Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 11 - Lotus Silk
Chapter 11 – Lotus Silk
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Ju-seong, shouting like a madman, charged at the woman. He had no plan, but thrust his fist anyway.
It was a situation where a suspicious woman, disguised as a medical woman, was infiltrating the building where a patient was staying.
Since she was a patient the Divine Physician was treating, he, as his disciple, had a duty to protect her.
In this situation, he could not just stand by and watch. Even if he was still less than third-rate.
The woman instantly changed her expression. At first, she had the face of a surprised medical woman.
But when he finally threw a punch, she seemed to think her cover was blown and immediately let her eyes grow cold, drawing a dagger from her sleeve.
It was a dagger swinging toward Ju-seong’s chest.
She was clearly a martial artist who had properly learned martial arts.
Of course, from the fact that he could follow the dagger with his eyes, her skill itself was third-rate. At best, the tail end of third-rate.
Ju-seong himself, in terms of internal energy and strength, could also be called third-rate.
And above all, he was faster.
-Shwik!
The dagger passed by, slicing through his front lapel. The woman looked puzzled as to how he had dodged.
‘If my eyes can follow the attack, I can handle it.’
He truly believed that.
“Where did you come from, miss?”
He asked politely. A man should know how to show courtesy to a woman.
Of course, the woman did not answer, instead drawing another dagger from her other sleeve.
‘Good heavens, she is a bitch who uses twin daggers?’
A madwoman swinging two daggers around was difficult to treat as a lady. If he showed courtesy, he might get sliced up himself.
-Tatak!
The fake medical woman charged fiercely. In Ju-seong’s short life, he had never had a woman aggressively throw herself at him first, so he felt momentarily embarrassed.
‘My, how forward…’
But he quickly came to his senses and moved his body away.
-Shuk! Shashasak! Suk!
A downward slash with the right hand, a horizontal cut with the left, a diagonal upward slash, another downward slash, and finally a thrust extending the right hand that had been withdrawn.
He counted a total of five attacks.
He watched every movement clearly and dodged his body this way and that.
“Hm?”
Ju-seong let out a confused sound and looked down. In his frantic dodging, his right and left feet had crossed over each other the wrong way.
‘Without knowing footwork, absurd things happen.’
He had succeeded in dodging all the rapid-fire attacks, but without proper footwork, things like this happened.
“Please wait a moment.”
He said as he untangled his crossed legs, barely managing to keep his balance from falling forward.
Naturally, the woman gave him no respite and charged in again.
‘I asked her to wait, how rude.’
The same five attacks as before. On top of that, as a follow-up combination, she crossed the two daggers and drew the character for “Yao” (爻) in one motion.
-Papak!
The ferocity and speed of the technique momentarily exceeded the level of a third-rate martial artist.
‘I cannot dodge this.’
Ju-seong made an instant judgment. He raised his arm and took the woman’s attack.
Sword wounds were left deep in his forearm.
Ju-seong roughly saw through what she had done. A technique of rapidly closing the distance while subtly adjusting her grip on the daggers to extend their reach.
He had no choice but to sacrifice his arm to block it. Of course, he did not just take hits either.
‘After executing her ultimate technique, there is no follow-up move?’
The woman’s attacks had momentarily stopped.
Seizing that gap, he immediately rushed in, closing to within arm’s reach of her. The woman quickly swung her dagger, but he had long since figured out her dagger techniques.
‘Next is the diagonal upward slash.’
He extended his forearm to the path where her wrist would be.
-Deolkeok!
In a fight, there is nothing more thrilling than when your opponent moves exactly as you predicted.
“Ha ha! You do not stray from my expectations!”
When he mocked her, the woman’s face finally twisted and she spat out a word.
“Shut up…”
Normally he would have retorted back and forth, but right now Ju-seong was in a situation where it was uncertain whether he could win even at his best.
Without listening to the end of her words, he spun his body and drove his elbow hard into where her chin would be.
-Bbakak!
With a sound of something going terribly wrong, the woman’s form seemed to crumble.
Only then did Ju-seong start mocking her.
“When you stand before the King of Hell, ask him not to throw you into the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. Since your jaw is smashed, you will not be able to chew anyway.”
But that was not the end. The woman ground her teeth and glared at him viciously.
“You… I will tear you to shreds.”
‘What, she took that hit?’
It was Ju-seong who had grown stronger constantly for nearly two months. Both in physical strength and internal energy.
And he had delivered an elbow strike with the rotational force of his body behind it.
To exaggerate a little, even a large bear would stagger from this attack. Of course, the bear would then tear the impudent human to shreds afterward.
