Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 157 - With Spirited Steps

Chapter 157 – With Spirited Steps

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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Chapter 157 – With Spirited Steps

A night with the new moon rising. Unusually, the sky was clear without a single cloud. The Blood Flower Crone raised her old body and left her residence.

Her knees and waist ached, and her worn-out tendons cried out pain like screams.

“Hmph.”

The old woman drew a deep breath. She circulated internal energy through her meridians and spread it through her entire body’s fine vessels. Finding the creaking parts, she protected them with internal energy.

Now she could move somewhat.

Walking along the plank path on the cliff, she parted the waterfall and entered. Passing through the azurite cave, she headed to the cavern where her friend lay curled.

The pitch-black form sensed the old woman’s presence and raised its head. In that single movement, the Blood Flower Crone could tell her old friend had weakened to the extreme.

“Master Spider, are you going now?”

Unlike when others were present, the Blood Flower Crone was speaking respectfully. This was a spirit creature far older than herself. She’d only spoken down to it in front of others to save face; this was her true manner.

-Chwichwichii…

The spider gently leaned its head against the Blood Flower Crone’s shoulder. They’d met in the treacherous jungles of Guizhou and had saved each other’s lives many times.

Following the Human-Faced Spider, the Blood Flower Crone had gathered quite a few spirit medicines, and thanks to the Blood Flower Crone, the Human-Faced Spider had survived without being hunted by humans.

The Human-Faced Spider’s poison and web were prized treasures in jianghu, after all.

The baby spiders lay curled in their nest, quietly asleep.

The great spider barely raised her old body and lay down against the Blood Flower Crone.

The Blood Flower Crone raised her wrinkled hand and carefully stroked the creature’s head. A Miao tribe lullaby made only of melody filled the cavern.

The old woman recalled the distant past. She had been the mistress of a fairly powerful martial family in Guizhou, raising three strapping sons and two beautiful daughters with pride.

That is, until the Heroic Society, an evil path alliance, annihilated her family while swallowing Guizhou.

She fled, clutching her family’s secret manual and vowing revenge.

They pursued her, but since she was only third-rate at the time, they didn’t send formidable pursuers.

A woman who survived because she was weak. A mother who lost five children in a single night.

When the pursuers were about to catch up, the Human-Faced Spider appeared. A beast’s instincts are sharp, and being a spirit creature, it possessed intelligence too.

From its judgment, the pursuing men seemed more threatening than the fleeing woman.

[Master Spider, I’ve brought some humble wild game meat as thanks for your kindness.]

The woman whose life was saved brought prey as offerings to the Human-Faced Spider, building a connection. Thanks to this, she could follow it around, gathering spirit medicines to eat and train.

The old woman’s wrinkled eyelids trembled as she whispered quietly.

“Go peacefully. Thank you for everything.”

From the entrance in the distance, faint light began seeping in as dawn approached.

Under that light, the great spider slowly lowered its head. Its soul abandoned its heavy body and flew away freely.

If it ascended to heaven, would it be reborn as a human in its next life? Or would it become a powerful horse pulling the Jade Emperor’s chariot?

There was no way to know. In any case, the old woman left behind in this world felt an empty sensation as if part of her heart had hollowed out.

She watched the baby spiders that had carefully crawled from the nest and were now exploring their dead mother’s body. Healthy children. Following nature’s way, they would eat their mother’s body and poison core to be reborn as new spirit creatures. This was their natural order, not something to be judged by human standards. “I can’t bear to watch,” she murmured, supporting herself on her knees to stand. “Either way, thanks to that child, my friend departed in peace, so I must keep my promise.”

* * *

A fortnight later.

Ju-seong confirmed the faces of those gathered around him and asked.

“This seems a bit short for a support force. The enemy’s numbers will be absurdly large. It would be better to call them an army.”

The Crimson Spider Sect’s top-tier masters… four of the Blood Flower Crone’s children… were attached. Beyond them were fifty Crimson Spider Sect disciples, all formidable martial artists.

But this number was nowhere near enough. Was this really all Guizhou’s Premier Sect, the Crimson Spider Sect, could mobilize?

At that moment, a man with eight hooks hanging from his waist spoke up.

“Mother has also issued orders to the sects scattered throughout Guizhou. By now, support troops sent from each sect should be assembled outside the jungle.”

He was Eight-Hook Ghost, the Blood Flower Crone’s second son. He handled eight hooks like a ghost, they said.

A handsome-faced blind swordsman added with a smile.

“Grandmother said she owes no small debt to the young hero. Don’t worry. Once the Crimson Spider Sect has decided to help, we don’t do things half-heartedly.”

With a distinguished face, his two eyes were gruesomely gouged out, replaced with prosthetic eyes carved from pure white jade.

Of course, without visible irises, his appearance was still eerie.

He called himself Yang So-an. The surname Yang, with white eyes. It clearly wasn’t his real name either.

The remaining two children were none other than Heuk-wol and Yi Pyo-eum. Pyo-eum couldn’t exactly hop on one leg for long-distance travel, so she was being carried by a porter.

‘Looking at it this way…’

The Blood Flower Crone’s children were all broken in some way. Eight-Hook Ghost was exceptionally whole in body, making Ju-seong wonder if his mind was equally damaged.

In short, it seemed the Blood Flower Crone only accepted the broken and discarded, those abandoned by the world, as her children.

‘Then why did she ask me to become her son?’

Did she see Ju-seong as not quite right in the head either?

“…Well, let’s go. Monk Won-gong, why do you look so haggard?”

Won-gong stood in a corner with a worn, dispirited expression.

“I tried to preach the Buddha’s great teachings to the people here, but…”

Eight-Hook Ghost jingled his hooks and snorted.

