Seducing the Pure-Hearted Quanzhen Sect Leader (1)
"Is that true? Do you really mean it?"
Ryu Su-gyeong's eyes filled with tears at my words.
"Why? Isn't this enough already? The Nine Great Sects — and even the unorthodox factions — are gradually coming over to our side. The Mount Hua Sect is as good as saved."
I shook my head against her chest.
"To save it more thoroughly."
"The Mount Hua Sect? Is this not enough?"
"We have to prepare more thoroughly, Noona."
"Cheongsong…"
I looked into the eyes of the young Ryu Su-gyeong.
The one I'm trying to save is you.
I wanted to say it aloud.
The Nine Great Sects, the Imperial Court, the Five Great Clans — even the unorthodox factions — had all agreed to aid the Mount Hua Sect. Every one of those alliances was something I had built with my own hands. But one place still remained.
The Quanzhen Sect.
The sect where I had planted a traitor. More precisely, the place where I had turned a traitor into a slave. Once a holy land of eccentric Taoist priests, it had since been transformed into yokai and become a pawn of Black Yao Valley. Occupy that place, and I could strike at the enemy's heart in a single blow — sidestepping nearly every risk while landing a blow so destructive it would hit nothing but the vital point.
"I can transform into a yokai. I've already planted a traitor inside the Quanzhen Sect. Just trust me. I'll save you."
"I refuse! I shall not let you go! Hic… hic…"
Ryu Su-gyeong clutched me so tightly it seemed she might flee with me that very instant. I glanced at the Yin-Yang Twin Blades, who were clinging and fawning at her side.
Thwack!
The Yin Blade's knife-hand chopped the back of Ryu Su-gyeong's neck, and she went limp at once.
"How dare you talk back when Master is speaking."
The Yin-Yang Twin Blades gathered Ryu Su-gyeong up and carried her to the bed.
"She's my woman. Guard her well while I'm gone."
"Hiiing, what about us?"
"You're the cock-house."
"Haaang♡ That's more than enough for us."
"We love you, Master♡"
I set out for the Quanzhen Sect.
"Master!"
"Moo!"
The spider yokai Ha Bo-yeon and the cow yokai Yu-bang and Yu-seon were waiting for me. They pointed into the cave and called me over.
"Milk."
"Moo."
I bit down on the cow yokai Yu-bang's nipple first. I didn't put any force into my mouth. Yu-bang and Yu-seon simply squeezed the breast I had between my lips and let the milk flow in on their own.
"Moo♡ We caught every last one of the beautiful yokai you told us to prepare, Master."
"They put up a hard fight, so you'll want to be careful."
Tentacle Monster Transformation
"Doesn't matter."
Slither!
I entered the cave alone.
Kyaaak!
Kerek! Krrrk!
A tremendous chorus of yokai howls rolled through the cavern. They were wound tight at the appearance of a new yokai — me.
A short while later.
Kyaahang♡ Kkuung♡
Kkiing♡ Kkiing♡
Gyarrrrr♡
The yokai were fawning over me like spoiled girls, sucking on my tentacles.
"Let's go to the Quanzhen Sect."
Every preparation was complete. If I could just take the Quanzhen Sect, I would not lose even if the Yokai King himself came to Shaanxi Province.
Tae-eul-rang, Sect Leader of the Quanzhen Sect.
She had taken a request from Black Yao Valley and was laying traps around the Mount Hua Sect.
"Move those stones over there."
Her form was no different from a human's. Without those two enormous ram's horns, she would have looked like nothing more than an exceptionally beautiful woman. The tightly curled ram's horns were adorable — and yet her alluring gaze, her enormous breasts, and her slender waist made even those cute yokai features look sensual.
"Who is that one?"
A yokai had caught her eye. Something about the one who had been standing out since earlier felt slightly off.
"That's Noksu, a new recruit who just joined."
"Noksu?"
The green liquid monster was hauling stones with dozens of tentacles.
"He doesn't look like he has much fighting power."
"Just a worthless yokai. He'll probably die before long. The moment he's thrown into a fight, he's finished. Heh heh heh."
"Is that so?"
She approached Noksu.
Kkiing, kkiing.
Noksu was straining with everything he had to carry a single stone. While the others hauled three or four enormous boulders at a time, Noksu was grunting and struggling to shift even one small rock.
"A yokai this weak…"
With a sharp motion, Tae-eul-rang picked up Noksu's stone in one hand and hurled it far away.
"You go prepare drinking water for the others."
Noksu snapped a tentacle up in a salute.
"What an amusing little thing."
Kkiing!
