Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 2 - Human Skin Mask
Chapter 2 – Human Skin Mask
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The dark path man with a flying dagger lodged in his neck collapsed limply.
“…Huh?”
The underlings stared blankly at Ju-seong, who was grinning widely.
From behind them came the roar of the Black Dragon Gang Leader.
“What are you doing? Hit him, you idiots!”
Ju-seong inwardly agreed with his words. They were idiots, indeed. Just standing there watching their comrade die.
However, it was not very manly for the gang leader to call them idiots when he himself had just been watching.
‘He sits there doing nothing while making his lackeys do all the work.’
Ju-seong wanted to say something to that gang leader, but the dark path men were rushing at him, so it was not possible.
“Die!”
The first man to charge at him swung down an axe.
‘What a shoddy attack. He claims to be a martial artist, yet he fights worse than I do…’
Ju-seong tilted his head to dodge, then swung the short sword to slash the man’s abdomen.
“Hnngh… Ghhk.”
The man clutched his belly and staggered backward. Ju-seong looked at him and jeered.
“Are you heading to the outhouse, you crap-pants?”
The man’s peritoneum was torn, and his intestines filled his hands as they spilled out.
He would not need to worry about that one anymore.
This time, two men simultaneously attacked from both sides. One held a sword, the other a saber.
Ju-seong immediately rolled across the ground and stabbed his short sword into the foot of the man with the saber.
The short sword pierced through the foot and embedded itself into the ground.
“Ahhhhh…!”
The man screamed shrilly. Ju-seong twisted his lips upward and shouted.
“How pitiful! To become a bound ghost without even dying first.”
Seeing one man’s foot pinned down, the one with the sword hesitated in fear.
In that moment of hesitation, Ju-seong immediately darted to the right.
Over there, only one man stood, holding an iron cudgel.
A cudgel, or stick, was a common weapon choice for dark path underlings.
It was easy to handle, and most importantly, if you accidentally hit yourself while swinging it clumsily, you would not die.
The man swung the iron cudgel with cautious eyes. The iron club swept horizontally, aimed at Ju-seong’s temple.
If he got hit by that, he would end up like the simpleton Gu-chil who did odd jobs for the Blue Flower Acrobatic Troupe. Ju-seong reminded himself.
‘I cannot become the simpleton Gu-chil.’
Of course, a kind-hearted fool was better than a dark path man.
However, there are not many people in the world who would take care of a half-wit fool.
He was alone now that the Blue Flower Acrobatic Troupe members were gone.
The number of such kind-hearted people must have decreased by the same amount as the troupe members.
Ju-seong immediately lowered his stance to dodge the iron cudgel. The sensation of it whooshing past the back of his head was chilling.
Using the momentum of his charge, he tackled the man’s waist and they tumbled together.
While rolling together, he pulled out a flying dagger from his belly band and stabbed it into the man’s eyeball.
-Thunk!
“Gahhhhh! My eye! This bastard, my eye!”
Staggering to his feet, Ju-seong twisted his lips and kicked down, driving the flying dagger deep into the man’s skull.
At this point, everyone hesitated. Already four men were incapacitated, yet the intruder was unscathed.
Moreover, the fallen men all looked utterly pitiful.
A madman wearing only his undergarments had beaten up four sturdy dark path men.
Normally, a standoff should ensue for a while, but from behind, the Black Dragon Gang Leader kept urging without giving them a chance to breathe.
“You sons of bitches! Are you watching an acrobat show? Listening to a storyteller’s tale? Stop standing there dumbly and charge! Kill him!”
Ju-seong cursed inwardly.
‘That son of a bitch, he has been barking from behind without coming down himself this whole time.’
Perhaps the dark path underlings were thinking the same thing as they charged.
Their dissatisfied eyes made it obvious.
These dark path men must be slow learners. Had not four of them already been picked off one by one while blindly charging in like that?
‘The basics of tactics are to surround first, then annihilate.’
Ju-seong clicked his tongue inwardly. Of course, he had never learned tactics either.
