The Night the Peony Petals Scatter
I let out a soft hum, resting my chin on my hand as I admired the sight spread out before me.
A crimson rope slicing through the air. Dangling precariously at its end was Baek Mo-ran—the true owner of Monghwagak and one of Salmak’s top assassins, known as Hwa-jung-sal, the Flower-Killing Assassin.
Her snow-white, flawless body was intricately bound by the blood-red cord, not a single thread covering her. The crimson lines biting into her soft flesh accentuated her voluptuous curves with cruel, breathtaking beauty.
The sight was exactly like a dazzling butterfly pinned and preserved in a spider’s web.
Pale moonlight slipping through the bars poured secretly over her white body. At the boundary between light and shadow, the naked contours of her bound flesh writhed with unbearable density and obscenity.
Hmm. It’s been a while, but I haven’t lost my touch.
I felt deep satisfaction at the decadent spectacle I had personally crafted and nodded slowly.
“Ugh… ugh…”
How much time had passed?
The silence broke as a wet moan slipped from her previously slack lips.
“Ugh—what the hell is this?!”
Her long lashes fluttered like a butterfly’s wings, and soon her hazy, unfocused blue eyes slowly revealed themselves.
“Where… am I? Ugh?!”
The moment her wandering gaze recognized the red rope coiled around her naked body, Baek Mo-ran’s pupils dilated so wide they looked ready to tear.
“……!!”
A silent scream mixed with terror and shame.
She reflexively twisted her body, but her limbs hanging in the air betrayed their master’s will. Her major acupoints had been sealed, her inner energy completely locked away, leaving her without even the strength to twitch a single finger.
Shrrk!
The pain of the ropes constricting every part of her body made her thighs tremble and her full breasts heave violently.
“Ah, ugh!! What is this?!”
The more she struggled, the tighter the red cords dug into her white flesh, producing lewd friction sounds.
Yet even her desperate thrashing looked to me like nothing more than a masochistic dance designed to arouse.
Clink.
The sound of a teacup slowly lifting from its saucer echoed through the room.
“Finally awake?”
Slurp.
I took a sip of the steaming Wuyi rock tea, savoring it, then leisurely watched the tightly bound Baek Mo-ran struggle while the corners of my mouth curled up.
“Hello? Did you sleep well? I was getting bored waiting and wondering whether I should wake you up. Good thing you opened your eyes right on time.”
“You… you…!”
Baek Mo-ran glared at me with venomous eyes, grinding her teeth.
Her gaze was a turbulent mix of shame, rage, and instinctive fear.
“If you don’t want to die, untie me right now!!”
“Hmm. It seems you still don’t quite understand your current position.”
I set the teacup down and slowly stood up. My shadow gradually fell over her naked body.
Slide.
With the tip of the scabbard in my hand, I slowly traced upward along the smooth inner thigh that the red rope had made stand out so prominently.
Sliiide.
“Hik…!”
The moment the hard scabbard touched the softest part of her inner thigh, a low gasp escaped between Baek Mo-ran’s lips.
“Ah, no…”
The cold foreign sensation digging into her thigh flesh sent goosebumps racing across her white skin. She bit her lip to hold back, but she couldn’t stop the wet moans that burst out instinctively.
“Kuh… hng…”
“Are you starting to grasp the situation now? Master of Monghwagak. Or should I call you Hwa-jung-sal?”
I lifted her chin with the scabbard and smiled coldly.
“Hwa-jung-sal. To claim a seat among the Ten Great Assassins at such a young age. You’re certainly no ordinary talent, but you picked the wrong opponent. Heh heh…”
“……What… who are you?”
Baek Mo-ran’s voice trembled faintly with bewilderment.
“Hmm? It’s still too early to be this surprised.”
I clicked my tongue and spoke in a chilling tone.
“Salmak’s Rule Number Three. Never reveal your blade until you have perfectly gathered all information on the target.”
“……!!”
“You broke the most basic principle, and this is what happens. That old fox, the One-Eyed Maidservant Han Ja-kyung, must have taught her disciple poorly. Or are you simply an idiot?”
The moment I casually rattled off Salmak’s internal information and even mentioned the true name of their branch master—something almost no one outside the organization knew—Baek Mo-ran’s pupils turned deathly white with shock.
“Who… exactly are you? How do you know such classified information—”
“Well, never mind that.”
I lightly ignored her question and moved the tip of the scabbard in my hand.
Sliiide.
