The Woman with Sturdy Thighs
“Chohyang's mom! Chohyang's mom! A big shot from the Murim Alliance is here! He's come to catch the demon! Chohyang's mom!”
The village head ran ahead, shouting at the top of his lungs as if the whole village might up and leave.
I kept a suitable distance from him, following slowly behind.
The commotion drew the villagers out one by one, heads poking from doors and windows, wondering what was going on.
“Chohyang's mom! Chohyang's mom!”
“What's got the head so worked up?”
“What happened?”
By the time the head reached a humble thatched hut, dozens of villagers had trailed cautiously behind me.
“Chohyang's mom! You in there? Oh no, if you've already gone to cremate her, we're in trouble!”
Creak.
As the head stamped his feet in frustration, a frail woman on her last legs shuffled weakly out of the hut.
“What is it, village head?”
“Oh! Chohyang's mom! Where's Chohyang? You haven't cremated her already, have you?”
“...Not yet.”
“Good! That's good! Sir warrior! She's over here! Come quick, take a look!”
The head waved his arms wildly toward me.
The haggard woman glanced back and forth between me and him, her face a mask of confusion.
“What...?”
“Chohyang's mom! This gentleman's a warrior from the Murim Alliance! You know the Murim Alliance, right? The ones who fly through the skies and shatter mountains!”
“Ah!”
The villagers stared at me with awe-struck eyes.
I couldn't fly or shatter mountains, but I nodded subtly, affirming the head's words.
“Ooooh!”
“The Murim Alliance!”
“No wonder he looked different somehow!”
The innocent villagers began murmuring excitedly.
How could they swallow the head's words so unquestioningly? No wonder this place had become a hunting ground for that lecherous demon.
“He said Chohyang might've been done in by that demon!”
“What? Is, is that true?”
“It is! If it's true, he'll catch the demon for us! But first, we need to check how Chohyang died!”
“Ah!”
How deep and raw must be the grief of parents who had even lost the chance to avenge their child.
The woman, who had been half-dead already, suddenly flared with venom in her eyes and lunged at me, seizing my hand.
“Warrior! That demon! Please, kill him for me! My daughter! My good girl! Avenge her, please! Waaah! Sob! Sob!”
“Chohyang's mom! Don't cry! You're making me tear up too! Waaah!”
Suddenly, the woman collapsed to her knees, clutching my legs and bawling. The head plopped down beside her and joined in. The watching villagers wept, and even the village dogs howled along.
After a long bout of sobbing, the woman jerked her head up to look at me.
“Ah! Chohyang! Please, look at her! Hurry!”
She grabbed my hand and dragged me inside the hut.
Whether from dire poverty or overwhelming love for her child, Chohyang's body still lay inside the thatched home.
I wrinkled my nose at the foul, rotting stench and asked, “How many days has it been since she died?”
“Five days as of today.”
“I heard there was another woman who died. When did she pass?”
Chohyang's mother and the head exchanged glances, counting on their fingers.
“Eight days ago?”
“Ten days! It's been ten days, warrior!”
“Hmm.”
One ten days ago, another five days ago.
I gently pulled down the white cloth covering the body.
“Waaah! Sob!”
Chohyang's mother pounded the floor in anguish, while the head bit his lip and turned away.
I brought my hand to the woman's wrinkled face, like a shriveled chicken's neck. It felt dry and crumbly, like parched sand.
Plucking Yin to Nourish Yang.
No matter how I looked at it, this was the result of plucking yin to nourish yang.
The lecher demon probably needed about five days to convert the absorbed yin energy into his inner power.
In that case...
Chohyang had died five days ago.
That meant today was the demon's big night.
I covered the body again and stood.
“Is it true? Is this the demon you've been chasing?!”
I nodded to the head. “Yes. I will catch him and avenge her for you.”
“Sob! Chohyang! Waaah! Sob!”
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
The head and Chohyang's mother burst into fresh tears.
“But.”
“......?”
“......?”
Their crying stopped abruptly.
They were probably tensing up, expecting me to demand payment.
“Prepare what I tell you quickly.”
The head and Chohyang's mother let out shallow sighs of relief.
That night.
