Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 16 - Hearing Purely, Hearing as If Seeing

Chapter 16 – Hearing Purely, Hearing as If Seeing

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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After quite a while of scuffling, the Shadowless Divine Thief offered an awkward apology to the Divine Physician.

“I am truly sorry, my friend. Damn, this drinking habit of mine refuses to be corrected no matter how old I get…”

Even the Divine Physician, great master that he was, could not help but be victimized when the greatest thief in the martial world attempted pickpocketing. And of all things to steal, it was a pill that looked extraordinary at first glance.

When you thought about it, it was because that pill was stolen that the Divine Physician came out into the martial world, and while tracking its whereabouts, he encountered Ju-seong at the Black Dragon Gang.

He had hair disheveled and eyes bloodshot as he slaughtered people like a butcher. His master had taken in such a Ju-seong, and so here they were now.

Thus, this gentleman of distinguished appearance before him could be said to have connected him and the Divine Physician. Fate was truly peculiar like this.

Ju-seong thought.

‘Anyway, this fellow called Shadowless Divine Thief does not seem to be a completely rotten man.’

True to his alias of the divine thief without shadow, if he seriously hid, who in the world could find him by any means?

Since he had caused such a huge incident, he could have just hidden away completely, but he came back to see the Divine Physician knowing full well he would be beaten to a pulp.

Did that not mean he put his relationship with his friend ahead of his own fear?

The Shadowless Divine Thief said to Ju-seong.

“Ahem, ahem. Allow me to introduce myself properly. When they speak of a gentleman on the rafters in the martial world, they mean me. My alias is Shadowless Divine Thief, and my name is Gi Sam-bok.”

The name was Sam-bok, meaning “third blessing.” It was, frankly speaking, a commoner’s name.

In short, he was born an ordinary child from an ordinary family and grew into a man who made quite a name for himself in the martial world, so this bald old man was no pushover either.

Ju-seong bowed his head and exchanged the martial world formality of fist-palm salute.

“I pay my respects, Grand Senior. I am Ju-seong, formerly of a clown troupe, now enrolled as a disciple of the one called Wi Ji-baek.”

“Oh, a clown troupe? Go on, do a somersault for me.”

Just as Ju-seong was about to demonstrate a triple aerial somersault with his martial artist’s powerful body, the Divine Physician seized Gi Sam-bok’s bald head and growled.

“This bastard, treating another man’s disciple as entertainment. Remember, your debt has not been repaid even a speck. Watch your step.”

“Ah, well… Sorry. What must I do to repay it?”

The Divine Physician folded his arms, snorted through his nose, and said.

“You know what. Those things we got when we raided Xuanzang Dharma Master’s cave.”

For a moment, Ju-seong doubted his ears.

‘You raided whose what?’

He was the monk considered the greatest eminent monk of the Tang era.

They raided the cave of the great monk who became the model for the Tripitaka Master in the currently popular novel “Journey to the West”?

Whether or not he was shocked, Gi Sam-bok continued the conversation.

“For Xuanzang Dharma Master’s cave where he spent his later years, there were only Buddhist sutras translated from Sanskrit. The three useful items were divided between you, me, and that gambler guy.”

“Ah, so you know what I am getting at.”

“You want me to teach you the Celestial Hearing? Are you serious? We came to an agreement back then! Fair, one each…”

The Divine Physician’s expression turned murderous.

“Sam-bok, want to die?”

“…Sorry. I will teach it.”

“You do not need to teach me, teach my disciple. I am too old; even if my hearing improves, it will just make my mind noisy.”

“…Fine. I will transmit the Celestial Hearing to this friend here.”

Ju-seong asked out of curiosity.

“By the way, what is this Celestial Hearing?”

Gi Sam-bok straightened his clothes with a cough, and with a slightly proud air, began explaining.

“Twenty years ago, I and this friend, along with one worthless gambler, joined forces in a meeting of minds. At that time, this friend was turning the whole martial world upside down looking for some miraculous medicine…”

“Skip the useless talk and just say what you need to say, Sam-bok.”

“…Anyway, the gambler won information about Xuanzang Dharma Master’s whereabouts through gambling, and I tracked it down. After twists and turns, we found the cave where Xuanzang Dharma Master spent his final years, and what we discovered there was the ‘Celestial Senses.'”

His master picked up where Gi Sam-bok left off.

“This refers to awakening three human senses: the Celestial Hearing for hearing, the Celestial Eye for sight, and the Celestial Nose for smell.”

Ju-seong nodded.

“So the three of you each took one. What did you choose, Master?”

His master wriggled his nose and said.

“At that time, I was frantically searching for miraculous medicines, so naturally I chose the Celestial Nose to sniff out miraculous medicines. I will transmit it to you later as well.”

‘Then the gambler fellow must have taken the Celestial Eye.’

