Forbidden Love
"Beating an innocent man? What sect are you from?"
Yi Yeok frowned.
"And how would you know whether he's innocent?"
The girl flared and lit into him.
"You can torment someone in broad daylight and still stand there so brazen? It's people like you who make the world this vicious—who've driven all the love and warmth out of it!"
Yi Yeok didn't answer. He had only just returned after so long, and already he was running into precisely the sort of people he least wanted to deal with.
"Apologize, right now! Don't think being a little strong means you can look down on the whole world! There is such a thing as justice. I will not tolerate someone like you crushing people with force!"
"Young lady, please calm yourself."
The man who had been sprawled on the ground under Yi Yeok's beating rose as if nothing at all were wrong with him.
"This Orabeoni didn't mean any harm, either. Truth is, I was the one who started it."
"Kyaa!"
The girl shrieked and clapped her hands over her eyes.
"Why aren't you wearing any clothes?!"
Tang Sam hastily covered the important parts.
"Don't misunderstand. I don't like women."
Yi Yeok stared, startled. He hadn't meant to kill the man, but far from knocking him out, he didn't seem to have landed any real damage at all.
The man bowed to him with perfect courtesy.
"My name is Tang Sam. Orabeoni's face was so breathtaking that I forgot myself. Please forgive me."
Yi Yeok scowled and took a step back. The girl glared at him.
"Learn from his manners. You hit him, and instead of calling you out he apologized first. And you? Rude, foul-tempered, and violent."
"Please... could the two of you just get out of my sight?"
Yi Yeok's head was beginning to pound.
Tang Sam's voice went soft and sweet.
"Orabeoni, I understand how you feel. Truth is, I didn't used to know I liked men either. More precisely, I had a hard time accepting that about myself. But one day..."
"Shut up!"
Before he knew it, Yi Yeok had slapped him across the face.
Shhk! The girl's sword qi split the air and closed around him, but he launched himself backward and slipped clear of it without so much as a nick.
She rounded on him, shaking with fury.
"I really hate people like you! Hitting someone over some narrow-minded prejudice! You can't treat him like that just because he likes men. The world needs love. What's wrong with men loving each other? I think it's wonderful, actually."
In that instant Tang Sam drove a palm strike at her.
She yelped and dodged.
"You dare attack Orabeoni? Do you want to die?"
The girl was dumbfounded.
"I was trying to help you!"
Yi Yeok drew a long breath and forced his temper down.
"I'm asking nicely. Both of you, get out of my sight. I am exercising the greatest patience of my entire life right now, and even I don't know when it runs out."
"Orabeoni, what about me do you dislike so much? I'll fix it—just tell me."
"For the love of—shut up!"
Watching the two of them, the girl's eyes lit up. A man mad with obsession, and a man playing cold. In a heartbeat her imagination took flight.
Yi Yeok's face twisted into something ugly.
"Do you really have to die before you'll close your mouth?"
"If it's for Orabeoni, I don't mind dying."
"Then I'll grant your wish."
"I understand. You'd rather kill me, so my devotion stays pure forever. Isn't that it?"
The girl pressed a hand to her pounding heart. Were they fighting over the role each of them wanted?
"Look at him. He's giving you his whole heart, so why do you have to be so cold? Things like roles—you can just take turns and share them nicely!"
Yi Yeok tilted his head. He had no idea what she was talking about.
Tang Sam's eyes sparkled.
"Orabeoni, for you I can play any role there is. Won't you give me just one chance?"
Yi Yeok slipped a hand into his sleeve and closed it around Yojiyu. The girl cut in.
"That's right. There's no need to lean so hard to one side. Sharing the roles and letting the relationship grow that way isn't a bad thing at all."
Yi Yeok was at a loss. He couldn't make sense of a single word either of them was saying. The only thing he was sure of was the deep revulsion crawling through him.
In the end he drew Yojiyu.
"I've warned you enough. Die now, and that's not on me. There is a thing in this world called the principle of yin and yang."
He moved like lightning.
"Remember it clearly in your next life!"
In a flash he was behind Tang Sam. Blood sprayed, and a long wound opened across Tang Sam's back.
Yi Yeok arched a brow and retreated. To his surprise, he realized Tang Sam had reached the realm of Unity of Heaven and Man. His reactions were astonishingly fast.
