Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 168 - Since Heaven Has Laid the Gameboard
Chapter 168 – Since Heaven Has Laid the Gameboard
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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 168 – Since Heaven Has Laid the Gameboard
-Rumble-rumble…!
Ju-seong and Won-gong ran. How fast did they run? So fast that for a moment, he felt the illusion that his eyebrows were streaming back.
“Ju-seong, you damn… !”
An oath Ju-seong couldn’t believe Won-gong would utter grazed his ears like something from a dream.
Ju-seong ran toward the white shafts of light shining through from the cave entrance. Being pushed to such extremes automatically seemed to train his lightness arts.
‘Though this doesn’t seem like the time for enlightenment…’
The two barely made it out of the cave and quickly darted to the side.
The instant they emerged, a jet of water laden with unimaginable force burst from the cave mouth.
-BOOOM!!
It was a powerful torrent mixed with shards of incredibly hard rock. What master in the world could withstand that water jet?
Trees were uprooted like weeds, and boulder-sized rocks tumbled like pebbles.
Ju-seong and Won-gong kept running even after escaping the cave.
Naturally so… the cave entrance was collapsing and widening.
Only after gaining distance and finding their composure could Ju-seong take in the sight of Nine Dragons Stronghold in the distance.
“…Insane.”
Ju-seong muttered vacantly.
“I didn’t mean to wreck it that much.”
-Rumble-crash!
Contrary to Ju-seong’s calculations, the entire foundation where Nine Dragons Stronghold sat was collapsing.
When Ju-seong broke through the cavern walls, the groundwater trapped behind had burst out. With the space the groundwater had filled now empty, the foundation above instantly weakened and collapsed together.
The one mercy was that while the interior space of Nine Dragons Stronghold had mostly caved in and its buildings crumbled, the walls alone had spectacularly collapsed.
“The walls are that thick and tall, so they must be that heavy.”
The walls of Nine Dragons Stronghold had withstood attacks from Guangxi’s wild people, tribal chiefs, and even Han Chinese dynasties since ancient times.
The terrifying cavalry of those former dynasties couldn’t even reach the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains before turning back.
Terrain aside, those walls must have been indescribably sturdy.
It was backed by mountains, with a large lake inside for water. If you build walls, it becomes truly impregnable.
They must have thought it a heaven-sent iron fortress.
‘Until I pulled this stunt.’
Ju-seong dashed to where the Guizhou martial artists were waiting and shouted.
“Strike force, charge… !”
The Guizhou martial artists who’d been standing in formation were stunned by the impossible feat Ju-seong had achieved, but when he joined them, they immediately charged toward the collapsing fortress.
“Black Pig, kill them all!”
Ju-seong, their leader and strongest, took the vanguard with an excited Black Pig, leading the charge.
In martial artists’ battles, it was common for the leader and strongest to take the front. Tactics mattered, but ultimately the essence was contests of martial prowess.
The foundation where the fortress walls had stood had collapsed, but the debris and bricks that made up the walls had filled the hole… it was manageable to cross.
Especially for martial artists who’d trained in lightness arts.
Ju-seong skimmed across the uneven terrain like a swallow over water, charging in.
Where the walls had fallen, enemies had already reorganized and were waiting.
From their composure, Ju-seong sensed this fight wouldn’t be easy.
At their head stood a handsome youth in a pitch-black robe. His hair was disheveled, and dark internal energy wrapped around the longsword in his hand.
Ju-seong intended to crush them with momentum from the start.
When the distance closed to ten zhang, Ju-seong leaped up.
Then, wrapping massive internal energy around both hands, he dropped an Infinite Palm technique.
A visage of twin palms filling the view. But the youth calmly flicked his sword once and slashed from outside to inside as if sweeping.
-Screech-crack!
When yin and yang energy met, a terrifying wave of force burst from their point of contact. Ju-seong saw his palm force futilely sliced apart and his eyelid twitched.
Drawing closer, Ju-seong noticed the youth’s expression also held considerable alarm.
Ju-seong smirked and jeered.
