Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 12 - Three Yang Fist

Chapter 12 – Three Yang Fist

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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In Ju-seong’s view, the woman who answered his foolish question so earnestly must have a beautiful heart.

“I did not know silk could be woven from lotus.”

She politely received his idle talk, then bowed deeply to express her thanks.

“To be precise, it is made from lotus stems… But that is not what matters now, Benefactor. I thank you again. You saved my life, so I have incurred a debt I cannot repay in a lifetime.”

For a woman of such high standing to bow her head and express thanks like this… it was a novel experience for Ju-seong.

‘To think this clown would experience something like this.’

He cleared his throat softly and received her greeting.

“Ah, so you are the patient from that separate building. It is true that I did you a favor, but I am not a loan shark, so I will not keep a tab.”

He was elated by the thanks, but Ju-seong also subtly drew a line.

He did not want to form a deep relationship with a woman who had noble and mysterious origins and was even targeted by assassins.

This was true no matter how beautiful she was.

‘She really is pretty.’

The reason he had just babbled like an idiot about her clothes was because he had been startled by the woman’s beauty.

Ju-seong thought he had shown excellent quick thinking. Until the woman smiled slightly and spoke.

“Benefactor, you may look at my face directly.”

“Ah, I see.”

He was saying this when he suddenly realized that he had his upper garment completely off.

‘So that is why I heard a startled sound at first.’

Ju-seong quickly apologized.

“Ah, I was rude.”

He hurriedly gathered his sweat-soaked clothes and put them on. They were damp, and dirt mixed with sweat had stuck to them, so his appearance was absolutely splendid.

“Hmm. These clothes, maybe I should take them off, no, I should put them on. No wait, they are too dirty. Should I take them off, no, I should put them on.”

As he agonized over whether to take off the clothes again or not, the woman covered her mouth with her hand and laughed aloud.

“Benefactor, you are an amusing person.”

Ju-seong felt his head swimming at the woman’s laugh. He could not train like this.

‘What a bewitching creature! Begone!’

Unlike his inner thoughts, he replied calmly.

“A clown has to be amusing to earn his meals, does he not?”

“Oh my, I heard from the Divine Physician. You are from an acrobatic troupe, he said.”

“Hmm, Master has a loose tongue.”

She laughed again at that and said.

“This humble woman cannot go outside for long, so I shall take my leave now. I did not wish to disturb your training, Benefactor, but I did not know when I might gather my strength again, so I took the liberty.”

“I was just about to rest anyway when you came, Miss, so the timing was perfect.”

“Thank you for your considerate words. Might I ask if you could visit the building where I stay from time to time?”

“Hm? Why is that?”

“I have nothing at the moment and am in humble circumstances, but I wish to repay the debt of my life someday. To do that, I need to know what kind of person you are, Benefactor.”

The pretext was good, but to repay a favor, she could just give him a chest full of gold ingots.

‘No one dislikes money.’

In Ju-seong’s view, this woman simply needed someone to talk to. Of course, her words about wanting to repay the favor were probably not lies either.

‘What do I do about this.’

The assassin organization called April Pavilion or something. Of course, the April Pavilion had been swept into the dustbin of history by the Divine Physician’s fierce hands.

The problem was the mysterious force that would have been behind them.

It was not an easy threat for him to handle, having not even ventured into the martial world yet. But at that moment, Ju-seong recalled his master’s face. Thinking of the Divine Physician, all those forces did not seem so frightening.

‘I am not scared. Master is the scariest.’

That was because his master was both strong and a little mad. Having reached a conclusion, Ju-seong answered.

“I will visit occasionally when I am not training.”

He was currently spending all his time training except for eating, defecating, and sleeping, so it was uncertain whether he would have time.

Training was enjoyable, so for him these days, three autumn seasons passed like a quarter hour.

But the woman, not knowing the inside story, was delighted.

“Thank you!”

When the woman’s face brightened, Ju-seong slightly shaded his eyes. The weather in Sichuan was always cloudy, yet why was it so dazzling?

“Next time we meet, please call me Young Hero instead of the burdensome title of Benefactor.”

“Understood.”

The woman departed, and Ju-seong rolled her name on his tongue.

“Mo Wol-hyang…”

The name meant the fragrance of the moon.

