Entering Mount Hua (1)

"What? An Absolute?"

That's right. I was originally the master of another world. But now, I want this one.

The voice from the communicator rang against my ear with perfect, crystalline clarity.

Was this bastard the same as me?

Heh-heh-heh. What's going through that head of yours? Do you even need to think? You're a lucky little bastard. Come under me. You look far more useful than those worthless scraps of trash.

"Shut your mouth."

Fine. Think whatever you like. Thanks to you, I've picked up a rather capable subordinate. I suppose I should be grateful. Her name was… Ryu Su-gyeong, was it?

"What? You so much as twitch a finger at Noona and you're dead!"

Heh-heh-heh. And what do ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you propose I do about it? She's already in the palm of my hand.

"What?!"

Have fun with her.

A burst of harsh static tore through the line, and the communication died.

"Hey! Answer me! What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

That was when it happened.

A colossal door groaned open on its hinges, and a woman stepped out from the dark beyond it.

Enormous breasts. A black dress so sheer it barely qualified as clothing, cut so that both sides of her chest lay completely bare, offering only the faintest slip of fabric over her nipples. Her waist was fully exposed. Her ass had been lifted and rounded into a perfect, duck-tailed curve. The dress itself was impossibly thin. And rising from her brow — a pair of devil's horns.

"Noona? Su-gyeong-noona?"

She looked at me and smiled. Then she blinked, slow and languid.

"Oh my. Seonghun? It's so good to see you like this."

"Noona! Are you okay?"

Ryu Su-gyeong's eyes curved into crescents as she nodded.

"Of course. Thanks to Master, I've been given a whole new life."

"What?"

"Master accepted me, and I received a new pair of eyes. What do you think?"

Crimson irises locked onto mine.

"What are you talking about?"

"Seonghun. Did I startle you?"

She pulled me into her arms. Her watermelon-heavy breasts mashed against my chest, soft and overwhelming.

"Don't worry. Master will accept you too. We're going to become the masters of this world. If we just help Him, we can live together forever. Happily. Together."

"Don't give me that bullshit!"

I shoved her hands away. Her massive breasts swayed with the motion.

"What's wrong? Do you not like Noona anymore? I thought you'd be happy once I could open my eyes."

"That's not it."

"Stay still."

Her fingers clamped around my wrist like a vise.

A low, rumbling growl rolled out of Cheon Yu-ha, who was still coiled around my neck.

"What's this? This ill-mannered vixen? That sly little beast who pretends to be human?"

Ryu Su-gyeong had apparently known exactly what Cheon Yu-ha was from the very beginning.

Her hand flicked out. Cheon Yu-ha yelped as she was struck aside.

Level 100. Absolute, crushing strength. There was nothing we could do against her.

Eye of Truth! Find me a strategy!

Look anyway.

How?

The Eye of Truth strained past its limits. Steam hissed from my sockets.

"Ghh—!"

The pressure behind my eyes was staggering.

"Seonghun. Come here."

She looked at me with those hollow, emptied eyes.

"Let's be together forever."

"I'd like that too."

"At Master's side."

"That's not happening."

A thunderclap of magic slammed toward her as the heroes opened fire.

"Seonghun! Run!"

Steel rang. Spells burst apart in a rapid-fire chain of detonations. For a single heartbeat Ryu Su-gyeong's figure blurred, then snapped back into focus — two afterimages occupying the same space before collapsing into one.

Form Displacement. A realm of speed so extreme the body itself appeared to split in two.

"Seonghun. When I look at you, someone comes to mind."

"Who?"

"There was someone. A little brother who was as precious to me as my own life. I remembered him the moment I could see again. You look exactly like Cheongsong."

"Cheongsong?"

"Mm."

Her arms crushed me against her.

"There's so much I want to do with you."

I reached down and grabbed Ryu Su-gyeong's ass.

"Ahn— yes. That."

My middle finger sank into her ass.

"Nngh—♡"

"Take it, Noona."

"Mm—♡"

Noona.

Mm.

Our minds linked.

Take all of me.

My tentacles slithered up through her ass and began to rummage through the inside of her body, wet and insistent.

Mm—♡

A searing pain tore through both of my eyes, as if they had been set on fire. I could see her insides. I could see her mind.

That black mass. That pitch-dark, skin-crawling aura. That was the target.

My tentacles brushed against the energy.

A vast, crushing force reversed course, racing back along my own tentacles to gnaw at the core of who I was.

"Seonghun—♡ We'll live together forever under Master—♡"

Pontus's aura writhed, straining to seize complete control of both our minds at once.

Invest every last S-Point I have into the Eye of Truth.

"Deep Analysis."

Ryu Su-gyeong screamed as something tore through her from the inside. Marison Pontus's aura detonated outward in every direction, scattering like black mist caught in a gale.

