The Nine Great Sects' Trial (2)
"Th-that bastard — who the hell does he think he is?!"
One of the Nine Great Sects' masters flushed crimson and spat the insult at me, veins standing out on his neck.
"Did you just curse the man who saved my daughter's life?"
"Your Majesty?"
"This man is the savior who pulled my daughter back from death. He is also the teacher who will take charge of cultivating the vitality needed to preserve the imperial line. And he is the man who will become the seed-husband of my daughters."
Seed-husband of his daughters?
When exactly had he cooked up that plan?
My eyes met the Emperor's. He grinned. Something flickered behind his gaze — just a slight tremor.
So you made that up on the spot.
To put weight behind my words. Once a fight had already caught fire, you threw your strength behind your own side. Classic politician's playbook.
But then, he was the Emperor. A handful of sentences, and those grizzled Jianghu veterans were already on the back foot.
"That was not our intent!"
"We beg Your Majesty's understanding!"
"We would never dream of slandering a benefactor of the imperial house!"
The Yin-Yang Twin Swords and the masters of the Nine Great Sects dropped to their knees before the Emperor and bowed their heads to the floor.
"Then how about a wager?"
"A wager, Your Majesty?"
"That's right. The imperial house and the Five Great Clans have already agreed to save the Mount Hua Sect. There is no path that lets us avoid enormous losses. Can a man speak out of both sides of his mouth?"
The Emperor walked slowly through the ranks of the Nine Great Sects, crushing their momentum under the sheer weight of his authority, letting each word fall with deliberate, unhurried precision.
A murmur rolled through the crowd. People glanced at the Nine Great Sects and whispered behind their hands. The sects' own people could not lift their faces for shame.
Shaolin and Mount Hua had been the ones to aid the Zhongnan Sect. Zhongnan had been wiped from the earth. Shaolin had been cut in half. Mount Hua had lost half its Plum Blossom Swordsmen — the core of its fighting strength — and most of its most gifted elders were dead. The Nine Great Sects had watched all of it happen, and they had not been eager to make an enemy of the Black Jade Valley.
"The Mount Hua Sect ruled the Wulin alongside you for centuries. Now that they have fallen on hard times, they could barely scrape together their youngest disciples to send to the Wulin Alliance. Why not put those children to the test?"
"A test, Your Majesty?"
"Yes. In the end, this is Mount Hua's problem. Mount Hua should be the one to answer for it."
The Emperor turned and gave me a wicked little smile.
I genuinely wondered how a man like that had ever produced a daughter as precious and well-behaved as Ju Yeon-ryeong. He was a fox. The kind of fox that could swindle the Jade Emperor himself and walk away counting the coins.
"Three rounds. Every time the Mount Hua Sect passes a test, the Nine Great Sects will increase their support."
The Yin-Yang Twin Swords looked at each other. They traded a few words with their eyes alone, as if their souls were stitched together, and then both nodded at once.
"As Your Majesty commands."
"Your Imperial Grace is boundless."
The Emperor held up three fingers.
"First. Inasmuch as the imperial house itself is committing its strength, I expect every Sect Leader to contribute no less than one-tenth of their sect's fighting power. And that will not include your secular branch disciples."
"Nngh…"
Bleed, and let it be your main bloodline that bleeds. If the Nine Great Sects wanted to spare their inner disciples, they would have no choice but to throw even more of their secular-branch martial artists into the fire.
An emperor through and through.
He had already drawn up a plan to keep the imperial house's losses to a minimum, wager or no wager. The bet was just garnish.
"Every time the young disciples of Mount Hua pass a test, the Nine Great Sects will increase their support by three-tenths."
"Your Majesty! Then if those children pass every test, you are ordering us to mobilize our entire sects?"
"I am."
"If our sects stand empty, the bandit clans will not sit idle."
The Nine Great Sects were treasure-houses of spiritual medicines and peerless arts. A fateful encounter was not some other thing. If even one of the Nine Great Sects fell, everything inside it would become a chain of fateful encounters for whoever got there first. That was precisely why the great sects' masters always had to keep a presence at home.
