Dangga Pungun Volume 2 – Chapter 1
The Lust Demon had headed for Hubei.
The early pages of Dangga Pungun followed Dang Jeong as he pursued the Lust Demon toward Wuhan, the most prosperous city in all of Hubei.
Pleasure houses rose like towers that might pierce the heavens. The one Dang Jeong sought was the most famous among them.
Even on the first floor, beauties a man could never hope to meet in a lifetime welcomed every guest. Yet the true worth of the house revealed itself only as one climbed higher.
Each ascending floor brought finer wine and more exquisite women—but the price demanded rose fivefold with every level. Such was the legend of this pleasure house.
“How the hell did you get up here!?”
The Lust Demon waited on the highest floor. The house’s guards had all been cut down by him; the courtesans, steeped in aphrodisiac, writhed and crawled across the floor, lost to lust.
“Your evil ends here.”
“This bastard dares challenge this old man!”
The battle erupted at once. In any ordinary telling the Lust Demon would have won, but Dang Jeong was no longer the man he had once been.
“Welcome… to my Poison Kill Space—”
“There it is! Poison. Kill. Space!”
Scholar Hwang let out a cheer before he even realized it.
It was Dang Jeong’s ultimate martial art and formation alike. At first it had been nothing but empty bluster, yet on the road to Hubei Dang Jeong had succeeded in forging the technique he had envisioned into reality.
“Even the Lust Demon of the realm will be helpless inside Dang Jeong’s Poison Kill Space.”
A domain prepared for a single enemy, stocked with every poison and hidden weapon the Sichuan Dang Clan prided itself upon. A one-man army—both formation and martial art.
The moment the Lust Demon stepped inside, he could never know whether a dart or a toxin would strike first. Only when his head struck the floor would he finally realize what had killed him.
“I’ll grant that your Poison Kill Space is impressive. But if I simply never approach it, it’s useless. Farewell!”
“You coward! You’re running away!?”
“Filthy bastard! Stand and fight!”
The Lust Demon—scourge of the martial world—had acknowledged the Poison Kill Space of a newly emerged Dang Jeong and turned tail in fear. The art Dang Jeong had forged while traveling all the way to Hubei was no fiction.
Scholar Hwang felt a pang of regret that the Lust Demon had fled, yet a strange satisfaction filled him at the thought that even such a monster had run from the Poison Kill Space.
“This humble girl is called Du Eunghyang.”
At last she appeared—Hubei’s Number One Courtesan, Du Eunghyang.
Born of Joseon, if the Sichuan Number One Beauty was a flower the world possessed only one of, then Du Eunghyang, Hubei’s Number One Courtesan, was a sculpture the world itself had carved—worked by a master craftsman of a thousand years with lifelong precision.
“So now he shares a night of passion with Hubei’s Number One Courtesan…”
Gulp. Scholar Hwang loosened his belt a little and turned the page.
“Fortunately this girl escaped the poison.”
“Why isn’t she dosed with the aphrodisiac? This isn’t how it’s supposed to go!”
Had Author Hopil actually listened to those hooligans who claimed repeating the same plot was beneath a writer’s dignity?
Unacceptable. He wanted to see Hubei’s Number One Courtesan pickled in aphrodisiac, panting and desperate.
Instinctively Scholar Hwang stood the book on end and checked the remaining pages. Thankfully a thick stack still waited. Hope remained.
“Must we truly share the clouds and rain to purge the poison? Every other courtesan here is already afflicted.”
“Indeed. We must exchange passion at once.”
“These girls owe Young Hero their lives. Would Young Hero take them all?”
“Every courtesan on the top floor… Heh heh heh. Author Hopil had it all planned.”
“I refuse.”
“What? Why!?”
Spending a night with even one top-floor courtesan would cost a man the pillars of his house. Yet Dang Jeong was kicking away the chance to claim every last one of them.
“Why, Young Hero?”
“I came to save them, not to take them the way the Lust Demon would. Each of these women surely holds a man in her heart. Bring those men here at once.”
