Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 189 - Primordial Martial Arts
Chapter 189 – Primordial Martial Arts
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The ancient scripts of the Central Plains were truly diverse.
After all, in those days when roads were unpaved and the land was endlessly vast, it would have been stranger for all of the Central Plains to have unified writing.
Only after the First Emperor unified the Central Plains were the proliferating scripts organized under a single system.
Scripts from before that time varied slightly in form by region, naturally making interpretation difficult.
But the character for ‘flame’ (炎) and the character for ’emperor’ (帝) had barely changed in form even after millennia.
Interpreting the character that followed loosely, what was written above the enormous door before Ju-seong’s eyes was unmistakably…
“Flame Emperor Gateway.”
In jianghu, martial artists who used not ‘wang’ (王) but dared to use ‘huang’ (皇) or ‘di’ (帝) in their aliases didn’t exist in the current era.
But in chaotic periods like the Sixteen Kingdoms era, such individuals were said to have occasionally appeared.
“Hmm… But this is a site thousands of years old.”
Even if there had been a martial artist with the alias “Flame Emperor” during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, he couldn’t have created this place.
Suddenly, something flickered in Ju-seong’s mind.
“Flame Emperor…? Nah, no way. That can’t be right.”
Ju-seong shook his head to dismiss the absurd thought, straining to peer beyond the door’s crudely hewn opening.
Though there was no door, the darkness beyond was unnaturally thick.
“…This is also a type of formation.”
If even Ju-seong with Celestial Eye couldn’t see through it, this was quite an advanced formation.
In the end, there was no choice but to step inside.
Life was always like this. It never gave you time to calculate, consider, or measure… constantly pushing you toward choices.
Ju-seong took a small breath, then walked forward with perfectly ordinary steps as if nothing were amiss.
The darkness swallowed him.
* * *
“…Hoo.”
A puff of white breath rose.
The winter Yangtze River had its own solemn beauty, lending it a nice atmosphere.
Of course, such thoughts were difficult to voice aloud as the leader of the Martial Alliance who upheld the righteous path.
The reason being, the current Yangtze was a battlefield.
Currently, the Martial Alliance and the Demonic Path alliance were clashing along the Yangtze River.
Meanwhile, the logistics flow on the Yangtze continued as before, but…
“Lord Martial Alliance Leader, five merchant ships of the Seo Family Trading Company have been sunk.”
Naturally, the danger was incomparable to before.
Indeed, it was common for crossing raids and sneak attacks to occur, but mostly it was repeated capturing or sinking of merchant ships supplying funds to each side.
In the Martial Alliance’s case, they captured ships, took only the goods, then released them, but the demonic path showed no such mercy.
A Military Affairs Division member bowed his head and advised.
“At this rate, it will be difficult, Lord Martial Alliance Leader. Because our response is mild, the merchant ships supplying the demonic path are far less cautious.”
Martial artists were essentially gold-eating monsters.
They ate more than ordinary people and consumed other resources at a rapid rate.
Alliance members needed special wartime wages, and outside martial artists had to be paid as well.
At least the martial artists dispatched from the Seven Sects and Three Families didn’t demand payment from the Alliance.
They had come in anticipation of planting their flags in the Jiangnan territory that would become masterless after the Orthodox-Demonic War.
“…That’s why we’re waiting here.”
A certain man who had recently been cutting through the lower Yangtze region.
Carrying twin demon-slaying sabers, leading subordinates who similarly wielded weapons in both hands.
His martial arts were overwhelmingly powerful for his age, and his cruelty matched that martial prowess.
The Martial Alliance Leader had a rough idea who he was.
None other than the martial artist who had invaded Anqing during the Ascending Dragon Assembly to kill Cho Yu-gyeong and Ju-seong.
‘The current demonic path clearly harbors remnants of the ancient Cradle of the Demonic Path.’
That was why the Martial Alliance Leader himself had personally come out to lie in wait at a spot overlooking the Yangtze.
