The Girl Who Was the Mad Demon (6)
“So then, Lust Demon.”
“Yes, please go ahead.”
“Let’s talk about what we couldn’t yesterday. The deal.”
“…”
Wi Ilcheong took a noisy sip of his tea before answering.
“Shall we do so after we finish our meal?”
“Do we have to?”
“I just finished my morning training and I’m still covered in sweat. I’d like to wash first.”
“Bullshit. You think a martial artist’s sweat is something to be ashamed of?”
“You should wash as well, young lady.”
Wi Ilcheong pointed at Dokgo Jin’s sleeve. She lowered her gaze and saw the dark, dried blood caked into the fabric—blood from last night, when she had carved Jo Chang into pieces.
“…Ah, damn it.”
“Why not borrow some clothes from Miss Baekri?”
“Fine.”
“We’ll discuss the deal after that. But first, there’s something I need to ask.”
“Spit it out.”
Wi Ilcheong’s expression turned serious.
“May I take your pulse?”
“…Do you have to?”
“It’s important.”
“…”
The man who had been smiling the entire time was suddenly earnest, and Dokgo Jin tilted her head.
“Why? I don’t get it.”
“…For my side of the bargain to work, I need to know the state of your health, Young Lady Dokgo.”
“The Nine Yang Divine Art?”
“The condition of the deal was curing your Meridian Block, was it not?”
“You said you’d already fixed a Nine Yin Meridian Block. Doesn’t that mean any other kind is easy?”
“…I lied to you about that.”
“Huh?”
“I have cured a Nine Yin Meridian Block… but only once. That was the only time.”
“…”
Her grip on the chopsticks tightened with a sharp crack.
“Haa…. Fuck. Of course. I’m the idiot for trusting a bastard like you.”
“But I did say I would let you meet the patient yourself. See for yourself and decide.”
“…Where is she?”
“Right here.”
Wi Ilcheong pointed to the woman sitting beside him—Baekri Sohyeon.
“Miss Baekri is that very patient. She suffered from the Nine Yin Meridian Block and is now completely cured.”
“…”
Baekri Sohyeon gave a soft, vacant little smile.
“…Hey, Lust Demon.”
“Yes, Young Lady Dokgo.”
“Did that bitch turn into a halfwit as a side effect of the Meridian Block?”
“…She has always spoken a little slowly.”
“Hey, Slowpoke.”
When Dokgo Jin called her, Baekri Sohyeon scooted closer and sat down.
“…I’m not a slowpoke.”
“You’re fucking slow. That makes you a slowpoke.”
“…I’m fast, though…”
“Ah, fuck it. Whatever. Give me your hand.”
Dokgo Jin reached out to take her pulse. Baekri Sohyeon glanced at Wi Ilcheong.
“…”
He gave a small nod, and she obediently offered her wrist.
Dokgo Jin closed her eyes, fingers pressed to Baekri Sohyeon’s pulse.
…A little unusual, but nothing particularly wrong.
When she opened her eyes again, Wi Ilcheong asked,
“How is it?”
“…You’re not scamming me, are you?”
“It feels that normal, doesn’t it? Like an ordinary person’s pulse?”
“She just is an ordinary person.”
“Miss Baekri.”
“…Mm.”
“Oh… why are you taking your clothes off? Hey, you crazy bi—ah?”
Baekri Sohyeon removed her upper garment, revealing a horrific scar across her abdomen.
“…What the hell is that?”
“…Proof that Miss Baekri once suffered from the Meridian Block.”
“You crazy bastard…!”
Dokgo Jin tried to flip the table. Wi Ilcheong pressed it down firmly and stopped her.
“I didn’t do that.”
“Why the fuck should I believe you?”
“…Do you know nothing of the murim at all, young lady?”
“What?”
Wi Ilcheong let out a long sigh.
“Haa… Consider Miss Baekri’s surname.”
“What about the Baekri Clan?”
“…It is the same as the current sect leader of the Diancang Sect.”
“What?”
“…Miss Baekri is the daughter of Baekri Jong, current leader of the Diancang Sect.”
“So what?”
“You don’t know? A woman afflicted with the Nine Yin Meridian Block is a living elixir, her body filled with pure Yin energy. An inner core forms in her dantian, just like a spirit beast’s.”
Hearing that, Dokgo Jin stared at the wound on Baekri Sohyeon’s lower abdomen—a chilling scar that looked exactly as if something had been carved out from inside her body.
