Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

A force that had existed inside Ji-ryeon for a long time, but that she had never once been able to properly use.

When it met So-ryong’s force, which was its complete opposite, the two began to rapidly surge as if stimulating each other.

Ji-ryeon’s insides heated up, and a pressure as if her dantian were swelling strongly pressed down on her lower abdomen.

And at the final moment, reaching the peak.

The heightened force exploded outward in all directions, centered on her dantian.

Like a flood pouring out as a dam collapsed, it relentlessly swept through her entire body.

Passion that arrived together with rapture.

A pleasure that felt like every cell in her body would melt, and a heat that burned her mind white surged in at the same time.

The moan that leaked from Ji-ryeon’s mouth soon became a scream.

“Ah... Ahhhh.”

Her mind was completely dyed white, and then, in the instant she came to her senses.

Ji-ryeon was standing in front of some lake where lotus flowers were in full bloom.

The lotus flowers blooming across the entire lake gave off a faint fragrance as they gently swayed with the ripples, and the surface of the water, thick with mist, was clear and calm like a mirror.

The air around her was cold and pure, so every time it seeped deep into her lungs, it felt like her body was being purified on its own.

“Where is this...?”

It was an unfamiliar place she had never seen before.

It felt similar to back when she had first entered So-ryong’s mindscape.

A sensation like reality and illusion were mixed together.

She could feel a vitality as if the space itself were alive and breathing.

‘No way... Is this another space inside So-ryong’s mindscape? Just the two of us?’

As that thought came to her, a corner of her chest heated up.

She felt sorry to the others, but the thought of having a space where she could completely monopolize So-ryong made her chest swell just from imagining it.

“Hehe... When your realm rises, a place like this appears? Lying by the lakeside, just So-ryong and me...”

Ji-ryeon was smiling as she imagined it.

And then, all of a sudden, an immense presence came from above the sky, and an absolute voice that was gentle yet shook all of Ji-ryeon’s entire heart and mind rang out.

[All conditioned things are impermanent. This is the law of arising and passing away. When arising and passing away have already ceased, tranquil extinction is bliss.]

A deep resonance, like a temple bell ringing, pierced through her chest and head at the same time.

That voice was soft and compassionate, yet at the same time, oppressive enough to shake Ji-ryeon’s very existence to the root.

A teaching that contained the essence of enlightenment, telling her to cast away attachment and enter nirvana.

Ji-ryeon’s body trembled on its own.

Before that voice, she painfully realized how insignificant and fleeting her own existence was.

Instinctively, she knelt down, pressed her forehead to the ground, and responded.

“A-Amitabha...”

It was not a mindscape space with So-ryong, but this was clearly the Buddha’s voice.

She did not know why, but every cell in her body was acknowledging that fact.

Then, once again, that voice came down from the sky.

[All conditioned things are impermanent. This is the law of arising and passing away. When arising and passing away have already ceased, tranquil extinction is bliss.]

In that instant, a powerful enlightenment flashed through Ji-ryeon’s mind.

The thought that she had to set down the sword she wore at her waist.

Since everything changes and disappears, she had to set down even her attachment to the sword, and her attempt to raise her realm through it.

She liked the sword.

There was no feeling as free and strong as the moment she held a sword.

But if the Buddha was telling her to set it down, what could she do?

Ji-ryeon drew the sword at her waist with trembling hands and carefully set it down on the ground in front of her.

“Amitabha...”

When she set down the sword, her heart felt lighter.

Then, once again, that voice was heard.

[All conditioned things are impermanent. This is the law of arising and passing away. When arising and passing away have already ceased, tranquil extinction is bliss.]

This time, So-ryong’s face rose clearly in her mind.

That warm smile, the arms that had held her, the countless nights they had shared together.

A feeling strongly surged in, telling her to set down all of those memories and recollections, and So-ryong himself.

Ji-ryeon’s eyes widened.

“What!?”

Her startled voice echoed by the lakeside.

[All conditioned things are impermanent. This is the law of arising and passing away. When arising and passing away have already ceased, tranquil extinction is bliss.]

The same voice repeated, and its meaning stabbed her chest even more clearly.