But the woman was not a bear, yet she merely staggered. Ju-seong let out a small sound of admiration and thought.
‘So the body of a martial artist is on a different level from a commoner.’
The woman glared at Ju-seong as if she would kill him. He felt like he should make an excuse somehow.
“Well, I do not know why your jaw was there, miss, but first, let us talk…”
The woman charged ferocely as if to say dialogue was useless.
The exchange continued. Ju-seong, half a martial artist at best, managed to keep the fight going but his stamina was gradually dropping.
Fine wounds like hairline cracks kept increasing on his body, and the woman had also taken a few hits and looked a mess.
In the midst of this, Ju-seong felt the heat rising in his head again. What exactly was this killing intent?
‘It plagues me at all hours and will not leave me be.’
As the killing intent boiled up, his internal energy peaked in his dantian and infused into his kick. It was two or three times stronger than his usual output.
‘What do I care about killing intent right now.’
He surrendered his body to the killing intent and thrust his front leg out in a kick. Seeing his movement, the woman placed her daggers on the predicted path.
But Ju-seong also had a hidden move.
The path of a kick is determined by the knee, ankle, and pelvis.
Therefore, just by twisting one of those three, the form of the kick changes.
This was a technique he had learned while scuffling with street ruffians. He pretended to thrust-kick forward, then instantly twisted his waist.
When the waist twisted, the pelvis also twisted, and accordingly, the knee that had been facing the sky instantly faced the ground.
The attack that had been targeting the lower belly with the ball of the foot was reversed. The two daggers that had been defending that area became meaningless.
His heel targeted the fake medical woman’s chest and bored in like a viper.
-Bbeogeok!
“Ugh!”
When her chest was struck, she could not help but let out a groan. Anyway, given how quiet and secretive she was, she was definitely an assassin. Ju-seong clicked his tongue inwardly and muttered.
‘Just as I thought, she came to assassinate the patient.’
Assassins were those who made killing people their trade. They saw human lives as business currency.
Imagine an assassin who had killed so many that they had mastered murder, walking down the street one day. Everyone around them would look like hunks of meat. How could they not?
It was no good for the people of the world if those who saw people as hunks of meat increased.
In Ju-seong’s view, it was always these types who were the problem.
He quickly rushed in. He grabbed the staggering woman’s collar, tripped her legs and knocked her down. Then he kicked with all his might to break her spine.
“Keueoeoek!”
The assassin let out a dying gasp and vomited blood. She seemed to have suffered internal injuries.
Seeing the enemy’s blood, his throat felt itchy, and Ju-seong felt strange.
He should have been tired from fighting for so long, but his mind sharpened and strength surged up. And before his eyes, he saw a hideous figure writhing on the ground.
As if possessed by something, Ju-seong shouted.
“You are a demon! I must kill you.”
He charged at the demon before his eyes, raining down punches and choking her neck. I will kill you, I will kill you.
Demons had slaughtered his family members and sold the women’s virtue as one-night entertainment.
Only demons weigh human lives on one side of the scale and gold and silver on the other.
Just as Ju-seong was about to finally cut off the creature’s breath.
He felt someone’s large hand grab his head. Naturally, the Flame Crow Six Stage Art circulated through his body.
Hot energy whirled through his body, awakening his senses. Ju-seong let out a dazed exclamation.
“Ah…”
Only now did he feel the pain.
‘Did I lose more blood than I thought?’
His vision blurred and his consciousness faded.
As he collapsed, Ju-seong saw the fiercely rugged face of an old man who could have been the reincarnation of Zhang Fei.
‘Master is here.’
He sighed in slight relief and let go of consciousness.
* * *
When Ju-seong opened his eyes, it was the next day.
“You woke up? How strange, your body recovers faster with each passing day. Even with my treatment, that is remarkably fast.”
He stared blankly at the Divine Physician and asked.
“What happened?”
“You saved the patient’s life, disciple.”
“Ah… So she really was an assassin.”
The Divine Physician nodded.
“She was a member of an assassin sect called the April Pavilion. They also attacked me when I went out to buy herbs.”
“Mere third-rate assassins attacked you, Master?”
“Ten second-rate and five first-rate attacked me, including the Pavilion Master. The April Pavilion has now been exterminated.”
“Ah…”
“Since they directed most of their forces at me, only one third-rate assassin was sent against a patient who was bedridden and helpless.”
“How cruel.”
The Divine Physician nodded.
“Their purpose was probably to kill me and Seo-baek, who were trying to treat her, and then kill her too. Since Seo-baek and I were separated from her, they had no choice but to divide their forces.”
