Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 175 - Jack of All Trades

Chapter 175 – Jack of All Trades

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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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A minute sound.

-Ting…

Ju-seong focused on the sensation transmitted through his fingertips.

He’d wound through the maze-like temple’s corridors and pillars, draping Heavenly Silkworm Thread everywhere.

No matter how keen its senses, as a beast, it had no choice but to get caught. What predator watches out for spider webs?

-Hisss…

-Shisss…

The low threatening sounds conveyed displeasure.

Naturally so… this creature was the local lord here. It must have reigned as king of the lake, swimming through the depths.

But its domain had suddenly shrunk overnight.

Originally its territory had not just width but height, but now only width remained. All the water was gone.

-Hisss.

-Shisss.

Its threat sounds had been subtly doubled from the start. Undoubtedly because it had two heads.

Ju-seong found himself sweating despite himself. He was even more tense than when facing Little Hundun.

Facing a beast in its own domain put this kind of burden on a person.

Even more so for a hunter who’d invaded alone.

-Ting, ti-ing.

The Heavenly Silkworm Thread was touched a couple of times, then caught on something, transmitting tension to Ju-seong’s hand.

The pale purple fog thickened several fold, completely blocking his vision. The creature was getting closer.

‘It begins.’

Ju-seong closed his eyes entirely. Then he stood up.

The pulling force from the other end of the thread grew stronger. It had snagged on something… a scale or a horn.

Ju-seong obediently followed where the thread pulled him, suppressing his footsteps.

-CREEEAK, SCREECH-SCREECH.

The thread created subtle sounds as it scraped against stone pillars and walls. Ju-seong followed the tension like a blind man clutching a rope, tracking its movements.

The creature was hunting him. And Ju-seong was tracking its movements through the thread’s tension.

So this was a strange game of chase where they chased each other’s tails.

-HISSS!

-SHISSS!

The threat sounds sharpened as the creature’s movements quickened.

-SCREEEECH!

The thread grinding against pillars produced an even higher friction sound, and Ju-seong’s hurrying steps quickened too.

-HISS-HAAAAAH!

The creature’s massive body accelerated again. Now the thread produced a spine-chilling discordant note like misplaying a courtesan’s zither.

Ju-seong’s steps were now as fast as an ordinary person running at full speed, yet still nearly silent.

He felt the tension in his grip was much richer and stronger than before.

Going round and round, multiple strands of thread had naturally wound around the creature’s body.

Infusing it with internal energy and constricting might test whether his Heavenly Silkworm Thread or the creature’s scales were stronger, but…

‘I can’t consume this much thread all at once.’

That Little Hundun bastard had already cut through a significant amount with his sword, reducing his reserves.

From now on, he’d need to treat it as a lifetime supply and handle it carefully.

Still, slowly sealing off the creature’s movements was a gain in itself.

-CRASH! CRASH! RUMBLE!

From nearby came the sound of something violently smashing objects. The creature was chasing Ju-seong while knocking down the temple’s pillars and walls.

Fortunately, the temple had no roof. Perhaps the crude ancient construction never had one, or perhaps the ages had stripped it away… regardless, it was so.

Ju-seong again ran to the main hall where the statue stood. Whether the creature tracked his presence or his scent, it followed well.

Ju-seong released the Heavenly Silkworm Thread and tumbled into the hall.

-CRASH!

A massive body smashed through the entrance and charged in.

But the purple fog blocked so much visibility that he couldn’t fully see its form.

Ju-seong sensed by presence that the thread was wound multiple times around the creature’s body. And that its movements were considerably restricted because of it.

A normal snake wouldn’t have been so affected. But this creature had two heads.

Being a snake whose body split in the middle meant that many more places for the thread to snag.

-SHAAAAAAH!

A snow-white snake head emerged through the pale purple fog.

A head easily twice the size of a human’s. Amber eyes blazing with a vertical slit pupil held the most primordial malice.

Its open mouth revealed horrifying venomous fangs, exuding crimson poisonous fog.

-CRUNCH!

But the thread was wound several times around its head, stopping it before it could reach Ju-seong.

Ju-seong seized the moment when the head stopped to quickly thrust his fist forward, slamming its snout.

-BOOM!

“Goddammit!”

Ju-seong clenched his fist and cursed. What kind of beast’s skull was harder than a martial artist’s fist?

Moreover, he was a peak-level martial artist who’d strengthened his body through Samadhi Body Refinement.

In terms of physical toughness, perhaps only Shaolin monks could compare.

Yet he couldn’t even dent a mere snake’s nose.

But the creature was apparently in considerable pain, letting out an annoyed threat before withdrawing its head into the fog.

Immediately, Ju-seong felt his spine tingle and quickly stepped away.

-WHOOOOSH…

The pale purple fog parted again as white energy swept across where he’d been standing.

The white energy came from a pitch-black head with pale blue eyes.

Peculiarly, this head had no teeth at all, just pink gums.

Where the frost passed, rime rose thickly, then white icicles grew upward like bamboo shoots.

“They were icicles growing inverted.”

Ju-seong shook his head at the creature’s terrifying cold breath and rolled aside again.

The fog rippled, signaling the next attack.

-WHIPLASH, CRASH… !