As if it was absurd, Ji-ryeon shouted in a trembling voice.

“N-no... We have not even been married for a year! We still have not even had an heir! You’re telling me to set everything down and enter nirvana...”

It had only been about a year since the wedding.

To be exact, it was even ambiguous to call it a year.

So-ryong had three wives, and those three had to share So-ryong.

It was no exaggeration to say that the time they had actually been together was only four months.

And she was being told to set down So-ryong.

Tears welled up at the corners of Ji-ryeon’s eyes.

Shaking her head, she shouted as if resisting that voice for the first time.

“That’s not possible!”

Her voice echoed and spread across the lakeside.

The lotus flowers trembled slightly, and the mist seemed to slide and move.

Regret over the length of time was a secondary issue.

That it had not been long since the wedding, that they had not yet had an heir.

All of that was only a superficial reason.

So-ryong was Ji-ryeon’s lifesaver, and her everything.

Back then, when her order was rushing toward the crisis of extermination.

Ji-ryeon had already given up on life, trapped in self-reproach that all of that tragedy was her fault.

When she thought of her sisters of the order who would live to suffer humiliation and then die, she could not endure it.

She only wished it would end quickly, that this painful darkness would cover everything forever.

In that pit of despair, he had suddenly appeared.

So-ryong.

In that moment, So-ryong became Ji-ryeon’s faith, her salvation, and the whole world.

The hand he offered, that warm voice, those strong shoulders.

Everything rebuilt Ji-ryeon’s collapsed world.

From then on, every moment Ji-ryeon lived, every breath she took, was for So-ryong.

Holding a sword, building her realm, even smiling, were only things she could do because So-ryong existed.

And she was being told to set down So-ryong, to abandon him. If she had to let go of So-ryong, it would have been better to die instead.

Ji-ryeon clenched her teeth as she knelt.

Tears ran down her cheeks and fell onto a lotus leaf.

The moment the droplets touched, the lotus flower gave off a faint light as it bloomed, then became quiet again.

Her heart was already decided.

She did not need nirvana or anything like that.

Even if the place where So-ryong was was impermanent and fleeting, to her, that side was a paradise a thousand, ten thousand times better.

“No... Absolutely not. I can’t do that.”

Ji-ryeon’s voice grew louder and louder as it shook the lake.

A cry filled with all her love, one that would never bend.

Then, the presence slowly fading away.

At the very end, that being left behind a thought: ‘It seems you are still not ready.’

At the same time, the force inside her body that began to slowly scatter.

The force that had been heightened by So-ryong’s force began to lose strength little by little.

Ji-ryeon could realize it.

That she would probably no longer be able to raise her realm.

It had been written like that when she learned the dual cultivation method.

The first time you perform the dual cultivation method, you can obtain a great realm increase because of the forces remaining in each man’s and woman’s body, but that is only once.

There can be realm increases after that too, but a single great realm increase is only once.

If this time she failed to raise her realm and the heightened force scattered, then to enter the next realm she would have to gather force again, but that was a difficult thing.

And even if she gathered force, if she was asked the same question, Ji-ryeon’s answer would be the same.

“Well, it can’t be helped...”

Helping So-ryong with martial arts was probably the limit of what she could do.

She felt sorry, but she was just °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° about to resolve that she would leave that role to the other wives, and that she would do her best by giving birth to a child and raising the child with devotion.

It was at that moment.

Even after that being disappeared, the space that had barely moved began to ripple like waves and slowly started to change.

Ji-ryeon had clearly been standing by the lakeside.

A clear lake full of white lotus flowers, the place where a faint fragrance seeped in between lotus leaves.

But the surrounding scenery shook like waves, and in an instant, it changed into a completely different place.

The changed place was a gentle hill.

Below the hill, trees packed densely stretched out endlessly, and every single one of those trees was in full bloom.

The sight of pink petals fluttering down in the wind felt like a dream.

“Peach blossoms?”

Ji-ryeon muttered without realizing it.

The flowers in full bloom on the trees were unmistakably peach blossoms.

The way the pink petals sparkled in the sunlight was so beautiful that Ji-ryeon stared at the sight, dazed.

