It's Hard Being the Villain in a Third-Rate Novel

[RookDeSuit]

"Will you come with me?" asked the Azure Dragon Sect master—for the third time, apparently.

Young again, a little gloomy, but full of strength and energy. Jeon Yeon-ah remembered him well.

Click to shrink...

Well that's a little rude. He was only trying to help. Moreover, she's kind of sitting on a completed form which would help the Azure Dragon sect.

Looking around one last time at the dozens of weeping children, grown now, whom she had raised herself, the woman closed her eyes…

Click to shrink...

And it was not a totally waste; she died surrounded by loved ones. Probably, unlike the mad Blood Demon that perished on the battlefield. Probably, a little premature if not for her untrained physical body and near decade of open violence, but so it goes, the passage pf time.

 

[Mortal Sage]

I want to see the matchstick towers. They have been mentioned too many times to not have an image. post your matchstick towers, author. I want to see them.

great story btw. "Watch"ed!!

 

[Lemor]

I want to see the matchstick towers. They have been mentioned too many times to not have an image. post your matchstick towers, author. I want to see them.

great story btw. "Watch"ed!!

Click to shrink...

Sadly, I don't have any matchstick towers of my own But I was inspired by these!

Spoiler

Glad you're enjoying the story!

 

[Lemor]

I got the feeling the master had started suspecting us of something shady. All through breakfast, he kept giving our little gang long, thoughtful sideways looks, clearly trying to figure out what in the hell was going on here. Fine, a disciple shows up at his brand-new little sister's room in the middle of the night with a knife—it happens. The kid isn't always on good terms with his own head, there was no malicious intent anyway (the master would have sensed it), so it was most likely some not-very-funny joke (then again, what do you expect from a "little demon"?). But… the girl coming to him? Perhaps that's normal for the younger generations now, and that's how disciples show friendliness? What a time to be alive.

I'm sure that's roughly how the master's thoughts went.

My little sister sulked at me for a while; she clearly hadn't liked my abridged version of the story. It didn't last long, though—we were back on speaking terms right after training. It most likely would've happened even sooner, but during training the girl watched her breathing way too carefully, never letting herself say a single extra word, let alone take a wrong breath in or out.

I'll admit, her self-control earned my genuine admiration. So far I'd only seen anything like it in the master, if in a more absurd form. Then again, keep in mind that he was a superhuman who had told every convention to take a hike from his beloved little cloud—I bet if you ran some tests, a few people would decide the old man was an alien of some sort. The same couldn't be said for our little fox: if she hadn't lost the evolutionary race outright, she was definitely lagging way behind most of the kids in our sect.

Nature is cruel. Some people are born with strong, healthy bodies and don't know a day of trouble until old age, while others come into the world with a whole bouquet of illnesses inherited from close or distant relatives. Equality? Fairness? Evolution doesn't give a flying chromosome about any of that, let alone about some individual human being.

And as far as I could tell, my little sister wanted to fix that.

"So you think if you eat this carp, your body will change?" I asked casually as we headed back to our little house for the brooms.

"I am sure of it." The not-quite-squirt nodded with a smile. "Sahyung, I have read a great many legends and folk beliefs. Long ago, the world was full of great creatures, and whoever ate one could become great themselves! Our regions are not named that way for nothing!"

Yeah, our regions do have interesting names: the Snow Phoenix region, the Mystic Leopard, the Wise Turtle, or even some "Ascended Immortal." It's not a short list. We were in the Wise Turtle region, if I remember right. The western part, to be exact.

"Won't you burst?" I raised an eyebrow, a little ironically, feeling a slight rush of energy. Then I smiled and added, "Don't you feel sorry for the carp, little sister? Imagine spending nearly a thousand years pushing past your limits, you're just about to become a dragon, and somebody shows up to eat you. How would you feel?"

I actually started feeling a bit sorry for it myself.

"I need power," the girl answered, perhaps a bit too harshly. We'd stopped on the path, almost right outside the house. "The unknown young master may have managed to save the world, but the price was far too high."

"You want to destroy this 'Black Heaven' cult?" I asked, as if in passing.

A flood of memories flashed before my eyes. Starting with the dead mother of my new little body, then the evil dust, which I suspect is the big bad around here, and ending with my wet nurse—not to mention that old biddy with the flute. It was as though the bells had started ringing in my head all over again…

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

Then the drums.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

And, naturally, the moon. Full and so huge it felt like I could reach it. All I had to do was stretch out my hands.

I winced without meaning to and shook my head. Not my favorite memories.

My little sister didn't answer at once; she'd sunk into a not-so-pleasant chapter of her own life. A regular veterans' reunion.

"Without you, their cult is not almost as powerful, oppa." The girl clenched her fists, never actually answering the question. "This time, everything will be different."

What a determined not-so-little lady. I'd better leave the evil dust out of it for now. One thing at a time.

"Have you thought about looking for that know-it-all?" I said, deciding to change the subject. The prospect of the sect being destroyed—the sect where my master was an elder, of sorts—scared the hell out of me, so tracking down the clown who might know how things would play out would be extremely useful.

I mean, I already had one cheater on the team, but she knew history mostly from what she'd heard and what she'd later read in the chronicles. She'd never been anywhere near the thick of things. Don't get me wrong, that alone is a VERY nice bonus, but… The backing of someone who might know even more—who'd even managed to stop the unhinged alternate version of me—would be worth its weight in gold.

"We must find him." The girl's eyes flashed instantly.

The rest of the day went to cleaning. The master kept casting sideways glances at us, and my little sister started living up to her "little fox" name, playing the disciple who wants to say something but is scared to. I did my best impression of a wise old tree and simply watched, waiting for the show.

Towards evening, the janitor-elder got tired of the whole performance and turned to the seasoned con artist herself:

"What happened, Jeon Yeon-ah?"

The girl lowered her head guiltily.

The old man let out a long-suffering sigh.

"I am your master, little fox. If you need help, I will help you. What happened?"

"…" My little sister made a show of hesitating. "I need to collect an inheritance my grandfather left me."

The old man was taken aback.

"We could…"

"I do not want to trouble you too much, master. And…" The sly fox looked thoroughly embarrassed, damn her. "I want that place to stay secret. But oppa has already promised to take me there and not tell anyone. I know exactly where to go. It will not even take three days!"

"Three days?" The puzzled old man frowned (lately he'd been stumped a lot—pure feminine power) and decided not to even try to follow his disciple's logic. She wanted it completely secret, but her big brother was allowed to know—sure, knock yourself out. Actually, that was probably a good thing. Look what a nice relationship the two of them were building. "That is possible, little fox, but I still need to know at least roughly where you are going and when."