The Emperor's knuckles cracked, bone popping against bone.
If this goes south, forget the war — our entire sects will be ripped out by the roots.
Damn it all! Why the hell did those Yin-Yang twin bitches have to go and yank the Emperor's nose hairs?
Those big-nosed Taoist hags! All they know how to do is chase men! Aigoo!
A storm of resentful glares slammed into the Yin-Yang Twin Swords. Cold sweat beaded on their skin as they bowed even lower.
"Your Majesty's mercy is as vast as the sea. We are overwhelmed by your grace."
"Your Imperial Grace is boundless."
"Oh, it's nothing. Really."
The Emperor smiled again — that same faintly perverse smile.
Even if this man had been born a beggar, he would have made a name for himself as a merchant prince.
He knew exactly how to spend his power. And whatever else was true, having the Emperor planting himself firmly at Mount Hua's side and shoving from behind was an enormous comfort.
"I will decide one test. Mount Hua will decide one. The Nine Great Sects will decide the last. Anything too absurd will be settled by majority vote."
The Sect Leaders submitted as one.
"Then may I set the first test?"
No one dared refuse.
"I hear this Cheongsong of the Mount Hua Sect has quite the legendary stamina."
…Huh?
"Let us see whether he can maintain that stamina with the disciples of the Nine Great Sects on the line."
…Huh? This?
I looked at the Emperor. He was smiling at me with genuine warmth. That was not the smile of a man in power. That was the smile of a father looking at the man who had saved his daughter.
My combat strength was one thing. My stamina had already claimed the title of strongest in this world a long time ago.
"Each side will name a number. How many women can he send into ecstasy?"
The hall erupted in whispers.
"One hundred disciples from each of the Nine Great Sects. A thousand in all. How does that sound?"
The Yin-Yang Twin Swords said it quietly.
"You — are you mocking me right now? A man's stamina can be extraordinary and he still needs time to sleep and eat. I'd starve to death before I finished taking a thousand women to bed."
"Then thirty from each. Three hundred. How about that?"
The Twin Swords' brows knitted at my counter.
"We already know you have shared a bed with more than four hundred women. Three hundred, you say."
"The experts of the Nine Great Sects will not go down easily, will they?"
"Is an expert not still a woman? Unacceptable."
Jeon Wol-ha, the Yin Sword of the pair, answered with a voice like ice.
"Fine. A thousand. But I will only share a bed in the morning and the afternoon, for five consecutive days. I want my meal times and my sleep guaranteed."
The whispering surged again, louder than before.
"Even Cheongsong is only human. Run that schedule for five days and he will turn into a mummy and wither like a dead tree."
"Cheongsong! Don't! Don't push yourself any further!"
"Hic… there's nothing I can do to help…"
The Mount Hua disciples' eyes welled up as they looked at me, wringing their hands.
"No. I believe in Cheongsong!"
Hwa Mu-rin clenched her fists so hard they shook.
"Cheongsong. Forgive me."
Ryu Su-gyeong looked at me with worry written plainly across her face.
"And I want the authority to choose the women myself."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Even if it's the same woman — if I finish twice, it counts as twice."
"Hmph! As if that matters in the slightest!"
The Yin-Yang Twin Swords waved it off like a gnat.
I smiled. A very confident smile.
The Emperor's expression turned peculiar as he watched it spread across my face.
The Emperor and I smiled at each other with the exact same perverted grin.
This little shit. I actually like him. Should I just make him my son-in-law and be done with it?
This emperor is the worst. I need to get out of here.
We looked at each other and smiled even more perversely than before.
Same smile. Completely different dreams.
The next morning.
"Slurp."
I was working my way through a breakfast dense enough to raise the dead. The rice was medicinal rice that Dang Ga-hui of the Sichuan Tang Clan had cooked with her own hands. The soup was dragon-phoenix broth prepared by the imperial head chef himself. The side dishes were a parade of aphrodisiacs piled onto a single table — deer antler, horse meat, eel, and wild ginseng.
"Will you be all right?"
