Chapter 35
Since Wi Ilcheong returned, Dokgo Ryeong had been uncomfortable ever since.
She was annoyed that her heart kept beating faster whenever she saw his face, for no reason.
“Ah, Big Brother Wi. Let me dry you off.”
“Brother, give me your clothes.”
“Thank you, Miss Eun and Miss Baekri.”
As soon as Wi Ilcheong took off his clothes, Baekri Sohyeon and Eun Gwan-yeong naturally moved to his sides and got to work.
Baekri Sohyeon wrung the water from his wet clothes and hung them by the wall to dry, while Eun Gwan-yeong brought a towel and wiped down Wi Ilcheong’s body.
“Hehe… You should’ve come inside sooner when it started raining.”
“Even so, the three young ladies seemed to be having such a pleasant conversation that I didn’t see an opening to join in.”
“No, Big Brother Wi. You can join us anytime.”
“That’s right. Isn’t that so, Miss Dokgo?”
“Huh?!”
Startled by the sudden address, Dokgo Ryeong answered.
“Uh… y-yeah. Th-that’s right.”
“Hehe, see? Even Miss Dokgo says it’s fine.”
“Hehe, understood. I’ll do that next time.”
Despite there being three women present, Wi Ilcheong casually stripped off his clothes, making Dokgo Ryeong shriek.
“H-Hey!”
“Ah, Miss Dokgo. I’m sorry, but there’s only one room….”
“You’ll see it eventually anyway, so why not get a preview?”
“Y-You lewd woman!!”
“Hehe.”
Dokgo Ryeong blushed and turned her back.
The rustling of clothes behind her continued to grate on her, but Dokgo Ryeong gritted her teeth, stared at the floor, and tried to ignore it.
“Shit… Why did we only book one cabin?!”
“I’m sorry. They said there was only one cabin available since we boarded at the last minute.”
“Shit….”
“Ah, Miss Dokgo! I told you to use nice words!”
“Kyaaaah!!”
“Miss Dokgo, I’m dressed now, so you can turn around.”
Dokgo Ryeong clutched at her hair and turned around to find Wi Ilcheong sitting on the floor, fully dressed.
And, quite naturally, as if they’d been that way from the beginning, Eun Gwan-yeong and Baekri Sohyeon were sitting beside him with their arms linked through his.
“…What are you doing?”
“Just sitting here?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Haa…”
The moment Dokgo Ryeong approached and sat down across from Wi Ilcheong—
Eun Gwan-yeong suddenly slapped the floor.
Thump!
“Yikes… You startled me!”
“Miss Dokgo! A lady shouldn’t sit like that!”
“W-what?”
Dokgo Ryeong had sat cross-legged as she usually did, but Eun Gwan-yeong looked aghast at the sight.
“How vulgar! Sitting like that exposes your legs and undergarments!”
“…Then what?”
“Sit with your knees together and your legs neatly folded.”
“No, shit. Can’t I just sit however’s comfortable?”
“No, Miss Dokgo.”
Though she had been speaking to Eun Gwan-yeong, Wi Ilcheong was the one who answered.
“Why not?”
“…Because from now on, Miss Dokgo, you need to keep a low profile. And… haa….”
“What, asshole?”
“If you keep acting like this, we’ll have trouble throughout the journey. Especially… It’ll be a real problem when we meet the Sword Lord.”
“Ah, shit.”
Only then did Dokgo Ryeong realize why they were suddenly making a fuss over her words and behavior.
The sect leader of the Putuo Sect in Zhejiang, Sword Lord (劍侯) Seo Gyo, was a woman who was extremely particular about etiquette.
She was known for not forcing etiquette on others, but also for refusing to meet anyone who lacked even the basics of it.
The most famous example was her dispute with the leader of the Huangbo Clan.
When the Huangbo Clan leader visited the Putuo Sect while passing through Zhejiang, the huge man once stepped on the threshold without watching his feet. Sword Lord refused to meet with him after that, a story that was still famous to this day.
‘She must be one hell of a bitch.’
Dokgo Ryeong had never met her, but if stories like that were so widely circulated, she was definitely the sort of person Dokgo Ryeong hated most.
“Then let’s do this. When we get there, I’ll either tell you the oral formula or bring out the child who needs it.”
“…That’s not the only issue. We’re also worried about trouble during the journey.”
“Ah, why! Sh—”
“Oh?! You were about to use bad language, weren’t you?”
“…We’re pressed for time, so why bother?”
Seeing that Eun Gwan-yeong looked ready to pounce, Dokgo Ryeong forcibly changed the subject.
She didn’t care about anything else, but she didn’t want to endure Eun Gwan-yeong’s hands again.
If Dokgo Ryeong had a choice, she would definitely choose the Tendon-Splitting and Bone-Misaligning technique over being fondled by Eun Gwan-yeong again.
‘Shit… If I have to go through that again….’