Anyway, the Divine Physician was demanding the Celestial Hearing, one of the remaining two of the Celestial Senses, as compensation for his stolen pill.

Was this not a skill that the Xuanzang Dharma Master had directly imported from India and translated? Its value was beyond measure.

It seemed like excessive compensation, but strangely, Gi Sam-bok also seemed to accept it.

From this, Ju-seong could learn one fact.

‘Master’s pill, the Three Talents Five Elements Pill, was more precious than I thought.’

Sure enough, Gi Sam-bok said in a deflated voice.

“I really… Back then, you were working yourself to the bone precisely to complete that pill. Despite watching all that, I should not have stolen it no matter how drunk I was. I am sorry for how things turned out. I will definitely transmit the Celestial Hearing to your disciple.”

The Divine Physician, perhaps embarrassed by his old friend’s heartfelt apology, turned his head to look at Ju-seong and boasted.

“You see? Where else would you find a master like me.”

Ju-seong immediately played along.

“Truly, deciding to serve you, Master, was the greatest choice of my life. From now on, I will shatter my bones to dust and devote myself like a dog or horse to repay even one ten-thousandth of Master’s oceanic grace…”

“Disciple, please shut up.”

“Yes.”

* * *

Since Gi Sam-bok planned to stay at the Divine Physician’s residence for only a short time, Ju-seong set aside everything else and prioritized receiving transmission of the Celestial Hearing.

Gi Sam-bok stroked his goat beard and, seated properly before him, began his lecture.

“Ahem, ahem. The Celestial Hearing is no simple skill. First, you must practice hearing purely; second, you must practice hearing as if seeing; and only at the end can you recite the incantation of the Celestial Hearing to reinforce your upper dantian.”

“Is the ear related to the upper dantian?”

“When you sense something with your eyes, nose, or ears, it is received and judged by the upper dantian. So naturally, the skills of the Celestial Senses are related to the upper dantian.”

“I understand.”

“Wi Ji-baek, that friend, said you have exceptional comprehension.”

“You flatter me. He must have been exaggerating since I am his disciple.”

When Ju-seong showed humility, Gi Sam-bok snorted.

“Hmph, that stingy fellow? That is a man who looked at my concealment techniques and picked at them saying some hair was showing, saying I could not hide strong smells, and so on.”

“That sounds like Master.”

“Anyway, since that fellow is not one for idle talk, I will trust your intelligence and tell you how to practice hearing purely and hearing as if seeing. I will also teach you the incantation all at once, so practice on your own.”

Hearing Purely.

It meant practicing selective hearing of sounds you wanted to hear, in places where loud sounds were constantly made.

For example, on a day when storms raged and thunder roared, hearing birdsong and the sound of animals running.

“Extracting and hearing sounds… that is the essence of Hearing Purely.”

Ju-seong already felt overwhelmed, but Gi Sam-bok explained the next stage.

Hearing as if Seeing.

This was even more overwhelming. He was supposed to make sounds himself, then sense those sounds bouncing off objects and returning.

He could not understand how sounds could return, and sensing that seemed utterly absurd.

But regardless, Gi Sam-bok began reciting the incantation of the Celestial Hearing.

Circulating energy to the upper dantian while reciting the incantation was the core of the Celestial Hearing. Ju-seong tried the incantation on the spot.

The fine hairs in his ears stood on end. The flow of sound traveling along the ear ridge and being sucked into the ear canal felt as tangible as if he could grasp it.

-Sseusseu… Deolgeureok, dageureureureun… Jjaek, jjaek! Jjireureureun…

“Uuk!”

Ju-seong involuntarily put his hands to his ears. All sorts of sounds around him came through excessively loud.

“Eueu… I thought my ears would fall off.”

When he rubbed his ears and grimaced, Gi Sam-bok tilted his head and asked.

“What is wrong?”

“All kinds of sounds suddenly became too loud.”

“What? Really?”

Gi Sam-bok looked somewhat taken aback. He twirled his beard with his finger and muttered.

“That is not supposed to happen so easily… Let me see.”

He suddenly placed his hand on Ju-seong’s head and poured energy into the crown of his head. Then, as if observing his upper dantian, he closed his eyes briefly, then opened them with a start and withdrew his hand.

“Ah, well. Yes, the Celestial Hearing’s energy has somewhat taken root. But the proper order is to first train in hearing purely and hearing as if seeing. Until you refine those two skills, do not recite the incantation carelessly.”

Receiving excessive auditory information without the habit of selective hearing could overload the upper dantian. Everything had its order. Ju-seong nodded readily.

“Yes, understood.”

Gi Sam-bok spoke with a somewhat urgent expression.

“Well then, I must catch up with your master, so I will be going. It is a difficult skill, but your master has also learned a skill of the same Celestial Senses lineage, so ask him as you learn.”

