Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 173 - Distribution of Merits
Chapter 173 – Distribution of Merits
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Ju-seong stared at the two characters on Pyo-eum’s forehead with blank eyes.
Tang Jeo.
It meant ‘Lustful Pig.’
Ju-seong noticed the handwriting was identical to the characters tattooed on the back of Black Pig’s head.
Now he understood why Yi Pyo-eum had momentarily stiffened when Black Pig revealed his tattoo.
Why Yi Pyo-eum wasn’t performing to her usual level and was faltering. He didn’t know the full circumstances, but he could clearly tell what kind of man this Flying Dragon Divine Brush was.
He was an uncreative bastard who used “pig” as an insult twice. He was a perverted freak who took endless pleasure in making others miserable.
In Ju-seong’s observation, those who walked the righteous path were all somewhat similar.
But these demonic practitioners… each one was messed up in their own unique way, a hundred people with a hundred different kinds of craziness.
Ju-seong muttered.
“I was born an entertainer, so I’d like to live laughing my head off… but these demon path bastards won’t leave me alone.”
-BOOM!
He released internal energy from his Yongquan point, and a burst of crimson flames erupted behind him.
In that fire, the thugs lying behind him screamed and squirmed.
-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.
A coldly hardened face. Precisely placed steps.
Only the flickering sparks instead of footprints hinted at Ju-seong’s fury.
Perhaps it wasn’t a misguided choice that someone with such a fiery temperament had learned such a fierce yang art.
Flying Dragon Divine Brush spotted Ju-seong and twisted his lips as he called out.
“Well now, supposed martial artists combining three against one. Indeed, worthless strays do tend to pack together!”
The provocation didn’t even enter Ju-seong’s ears. When his head truly heated up, words lost meaning… the same then as now.
It wasn’t that his ears stopped working. Words simply lost meaning, interpreted as mere vibrations of vocal cords.
In the chaotic parade of floating sounds and shapes, only one character occupied Ju-seong’s mind.
Kill.
That alone flickered there.
Ju-seong leaped up and spun once in midair.
-FLUTTER!
His long robe’s hem spread out as if catching the wind like a sail.
“…Shower of Ten Thousand Flowers.”
-WHISPER-WHISPER-WHISPER…
Following Ju-seong’s gloomily muttering voice, countless hidden weapons poured down like whispered rain.
Flying Dragon Divine Brush looked at the silver rain filling his vision and his eyes trembled.
“Fine, let’s see what you’ve got!”
He firmly pressed the heads of both brushes and swept them fiercely.
-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH.
The iron bristles densely packed at the brush tips shot out simultaneously, soaring into the air.
-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Though just needles and bristles colliding, they created the sound of roasting beans, sparks dancing in the air.
At a glance, the attacks appeared to have cancelled out, but…
Ju-seong, spinning in the air, coldly declared.
“Not even close.”
Pouring all his internal energy, even using the recoil of his robe unfurling to launch hidden weapons… that was the technique of Shower of Ten Thousand Flowers.
Iron bristles shot upward using only arm strength couldn’t possibly block this technique.
About half the needles lost their force and fell, but half continued raining down.
Flying Dragon Divine Brush hurriedly threw aside his brushes and sent out twin palm strikes.
-BANG!
Two-tenths blocked directly by palm force, another two-tenths deflected by the wind pressure.
Only one-tenth remained.
But the terrifying thing about this attack was that even a mere three-hundredths of the needles landing was absolutely lethal.
Flying Dragon Divine Brush shook his sleeves again to knock away the needles, but ultimately two needles lodged in his chest and shoulder.
“Tch, this is nothing.”
Flying Dragon Divine Brush grimaced. He was among the strongest of the Battle Maniacs. Getting pricked by a couple of poison needles? He could surely suppress that.
…Or so he thought.
Ju-seong, having landed, ground out coldly.
“Try it.”
The Human-Faced Spider’s water poison began racing through his blood vessels. His internal tissues dissolved into soft mush.
The water poison melted through blood vessel walls and hitched a ride on Flying Dragon Divine Brush’s still-violently-circulating meridians.
“GYAAAAH…!”
Flying Dragon Divine Brush quickly pressed pressure points on his chest where the pain was unbearable, but the water poison dissolved even the internal energy blocking his meridians and swept through his entire body.
Internal energy flow was disrupted, gaps that shouldn’t exist appearing between meridians.
Flying Dragon Divine Brush desperately surged his internal energy even more violently.
