Taoist Arts (7)

30. Taoist Arts (7)

Her alluring gaze seemed to entice me, yet the faint trembling at its edges laid Master's anxiety and unease bare. Apparently realizing it herself, she soon erased the seductive look and spoke to me again with her usual expression.

"I'm sorry. My circumstances were desperate, so I used a scheme on you, Disciple, but it seems you already noticed. Most of what you're imagining is probably correct. There is no longer any future to expect from Yeongsan Sect. The sect will end with my generation. As Sect Leader, I am terribly ashamed to say this before our predecessors, but... our disciples. Our lovely, kind children. When I think of those disciples, who still have bright futures ahead of them, I simply cannot keep clinging to Yeongsan Sect as it is.

"Hyang-a, in particular, has spent the longest time with me. In truth, she's more like a younger sister than a disciple. As you know, she is extraordinarily beautiful. Yet because I have failed as Sect Leader, she remains trapped in this miserable Yeongsan Sect, wasting her youth. A woman's beauty lasts only for a time. As the years pass, even a face as lovely as hers may no longer find a household willing to take her in. Yet beauty without power is like a flower blooming alone in a field, destined to be plucked and broken by another's hand. If Yeongsan Sect were even an ordinary sect, I could find Hyang-a a trustworthy husband and marry her off safely. But she comes from a sect like ours and has no family to support her. I fear that her beauty will bring her a life filled with equal suffering."

Master was a kind and gentle woman. Once she realized that sincere words were far more persuasive than schemes that did not suit her, she brought out the feelings she'd kept buried and confronted me with them.

Jeong-hyang. A woman burdened by her own beauty. Beauty was a woman's greatest weapon, yet it was also as dangerous as treasure in the hands of someone without strength. Her dazzling loveliness could stir lust in any man. But even a rose in a field protected itself with thorns, while she had nothing. If an ordinary man took Jeong-hyang as his wife, could he truly protect her from other men bewitched by her beauty and consumed by lust?

Moreover, women had few rights in this era. Even my macho father didn't dare mistreat Lady Tang because her family was the Sichuan Tang Clan. Unless Yeongsan Sect could stand firmly behind Jeong-hyang in place of her birth family, it was difficult to imagine her finding happiness merely because she was married into a suitable household. Her beauty was a treasure laced with poison, like a diamond mine or oil field discovered in an underdeveloped country in my previous life.

"It has only been a short time since I accepted you, but I've observed you closely enough. You are someone I can rely on. You possess a strong sense of responsibility, and even though we were little better than servant girls rather than true disciples of a sect, you always treated us properly as your master and senior sister.

"But because you treated us with so much respect, you never saw us as women. So I racked my dull brain and devised a scheme. I hurried to make you a Daoist so I would have an excuse, arranged for us to bathe together, and had you learn the Yin-Yang Art. It was the pathetic scheme of an incompetent woman, but Disciple, if you truly regard me as your master, please grant my request. You're all I have left."

Master pleaded desperately with me, tears glistening in her large eyes. I already knew ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Yeongsan Sect was in dire straits, but she had been struggling to carry every responsibility on her small shoulders and had truly been driven into a corner.

"Promise me. Tomorrow morning, you will train the fourth stage of the Yin-Yang Art with Hyang-a. Disciple, you can promise me that, can't you?"

Though she had the face of a child, Master had long served as Yeongsan Sect's mother. Now, however, she clung to me and pleaded like a desperate child herself. The situation was tangled beyond measure, like an impossible knot, but faced with those eyes, I did not have the courage to refuse her.

"Master, calm down. Who said I didn't want to? Where under heaven would you find an idiot who would refuse a beauty like Senior Sister Jeong? But we must hear her full opinion as well."

She must have taken it as a positive response, because my teary master instantly brightened and grabbed my arm.

"Really? Really? Disciple? A true man can't go back on his word about something like this, can he?"

"That's why, first, Senior Sister Jeong's..."

"Hyang-a won't be a problem. Hyang-a is definitely in love with you, Disciple. Hyang-a, who has only ever seen unmanly martial uncles and senior brothers all this time, is without a doubt already holding you in her heart!"

Listening to Master's excited explanation, I could partly understand Jeong-hyang's fondness for me. Under ordinary circumstances, she would have been impossibly aloof, and her beauty gave her every right to be. But to her, the whole world was no more than Yeongsan Sect. Beautiful or not, disciple of a bizarre sect or not, she was still a person and a woman. Human or animal, a female followed a male for two reasons. First: strength. In nature, females belonged to the strongest male. I had only just reached the level of a third-rate martial artist, but compared with the pathetic Yeongsan Sect ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Taoists who barely qualified as martial artists, I must have seemed to inhabit an entirely different realm.

Second: capability. Bringing prey back to the group and feeding the female and young was a male's natural duty. Given Yeongsan Sect's circumstances, I had bought pretty cloth and spent my money so they could eat meat and white rice. To Jeong-hyang, I could only have appeared capable. Of course, humans were not animals, and there were other reasons—appearance, tenderness, and so on. Either way, I was overwhelmingly better than the damned bastards she'd known until then.

