Chapter 7
“So, Lust Demon.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“Let’s talk about what we didn’t get to yesterday. About the deal.”
“…”
Wi Ilcheong sipped his tea and said,
“Let’s finish eating first.”
“Why bother?”
“I just got back from my morning training, so I’m sweaty. I’d like to wash up.”
“For fuck’s sake. You think smelling of sweat is a disgrace for a martial artist?”
“You should wash up too, Miss.”
Wi Ilcheong pointed to Dokgo Jin’s sleeve.
Dokgo Jin lowered her head to check it and saw dark red blood dried onto the fabric.
It was blood from chopping Jo Chang into pieces last night.
“…Ah, damn it.”
“Borrow some clothes from Miss Baekri.”
“Fine.”
“We can talk about the deal afterward, but there’s something I’d like to ask first.”
“Go ahead.”
Wi Ilcheong’s expression turned serious.
“May I take your pulse?”
“…Do we have to?”
“It’s important.”
“…”
Seeing Wi Ilcheong speak seriously despite having smiled brightly the whole time, Dokgo Jin tilted her head.
“Why? I don’t get it.”
“…For our deal to go through, I need to know Miss Dokgo’s state of health.”
“The Nine Yang Divine Art?”
“The condition of the deal was that I cure your Severed Meridian Syndrome.”
“You said you’d cured Nine Yin Severed Meridian Syndrome, too. Doesn’t that mean you can easily cure any other kind?”
“…Actually, I lied to you.”
“Huh?”
“I did cure Nine Yin Severed Meridian Syndrome, but… that one time was all.”
“…”
Crack.
Her grip tightened around the chopsticks.
“Haa…. Fuck, of course. I’m an idiot for trusting a piece of shit like you.”
“But I said I’d let you meet her personally. See for yourself and decide.”
“…Where is she?”
“Right here.”
Wi Ilcheong pointed to the woman seated beside him, Baekri Sohyeon.
“Miss Baekri is the patient. She had Nine Yin Severed Meridian Syndrome, but she’s completely recovered now.”
“…”
Baekri Sohyeon giggled.
“…Hey, Lust Demon.”
“Yes, Miss Dokgo.”
“Did that woman become an idiot from the side effects of Severed Meridian Syndrome?”
“…She was always a little slow to speak.”
“Hey, airhead.”
When Dokgo Jin called Baekri Sohyeon over, she came closer and sat down.
“…I’m not an airhead.”
“You’re fucking slow. That makes you an airhead.”
“…I’m fast….”
“Ah, fuck it. Whatever. Give me your hand.”
Dokgo Jin reached out to take her pulse, and Baekri Sohyeon looked at Wi Ilcheong.
“…”
When Wi Ilcheong nodded, Baekri Sohyeon obediently offered her hand.
Dokgo Jin held Baekri Sohyeon’s wrist and closed her eyes.
‘…It’s a little unusual, but there’s nothing particularly wrong.’
When Dokgo Jin opened her eyes again, Wi Ilcheong asked,
“How is she?”
“…Are you scamming me?”
“It feels like a perfectly normal person’s pulse, doesn’t it?”
“She’s just a normal person.”
“Miss Baekri.”
“…Yeah.”
“Wh-Why are you taking off your clothes? Hey, you crazy bitch… huh?”
When Baekri Sohyeon took off her top, a dreadful scar was visible on her stomach.
“…What is that?”
“…It’s proof that Miss Baekri suffered from Severed Meridian Syndrome.”
“You crazy bastard…!”
When Dokgo Jin tried to flip the table, Wi Ilcheong pressed it down firmly, stopping her.
“I didn’t do it.”
“How am I supposed to believe that?”
“…Do you know nothing about the martial world, Miss?”
“What?”
Wi Ilcheong sighed.
“Haa…, think about Miss Baekri’s surname.”
“What about the Baekri Clan?”
“…It’s the same surname as the current leader of the Diancang Sect.”
“What?”
“…Miss Baekri is the daughter of Baekri Jong, the current Sect Leader of Diancang.”
“So?”
“Don’t you know? A woman afflicted with Nine Yin Severed Meridian Syndrome is a medicinal treasure containing pure yin energy. I’ve heard that an inner core forms in her dantian, like that of a spirit beast.”
Hearing Wi Ilcheong’s words, Dokgo Jin looked at the wound on Baekri Sohyeon’s lower abdomen.
A horrifying wound, as if something inside her body had been taken out.
“…It wasn’t, was it?”
“…”
“Fuck….”
Dokgo Jin tossed aside her chopsticks.
