Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 108 - I Shall Eat Well, with Gratitude
Chapter 108 – I Shall Eat Well, with Gratitude
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Well, that was quite a spectacle.”
Ju-seong leaped down from the top of the valley.
-Hwik.
A crunching sound of flesh was followed by a stifled groan.
Chun-mong spun around in alarm… Ju-seong was standing atop a warrior’s body.
“Brother?”
“That one was aiming for your side.”
Chun-mong had been guarding near the valley entrance.
A Yunmeng warrior had sensed things going south and tried to dispose of Chun-mong to escape.
“Wait, are you okay falling from that height?”
Zhuge Xian approached with an astonished expression.
Ju-seong dusted himself off and nodded.
“I’m perfectly fine.”
His body, tempered extensively through Samadhi Body Refinement.
In the jianghu, the concept closest to ‘Bone Cleansing and Marrow Washing’ was precisely this Samadhi Body Refinement.
Strictly speaking, Bone Cleansing and Marrow Washing was more legend than fact.
As one trained in certain martial arts, one’s appearance and demeanor often changed according to the art’s nature.
When a martial artist one had seen before had advanced in level and now looked entirely different, laymen would speak of ‘Bone Cleansing and Marrow Washing.’
But Samadhi Body Refinement transformed the body in a comparatively short time, making it a training method that realized the near-legendary concept.
The party swiftly subdued the Yunmeng retainers who had thrown down their weapons and surrendered.
Most had been bound to the Arena Master by debt and coercion, so they were docile.
Of course, surviving after raising a blade against the Zhuge Family in Jingzhou was not going to be easy… but at least the holder of the debt document that had strangled their families was now gone.
But not all of them were docile.
Murong Yeon, who was binding one of the warriors, suddenly stifled a groan.
“Urgh…”
A man who had been kneeling obediently suddenly sprang up and slashed at her throat.
“Yeon!”
Zhuge Xian’s eyes went wide as he rushed over, shouting.
Ju-seong likewise startled and swiftly flew over to subdue the warrior.
-Tak! Dduggeok!
He seized the knife-wielding hand with a grasping technique, then struck the forehead with his palm heel to snap the neck.
“…An Assassination Curtain assassin.”
Ju-seong murmured, looking down at the instantly killed warrior whose neck was twisted backward.
The man bore no trace of battle… clearly he’d hovered at the edges throughout, waiting for a single opportunity.
‘Must be someone with a grudge against the Zhuge Family.’
Even if the Zhuge Family was a righteous faction, they were still a jianghu organization. They must have made enemies here and there, and the Curtain had deployed those with grudges for this mission.
Meanwhile, Zhuge Xian was panicking, face pale, pressing Murong Yeon’s neck.
“Yeon, fortunately you turned your head, so it didn’t cut too deep. Raise your legs and lie down. Hurry!”
His face was utterly rattled, yet his treatment was accurate. When the throat was slashed, blood loss happened extremely fast.
If the internal organs didn’t receive enough blood, it was like dying from the inside out.
Hence, lying down with legs elevated to pool blood in the organs.
Firmly compressing the area just below the wound to stop bleeding was also correct.
The problem was that in his alarm, he was pressing too hard.
“Ssaek… ssaek…”
Murong Yeon was experiencing difficulty breathing, veins standing out on her forehead. In his haste to stop the bleeding, Zhuge Xian had narrowed her windpipe.
‘She’s going to suffocate.’
-Jjak!
Ju-seong strode over and slapped Zhuge Xian’s cheek to make him let go.
“Euk?”
The moment Zhuge Xian’s grip slackened, Ju-seong pushed his hand away and took over the compression.
Pressing just hard enough to block the artery, Murong Yeon finally began to breathe again.
With one hand compressing the carotid, his other hand drew needles from his robes and began inserting them into acupoints.
-Tak! Tak!
The nimble work seemed almost lighthearted, and the bleeding began to slow.
Ju-seong’s eyes deepened.
