Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 162 - Let's Weave a Spiderweb
Chapter 162 – Let’s Weave a Spiderweb
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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 162 – Let’s Weave a Spiderweb
Heaven-Slashing Blade Emperor was brutally ruined under Black Pig’s hands. Ju-seong watched the scene with sunken eyes.
Yi Pyo-eum, standing beside him, asked.
“That man seemed like a simpleton, but looking at his torture technique, he doesn’t seem that way?”
Ju-seong turned to Pyo-eum and replied, “As you say, he is a half-wit simpleton. Would such a person think with his own head and perform that kind of torture? He’s just paying back exactly what was done to him.” Black Pig was using those powerful hands to pull out Heaven-Slashing Blade Emperor’s fingernails one by one; because his touch was so crude, sometimes an entire finger came off. Each time, Heaven-Slashing Blade Emperor let out a long scream and cursed Black Pig, begging heaven to send thunderbolts down on everyone present. But heaven had no reason to move and help one who had abandoned the virtue it bestowed upon humans, discarding it like worn-out shoes. Once Ju-seong confirmed the light had died from his eyes, he dragged over a chair prepared by the nearby villagers and sat down in front of the man.
He looked at Black Pig standing dully beside him and asked.
“You done?”
Black Pig wiped the blood splattered on his face and nodded.
“Black Pig, done.”
Ju-seong grabbed Heaven-Slashing Blade Emperor by the collar and took a long breath. When he activated Celestial Nose, the odor of sin imbued in the man’s clothes scratched his mucous membranes and raked through his nasal passages.
Ju-seong frowned and shoved him away roughly.
“What’s your name?”
Heaven-Slashing Blade Emperor spat out bloody saliva and answered.
“My name before joining the Battle Maniacs was Yuk Jeon-hoe.”
“How did you come to join the Battle Maniacs?”
“When I was ten, I stabbed a sleeping beggar gang boss to death. That caught the eye of wandering dark path thugs, so I was traded around here and there and ended up drifting in.”
Ju-seong nodded, then asked again.
“I hear those of you who are strong are called the Nine Generals?”
“That’s right.”
“I heard six of them went into the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, and about ten or so other strong Battle Maniacs accompanied them.”
“…That’s also right. I don’t know how much information leaked.”
This was information extracted from Thunderclap Axe Ghost when they’d first stopped in Guangxi. The Battle Maniacs had excellent fighting skills, but they didn’t seem to have received proper training in enduring torture or interrogation.
Ju-seong slowly nodded, then spoke.
“I heard the Night Guests from Sarma joined them as well. Are the Night Guests also a group that cultivates under the Demonic Venerables like you?”
“…”
The moment the man showed hesitation, Ju-seong roughly reached out and shattered his collarbone.
“Grraahh…!”
“Answer.”
“Th-that’s right! The Night Guests are acolytes of Hundun Venerable!”
“Hundun, is it? What do the Demonic Venerables want? Are they planning to seize Jiangnan and properly clash with the orthodox sects?”
“How would I know the grand schemes of the Venerables! Their plans are immeasurably profound and unpredictable, and their power is immeasurably vast! Insignificant creatures like you or me cannot presume to guess… ”
-Slap!
Ju-seong slapped him across the face, cutting off his fanatical chanting.
“I’d appreciate it if you just answered what you’re asked.”
“…Heh. You don’t intend to let me live, do you?”
“If you answer well, I can send you off painlessly.”
“No need. He’ll have already come by now.”
Heaven-Slashing Blade Emperor smirked, then raised his voice and shouted with all his might.
“Fire… !”
-BANG… ! Shwishhh!
A metallic sound rattled his eardrums, followed by an incredibly sharp whistling from somewhere in the distance. Ju-seong felt a momentary threat and quickly evaded. A jet-black trajectory tore Heaven-Slashing Blade Emperor’s head to pieces as it passed through. Then another metallic sound rang out, and after a brief interval, another trajectory flew in, heading straight for Ju-seong’s center-line vital points.
Ju-seong narrowed his eyes and deployed Crimson Lotus Palm.