“…No way.”
“…”
“Fuck…”
Dokgo Jin flung her chopsticks aside.
“Meal’s over.”
“…”
Her mood thoroughly ruined, Dokgo Jin left the meal unfinished and went to wash.
Soaking in the hot water, she thought again about the Meridian Block.
Meridian Block… an incurable disease where the meridians seal shut from excess Yin energy.
Which also meant the body was holding an enormous amount of pure Yin.
In fact, the moment she closed her eyes she could feel that pure Yin energy settled in her own dantian.
…If the Yin energy never leaves the body and only keeps accumulating…
How was that any different from a living elixir?
Even the inner cores of spirit beasts—those so-called fortuitous encounters—were nothing more than pure energy gathered over long years. If a person who knew how to circulate internal energy gathered it instead, the core would be even more powerful.
“Fucking bastards…”
When she closed her eyes, Baekri Sohyeon’s scar floated up again.
Baekri Jong… that son of a bitch. He started making a name for himself out of nowhere.
She had never had reason to go as far as Yunnan, so she had never met him, but she had repeated his name over and over so she would never forget it.
Not even human. When I find him, I’ll carve him into pieces and kill him.
Fresh rage was rising when someone entered.
“…Are you in there?”
“That you, Slowpoke?”
“…I told you I’m not a slowpoke…”
“Heh. Fine, we’ll go with that.”
Baekri Sohyeon came in.
“…Brother Wi said… your face looked bad, so he told me to check on you…”
“That so?”
Dokgo Jin scooped up bathwater and splashed it over her own face.
“I’m fine. Just a little pissed off.”
“…Why?”
“Huh?”
Baekri Sohyeon crouched right beside the tub, not caring that the water was soaking her clothes.
“…Why were you angry?”
“…”
Dokgo Jin looked into those vacant eyes for a moment, then reached out and stroked the other girl’s hair.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Mm?”
“There’s too much trash in this world.”
“…I don’t really get it. Why are you apologizing?”
“Do you know… how my father ended up throwing himself into the murim?”
“…The Mad Demon?”
“Yeah. The Mad Demon.”
Dokgo Jin thought back to her childhood.
“The Mad Demon Dokgo Jin was originally the son of slash-and-burn farmers. Most people in the murim have no idea.”
“…But he got that strong?”
“Yeah. He had one absolute goal.”
“…What?”
“Revenge.”
She ground her teeth.
“They were just farmers wandering empty mountains, but they got caught up in a fight between martial artists and the whole family died. Six people. The youngest… was only four.”
“…”
“After that day, Dokgo Jin went hunting martial artists. He didn’t know who had killed his family, so he grabbed a sickle and started with the unorthodox sects nearby. He thought the orthodox ones were all righteous.”
“…The orthodox ones aren’t any different…”
“Yeah. The orthodox ones aren’t any different.”
Once he threw himself into the murim, Dokgo Jin quickly learned who the real killers were.
Born the illiterate son of farmers, he couldn’t read the character for “Poison” carved into his enemies’ chests, and he didn’t know that the martial artists of the Sichuan Tang Clan wore green robes.
He had simply believed that if they were orthodox, they had to be just.
“…But he had no power. The famous orthodox bastards who killed his family were all monsters who’d been force-fed precious elixirs since they were kids, starting from the Bone-Washing stage.”
“…So what did he do?”
Watching Baekri Sohyeon listen so intently, Dokgo Jin gave a crooked grin.
“He fought like hell.”
“…Until he died?”
“Yeah. Whether it was good luck or bad, he didn’t die easy. Along the way he even got a fortuitous encounter and learned a peerless divine art and saber technique. Then he made up his mind.”
She clenched her fist.
“He was going to smash the entire murim.”
“…Sounds like a madman.”
“That’s why they call him the Mad Demon.”
Dokgo Jin stood up from the tub. Baekri Sohyeon handed her a towel.
“Thanks.”
“…Mm.”
Drying herself, Dokgo Jin continued.
“That’s why I’m sorry to you.”
“…Why? Young Lady Dokgo is the Mad Demon’s daughter, not the Mad Demon.”
“…”
Hearing those words, Dokgo Jin realized it all over again.
She was no longer the Mad Demon. She was the girl who had once been the Mad Demon.
She opened her hand. What she saw was not the rough, calloused hand of the martial artist she had been as the Mad Demon, but a pure white, delicate woman’s hand without a single blister.