"Ghh—!"

My skull felt like it was splitting open.

"God damn it, that hurts like hell. Did it work?"

Had I made it into Ryu Su-gyeong's mind?

A field of plum blossoms stretched away in every direction, petals trembling on the wind. Where the hell was this?

"Hey! Cheongsong! Slacking off again? Taking a nap in the middle of the day — men, I swear."

Cheongsong. That was the name Ryu Su-gyeong had spoken just before. This was her memory, which meant whoever that was had to matter.

I'd thought she was a virgin in body, mind, and spirit. Had there been someone she loved?

"Hey! So now you're ignoring the Sect Leader's daughter too?"

I turned toward the girl bellowing herself hoarse at my side.

"Who are you?"

"Who? Wh-o-o-o-o? Have you actually lost your mind? You dare not recognize your own junior sister?"

"Junior sister? You look younger than ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me."

"What is that supposed to mean?!"

She hit me.

"Ow! My head—!"

"Huh? What's wrong with you?"

"I genuinely don't remember anything."

The girl reached up and stroked my hair. Then she froze.

"Hah! Is this blood? Don't tell me you fell from here. You can barely even use martial arts — why would you cross a path this steep?"

"I don't remember a thing."

"Amnesia, then… Do you at least remember my name?"

"Who were you again?"

"For heaven's sake! It's me. Hwa Mu-rin. Daughter of the fifty-eighth Sect Leader of the Great Mount Hua Sect, and your junior sister! We've been friends since we were children. You were the cloth merchant's son in Huayin County until demons attacked and you lost your parents, and then you became a disciple. You really don't remember any of it?"

"No."

"You must have been hurt badly. Maybe that's for the best. Sad memories are better left forgotten."

She took my hand and pulled me to my feet.

"Get up! We're going to the Medicine Hall."

"Alright."

In the central hall of the Mount Hua Sect, the Sect Leader, the elders, and every figure of consequence sat beneath a silence so heavy it seemed to press the air flat.

"It would appear the future of the Mount Hua Sect has already been decided. Eight hundred years is a long time to have lasted."

The words of one woman sank the chamber even deeper into gloom. Hwa Jeok-gyeol — Sect Leader of Mount Hua, known across the martial world as the White Mountain Sword Marquis — kept her face carefully blank, but the weight behind it was unmistakable.

"I will not accept that."

A white-haired elf woman slammed her palm against the table and rose to her feet.

"Su-gyeong. Compose yourself."

"So we cast fortunes now? Mount Hua will fall, Mount Hua will not fall — all because we're frightened of those Black Obsidian Valley wretches? What is there to fear from a pack of demons?"

"A chief disciple does not conduct herself so lightly."

"It is precisely because I am chief disciple that I will not treat the deaths of my comrades lightly."

"We are not gathered here to speak of vengeance. We are gathered to discuss the future of this sect. Set your sentiments aside."

One of the elders lifted a hand and waved the objection down.

"The Black Obsidian Valley is called a martial sect in name only. In truth it is nothing less than a demon nation under the Demon King. Even the Imperial Court has begun quietly withdrawing soldiers from the Great Wall toward the capital. To face them we would need half the Nine Great Sects assembled, or the full support of the throne. And is either of those things possible? Look at Zhongnan. They stood in the same Shaanxi Province as we do. They are gone. Horribly gone."

The Zhongnan Sect — the other great power of Shaanxi, a neighbor as old as Mount Hua itself — had been annihilated at the hands of the Black Obsidian Valley.

"We went to the aid of our longtime neighbors. Of one hundred Plum Blossom Swordsmen, half are dead."

At the elder's words, the older among the Plum Blossom Swordsmen ground their teeth. They looked ready to draw steel that instant and start carving through demons.

"Their target appears to be Shaanxi itself. What if we simply packed our belongings and left?"

The speaker was the eldest of the Three Plum Blossom Swords — the three most exalted among Mount Hua's elite. His own brother had died at the demons' hands. The suggestion was not cowardice. It was the conclusion of a man who had seen the Black Obsidian Valley with his own eyes.

"This is the land our ancestors claimed and held for nearly a thousand years. If we surrender it so easily, the soul of the Mount Hua Sect vanishes with it. And if we flee to some other place, what exactly do you imagine a broken-spirited people will be able to accomplish?"

The Sect Leader's refusal was iron.

"Demons continue to cross from the Great Desert into Shaanxi even now. If we are to relocate, we must decide the timing as early as possible. Wait too long and we will find ourselves completely cut off."

None of the senior masters had an answer for that. The truth was that every last one of them wanted to fight and die. They were Taoists. They were warriors.

"Then let us go out in glory."

"Don't be absurd. Easy words for someone with no one depending on them. Think of the weight on our shoulders."

