Chapter 42
On hearing Eun Yak-byeok’s words, Dokgo Ryeong wondered if she’d misheard.
“Th-what?”
“Semen. The milky-white fluid that comes from a man’s member when his pleasure reaches its peak…”
“Y-you crazy bitch!!”
Dokgo Ryeong sprang to her feet and shouted.
“Wh-what kind of demonic art is this?!”
“Oh my, how did you know?”
“The Moonshadow Demonic Art, which the Lesser Yin Witch of the Demonic Cult practiced, is what I modified a little to create the Moonshadow Divine Art you see now. Originally, she had to take the vital essence of young boys and girls every night…”
“Shit, it is a demonic art!”
“…I told you, it isn’t anymore.”
Eun Yak-byeok answered curtly, her brow creasing slightly.
“The Lesser Yin Witch was one of the greatest in the martial world, alongside the Ice Palace, when it came to handling yin energy. Since I’d also learned a bit of Absorbing Yang to Nourish Yin, I thought this would be just the thing. You’re in a heartbreaking situation too, unable to use all that yin energy overflowing inside you, aren’t you?”
“B-but even so…!”
“It’s only a side effect. When you learned the Nine Yang Divine Art, you knew it might cause madness, didn’t you?”
“…”
At Eun Yak-byeok’s words, Dokgo Ryeong fell silent.
When Dokgo Jin obtained the Nine Yang Divine Art through a fortuitous encounter, there had been a warning written boldly on the very first page of the manual.
‘If the practitioner is born with an abundance of yang energy, they must never practice this. It will trigger madness…’
But what did that matter?
A superior cultivation technique had appeared right before Dokgo Jin, who wanted to grow stronger immediately. There was no other choice.
And it was the same now.
The yin energy of the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade lodged in her lower dantian was greater in quantity, and purer, than the inner energy Mad Demon Dokgo Jin had accumulated over a lifetime.
If she could only wield that yin energy, there’d be nothing standing in Dokgo Ryeong’s way anymore.
“W-wait a minute!”
“What is it?”
“I’m going to turn back into a man eventually, you know?”
“Then are you planning to spend all that time being hunted by the Martial Alliance’s kill order in that frail body?”
“That’s…”
“Your knowledge didn’t disappear just because your body changed. If you draw on your experience as a master, can’t you handle most situations even in this body?”
“Th-that’s true, but…”
“Are the side effects really bothering you that much? It’s just a little semen.”
“You lewd bitch!!”
“Hehe…”
Watching Dokgo Ryeong shriek and throw a fit, Eun Yak-byeok covered her mouth and laughed.
“Guest, are you perhaps becoming weak now that you’re a woman?”
“What? Me?”
“That’s strange. The Guest I knew would’ve welcomed the Moonshadow cultivation technique with open arms the moment she heard about it.”
“…”
“Are you planning to live like this, relying on someone else?”
Hearing Eun Yak-byeok’s bold words, Dokgo Ryeong’s pride reared its head.
“There’s nothing wrong with the life you have now. In fact, I think it wouldn’t be so bad if you forgot the past and lived as a woman. I’m even a little envious.”
“Bullshit.”
“Oh my, I mean it.”
Eun Yak-byeok approached Dokgo Ryeong as if gliding through the air and caressed her cheek.
“Looking at you now, who would ever think of Dokgo Jin…? Probably no one.”
“What…”
“You’re the Guest who burned your whole life away with a desire for revenge. Perhaps the heavens granted you this fortuitous encounter so you could finally rest?”
“…”
“That blazing desire for revenge will burn you up one day. But now, you’ve been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to sever that chain of hatred. What do you think?”
Eun Yak-byeok whispered her sweet temptation to Dokgo Ryeong.
“Isn’t this enough?”
Wasn’t it enough already?
“You’ve built a mountain of corpses and a river of blood to avenge your family. Along the way, you saved many children who were about to be used for the Tang Clan’s ‘deadly poisons’ and ‘Gu.’ But the Tang Clan still shows no sign of decline.”
Your enemy was simply too powerful.
“Have you ever longed for the life of an ordinary person, someone who isn’t a martial artist?”
Didn’t you want peace?
“If you want an ordinary life, I’ll take responsibility for helping you. We can send the Martial Alliance a suitable corpse and claim it’s Dokgo Ryeong’s, then make a small deal with them. They’d accept it too. Then Dokgo Ryeong’s existence would disappear from the martial world entirely.”
“…”
“What do you think? I’m entirely on the Guest’s…”
“Shut up.”
“…”
Dokgo Ryeong snapped coldly.
