Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 166 - To Collapse It Completely
Chapter 166 – To Collapse It Completely
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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 166 – To Collapse It Completely
They were eating the people inside the fortress. Surely servants or hunters who had originally worked at the Green Forest King’s stronghold. Or perhaps farmers and slash-and-burn settlers seized from across the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.
The masses of civilian prisoners created in the process of capturing the fortress. They were now being reduced to food inside.
Months of time during which they’d remained unshaken… this was ultimately why.
“The Cradle of the Demonic Path…”
Only now did Ju-seong feel he was truly facing the demonic path. Ordinary demons are evil alone. The truly terrible demons that bring ominous clouds upon the world compel others to become demons too.
The enemy was forcing Ju-seong to walk the demonic path.
‘If we keep dragging this out, time is technically on our side.’
Ju-seong was receiving food supplies from outside, while they were not. No matter how much they used civilians as food, eventually their supplies would run dry.
But that path was no different from walking the inhuman demonic path hand in hand with demons.
Giving up on being human and choosing the path of evil.
It meant ignoring the slaughter happening inside… waiting for all those pitiful people to be butchered and consumed like cattle and pigs.
So if Ju-seong wished to walk the righteous path, he had to attempt a disadvantageous siege; if he wanted an advantageous war of attrition, he would inevitably walk the demonic path.
Ju-seong ran his fingers through his hair and laughed as if mad.
“Haha…”
It would have been easier if the situation demanded he become a slaughter-spirit.
But the current situation demanded he become a base compromiser. That one step of compromise would be the first step into demonic darkness.
Ju-seong ground his teeth, ghostly fire blazing in his eyes.
“Monk.”
“Benefactor.”
“There will be no compromise. We will attack as soon as possible. Are there any objections?”
Won-gong shook his head.
“Namo Amitabha… It must be done as quickly as possible.”
* * *
He said they’d attack as soon as possible, but he couldn’t just charge in headfirst. If Ju-seong were alone he might have, but he was with the Guizhou martial artists.
Though bound by intertwined interests, they were people who had gathered at the Blood Flower Crone’s command based on Ju-seong’s request.
They too had fathers, mothers, children. He couldn’t burn their lives as kindling for his anger.
‘That too would be the demonic path.’
So this too was a trap.
If he attacked rashly out of immediate anger and meaninglessly spent his subordinates’ lives…
‘That too would be the same as those ancient overlords who slaughtered hundreds of thousands in the era of evil before the Han dynasty.’
Come to think of it, the warlords of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods might have been this land’s first demonic practitioners.
“First, climbing the cliff and attacking from behind is one option; second is digging a tunnel.”
At Ju-seong’s words, Won-gong asked skeptically.
“Tunneling would take too long.”
Ju-seong shook his head.
“I realized something from this. There seems to be a large underground cavern.”
His evidence was, horrifically, the human bone the man had thrown.
They were using humans as meat. The meat the man threw wasn’t salted meat… it was freshly sliced and roasted.
That meant they kept people alive and slaughtered them in order. In that case, wouldn’t those being dragged away scream horribly?
But Ju-seong had pressed his ear to the ground every chance he got to eavesdrop on the fortress interior, yet hadn’t heard anything resembling screams.
In fact, he’d heard almost nothing from inside the fortress at all.
That he couldn’t pick up any sound with Celestial Hearing at this distance was absurd.
Until now, Ju-seong had assumed they were maintaining extreme silence. That knowing about his sharp hearing, they were deliberately keeping quiet.
‘I overestimated myself.’
Even if Ju-seong was famous, how would those bizarre people who’d cut themselves off from the world know that Ju-seong’s hearing was exceptional?
Thanks to this, Ju-seong got a sense of things.
There must be a huge cavern beneath that fortress. That cavern was acting as a sound buffer, preventing him from noticing what was happening inside.
“So if we enter through that cavern, we can strike at their blind spot.”
Yi Pyo-eum nodded.
“That sounds like a more exquisite plan than scaling the cliff.”
“I never actually considered the cliff.”
In a normal war, a cliff would be impregnable, but in a war between martial artists, it was different.
Plenty of martial artists could easily scale cliffs dozens of zhang high. Obviously, unless they were fools, they’d be thoroughly guarding the cliff side.
Better to just charge the front gate than that.
Ju-seong immediately dismantled the camp and pulled his forces back. They moved deep into the forest, making it impossible for the enemy to gauge their movements.
Ju-seong sent his martial artists to find caves in the surroundings.
“A cavern that size couldn’t have been made by human hands. It must be an underground palace carved by nature. There must be a passage leading to the surface.”
Yi Pyo-eum added to this.
“The terrain of Guizhou and Guangxi is quite similar. Looking at Guizhou’s caves, most were carved by water. If you follow the nearby water sources carefully, you might find a clue.”
Thus, about a hundred martial artists spent half a month scouring the perimeter of Nine Dragons Stronghold.
Meanwhile, the demonic practitioners of the Nine Dragons Stronghold inexplicably didn’t show their faces.
‘What the hell are they doing?’
There was no way to know, but in any case, Ju-seong’s side was pressed for time.
“Commander! We found it!”
