Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 167 - Do We Have to Run
Chapter 167 – Do We Have to Run
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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-Clang… Clang…
Strange metallic sounds echoed from within the cave. The Guizhou martial artists camped before it, murmuring among themselves.
“What on earth is that sound?”
“How would I know.”
“He hasn’t done anything useless so far, so he must have something in mind.”
“Maybe he’s sparring.”
“Well, to have that level of skill at such a young age, he must have learned jianghu’s finest martial arts. It makes sense that he wouldn’t want to show his sparring.”
Contrary to their expectations, Ju-seong was not engaged in any lofty sparring between proud martial artists.
“Haa… Damn it.”
Ju-seong wiped the beads of sweat from his brow and heaved a deep sigh.
Like a lizard, he was clambering across the cave’s walls and pillars, driving in black iron spikes as he went.
-Crack!
He started by embedding the spike into the wall with force-infused strikes. The stone forming the pillars and walls was remarkably hard.
Though not quite as hard as the bluestone used to build the Martial Alliance’s elevated platform, Ju-seong’s internal energy and arm strength alone couldn’t drive the spikes deep enough.
‘Well, of course.’
The cavern had been crouched beneath Nine Dragons Stronghold for centuries. A void this size had been supporting the massive stone fortress above… that’s what it meant.
The pillars and walls that remained after underground water eroded the rest had to be unusually harder than other rock.
The spike only embedded about knee-deep.
This is where The Man-Carving Artisan’s other keepsake came in… the black iron hammer.
-Claaa-ang… !
Ju-seong smiled at the brilliant yellow sparks that burst forth.
As with most precious metals of jianghu, black iron had excellent affinity for internal energy.
The difference from metals like cold iron or black steel was that it immediately discharged absorbed internal energy in all directions.
The material itself was hard, but it was unstable for holding internal energy.
From this characteristic, Ju-seong saw possibility.
‘Unfortunately, that means I have to do all the work alone.’
To create the scene Ju-seong envisioned, others’ help couldn’t be involved.
The spikes had to be driven at precisely the points he aimed for, at precise angles.
Ju-seong became a solitary stonemason, driving iron stakes one by one into the underground palace that nature had crafted.
All the while, he periodically descended to practice breathing exercises and meditation.
It might seem like he was recovering stamina and internal energy expended from working on the walls, but there was a greater reason.
-Crack!
When Ju-seong flicked his tongue sharply, he could feel the sound spreading outward in concentric waves.
He operated Celestial Hearing. ‘Hearing as if seeing.’ One of the most fundamental training exercises when he’d first learned Celestial Hearing from the Shadowless Divine Thief Gi Sam-bok.
He was shooting out sound and perceiving the surroundings through its echoes. Ju-seong sat alone in the dim cavern, ‘seeing’ the vast space through Celestial Hearing.
Ju-seong thought he understood why the Three Divine Powers were the path to awakening Buddha’s senses.
If one trained the three means of perceiving the world to their limits, wouldn’t those three fuse and open a new horizon of perception?
In Ju-seong’s mind, the winding curved walls and the pillars standing like trees in a sparse forest were mapped as if he could reach out and touch them.
His tightly closed eyelids trembled.
He was perceiving the space, gauging the positions of the driven spikes one by one, and sketching dozens, hundreds of “trajectories.”
-Drip, drip.
Blood trickled from his nose, running down his chin and falling onto his clothes.
“Hup, hah. Damn it. This isn’t meant for humans.”
Ju-seong rubbed his brow and cursed. When he pushed his upper dantian to the limit to accelerate his thinking, his head screamed like this.
Ju-seong wiped the nosebleed and brushed himself off to stand. Now was not the time to fret over personal pain.
Right now, people inside Nine Dragons Stronghold were being treated as slabs of meat. If beasts tore apart and ate humans as food, that was understandable.
But humans must not do such things. In Ju-seong’s view, such barbarism belonged only to humans before the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
He had to end this as quickly as possible.
“Now, back to work.”
Ju-seong became a lizard once more.
* * *
“What on earth have you been doing for seven days and nights, benefactor? Only strange sounds keep coming from the cave.”
Ju-seong hadn’t briefed Won-gong or Pyo-eum either. He simply didn’t think he could make them understand in the first place.
Second, he needed to get to work immediately, and he hadn’t taken any breaks during work… just alternating between work, meals, and sleep.
He wanted to cut his sleep too, but minimum combat ability had to be maintained, so a proper amount of rest was unavoidable.
Ju-seong smiled slightly as he led the leadership and several Guizhou martial artists into the cave.
“Today, everyone’s in for a good show.”
“Elder, I’m excited, damn it!”
The Chu Family House’s second son bounced excitedly, slapping his escort. Ha-jeon, the escort, stroked his graying beard and sighed.
“Young Master, please maintain your dignity.”
Ignoring Ha-jeon’s scolding, Black Pig chimed in from beside them.
“Black Pig is excited too!”
Ju-seong had told Chu Dae-san a few days ago to go play with Black Pig, and in those few days, the two had hit it off splendidly.
The big white one and the equally huge black one together…
‘Two idiots united.’
Ju-seong nodded. If two half-wits joined forces, wouldn’t they have at least one person’s worth of brains? That was Ju-seong’s arithmetic.
After walking and murmuring for a while, they reached the cavern. When Ju-seong casually tossed his torch, the cavern brightened as it caught the yellow light.
And they saw.
“Whoa…”
“After days of work, this is…”
The result of Ju-seong’s days of toil.
“Is that all?”
Won-gong asked, tilting his head. The Guizhou martial artists seemed to think similarly and rustled among themselves.
