Pajeo River - (5)
After performing the Great Turtle Breathing Art, Dokgo Ryeong began to see the world slow down.
At the same time she felt a comfort she had not known in recent days—a strange, buoyant sensation, as if she were drifting weightless in the sky while nestled in a soft bed.
Savoring that leisure, she sank deep into her own interior.
…
She first sensed the pure-white, icy Yin energy coiled near her lower dantian and the Huiyin point, then followed the eight extraordinary meridians in a full circuit of observation. When her awareness reached the Baihui point at the crown of her head, she noticed a faint residue of Yang energy left over from her days as the Mad Demon Dokgo Jin.
… So it was still there.
It was the last trace of the moment she had undergone Bone and Body Reconstitution—when, determined to keep her head even if she became a eunuch, she had forced every scrap of her Yang energy up into the Baihui. The Yin of the Ten Thousand Years Ice Jade had already swept through once, so what remained felt like less than a handful; still, she thought, in a true emergency she might be able to draw it out.
While she was wondering what she could possibly do with so little Yang, her chest suddenly tightened. The cozy floating feeling vanished, replaced by the suffocating sensation of sinking endlessly underwater. Dokgo Ryeong thrashed with every ounce of strength she had.
At last she broke free of the crushing pressure, clawed through the dirt, and burst into sunlight. The first face she saw was Wi Ilcheong’s.
“…Fuck! Cough… hack…!”
She glanced around, then remembered exactly where she had been. Coming fully to her senses, she looked at Wi Ilcheong.
“Ah, fuck…. Thought I was gonna die…. You made it?”
“Ha… haha….”
“…What? Why the hell are you laughing?”
“Seeing Young Lady Dokgo as consistent as ever puts my mind a little at ease.”
Watching him sink to the ground, she examined his clothes—scattered sword cuts, torn fabric, ragged breathing. So he had suffered his own share of hardship. She was about to cut him some slack when a sudden wrongness struck her.
Something that should have been there was missing.
“…Lust Demon.”
“Yes.”
“…Where’s Dun-chi?”
“That is…”
“You son of a bitch!!”
Dokgo Ryeong seized him by the collar.
“What the fuck happened? You said you’d bring her!”
“Young Lady Dokgo, please calm yourself for a moment…”
“Where is she?!”
“…I’m right here.”
Startled by the voice behind her, she spun around. Baekri Sohyeon and Eun Gwanyeong stood there, both caked in dirt. Baekri Sohyeon smiled bashfully at her.
“…I got here first and was hiding too.”
“…”
“Hehe… Did you miss me, Ryeong Mae? Were you worried about me?”
“…Hey, Lust Demon.”
“Yes, Young Lady Dokgo.”
“You should’ve fucking said so first, you bastard!”
“…I was about to tell you.”
“Aaaargh!!”
Dokgo Ryeong shuddered with pure embarrassment. Baekri Sohyeon immediately wrapped her arms around her and held her still.
“Hehe, Ryeong Mae. Call me Sohyeon Unnie already.”
“Forget it, fuck. Forget I said anything! I was out of my mind for a second!”
“Hehehe, Ryeong Mae. I like you sooo much too.”
“Aaaargh!”
It took a good while before Dokgo Ryeong finally settled down.
Once she had calmed, the Lust Demon quietly dismantled the energy barrier he had raised and lowered his stance.
“Whew… First of all, I’m glad we could meet again like this. And Young Lady Dokgo—if you’re going to scream, please give us a little warning first. We just finished escaping; what if they hear us?”
“…Fuck.”
“Hehe… I’ll take good care of her, Wi Oppa.”
Dokgo Ryeong was still nestled in Baekri Sohyeon’s arms. No matter how she struggled, her present frail body had no hope of breaking free, and the soft press of those breasts felt far too pleasant. In the end she gave up, rested her head against them, and simply listened.
“Young Lady Dokgo. From the look of things, you’ve already spoken with Young Lady Eun?”
“Hao Sect, disciple of Silver Fox, and actually a girl.”
“That’s enough.”
“…Why hide it?”
