Jeokwol
"Are you trying to say that an old woman running about like this is indecorous?"
"W-what?! No, of course not! How could I possibly think such a thing?"
Flustered, I blurted it out, and Jeokseon burst into a giggle like a child. Ah. She was teasing me. Damn it. She really scared the hell out of me.
Right. She’d been kind to me, sure, but the woman sitting before me was still Jeokseon. One of the most atrocious personalities in all of Murim.
You could tell just by watching the people around her. From the reactions of everyone I’d encountered on the way here today, the ones who recognized her had all responded the same way.
Despair. Helplessness in the face of an unprecedented disaster. Frenzy. That sort of thing.
Either way, Jeokseon smiled at me with a face full of mischief, then scooped up some hot water with her hand and splashed it over her shoulder a few times.
The droplets slid over her milky skin, traced down her chest, and soaked into the linen cloth wrapped around her body.
It was a thoroughly sensual sight. She’d only splashed water on herself, and yet somehow it looked like that.
If Jeokseon’s personality had been even a little different, she might have made a name for herself in another field entirely.
As a temptress, or a peerless beauty, or something along those lines.
Hmm. The gap between those two is way too big. It’s too extreme.
Anyway, after splashing the water about and taking a moment to gather her thoughts, Jeokseon looked at me again and began speaking as though she were about to reveal something important.
"How much do you know about rebirth of the body and rejuvenation?"
"I don’t know much at all. I’ve never experienced it myself, so all I know is what I’ve heard from others as rumors."
"That would be so. What difference would there be, even for those who have experienced it? I don’t truly know much about it either. Still—"
Jeokseon paused, then loosened the linen cloth wrapped around her body just a little before tying it back in place.
The simple motion nearly made my heart leap out of my mouth, but thankfully I managed not to show it.
"There is one thing I know for certain. Rebirth of the body is when the body remakes itself into one suited for martial arts. Rejuvenation is the act of turning the body back to the desired age. I only realized that much late in life. And so I returned to this body. To the time when I believed my physique was at its peak."
"Ah… then…."
"Yes. During rejuvenation, if the person in question is aware of it, they can return not only to their bodily prime but to any state they wish. For instance, they could become a fifteen-year-old child."
"But wouldn’t that actually be a loss?"
"That is why I’d say only a madman would choose such a thing."
There was something a little sharp in Jeokseon’s otherwise calm tone.
No matter how I looked at it, that sounded like she was targeting someone in particular.
Did such a person actually exist? If I only heard the words, it almost sounded that way.
"At any rate, I can answer your question like this. Maintaining the appearance of your youth takes no great effort. Once you have undergone rebirth of the body and rejuvenation even once, you will keep that form unless your dantian disappears or your internal energy is lost."
"Even if you don’t do anything special?"
"Indeed. Once you reach a realm like ours, you’ll understand naturally. But isn’t it a little too early for you to be worrying about that already?"
"To be honest… I wasn’t asking about it just because of appearances. As I said before, my memory is not whole. So I was wondering whether, if I underwent rebirth of the body or rejuvenation, it might perhaps restore those memories."
At that, Jeokseon nodded as though she finally understood.
"Is that so? Your memories, then… yes, that does make sense. I haven’t seen it myself, but from what I’ve heard, even severed fingers or missing limbs return to their original form. If that is so, then I see no reason memories would be any different. Your reasoning has merit."
Fortunately, that seemed to smooth things over. The awkward atmosphere eased, and I felt a lot more at ease too.
I still didn’t know exactly why she’d been staring at me so intently, but Jeokseon’s expression had changed a great deal from before as well.
"One thing."
"Y-yes…?"
"Calling your appearance 'nothing more than appearances' is rather vexing."
"Ah… did I make a mistake?"
"Yes. I do not know what kind of life you have lived, but it is wrong to belittle the face and body you were given. Why must you slight what has been bestowed upon you? For a woman, appearance is an immensely powerful weapon. If a child like you cannot make use of it, that is no different from a blind person possessing a peerless manual of divine martial arts."
"Ah…."
"I do not look kindly on women who are good for nothing except seducing men with a pretty face. However, if one has real ability and a fine appearance besides, then that too is a kind of talent, is it not? So do not think of your looks in such a way. If you use what you have where it belongs, is that not wisdom for living?"
"I will keep that in mind."
"Good. Hmm. We’ve stayed in the bath too long. Let’s get up now."
Then Jeokseon rose to her feet and loosened the soaked linen cloth wrapped around her body.
Thanks to that, her nude form was laid bare before my eyes. Her figure was stamped into my vision with merciless clarity.
It was only a naked body, and yet it felt as though someone had struck me over the head with a hammer.
I didn’t even know how to describe it. A pity? Something like that, maybe.