"The day after tomorrow. We need to go north. One night to get there, one night to search, and one night to come back."

"You are holding back again, little fox," the old man sighed, stroking the head of the embarrassed girl. Genuinely embarrassed this time, it seemed. "That upsets me very much. Still, I am glad you have opened up at least to your sahyung. That puts my mind at ease."

"Won't you get in trouble, master?" I said, quickly changing the subject.

"I have plenty of trouble." The short little old man laughed, twirling his broom. "One more, one less—what difference does it make? What matters is that the two of you are all right. And I believe in you."

Without a word, I walked up to the old man and hugged him, which surprised the master, to put it mildly. My little sister appeared to freeze up too. Yep, social norms had just been told exactly where to go.

But who cares. I'm still a long way from the guy in my head. A long, long way.

***
​

The day before we left, I caught up with my protégé. He'd wanted to go off and keep training, but he had to put his routine on hold for a bit and follow me. By now we had our very own tree for discussing evil plans. Soon we'd be plotting world domination under it. Today's agenda, however, was of a different nature.

"Wh-what am I supposed to do, sasuk?" Chubby almost buckled under my heavy stare. "I… I did not quite understand…"

"You start telling everyone we've gone off for closed-door training," I repeated. "Everyone has to know, especially all my sunbae. Got it?"

"H-how? Sasuk Ahn Ha-yan, I cannot just start telling everyone that you went off to train…"

I rolled my eyes.

"You can complain out loud that I promised to train with you and then it turned out I couldn't make it. Just make sure you say it loud enough."

Then the instructor shouldn't have any questions—some disciples skipped group training now and then because their masters had started them on some special trial. The master, on the other hand, certainly wouldn't bother with excuses. He'd probably just shrug: not because he was stupid or couldn't think up a cover story, but because…

He simply couldn't care less.

Given his likely level of power, I get it. When a mosquito lands on you and starts drinking your blood, it's annoying, but nowhere near fatal. I think the mosquitoes understand that too. Still, I'd rather the old man didn't have even those problems. Then again, hopefully I'm just being overcautious. I wish they'd hurry up and let us leave the sect for real, sigh…

"Come to think of it, that is true…" the kid said, actually pouting a little.

I rubbed my eyes.

"I'll make more time for you later, I promise. Don't worry."

"Heh-heh, I know." The future brute broke into a wide grin, instantly cheering up. "Thank you, sasuk Ahn Ha-yan!"

Not that I'd done anything to deserve it.

Early in the morning, with our supplies and, just in case, a change of clothes, we set off for the edge of the sect: the wall that ran around the entire mountain. The sun was just coming up, and it was pretty chilly out. I felt a strange mix of intrigue, nervousness, and anticipation. I'd been up for helping from the beginning, and not only because I understood my little sister needed to get stronger. I also just plain wanted to see something unique and… I don't know, mystical? Even if I got nothing out of this trip, the experience and the memories would stay with me forever.

Unless reality annihilates my body again, damn it.

We didn't go to the gates—the guys posted there were busy standing guard over their own sleep, and we might wake them by accident. The wall was about thirteen feet high, but that wasn't much of a problem for us. Well, for me, anyway—the black heart could give me enough energy to jump even higher—and the master could always help my little sister.

…or so I thought.

"If you are going to lead her, then lead her from start to finish, little heavenly demon," the short old man said, smiling into his beard, and made no move to help the girl over the wall.

Rather than his usual broom, he was holding a strange white sword. In its sheath, naturally.

My little sister was about to voice her doubts, but I snorted, slung my nearly screaming victim over my shoulder like a true barbarian, and turned to the black heart in my chest. As if genuinely delighted with me, it pumped out so much energy that I felt like an overinflated balloon.

I didn't stop there. I drew qi of the Cloud Sword spectrum in from my surroundings and felt different spectrums of the same power mixing deep inside me, as if complementing and strengthening each other. My body was wrapped in a blackish-blue glow of sorts, the grass under my feet wilted instantly, and the air around us grew even colder.

It didn't look all that friendly, but that's what you get when the black heart's power dominates.

I turned my head towards the master and, seeing no condemnation, disgust, or anything of the sort, broke into a wide smile. The master snorted and tossed me the sword. I caught it easily, surprised at how light it was, then leaped over the thirteen-foot wall and ran off to meet adventure.

My little sister looked a little motion-sick.

***
​

Where would you find the pond of a carp that has somehow lived for a thousand years and dreams of becoming a dragon? Somewhere secret, of course, where a human foot might set down only by sheer accident, because otherwise its owner wouldn't stand a chance of survival. In this case, we were talking about a certain cave. We got to our supposed destination fast: the carp lived nearby, in the same mountains, only the vegetation was denser and there were practically no human footprints.

The trip could have dragged on, since my little sister was worn out by evening, but the tried-and-true method of hauling a sack of potatoes in the form of a not-so-little girl proved its effectiveness yet again and got us there faster. The potatoes' indignation only gave me more energy. Granted, just a trickle.

We spent the second day, just as my little sister had predicted, searching for the cave with the pond.

"I know for a fact the cave is around here somewhere!" The not-quite-squirt clutched her head.

Her normally dark purple eyes had gone red with anger, and her hair, decorated with a twig, was a mess, not to mention her once-intact robe. It was torn in a lot of places, which, for a girl as neat as she was in every sense, was a fate worse than death.

"I'm starting to have certain doubts," I said, generously adding fuel to the fire as I strolled along behind her. The little heart in my chest looked ready to smother me with kisses. "Little sister, perhaps the sun got to your head after all and you made it all up? Don't worry, I'll definitely…"

My little sister turned her head towards me and switched on her signature Devil stare.

A warning sign of sorts: if I didn't want a real fight, I'd better not push it.

"Why are you clean, oppa?" The not-quite-granny's eyebrow twitched as she took in my spotless white clothes.

I looked like I'd just come back from a stroll in the park: clean, loose hair, not a speck of dirt, a wide smile, clothes in one piece. I could've shot a shampoo commercial. The energy flowing through my body helped with that, and the truly beautiful sword with its white hilt and sheath turned me into a proper young master. I could hardly feel its weight, seriously, not to mention that it conducted qi wonderfully. The thing had to be insanely expensive. I could probably start a massacre without the sword, and with it…

"I bathe regularly." I shrugged carelessly and smiled innocently, making sure to "transform" the grin with a slight squint. "Don't you?"