-Clang!
Even though he’d deployed the grafting technique to its utmost, he couldn’t fully dissipate the force contained in the hidden weapon… his palm tingled.
“Well, well. So there’s someone who uses this as a hidden weapon.”
What lay strewn on the ground was a spike made of black iron.
Ju-seong activated Celestial Eye to its maximum, pulling in the black form standing on a distant ridge.
“What the…”
A rough-looking man of sturdy build, with a dirty headband stained with sweat, stood there holding a hammer in one hand and a spike in the other. He must have struck the spike with that hammer to launch it. Spikes were originally quite heavy objects, and this one was made of black iron at that. If he threw it with pure arm strength rather than striking it with a hammer, his range would be halved. His outfit made him look like an ordinary stonemason at first glance, but his attack method was bizarre… above all, since he wasn’t holding the same weapon in both hands, this fellow was definitely a Night Guest.
‘So the Night Guests are guarding the perimeter of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains and acting as scouts.’
They hadn’t concentrated all resources on hunting the Green Forest King.
The Battle Maniacs were deployed for combat, while the Night Guests… being assassins by origin… handled intelligence gathering and perimeter security.
Just as Ju-seong had divided his subordinates according to their uses, so had they.
He couldn’t chase him from this distance anyway. Just from his appearance, the man was confident in his lightness arts.
Instead, Ju-seong stared directly at him and shouted.
“Now you’re the prey! Go tell them. The Mad Dragon is coming.”
The stonemason glared at Ju-seong, then shouted back.
“I, The Man-Carving Artisan, swear to carve you into a masterpiece.”
The Man-Carving Artisan. It meant a stonemason who carves people. Indeed, a bizarre alias. Ju-seong nodded and waved warmly.
“If you’re done with your business, hurry along. Go fornicate with a statue you carved yourself. Looking at your face, you seem like you’d have to.”
This was genuinely malicious mockery for the first time in a while. Even from this distance, the man’s face visibly contorted.
“You look even uglier when you’re angry, Lord The Man-Carving Artisan!”
Without a word in reply, the stonemason floated a spike in his left hand into the air, then struck its head hard with his hammer.
Sparks burst out like firecrackers.
-Shwishhh!
A black trajectory viciously crossed the flat ground, flying toward where the Guizhou martial artists stood.
Ju-seong quickly flicked a Black Myriad Year Iron sphere to knock away the spike.
When he turned back, The Man-Carving Artisan had vanished somewhere.
‘The back of my head is going to itch.’
Even Ju-seong couldn’t maintain iron-tight vigilance in all directions at all times.
Currently, the limit at which Ju-seong could perceive movement without using the Three Divine Powers was roughly thirty zhang.
Naturally, that fell far short of that fellow’s range. From a distance, the man was clearly a considerable expert.
The force in the spike he’d fired, the internal energy that kept his voice from being muffled even when shouting from that far away. Added to that, the confidence and the disposition unique to a martial artist standing on solid ground.
He was likely among the higher ranks of the Night Guests.
Ju-seong clasped his hands behind his back and asked the leadership of the Guangxi expedition.
“What should we do, everyone?”
Won-gong, being weak in stratagems and machinations, just shrugged helplessly with a troubled expression.
But the Blood Flower Crone’s sons and daughters each seemed to have their own plans.
Yang So-an spoke first.
“How about pursuing him to the death? That fellow is threatening. The leadership could die unexpectedly.”
Ju-seong shook his head.
“Right now we need to drive deep into the heart of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains and aim for a single decisive strike… we can’t spend time on such things.”
Yi Pyo-eum offered her opinion next.
“What if we spread out widely after entering the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains? To cover as wide an area as possible for surveillance.”
Ju-seong shook his head more emphatically.
“Lady Pyo-eum shouldn’t serve in the military. If we scatter our forces, we’ll be picked off one by one. There isn’t just that fellow in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, you know?”
It was Eight-Hook Ghost’s turn. He smiled and said to his younger siblings.