“Aigoo… This Dang Jeong. What a frustrating fellow.”
Too upright for his own good. An opportunity like this came once in a lifetime if ever. Scholar Hwang found himself strangely disappointed every time fortune favored Dang Jeong in precisely this fashion.
“Is it because Young Hero is a young master of the Sichuan Dang Clan and finds lowly courtesans distasteful?”
“Haha. Whether a young lady of a great martial house or a courtesan, they are simply women who must be saved. How could I think such a thing?”
“…I will bring them at once.”
“Heh heh heh. She’s fallen for him. Hubei’s Number One Courtesan has fallen for him. Yes—what’s the point of more when the finest is right in front of you?”
The greatest woman always required sacrifice. For a moment Scholar Hwang scolded himself for failing to grasp Author Hopil’s grand design.
The Lust Demon continued to appear throughout Wuhan in Hubei. For more than a month Dang Jeong pursued him through the pleasure-house district with the aid of Hubei’s Number One Courtesan, Du Eunghyang.
“May I call you Oppa?”
“I already have a woman I hold in my heart.”
“Dang Jeong, you idiot. At a time like that you say yes!”
The chance to become the only man Hubei’s Number One Courtesan ever called Oppa—how could anyone refuse?
“Pfft. Oppa. I only want to call you Oppa; I have no other thoughts.”
Du Eunghyang spoke the word naturally, yet a quiet loneliness lingered about her.
“Uuuugh! What am I supposed to do? Sichuan’s Number One Beauty is wonderful and Hubei’s Number One Courtesan is wonderful too. Back when I only had Volume 1 I thought sleeping with Hubei’s Number One Courtesan would be enough.”
Sleep with Hubei’s Number One Courtesan; marry Sichuan’s Number One Beauty. Even the people at the reading club had predicted as much before Volume 2 ever appeared—yet Du Eunghyang was far too alluring.
Dang Jeong’s pursuit of the Lust Demon grew fiercer by the day, yet he always arrived one step too late.
“Oppa. Use me as bait. If you use me as bait, the Lust Demon will surely come.”
“What courage… How can a woman even think of offering herself as bait to catch the Lust Demon?”
Scholar Hwang found himself sinking deeper into Du Eunghyang’s charm.
“If that is truly your will, I have a plan. Will you trust me?”
“I have always trusted Oppa.”
“Please… please don’t say things like that! Dang Jeong’s official wife is Gu Sukjeong, Sichuan’s Number One Beauty. Why… why are you trying to crawl into my heart!?”
Oppa. A word that truly shook a man’s heart. Scholar Hwang clung to his wavering resolve and kept reading.
“Stop right there!”
On the top floor of the pleasure house the Lust Demon had chosen, Dang Jeong loosed poison-coated hidden weapons, blocking the fiend’s approach to Du Eunghyang.
“Shallow toxins. Such poisons mean nothing to me. Dang Jeong, I know you treasure this girl. If you do not wish to watch her die, drop every weapon you carry.”
“No, Oppa!”
“Kugh!”
Dang Jeong cast down every hidden weapon and poison pouch he possessed.
“No! Now he can’t use the Poison Kill Space! The Lust Demon will destroy him!”
Once Dang Jeong was disarmed, the Lust Demon ceased threatening Du Eunghyang and strode toward him. Then he picked up one of the pouches that had fallen to the floor.
“Poison powder? Whatever toxin this is, if it is strong enough to affect me it will kill the girl beside me as well. Do you want to watch that?”
“No. Du Eunghyang is no martial artist—just an ordinary woman. If the poison takes her she dies. Dang Jeong, what are you going to do?”
Was he planning to kill their precious little sister? This Oppa could never bear that sight. Scholar Hwang turned the pages of Volume 2 with a pounding heart.
“No. You’re already poisoned.”
Dang Jeong’s pouch was empty. He had finished administering the poison the moment he discarded his weapons.
“Keuhk! H-how? This girl isn’t poisoned at all!”
“Triple Poison. An extreme toxin of the Sichuan Dang Clan that activates only when three separate poisons combine.”
