094
094
Someone had ambushed her from behind. Sagong Hee had been taught how to handle such situations.
First, determine whether I noticed the ambush.
'I must discern if I was aware of the ambush and deliberately let it happen, or if I was truly caught off guard.'
The former was fine; the latter was dangerous.
Sagong Hee had completely failed to notice until the moment her assailant's hand covered her mouth.
That meant he was a martial artist far stronger than herself. A Peak Realm master—or perhaps even beyond.
'But there's no way I'm in danger.'
Who would dare accost a woman from behind in the middle of the Murim Alliance, on the path to the estate the Alliance Leader personally cared about most? Only one person in the world would do such a thing.
A familiar energy.
'It carries the scent of the Taiji Divine Art.'
The man's body flowed with the energy of the Taiji Divine Art, cultivated to wield the Taiji Wisdom Sword. Even if the Taiji Divine Art had spread among Wudang's elders through secret manuals, only one man possessed an internal energy that so vastly surpassed her own.
Moreover, if the man was deliberately rubbing a hot, blunt object against her rear, then there was absolutely only one person in the entire world it could be.
Yet an unfamiliar scent of someone else's skin mingled in...?
Crunch.
"Ow, hey, hey!"
A familiar young man's voice rang out like a yelp. Sagong Hee didn't release his finger but pulled it further into her mouth and chewed it relentlessly.
"Let go, let go! I was out of line!"
Not hard enough to injure him. But enough to convey her fury. When he tapped her waist with his palm as a signal from behind, Sagong Hee slowly opened her mouth.
"If you had been an enemy, I would have sliced you with my sword instantly."
"You knew I wasn't an enemy, so why did you do that?"
"Because I can smell another woman on you, my lord."
"...I've sometimes mentioned you're like Gyeon-hui, but that's a little frightening."
Sagong Hee turned around. In the short span of barely half a year, the young man—who had been fiddling with his middle finger, now bearing distinct bite marks—had grown significantly taller.
"You've grown taller."
Even on tiptoe, their eyes barely met; she had to look up. She felt a strange sense of pride, but also an irrational pang of disappointment that he had grown so much in a place she couldn't witness.
"You used to be almost my height, but now you're definitely looking down at me."
"I grew that much. You've grown a lot too, haven't you?"
The young man reached both hands out and supported Sagong Hee's chest from below.
"Your internal energy has increased a great deal."
"Did you think only my inner energy had grown?"
"Your middle dantian has also grown."
"I nurtured it while thinking only of you, my lord."
The young man hefted Sagong Hee's breasts from beneath as if weighing them, like they were his personal toys—breasts that no one else had ever been allowed to touch, or even dared to stare at.
"Taiji is the harmony of yin and yang, heaven and earth. I suppose it's only natural that the qi from the lower and upper dantians gathers in the middle dantian. It's grown tremendously since before I left."
"Of course. All the internal energy a certain someone left inside me is flowing straight to my middle dantian."
"Hahaha, well now. Whoever that was, they certainly did a great service for humanity."
The young man buried his face in Sagong Hee's chest. Sagong Hee remained still, breathing slowly, so he could bury his face there and rest until he was satisfied.
"Phew, I feel alive again. Once you transcend the Peak Realm and reach the Harmony Realm, you'll be able to properly use your upper dantian. That will also stabilize the inner energy dwelling in your middle dantian to some degree."
Pulling his face from her chest, the young man spread his arms wide.
"It's been a while, Hee."
"......It really has been a while."
Sagong Hee had so much she wanted to say, but to hold back the surge of emotion, she simply went into his embrace. It was hard to bury her face because of her chest, so she bowed her head and pressed her forehead against him. Still, she didn't mind her chest being crushed; she held the young man as tightly as she could.
The hot pillar pressing against her lower abdomen? That was exactly what she had been hoping for. Sagong Hee pressed her body even closer into him and savored his warmth.
"I missed you, my lord."
"I missed you too, Gyeon-hui."
The young man's body felt much more solid than before. Perhaps because it had been half a year, but the organ that had already been swelling from the moment he'd begun fondling her chest seemed even larger than before, felt from its heat alone.
Just as Sagong Hee had become stronger, so too had the young man.
"Really... I'm trying to catch up, but you're already far ahead."
"Of course. I'm not someone who's easy to catch. ...But Gyeon-hui. Won't you let go soon? I have someone I want to introduce."