‘Even if one devotes a lifetime to martial arts…’
A blind knife, a shallow scheme… one could be extinguished this hopelessly.
Song-jin and Song-un stood guard to keep the Yunmeng retainers from making trouble, while Chun-mong was helping Zhuge Xian by propping up Murong Yeon’s legs.
“Chun-mong. Get the sewing kit from my robes.”
With one hand compressing and the other inserting needles, Ju-seong had no hands free.
“Yes, Brother.”
Chun-mong approached and rummaged through Ju-seong’s robes, pulling out a small wooden box.
“Thread the needle.”
Chun-mong threaded the needle, and Ju-seong gripped the tip and heated it until it glowed red.
“Water.”
“Here.”
-Chiik…
Dipping the heated needle in water, a thin wisp of steam rose.
The sterilized needle pierced Murong Yeon’s pale flesh. Beside him, Zhuge Xian flinched.
“Don’t worry. I’m the fellow disciple of the man called Sichuan’s Foremost.”
Ju-seong spoke without even turning his head, and Zhuge Xian’s question came.
“Then, in medical skill, are you about second in Sichuan?”
“Hmm, no. My medical skills are a bit weak. Around thirty-eighth, maybe?”
“…”
“I need to concentrate now, so don’t make me talk.”
Sichuan’s Thirty-Eighth, Ju-seong, refocused on treatment.
No matter how skilled a physician, the closest doctor to a dying patient was the best doctor in the world.
When standing before someone on the brink of death, a physician must carry the confidence of being the greatest in the world, like it or not.
A single tremor, a single hesitation could bring irreversible results.
“…It’s done.”
“Already?”
Zhuge Xian was startled.
“Chun-mong, get me water.”
Ju-seong removed his hand from Murong Yeon’s neck and produced a Blood-Preserving Pill from his robes, handing it to Zhuge Xian.
“Give her this with water. And…”
As Ju-seong was reaching for wound salve and opening his robe’s collar, something white fluttered up.
“What the… you little… !”
A palm-sized moth flapped wildly into the air.
“…What is that?”
“Something I carry around personally… Hey! Get away from the patient!”
As the moth scattered white powder while fluttering above Murong Yeon’s neck, Ju-seong immediately rebuked it.
Whether it understood him or not, the creature flew back up and perched on Ju-seong’s shoulder.
“Ah, this little…”
Ju-seong’s brow furrowed. The white powder the moth had scattered was now messily coating the wound.
He quickly pulled out a clean cloth to wipe it off, but his eyes widened at the strange transformation occurring on the wound.
“What… what is this?”
-Bogeureureu…
White foam bubbled up on the stitched wound, mixing with blood before hardening like a scab and settling over the injury.
-Tok, tok.
A light tap confirmed it was exactly like a scab had formed.
Moreover, warmth radiated from beneath the scab… the wound seemed to be healing rapidly.
“What bizarre sorcery is this?”
Come to think of it, the Heavenly Silkworm Moth’s venom was of a wood nature.
Wood energy was, after all, the energy of growth, recovery, regeneration.
This little white one differed from its mother in many ways, but most notably, it didn’t scatter toxic powder…
‘And now there are pale blue lines on its wings.’
Pale blue lines had appeared on the creature’s upper wings.
It seemed to have grown and awakened a new ability.
‘Finally, the freeloader that just took up space in my robes, wiggling around annoyingly, is a useless pest no more!’
Ju-seong examined Murong Yeon’s wound and spoke.
“The lady is fine. Have a look.”
Realizing that Murong Yeon was only unconscious and that her wound had mostly healed, Zhuge Xian clasped Ju-seong’s hands in both of his and exclaimed.
“Thank you, truly, thank you!”
“It’s good to see you treasure your guard so.”
“Ah… well. A gentleman should know how to treat with heart those who serve him with loyalty, shouldn’t he?”
“Indeed, Master Zhuge Strategist. The wound may be healed, but the blood she lost remains lost, so give her the pill and water I handed you.”