"You say you can do it well? Heh heh. Then you'd better haul that water properly. To get so excited over carrying water… you really are an unusual yokai."
Kkiiiing!
An officer watching the Sect Leader converse with Noksu tilted her head.
"Sect Leader, can you understand what this thing is saying? All I hear is a bunch of whimpering."
"Is that so? I can understand him perfectly."
"Hahaha. You do love a joke."
"What are you talking about? I mean it sincerely."
"What? Truly? Could it be… some kind of thread of fate connecting you?"
"If you make another joke that dull, I shall burn you alive."
"Eek! Forgive me!"
Tae-eul-rang returned her focus to the work. She was dragged from one end of the worksite to the other all day long. In the past she had been master of one of the five strongest among the dozens of halls on Mount Quanzhen. Now she was its sole, unrivaled ruler — and that meant she had that much more to answer for, stewing in her own worries while watching Black Yao Valley's every mood.
Sitting at a desk in a corner of the worksite, reviewing documents, she quietly let out a sigh when no one was looking.
Kkiing.
A cup of water rose up through the jumble of books piled on her desk.
"You… Noksu?"
Kkiing, kkiing.
Noksu held the cup out to her.
"Hmph. Water, is it. So you really are diligently doing the work I assigned you."
She took the cup from Noksu and looked inside. A single pink flower petal floated on the surface.
"A petal?"
Kkiing.
Don't tell me… this is for me?
Tae-eul-rang drank the water slowly, careful not to let the petal slip into her mouth.
"Heh. Truly delicious water."
Kkiing!
"Heh. I'll attend to my work, so you go work hard as well."
Kking!
Noksu raised his tentacles like arms and flexed them, showing off his muscles.
"Heh. You seem overflowing with energy. Would you grant me a favor?"
Kkiing!
"Would you fetch a pair of shoes from my wardrobe? The ones I'm wearing now have far too much construction-site dirt on them. You can bring them tomorrow morning. A simple request, no?"
Kkiing~
Noksu answered as if he understood and left with the water cup.
Tae-eul-rang, Sect Leader of the Quanzhen Sect, threw herself into her work in a frenzy. Night fell, and her subordinates lit yokai lanterns in her office. As the will-o'-the-wisps softly illuminated her books, something could be seen lying beside the volumes.
A cherry blossom petal.
"So this is the petal Noksu floated in my water cup."
Late at night, a woman who had thought herself alone within the Quanzhen Sect found herself moved by an unfamiliar kindness.
"A truly un-yokai-like newcomer has arrived."
She held the petal and quietly admired it. She thought for a moment, then with a swift motion slipped it between the pages of a book to keep it.
"Cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms… has that much time already passed?"
Spring was coming.
Morning came. She woke and opened the window. The sunlight looked especially beautiful today.
She opened the door to go out — and something caught against it.
Grrk… grrk… grrk…
"Noksu?"
Noksu was asleep in front of her door, snoring, the shoes still clutched tight in his tentacles. He had spent the entire night there, holding them.
"Don't tell me you've been here since yesterday?"
Kkiing!
"You foolish thing! It was only a matter of fetching shoes."
Kkiing? Kkiing!
"You say I am the heart of the Quanzhen Sect, so I must be treated with care? Haah. What nonsense…"
The heart of the Quanzhen Sect, he says. Rather than the yokai's pawn who sold the Quanzhen Sect out.
"Noksu, thank you. Truly, thank you."
Tae-eul-rang slipped off her dirty shoes, and Noksu carried them away. She put on the new pair, and her mood lifted at once.
"Heh. How nice. Truly warm. It's all thanks to you."
Kkiiiing!
"What? Foot odor? You little—!"
Kkiing, kkiing.
"A joke, you say? Hahaha. What a creature you are."
The maids who witnessed it began to whisper among themselves.
"The Sect Leader is smiling."
"The Sect Leader they call the Enchanting Witch? Come on. No way."
"She never shows anything but that deadly serious face all day. A smile? Wait— she's actually doing it!"
The maids buzzed as they watched the Quanzhen Sect Leader laughing together with Noksu.
"A truly un-yokai-like creature has arrived. Heh heh heh."
The Quanzhen Sect Leader stroked what seemed to be Noksu's head, as though she had discovered some marvelous new yokai. The inside of the shoes Noksu had held through the night was warm.
The next day, the Quanzhen Sect Leader was constructing a new fortress.
"The air in the Central Plains feels ominous."
"How so?"
"The martial artists of the Nine Great Sects are all moving toward the Wulin Alliance at once. They may be gathering to retake Shaanxi."
"What?"
