The Wandering Seductress
Beneath my navel, in the lower belly.
There it was: a tiny pulse of energy, faintly stirring inside me. This must be my dantian.
It was a sensation I’d never experienced in my life.
For now, though, I needed to use it.
The problem was that I had no idea how.
It felt like something inside my body that still wasn’t quite mine.
But as I stood there turning that over in my head, something suddenly surfaced in my mind.
And I immediately realized it was the Secret formula of Origin Essence Heart Technique.
The incantation rose up with startling clarity, as vivid as if I’d just read it in a book a moment ago.
Oh... I think I can do this?
The explanation was a little vague, but it definitely described how to stir inner energy and circulate it through the body’s meridians.
Well, here goes. I’ll figure it out by trying.
Before long, I distinctly felt the inner energy in my dantian begin to move and flow through my entire body.
Ah. So that’s how it works.
If someone had told me to do this from scratch, I’m pretty sure I never would’ve managed it.
Still, this was Origin Essence Heart Technique, something I’d already mastered through a skill. That must be why I could do it at all.
After circulating it through my body several times, I began to feel as if I were waking up from the inside out.
It was a clear sensation that something was definitely becoming better.
But the amount was absurdly small.
Well, that couldn’t be helped. Origin Essence Heart Technique wasn’t exactly some earth-shattering martial art. And on top of that, it was only two stars.
Even so, right now it was priceless to me.
What’s more, as I kept channeling the inner energy through my body, I discovered I could gather it in places like my hands.
Would that make my body even stronger? As if my body wasn’t already tough enough thanks to the Golden Dragon Body; if I added inner energy into the mix, wouldn’t it become even more ridiculous?
Just the combination of Iron Body Weight-Adding Force and Golden Dragon Body had already let me beat a First-class fighter without taking so much as a scratch.
Then could I maybe even take on a Peak / Expert?
The problem was that once you reached the Peak / Expert rank, you could coat weapons in qi.
Thinking about that made me realize my duel with the Yang Family escort chief had been pure luck.
If that bastard with the sword had used sword qi from the start and attacked me, I might’ve ended up as little more than shredded meat.
I need to be more careful. I was way too reckless.
Still, now that I understood how to use inner energy, I felt considerably more at ease.
So, in a fairly cheerful mood, I was able to sleep.
I’d survived another day in this brutal jianghu without dying. I figured I was allowed to feel happy about that.
The next day.
When I got up in the morning, I paused to think for a while.
If I’d completed the Yang Family escort quest and gotten a spiritual elixir, then normally I should head to Kaifeng and do the quest there that also gives an elixir.
The problem was that this wasn’t a game. I’d actually have to walk all that distance.
If this was truly Chinese territory in the setting of a wuxia world, it would be goddamn enormous.
Even a city that looked to be right around the corner would probably be staggeringly far away.
It was a landmass so massive that I’d probably have to walk until I was sick of walking. That didn’t sound easy at all.
If only I could get qinggong.
But even if I did, it still wouldn’t be particularly useful to me yet.
With this mouse-dropping amount of inner energy, I’d probably have a hard time sustaining it anyway.
So even if I got qinggong now, it would just be a cake I couldn’t reach.
Fine. Let’s go. I’ll follow the walkthrough for now.
At the very least, the quest I could do once I reached Kaifeng should be within my range.
The problem was that there was no walkthrough after that.
With that decided, I left the city.
Kaifeng was said to be about one hundred sixty li to the southwest from here.
One hundred sixty li. Since ten li is roughly four kilometers, that meant over sixty kilometers.
Wow. That’s far. Even walking four kilometers at a time, it would take fifteen hours to cover that distance.
But the straight-line distance alone was that long, so I figured it would take at least two or three days.
There were no paved roads, after all. And on top of that, the odds of getting lost were extremely high.
It was enough to make me seriously reconsider whether leaving the city had been wise.
Still, I went.
I wasn’t just some ordinary civilian anymore; I’d learned martial arts in my own way, so surely I wouldn’t have to suffer too much.
The only small mercy was that I wasn’t the only one on the road.
I couldn’t tell whether they were a trading caravan or some escort agency, but there were people traveling with banners in front, leading ox carts, and others walking with bundles hoisted on their backs.
Well, at least I wouldn’t get lost.
So I trailed along after them, picking up the pace as best I could, and asked for directions whenever I had a chance. By the time the sun was sinking toward the western mountains, I spotted a city.
A small city between the one I’d left and Kaifeng.
I thought it was called Wanyang County or something like that. Anyway, just as I was about to go in, a man from the escort group I’d been following for so long walked straight toward me.
“Ha ha. Pardon the intrusion. I am Zhang Yiliang, head escort of the Mapyeong Escort Agency.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Head Escort Zhang. Please understand that I can’t reveal my name due to my circumstances.”
“Not at all. Miss. How could that possibly be held against you? The reason I’ve come to speak with you is simply that I wished to ask you one thing.”
“Go ahead.”
“Miss, you appear to be someone who entered the jianghu not long ago. Is that correct?”
What the... how did he know? Was I really that obvious?