“Ah, understood.”
Zhuge Xian flustered uncharacteristically, trickled water into Murong Yeon’s mouth and crumbled the Blood-Preserving Pill to feed her.
Watching this, Ju-seong happily stroked the moth.
“What a useful, adorable little thing. I shall name you. You’re plump and pure white, so let’s call you White Pig.”
-Flutter flutter!
White Pig vigorously flapped its wings as if displeased.
‘Come to think of it, I don’t hear its voice anymore.’
Perhaps it had outgrown the need for overprotective maternal communication… direct mind-to-mind transmission to the upper dantian was no longer possible.
Its only words had been ‘mama,’ ‘hungry,’ and ‘full’… and now, skipping all intermediate steps, it had cut off communication with its parent.
It felt as though a babbling infant had suddenly become a fifteen-year-old.
‘This mother’s heart is torn apart. Yet I’m proud of you. You did well today.’
As of today, White Pig was Ju-seong’s honorary child.
Whether it was male or female remained unknown.
* * *
After the series of events…
“The Yunmeng retainers… our Zhuge Family will take responsibility for handling them. We must repay the debt of gratitude we owe Young Hero Ju-seong.”
What connection was there between handling the Yunmeng retainers and repaying a debt to Ju-seong?
Puzzled briefly, Ju-seong soon understood.
The Yunmeng warriors kneeling here, bound, had clearly witnessed his moth performing its bizarre magic.
If any of them blabbed about it, Ju-seong would immediately become a target in jianghu.
In essence, Zhuge Xian was offering to handle the dirty work of silencing them on Ju-seong’s behalf.
Ju-seong spoke awkwardly.
“Young Master Zhuge, you needn’t dirty your hands.”
Zhuge Xian cut him off with a shake of his head.
“You know, don’t you? Jianghu is cold. These people raised blades against the Zhuge Family in the first place… they cannot be spared. Leaving their families unharmed is the most I can do as a matter of principle.”
The great sects of jianghu could not afford to respond limply to such matters.
Jianghu was, in the end, a battleground of beasts biting and being bitten. Looking weak and soft among beasts invited being torn apart.
“Well… Let’s set this topic aside for now. It’s time to confirm what we came for.”
Zhuge Xian clapped Ju-seong’s back and walked toward the upturned sword. Song-un walked beside them.
Song-un murmured quietly.
“I didn’t expect Young Hero Ju-seong to have such a hidden skill. Saving a life is dozens of times harder than taking one…”
“Saving a life…”
Ju-seong thought of what had lodged itself in his upper dantian and smirked.
‘Come to think of it, the killing intent isn’t acting up.’
Earlier, when he’d observed his mental landscape, something like a sword had been embedded in his upper dantian.
It seemed to be suppressing his killing intent’s outbursts.
‘Maybe the Sword Mound has the answer.’
Zhuge Xian hesitated before the Sword Mound.
“I’m not sure if it’s safe to just pull this out.”
“Hmm… I don’t see any trace of formations or sinister arts.”
Song-un narrowed his eyes as he examined the rusted sword.
“You can see that?”
“I have good eyes.”
Song-un waved off the question and yanked the sword out.
“Good heavens!”
“Taoist, how can you be so reckless!”
Song-un shrugged and laid the sword down.
“Nothing happened, did it? Let’s dig beneath here.”
A short dig revealed a chest made of pure silver.
The lid was inscribed with a Taoist symbol; around the sides, all manner of wrathful deities from Western cults glared with furrowed brows.
Ju-seong rubbed his palms together, then gripped the lid’s top and spoke.
“Now… this is a fortune, my jianghu friends. Fortune that doesn’t come every day… real, once-in-a-lifetime fortune. I don’t know what’s inside, but let us first thank the gods of heaven and earth, then pay respects to His Majesty the Emperor in far-off Beijing, and to Buddha and Guan Yu and whoever else…”
Ju-seong lifted the lid as he concluded.
“I shall eat well, with gratitude.”