Who Is the One Being Hunted?
"Go ahead and drink."
Baek Mo-ran extended the jade cup with a serene smile, pretending as if nothing was amiss.
It was a flawless performance—no flicker in her eyes, not a single tremor in her fingertips. Yet beneath those lavish silk robes, her heart hammered wildly out of control.
Drink it. Drink. Chug every last drop…!
Baek Mo-ran of Salmak’s Ten Great Assassins, the one they called the Flower-Killing Assassin for the murderous intent she hid within beauty. That was the true face concealed behind the mask of Monghwagak’s finest courtesan.
With her exquisite assassination techniques and singular allure, she had claimed the lives of countless masters. Though she occupied the lowest seat among them, she had earned her place among the Ten Great Assassins at the tender age of twenty.
Yet the instincts forged through merciless training were now screaming inside her skull.
This is dangerous. This woman is dangerous.
Seol-hye. Had it not been for the sect leader’s absolute command to seize the true qi of martial artists regardless of righteous or demonic affiliation, Baek Mo-ran would never have allowed herself to come within a sleeve’s breadth of such a perilous presence.
She claimed to be a disciple of the Buddhist sect, yet the aura radiating from her was beyond strange—it was lethally seductive.
A peerless beauty like a descended immortal. A dense, intoxicating sensuality that contradicted that purity. And above all, an artistry so refined it could toy with even someone like Baek Mo-ran…
She’s no ordinary woman. First I’ll extract her qi, then I’ll peel back her secrets.
She was clearly not an average Buddhist disciple, yet she was no demonic practitioner either. The pure, bone-chilling energy she had displayed earlier was unmistakably the inner power of the orthodox path—impossible to imitate.
“They say your heart is divided in two.”
The single verse Seol-hye had recited had felt like a blade pressed against her heart. Those icy eyes that had watched her while plucking the instrument’s strings were both an elegant declaration of war and a quiet threat that closed around her throat.
A heart split in two directions. The assassin’s true nature hidden behind a courtesan’s smile. The killing intent concealed beneath laughter.
Baek Mo-ran swallowed the dry anxiety burning in her throat and waited for the precise moment those white fingers would touch the cup.
She may have noticed.
This woman knows I harbor other intentions. She might even suspect the wine is tainted.
But none of that mattered. Whatever scheme she was plotting, the victor had already been decided.
I don’t know who you really are, but this is already over…!
Baek Mo-ran’s gaze flicked toward the incense burner quietly smoldering in the corner.
Dream Fantasy Incense. A bewitching aroma that clouded the drinker’s judgment and eroded reason.
The effects should be showing any moment now.
Once the incense had invaded her mind, Seol-hye would obey without question. But that alone was not enough.
The green bamboo-leaf wine Baek Mo-ran had offered contained Salmak’s secret arts dissolved in its blue depths—the Scattered Qi Poison that would disperse every trace of energy in the dantian, and the supreme Taiyin Pleasure Powder that could make even the most chaste widow soak her thighs and howl like a beast in heat.
Drink it.
The instant that proud woman who called herself a Buddhist disciple swallowed this, she would crawl at Baek Mo-ran’s feet and reveal her true nature. The mask would fall away, leaving only the bare, panting face of a bitch in heat…!
Baek Mo-ran’s eyes flashed with cruel satisfaction.
……
Seol-hye accepted the cup.
Her red lips touched the cold rim of the jade vessel. After staring at the rippling blue liquid for a moment, she tilted her pale neck back without hesitation.
Gulp. Gulp.
In the silent room, the sound of the wine sliding down her throat rang out with unnatural clarity. Each time that slender throat bobbed, Baek Mo-ran’s pupils quivered with victory.
Perfect!
She cheered inwardly and forced down the laughter threatening to burst free.
“Ah… ugh…?”
The moment the cup left her lips, Seol-hye’s crimson eyes glazed over dreamily. She staggered, trying to set the vessel down, but strength had already fled her fingers. The cup slipped from her grasp and shattered against the floor.
Crash!
Shards of jade scattered in every direction as blue wine soaked the carpet. Though Seol-hye had clearly drunk a considerable amount, the puddle on the floor was strangely large. To Baek Mo-ran, drunk on triumph, it merely looked like the pathetic sight of prey whose hands had gone limp from the drug.
“Ugh… haa……”
A suppressed moan tore from Seol-hye’s lips. Heat flared instantly, dyeing her previously porcelain face and neck a rich peach hue.
“Haaang… haaahk……!!”
She clutched her chest as if to stifle the wet sounds escaping her, but the motion only accentuated the voluptuous curves beneath the thin fabric.
Hot breath leaked between her parted lips. Something unbearable seemed to race up her spine; she twisted her smooth calves together beneath her skirt, legs knotting in desperation.
Thud.
Her body finally lost balance and collapsed onto the sheepskin rug. Fingers braced against the floor turned deathly white. Hot saliva dripped like silk threads from her open mouth.
