186. Taboo (2)
Taboo (2)
186. Taboo (2)
I'd always known it, but Murong Rin's drive was incredible. She habitually ordered servants around with nothing but a tilt of her chin, yet the moment something needed doing, she moved like the wind. Before I had even given my consent, she dispatched a Murong martial artist to the Duanmu Clan's manor, and her fiancé, summoned like some servant, came rushing to our manor in a fluster.
"What is the matter, Lady Murong?"
At a single glance, Duanmu Hwang was asking Murong Rin in a fluster. As I had expected, they were not an equal pair of fiancés. Not even I, who had been called Beautiful Madness's pet dog, had scrambled like that.
"I summoned you regarding the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering. Are your preparations going well?"
"Of course. If Lady Moon Immortal does not compete, I have no equal in the tournament."
Duanmu Hwang spoke proudly, puffing out his chest, his handsome face brimming with pride. But Murong Rin fixed a cold glare on him and said,
"Aren't you being far too conceited? Elder Heroic Beggar knows you, yet he predicted my eldest brother would win."
"The Heroic Beggar? The Beggars' Sect elder? Do not worry. As you instructed, my lady, I have revealed my strength to no one. The Beggars' Sect elder surely does not know my true power."
Duanmu Hwang spoke confidently, his eyes glinting and a refreshing smile on his face. I could tell at a glance. This man was genuinely, completely smitten with his fiancée Murong Rin before him... I felt a little sorry for him.
"You followed my instructions? Do you take me for a fool? Or, since I granted you the betrothal, have you decided to entertain foolish ideas? You subtly displayed your power in front of the Yeongsan Sect party, didn't you? Was that my instruction?"
Duanmu Hwang was struck speechless for an instant.
"And since when did I summon Lady Duanmu Seon as well? Were you so afraid of coming to the manor alone? Or, since your lordship is now destined to be the Eight Dragons' winner, have you decided to disregard my words?"
I expected Duanmu Hwang to show at least a little temper at Murong Rin's bitchy scolding—treating her fiancé not as a partner but as a subordinate in front of another person and his own younger sister—but he quietly lowered his head, and Duanmu Seon looked deeply uncomfortable. It had been a long time. Thanks to Murong Rin's bitchiness, I was feeling awkward on his behalf for no reason.
"Unni, I'm sorry. Since arriving at the Martial Alliance, I hadn't been able to meet anyone outside of Yeongsan Sect, so I was happy and selfishly insisted on following him here."
"Not at all, Lady Duanmu. It isn't your coming that displeases me, but rather that this man is utterly carefree despite the situation being extremely serious, and I was briefly angry with him.
"I will speak plainly, Lord Duanmu. The Heroic Beggar elder has already found your weakness. Though your martial arts are reasonably strong, you lack experience. This is extremely fatal for a martial artist."
"I already know my experience is meager. At the same level, I could never defeat your eldest brother. My lady, please hear me without misunderstanding. The Murong martial arts are formidable, but the Jeseon Classic is a legendary martial art. Its power more than makes up for any gap in experience."
Murong Rin's eyebrows twitched at Duanmu Hwang's ambitious reply. Listening from the side, even I was starting to see this Duanmu Hwang not as an unparalleled genius, but as a man a bit lacking. I acknowledged the Jeseon Classic or whatever was something great. At his age and at that level, it was certainly impressive. But the superiority of a martial art is not determined by its difficulty of acquisition. The Jeseon Classic had elevated him to the peak of second-rate in only a few years, but there was no guarantee whatsoever that it was stronger than other martial arts even after reaching first-rate.
The present greatest master of the Jeseon Classic, Duanmu Hwang, was only at the peak of second-rate, while Murong Hyeok-jung, the epitome of Murong martial arts, ranked squarely in the highest tier even among the Top Hundred Masters Under Heaven. Even if Duanmu Hwang might someday surpass Murong Hyeok-jung, the claim that the Jeseon Classic was greater than the Murong arts was something that could barely be voiced only after he himself became stronger than Murong Hyeok-jung.
"Your arrogance pierces the heavens. Very well. I will let you out of the well. Prepare for a spar."
"By you, Lady Murong? Let us not."
His own self-confidence was overwhelmingly strong. So, as if unwilling to let the one he loved taste defeat, Duanmu Hwang smiled and waved his hand, which only infuriated Murong Rin far more.
"This Young Master Baek here will be your opponent."
"What? Reverend Yeongmok? What do you mean? He seems to have trained in external arts, but has he not trained in internal energy? The reverend joined the Yeongsan Sect less than a year ago."