This Head Escort Zhang didn’t look especially old, either.
Did he have some kind of special eye for these things?
“What makes you say that?”
“Ah—if I was mistaken, then I apologize. Please take it as the meddling of a tactless fool. In any case, I came over because I had a warning for someone who’s here for the first time.”
“A warning?”
“Lately, there have been rumors that women traveling alone in these parts have been subjected to vile acts. And since those rumors are coming from all over, rather than being tied to any one inn or lodging house, there must be a shameless seductress prowling this city. That’s why I thought I should warn you in advance.”
“Even in a place this close to Kaifeng, such a person still hasn’t been caught and is running wild?”
“Apparently the culprit is so elusive that he’s been difficult to apprehend. So I merely wanted to tell you to be careful, though it was rude of me to step forward like this.”
“Thank you for your concern, Head Escort Zhang. Far from rude, your words are worth their weight in gold to me.”
“Ha ha. I’m glad you see it that way.”
After saying that, Zhang Yiliang gave a little bow and headed back toward the escort caravan’s wagons.
Hmm. A seductress, huh. That was unexpected information.
But wait, wasn’t that unrelated to the game? There’s no way the game would have implemented something like that.
So maybe I should think of this world as no longer being bound to the game at all.
Of course, I still had a status window, and there were things I’d seen in the walkthrough.
But maybe it had to be viewed the other way around.
Maybe this world existed first, and the game had simply been made to use it as its setting.
Even as I entered the city and searched for a decent inn, that so-called seductress kept bothering me.
What if he was watching me even now?
Women traveling alone weren’t exactly common.
At the very least, I hadn’t seen a single one since entering the city alone.
I’d better be prepared. After all, Head Escort Zhang had gone to the trouble of giving me advice.
More than anything, there is absolutely no way in hell I want that sort of thing happening to me at the hands of a man.
Ugh, disgusting. Just imagining it gives me chills.
Even if I’d ended up in a woman’s body, that was absolutely impossible.
Ah. I should’ve asked for more details about the seductress’s methods while I had the chance.
Was there a good way to handle it? At the very least, I needed to know how he operated if I wanted to avoid him.
Fortunately, there were still stalls and vendors that hadn’t closed yet, so I wandered around them and gathered information little by little.
But surprisingly, most of the people here didn’t actually know about the seductress.
Only a handful of them had even heard the name.
Still, that was enough to piece together some sort of useful information.
The usual, run-of-the-mill tricks.
They said he used scatter-energy poison, aphrodisiacs, sleeping draughts—things like that—slipping them into food or drinks, and then, once a woman got drowsy and returned to her room, he’d commit the crime.
Hearing that made me think the seductress might not be all that formidable in actual combat after all.
If he were truly strong, he’d just settle things with acupoint strikes. This was a martial arts world, after all.
And if he was resorting to such a roundabout method, that meant he probably lacked real ability.
Then... should I try to bait him? It sounded possible.
Even if I failed, it wouldn’t be my loss, would it? At the very least, I wouldn’t have to suffer a terrible fate.
So I made a few preparations, found a suitable inn, and went inside.
Then I ordered food and wine in a corner of the dining hall and quietly looked around.
Since I was wearing my face veil, I was glad I could look around without attracting attention.
Still, I had to act naturally. If I was going to do this, I might as well do it properly.
After waiting a bit, the food and wine arrived.
Would there really be anything mixed into them?
I wished there were some way to tell. Should I start carrying a silver hairpin around?
Anyway, because I was hidden behind my bamboo hat and face veil, I was able to pretend I was eating while actually slipping the food into the pouch opened beneath me.
Please, let the seductress be after me. Who knew? Maybe I’d get something useful out of it.
Free gains are thrilling, after all.
So I pretended to eat at a reasonable pace and gradually put on a sleepy act.
Then I stood up, swayed just a little, and climbed the stairs with great difficulty before paying and entering the room I’d rented.
Hoo. So far, so good. Now the real part begins.
I took off only the bamboo hat, face veil, and outer robe, then lay down on the bed.
And I waited for the seductress who might or might not come, silently hoping he would.
As I lay there motionless, other thoughts started drifting in.
Like the conversation I’d just had with Head Escort Zhang, for instance.
The way I’d spoken then had been unmistakably feminine.
At the Yang Family estate, I think my speech had still sounded fairly stiff, but when I talked to Head Escort Zhang, I’d found myself speaking that way without even noticing.
And not just that. A silver hairpin, too.
When had I ever worn a hairpin that I thought of one so naturally?
Does the mind become feminine because the body is like this? That’s kind of scary.
Anyway, with those thoughts in mind, I kept pretending to sleep.
After a long while, I started finding my own act hilariously ridiculous.
Not being able to eat properly or sleep properly because of some seductress who might not even show up at all.
Tomorrow’s going to be rough. I’m going to be tired.
Just as I was thinking that maybe I should relax and sleep peacefully since it seemed like no one was coming, I heard a tiny sound from the door.
The soft click of the latch lifting from where it had been hooked onto the door.
And then, a faint creak as the door slowly opened.