Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 188 - Wishing You Martial Fortune
Chapter 188 – Wishing You Martial Fortune
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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If pain and pleasure had something in common, it was that one grew accustomed to both over time.
Thus when torturing, one must not only afflict the body but break the spirit.
And when indulging in pleasure, one must seek true satisfaction of the heart beyond mere base pleasure.
Ju-seong and Wol-hyang were feeling not just the simple pleasure of the flesh, but the satisfaction of the heart gained through genuine connection.
“…In that sense, won’t you please stay a few more days?”
Wol-hyang held onto Ju-seong. They had entered the sacred site, bathed and purified themselves, and explored each other multiple times.
The natural hot spring that had formed the bathhouse had properties that softened the skin and boosted vitality.
Added to this, faint light entered through subtle openings in the cavern’s ceiling from Qinghai Plateau’s pale sunlight.
It felt like arriving at a cave on the slopes of an immortal’s mountain.
Yet even such rest had to know when to stop.
Ju-seong slowly shook his head.
“I still have things to do, and isn’t it the same for you, Lady?”
“That’s… true.”
Wol-hyang gazed toward the deep recesses of the cavern.
Sunlight reflecting off the cave walls was concentrating on one specific spot.
For now, nothing was visible but an empty wall face, but…
“When I first saw it, I was so amazed. Perhaps that’s what they mean by a night pearl? Though it’s not a bead.”
At night, the stones embedded in the wall released their absorbed daylight in their own colors, emitting white light.
That light formed the shape of a door. Wol-hyang had said that was the entrance to the true sacred site, and no one except the Mysterious Woman was permitted to enter.
Wol-hyang gazed at that door for a long while.
The sacred site’s other name was the Formless Gateway.
Named so because it was where one received the power of the Unborn Venerable Mother, but like its ominous sound, it was also a dangerous place.
Half of the Mysterious Women who entered lost their lives… a deadly site.
Thus the last four generations of Mysterious Women had not set foot in the sacred site.
In fact, the weakening of the Mysterious Woman’s position within the Cult and the strengthening of the Sect Master’s position was also due to this.
Without entering and returning from the sacred site, a Mysterious Woman was not a true Mysterious Woman.
Wol-hyang murmured with a resolute expression.
“I too have mountains of problems to solve… Perhaps these past few days I’ve been living too much in a dream.”
This place was a warm, humid sanctuary.
When two wounded, weary martial artists hid here and comforted only each other, the sense of relief was beyond words, but…
‘He has his tasks, and so do I.’
Wol-hyang thought with a subdued face, then turned her head with a faint smile.
“But before you go… we haven’t done it once in the hot spring yet.”
Ju-seong looked slightly flustered, then nodded.
Making love in water up to the solar plexus was normally quite a chore, but…
“…”
The two were martial artists, so they could easily accomplish what they wished without much effort.
The hot spring had remarkably excellent properties for recovery and nourishment, so performing the bedchamber arts’ mysteries within it doubled the effect.
Ju-seong felt the abundant spiritual energy of the sacred site swirling around them at a tremendous speed.
Substantial amounts of internal energy accumulated steadily in both their dantians.
Originally, bedchamber arts had excellent effects, but they naturally waned with repetition.
Yet performing them in this hot spring, he could feel his internal energy growing substantially again.
When the act was finished, Ju-seong stroked Wol-hyang’s cheek and smiled slightly.
“You are a temptress, Lady.”
Wol-hyang bashfully lowered her head, then started in surprise.
“Wait, Young Hero. What’s happened to the water?”
The lapping hot spring water.
Within it was mixed a strange coloration, like ink dissolved in water.
It was a peculiar ‘flow’ that emitted a pale light.
As if visualizing the flow of spiritual energy.
Even stranger…
“…It seems to be reacting to Young Hero’s internal energy?”
Indeed, it was responding to energy naturally emanating from Ju-seong’s body.
During energy cultivation, not only the respiratory system but also the pores opened to commune with heaven and earth.
The bedchamber arts were also a form of cultivation, so this strange coloration was being drawn to the energy exuding from Ju-seong’s body.
“…What on earth is happening?”
Ju-seong looked bewildered, scooping up some water to examine it.
Tiny particles of light floated within. On close inspection, they were very finely ground cold iron powder.
“…No, not just cold iron… Myriad-Year Cold Iron.”
The faint blue glow proved it.
Then why was the Myriad-Year Cold Iron powder reacting to Ju-seong’s internal energy and swirling around him?
If such a strange thing were to happen, shouldn’t it happen to Wol-hyang? This was the sacred site of generations of Mysterious Women, after all.
“This is truly bizarre…”
Just as Wol-hyang was blankly murmuring…
-SSSHHHH…
The cold iron particles that had gathered around Ju-seong arranged themselves in concentric circles with him at the center.
Then a magnetic force began emanating from that silvery-blue ring of circles.
Ju-seong sensed this subtle push and pull acting on something at the bottom of the hot spring.
-GROOOOAN.
“…A mechanical formation.”
Generally in jianghu, formations referred to those using yin-yang, Five Phases, Eight Trigrams, Three Talents and similar elements to create transformations.
These ranged from simple illusions or concealment arts, all the way to… at heavenly levels… commanding wind and rain like Zhuge Liang of the late Han.
But that wasn’t the only type of formation in jianghu.
There were also types that used only frames and latches, levers and weights to produce mysterious effects.
-CREAK-CREAK-CREAK.
What had appeared to be a naturally formed depression was actually the hot spring’s floor, now slowly opening.
Naturally, the water was also gradually draining through the cracks.
“This can’t be… The Mysterious Woman Valley is a space at least several thousand years old. How can such precise mechanisms exist…?”