“Have you forgotten whose children we are? Our adoptive mother is called the Venomous Spider of Guizhou.”
He turned to look at Ju-seong and said.
“Let’s become spiders. Deadly venomous spiders that lay webs and wait for prey.”
Ju-seong smiled slightly and nodded.
“Spiders, I like it. Come here, Monk Won-gong.”
“…Why?”
Ju-seong pressed his body against Won-gong’s back and said.
“If we do this, we’ve completed a spider with eight legs. Now, let’s go catch Night Guests.”
“…”
Everyone was stunned by Ju-seong’s terrible joke. Ju-seong straightened his face and withdrew, saying.
“Stop joking around, Monk. Everyone’s being serious right now.”
Won-gong was so dumbfounded he could only gape. Ju-seong ignored him and continued shamelessly.
“Elder Brother Eight-Hook Ghost said something good. Let’s try weaving a spiderweb of people.”
* * *
-Shwick!
The sound of an arrow cutting through the air was refreshing.
-Thwack!
The prey collapsed with a single scream.
“Direct hit!”
A spirited voice sounded, and a handsome man expressionlessly lowered his bow.
He sighed and said.
“Damn tediously boring. It’s already been several months here.”
The man who had just shouted ‘direct hit’ quickly ran over, grabbed the prey’s hair, and slit its throat.
A middle-aged man holding two daggers. His movements and bladework were extraordinary, yet such a man was now fawning over a young greenhorn.
“Young Master, what shall we do with this one?”
The youth made a bored face and waggled his finger.
The middle-aged man nodded and cut off the prey’s head. With just one tap of his dagger, the human neck was severed through bone.
It looked like an ordinary hunting scene of some wealthy family’s son.
If this weren’t the deepest heart of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains. And if the prey weren’t a human bound tightly with rope.
The middle-aged man quickly brought back the severed head. The youth took it and met eyes with the wide-staring gaze.
“A hero who roamed jianghu as the Green Forest’s Inspecting Death Messenger, making various mountain fortresses tremble…”
The youth sneered, then reached out to provocatively tap the corpse’s chin. Even though the dead man glared at him with bulging eyes, the youth seemed to feel not the slightest discomfort.
As if he himself were the most terrible ghost of all.
Soon he turned and headed somewhere. The middle-aged man followed like a shadow behind him.
How long did they walk? Before them appeared a lake shrouded in mist. In the center of the lake, a single island rose tall.
No, it looked like one, but up close it was a maze of countless reefs and rocky islets.
“Damned bastard.”
The youth twisted the corner of his lips and muttered quietly.
He picked a small boat prepared by the lakeshore and tossed the head into it. It was one of the things carpenters they’d dragged along were producing day after day.
The youth kicked the boat hard. His technique was exquisite… the boat glided forward swiftly and straight without a single wobble, parting the waters.
Soon the boat’s stern was swallowed by the fog.
The youth raised his voice and shouted.
“Another one of your subordinates is dead… ! Green Forest King, aren’t you ashamed of that title! Hurry up and crawl out so we can cross blades!”
But only echoes answered.
“Haa…”
The youth ran his pale, slender fingers through his hair in annoyance.
The middle-aged man bowed his head and said.
“Young Master, please don’t be too angry. That man is surely…”
-Boom!
Before the middle-aged man could finish, the youth’s pitch-black palm force struck the water’s surface hard.
A massive ripple spread. The surface undulated like silk fabric, as if the entire lake might heave.
Perhaps because he’d deeply cultivated yin energy, the water droplets that splashed up froze in midair, leaving a moment’s sparkle before falling.
But how could a human’s actions overturn great nature? The lake swallowed even that terrifying palm force and returned to its original calm as if nothing had happened.
The youth murmured quietly.
“Even now, that man is constantly pulling ahead of me…”
His master was the most exalted among the four Venerables of the Cradle of the Demonic Path, the only Venerable with the right to take not one but two disciples.
But the Cradle of the Demonic Path was strictly impartial with no exceptions.
Only one would survive.
The youth pierced the far side of the lake where his massive prey was hiding with his gaze.