Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 119 - The First Wave
Chapter 119 – The First Wave
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Bai Li moved into the Changchun Inn where Ju-seong was staying and settled in.
“You’ll come watch my team battle, won’t you?”
“I plan to watch every match. As an Ascending Dragon Assembly participant, that’s just proper.”
“Is that so?”
Ju-seong nodded in understanding.
“Among those people might be someone who ends up facing me in the main competition… how can I not watch their matches?”
“But with your skill, Young Hero… you can surely beat all the team battle participants.”
“Hmm, that would be arrogance.”
“So you’re coming anyway?”
“I am. Best of luck.”
The next day, Ju-seong and Red Beggar sat in the spectator stands to watch Bai Li’s team battle.
“Oh, she fights pretty well.”
Bai Li had grown considerably as a martial artist. Her swordsmanship wasn’t a standout top-tier art, but with steady training it could display respectable power.
Red Beggar added, chin propped in his hand.
“Her beautiful appearance is also a big advantage.”
He was right. In this team battle too, the Jiangnan Coalition warriors banded together to hunt down other participants… but Bai Li was spared despite having no allies.
The Ascending Dragon Assembly was a gateway for young martial artists to make a name and build recognition.
In other words, it was a tournament where one first introduced oneself to jianghu.
Group attacks were common enough in team battles and even considered part of the fun, so they weren’t grounds for criticism.
But what if that group attacked a lone beautiful woman?
It might feel unfair, but booing would be unavoidable. After all, most of the spectators were men.
Of course, that didn’t mean she lacked skill and only got by on looks.
“She’s definitely got ability. I thought she wasn’t particularly passionate about martial arts outside of blacksmithing…”
She’d even said she came all the way to Southern Zhili just to see the legendary metal Myriad-Year Cold Iron.
How had she heard about the Ascending Dragon Assembly’s prize from as far as Yunnan?
‘Probably from Chinese tea merchants passing through.’
She must have entrusted herself to an escort convoy to travel here. Sneaking off alone so as not to burden her village folk.
‘She has a fox-like face, but she thinks like a stubborn bear.’
While Ju-seong was lost in thought… match over.
-Deng, deng, deeeeng.
The gong rang three times, and standing on the Blue Stage were three Jiangnan Coalition warriors, one lucky survivor from Shaanxi, and Bai Li.
Red Beggar yawned widely and said.
“Honestly, it wasn’t fun to watch. Agree?”
“…Still, we have to watch. Need to see who these guys are.”
From a martial artist’s perspective, there was little to see.
Honestly, including Bai Li, the skill levels were run-of-the-mill, and the match’s progression itself was dull.
Yet fairly loud cheers erupted from the crowd… obviously due to Bai Li’s striking looks.
Her fox-like eyes and somehow enchanting features truly fit the word ‘seductive beauty.’
‘In terms of looks alone, Lady Wol-hyang has the edge, though.’
Ju-seong murmured internally, watching Bai Li descend from the Blue Stage amid fervent cheers.
‘By the way, Myriad-Year Cold Iron, huh…’
In truth, Ju-seong was also quite reckless. He’d entered the Ascending Dragon Assembly without even properly researching the prizes.
First place received Myriad-Year Cold Iron.
Second place got to choose any martial art from the third floor or below in the Martial Alliance’s Grand Library.
Third place could pick any item rated C-class or below from the Alliance’s treasure vault.
Fourth through eighth place received only monetary prizes with no additional rewards.
The ‘third floor or below’ and ‘C-class or below’ restrictions might seem stingy, but they were actually tremendous rewards.
The Grand Library had four floors. On the top floor slumbered peerless secret manuals that could unleash a blood storm across jianghu.
Even the third floor was packed with highly useful top-tier martial arts.
The vault was equally impressive.
When Ju-seong first heard about this, he’d scoffed. Just C-class?
Then Red Beggar had retorted incredulously.