Indeed, she was a woman who carried the scent of a crescent moon. If she cast off the demon of illness, she would wax into a full moon.

“If that happens, she will be dazzling.”

He muttered this, then reached out to touch the corners of his mouth.

“Tsk.”

Ju-seong forcibly pulled down the corners of his mouth and resumed physical training.

* * *

Mo Wol-hyang walked toward her building, calming her racing heart.

‘Goodness, for him to be dressed like that.’

She was born of a bloodline that some revered as more precious than the imperial family. She had been raised delicately her whole life.

Naturally, she had never seen such a strapping young man with his shirt off, and she had no immunity to it.

Moreover, his attitude. Having done her such a great favor, he should by rights feel that he had some advantage over her.

Yet this man showed no such sign at all. Was it because he was originally from an acrobatic troupe? Was he unfamiliar with standing above others?

No. That was the man’s nature. A disposition that expected no repayment for what he had done.

More than his jade-like face despite his clown origins, or his thick body packed with muscle, her heart was moved more by that.

“Haah…”

Wol-hyang looked down at herself and sighed.

She was frustrated with her body that would not move as her heart wished.

She had been confident in her internal energy, yet now she was in a situation where moving even a bit of internal energy might endanger her life.

If she could recover even a tenth of her martial prowess, repaying the favor to that Young Hero would be nothing.

Of course, if that had been the case, she would not have incurred the favor in the first place.

Wol-hyang touched her own lips.

Come to think of it.

From earlier, when she was talking with the Young Hero…

‘How many times did I smile?’

It had been a long time since she had smiled. It had been long enough that she was momentarily startled by the fact that she had smiled.

Wol-hyang touched the corners of her mouth several times, then felt her condition starting to worsen and resumed walking.

* * *

“Master, what kind of illness has Young Lady Wol-hyang contracted?”

He asked in passing, but the Divine Physician was sharp.

A thunderous scolding, cutting off all front and back, came crashing down.

“You little wretch!!”

“Heavens. What is the matter?”

“A wretch who has barely stuck a third-rate label on himself, bewitched by a woman! You thoughtless fool!”

Ju-seong hurriedly scraped together an excuse.

“Master, it is purely innocent curiosity.”

“Disciple, Young Lady Wol-hyang is not sick.”

The moment the Divine Physician opened the floodgate, he immediately straightened his posture and began listening attentively. The Divine Physician smirked and continued.

“She was poisoned.”

“Ah, that makes sense.”

If they had submitted a request to an assassin organization, it must have been no ordinary grudge. Of course, the possibility of them having attempted poisoning would be high.

The Divine Physician did not explain the reason in depth.

He only told him that she had come from Xinjiang, which was practically beyond the frontier, and that she had been in an extremely important position within a certain force.

The Divine Physician looked at Ju-seong and spoke.

“The Young Lady’s affairs are beyond your ability to handle, so do not concern yourself. More importantly, this incident has made one thing clear to me. You are already ready to learn martial arts.”

Here, martial arts meant not just cultivation methods, but martial arts in the true sense. In other words, he was saying he would teach him fighting techniques.

The Divine Physician continued.

“I will not teach you any handheld weapons. If you hold and swing bladed weapons, you will naturally become a murderous being. Besides, I have never learned swords or sabers anyway.”

“Then why did you permit me to use hidden weapons?”

The Divine Physician raised two fingers and began explaining.

“First, compared to directly cutting flesh and feeling that sensation in your grip, the degree to which killing intent boils up is less.”

He folded one finger and continued.

“Second, hidden weapon techniques have clear limits and cannot grow beyond a certain level. There is no worry of you achieving mastery with them and causing a great massacre.”

“Are there no martial artists who have reached mastery with hidden weapon techniques?”

“From the start, hidden weapon techniques are close to inferior arts and miscellaneous skills. They have limits in leading to higher studies. The highest masters in the martial world, even if they used hidden weapons supplementarily during their growth, no longer use them now.”

“Ah, I understand. You mean they are useful for someone like me as I am now.”

“Yes, you could put it that way. Anyway, what I will teach you is fist, palm, and leg techniques.”

“You mean fist techniques, palm techniques, and leg techniques. What are the advantages of fist-palm-leg arts?”

Fist-palm-leg arts meant, simply put, unarmed martial arts.