“Ahu… uung……”
With every ragged breath her breasts heaved. Between the disheveled folds of cloth, dazzling white thighs lay shamelessly exposed.
Skin flushed crimson, sweat-dampened hair clinging to her forehead, features twisted in ecstasy—the sight resembled a spring painting capturing the exact moment an ascetic Buddhist practitioner fell into the swamp of corruption.
It was so pitiful, so breathtakingly erotic, that even Baek Mo-ran—a woman—momentarily lost her breath. She did not even notice her own cheeks burning in sympathy.
“Uuu… it’s so hooot……”
Seol-hye had already lost her mind. Her half-lidded eyes wandered without focus. Transparent saliva trailed from her lips and slid down her chin.
She writhed across the floor like a creature in heat, then looked up at Baek Mo-ran with eyes drenched in lust.
“Save… me… my body’s… so hot… I’m going crazy……!”
The voice was so seductively obscene it sent a shiver down Baek Mo-ran’s spine despite their shared gender. She stared, momentarily entranced.
“…Ugh.”
She bit her lip hard and whipped her head away. A strange mixture of defeat and relief at having successfully captured her prey surged in her chest.
Snap.
The moment she flicked her fingers dryly through the air, the landscape scroll on the wall split apart. A hidden door yawned open from the darkness.
Creeeeak—
A massive shadow spilled into the room.
Thump.
The man who entered had rough brownish skin and muscles swollen to the point of bursting. Cruelty lurked in his viciously twisted eyes like a beast’s.
The instant he stepped inside, his gaze locked onto the moaning woman rolling on the floor like iron filings to a magnet.
“Kyah…! Fuck, this is prime.”
He licked his lips with a thick tongue, yellow teeth glinting.
Like a starving predator before fresh meat, his greedy stare had already stripped her bare.
“I wondered why you summoned me. What a jackpot. Wow, she’s the best I’ve seen in my entire life.”
His voice dripped with raw lust. The air itself seemed to thicken under the unpleasant weight of his gaze.
Baek Mo-ran frowned in open disgust and spat coldly, as if looking at an insect.
“Wipe your drool, Number Forty-Eight. You’re dirtying the floor.”
“Hehe, sorry. My cock got so hard I forgot myself.”
“She calls herself a Buddhist disciple, but something feels off. Violate her first. Once her pride is completely shattered, we’ll interrogate her at leisure.”
The man’s eyes gleamed at the suggestion. He chuckled and adjusted his trousers with rough hands.
“Heh heh. A Buddhist disciple? The taste of defiling a woman who once ate Buddha’s rice must be exquisite.”
Number Forty-Eight approached with a glistening smile. He wrapped a crude hand around the fallen woman’s waist and lifted her as easily as a feather.
Flump.
“Uung…! Hik…!”
Thrown onto the bed, Seol-hye clutched the blankets, unable to control her burning body. The man tore off his upper garment as though his reason had snapped.
Over scar-covered brown skin, rock-hard, rugged muscles writhed with oppressive power.
“Lady Baek Mo-ran, this is truly a premium specimen.”
He ran his gaze over her soft curves and exhaled roughly in admiration.
“In all my years with Salmak, I’ve never tasted a woman this fine. Even if I die today, I’ll have no regrets…?!”
Still unable to calm his excitement, he spoke while halfway through removing his pants.
“From my perspective it’s a blessing to be allowed to ravish women freely, but are there no further orders from above? From the sect leader…”
“Shut your worthless mouth.”
Baek Mo-ran’s voice dropped to a dangerous register. Her sharp eyes pierced him.
“That bitch is still conscious and you’re flapping your gums? Do you want your tongue cut out?”
“Ayy, you worry too much.”
Number Forty-Eight waved his hand with a giggle.
“After drinking the Taiyin Pleasure Powder, how could she possibly be sane? She probably can’t even hear my voice right now.”
“…Hmm.”
Baek Mo-ran glanced sharply toward the bed.
“Aang, haa, aaaaa…!”
Glazed crimson eyes, transparent saliva drooling from slack lips, a woman twisting her waist in open pursuit of pleasure with no regard for shame.
To any observer she was nothing more than a bitch pickled in carnal desire, utterly devoid of reason.
Baek Mo-ran waved a hand before Seol-hye’s eyes, but the woman merely panted while staring into empty space.
Yes. No matter how powerful an expert, once they reach this state…
Only then did she completely dispel the lingering unease in her chest and nod.
Slide.
Chuckling, the man roughly seized Seol-hye’s spread legs and lifted them high.
“By the way, Lady Baek Mo-ran. Honestly, doesn’t this mission feel strange?”
He stroked her smooth thigh with a calloused hand as he spoke.