Just imagining it made goosebumps rise all over Dokgo Ryeong’s body.
Pain was preferable. She never wanted to experience again that feeling of no longer being herself.
Whether or not Wi Ilcheong knew how she felt, he continued the conversation.
“Rather, I don’t think we’ll have another stretch of free time like this. There’s not much we can do aboard a ship anyway, so I intend to devote the week-long journey to Shandong to Miss Dokgo.”
“…I’d rather discuss martial arts…”
“That would require inner energy. Shall we prepare the Sunü Jing…”
“Etiquette training sounds good. I’ve been meaning to take some time to reflect on my own behavior.”
“…”
Eun Gwan-yeong laughed as she watched Dokgo Ryeong’s attitude change completely the moment she heard the name of the Sunü Jing.
“Hehehe, then it’s time for me, Eun Gwan-yeong, to make another appearance!”
“I’ll help too, Little Sister Ryeong.”
“I’ll take care of the rest, the things you two don’t know. Though in this area, the other two young ladies are more knowledgeable than I am.”
“Haa…”
And so, Dokgo Ryeong began her unwanted etiquette lessons.
*
The Mad Demon, Dokgo Jin, was the child of a family of slash-and-burn farmers.
The first reason he learned to read was that he wanted to know what the characters his enemy had emblazoned across his clothes meant. Later, he also learned so he could track down their whereabouts.
Afterward, by chance, Dokgo Jin came across the manuals for the Nine Yang Divine Art and the Shura Rakshasa Saber Art, and he went looking for a tutor so he could read them.
Most of these tutors could be found at gambling dens run by the Unorthodox Faction.
They were parasites who’d learned only a little writing and leeched off the Unorthodox Faction’s martial artists, sucking the blood of ordinary people who had no chance to learn martial arts. Dokgo Jin had no qualms about torturing them to learn many characters, and thanks to that, he became properly literate.
But afterward, Dokgo Jin never had time to learn about being “human.”
His desire for revenge was too great for him to understand love, and everywhere Dokgo Jin went, he himself turned the place into a battlefield rather than enjoying peace.
Naturally, he knew nothing about etiquette.
The only etiquette he knew was to use honorifics with white-haired old men older than him who hadn’t learned martial arts, and, if a bastard had learned martial arts, first determine whether he was connected to his enemies and then beat the shit out of him.
For someone like him, the four days spent learning “proper etiquette” from Eun Gwan-yeong and Baekri Sohyeon were hell.
‘Shit… I never thought I’d miss those fucking Tang Clan bastards.’
Dokgo Ryeong genuinely began to miss the time when the Tang Clan bastards had tried to take her life and set up a dragnet throughout Sichuan.
First of all, Baekri Sohyeon’s etiquette training was sharper than the hidden daggers the Tang Clan threw.
“Little Sister Ryeong, keep your shoulders back, and bring your legs a little closer together.”
“L-like this?”
“No. A little farther in….”
“W-where are you touching me?!”
“I can’t correct you if I don’t touch you…. Little Sister Ryeong, don’t sway your hips. It looks vulgar….”
“No… I…!”
Baekri Sohyeon’s words and hands seemed to be targeting Dokgo Ryeong’s vital points.
She kept correcting her posture by precisely targeting the uncomfortable places Dokgo Ryeong most wanted to keep other people’s hands away from.
In particular, whenever Baekri Sohyeon’s hand slid along the inside of her thighs, her lower dantian throbbed and her thoughts turned pink; she’d lost count of how many times the shame made her want to die.
“Hehe… Little Sister Ryeong, your whole body’s an erogenous zone, isn’t it?”
“Kyaaaah!!!”
But even Baekri Sohyeon was better than Eun Gwan-yeong.
Eun Gwan-yeong’s lessons were like the poisons the Tang Clan had painstakingly developed over many years.
There was a long history behind her methods.
“Now, walk.”
“…”
Baekri Sohyeon’s lessons had been vague to an extreme, but they were ordinary.
Don’t spread your legs when sitting.
Keep a steady stride when walking, straighten your neck, and tuck your chin.
When speaking, look at the other person’s philtrum instead of staring into their eyes.
And so on.
They were all extremely basic things, but things Dokgo Jin hadn’t known.
However, as befitted a candidate to become the Hao Sect’s next leader, whose ranks were filled with courtesans, Eun Gwan-yeong had a systematic training regimen.
The first thing she did was place a bowl filled with water on Dokgo Ryeong’s shoulders and head.
“If you spill it while moving, you fail. You pass if you can go around the cabin once like that….”
“Does this really work?”
“You just have to stay conscious of it. For reference, this is the most basic training all new Hao Sect disciples go through.”
“…Shi—”
Smack.
Just as a curse was about to slip from Dokgo Ryeong’s mouth, Eun Gwan-yeong’s hand moved sharply, and she hit her butt with a switch.