[Elder Brother, a representative treasure in the C-class section is Shaolin’s Great Restoration Pill.]
Great Restoration Pill.
Even if your head was chopped off, if a friend nearby blew on it, put it back on, and fed you a Great Restoration Pill… you might survive.
Anyway, second and third place prizes were already amazing… so the first-place prize of Myriad-Year Cold Iron was beyond words.
Ju-seong already owned one item made of Cold Iron.
The long needles his master, the Divine Physician, had given him.
Originally crafted for medical use, Ju-seong used them as hidden weapons.
But Myriad-Year Cold Iron was a tier above regular Cold Iron.
Whether it truly had absorbed ten thousand years of northern cold was unknown, but it was invariably mentioned as a material for divine weapons.
While Ju-seong mused, he felt someone’s gaze from across the spectator stands.
He turned and saw Cho Yu-gyeong standing with arms crossed, staring at him.
Ju-seong immediately raised his arm like a street thug and silently mouthed curses.
‘Hwak! You bastard. What the hell are you staring at? Eyes down!’
Cho Yu-gyeong shook his head at the sheer crudeness and looked away.
As Ju-seong basked in the sense of victory, someone slid up beside Red Beggar and plopped down.
“Heh, bro. Mind if I sit here? It’s getting chilly.”
Red Beggar narrowed his eyes and snarled.
“Aren’t you the weasel bastard? Get lost.”
“Aw, why so hostile? Did I do something terrible to you?”
It was the weasel-like man who had stood out in Red Beggar’s team battle. Like Ju-seong, he mainly used fist and leg techniques.
He’d been injured by Red Beggar’s attack and nearly eliminated by a group attack before Red Beggar saved him.
But his fighting style was sly and sneaky, so Red Beggar disliked him.
The weasel grinned shamelessly and sat down beside them.
Ju-seong didn’t think badly of him, so he casually tossed a cupped-fist salute.
“I’m Ju-seong, and this is Red Beggar. Shall we introduce ourselves?”
“Heh… The names Mad Dragon and Gallant Beggar are shaking all of Anqing. Just call me Fat Fist.”
Red Beggar clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
“A man who won’t even give his real name…”
“This bastard, stop harassing him. He’s the reason you got the fame with that ‘Gallant Beggar’ crap. Besides, you know there are wanderers out there with no name… just a couple characters as an alias.”
“Heh. It’s fine. I did act annoyingly.”
“By the way, that’s an unusual alias. Fat Fist… not Flying Fist, but Fat Fist… as in plump fist?”
For a moment, the thought ‘Is this guy a Night Guest?’ crossed his mind… it was that strange an alias.
“Heh heh, my hands are shaped like this, see.”
Fat Fist was scrawny and slight overall, but in stark contrast, his wrists and fists were thick and massive.
His fingers were so thick it seemed he’d never properly learn delicate techniques like Control-Grasp.
Red Beggar must have seen them during the match because he didn’t seem too surprised. But he kept sneaking glances as if still fascinated.
It was a deformity that must have drawn plenty of ridicule… but Ju-seong nodded seriously.
“Red Beggar, his fighting style is different from yours… no need to push him away. Look… those are the hands of a fist-fighter, aren’t they?”
Every knuckle bore thick, greyish-white calluses from hundreds of abrasions.
Even if you cut them with a knife, not a drop of blood would seep out… only flakes of kerite built up from arduous training would crumble away.
Only then did Red Beggar cough softly and toss out his name.
“Ahem, ahem. Red Beggar.”
“Heh heh… Sorry for acting like a nuisance. I just wanted to lure you out and beat you.”
Fat Fist’s honest apology eased Red Beggar’s expression considerably.
In jianghu, it doesn’t take long for three young men to become friends. After the matches ended, they hung out together, shared a meal, and threw a drinking party.
At the Changchun Inn where Ju-seong was staying, yet another mysterious fist-artist was now lodging.