Duanmu Hwang looked at me as if baffled. Had he truly locked himself in his room yesterday, even with all that commotion the Martial Alliance was in?
"Lord Duanmu. When I accepted your proposal, absolute obedience was the condition, was it not? If you can land even a single successful attack on Young Master Baek, I will rescind that condition and can be your obedient wife. No. I could even share your bed this very night."
Duanmu Hwang, deeply flustered by Murong Rin's words, seemed to ponder for a moment, and then readjusted his grip on his sword and addressed me.
"Reverend Yeongmok. As the situation has come to this, I ask for one exchange. My sword will absolutely never harm you, Reverend, so please, without worry, grant me this."
A man truly brimming with arrogance beneath a guise of humility. Murong Rin might be monstrously bitchy, but she was not so idle as to spout nonsense in a situation like this. Despite her countless warnings, Duanmu Hwang leisurely took up his sword, smiling as he imagined a submissive Murong Rin. It went without saying, but I was a high-level master. One-on-one guidance from a master like me was worth a thousand taels of gold, yet I had decided to face him as payment for borrowing his fiancée's pussy.
Duanmu Hwang thrust his sword in a light stance, skipping even Weapon-Grip Fundamentals. Dumbass. The sword was thrust half-heartedly, clad in neither Sword Threads nor even Sword Qi. I lightly deflected the sword while smoothly turning my own blade, halting it before his throat.
"In a real fight, it would be over."
"T-Taiji Sword?!"
Not the common Taiji Sword, but the genuine Taiji Wisdom Sword transmitted by Jang Sam-bong's grand-disciple. You dumbass.
Duanmu Hwang's face paled in an instant, and he wiped the cold sweat from his brow, retaking his stance.
"You learned Wudang swordsmanship, as befits a Daoist. Your sharp swordsmanship is impressive. I was far too careless. Let us try again."
A thrust containing three changes. Reasonably fast, but what kind of childish game was this? Once again, I lightly deflected his sword and halted my blade before his eyes.
"R-Remarkable! Though you lack internal energy, this is the pinnacle of the Taiji Sword. To reach this level through swordsmanship alone. Truly, I shall proceed without any carelessness."
Once again, Duanmu Hwang corrected his stance and took some form of preparatory posture. This crazy bastard. Seeing that ordinary attacks weren't working, he apparently intended to just unleash a decisive technique right away. The sword came crashing down with overbearing ferocity, as if evoking a lightning strike. Gathering his qi took an age long enough to make me yawn, but its power was certainly considerable. The fact that his sword did not snap even while meeting my Mount Tai Strike head-on was genuinely quite something. Well, he did lose hold of his sword.
"P-Preposterous! Wudang has a Heavy Sword art like this?!"
Duanmu Hwang looked at me as if gradually finding it impossible to believe.
"A strike this slow would not be waited for by a sparring opponent. And you have already died three times. Did you not say you would not be careless? Is that the best a Hero can do?"
What had been pissing me off for a while was that I had generously decided to seriously face him, yet this bastard was still trying to face me without even manifesting his Sword Qi.
"If I use qi techniques, you, Reverend, will be gravely injured."
Now I understood the Heroic Beggar's words. This son of a bitch, even when his power was completely useless, didn't have a single shred of thought that he was weak. I too was an instant master who had grown stronger through a lucky opportunity, but since I had lived my whole life as the weak, I still kept myself cautious. This bastard, on the other hand, had never once faced a true strong opponent since receiving his lucky opportunity—hence that kind of expression.
"Lord Duanmu. That is already the third time. Have you no shame before your younger sister and fiancée? My longtime friend Young Master Baek will pity me, who is to become the wife of a weak martial artist."
Murong Rin's icy sneer. At those words prodding his masculinity, Duanmu Hwang finally erased his smile and produced a blue-green Sword Qi upon his blade. The Sword Qi spread out thin and fine. Presently, the qi began to coil around his sword like a spool of thread. Ah... Just as Peng Mok had said that day, the Sword Threads looked genuinely shoddy in the eyes of a Sword Aura user.
"Sword Threads are not invincible."
A flash mimicking the Moonlit Divine Sword. Moon Immortal would have scoffed if she saw it, but I had captured the essentials, at least. The complex Illusory Sword was still absolutely beyond me, but mimicking a Swift Sword strike was possible. Whether Sword Aura or Sword Threads, if my sword touched first, I won. His dynamic vision was good enough to take in the Moonlit Divine Sword's blade path at a glance, but watching a spar from afar and facing it oneself were as different as heaven and earth. Before he could unfold his sword, my sword tip stopped before his chest. He staggered backward, his face ghastly pale, then dropped onto his backside.
