Hao Sect Shandong Branch (3)
Hao Sect Leader Eun Yakbyeok.
The first thing that rose in Dokgo Ryeong's mind upon seeing her was a single thought.
…I'm fucked.
There had never been a single human the Mad Demon Dokgo Jin could call a true friend.
At his side, there had only ever been business partners.
Eun Yakbyeok, the Hao Sect Leader who fed him information on those who needed killing. The physician Unyeong, who patched him up whenever he was badly wounded. And the assassin Mumyeong, who like himself was a victim of the Tang Clan.
Unyeong and Mumyeong were both men, and neither relationship was the sort for idle conversation. Whenever he met Mumyeong, they would briefly discuss who had been killed and who would be killed next, then part ways. When he met Unyeong, he would simply listen in silence while the doctor scolded him to please stop coming back so injured.
But Eun Yakbyeok was different.
She had always taken a keen interest in Dokgo Jin. And Dokgo Jin, for his part, had never found conversation with her unpleasant. The two of them simply clicked unusually well when they talked.
"What reason does my guest have for turning the entire Murim upside down?"
"What?"
Dokgo Jin twisted his already ferocious features into a deeper scowl as he shot the question back.
"I was merely asking what reason my guest has for tearing through the Murim the way he does."
"Fuck, do you need a reason to smash something that's a piece of shit?"
"Ahaha, what a fine reason. A piece of shit, you say…"
"…"
Hearing the word "shit" leave a woman's lips left Dokgo Jin briefly flustered, but the cold edge in her eyes wiped the thought away just as quickly.
"…The Murim truly is a wretched place. So full of garbage… a gathering of trash."
"Sounds like you've got a story."
"Would you like to hear it?"
"No. Don't need it."
Dokgo Jin rose from his seat.
"You've clearly got plenty of grudges of your own, and knowing that much is enough. The reasons people end up miserable are all different, and every last one of them is a fucking mess. Piling your story on top would just piss me off more."
"Hehe. Words touched with wisdom."
"Wisdom, my ass—I'm not some pompous bastard. More importantly, where's next?"
"I never expected my guest to grow this strong, so I thought I might try a bit of a gamble."
As always, Eun Yakbyeok tossed him a book. Dokgo Jin flipped it open.
"…The Namgung Clan?"
"The pinnacle of the Murim world—a living god, the Sword God—resides there."
"You want me to kill the Sword God?"
"Ahahaha. My guest still has no sense of his own place, I see."
Eun Yakbyeok spoke with open insolence, but Dokgo Jin paid it no mind. Why was the Sword God called the Sword God? Because he had written a legend with a single blade. Dokgo Jin had tossed the words out without thinking, but he had no real intention of facing the Sword God.
"The Sword God's son will be heading to the Wulin Alliance soon."
"So?"
"Even the Soaring Heavens Namgung Clan, called the Gate of Chivalry, will grow filthy if it keeps company with the Alliance's filth long enough."
"Near ink, one is blackened. That it?"
"…"
When Dokgo Jin dropped a classical idiom, Eun Yakbyeok's eyes went wide.
"…Forgive me. I never imagined my guest would know such a phrase."
"Fuck. I've been learning to read lately, alright?"
"How lovely. In any case, I would like you to meet the young young master of the Namgung Clan. A man barely past thirty has already received the title of Sword Emperor. If his nature proves rotten, kill him on the spot."
Watching Eun Yakbyeok calmly order the death of the greatest martial artist's son, Dokgo Jin grinned.
"And if the bastard's to my liking?"
"Hmm… perhaps you could spank his backside and come back?"
"Khahaha. Fine. Guide ready?"
"Yes. He's waiting at the stables."
"See you next time. If I'm still alive."
"May ill fortune walk with you."
Leaving Eun Yakbyeok's farewell behind him, Dokgo Jin strode out of the brothel.
That day, when Dokgo Jin met the young master of the Namgung Clan, he found the man's spirit more impressive than expected and spared him. Instead, as promised, he thoroughly smacked the young master's backside—a fact known to fewer than five people in all the jianghu.
He never imagined that the same young master whose ass he had spanked would one day become the Leader of the Wulin Alliance. But that was a story for much later.
"Is the tea not to your liking?"
"…I don't care for it much."
"Oh my. Your manner of speech is quite unusual."
"I… don't know how to keep proper etiquette very well…"
"Hmm… rather clumsy for a spy. Or is this a cute little effort to rattle me on purpose?"
