26. Taoist Arts (3)
Taoist Arts (3)
26. Taoist Arts (3)
I roamed every corner of Yeongsan Sect, chanting the Spirit-Summoning Art incantation, but earthbound spirits weren't the sort of things you just found lying around anywhere. I even tried it in Great Clarity Palace, the likeliest place, but there wasn't so much as a stray ghost, let alone the spirit of Taishang Laojun. No, wait—Great Clarity Palace was a sacred place after all, so maybe the absence of spirits was only natural?
"Junior Brother. Do you have a moment?"
While I'd been wandering around chanting incantations like a madman, Lee Eun-ha came up and spoke to me.
"Yes. Senior Sister."
Lee Eun-ha glanced around briefly, then carefully drew me around to the back of the mess hall building and asked,
"Lately, the same fragrance has been clinging to your robes, Master's, and Senior Sister Jeong's. None of you carries a perfume pouch, so how is that possible?"
Training the Yin-Yang Art was a secret shared only by Master, Jeong-hyang, and me. We had already gone this far, but fundamentally we were still two maidens and one bachelor. Nothing good could come of others learning about such indecent acts. As expected, however, Lee Eun-ha, who managed the household, had caught on. Unlike Son Yeong, the athletic type, and Cho-ryeong, our innocent and adorable darling, Lee Eun-ha was perceptive, and evading her notice had proven difficult.
"You've also trained in the Yin Blossom Art, haven't you, Senior Sister? It's an effect that manifests once you reach the Third Stage."
"What?! That's a bedchamber art! You don't mean Master and Senior Sister Jeong have been practicing bedchamber arts with you, Junior Brother?"
Wow. A normal reaction felt genuinely refreshing. Right. That was the natural reaction, wasn't it? Thanks to Master and Jeong-hyang, who were more nonchalant about it than I, the man, was, I'd lately begun to wonder if I was the strange one.
"It was Master's order. Even so, we have done nothing that would compromise either woman's chastity. Both are still virgins."
Whether you could really call this clean, I honestly wasn't sure, but well, in any case, as long as the physical evidence, the hymen, remained intact, there would be no problem whatsoever so long as the parties involved kept their mouths shut.
"Good heavens. I don't understand Master's intent. Bedchamber arts with not one but two of them, with you, Junior Brother?"
"Same here."
Lee Eun-ha was flabbergasted. Come to think of it, the Yin-Yang Art was a bedchamber art no matter how one looked at it. Even without penetration, bedchamber arts were fundamentally secret sexual acts between a man and a woman. Master had ordered both herself and Jeong-hyang to train with me. I'd been flustered at first, but since I was the one enjoying two women, afterward it had become nothing but pleasurable. From their perspective, however, it might have felt unpleasant. If another man were here and Master or Jeong-hyang took turns sucking his cock and mine every morning and night, I certainly wouldn't be happy.
"And so, Junior Brother, which one do you like more?"
Lee Eun-ha had been right there with me, shocked by Master's eccentricity, and then she tossed out this question out of nowhere. Getting caught aside, this sort of sexual act was the deepest privacy. A question about who made you feel better was something you ordinarily didn't ask—depending on the circumstances, it could be sexual harassment.
"You have to tell me frankly, Junior Brother, so I can prepare myself."
"Prepare yourself?"
"If you take Master with you, Senior Sister Jeong will become Sect Leader. If you take Senior Sister Jeong, Senior Sister Son will become chief disciple."
"What? What do you mean?"
"Don't you remember? When you entered the sect, Junior Brother, you made a pact with Master. You said that if you touched any of us, you would take responsibility and bring us to the Baek Clan Estate."
Ah... Right, I did, didn't I? At first she drew a line like that, and then at some point we were bathing together and doing oral sex under the name of bedchamber training, weren't we?
"Knowing Master's character, I expect she means Senior Sister Jeong. She is surely trying to marry Senior Sister Jeong to you. If she had simply ordered the two of you to practice bedchamber arts together, you would have resisted strongly, so she first trained with you herself, allowing you to practice with Senior Sister Jeong comfortably and without awkwardness. Ah... Master, honestly. I understand her feelings, but why would a virgin use her own body to carry out such a plan?"
