091
091
"Martial Niece, are you not perhaps thirsty?"
"Martial Niece, are you not perhaps feeling unwell?"
"Martial Niece, is Hyeon-ta sitting across from you not making you uncomfortable?"
"You bastards."
Taoist Hyeonta, Sa Jeong-hu, could not lift his head at his fellow disciples' antics. The veiled woman seated across from them merely smiled and shook her head. Though she wore a human skin mask doubled with a face veil, every member of their party had long since confirmed what lay beneath.
"I am quite all right, Martial Uncles."
"Kuuu...! She called us her Martial Uncles!"
"Now I have no regrets even if I were to ascend this very day.... Ahh, Senior Brother Hyeongi, I follow the path you walked...."
"Taiji Flower! Taiji Flower! Taiji Flower!"
"There are no madmen quite like these."
Were these doddering old fools truly the same dignified Daoist masters he once knew? Sa Jeong-hu was genuinely appalled. Taoist Hyeonjil, who had joined the journey to Henan Province on the argument that at least one of them ought to be a woman, was by far the most extreme of the lot.
"Martial Niece, would it not be better for me to sit across from you after all? With Hyeon-ta before you, his very breath could corrode your internal energy."
"Hey, I'm the acting sect leader here."
"Then stop guzzling wine and raising hell."
"...Anyone listening would think you were my wife or something."
Irritated, Sa Jeong-hu flicked a qi bullet out the window.
"Aack!"
Struck square on the forehead by the qi bullet, Taoist Hyeonjil tumbled from the carriage, fuming.
"Please do not push them away so harshly, Martial Uncle."
Taiji Flower, Sagong Hee, shook her head and laughed softly.
"They are only acting like this because they like you."
"That? Impossible. I've shared a bond with that one for thirty years now."
"Fufu. What can be done when affection is the cause? Love cannot be stopped. It is—"
"Stop——!!"
The carriage halted all at once. The horses stilled where they stood, and the Daoist masters fixed their gazes on those blocking the road ahead.
"The Green Forest...?"
The bandit force, numbering over fifty, was an Unorthodox Faction crew, every last one of them at least a second-rate martial artist.
"Uwahaha! I am Dae-mul, chief of the Gulrim Stockade, one of the Green Forest 72 Stockades!"
"It is the Green Forest, Martial Niece. You will be seeing them often from now on."
"Taiji Flower! Marry me!"
Ssseuk.
A dark-hued sword flew from within the carriage and leveled itself at Dae-mul's throat. Sagong Hee leaned her head outside and laughed quietly.
"Pardon me. Our journey is rather urgent."
"Kuhh, even your voice sounds sweet as rice! You are more than worthy of becoming my twenty-first wife!"
"......."
Sagong Hee shook her head back and forth and withdrew into the carriage. Sa Jeong-hu stretched a hand outside, then gestured downward as though swinging a blade.
"Drive them off."
"They dared covet our Martial Niece! Unforgivable!"
"You wretch! To harbor such vulgar thoughts toward our Martial Niece!"
"Witness clearly the power of the Taiji Wisdom Sword!!!"
The elders' swords soared into the air as one. Sa Jeong-hu watched the elders rampage like madmen and lamented.
"Foolishness. Utter foolishness."
Just as they were using Sword Control Art to drive off the Green Forest band, the Taiji Wisdom Sword had already been learned by every elder in Wudang. It had become the sect's new symbol.
But for an elder to wield the Taiji Wisdom Sword better than the sect leader himself? Sagong Hee, still junior in years, might be overlooked, but a fellow elder of the same generation like Taoist Hyeonta could threaten the sect leader's seat. And if that happened, Taoist Hyeoncheol might once again commit misdeeds.
Though Wudang had grown stronger as everyone learned the Taiji Wisdom Sword, drawbacks inevitably accompanied such a change.
"...But is it really true that he permitted it? That we may spread the Taiji Wisdom Sword this widely."
"Yes."
Sagong Hee laughed softly, and gazing toward the soaring blades, she smiled with pride.
"My lord taught us the Taiji Wisdom Sword precisely so it could be used in moments like this."
"......Gong-hee. Master. Call him Master."
Sa Jeong-hu's heart lurched, fearing someone might have overheard. As the sole person within Wudang who had been told the full circumstances, he was sincerely terrified.
"Why should I? Once my lord, forever my lord. It is thanks to my lord's permission that you, too, Martial Uncle Hyeon-ta, were able to learn the Taiji Wisdom Sword. The reason my lord taught me the Taiji Wisdom Sword was for me to use it as a means of self-defense, to protect myself."
"......."
'Senior Brother Hyeongi, we were thoroughly deceived.'
That damned old man.
They had thought he had merely left behind the Taiji Wisdom Sword before his ascension, but in truth, he had been a shameless lecher who had laid hands on his disciple. They had believed the bond between master and disciple was simply deep, but in truth, he had raised a disciple only to make her his wife.
