Nine Solitary Swords (3)
"Let me show you the barley game."
The words had barely left my mouth before the pussy mountain range came apart, dissolving back into the individual disciples who had formed it. The female disciples grinned with wicked delight as they ran their hands slowly over the instructor's body.
"Instructor, try it like this."
"W-what in heaven's name do you think you're doing?"
"Instructor, come play the barley game with us. Heheh."
I slipped her clothes away. She didn't resist. If anything, her affection climbed.
"Miss Pussy, play the barley game with me. Sluuurp!"
"Hnnnngh!?"
My tongue danced across her sex, claiming every fold of the instructor's cunt with lavish, practiced strokes.
"N-no! What is the meaning of this?"
Squelch!
"Hah…♡"
"You taste sweet."
"What kind of thing is that to saaaay!"
The moment my cock sank into her center, the instructor lost the power of speech entirely.
"You've been sitting on a pussy this fine and stayed a virgin all this time? Don't tell me you've been practicing some kind of Maiden's Art?"
Squelch! Schlick!
"Khh, khhhk! That's not— I was merelyyyy♡"
"That's enough talking. Focus on the barley game."
"Y-yes."
Stick a cock in them and they go quiet. Women are the same in every era. I rolled my hips, slow and deep.
"Hah, hah… Cheongsong. How can anything feel this good? I feel as though I've wasted the better part of my life."
"I'll let you have as much as you want today."
"Hngh! Thank you♡"
I Am the Teacher, and You Are the Disciple
Yes! I'd gathered every last S-Point I needed. I dumped them all into the Plum Blossom Sword Art without a second's hesitation.
Plum Blossom Sword Art proficiency has reached 50%!
All sword techniques gain +5% effectiveness!
Understanding of the Changing Sword and Illusion Sword has increased!
When you draw your blade, onlookers have a higher chance of being captivated by its beauty.
Throb!
"Ah! Cheongsong!"
Spurt! Fwoosh!
The instant I came, the instructor gushed right along with me.
"How was the barley game?"
"A truly delightful pastime. Do include me now and then."
"Of course. Rolling around with one's disciples is a form of training in its own right."
"Hah… hah…"
She pulled me into a tight embrace, her face radiant with genuine happiness. Inside the Mount Hua Sect, at least, my reputation made me invincible.
And the Golden Cock was a god.
Shff, shff, shff!
I was working my way through every last manual in the Mount Hua Sect's martial library.
"Something's off here."
Wasn't this supposed to be Ryu Su-gyeong's mental world? Did she really know the Nine Solitary Swords — and every single one of these books besides? Fine. I'd grant that an elf with centuries of life might have read every volume the sect possessed. But the Nine Solitary Swords? How did that add up?
This is not simply Ryu Su-gyeong's mental world.
"What?"
No matter how formidable Ryu Su-gyeong's mind may be, connecting to her psyche cannot create an entirely new world.
"Then what's going on? Where the hell am I, exactly?"
We have used her mind and the power of an Absolute to enter a parallel Earth that closely resembles her past. Naturally, Ryu Su-gyeong's consciousness is here with us.
"Like Pontus? You're saying we're in another world?"
That is correct.
What the hell was an Absolute's power? What kind of force could do something this overwhelming?
The power of an Absolute is the power of life itself. You are this world's sole and eternal guardian.
"Guardian against what?"
Against anything. Whether that be an Absolute from another world, like Pontus — or a monster.
"Eye of Truth. Do you know a lot about an Absolute's power?"
Very little, beyond the fact that a dimension chose a single guardian to protect itself.
"Either way, we can use someone else's mind to travel to another world. And we can heal that mind. As long as I can put those two things to work, that's enough."
Correct. This ability was never assigned a fixed purpose. A hammer drives nails for construction, cracks king crab for dinner, and becomes a weapon when you swing it at a person.
"So depending on how I use it, this power could get a lot more useful."
Of course, a connection to the mind alone is possible. But improving Ryu Su-gyeong's condition cannot be accomplished by a mere mental link. She requires a far greater psychological shock than that.
So that was why the Eye of Truth's success rate had been so miserably low. This was another world. Even if Ryu Su-gyeong watched the Mount Hua Sect get saved, there was no guarantee her heart would come back.
"But there is a real chance, right?"
Yes. Saving the Mount Hua Sect is the difficult part. Turning her heart around is possible. Above all, she will be moved by the blood and sweat you pour out on her behalf.
Save the Mount Hua Sect. Do that, and her heart would follow.
And then I'll get to taste Ryu Su-gyeong's five-hundred-year-old virgin pussy in its perfectly pure, untouched state.
One week. That was how long I spent reading the martial manuals in the library. "Reading" was generous — I was really just looking at them. A glance, then the next page. The way a scanner captures a book, I flipped through each volume in a rustling blur, and the Eye of Truth stored and analyzed every character.
The Eye of Truth's mastery of Mount Hua's martial arts deepened by another level. Sword forms, of course — but it was also drawing on the accumulated data of every technique it had absorbed, peering toward an entirely new realm.
And then the day of reckoning arrived. I gathered the manuals I had compiled and set out for the cave that had been the final dwelling of the First Sword of Mt. Hua.
Shff, shff, shff!
I studied the three versions of the sword forms the Eye of Truth had given me. I was still so lacking that I could barely mimic the fourth form of the Nine Solitary Swords. But if I ran simulations through the Eye of Truth, I would be able to develop the art's final form. Complete an S-rank sword art, and what in the world would I have left to fear?
"Hm?"
I felt a presence.
Rustle, rustle!
I prowled through the cave, searching every inch. "What is that? The flow of the air is different." My martial arts had climbed so sharply of late that my sensory range had expanded, and I combed the surroundings with even finer precision. The trail of that presence led me at last to the cliff face where the Nine Solitary Swords had been carved. But there was no one there.
