Chapter 176: Three Men Make a Tiger 1
Chapter 176: Three Men Make a Tiger 1
Rebirth Through Bone Transformation.
In everyday speech, the phrase describes someone becoming unrecognizably beautiful. In martial arts novels, though, it means something else entirely.
It's the moment when the body evolves and renews itself in a better direction after the dantian accumulates an enormous quantity of inner power—or mana, if you prefer. When a murim-in builds up enough internal energy and breaks through a wall of enlightenment, their physical vessel gets an upgrade. Think of it as leveling up in a game.
That's the full extent of my knowledge on the subject. But still. Even so. Isn't this a little much?
"So... you want me to give you a new name?"
I've never even named a pet dog, and now she wants me to name a grown woman? What kind of absurd request is that?
Her explanation was that she'd undergone Rebirth Through Bone Transformation thanks to the Dream Demon's essence, and now she wanted a new name so she could start a new life in her new body.
Wasn't that just an excuse because her old name, Song Dan-dan, was a hick name rooted in some Eastern Continent dialect—the local equivalent of a country bumpkin's name? Honestly, it felt like she was using this chance to bust loose from her rigid old master and do every single thing she'd ever wanted to do.
'That's what I almost said.'
Still, she was my Incarnation now. I couldn't exactly start nitpicking on day one.
I tried to recalibrate my attitude about it. Tried to think positive. But a coat rack with zero creative capacity can only stretch so far.
Picture the scene: you're in the middle of receiving fellatio from two women, and one of them abruptly starts glowing, evolves into a stunning beauty, drops to her knees in front of you, and begs you to bestow a new name upon her. What kind of man could possibly produce a name on the spot?
Not me. Absolutely not me.
"How about Yena? Song Ye-na."
"Yena... Song Ye-na...."
She murmured it to herself a few times—Song Ye-na, Song Ye-na—and then a quiet little smile crept across her lips.
Looks like she liked it. Lee Ha-rin too, and now Song Dan-dan—no, Yena now.
I do understand that names follow trends and that some sound hopelessly dated. As far as I could tell, Yena wasn't a bad name by this world's standards either.
'Sorry I'm a Constellation with zero sense of style....'
At least in this gender-reversed world, there weren't going to be any middle-aged ladies spitting orange juice across the table and going, "Yena? Like what's-her-face's daughter?"
It was just a name that had drifted up from my subconscious. Lucky break.
In the brief silence that followed, I took a proper look at Song Ye-na.
The first thing that caught my eye wasn't her skin. It was her eyes.
Her hair was still disheveled and jet-black, so I hadn't paid it much mind at first, but her eyes had turned violet.
Kim Ha-eun's hair and eyes had changed color when she transformed completely into a Dream Demon. Han Ye-ji and Lee Ha-rin, who'd only been influenced by Dream Demon magic power, hadn't changed at all. So why had Song Ye-na's eyes—and only her eyes—shifted color?
'Still, they're pretty. Definitely pretty.'
I knew that exposing an Origin to magic power could trigger all sorts of mutations, but since I had no clue which type of magic caused which type of change, there wasn't much I could do about it.
One fact remained unshaken: an Eastern beauty with violet eyes was, undeniably, gorgeous.
"Now that we've had something to celebrate, shall we continue where we left off?"
Lee Ha-rin was the first to speak. Her tone made it sound as though Rebirth Through Bone Transformation and new names were irrelevant footnotes. And fair enough—to her, the new recruit's personal milestone mattered far less than serving me, right here, right now. She probably figured congratulations were for after the service was finished.
If she actually had the sort of selfish personality that blew off other people's joyful moments, there was no way she'd have grown close to Han Ye-ji and Kim Ha-eun in the first place.
"Yes. Please excuse me, then."
At those words, Song Ye-na shook off her embarrassment and stepped closer. What settled into the space where the shame and hesitation had been was trust. Whatever she might have thought or said, the reality was plain: she had received magic power and essence from the Dream Demon Constellation and shattered the wall of enlightenment that had blocked her for so long.
The clumsy grip and the calluses were gone. Her soft palm wrapped around my equipment again, smoothly this time.
"Here... like this...."
"Ah, yes."
The same motions as before, repeated—but the sensation was utterly different. Different enough to make me wonder whether the Dream Demon's magic had twisted her enlightenment into something like this. Maybe the metaphor of being reborn was what did it.
Song Ye-na began copying exactly what Lee Ha-rin had demonstrated. She wrapped both hands softly around the shaft, then pressed kiss after kiss against the tip of the glans with soft, wet smacks. Then, holding that same posture, she looked up at me and smiled that quiet little smile.
Her eyes were brimming with so much affection and goodwill that they naturally crushed any trace of desire beneath them. Lee Ha-rin exercised every morning to build stamina; Song Ye-na had swung a sword for over ten years. There was no way they had similar musculature, but in the finer details—their eyes, their height, their build—they did seem somewhat alike. And if their frames and proportions were similar, maybe that made it easier for her to follow along naturally?
"Hoo-ah. The sensation feels a little different now."
The soft, wet smacks didn't stop. Before the Rebirth Through Bone Transformation, Song Dan-dan's lips had just been soft. Nothing remarkable. This was a gender-reversed world, and she was a martial artist who didn't bother adorning herself—of course she'd neglect things like lip makeup and skincare.
