New Release - 3

"The protagonist is a Wudang Taoist? Then this isn't a sensual wuxia at all!"

The Wudang Sect had, by tradition, always kept its distance from carnal pleasures. Did that mean this was no sensual wuxia in the vein of Dangga Pungun?

The readers had bought the book blindly, swept up in the reputation of Hopil, master of the sensual wuxia, and they could not hide their bewilderment.

"Wait! Unhyeon—don't tell me that's the chivalric hero mentioned in Volume 3 of Dangga Pungun?!"

These were readers who had purchased Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon on the strength of Hopil's towering name alone. But at the mention of Unhyeon, who had figured so prominently in Volume 3, even those who had been about to shut the book in disappointment found themselves gripping it tight instead.

At long last, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tale of Unhyeon had begun.

The story of a boy who never lost his dream, even in the harshest of circumstances. A chronicle of growth, as he overcame trial after trial through grueling effort and rose to become a martial artist.

When Unhyeon at last subdued the demonic fiend and claimed his fated opportunity, the readers could not suppress their awe.

"A different flavor of fun from Dangga Pungun entirely!"

The boy had grown into a man before anyone realized it. And yet, watching him step out into the world for the sake of a dream he still could not abandon, many readers nodded along with a smile.

"This is unbearable!"

A member of the Daseohoe voiced his grievance on the second floor of Daseogak, his face the very portrait of indignation.

"Unbearable about what?"

"Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon! It's unbearable because it's so good! If only it were bad, at least I could demand they hurry up and put out the next volume of Dangga Pungun!"

"Haha! I feel the same! It's unbelievably good. Just when you're suffocating with tension, he shows you a scene that bursts the blockage wide open, then new trials descend—and the way he smashes through them in a single stroke, you can't help but sweat in your clenched fists!"

"I never imagined a simple tale of warriors training in the martial arts could be this entertaining!"

"I thought stories of rough blades hacking at each other would hold no interest whatsoever! That's Author Hopil for you!"

"A secret grotto of the Wudang Sect! How does the man even come up with these ideas!"

Day after day, the members of Daseogak chattered on, heaping extravagant praise upon Hopil's new work, Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon.

Not everyone, of course, looked upon it fondly.

"Tsk tsk. All this fuss over nothing! The way I see it, Dangga Pungun still beats Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon!"

"I haven't so much as opened it—in protest against Author Hopil!"

"Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon is a misstep. Dangga Pungun is a hundred times more fun... Huh?!"

Just as complaints were about to erupt from a handful of the Daseohoe members, the chatter of women—until now too faint to make out—drifted over from a corner of Daseogak's second floor.

"Sister, have you read Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon yet?"

"I have. Dangga Pungun made my cheeks burn too hot to be seen with, but Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon—my, was it fun!"

"Isn't Lord Unhyeon simply magnificent?! Oh, right! I heard tell, just in passing, that it connects to Dangga Pungun as well."

"Is that so? Perhaps I ought to read Dangga Pungun, then..."

"A lady who appears in Dangga Pungun speaks of the chivalric hero Unhyeon. It must all be the same era, I'd wager."

At some point, a Daseohoe member had glued himself to the women's side. It was the very man who, mere moments ago, had declared Dangga Pungun a hundred times more fun than Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon.

"Oh my, is that so? Then must one read Dangga Pungun to fully understand Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon?"

"Quite right. Some even say Dangga Pungun is more fun than Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon."

Despite the man's abrupt appearance, the two women turned to him with curious eyes.

"Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon is the masterwork Author Hopil poured his very soul into. By all means, read Dangga Pungun—but might this humble one instead explain it on behalf of you young ladies?"

"Yes, please do, young master. What tea will you have?"

"Any tea treated by you young ladies, I shall drink with pleasure."

"Then I shall order you a caramel macchiato with whipped cream."

"My thanks."