He began to deal with the man charging at him from the front, wielding a single-edged blade.
It was the same man who had been licking his own blade with his tongue earlier.
Before he knew it, Ju-seong was striking the side of the single-edged blade with the iron cudgel he had taken from the earlier man.
-Clang!
It must have been quite a garbage weapon, because the blade broke in two.
The broken fragments whirled through the air and embedded themselves in another man’s shoulder.
‘One strike, two skins.’
He was lucky. Ju-seong had never had any luck from birth until now. Yet just when it was time to die, luck was on his side.
This was why human affairs were unpredictable.
The man with the single-edged blade looked dumbfounded. What situation could be more bewildering than when your weapon betrays you?
“If I were your blade, I would rather keep my chastity and kill myself than be licked by that filthy tongue of yours. You sick bastard.”
Ju-seong said this while closing in on the man who had dropped his blade and was backing away.
Grabbing the man’s collar, Ju-seong yanked him down hard.
“Gack!”
Pulled along by Ju-seong’s greater strength than expected, the man was dragged forward, choking and gagging.
Ju-seong smashed one of the man’s knees with the iron cudgel, then drew a flying dagger and held it to the man’s neck.
It was the start of a hostage situation.
“One more step and this idiot dies!”
The moment he finished speaking, he immediately pulled the flying dagger and slit the man’s throat.
‘You have to know your audience for a hostage situation to work.’
These men were not the honorable type who would fall for a hostage situation.
The hostage drama ended early, but the blood that gushed vigorously from the throat momentarily blocked the enemies’ vision.
Ju-seong threw a flying dagger he held and hit someone behind the blood mist.
“Ack!”
As soon as the scream rang out, Ju-seong immediately turned and leapt up onto the wall.
By focusing internal energy into his thighs for an instant, this feat was possible. His skill from his days of tumbling tricks also helped.
He ran along the wall while throwing flying daggers like giving charity coins to beggars lined up in a row.
-Thwack! Ting! Thud! Thunk!
“Gahh!”
Some blocked with their blades, some dodged. But most were hit and collapsed.
He also threw one at the Black Dragon Gang Leader seated on the platform, but quickly gave up when the man caught the flying dagger between two fingers with divine skill.
‘If that man joins in, the situation would be settled immediately, so why is he just sitting there?’
At any rate, for Ju-seong at the moment, this was fortunate. If a master of that level seriously stepped in, he would be dead before he could do anything.
Ju-seong pulled a small pouch from his chest, opened it, and scattered its contents everywhere.
It was a finely ground powder made of dried tangerine peel, perilla leaves, and ginger. Even a street medicine peddler had to carry basic herbs.
Ju-seong’s special powder, carefully selected and prepared using only herbs that produced a pungent sensation.
It was called Tear-Inducing Powder.
“Ugh, damn it! That bastard is throwing pepper!”
‘As if I am some rich young master. Pepper, my foot.’
The expensive foreign spice also known as black pepper was hard for Ju-seong to obtain given his finances.
Anyway, if their eyes were burning, whether it was pepper or tigers did not matter.
Their rolling eyes that had been looking for women to violate and goods to steal were now coated with fine herbs, so if anything, they were cleaner now.
There was calculation behind Ju-seong’s actions.
He had calculated that a light breeze was blowing from the northeast and deliberately climbed onto the southwestern wall.
Ju-seong ran along the wall, threw flying daggers, scattered the tear-inducing powder, and burst into wild laughter.
“Ha ha ha ha! Blow, northeast wind! I am the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang!”
Since their eyes were burning and they could not see properly, the number of men hit by flying daggers increased. But Ju-seong’s accuracy also dropped as he ran around dodging their attacks.
Axes and daggers flew up onto the wall. Before he knew it, one man had leapt up onto the wall and was charging at Ju-seong.
“Try to run away up here too, you whore’s son!”
“Alright, brother.”
Ju-seong did not face him head-on. He immediately jumped down from the wall.