“To deceive the enemy, one must first deceive one’s own side. Besides, Young Lady Eun’s Bone Shrinking Art is a true trump card. Whether the enemy knows she can change her appearance with it or not makes a world of difference.”
“…I get it.”
“Heheh, getting acknowledged by Wi Oppa is kinda embarrassing. Hehe…”
Watching Eun Gwanyeong scratch her head shyly, Dokgo Ryeong idly kicked dirt in her direction.
“If you’re that capable, you should’ve done something sooner, huh?!”
“Hiiing…”
“Haa… Please stop bullying Young Lady Eun, Young Lady Dokgo.”
“Fuck, how was that bullying?”
“…”
Wi Ilcheong rubbed his tired eyes, yet the familiar rhythm of their bickering drew an involuntary smile from him. Dokgo Ryeong immediately snapped at him for it.
“You bastard, something funny? No Sunpyeong behind us, Moyong Clan martial artists on the river ahead—how the hell are we getting through?”
“Ah… Forgive me. I should have explained first.”
He picked up a twig and began sketching on the ground. At the top he drew three wavy lines.
“This is the Pajeo River.”
“And?”
Below that he drew a horizontal line and wrote “Moyong Clan” beside it.
“This side will be the welcoming force from the Moyong Clan’s main house.”
Under the line he marked a circle.
“We’re roughly here.”
Finally, beneath the circle, he drew a question mark.
“This question mark is Senior No Sunpyeong’s pursuit party. I don’t know exactly how close they are.”
“You cut their numbers?”
“When I last met them there were about a dozen or so.”
“Hmm… That’s a decent reduction.”
Dokgo Ryeong stroked her chin while studying the crude map.
“Just smash through the riverbank force and cross with water-walking?”
“…Difficult. There may be Moyong reinforcements waiting on the far side.”
“Going back the way we came means running into No Sunpyeong.”
“That side isn’t easy either.”
“…So what’s your plan?”
Wi Ilcheong drew an arrow pointing down and to the left.
“If we keep heading downstream, the Pajeo meets another river.”
“And?”
“We flee that far, cross there, then continue following the river farther down. There’s a small fishing village called Cheonniwa. From there we take a boat across the sea—”
He dotted a final mark.
“—and we can go straight to Shandong.”
“Why go the long way?”
“Mostly because of you, Young Lady Dokgo. I didn’t expect a wanted order to have already been issued for you.”
His twig returned to the Pajeo River. He placed a point on its left bank and drew a line downward.
“This is Liaoning. The Moyong Clan is itching to kill you here.”
“…And?”
“Below that is Tianjin—the main headquarters of the Beggar’s Sect. Passing through there would be hard for you.”
“…After that?”
“Near Beijing sits the Hebei Paeng Clan. I heard the Mad Demon Elder and the Paeng Clan Head clashed often over the title of Greatest Saber under Heaven. Is that right?”
“…If they learn I’m alive, they’ll take me hostage just for the chance to fight.”
“I cannot force my way through all three of those threats. However—”
He redrew the line from Cheonniwa to Shandong.
“If we cross straight into Shandong, we can follow the coast to Botamun without major trouble. That is the first reason.”
“What’s the second?”
“There are no clans that hold a grudge against the Mad Demon Elder. The only notable houses in Shandong are the Shandong Ak Clan and the Hwangbo Clan. The Hwangbo rose to the Five Great Clans precisely because the Mad Demon Elder wrecked the Moyong, so they shouldn’t harbor much ill will.”
“Hmm…”
“And there is an even greater third reason.”
“There’s more?”
“The Hao Sect.”
“…”
Wi Ilcheong looked at Eun Gwanyeong; she cleared her throat and took over.
“Ahem. Our Hao Sect has hidden branches all over the Central Plains. A few of them are especially large—one of those is the Shandong branch.”
“…What’s the upside of going there?”
“I can report to headquarters, explain Wi Oppa’s situation, and arrange safe passage for Young Lady Dokgo. Plus Wi Oppa can take his time treating his severed meridians.”
