77. Temporary Residence (2)
Temporary Residence (2)
77. Temporary Residence (2)
Those White Tiger Sect bastards. This time they built the temporary residence with far more care than that temporary stronghold from before. Back then, we truly had nothing—we scavenged pots and bowls from the ashes and ate like beggars, and with only four people working on it, and since it was a stronghold we would only use for a very short time anyway, they threw it together sloppily at a breakneck pace. But this temporary residence was one we would be using for nearly a year, so they put considerable effort into building it.
Not every tree that grows in the mountains is suitable for construction. Thick ones, thin ones, hard ones, ones with rotten cores. Gathering wood of such uneven quality and building something this solid was proof of how truly remarkable these bastards' skills were. Unlike the orthodox Daoist sects, where Taoist arts were fading into oblivion and martial study had become the dominant trend, they had treasured and passed down the skills of their roots.
I could recognize all this thanks to the demon's second talent, Dwarf's Soul. If I deliberately used that supreme architectural ability, I could certainly build a structure worthy of cultural-heritage status. But Yeongsan Sect had only six people, and I had no intention of raising a massive fortress. Skill and convenience were separate matters. This life, in which I had experienced wealth more fully than in my capitalist former life, had taught me one truth: money existed to be spent. I was already busy enough. When would I find time to hammer away at construction labor? The demon's power was extraordinary, but the abilities of this world's people were impressive too. The temporary quarters those White Tiger Sect bastards built were honestly a hundred times better than old Yeongsan Sect.
The lot of us sat clustered together in the dining hall cum meeting room. Cho-ryeong was still glued to my side, refusing to let go of my clothes.
"Is everyone's training going well?"
At those words, their reactions diverged. Master and Jeong-hyang nodded. Son Yeong too. Cho-ryeong tilted her head, wondering what training was. And Lee Eun-ha grimaced at the very mention of it.
"I have observed everything that Moon Immortal instructed."
"I've now completely memorized the entire Taiji Wisdom-Sword Formula as well."
"The Great Clarity Internal Art too."
At the model-student replies of the three disciples, Lee Eun-ha glanced furtively at me.
"Please don't expect anything from me. I am, however, truly earning my keep these days."
"Senior Sister, you're not a kitchen maid."
"Honestly, what kind of martial artist am I? I'm a kitchen maid who lives in a martial sect. Ah, these days I do tavern work too, so have I been promoted to tavern keeper?"
Lee Eun-ha's self-deprecating words.
"What do you mean, tavern keeper? Even those bandit bastards call you Steward Lee. Whether you learn martial arts or enjoy cooking, that's your choice, Senior Sister, but you should at least train the strength to protect yourself.
"Here. It's the rice paddle inhabited by Medicine Immortal. Medicine Immortal's martial art is the Shennong Art, and from what I've heard in passing, it's not training that involves swinging a sword and throwing punches—it's training where your internal energy steadily increases as you cook and make medicine and the like."
"Really? There's a martial art like that?"
"Yes. There are three drawbacks, though. Medicine Immortal is a Balhae refugee, so she avoids speaking the Central Plains tongue as much as possible. And she says the Shennong Art is difficult to achieve greatness in if you can't cook. Lastly, training in the Shennong Art isn't martial-artist training—it really does look like a kitchen maid, which she says can wound your pride."
"As if it's a lie, she sounds like someone whose drawbacks are all advantages for me."
"Senior Sister. I truly am grateful that you're managing not only the Yeongsan Sect's household affairs but the White Tiger Sect's as well. But you'll also have to take charge of the medicine hall we're going to build. Our Yeongsan Sect may now be overflowing with peerless martial arts, but everyone's internal energy is weak, so we need to make spirit pills quickly before the medicinal ingredients spoil."
"Spirit pills, you say. That was a wondrous treasure—after taking just one pill, my whole body surged with power as if I could fly. Can I really manage it?"
"Medicine Immortal will teach you."
Lee Eun-ha accepted the rice paddle with a dazed expression.
"Senior Sister Son, Moon Immortal missed you very much. I have decided to call the Flame Emperor Teacher. I have only one Master, so I call the Flame Emperor, who passed his martial arts to me, Teacher instead. Moon Immortal is secretly envious, so she would be delighted if you called her Teacher too."
"A fitting form of address."
Accepting Moon Immortal's sword, the two women had a reunion for the first time in a long while.
"Should I call Reverend Heo San Teacher as well?"
