096
096
Guided by the Alliance Leader into the estate at the island's heart, Lee Si-a found herself facing Sagong Hee, standing in the exact same spot she had occupied the day before.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Sagong Hee, disciple of Taoist Hyeonja Mu-bung. Though we have yet to hold a ceremony, I am the wife who will spend her life serving at her lord's side."
"Is that so? I'm Lee Si-a, the Little Princess of the Demonic Cult. Good for you. I'm the master of the Sky-Soaring Lust Demon—he'll spend his life swearing loyalty to me."
Ripple, ripple.
The waves began to churn once more. Even if a mediator had been present, the two would have been glaring daggers at each other. With no one here to mediate, it was all the easier to sharpen their blades against one another.
Step, step, step.
The two approached each other, just as they had the day before. They stopped a single pace apart, facing off.
"I glossed over it in front of my lord, but let's be clear. You did it with him too, didn't you? Yin-Yang Union."
"Obviously. The bastard followed me in the first place because he was trying to get into my pants."
"Get into your... ahem. So, did my lord ravish you, Little Princess?"
"Nope. I'm the one who devoured him."
Lee Si-a lifted her chin, smug. Sagong Hee suspected she might be bluffing, but there was not the slightest hint of a lie in her expression.
"...That can't be. My lord, ravished by a woman? It doesn't add up. You aren't even stronger than he is."
"Martial arts? Of course I'm lower. But in relationships between men and women, push and pull is fundamental."
Lee Si-a raised her chin even higher. It tilted back so far it nearly pointed at the heavens.
"What's the point of just waiting for the man to make a move? It's only irritating and exhausting. You're going to end up shoving things in and out anyway, so why not get straight to the point? You think a cock aimlessly slips in and out? It pushes in and pulls back—the distance between a man and a woman works exactly the same way."
"Wow... heavens. I had no idea the Little Princess was such a pervert."
"Look who's talking. You walking sack of lewdness."
Even as she said it, Lee Si-a felt genuinely wronged. At the same time, curiosity stirred.
"...Still, hey. Can I just touch your lewd sack once?"
"Heh."
Lee Si-a was openly envious of the one part of Sagong Hee's body in which Sagong Hee herself took pride. In the matter of breasts, at least, Lee Si-a made no reckless provocations toward Sagong Hee.
"My breasts, and my entire body, belong to my lord. If you wish to touch them, you must obtain his permission."
"Wow, listen to you. So that's why the bastard kept groping my butt all this time. Tsk, that wicked bastard. Was my ass just a substitute for these breasts?"
"An ass that can be compared to my breasts? May I touch it once?"
"What nonsense. This is exclusively for the Lust Demon."
Lee Si-a gave her own lower back a crisp clap, then smiled at Sagong Hee. Sagong Hee, watching her, burst into a grin.
"It seems fighting among ourselves yields no benefit whatsoever."
"Right. Helping each other is better than bruising each other's feelings."
Both summoned their internal qi at the same time. As the Taiji Divine Art and the Heavenly Demon Divine Art intertwined in one place, the two simultaneously gauged each other's level of martial arts.
49 : 51.
Sagong Hee was ever so slightly weaker, but a gap as thin as a single sheet of paper could be overturned by combat conditions, the weapon used, and the state of one's body on any given day.
"The Sky-Soaring Lust Demon said he'd give you two swords as a gift. Once you have those, you'll be nearly dead even with me."
"Yes. For now, I only have the one sword my lord has given me."
The Sword Control Art of the Taiji Wisdom Sword was most powerful when manipulating four swords at once.
But Sagong Hee currently possessed only a single Jabo Sword, and the two points of combat strength she lacked compared to Lee Si-a could be filled by the power of her weapon.
Saaaah—
Both let their qi subside at once. It would be a terrible waste to let a worthy rival who had appeared after so long die in a deathmatch.
"Don't you think we could be good opponents for each other?"
"Indeed. Let's spar frequently. I feel like our skills will improve rapidly. That day, fighting you at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, I felt it sincerely. I want to build a good relationship with you going forward."
"Right? Same for me. Of course, because of that bastard, things have gotten sticky and complicated, but let's not forget the memory of that day."
Both extended their hands toward each other at the same time.
"I look forward to working with you from now on."
"Same here."
Just like they had at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering finals, when they clasped hands and gave up the Second Phoenix seat together, the two acknowledged each other.