The Nine Great Sects comprised ten colossal factions. Two or three moving at once would be one thing, but all ten great factions moving together was something that happened maybe once in a hundred years — if that. And the two greatest topics of conversation these days were the impending annihilation of the Mount Hua Sect and the movements of Black Yao Valley. Of course the feeling in the air was thick with something wrong.
"And the Imperial Court?"
"They're such secretive people, we don't know. The Emperor's soldiers moving around is hardly a one- or two-day affair."
"Damn it!"
Tae-eul-rang rapped her desk, her face drawn tight with agitation.
Kkiing!
A cup of water appeared at her side.
"Noksu?"
Kking!
"Heh. Don't be angry, you say?"
She had only looked at him, and already a smile was slipping out of her.
Kkiing. Kkiing!
"Yes. Truly, thank you. I keep ending up in your debt. What am I to do? Heh heh."
She took Noksu's cup and drained it. This time a plum blossom petal floated inside. The fragrant water eased her anger, just a little.
"Noksu, could you bring me one more?"
Kking!
She drank another cup of the water he brought her.
"Hah."
The cold water cleared her head. With her mind settled, she looked over her other subordinates and began issuing orders.
"We build the defensive fortress first, as planned. Black Yao Valley will not spare us. We defend first and protect our own lives. We can think about attacking after that. Understood?"
"By your command!"
Her subordinates scattered in every direction to relay the orders. She stroked Noksu's head once and handed the cup back.
"If not for you, I would have made myself sick with rage."
Giiing~ Kkiing~
"Hohoho. Making those cute little sounds again."
Night fell. Today was a banquet day — an important occasion on which she had to serve her subordinates meat and wine. Food and drink were absolute when it came to morale. She could not afford to be stingy.
"For the Quanzhen Sect!"
"Shaanxi Province is our home!"
"We are the masters of Shaanxi!"
Her subordinates drank themselves merry and sang with gusto. Even in the midst of their revelry, she kept her dignity and never let the face of a leader slip.
The Enchanting Witch. A cold, unyielding human who never let her guard down, no matter the moment. No — a yokai.
"Fill your cups and enjoy yourselves."
Before her subordinates' eyes, she was iron-blooded martial artist made flesh.
"I'm telling you, she was chatting with that new recruit and actually laughing."
"Come on, that can't be right. The Sect Leader is the iron-blooded monarch of this age. She's forgotten how to smile."
"Isn't that Noksu thing ruining her?"
Stories she did not want to hear began to drift into her ears.
"There's a new recruit who just joined."
"That thing is bewitching the Sect Leader and ruining her."
"A thoroughly rotten yokai. We need to be especially careful."
"A mere newcomer trying to catch the Sect Leader's eye? The intent is obviously impure."
Tae-eul-rang's hand clenched tight. Crrrk. Before she even realized what she was doing, she had crushed the pewter wine cup in her grip.
They dare slander me?
However much weight she carried before her subordinates as Sect Leader, she too had once been human.
Not even a crack to breathe through. The path of a ruler is a hard one.
Then members of the combat unit — the ones who had always been loyal to her — approached.
"Sect Leader. What does the Sect Leader think of this Noksu fellow?"
The cow yokai who led the First-Class Combat Unit asked the question with a look of idle disinterest. It was not a personal question. Whatever Tae-eul-rang answered would spread among the subordinates as her official opinion.
"A truly un-yokai-like creature."
"Is that so?"
The cow yokai tilted her head. At that faintly suspicious reaction, a chill touched Tae-eul-rang's chest. It felt as though the fortress-like loyalty they had always shown her had wavered, just a little.
"Sect Leader."
The atmosphere around the cow yokai and the combat unit dropped like midwinter frost.
"Yes."
"When you say un-yokai-like, do you mean that as a good thing? Or a bad thing?"
The Enchanting Witch Tae-eul-rang fixed her subordinate with a long, level stare.
"And what is the intent behind that question?"
"Please answer."
The cow yokai did not back down. Tae-eul-rang had never once been treated this way by a subordinate, and the feeling in her chest was as stifling as if she had inhaled black smoke.
"Obviously… I mean it as a bad thing…"
Tae-eul-rang let the end of the sentence trail off.
"Hahaha, so that's what you meant after all? I understand perfectly."
"Understand what, exactly?"
"It's nothing. Merely a small curiosity of your humble subordinates."
Something about their manner felt wrong. Whisper, whisper. Today, more than usual, she could not tell whether the conversations around her were ordinary talk or gossip aimed at her.
Am I being too sensitive?
The thought nagged at her for no good reason.
What do I have to feel ashamed of?
She could not understand her own heart.
What have I done wrong?