“I’ll take you with me!”
Having already been poisoned, raising his internal energy increased blood pressure, causing blood to burst spontaneously from his skin.
Blood flowed from both eyes and nose… it was a gruesome sight.
But Ju-seong felt not a shred of pity and replied coldly.
“I didn’t train through all that agony to die to the likes of you.”
Ju-seong folded space as he rushed forward, driving a palm into the man’s chest as if pushing.
Flying Dragon Divine Brush left two long skid marks as he was pushed back four zhang.
-SCREEEECH!
While being pushed back, he half-rejoiced.
‘Yes, he’s quite exhausted too!’
If Ju-seong had struck properly, his chest would have been turned to mush, killing him instantly. But now he was only pushed back with minor internal injuries.
The man had apparently expended considerable stamina using his ultimate technique.
‘If I’m going to escape, now’s the time…’
Just as Flying Dragon Divine Brush turned his head looking for an escape route…
-CLASP!
A rough, tanned hand grabbed his left arm.
-TAP!
A slender, white hand grabbed his right shoulder.
“Ah.”
Only then did Flying Dragon Divine Brush look left and right as if he’d just remembered. Black Pig and Yi Pyo-eum were each holding half of his body, glaring at him.
Flying Dragon Divine Brush smiled slightly and met Yi Pyo-eum’s eyes. She was still trembling as she gripped him.
She couldn’t escape those memories of a hell without end. Flying Dragon Divine Brush saw his opening here.
He tilted toward her, looking straight into her eyes as he smirked.
“Lady, let’s not do this. We had such a good time back then, didn’t we?”
Having taken her leg and done terrible things, having inscribed an indelible brand on her forehead… this man was saying such things.
‘She’ll crumble, if only for a moment.’
Flying Dragon Divine Brush was targeting that split second when her mind cracked.
But Yi Pyo-eum briefly glanced at Ju-seong standing beyond, then calmed her gaze and turned back.
The man in the green robe standing there at rest brought tranquility to her heart.
Though he seemed endlessly light, somehow like the gradual soaking of clothes by a light drizzle, he gave her deep trust.
Pyo-eum spoke with a cold smile on her lips.
“You know what? You’re pathetically funny trying to use literary phrases when you’re so ignorant, you stupid bastard.”
“This goddamn bitch…!”
Yi Pyo-eum cleanly ignored Flying Dragon Divine Brush’s cursing and exchanged a look with Black Pig.
Black Pig snorted and nodded, then put strength into his grip.
Yi Pyo-eum also poured all her internal energy into her grip and pulled hard.
“GYAAAAAAH…!”
-CRACK, RIP-RIP-RIP!
Due to the difference in strength, his right shoulder only dislocated, but his left arm, where Black Pig had applied force, was completely torn off.
Black Pig examined the arm he’d ripped off from various angles before speaking with satisfaction.
“Now that you’re finished, Black Pig isn’t ashamed of being called Black Pig anymore.”
The very person who had put that shameful name on the back of his head had now fallen… and so ‘Black Pig’ could no longer wound him.
What did it matter if he was called Black Pig? If he killed those who deserved killing in jianghu, people would give him a proper alias.
Black Pig looked at Yi Pyo-eum. He couldn’t read the characters, but he knew the writing on her forehead was in Flying Dragon Divine Brush’s handwriting.
“One-leg woman, you kill him. I’m done.”
Black Pig threw the arm onto the dirt and stomped it into a pulp before walking away.
“Huurrgh, uurrgh…”
Flying Dragon Divine Brush, blood pouring from every orifice in his face, glared at Yi Pyo-eum with eyes full of grudges.
He recalled memories from long ago. He had been the illegitimate son of a brothel woman; weaned from his mother’s breast, she immediately neglected him.
It had been a midday when the sun beat down mercilessly. Children his age with book bags on their backs… young masters from wealthy families, they all looked immaculate.
Young him had curiously walked up to stand before them.
They looked at his shabby appearance and said.
[Your appearance is such that you could pass for a northern barbarian’s child.]
[Haha, I hear barbarians don’t even know their letters.]
[Hey, do you know what this character is?]
The oldest boy drew the character 丁 on the ground. When he didn’t answer, the children burst into laughter again.
[So people who truly can’t read even the character 丁 do exist! Haha, how amusing!]
[At this level, he’s basically no different from a barbarian.]
The sky was cloudless that day; the sunlight was scorching. There was nowhere in the whole world to hide.
