With an expression like she couldn’t believe it, she asked again.
“No, it’s that big a difference? Why?”
Because unless this was a society where a war broke out and all the men got drafted and died, the sex ratio couldn’t break that badly.
No, even if there was a war, it couldn’t break like this.
Even if I thought back to societies that had gone through countless wars historically, the worst situation was the sex ratio tilting to something like 7:3 or 8:2.
Historically, the most extreme case was said to be Paraguay in the 1800s, which was 8:2.
Even that place, where the adult male population was wiped out in the War of the Triple Alliance and they had to allow polygamy for the country to survive.
So a number like 1000:1 was an extreme imbalance that simply couldn’t happen unless the men were practically ruined—no, practically gone.
When that thought hit, a bunch of possibilities naturally flickered through my head.
‘No, even if there’s a war, the children... No, wait, is it possible here because this is the cultivation world?’
But when I thought about it carefully, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t impossible.
The reason a certain percentage of men stays around even during war is because there are old people and children who aren’t subject to conscription.
Age groups that can’t go to battle naturally survive under protection and keep the sex ratio somewhat balanced.
War is violence that requires extreme physical strength.
Old people and kids aren’t any help even if they participate, so you can’t make them take part.
But this was the cultivation world, a completely different world from the lower realm.
Here in the cultivation world, it was a place where only vigorous young and middle-aged adults existed.
There were clearly differences in youthful and elderly appearances, but that was purely a look they chose according to their own tastes and preferences.
Since everyone was a cultivator, it didn’t mean anything about whether you were older or younger.
I’d heard that those who ascended were beings who had surpassed the limits of the body, and that their appearance was nothing more than a transformation according to their aesthetic sense or convenience.
Everyone here was eligible for active conscription.
‘Then did the male ratio drop because the three races are facing off?’
At first, I wondered if the male ratio had dropped because the three races—humans, spirit creatures, and the Demon Tribe—were confronting each other and waging war.
If the fighting was fierce, men would be the ones stepping forward and getting sacrificed more often.
But when I thought a little deeper, that wasn’t an explanation that fit either.
Because this was a world where women had the exact same abilities.
Since there was no essential difference in realm and strength between male cultivators and female cultivators, it wasn’t a place where women could fall back and be protected just because there was a war.
Here, men and women were completely equal—no, they were drafted and driven into battle according to ability.
Since the advantage in power depended not on gender but on an individual’s cultivation and realm, there was no way a woman could stay safe in the rear just because she was a woman.
So what on earth was the reason such an extreme sex-ratio imbalance had formed?
My head got complicated and hypothesis after hypothesis popped up, when the white wolf explained in a cautious voice.
-Wowoo. “That’s only natural because we’re spirit creatures.”
“Natural?”
That it was natural for there to be fewer men.
I couldn’t understand that and tilted my head, and the explanation continued.
-Woeeo. “Yes, Elder. Since you haven’t been gone long from the lower realm, you’ll know this well. Unlike those who are spirit creatures from birth, those of us who became spirit creatures after awakening wisdom later on—before we awakened wisdom, weren’t we tiny creatures that couldn’t even match humans, beings that live by instinct?”
“That’s true.”
As someone who had lived in the lower realm while dealing with countless venomous creatures, I immediately agreed with that.
I hadn’t confirmed it with my own eyes, but I’d heard that most postnatal spirit creatures were originally ordinary animals living lives faithful to instinct, and then over a long span of years, their wisdom awakened and they became spirit creatures.
-Wiuuu. “Yes. For that reason, when they’re tiny creatures, males have a low survival rate, since they’re constantly fighting with females to take food. No matter how strong a male is, if an even stronger male appears and he loses, he gets wounded and dies, or gets hunted by predators.
So among beasts that age steadily and reach the point where their wisdom awakens, males are extremely rare.”
“Ah...”
And the moment I heard the additional explanation, everything became sharply clear. It was the result of nature’s harsh survival law being applied as-is.
-Woeeeo. “And that’s not all. For innate spirit creatures, their numbers are small in the lower realm, so they can’t meet mates, and most of them are female. So after ascension, the difference between males and females can’t help but be severe.”
I nodded on my own.
Right. Innate spirit creatures are rare from the lower realm, so it’s hard for them to meet mates, so there would be many cases where they’re born female in the first place.
Isn’t that true just thinking of the kids in my house?
If you want to carry on your line through parthenogenesis, being female is far more advantageous.
As a male, you can’t give birth and maintain the species.
And postnatal spirit creatures have to live for a very long time for their wisdom to awaken, but for beasts that form packs, males are constantly challenged by young, strong challengers.
Time passes, and they steadily grow weaker, while fresh young males push up and come at them. A male that endures that harsh competition and reaches the point where wisdom awakens can only be an extremely tiny number.
Sure, someone could object and say there are animals that live as a male-female pair for life, but even I thought those would be even harder to become spirit creatures.
If a pair lives together, they give birth every year, and their bodies get worn down from having to find food to feed those offspring, so it would be hard for them to break past the average lifespan.
To awaken wisdom, you need to conserve your body as much as possible and live a long time, but with that kind of life pattern, it would be hard to endure that long span of years.
Now I fully understood the cause of the sex-ratio imbalance happening in the spirit creatures’ land, and at that moment, a chilling thought suddenly stabbed straight through my head.
‘But then... don’t I really need to be careful?’
