By Zephyria Just Once (1)
Gang Woong blamed himself, feeling responsible for Seong Mu-yeon’s abduction since he was the last to witness it and couldn’t prevent it. Seong Mu-yeon did his best to comfort the boy.
Officially, the matter was closed with Seong Mu-yeon having been kidnapped by the Demonic Cult and then rescued. Which was also true.
He shared the newly acquired information about the Demonic Cult with the Sect leader and other high-ranking members. For the time being, Mount Hua would be listening for any changes within the Demonic Cult.
He heard that the Demonic Cult members in the area had completely withdrawn because of this incident.
When it was time for a meal, Baek Ryeo-il appeared with a patient’s meal.
“Here, eat.”
“…That’s too much.”
“Eat it all! Eating well is the way to recover quickly!”
He almost forcibly shoved the food into Seong Mu-yeon’s mouth. Then, he left the room again. Seong Mu-yeon shouted at his retreating figure.
“Where are you wandering off to again!”
“I have things to do.”
Thud.
Baek Ryeo-il curtly replied and left.
“……”
Seong Mu-yeon felt an inexplicable sense of unease.
‘What is he up to?’
“Senior Brother, I don’t think this is going to work.”
Since returning, Baek Ryeo-il had been searching for a way to cure Seong Mu-yeon’s illness. For the past few days, he had been scouring the Library with a Junior Brother from the Hall of Medicine. But there were no significant results.
“How can we find something in the Library that even the Head of the Hall of Medicine doesn’t know? Just give up. It’s unfortunate for Young master Seong Mu-yeon, but there’s no solution at the moment. I’m done here.”
“Hey! Don’t go!”
With those words, the Junior Brother left.
“Haa……”
Left alone, Baek Ryeo-il was buried in a pile of books. He flipped through a few pages of the book in his hand before throwing it away.
‘……Is there really no way?’
He thought of Seong Mu-yeon, holed up in the Emerald Pavilion. His complexion was pale, and he frequently coughed up blood. He wondered how he had managed to deceive everyone so perfectly all this time.
‘His symptoms must have worsened because he used his inner force.’
Followed by a pang of self-reproach.
‘Because of me.’
He covered his face.
He had ruined everything by interfering.
‘I should have just left him alone. I got worked up again for nothing.’
Of course, if he had done that, Seong Mu-yeon would have been taken to the Demonic Cult and lost his free will, but it was undeniable that he had made the situation worse.
Baek Ryeo-il hated owing someone as much as he hated someone owing him. But now, he was so worried about Seong Mu-yeon’s pale, sickly face that he couldn’t even scold him properly.
He needed to restore him to his original state somehow to feel at ease.
At that moment, a group of boys rushed into the Library.
“Is this it? The one you were talking about?”
“I’m telling you, it is.”
They began to whisper among themselves, unaware that Baek Ryeo-il was behind the bookshelf.
Baek Ryeo-il raised his eyebrows. In his experience, when young Disciples gathered like that, it was a sign that they were up to no good. One of them was occasionally glancing nervously towards the door, which confirmed his suspicions.
“You brats.”
“Hiek!”
“B, B, Baek Senior Brother!”
The boys were terrified when Baek Ryeo-il appeared without a sound.
“Hand over what you’re hiding behind your backs.”
Baek Ryeo-il beckoned with his palm. The boy reluctantly took out what he was hiding and handed it over.
“A book?”
He flipped it over and examined it, scanning the pages, but it was just an ordinary educational book that could be found in the Library.
“Haha, yes…… We were just trying to study a bit.”
“Then why were you hiding it like that! Making people suspicious.”
“W, well…… Haha! Please give it back. We’ll put it back in its place.”
Baek Ryeo-il sullenly handed the book over, but just before the boy could snatch it away, he retracted it again.
“Senior Brother? What’s wrong?”
“No matter how I think about it, it’s strange. You guys voluntarily studying without being told to? That’s more likely than the world turning upside down.”
“N, no, really. It’s just a book describing cultivation methods. It was right here in the Library. Would we lie?”
He was still suspicious. Only then did the title catch his eye.
“Art of the Bedchamber?”
The boys gasped at the word he uttered, turning as pale as if they had seen a ghost. They quickly scattered without a word.
“……”
Left alone in an instant, Baek Ryeo-il scratched the back of his head.
“What’s Art of the Bedchamber that makes them react like that?”
Baek Ryeo-il was born in Mount Hua.
His parents were also Disciples of Mount Hua, but they were struck by Demonic Art during a battle with the Demonic Cult. As a result, all of Baek Ryeo-il’s education was entrusted to his Master and his predecessors.