Physician Seo-baek had been out with the Divine Physician.
The Divine Physician had faced five first-rate experts and ten second-rate experts while protecting the commoner Seo-baek.
“If she was the real target, why did they only send one third-rate assassin?”
The Divine Physician stroked his beard and answered.
“Because she would die anyway without Seo-baek and me. They must have also been irritated that we dared to try to save someone they had tried to kill.”
“Who the hell are these people?”
Assassins were not people who moved on their own. They had no beliefs, and their only purpose was money. So there must be others who paid them and sent them.
The Divine Physician did not answer his question specifically and continued.
“You do not need to know. More importantly, it is your martial arts, disciple. How did you fight an assassin without knowing a single move or technique?”
“Ah, that is right. I am pretty good at street fighting.”
“That woman is different from the Blood Sword Sect underlings you faced before. The martial arts of assassin sects are extremely focused on practicality, so they are more powerful at lower levels. You could say hardly any third-rate martial artist could beat her in a fight.”
“Hmm, I scare myself too.”
Ju-seong bragged slightly, and the Divine Physician answered seriously.
“As you should.”
The Divine Physician’s eyes sank deep.
“Always be wary of your own talent. Do not listen to the whispers of killing intent, and advance but do not walk too fast.”
“…Understood.”
* * *
Eight days after the incident. The Divine Physician did not give him any special explanation about the situation at the time, and Ju-seong did not particularly want one either.
After all, this was the business of that woman in the separate building, not his.
Ju-seong was doing physical training in the courtyard of the building where he was staying. There was a wall around it, and since no one would come anyway, he had thrown off his upper garment.
‘The healing formula really is good.’
The healing formula of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art was extremely effective. Of course, he did not know other healing formulas in the martial world, so he could not say for certain.
But if this was normal level, martial artists in today’s martial world would not be dying in such numbers.
While he did not know about internal injuries, external wounds healed remarkably fast. The Flame Crow Art’s healing formula went beyond simply healing wounds to speeding up blood circulation and expelling bad energy.
Thanks to that, Ju-seong was able to get up and continue physical training in just eight days.
He could now endure the horse stance for one hour. After finishing the horse stance training, Ju-seong started doing push-ups in a handstand position.
He was naturally light-bodied and strong, so he was already capable of such movements not long after starting physical training.
‘Master disparaged it as the tricks of a clown doing acrobatics, but.’
What did it matter? His thin body had now become thick and solid.
From childhood, Ju-seong’s muscles grew first even when he ate the same meals as others. But given the state of a street performer’s throat, he had been thin anyway.
But now he was staying at the All-Living Clinic and getting three meals a day.
On top of this nutritional state, there was the Divine Physician’s physical training instruction by someone who knew the human body inside out, plus the excellent healing formula.
All of this combined to produce synergistic effects, allowing Ju-seong to build his body in a short time.
“…Seven, eight, nine…! Keuk!”
His body collapsed at the tenth one. He rolled on the ground, kicking up dust.
The Divine Physician had instructed him to always push himself to the point of failure. Ju-seong was faithfully following that teaching.
Although it meant he had to end up sprawled in an embarrassing posture at the end.
He dusted himself off and stood up, then scooped a ladle of water from the bucket and poured it over his head to wash off the dust.
“Ahh, refreshing.”
It was at that moment.
“Hik!”
A thin gasp of breath stabbed into Ju-seong’s ears. A woman’s voice.
“An assassin!”
He shouted fiercely and turned around.
A woman who looked visibly ill stood there, watching him with startled rabbit eyes.
She stared blankly at Ju-seong for a moment, then hurriedly composed herself and bowed her head.
“This humble woman, Mo Wol-hyang, greets her life’s savior.”
Ju-seong looked at her face, felt slightly dizzy in the head, and lowered his gaze to look at her clothes.
‘Her clothes are really pretty.’
Her palace dress, made entirely of white, had no patterns and was not silk. But it looked expensive at a glance.
Ju-seong would stake his eighteen years of street life on it: those clothes were more expensive than most silk garments.
They fluttered yet did not look cheap and sheer like a courtesan’s robe. There was no brilliant luster, but they were soft and smooth, flowing elegantly along her body.
Ju-seong unwittingly blurted out something pointless.
“What animal’s fur was plucked to make that fabric?”
The woman, who had regained her composure, found the random question amusing and smiled as she answered.
“This humble woman’s clothes were made from lotus silk.”
A woman wearing lotus silk clothing had come to see Ju-seong.