With a bashful face, the Daseohoe member took the seat beside the women—and even in the midst of it all, the scoundrel did not forget to seat himself next to the one who suited his taste.

"That bastard... wasn't he just proclaiming Dangga Pungun supreme a moment ago?"

"A turncoat! But why are there so many women on the second floor today of all days?"

As the members glanced around, the floor was indeed unusually bustling with female customers.

"Why do you think? Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon, that's why. Word that it's no sensual wuxia has the ladies lining up as well."

"R-Really?"

"That's the truth of it. Now—where are you all going?"

Every last member who had sworn, moments before, never to read Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon rose from his seat.

"Ahem. W-Well, just a brief trip downstairs!"

"You traitorous dogs! Hold on, I'm coming too!"

The arrival of new female members. The Daseohoe bachelors, ripe and long overdue for marriage, could not defy the tide of the times.

"Please form a single line. A line!"

"There is plenty of stock! No need to rush!"

The response after Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon's release had exceeded my expectations.

"It's selling better than you expected, isn't it?"

"You can say that again. I'd figured a story this short on mass appeal wouldn't move many copies."

Lim Hayeon and Jegal Hyang had both spoken well of it, but in the worst case I had braced myself for outright, miserable failure.

Who knew a novel destined to be written off as wastepaper, unread by anyone, would sell like this? Honestly, it felt a little surreal.

"Now then, looking over the ledgers, our male customers have dropped, but our female customers have gone uuuup!"

"Female readers—that never even crossed my mind."

"Well, Dangga Pungun is, after all, a novel with erotic scenes. Even a female reader who enjoyed it would find it hard to be caught reading it openly."

"Is that so?"

Startling words, from the vanguard of the Hubei's Number One Courtesan Faction.

"Ngh! R-relatively speaking! It is entertaining, after all. The trouble is simply finding the courage to pick the book up in the first place."

"I-I got my hands on it without my parents knowing and read it too."

"See? For a female reader, merely standing at the shelf with the book in hand is already half the battle."

It wasn't as though I couldn't relate. Back when I bought novels with risqué covers, I'd sandwiched them in among exam prep books for no good reason.

Though in the end, I bought them all the same.

"So the sensual wuxia's greatest strength had doubled as its greatest weakness. Who could have guessed that stripping the sensuality from a sensual wuxia would broaden its readership?"

"Author Hopil was already so famous, after all. And when Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon turns out to be genuinely good, it's an easy one to recommend."

Lim Hayeon added that since women so often gathered together among themselves, word must have traveled fast.

Thanks to this unforeseen female clientele, Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon was enjoying brisk sales—but it wasn't yet a situation to sit back and laugh about.

"An unexpected windfall, to be sure, but measured against Dangga Pungun, the numbers still fall short of satisfying."

Not enough, as I'd thought.

With the mass-market draw of sensuality removed from a sensual wuxia, the customer base had widened, but the raw sales volume simply didn't compare.

"Tales of the murim simply aren't popular. Things are looking up, so why not carry on publishing through Volume 2 as planned?"

Promoting under Hopil's name, writing a story worth reading—those I could manage. But overturning readers' perceptions overnight, so they would carry a book to the counter without hesitation? That was no easy feat.

Is this the best there is?

"There'll be time enough to accept and nod along after we've tried everything in our power. If we want the Shadowless Divine Thief to appear in Volume 2, then let us sell every copy of Volume 1 we possibly can."

You give up only when you haven't the strength left to stand back up.

Was there some way to push Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon's sales even higher? Time to rack my brains once more.

"Do you have something in mind?"

"There is one thing."

After long deliberation, I nodded.

"What if we tried dangling autographed copies, like with Dangga Pungun?"

"An autographed copy is only worth as much as its scarcity. It would help, but it won't move people the way the Dangga Pungun copies did."

Hopil's Dangga Pungun. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Dangga Pungun's Hopil. Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon may have been out in the world, but it was still too soon to speak of Hopil's fame apart from Dangga Pungun.

