Chapter 8
“So can you do it?”
“…We’ll have to try first. 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.”
As Dokgo Ryeong folded her arms and looked at him, the Lust Demon spoke with a serious expression.
“I want to take your virginity.”
“…What?”
“…I understand why you’re taken aback. But you heard me correctly. I want to take your maidenhood.”
“…”
Dokgo Ryeong stared at Wi Ilcheong, dumbfounded, her arms still folded…
She snapped her arm out.
Clang!
“You’re asking to die, you son of a bitch…!”
“Please wait, Miss. Calm down a little and hear me out.”
“…Calm down about what…?”
“I’m serious too! Please, just listen to me!”
Wi Ilcheong grabbed Dokgo Ryeong’s sword.
“…Why the hell did you bring up fucking me as part of the deal?”
“I learned the Su Nü Jing (素女經).”
“…That obscene trash of a book?”
The Su Nü Jing was a book about the union of yin and yang between men and women.
In short, it was just erotica.
“…The versions circulating among the public are fake. What I learned is a treasure our Wi Clan has protected for generations.”
“Bullshit, bullshit. You’re working hard to make up a story just so you can fuck a woman once.”
“Sigh… Miss Dokgo, think about it.”
“What, asshole?”
“I’m already past thirty. And yet I’m always spoken of as having the strongest inner energy in the martial world.”
“…Keep talking.”
“The foundation of my inner energy is that Su Nü Jing.”
“…”
Listening to Wi Ilcheong’s bullshit, Dokgo Ryeong felt her fury rising again.
‘Should I just say fuck it and go alone?’
Just as Dokgo Ryeong was regretting trusting the Lust Demon like an idiot, Baekri Sohyeon spoke up.
“…It’s true.”
“Huh?”
“Brother Wi… can’t build up inner energy unless he… unites yin and yang.”
“What?”
“…That’s the kind of cultivation method the Su Nü Jing is.”
“What the hell….”
“…It’s true….”
Baekri Sohyeon murmured, looking a little dejected.
Wi Ilcheong continued.
“…Miss.”
“What, asshole?”
“I know how important a woman’s virginity is.”
“Fuck off. I have no intention of spreading my legs for you.”
“Miss Baekri recovered that way, too!”
“…What?”
When Dokgo Ryeong looked at him again, Wi Ilcheong seized the chance.
“The Su Nü Jing is a bedchamber art. Yes, it mainly deals with intercourse between men and women. That’s right.”
“…”
“But its creator intended for men and women to properly combine their yang and yin energies through the process, so both could attain the best possible physical condition.”
“What the fuck….”
“Don’t you understand, Miss? Severed Meridian Syndrome is a problem because excessive yin energy prevents you from taking in yang energy! But there’s a way to introduce yang energy from outside.”
“…”
Dokgo Ryeong began to waver.
Wi Ilcheong’s bullshit was starting to sound more and more plausible.
“…So you’re saying if you and I fuck, you’ll give me yang energy, and that can cure my Severed Meridian Syndrome?”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
“Fuck, why is this stupid bullshit starting to sound so plausible?”
“…Because it’s true.”
“…It’s true, Ryeong-unnie….”
When even Baekri Sohyeon chimed in, Dokgo Ryeong furrowed her brow.
‘Oh, fuck. I have to spread my legs for a man just to get my martial arts back?’
Though he was in a woman’s body now, he had been a man until recently.
For someone who had lived his whole life as a man, the sudden offer to regain his martial arts by spreading his legs was not a matter of pride; it stirred up a visceral revulsion.
“…Miss Dokgo. I won’t take your virginity right away.”
“Huh?”
“There are a few steps to prepare first. And I can promise you that nothing bad will happen to you.”
“Fuck, of course it won’t be bad if you cure my Severed Meridian Syndrome.”
“…I’m really good at it.”
“You son of a bitch, seriously!”
“Hey, Miss, would you stop swinging that sword at me?!”
Just as Dokgo Ryeong was about to swing her sword at Wi Ilcheong again, a question surfaced in her mind.
‘…Wouldn’t it be better to use this bastard without giving him my virginity?’
A thought suddenly crossed her mind, and Dokgo Ryeong made Wi Ilcheong a new offer.
“Hey, Lust Demon.”
“…Yes.”
“If I sleep with you, you’ll definitely get something out of it too, right?”
“…If you’re a virgin, Miss Dokgo, I’ll gain an enormous amount of inner energy.”
“…You bastard, how many virgins have you fucked?”
“A young lady shouldn’t say something like that…”
“Now, now! Tsk….”
“…”
Dokgo Ryeong stroked her chin and said,
“So you’re the one who gets more out of this, then?”