The cold, hard metal slid down her prominent collarbone and slowly dug into the soft, abundant valley between her breasts.
“Hik, ugh…!”
When the most sensitive flesh was pressed, Baek Mo-ran’s waist arched like a bow.
Enjoying her reaction, I pressed the scabbard firmly between her breasts and whispered softly.
“Recently the branch master issued orders to establish brothels across the Central Plains and gather the guests’ true qi, correct? And to tear them all down before the year ends.”
“……Hya, ugh!”
“It wasn’t just that idiot known as Number Forty-Eight who spilled the beans. I know all your secrets—secrets you don’t even know I know.”
It was all thanks to the time I had spent as Wi Yeon-seol, deeply entangled with Salmak’s assassins in the most vicious ways.
In front of me, who knew their disgusting habits, their physiology, and even the hidden bases not marked on any map, Baek Mo-ran—though promising—was still nothing more than an adorable, inexperienced chick.
“You’re a direct assassin under the branch master, one of the Three Ghost Killers. You must be operating under the orders of the Yin Snake Ghost, Sado Yun. After all, he’s the only one in Salmak who would come up with such dirty, insidious schemes.”
“Th-that…?!”
Baek Mo-ran’s pupils shook violently as if struck by an earthquake.
It wasn’t just organizational knowledge. I spoke as if I had stood beside her superior and watched his personality and methods firsthand. She stared at me like she was looking at a ghost.
“He must be around forty by now, right?”
I clicked my tongue and shook my head.
“What a disgusting bastard. Even thirty years ago he was already doing these filthy things. Must be hard working under a dog like that.”
Just thinking about his filthy face made me nauseous, and a deep sigh escaped my lips.
“…Ah, ugh…!”
Baek Mo-ran froze with her mouth hanging open as if her jaw had come unhinged.
The emotion rising in her eyes went beyond fear—it was pure horror. She seemed to forget for a moment that she was bound and opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out except a single choked gasp.
“Speak. Why are you gathering true qi?”
“Ugh, I-I don’t know! I was only following orders!”
Baek Mo-ran desperately shook her head in denial, but her bound body couldn’t lie. Her rapidly rising and falling chest and the faint trembling of her pupils revealed her true feelings completely.
“You don’t know?”
Whoosh.
I threw the scabbard in my hand to the floor without hesitation.
Then I slowly reached out with my empty hand and gently cupped her trembling chin.
“Hngh……”
Her skin against my palm was burning hot and slick with cold sweat. I rubbed her plump lower lip with my thumb as if grinding it and whispered softly into her ear.
“Then shall we play until something comes to mind?”
Slide.
I extended my index finger, persistently circling near her earlobe before beginning to tease the plump, heat-moistened lobe.
“Hng, uht…?”
Her shoulders jerked at the unexpected sensation, but I didn’t give her any room. I slid my finger down and dug deeply into the well-like hollow of her collarbone.
Sliiiide.
“…Haah…!”
“Ahaha, does it feel good? This is only the beginning.”
My hand, which had been gently stroking her body, didn’t stop. It moved past her collarbone, along the taut muscles of her arm, and headed inward.
“Ah, ugh, th-there…!!”
The place my fingers reached was the most secret and tender flesh inside her armpit.
I slowly caressed that sensitive spot that had made countless women scream with just a touch, scraping it lightly with my nail. Baek Mo-ran twisted as if her waist would snap and bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood in an attempt to swallow the cry that threatened to burst out.
Tremble.
She might have held back her voice, but the pleasure invading her body could not lie.
Her two hands clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned white as she fought the pleasure scrambling her mind. Her white toes, dangling in the air, curled up like fern fronds, unable to endure the ecstasy.
“Ha, haaht…!”
With a face flushed red and breathing ragged, Baek Mo-ran forced venom into her hazy eyes and snorted.
“Hmph! Even if I look like this, I’m the top courtesan of Ningbo. I’ve faced countless men and gone through every hardship imaginable. You think such clumsy finger play is going to affect me?”
“Oh? Is that so?”
Seeing her lift her chin and try to look tough was rather cute. I smiled brightly and removed my fingers from her body.
As expected, unlike Yeon-jin, she seems to have quite a bit of resistance to stimulation.
Then how about this?
Without warning, I caught her white earlobe between my lips.
“Aah?!”
The moment I nibbled on it with my teeth, Baek Mo-ran’s body stiffened.
From her reactions so far, it was clear her weakness was her ears.
Chomp, sluuuurp.