* * *
A pitch-black night with even the moon hidden.
Cho Yu-gyeong’s eyes gleamed with red light.
“So it was you. Watching me and dispatching those assassins.”
The warrior before him looked confused and asked back.
“…Young Master Cho. What on earth are you talking about?”
Cho Yu-gyeong curled one corner of his lips and stepped forward.
“I was suspicious from the moment you introduced yourself as Shou’an Gate. Those guys don’t seem like they’d care about something like the Ascending Dragon Assembly.”
Shou’an Gate of Guangdong’s demonic faction was a peculiar sect in many ways.
If one had to classify them… they were half-pirates.
They’d started as a vigilante group to protect the coast from Japanese pirates, and now they themselves plundered southern lands beyond the sea.
Their activities extended beyond the Central Plains… it was odd for them to participate in the Ascending Dragon Assembly at all.
This man before him, who spoke with a Guangdong accent, had introduced himself as Shou’an Gate from the start. That should have set off alarm bells.
Cho Yu-gyeong drew his sword and snarled.
“You’re the one who sent assassins to Mad Dragon and his group, aren’t you? Why… to expose me for using underhanded methods to eliminate rivals if I showed signs of defection?”
“…Young Master Cho, you don’t seem sane. Please lower your sword first.”
“Shut up. You’re just the hunting dog of those delusion-ridden old men.”
At Cho Yu-gyeong’s cold rebuke, the man’s expression hardened menacingly.
“Do not dishonor the esteemed elders of Hainan.”
Elders… meaning scholars who had abandoned officialdom to live in seclusion.
The old masters of the South Sea Wanderers’ Society Association were originally military officials who’d fled the Taizu’s purges… so the term didn’t really fit.
Cho Yu-gyeong smirked crookedly.
“Elders, my ass… Let me tell you why those old men are delusional. Because they dream the absurd dream of seizing control of jianghu and exacting revenge on the imperial house.”
The man’s eyes narrowed as he slowly drew the straight blade at his waist.
Cho Yu-gyeong stepped closer and continued.
“They still think jianghu is the same as when they were young… when this country had just been founded.”
The martial world had been suppressed for the entirety of the previous dynasty’s reign, spending centuries huddled in near-seclusion.
During the change of dynasties, it had been ground down further in the clashes among various factions.
So the jianghu the Hainan elders remembered was one that could be easily dominated by disciples of the ‘superior’ military martial arts of the South Sea Wanderers’ Society Association.
But was today’s jianghu so easily handled?
Military martial arts guaranteed quick attainment. So in chaotic times, they might surpass orthodox arts.
But in peaceful times with leisure to train deeply, orthodox martial arts revealed their true worth.
And in an era where the streets buzzed with coin-counting and the Yangtze was dyed with merchant sails of every color…
The martial arts of demonic sects, who chased profit, also advanced.
Their techniques grafted and spawned and branched vigorously.
“Can’t you see? Jianghu isn’t something a place like the South Sea Wanderers’ Society Association can do anything about.”
“First Wave Cho Yu-gyeong. I confirm your defection.”
The man spoke stiffly and assumed a sword stance.
A strange smile played on Cho Yu-gyeong’s lips.
“But there’s one thing those old men do understand.”
-Seuuk.
His front knee bent halfway; his torso tilted forward as if about to pour.
His sword angled… ready to slash diagonally and tear open his opponent’s chest at any moment.
Cho Yu-gyeong spoke softly.
“They know exactly how to create martial arts. The Nanhai Thirty-six Sword… that one thing, at least, is real.”
The first wave sent by the South Sea Wanderers’ Society Association toward the Central Plains… Cho Yu-gyeong.
The martial art taught only to him… the artistry of the Nanhai hermits.
A fierce wave crashed.
On a ship tossed by a storm, the horizon always looked tilted.
The sword strikes flooding the man’s vision were all, likewise, eerily slanted.