I waited inside one of the villagers' homes, ready for him.
If he operated on a five-day cycle, tonight should be the night.
Not knowing the exact target, I'd chosen the house of the prettiest young woman left in the village.
“Hurry up and come. This is getting boring.”
But he might go elsewhere, so I sat cross-legged, expanding my senses to their limit.
Chirrr. Chiiirrr.
The night was still.
My senses picked up only the chirping of nameless insects.
The villagers, tense and sleepless, had finally drifted off one by one as dawn approached, exhaustion winning out.
Even as prey, they couldn't overcome the languor of the day. The weak were the same in my past life or this one.
Chirrr. Chiiirrr. Chirrr.
Maybe it was the women's clothes and cross-legged pose.
For some reason, I felt unexpectedly sentimental tonight.
Me, once an ordinary office drone tormented by overtime and company dinners.
Now here I was, sword at my side, hunting a lecher demon. How do you even explain that?
My first year, I'd scrambled desperately just to survive in this unfamiliar martial world. Without the pre-order bonus perk, I'd have died then.
The next few years, I'd wandered the world searching for a way back home, taking occasional escort jobs along the way.
If only a god had summoned me to save this world from apocalypse...
But no matter how hard I looked, there was no way back. Not even a clue. What drove me madder was not knowing why I'd been dropped here.
If it had been some cliché “hero from another world to avert doom,” I'd have nodded along.
Eventually, I'd settled in, scraping by as the Hao Sect's top fixer, Cheolgeom.
Crunch.
Hm?
Something pinged on my hyper-developed senses.
A body and senses beyond human limits.
This was the special constitution I'd gotten as a perk: Heavenly Sense Sacred Body.
Thanks to it, I could easily analyze and master any martial art, but the fatal flaw was that building inner power was hellishly hard.
Through various jobs, I'd collected decent realms and heart methods.
Even after all that grind, five years had netted me barely half a year's worth of inner power.
And unlike other stats, there were no stat points for inner power.
Crunch. Crunch.
He's here.
Everything has pros and cons.
Instead of obsessing over hard-to-build inner power, I'd focused on physical strength and combat sense.
The result? Martial prowess that could laugh off inner power gaps to a degree.
Thud.
A sound from above—the demon had arrived on the roof.
A movement art so stealthy, normal senses wouldn't catch it.
They said he was a pro at escaping.
I quickly pulled the blanket over me and lay down.
The lecher slithered down the wall and slipped slowly into the hut.
“Heh heh heh. Sleeping so soundly.”
“Ahmm...”
To avoid tipping him off, I rolled over.
Exuding a sticky aura, the demon glided toward me.
“Let me see.”
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
He struck my acupoints rapidly.
No wonder no one had noticed—this was how he did it.
But tough luck.
With my Heavenly Sense Sacred Body, I could twist acupoints momentarily.
I almost yanked him by the collar right then, but his antics annoyed me enough to toy with him a bit.
“Heh heh heh. I've had my eye on you for a while.”
His hand dove straight under my skirt.
The filthy thing crept up my thigh, knee bent casually.
“Hm? Not what I expected. From farm work? Why are these thighs so sturdy?”
You psycho.
Even a so-called lecher demon can't tell male from female legs?
I tensed my thigh hard and suddenly flipped over.
Crack! His wrist snapped clean.
“Gaaah!”
It must've hurt plenty.
Well, broken bones do.
Before he could scream more, I clamped his crotch viciously.
Squelch!
“Gurk!”
Our eyes met in the dark.
His pupils trembled in confusion under the moonlight.
I smiled demurely, like a proper lady, and squeezed harder.
“You've arrived?”
“Gaaaaah!!!!!”
Foam flecked his mouth as he thrust his right fist.
I casually raised my left hand to block.
Boom!
“Ho ho?”
Full power, apparently—decent force in that fist.
I slid back in my lying position.
“Graaaah!”
The demon roared, smashing through the roof and vanishing.
“Huh?”
I rose slowly, looking up at the hole he'd left.
Panicked, he'd revealed his true power.
“Cloud Dragon Eight Forms?”
It was a lightness skill I'd seen once on Kunlun Mountain.