Not toward the courtyard, but toward the outside of the Black Dragon Gang’s compound. Standing on the ground, he shouted up at the dark path thug on the wall.
“I ran away as you told me. What are you going to do about it?”
“You came down on your own, you stupid bastard!”
Perhaps encouraged by his high ground advantage, the man jumped down with his dagger held in reverse grip.
“Let us see who is stupid.”
Ju-seong immediately drew and threw a flying dagger.
The man must have learned some martial arts, as he managed to deflect the flying dagger with his dagger.
But he must not have trained diligently, because his violent movement in midair caused him to twist his ankle upon landing.
“Ahh, shit! Wait, my ankle, ankle!”
“There is no fool quite like you. When you reach the underworld, call our Gu-chil ‘Big Brother.'”
Ju-seong kicked the man hard in the shoulder. The stumbling man was helplessly pushed back and slammed hard into the wall.
“Guhk!”
The man coughed up blood. Was it an internal injury, perhaps? Ju-seong momentarily felt hopeful.
In the street serials, when someone gets beaten by a martial artist, nine times out of ten they cough up blood like that, don’t they?
But his hopes were immediately dashed.
“Ow. Damn. I bit, bit my tongue. Wait a moment, you bastard.”
The underling was covering his mouth and waving his hand.
‘Figures.’
Ju-seong ignored the man’s cry for a truce and brought down his straight saber to cut off his wrist.
“Ahhhhk!”
Then he slashed upward again, slicing the man’s face diagonally. This time, the man did not even scream.
By this point, he could see Black Dragon Gang members pouring out of the main gate.
“You fucking bastard, where do you think you are running!”
“You bastard born from a donkey’s mating!”
Indeed, dark path men had foul mouths. But Ju-seong’s mouth was just as foul.
“You bug-like turtle bastards. Even a market stray dog lives more honestly than you lot. And you, what did you say? I am a donkey’s bastard? Then you are all my half-brothers. Our father must have been a virile donkey. Nice to meet you, little brothers.”
As he spouted this while running away at a quick trot, the enraged thugs chased after him. Ju-seong ran circles around the Black Dragon Gang’s manor, continuously throwing flying daggers and even the hand axe from his waist.
Meanwhile, he fought desperately against those who caught up to him quickly and those who came around from the opposite direction to catch him.
With no pungent powder left and all his daggers depleted, Ju-seong had no way to block all the attacks raining down on him.
As a result, he had one rib broken, his stomach pierced by a sword, his thigh bruised, and a long gash left on his back.
Now he could not even tell if the blood on his body was his own or someone else’s.
With his battered body, Ju-seong made one full circle and returned to the manor’s courtyard.
The gang leader was still sitting cross-legged on the platform in front of the hall, looking calm.
‘That crazy bastard.’
His subordinates were all dying, yet he was calm as could be. Just then, weary footsteps came from beyond the gate.
“Huff, huff… Damn, this cursed… Stop running, you crazy bastard.”
Just then, the last remaining Black Dragon Gang member came through the manor gate, spitting curses and leaning against the doorframe.
He looked back and forth between Ju-seong and the Black Dragon Gang Leader with a bewildered expression, then his face twisted.
“Hey, Gang Leader! Everyone except me is dead here! How long are you going to just sit and watch!”
The Black Dragon Gang Leader maintained his seat solemnly and spoke.
“Everyone is dead? Then you are now the Vice-Leader of the Great Black Dragon Gang. Show your dignity as Vice-Leader. Vice-Leader, this is your mission! Go kill that lunatic! I shall certainly reward you.”
He was truly a man with a heavy behind.
‘His bearing is so heavy, he could be called a gentleman.’
Was he not a madman who showed not a single grain of affection for his followers?
Then again, Ju-seong himself thought he would not feel any affection if these guys were his subordinates.
Also, that gang leader seemed confident he could beat Ju-seong by himself.
To him, these lackeys meant nothing, and his fight with them was merely entertainment.
When Ju-seong thought of that, hot anger surged through his head.
