NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Prologue
Beijing.
The capital of the empire that governs the Central Martial World.
The center of the world where the emperor, blessed by the Heavenly Mandate, resides.
There was the Forbidden City.
A violet-colored forbidden palace.
The great palace, which is one step short of the heavenly palace, consists of 9,999 rooms.
Surrounded by nine layers of gates, it was called the inner palace.
In the deepest part of there, a secret ceremony was beginning at the altar that had been set up.
Rising smoke from the offerings and incense placed on the floor and arranged in formation, towering high toward the sky.
Surrounding the altar, the Sulsa (shamans) looked up nervously at the old man dressed as a eunuch lying on the altar.
The eunuch on the altar.
He was none other than the true ruler of the Ming Empire, the puppet master behind the emperor, Lee Cheol-soo, the grand court eunuch, as well as the head of the Dongchang and Seochang, presiding over the 24 eunuch organizations and monopolizing the power of the court held by the faction, Yeomdang.
“Lord Yang, it’s ready!” the head Sulsa announced to Lee Cheol-soo.
“Then let’s proceed immediately,” a thin voice, characteristic of eunuchs, escaped from his lips.
Wriggle.
The Sulsa’s eyebrows trembled.
Grand court eunuch Lee Cheol-soo.
The most skilled in the imperial palace, the closest aide to the emperor since she was a princess, and also the worst traitor in the history of the Ming Empire.
Obscuring the emperor’s vision, he systematically eliminated all the officials from the Donglim party and grasped power more potent than the emperor, managing to privatize the Ming Empire.
The actual ruler of the Ming Empire was right in front of him.
Hearing the title of the Grand Court Eunuch, conferred with all the royal privileges in front of the emperor, granted the Nine Items of Nobility, and revered by the emperor without the need to hurry during official visits, he became exempt from naming when visiting the emperor, and even was allowed to sit and use a cane without having to stand during audiences—he was a nobleman, granted amnesty for all crimes except treason.
He received the highest treatment one could get as a minister.
His power was overwhelming enough to hold a private ceremony for personal gain right inside the Forbidden City where the emperor resided.
The Sulsa hated him, a eunuch, but they had no choice but to obey, overwhelmed by his power and the wealth he offered while reigning over the emperor.
“I understand, Your Excellency,” the Sulsa bowed his head, concealing his true feelings.
How many ministers had lost their heads for angering this old eunuch?
He did not wish to turn into a ghost today.
Just then, the emperor entered, dressed in a flowing yellow silk robe.
“Why are you leaving?” she cried softly, taking the hand of the eunuch lying on the altar.
“It’s the Hwangsang…,” Lee Cheol-soo whispered.
“What on earth could the cloud and rain pleasure (sexual pleasure) be! Why would you want to leave this world behind? Even doing this mysterious ritual! Sniffle.”
Tears streamed down the emperor’s face.
For her, Lee Cheol-soo was no ordinary eunuch.
As the third princess born to a concubine, she had been so far from the throne that her father paid her no attention, and neither did her mother.
Only he.
Lee Cheol-soo, her closest aide, had always cared for her wholeheartedly.
Although he was a barbarian from Joseon with a slave background, he was her family, her teacher, and her everything, someone she couldn’t put into words with the terms ‘parent’ or ‘love.’
For him, she would do anything.
So, she had killed off the ministers who advised her to abandon this old man, and sent those who petitioned to distance him into exile.
She secretly removed threats to his position without him ever knowing.
She had never married.
To her, one person was more than enough for family.
She had granted him privileges even more splendid than the emperor’s court, the honor of wearing a sword to the grand court, exemptions from standing during visits, and the ability to skip naming while visiting—all for Lee Cheol-soo.
She didn’t regret it at all.
But now, he was being tempted by the mysterious superstition of the Rebirth Great Method, leaving everything behind and seeking to be reborn in a new body with the memories of his past life.
The emperor couldn’t bear to see it.
The one who was everything to her, who possessed all worldly riches and power, was willing to throw away his life for cloud and rain pleasures, for mere base pleasures.
It was unacceptable.
She couldn’t let him, akin to a father figure, leave before her.
“Is that cloud and rain pleasure so precious? What could you possibly be lacking? Wealth? Power? I will give you more! Noya, please, cancel the ceremony! Sobbing!”
The emperor held Lee Cheol-soo’s hand tightly while crying.
Tears fell from her beautiful eyes.
*
In the midst of her sobbing, I could hear her voice in my ears.
The words he had said rang in my head.
Cloud and rain pleasure.
It means sex in four Chinese characters.
