18. Daoist (2)
Daoist (2)
18. Daoist (2)
Her body was still unavoidably slender, but the sight was utterly unlike her usual image. The cute, childlike woman had let down her long hair and now possessed the bewitching allure of an adult. Her breasts were far fuller than I had imagined, with pretty pink nipples. Decades of training, however third-rate the martial arts, had kept her buttocks firm. She could hardly have groomed her pubic hair, yet it formed a neat triangle above the vulva I had no business staring at. The thing I already struggled to hide began swelling as though it might burst.
"Now that I've undressed, it's not all that embarrassing, is it?"
"No. It really is embarrassing, you know?"
"Come on. With a member like yours, Disciple, you'd have no need to be embarrassed anywhere you go. And anyway, it's a rule that must be observed, so don't think of it as something unpleasant. Think about it carefully—isn't this an incredible stroke of luck? In the old days, when our Yeongsan Sect produced Taoists, they were washed by a naked male master, not by a pretty female master like me."
With those words, Master slipped into the hot spring with a splash. Her hair was unbound, her face bathed in moonlight, and her cheeks flushed from the hot water. She was no longer the adorable master I had known. Her naked body was hidden beneath the water, and even though only her face showed, the pounding in my chest wouldn't stop. When I squeezed my eyes shut and turned away, Master spoke quietly.
"Disciple, are you perhaps erect?"
"I'm... I'm sorry."
"What is there to be sorry about? You're a healthy man, and I'm a woman. Heaven decreed it so even before we became master and disciple. Getting an erection at the sight of a woman's naked body is the most natural thing in the world."
Perhaps the Daoist concept of Natural Nonaction was a theory far too well-suited for sex offenders to use in gaslighting?
"You've worked hard for seven days. I'm so grateful that you came to our Yeongsan Sect. I'd been vaguely thinking another Taoist would never emerge from our Yeongsan Sect again... Say, Disciple? Look over here, won't you?"
To me, sitting with my head turned away, Master voiced her first complaint. No matter how I thought about it, there was no way out of this situation, was there? In the end, I turned my head as Master had ordered and looked at her face.
"Why is a grown man shrinking away like this? Don't worry. I won't eat you. I only came to wash my disciple after his seven days of hardship. You know how Yeongsan Sect is. No matter that I'm your master, as a woman in this sect I could never use my authority to force intercourse upon you. I mean it. Look, you can see the Chastity Mark here, can you not? I'm not some lascivious enchantress. I'm a virgin. So relax and enjoy the hot spring."
Master spoke earnestly and showed me the vivid Chastity Mark on her arm. Naturally, I wasn't afraid she would force herself on me. There was Gyeong Su-yeon, whom I'd made perform oral sex and fondle me whenever I pleased, and the cheap pleasure houses I sometimes visited with men from the White Horse Unit when the mood struck. I wasn't greatly experienced, but I was no virgin. So why did I feel mortified enough to die now?
I was unbearably embarrassed and tense, but apart from revealing her naked body, Master did nothing to stimulate me. She simply soaked beside me with a relaxed expression, then led me out once enough time had passed. Her pale naked body entered my vision again. The truly humiliating part was that I stood there displaying a rigid erection, while Master's nipples looked exactly as they had before. She studied my penis with fascination, but unlike me, she showed no sign of sexual arousal.
Master sat me down on a small wooden chair and briskly wiped my body with a somewhat rough cloth.
"Your back is really broad. Seeing this, I can definitely feel that you're a man, Disciple."
No. After staring openly at my penis, she only now felt that I was a man because she had seen my back?
"As I said earlier, I think it's such a relief that you came to Yeongsan Sect. What about you, Disciple? Our Yeongsan Sect? Compared to Baek Clan Estate, it's a truly shabby place with nothing much to see, isn't it? Do you have any regrets?"
"No. None at all. I can't speak for anyone else, but to me, it's the best sect I could ask for."
"Oh, come on. That's a lie. You're regretting it, aren't you? You've already spent so much money, and all we have is a few books. And your master is a woman far weaker and more incompetent than you are."
"Absolutely not. I told you, didn't I? I didn't come here to become a supreme master. And if anyone else had said my master was incompetent, I would have to demand a Life-or-Death Duel."
"Disciple, I may be naked while washing you, but this isn't a pleasure house. There's no need to flatter me with jokes you don't mean."
"A Taoist does not lie."
"Wow. You became a Daoist only moments ago and are already using it against me. I've spent my whole life as a mere trainee, so I can't even answer back. That feels rather unfair."
"I've been thinking. Rules or no rules, you are the Sect Leader now, Master. Sects such as Mount Hua recognize female Daoists, so their existence can't be fundamentally wrong within Daoism. Why not change the rule?"
At those words, Master closed her mouth for a moment, then soon poured hot spring water over my head with a gourd dipper.
"I do feel sorry toward you, Disciple. The world has its currents. I believe a Taoist's mindset is to go along with a current rather than swim against it."
"Currents? Female disciples receiving this sort of treatment is a current?"
"No. That isn't what I meant. And I think our Yeongsan Sect actually treats its members better than the female disciples of Mount Hua Sect are treated. After all, even Mount Hua has never had a female Sect Leader."