In truth, I was already somewhat late to marry by the standards of this era. By the standards of my previous life, I was still only a damned military brat and hadn't even begun planning for marriage, but a woman like Jeong-hyang would make the best wife I could hope for. Master's request was an easy choice that I could gladly accept. But if I took Jeong-hyang away, and Master then used that near-obsessive determination to marry off Son Yeong and Lee Eun-ha as well, what would become of her? In the happy future she imagined for every disciple, Master's own happiness had no place. Yet I couldn't bring myself to say so while her face shone with joy at finally securing her long-cherished wish. In the end, we began our final Yin-Yang Art training.

"Junior Brother, are you asleep?"

Normally, Jeong-hyang slipped beneath my covers without making a sound, but that night she woke me cautiously. I opened my eyes and glanced toward the window. It was still the depths of dawn. Usually, she entered my room, stripped naked, and slipped straight under the covers. This time she sat there fully dressed, smiling brightly as I woke.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to talk a little."

"It's fine, Senior Sister."

At my answer, Jeong-hyang perched on the edge of my bed and smiled gently. Even looking up at her in the darkness, she was truly beautiful.

"Junior Brother, there's something I want to ask you. Do I really look pretty?"

I'd barely managed to fall asleep after wrestling with tangled thoughts about her, only for Jeong-hyang to appear in the middle of the night and ask such an unexpected question. I gave a small laugh at its absurdity and answered.

"Of course. Of all the women I've seen in my life, not a single one has been prettier than you, Senior Sister."

"That's a relief. Master and the junior sisters always tell me I am pretty, but I can't see it at all. To me, Master and the junior sisters look much prettier. Still, a man's eyes should be trustworthy in this matter, shouldn't they, Junior Brother?"

Jeong-hyang beamed in delight. It was the kind of remark that would surely have earned her curses from another woman.

"Of course."

"Then, Junior Brother, do you also covet my virginity?"

As expected, Master must have told her all sorts of things. Yet I'd never imagined that Jeong-hyang, who always approached me naturally in the affectionate mood of a lover, would suddenly throw such a direct fastball.

"The junior sisters told me that a beautiful woman's virginity is highly valuable, and that men will do reckless things to possess it. Are you that way too, Junior Brother?"

Jeong-hyang's virginity. Even a hundred Treasured Swords from Murong Rin wouldn't equal its value. I nodded at such an obvious truth, and Jeong-hyang laughed more joyfully than ever. It was unexpected. I hadn't known she possessed this kind of need for validation.

"Then, Junior Brother, I'll give you my virginity, so please grant me just one request."

"Pardon?"

"I will become the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Sect Leader of Yeongsan Sect. So please take our current Sect Leader—Master—away with you."

With a bright, innocent expression, Jeong-hyang suddenly said something utterly bizarre.

"Don't worry. Once I become sect leader, I won't marry, so I won't need to cling to my virginity either."

No matter ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠how much conditions had improved since I joined, Yeongsan Sect's future remained bleak. The women were innocent, but not foolish. Lee Eun-ha was already working in her own way for the sect's future, though her methods differed from Master's, and Jeong-hyang was the same. Her approach closely resembled Master's: she wanted to shoulder Master's burden herself and make her happy. They were all alike. Once they no longer had to worry about their next meal and finally gained time to consider the sect's future, each began drawing that future in her own way.

Perhaps she mistook my flustered expression for hesitation. Growing more anxious, Jeong-hyang tried to persuade me again.

"Master is still young. She can bear children. And even if you didn't break her hymen, Junior Brother, you've seen a virgin's innermost flesh, so you must take responsibility like a true man. Ah, you don't need to take responsibility for me. I've decided to live my whole life unmarried as Sect Leader of Yeongsan Sect."

Jeong-hyang's anxious words struck a guilty nerve. I mightn't have touched Master's hymen, but after going so far with her, I could hardly avoid feeling indebted. I'd done the same things with Gyeong Su-yeon in the past, yet never felt this way toward her. What exactly was the difference?

"Very well. If you promise me, I'll come serve you every day until you descend the mountain. You said my body has value. If that wasn't a lie, promise me now that you'll take Master with you."

Jeong-hyang grew increasingly desperate as she entrusted Master to me.

"But, Senior Sister, Master is our master. Sovereign, teacher, and father are one. She is like a mother to us. How could I, her disciple, take her as my wife?"

"What's wrong with that? Yeongsan Sect follows Daoism, not Confucianism. You're a Daoist, Junior Brother, not a Confucian scholar. I've heard that several Daoists in the past took their disciples with them when they descended the mountain. A Daoist taking his own master may be a first, but why should that be strange? A sovereign is a sovereign, a teacher is a teacher, and parents are parents."

No, those bastards had ignored society's judgment because they were retiring from the martial world to live quietly in some remote countryside.

"Hmph. I'm disappointed, Junior Brother. I came tonight prepared to give you my virginity and brought all sorts of things to please you, but I think I'll make you pine a little longer. I'll go back for tonight, so think carefully. Master is such a good woman, and I'm offering my virginity on top of her. Any man who refuses that will never get his penis into my mouth."

Making it obvious at a glance that she was acting, Jeong-hyang spun around, strode away, and firmly shut the door behind her.

A bolt from the blue. I didn't know whether that expression existed in this era, but after more than twenty years, the phrase that perfectly described my state of mind resurfaced in my memory.

Master. You could have told me from the beginning that you wanted to entrust Jeong-hyang to me. Why did you make everything so complicated that I couldn't even sleep properly?