"If only for the common people suffering right now, we should swallow our pride and go to Guizhou. The Yangtze river pirates hold that ground, but we can drive them out. Deal with the unorthodox sects and find ourselves a new home in a single stroke. That would be enough to salvage even a wounded pride, would it not?"

"We refuse to shed blood against a powerful enemy, so we go somewhere else and shed new blood instead? Is that the conduct of an orthodox sect? And do you honestly believe those river pirates will climb onto dry land and fight us?"

"If you're going to oppose everything, at least offer a proposal of your own."

"I'm thinking."

"Hah! Keep thinking until this sect no longer exists!"

Voices rose. Veins stood out on throats. Everyone in the hall had something to say, and as the hours wore on the arguments only grew sharper, until at last they were simply cursing one another, flinging insults that meant nothing at all.

"Enough. Is this a marketplace?"

The Sect Leader's voice cracked across the chamber. The senior masters bowed their heads.

"Tomorrow morning. We will reconvene with clear minds, and we will decide the future of the Mount Hua Sect then. I want every one of you to bring a plan — use all your wisdom, all your connections, anything that might help us."

"We hear and obey."

Masters and disciples clasped their fists in salute and filed out toward their own quarters.

"Hah. This truly is dire. Where did the Black Obsidian Valley's demons even come from, multiplying like this?"

Every year the Imperial Court raised enormous armies, crossed into the lands of the Nine Great Sects and the Great Desert, and put demons to the sword. This time the demons had struck back in overwhelming numbers. They had smashed Shanxi and Ningxia, and they had felled the great tree that was the Zhongnan Sect of Shaanxi.

And now, one year later to the day, the Mount Hua Sect stood on the eve of a battle that would cost them their lives.

The Wulin Alliance had watched Zhongnan fall. The odds that they would throw their full strength behind Mount Hua looked vanishingly small.

A door creaked. Hwa Jeok-gyeol returned to her own residence — and then stopped.

A strange noise was coming from her daughter's bedroom.

"Hold still."

"It hurts…"

"That's why I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠said hold still."

A girl's voice and a young man's. Almost certainly Cheongsong — her daughter's childhood friend. The treasured son of a cloth merchant who had kept a shop near the Mount Hua Sect, orphaned by demons, taken in as a disciple.

"Just a moment. This is for treatment, I told you."

Hwa Jeok-gyeol pushed the door open.

Inside, her daughter Hwa Mu-rin had pulled Cheongsong's trousers down and was busily handling his cock.

"W-what on earth is going on here?"

Hwa Jeok-gyeol's voice came out sharper than she intended.

"Mother! Cheongsong fell off a cliff today. The Medicine Hall said it was nothing but a mild case of amnesia, but looking at him now, that's clearly not true."

"What isn't?"

Hwa Jeok-gyeol tried to look away. She found her gaze sliding, traitorously, toward the terrifying size of Cheongsong's cock.

"Well — Cheongsong's thing is all swollen like this! I was trying to put medicine on it and he keeps saying that's not what it is."

"It isn't swollen."

"Don't be difficult! Are you going to keep ignoring me? Hold still!"

Hwa Mu-rin scooped a smear of white ointment onto her palm and started working it over Cheongsong's cock with both hands.

"Nnh. I-if you touch it like that—"

"You. Stop making weird noises."

"Okay."

Hwa Jeok-gyeol was a master of the martial world. One glance was enough. Cheongsong did not look injured in the slightest.

That's just an erection.

Living among Taoists, the girl had never received anything resembling a sexual education — and men were scarce enough that she could be forgiven a certain ignorance. Even so. Hwa Jeok-gyeol had not expected her own daughter's knowledge to be this barren.

She set her hand on Cheongsong's cock.

It really is a magnificent cock. Cheongsong's all grown up already.

He was an adult, and he still knew this little. Should she sit them down for a proper talk?

No. She had more than enough headaches already. She had neither the energy nor the hours to spare for something so delicate and mortifying. These were things people figured out on their own as they grew. If she didn't teach them, someone else would — or they would simply learn. She herself had never received a formal education on the subject, and she had borne a child and lived perfectly well.

"Mu-rin. Cheongsong is fine."

"What? But his thing is swollen this huge."

"It's not a 'thing.' You should call it a cock."

"Cheongsong's cock is too big."

"That's enough. Come. Let's take a bath together."

"Yes."

Mother and daughter rose from the bed.

"Cheongsong."

"Hm? What?"

"Come bathe with us."

"Huh?"

"What's the matter? We've been doing this since you were little."

Cheongsong looked at Hwa Jeok-gyeol — Hwa Mu-rin's mother, Sect Leader of the Mount Hua Sect.

"Let's. Days like these won't last much longer."