96. Liaoxi (5)
Liaoxi (5)
96. Liaoxi (5)
"Well, then. Brother Baek. It was a pleasure meeting you. Be sure to visit the Star-Moon Sect in Shanxi. Ah. Looking for the Star-Moon Merchant Guild will make it easier to find."
The three people who had briefly become friends with me, Cho-ryeong, and Jeong-hyang left the inn. Cho-ryeong looked ready to burst into tears, yet she exchanged farewells with Gang Ji-yeon with unexpected composure. It was not only Cho-ryeong. Master and the other senior sisters also looked strangely tense, their gazes dignified and commanding.
"Now. Then let us prepare to depart as well. From today, each of you will travel wearing the Yeongsan Sect martial uniform, not your formal martial attire or Taoist robes. Change into those only when we are in a village."
The Master's voice was composed and imbued with authority. Such a sect-leader-like bearing was welcome, yet her overnight transformation felt incredibly unfamiliar.
"To the next village is three days' journey. We shall not stop at any tavern, and we will prepare camp early. I believe everyone has had their fill of leisure traveling abroad by now. I will grant you free time again at the next village, but at least while we are on the move, we will combine morning travel with afternoon training. We are martial artists of Yeongsan Sect, after all."
The Master declared her intention boldly and puffed out her chest with pride. Cho-ryeong also stood beside the Master, chest thrown wide, and behind the adorable pair I could even feel the aura of masters of the martial world.
Jeong-hyang poked me in the side and whispered into my ear.
"Why is the Master suddenly acting like that?"
"She defeated the Blacksmith Gang's sect leader. Senior Sister Cho seems drunk on her first victory too."
"That's right, Yeongmok. I understand now. We are people fully qualified to be called martial artists. So I will forget my past indolence and devote myself to training every day."
Whispering was useless now. Everyone's qi sense had grown so sharp that any private conversation was impossible except through voice transmission. Though, of course, the only people capable of voice transmission were Lee Eun-ha and myself.
"Now. Junior Brother. Go and get changed. Come to think of it, this is the first time we've had matching martial uniforms made."
Lee Eun-ha's face didn't sparkle with pride like Master's or Cho-ryeong's, but the uncertainty that had been her only flaw was gone. She naturally handed me a white martial uniform. The deep-rooted inferiority complex of a fifth-rate sect had lingered somewhere in the Yeongsan Sect for years and had once driven its men to throw away their lives in vain. Yesterday's victory swept it away at once. I took the uniform back to my room and, for the first time, dressed in the Yeongsan Sect's martial attire.
At first I hadn't worn it because we simply had no money to have uniforms made, and after that I had become a Taoist and went around in Taoist robes, so I had never once worn the martial uniform. Putting on what was really just an ordinary group uniform, I felt an unfounded pride along with a profound sense of belonging. We Yeongsan Sect people, all dressed together in pure white uniforms and looking at one another with pride. The Master, her face brimming with even greater pride at the sight, spoke.
"Give your bundles and Taoist robes to Hyang. Yeongmok must be the first to enter combat in an emergency."
Before Master's order had even finished, Jeong-hyang snatched away my bundle. Even without the Four Heroes' Spirit Possession Art, I was the Yeongsan Sect's strongest combatant. In natural talent, Lee Eun-ha and I occupied the bottom two places, but the Four Heroes' training method using the Spirit-Binding Art had launched me toward the pinnacle regardless of talent—and now regardless of my own will. What fell had no wings. My training had been fired upward like a cannonball by the Four Heroes' will rather than mine. Once they made up their minds, I was destined to become a master sooner or later.
My current state was at the peak of the second-rate realm. I had surely already surpassed my father. As long as I deployed Blazing Fire Qi, an attribute attack, I could seize the advantage against ordinary sword qi short of martial aura. Murong Hyeok-jung had looked at my internal power and cast a deeply dubious eye, saying I fell short of his son Murong Sang. What that meant was, I ranked above his grandson Murong Su, a top-tier contestant at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, and fell precisely short of Murong Sang, a master ranked among the Top Hundred Masters and a first-class expert.
I would gladly have carried the bundles for them, but we were also a small fighting unit, and this was a form of battle formation. Master seemed to have diligently learned such basic tactics from the Four Heroes. The ranking beneath me was rather strange. By internal energy alone, Lee Eun-ha was unquestionably first. Having reached the second-rate level, she could infuse qi not only into a sword but even into a steamed bun and smash a person's skull. Yet after several sparring matches, she still could not touch Son Yeong. Son Yeong stood at the peak of the third-rate realm, but Lee Eun-ha's heavy movements could never catch the Moon Immortal Steps, and her eyes could not follow the immense transformations of the Moonlit Divine Sword.