Like a starving snake forcing its way into a narrow burrow, I thrust my hot, wet tongue deep into her ear canal and stirred. The lewd, sticky sound of mucous membrane and tongue tangling right beside her eardrum rang out shamelessly.
“Hya, hyaaaang—!! Haup…!”
From the mouth of the woman who had been acting tough just moments ago came a high, sharp cry she herself could never have imagined.
She immediately clamped her mouth shut in shock, but the water had already been spilled.
“My, my. The great Hwa-jung-sal can make such adorable sounds. I thought nothing would affect you?”
“Uht, s-stop…!”
I grabbed her bound breasts from behind as she struggled to pull away and nibbled at the white skin of her nape with wet lips.
Slurp, suck, slurp…
Together with the obscene sounds of wet saliva sliding over heated female flesh, Baek Mo-ran’s overflowing moans filled the room.
“Hya, uht, haahk, aahng, ha, aaah…!!”
For about half a teacup’s worth of time, I thoroughly violated every inch of her body while observing her adorable reactions. Only then, with a satisfied smile, did I slowly pull away.
“Huu… ugh… haa…!!”
Where the stimulation had vanished, only empty longing and lingering sensation remained. Baek Mo-ran breathed heavily with a strange expression mixing relief and disappointment.
Step, step.
I turned away from the sight and walked leisurely toward the table.
Swish.
I picked up the blue-green liquor bottle on the table and shook it deliberately in front of Baek Mo-ran. The clear liquid sloshed with a low sound.
“Bamboo Leaf Clear. Indeed, it would be a shame to just leave such precious liquor untouched, wouldn’t it?”
“……!!”
In an instant, Baek Mo-ran’s flushed red face turned deathly pale.
“N-no…! Put that away…!”
Her voice cracked desperately.
She shook her head wildly, struggling so hard she forgot the pain of the ropes biting into her flesh. Tears welled up in her eyes.
“Why? You were planning to feed this to me, weren’t you? It would be nice if our dear Mo-ran got a taste too.”
“No, no—stop—”
Her face ashen, she tried to turn her head away, but my hand was faster.
I tilted the jade bottle, filled my mouth with the powerfully fragrant Bamboo Leaf Clear, and without giving her a chance to refuse, swallowed her terrified lips whole.
“Ugh, mmmph…!”
Two red lips pressed together without a gap.
Baek Mo-ran tried to clench her teeth and block the entrance, but my tongue forced its way in before she could move, prying her teeth apart.
Gulp, glug…
The cold yet burning liquid pooled in my mouth poured into hers like a broken dam.
“Hup, ugh!”
She tried to spit it out. I tried to feed it to her.
The sticky sound of our mixed saliva and strong liquor filled our ears. Transparent drops of alcohol that leaked from the corners of our mouths trickled down our chins and necks.
“Mmph, mmph!!”
Baek Mo-ran struggled violently in resistance, but just before she ran out of breath, her survival instinct forced her to surrender.
Gulp. Gulp.
In the silent room, the sound of her throat working echoed obscenely.
Every time her slender, long neck rippled, tears flowed from her despairing eyes.
“Hngh, hng… uuuuugh…”
Only after making her swallow every last drop did I finally pull my lips away and wipe the silver thread of saliva from my hand with the back of it.
“Cough! Hack, cough! Kk, ugh…!”
Baek Mo-ran coughed violently as if the strong liquor had gone down the wrong way, burning deep into her lungs.
She desperately opened her mouth to gulp fresh air, but even the breath she drew in was already heated by her own body temperature.
“Huu……”
I frowned and wiped away the sweat rolling down my forehead.
Perhaps because I had swallowed a few drops myself while forcing it on her. A dizzying haze swirled in my head, and a heavy, simmering heat rose from deep in my lower abdomen. A strange, moist sensation began to bloom between my legs.
That’s brutal. Just a few drops and it’s already this bad.
If my body was reacting like this, I could easily imagine what state Baek Mo-ran was in after gulping down a full mouthful.
“Haa, ugh…!! Aah…!!!”
Just as expected.
Baek Mo-ran’s eyes lost focus in an instant and turned completely hazy.
“No, it’s… hngaaang, so hooot…!!! Haang!!”
A sticky moan mixed with pain, pleasure, and unbearable desire. The muscles of her inner thighs convulsed uncontrollably.
She twisted her body like a fish thrown onto a hot pan, still bound in midair.
“….Aaaaaahng!!! Hurry, touch me, touch me, hurryyyyy!!!”