"Of course, my lord is mine. I intend to claim him first."
"Hmph. He's a man who calls himself the Sky-Soaring Lust Demon. It's only destiny that he belongs to the Heavenly Demon."
"Lust Demon? Then I suppose I have no choice. As the future leader of the Wudang Sect, a pillar of the White Path, I'll simply have to defeat the Lust Demon and lock him at my side, unable to budge an inch."
"Anyone stronger than the Heavenly Demon will be judged for treason and bound to Heavenly Mountain, never able to come back down, you know?"
Crunch.
Both hands tightened around each other at once.
"Whoever wins first, we accept it graciously. Understood?"
"Of course. No weeping and wailing later, clinging pathetically to the hem of my skirt, begging to stay by my side even as a handmaiden."
"Becoming stronger than the Sky-Soaring Lust Demon."
"Defeating my lord in a martial duel."
The two had already resolved not to settle their Life-and-Death Realm contest through a deathmatch but through other means, and on that point, their understanding was crystal clear.
"And then ravishing him by force."
Clap. They lightly clapped their joined hands together.
"He said the same thing to you? That if there's a woman stronger than him, he'll quietly become a matrilocal son-in-law."
"Yes. He said it outright. If I ever become stronger than you, he'll cook, do the laundry, and service me—he'll do everything."
"Good, that's one more reason to become the Heavenly Demon."
"And I'd like to eat three meals a day cooked by my lord."
The two women sank into blissful delusion.
What didn't change was that, in the end, whichever path they took, they would have to defeat him through martial arts to achieve what they desired.
A man who might be stronger than the Heavenly Demon.
A man who might be stronger than the Murim Alliance Leader.
The two clasped hands once more and walked together toward the edge of the bridge where the estate lay.
"He's older, isn't he? Do you really believe he's twenty-one?"
"Whether he's undergone Return to Youth or is really twenty-one, what does it matter? Isn't that even better? At least he's not some old man pretending to be young."
"...You get it, don't you?"
Bonding.
The way for people to grow close is to form a shared understanding, to share common interests.
"Have you ever ridden him on top? When I do, my lord's face—the expression he makes when it twists, like he's trying to endure something—you have no idea how fast it makes my heart beat."
"Ah, I know, right! When he bites down under his lip, then finally exhales the breath he's been holding. Haah, the bastard probably doesn't even realize how aroused he gets when both nipples on his chest heat up."
"If you lick them lightly, he absolutely loves it."
"Oooh...!!"
The two women grew rapidly closer as they shared intelligence about one man. The spark to become friends had already been more than enough, and without hiding or deceiving each other, they began to trade secret techniques with fair and honorable openness.
"Have you ever done it with your mouth?"
"M-mouth? I... I tried to put it in, but my jaw hurt too much, so I stopped. I just licked the tip a little."
"Try taking it all the way down to your throat. At first you make my lord squirm in agony, but once you ease it past the back of your tongue, he'll grab your head and press down. That moment is absolutely maddening."
"Oh, oooh...."
Did the Alliance Leader have any idea? Inside his own villa, the conversation between the two women who would one day bear the future of both the black and white Murim was more shameless and explicit than any gathering of marketplace housewives.
"And also...."
"......."
The two women, who had been laughing in warm harmony, gradually lowered their voices. At the sound of small footsteps approaching from the opposite direction, they released their clasped hands and widened the distance between them.
'She's coming.'
'It's that bitch.'
They exchanged glances and nodded.
Mu-bung, Public Enemy.
The way for a woman to grow close to another woman is to share a common enemy.
"Greetings to you both."
The daughter of the Murim Alliance Leader, Dokgo Yeon.
For Sagong Hee and Lee Si-a, it was impossible to easily grow friendly with a rival who might snatch away their shares, and a woman whom the Lust Demon had already declared he would take.
Harshly. Curtly.
Lee Si-a inwardly sharpened her blades as she faced the woman walking through the mist. But Sagong Hee gave a slight shake of her head.
"I should have come out to greet you...."
"There is no need, Lady Dokgo."
Sagong Hee approached Dokgo Yeon with a worried voice. Lee Si-a wanted to demand if this was already betrayal, but at the sight of Dokgo Yeon emerging from the mist, she found herself dashing forward before she knew it.
"Hey!"
"Cough!"