Jeong-hyang asked with a bright smile.
"No! Hyang is my disciple. If both Hyang and I call Reverend Heo San Teacher, the relationships become hopelessly tangled."
The master-teacher disciple relationship. As if this were something important, Master—who had gotten her bottom spanked by her disciple and had twitched her hips—refused at a strange moment.
"Reverend Heo San says he prefers things as they are. We are his juniors in the Daoist tradition, after all."
While I handed Heosan to Jeong-hyang and Hwangseong to Master, letting them reunite as well, Geo Am had already flown over on its own and been grasped in Cho-ryeong's hand. We were clearly a sect of only six people, but with six more ghosts added, it felt pleasantly bustling, even if nothing could be heard.
"Now, I shall commence the Yeongsan Sect meeting. I ask that the honored deceased return to their places."
Master clapped her hands and spoke with a capable expression. Cute though she looked, she was still the current Yeongsan Sect Leader. The six spirit vessels respected her and returned to me.
"First of all. Although we have still not been able to restore the sect compound, compared to before, I think it's safe to say we now face no immediate hardship. In consideration of Yeongmok's efforts in bringing the honored deceased here, let us forget our recent idleness and train diligently for the time being."
"Yes, Master."
The voices of the five of us disciples rang out as one for the first time. Now we truly felt like a sect.
"Second. By Ancestral Master Hwangseong's command, we will take every meal together from now on. Hyang will soon become a Daoist as well, so her duties as Yeongmok's attendant are abolished."
"Master. I'm fine with it."
"I understand how Hyang feels, but Yeongsan Sect no longer has a rule requiring female disciples to attend a Daoist. However, caring for the adorable youngest disciple is the chief disciple's duty, so Hyang may do that as she wishes."
The restriction on female disciples, which had been akin to being a servant girl, had vanished. Except Master said if Jeong-hyang wanted to do it out of personal feeling, she could.
"I want to look after him too. Junior Brother must have been lonely all this time, and it's scary sleeping alone. I'll sleep with you tonight."
Cho-ryeong said, holding my hand tightly.
"Then I'll take tomorrow."
Before Son Yeong could even stop Cho-ryeong's adorable declaration, Jeong-hyang naturally booked the next day. Glances were exchanged in a brief moment. We'd shared such passionate love every single morning, but ever since leaving for the Murong Clan, we hadn't been able to do it even once. Both Master and Lee Eun-ha knew. That remark of Jeong-hyang's carried not the innocence of Cho-ryeong but the carnal desire of a grown woman.
"Hyang, you too?"
"Yes, Master. Junior Sister Cho is right. We're one family—making Junior Brother sleep alone every night is just too pitiful."
"I think so too. But both Hyang and Yeongmok are a young man and woman in their prime. Even if there's nothing at all between them, with the White Tiger Sect's eyes upon us, if the two of you emerge from one bedchamber alone, Hyang's chastity will be called into question. So, as a chaperone, I shall sleep there as well."
Wow. This was clearly a prepared line. Master's words, which seemed reasonable on the surface but were laden with ulterior motives. Honestly, the one most desperate for the Yin-Yang Art was none other than Master, and she, above all, having not had sex even once since her wedding night, would be blazing like a furnace by now.
"That's a good idea, Master. I'm sorry, Junior Brother. I have to wake up early in the morning, so if we shared a room, you wouldn't be able to rest well."
Having fobbed Master off onto my room, Lee Eun-ha leisurely made her exit. With this much perceptiveness, it was no wonder both the Yeongsan Sect and the White Tiger Sect liked her so much.
"I also apologize. My Teacher says that the internal energy of the Moonlit Divine Sword is most easily cultivated under the moonlight. However, as I've said before, once the foundations of the Moonlit Divine Sword are laid soon, I will sleep in Junior Brother's quarters to assist with Yin-Yang Art training."
Son Yeong spoke matter-of-factly. The three women's eyes changed at once. Lee Eun-ha's gaze asked whether I meant to lay hands on Son Yeong too. Jeong-hyang looked at her with welcome. Master's gaze wasn't jealous, but it carried adamant refusal. Son Yeong was attractive, and I was hardly so pure that I would reject her now. But with one of my women looking at me that way, there was no reason to force the issue and make Son Yeong mine as well.
"Eun-ha. Could you wash Ryeong first, and bring Ryeong's pillow to Yeongmok's quarters?"
Master spoke quietly.
