Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 121 - Ghost Eye

Chapter 121 – Ghost Eye

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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“So this is Azure Sky Tower.”

“That’s the largest pleasure house in Anqing, elder brother.”

Red Beggar and Ju-seong spent most of their time training, only leaving the inn for matches or to spectate.

Fat Fist and Bai Li were likewise focused on training, well aware of their shortcomings.

Still, there was the matter of Chun-mong, who kept disappearing and now barely showed his face at the inn.

Why didn’t he participate in the Ascending Dragon Assembly? Who was this person at Azure Sky Tower? What had happened in his past?

Both Ju-seong and Red Beggar had taken Namgung Chun-mong as their sworn brother because they liked the boy, yet they knew nothing of his past.

Perhaps it was because both of them had personalities that simply didn’t bother with such things.

So, the two of them decided to visit Azure Sky Tower directly, determined to settle what needed settling.

“This is the largest pleasure house I’ve ever seen in my life.”

A seven-story pleasure house built in a small bend along the Yangtze River. The various pavilions surrounding the bend were also Azure Sky Tower’s property.

Some were separate guest quarters, while others were gambling halls.

One could say this thirty-zhang-wide bay itself belonged to Azure Sky Tower.

Day and night, the sky reflected in this round bay… hence the name Azure Sky Tower: the Tower That Holds the Sky.

Red and blue lanterns hung in a dizzying arrangement from every floor.

To enjoy the scenery, the guests on the upper floors had thrown their windows wide open.

The sounds from inside cascaded down the tower’s rooftop.

The plucking of a zither, the clink of silver cups, the laughter and song of women.

Those sounds had a sticky quality that stalled the feet of passersby.

Just as the two men were about to enter…

“Oh, elder brothers! What brings you here?”

A familiar voice called from behind.

It was Chun-mong, dressed in Azure Sky Tower’s security guard uniform, patrolling the area.

“…What are you doing here?”

Chun-mong smiled sheepishly and spread his arms.

“What do you think? Helping out.”

Red Beggar narrowed his eyes and scoffed.

“What the hell are you? A beggar, a retainer of Azure Sky Tower, or a wanderer? Are you even aware that you’re our sworn brother?”

“…I understand your displeasure.”

Red Beggar squeezed his eyes shut and waved his hand dismissively.

“No, that’s not what I want to hear. Why do you hide so much? What’s the reason you’re here doing this?”

“I heard there are quite a few martial artists causing disturbances during the Ascending Dragon Assembly period, so I came to lend a hand.”

Ju-seong stepped between them and said.

“Now… Red Beggar, I understand you’re angry, but let’s not do this on the street. Let’s go inside first. I have separate business here besides Chun-mong anyway.”

“What business did you come for, elder brother?”

“Is there someone called Sighing Branch here?”

“Ah… that person. Wait, how do you know him, elder brother? He is indeed a regular at Azure Sky Tower. To be precise, he practically lives in Azure Sky Tower’s gambling hall.”

“What kind of person is he?”

“Hmm. He mainly plays cricket fights and dominoes. Dice occasionally. His personality is generally cheerful, though he doesn’t cause trouble. But if someone cheats in front of him…”

Chun-mong made a gesture of cutting his wrist.

“He must have considerable martial skills?”

“Yes. In fact, he periodically leaves Azure Sky Tower to tour gambling dens across the Central Plains, and every time he does, they say one dark-path faction gets wiped off the map.”

Chun-mong had been explaining for a while when he suddenly seemed to remember something and lowered his voice.

“And, as you might know, his alias…?”

“Ah, right. Mo…”

“Shh! You must never mention it in his presence. You understand, right?”

Ju-seong nodded.

“It does seem like something you shouldn’t say to his face.”

“Anyone who’s ever uttered that word in front of him hasn’t kept their wrist intact.”

Ju-seong suddenly remembered something and asked with a sly smile.

“By the way, where’s Su-ryeon, the greatest beauty of Azure Sky Tower?”

Some time ago, Ju-seong had teased Chun-mong and discovered that he harbored feelings for a courtesan named Su-ryeon at Azure Sky Tower.