Dokgo Yeon covered her mouth with her sleeve and spat blood. The pale lavender sleeve began to stain with crimson, yet she gave a strained smile as if even this were familiar, bowing her head.
"Welcome to the Murim Alliance. This is a villa within the Alliance grounds. The underground river flows up around it, making it an island all four seasons of the year. Please take care not to fall from the bridge. And also...."
Dokgo Yeon pointed inward. Beyond the bridge, a large estate began to reveal its shape.
"Welcome to the Murim Alliance, and to the Dokgo Clan."
Dokgo Yeon.
The woman whom Lee Si-a had only ever heard of and was seeing for the first time in her life was so pale she looked as though she might collapse and die at any moment.
* * *
"It is an honor that you've come all this way, Mu-bung!"
"The honor is all mine, Alliance Leader."
In the Murim Alliance Leader's office, I found myself granted a private audience with the Alliance Leader.
'This is the value of the Divine Doctor's name.'
Thanks to my identity as the Divine Doctor's disciple, the Alliance Leader invited me directly to his office, and I was able to meet him face to face without getting entangled in any troublesome matters.
"So, you've come to the Second Phoenix Decision Match to demonstrate your medical arts as a physician?"
"Yes. I happened to be passing by and stopped in."
There is no physician as skilled as the one who just happened to be passing by.
"However, Alliance Leader, the reason you called me here separately—could it be—"
"Indeed. It concerns my daughter, Yeon."
As expected.
'Blood World, Blood World, Blood-Blood World————!!'
I inwardly unleashed a Lion's Roar toward the heavens.
"By 'Yeon,' do you mean... the Lady Dokgo Yeon?"
"That's right. She's a child who just came of age this year."
"......."
The age of adulthood is twenty. That is the age at which the state begins levying taxes.
Whether it's me, steeped in lust and drink, or Dokgo Yeon, bedridden with a fatal illness, we're both taxpaying citizens of the realm.
"Ever since she was young, Yeon has been very frail. But her martial training was never a problem."
And so, unable to enjoy her blossoming youth, trapped in the Alliance's villa and the Dokgo Clan estate, Dokgo Yeon was no different from a swallow caged in a birdcage.
"Perhaps even stronger than I was at her age. Of course, I had not yet mastered the Dugu Nine Swords back then, but even assuming the same environment, I would not have been able to keep up with Yeon."
I knew the cure for her incurable disease well. A bird in a cage, its wings ceaselessly festering with wounds in that cramped space—it had never received proper treatment.
"Doctor Mu-bung, are you listening?"
"Yes. I understand that the young lady is a martial artist of considerable mastery."
Listening to information I already knew recounted in full wasn't to my liking, but inwardly I paid attention, retracing what I already knew.
"That's right. Yeon lost her mother at a young age. So I raised that child with all my might. But on the day Yeon turned ten, disaster struck."
"You mean the Formless Poison."
"......Indeed."
Dokgo Yeon, age ten. A little more than ten years ago, on the day celebrating Dokgo Yeon's birthday, she was poisoned with the Formless Poison.
"She was brought to the brink of death. What's more, that Formless Poison was the work of the same assassin who killed my wife. I could not bear it. I moved heaven and earth to find the culprit. But there was something more important than that."
"Treatment."
"Exactly. Rather than revenge for what my wife and child had suffered, I had no choice but to agonize over how to keep my surviving child alive. So I mobilized the entire manpower of the Alliance and all the intelligence network of the clan to identify the child's incurable illness. But I couldn't figure it out. No one knew the cause."
"That would be the case for ordinary physicians."
I answered in a voice brimming with confidence, and the Alliance Leader gazed at me with eyes full of trust.
"I am the inheritor of the Divine Doctor's true transmission. All of his medical arts rest within my mind. There is no illness I cannot cure—except for hair loss."
"......And hair loss?"
"I have yet to overcome it, for my enlightenment remains insufficient. But if I could overcome hair loss, I would become the Divine Doctor of this generation."
In the East, if I could only obtain the Heavenly Horse's Tear, I could complete the legendary hair-growth tonic 'Jaranara (滋裸拏羅)' and become the Divine Doctor.
In other words, as long as Dokgo Yeon wasn't balding, there were countless ways to heal her.
"Worry not. No matter the patient...."
I produced a wooden case and smiled with utter confidence.
"A single strike from my heated Long Needle, and all will be restored."