At first, I thought I should be careful because I was a cultivator with a strong realm and spirit creatures would feel like I was an alpha male, but if males were this rare, it would come with a premium on top of that.
It wouldn’t be strange if a battle to seize a male broke out.
Even thinking back to the comics and novels I’d seen in my pre-previous life where the male-female ratio was reversed, even when it was only around 20:1, weren’t women extremely proactive—sometimes even bold—about not letting a man get away?
If it got serious, there were even cases of kidnapping.
In a society like that, a man was power and a resource.
Something white, but something you could squeeze that was more precious than gold.
Of course, that was a story based on an author’s imagination, but on the level of instinct, it didn’t seem like it would be all that different.
Oran had been running her mouth earlier about how she’d shed her species or whatever, but that wasn’t really such a simple issue.
People say habits you learn at three last until eighty—how could you throw away, all at once, the habits you’d lived by your whole life as a tiny creature following instinct?
So giving birth, eating, and following your reproductive instinct was normal, and also, yin seeking yang and yang seeking yin was the natural principle of heaven and earth.
As my thoughts reached that point, I gave a quick glance at the white wolf and Oran who were talking with me, and both of them met my eyes, then grinned at me with faint smiles at the corners of their mouths.
That smile didn’t look purely innocent and friendly.
Rather, it felt like the shadow of instinct rising up from deep within was creeping out, and my spine felt a little cold.
***
-Wowoo? “The sea?”
“Yes.”
-Wo? “Why?”
“I can’t tell you the details, but for my realm to rise, I need the poison of a special spirit creature.”
-Wowoo. “Then you have to go to the holy capital and get permission from the owner of that territory.”
“Permission?”
-Woeeo. “Yes, there’s a reason for it...”
While talking with the two of them, the topic of my destination came up and I said I wanted to leave for the sea, but it wasn’t such an easy problem.
Just like humans’ territories, spirit creatures were occupying territories, and you had to get permission from the ruler of that territory.
It felt even stricter than humans.
Humans don’t care who passes outside the city, but maybe because they’re beasts, they seemed to manage even who came into their territory.
It seemed like it was because beasts have a strong concept of territory.
Nodding, I said,
“Then I should go to the holy capital. If possible, can I buy a map or talisman that has the route?”
Then the two of them answered with expressions like that was ridiculous.
-Kkkiiing. “You’d take payment and sell it? If you want it, we’ll just give it to you.”
-Kkingkking. “That’s right, Elder. Something like that, this Lady Baek will just give it to you.”
At the words that they’d give it to me for free, I got the feeling it was obvious they were going to put me in their debt and then take it back later with that white thing, so I waved my hands and said,
“How could you do that? I have spirit stones I took from human cultivators on the way here, so I’ll pay.”
-Kkiing. “No, Elder.”
-Kkiingkkiing. “That’s right. How could we to Elder...”
At my words, the two of them practically jumped.
In the end, we went back and forth arguing a few times, but Baek-a changed the subject and told me that wasn’t what mattered.
-Wowoo. “Elder, but that isn’t the important problem.”
“It isn’t the important problem?”
-Wiuuu. “Yes. First of all, if you end up passing through someone’s territory on the way, other females won’t leave you alone, and even if you go straight to the holy capital, the moment you arrive you’ll either be surrounded by countless females or an influential family in the holy capital will approach you.”
Ah, damn.
Just a moment ago I’d thought of it as a gender-reversed world and knew it could be like that, but I hadn’t factored in that reality.
Baek-a was definitely right.
Men were that precious, so if I, a half-human half-beast who had reached a realm, suddenly appeared in the holy capital of the spirit creatures, how could this just end like nothing?
It was obvious female spirit creatures would swarm like clouds.
I have a memory from my pre-previous life, something I heard from a friend.
It rained, and he went to bring an umbrella to his older sister’s all-girls high school, and the entire student body stared out the windows screaming “It’s a boy!” and shrieking.
This was obvious without even seeing it.
That something like that would happen.
‘Do I have a choice? Do I have to pull out my trump card?’
But it wasn’t like there was no method.
Because I had my trump card.
The trump card that made the next emperor—Ji-ryeon’s younger brother—fall head over heels.
Cross-dressing.
Well, right now Cheongwol’s shell was stuck all over my body, but still, if I had my wives and the cross-dressing expert Mirang, it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Then wouldn’t cross-dressing work?”
Before, I’d been reluctant because it felt like my identity was getting shaken.
A manly man wearing a skirt that only girls wore—it was nonsense.
But if it was for the sake of the goal of going and finding spirit creatures and getting what I needed, how big a deal was cross-dressing?
That was what I meant, but Baek-a and Oran looked at each other and put on awkward smiles.
-Kkkiiing. “Ahahaha. Ha...”
-Kkingkking. “Ahahaha.”
At the strange feeling, I tilted my head, and the words came.
-Kkkiing. “Uh, Elder, wouldn’t that only fool humans? Spirit creatures would have a hard time, wouldn’t they?”
“What?”
-Kkkiingkkiing. “Because male scent isn’t something you can easily fool.”
“Male scent?”
Male scent.
Male as in male, scent as in smell.
It meant male smell, and Baek-a looked between my legs and drooled, plop.
It seemed I was even giving off a crazily sexy smell.
‘No, pick one thing!’
A scream burst out from inside me.
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