“Though the power may be lacking, they are good for mind cultivation, unparalleled for self-defense, and possess versatility that surpasses any weapon. Also, since you can use martial arts with just your bare body, you do not depend on external objects.”

The Divine Physician paused to stroke his beard and continued.

“Above all, for you with your thick killing intent, I must teach you fist-palm-leg techniques which have low killing power.”

“I understand.”

“I will teach you a total of two martial arts. The first is fist-palm-leg techniques, and the second is movement techniques. The fist-palm-leg techniques are called Three Yang Fist, and the movement technique is called White Phoenix Nine Heavens Movement Technique.”

Ju-seong felt slight dissonance. Compared to the grandiose name of the movement technique, the name of the fist-palm-leg technique was quite simple.

“Compared to the name of the movement technique, the name of the fist-palm-leg technique is a little… plain.”

“It cannot be helped. Three Yang Fist is a martial art I created myself after observing various martial arts of the martial world. On the other hand, the White Phoenix Nine Heavens Movement Technique is something I learned from the one who transmitted the Flame Crow Six Stage Art to me.”

“You mean the Right Envoy of Light from the White Lotus Cult. Why did you not learn fighting techniques and only learn movement techniques?”

“He knew I was reluctant to harm people, so he only transmitted movement techniques for fleeing from dangerous situations. At that time, I could not even imagine committing violence against people.”

Indeed, the Divine Physician was a man with many stories. How did someone who could not even imagine throwing a punch become a figure who now casually shattered dantians like breaking rock candy?

Anyway, from that day on, Ju-seong was taught the Three Yang Fist first.

True to the explanation that it was made by piecing together various martial arts, the Three Yang Fist was an incredibly vast martial art.

Within that single martial art, fist techniques, palm techniques, finger techniques, leg techniques, and even grasping hand techniques were all included.

In other words, though it was one martial art, he had as much to learn as if studying five different martial arts.

It was literally “Fist”, meaning striking and grasping everything. In short, it was the totality of unarmed combat.

The Divine Physician prepared wooden stakes and drove them deep into the courtyard of the building. The stakes had protrusions like human arms and legs, allowing training as if facing a real person.

-Kwak! Tuduk! Peok!

Cruelly curved fingers wrapped around and climbed up an incoming wrist.

Grab the wrist, pull, and deliver one punch to the chest.

Then a flurry of successive palm strikes.

-Pang! Pang! Pang!

This was a technique among the Three Yang Fist called Fluttering Red Lotus Palm, named so because palm strikes scattered like fluttering cotton wadding.

When the Divine Physician demonstrated this, dozens of crimson palm forces truly adorned the air, scattering in confusion like a sack of cotton wadding had burst.

But at his current level, Ju-seong could not emit energy and could only deliver three palm strikes.

He had completed two weeks of training in the Three Yang Fist. He had mastered the first five of the fifteen techniques. The Divine Physician had been impressed by Ju-seong’s achievement.

[You are growing faster than your cultivation progress. What mental imagery do you use when training?]

[If I tell you, you will not be pleased.]

[It is obvious. Are you not training with thoughts of harming people?]

[…]

It could not be helped. Once techniques began flowing from Ju-seong’s fingertips, virtual opponents appeared before his eyes. Sometimes they were members of the Black Dragon Gang, sometimes third-rate warriors of the Blood Sword Sect.

Sometimes they took the form of the fake medical woman who had tried to assassinate Young Lady Mo Wol-hyang.

Ju-seong crushed their ribs, broke their arms, gouged out their eyes, shattered their jaws, and tore out their throats.

Each time he did so, the techniques became familiar to his hands, intuitively understood and assimilated into his body.

It was the same today as he was beating the wooden stake to death.

Something was strange.

Ju-seong felt that the more he executed techniques, the more the sinister imaginations of harming people refused to leave him.

Hot heat surged to his head, and he felt something tightly knotted in his chest as if he were ill. It was the urge to beat anything within reach to death.

It was then.

“…Anarulyulbulmokjeukcheonan…”

An incomprehensible incantation came from behind him, and upon hearing it, Ju-seong felt his heart calm without realizing it.

“Your techniques are full of killing intent, Young Hero.”

A voice like a wind chime hanging from a temple eave reached his ears.