“No.”
Dokgo Jin clenched that fist tight and made a vow.
“I’m going to become the Mad Demon. And I’m going to smash the murim.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. I can’t just leave fucking bastards alone.”
“…Mm.”
Baekri Sohyeon smiled for her—not the vacant smile, but a bright one.
“But Young Lady Dokgo, what’s your name?”
“…Huh?”
“I can’t keep calling you Young Lady Dokgo, Young Lady Dokgo forever.”
“…”
The question left Dokgo Jin blank for a moment.
“…You don’t have a name either, Young Lady Dokgo?”
“Huh?”
“…I didn’t have a name either.”
“…”
Baekri Sohyeon gently took Dokgo Jin’s hand.
“…Want me to… give you one?”
“You?”
“…Mm.”
“Fine. Let’s hear it.”
“Dokgo Ryeong.”
Baekri Sohyeon wrote the characters on her palm.
“Because Ryeong Mae’s voice is as beautiful as the sound of jade.”
“…That’s a pretty soft name for someone who’s going to become the Mad Demon.”
“Mm-mm.”
Baekri Sohyeon shook her head.
“You said you were going to smash the entire murim…”
“Yeah.”
“…Then the name doesn’t really matter that much, does it?”
“Heh… heh heh. Yeah. You’re right.”
Dokgo Jin—no.
Dokgo Ryeong stroked Baekri Sohyeon’s hair.
“Once I smash the whole murim, nobody’s going to care what my name is.”
“…Mm.”
Dokgo Ryeong thought of her long-held wish for the first time in a while.
Wipe out every last piece of murim trash and erase the murim itself.
To do that, I need to get my power back first.
Either hunt down the Brain-Sound Temple and steal a divine relic of extreme Yang energy…
Or fix the Nine Yin Meridian Block through the Lust Demon.
“Let’s go.”
“…Ryeong Mae.”
“Yeah?”
“…You should put clothes on before you go out.”
“Ah…”
“…Dummy.”
Every single outfit Baekri Sohyeon had given her was soft and fluttery. Dokgo Ryeong flicked her hand at the bothersome sleeves, a faint scowl on her face.
“Is this all you’ve got?”
“…Mm.”
“Damn it. And why is there so much room in the chest?”
“…Sorry. My chest is just too big…”
“Fuck. Once I’m done talking with the Lust Demon, we’re going to a cloth shop first.”
The door slid open with a rattle. Dokgo Ryeong stepped inside, and Wi Ilcheong rose to greet her.
“You’ve arrived, young lady. The clothes suit you beautifully.”
“Cut the crap and let’s talk business.”
“…Truly free-spirited, Young Lady Dokgo.”
Wi Ilcheong set down his teacup and composed his expression. Dokgo Ryeong sat across from him and spoke.
“So… the Nine Yin Meridian Block. How did you fix it?”
“Let’s take your pulse first. I need to be certain it is a Meridian Block.”
“Here.”
She held out her hand. Wi Ilcheong pressed his fingers to her wrist pulse.
“Nnh…!”
A warm current of energy flowed in through her wrist, drawing a soft sound from her. Wi Ilcheong said,
“Please bear with it a moment.”
“…Fine.”
His energy completed a full circuit of her meridians. When he opened his eyes again, he spoke.
“…Regrettably, it is indeed a Meridian Block.”
“So can you fix it?”
“It should… be possible.”
“Fuck, why the half-assed answer?”
“…First of all, the condition of your Eight Extraordinary Meridians is far better than Miss Baekri’s. Every one of hers was sealed, but yours—the Conception and Governing Vessels—are open.”
“But?”
“…The Yin energy gathered inside you is far too strong. Much stronger than Miss Baekri’s.”
“…”
Hearing that, Dokgo Ryeong was satisfied that he had read her condition accurately.
At least he’s not a complete quack.
“So can you do it or not?”
“…We’ll have to try. I believe I can open the blocked meridians to a certain degree.”
“Really?!”
“However… that is only if the young lady accepts the deal.”
“Petty bastard.”
“…I need something in return as well.”
“The Nine Yang Divine Art?”
“…No. There is something else I wish to add to the terms.”
“Speak.”
Dokgo Ryeong crossed her arms and stared at him. The Lust Demon spoke with a completely serious face.
“I would like to receive the young lady’s virginity.”