Young him had made a hand-shade to stare at the children before him. Then he suddenly picked up a large rock and smashed the nose of the boy standing in front.
The children scattered like summer insects, leaving only the boy with the crushed nose and the boy holding the rock.
-THWACK. THWACK. THWACK. THWACK. THWACK.
The sound and sensation were still vivid. Blood splattering, something beneath the rock caving in, caving in, caving in again.
And then someone grabbed him by the back of his neck.
[This boy’s got something.]
With sunlight beating down, the shadowed face was still hard to remember. Perhaps it had been Taowu Venerable.
[You, would you like to come with me? I’ll raise you.]
[…Will you teach me letters too?]
The man threw his head back and laughed at the question, as if something was amusing.
[…I’ll teach you something better.]
And now, the present. Flying Dragon Divine Brush mumbled with a hollow face.
“Fuck. He never even taught me the Four Books and Three Classics.”
His non-final final words ended.
Yi Pyo-eum struck with all her might.
-THWACK!
She was a powerful practitioner of internal energy techniques.
His head, which had never held much anyway, flew off completely, ending Flying Dragon Divine Brush’s life. As he himself had said, it was a life where he never even finished the Four Books and Three Classics.
Ju-seong walked over slowly and tore a long strip from his sleeve, wrapping it around Yi Pyo-eum’s forehead. Her red headscarf had changed to green.
“It might be possible to remove it. Let’s see about it later.”
Ju-seong left those words and ran off to help Won-gong.
“Monk, having a good time?”
“Benefactor! Why do you only now crawl here! If I die this lifetime, I go straight to the animal realm since I have no accumulated merit!”
“Even reborn as an animal, you’d do fine, Monk.”
“What kind of talk is that!”
Yi Pyo-eum watched the two bickering as they matched their rhythm and laughed softly.
Even on a battlefield chaotic with clashing blades, she felt as though a warm breeze from somewhere unknown was quietly stirring her heart.
* * *
The battlefield fell quiet. The stench of smoke and blood still permeated everywhere, but the half-day battle had finally ended.
When Ju-seong joined Won-gong and they finished off the Night Guest and Battle Maniac together, the tide turned completely.
They killed the rest of the enemies and proclaimed the recapture of Nine Dragons Stronghold.
Of course, calling it a recapture was odd since they hadn’t been its original owners.
That owner was someone else…
“Mmm…”
“Elder?”
“Hmmmmm… The state of these walls.”
“Excuse me, is something not to your liking, elder? My goodness… Saved a drowning man, handed over my bundle, and now he wants a piggyback ride too.”
“No, nothing. I just, didn’t expect it to be smashed this thoroughly.”
The Green Forest King, Jang Sa-hyeok, awkwardly avoided eye contact and scratched the back of his head. His speech had become much more polite than before.
They now stood before the collapsed walls of Nine Dragons Stronghold. The Green Forest King seemed quite shocked by the utterly ruined state of the stronghold, muttering continuously.
“An ancient legacy of the Yue Kingdom, passed down from time immemorial… Ah, ancestors, this unworthy descendant offers his apologies.”
Ju-seong scratched the back of his head before speaking.
“Uh, elder.”
“Young man of the Central Plains. Please stop calling me elder. I’ve only just passed my forties.”
Ju-seong stared at the Green Forest King with a flat expression, then corrected himself as if thinking ‘whatever.’
“Elder Brother.”
“…There’s the perfectly good title of ‘great hero,’ yet… Haah, what is it?”
“The distribution of merits, elder brother.”
“You really love your distributions of merits, young man.”
The Green Forest King smacked his lips with a sour expression.
Wasn’t this crazy young punk afraid of him? The king of all these mountains? The way he ran his mouth was extraordinarily presumptuous.
‘I suppose I can allow this much.’
Ju-seong had his own reasons for confidence.
First, he had the Blood Flower Crone as backing. Second, he had saved the Green Forest King’s life.
If they were bottom-feeders of society, maybe not… but a supreme master standing at jianghu’s apex wouldn’t ignore a life debt. It was a position one couldn’t reach without pride.
Ju-seong studied the Green Forest King with greed-filled eyes.
‘Well now, what will this Ten Greats Under Heaven give me?’
Every time he encountered one of the Ten Greats, he gained something. How could he not look forward to it?
If you fought, you should gain something… that was only right. Why else did they say ‘eating the blade’s rice’?