Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 185 - Starting with the Lips
Chapter 185 – Starting with the Lips
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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While bathing, Ju-seong sensed carp the size of his forearm brushing past his shins.
“They must have come smelling the blood.”
He wondered how carp came to live in this remote lake in Qinghai, but upon examination, this wasn’t a completely isolated lake.
Multiple streams flowed in and out through the forest.
“You came looking for food, but unfortunately, today you’ll have to become my meal.”
Ju-seong released a burst of energy.
-…THOOM!
Thick concentric ripples spread outward from his body, and two or three carp floated up to the surface.
Just the right amount for dinner.
Ju-seong gathered them up and put on his clothes.
Releasing another burst of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art’s hot energy wave, the moisture dissipated in one sweep and his clothes became wearable.
Ju-seong watched the water mist spreading from his body and murmured.
“Martial arts truly become more wondrous like an immortal’s magic the more you cultivate them.”
The legendary realms of walking on air or picking up objects from afar no longer seemed entirely absurd.
Of course, the road to reach that point was still far off.
Ju-seong brought the carp back to the campfire. In the meantime, Mo Wol-hyang had fallen asleep, having absorbed the campfire’s heat.
Ju-seong gently shook her awake.
“Lady, you must eat dinner before sleeping more.”
“…It’s too late to call this dinner.”
“Those bastards probably didn’t feed you properly. When your energy is depleted, you should eat nourishing food like this.”
Indeed, the carp Ju-seong had caught looked substantial enough to help recover her strength.
Ju-seong scaled two of the carp, removed their guts, and tossed them bones and all into the stew.
“It’s fish congee. Wait and eat.”
While the congee simmered thick, he skewered the remaining carp and propped it over the campfire.
Fish oil dripped and the skin crisped, filling the campfire site with the aroma.
As they had a cozy meal together, Wol-hyang noticed Ju-seong’s expression had become somewhat awkward.
“Young Hero, is something on your mind? Your face looks… ”
Rather than a worried expression, he seemed to have something to say but was finding it complicated to bring up.
Ju-seong shook his head and deflected.
“What do you mean? Hmm. The moon is bright.”
“The moon…?”
The faint crescent moon was barely visible, its light weak.
“…”
“How is the carp? This one is quite a substantial… ”
Ju-seong tried to change the subject again, but Wol-hyang wasn’t the type to let things slide so easily.
Wise and clear, quiet yet resolute.
“Young Hero, if there’s something important to say, please tell me. I may not be as close as the companions who traveled jianghu with Young Hero, but I still think we are friends who understand each other’s hearts.”
“Hmm, yes. Our bond is deep.”
“And I saw you slapping your own cheek by the lake earlier.”
Ju-seong spoke in a dazed voice.
“I was undressed at that time.”
Wol-hyang blushed slightly, then shrugged nonchalantly.
“What can I do if I saw it? It was dark, so I couldn’t see well anyway.”
Ju-seong crossed his arms protectively and eyed Wol-hyang warily.
“What a shameless woman.”
“Stop the nonsense and just tell me what this is about.”
Ju-seong cleared his throat and began.
“This happened back in Jingzhou…”
He slowly unfolded the story.
Li Bai’s legacy, buried near Lake Dongting in Jingzhou.
Three people had divided that legacy.
Zhuge Xian, the eldest son of the Zhuge Family, had taken the sword style of the frontier, free-spirited like a desert storm.
This was the martial art that had earned Li Bai the title of “First Under the Heavens Beyond the Frontier” in his youth.
At the time, Ju-seong’s silver tongue had managed to extract just the sword form portion of that frontier swordsmanship. And he had transmitted it to Namgung Chun-mong.
Meanwhile, Song-un of Wudang had taken the Taoist esoteric arts.
Ju-seong had taken the Taoist swordsmanship.
In the case of the Taoist swordsmanship, Ju-seong had already memorized it for amusement, but since he wasn’t originally a swordsman, he hadn’t practiced it.
However, since this swordsmanship pursued a formidable swift sword style, it had given him insights for fighting swift swordsmen.
And one additional item he had obtained.
“Now, um… Song-un said that if he brought it back to Wudang, the stuffy old men would obviously burn it. So he handed this part to me.”
Taoist esoteric arts included astrology, various formation methods, precious alchemy, and several actual divine arts.
Among them was one skill that the proper Taoist masters of modern Wudang would cluck their tongues at and turn away from.
“Bedchamber arts.”
“Bedchamber arts.”