Lee Eun-ha perfectly inferred the unease I'd felt all along while sighing over Master's eccentricity. Right. No matter that I was a disciple of Yeongsan Sect, Master would never casually order Jeong-hyang, whom she treasured like her eldest daughter, to perform oral sex. Possessing a hymen alone didn't make someone a maiden. If my future wife still had hers but I discovered she'd sucked another man's cock every day, the thought alone would horrify me. Master, as a woman, would understand that even better.
Master had forced her way through everything with sheer obstinacy: first bathing with me, then appearing without warning and swallowing my member. Thanks to that, unlike with Master, I could greet my mornings with Jeong-hyang in a relaxed and pleasant mood. Master was thirty, and with young Cho-ryeong around, she was practically like an older married woman with a kid. She had apparently given up on her own marriage and used her body to lower my guard so she could pair me with Jeong-hyang. Unlike the forceful Master, mornings with Jeong-hyang were sweet and affectionate, like being with a lover. Even in terms of hierarchy, Jeong-hyang as my senior sister felt far more approachable than Master. In the martial world, a senior brother or sister was practically the ideal romantic interest for a young martial artist, like the handsome older man at church.
She and I were both in our prime, and what's more, we were in the middle of training in a bedchamber art that amplified sexual desire, and on top of that, caresses and oral sex had already become natural acts. There would be nothing strange at all now if at any moment we crossed the line. No—if time dragged on frustratingly without crossing the line, this time Master would be the one ordering the two of us to train at the Fourth Stage.
"Senior Sister Jeong really is a beauty, you know. Even if the bedchamber arts weren't involved, when you descend the mountain, Junior Brother, you'd clearly choose Senior Sister Jeong anyway. Why is she in such a hurry? Is she worried about Senior Sister Jeong growing older because she herself has some years?"
She imagined Master's eccentricity with a slightly dumbfounded expression.
"'Choose'? What do you mean?"
"That's just what Yeongsan Sect's female disciples have always been, isn't it? They were raised to serve the Daoists and became prospective wives for those Daoists to take when they finally descended the mountain in old age. Master was originally admitted so the previous Sect Leader could take her when he descended. Senior Sister Jeong was admitted for a large payment by the late chief disciple so he could take her later. Senior Sister Son, Junior Sister Cho, and I were probably all meant for someone to take upon descending the mountain. Of course, a Daoist who takes a female disciple must pay the sect a large sum, so descending isn't easy.
"Anyhow, now there are no men besides you, Junior Brother, and there's no reason for a new man to enter the sect. Even supposing one did, it would normally be a young child. You're a grown man with the means to establish a family—a truly irreplaceable, special case. So Master is surely determined to marry off at least Senior Sister Jeong, if no one else."
Ah... Only then did I fully understand Yeongsan Sect's bizarre structure: why all the women were exceptionally beautiful; why a sect that didn't permit female Daoists nevertheless insisted on accepting female disciples; and why the gap between its male and female disciples was as vast as heaven and earth. Jeong-hyang possessed beauty so overwhelming it could easily become dangerous. Son Yeong was only a farmer's daughter, yet had been admitted readily. Lee Eun-ha was a Joseon woman with no sponsor to verify her identity. Cho-ryeong had been abandoned at the gate. I finally understood the idiotic reason this impoverished sect had clung so desperately to female disciples.
Fuck. Those sons of bitches. I ought to hold a grand memorial service for the Giant Bear Association thugs. If the Yeongsan men they killed were still alive, Master would now be the old Sect Leader's wife, while Jeong-hyang would waste her youth serving as a maid until that chief disciple bastard grew old, retired, and dragged her away with him.
Master had spent decades here and naturally regarded female disciples as brides for Daoists descending the mountain. She must have planned to marry off at least one disciple early, before the girl lost her youth, as the only means for them to survive once Yeongsan Sect could no longer rise again.