Ryu Su-gyeong fussed over me, lifting morsels with her chopsticks and setting them gently on top of my rice.
"I'll be fine if I have my eldest senior sister."
"And here I thought I was your noona."
"I'll be fine if I have my noona."
"Is that so?"
Ryu Su-gyeong sent me a look so tender it could have melted steel.
A massive bed stood beside the dining table. Both the table and the bed had been set up on the outdoor training grounds — and the training grounds themselves had been transformed into something like a colosseum, a stage ringed on every side by packed spectator stands.
This was where I would eat and shit for the next five days. A makeshift bath and a latrine had been installed off to the side.
"Have you chosen the women?"
The Emperor's question.
"My first opponents are the Yin-Yang Twin Swords."
Clash! Clash! A long, ringing crash of cymbals and drums rolled across the stage, gaudy and thunderous.
"Hmph!"
"You dare single us out? Insolent little brat!"
The Yin-Yang Twin Swords were absolute masters of the Wudang Sect. Naturally, like Hwa Jeok-gyeol, they had undergone the bone-changing transformation and rejuvenation, and they wore the bodies of beauties in their early twenties.
The elder sister — Jeon Wol-ha, the Yin Sword — had cultivated a Yin art, and not only her hair but even her eyebrows were a deep blue. The younger sister — Jeon Il-ha, the Yang Sword — was her opposite in every way, right down to the red hair that covered her body.
Silk whispered to the floor.
"Hurry up and get this over with."
"I want this finished. To think we have to undress in front of all these people. You little wretch. You called us first on purpose, just to humiliate us."
The two of them stripped with obvious shame, covering their breasts and their sex with their hands.
"It's for a fair judgment. If everyone can see, it's a fair match, isn't it?"
"Hmph. We know that much."
"Then let us begin."
The three of us climbed onto the bed. The Yin Sword spread her legs first and lay back. Both sisters still had their hands clamped over their chests and their groins, radiating a single desperate wish that this would end quickly.
"What are you waiting for? Finish it so we can leave."
I reached out and twisted the Yin Sword's nipple between my fingers.
"Kyahhn!"
"Heh heh heh. What kind of man and woman share a bed and just shove it in like animals? Don't tell me the great Twin Swords of Yin and Yang have never once lain with a man?"
"And why would that matter? A Taoist keeps the body pure. That is only natural."
"Even so — you're Wudang. You people prize the harmony of Yin and Yang above all else. To lean this far to one side…"
I cupped Jeon Wol-ha's breast in my left hand and Jeon Il-ha's in my right, kneading the soft flesh, and kissed Jeon Wol-ha on the mouth.
"Mmh. This — this — why are you doing this?"
"This is what a proper night between a man and a woman actually looks like."
"Unni, just leave him to it. He's only stalling. Let him suffer for the time he has left."
"Fine. Whether he finishes quickly or wastes the hours, it's this idiot's choice."
I pushed into the Yin Sword, and Jeon Wol-ha let out a cry that belonged on a girl half her age. Her virgin pussy clamped down on my cock and refused to let go, sucking at me with a desperation her pride would never admit.
"Hngh — n-not bad — ahh! Nngh-haah♡"
A wet, filthy rhythm filled the air as I drove into her.
"Hah! Ha-eungh!"
"Does my cock feel that good? Why are you biting down so hard?"
"Th-that's not — eungh♡ — I'm♡ — I'm just lying here, that's all."
"Is that so? Haaah… Wol-ha."
"Nngiih!"
I said her name the way a man says the name of a woman he loves. Jeon Wol-ha squirted, a sudden bright splash against the sheets.
"Good heavens! The Elder just sprayed like a fountain!"
"To think the Elder still had such girlish feelings left in her…"
"I heard she had forgotten every emotion of the secular world."
"Looking at her now, she's a girl through and through."
"Rejuvenation made the body young, so the heart grew young with it."
The Wudang disciples whispered among themselves as they watched their Yin Sword come apart.
"Did you know? Lady Jeon Wol-ha cultivated a Yin art, so her pussy is cold. It feels like my cock is sitting in front of an air conditioner."