The one who had bequeathed the true transmission of the Taiji Wisdom Sword to Wudang was no incarnation of Zhang Sanfeng, but a degenerate who, upon ascension, would surely be hailed in the Heavenly Realm as the Lust Immortal.
'Senior Brother Hyeongi, tell me the answer.'
But the crumbs of benefit falling to Wudang were far too sweet to unravel every last truth.
"Fuhut, fuhuhut...."
—Hyeon-ta, you have come. It is not yet time for you to come here.
At the voice of Taoist Hyeongi carrying from the Underworld, Sa Jeong-hu ceased his brooding.
* * *
Lee Si-a had declared she couldn't handle it alone and made mention of courtesans, but that didn't mean I had any reason to actually summon one and unburden myself.
'I've already accumulated as much internal energy as I need, and if I frequent a pleasure house within Murim Alliance territory, I'll be found out at once.'
There was good reason to mind my conduct. In the vicinity of the Murim Alliance, more than half of the courtesans belonged to the Hao Sect, and most of those were people connected to the Alliance.
Unlike Anhui, where I'd held a woman because I had none and ended up embracing one; Hubei, where I'd hired an instructor to teach the bedroom arts; or Sichuan, where I'd deliberately sought out Hao Sect courtesans to spread rumors—here in Henan, there was not a single reason to visit a pleasure house.
With Lee Si-a right beside me, why would I ever need to 'purchase' and embrace a courtesan?
"You and me, let's do it. Right now."
"Ah... could you not let me rest just a little...?"
Having just set down her chopsticks, she shook her head at my proposal with a reluctant expression.
"There are only the two of us here—why the sudden formality?"
We were having a meal inside the room. So many people had gathered at the inn that we'd paid a bit extra and asked for the meal to be brought to the room. Lee Si-a fiddled with her chopsticks and gauged my expression.
"I, I just felt that if I spoke casually, you'd just, well, ram it in for some reason.... No matter what, eating and doing it, eating and doing it again, that's..."
Grown meek, Lee Si-a could barely keep her body upright as she managed a reply. The moment we had arrived at the lodging, she had unburdened the longing accumulated over several days—unburdened it thoroughly—but in the end, she had realized she could not handle me alone.
"If you are struggling, it cannot be helped. I understand. I shall endure it. In exchange, the next time may be that much harder for you, since I will have endured."
"Uuu.... There really is a reason you keep going on about seven women. Uuuk. Is your bedroom art actually better than your martial arts?"
"It very well might be. Heh heh."
Lee Si-a might be on the verge of entering the peak realm, but against me, who by internal energy alone was already a master of the Profound Realm, how could she possibly win by herself!
"So annoying. Really."
Lee Si-a clutched her waist and rose to her feet. Both legs trembled so badly she could barely support herself, to the point where she needed my arm.
"I want to see the moon."
"The night air is chilly."
"I'm fine. Thanks to someone, there's still plenty of heat left in me."
I wrapped my arms around Lee Si-a, whose body was still warm, and moved us toward the window. A full moon hung bright in the sky, and I seated Lee Si-a upon my lap and savored the night air.
"Bi-cheon, will Taiji Flower really come here?"
"Of course. Why else would I have deliberately brought these two swords with me rather than sending them on to Wudang?"
I pointed to the two swords resting beside the bed. Unlike the blade I had used in the canyon, these renowned swords—purchased one after another in Xi'an and Luoyang—now carried the divine energy of the Reclining Dragon and the Phoenix Chick.
The Phoenix Chick Sword lost in the canyon? Even if someone discovered it, the divine energy that had dwelled within it had long since been recovered. Even if someone dug it out of the canyon, it would be nothing but an ordinary iron sword. The Reclining Dragon Sword, too, had been newly reforged into another shape.
I had brought the Reclining Dragon Sword and the Phoenix Chick Sword to give to Sagong Hee, and instead of heading to Hubei, I had come straight to Henan, where the Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle was being held. Because she was scheduled to come here.
"Before she agreed to follow you, on the day she left Taiji Flower, you made a promise. That if the 'gift' had not arrived by the appointed time, you would meet again at the Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle."
"And if I had decided I didn't want to come to the Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle? Then we would have missed each other, wouldn't we?"
"That could never happen. Where else would there be a stage as perfect as the Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle for those bastards to pull their schemes?"
"You're a conviction fanatic."
The Little Princess's purpose in traveling was not, like mine, to roam the Central Plains plucking its many beautiful flowers. Her solemn objective was to expose the schemes the Eldest Prince had spread across the world and snuff out the embers of the Great Righteous-Demonic War.
That the Eldest Prince's plans happened to be linked to the Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle, and that my reunion with Sagong Hee happened to occur at the Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle—the circumstances were far too clear-cut to call it coincidence.
"You planned this from the beginning?"