Chun-mong’s face immediately flushed red, and he cleared his throat before speaking.

“Well… let’s go. I’ll guide you to the gambling hall.”

* * *

The annex housing the gambling hall was located as far from Azure Sky Tower’s main building as possible.

This was to isolate the distinguished guests from the commotion of the gambling hall.

The gambling hall was a two-story pentagon-shaped building that looked somewhat like an elegant pavilion from a distance.

Upon entering, his head immediately swam from all the incense.

Ju-seong, with his particularly sensitive nose, felt one eye twitching as he covered his nose.

There was a fellow burning all manner of incense from the Western Regions.

Another who’d ordered expensive liquor but was too engrossed in his cards to savor it, letting it dribble down his beard.

Yet another who couldn’t spare the time even for the latrine and relieved himself into a chamber pot right where he sat.

And the floor was steeped in the stale smell of old blood.

At the center of this madness sat a man. The table drew both the most people and the most attention.

“Oh… He’s playing dominoes.”

“A domino shell game.”

Dominoes were originally pieces of bone carved into squares with patterns, referring to the entire set of gaming pieces.

There were many types of games you could play with dominoes, and when factoring in the different rules from region to region, the possibilities were truly endless.

The most intuitive and simple of these was the shell game.

Rather than simply guessing which cup held the tile, the common format involved choosing multiple times and adding up the revealed tiles.

Chun-mong spoke as if it were nothing unusual.

“Ah, looks like an outside hustler came in trying to make a profit.”

“They let outside gamblers in too? They’re pros with nimble fingers, so the house might lose money.”

When Ju-seong asked in puzzlement, Chun-mong let out a small sigh and nodded.

“Coming in is free, but… leaving often is not.”

“But if they win and can’t leave, wouldn’t that ruin the gambling hall’s reputation?”

“Just watch.”

Ju-seong pushed through the crowd. Some gamblers glared at him, but upon recognizing he was a martial artist, they slunk aside.

Quite a few even recognized Ju-seong, though since a game was in progress, they simply exchanged respectful nods rather than call out.

Coming to the table, he saw two men seated facing each other.

One was a sly-looking hustler who had clearly picked up some martial arts somewhere. Thanks to that, his hands were incredibly fast… so fast that even Ju-seong thought he might not catch the man’s tricks.

The hustler was spinning seven overturned cups so rapidly it looked like he had four or five hands.

The man seated across from him sat still, eyes following the madly moving cups. His pupils moved just as fast.

Chun-mong whispered softly.

“That’s him. As you can see, among gamblers, he’s also called Ghost Eye. They say a ghost has possessed his eyes…”

Ju-seong nodded and muttered to himself.

‘So that’s Sighing Branch.’

A cleanly shaven chin. Hair faded to gray.

He had deep double eyelids and a handsomely straight nose, but the dark circles beneath his eyes were so severe that he looked ill-fated.

‘He likes to play, loves to drink… has a strong gambler’s spirit. The classic face of a gambler.’

He seemed about the same age as Ju-seong’s master, yet somehow looked both younger and older at the same time.

Soon, the hustler stopped his hands.

The man’s lips parted, and a short, amused word popped out.

“Center!”

The hustler smiled faintly and lifted the center cup of the seven. The tile showed five-six.

“Aigo, Elder… what a shame. Isn’t that a low tile?”

Sighing Branch smiled slightly and gestured.

“You have to match three times for one round, don’t you? Keep spinning.”

“Yes, yes, as you command.”

“Nice hand technique you have there.”

“Haha. I wouldn’t call it skill. It just looks fancy because my hands are used to it.”

The hustler grinned and spun the cups.

Sighing Branch chose the second one this time.

“One-six, huh… Better than before, but you’re still looking at a loss.”

“Ah, if I lose, I lose. Am I the type to sit at the table thinking only of cleaning out the house? That’d be shameless. Isn’t that right, fellow gamblers?”

When Sighing Branch encouraged a response, the surrounding gamblers clamored in agreement and nodded.

“Well, today we get to see Elder’s pockets emptied!”

“This hustler is the real deal! Already lost four rounds!”

Sighing Branch waved his hand and urged.