“The people here worship ancestral spirits. We know Buddha’s teachings are wonderful, but wandering around beating your wooden gong like that won’t get you anywhere.”

Ju-seong patted Won-gong’s shoulder in consolation.

“Monk, while I was playing wet nurse to baby spiders and securing the Crimson Spider Sect’s cooperation, you suffered doing useless things.”

“Namo Amitabha. Please take your hand off. I don’t want to hear that from someone who makes spider sounds alone in his room.”

“Oh, you heard that?”

Won-gong seemed to grow more prickly the more time he spent with Ju-seong.

The Crimson Spider Sect members passed the entrance of Maling River Canyon and emerged outside the surrounding jungle. After walking half a day to the jungle’s edge, indeed, hundreds of martial artists were encamped before them.

“Hmm.”

Ju-seong nodded and examined their composition. Judging by their clothes, roughly twenty sects had each sent between fifteen to twenty people.

So the number was approximately three hundred fifty to four hundred.

It wasn’t an enormous number, but each one was a properly trained martial artist.

The weakest among them appeared to be at least second-rate, and those with particularly keen glints in their eyes seemed to range from late first-rate to early peak level.

‘About four or five look to be early peak. Not bad.’

For a backwater like Guizhou, comparable to Yunnan, this level of force showed considerable sincerity. Indeed, they said the Crimson Spider Sect had a firm grip on Guizhou.

‘They received a unilateral command with no real explanation, yet assembled within a fortnight?’

When the Blood Flower Crone had crushed the Heroic Society twenty years ago, all of Guizhou’s jianghu had trembled at the carnage. That terror she’d instilled must still be branded into them.

Ju-seong leaped onto a nearby boulder and shouted.

“Heroes of Guizhou! I’m endlessly grateful that you’ve gathered like this!”

“…”

The audience’s reaction was awkward. After all, who was this young punk suddenly jumping onto a rock and greeting them?

Ju-seong stroked his chin, then asked bluntly.

“Is there anyone thinking, ‘We were called here, but why this annoyance?’ Or, ‘No matter how great the Crimson Spider Sect is, isn’t this too high-handed?'”

Still the chilly response. No one not out of their mind would…

“Me!”

One seemingly naive martial artist called out innocently. He looked to be about a second or third son of some mid-sized sect.

“Young master, please, this isn’t proper. Being so careless in front of the Crimson Spider Sect…”

An attendant beside the young man forcibly pulled his hand down.

Ju-seong nodded.

“That brave young hero is the only one who answered, but I’m sure others share similar thoughts. I’ll keep it brief.”

Ju-seong cleared his throat and spoke.

“When the lips are gone, the teeth feel cold. In truth, whether it’s Guizhou or Guangxi, the court makes those distinctions… what does it matter to us? Does anyone here actually know where Guizhou ends and Guangxi begins?” “I don’t!” the same young man answered again. Truly a pure-brained young man.

Ju-seong nodded, inwardly grateful.

“Exactly. Guizhou and Guangxi have been lands where various tribes pushed out by the Han gathered since ancient times, so the distinction is meaningless. Right now, some scoundrels are ransacking Guangxi. Even the Green Forest is overwhelmed.”

The crowd stirred at the news of the Green Forest being overpowered.

No matter how scattered the Green Forest’s forces were across the Central Plains, making them hard to unite… how could they be overwhelmed when the Battle King of the Green Forest himself stood firm?

“Since ancient times, what’s characteristic of such scoundrels? Their greed has no end. Once they swallow the Green Forest, where do you think they’ll go?”

At this point, someone in the crowd objected.

“You’re saying they’ll cross into Guizhou? Couldn’t they go to Guangdong?”

Ju-seong answered flatly.

“When formidable evil path sects, backed by the Chao merchants’ wealth and grown in scale, are firmly entrenched there? Would you want to go?”

Guangdong was no pushover. True, currently the only top sect there was the Shore Guard Sect. And being half-pirates, they had little interest in inland affairs.

But the other mid-sized sects there were truly formidable.

They were effectively the arms and legs of the Chao merchants, one of the Three Great Merchant Houses, packed with uniform, high-quality martial artists.

“For these reasons, those who’ve devoured Guangxi will come to Guizhou. So what is this expedition?”

Ju-seong mimed using chopsticks and said.

“We’re protecting our rice bowls. Understand?”

“…”

It was a roughly given speech, but at least by implanting the stakes, some fervor returned to the martial artists’ eyes.

“So stop sighing like you’re eating cold rice and dragging your feet. Let’s march with spirited steps.”

Whether their steps were spirited or not remained unclear, but thanks to Ju-seong’s speech, they were able to proceed without incident.

Martial artists usually carried only a bit of their own rations, but at this scale, that wasn’t feasible.

Carts loaded with considerable grain and meat followed at the rear of the march.

Ju-seong chose one cart to ride on, carefully watching for anyone who strayed from the column or dragged their feet.

Beside him sat, naturally, Yi Pyo-eum.

Other martial artists couldn’t be as brazen as Ju-seong… riding carts while everyone else walked wasn’t something they’d dare… but Pyo-eum had only one leg, so she had no choice.

“What have you been rolling around in your hand this whole time?”

At Pyo-eum’s question, Ju-seong grinned and extended his hand.

“Lady Pyo-eum, do you like butterflies?”

In his hand, a silver-white butterfly fluttered about as if alive.

“In this battle, this little one will slit the throats of demonic scoundrels.”

He had more than just one or two new toys. Counting the object he’d secretly received from the Blood Flower Crone the night before, Ju-seong was so excited he could barely sleep. He smacked his lips and murmured, “Just you wait, Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.”