Back to the Imperial Palace (5)
"Changing your appearance whenever you please — I'll grant you, that's hard to believe. It's simply too miraculous. Seeing as things have already come to this, couldn't you think of it as granting a dying man one last wish and show me?"
I knew perfectly well how deep this couple's inferiority ran — far deeper than anyone would imagine. They held the seventh seat among the Seven Evil Masters together, yet the martial world judged them a full grade beneath the other six.
"Keh-keh! To people who don't know any better, it must look like a cheap trick. You've got a point there."
"They're just jealous. Because they don't have it themselves."
My words, which had quietly elevated the Huanxu, clearly pleased them. Zhao Gu and Li Xin both nodded in agreement.
Every one of the other six Evil Masters had ascended to the Transformation Realm — true transcendents. The couple's Great Star Absorption Art, their formidable internal energy, and the Huanxu were the only reasons those six restrained themselves from open conflict. The Jianghu's verdict was unanimous: in a genuine fight, the Two Sensual Masters stood no chance against any one of the Six. There were even those who claimed the unorthodox martial world had shoehorned the pair in simply to pad out their roster of supreme masters.
"I don't believe either of you falls short of the other six in the slightest. Three Jiazi of internal energy — a mere graze from that would kill a man. And if the Divine Cult Leader or the Orthodox Alliance Leader themselves were caught by the Great Star Absorption Art, what hope would they have? They'd be taking the long road to the next world, same as anyone. Am I wrong?"
That was the situation they lived in. In raw internal energy, they were unmatched under heaven — and yet they had to sit there and swallow that kind of talk from people who would tuck their tails and flee at the mere scent of three Jiazi. Of course their insides were burning.
I was scratching that wound, coaxing it open, waiting for my opening.
"You're sharper than you look, little brother. I know flattery when I hear it, but somehow this doesn't sound like flattery at all. Don't you think so, Samae?"
Little brother? A few well-chosen words and the form of address has already changed. Simple creatures.
"I do. Young hero, the more I look at you, the more you please me. Your inner self is every bit as outstanding as your face. So hurry up and…!"
Zhao Gu's reaction was exactly what I wanted. The problem was Li Xin, licking her lips and trying to peel my clothes off. Zhao Gu was sitting right there. What kind of shameless, pestilent behavior was this — doing that in front of her own husband?
They say mastering the Great Star Absorption Art turns you into a lust demon. Is that really all that's left in their heads?
Until one of them unsealed my acupoints, I could not allow them to begin the Absorption Art. Absolutely not.
"P-people say the Huanxu is a fake, that the Two Sensual Masters just wear human-skin masks and live by ambush. Isn't that the kind of garbage they spout simply because they've never seen it with their own eyes?"
"Tsk. The ones who'd piss themselves if they ever met us, and all they've got is a mouth. They deserve to be smashed dead with a single palm."
"That's right. Just the sour talk of sore losers. The Huanxu is our pride. Look at me. Have you ever seen a woman more beautiful?"
Zhao Gu bobbed his head in vigorous agreement with my hastily thrown words. Li Xin sprang to her feet, struck a languid pose, and displayed herself.
They had completely forgotten that they had been curious about the origin of my martial arts and my sect. They were following wherever I led, answering whatever I asked — proof that my tongue had found its mark.
One hurdle cleared.
And in that moment, Li Xin truly was beautiful. Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diaochan, Yang Yuhuan — if the Four Great Beauties still walked the earth, they might have looked like this. An explosive, almost violent allure poured off her.
But what of it? That face was a product of the Huanxu. And in a little while she would be an enemy I fought to the death. Besides, my home was Yuwol Pavilion. If Li Xin had ever laid eyes on my aunts and sisters, she would have packed that nonsense away a long time ago.
"The Huanxu is the supreme art of Gongling Gate, is it not? They envy it, and they fear it, and so they slander it. If the two of you changed your faces, drew close, and then — crack! — struck with three Jiazi of power, who in the world could withstand it?"
"That's it! That's exactly it! Little brother, I like you more and more. If the younger generation of the Jianghu had even a fraction of your good sense… instead we get nothing but husks who can't tell heaven from earth. Tsk!"
They were unorthodox masters, all right. The couple did not consider ambush the least bit underhanded. To the unorthodox path, a surprise attack was something like a virtue — a fine old custom, even.
