When the Goguryeo envoy’s ship docked at Luoyang, some Goguryeo warriors who had previously visited the Great Tang galloped toward Chang’an on fast horses. Gae Suwen stood before Luoyang City, constantly surveying this magnificent city before his eyes. The Eastern Capital Luoyang—this was the Eastern Capital Luoyang that Goguryeo literati had always longed for. Seeing the towering city walls blocking his view, Gae Suwen followed the crowd and walked into this prosperous city.
Luoyang City was very prosperous. Gae Suwen straightened his silk cap, lifted his leg, and walked into the medical street in front of the Zhengyang Gate. These past days he had inexplicably felt fatigue, and sometimes blood would flow from his nose. This was a sign of poor health. He hadn’t mentioned these things to the principal Goguryeo envoy. Wearing Tang people’s clothes, he entered the city, planning to find a doctor to examine him.
He selected the largest medical clinic and walked in. Seeing many people queuing inside, he quietly joined the line at the back to wait, neither anxious nor agitated. A shop assistant, seeing his distinguished appearance, brought him a cup of water. He picked it up and gently sipped. This water tasted very good—some cooling and heat-relieving medicinal herbs had been added, and there was also a white chrysanthemum inside. After swallowing it, there was a faint bitter taste. Along this journey he had seen countless doctors but none had found the cause. Perhaps here he could get a definite answer.
He couldn’t rush. When people rushed, mistakes happened. Gae Suwen didn’t want the slightest mistake this time. No matter how anxious he felt inside, Gae Suwen still appeared methodical and orderly. He even stood up and gave his seat to an old woman who kept coughing with a miserable expression, and let the old woman go ahead of him in line.
“Young man, the old lady has a chronic ailment. The prescription is ready-made—she just needs to get the medicine. You come over. This old man will examine you first. You don’t look well.” The white-haired doctor saw Gae Suwen’s behavior and was filled with good feelings toward this handsome and courteous young man. Smiling, he had him come before him, felt his pulse, looked at his tongue coating, and used both hands to probe bit by bit along his spine and under his ribs. With each press, he would ask Gae Suwen about his sensations.
There was no sensation in the spinal area, but when the old doctor’s hands pressed under his ribs, a piercing pain nearly made Gae Suwen faint. Seeing the dense beads of fine sweat on his forehead, the old doctor sighed and said to him: “Young man, your kidney yang has suffered severe damage. Fortunately, it’s only on one side. The other side has also been injured, but fortunately not seriously. Otherwise, you wouldn’t live past three months.”
“Old sir, you see clearly. Five months ago, this junior fell into the hands of bandits. He seems to have placed some kind of vicious restriction on this junior’s body. This junior narrowly escaped. Please, old sir, save me.”
“I can see that. To be honest, this old man came from the imperial palace of the previous dynasty. I vaguely heard people mention this kind of restriction. First, silver needles are used to damage your kidney yang, then supplemented with acrid and drying medicinal substances to stimulate your vitality, bit by bit exhausting your life force. It’s an extremely vicious technique. I heard it was lost long ago—why has it reappeared on you? Young man, the person who harmed you is no ordinary person. This old man would very much like to try my prescription on you. Whether it succeeds or not depends on your fortune. Let me tell you one thing first—this will greatly damage your natural lifespan. If properly maintained, this old man might be able to extend your life by ten years.”
Gae Suwen’s eyes immediately reddened. This answer was even worse than the worst result he had imagined. Seeing that the old imperial physician seemed to have more to say, he cupped his hands and said: “Please speak plainly, old sir. This junior already knows the worst result. How much worse can it get?”
“This old man has practiced medicine all my life and have seen countless difficult and complicated cases. Your condition results from human action. Such vicious methods are despised by all. Naturally, this old man will do his utmost. You only received the gold needles but didn’t drink the medicine—this is your only chance at survival. This old man needs to use herbal medicines to force out the stagnant blood on your kidney yang, then prepare a prescription to slowly restore vitality to your kidney yang. This is the only way to save you. Moreover, during this period you must absolutely abstain from women and control your anger for it to be effective. After this old man stabilizes your condition, you can go to Chang’an to seek out Daoist Sun Simiao. Daoist Sun’s medical skills have reached a heavenly realm—perhaps he will have a solution.”
Gae Suwen bowed deeply in gratitude to the old imperial physician and temporarily stayed across from the pharmacy, waiting for the old imperial physician to prepare medicine for him. He also gleaned another piece of information from the old imperial physician’s expression—that he could never have children. Without the old imperial physician saying it, he also knew. These past days he had never experienced those familiar morning impulses of the past.
“Yun Ye, you’ve harmed me terribly. Sun Simiao is in cahoots with you—even if I went to beg him, he wouldn’t treat me. Ten years—I, Yuan Gae Suwen, only have ten years. In this world, there’s no great enterprise that can succeed within ten years. Gao Jianwu grows increasingly muddled daily, and the great ministers in the country are gradually turning away from him. Give me, Yuan Gae Suwen, twenty years, and all of Goguryeo would become a plaything in my palm. Now I only have ten years. Haha, ten years—ten years isn’t even enough for me to arrange my plans to perfection. To die before one’s mission is accomplished—is this talking about me, Yuan Gae Suwen? Yun Ye, are you prepared to be a hero with tears soaking your robes?”