The problem was Cho-ryeong. Because of the Vajra Art, Son Yeong could not even scratch her without Sword Qi. Cho-ryeong could not keep up with Son Yeong's Moon Immortal Steps either, but if the fight became a contest of endurance, Cho-ryeong would eventually win on points. Her accuracy was poor, but she had one devastating blow. Lee Eun-ha's Fist Qi, however, could put even Cho-ryeong down. I could not say exactly how the women ranked, but Son Yeong remained the only consistently reliable combatant. In an emergency, I would attack while she protected the other senior sisters or dealt with ambushers, so she was exempted from carrying luggage. Lee Eun-ha already carried the Medicine Immortal's huge iron rice paddle and the large pot that would provide our meals on the road, leaving the remaining baggage to the Sect Leader and head disciple. Cho-ryeong might have been strong, but her small frame limited what she could carry, and burdening her would have looked like child abuse.
Perhaps this was the village where Yeongsan Sect had first spent its days freely and joyfully. Now, as we left the inn, we followed behind the imposing Master in a neat group, dressed in our martial uniforms. Though the change in the Master and martial sisters looked a little comical, I thought it was a change they absolutely needed. In truth, the Blacksmith Gang were thugs unworthy even of the title of unorthodox martial artists. As a rule, unless a sect had shared a long history with the local area like the Murong Clan, a sect that nestled this close to civilian dwellings was a small fry. Real sects were massive in scale, possessed many hidden martial arts, and established themselves far removed from civilian settlements. But the reason small-fry sects placed their headquarters inside or near villages was that they could not achieve economic independence, proof that they relied on the village's revenue. Of course, our Yeongsan Sect had also been an excellent example of a small-fry sect.
Even so, a victory remained a decisive victory. And a crushing one at that, in which we annihilated the opponent without so much as a scratch. The sweet wine of victory was intoxicating. I was glad they had plucked and tasted that fruit for themselves. Victory and success became habits in the end. Even if they faced and felled countless enemies in the future, they would never forget yesterday for the rest of their lives.
A wide-open site was not suitable for a camp. It made one an easy target for beasts or bandits, and offered no place to hide. But for us now, none of that was a concern at all; rather, a wide-open field like this made all-around security easier. Around noon, we settled at a suitable camp and lit a campfire simply with Blazing Fire Qi. Lee Eun-ha prepared a simple snack from ingredients bought in the village, and for the first time in a long while, everyone devoted themselves to training. Their eyes had indeed changed. Drunk on the sweetness of their first victory, they craved the next. Perhaps the will of a martial artist, far more important than talent or martial arts, had finally taken root in them.
Cho-ryeong held a cute miniature iron plate and practiced downward strikes as though Geo Am were truly teaching her the Mount Tai Strike. Jeong-hyang learned an extreme-yin internal art from the Flame Emperor, a master of extreme-yang arts. Master replayed the previous day's battle and tried to reproduce a more refined Taiji, while Lee Eun-ha cheerfully wandered among the plants gathering food.
Only one person, Son Yeong, had not fully digested yesterday's enlightenment and was conversing with Moon Immortal.
—Reverend, this won't do. Please share a bed with Son Yeong tonight.—
Moon Immortal said as she returned.
—What am I, some kind of guidebook to enlightenment? Why do you want me to share a bed with her again? We're in an open field without a single wall!—
—What else can we do? Son Yeong can unravel her enlightenment only by sharing a bed with you, Reverend.—
Son Yeong had no strange fetish. But what was far stranger was that every time she hit a wall, she broke through it by sharing my bed. Whether her first experience had become a habit, she had gained enlightenment in my bed three more times since.
—What kind of enlightenment makes your martial arts leap several stages in the middle of sex?—
—Oh my? Reverend? You haven't experienced enlightenment even once yet? Cho-ryeong has already done so twice, and haven't Jeong-hyang and the Yeongsan Sect Leader each had one? You really are a martial artist, Reverend?—
Moon Immortal was beginning to get on my nerves. Truly a filthy world. Humanly speaking, this was Son Yeong's fourth time—couldn't I get to experience this enlightenment or whatever just once by now?
"Dinner is served!"
While we trained, Lee Eun-ha gathered food from the wild hills and made mushroom hot pot. Cooking like this in the open had been impossible even when we traveled with an escort agency.
"Hm? Senior Sister. Isn't this a poisonous mushroom?"
I did not recall its name, but it was a mushroom with a distinctive funnel shape. I lifted it with my chopsticks and asked her.
"Yes. It's all right. It's delicious, so please eat up."