Even if we put autographed copies of Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon up as prizes, they would never stir the frenzy the Dangga Pungun copies had.

"Then what do we do?"

There is a way. Wearing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the pleasant smile of a man who never takes no for an answer, I slowly closed in on the woman before me.

"This time, I'm afraid, it won't be me doing the heavy lifting—it will be you, Lady Jegal."

"Huh? M-me?"

"Have you heard the news!"

Yichang. One of the Daseohoe members came calling at a friend's house.

"If you've come to prattle yet again about how fun Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon is and drag me along to Daseogak, turn yourself around and go home."

The friend of the house answered with a scowl that made plain he could barely stand the sight of him.

"You'd turn away a friend who's come calling since morning?!"

"So many Daseohoe members these days can't hold to their principles—truly lamentable! It feels like only yesterday we were holding sound, principled debates over who Dangga Pungun's one true wife was, and now what in the world is this Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon?!"

Somehow, the Daseohoe had already begun blooming fresh conversational flowers around Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon. And with the welcome of genuinely flower-like female members, the mood had brightened so thoroughly that no one could recall when it had ever been so dreary.

Of course, a few devoted readers of Dangga Pungun could not bring themselves to accept the change, and refused to lay so much as a finger on Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon to the bitter, bitter end.

"Tsk tsk. Enough of that—we've no time to waste! Come, to Daseogak, and quickly!"

"How many times must I say I've no intention of reading Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon! Honestly, what on earth are you hauling me there for?!"

In the end, the host, worn down by his visitor's relentless badgering, set out for Daseogak.

"Look there!"

The Daseohoe member pointed off to one side, ordering his hauled-along friend ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to look.

There, where he pointed, hung an enormous wall poster—and upon it was news flown in all the way from Wuhan.

"A lottery commemorating the release of Author Hopil's new work? What's that about?"

"From today, it seems, every purchase of Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon comes with a lottery ticket. Win, and they hand you a hanging scroll depicting a scene chosen by Author Hopil himself!"

"A Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon scroll? My good friend! Don't tell me you dragged me all this way to buy Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon and beg for a lottery ticket! I have no interest in Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon!"

"Tsk tsk. And did I not say it was Author Hopil's work?"

"Then don't tell me... Dangga Pungun as well?"

The friend's crestfallen face transformed in an instant.

"Just so. Win the draw, and you may choose the painting yourself! See that crowd over there? They say you pick whichever of the paintings on display you like!"

"What?! Is that the truth?! Quick, let's go see them!"

The friend elbowed through the throng all the way to the very front row, with a speed that made a mockery of all his earlier grumbling.

The paintings that met his eyes were of a caliber that would have made a celebrated court painter gape and demand to know who on earth had brushed them. Such meticulous care lived in every stroke that one could feel the affection poured into the work.

"Look there! That man in the painting must be Lord Dang Jeong!"

"That woman is Sichuan's Number One Beauty! Truly the fairest face under heaven!"

"One look and I know—that woman is Du Eung-hyang! Bold and self-assured, every inch Hubei's Number One Courtesan!"

"And there's the Two Flowers of Blue and Red!"

"And over here, paintings from Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon!"

The people of Yichang were beholding, for the first time, the paintings Jegal Hyang had brushed at Kang Yunho's request, and they could not conceal their astonishment.

So many had needed to be painted that the scrolls were modest in size—but Jegal Hyang's skill was not the sort to fade with scale, and every last viewer stood speechless.

The friend at the very front, struck dumb like all the rest, was drinking it all in when his gaze caught the paintings to one side—and his legs very nearly buckled.

"N-No—could that be Dang Jeong's Poison Killing Domain?!"

"Where? Oh! It truly is!"

"Why, there are three distinct Poison Killing Domain scenes alone..."

"You can tell them apart?"