“…Pardon?”
“No, fuck. A woman only has her virginity once in her whole life, but you’ve fucked countless virgins.”
“…”
“Then isn’t this a little unfair to me? Right?”
“Th-That’s true.”
“Let’s change the terms of the deal.”
“I absolutely need the Nine Yang Divine Art….”
“I know, asshole.”
Dokgo Ryeong paused to gather her thoughts, then spoke.
“I’ll give you the Nine Yang Divine Art and my virginity. Is that enough?”
“…Yes.”
“Then here’s what I want from you.”
One. The Lust Demon, Wi Ilcheong, will take Dokgo Ryeong to Thunderclap Temple in Tianzhu.
Two. The Lust Demon, Wi Ilcheong, will ensure Dokgo Ryeong’s safety and provide her with food and lodging.
Three. The Lust Demon, Wi Ilcheong, will not make a move on Dokgo Ryeong before taking her to Thunderclap Temple.
After hearing her out, Wi Ilcheong tilted his head.
“…Why are you going to Thunderclap Temple?”
“There’s something there… um… I’m going to find my father.”
“…What? Lord Mad Demon?”
“…Yeah. My father’s there.”
“…Isn’t that in the complete opposite direction from Heilongjiang?”
Compared to Heilongjiang in the northeast, Thunderclap Temple lay to the southwest, in the lower-left part of the Central Plains, beyond Yunnan and at the border of Tianzhu.
Wi Ilcheong said,
“Aren’t you just going to meet Lord Mad Demon and then drive me away?”
“…I can see why you’d think that. But that’s not it.”
Dokgo Ryeong glanced at Baekri Sohyeon, then leaned close to Wi Ilcheong’s ear.
“…There are two main reasons I have to go to Thunderclap Temple. One is that I don’t know the final formula of the Nine Yang Divine Art.”
“I don’t need the Nine Yang Divine Art because I covet its martial arts. I only need an extremely yang cultivation method that can circulate yang energy.”
“You idiot. My father’s the Mad Demon.”
“…What does that have to do with anything?”
“If you don’t master the final formula of the Nine Yang Divine Art, madness will take hold. Father left to find that final formula.”
“…”
It was a lie Dokgo Ryeong had just made up on the spot, but even she thought it sounded pretty convincing.
“Didn’t you say earlier that he’d gone for a walk?”
“Fuck, did you think I’d tell you everything straight, without lying to you once?”
“…I see. Then what’s the second reason?”
“The Diancang Sect.”
“…!”
Wi Ilcheong’s eyes widened slightly, and he swept his hand through the air to raise an inner-energy barrier.
He’d put up a wall of inner energy so Baekri Sohyeon couldn’t hear them.
“…Miss Dokgo, if you’re only doing this out of sympathy for Miss Baekri, please stop.”
“Fuck off. Do I look like the kind of lunatic who’d pick a fight with the Diancang Sect just because I felt sorry for a woman I met yesterday?”
“I heard you fought the Namgung Clan over a single shop assistant.”
“Ah….”
Now that Dokgo Ryeong thought about it, she had once beaten up the eldest son of the Namgung Clan because she’d taken offense at how he’d treated a shop assistant.
“I heard you fell out with the Murong Clan over a boatman.”
“…Oh, for fuck’s sake. Just shut up for a minute.”
“…”
When Wi Ilcheong fell silent, Dokgo Ryeong frowned.
“Hey, fuck, should we just leave things as they are?”
“…Miss Baekri has already forgotten the Diancang Sect.”
“Fuck off. Every time she sees the scar on her stomach, she’ll remember what happened. Won’t she?”
“…”
“That’s the thing about revenge. Even after you tear apart and burn everything connected to the target until only ashes remain, the resentment still lingers in your heart. And if that target is still alive? You can’t even sleep properly. That’s what revenge is. It’s those ‘debts and grudges’ you martial artists love so much.”
“…I know.”
Wi Ilcheong clenched his fist and trembled.
“But… even so, is it really right to take revenge?”
“Leave right and wrong to the fucking immortals.”
Dokgo Ryeong flashed a grin.
Watching her, Wi Ilcheong thought it was a truly striking smile.
“You’ve got to live however you feel like and then die. You never know when you’ll die, so how the hell can you spend your life worrying about all that?”
“…”
Wi Ilcheong opened his tightly clenched fist and straightened his posture.
“…Do you think Lord Mad Demon will help you?”
“As long as I reach Thunderclap Temple, he’ll definitely help.”
“…”
Dokgo Ryeong rationalized that she hadn’t lied.