The girl gave off killing intent so heavy it was almost physical.

At least it took her mind off things for a bit.

Only towards the end of the day did I stumble on the right cave, completely by accident. In fact, I almost fell into it—the entrance was tiny to begin with and, as if on purpose, covered head to toe in bushes. I had to clear them away, which, with the sword the master had lent me, was a piece of cake—like a hot knife through butter, seriously. At first the passage was pretty narrow, but gradually it began to widen. We went lower and lower, and I even started having doubts about whether we'd be able to get back out. I could manage it easily, but my little sister… I would've to haul her on my back again, and that would be a big hit to mobility. Not great.

At some point we saw a light at the end of the tunnel, which motivated us to speed up. A minute later, our little band of cheaters finally reached its destination, lit by some strange crystals on the ceiling. Their light seemed aimed on purpose at a fairly large pond, and at first glance the water in it was so clear that it could have passed for the fountain of youth.

"The air here is so clean…" I murmured, stunned.

It was like shrugging off a down jacket on a hot day. My body felt simply amazing, as though I could actually take off at any second. The energy in my body circulated and built up faster, saturating every last particle of me—I wanted to run, jump, and dance. My little sister was feeling something similar, eyes closed in pure bliss.

"A natural flow of energy…" giggled the not-quite-squirt, who had clearly attained Nirvana.

"What is this place?" I asked, staring around in amazement.

"I am not sure, oppa," the girl hedged at once, in case the information turned out to be wrong, "but two immortals may have fought a battle somewhere around here."

"You think a battle between immortals could create a place this strange?" I raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps we don't even need the carp? We could just cultivate here?"

"We do not have that much time," my little sister sighed in disappointment. "It took the carp a thousand years to come close to becoming a dragon. It would take us hundreds of years. And that is only if we have a good enough technique." Her face fell; she'd clearly remembered something unpleasant.

"Well, at least we can come here to rest now and then." I shrugged, though I knew perfectly well we wouldn't get to rest here for long.

If my little sister had found out about this place, so could anyone else who cared to.

We walked up to the very edge of the pond and peered in. Despite the crystal-clear water, it was deep enough that we couldn't make out what was on the bottom. The carp clearly had no interest in saying hello, so we would've to get its attention some other way. With a snort, I crouched by the pond and started pushing up my sleeve.

"Oppa?" My little sister's eyes went round.

Smiling, I clenched my fist and began concentrating the black heart's energy in it. Once I'd gathered enough power, I struck!

Water sprayed everywhere. For a second it seemed like my punch had set off a teeny-tiny tidal wave. My power, once it hit the water, kept going—straight to the bottom. At first nothing happened, but after a couple seconds, something down there started to stir.

A golden flash hit my eyes. I jumped back from the pond on reflex, and the not-quite-squirt instantly did the same. A huge golden fish nearly shot out of the water. We only saw it for an instant, but it was hard to miss the ornate horns that had started to sprout on a goddamn CARP.

A giggle escaped me.

"I love the local evolution. I just love it…"

Hearing an unfamiliar language, my little sister stared at me in confusion. I waved it off.

"Shame cameras aren't even on the horizon here," I sighed unfortunately, picturing my little sister taking my picture next to a horned golden carp bigger than me.

"I did not understand a thing, oppa," my little sister complained. "It is a very unusual language."

"You have no idea how much effort it took me to speak it properly again," I complained back, clicking my tongue.

And whose language is the weird one here? Mine isn't the mash-up of two languages from another world.

I was about to head back to the pond when I suddenly felt something strange. Like someone was staring at the back of my head. I slipped out of my body on reflex—my butt was telling me trouble was coming, and I needed a cool head and perfect control. My little sister's supernatural instincts were only a hair weaker than mine, if that: she frowned and turned her head towards the exit too. Around ten seconds later, we had guests.

Of goddamn course. Out of a thousand years, we hit the exact same day. Oh, hell no. OH, HELL NO!!!

"Children?"

Dirty, rough, tall, muscular. His long black hair looked like it had been through curlers. And he looked kind of… vaguely Mongolian?

Oh, come on, the stock bandit, straight out of central casting? If I've figured out how this world works, the big bad around here is going to be the Japanese. Just gotta wait for them to show up.

Behind the guy in black, his underlings started arriving. Every single one of them took an immediate interest in us, clearly not understanding who we were or what the hell we were doing here. In the middle of the bandits was a crowd of ordinary peasants, children among them. Their hands and necks were bound with rope, and men on either side held the ends. Like animals.

And there, unexpectedly, mixed in with this crowd, was a boy with a scar on his cheek. Not a cross, but since I already had a rough idea of how things work around here (or I think I do, anyway), certain thoughts came to mind right away.

Why not test a theory? I had nothing to lose anyway, heh.

"Hey," I called to the boy, looking him straight in the eye. The bandits, who'd expected any reaction but this one, froze. Realizing I was talking to him, the boy frowned in confusion. I went on, "Do you speak English?"

The boy's eyes went so wide that for a moment I thought they'd fall right the hell out. A clear "Bingo!" rang out in my head.

…or, all variables considered, "jackpot"?

Our master of secrecy rattled something off—in Korean, as far as I could tell—but, strangely enough, I couldn't really understand it. Only scraps of a few words.

"Just so you know," I answered him in clumsy English, feeling a bit awkward that I hadn't kept the language up, "I don't speak Korean."

The boy instantly deflated: I wasn't a fellow countryman. Happens.

"Sorry…" he said, switching straight to the local language.

"Happens." I nodded graciously, then turned to my little sister, who was blinking at me. "I found your know-it-all. Now we'll sort things out."

My little sister appeared to have hit a critical error.

The not-quite-Mongolian bandit chief finally came to his senses and drew his sword.

"I was going to take you as a slave, boy, but you have done enough to earn death. Kill him. Take the girl alive!"

Despite the bastard's words, a bloodthirsty smile crept onto my face. I let myself smile like that, feeling my heart pound in anticipation. The thought that right now I could kill a person—or be killed—seemed to wake something in me… something bloody.

As if sensing my mood, and completely sure of my strength, my little sister stepped back towards the pond.

"Please do not lose yourself."

Not a chance.

…meanwhile, the rational part of my mind was hoping there wouldn't be a cave-in.

That would be kind of uncool…

 

[readsalot]

I found your know-it-all. Now we'll sort things out."

My little sister appeared to have hit a critical error.

Click to shrink...