"No."
Sagong Hee lifted her head and smiled a refreshing smile. At her refusal, the young man blinked in surprise.
"Did I mishear...? Ahem. I mean—"
"No. It's a woman. Since you wouldn't introduce a man to me, it's definitely a woman."
"Well, Gyeon-hui. I mean...."
"The back of my head is already stinging, making me dizzy. You're not about to tell us to get along, are you?"
"I'm the one who should be saying that."
Click, click.
Footsteps sounded from behind Sagong Hee. Though it was a voice she'd heard once before, a connection she had parted from amicably, thinking they could be good rivals, hearing it here stirred an inexplicable, blazing fury within her.
"......Fufu, hah."
Sagong Hee pulled herself from the young man's embrace and turned around. Standing opposite her, arms crossed, was a beautiful woman with short black hair that reached the nape of her neck.
Beautiful.
The figure she was meeting again after half a year had changed remarkably from before. Though she was a few years younger, her tall stature, long straight legs, and beautiful face brimming with confidence made her a fully bloomed woman.
"It's been a while, Number One Flower of the Black Path."
"Yeah. I never thought we'd meet like this."
Ah!
They say enemies are bound to meet on a single-log bridge. The two Peak Experts who had once joined hands in the Hubei Martial Arts Arena to abandon the Phoenix Seat began to slowly approach each other.
Step, step, step.
Neither said a word. So the young man, who had been eagerly anticipating their cordial meeting, found himself unable to speak either.
"Wow... it wasn't even this tense when I fought the Divine Spear."
The young man's nonsense fell on deaf ears. With every step, the two women observed everything about the other: their gait, attire, skin condition, footwork, martial arts—absolutely everything.
Step, step, step.
Neither stopped walking forward. Thinking that stopping first meant yielding in pride, they glared at each other until they closed to just one jang's distance, halting at the same instant.
"Tch...!"
"Tsk...!"
Both clicked their tongues simultaneously as they faced each other. Only when the distance narrowed to one jang did they realize where the other overwhelmingly surpassed themselves.
The Taiji Flower saw that the Young Heavenly Demon stood closer to the heavens, at a higher realm than her, and her blood boiled at having to look up at her.
The Young Heavenly Demon saw that the Taiji Flower possessed vastly more internal energy than her, a deep and profound power like a boundless sea she couldn't hope to compare with, and her own blood boiled.
Each possessed what the other lacked. Glaring at each other, they took one more step forward.
"You're tall. Your legs are pretty, too."
"Your chest is disgustingly large. Burying your face in it the moment you see him, I thought you were his mother."
"Motherliness is what my lord loves most. Oh my, but maternal love is something you... lack, isn't it."
"I've embraced that bastard with my heart, so it's fine."
...The two women took one more step closer. The chest of Sagong Hee's robes touched Lee Si-a's sternum, and Lee Si-a tilted her head slightly to look down on her. Neither of them averted their gaze in the slightest.
"Number One Flower of the Black Path, our last match ended regrettably, didn't it?"
"Yeah. Don't we have to settle this and see who's stronger—the Taiji Flower, or me?"
Saaaa---
Ripples formed on the surface of the lake flowing beneath the bridge. The calm water began to churn, growing rougher and more violent.
"Let's decide the match with that."
"I think we're on the same page. I agree."
A hair-trigger standoff. Having closed to a distance where each could unleash a killing stroke against the other, they clasped the hands that rested near their waists.
"I'll be the one who wins."
"Heh, obviously I'll win."
"Oh my, but I think I've already won here?"
"Don't you know that I can feel each other's heartbeats better?"
"Stop."
Go-go-go-go—
The ripples on the water subsided. The two surges of energy that had been about to clash fiercely were suppressed, crushed by a far greater force.
"Don't fight, just unite in yin-yang harmony. Yin-yang harmony."
"Eek?!"
"Eep...!"
Both shrieked at the touch of the young man who had approached without them noticing.
Having slipped his face between the two women as they stood facing each other, the young man placed his wicked hands on each of their rear cheeks and fell into deep contemplation. Closing his eyes and savoring the feel of his hands, his expression was that of an utter pervert.
"Hmm.... This, I must say, is a dead heat."
"What? That can't be! My rear is inferior to hers?!"
Wasn't the direction of her anger a little strange? Sagong Hee twisted the corner of her mouth, placing the Little Princess's hand on her own rear.