"…"
Recalling the conversations she had shared with Eun Yakbyeok in her days as Dokgo Jin, then snapping back to the present, Dokgo Ryeong was struck by just how pitiful her current body was.
This is driving me insane…
Even simply sitting there drinking tea left her throat parched dry. Her sharpened senses screamed constant warnings about the woman seated across from her.
This one is a predator. A being on an entirely different plane. Someone who could take your life as easily as breathing, whenever she pleased.
"If the tea doesn't suit you, shall I bring wine instead?"
"…No."
"There's such awkwardness in your speech—why not simply speak comfortably? It's stifling for me as well. If you truly are my guest's daughter, then to me you are something like a niece."
"…Fine."
Unable to endure the thirst under Eun Yakbyeok's overwhelming presence any longer, Dokgo Ryeong finally lifted the teacup and had just swallowed a mouthful when the woman struck without warning.
"So then—who are you?"
"Khack—!"
Dokgo Ryeong choked and spat the tea out entirely, but not a single drop reached the woman sitting opposite her.
"…Truly clumsy. And the clumsier you are, the deeper my doubts grow."
"Ahem…. Ahem."
Watching the tea hang suspended in midair, Dokgo Ryeong felt the woman's martial prowess all over again. Void object control—freely manipulating surrounding objects with internal energy. Easy to say, but catching every last droplet someone suddenly spat from their mouth and holding them all with one's own internal force was no simple feat. The fact that she did it as if it were the most natural thing in the world made Eun Yakbyeok's strength hit home once more.
As Dokgo Ryeong stared blankly, Eun Yakbyeok wore a sly little smile.
"So you have no intention of answering?"
"I… I have no idea what you're—"
"I already told you. Who are you?"
"I… I am Dokgo Jin's daughter, Dokgo Ryeong!"
Dokgo Ryeong forced the words out somehow. The Hao Sect Leader propped both arms on the table, leaned in close, and asked,
"Then who is your mother?"
"Uh… well… I don't know! She died when I was little…"
"You were born on Mount Hua, yet how did you survive alone?"
"I… became a slash-and-burn farmer and worked the fields…"
"Oh my. A nursing infant could work the fields? Who was your guardian?"
"There… was someone nearby who took me in…"
"When did you reunite with my guest Dokgo Jin?"
"J-just recently…"
"And when did you learn the Saber of Asura Rakshasa and the Nine Yang Divine Art?"
"After I met him…"
"That's enough."
Eun Yakbyeok seized Dokgo Ryeong's wrist.
"Move and I'll kill you."
"Tha—"
"Tell one more of those absurd lies and I'll kill you for that too."
"…"
Dokgo Ryeong clamped her mouth shut. Through the captured arm, Eun Yakbyeok's internal energy poured in.
…Fuck.
As that energy began combing through every corner of her body, Dokgo Ryeong's face drained whiter and whiter. Realizing at last that there was nowhere left to hide, she was about to confess the truth—
"Actually… I… I'm…"
"This can't be…"
"…"
Eun Yakbyeok had already figured it out first.
"…Great Hero Dokgo Jin… was it you yourself?"
"Fuck…"
Hearing what amounted to a confession, Eun Yakbyeok released the wrist she had been holding.
"…How the hell did you know?"
"Your guest's Nine Yang Divine Art energy… and that immense Yin energy. Ah… um. Just a moment."
Eun Yakbyeok suddenly raised a hand, cutting Dokgo Ryeong off.
"Let me guess. Wait."
"…Go ahead."
"You took the Ten Thousand Years Ice Jade, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"…Was the Ten Thousand Years Ice Jade truly a divine relic that affected you so?"
"Can't exactly say it didn't."
"I never knew the Ice Palace's sacred treasure carried a technique that turns one into a woman. And beyond that, you're also suffering from something akin to meridian blockage."
"Tha… ha."
Dokgo Ryeong lifted both hands and covered her face.
"…Can you bring me some booze?"
"…You look as though you'll need quite a lot."
Eun Yakbyeok swept her hand through the air and drew a wine bottle over with void object control.
"It's the Wuliang liquor my guest always favored."
"…Not that. Got any baijiu?"
"Pardon?"
"…This body's such garbage I can't hold my liquor well…"
"…"
Without a word, Eun Yakbyeok fetched a new bottle. She poured into Dokgo Ryeong's cup; Dokgo Ryeong downed it in one go and began to speak.
"Haa… fuck. So basically…"
Dokgo Ryeong launched into a long story—Bone and Body Reconstitution, her meeting with Wi Ilcheong, everything that had happened with the Moyong Clan.