‘The Cradle of the Demonic Path is dangerous.’
The current Martial Alliance was the successor of the old White Path Alliance.
As such, it had inherited a substantial portion of the White Path Alliance’s records.
The Cradle of the Demonic Path groups that had rampaged during the Sixteen Kingdoms era had committed bizarre, horrifying acts beyond the imagination of people today.
Those were the deeds of demons beyond humanity, aptly termed the Inhuman Demonic Path.
Thus the Martial Alliance Leader was now watching the Yangtze to catch their tail.
Particularly, this section was where the river’s course shifted and the current slowed dramatically… a spot where merchant ships often suffered raids or capture.
“When the time comes, I’ll repay them… and it’s just as well things turned out this way.”
The Martial Alliance Leader murmured, stroking his beard.
How dare they waltz into Anqing like their own parlor and try to harm the righteous path’s rising stars.
Just then…
“Lord Martial Alliance Leader.”
“I know.”
Beyond the cliff-lined corridor flanking the Yangtze, a pitch-black ship appeared.
Not even a sail, not even a hull that wasn’t entirely black.
The Martial Alliance Leader watched with narrowed eyes the man standing at the prow, displaying his might.
Twin demon-slaying sabers on his back, scale armor over his body, a horned helm and iron mask on his head.
All of it uniformly black, like looking at a human carved from ink.
Wasn’t that the very image of a battlefield general?
The Martial Alliance Leader let out a hollow laugh.
“The martial world whelp has forgotten his place.”
Just then…
Even at that distant range, the black-armored man on the prow turned his head and looked directly at the Martial Alliance Leader.
The Martial Alliance Leader felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck suddenly rise.
He ran his lid-sized hand over his nape, muttering quietly.
“…A bigger fish than I expected.”
It wasn’t that man from Anqing.
If that man were this monster, Cho Yu-gyeong, Red Beggar, and Ju-seong together wouldn’t have lasted a single breath.
In other words, this black-armored man was probably the master… or senior martial brother… of that man from back then.
He nodded quietly toward his adjutant.
“Fire!”
At the adjutant’s signal, one alliance member raised a flag that had been laid flat, sending the signal.
Alliance members who had been concealed on both sides of the gorge simultaneously revealed themselves and rained down fire arrows.
Bows and arrows were taboo in jianghu, but this was wartime. No one observed rules during war.
Amid the rain of flame, the black-armored general and the Martial Alliance Leader never broke eye contact.
A crooked smile hooked the corner of the Martial Alliance Leader’s lips.
“…Ha, truly. What a monster lurking hidden. Clearing out such creatures is the duty of jianghu’s elders for the next generation.”
The Martial Alliance Leader found himself thinking of a certain mouthy brat’s face.
If that kid sided with the righteous path, the hundred years after would see no demonic forces prevail.
Ensuring such fine saplings weren’t trampled under muddy boots was the responsibility of old, rotting trees.
-SHING.
The gleaming bare metal of a saber emerged from its sheath.
Before drawing his saber, countless complicated thoughts had swirled, but…
“I’ll cut you down.”
In the end, the mind of a saber-wielder who had drawn his blade was this simple.
A clear ring of saber-song sounded in the winter sky.
* * *
Ju-seong walked through the darkness. Even igniting the Flame Crow Six Stage Art’s vermilion flame, the Samadhi True Fire, wouldn’t illuminate the way ahead.
Ju-seong thought this too resembled life.
Even if one piled up austerities and mastered meditation to ignite the Samadhi True Fire, how could one know the path ahead?
He walked on in silence. None of his usual muttering.
Even using Celestial Eye couldn’t penetrate the darkness ahead. Using Celestial Hearing and tapping his fingers produced no returning sound.
It felt as if all sound and light were being devoured infinitely by this space.
Ju-seong simply closed his eyes, blocking off hearing and smell as well.
Now his eyes couldn’t see far, his ears couldn’t hear far.
The space he could observe was ultimately a sphere of three chi around his head.