"Who are you?"
"Ah, shit! You scared me."
I turned around. A white-haired man was looking down at me.
"W-who might you be?"
He had the bearing of an immortal, dressed in little more than rags. One glance was enough to know he was no ordinary man.
"This is my home. I maintained it carefully so that no one would find their way here. How did a whelp like you manage to get in?"
"Chu… Chu Yang-hon?"
"Hm? You know me?"
My entire body locked up at those words.
"Weren't you a figure from two hundred years ago? How are you still alive?"
"Two hundred years? Has it already been that long since I left the sect? I have lived a long time indeed. Heh heh heh. I smell plum blossoms on you, so you must be a junior of mine. Do pretty flowers still bloom in abundance at the Mount Hua Sect?"
"They're as beautiful as ever."
Maybe it was because we were both men, but we understood each other well enough. I bowed to him.
If you want to live, you bow first.
He lifted me back to my feet.
"Have you seen the scars carved into this wall?"
"I have."
"And what did you see?"
"The characters for Nine Solitary Swords, carved large across the stone."
"And what did you feel, looking upon them?"
Killing intent flickered in his eyes. The next words out of my mouth would decide whether I lived or died. But I wasn't nervous. I already had the perfect answer.
"I felt this."
I pulled three slim booklets from my bag.
"And what are these?"
"They concern the ninth and final form of the Nine Solitary Swords."
"What? You're telling me you learned a sword art from the scars on that wall?"
"Yes."
"Hahahaha. It would seem the Mount Hua Sect has risen considerably in my absence."
He opened one of my booklets and began to read.
"Hmph. Not bad. Not ba— hm?"
His hands grew rough, flipping pages faster.
"What is this? Did I misread?"
He examined the next booklet. His eyes went wide, shock flooding his face as he picked apart every single character.
"Ohh! This—!"
When he finished the last booklet, he closed his eyes in silence.
"Heavens. Primordial Celestial Worthy…"
Chu Yang-hon muttered something under his breath and took up his sword.
What— why is he drawing his sword all of a sudden?
Alone, Chu Yang-hon raised his blade and swept his arm through the air. A storm erupted inside the cave. Every force of nature began to dance in the wake of his sword. It was beautiful and exquisite, strange and utterly destructive.
His foot touched the earth again, and a colossal force crushed the ground, gouging out a crater.
"Magnificent. You resolved the very things I had been wrestling with. Clumsy work, to be sure — but it gave me the inspiration I needed to complete the art."
"You've completed the Nine Solitary Swords?"
"I have. The Nine Solitary Swords. The one and only supreme sword art that shall stand unmatched in this world — I finished it just now. Bwahahaha! Thank you! Thank you!"
Chu Yang-hon's sword lifted itself into the air, swam through the sky of its own accord, and slid home into the scabbard slung across his shoulder.
The Will-Sword Art.
"You have my gratitude. You have allowed me to put an end to two hundred years of labor."
"I'm the one who should be thanking you."
I looked at the wall. Every method the Eye of Truth had developed was now gathered into a single current — a sword art that contained Chu Yang-hon's lifelong realization.
How long would it take me to copy that? Yeah. Brute-forcing it with S-Points is the only way. Level-up rewards get better the higher I climb, so I'll just keep grinding through sex.
"From this day forward, you are my disciple."
"Pardon? I'm already a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect."
"As am I."
"Do you know what kind of crisis the Mount Hua Sect is facing right now?"
"Crisis?"
I dropped to my knees and explained, with all due reverence, the peril currently threatening the sect.
"Hmph. A handful of demons running amok, and the Central Plains tremble. The age of the Nine Great Sects is ending, it seems."
"Ancestral Master — no. Master. I need your help. Mount Hua could vanish the way the Zhongnan Sect did."
"Well. If I intervene, it may place a slight strain upon the natural order."
"Pardon?"
"I am nearly ready to enter the immortal realm."
His form grew faintly translucent, as though he might ascend at any moment.
"Couldn't you help us, even a little?"
"Hmph. Very well. It has been a long time since I last visited the main sect. It is no great matter."
"Thank you!"
With that, the first step toward saving Ryu Su-gyeong was complete.
"Before that, however."
"Yes?"
"I should like to see your Nine Solitary Swords."
"I'm at a clumsy level. It'll be hard to watch with your eyes open."
"No. Your physical ability holds tremendous potential. Your inner energy is solid for one so young. And judging by what I just read of yours, your understanding of the sword runs deep as well."
Body, inner energy, sword comprehension. Not a single one of those was something I had earned on my own.
"I'll give it a try."
I took up my sword and performed the Nine Solitary Swords.
"Pathetic. Barely enough to scrape one-star mastery. As for the rest, you're suppressing your shortcomings with abilities that have nothing to do with the sword. I almost doubt you conceived these forms yourself."
"Hahaha. Who in this world is perfect?"
"True enough."
Chu Yang-hon picked up a wooden stick. He struck it against his palm with a sharp crack.
"One week."
"Pardon?"
"In exactly one week, I will raise your Nine Solitary Swords to three-star mastery."
"What do you mean by—"
Chu Yang-hon's stick cracked across my shin.
"Execute the form."
"Good heavens! Spare me!"
"Any martial artist in the jianghu would pay a thousand gold — ten thousand — just to receive my instruction. Take it as an honor."
No — I just needed to have sex!
He flourished the wooden stick. No one else in the world could possibly swing a stick with movement that dazzling.
"Argh!"
"Get up. If you intend to wear the name of my disciple, you will at least manage the basics."
I think I've really stepped in it this time.