Still, I couldn’t keep dithering, so I stood as well.
At least it was a relief that there was no such thing as a foam towel in this world.
If she’d asked me to scrub her back, that would have been truly awkward. Since that wasn’t the case, I should be thankful.
With that, the bath was over, and Jeokseon and I each went to separate rooms.
Now that I was alone, the sense of relief was almost overwhelming.
Not having to worry about the commotion outside. Not having to think at all about some ambush coming out of nowhere.
In a world like this, there was nothing more precious than that. Even sleeping peacefully wasn’t easy here.
When would I ever be able to live in this world without constantly being on edge, even when I was alone?
I didn’t know. But for someone like me, who had only been here for about a month, it was probably still a very long way off.
So for now, getting stronger came first. If I did that, I wouldn’t have to worry about things like this anymore. Probably.
The black-path sects are far lacking in the purity and profundity of the orthodox white-path sects.
And yet the reason the black-path sects, by means of the Sado Alliance, can still stand toe-to-toe with the Murim Alliance is simple: they have numbers.
At the very least, five times as many.
That was how many people belonged to the black-path sects.
There were plenty who could barely swing a blade and still call themselves martial artists, but you couldn’t simply dismiss them.
Even people like that could have talent.
Jeokwol was one such man.
A boy who had grown up in the filthy red-light districts. A child who had killed a person for the first time at thirteen.
And yet he had not been punished for it.
On the contrary, a black-path expert who recognized his potential from that very incident had taken him in and sent him to the Sado Alliance’s elite training grounds.
That had been more than thirty years ago.
Which was why Jeokwol had become quite a capable man even among the black path.
Among the countless rabble of the black-path sects, a Hua Realm expert was truly something exceptional.
To reach such a level with middling martial arts and an impure mental method was no easy feat.
You could even say it was harder than becoming one of the so-called "prestigious schools" of the orthodox path.
That was why Jeokwol took pride in his realm and his skill.
In this brutal black path, becoming one of the Sado Alliance Lord’s confidants was not something just anyone could do.
So if the Sado Alliance Lord gave an order, he could do anything.
Even if he were told to stop the Yangtze River in its course, he would at least make a show of trying.
That was how deep his loyalty to the Sado Alliance Lord ran. He was proud of it too.
Jeokwol was skilled, so tracking the traces of the woman from the North Sea Ice Palace was not especially difficult.
At first, he got the Haomun rats to spill what they knew after a few beatings.
Of course, Haomun people knew everything—but there was no guarantee that everything they said was accurate, so he also did some legwork himself.
He was meticulous like that, not the sort to do things halfheartedly.
Even so, Jeokwol had been quite confused at first.
How could rumors place her in Luoyang and Kaifeng at the same time?
Worse, sightings kept popping up steadily around Luoyang.
But when he heard that the woman from the North Sea Ice Palace had headed to the Jegal Clan Manor, he nearly wanted to tear the informant’s throat out.
It was enough to make him think, Have these people all gone insane together?
Yet the reports from around Luoyang soon vanished, and then he heard a sighting at the birthday banquet for the Jegal Clan head’s granddaughter.
So, without hesitation, he went to the Jegal Clan Manor—and before long, word reached him that the woman from the North Sea Ice Palace had left the manor.
It might have looked like one dead end after another, but Jeokwol did not feel disappointed.
Her trail was still there. If that was the case, then it wasn’t a failure, nor had he truly come away empty-handed.
Jeokwol’s life had always been like that. In the end, all that mattered was completing the mission.
So the process was always this way, and as a result his persistence had become astonishingly tenacious.
Finding her trail after that was not easy, but the white-haired woman had not gone out of her way to conceal herself, so she was not hard to follow.
He arrived at a city. Hearing that the woman had entered an inn connected to the Murim Alliance, he thought he had finally caught up.
All he had to do now was keep watch from before dawn, wait for the woman to come out, then quietly follow her and abduct her in some secluded place before taking her to the Sado Alliance Lord.
It was a simple task. His mission was already nearing its end.
After grabbing a room at the tavern across from the inn and getting a short sleep, he stared out the window at the front of the inn from well before daybreak.
White hair was convenient. At the very least, there was no chance of confusing her with someone else.
That was why he was in a somewhat relaxed frame of mind. But he was still not careless.
That, too, was why Jeokwol had survived until now.
And a little later, when the white-haired woman finally came out of the inn, he smiled to himself.
There she is. I’ve finally found her.
But that smile lasted only a moment. When he saw the woman following behind her, Jeokwol’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"Th-that crazy bitch… why is she here…?"
Such was Jeokwol’s shock that he muttered the words before he even realized it.
And then Jeokwol immediately terminated the mission on his own, turned around at once, and hurried back to report to the Sado Alliance Lord.