Ju-seong nodded seriously.
Bedchamber arts. Here, “chamber” meant the bedroom.
Arts performed in the bedroom… how improper the very name was.
However, bedchamber arts were originally a venerable Taoist cultivation method handed down from ancient times, still openly recommended by lineages that maintained very old traditions.
Of course, major Taoist temples including Wudang had shunned them since the previous dynasty.
Naturally, as long as rulers followed Confucian ideology, bedchamber arts would inevitably be rejected.
Of course, that didn’t mean bedchamber arts were unconditionally good and righteous. Wol-hyang’s expression alone told him that.
Her face already showed wariness.
“…You know that ‘real’ bedchamber arts are practically nonexistent in jianghu, right?”
Among what carried the label of bedchamber arts in jianghu, the vast majority were evil techniques of the “draining yin to nourish yang” or “draining yang to nourish yin” variety.
Wol-hyang explained calmly.
“What real bedchamber arts are, you see…”
A technique that, through the union of man and woman, brings advancement in cultivation to both while fortifying their bodies.
Neither party suffers loss… rather, there are only gains from doing something pleasurable?
Where in the world was such a good thing common?
Thus such practices could only be found rarely in very ancient and venerable lineages, while the rest were closer to extremely wicked demonic arts.
But Ju-seong was firm.
“Song-un, the greatest talent of Wudang Sect, vouched that this is genuine. That fellow isn’t just outstanding in martial arts… he was born with some strange divine ability, so he’s no ordinary person.”
“I see. Then it must be genuine. Wudang Sect is also a Taoist school with history and tradition…”
Wol-hyang touched the booklet Ju-seong had handed her. If it was genuine bedchamber arts, it was a precious treasure.
Perhaps Ju-seong planned to sell this to purchase the materials needed for the technique in bulk.
Since Ju-seong only knew the theory and wasn’t actually proficient, the technique would need multiple trial runs before success.
That would require considerable material costs.
Wol-hyang slowly nodded. It was a somewhat regrettable item, but in any case, resolving the poison was the priority now.
“I think I understand what you’re trying to say. If those are your thoughts, Young Hero, I agree.”
Ju-seong’s eyes went round.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. It’s yours anyway, isn’t it?”
“…You, Lady?”
“Pardon?”
Ju-seong realized the conversation had gone seriously off track.
He scratched the back of his head and asked.
“So, you’re agreeing to use those bedchamber arts to achieve yin-yang union with me…”
-SLAP!
A formidable sound echoed across the lakeside.
Ju-seong, his head turned from the blow, gazed wistfully at the starlight reflected on the lake. My, what a view…
“Truly beautiful. Was this what you wished to show me, Lady?”
“Young Hero, face forward.”
“Forward it is.”
Knowing his offense, Ju-seong obediently awaited the next slap, but…
Instead, Wol-hyang was stroking his cheek with startled rabbit eyes.
“Whew… I was so surprised I just reacted. I’m sorry. Where were we?”
“So, yin-yang uni… ”
-THWACK!
“Ah, why do I keep doing this. I’m sorry.”
Ju-seong was slapped twice more before he could finally begin the explanation.
After hearing him out, Wol-hyang sighed and spoke.
“…So you’re saying that through Taoist bedchamber arts, our two dantians and meridians become connected as one, and through that process, I push out the poison while you absorb it to solve the problem.”
Ju-seong nodded.
“Moreover, within my body exist four of the Five Phases. Fire, water, wood, and metal. Naturally, an attraction to the remaining earth energy must develop.”
“Theoretically, it’s the most reasonable solution. There’s practically no danger either.”
Ju-seong nodded.
“Exactly.”
Wol-hyang narrowed her eyes and side-eyed Ju-seong before asking.
“But Young Hero, have you actually done it? Yin-yang union.”
Ju-seong was startled by Wol-hyang’s suspicious gaze and spouted nonsense.
“Since I was fifteen, well, every other day…”
At Ju-seong’s bluster…
“Pfft.”
Wol-hyang covered her mouth and made her eyebrows into a figure-eight shape, looking down at him dismissively.
“I suppose your solo exercises are like that.”
“Well now! What kind of thing to say!”
Ju-seong the virgin ended up losing his temper. In matters like this, being the first to get angry meant defeat and confession.
“…I’ve been so busy since I was young, you see. And with my personality, I never really had connections with women. I thought now that I’m a famous figure in jianghu, women would start following me, but only men keep saying they like me and clinging to me…”
When Ju-seong glanced up at Wol-hyang, despite her mocking expression, she looked somehow pleased.