“That’s why you shouldn’t have provoked me. I’m the kind of person who can’t stand provocation and mockery… when someone gets on my nerves, I do this… overturn heaven and earth.”
The youth looked incredulous and asked.
“I am curious. What on earth did you do?”
“What did I do? Heaven was enraged by your deeds and sank the ground.”
The youth’s face went cold at Ju-seong’s mockery; he swung his sword.
-Schang!
Ju-seong deflected the blue-green sword energy that had appeared before his eyes in an instant. He cocked his head and asked.
“What’s your name?”
“I have no name until I inherit my master’s title. Just call me Little Hundun.”
He was Hundun’s disciple. In Ju-seong’s estimation, Hundun was likely the strongest of the four Venerables.
After all, those terrifying Night Guests were Hundun Venerable’s attendants. One thing Ju-seong had felt fighting Night Guests so far: no matter how strong you were, one careless moment meant losing your head.
Especially those with bizarre tactics like Laying in Wait While Feigning Corpses or Forgetting Self and Time… they made his blood run cold whenever he thought of them.
Ju-seong drew Black Iron Claws in one hand and Heavenly Silkworm Thread in the other as he spoke.
“Whether it’s Little Hundun or Little Chaos, you die today. Heaven overturned the earth and laid the gameboard, so it’s time for punishment, you cannibal monster.”
“Think you can manage with your level of skill?”
Hundun’s disciple smirked, then transformed the blue-green sword energy blazing on his longsword.
-Whee-eee…
A chilling sword cry like northern gales rang out. The mist-like flickering sword energy suddenly aligned rigidly.
“This is Sword Edge. He is a master at the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown level!”
Ju-seong whirled around and fled without looking back.
The level called ultra-peak in the world was the domain of the top-ranked powerhouses of jianghu. No matter how talented Ju-seong was at overturning heaven and earth, the fact that he was currently weak was undeniable.
“Damn, stop right there!”
The youth was incredulous but gave chase.
The clash between the two forces had already begun. Each side’s priority was taking down the enemy leader.
The terrain had become chaotic, making the battlefield a scattered melee.
Ju-seong exploited this, fleeing toward Nine Dragons Stronghold instead. Various pavilions and huts greeted him amid the disorder.
“This is indeed the origin of the Green Forest. It is an impressive scale.”
The interior of Nine Dragons Stronghold was filled with rough slopes and fantastic rock formations like the outside, but the exquisitely built pavilions and facilities between them were noteworthy.
Of course, he had no leisure to sightsee someone else’s house.
-Screee-eek!
Goosebump-inducing slash marks were carved into the rock where Ju-seong had been standing.
Ju-seong stiffened and immediately darted away, seeing the white frost spreading around them.
The youth couldn’t yet launch his Sword Edge as a projectile, so his attainments within Three Flowers stage weren’t particularly high.
Recalling the old man called Sword Saint’s techniques, Ju-seong felt anew just how ridiculous they were.
That man had drawn Sword Edge into threads and moved them at will through the air.
Even now, incomparably stronger than back then, he was confident that if he fought that old man, he’d be chopped into pieces in one exchange… no, in one blow.
‘That guy isn’t on that level.’
That didn’t mean Ju-seong could face him head-on, however.
Sword Edge was an asymmetric advantage. Without wielding the same, one couldn’t even compete.
Perhaps the silk gauntlets woven from Heavenly Silkworm Thread could hold out a bit, but Ju-seong couldn’t expect much from such external aids.
It wasn’t just Sword Edge that was the problem.
‘His way of seeing the world itself must be different.’
It wasn’t as if all else were equal and he’d just gained Sword Edge. Sword Edge was more of a byproduct.
As a martial artist and cultivator, he had shattered a lofty barrier. Even clashing with just techniques without internal energy, defeating him would be unlikely.
‘I have to fight in a realm beyond martial arts.’
Ju-seong believed in his own strength. Not his strength as a martial artist. He believed in his talent for extinguishing other lives as a living being.