After all, once Dokgo Ryeong reached Thunderclap Temple and used the divine artifact’s extreme yang energy to return to a man’s body, the plan was to grind the Diancang Sect into pieces personally.
“…Understood. I give you my word.”
Wi Ilcheong clasped his hands in a martial salute and made his promise to her.
“I will take Miss Dokgo to Thunderclap Temple. I’ll provide food and lodging along the way, and I won’t take your virginity before we arrive. I’ll also do everything I can to cure your Severed Meridian Syndrome.”
Seeing that, Dokgo Ryeong clasped her hands in a martial salute as well and said,
“Then I’ll give you the Nine Yang Divine Art formula and help you crush the Diancang Sect.”
“…You promise?”
“What, don’t trust me…? Want me to swear it on the heavens?”
“No. If you make an empty promise, then I’ll have been wrong about you.”
“…You’re a bold bastard.”
Wi Ilcheong swept his hand again, dispelling the inner-energy barrier, and Baekri Sohyeon, sensing it, spoke to them.
“…Are you done?”
“Yes, Miss Baekri.”
“…Okay. Then should I get ready?”
“Yes. The things I asked you to prepare…”
“…Okay.”
Watching Baekri Sohyeon leave, Dokgo Ryeong asked Wi Ilcheong,
“Huh? Get ready? Are we leaving right away?”
“No. First, we need to treat your Severed Meridian Syndrome.”
“Ohhh.”
Dokgo Ryeong nodded as if she understood, then stopped.
“Wait. Fuck, when you say treatment, you mean fucking, right?”
“No. Didn’t I tell you before? We need to prepare for the treatment.”
“…What?”
“What’s the point of intercourse without love? The Su Nü Jing is a method of maximizing the sensations between a man and a woman to achieve the greatest pleasure, and pursuing health and longevity through it.”
Wi Ilcheong smiled brightly and reached out to Dokgo Ryeong.
“I promise you. You’ll enjoy it.”
“Fuck….”
Dokgo Ryeong’s dying groan echoed hollowly.
*
A middle-aged martial artist with white hair and a white beard walked along, exuding cold qi, and let out a sigh.
“Sigh… I trusted you too much, Seorin.”
“…I’m sorry, Father.”
The middle-aged man radiating cold qi was Baek Ryeon-hwi, the Ice Palace Lord known as the Northern Sea Ice Emperor.
Trembling with anger, he spoke in a chilly voice full of icy fury.
“Stealing a divine artifact is a grave crime that’s hard enough to forgive on its own….”
“…”
“And you let the culprit escape because you were distracted by that Lust Demon?!”
“Please kill me, Father!”
“Silence!!”
At Baek Ryeon-hwi’s shout, the surrounding trees trembled and their leaves fell.
“Hoo… hoo…. Don’t try to escape your crime through death. I didn’t raise my daughter to be so weak.”
“…Yes. I’ll make sure to get it back….”
“Damn it, the Mad Demon is so conspicuous. Why is it so hard to find his trail…?”
Something caught Baek Ryeon-hwi’s senses.
“…Father?”
“Those of you hiding there, come out at once.”
“!!”
At Baek Ryeon-hwi’s words, Baek Seorin looked toward the trees, and people who’d been hiding there emerged one by one.
“Green Forest bandits….”
“E-Elder, we, uh… we didn’t mean to do you any harm….”
“Seorin.”
“Yes.”
“Kill them all.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Fuck….”
Clang!
When Baek Seorin drew her sword, despair settled over the bandits’ faces.
“Fuck, I told you we shouldn’t go out on a job today….”
“That Mad Demon bitch didn’t even steal anything from us, so why were you in such a hurry to come out and pull this shit, damn it?”
“Hmm…?”
Among the bandits’ near-final words, one word caught Baek Ryeon-hwi’s ear.
Baek Ryeon-hwi fully released the inner energy he’d been suppressing, and the bandits began trembling like leaves in the wind.
It was the sheer weight of his presence.
“…Mad Demon? Did you say Mad Demon?”
“…”
“Speak, and I’ll spare you.”
“W-We met the Mad Demon’s daughter.”
“Daughter?”
At those words, Baek Ryeon-hwi’s inner energy vanished as if by magic, and silence fell.
“Heh… heh heh…. Hahahahaha!! So that notorious bastard who had nothing to lose finally has a family?!”
“…”
The bandits stared in bewilderment at the Ice Palace Lord, who had suddenly burst into mad laughter.
“Seorin.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Don’t kill them. I want to hear what they have to say.”
“Yes….”
“And prepare a carrier pigeon.”
“Where should I send it?”
Joy gleamed in Baek Ryeon-hwi’s eyes.
“Hefei. To the Murim Alliance.”