Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 13 - Too Many Evildoers

Chapter 13 – Too Many Evildoers

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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This time Ju-seong turned around without being startled.

“It has been a while, Miss.”

It was the woman from the separate building, Mo Wol-hyang.

Seeing Mo Wol-hyang again, she looked the same as before. The same woman who had come two weeks ago to express her thanks and left.

She had asked him to visit, so Ju-seong had meant to at least show his face once. But he had been so absorbed in learning fist and leg techniques for two weeks that he had completely forgotten.

Anew, Ju-seong thought that he too had become a man of the martial world. He had forgotten even when such a woman asked him to come, simply because he was training in martial arts.

“It has been a while, Benefactor.”

“It is good to see you, Miss. I have been remiss these past days. But what was that incantation you were reciting just now…?”

Ju-seong raised a question, but Wol-hyang cut him off and retorted.

“You say you have been remiss, so you are aware of it then.”

Wol-hyang glanced at him sideways and pouted.

“I asked you to visit at least once, what kept you so busy?”

“Master taught me fist-palm-leg techniques, and I was so absorbed in refining them.”

“Ah, so that was the Divine Physician’s martial art just now? I heard he created it himself and indeed.”

“Are you well-versed in martial arts?”

“Hoho, well-versed, you ask?”

Wol-hyang covered her mouth and laughed. Who was she? The woman designated as the next generation Mysterious Woman of the White Lotus Cult.

However, if Ju-seong had not yet heard who she was, it was understandable that he did not know.

She nodded and said.

“Let us say I know as much as I need to.”

Ju-seong was curious about her evaluation and asked.

“How does this martial art look to you?”

“The Divine Physician has the qualities of a grandmaster not only in medicine but also in martial arts. Though it was made by piecing together many martial arts and thus falls somewhat short in profundity and depth, its practicality is second to none.”

“Hmm, I like that. Whether it is because this martial art suits me particularly well, I do not know, but how to fight appears before my eyes.”

Wol-hyang understood exactly what Ju-seong meant. He had an unusually thick killing intent constitution.

Therefore, the Three Yang Fist, which intuitively understood the process of harming opponents, would feel like a good fit.

Of course, this was not only a good thing.

“But because of that, your killing intent pours out even more excessively, Young Hero.”

Since she seemed to know something about his problem, Ju-seong tilted his head and asked.

“You have heard something about me from Master?”

Wol-hyang smiled slightly.

“Though my body may be lying down, I am often awake in consciousness. The Divine Physician knows that well, so he tells me all sorts of stories. Among them are stories about his disciple.”

She pondered for a moment and then spoke.

“To repay even one hundredth of the debt for saving my life, I will offer you one bit of help.”

“What is that?”

“It is a mental technique called the Stillness-Bright Incantation. If you recite the incantation, your mind becomes clearer by a layer, and it can block deviant energy from invading your upper dantian.”

“…Is that the incantation you recited earlier? Can you really do that just by reciting the incantation?”

She smiled slightly.

“First, let me teach you the incantation.”

Ju-seong immediately sat down in meditation posture before her. Resolving the killing intent was the biggest task he faced.

Wol-hyang began reciting the incantation in a soft voice. For her too, this was considerable goodwill. Originally, it was a mental technique that should not be taken out of the cult.

“Anarulyulbulmokjeukcheonan, gwanjooilwoljeongryeobaekyeon…”

Listening to it, a cozy energy circled in his head.

The killing intent that had boiled up every time he practiced martial arts began to subside. Like layers of mud settling on a riverbed.

He felt the calmness of visiting a Taoist temple or Buddhist monastery.

After she finished reciting, she said.

“Recite it on days when the sun is bright, with your eyes closed, when the sunlight shines white through your eyelids. That is when the effect is best.”

“I will remember.”

Even though he answered well, Ju-seong could not shake his doubts.

If killing intent could be calmed this easily, why would the Divine Physician take him as a disciple and keep him around?

In short, this mental technique would not be a fundamental solution to his problem.

But it certainly seemed helpful in the short term.

Ju-seong rolled the Stillness-Bright Incantation on his tongue and said.

“I am truly grateful, Miss.”

At his thanks, Wol-hyang glanced at Ju-seong and said.

“If you are grateful, please stop by from time to time.”

“Hmm, I will try.”

“Indeed, you do not speak empty words.”

Wol-hyang spoke as if miffed, but rather she liked that Ju-seong did not give lip service. She felt her heart considerably lightened and departed for her building.

* * *

“The Stillness-Bright Incantation.”

When Ju-seong told him what had happened during the day, the Divine Physician stroked his beard and fell into thought.

“Recite just the first few characters of the incantation.”

Originally, incantations of martial arts or insights should be handled carefully. The Divine Physician suspected that this mental technique Wol-hyang had given Ju-seong was quite valuable.

Hence, he deliberately instructed him to recite only a part rather than the whole.