“I’m done eating.”
*
“…”
In a foul mood, Dokgo Jin left her meal unfinished and went to wash up.
Sitting in hot water, she thought again about Severed Meridian Syndrome.
‘Severed Meridian Syndrome… an incurable illness where excessive yin energy blocks the meridians.’
But that meant the afflicted person held an incredible amount of yin energy.
In fact, when Dokgo Jin closed her eyes for a moment, she could feel the pure yin energy settled in her dantian.
‘…If the yin energy isn’t expelled, and just keeps accumulating in the body….’
How would that be any different from a spiritual medicine?
The inner cores of spirit beasts, the so-called fortuitous encounters, were also concentrations of pure energy that animals gathered over many years.
If gathered by someone who knew how to circulate inner energy, it would become an even more powerful inner core.
“You bastards….”
When she closed her eyes, Baekri Sohyeon’s scar came to mind.
‘Baekri Jong… that son of a bitch. He suddenly started making a name for himself at some point.’
She’d never met him, since she had no reason to go as far as Yunnan, but Dokgo Jin repeated his name again and again to memorize it.
‘That inhuman bastard. When I meet him, I’ll chop him into pieces and kill him.’
Just as her anger was about to flare again, someone came inside.
“…Are you in there?”
“Is that you, airhead?”
“…I told you I’m not an airhead….”
“Heh heh, sure, whatever you say.”
Baekri Sohyeon came in.
“…Brother Wi… said you looked upset, so he told me to check on you….”
“Did he?”
Dokgo Jin scooped water from the tub and splashed it onto her face.
“I’m fine. I’m just a little angry.”
“…Why?”
“Huh?”
Baekri Sohyeon crouched beside Dokgo Jin, not caring that she was getting wet from the bathwater.
“…Why are you angry?”
“…”
After looking at Baekri Sohyeon’s vacant eyes for a moment, Dokgo Jin reached out and stroked her head.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
“There’s too much trash in this world.”
“…I don’t really understand. Why are you apologizing?”
“I… no, my father. Do you know how he entered the martial world?”
“…The Mad Demon?”
“That’s right. The Mad Demon.”
Dokgo Jin thought back to her childhood.
“The Mad Demon, Dokgo Jin, was originally the son of a slash-and-burn farmer. Most martial artists probably don’t know that.”
“…Then how did he become so strong?”
“Yeah. He had a clear goal.”
“…What was it?”
“Revenge.”
Crack.
Dokgo Jin gritted her teeth and spoke.
“He was just a slash-and-burn farmer wandering in search of an empty mountain, but his family died after getting caught up in a fight between martial artists. There were six members of the Mad Demon’s family who died that day. The youngest was… only four.”
“…”
“After that day, Dokgo Jin went looking for martial artists. He didn’t know who’d killed his family, so he picked up a sickle and started by beating up the nearby unorthodox sects. He thought the orthodox sects were all righteous.”
“…The orthodox sects are no different….”
“Yeah, the orthodox sects are no different.”
After throwing himself into the martial world, Dokgo Jin soon realized who’d murdered his family.
Born the child of a slash-and-burn farmer and illiterate, he couldn’t read the character ‘毒’ marked on his enemies’ chests, nor did he know that martial artists from Sichuan’s Tang Clan wore green uniforms.
Simply because…
He’d believed that the orthodox sects were always righteous.
“…But he had no power. The prestigious orthodox sects who killed his family were all monsters who’d undergone marrow cleansing and bone washing and stuffed themselves with every kind of spiritual medicine from childhood.”
“…So?”
Looking at Baekri Sohyeon, who was now listening intently to her story, Dokgo Jin grinned.
“He fought like hell.”
“…Until he died?”
“Yeah. Whether he was lucky or unlucky, he didn’t die easily. He even had some fortuitous encounters along the way and learned the world’s greatest divine arts and saber techniques, so he made up his mind.”
Dokgo Jin held up her fist.
“To crush the entire martial world.”
“…That sounds insane.”
“That’s why they call him the Mad Demon.”
When Dokgo Jin got out of the bathtub, Baekri Sohyeon handed her a towel.
“Thanks.”
“…Yeah.”
As she dried herself with the towel, Dokgo Jin continued.
“That’s why I’m sorry to you.”
“…Why? Miss Dokgo is the Mad Demon’s daughter, not the Mad Demon.”
“…”
Hearing Baekri Sohyeon’s words, Dokgo Jin realized once more.
Now, she was no longer the Mad Demon, but a girl who had once been the Mad Demon.