“No matter how perfect a brothel is for gathering intelligence and carrying out assassinations, suddenly ordering us to build pleasure houses across the Central Plains and harvest the guests’ qi with some unknown color technique…”
The man tilted his head, genuinely puzzled.
“I cannot fathom what the sect leader is thinking. We broke our backs building them, only to be told to tear everything down and withdraw before the year is out? What kind of waste is that?”
……
Baek Mo-ran’s eyes narrowed like a serpent’s. Her white hand stealthily closed around the hilt of the dagger hidden in her sleeve.
“Number Forty-Eight. Ask one more question and I will deem your loyalty to Salmak compromised.”
Her single sentence froze the air in the room.
“Close your mouth and finish what you started.”
At the killing intent behind the warning, the man pretended to flinch and retreated.
“Tsk, understood. Can’t even joke around. You’re so strict.”
He shrugged with a hearty laugh. Yet the moment he turned his head, he licked his lips and swept a lewd, insolent gaze over Baek Mo-ran’s entire body.
Hmph. Acting all lofty. One day I’ll break that pride of yours.
With a stare so sticky and profane it needed no words, he smacked his lips and looked back at her.
“By the way, Lady Baek Mo-ran, won’t you join us?”
“What?”
“It seems a waste to enjoy such fine prey alone. She looks like she has considerable inner power. Wouldn’t it be better if the two of us took her together?”
“Have you gone insane?”
Baek Mo-ran let out a stunned laugh and snorted.
“I’ve lived long enough to hear every kind of filth. You want me to couple with another woman? I absolutely refuse.”
She frowned and waved her hand dismissively.
“Enjoy her to your heart’s content. We need to find out what scheme brought her here, so don’t break her too severely like last time and render her mute.”
“Understood. Then please leave the interrogation after the deed to me as well.”
Licking his lips greedily, the man reached his rough hand toward Seol-hye’s full breasts.
“A beautiful woman writhing in agony is always a magnificent sight.”
The instant Number Forty-Eight’s crude grip seized her ample breast as if to crush it, a piercing moan tore from Seol-hye’s red lips.
“Aht! Ahng!”
Her face flushed deep red, a mixture of pain and pleasure; her eyelashes trembled. That erotic reaction completely severed the last thread of the man’s reason.
“Kya, what a reaction! Then I won’t hold back and will—
The moment the man opened his mouth like a beast to bite her crimson lips—
An earth-shaking roar split the air as blinding golden light flooded the room.
“……?!”
Baek Mo-ran, already turning to leave, whipped her head around in shock.
What she saw was impossible.
“Kuh, kek……!”
The man vomited black blood and fragments of internal organs. His massive body, which had been gleaming with greed only seconds earlier, convulsed where it lay pinned to the floor.
Slide.
And Seol-hye—who had appeared to be in heat like a bitch in estrus, trembling with half her mind gone—had at some point risen. She sat languidly on the edge of the bed and let out a soft sigh.
“Huu……”
Her disheveled clothes and flushed cheeks remained, yet the weight of the aura surrounding her had completely changed.
Suuuk.
She lifted her head and fixed her gaze on Baek Mo-ran.
The dreamy glaze had vanished from her pupils. In their place burned a fierce red glow that evoked a demon crawling up from the abyss of hell.
“You were telling quite an interesting story.”
Seol-hye casually wiped the saliva from the corner of her mouth and smirked. Her eyes were so clear and transparent that the frenzied display from moments ago felt like a lie.
“Salmak? Collecting the guests’ qi? And tearing down this brothel?”
“Y-you bitch……!”
Baek Mo-ran felt as if her entire body had been paralyzed by fear.
She had been utterly deceived. This woman had heard everything from the very beginning…!
Dangerous!
Before she could even process the situation, her hand instinctively drew the hidden weapon from her sleeve.
“Die!!”
Ching, papapat!
A dozen poison needles laced with blue toxin fanned out like a peacock’s tail and shot toward Seol-hye’s vital points with lightning speed.
Yet the inescapable formation of absolute death pierced only an afterimage left on the bed.
“Is this all you have?”
“What… what are you…?!”
With graceful, dance-like movements, Seol-hye caught every remaining needle between her fingers and examined them with mild interest.
“First-rate realm at your age. Impressive. However—”
The moment she dropped the needles to the floor, the space behind her rippled.
Pure orthodox energy without a single impurity, yet dyed the color of fresh blood. It bloomed like a crimson lotus that had drunk the lives of thousands instead of holy water.
Baek Mo-ran’s pupils shook violently.
Impossible…
A woman who looked no older than herself possessed inner power that surpassed most peak experts in the martial world…?!
I must escape!
The moment terror-driven instinct made her try to retreat, the red afterimage before her vanished like a mirage.
“Where—?!”
Thud!
A lightning-like impact struck the back of her neck.
“Kuh, huk……”
With a short groan, Baek Mo-ran lost consciousness and collapsed. Until the very end, her eyes held nothing but pure, abyssal terror.