"Pfft. Are you doubting my lord's hands right now?"
Sagong Hee gave a victorious smile and puckered her lips at the young man. She didn't forget to add a provocation towards the Little Princess.
"My lord, we've reunited after a long time. How about a kiss...?"
Sagong Hee's heart truly swelled with grief. Even on tiptoe, he had grown just tall enough that she couldn't quite reach him. Yet her rival was of a stature that allowed their gazes to nearly meet, close enough to turn her head and kiss him.
Smooch.
The Little Princess merely extended her head forward slightly to press her lips against the young man's cheek. Without realizing it, Sagong Hee's hand moved to the hilt of the Jabo Sword.
"Heh. When grown-ups are together, kids shouldn't butt in."
"Wha, wha...!!"
Sagong Hee was genuinely outraged by her rival's act of pressing a finger against her forehead. And the direction of the finger was not pushing forward, but deliberately pressing straight down as if driving it vertically into her head.
"Heh!"
Sagong Hee reached out and wrapped her arm around the Little Princess's waist. The distance between them closed even more, and the Little Princess twisted the corner of her mouth at the feeling of her rival's chest molding firmly against her own sternum.
A declaration of war.
At Sagong Hee's act of flaunting the difference in their middle dantians, the Little Princess licked her lips and smiled with her eyes.
"You want to fight?"
"Aren't we destined to determine who is superior anyway? Heh."
"Why go as far as determining male from female."
The young man simultaneously wrapped his arms around the waists of Sagong Hee and the Little Princess and buried his head between them.
"If you're going to compete anyway, compete over my sword. Got it?"
At the young man's cheeky grin, Sagong Hee's eyes met the Little Princess's. She was genuinely annoyed and furious, but she had no choice.
There is a foe one cannot handle alone.
It stung her pride; she didn't want to form an alliance, nor did she want to become someone who shared his manhood—even if she thought they could become close as rivals honing their martial arts against one another. But thinking of the night with the grinning young man, she knew she absolutely needed a comrade.
"...I'm Lee Si-a. Sagong Hee, can you win against him alone?"
"No. Regretfully."
"Is that so? Then... let's not fight among ourselves."
"Alright. ...Though I am very, tremendously angry."
Thump, thump. At the heartbeats they felt where their chests touched—though one side was doing all the touching—both women sighed. They walked different paths, the White Path and the Black Path, but in the end, they realized they lived under the same sky.
"The one who reaches the heavens first is the owner."
"Alright. Until then, we help each other."
Righteous and Demonic.
"My lord, prepare yourself."
"You're dead. Seriously."
Two martial artists walking different paths had forged an alliance against a single common enemy.
* * *
At that same time, late in the night.
Yoo Seol-ra, who had secured private lodging and was meditating alone in her room, rose to her feet upon hearing someone tapping from outside her window.
Chirp.
A small, black crow-tit was perched on the window frame, waiting for it to be opened. Yoo Seol-ra opened the window and welcomed the visitor who had come late at night.
"Long time no see, darling."
"Cut the revolting talk."
The bird fluttered its wings and chuckled. A distinctly human voice emerged from its throat.
"What's wrong? Don't tell me it's because I'm a bird? You know full well there's only you and the Heavenly Demon who know I'm not really a bird."
"If you're going to wag your tail, do it at a man. Stop being disgusting."
"Hmph, you're so mean.... But that cold shoulder of yours is charming too!"
"Shall I kill you...."
Yoo Seol-ra, who had been radiating cold energy, roughly tore off the letter tied to the crow-tit's leg.
"Ow, that hurts!"
"What does it matter, when you're just controlling it with an illusion technique."
"It's not an illusion technique?!"
"Same difference."
After reading the letter's contents, Yoo Seol-ra handed it back to the bird. The crow-tit gulped it down, swallowing the paper whole with its beak.
"You...!"
"Tee-hee, my job was just to deliver?"
The red gleam that had been flickering in the crow-tit's eyes vanished. Its eye color returning to normal, the bird coughed dryly a few times before collapsing with a thud.
"......."
Letting out a deep sigh, Yoo Seol-ra cupped the crow-tit in both hands.
"In your next life, don't be born a minion to a mad bitch like that."
Crack.
A moment later.
Near the inn, a small ice tomb rose, well-hidden from anyone's sight.