The low voice reverberated in the air, as if coming alive, wanting to penetrate the walls and transmit infinite hatred to Chang’an. Gae Suwen found the darkest corner and crouched down, hugging his arms, letting tears flow down. He was not a god—he still needed to vent the fear he had suppressed for so long…
Compared to Gae Suwen’s sorrow, Takayama Yoko’s days were extremely pleasant. So there were this many variations to seduction—it wasn’t just exposing some flesh that would make men pounce like mad dogs.
Yao Niang could always find her the best teachers according to the price she paid. When a woman with an extremely voluptuous figure but a very terrifying face arrived, Yao Niang asked her for a full ten ingots of gold and guaranteed that if she wasn’t satisfied, she would return double.
This woman who came had crisscrossing wounds all over her face. One eye had no eyelid. Opening her mouth, there was no tongue inside either. Half her nose was missing—just two dark holes.
Yoko almost instantly understood why this woman had become like this. No man would harm an absolutely beautiful woman this way—only a woman would do this. She had also dealt with women this way. Destroying perfect things knife cut by knife cut would produce the greatest pleasure. The Soga family woman’s life was truly tough—after three days of killing, she still hadn’t died. The person was clearly in the large vat in her bedroom. Laughably, to protect this woman, Fujiwara had chopped off the head of a stone-carved fox and reported back that the woman had turned into a stone fox, so he could only chop off the fox head and bring it back to report his mission.
Takayama Yoko didn’t look at the woman before her but instead cast her gaze toward the tall figure outside the door, covering her mouth and secretly laughing. She had made a knife handle from the bones of the Soga family woman and given it to Fujiwara as a gift. She hadn’t expected him to like it so much. Could it be that even a fox spirit’s bones could bewitch people?
That woman sat across from her, removed all of Takayama Yoko’s clothes, and examined her inch by inch, constantly pinching her skin to test its elasticity. It hurt, but Takayama Yoko really liked this feeling. When that woman took a razor to shave her, the cold blade gliding across her skin actually made her entire body tremble—not from fear, but from extreme excitement.
Whose legs could be twisted into that position? Takayama Yoko finally felt pain. No matter whose legs were roughly bent up to their head, it would be very painful, not to mention there were wooden boards strapped to the legs. She felt her leg tendons were about to snap. Takayama Yoko cursed continuously from the pain but wouldn’t allow her maids to help lower her legs. She had long heard of the great reputation of the “Heavenly Demon Dance” but had never truly seen it. It existed in Buddhist country murals—when Buddha achieved enlightenment, there was a large group of seductive heavenly demons dancing around Buddha. The steadfast Buddha overcame the temptation of the heavenly demons and thus achieved enlightenment under the twin sala trees.
Wasn’t there only one who became Buddha? Where did all those many other eminent monks go? The answer was that they were entranced by the “Heavenly Demon Dance” and turned into piles of withered bones. How could she not learn such a good thing? Even if her legs broke, she would learn it.
“I’ll teach you the Heavenly Demon Dance, and you help me kill someone. We’ll be even.” Takayama Yoko looked at the paper the ugly woman placed before her and happily agreed. She was very pleased to be able to test the power of the “Heavenly Demon Dance.”
Medicinal baths, then flower baths. When sleeping, she had to be bound tightly with white silk. The reason was that when Takayama Yoko’s legs were together, there was a large gap. All Japanese women had this—it wasn’t only Takayama Yoko. That woman was very angry, believing that a beautiful woman shouldn’t have such a large gap between her legs. Only those barbarians who frequently rode horses would have bow legs like that. The only way to correct it was to bind them for correction. Every night Takayama Yoko could hear her legs groaning in pain. One day, two days were hard to endure. After three days, she discovered a secret about her body—that she liked being invaded by pain. Moreover, the more it hurt, the more she liked it. So every time that ugly woman taught her new dance movements, she was filled with anticipation.
When the pain was most intense, her consciousness would blur. At such times, a detestable face would always appear before her, mouth open in laughter—mocking laughter: “Shouldn’t we talk about the gold on the ship?”
He definitely saw her chest. At that time she had raised her arm, and through the wide robe sleeve, he should have seen her beautiful chest. A body that could drive Fujiwara and the others crazy wasn’t even worth a shipload of gold?
“What’s mine is mine, and of course, what’s yours is also mine when necessary.” Damn it, this was naked humiliation. I, Takayama Yoko, have never been humiliated before. You, Yun Ye, are the only one. The last woman who humiliated me—I made her bones into a knife handle, and her lover uses it very comfortably. Yun Ye, I wonder if your skull made into a wine cup would also make me shudder? You will be entranced and fall under my “Heavenly Demon Dance.”