"What manner of Daseohoe member could I call myself if I couldn't! Whew. A P-Poison Killing Domain scene! The very thing I'd only ever dreamed of, hanging right before my eyes!"

"Look at the Daseogak seal. That means both Hopil and Manager Kang have given their blessing!"

"Officially sanctioned by Daseogak—paintings of Author Hopil's work..."

He wanted one. He wanted one so badly. And yet the friend's face promptly clouded over.

"What's the matter? Not to your taste after all? If you're bored, then come right along. That's hardly like the man who used to go about shouting 'Poison Killing Domain!' at every turn."

"I want one. I truly want one. But you see..."

"Hm?"

"It's a lottery, isn't it. A man who can't even win a simple game of dice—what chance would I ever stand?"

"Tsk tsk. Then look at the poster hanging over there."

In answer to his friend's despair, the Daseohoe member pointed at the poster once more.

"'Read Volume 1 of Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon and submit your reflections... selected entries shall be awarded a scroll'?"

The friend could not tear his stunned eyes from the poster.

Relying on a lottery alone to lift sales was the inferior gambit.

The Daseohoe was thick with men of letters, so nudge them into writing recommendations.

Any recommendation penned by a notable name would be selected at once. Print the winning pieces in the Court Gazette—the newspaper—run them as advertisements, and spread the word far and wide.

It was yet another stratagem of Kang Yunho's.

"They say the winning pieces will run in the Court Gazette, too! Well? With your way with words, it's hardly beyond you, no...? Friend? Now where has he gone?"

"One copy of Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon—no, make it three!"

At some point, the friend was already standing at the shelf.

"And after all that dragging of feet on the way here! Buy one for me as well!"

And so the friend walked away carrying the very Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon he had sworn never to touch.

He just knew it wouldn't hold a candle to Dangga Pungun. Strip the sensuality from a sensual wuxia and what fun remained? It would be a novel for men with nothing better to do than trail after women's skirts.

He would skim it—no, read just enough to earn himself a Dangga Pungun scroll, then end this dalliance and return to his one true love.

Mind made up, he opened Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon to its first page.

"Damn it all! This is every bit as fun as Dangga Pungun!"

With Author Hopil's new release, the Yichang Daseohoe had recovered its old vigor.

"Little brother, why so suddenly downcast in the middle of such pleasant talk? Is something troubling you?"

Scholar Hwang, one of the great pillars of the Daseohoe, asked his younger brother, who sat brooding in a corner.

"The trouble, brother, is that both novels are good."

Scholar Hwang's younger brother knitted his brow in anguish.

"What manner of riddle is that?"

"We must now wait months upon months for the next volume. At worst, it could take half a year."

"If he means to repay his debt to Mangeum Hall, the next release will surely be Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon, Volume 2."

"Just so. But what comes after? I find Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon entertaining in its own right, yet I yearn to lay eyes on Lady Gu Sook-jeong, Sichuan's Number One Beauty, once more! And now no one can say whether the next book will be the following volume of Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon or Volume 4 of Dangga Pungun."

As a member of the Sichuan's Number One Beauty Faction, Scholar Hwang's younger brother could not mask his torment.

"I see. At this rate, Volume 4 may not reach us until next year."

Scholar Hwang's expression darkened in turn.

It was true that Author Hopil's pen moved at astonishing speed. A full year had already passed since Author Hopil first appeared upon the scene. That he had produced four volumes was, admittedly, staggering.

And yet Hopil was an author who would, from time to time, declare a year-long hiatus. Would the next volume truly come quickly?

What if, like other authors, he published one book a year—or one every several years? How was any devoted reader to endure a wait without end?

Dark clouds gathered over the hearts of the two brothers.

"Everyone! Come down and see! There's astounding news!"

But there, and only there, did the brothers' worries end.

"'Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon Volume 2—release in four days'?"

For the news flown in from Wuhan swept their worries away in a single stroke.