"An air-condi — what is — hnnn!"
"Just a treasure that blows cold air."
"Hmph! Now you understand the depth of my martial arts?"
"Your martial arts may run deep, but it seems your pussy runs a little shallow. Nngh."
"Haaah! Hnnn! Aaaahn-aahn♡ Nnnnnngh♡ No — if you handle me that roughly, my — hiih-hiih-uuuuuhn♡"
I buried myself to the hilt and lifted, and the Yin Sword's lower belly bulged visibly around the shape of me. I barely had to roll my hips and Jeon Wol-ha was shaking her head, fists knotted in the pillow, screaming into the open air.
"I'm going to come."
"Ahhhn! Then come! Finish it, quickly!"
"Yesss — nngh!"
I erupted inside her, pulse after thick pulse. White seed welled out of Jeon Wol-ha's pussy and spilled down her thighs in slow, heavy rivulets.
"Kyaaah♡"
"Next. Fire Pussy. Come here."
"Do not call me that, you mannerless brat."
Jeon Il-ha stared at my enormous cock with naked fear in her eyes, then lay down beside her sister and spread her legs.
"My, my. A cock this filthy? That's hardly polite."
"Polite?"
"Yes. When a man's cock gets dirty, a woman cleans it with her mouth. That's basic etiquette."
"What? What did you just say? You cannot possibly mean I am supposed to put that enormous thing in my mouth?"
"Yes. That is etiquette. The people of the Nine Great Sects prize courtesy above all else, so I'm sure you understand exactly what I mean."
"Hmph! Do you take me for some naive girl who doesn't even know that much? Slurp."
Jeon Il-ha of the red hair wrapped her lips around my cock, still slick with her sister's juices and my seed.
She sucked with wet, earnest pulls, cheeks hollowing, and I hummed above her.
"Not bad. But you're still inexperienced."
"Mmh!"
Jeon Il-ha's brows twisted into an angry eight. Being told her technique was lacking had clearly wounded her pride. She drew up her inner energy and put it into her mouth. Yang energy ran hot — her oral cavity turned scorching, and the blowjob became a furnace, a vacuum that tried to swallow my cock whole.
"Good heavens! To think the Elder had a mouth like that!"
"Those lips, made so lush by rejuvenation — used like that…"
"Look at that red thatch. Soaked through with her own juices."
I reached forward slowly and closed my hand around Jeon Il-ha's ass.
She moaned around me, a muffled, helpless sound, and the vacuum of her mouth clamped down even harder the instant she felt my grip. I cursed through my teeth. My climax hit me like a blow, and Jeon Il-ha's suction was so ferocious that she swallowed every drop on reflex, gulp after gulp, not a single bead escaping.
"Haaah — you — if you are going to finish, you might at least say so!"
"The Yang Sword's mouth was so exquisite I couldn't hold back."
"Hoo… is that so? Hmph. Of course it is. With my touch, it would be. Hoo♡ Hoo♡"
The Yin-Yang Twin Swords — Jeon Il-ha and Jeon Wol-ha — started pulling their clothes back on, already shifting toward the edge of the bed.
"Well then. The matter is finished. We will take our leave."
"I can't do any more. Uuugh."
Both of them tried to climb down, legs trembling so hard they could barely stand.
I caught their wrists.
"And where do you think you're going? There are still nine hundred and ninety-nine rounds left."
"Wh-what?"
"Haaeh? Whaaaat?!"
Terror flooded the Twin Swords' eyes until there was no room left for anything else.
You fucking bitches. You dared to take the lead in wrecking the Mount Hua Sect?
"Th-that is impossible. How could any human being do that many times?"
"Nine hundred and ninety-nine?! My body will not survive it!"
The Yin-Yang Twin Pussies stood in front of me with tears welling in their eyes, legs shaking so violently they looked ready to piss themselves on the spot. The shock had hit them that hard.
"Now then. Lie back down. Heh heh heh."
A shadow that had never lived in the Yin-Yang Twin Swords' eyes before began, slowly, to bloom — the shadow of real fear.