“As far as I know, the White Lotus Cult’s history is only a few hundred years. How can the Valley be so old?”
Wol-hyang hesitated briefly before answering.
“Actually, the Mysterious Women were originally close to indigenous shamans of the Xinjiang region. Priestesses who worshipped the fire god and repelled bandits with powerful martial arts.”
“Oh.”
An interesting story.
“They aligned with the White Lotus Cult because the first Sect Master and the Mysterious Woman of that time married, and also because it was unavoidable…”
Just as Wol-hyang was continuing her explanation, the stone floor of the hot spring began shifting strangely.
“Oops.”
Ju-seong quickly wrapped his arm around Wol-hyang’s waist and leaped out of the hot spring.
-RUMBLE!
No sooner had they vacated than the entire floor of the hot spring split apart, and all the water that had filled it drained into a seemingly bottomless underground.
“…Hmm. Mechanical formations can’t operate forever, after all.”
Ju-seong stroked his chin and nodded.
By the look of it, this formation was a hybrid of mystical principles and mechanical devices.
The Myriad-Year Cold Iron powder settled in the hot spring reacted to Ju-seong’s internal energy, emitted magnetism, and that magnetism activated the mechanical devices.
If Wol-hyang was right and this truly was a site several thousand years old, then that mysterious formation had endured those eons.
No wonder it had malfunctioned and shattered like that on its first activation.
Wol-hyang stared at the fathomless pit with a dazed expression and slowly spoke.
“…Perhaps the Mysterious Woman Valley wasn’t the Mysterious Women’s sacred site after all.”
She raised her white hand to point at the distant doorway. The gate glowing with luminescent stone.
“Rather than that door…”
She moved her finger to point at the massive pit.
“…doesn’t this seem more like the seat for the true master?”
“My word… How could such a thing exist in the Mysterious Women’s sacred site?”
Wol-hyang seemed unsure how to react as she answered.
“Perhaps… there’s a forgotten ancient history. In the distant past, the Mysterious Women were mere attendants serving someone far more exalted.”
Ju-seong walked to the pit’s edge and peered down into the fathomless darkness.
Using Celestial Eye to examine it…
“…Mm. Deep enough to be manageable.”
He could see cold iron particles faintly glinting far below. The depth was a good hundred zhang.
Getting down would be possible by driving the Crimson Iron Flying Knife into the wall as he descended, but climbing back up would be a chore.
‘About a hundred zhang… easy enough to climb back up.’
Having reached super-peak level, Ju-seong’s stamina and energy manipulation had become far more efficient.
Ju-seong felt curious.
‘What on earth is down there?’
And what kind of place was this that it reacted to his internal energy with such a strange phenomenon?
Ju-seong turned to Wol-hyang and said.
“This may be my fortune… or perhaps great misfortune.”
Wol-hyang nodded slowly.
“…Shall I go with you?”
She hadn’t even thought Ju-seong would turn his back and leave this behind.
She knew he wasn’t that kind of man.
He might run from an enemy too strong to handle, but he never fled from choices and trials that came to him.
She was asking if he wanted company on that path, but Ju-seong’s answer was firm.
He raised his finger to point at the Formless Gateway.
“That is your gateway, Lady.”
He moved his hand to point at the pit.
“This is my gateway. We each have our own paths, don’t we?”
Wol-hyang nodded as if she’d expected as much.
“…Still, I’m glad I’m not alone.”
Ju-seong replied calmly.
“Whoever emerges first will leave without lingering. Let us agree on that.”
At first glance it was a cold, heartless proposal, but it wasn’t really.
If he himself died down there, he didn’t want Wol-hyang to waste time here pointlessly.
Wol-hyang nodded.
“Let’s do that. If our fates are bound, we’ll meet again even in the next life.”
One toward the Formless Gateway, one toward the bottomless pit.
They were lovers, but before that they were martial artists, and a martial artist’s life was like a swamp of debts and grudges.
To resolve their respective debts, they had to stake their lives and submit to trials once more.
Ju-seong watched Wol-hyang’s back as she placed her hand on the Formless Gateway’s entrance and channeled energy.
Come to think of it, her internal energy also had the characteristics of a yang-dominant style.
-CREAK.
The stone door forming the Formless Gateway’s entrance slowly began to slide under her touch.
The moment a gap wide enough for one person appeared, Wol-hyang slipped her body through.
She turned to close the door, and just before doing so, glanced briefly at Ju-seong.
Countless anxieties and emotions passed between their exchanged gazes, but in the end, only one thing was shared as the door closed.
‘Martial fortune to you.’
The two martial artists wished each other martial fortune.
Ju-seong confirmed the stone door had closed, then looked at the pit.
He casually kicked a pebble into it…
-…THUMP.
The falling sound came after a long while. It was that deep a pit.
On the walls, he could see traces of what must once have been stairs made by embedding flat stones.
“Not a chance. They’ve all crumbled away.”
Stairs carved directly into the wall would partially crumble after this much time.
But stairs made by carving grooves in the wall and inserting stone slabs…
Even with Celestial Eye, only about ten steps remained. And all ten looked ready to shatter the moment he stepped on them.
Ju-seong drew the Crimson Iron Flying Knife from both hands and drove them into the wall.
“Ha… This is really pathetic.”
He was now a martial artist of Three Flowers Gathering, yet here he was climbing a stone wall like a rock salamander… no different from his first-rate days.
But what could he do?
Until he finally became an immortal riding clouds, rolling in the red dust was the fate of all humans.
“…Here I go.”
With a determined face, Ju-seong sank into the deep darkness.
* * *
“…Well, what is this now?”
He was staring at characters carved in intaglio on the wall before him, wearing an expression of disbelief.
Flame Emperor Gateway.
The sound was unfamiliar yet weighty.