“…That ‘treatment’…”
“Hehe…”
Eun Gwanyeong grinned, formed a circle with two fingers, and started to thrust another finger through it. Dokgo Ryeong’s foot immediately lashed out at her.
“You… crazy bitch! Even so, a woman making such vulgar gestures—”
“…I can’t exactly say ‘we’re gonna fuck,’ can I?!”
“It’s the same fucking thing, you lunatic!”
“Ryeong Mae… calm down, okay?”
“Haa…”
Baekri Sohyeon held her from behind and stroked her gently. Dokgo Ryeong thrashed for a moment, then quickly quieted.
“Haa… Fine. Lust Demon, we’ll do it your way.”
“Yes. Then we’ll depart shortly—please prepare.”
“…Can we shake the pursuit?”
“Probably not. It will be the same as now—I hold them off, then rejoin the rest of you.”
“Persistent bastards, those Moyong…”
“What can one do? Haha…”
Wi Ilcheong scratched his head.
“…And so, Young Lady.”
“What?”
He raised the energy barrier again. The moment she saw it, Dokgo Ryeong knew the Lust Demon was about to say something that would make her scream and thrash.
“…Would you caress me?”
“…What?”
“Exactly as I said. Would you be willing to caress me…”
“You fucking lunatic!!”
She lunged for him again, but Baekri Sohyeon locked her arms around her from behind.
“Ryeong Mae, Ryeong Mae. Calm down and listen.”
“No, fuck, how am I supposed to calm—!”
“Wi Oppa practices the Classic of the Plain Girl, remember?”
“So fucking what?!”
“…The Classic of the Plain Girl is a bizarre mental method that can only accumulate internal energy during Yin-Yang dual cultivation. Right now Wi Oppa has burned through a huge amount of energy fleeing the Moyong Clan.”
“…”
“So Ryeong Mae has to help him a little.”
“No, fuck…. There are two other women right here!”
Dokgo Ryeong pointed at Eun Gwanyeong, who smacked her lips with open regret.
“…I used up most of my energy getting here, so I’m too tired. Besides, after doing it with Wi Oppa once, my legs shake until the next day—I can’t.”
“No, fuck… Dun-chi, what about you?”
“…I already did it with him before we came.”
“Ah, fuck.”
Only then did Dokgo Ryeong understand why Baekri Sohyeon and Wi Ilcheong had been rolling around naked right before the Moyong attack.
“No, fuck! What kind of fucked-up mental method is that, shit…!”
“…Young Lady Dokgo, time is short. I would like to recover some internal energy before Senior No arrives.”
“What the fuck…!”
“I won’t ask for much. Just help me once with my situation. Young Lady, simply take my manhood and—”
“You son of a biiiiitch!!!!!”
“…Ryeong Mae. There’s no one else but Ryeong Mae…”
“If Young Lady Dokgo doesn’t help, we’ll all dieee…. We’ll teach you properly from the side.”
“…”
The walls closed in around her.
No, fuck. Am I really going to… with that bastard… uuugh…
Just thinking about it sent shivers across her entire body.
At that moment Wi Ilcheong shot Baekri Sohyeon a look. She nodded.
“…?”
While Dokgo Ryeong was still puzzling over the silent exchange, Baekri Sohyeon suddenly coiled around her from behind and pinned her completely.
“You… crazy! Dun-chi, what the hell are you—!”
“…Sorry, Ryeong Mae.”
“No, fuck!!”
Wi Ilcheong swiftly pulled a powder from his robes and mixed it into water.
“…I’m sorry, Young Lady Dokgo.”
“You, fuck!! What is that?!”
“…An aphrodisiac. It will make Young Lady Dokgo feel willing. As I promised, I will not take your virginity here. The situation is truly urgent—please understand.”
“Ugh, fuck!! Hey! Ack!!”
Eun Gwanyeong clamped Dokgo Ryeong’s mouth open by force.
“Hiiing… Wi Oppa, hurry…”
“Whew… I’m truly sorry, Young Lady Dokgo.”
“Aaaargh!!!”
She struggled to the very end, yet in the end she had no choice but to swallow the liquid that poured down her throat.
And her mind grew hazy.