“Eek!”
Crash.
“Every time you use bad language, you’ll get a whipping.”
“Kyaaaah!!”
“…Should I add that inexplicable growling to the list?”
“…”
Little by little, Dokgo Ryeong was tamed by Eun Gwan-yeong and Baekri Sohyeon.
Her wild ferocity gave way to humanity, and the murderous glint in her eyes, as if she were always searching for someone to kill, softened into the sharp gaze of a fierce woman.
She was naturally beautiful, so if dressed well, she seemed capable of carrying herself with the grace of a young lady from a prominent clan. More than anything, she had an extraordinary talent for martial arts.
After achieving Bone Reforging, her sharpened senses made it easier to control her body, and once she began thinking of posture correction as part of martial arts training, what had initially been difficult soon became familiar.
‘This is nothing more than footwork training….’
Before long, the water bowls on Dokgo Ryeong’s shoulders and head no longer fell, and her gait had become graceful.
The longer her etiquette training continued, the more she improved.
She was becoming less like “the Mad Demon, Dokgo Jin” and more like “Dokgo Ryeong, a woman.”
But even so, there was one thing she still couldn’t get used to.
Namely…
“Haa…! Big… Big Brother Wi… deeper…. Please thrust deeper…!”
“Hoo… I will!”
“Hyaah!!”
The wet sounds of flesh slapping together and the sticky sounds of their juices made Dokgo Ryeong’s heart race.
‘Sh… Shit! Can’t you…! Take even one day off?!’
It was the carnal pleasures of a man and a woman.
Night after night, Eun Gwan-yeong and Baekri Sohyeon were held in Wi Ilcheong’s arms, and he never turned either of them away.
Wi Ilcheong’s stamina was monstrous. Once they began, it went on until just before sunrise, and he didn’t stop until both Baekri Sohyeon and Eun Gwan-yeong were limp.
She’d let it slide the first night, but when it happened again the second night, Dokgo Ryeong confronted them.
“C-Can you two keep it down?! It’s embarrassing doing that in the same room…”
“Oh my, Miss Dokgo, you’ll be doing it someday too, won’t you? Why not watch and get used to it beforehand?”
“That’s right, Little Sister Ryeong. Big Brother Wi is too vigorous for just the two of us to handle…”
“…I’m sorry, Miss Dokgo. The cultivation method I practice is unusual…”
“Kyaaaah!!!”
In the end, Wi Ilcheong, trying to be considerate of Dokgo Ryeong, had Eun Gwan-yeong make something to cover her ears, but unfortunately, Dokgo Ryeong’s senses had grown extremely sharp.
Even when she shoved earplugs into her ears, her heightened hearing let her hear every sound all night, and the nightly cries of pleasure from Baekri Sohyeon and Eun Gwan-yeong, along with the scent of their arousal, left Dokgo Ryeong excited for no reason.
‘Please… just stop already…!’
“Haa…! I-I can’t take any more…! Big… Big Brother Wi…!”
“Ngh…! All right…, just one last time…!”
“Haa…!!”
Hearing Eun Gwan-yeong’s long, coquettish moans, Dokgo Ryeong let out a long sigh.
‘…It’s over.’
Baekri Sohyeon had passed out ages ago, and now that Eun Gwan-yeong had collapsed too, Wi Ilcheong would soon fall asleep as well.
Grateful to have made it through another day, Dokgo Ryeong was just about to settle in and sleep when—
She heard Wi Ilcheong’s footsteps approaching her.
“…Miss Dokgo. Are you asleep?”
“…”
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Dokgo Ryeong’s heart began to pound.
Afraid he might realize from her breathing that she wasn’t asleep, she squeezed her eyes shut, and Wi Ilcheong’s hand drew near.
‘N-No…!’
Dokgo Ryeong tensed up, curling into herself, but contrary to her expectations, Wi Ilcheong’s hand didn’t touch her.
“…You should keep your blanket on.”
“…”
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Her heartbeat slowly returned to normal.
“Hoo….”
A while later, after Wi Ilcheong had fallen asleep, Dokgo Ryeong sat up and looked around.
“…”
Wi Ilcheong was asleep, holding Eun Gwan-yeong, who had been sprawled on the floor, in his arms.
Baekri Sohyeon was behind Dokgo Ryeong, and after placing a finger beneath her nose, Dokgo Ryeong turned around in relief.
‘…Everyone’s asleep.’
After confirming everyone was asleep, Dokgo Ryeong tried to calm her still-trembling heart and go back to sleep.
But there was one thing that had been bothering her for the past few days, and she couldn’t easily fall asleep.
‘…It’s really fucking itchy.’
As the space between her legs kept itching and she rubbed her thighs together, she felt strange.
After lifting her head once more to check that everyone was asleep, Dokgo Ryeong slipped her hand into her pants and brought it to the crotch that had been itching nonstop.