The Purple Current Sex Fiend, Yeon Hayun
If I had to sum up everything I'd seen of Yeon Hayeong so far in a single phrase…
'Arrogant, but simple-minded.'
Her arrogance sprang from talent, yet there was nothing calculated about it—she was straightforward to a fault.
I had no way of knowing what became of her in my past life.
By the time I inherited the seat of Sex Fiend, Yeon Hayeong had already vanished without a sound, and everyone who disappeared like that was simply written off as dead.
Looking back now, I should have wondered why a talent that exceptional had died… but strangely enough, the question never once crossed my mind.
Pat, pat, pat.
Yeon Hayeong gave her belly a light, satisfied pat.
"Puhaah… every now and then, actually filling my belly with food isn't so bad. You were going to keep something this good all to yourself, scrub?"
"…You wouldn't have accepted even if I'd invited you. Why waste the breath?"
Bellies full, the two of them set off for Yohwa Palace.
Those figures of the Divine Cult whose epithets carried the word Demon each claimed a different palace as their own domain.
'Seven demons… the world calls them the Seven Demons.'
It was easiest to think of them as the seven pillars holding up the Divine Cult's heavens. Just as the Central Plains had its Nine Sects and One Clan and its Five Great Families, the Divine Cult was bound to command power to match.
A long climb up finely hewn stairs finally brought them to Yohwa Palace. Stepping inside through the doors that already stood open, they found the many disciples who had been waiting seated within.
"Looks like Mom isn't here yet. Seriously, she's late every single time."
"…You're the only person alive who addresses her that way."
Calling the Sex Fiend Mom was absurd enough on its own—but the fact that the absurdity was actually happening made it all the more mind-boggling. She seemed even more free-spirited than in my past life, or was that just my imagination?
In any case, as we waited at Yohwa Palace among the other disciples… violet mist began to rise from the hall's sole seat of honor.
The rising mist soon took on human form, reassembling itself into one flawless person. Long pink hair, eyes the very shade of Yeon Hayeong's—and a bust so brimming with maternal warmth it seemed ready to overflow.
Anyone could see at a glance that this was the master of the place.
"You've all come today as well, without a single one missing."
The Purple Current Sex Fiend, Yeon Hayun, spoke.
"We greet the Master of Yohwa Palace!"
The instant her words ended, every disciple assumed the fist-in-palm salute and bowed in unison. But she evidently disliked the stiff formality, gazing down at them with a faintly sulky expression.
"Such rigid postures are unpleasant to look at—refrain from them, please. Carnality, by its very nature, should flow soft as water."
"……"
At her petulant complaint, the disciples dipped their heads in silent obeisance. Not that a single soul here was brave enough to actually speak at ease just because she'd told them to.
'Cross the line, and she'll take your head without a flicker of hesitation.'
No matter how warm and maternal she appeared, letting your guard down around her was a fatal mistake.
"Today, as ever, I shall bestow my essence upon you. I trust you will achieve something meaningful with it."
No wasted words—she went straight to the heart of the matter. Turbid essence began to seep from her body, and the disciples settled into the lotus position and closed their eyes, as they always did. Yeon Hayeong and I did the same, folding our legs and focusing.
'It truly has been a long time… how long has it been since I underwent training like this?'
In my past life, I'd have dismissed such training as meaningless. I'd have scoffed—what did the Sex Fiend need with discipline? All he had to do was indulge in the flesh.
But the end that awaited a man who chased nothing but pleasure had not been a pretty one. In the end, taking what you wanted required overwhelming martial power. So this time, I intended to let not even the smallest opportunity slip through my fingers.
Saaaah…
The turbid mist filled Yohwa Palace to its corners, growing denser by the moment.
"Khhuk…!" "Kkh…" "Kheh—hahk…!"
The disciples who had been drawing essence out of the mist through their breathing began to collapse one by one. The Divine Cult was a place where anyone without the strength would die, no matter who they were.
'The other palaces must be losing disciples in much the same way.'
It didn't even surprise me anymore. I had seen far worse in my time.
Wiji Cheon set his own carnal art in motion as well. The foundation of the secret mental art he had crafted was the carnal art he'd received from the current Sex Fiend—a peculiar discipline that could draw in essence without requiring actual intercourse.
But here, in this very hall, he intended to transmute the carnal art he was refining through the essence within the turbid mist into the mental art of his own creation.
In his past life, roaming the murim, he had done far more than simply take women to his bed. He had thought it might be worthwhile to forge a mental art of his own, and so he had smelted one from his insights—reinterpreting the martial arts those women had wielded and claiming them as his own.
Of course, with ordinary essence it would have been impossible. But essence granted directly by the Sex Fiend was another matter entirely.
'The Sex Fiend's essence carries a medley of energies tangled together. Her carnal art forces them to mingle, willing or not.'