But now, after the transformation, she felt like a completely different person. Her lips and palms weren't merely soft; they felt supple and yielding. When she stroked, it didn't feel like human skin at all—more like being rubbed down with a high-end microfiber towel. That monotonous yet silken stimulation sent another shudder running straight down my spine.
※
I'd welcomed a prodigiously talented swordswoman as my Incarnation, and on the very first day of her contract, she had reached the realm of Rebirth Through Bone Transformation.
She grew taller, her skin transformed, and her internal mana surged so violently that there was no hiding it. Everyone inside the Academy knew. With well over a hundred Incarnations gathered for the duels, anyone with eyes couldn't have missed it.
I'd caught the Incarnation Killer and crushed the Fallen Constellation. I'd forged ties with the strongest Constellation of the Eastern Continent and the most powerful Constellation of the Northern Continent. My Incarnations were on a winning streak, and my own abilities as a Constellation had grown. Every last patient who came to the ward was healed and discharged, and a mountain of Constellations had promised repayment in turn. A smooth, problem-free daily life.
And into that daily life, a peculiar rumor began to spread.
— Sleep with Lethargic Nightmare and your talent blooms!
A truly godawful piece of bullshit, and one I couldn't openly refute.
The rumor's origin couldn't be traced, but its basis was simple enough to identify. It was Song Ye-na, who had undergone Rebirth Through Bone Transformation in barely half a day.
— Could Lethargic Nightmare possibly know more about martial arts than The Sword That Severs the Yoke?
The Sword That Severs the Yoke's female disciple, sent down from the mountain: Song Ye-na. On the first day of her contract with Lethargic Nightmare, she undergoes Rebirth Through Bone Transformation! Murim-in, knights, mages—everyone was paying attention now. Because I was known as a Dream Walker who healed souls.
How could a Constellation with zero connection to martial arts, internal power, or even basic exercise teach a swordswoman anything?
"But why Song Ye-na? Wasn't she originally Song Dan-dan?"
"Dunno. Probably changed it because it sounded too country."
"I heard the name was personally bestowed by Lethargic Nightmare."
Once the fact that Song Dan-dan had changed her name to Song Ye-na got added to the mix, the skeleton of the false rumor gained flesh and spread like wildfire.
Thus spake: He doesn't heal souls—he elevates their rank.
Thus spake: His other Incarnations grew strong because of this soul-rank-raising ability.
Thus spake: Being a beautiful male Dream Demon, he naturally uses that kind of method.
'Fuck. And I can't even say what really happened without ruining her.'
Was I supposed to just announce it openly? "Our Yena developed a voyeurism fetish and achieved inner growth through the first orgasm of her entire life~"? Be honest—how is that any different from social execution?
[Scientist So-and-So (30, devoted father), who discovered the new substance, made the breakthrough when—by chance—he ejaculated while fully nude and masturbating in his lab—]
Could you imagine a report like that getting broadcast into every living room across the nation on the nine o'clock news? Achievements, my ass. If it were me, I'd be so mortified I'd kill myself.
And what made this especially tricky was the un-ignorable truth mixed into it. The talents and Authorities that Han Ye-ji, Lee Ha-rin, and Kim Ha-eun had awakened. Right there in the message window, the text had been unmistakably clear.
[Incarnation Han Ye-ji has fully assimilated the Dream Demon's first essence.]
That's right: the Dream Demon's essence. As if "essence" here was the essence of a goddamn Choco Pie. In the first place, hadn't the method of delivering the Dream Demon's essence been sex inside a lucid dream?
The stuff about raising the soul's rank or whatever was fake, but it was true that I'd mingled bodies with my Incarnations and given them magic power and essence. And I already knew what a pain in the ass correcting false rumors was. One sentence to incite, a hundred sentences to refute. Did I really need to write a hundred sentences just for that?
It wasn't wrong that I was a Dream Demon, and it wasn't wrong that I had sex with my Incarnations.
'Maybe I should've refuted it after all.'
That rumor might've been why eyes were on me now. Not the lecherous, lingering stares of ill intent—this was desire, sure, but not the slimy kind. If anything, the emotions were fiery and passionate.
'...Feels like my dick is being treated like a faucet that drips magic elixir.'
Han Ye-ji, who once seemed unremarkable, kept expanding the scope of her growth. Lee Ha-rin, who had nothing going for her but diligence, had become an authority on ritual magic. And Kim Ha-eun—while not to Ellis's extent—had physically mutated. When you set all that against Song Ye-na's Rebirth Through Bone Transformation, the baseless rumor had ceased to be baseless.
Maybe that was why dark circles were forming under Lee Ha-rin's eyes. This was the woman who could sit at a desk for three straight days of magical research and still bounce around full of energy. But now she was fielding inquiries from every direction—Constellations, Incarnations, all kinds of people—and it was wearing her out.
'Though you brought half of this on yourself.'
By all rights, my first Incarnation, Han Ye-ji, should've been the one getting hounded. But Lee Ha-rin had taken over the external communications network and the legal proxy authority. Han Ye-ji didn't seem to have any complaints about that arrangement, so I'd just let it slide, and now all official correspondence and inquiries were funneling straight to Lee Ha-rin.
Well, Han Ye-ji was tied up with the security team rather than the Academy side, so her position was ambiguous anyway. And Kim Ha-eun had barricaded herself inside the dream-city and barely came out at all.
Speaking of which, I should go check on Kim Ha-eun while I'm at it.