Jeong-hyang and I were honestly in different leagues. A woman of her beauty would be valued even by the Murong or Nangong clans. The Baek Clan Estate might have been insignificant across the Central Plains, but to Master, who'd spent her entire life in Yeongsan Sect, I must have seemed an exceptional prospective husband. She'd also kept me beside her as a disciple and observed me directly. Because I was her disciple, she likely believed that even after Jeong-hyang married, she could continue looking after her through me, like a mother watching over a daughter who had married out. I had sensed something hidden behind those gentle eyes, but Master was carrying out the plan far more boldly than I had imagined.
"Honestly, I know too that we have no future. I share the same thought—that the best path is to marry a good man as soon as possible, before it's too late. But if we do that, what about Master? What becomes of our Master, the final Sect Leader who can't descend the mountain? If she marries all of us off, what is Master supposed to do?"
Lee Eun-ha's eyes quietly reddened. I felt the same. Yeongsan Sect was already finished. As a martial sect, it had been hopeless from the start, and once the Daoists who formed its core were annihilated, it was finished as a Daoist temple too. That was why Master had said she wouldn't impose on me for much longer. Once all four disciples were married off, she would probably close the sect. Afterward, only Master—truly alone at last—and the guilt of having allowed the sect to perish would remain.
That... I really hated that.
"Don't worry, Senior Sister. I'll manage something, somehow."
As the eldest son of the Baek Clan Estate who'd lost the competition to become Young Clan Head, I had no hope of raising Yeongsan Sect to greatness. But at the very least, I would create a better outcome than marrying the women off like clearance goods and ending the sect. I had originally intended to waste three years here and leave, but my mind had changed. I was the only man in a sect full of women. I'd protect it. I had kept my family together through a father in a vegetative state, a mother who was swindled every time, and a younger sister paralyzed from the waist down. This was nothing special.
"I'll place my trust entirely in you, Junior Brother. I believe that you, of all people, would never leave Master alone. Ah, and I have a request. That alcohol we spoke of last time—there's a problem. The jar is so old it looks like it might leak."
Huh? That won't do.
"Could you buy a jar when Senior Sister Son goes to the village tomorrow?"
"Of course we should. A Daoist sect without alcohol would be a serious problem."
"But a jar likely won't be delivered directly to Yeongsan Sect the way the bedding was. And Senior Sister Son can't carry one back on her own..."
"I'll go along with her."
"Thank you, Junior Brother. It's only lunchtime, but I fried a few pancakes for us."
Lee Eun-ha smiled brightly, wiping away her earlier worry. She managed Yeongsan Sect's household, a position comparable to a steward in another sect, so she must have been considering the sect's future from many angles.
Unlike Master, who intended to marry off every disciple and close Yeongsan Sect, Lee Eun-ha wanted somehow to improve the sect's condition. During the three years I'd remain, she was gradually expanding the household while catering to my preferences. My help had limits and might produce no great result, but she was working to ensure that even after I left, life in Yeongsan Sect could continue a little longer. I agreed with her direction. She did not know it yet, but Yeongsan Sect could rise again. We had Son Yeong and me.
My hidden trump card wasn't the Baek Clan Estate. My greatest weapon was now the Spirit-Binding Art. My talent might have been dull, and even if I obtained a peerless martial art, the level I could attain was obvious. But Yeongsan Sect had Son Yeong: a genius with access to peerless martial arts, like the protagonist of a martial arts novel. She could surely raise Yeongsan Sect again. So for the time being, even if people treated me like a madman, I'd cast the Spirit-Summoning Art wherever I could. Master, Lee Eun-ha, and I were each imagining the sect's future in our own way and moving forward little by little. We could undoubtedly stand again.
The distant future mattered, but the situation before me mattered more. As I ate exquisite pancakes in the mess hall, a fierce craving for alcohol struck me. In a manner befitting a Daoist, I attained a truth: Yeongsan Sect's distant future was important, but the wine jar we needed right now was far more urgent.