"P-Preposterous! How can someone without internal energy..."
"Great Hero Duanmu. The Martial World is truly vast. If you cannot cast off the mold of common sense, when you meet a strong foe you cannot comprehend, you will simply be helplessly defeated like this. The Jeseon Classic is a superb martial art, but it is not the greatest art under heaven, nor are you, Great Hero, the greatest martial artist under heaven. Countless ultimate arts like the Jeseon Classic already exist in the Martial World. For instance, this Flame Blossom Art. The Flame Blossom Art elevated me to first-rate in a matter of months."
When I shattered his common sense by unfurling my Flame Aura, he at last dropped his sword with a face of disbelief, exposing a wretched sight. As a true martial artist, he was worse than even Lee Eun-ha.
"My goodness? Reverend Yeongmok, a first-rate master... I never even dreamed that someone so young and handsome would wield a Flame Aura."
Once his arrogance was crushed, Duanmu Hwang returned to the Duanmu manor in shock. For some reason, Duanmu Seon remained here at the manor, leaving Duanmu Hwang to his own devices, and we sat talking over tea in the tea room.
"It's the worst. Much worse than I expected. Honestly, reaching the peak of second-rate at his age is impressive, but how can a man who isn't even first-rate be that arrogant? In a real fight, even Green Forest bandits would have killed him."
Murong Rin expressed every ounce of her irritation, sending for liquor instead of tea and gulping it down.
"Unni, don't be too hard on him. By now, he's probably locked in his room reflecting. He showed such a pitiful sight in front of the woman he loves, so he's a little pitiful, is he not?"
Duanmu Seon drank her tea with a subtle smile. No matter how I looked at her, I could never bring myself to believe she was the same age as Lee Eun-ha. She was certainly a beauty, but frankly, to speak bluntly, she looked older than my master.
"He can't suddenly become stronger in two days anyway. For now, I've erased his carelessness, so we have no choice but to wait for him to pick himself up on his own."
"Hmph. Aren't you speaking too lightly of it, since it's someone else's matter?"
"It is someone else's matter, so I speak lightly of it."
As I teased the sulking Murong Rin, Duanmu Seon looked at us with intrigued eyes.
"You said you two are old friends? You truly seem to get along well. But, can a man this dashing and a woman this beautiful truly be just friends?"
Duanmu Seon's suggestive smile. Reading the meaning in that smile, Murong Rin retorted with irritation laced in her voice.
"What exactly are you trying to say? You must have heard the rumors. Yes. Whatever you're vaguely imagining is right. I have enjoyed myself with countless men, and I have also slept with Young Master Baek. Why? Are you displeased as a sister-in-law? If you don't like it, say so. I'll break the engagement at any time."
Murong Rin's irritation had reached its peak from Duanmu Hwang's disgraceful display and her own poor discernment. Even at the harsh words she spat out, Duanmu Seon smiled bewitchingly and spoke with composure.
"Please don't say that. If you break off the engagement with my brother, he will never come out of his room again. And I too have enjoyed quite a few men, in my own way. Is that not only natural for a noble daughter born to a wealthy house?"
She lifted her teacup with elegance, accompanied by a sensual smile.
"Naturally. A human who does not know how to wield power has no right to possess power. I can enjoy myself with men because I have that right."
A daughter of a wealthy house in a position similar to her own. Murong Rin's mood improved somewhat at Duanmu Seon's answer. Thinking about it, it was incredible. In terms of my past life, these women were practically chaebol heirs.
"My older brother... He's an immature young master who has lived his whole life inside a cramped room. Please, unni, look after him with affection."
She spoke gently, soothing Murong Rin, sounding like Duanmu Hwang's older sister.
"Look after him with affection? Lord Duanmu is not my child, but the man who is to be my husband."
"You knew from the start that he was a man ignorant of the world, and you accepted him. My brother is the only one who doesn't realize it, but marriages between prestigious houses are political matches entangled with interests. If you, unni, look after him with affection, my brother, who has lost his place in the main house, can become the live-in son-in-law of a prestigious house by marrying the unni he adores. My mother can gain a Murong daughter-in-law and stand confidently before the main-house elders, and I can become family with the unni I've always respected. And you, unni, can achieve what you desire with a submissive man and the dowry my brother will bring. So if only you endure it, everyone can be happy."
Duanmu Seon clapped her palms together lightly and spoke cheerfully. Unlike at the Duanmu manor, hidden deep within her words now was a thorough contempt for her own older brother, Duanmu Hwang.