“Thank you for the precious teaching.”

Ju-seong bowed deeply from the waist, expressing sincere gratitude.

This was a priceless treasure. It was actually more precious than most cultivation methods or martial arts.

Originally, masters used something called energy sense.

This was a technique using one’s own energy to sense distant places, but no matter how great the master, the range could not exceed one hundred zhang.

But if one refined this skill called Celestial Hearing, upon mastery, one could put one’s ear to the ground and hear footsteps from as far as ten li away.

In short, in the field of hearing, one could surpass the highest masters of the martial world.

‘Good, I will establish the foundation of the Celestial Hearing within two months. I will be able to hear the sound of an ant sucking a tick’s arse.’

Ju-seong was originally a madman for training, so he was simply delighted that there was more to train.

* * *

Wi Ji-baek and Gi Sam-bok. They tipped their wine cups while gazing at the cloudy Sichuan sky.

In broad daylight, the sky was even whitish, so there was no particular romance. But if an old friend was across the drinking table, that place was an immortal paradise.

Wi Ji-baek spoke first.

“Have you completely washed your hands of it now? Your sect’s lineage ends here too?”

Gi Sam-bok nodded.

“It has been a thieving sect spanning 150 years over four generations, but we cannot just keep stealing forever. I have children and grandchildren now. Using the martial arts accumulated from 150 years and four generations of stealing, we can establish a decent martial family.”

“The original owners of those martial arts will be enraged.”

“When publicly using the martial arts, we will use those of sects that have already been exterminated. We will hide the martial arts of Hwangbo Family, Zhongnan Sect, and Qingcheng Sect, and modify them over long years. Until they are unrecognizable from their original forms.”

Speaking of the top powers in the martial world, one speaks of the Seven Sects and Three Families.

Gi Sam-bok’s thieving sect had, over its 150-year history, stolen martial arts from the Hwangbo Family among the Three Families, and the Zhongnan Sect and Qingcheng Sect among the Seven Sects.

Wi Ji-baek snorted and said.

“Hmph, always the crafty one. Your petty scheming is the same as ever.”

Gi Sam-bok chuckled and downed his cup. Wi Ji-baek also drained a cup. Sam-bok’s eyes rolled as he spoke.

“By the way, about your disciple. His bone structure and comprehension are such that even calling him a heaven-sent prodigy would seem too little. Where did you pick up such a fellow?”

“There were just circumstances. He is a man with many ups and downs in life.”

“In terms of life’s ups and downs, few could match you.”

Among Gi Sam-bok’s acquaintances, there were few men with as many unspeakable twists and turns as Wi Ji-baek.

At least, training that physician Seo-baek or someone seemed to have helped him shed his lingering resentment and rage.

“After you started raising that physician kid, did you not also stop working on completing the pill?”

Wi Ji-baek nodded.

“Yes. I spent my entire youth searching for legendary miraculous medicines to complete this pill. I had completed half of it, but while raising that Seo-baek fellow, the knots in my heart loosened.”

Gi Sam-bok did not know why his friend had been so desperate about that pill. He had heard it was the last legacy of his destroyed sect.

He had been curious what would happen if that pill was completed and consumed. But now that his friend said his heart had softened and he gave up, as a friend, he felt relieved that Wi Ji-baek had let go of his obsession.

Still, he felt somewhat regretful too. Three legendary miraculous medicines whose existence was even doubtful, and the item that absorbed them could not be completed.

While Gi Sam-bok was lost in thought, Wi Ji-baek took a pouch from his chest and tossed it to his old friend.

“What is this now?”

Sam-bok, with a thief’s nimble hand movements, caught the pouch and asked.

“You said you are founding a martial family, so I am contributing a gift. While searching for those absurd legendary miraculous medicines, do you think I would not have found lesser ones? Three stalks of Hundred-Year Earth Ginseng.”

“Ah, well. Something this precious…”

Hundred-Year Earth Ginseng could increase internal energy by at least ten years per stalk. Depending on the ability of the one absorbing it, it could be as much as thirty years.

“Why not give it to your disciple?”

When Gi Sam-bok asked, Wi Ji-baek shook his head.

“That fellow, I intend to give him miraculous medicines only after he reaches at least peak level and opens his middle dantian. If he takes them before then, the killing intent in his upper dantian will devour all the medicinal energy.”

Gi Sam-bok quickly asked, grateful that Wi Ji-baek had brought it up first.

“About that, what on earth is that killing intent? Something that should not be lodged in a second-rate martial artist’s head is there. The killing intent is why the boy’s upper dantian is slightly opened and his comprehension is so exceptional.”

“Heavenly Killing Star.”

“…!”

At the name that made one’s spine go cold just hearing it, Gi Sam-bok’s eyes went wide.