“A fortuitous encounter granted by the heavens? Tell them to go fuck themselves. The only fortuitous encounter in my life was that day! Of all days! Those bastards from the Tang Clan used the mountain where my family lived as an experimental site. That’s it.”
“You’d really throw away this chance? The chance to become an ordinary person? Surely that’s enough…”
“That’s for me to decide.”
“…”
Hearing Dokgo Ryeong’s words, Eun Yak-byeok let out a long sigh and murmured.
“Haa… I see. You’re still you, Guest.”
“I’m me. Who else would I be?”
“…Indeed. I suppose I underestimated your desire for revenge.”
Eun Yak-byeok composed her expression, held both hands out in front of her, and spoke with resolve.
“Since your goal remains unchanged, our agreement still stands.”
“If that’s how you see it.”
“Then I’ll continue to treat you as I always have. If you bring even greater upheaval to the martial world, we’ll make use of it. And we’ll provide you with whatever assistance we can.”
Seeing Eun Yak-byeok continue to treat her with such respect despite how utterly weak she had become, Dokgo Ryeong spoke frankly.
“…Meeting you has been one hell of a pain in the ass.”
“I think you’re a pain in the ass too, Guest.”
“Ha!”
Eun Yak-byeok delivered an anything-but-sweet remark with a bright smile, and Dokgo Ryeong let out a hollow laugh.
“Then I’ll assume you’re ready, Guest, and teach you the Moonshadow Divine Art right now.”
“Hoo… All right.”
Dokgo Ryeong made her choice.
Let someone else carry out her revenge for her?
She didn’t like that.
If she was going to do it anyway, then no matter how weak she was, revenge had to be done with her own hands.
‘I’ll start over from the beginning…!’
The day her family died.
Dokgo Ryeong steeled herself, recalling the sharp feelings of that day—the day she’d stormed into a gambling den run by the Unorthodox Faction, sickle in hand and eyes blazing, demanding to know who had killed her family.
“I’ll guide your qi circulation. That’ll be easier than teaching you the incantation, right?”
“…Please.”
“There’s already a considerable amount of yin energy in your lower dantian, so let’s put accumulating qi off until later. If you take in even more yin energy, you might trigger side effects.”
“Fine.”
“It’s best to accumulate qi at night, somewhere the moonlight shines brightly.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Begin.”
“Then…”
Eun Yak-byeok placed a hand on Dokgo Ryeong’s back and sent her inner energy into her.
As Eun Yak-byeok’s inner energy entered her body and began showing her how to circulate the technique, Dokgo Ryeong quickly understood what kind of cultivation technique the Moonshadow Divine Art was.
‘As expected… It deserves to be called a divine art.’
Eun Yak-byeok’s inner energy was a little murkier than the yin energy of the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade, but it was still sufficiently pure.
If the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade’s yin energy was like perfectly transparent ice, Eun Yak-byeok’s inner energy brought to mind a crystal-clear lake bathed in moonlight.
After the qi-guiding session ended and Eun Yak-byeok withdrew her hand, Dokgo Ryeong opened her eyes.
“…It’s a good cultivation technique.”
“I told you, didn’t I? Now try circulating your qi once.”
“All right.”
Dokgo Ryeong sat cross-legged and began to observe her inner self.
Just as she was about to move the yin energy in her lower dantian along the path Eun Yak-byeok’s inner energy had shown her, she noticed something was wrong.
“…Guest?”
After a long while, Dokgo Ryeong still hadn’t managed to circulate her qi. Eun Yak-byeok was just beginning to wonder what was wrong when Dokgo Ryeong opened her eyes.
“…Hao Sect Leader.”
“Go ahead.”
“…I can’t move the yin energy.”
“Oh my…”
“What should I do?”
To circulate her qi, she first had to be able to move her inner energy, but the yin energy of the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade in her lower dantian wouldn’t budge.
‘I can’t even accumulate qi.’
Afraid of the side effects, Dokgo Ryeong didn’t dare try to accumulate qi with the Moonshadow Divine Art.
Just then, Eun Yak-byeok clapped her hands as if she’d realized something.
“Ah!”
“Did you think of something?”
“Yes, Guest. Now I understand what Gwan-yeong meant in her report.”
“…Huh?”
With Eun Gwan-yeong’s name suddenly coming up, Dokgo Ryeong was overcome by an inexplicable unease.
“Guest. According to Gwan-yeong’s report, you can circulate your yin energy under ‘certain circumstances.’”
“Ah…”
“Would you like to masturbate?”
“Shit.”
*
“But you said you’d learn the Moonshadow Divine Art! You said you’d get revenge!”
“No, shit! Why the hell does masturbation have to come into this?!”
“I’m saying this because you can’t move the yin energy otherwise. Don’t you understand?”