He recalled the Blood Flower Crone.
‘What did that old hag say again…’
Just as he was recalling the hunched old woman, he saw sword energy aimed at his waist and barely dodged in fright.
-Schwick!
“Stop right there! Punishment in heaven’s name upon this cannibal… where do you think you’re going?!”
Amazingly, his lightness arts were actually superior to Little Hundun’s. The youth was slightly faster in raw speed, but Ju-seong’s direction-changing techniques were more refined.
After all, when had that man ever fled or relentlessly chased someone to the death?
‘He’s probably always fought with subordinates surrounding the enemy. He’d have no crises to flee from either.’
Ju-seong ran and ran.
He was rolling shamelessly with Tumbling Bones Dancing Fist techniques, leaping onto roofs then grabbing rocks to spin halfway around, braking sharply to change direction again, leaping across rocks and slipping down slopes on his behind, and laughing loudly all the while.
“Wahaha…! Chase me a hundred days… see if you can catch me!”
As he ran, Ju-seong diligently surveyed the terrain.
Looking for the location to stake a single decisive gambit.
Then Ju-seong spotted it.
“…”
It was a huge storehouse with a roof thatched with straw. The height was comparable to a two-story building, but inside had no floor divisions.
Stepping inside, the smell of blood hit him. Ju-seong saw hooks hanging from the ceiling like vines, with human body parts dangling from their tips like fruit.
And he decided.
“…Your grave will be right here.”
Ju-seong strung Heavenly Silkworm Thread across hooks and pillars all around before the youth burst in.
Time allowed was insufficient. Just as Ju-seong barely placed seven or eight strands of Heavenly Silkworm Thread, the door slammed open and the youth appeared.
He was breathing roughly… unbecoming of a master. Not from exhaustion, but from rage.
“How fitting that you crawled in here. I’ll chop you up and roast you as well.”
Ju-seong narrowed his eyes, observing him through the darkness. Come to think of it, the man commanded yin energy.
That would explain the inverted taiji symbol on the flag.
But thinking about it, didn’t ‘Hundun’ refer to that primordial state when earth and heaven, yin and yang, were not yet separated? So why did this fellow use only yin energy?
Ju-seong asked.
“Strange. I heard the Four Fierce Ones each have only one disciple.”
The youth flinched and stopped in his tracks. Ju-seong’s words seemed to have struck home.
“Is there perhaps another disciple who uses yang offense?”
At Ju-seong’s question, the youth smiled even more rigidly.
“You’re clever. But in a true martial artist’s battle, tricks are useless. Let me teach you that.”
He seemed to have boundless pride in his martial arts. But Ju-seong noticed the composure had already drained from his speech and manner.
The gaze that had looked down like a dark immortal from atop the wall was nowhere to be found.
After all, who could remain calm before someone who sank the very ground?
Lack of composure led to narrowed vision. The Heavenly Silkworm Thread was already hard to spot without enhancing one’s sight. This storehouse was shrouded in darkness, and blood smeared everywhere confused the eyes.
The youth charged; Ju-seong retreated hard and yanked the Heavenly Silkworm Thread tight.
“Pathetic tricks!”
The youth roared and swung his Sword Edge-wrapped blade at extreme speed.
Even Heavenly Silkworm Thread couldn’t withstand Sword Edge. Ju-seong hastily withdrew the internal energy he’d infused.
From the moment internal energy was infused, a weapon became an extension of one’s limbs. If that weapon broke or snapped, the martial artist suffered internal injury.
With even the infused internal energy withdrawn, the Heavenly Silkworm Thread was helplessly severed by the terrible Sword Edge.
-Tat-tat-tat-toot!
But that was exactly what Ju-seong aimed for. The moment the youth used internal energy for his slash…
As Ju-seong shook his sleeves, a brilliant golden shimmer filled the entire storehouse.
-Pffhah!
Little Hundun’s eyes flew wide with the sensation that all his hair was standing on end from extreme danger.
It was Soul-Severing Sand. Demonic poison sand that could sever even the soul was rushing toward him.