Master spoke as she pleasantly washed my hair with her slender fingers. I sensed a melancholy in her voice, a little different from her usual lively tone.
"Disciple."
"Yes, Master."
"You are planning to return to Baek Clan Estate someday, aren't you?"
"Yes. I intend to stay for about three years. But I am still a Taoist of Yeongsan Sect. Even after I descend the mountain, I have no intention of idly watching my sect face hardship."
"I know your heart, Disciple. But I have no intention of leaning on you for that long."
"Indeed. Even if Yeongsan Sect cannot make its name known throughout the world, it should at least become a stable sect again. Once you and my senior sisters overcome the present hardship, I believe you can accomplish that."
It was the sort of reassuring platitude one was expected to offer. Honestly, at first I had regarded this as merely a place to spend three years before leaving. Yet in this short time, it had begun to feel like my real sect, and I had started worrying about their future. Could they become self-sufficient? Could they survive in the harsh martial world? My father was a vicious man. He cherished the Baek Clan Estate and loved his family, but he was a typical man of the martial world who used that viciousness to protect the people precious to him. Could Master and my senior sisters ever become true people of the martial world like him?
Even if I offered my help, it would amount to, at most, buying some rice. And that offered no guarantee for the future. Once I returned to Baek Clan Estate, I would truly become a freeloader. For the first few years, no one would question the source of the money I spent, but with my standing gradually weakening, would I even be able to aid my sect then? Yet Master had just said that sooner or later, she would raise Yeongsan Sect so that my help would no longer be needed. Now that Master had said so, I, as her disciple, had no choice but to believe her. At my obvious words, Master merely smiled quietly.
"Now wipe your front yourself. I would like to do it for you, but if I touched the wrong place in your current state, you'd end up ejaculating, would you not?"
That was fortunate. As Master had said, if I left the front to her, a premature ejaculator like myself would surely end up showing her the sight of me ejaculating right in front of her, and I wouldn't have the courage to look at her face tomorrow morning. After I took the cloth from Master and roughly wiped my front, Master brought a dry towel and wiped the moisture from my entire body. This time, even my chest and cock.
I was slightly flustered, but without a change of expression, Master dressed me in my underwear and trousers. Then she draped over my shoulders the Taoist robe—white and black with the Taiji symbol embroidered on the back—and tidied my collar.
"You look wonderful, Disciple. Now you're truly a Taoist."
"This robe is remarkable. Senior Sister Lee's skill is extraordinary."
"The blankets and the cloth arrived the morning before last, so Eun-ha had a rough time of it. Now that I think of it, thank you for the blankets. I never imagined you would even provide them for us."
"That's only natural."
"And red, yellow, blue. All those pretty fabrics in different colors. And they're fabric for us, not for you—isn't that right?"
"Of course. Do you think I would wear such gaudy colors?"
"Thank you, Disciple. In return, I'll show you a pretty sight. Our girls may be unadorned, but do you know how pretty they are?"
"They're plenty pretty already."
"The girls were so surprised, and they're delighted. They are at the age when they want to dress beautifully, after all. Each chose the fabric she liked, and before long Yeongsan Sect will look like a flower garden. Jeong-hyang chose red, Yeong blue, Eun-ha purple, and Cho-ryeong green. Does that not sound lovely?"
"What about you, Master?"
"Me? Yellow. Even if I can't show you the image of a dignified, capable master, it's a relief I can at least show you a pretty one. Ah, now that I think about it, I've shown you my naked body too, haven't I? Turns out I'm not such a bad master, am I?"
Now that she mentioned it, I was already fully dressed in my Taoist robe, but Master was still naked.
"Master. The night air is cold. Thank you for washing me. Please put on your clothes quickly."
"I didn't think my body was an unsightly one, but Disciple, you really know nothing of a woman's heart."
"Ah... that's not what I meant..."
"I'm joking. I should dress now too. You'll be tired tomorrow, so rest well. The day after tomorrow, I'll finally act like a proper master and transmit our sect's signature internal art to you."
Master gathered her clothes and put them on one by one. The sight of a naked woman dressing herself stirred a different sort of strange excitement from the sight of her nude body.
"Our sect had a Signature Internal Art?"
"We do. There are the Yin Blossom Art and the Yang Blossom Art. They do little to build internal energy, but they possess effects unlike any other internal art under heaven. None of us has advanced very far, but everyone from Cho-ryeong to me practices one of them. They are our sect's sole signature internal arts."
"Special effects?"
"That's a secret for now, so look forward to it with great anticipation."
Master spoke happily, but I found it difficult to feel any anticipation. Now that I belonged to Yeongsan Sect, it was even harder. Special effects? If this were truly such an extraordinary internal art, the entire martial world would covet it. More importantly, the former male disciples who practiced it would not have been wiped out after picking fights with common thugs.
"The day after tomorrow, at this same hour, wash yourself and wait in your bedchamber."
"Yes. Understood."
It looked ridiculous, but I resolved not to mock it. In Yeongsan Sect, where they even rationed lamp oil, transmitting the art late at night must at least mean it was one of the sect's secret teachings. I escorted Master back to her room, returned to mine, and considered relieving my erection by hand. The instant I lay on a bed for the first time in seven days, however, I fell asleep in my Daoist robe.