When she spread out her hand, it was not the rough and calloused hand of the martial artist she’d been as the Mad Demon, but a fair and delicate woman’s hand without a single blister.
“No.”
Dokgo Jin clenched her fist and vowed,
“I’ll become the Mad Demon. And then I’ll crush the martial world.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. I can’t leave bastards who are shitty as hell alone.”
“…Yeah.”
Baekri Sohyeon giggled.
It wasn’t the vacant smile she’d had before, but a radiant one.
“By the way, Miss Dokgo, what’s your name?”
“…Huh?”
“I can’t keep calling you Miss Dokgo, Miss Dokgo.”
“…”
At those words, Dokgo Jin went blank.
“…You don’t have a name either, Miss Dokgo?”
“Huh?”
“…I didn’t have a name either.”
“…”
Baekri Sohyeon clasped Dokgo Jin’s hand tightly.
“…Want me to… give you a name?”
“You?”
“…Yeah.”
“All right, go ahead.”
“Dokgo Ryeong.”
Baekri Sohyeon wrote the characters on Dokgo Jin’s hand.
“Ryeong-unnie’s voice is as beautiful as the sound of jade (玲).”
“…That sounds too delicate for someone who’s going to become the Mad Demon.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Baekri Sohyeon shook her head.
“You said you’d crush the entire martial world….”
“I did.”
“…Then maybe the name doesn’t really matter?”
“Heh…, heh heh. Yeah, you’re right.”
Dokgo Jin—no.
Dokgo Ryeong stroked Baekri Sohyeon’s head.
“If I crush the entire martial world, nobody will care what my name is.”
“…Yeah.”
For the first time in a long while, Dokgo Ryeong remembered her long-held wish.
To wipe out every last piece of trash in this shitty martial world and erase the martial world itself.
‘To do that, I need to regain my strength first.’
Whether by going to Thunderclap Temple and stealing the divine artifact containing extreme yang energy,
or by curing Nine Yin Severed Meridian Syndrome through the Lust Demon.
“Let’s go.”
“…Sister Ryeong.”
“Huh?”
“…You should put your clothes on before you go out.”
“Ah….”
“…Dummy.”
*
Every outfit Baekri Sohyeon had given her was fluttery and loose.
Seeing the cumbersome sleeves as Dokgo Ryeong waved her arm, a hint of irritation appeared on her face.
“Is this all you have?”
“…Yeah.”
“Damn it, and why are the breasts so huge?”
“…Sorry. My breasts are too big….”
“Fuck, once I’m done talking with the Lust Demon, I’m going to a cloth shop first.”
Rattle.
When Dokgo Ryeong opened the door and entered, Wi Ilcheong greeted her.
“You’re here, Miss. You look lovely.”
“Cut the crap and get straight to the deal.”
“…You’re quite the bold one, Miss Dokgo.”
Wi Ilcheong set down his teacup and composed his expression.
Dokgo Ryeong sat across from him and spoke.
“So… Nine Yin Severed Meridian Syndrome. How did you cure it?”
“Let me take your pulse first. We need to be sure it’s Severed Meridian Syndrome.”
“Go ahead.”
When Dokgo Ryeong held out her hand, Wi Ilcheong took her pulse.
“Ah…!”
As a warm current traveled through her wrist and into her meridians, Dokgo Ryeong let out a brief moan, and Wi Ilcheong said,
“Please bear with it for a moment.”
“…Fine.”
When Wi Ilcheong’s energy completed one full circulation through Dokgo Ryeong’s meridians, he opened his eyes.
“…Unfortunately, it is Severed Meridian Syndrome.”
“So can you cure it?”
“I think… I can.”
“Fuck, why is your answer so wishy-washy?”
“…First, the state of your Eight Extraordinary Meridians is much better than Miss Baekri’s. All of her meridians were blocked, but your Conception and Governor Vessels are open.”
“And?”
“…But the yin energy gathered inside you is far stronger. Much more than Miss Baekri’s.”
“…”
Hearing Wi Ilcheong’s words, Dokgo Ryeong was satisfied that he had accurately assessed her condition.
‘At least he’s not some quack.’
“So, can you do it?”
“…We’ll have to try. I think I can open the blocked meridians to some extent.”
“Really?!”
“But… that’s only if you agree to the deal, Miss.”
“You stingy bastard.”
“…I need to get something out of it too.”
“The Nine Yang Divine Art?”
“…No. There’s something else I’d like to add to the deal.”
“Say it.”
Dokgo Ryeong folded her arms and looked at him, and the Lust Demon spoke with a serious expression.
“I want your maidenhood.”