It was like a tiny fishbone lodged in the throat, tormenting her for days on end.
What is this? Why is my chest so tight? It's unfair. I'm the one who's been wronged. I was only… my subordinate…
And then Noksu's face rose unbidden in her mind.
Was he… just a subordinate?
She could not bear to listen to any more of the talk behind her back. She rose from her seat earlier than usual.
"I will retire first."
"What? We've barely even started."
"My body feels a little heavy."
"Yes. Please rest well."
Watching the Sect Leader's retreating back, the subordinates only whispered harder.
"The Sect Leader is acting strange."
"The Sect Leader has changed."
"It's all because of that weird new recruit."
"No. The Sect Leader doesn't think specially of the newcomer."
"She actually thinks badly of him. The way she talked, it sounded like we could treat him however we want."
Their words pressed down on Tae-eul-rang's shoulders all the heavier. The contradiction between her actions and her answer only amplified the suspicion and the attention, leaving her heart restless and unmoored.
I should stop spending time with Noksu.
Those few stolen minutes of conversation with him had been her only joy.
She was passing through a dark alley on the way to her quarters when a familiar sound reached her from somewhere.
Kkiing! Kkiiiing!
Noksu.
My relationship with Noksu is over. I'll pretend I don't hear.
Tae-eul-rang, Sect Leader of the Quanzhen Sect, ignored Noksu's calls and continued toward her residence.
Kkiiiing!
Thud! Thud!
"Stay still!"
"The Sect Leader changed because of you!"
"The Sect Leader is our center! Because of you, her dignity has started to crumble!"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Kkiiiing……
Noksu is being beaten. I have to help him!
Tae-eul-rang drew up her inner energy as if in a rage. Then she saw her subordinates walking toward her from a distance. She did not want them to see her like this. A ruler who stood before her people agonizing and hesitating was not the ideal of a sovereign — and if the matter involved Noksu, she had all the more reason to stay away.
I have to walk past as if I don't know. If I don't, their loyalty may tilt in a direction I can never take back.
Tae-eul-rang quickened her pace, meaning to slip quietly away. She covered her ears and hurried her steps.
Kkiing… kkiing…
Noksu's voice. Noksu's voice rang in her ears. And Noksu's voice clung there like something viscous that would not leave.
"Damn it…"
Her feet would not lift, as though they had been glued to the earth. What was it that bound the feet of the supreme ruler of the Quanzhen Sect?
"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"
Tae-eul-rang looked at Noksu being beaten and gave up on thinking. She clenched her fist hard and drew up her inner energy.
Whoosh!
She launched herself with her lightness skill, crossed the distance in a single bound, and wrapped her body around Noksu.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Sect Leader, cradling Noksu. The blows meant for him landed on her back instead.
"Hah!"
"S-Sect Leader? The Sect Leader took punches for someone else?"
"Why is the Sect Leader here at this hour?! The banquet is still going…"
"Eek!"
The subordinates who had struck her back were so terrified they simply fled. They lost all reason and ran blindly, desperate only to be gone from that place.
Tae-eul-rang paid no mind to their gall. More accurately, she had no mind left to spare for it. Her eyes were filled with Noksu and Noksu alone. She could neither see nor hear anything else. Her mind, her senses, her gaze — every part of her was turned toward him and him only. She stared at Noksu as though time itself had stopped.
"You weak, worthless thing!"
Kkiing.
"You're a fool! Why do you just stand there and take it?! Call for help! Or run away!"
Kkiing!
"You pathetic creature! What is that supposed to mean?!"
Kkiiiing…
A stupid fool who hasn't a single yokai-like bone in his body, who just goes around getting beaten by everyone! This foolish creature keeps making me angry. Why do I — why can I alone understand what this thing is saying? How troublesome. How irritating!
Her brow furrowed as she clenched her fist until the knuckles went white.
"What are you."
Tae-eul-rang stared hard at Noksu.
"What are you."
Kkiiiing?
Even at Noksu's reply, Tae-eul-rang glared at him with eyes that burned as though she were chewing on flame.
"What are you, that you keep catching only my eye."
Kkiiiing. Kkiing.
"Why do you keep standing out to me… you foolish thing."
Tae-eul-rang's eyes kept tightening with the frustration welling in her chest.
My eyes keep going to a fool like this. Why does he keep flickering in front of me?
Tae-eul-rang.
For the first time since she had become a yokai, she heard the sound of her own heart pounding wildly in her chest.
"Why is it that only I can hear your words?! Kh—!"
She pulled Noksu into a rough, fierce embrace.
"What would you have me do."
Kkiing…?
"Just what is it that I want to do with you."