Hahahaha
Glad everything can be cleared up now, it's funny as I think she kept thinking to keep everything a secret but I'm with the Young Master, just throw everything into the open and clear everything up.
In his position I would hate to deal with classic Xianxia/murim nonsense of 1 gesture means 1 billion things
And that Bandit has chosen Death, lets not disappoint his, muahahahaha

 

[no_papr1ka]

Жесть, автор захватывает новые территории о_о
Странно, что я вас тут раньше не видел, ха-ха. Кстати, мейби стоит публиковать работы в [NSFW] ветке? Там читателей обычно больше...

 

[Lemor]

Жесть, автор захватывает новые территории о_о
Странно, что я вас тут раньше не видел, ха-ха. Кстати, мейби стоит публиковать работы в [NSFW] ветке? Там читателей обычно больше...

Click to shrink...

Да, читателей больше, но это не NSFW работа. Её такой и с натяжкой не назвать. Думаю, что неправильно получится только из-за большей аудитории там создавать тред. Поэтому тут.

 

[no_papr1ka]

Да, читателей больше, но это не NSFW работа. Её такой и с натяжкой не назвать. Думаю, что неправильно получится только из-за большей аудитории там создавать тред. Поэтому тут.

Click to shrink...

Понимаю, хотя многим это все равно не мешает кидать работу в NSFW ветку, хах. Что-же, в любом случае, решение за вами)

 

[Lemor]

There were six bandits in all, counting their chief. If I didn't have qi, that mighty supernatural energy, this situation would look as dumb as it gets: a nine-year-old physically can't beat six grown men. Beating even one would take a miracle, seriously.

But we're talking about a world where, Creator rest my matchstick towers, an ordinary fish can live (granted, in what you might call royal conditions) for almost a thousand years and make a dead-serious attempt to evolve into a dragon. A world where people can bounce off thin air like it's solid ground and perhaps even fly for real. A world that, when you get right down to it, has had more than two outsiders dumped into it, when one should already be plenty, and…

Three, seriously? What if there are more?

…I hope not.

Not to mention the sword in my hands. The old man himself is tiny (which doesn't take anything away from his absurd strength, by the way), and the sword had obviously been made specifically for him, which meant…

Considering my age, it fit me almost perfectly.

And finally, the out-of-body state.

They didn't take me seriously (to be fair, in their place I wouldn't have either). Instead of piling on as a group, only one guy stepped forward. And besides that, for some godforsaken reason, he decided to have a chat with me.

"It would be a shame to cut up that pretty little face," he assured me, smiling like he was about to offer me a lollipop. "Tell me the truth, kid, are you just a little gi—"

"What is it with all of you…" I winced, looking the bandit over like he was mud on my shoes. The sword in my hand seemed to give off a barely perceptible hum, sensing the faster flow of my power. "Just because your ancestors bred with ancient demons of the Underworld doesn't mean everyone's did, you nobody."

The guy never got to finish his monologue. His jaw dropped. Like I'd lose a battle of wits to some uneducated lowlife, ha-ha! And I'm being obscenely polite here.

The rest of the bandits completely lost it. Their nasty laughter filled the whole cave, and the chief even gave me a round of applause. In the background, my little sister let out a long-suffering sigh, while the shady boy with the not-quite-finished scar squinted at me suspiciously, sizing me up and clearly thinking hard about something. That alone set him apart from the rest of the crowd, who were scared to so much as twitch an eyebrow.

The face of the bandit who'd just been publicly humiliated by a child twisted.

"You will regret that…"

He drew his sword and started walking towards me slowly, as if putting on a show.

Go on, do a little dance while you're at it, you half-baked show-off.

Around ten feet from me, he bared his teeth, lunged, and swung down at me. He was clearly stronger than an ordinary person, but nothing impressive—a third-rate master, third-rate through and through. I didn't parry; I dodged instead. Outside my body, my control over it was many times better than usual, which let me squeeze literally everything this little carcass had to give. And in that state, I physically couldn't panic for real, so the dodge was easy. All I had to do was catch the moment.

…even though I think he gave me a little trim. Damn. And here I'd just started feeling proud of myself…

Without wasting a fraction of a second, I answered with a sharp horizontal slash. The startled bandit, running purely on reflex, managed to block, but it didn't help—my sword cut through his steel like I'd decided to slice some butter with it. After his sword went his arm, and after his arm, the rest of him, and that's where my sword got stuck. He let out a wheeze.

Some truly disgusting information came flooding in. Even through the sword, I felt it pass through skin and bone, felt it run into his internal organs—and if I had a little more strength, it would have kept going and cut him clean in half. For some reason, I was reminded of a certain game with some very creative finishing moves…

The body stayed upright for a few more seconds, and my eyes met the eyes of my first victim. Somehow the guy even managed to grab my hand, apparently trying, ahem, to help me pull the sword out. I had no intention of showing mercy; I could feel he was still good for something.

The black heart appeared to be pushing me on, and I had no plans to resist it. Not now.

"This sword is cursed," I said with a conspiratorial smile, looking into the dying bandit's eyes. "Anyone killed with it goes straight to the Underworld. Say hi to your mother for me."

A wave of pure horror, agony, pain, suffering, hatred, and helpless rage washed over me. So many emotions, so many shades and feelings—I nearly drowned in the power. If I hadn't been outside my body, my smile would only have gotten wider. I wanted to laugh out loud and, I think, even dance a little.

I yanked the sword out of the bandit. The body fell.

I pulled it out oh-so-gracefully, so my face and clothes got spattered with blood. Not that it bothered me—it almost felt like my body was soaking that blood up, bit by bit.

And once again, silence fell. The bandits stared in shock at the blood-spattered child with their comrade's body at his feet. Nobody wanted to attack; apparently they were waiting for the chief's orders. The chief himself was in no hurry to do anything, frowning down at the body lying beside me.

"You surprised me," he finally said. "A second-rate martial artist at your age…"

I rolled my eyes. If I didn't start cutting everyone off, these pseudo-dramatic speeches were going to go on forever.

"Well, you didn't surprise me. So what?" I sneered, feeling like a spoiled little rich kid. "No, wait, actually, I am surprised. I'm surprised you can talk at all, you unwashed monkey. Are you going to attack, or do you need a special invitation? Here it is: you have my permission!"

Judging by how round the scarred boy's eyes went, I'd just broken his brain pretty thoroughly.

"I did not know you could be so rude, oppa," my little sister said, sounding delighted.