"Khuh…! So I said…! Fuuuuck…, I got… that tiny little brat…!"
"…You're drunk, my guest."
"Goddammit! Let go! I'm not drunk!!"
"…"
Face flushed crimson, hair already shifted to a soft peach-pink, Dokgo Ryeong half-sobbed as she ranted at Eun Yakbyeok.
"Fuuuuck…, me! Me, getting harassed by that lewd little brat?! Huh?"
"…Gwanyeong surely meant no harm by it."
"Khuhuh… fuck. Losing my internal energy was already shit enough… and then! From a kid like that…!"
"…"
Judging that if left alone the drunken tirade would never end, Eun Yakbyeok drew up her internal energy and issued a warning.
"…Stay still."
"Huh?"
Thoom!
"U… uweeegh!"
Eun Yakbyeok forcibly ignited the Samadhi True Fire inside her body and burned away every last trace of alcohol. Dokgo Ryeong heaved spectacularly onto the floor.
"Uuugh… th… thanks…"
"Think nothing of it."
"Gimme some cold water."
"Here you are."
After gulping down the cold water Eun Yakbyeok offered, Dokgo Ryeong recovered her senses.
"…Showed you an ugly sight."
"I've seen far uglier ones. Hardly anything new at this point."
"…Fuck."
"Hehe… to think the great Dokgo Jin would become such a lovely young lady…"
Eun Yakbyeok reached out and toyed with a lock of her hair.
"Such a pretty soft pink. When lust begins to—"
"Sh… shut up!"
"…True enough. Even as a man, you never had the slightest interest in that sort of thing."
Eun Yakbyeok kept smiling as if in excellent spirits the entire time.
"How fascinating. Bone and Body Reconstitution turning a man into a woman."
"Would've been fascinating if I hadn't lost my internal energy."
"Oh my… so greedy. From where I sit, this body looks even better than before."
"…What?"
Dokgo Ryeong couldn't make sense of the claim, so Eun Yakbyeok offered her assessment.
"It's my first time seeing a martial artist's body after Bone and Body Reconstitution up close, but this is certainly a fine physique. Clear away the turbid energy clogging the eight extraordinary meridians and the fine vessels are already active, the quality of the muscle looks excellent, and it seems capable of mastering any martial art to perfection. Above all, it holds pure Yin energy as well."
"Still fucking useless if I can't draw on any of it."
"Hehe. My guest truly has no interest in other people, does she?"
"What about it?"
Eun Yakbyeok curved her lips into a seductive smile and drew her seven-stringed zither over with void object control.
"Did you ever know what they call me?"
"…The Sound Venerable."
She was called the Sound Venerable for her mastery of sound arts—and also the Lust Venerable, for her lewdness. Surprisingly, she never minded being called lewd.
"My guest may dislike the idea, but martial arts founded on the boiling of lust are surprisingly common in this world, you know?"
"Bullshit."
"Not at all."
As Eun Yakbyeok began to pluck the strings, goosebumps rose along Dokgo Ryeong's back.
"A first-rate performer must pour emotion into the instrument. Loading the resonance of the strings with longing, sorrow, and heartache is the bare minimum. And of course…"
"Hnn…!"
The rhythm shifted, and a bewitching sound spilled forth. The moment she heard the zither's voice, Dokgo Ryeong's lower dantian throbbed again and her hair flushed pink once more.
"…it is also possible to load it with lust."
"…Why the hell are you telling me this…"
"From the looks of it, you're searching for an internal energy method suited to your new body. Care to learn one?"
"Huh…? Yours?"
"Yes."
Eun Yakbyeok plucked the strings once more. This time a mournful melody unfurled through the air.
"It is a method steeped in the longing of a woman who gazes at the moon, yearning for a lover who has gone far away. Truly optimized for the handling of Yin energy."
"…What's it called?"
"The Moon Shadow Divine Art."
"!!"
At the casual offer to teach a divine art, Dokgo Ryeong's eyes flew wide.
"I… is that really alright?"
"Of course. My guest has done us such kindness—this much is nothing. However… this divine art, much like the Nine Yang Divine Art you once practiced, has a bit of a problem."
"…What kind of problem?"
Eun Yakbyeok set the zither aside, laid a hand against her own lower abdomen, and spoke.
"Until you reach the tenth stage, you must regularly take in Yang energy. Otherwise the lust becomes uncontrollable, and you'll end up clinging to any man you can grab."
"Hey… Yang energy…?"
"Simply put…. A man's semen."