"Yes, Master. Let's go, Junior Sister Cho. If you smell, Junior Brother won't like it."
Lee Eun-ha took Cho-ryeong's hand and left the dining hall. She'd probably noticed that Master wanted them to clear the room.
"Yeong. You said you would offer up your maidenhood to repay your debt to Yeongmok, didn't you?"
"Yes. That's correct."
"If that is your reason, I cannot permit it."
"Why not?"
"Yeong, you don't need to repay any debt. If it's a debt, I should be the one to repay it. Though it was Yeong who sought out the Baek Clan Estate, it was I, the Sect Leader, who sent her."
"M-Master!"
"Yeong, your talent for martial arts is exceptional enough to astonish even the honored dead, but I want you to develop awareness of the people and circumstances around you as well. Martial arts are precious to a martial artist, but they are not the whole of life."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Yeong. Before we moved here to the temporary residence, you bathed with me every day, didn't you? Did you not notice the change in me?"
"If you mean cutting your pubic hair, I heard that directly from you, Master."
Son Yeong answered unconfidently, a puzzled look on her face at Master's question.
"That's not what I mean. Look here—my chastity mark. Did you not realize it disappeared after Yeongmok left for the Murong Clan?"
"Ah... Th-then, don't tell me...?"
"As expected, Eun-ha rather than Yeong will become the next Sect Leader. Eun-ha has known everything for a long time. I already gave my maidenhood to Yeongmok and trained the Yin-Yang Art through the Fourth Stage. Once Yeongmok descends the mountain, I intend to live as his wife."
"Master!! Why! Why would you..."
Because of the ten taels of silver she had obtained, her virgin master had been sold to her junior disciple. Perhaps that was how Son Yeong understood it, because she looked at Master with tears in her eyes.
"Oh dear. You mustn't cry. It's not as you think, Yeong—I, your master, am not being sold off for money. Though it was truly late in life, I met a man who loves me as I am and am living happily. You know as well, don't you, Yeong, that Yeongmok isn't some scoundrel who would take your master by force with money?"
She was greatly shocked by Master's words. But soon she shook her head vigorously and looked straight at Master as she spoke.
"I understand. Congratulations. While I was unaware, I never imagined something like this had happened between Master and Junior Brother. But I have one question. Why is Senior Sister Son to be the next Sect Leader rather than chief disciple Senior Sister Jeong?"
"I will descend the mountain too. Honestly, I don't understand debts of gratitude and things like that very well. I just love Junior Brother. I want to stay with him until I die. At the Heavenly Wolf Sect, I agonized over whether to preserve my chastity and die or meet Junior Brother one more time even if my body had been defiled. I'm so happy that I can be with him again without having been defiled."
Master was clearly my lover, but seeing that lovestruck maiden's look unique to Jeong-hyang was both a little overwhelming and made me incredibly happy. At the revelation that after Master, even Jeong-hyang had decided to become my wife, Son Yeong sat with her mouth wide open, unable to say a word. Her talent for martial arts was truly something legendary heroes would acknowledge, but her perceptiveness was completely hopeless. We'd thought we were being careful, yet she—a grown woman, not even Cho-ryeong—had never once anticipated the subtle changes among us within this cramped Yeongsan Sect.
"But Master, can Senior Sister Son not become Junior Brother's bride together with us? Then we can all remain together."
"No. I was the one who instructed Hyang to enter Yeongmok's arms, but that was because Hyang already loved him. I am Yeongmok's wife, but I am also Yeong's master. We are no longer destitute. I will not force any of my disciples into an unwanted marriage. Every one of you will meet a man you love and live happily."
Master's reply was gentle but firm. This might have been exactly what she had wanted to uphold her entire life. Son Yeong, who knew this side of her master all too well, nonetheless mustered her courage one last time and spoke, her face flushed bright red.
"Master, perhaps I love Junior Brother too. Recently, when I circulated the First Stage of the Yin Blossom Art, my groin began to tingle, and I even masturbated while imagining Junior Brother naked."
She even revealed her masturbation experience as she made her final stand, but Master, with that gentle face, cut her down in an instant.
"Hey! An ascetic must not masturbate! And what do you mean, perhaps? With an answer like that, I cannot permit it either as Yeongmok's wife or as Yeong's master."
In the end, Son Yeong bowed her head despondently.
Master. You're a riot. As if you hadn't done everything with your disciple Jeong-hyang since your own ascetic days—licking each other's pussies and sucking and all.