"Young hero, if you want it that badly, shall I show you?"
Got her. Li Xin had taken the bait. At last.
I felt my heart hammer with excitement and forced my breathing steady. But it was Zhao Gu who needed to demonstrate the Huanxu, not Li Xin. I had already been skin to skin with her. Not with him. I needed Zhao Gu locked in place by the technique, unable to move — then I would strike Li Xin first and finish him after. That was the only way to take them both.
"Could Zhao Daxia be the one to show me? Elder sister is so beautiful right now that if she changed, I think my heart would ache."
"Elder sister? Ho-ho-ho-ho! How does he always know just what to say? Sahyeong, shall we just keep this young hero and live with him?"
Li Xin burst into delighted laughter, genuinely pleased. I had learned that from my aunts and sisters: shave a few years off a woman's age at the right moment, and you might just win her heart.
"Keh-keh-keh! Meeting such an excellent little brother like this — what a shame, what a genuine shame! Very well. I'll make a special exception and show you the Huanxu."
"Thank you, Daxia! Could I watch from a little closer?"
"Of course. What's so difficult about that? Were you that curious about the Huanxu? Keh-keh-keh! Well, in a certain sense it is the greatest martial art of all time. Indeed it is."
Completely taken in by my words, Zhao Gu came to my side, settled into a lotus seat, and sat down. Good. He had to come. Close enough that I could reach him if I stretched out a hand.
Next I needed my acupoints unsealed — and I turned over how to coax Li Xin into doing it. My mind raced. Zhao Gu spoke again.
"Watch closely, little brother. Changing an entire face takes about half a quarter-hour. That's enough."
The instant he finished speaking, his face began to warp. One mercy: Zhao Gu could not transform in the blink of an eye. The old lecher would have to sit there like that for a good half a quarter-hour — which meant heaven itself was lending a hand to my plan. If I could seduce Li Xin into unsealing my points within that window, I could turn this entire situation around.
Which meant it was time to deliver the performance of my life.
"Hah…! It's — it's too astonishing. Elder sister! To think such a martial art exists in this world. This isn't some illusionist's trick — the flesh itself is changing!"
"Ho-ho-ho! Impressive, isn't it? The Huanxu and the Great Star Absorption Art are what raised us — we who were nothing but the lowest outer disciples of Gongling Gate — into the ranks of the Seven Evil Masters."
Anyone who knew anything knew the truth: this pair had secretly practiced a Great Star Absorption Art they had stumbled upon by chance, and when their sect discovered them they had devoured their fellow disciples, snatched the Huanxu, and fled.
"Truly magnificent. The words 'greatest of all time' don't seem wasted on it at all."
"This is the first time we've ever performed the Huanxu in front of someone else. Sahyeong must be in a wonderful mood thanks to you, young hero. Ho-ho-ho! Well then — shall we get started too?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"The truth is, we were planning to change our faces anyway now that we've come to Yingtianfu. We drained those Wudang dogs dry in Wuchang, you see. And as Sahyeong said, a proper change takes half a quarter-hour. Why sit around doing nothing? We should enjoy ourselves. Don't you think? Heung~"
"Hhk—!"
The moment Li Xin committed, an explosive wave of sensual energy burst from her face. That countenance, radiating a dizzying allure that could stop a man's breath, drifted slowly toward me.
No. I had to stop this—
"Wait! Wait a moment!"
"Young hero, don't be so tense. I haven't said it until now, but of all the men I've ever met, your appearance is the finest. Tonight, I intend to spend a very long night with you. Hu-hut."
A dizzying smile on her lips, Li Xin slipped her fingers to my waist and began to ease my trousers down.
Insane! Stop that filthy talk and just wait!
Death was bearing down on me, and I felt the blood drain from my face.
"Wait! Please, wait! If we're going to do this, I want to do it properly!"
"Hm? Properly?"
"Yes! Properly! As you can surely tell, this is my first time. I don't want to share what may be my first and last love lying here like a block of wood. Please!"
I shouted with everything I had — desperate, passionate, pouring out the greatest and most naked urgency this world had ever heard. I needed Li Xin to unseal my meridians without a shred of suspicion.
"Heung… I would prefer we did it together as well, but…"
Li Xin toyed with a lock of hair that had slipped down over her brow, letting the sentence trail away.
I swallowed a dry throat and prayed. Please. Please take the bait.