In short, the emperor was asking if sex meant so much to me that I’d be willing to throw away my life for it.
Grrr!
I felt anger boiling inside me.
‘Is cloud and rain pleasure that important?’
Yes.
It was important.
Fifty years ago.
I was hit by a damned reincarnation truck crossing the street.
Typically, if you got hit by a truck, you’d end up in a fantasy isekai, but I had landed in the Central Martial World straight out of a martial arts novel.
To make things worse, I not only fell into an unfamiliar realm but also regressed from the age of 28 to a youthful 12.
But this Central Martial World was too perilous for a modern Korean to survive, and I eventually ended up getting kidnapped by a lousy slave trader, castrated, and sold as a eunuch to the imperial palace.
That’s right.
I had become a eunuch in the martial world.
I had never even had the chance to experience sex, and now I was a eunuch!
Damn!
Becoming a eunuch like those I’d only heard about in historical dramas was infuriating, but my little friends were already cut off.
To top it off, the imperial palace, where I had been sold, was rife with political machinations and power struggles.
It wasn’t a place where a modern Korean named Lee Cheol-soo could easily survive.
But I had to survive.
This wasn’t the real Ming history; it was the Ming of the Central Martial World, a place where martial arts truly existed.
Perhaps there was a miraculous healer somewhere who could restore what had been taken from me.
If so, I could get my little friends back, right?
But to invite such a healer, I needed power.
Just being the nurturing eunuch for the third princess wouldn’t cut it.
So I decided to make the third princess the emperor, ascend to the position of the head eunuch of the Dongchang, and after that, finally became the puppet master controlling the empire.
All to restore what I had lost and experience the cloud and rain pleasure.
Having grasped power, I secretly summoned a renowned healer in the martial world.
But the results were despairing.
I could still vividly recall what the healer had told me that day.
“Lord Yang, it’s impossible to create something out of nothing.”
Indeed.
Even the healer who could restore broken vital points and treat meridian issues couldn’t bring back my removed little friends.
The healer might have lied, so I invited renowned doctors from across the land to ask the same question.
Yet, their answers were the same. Even in a world where martial arts were real, it was impossible to create what’s missing.
To escape the plight of being a eunuch, dying and being reborn in a new body seemed the quicker route.
So, I made that decision.
Ultimately, I resorted to summoning shamans from the Eastern Faction and wizards from the Blood Sect to prepare for legendary forbidden magic, the Rebirth Great Method.
Rebirth Great Method.
It was a technique to transfer the subject’s soul into another’s body, resurrecting them anew.
As a forbidden technique, the success rate of the method was below 1%, with a 99% chance of simply dying, but that didn’t bother me.
After all, it was all for the sake of sexual pleasures and restoration of my little friends.
Even a mountain of treasure the emperor had given me and immense power meant nothing without my little friends.
At one point, I thought maybe transformation of flesh and bone could lead to them regrowing, so I went deep into training.
Through rigorous martial arts training aimed at restoring my lost little friends, I succeeded in transformation of flesh and bone, earning the title as the greatest in the imperial palace and becoming a nameless master.
But even after transformation, my lost little friends did not grow back.
Damn it!
What good was it to have wealth, power, and martial prowess?
When you’re a eunuch.
Cloud and rain pleasure! Three Storey Tea House!
Not just any cloud and rain pleasure, but with breathtaking beauties!
If not that, I wouldn’t be satisfied!
If it wasn’t for cloud and rain pleasure, I would rather die!
That was my mindset as I prepared the Rebirth Great Method, and today had finally come.
Yet this damn emperor asked if the cloud and rain pleasure was so precious?
My insides were boiling.
“Hwangsang… I have already made up my mind. Please forgive me for this disloyalty of leaving before I could serve you one last time.”
Should have understood by now.
Having heard my words, the emperor sobbed and wailed.
“This eunuch! Ugh, ugh…”
She broke down, eventually fainting.
I immediately gestured to the palace maids nearby.
“Get the emperor!”
“Yes, Lord Yang,” the maids replied, taking the fainted emperor away.
I felt strangely bittersweet.
I had secured the emperor’s position with my power, but after spending over forty years together, emotional bonds had undoubtedly formed.
She truly felt like family to me now.
Having mastered martial arts, she appeared to be in her early twenties.
Honestly, I felt a bit swayed when she cried earlier.
But still, that was still not an option.
Perhaps if it had been another woman, but with the emperor, she felt more like family.
I steadied my heart, gazing down at my still-numb, castrated lower half.
Yeah, honestly, living like this is worse than death.
“Execute the method.”