‘Stay calm. This temper of mine, really…’
He had to settle his mind because there was still one Black Dragon Gang member to deal with.
Ju-seong first provoked the man.
“You are going to die because you met the wrong gang leader. How do you feel?”
The man glared at him and said.
“Either way, you alone cannot beat the gang leader. He says he is a second-rate martial artist.”
“Second-rate? What is that?”
“Hell if I know. But I do know that we are both nobodies who do not even reach third-rate.”
“So what do you want to do?”
At Ju-seong’s question, a resolute look appeared in the underling’s eyes.
“Let us join forces to take down the gang leader. Then we can split the property and go our separate ways, or fight each other then.”
It was truly a rootless scheme worthy of a wild dog.
Ju-seong bared his teeth in a grin and sneered.
“What a brilliant plan. You are the Zhang Zifang of this damned Black Dragon Gang, the Zhuge Liang. If you had been born in troubled times, you would have made your name known as a strategist. Instead, you were born in peaceful times and ended up living like a worm as a dark path lackey.”
As Ju-seong kept mocking him, the man furrowed his brow and said.
“So what do you want to do? Die together? You really are insane.”
“Hmm…”
Come to think of it, it was not a bad plan at all. Ju-seong nodded and answered.
“Fine. You swing your sword and draw the gang leader’s attention. I will somehow land a blade on his body.”
The man nodded solemnly and turned around.
Now that he looked, the back of the man’s head was bulging upward.
According to what he had heard from a street physiognomist, that was the back of a traitor’s head.
‘That guy…’
Ju-seong muttered to himself.
‘What an irritatingly shaped back of the head.’
He immediately picked up the iron cudgel that had been lying on the ground and smashed the man’s head hard.
“Huh!”
The man let out a single bewildered groan and collapsed, dead on the spot.
‘Strike the back of the head first. This is common sense in the martial world.’
It is wise to avoid getting involved with dark path people as much as possible.
But if you unavoidably have to cooperate with a dark path man, it is safer to strike first before getting stabbed in the back yourself.
Just like Ju-seong right now.
The gang leader, who had been watching the whole scene, cackled and said.
“That was truly a trashy betrayal. Congratulations on becoming a dark path man, clown.”
Ju-seong silently stared at the gang leader. Was there any way for him to beat that man now?
The gang leader continued speaking casually, seemingly oblivious to what Ju-seong was thinking.
“Where did you come from, anyway?”
“The Blue Flower Acrobatic Troupe.”
“Where is that?”
“Where else? It is the acrobat troupe your lackeys harassed trying to have some fun, and when they got rejected, they killed everyone, men and women alike.”
“And how are you still alive?”
“I was at the apothecary getting medicinal ingredients. If I had been there, it would not have turned out like that.”
“So you are raising hell just because some clowns were killed?”
He looked at the gang leader with cold, frozen eyes as he twirled the iron cudgel in his hand.
“Stop talking and come down.”
Ju-seong spat out.
“Come down and kill me. While dying, I need to leave at least one scratch on your hide.”
The gang leader smirked and mocked him.
“You look like you do not even have the strength to move from that spot. You will die if I just leave you alone, so why would I bother coming down?”
What he said was true, so Ju-seong had nothing to say. The only thing still working properly on his body was his mouth.
The gang leader suddenly turned serious and asked.
“Do you still see me as the Black Dragon Gang Leader?”
‘What kind of nonsense is that now?’
Ju-seong thought to himself and answered.
“Then who are you if not the gang leader, sorghum liquor? Stop doing that unsightly cross-legged sitting and hurry up and come down.”
The Black Dragon Gang Leader did not answer but lightly scratched at the area near his neck with his fingertips.
Then he began peeling off what looked like a thin membrane. Before long, the gang leader’s face was gone, and an old man’s face had appeared.
It was a human skin mask… in other words, a fake face.
‘…What the hell is going on?’
Ju-seong was momentarily stunned, unable to respond to the sudden twist.