The drug had invaded her brain. Baek Mo-ran looked at me with the lust-crazed eyes of a bitch in heat.
Slide.
However, I pressed my lips right against her ear and delivered the most cruel yet sweet verdict.
“Now then, try to endure from here on out.”
“…Ah? U-ugh, w-what do you…?! Haaaaang?!!!!”
With those words, I took a step back from her.
Cold neglect.
That was the most sadistic torture I could give her.
“Hng, ugh, haahk, ah, hk…! It’s hot, I’m going crazy, I’m losing my mind, my head is breaking…!”
I sat with my arms crossed, simply watching the beautiful flower scatter and fall apart.
“Aah, aahng! Please…! Please, please save me, aaaaaah!!!”
Her body traveled between hell and heaven every second. The fierce heat flowing through her veins set her entire body on fire. Even the slightest movement of air became stimulation. Her sensitive skin was swollen to the point of bursting.
Tremble, tremble.
She writhed helplessly in the air, but every twist only made the ropes dig deeper into her flesh, fanning the flames of pleasure even more.
Her body was completely out of control. From her half-open mouth, saliva poured down her chin like a flood.
Drip. Drip.
And most humiliating of all—the evidence of her submission to pleasure.
Sticky, transparent honey flowed from the petals between her legs, running down her inner thighs and forming a small puddle on the floor.
Even if she wanted to comfort herself, her limbs were bound. There was nothing she could do. Trapped in that terrible deprivation, she crumbled before my eyes. I simply watched with calm detachment.
“Save me, hngh, please… Little Sword Empress, Lady Seol-hye… please…”
She sobbed and shook her head violently toward me.
There was no longer any trace of the pride of a Salmak assassin in her unfocused, hazy blue eyes.
“There, right there, hk, please touch me, please touch it, I beg you… please…”
Faced with the desperate plea of a female ruled only by instinct, I rose slowly from my seat with a cruel smile on my lips.
“Hmm. Have you finally developed the desire to talk?”
With my hands behind my back, I approached Baek Mo-ran at a leisurely pace. Her naked body, drenched in sweat and love juices, glistened pathetically under the moonlight.
Sliiiiiide.
I reached out and slowly ran a single finger down her narrow, sweat-slicked spine.
“Haaaaang—!”
A single brush. Just one finger touching her, and she convulsed as if she were a live fish thrown onto a hot skillet. The drug must have heightened her senses dozens of times over.
I brought my lips close to her trembling, wet ear and whispered sweetly in a gentle voice.
“Let’s make a deal. I’ll give you what you want so badly.”
“Aahng, haaang…! G-give it, give it to meee…!”
“But in return, you will speak.”
My finger gently stroked her tightly arched waist and moved downward.
“The reason and method behind gathering true qi. The number and locations of the brothels connected to Salmak’s plans, including this one. And why they must be torn down before the year ends. Tell me everything. Leave nothing out.”
I pressed firmly on the spot just above the cleft of her buttocks—the place women felt most sharply—and gave the order slowly yet firmly.
“Haa, ugh, ugh… haa, aaah…”
Her mind already paralyzed by the aphrodisiac, Baek Mo-ran’s thoughts were a complete mess. Refusing my command was impossible. To survive—or rather, to beg for pleasure—she instinctively opened her mouth.
“I-I don’t know the exact number… There are roughly twenty places across the Central Plains. The locations differ by branch, so I don’t know them all…! Haaang, aah, I d-don’t knooooow…! Haaaa…”
“Why tear them down?”
I nibbled on her wet earlobe and pressed for an answer.
“Aaaahng!!! The Extinction Demon Guard! Yes, the Extinction Demon Guard! To avoid their eyes, Lord Sado Yun said…! We must not be discovered…!!”
“Must not be discovered? Is that related to the reason and method of gathering true qi? Answer quickly.”
“I really don’t know the reason…!”
She shook her head frantically, sobbing between pleasure and pain.
“One day Lord Sado Yun said it was an important mission. He taught me and my subordinates the Flower-Plundering Art, a kind of dual cultivation technique, and sent us here…!! He said the existence of the Flower-Plundering Art must never be discovered… ugh, please, that’s enough, Lady Seol-hye, please do something about meeee…!”
“……!”
Baek Mo-ran writhed pitifully as if she would lick my feet, but I did not answer her plea right away.
The unexpected word that had just left her mouth rang sharply in my ears.
“……Flower-Plundering Art?”
My eyes flashed. I asked her quietly once more.