No—in truth, most carnal arts made no distinction among essences at all, swallowing them in one indiscriminate gulp. But the carnal art he had created was different. It wielded each hue without letting the colors bleed together—countless energies moving in parallel, yet achieving perfect harmony.
Wiji Cheon had named it the Ten Thousand Flowers Cloud and Rain Mental Art.
And the single most vital ingredient for awakening that art was… essence of many different natures. Even essence drawn from turbid mist held a variety of qualities within it, which made the feat entirely within reach.
Crack. Craaack…!
His body restructured itself to fit the new mental art. The harmful portions of the essence gained through the palace's traditional carnal art were burned away, while everything useful was put to work. As he continued absorbing the essence within the external mist, his carnal art transformed, little by little, into the new mental art—
Crack!
From his lower abdomen came the sound of something breaking out of an egg, together with the sensation of a shell crumbling to pieces. The instant the hazy image took shape—a chrysalis breaking free of its cocoon…
"…Ah."
His eyes opened of their own accord.
A glance around showed the turbid mist all but gone, and dozens of disciples vomiting blood or foaming at the mouth, seized by convulsions. The survivors numbered only Yeon Hayeong and the other daughters of the Purple Current Sex Fiend, along with a handful of direct disciples—Wiji Cheon among them.
'My dantian… has been remade anew.'
When the turbid mist at last vanished completely, Yeon Hayun, seated in the place of honor, wore a benevolent smile of evident satisfaction.
"You never fail to live up to my expectations. With all of you here, the future of Yohwa Palace looks truly bright."
There was not a hair's breadth of falsehood in that smile. It was like watching a doting parent and the children who repaid that love in kind.
'…Thankfully, it seems she didn't notice the mental art swap.'
Judging by her reaction, she had failed to detect that his carnal art had become a new mental art. Mental arts weren't, after all, strung together across the stars like some extraterrestrial network—unless one was an absolute master, detection would be near impossible.
'Now the real beginning begins.'
Wiji Cheon rose and moved out with the disciples who began filing away as the training drew to a close.
"Haaam… to think some people actually die just because they can't endure that one little thing. How pathetic."
Yeon Hayeong, walking beside him, muttered with an expression of genuine bafflement. Gifted as she was, she truly seemed unable to grasp how anyone could fail to endure even this.
"Not everyone was born with talent like yours."
"I mean, fair… but if you don't have that kind of talent, shouldn't you have kept yourself from crawling in here in the first place?"
"People who can't see themselves objectively exist in every corner of the world, don't they?"
Disciples of the Seven Demons, save for special circumstances, nearly all came of their own free will. They could enter as they pleased—but their lives came with no guarantee. Besides, in this day and age, openly abducting people would earn the condemnation of public opinion.
'It isn't so easy to bury information as it used to be, either…' As the era changed, the Divine Cult had been compelled to change with it.
"By the way, you held up pretty well, huh?"
Poke, poke, poke.
Yeon Hayeong jabbed his side with her elbow.
"I honestly thought you'd wash out for good this time."
"Do you want me dead?"
"Yep! That's the only way I get to be the next generation's Sex Fiend!"
…That was a great deal more honest than I'd expected.
Could she possibly be playing the fool on purpose?
'No, that can't be it… she has never once lied to me so far.'
If anything, she was too honest, too guileless. She kept showing an artlessness that made one wonder whether a screw was loose somewhere upstairs… and my appetite began to sharpen all the more.
'The world really is vast, and it seems full of captivating women.'
Before my regression, I had savored my share of beauties—but by no means every beauty the world had to offer. There had been moments of failure, and situations where retreat had been the only choice.
So in this life, I intended to take them all. Whether she was the Murim Alliance Leader's wife or the Heavenly Demon of the age, it made no difference.
A man whose ambition was to covet the Supreme Master of the World could hardly afford to falter at anything less.
"Now for the arena bouts… this really is my favorite time of day."
"Is there some special reason for that?"
"Of course there is—nobody says a word no matter who you kill outright in the arena."
"……"
Well, that was the Divine Cult's way of arena combat. Life-and-death duels were neither encouraged nor forbidden. It was, in the truest sense, an arena worthy of the creed that only the strong reign.
"I find myself looking forward to the Great Battle of Heavenly Blood."
"Even a scrub like you thinks that, huh? What I love most is that nobody gives a damn who dies!"
A faint madness seemed to glimmer in Yeon Hayeong's jade-green eyes. Not madness, exactly… call it an inborn taste.
"Don't you forget our promise."
"Got it! I don't know if our scrub can actually win, buuut… I'm not the type to say two things with one mouth, so if you win, I'll grant your wish—no takebacks!"
She flashed a smile that inspired not a shred of confidence.
Wiji Cheon looked at that smile and answered it with a soft one of his own.
Just how long would that laughter of hers last, I wondered.
It was impossible not to crave a taste.