Even though my heart did catch a slight rush of energy from her, which meant her delight leaned more towards the negative. Oh, please, like I'm supposed to show respect to riffraff like this. Don't make me laugh. Who knows how many people they'd killed and robbed, and what all they'd done to ordinary folks. Showing scum like that even a shred of respect would be an insult to myself.

As for the riffraff themselves, there's not much to say. God knows how many times this damn cave had gone quiet by now, but this time the silence was especially heavy. My little heart was practically bathing in their collective rage, and particularly in the chief's—he had no idea his emotions were making me stronger. I'd already recovered from my first kill. And I get it, really: the chief decides to show me some respect, and gets put in his place on the spot.

What a shame.

…not really.

"You have said enough," the bandit declared icily, apparently switching his CPU to turbo mode. "All of you, attack. Together. NOW!"

Like guard dogs let off the chain, four men ran at me, and this time they weren't going easy on me. They surrounded me, trying to box me in from every side at once. They meant to strike together, leaving me nowhere to jump, but walking into their swords, strangely enough, wasn't part of my plan.

With no other options, I jumped.

Straight up about… um, roughly eight feet, and landed right on one bandit's face, kicking him in the jaw. Then, the moment I was back on solid ground, without giving him a chance to survive, I opened up some distance and slit his throat, thinking for some reason that my wet nurse would have been proud of me.

Believe it or not, the Cloud Sword technique doesn't involve such inelegant moves. It calls for more lightness and a certain honesty, but… I couldn't care less. In a real fight, you use every opening you get. There's no honesty, no honor, no grace of any kind.

Only victory.

Done with number two, I barely managed to dodge a blow to the back and felt a sudden chill: my clothes had been sliced up a little. My ghostly butt cheeks clenched all on their own.

"Oppa, do you need help?"

I ignored my worried spectator and barely dodged yet another attack. Seeing another one of their comrades die, the bastards only pressed harder, yelling something as they tried to corner me like a rat.

"You will not get away!!!"

Oh, yell some more, why don't you.

"Yeah, I won't," I admitted.

I spun around sharply and released the black heart's pure energy from my body. It didn't do them much harm, but it scared them on some gut level and made them hesitate. I took advantage of that, closing the distance dangerously fast, and brought my sword down vertically on one bandit, then slashed his buddy horizontally. The last bandit, not counting the chief, tried to run me through without a moment's hesitation, but, as tends to happen in any life-or-death fight you'd like to win, I had my own thoughts on the matter.

…big thinker, jeez.

Realizing I wouldn't block in time, I did something any master in the sect would have simply strung me up from a tree for: I let go of the sword, dodged the bandit's attack, and then literally threw myself on him and started choking him. He thrashed and wheezed and tried to get me with his sword, but it was no use. Remembering that interesting experience with how the black heart's qi reacts to someone else's power, I started pumping my poisonous energy straight into my victim's body, feeling like some sort of venomous spider.

The black qi got into the bandit and started a real little war inside him.

The sword fell from his hands with a loud clang, and his face started turning blue. Information came in that I was actively tearing my own muscles right now, working them to the breaking point, but I couldn't stop. The black heart in my chest felt my victim's agony and danced with joy, filling me with power and not letting me back down. The throat in my hands kept contracting and pulsing in a weird way, which promised me nightmares once I got back to my normal state.

The bandit's body fell, and I went down with it. Feeling death coming, the guy thrashed especially hard, not yet understanding that it was pointless.

Come on, die already. Come on, come on, come on…

Apparently hearing the silent plea of an innocent child, the bandit decided to have mercy: his body went limp.

The moment the guy breathed his last and I relaxed for literally an instant, the head bastard was right in front of me—the one who'd spent this whole time watching his men get killed. The not-quite-Mongolian's ugly mug loomed over me. And it suddenly hit me: his men were never going to survive this anyway. Apparently somebody wanted the whole carp for himself. He'd just used other people's hands to get rid of an obstacle. And if things had gone the other way, the slaves wouldn't have made a peep: apart from my potential know-it-all, those people were already broken, and even if they'd wanted to, they were unlikely to do anything to a martial artist.

What a bastard…

The asshole, who'd been waiting for a chance to finish me off without any extra risk to himself, raised his sword. Time appeared to slow down. My mind started searching for options, but there was only one conclusion, and it was terrifying: I didn't stand a chance. I mean, none at all. My body barely obeyed me, I had hardly any qi left, and the natural pressure coming off him alone was already making me pretty uncomfortable.

So much for showing off, you pint-sized demonic "master"…

The bandit chief was about to take my head off when the white sword I'd dropped burst out of his chest like something out of Alien (from my angle, at least). Behind the asshole stood my little sister. She'd crept up on him like a silent shadow. Her face showed nothing at all, which was pretty different from how she normally acted.

"Khhaa…"

The bandit's body shuddered, and a bloody stain appeared on his stomach. With a roar, the not-quite-Mongolian whirled around, about to take my little sister down with him, when a new hole appeared in the brute—this time in his side.

And that's how you take down a raid boss!

"Change of plans," the boy with the scar on his face announced firmly. "There won't be any carp!"

"Oh, there will," I objected hoarsely, coughing. "We're going to eat it. Heh-heh-heh!"

The laugh came out a bit too fake, maybe, but whatever.

The brute didn't appreciate the humor. He let out his last wheeze, full of pain and some deep-seated malice, and fell—but not before recharging me with his dying pain and hatred. It was one hell of a power surge. In the background, the former slaves started shouting something in disbelief, but I wasn't listening. I was slowly coming to my senses while seriously debating whether to go back into my body or forget it, since it was going to hurt, and I might throw up once it sank in what I'd just done…

Yeah. When we get home, I'll quietly grab a bucket, lock myself away somewhere, and go back into my body then. No need to ruin the reputation I've worked so hard for. What if people start thinking I'm all edgy on the outside but "warm" and "sensitive" on the inside…

I'd keel over on the spot.

"That was very dangerous, oppa." The girl loomed over me with her arms crossed, like a mother unhappy with her son's behavior. "You should've asked for my help from the beginning."

Not-quite-granny. Through and through…

The boy with the scar, a remarkably weird kid, loomed over me too, studying me. My eyes slid from my little sister to him. I raised an eyebrow pointedly.

"Is there something on my face?"

The boy didn't answer at once. He was seriously mulling something over, even stroking his chin like he was looking for a beard.

…even though perhaps he really was looking for one.

"Blood," the boy answered politely, with a long-suffering sigh. "Sorry, hyung, but do you have any idea what's going on here?"