“Three poisons? You only used two… Kugh! You bitch!”
The moment the Lust Demon staggered, Du Eunghyang shoved him away and clung to Dang Jeong. Then she turned a mocking smile on the fiend.
“Poisons are not the sole property of the Sichuan Dang Clan. The wine you drank after grabbing my hand with those filthy fingers—what do you suppose was in that poisoned cup?”
Triple Poison. A joint masterpiece of Du Eunghyang and Dang Jeong’s collaboration.
“To use a scheme like this! He’s not just some stiff, upright fool—he’s a brilliant tactician too. Amazing! Amazing!”
“You pair of vermin dare mock me!”
“This ends now!”
“Impossible!”
The Lust Demon hurled a smoke bomb that belched white mist. Uncertain what toxins the cloud might hold, Dang Jeong abandoned the chase and shielded Du Eunghyang at once.
Fortunately the smoke was nothing but ordinary white vapor—yet by then the Lust Demon had already vanished.
“I let him escape. Hyang-ah… I wasted the chance you gave me.”
“Don’t be disappointed, Oppa. Just as you said, once Triple Poison takes hold he’ll need half a year to recover.”
“Hyang-ah.”
“Ugh… Oppa! I think I’ve been poisoned.”
Du Eunghyang swayed and leaned her full weight against Dang Jeong.
“No. The poison you drank was nothing serious.”
Triple Poison became lethal only when all three toxins combined; any single one was harmless. Dang Jeong regarded her with a puzzled expression.
“No. It’s an extreme poison.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been poisoned by Oppa’s charm.”
“Heh heh heh heh. This is driving me insane. Truly.”
“Hyang-ah. You are an extraordinarily charming woman. However—”
Dang Jeong steadied her body and averted his gaze as he spoke.
“I know. Because you have a beloved, there is no place for me in Oppa’s heart. But that beloved of yours… she spent a night with you after being poisoned by aphrodisiac, didn’t she? In that case—”
Du Eunghyang swallowed the aphrodisiac the Lust Demon had left behind in a single gulp.
“No! Hyang-ah!”
“Oppa. Please take the first time of this girl who has been poisoned by your charm.”
“This is madness. She deliberately drinks the aphrodisiac so Dang Jeong has no choice but to sleep with her! Really! Is Du Eunghyang a genius at stirring lust!?”
“This girl is experiencing her first night today, yet she knows every art of a courtesan.”
“No… this is truly…”
“It seems I have lived until this day only for Oppa.”
“Haaah. A virgin courtesan… Hubei’s Number One Virgin Courtesan… a virgin courtesan who knows every bedroom technique… What kind of mind invents something like this?”
“Hyang-ah. The aphrodisiac the Lust Demon used… I had hoped otherwise, but it looks exactly like a poison that originally existed only in the Sichuan Dang Clan. Right now I must pursue the Lust Demon. The day I return after punishing him, Hyang-ah… I will free you from this pleasure house and take you into our household.”
“I’ll count the days until then, Oppa.”
Naked, the two of them clasped hands tightly and promised to meet again.
“Why? Why-why-why!? Leaving again!? Dang Jeong! You can’t do this!”
Why did this Dang Jeong leave every woman he met and walk away down the road? One was Sichuan’s Number One Beauty and the other Hubei’s Number One Beauty.
Scholar Hwang felt a deep pang of regret as he turned the final remaining page.
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In Hubei, Dang Jeong will encounter the two greatest swordswomen of the province. One is a beauty with a cold, impassive face; the other a beauty of gentle disposition.
The three of them join forces to hunt the Lust Demon, and during the chase both beauties come to harbor Dang Jeong in their hearts. Though they share a bond as close as sisters, they become rivals competing for the same man.
In the midst of it all, the Lust Demon’s sudden ambush leaves Dang Jeong himself poisoned by aphrodisiac.
What choice will the two beauties make?
Scholar Hwang could only utter the exact same words he had spoken last time.
“Next voluuuuume!”