A voice I didn’t even want to hear escaped my lips.
“Understood, Your Excellency.”
The Sulsa bowed, then began to chant an incantation.
Flash!
At that moment, energy surged from the inscriptions and items carved into the ground.
Flash!
A flash erupted before my eyes, and I lost consciousness.
*
My head hurt.
“…Maya?”
I heard someone’s voice nearby.
Did it work?
A pounding headache consumed me.
Rubbing my temples, I opened my eyes.
“Kid. Are you awake?”
My hazy vision gradually sharpened.
What came into view was a road lined by a lush forest.
And a rotund, jolly middle-aged merchant with a backpack on his back.
Wait, a middle-aged merchant?
“I found you collapsed by the roadside. Are you alright?”
The merchant smiled kindly.
My hand trembled as I recognized his face.
I couldn’t tell yet if the method worked or failed.
But that damn middle-aged merchant’s face, I remembered it vividly even after 50 years.
His phony smile and the damn lines he used to say still echoed in my memory.
Because he was the one who had picked me up, castrated me, and sold me as a eunuch to the palace!
I had promised to kill him first when I seized power! Sadly, by the time I eventually found him, he had already been stabbed by bandits and departed for hell, leaving me bereft of revenge.
But he’s alive now?
If that’s the case, did I just regress to a time reminiscent of a novel?
“Kid?”
Tap, tap.
He patted my cheeks.
Without saying a word, I slid my hand down to check my lower half.
“…!”
There it was.
My little friends, which had been absent for 50 years, were now intact and in full swing!
I am back! No longer a eunuch!
But I couldn’t fully revel in my return to being a man.
My head was going cold.
What I thought was the Rebirth Great Method sent me back to the beginning of my fall to the martial world.
This damn middle-aged merchant, Wang Sam (왕삼), was the proof of that.
I didn’t understand why it felt like regression instead of rebirth, but it didn’t matter.
I wouldn’t live as a eunuch anymore!
To do that, I first had to deal with that treacherous enemy who had sold me into the palace!
A body of a mere child, devoid of martial arts.
But Wang Sam was just an ordinary person, too.
That meant it would be simple to subdue the man who would let his guard down thinking I was just a child.
“Hey, mister…”
I displayed the innocent expressions I had honed over decades in the palace.
In a truly innocent voice, I called out to him.
“Yeah? What’s wrong?”
“My hand… it’s tingling…”
“Your hand? Let me see.”
With a fake smile, he grabbed my wrist.
A man, my enemy, had a firm hold on me.
But this was all according to plan.
In an instant, I twisted Wang Sam’s wrist, embracing the Golden Restricted Position Technique.
“Cough?!”
His face contorted, but it was already too late.
Though I lacked martial arts, the training that earned me the title of the greatest in the imperial palace lasted.
As soon as I had him held in that position, I jumped onto his back and choked him.
“Cough! Why, why are you doing this…”
“Die! Die you bastard! You filthy slave trader who turned a perfectly good person into a eunuch! Let your pathetic self die!!”
I spat out curses while tightening my grip around his neck.
Cough, gasp!
His eyes rolled back.
He tried to pry my arms off him with his hands, but I clung on desperately, choking him harder.
Grrr…
The strength drained from his body.
His head hung low.
He was dead.
“Phew.”
I exhaled, finally releasing my grip.
Thud.
His corpse fell to the ground.
Ptoo.
I spat on his body.
The trash who had castrated an innocent child and sold him to the palace.
May he rot in hell.
Tap, tap.
I brushed off my hands, took a deep breath, and stood, checking my pants again.
What lay before me was what I could never have seen in my past life—a robust male organ nestled between my legs.
The adult film scenes I had envisioned before falling into the martial world flashed in my mind.
The moment I pictured a beautiful woman’s bare body.
Youth surged through my childlike body in response to the thoughts.
Stiff!
My manhood shot up with joy, piercing through my pants.
“I’m back!!!”
I screamed in exuberance in the middle of the road.
Man, Lee Cheol-soo.
After 50 years of living as a eunuch, I had regained my manhood through regression!
Tears flowed from my eyes.
All the scorn and suffering I endured over the past 50 years played in a rapid panorama in my mind.
Because I was a eunuch, a palace eunuch, I had endured mockery from everyone around.
Despite possessing greater power and wealth than even the emperor, I had been incapable of doing anything, and the ministers’ laughter at my name echoed in my mind.
In my past life, I was incapable of intimacy.
But not anymore.
“Now… I will live for sex!!”
I clenched my fist and shouted to the heavens.
My life was just beginning.