I made myself give a crooked smirk. I'd just been addressed as someone older, but nowhere near a "sasuk." Not even a "sunbae," mind you. Almost an equal. Well, we weren't in the same sect, so other factors came into play. If he'd been born in this world, he'd already be acting like a proper junior, but the kid had clearly been raised differently. More modern.

"I've got a couple of ideas…" I answered, smiling inwardly.

Judging by the look my little sister was giving me, if she didn't get a reasonable explanation right now, there'd be trouble.

Sigh. Just another day at the office…

 

[readsalot]

I've got a couple of ideas…" I answered, smiling inwardly.

Judging by the look my little sister was giving me, if she didn't get a reasonable explanation right now, there'd be trouble.

Sigh. Just another day at the office…

Click to shrink...

Explanation time woop woop

 

[Lemor]

First things first, we had to deal with the peasants. The people were too scared to scatter anywhere and looked at us like we were some sort of pint-sized celestials, waiting for orders. Our new friend—Hwang Moon-soo (or just "Know-It-All," easier for me, ahem)—was getting looks that suggested the people had a few questions.

The guy who knew way too much cleared that up, setting off an entire chain of reflections and revelations:

"I…" Know-It-All hesitated. "This body didn't belong to me originally."

And this person had just confidently run another human being through with a sword. Sometimes the human psyche produces the kind of thing where it's best to just smile and nod, seriously.

My little sister frowned. Having grown up on local beliefs and legends, she was, to put it mildly, bothered by the whole stealing-someone-else's-body thing. In my case, the body had been mine from the very beginning, but the boy with the scar counted as a kind of invader. And who goes around taking over other people's bodies here? Rhetorical question.

Demons from the Underworld.

"I have long wondered why the Righteous Alliance chose to hide your existence, All-Knowing Savior." That, apparently, was what my little sister privately called the "legend" of her timeline. "Could it be that you are a demon?"

"Huh?" The boy's jaw dropped; he didn't understand a thing. He frowned, straining his memory hard. His brain kept right on breaking. "Noona, I'm certainly not any 'All-Knowing Savior,' and I'm not a demon. Frankly, at first I thought you two were the demons, but now I'm really not so sure…" He was quiet for a second. "I don't remember anything like this in the novel…"

"What?" my little sister and I asked at the same time.

It felt like the last brick had just clicked into place in my head. If I'd actually gone back into my body, God knows how I would've reacted.

Mommy, save me.

"What?" the boy (or whatever I'm supposed to call him?) said, flustered, as if repeating after us on purpose. "I… I don't understand anything anymore. I'm sorry, noona, hyung…"

"Noona" means something like an older girl. Normally, though, it's what you call an older sister.

My little sister rubbed her temples. I scratched my head. I had it a bit easier: I'd understood from the beginning that some Grade-A lunacy was going on around here, but damn…

Damn.

And why do I get the feeling that all this is somehow connected to my extremely weird death? Could something have happened that… how do I put it? That broke several worlds at once, so that in one (or more than one) of the realities, things got all mixed up—my transfer, my little sister's "return to the past," and the arrival of this reader here? Each of those alone is hard enough to take in—and by hard, I mean on the brink of hysterics—but all together… This could be the aftermath of something massive.

But then what was supposed to have happened in this damn universe? I've never been into esoteric stuff, and I'm honestly clueless about all those concepts and ideas, so all I can do is guess, relying on my scraps of knowledge.

…I'd like to find out later, though.

"How about we start by dealing with your former neighbors?" I said, letting my little body sigh wearily, grateful to the universe for the thousandth time that I could step out of my body and ignore irritants. The two of them exchanged yet another look—they'd apparently forgotten about the common folk altogether—and nodded. Smiling, I added, just for Know-It-All: "You'll want to come back to the sect with us, won't you?"

The reader, who clearly knew the "plot" well (I don't doubt for a moment that he's telling the truth), smiled awkwardly. No answer was needed here. None of us appeared to be all that stupid (even though I do have certain doubts when I look at the guy in the mirror). Each of us had our own thoughts, and they boiled down to this: we can't split up, we need to study the unclear object(s), we have to make sure no secrets get out, even by accident, and so on. None of it needed saying; it was obvious. My little sister and I had built up some trust by now, which couldn't be said about the new guy.

We had no intention of escorting the people all the way to their village, but we did need to get out of the thicket where fate had dragged us. So we spent a little more time helping the bewildered people find their way out, and then had to explain why their little one was being confiscated.

"In gratitude for saving their lives, he will become our servant," my little sister answered primly. Despite her height, she looked at the elderly man—the village headman, apparently—like she was the elder here. Which she was, more or less, but kids normally can't carry themselves like that.

"Our Hwang Moon-soo… a servant?" the man asked, puzzled.

You could tell from his face that he had no intention of arguing; he was just clarifying the details. After all, becoming the servant of two young masters who could already stage a massacre at their age was extremely prestigious.

"We are members of the Cloud Sword Sect," the girl announced proudly. "Disciples of an honored elder, headman. You need not doubt that Hwang Moon-soo's fate will change for the better."

"C-Cloud Sword?" the new guy muttered in disbelief, shrinking in on himself strangely.

Heh-heh-heh, looks like he finally got the full picture of where we were dragging him.

"What a relief…" the old man muttered happily, and everyone else broke into smiles too. "Someone is finally taking this lunatic away!"

My little sister and I exchanged baffled looks. Our brand-new "servant" sighed wearily.

We hadn't really had a chance to settle what being a "servant" would involve, but for now it was the simplest way to drag the kid back to the sect with us (on legal grounds, yes). We couldn't exactly make him yet another disciple—our old man already had extra problems over taking in a disciple who'd fallen out of nowhere, and now the disciples were the ones out looking for new disciples? No, that's not how it works, even if the master himself took pity on us. After all, nobody was planning, even in theory, to disrespect our janitor-elder like that (especially not that badly).

On the way back, the kid, worn out by his own thoughts, gave in:

"You said… the Cloud Sword Sect?"

"We will not let it cease to exist," my little sister answered instead.

The kid almost fell over. To my surprise, he laughed. Not hysterically, but genuinely amused—the situation struck him as funny, and I could pretty much see why.

There's nothing left to do but laugh.

"I never asked your names, hyung, noona."

We stopped and exchanged yet another look. Already having a rough idea of how he'd react, I answered:

"My little sister's name is Jeon Yeon-ah. And I'm…" I put a hand on the know-it-all's shoulder, my smile getting even wider. "Ahn Ha-yan."

"…" Our new, ahem, servant fell very eloquently silent, having just attained Zen. "That wasn't in the novel…"

I snorted.