"All right! Then let's do it this way. Now where did I put it… ah! Here it is."
"Ah! Thank y— what?"
I had been about to cheer inwardly. Then I saw what Li Xin drew from her robes, and I froze. A nameless dread crawled up my spine. Cold sweat beaded along my back.
"A great many men have said the same thing you just did. And when I unsealed their points, every last one of them — a hundred out of a hundred — tried to ambush me. But I want to trust you, young hero. Still, one can never be too careful. This is an Essence-Rousing Pill. Very good for a man. Now — open wide. Ah~"
Gulp.
Li Xin stroked my throat, and the pill in my mouth slid down past my gullet in an instant.
The Essence-Rousing Pill. A vicious thing: a single dose would keep a man straining for three full days.
Insane! Damn it all!
The original plan had been to use Harmony Qi Absorption to reduce the Two Sensual Masters to a near-death state and force them to cough up the Huanxu. The pill had torn that plan to shreds. It was all or nothing now. Kill or be killed.
"Hhk—!"
A fire kindled in my belly and raced downward. Every drop of blood in my body surged toward that one place, and a savage, soul-tearing pleasure crashed over me, as if my very spirit were about to fly apart.
I had to keep my mind. If I lost consciousness, I would not be able to circulate Harmony Qi Absorption.
"Elder sister — miss! Please, the acupoints! I want to enjoy this with you…!"
I poured out my last plea on a breath that burned like lava. I could not endure much more.
"Ah, that's right! There we are. You've had your tonic, so now let's enjoy ourselves properly. Ho-ho-ho!"
In the instant my mind was about to go white—
Tup-tup-tup!
At last, Li Xin's slender, jade-like fingers unsealed the points.
The moment they opened, I thrust my hand toward her.
Chuk!
In the haze I could not tell what part of her I had seized — and I had no time to feel it. I circulated Harmony Qi Absorption at once.
In a single heartbeat, the technique struck through Li Xin's meridians like a bolt of lightning and locked her body in place.
"You — you little ra—! G-ghhk!"
Li Xin's face twisted as she realized the situation had gone wrong. That was as far as she got. A choking rattle escaped her, and her true qi began to pour out. The energy shoving in through my palm forced my meridians wide, and a monstrous pain came with it.
It was not over. There was still one more — Zhao Gu, the Sensual Wolf.
The pill's heat had turned the world in front of my eyes a raw, throbbing red. I guessed where Zhao Gu would be and thrust out my other hand.
Tchaak!
My palm smacked against Zhao Gu's flesh with a sharp crack. I had, quite unintentionally, slapped him across the face.
"Keu-heok!"
Veins bulged across Zhao Gu's face as the unexpected blow landed. He had taken an internal wound in the middle of circulating the Huanxu.
"G-ghhk!"
A different pitch, the same drowning, thrashing sound spilled from Zhao Gu's mouth. At the same instant, a colossal torrent of true qi flooded in through the Laogong point in my palm.
"Kraaagh!"
The scream tore from my throat as well. The true qi driving into me like a flood inflicted a pain I had not felt even when they cut away my manhood — as if every limb were being ripped apart and burned to ash.
Both of them together. A full six Jiazi. Six Jiazi. A quantity of internal energy no human being could endure. Five hundred years ago, even Dongfang Guihua — who had used the Sunflower Manual to ascend to the Profound Realm — had reached her limit at four.
The terror of death closed in. But I had no regrets. This had been the only way.
Damn it, Nanny… I might just…!
A short while later, in the deep of night.
Gu-guk. Gu-gu-guk.
Night birds called from a mountainside sunk in heavy dark. Through the closed cracks of a lonely, weathered shrine, a five-colored radiance spilled out, luminous and strange.
Li Xin sat neatly, her face still painted with astonishment. Zhao Gu's lotus seat had half come undone, as if he had been about to rise. One of the Sensual Wolf's cheeks was grotesquely warped. Between the two of them — both withered into sudden old age, both no longer breathing — Jin Myeong lay stretched out, perfectly straight.
It was the end of Zhao Gu and Li Xin, who to their dying breath had never dreamed that Jin Myeong had mastered the Sunflower Manual.
Sseu-euu.
And then, in that moment, the five-colored aura — crimson, black, azure, white, and gold — that had gathered around Jin Myeong's body, hovering a handspan above the floor, drew inward toward the crown of his head.