It was a mushroom said to numb the tongue with a single bite, but the other women were already unconcernedly and happily filling their stomachs, emptied by training.
"I told you not to worry? Everyone has now developed resistance to poisons of this level. Over the past half-year I have been adding minuscule amounts of poison to our meals."
She cheerfully handed me a large piece of mushroom. Her words sent a slight chill down my spine, but there was no way the Medicine Immortal of this era would make such a mistake. Sure enough, aside from the poison, it had a rich savory flavor finer than the highest-quality meat.
There was no one here to watch us, so the Flame Emperor freely illuminated the campsite with the Flame Blossom Art. Someone might approach and witness it, but anyone capable of slipping past the Four Heroes' and Medicine Immortal's Qi Sense could not have concealed their true ability anyway. Lately, we had become wealthy enough to commission new clothes freely and wear beautiful ornaments and swords, making us look like entirely different people. Yet true to our origins as a poor little sect, the Yeongsan Sect members fell asleep without complaint on the cold ground in the middle of winter. By now, they had probably developed resistance to most mushrooms too. They looked as though they could survive anywhere without starving.
"Junior Brother. You're not asleep, are you?"
The first night-watch at the glorious Yeongsan Sect camp fell to the Head Disciple, Jeong-hyang. She addressed me in a gentle voice.
"Since you doted only on me yesterday, please show affection to Junior Sister Son tonight. Earlier, while picking mushrooms, Junior Sister Lee said she found a suitable spot."
When I slowly opened my eyes, Son Yeong was waiting in a demure posture. Though she was not menstruating, she had changed into a skirt just as Master had. Blushing beneath the moonlight, she quietly took my hand and led me to a spot surrounded by trees that the considerate Lee Eun-ha had found.
"Do not misunderstand. The enlightenment is already within me. Even if it takes time, it will one day become mine. I merely wish to become one with Junior Brother beneath this moonlight."
"What does it matter if it's enlightenment or just coupling? All I can ever do is make love to Yeong anyway."
At my ordinary words, she flushed and hugged a large tree tightly. It reminded me of my first experience with the Master. It seemed she had prepared this skirt for outdoor sex. The Master had worn a skirt like this when she came to me for her wedding night too. Having sex while still clothed was something I had always wanted to try once.
When I lifted her skirt, her vulva, bare beneath it, was clearly visible in the moonlight and the glow of the Yang Blossom Art. She seemed to have secretly inserted the clitoral piercing she liked beforehand. She wore no undergarment beneath her top either, so as she embraced the tree with her waist thrust out, even her breasts showed through the sides. Her skin was firm and her body supple. If Master evoked a yellow sunflower and Jeong-hyang a red rose, Son Yeong resembled a single finely honed treasured sword.
Shining under the moonlight, she was the Moonlit Divine Sword itself. Yes. A person and a sword were not different. Why had I been swinging a sword without knowing this simple truth?
In an instant, my consciousness jolted and turned pure white.
"Ju-Junior Brother! I understand now! The hand stroking my nipples, the fingers tugging my clitoris, the tongue gently covering my lips, the phallus piercing my vagina—all of it was ultimately you, Junior Brother! The Moonlit Divine Sword wielded against countless enemies originates entirely from me!"
The Yang Blossom Art circulated steadily, but the Flame Blossom Art rode that momentum and charged like a storm through every acupoint in my body toward my dantian. I could feel Son Yeong too. Through my cock, her vast, piercing energy formed a small vortex inside her like a sword dance. Sex was always pleasurable, but in this situation, the pleasure could endanger us both. Our survival instincts, honed like sharp blades, awakened, and to end the act even a moment sooner, we naturally began operating the Fifth Stage of the Yin-Yang Art that we had kept sealed until then.
An indescribable tightness of her vagina. As if fifty individual fingers were stimulating my cock one by one, Son Yeong seized and pulled at my cock with movements beyond the human.
"Ah!!! Aaaahhh!!"
But under the Fifth Stage of Yang Blossom Art, which delivered a drug-like ecstasy to a woman, she cried out with a near-scream moan and at last released the tree, twisting her supple waist to kiss my mouth. We had sealed the Fifth Stage of the Yin-Yang Art because even we, who trained in it, reached climax in far too short a time.
My mind went pure white. All my senses had already shifted entirely to my cock. Not even knowing whether I was breathing or standing, I gripped the sole landmark, her waist, tightly.
She was the sword. A sword was the most fundamental means by which a martial artist protected his life. Even if I died, I could not let go of this hand.
In the end, I barely managed to finish ejaculating inside her, and we had likely become the first man and woman in the history of the Central Plains to complete copulation mid-enlightenment.