The flower scent gently tickled the tip of her nose, and every time the wind blew, a rain of petals poured down and dyed the hill.

That was when it happened.

All of a sudden, three voices rang out from the sky at the same time.

[Telling a child who has not even been married for long to throw away her husband. Right now is when things are at their best, so what kind of nonsense is that. Telling a child who has only just gotten a taste to live in chastity.]

[That’s what I’m saying. Trying to turn a perfectly fine child into a monk.]

[This child?]

There were three voices.

Each one rang out differently, yet they strangely harmonized, a sound that made her heart flutter just from hearing it.

Startled, Ji-ryeon tried to look up toward where the voices were coming from.

At that moment, urgent, aching shouts burst out at the same time.

[Hey, no!]

[Child, stop.]

The warning reached her ears, but it was already too late.

Ji-ryeon’s vision brushed against someone’s toes, and in that instant the world turned white and her consciousness drifted far away.

A feeling like all the force in her body was being drained in an instant.

A fear that she was about to scatter to pieces and return to nothingness squeezed her chest.

“Huhk. Huhk.”

Ji-ryeon gathered herself, gasping for breath.

Sweat poured down like rain, and her legs trembled.

The fact that she had just almost completely vanished hit her to the bone.

When she shook her head hard and pulled herself together, those soft, warm voices were heard again.

[Your realm is still low, so if you face us directly, you can vanish. So don’t look at us directly. We are not bad beings, so don’t worry.]

[That’s right, child, don’t worry.]

[That was close, sisters.]

While Ji-ryeon lay facedown on the ground, struggling to steady herself, the three voices continued.

[We came because we felt sorry for you. You are in a state where you’ve entered the wrong path, you know?]

[That’s right, child. You were born riding the force of the Heavenly Yin Yao-Bone Physique, a body born with outstanding sensual charm and yin energy. But a child like that learned the force of Buddhism...]

But at the words Heavenly Yin Yao-Bone Physique in the middle of the explanation, Ji-ryeon’s eyes went round.

It seemed like one of those special physiques—like the Heavenly Martial Physique—but why did this one feel so obscene?

Ji-ryeon asked with a shocked expression.

“T-the Heavenly Yin Yao-Bone Physique?”

[That’s right. You must have felt it too. At a relatively young age, didn’t you open your eyes early to matters between men and women, and when you came into contact with a man, you started acting as if something about you had changed?]

“Y-yes!”

Yes.

It was exactly as they said.

At a relatively young age, she opened her eyes to matters between men and women, and the moment she came into contact with So-ryong, she changed as if she had become a different person.

Sometimes, she would even think that maybe some lecher had gotten into her head, and she could only think about that.

[While you were in the Lower Realm, you learned the force of Buddhism and suppressed that sensual charm so it wasn’t a big problem, but usually, a child like you has a fate of leading a country to ruin from within the folds of a skirt.]

Even more shocked by what she heard next.

The three of them made a proposal.

[So, that’s why. Your body is the best body to inherit our Dao techniques and Dao power, so we’re proposing it. From now on, instead of the Buddha, won’t you serve us?]

[Child, serve us. We won’t make demands like the Buddha does, telling you to live in chastity.]

[What is chastity? We can let you do what you want most, the very best.]

A proposal from the three of them, telling her to abandon Buddhism and serve them.

At their words, Ji-ryeon cautiously asked.

“W-who are you three?”

They did not seem like bad beings, and they said they could let her do what she wanted most, the very best, so it was tempting, but shouldn’t she at least know who they were?

That was why she asked, and then she heard an answer that startled her.

[Ah, right, we didn’t introduce ourselves.]

[Goodness, goodness. It’s been hundreds of years since we found a child we like.]

[We really...]

[We are called the Plain Maiden, the Dark Maiden, and the Rainbow Maiden.]

The Plain Maiden, the Dark Maiden, the Rainbow Maiden.

In the bedchamber arts manual Classic of the Plain Maiden, three women are recorded, and those were the Plain Maiden, the Dark Maiden, and the Rainbow Maiden.

They were legendary beings said to have taught the ancient emperor bedchamber arts.

“What!?”