When Ju-seong recited the incantation, he narrowed his brow and fell into thought. He had heard of this.

The Right Envoy of Light who had taught him martial arts had mentioned it in passing.

[Child, you must be extremely careful when practicing the Flame Crow Six Stage Art. If you cannot maintain your mind like a mirror on still water, you will instantly fall into qi deviation. If only I could transmit the White Lotus Stillness-Bright Incantation to you… Unfortunately, I have not learned it myself.]

“I suspect the true name of that mental technique is the ‘White Lotus Stillness-Bright Incantation.'”

“White Lotus…? The same White Lotus as in White Lotus Cult?”

The Divine Physician nodded.

“The martial arts of the White Lotus Cult are outstanding in power and quick in achievement. However, being martial arts with origins beyond the frontier, they are less stable than the orthodox martial arts of the Central Plains. What compensates for this is precisely the White Lotus Stillness-Bright Incantation. It is a mental technique learned only by the highest echelons of the White Lotus Cult.”

Mo Wol-hyang was a person of the White Lotus Cult. And a high-ranking one at that.

‘No wonder she was wearing palace dress woven from lotus silk.’

The Divine Physician likewise refrained from detailed explanation. He seemed to want Ju-seong not to get involved in this matter.

He thought for a moment and then spoke.

“Let me tell you the plan going forward. When you train and reach the level of Yellow Crow, that will be the level the world calls first-rate.”

“Then both second-rate and third-rate are within the Black Crow level.”

“Yes, correct. Anyway, when you come to hold a yellow crow in your dantian, I will send you out to find the things that are needed.”

“The things that are needed?”

The Divine Physician took out a wooden box from his chest. It was the very pill he had retrieved from the Full Moon Tower. He took out the pill and showed it to Ju-seong.

Looking closely, it radiated light of various colors and looked extraordinary at a glance. However, it was strange that no scent came from it unless you put your nose very close.

“The reason there is no scent is because it is still incomplete.”

“Ah, so it was an incomplete pill.”

“To complete this, the Five Poisons and Three Spirits are needed.”

“Five kinds of poisons and three kinds of miraculous medicines?”

The Divine Physician nodded.

“Yes. Originally, this manufacturing method was completed by Seo-baek and me putting our heads together, based on the secret pill manufacturing method of my sect.”

“Ah, so you supplemented something that already existed?”

The Divine Physician nodded and continued.

“Though it looks like a finished product, it is strictly still incomplete. Currently, the Three Spirits, meaning the three miraculous medicines, have been filled, but the Five Poisons have not.”

The Divine Physician looked at Ju-seong and closed his mouth. He could understand what his master was trying to say.

“…Those are the things I must find.”

“Correct. Most are poisonous creatures distributed beyond the frontier, so prepare for hardship.”

Five kinds of poisonous creatures.

‘Is this right?’

As soon as he raised his disciple to first-rate, never mind venturing into the martial world, he was to be sent beyond the frontier to find terrifying poisons.

But honestly, thinking that he might encounter legendary monsters from folktales, he felt a bit interested. Ju-seong was a man with abundant curiosity, after all.

The Divine Physician looked down at the pill in the wooden box with deep eyes and said.

“Originally, I had no intention of completing this. But now a reason has arisen. If I complete this Three Talents Five Elements Pill, I can cure the Young Lady.”

“If you feed this to the Young Lady, she will get better?”

The Divine Physician looked at Ju-seong for a moment and answered.

“If I complete this, a path to curing the Young Lady will open.”

‘So are you going to feed it to her or not?’

Anyway, he understood that the pill was essential for curing the Young Lady. But Ju-seong had a question.

“I may have a relationship with her since we exchanged favors, but why are you so intent on saving the Young Lady, Master?”

“Does a physician need a reason to save a patient?”

“That is also true.”

“However, there is a reason I reconsidered and decided to complete this Three Talents Five Elements Pill when I had vowed not to. The Young Lady possesses a sacred object belonging to the Right Envoy of Light who transmitted martial arts to me.”

In short, the Right Envoy of Light and Young Lady Wol-hyang were in no ordinary relationship. Perhaps they were father and daughter.

“When you think about it, both master and disciple have a moral responsibility to save her.”

“One could see it that way. So you must do your best to reach the level of Yellow Crow.”

“Understood.”

“Ah, and before long, the Young Lady’s condition will enter a stable phase. When that happens, I alone can prevent her condition from worsening further without Seo-baek’s help.”

“That is fortunate in the midst of misfortune.”

“Since assassins seem to be targeting the Young Lady, as soon as her condition stabilizes, I will move her to my residence. You should also prepare to set out.”

The time to leave the All-Living Clinic was approaching.

The Divine Physician called Ju-seong and said.

“Now the Young Lady’s condition has stabilized, so I do not need to infuse her with true energy every day. Once a week is enough. If Seo-baek steadily prepares medicine, she can last up to a month. I will leave briefly for a journey in the meantime.”