This was the reach when he extended his arm and spun in a circle.
In the end, wasn’t this exactly how much space a single human was granted?
Fortunately, the passage wasn’t too wide, so by stretching both arms, he could brush the walls.
“…A labyrinth, then.”
Endlessly tangled, interwoven passages continued without end.
Ju-seong calmly began mapping his route in his head.
Dead ends, forks, winding turns with multiple bends.
After walking for about half a shi-chen, Ju-seong murmured blankly.
“…This isn’t working, is it?”
Even with his extraordinary mind trying to memorize the route, it wasn’t easy. With eyes and ears as good as blind, his sense of space itself couldn’t function properly.
“Here looks like there, and there looks like here.”
Ju-seong sighed softly.
Had he been a mere street performer in his former days, he would have despaired and collapsed in this darkness where he could neither see nor hear.
But now he was a proper martial artist.
Martial artists were the sort who stood defiant and cocky even before ordeals beyond their means, weren’t they?
“…Bones long crumbled to dust set up quite the vicious trap.”
Ju-seong threw out insolent words and sat cross-legged on the spot.
“Well then, let’s see who wins. As if some stale old sorcery can block a great man’s path.”
Ju-seong spread his energy sense while sitting cross-legged.
It was an illusion formation that blocked even sight and hearing.
Naturally, probing the surroundings with energy sense was also blocked, but…
‘Illusion formations are fundamentally created by distorting the flow of energy.’
Ju-seong’s energy… that of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art… possessed destructive, dominating properties.
Especially when strongly drawing out the Karmic Fire Demonic Art’s characteristics.
‘So I can smash this damned formation with my energy.’
Ju-seong recalled the Sword Saint’s technique in Yunnan, spinning energy into thread.
Spinning energy into thread meant energy sense could likewise be drawn out thin in that form.
Normally, when a martial artist spread their energy sense, they thinly spread their energy like ripples on water.
But Ju-seong twisted his energy into threads and shot out a dozen or so strands in all directions.
-POKE, POKE, POKE.
Then came the sound of needles pricking a curtain.
A sound only Ju-seong could hear in his mind.
It was the sound of tiny holes being pierced in the formation surrounding him.
Ju-seong spread the threads of energy wider and wider.
Energy, by nature, had no fixed form and advanced freely through walls or empty air alike.
Ju-seong felt heat at his brow as he surveyed his surroundings with the threads of energy.
‘It’s like becoming a spider.’
Spiders, sitting at the center of their webs, sensed vibrations to detect when prey was caught.
The threads of energy radiating from Ju-seong’s body likewise functioned like the warp of a web, probing the surroundings.
At last…
A fierce smile hooked the corner of Ju-seong’s lips.
“Found it.”
What Ju-seong had found was the formation’s core.
He didn’t know exactly what it was, but something about the size of a human head was acting as the formation’s heart.
Ju-seong walked straight toward it.
Now all the forks and turns that had tried to lure him to dead ends were no obstacles.
The maze had already been mapped.
Ju-seong walked with eyes closed until he reached the formation’s core.
“Hmm…”
Ju-seong felt around the object supposedly acting as the core.
“Seems to be some kind of jewel.”
It was surely no ordinary treasure, but he would have to shatter it to clear this darkness.
“Take that.”
It was round and smooth… somehow reminding him of Won-gong’s bald head.
Ju-seong struck a palm blow wrapped in Sword Aura, with the feeling of flicking the pretentious monk’s skull.
-WHOOOOONG…!
A deep wave burst forth.
‘…It didn’t break?’
Ju-seong opened his eyes in bewilderment.
The jewel, having absorbed his energy, was glowing red and radiating vermilion waves.
And under the influence of those waves, the curtain that had blinded and deafened him was swept away in an instant.
And then…
“Well.”
Ju-seong discovered the ancient murals completely surrounding him.
“…True primordial martial arts, is it?”
A martial artist of a later age murmured in awe.