“Grr…! Shit, is there no other way?! You’re the Hao Sect Leader, the woman who knows everything, aren’t you?!”
“I don’t know everything. I can’t think of another solution right now.”
“No, fuck…!”
Dokgo Ryeong slammed her fist against the floor in frustration.
“Why the hell is this damn yin energy…!”
“Guest, Guest.”
“What the fuck?”
“Do you know the origin of the Moonshadow Demonic Art?”
“How the hell would I know that?”
“The founder of the Moonshadow Demonic Art was a woman who resented and longed for the husband who abandoned her for another woman, and masturbated every night…”
“Kyaaaah!!!”
Dokgo Ryeong clutched at her hair.
“Shit! It really is a demonic art!!”
“…She removed the sordidness from it and turned it into a more orthodox martial art, creating the Moonshadow Divine Art we have now…”
“But why the hell does masturbation have to be involved?!”
“Isn’t that your fault, Guest? You have a lewd body that can’t circulate yin energy unless you masturbate…”
“Die!!”
Dokgo Ryeong picked up a teacup and threw it, but Eun Yak-byeok stopped it in midair with telekinesis.
“Guest, calm down for now. If you can master it, the Moonshadow Divine Art is a cultivation technique that rivals the Ice Palace’s when it comes to controlling yin energy.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“That ‘go fuck yourself’ sounded awfully lewd. Shall I call Young Master Wi right now? If you hear his voice, your lust might…”
This time, Dokgo Ryeong picked up and threw the entire tea table, and only then did Eun Yak-byeok bow her head.
“…That was a slip of the tongue. I’m sorry.”
“You lewd bitch! You taught Eun Gwan-yeong too, didn’t you?!”
“Of course. I’m her teacher, after all.”
“Haa… Haa…”
After going on a rampage, Dokgo Ryeong quickly felt her body grow tired.
“This shitty body can’t even go on a proper rampage…”
“That’s a great relief to me.”
“Yeah, shit… If I could just get my peak martial arts back…”
“To do that, you’ll have to masturbate first.”
“Come on, seriously!”
When Dokgo Ryeong shrieked again, Eun Yak-byeok looked down at her coldly.
“…I’m disappointed in you, Guest. Shall we call off our deal?”
“What?”
“It’s only masturbation. This is the martial world, where people even grind up and consume their own family to obtain martial arts. And yet, you can’t even masturbate to obtain an unparalleled divine art, and you’re throwing a tantrum like a child… I’m simply disappointed.”
“No, shit…”
“I knew I wasn’t mistaken. You’ve grown weak since becoming a woman, Guest.”
“…”
Hearing Eun Yak-byeok’s rebuke, self-loathing boiled up inside Dokgo Ryeong.
Seeing Dokgo Ryeong lower her head, Eun Yak-byeok pressed her even harder.
“Even now, the Tang Clan is sacrificing countless children to create new ‘deadly poisons’ and ‘Gu.’ The number of children disappearing has risen sharply lately. The Beggars’ Sect is probably helping the Tang Clan, too.”
“…”
“Now that the kill order has finally been issued for Dokgo Jin, who had been a thorn in their side, they must think they won’t be interrupted for a while. I don’t like how brazen they’re being, but… well, I don’t have a powerful enough card to shake the Tang Clan.”
“Come on… Shit…”
“Ah… Now that I think about it, it wasn’t you who received a fortuitous encounter. It was the Tang Clan. Heaven helped them: their enemy, who’d been interfering with them, lost his strength overnight and became a young, delicate girl. Doesn’t that mean heaven is protecting the Tang Clan?”
“Y-you…!!”
When Dokgo Ryeong gritted her teeth and trembled, Eun Yak-byeok watched her and smiled covertly.
‘You’re still the same, Guest. So simple…’
All it took was a little provocation, and Dokgo Jin would react on his own.
Eun Yak-byeok, who had spent so much time with him, knew Dokgo Jin all too well.
Perhaps even better than Dokgo Jin knew himself.
“Fuck! I’ll do it! I said I’ll do it! Shit, I said I’ll do it!!”
“Oh my… You were saying you were embarrassed to masturbate just a moment ago.”
“No, shit! I was trying to figure out how the hell I’m supposed to circulate my qi while masturbating!!”
“Ah… Now that you mention it, that is a problem. Then how about this?”
Eun Yak-byeok’s smile deepened.
“Either way, your yin energy moves when your lust stirs, doesn’t it?”
“Y-you… you bitch!”
For some reason, looking at her face made Dokgo Ryeong think of Eun Gwan-yeong.
“I’m the best in the martial world at this sort of thing, after all. I’m the Lust Venerable (淫尊). Let me help you.”