As they said… what difference would barely forty or so iron spikes make in that vast cavern?
Ju-seong chuckled.
“I figured you’d all say that. Let me show you. Step aside, baldy.”
Bitter from the harsh review, Ju-seong pushed Won-gong aside and took his place.
Ju-seong positioned his feet on the marks he’d pre-carved in the stone with his Black Iron Claws, then pulled out Black Myriad Year Iron spheres and rolled them in his palm.
-Hummm…
The spheres resonated with internal energy, slowly glowing yellow. Around them shimmered the blood-red energy distinctive of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art’s Red Crow.
Spheres infused to their limit with internal energy. Ju-seong savored the formula of the Divine Finger Flicking Technique once more, then lightly flicked his index finger.
Unlike the light motion, the sound was intense.
-Thooom… !
A dull yet profoundly deep reverberation echoed through the cavern, and a bright-red trajectory sliced across the darkness.
-…Clang!
The first impact. Before the audience could flinch and turn to look, the deflected sphere struck something else and rang out again.
Ju-seong flicked the second sphere around the third metallic ring.
He sent the third sphere when the second sphere made its second sound.
He flicked the fourth sphere when the third made its fifth sound.
It was prediction and calculation pushed to the limit… a method to maximize the resonance of the black iron spikes.
Soon all ten iron spheres left Ju-seong’s hand, and the cavern was filled with madly echoing impacts.
-Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
Additionally, sparks flew wildly though the cavern, lighting it up red. Thanks to that, the audience could see.
In the spark-illuminated cavern, dozens upon hundreds of bright-red trajectories endlessly changed direction and moved.
Some spheres met mid-air, bouncing off each other and flying in their own trajectories.
After bouncing, they invariably struck the heads of black iron spikes and ricocheted in different directions.
The black iron spikes were ceaselessly battered, resonating tremendously and trembling.
-Hummmm, hummm, hummmm…
The entire cavern seemed to be moaning. Beneath the dizzingly intense impacts lay a low, heavy resonance.
Did a human dare, with a flick of a finger, to collapse the underground palace that nature had crafted over millennia?
A moan that seemed to express such fury.
But Ju-seong’s design was cold and precise.
-Crack, crack-crack…
Gradually, ominous sounds began to mix in. Dust sifted down from the ceiling, and fine cracks like spiderwebs spread across the entire cavern.
Ju-seong quickly ordered all martial artists except Won-gong to evacuate outside.
“Keep your wits and run! If you don’t want to lay your grave here instead of enjoying the show! Get out and wait at the predetermined location!”
They had been watching the magnificent fireworks display lost in wonder, but Ju-seong’s shout snapped them back to attention and they ran.
Ju-seong had brought them in case his calculations were wrong and the plan failed, to quickly retrieve the black iron spikes.
Since things were proceeding as designed, now he had to send them out.
“B-benefactor. Why am I still here?”
Won-gong alone remained. Ju-seong smiled and draped an arm over his shoulder.
“Our monk has a job to do.”
-Thoom-thoom-thoom…!
The spheres, having completed their final impacts, returned one by one to Ju-seong’s hand. He couldn’t abandon precious weapons… he’d calculated their return trajectories too.
-Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh! Crack, crumble, snap…
The cavern seemed on the verge of collapse but stood waiting, as if anticipating one final blow.
Ju-seong said to Won-gong.
“So… There might be demons hiding in this dark cave, so please deliver an exorcising cry for us, Monk.”
In other words… fire one Lion’s Roar.
“Haa… Benefactor, I’ve wanted to say this for a while, but I am not your tool.”
“Fire the Lion’s Roar!”
At Ju-seong’s shout, Won-gong roared a thunderous Lion’s Roar into the cavern.
“………..!”
Sound was devoured. When he unleashed that ancient cry… loud enough to deafen… into the cavern, the sturdy pillars and walls that had supported the ground for millennia finally began to crumble.
Ju-seong slowly backed away, speaking.
“Monk, did you know this?”
“What, benefactor?”
“I realized while staying here for days… there’s quite a lot of water beyond these walls.”
“Hmm, why would that be?”
“It’s likely that large lake inside Nine Dragons Stronghold.”
“Ah. So beyond the hard bedrock was the lake’s wall.”
“Mm. That’s right.”
“Is that why you evacuated the Guizhou martial artists to high ground before entering?”
“Mm. That’s right.”
Won-gong’s face went white as a sheet as he turned to Ju-seong with a serious expression.
“Do we have to run?”
“Mm. That’s right.”
“Namo Amita-sonofabitch!”
Won-gong cursed with a strange Buddhist chant and ran out first; Ju-seong quickly followed at his heels.
-Rumble-rumble, crash!
From behind came the strange sound of water bursting through a blocked hole.
And then came a terrifying roar that made even Won-gong’s Lion’s Roar seem like ‘nothing much.’
The sound of heaven and earth collapsing.
* * *
A handsome youth stood atop the wall, savoring the wind.
He recalled the fellow who had been making a fuss at this wall nearly a month ago.
A scoff escaped him.
“Pathetic fool. So you decided to hold out till the end?”
Not showing his face, but he must be lurking somewhere in that forest.
He’d apparently decided to wait until the ‘food’ ran out.
“In that time, your spirit will be worn down. You’ve fallen into the ancient mental trap of the demonic path.”
Just as he was muttering triumphantly, he felt the ground beneath him lurch for an instant.
“…Hm?”
Was it his imagination?
He tilted his head, wondering…
-…Rumble-rumble.
Thunder sounded though the sky was clear. No, it wasn’t coming from the sky.
The man looked down and his expression froze completely.
The ground was collapsing.