“Where will you go?”

The Divine Physician looked at Ju-seong silently and said.

“Do not skip training.”

In truth, it was a meaningless exhortation. He was pouring his life into training.

Excluding one period of about two hours every three days when he chatted with Wol-hyang, he was obsessed with training all day long.

And so the Divine Physician left the clinic abruptly without explanation, and returned a month later.

His clothes had dried brown bloodstains. In his breath, fatigue and the scent of blood were baked together.

Ju-seong studied the face of the returned Divine Physician.

In his deep-set tiger eyes was grief like a lake. Over his deep wrinkles, fierce anger flowed like the swelling Yangtze River.

Ju-seong wanted to ask what had happened, but the Divine Physician’s expression was such a mess that he could not dare to ask. So he simply asked this.

“Master, are you alright?”

The Divine Physician only answered thus.

“…Disciple, there are too many bastards in this world.”

Indeed, that was the truth. He did not ask further.

* * *

“Must you really leave?”

It was Yi-hwa who spoke with a worried expression.

“Once a man has set his purpose, he must not hesitate. I will become a man of the martial world. When a man is born with two balls hanging between his legs, he should possess the strength to move mountains and shake the heavens.”

Ju-seong spoke with deliberate swagger. Elder Sister So-yeong spoke with a weighty expression.

“It was also martial world people who killed our family. Why would you become one of them?”

Ju-seong looked around at his elder sisters. They could be called his entire childhood. He remembered Elder Sister Yi-hwa’s back as she carried him and circled the campfire for hours to put him to sleep when he was a baby.

Elder Sister So-yeong who bought him sweets. Elder Sister Yeong-ryeo who read him storybooks.

They were not the only ones. There was silly Gu-chil, Old Master Hwang and Wang-gi, and Hong-bin and Elder Sister Du-hwa.

Some people say that rough wind and bumpy roads raised them, but Ju-seong was different.

‘What raised me is people. I grew up by human hands, so I too am human.’

He thought of them as beautiful flowers that had bloomed on the roadside. That was why he was leaving.

So that people like flowers that bloomed on the roadside would not be trampled by the careless footsteps of passersby. He would become a thorny thicket for them, and sometimes a boulder that blocked the fierce wind.

Of course, Ju-seong was not the type to speak such embarrassing words aloud.

“Well, I will handle my own business. Elder Sisters, take care. Do not grow old and die alone; get married while you are at it.”

“Ju-seong, the real problem is you. Where could anyone live and handle that filthy temper of yours?”

Yi-hwa paid no mind to Ju-seong’s harsh tongue-wagging and delivered a blow out of genuine worry.

Yeong-ryeo, standing beside her, chimed in.

“Ju-seong, we are no slouches anywhere. You take after us, so your smooth face is tolerable, but with that temper that makes you charge in when provoked, would any woman dare get close to you?”

The elder sisters laughed among themselves and teased Ju-seong. He snickered and answered.

“They say even straw sandals have their match. In all this vast Central Plains, surely…”

“Nope, probably not.”

“These people, really.”

They tangled in a scuffle for quite a while.

Ju-seong, drenched from being splashed with water from the sisters’ water bowls, peeled off the wet cloth stuck to his forehead and said.

“Anyway, farewell. Not goodbye forever, just will not be seeing your faces for a while. Take care.”

“Ju-seong.”

“Why are you calling me so sentimentally.”

Yi-hwa pulled him into a tight embrace.

“Our youngest brother, wherever you go in the nine provinces under heaven, we are your family. Do not forget.”

“Ha ha, really.”

Ju-seong’s vision blurred hazily.

The next day, they departed. Loading Young Lady Wol-hyang onto the carriage, master and disciple took turns holding the reins from the driver’s seat.

* * *

Around that time, Zhejiang Province was abuzz with a piece of news.

The Young Sect Master of the Blood Sword Sect, a major evil path faction, had been found in a state worse than death.

His subordinates were all sprawled out with their dantians destroyed.

The Young Sect Master’s condition was even worse: he had lost both eyes and all four limbs were bent in the opposite direction.

The Young Sect Master was hanging from the eaves of his own residence, and on the wall, these characters were written in his blood.

Bul-yong.

It was an abbreviation of “Cheon-do-bul-yong”, meaning “Heaven is stern and does not forgive evildoers.”

The Blood Sword Sect was an infamous evil path sect, involved in all sorts of dirty business. Hence, gossipmongers called this master the “Dantian-Breaking Strange Hero.”

After all, he did not kill them but only destroyed their dantians.

The Blood Sword Sect Master shed tears of blood and set out to track down the culprit, but even after a long time, no clues could be found.

Nothing except that he was the owner of a yang-dominant art carrying fierce heat.

No one knew that records related to a certain “subcontract business” that the Young Sect Master had been secretly conducting had also disappeared.