The stone floor cracked apart, cracks spreading like a spider web.

Ju-seong broke out in cold sweat. The creature had whipped its tail like a lash to attack him. Its tail was mottled with black and white in a chaotic pattern.

What snake in the world used its body like a whip? The creature had three means of attack.

The white head’s venomous fangs, the black head’s cold breath, and that terrifying tail strike.

Ju-seong decided he needed to disable at least one of these as soon as possible.

Ju-seong closed his eyes. Keeping them open was just a distraction anyway.

This was Hearing as if Seeing.

The most fundamental skill for mastering Celestial Hearing.

“Ooooom…”

Ju-seong quietly vibrated his vocal cords, spreading his sound around him.

Waves continuously returned, telling him the outlines of surrounding objects.

But sound was inherently oddly slow by nature… there was a slight delay. In combat, that split-second difference could mean life or death.

‘Think of sound information as exactly half of a half of a half-beat behind.’

Blind, Ju-seong began to dance to his own rhythm.

Two attacks came simultaneously.

-WHIPLASH!

First the tail strike. Aiming horizontally rather than vertically at his shins.

He lightly tapped off the ground to dodge, and in that same beat, detected the next attack.

‘Venomous fangs.’

Several horn-like protrusions grew on the fanged head. Ju-seong found that shape through sound and immediately extended his right palm.

Releasing palm force while simultaneously operating the Poison Accumulation Art to channel the Human-Faced Spider’s water poison.

-BOOM!

His palm force burst out right where the creature was charging.

The tremendous recoil pushed its head back before it could touch him. Ju-seong sensed through his hand’s feedback that one of its fangs had broken.

The red poisonous fog it had been belching from its fangs was also neutralized by the Human-Faced Spider’s poison, carved away in a round shape.

But the attacks connected organically.

-WHOOOOSH!

A wall of white cold blocked his retreat.

-WHIPLASH!

A vertical tail strike slammed straight down.

At least the creature’s two heads were tangled by the thread, which helped.

‘Thanks to that, both heads can’t appear simultaneously from different directions.’

If one side spewed fire poison while the other cold from different angles, it would truly be a nightmare.

Ju-seong quickly curled up and rolled across the floor while releasing a wave of Flame Crow Six Stage internal energy.

-BANG!

The cold breath, weakened by the energy wave, grazed him.

Just that brief contact made his shoulder ache terribly from the cold.

‘Damn, the most annoying venomous creature I’ve ever seen.’

According to the medical texts, of the Five Great Venomous Creatures, the most dangerous was obviously the Jindiao.

The one covering the widest territory was the Heavenly Silkworm Moth, spreading its offspring to corrupt forests.

The quietest and most lethal assassin was the Human-Faced Spider, building nests in darkness.

The hardest to find and kill was the Purple Gold Centipede, sleeping motionless beneath giant boulders.

The one said to have no outstanding strength was this Yin-Yang Serpent.

That was partly why Ju-seong had somewhat underestimated it.

‘Come to think of it, the texts didn’t list any notable weaknesses either.’

It was a creature with no outstanding strength but also no outstanding weakness. In other words, it was a jack of all trades.

And on top of that, the purple poisonous fog seeping from between its scales…

This fog contained cold energy that stole warmth on skin contact, yet also held fire poison that made your lungs burn if inhaled.

Fortunately, the mask and leather cloak Ju-seong wore blocked the fog.

-CRASH, CRASH!

But he couldn’t think of how to disable the other attack methods.

After rolling around for a while, taking hits to the white head trying to drive in its venomous fangs, Ju-seong finally realized.

‘Come to think of it, it’s not as if only that thing has fangs.’

He’d been slow to realize because of the conditions, and frankly, the environment.

Ju-seong had always gauged his opponents visually when throwing hidden weapons.

With vision blocked like this, he’d been trapped in the mental framework that hidden weapons would be useless.

‘But is that really true?’

It wasn’t. Ju-seong now had his eyes closed, using hearing to substitute for sight.

A half-beat delayed, but at close range it could fully substitute for vision.

“Ooooom…”

Ju-seong continuously vibrated his vocal cords while pulling out needles stored in his bound sleeves.

The creature’s scales were terrifyingly strong. They were its dragon-scales, so to speak.

Not only hard, but also flexible enough to absorb shock well.

Otherwise, the white head he’d already struck a dozen times would have been knocked unconscious and limp by now.

Of course, his attacks had shown effect… the white head’s attacks were growing less frequent.

‘So attacking its body is meaningless.’

Ju-seong vibrated his vocal cords to gauge his timing.

The moment he leaped, the creature’s tail swept beneath his feet with fierce wind pressure.

-WHOOOOSH!

When cold breath targeted him in mid-air, he threw palm force into empty air to dodge. Then the white head appeared, baring its fangs at him.

Inside was pink flesh. Thick poisonous fluid and dark blue veins bulged within.

Ju-seong shot five needles straight into its open maw as he pulled back.

Silver trajectories raced each other into its mouth.

-…CHOMP!

Its jaws snapped shut right before Ju-seong’s nose.

Shortly after the white head retreated…

-KYAAAAAAH!

The creature began thrashing in an agonized scream.

‘Got it.’

Ju-seong smiled coldly.