Annoyed, Ju-seong bluntly asked back.
“…And have you done it, Lady?”
-SLAP!
“Why am I not allowed to ask the same question?!”
“There are things one may and may not say to the next Mysterious Woman of the White Lotus Cult.”
“How convenient to pull that card now.”
“You are the first man I have shown my face to… after Physician Seo-baek, and then the Divine Physician and Young Hero Ju-seong as second and third. Of course I have no experience even close to that.”
“You could have just said so from the start.”
Ju-seong grumbled, then cautiously spoke while watching her reaction.
“So then… even if we decide to do this… since we’re both inexperienced… what do we do?”
“I never said I’d do it.”
“Well, hypothetically! If we suppose we will, what then! Really now.”
“Isn’t it written in there? In your splendid authentic Taoist bedchamber arts text.”
“Have you ever seen walking instructions written in a qinggong manual, Lady?”
If the bedchamber arts were qinggong, then simple male-female experience was like learning to walk.
You had to know how to walk and run briskly before learning qinggong. How could a text like this contain basics?
“…Oh, there is?”
Ju-seong murmured in surprise as he flipped open the first page.
Sure enough, this text was a guidebook to married life, starting from the absolute basics.
From the mindset and attitude with which a man and woman should treat each other, to admonishments against deceiving one’s partner and having affairs…
Starting with such fundamental matters…
Precautions for the wedding night, proper temperature and environment for union, techniques for foreplay, angles and intensity and rhythm of various things…
“Oooh… Oooooh!”
When Ju-seong exclaimed excitedly despite himself, Wol-hyang sidled closer and asked.
“What is it?”
“Everything from the very basics is written here. We’re saved!”
“I’ve told you repeatedly, I haven’t said I’ll do it.”
Ju-seong glanced at Wol-hyang from the corner of his eye. Her cheeks were flushed and her ears were red.
Her body, unable to use martial arts due to the poison, was relatively honest. Her rising and falling chest with excited breath was plainly visible.
“Mm.”
Ju-seong lifted the edge of the blanket covering him.
“Still, it wouldn’t hurt to know, would it?”
“…”
Wol-hyang glanced at Ju-seong sideways, then shifted over and ducked under his blanket.
The two of them shared one quilt as they studied the booklet.
“…Oh.”
“Hmm, so this is the principle.”
“…Hmm, should we skip this part?”
“…We should still look. It seems important.”
“Aha, so the circulation of energy…”
“This is how both people gain advancement in cultivation…”
Wol-hyang also had a high level of understanding regarding martial arts and energy techniques, even if she couldn’t use them, so the two conversed pleasantly and deepened their understanding.
With two clever people to begin with, it wasn’t very difficult.
By the time they closed the booklet, it was already the depths of night. Only the campfire light burned, and all around was black as pitch.
The moon had already gone over the ridge, and only starlight too faint to illuminate the ground flickered.
Wol-hyang quietly gazed at the campfire, then slowly spoke.
“For the two people’s energy to circulate in union…”
“Mm.”
Wol-hyang chewed her lip briefly before continuing.
“…’Two places’ must be touching, it said.”
Ju-seong glanced away and nodded.
“Right. The mouth and… mm, mm.”
Wol-hyang squeezed her eyes shut before speaking.
“Then… how about we start with just one place first?”
Ju-seong scratched his head.
“…Starting from where?”
Wol-hyang raised her small hand as if to slap him again.
“Ah, the mouth obviously. Are you crazy?”
Ju-seong felt his face flush instantly. Had he been such a clueless, awkward man?
“Ah, hmm. I don’t know if I should be doing this. Ah, this is quite…”
Wol-hyang grabbed the wandering Ju-seong’s chin and pulled it firmly toward her.
“Listen, Mad Dragon.”
“…So you heard that alias.”
“Live up to your name. At this rate, you’ll be called Earth Dragon, not Mad Dragon.”
“Excuse me, I am a Great Dragon… you know that, Lady.”
As Ju-seong threw out another joke trying to escape, Wol-hyang spoke seriously.
“…Young Hero, the night is short.”
Ju-seong slowly looked around. The darkest hour before dawn. In other words, the only thing left was for it to become light.
So when she said the night was short, it was the truth.
Ju-seong finally came to his senses and met Wol-hyang’s eyes, then slowly spoke.
“…Starting with the lips?”
“Starting with the lips.”