"Your 'novel' can kiss my sword."

"Oppa, the disciple of an honored elder should not talk like that." My little sister frowned.

Hearing me, our brand-new "servant" giggled, a little more hysterically this time.

And here I'd just started to believe…

"The Mad Demon I know would never have answered like that… I believe you, hyung!"

Damn, he pulled himself together way too fast. Well, what else do you expect from someone who quite possibly knows more about the locals' personal lives than they do?

…come to think of it, that's some creepy shit…

I want my wet nurse. Where is she, anyway?

***
​

Catching the carp wasn't exactly hard, but it wasn't exactly easy either. Geniuses that we were, we hadn't thought to bring a net, and the bandits didn't have anything like that either, so I had to dive in with, basically, nothing but my bare ass—only the sword saved me. As the strongest member of the group, I was naturally the one who had to dive. My little sister would finish it off once I threw it onto dry land, and the know-it-all… um, depending on the situation. Let's be honest: so far, apart from pure information, he hadn't been much use. Thanks to qi, I could go much longer without air (and, in general, without everything a human needs), which didn't exactly cheer me up.

I most likely wouldn't have dared to jump into the deep end at all if I couldn't simply ignore my "hesitation." I tossed my bloodstained clothes on the ground—they'd only get in the way—and kept just a loincloth, wrapped boxer-style. In the water itself, by the way, I felt absolutely amazing: my body filled with energy at once, and the fatigue appeared to vanish, along with my qi exhaustion. Need I say that the poor not-quite-dragon's situation was looking extremely grim?

Finding the carp wasn't hard. Sensing an intruder approaching—one who, mind you, had already given the pond a good whack with his energy—the horned fish decided to attack on its own and shot a beam of love at me. Drawing on the pond's constant supply of energy, I literally cut that beam in half with the sword I'd brought along, coating it in black energy. Fortunately, the pond was really small, so I closed the distance quickly, and the fish itself, not yet having the necessary intelligence, apparently figured it stood a better chance up close.

Surprisingly, I couldn't just pierce its scales, but I did manage to slash the carp across the horns and the eyes. After that, it got easier: grab the fish, pump my power into it, then haul it towards dry land. I'm really starting to feel like some venomous creature—inject the venom, then drag the victim off to God knows where and/or kill it, yeah… The fish thrashed, naturally, and managed to burn me in a lot of places with its rays of kindness and flat-out slice me up with its sharp tail, but…

God, I love being able to step out of my body. Sure, you could ignore the pain in some grand, dramatic way, but I'd rather not feel it at all, thanks.

For some reason, I was sure that if we'd come just a couple days later, the little fish would have gotten even bigger. Tough luck for the carp. Tough luck through and through.

Once I'd finally hauled the thrashing future dinner onto dry land, not without help from my little sister and our new "servant," a full-blown thriller began: killing the poor thing turned out to be much harder than it looked at first. I'd never felt like such a sadist—we had to put way too many holes in the little fish, and it held on way too long.

Let's skip that part.

"I feel sorry for the fish…" I muttered wearily, nudging the fish with my foot—it had finally set off on its next journey.

Up in heaven, it's probably telling me to go fuck myself.

"Between a fish that dreams of becoming a dragon and human lives, I will choose human lives, oppa," my little sister answered firmly, looking at the carp without a shred of pity. I'd taken its horns too—I'll probably hang them up in my room. "We need power not only to satisfy our selfish desires, but to save the innocent."

"In Age of Tears…" the kid started, but at the look on our faces, he waved it off. "That was the name of the novel."

"Of course it was," I said with a wince.

"Anyway…" The new guy cleared his throat. "In Age of Tears, the carp was eaten by an unknown demonic master, but his body exploded."

My little sister's face fell.

"Come again?" I said, stepping away from the fish without meaning to.

"Greed." The kid shrugged. "He decided to eat the whole carp at once, and he paid for it, hyung."

"Hold on." I narrowed my eyes as something clicked. "Were you planning to feed this fish to that bandit chief?"

Know-It-All gave a slightly embarrassed smile.

"…I knew the All-Knowing Savior was not so pure, but this is too much…" My little sister had completely lost her faith in humanity.

I went over and patted her head sympathetically. Strangely enough, the not-quite-squirt didn't mind.

We cooked the carp carefully (we had remembered to bring cooking gear, yes), over a low fire. I kept thinking it was about to blow up, but the fish, thankfully, had mercy on us. The carp was way too big, so we split it into portions. We'd thought about cutting it in half and saving part of it, so we would've, so to speak, a reserve and a gift for the master. (Who else would we give something like this to, except my wet nurse, who's God knows where?) But we quickly realized that wasn't going to work.

"The energy's dissipating," I said with a wince. In the out-of-body state, I could feel the power draining out of the carp fast.

I mean, there was still a ton of it, definitely more than enough for us, but by morning nearly all the qi would have "aired out."

"If I had known it would be this big, I would've brought the master…" The not-quite-squirt looked completely crestfallen.

She'd gotten really attached to the old man too. Well, no surprise there—he's one hell of an old man.

While we were cooking, by the way, my little sister and our new "servant" managed to get into an argument. About a lot of "historical" and purely philosophical points, yeah…

For example…

"The head of the Phantom Assassin Sect was a man, not a woman."

"In the novel, the author didn't specify the gender, but there were hints that she's a woman," the kid disagreed.

…somebody's cross-dressing? Sure, sure…

Or this one:

"The Plum Blossom Sect's art is built on the concept of plum blossoms. I am certain I read treatises on it."

"The Plum Blossom art is built on the concept of life itself, not on some plum tree blooming," the know-it-all objected. "One of the sect's masters talks about it in a dialogue in volume five, somewhere on page…"

…wait, did he memorize this novel or something?!

I'd most likely just accidentally witnessed the weirdest argument in the world. I doubt this world had ever seen two people argue over the "plot" of the world they lived in.

Of course, I had some questions of my own:

"My wet nurse," I cut into the argument between the two cheaters. I mean, I knew she was alive, but I wanted to hear about her… alternate fate. "What happened to her?"

"Sorry, hyung… who?" Our brand-new "servant" blinked in confusion.

"The woman who breastfed me in the cult," I explained patiently. "Red hair, pretty sturdy and tall."

The gears in the boy's head started turning hard.

"All I heard was a mention of the Red Storm, one of the five Black Generals. But in the novel that was a ma…" The kid cut himself off and rubbed his temples. "Also a woman?"

…God, do I feel you.