The girl's eyes went wide. Attacking hard enough to draw blood—shocking, and yet this turn of the story was rather interesting too. Unable to accept a forbidden feeling, he'd warped it into killing intent. How thrilling!
Tang Sam looked at him with a wounded, reproachful face.
"Do you hate me that much?"
Yi Yeok took one step forward and vanished again. Yojiyu grazed the back of Tang Sam's hand and opened a cut deep enough to show bone.
Tang Sam screamed.
"It hurts! Orabeoni, it hurts so much!"
Yi Yeok frowned. The wound on the back of Tang Sam's hand was closing at a frightening speed. The blood over the cut writhed strangely, then stitched itself shut in an instant, as if a needle were drawing thread through flesh. The gash on his back would be no different.
"Hey. Could you put some clothes on?"
"Of course. If that's what Orabeoni wants."
Tang Sam spread both hands, and in a blink he was dressed again. Only then did Yi Yeok notice that Tang Sam also carried a Ring of Heaven and Earth. The girl let out a sigh that sounded oddly disappointed.
"The weapon's small, but it's certainly sharp and hard."
"More than the likes of you can handle."
Her eyes sparkled brighter still.
Yi Yeok vanished once more. Wind kicked up around Tang Sam, and a blade-like force tore through in an instant. The clothes he had only just put on were rags a moment later.
Her eyes now blazed like the sun.
So he'd told him to get dressed just so he could tear them off himself!
Tang Sam brought his hands together, drew up his blood qi, and raised a square barrier. Yi Yeok split it at once and sent him flying more than ten zhang.
Before Tang Sam could even struggle to his feet, Yi Yeok was on him, aiming for his face. Tang Sam hastily opened his mouth and fired a beam of light.
Yi Yeok sidestepped and moved to strike again, but the girl's sword qi cut across his path.
"Stop! Are you actually trying to kill him? End it like this and people will curse your name for the rest of your life!"
Yi Yeok scowled, turned, and was in front of her in a flash. Yojiyu gleamed cold as it leveled at her throat. He meant to subdue her first.
In that instant his body locked. It felt as if he had been sealed inside a wall of solid rock. Tang Sam rushed in and shoved him aside.
When Yi Yeok came back to himself, Tang Sam was standing where he had been. A blood-red sword had run straight through Tang Sam's right arm.
"Ow—that hurts!"
Tang Sam's scream rang out. A young woman in red silk much like the girl's had appeared, and she drew back the Blood Spirit Sword lodged in his arm.
"Yoyo. What is all this commotion?"
"Master, that scoundrel was tormenting an innocent man, so I..."
The woman glanced at Tang Sam, who had taken the blow in Yi Yeok's place, and tilted her head.
"The two of them look like they're together."
"That's... it's a forbidden feeling. Rather hard to explain in words..."
The woman looked as if she understood none of it.
Sensing that she was an expert of no small caliber, Yi Yeok turned away without a second thought.
"I'll let it go at this, for today."
But in a blink she was standing in his path.
"You raise a ruckus in the domain of the Jareung Immortal Sect and imagine you can simply run?"
A crease formed between Yi Yeok's brows. The Jareung Immortal Sect—together with the Cheonho Immortal Sect and the Guryeong Immortal Sect, one of the Three Great High Immortal Sects.
He brought his hands together and began to chant.
Blood qi roared through his body. A colossal Buddha rose at his back, and a palm vast as a mountain came crashing down upon the woman.
"The Great Sun Tathagata Divine Palm...?"
She was shaken. She had never imagined that someone from whom she could sense not a trace of Buddha-nature would wield a technique like this.
With a thunderous crash she threw up her hands to block, but the alien force, taken unprepared, blasted her away.
A drawn-out fight would leave him no chance of winning. Yi Yeok charged in at once and hurled Yojiyu.
She barely righted herself, only to have to dodge the dagger as it twisted without cease along a path no one could predict. Something felt wrong. Her brow twitched. A hair-thin thread was strung out behind Yojiyu.
But it was already too late.
Yi Yeok recalled the dagger and yanked the Dark Gold Thread with all his strength.
Wham! The woman slammed into the earth, her face gone pale. Before she knew it, the Dark Gold Thread had her bound tight.
"Master!"
Yoyo cried out in shock and lunged at Yi Yeok, but he hauled the woman along and fled at a speed Yoyo had no hope of matching.