When Baek Ryeo-il reached his teens and was about to become aware of the opposite sex, his Master and Senior Uncles gathered with serious faces.
〈You all know how much trouble that guy causes, right?〉
〈Of course. Just thinking about how he almost burned down all of Mount Hua to catch non-existent bandits still makes my neck stiff……〉
〈If we’re not careful, all the next generation of Mount Hua Disciples will be filled with his bloodline.〉
〈Hiek!!〉
Everyone’s face turned pale.
Although they were Taoist cultivators, Mount Hua was not as strict as Kunlun or Emei. It was common for Disciples to marry each other or start families down the mountain.
But Baek Ryeo-il was an exception. He was still young, but he was always eager for fun and exciting things. It was obvious that something would go wrong if he wasn’t properly educated.
〈We have no choice. Then…… let’s have him learn that mental cultivation technique.〉
In the end, they had Baek Ryeo-il learn a special mental cultivation technique. The mental cultivation technique contained the essence of Taoism, purifying the body and mind and filling it with pure energy, but very few people had actually mastered it. Because it had a fatal flaw.
That fatal flaw was that it made one forget about sexual desire.
It didn’t just make one forget, but it also almost completely eliminated physiological reactions. It completely castrated desire.
Thanks to that, Baek Ryeo-il grew up to be a highly skilled martial artist but an ignorant fool when it came to matters of the heart.
“……So that’s why.”
“Ryeo-il, Ryeo-il.”
Ma Jin-cheon was horrified when his Disciple brought him a book called ‘Art of the Bedchamber’ and asked what it was. He ended up confessing everything.
“……So that’s why those women slapped me.”
Of course, Baek Ryeo-il had intelligence, so he knew roughly from the rumors circulating among the Disciples and the events he had experienced in the martial world. How babies were born and what kind of acts were involved in the process.
But he had no interest in it at all.
There were often women who were courageous enough to approach him because of his reputation and appearance, but Baek Ryeo-il never noticed the looks they gave him or their subtle flirtations. As a result, he was praised as a noble Taoist figure who saw women as stones.
He didn’t know why those women slapped him while crying back then, but now he knew the reason.
“L, listen. Thanks to that, you were able to focus on your cultivation without being distracted by trivial thoughts, right? Let’s think of it in a positive light.”
“Well, that’s fine.
He couldn’t feel regret for something he had never experienced. Baek Ryeo-il was more interested in other things. He flipped through the book.
“But this Art of the Bedchamber thing.”
“W, what about it?”
There was a reason why the young Disciples were snickering. It was a book that described in detail how to cultivate through sexual relations. It was stimulating content for children who were just entering puberty.
“Is it true? That you can correct twisted qi and blood through the harmony of yin and yang?”
“That’s right……”
Ma Jin-cheon trailed off, then hurriedly added.
“But! Only if you use it correctly! It’s not something that anyone can do haphazardly! If that were the case, all the men and women in the world would have become immortals! They give birth to a dozen children each! Don’t you think?”
Baek Ryeo-il shrugged. Ma Jin-cheon, still not relieved, grabbed his shoulder tightly and warned him sternly.
“Don’t let a woman holding your illegitimate child knock on the doors of Mount Hua.”
“……”
Hoorok.
Today, Seong Mu-yeon was drinking Mount Hua’s specialty, plum blossom tea, and flipping through a book. Since no one was bothering him, he could read all kinds of books that he couldn’t access in the Demonic Cult to his heart’s content.
But that peace didn’t last long.
“Seong Mu-yeon!”
Baek Ryeo-il, who hadn’t shown his face for a while, stormed in as if he was going to break down the door.
As a result, Seong Mu-yeon spilled tea all over his front.
“D, don’t scare me like that! Would you die if you opened the door gently!”
“No, listen! I found a way to cure your illness!”
Seong Mu-yeon’s eyes widened.
“R, really? How?”
“Here. Take a look at this.”
Baek Ryeo-il held out a book in front of him.
“……What is this?”
“I’ve been searching the entire Library for the past few days, and I found out that severed meridians are ultimately a disease caused by twisted qi and blood in the body. You know that, right?”
Seong Mu-yeon quickly lost interest. What ability would Baek Ryeo-il, who didn’t seem to know the first thing about medicine, have to find a cure? Even the numerous doctors of the Demonic Cult couldn’t find one.
He was sure that he was just going to spout some obvious nonsense.
“Yes, yes. Let’s get to the point.”
“You can do Art of the Bedchamber with me.”