Still outside my body—I hadn't gone back in this whole time—I smiled. In that same ghostly form.

Storm. Red Storm. Black General. Now it makes sense. Yeah, that suits her.

"Yes, I'm talking about… her."

Know-It-All, reeling from yet another discovery, shook his head.

"I think he… uh, she died near the very beginning. Sorry, hyung, but the details of how the Mad De…" The boy stumbled. "How you came to be only got revealed closer to the end. I never got that far. I fell asleep in my own bed and woke up…"

The boy patted his chest.

Of goddamn course.

With some help from my supernatural instincts, we split the finished carp three ways, calculating the amount of qi precisely (okay, fine, I'm getting cocky again—almost precisely). The portions depended on how much each of us could handle. The new guy was the weakest of us, so his portion was the smallest, which was still really cool, mind you—particularly for an ordinary person. In theory, he'd instantly get a reserve of qi to cultivate with and a renewed body, and from there it'd be smooth sailing; he'd definitely develop faster. My little sister had to eat a little more fish, and I got the biggest piece—again, not out of greed, I could just handle more. There was still a whole lot of fish left over that we simply couldn't eat—it would blow us up—and by the next meal it would be almost useless. I'm thinking of dropping it off with those villagers on the way back. Again, there's not much point, since most of the energy will be gone by then, but it'd still be funny if a whole little village suddenly turned into superhumans, even weak ones.

And who knows—perhaps a new clan will pop up.

When we finished our portions, at first nothing happened.

"Normally this is the part where somebody suddenly explodes," I shared my insight, patting my stomach.

The not-quite-squirt and the other not-quite-squirt tactfully said nothing, very politely asking me with their eyes alone to shut my trap.

Fortunately, a couple minutes later, a flow of energy spread through my body from my stomach. Weak at first, then gradually getting stronger. It hit me first, then the same thing started happening to my little sister and our brand-new servant. The girl sat down in a meditation pose and began working her shamanic magic on her power in a direction only she understood. The boy just stood there getting high off his body completely rebuilding itself. Me, I started going through the movements of the Cloud Sword technique.

I did it because the little black heart inside me had started absorbing power way too fast, wanting to stuff itself obscenely full, which wasn't part of my plan. I needed to even out my power at least partially, and to do that, I had to make progress in the Cloud Sword Sect's technique.

For the first thirty minutes or so, I just accumulated qi of the Cloud Sword spectrum, running the energy strictly along one route and channeling the strange golden qi coming from my stomach into that flow. Then, a couple hours later, when my little sister and the new guy started coming to and for some reason ran off to the pond in a hurry, I finally got around to giving that qi a more practical shape. Following my inner instincts and my skill at controlling energy, I began forming a source in my chest, like every third-rate master does. In my case, a "pseudo" one.

Technically speaking, what I was trying to make by giving my power commands and direction couldn't really be called a "source." It was more like a buffer around the black heart that was supposed to become a full part of it, making my power more stable and not quite so "evil." Plus a sort of disguise that would keep people from telling right away what I was—a righteous master or a demonic one—since around here that's easy to tell by the direction of someone's energy. I'd thought about all this for a long time and come to the conclusion that actually creating a full-fledged new qi source was simply pointless and potentially dangerous. Besides, what would I do with two of them afterward?

Develop two sources at once? No, I'd just get stuck that way. Better to have one truly powerful "generator" with a unique energy spectrum, one I could build a whole way of life around in harmony, than be torn between two full-fledged philosophies of existence—one of which, on top of everything, is pretty limited in a lot of ways.

I felt like an artist creating a true masterpiece: something in my chest seemed to bloom, blend, and shimmer. My heart beat loud, so loud, like drums pounding in my ears, and that was with the entire process happening outside my body. The muscles in my body kept contracting, threatening cramps, and my skin turned unpleasantly sticky. I don't know exactly how long I kept performing the technique, but at some point I started adjusting it, little by little, almost involuntarily, to the ever-changing flow of energy. All this happened unconsciously, while consciously (if you could even call the state I was in "conscious") I was just… Let's put it this way:

I was just watching—while controlling the process, obviously—as black and blue mixed together and became blackish-blue. From the outside, it looked really beautiful, if strange in places. The energies appeared to start resonating, and then, reluctantly, to fuse. And the "reluctance," strangely enough, came from the little black heart, but… I was still the one in charge in our complicated relationship.

At some point it was all over, and my body simply collapsed. Only my ghostly form was left standing. Of course, my little sister and the "servant," already clean, ran over at once and started checking on me. Once they'd made sure I was fine, they dragged me to the pond to wash me off.

Had they gotten a little taller? And… I don't know, kind of better-looking?

Some performance enhancer, that fish…

But that wasn't what surprised me most. My perception appeared to have become a little more warped again. I could see some strange threads: some connected my body and my ghostly form, others ran through the bodies of the cheaters, and for some reason I had the feeling that, if I wanted to, I could… how do I put it? Touch them? Pull on them? What, had my schizo fantasy about steering my body like some sort of puppeteer somehow come true?

Well, isn't that just great.

…I most likely should have stayed in my body while forming the buffer and fusing the two energy spectrums…

***
​

"And who is this?" the master asked, puzzled.

"A servant." My little sister lowered her head guiltily.

"Greetings, my lord!" said the servant himself, bowing his head with what even looked like respect.

Our master no longer understood anything at all.

"What did you take?" The old man's frown deepened. "I can feel that your energy flow has become cleaner and better, and…" The little old man scratched his head thoughtfully. "Have you grown a little taller? Little fox…"

"It is all medicine from my grandfather," my little sister said, shrinking and turning red as a lobster, realizing how fake that sounded.

The master let out a long-suffering sigh.

"And what is that?" the old man asked me, pointing at my back.

"Dragon-fish horns," I answered with complete honesty, certain that any lie would be exposed and only make things worse. "Found them in a pond."

"…" Our old man twirled his broom in his hands in a strange way.

In the end, he just looked up at the clouds.

"Master?" I asked politely.

"…" The old man turned his gaze to me, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly, as if listening for something. "The changes in you are the most obvious, Ahn Ha-yan. It is much harder for me to see the demonic qi in you now. I need to think…"

The master had officially crashed.

…and I still had to find a bucket. I can't even imagine how hard it's going to hit me when I go back into my body.

Who would have thought this whole situation would become the first domino in the chain that made us leave the sect and set off on an adventure of our own? Of course, it all happened unexpectedly—for my little sister and the new "servant," and for me too.

But let's take things one at a time.