase leading to the ceiling we had descended from was embedded into the wall.
"A place no one can enter without the key. Heh heh."
"......."
The Little Princess's fists trembled, but upon hearing the commotion of the Sichuan Tang Clan members above, her expression hardened.
"How long can you buy me?"
"What do you mean by that, Little Princess?"
"Sky-Soaring Lust Demon, I am asking how long you can hold off the martial artists of the Sichuan Tang Clan. In the meantime, I will—"
"Wrong."
I turned around and pressed my index finger to the Little Princess's lips.
"Let me rephrase. Until you, Little Princess, find the clue, I will buy time. Whether it is a quarter-watch, a full two-hour watch... or even a full day."
I pinched the dumbfounded Little Princess's cheeks and pulled them side to side, then waved my hand and closed the door.
"Bolt it from the inside after I have gone. The password is... very well."
Through the crack in the door, I winked at her.
"AAAAAH! I WANT TO PASSIONATELY MAKE BABIES WITH THE BLACK PATH'S MOST BEAUTIFUL YOUNG MAIDEN, LEE SI-AAA!!!"
Slam!
The bolt slammed shut. The fuming sounds from beyond the door left me feeling oddly sheepish.
"......Should I have said the Central Plains' most beautiful woman?"
Crack, crick crick.
I set aside my embarrassment and donned the bamboo hat I had left outside.
"Who are you...?"
Beyond the Fire Bone Mountain Rain Formation stood a man wrapped head to toe in snakes—Dok-gwi—glaring at me with a savage expression as he loosed a poison needle. From within my black garments, I drew the Cheol-seon I had prepared in advance and lightly deflected the needle.
"Firing Paralysis Needles while asking who I am? As expected of Dok-gwi. A venomous fellow indeed."
"I asked who you are!"
"Indeed, keep asking. If I had intended to answer, would I not have done so already?"
"You insolent brat!"
Fwap fwap fwap.
Something flew at me at speeds invisible to the eye. I flicked the Cheol-seon lightly and simultaneously struck down three needles aimed at my vital points.
"Trying to kill me with mere Hidden Weapon Arts of this level—the Tang Clan has truly declined!"
"......Heuh heuh, heuh heuh heuh! Fine! What does it matter who you are! A wretch who deserves to die a hundred times over even if killed on the spot!"
"Hooh. But what will you do about this? If you stand there, you will die, you know."
Click. I pressed a protruding part of the pillar. The moment I infused it with Internal Qi, the sound of something moving began to echo, and Dok-gwi's mouth fell open in shock.
"Y-you, how can you operate the Fire Bone Mountain Rain Formation...?!"
"No need to know."
Shaaaaaa---
"Ever."
The halted Fire Bone Mountain Rain Formation began to move once more.
* * *
"Make babies?! You lunatic!!"
Boom boom! The Little Princess stamped the ground, her whole body trembling. Flushed to the crown of her head, she took out her anger on the Sichuan Tang Clan's Secret Vault to cool off.
"Hoo, hoo. No. Si-a. Let us stay composed. Get a grip."
She deliberately talked to herself as she steadied her mind. He had gone out playing around, but the situation was a hair's breadth from exploding.
'A master at the Peak Realm or higher has appeared.'
She had to find the clue quickly before disaster erupted. What if she were pushed back even by accident and ended up unleashing the Taiji Wisdom Sword? A catastrophe would unfold.
'The Eldest Prince is hoping for a fight between the Tang Clan and the Wudang Sect.'
Orthodox factions clashing against one another to ignite a Great Righteous-Demonic War. At the forefront of that battle line, the Eldest Prince would undoubtedly command the Ten Demons in the Heavenly Demon's stead and proclaim himself the next Heavenly Demon.
'I have to find the clue before that happens.'
The Little Princess steadied her breathing and scanned the entirety of the Secret Vault. Searching aimlessly for a clue in a place with tens of thousands of piled volumes was like finding a descendant of Emperor Zhaolie in Chengdu. Yet the Little Princess raised the corner of her mouth in a smirk.
"Heavenly Demon Mind's Eye, open."
The floor.
Where the Little Princess's crimson eyes fell, someone's footprints were pointing toward somewhere.