“Now… spin again, young man. I hope I draw big this time.”

“Oh, I hope Elder draws a good tile too.”

-Ssuk, ssuk, ssuk…

The hustler’s hands grew faster. The seven cups lined up in a row never stayed still.

‘They’re spinning like crazy, damn it.’

Ju-seong was confident he could beat this gambler in martial arts, but he wasn’t confident he could catch the man’s tricks by watching the cups.

Just then…

-Tok!

Sighing Branch had struck like lightning, pressing a long stick between the cups.

What the stick had snatched was a domino tile.

Sighing Branch tilted his head to the side and asked curiously.

“This is strange. Why is a tile moving between cups?”

“Uh…”

The hustler was too shocked to even speak properly.

Being caught cheating was one thing, but to snatch a tile as it rapidly moved between the sliding cups?

A technique of lifting the cups ever so slightly to shift a tile underneath… a method learned at fourteen, and in all his years wandering Southern Zhili, Henan, and Jingzhou, he’d never gone hungry.

He’d been beaten when someone picked a quarrel, sure, but his technique had never been exposed.

He forced a smile and opened his mouth.

“Elder, there seems to be some misunderstanding…”

-Sseuk!

A slicing sound so faint he doubted he’d heard it at all.

The hand that had been holding the stick was now twirling a short knife in circles.

“Huh…?”

The hustler gaped in dismay.

In Sighing Branch’s other hand, his left, was the hustler’s severed hand.

“My… My hand!”

Ju-seong widened his eyes. This was one move he definitely hadn’t seen coming.

Sighing Branch smiled lazily and tossed the severed hand onto the table.

“I hear you’ve been leading a gang around lately, stirring up every gambling den in Anqing. Cheating to win, then beating people to take their money, running up debts…”

“Heuk, heuuuk…”

The hustler squeezed out snot and tears, trying to reattach his own hand.

‘That’ll need Brother Seo-baek to fix.’

There was no way a completely severed wrist could be easily reattached. Red Beggar openly showed his displeasure and spat on the floor.

Just then, three martial artists who appeared to be the hustler’s accomplices stepped forward.

These were probably the gambling fraud ring that had been extorting people across Anqing’s gambling dens. One of them fingered his waist and growled.

“Hey, old man. Have you lost your mind?”

Sighing Branch shrugged his shoulders, then suddenly shouted out loud.

“Hey! Close the doors! Four people are leaving here dead today!”

Angry gamblers slowly converged, encircling the three thugs. Gambling was a pastime for idle ne’er-do-wells, and a good portion of martial artists were exactly that type.

It was only natural that there were plenty of martial artists in a gambling hall.

The fraud ring’s martial artists were beaten black and blue, then dragged off by the gambling hall’s bouncers through a dark back door.

No sooner had their dark crimson bloodstains trailed behind them than two or three servers rushed out to mop it up.

Ju-seong took advantage of the chaos to snatch a cup of baijiu from a table and gulp it down, muttering as if troubled.

“Damn. He doesn’t seem like the type who’d easily hand something over just because someone’s a friend’s disciple.”

“He’s not that kind of person.”

At that moment, Sighing Branch spotted Chun-mong and waved, calling out.

“Hey, brat!”

“Ah, yes. Elder Sighing Branch. Have you been well?”

“Who’s that you brought? Handsome fellow. Is he a hustler too?”

Chun-mong laughed and waved his hands.

“No, Elder. At least watch the Ascending Dragon Assembly. This person isn’t a hustler… he’s the famous one all over the streets…”

Ju-seong cut off Chun-mong’s words and stepped forward.

“I am a hustler. Elder, I’d like to stake one of my wrists and my entire fortune on a fantastic game with you.”

“Elder Brother! Have you gone mad!”

Red Beggar was aghast, but Ju-seong raised his hand to stop him.

Sighing Branch smiled faintly and leaned back with his arms crossed.

“Do you play dominoes too?”

Ju-seong shook his head and answered in a grave voice.

“Never touched dominoes in my life. Let’s do cricket fights. Cricket fighting.”

Chun-mong and Red Beggar looked at their sworn brother as if he’d lost his mind.