"Of course. I was about nine-tenths certain. With the Little Princess having become the Number One Flower of the Black Path and drawn the eyes of all the Central Plains, the Eldest Prince will be growing impatient by now. However well he hides himself to conceal his identity, the renown of the Nine Dragons, once tasted, is not easily shaken off."
"He's desperately itching to draw people's attention, then."
To become the Heavenly Demon of the Heavenly Demon Cult, martial prowess is martial prowess, but one must also possess the stature of a leader capable of guiding a hundred thousand demonic practitioners. And that goes hand in hand with one's epithet, one's fame, and the support of the demonic practitioners.
Lee Si-a, already acknowledged by the Orthodox Faction as the Number One Flower of the Black Path—what reason would the demonic practitioners have to reject her?
—I have fallen for the Little Princess's overbearing spirit!
—Young Heavenly Demon! Young Heavenly Demon! Young Heavenly Demon!
—I support the Eldest Prince, but I acknowledge the Little Princess's mettle.
Moreover, Lee Si-a had stormed into the very heart of the Orthodox Faction's festival, the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, and succeeded in standing on her own without the aid of the Flying Heaven Three Demons. Her popularity must be piercing the heavens. It was the Demonic Cult, paradoxically, that discriminated least between men and women—so little, in fact, that a woman could become Heavenly Demon if her martial arts were strong enough.
—What's the Eldest Prince doing right now?
The higher the Little Princess's popularity soared, the more questions mounted about the Eldest Prince. He seemed to be doing something, but because absolutely no trace of it showed, no one knew the extent of the atrocities he had spread across the Central Plains.
"The Eldest Prince will certainly seek to reverse the tide through this opportunity."
The Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle was a chance for countless women to elevate their fame, but it could also serve as another kind of opportunity for the Eldest Prince. Lee Si-a, who had listened seriously to my explanation, raised her wine cup toward me.
"And you intend to make use of all of it to ruin the Eldest Prince's schemes and claim Dokgo Yeon, correct?"
"You have the order reversed. It was in the course of trying to claim Dokgo Yeon that I discovered the Eldest Prince was pulling his foul tricks on her. And that happened to converge on the Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle."
How many martial artists in the world were suffering from the Eldest Prince's machinations? Merely tallying all his schemes spread across the Central Plains would easily surpass a hundred.
It was simply that, in my pursuit of Dokgo Yeon, the snare the Eldest Prince had laid caught my eye. Had I not marked Dokgo Yeon as a woman I intended to claim, she would surely have fallen into his trap and suffered grievously.
"Your expression is starting to show curiosity. About what the Eldest Prince did to Dokgo Yeon."
"I am. I'm dying of curiosity, so won't you tell me already? Ever since Sichuan, I've been going crazy wondering."
The reason I had abruptly attacked other sects while slowly spreading word of the Dragon Emperor Sword to draw attention was that someone had delivered a single piece of news to the Little Princess.
—The Eldest Prince has taken in the Ice Demon and is trying to sabotage the Two Phoenixes Decisive Battle!
One of the Wild Three Demons, the Ice Demon, had sided with the Eldest Prince. While we were in Sichuan winning over the Flame Demon, the Eldest Prince had been working to pull the Wild Three Demons onto his own side. Presumably under the assumption that his own subordinates, the Earth Qilin Three Demons, would not betray him.
'He's probably working on more than just the Ice Demon. Because the Eldest Prince is that kind of bastard.'
Had Lee Si-a not taken the Flame Demon as her handmaiden, we would have been placed at a severe numerical disadvantage.
"Are you going to keep it a secret this time too? Who the Ice Demon is."
"Why bother? Why would I hide someone whose very epithet makes their identity blatantly obvious? The Ice Demon is the mistress of the North Sea Ice Palace."
Her standing might fall a little short for the Ten Great Masters of the World, but if the range were widened to the thirty greatest masters under heaven, she would enter with room to spare.
The Flame Demon had been a master of the Harmony Realm, and the Ice Demon was also a master at the threshold of the Harmony Realm. I didn't know about now, but in the future, that was how it had been.
"And this time, the Ice Demon will be coming."
Ice Demon, Yoo Seol-ra. She was highly likely to appear while impersonating some unspecified sect.
"Because the Eldest Prince is more than capable of that."
Impersonating a sect.
Concealing one's strength and hiding one's identity.
Altering one's own Fate-Determining Technique to throw the world into confusion.
Every method I had employed was a method the Eldest Prince had employed first.
"In that sense, Little Princess. I have a request for you."
"You've eaten the Flame Demon, so now you want to eat the Ice Demon? And you want me to take her as a handmaiden?"
"Heh heh, Little Princess. The Ice Demon can guide you into the peak realm."
I made Lee Si-a an offer she could not refuse.
"A walking Ten-Thousand Year Ice Crystal is coming and practically begging to be consumed. Not eating it—that would be the act of a fool."
Absorption of Yin to Nourish Yang. I cannot endure without doing it.