Fortunately, welcome news arrived. Looking at the face of the man who delivered it, he was the simple-minded youth Ju-seong had noticed early in the expedition.
“While pushing through the brush, our escort elder found it right away. It’s a big cave. It is gaping wide open.”
“What’s your name?”
“Me? Chu Dae-san. I’m the second son of the Chu Family House.”
“So they sent you because you’re not the heir?”
Chu Dae-san shrugged and replied.
“Pardon? That’s true, but they sent me because I’m the strongest.”
Only then did Ju-seong look Chu Dae-san up and down. Contrary to his childlike speech, he had a large build with solid muscle and flesh visible beneath his martial clothes.
Meanwhile, his face was pale and puffy like rice cake, giving him a cute quality.
Ju-seong looked at the man whose speech alone was childish and said.
“Lead the way. And see that one over there, Black Pig? Talk to him sometimes and play with him.”
“Me? Why me?”
“You seem like you’d get along well with Black Pig.”
Ju-seong dismissed him like that and had him lead the way. Indeed, the cave entrance wasn’t small. It was cleverly hidden by a large tree, with vines that must have been tangled for centuries hanging down, making it difficult to find.
He looked at the escort from the Chu Family House who had found the cave. An elderly man with deeply furrowed wrinkles, whose concern over escorting the child-like young master was evident.
“What is your name, elder?”
“Yes, Young Hero. This humble one’s name is Ha-jeon, serving as escort to Young Master Chu Dae-san.”
“How did you find this cave?”
“Caves generally house bats, so if the foul smell of their droppings carries on the wind, one must thoroughly search the vicinity. Of course, even then my old eyes failed to find it, but camping nearby and following the bats’ flight paths with my eyes led me here.”
Ju-seong nodded with satisfaction. Indeed, with more people came more talent. This Ha-jeon fellow had unremarkable martial arts, but he possessed rich experience and the insight to apply it aptly.
“Thanks to you, elder, we may save many lives. Please accept this token of gratitude.”
Ju-seong generously pulled a chunk of gold from his robes and handed it over. Ha-jeon accepted it with humble thanks.
Ju-seong entered the cave with Won-gong, Pyo-eum, Black Pig, and just a few martial artists.
Bats, alarmed by the intruders’ presence, fluttered out of the cave.
At first it was an ordinary cave, but after walking and walking through a corridor cluttered with stalagmites, stalactites, and stone pillars, a huge cavern appeared.
Only its form was somewhat different from what Ju-seong had imagined.
“My… How has the ground not collapsed all this time with this condition?”
Ju-seong was genuinely impressed.
The cavern was four or five times larger than he’d estimated. The height alone was over ten zhang. The width was comparable to a good-sized village.
What kept such a space from collapsing was that pillars of hard rock supported the ceiling.
Originally, all the softer rocks had been eroded by underground water and swept out, creating this cavern.
Won-gong chanted sutras in wonder at the marvel of nature.
“Namo Amitabha… To think such a massive space lurks underground. Could this not be called another realm entirely?”
Ju-seong held his torch and crossed the palace where darkness dwelled. The underground residents… centipedes, millipedes, and the like… recoiled from the unfamiliar warmth.
“Hmm, around here… It suddenly becomes clear in my head where we are.”
Since mastering all Three Divine Powers, Ju-seong had felt his sense of distance and spatial perception greatly enhanced.
The cavern Ju-seong now stood in extended just barely to the front of Nine Dragons Stronghold.
In other words, if he tunneled up from here…
With good luck, he’d enter inside the Nine Dragons Stronghold; with bad luck, he’d poke his head out right in front of the wall and be turned into a porcupine.
“Tunneling up from here is the inferior choice.”
Ju-seong concluded. Tunneling up had two problems.
First was uncertainty. It was impossible to gauge where exactly the hole would emerge. With luck, he could catch them off guard in an isolated spot, but he might also emerge in full view of the enemy.
In that case, he could hardly just wave awkwardly and back out.
Second was that large-scale movement was impossible.
Even with just a hundred martial artists, the more reason they needed to stay grouped in formation to fight effectively.
The possibility of being picked off one by one while moving through a tunnel could not be ignored.
“Hmm…”
Ju-seong wandered around, touching the pillars one by one, until a strange smile appeared on his lips.
“I think I get the idea.”
Ju-seong immediately turned and headed out. Then he approached the cart where they’d stored grain, camping supplies, and other miscellany.
“What are you looking for, Commander?”
Asked the martial artist guarding the cart. Come to think of it, Ju-seong’s title among the Guizhou martial artists had become ‘Commander.’
His image of commanding numerous martial artists without difficulty must have been impressive.
Ju-seong patted the martial artist’s shoulder and said.
“I came to find the keepsakes left by the ugly stonemason.”
Those keepsakes were none other than dozens of black iron spikes and a black iron hammer. He’d collected the spikes that the man had fired everywhere, thinking they might be useful.
He’d kept them with thoughts of distributing them as rewards when the expedition ended. Black iron was a precious metal, after all.
‘It’s true that everything has a use if you wait long enough.’
Ju-seong raised a pitch-black iron spike to eye level and smiled.
“Benefactor, what do you intend to do with that?”
At Won-gong’s question, Ju-seong replied.
“To collapse it completely.”