Chapter 207 – Jiangnan’s Chaos

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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Ju-seong left the scene of the carnage behind and climbed the mountain.

“Hmm…”

Ju-seong realized that his Three Celestial Senses had merged into one, transforming into a certain strange sixth sense.

Previously, the Three Celestial Senses had each possessed the function of honing hearing, vision, and smell to their limits.

But now that they were unified, Ju-seong had become able to see “that which lies beyond.”

When he lifted his head and focused, he could see the flow of the spirit energy of heaven and earth itself wavering like a haze.

“…Mm. Wait. My body isn’t listening.”

Only then did Ju-seong examine his physical state.

The Zhen poison had completely… well, “wrecked” his body.

Ju-seong unhesitatingly stepped into Heavenly Splendor Fairy’s palanquin and sat cross-legged.

“Ju-seong isn’t here.”

After shouting like a three-year-old playing hide-and-seek, Ju-seong slowly began to circulate his energy.

Ju-seong’s Flame Crow Six Stage Art had reached an even higher level after he discovered and learned the Flame Emperor Art in Qinghai Province.

In particular, its detoxification function had increased infinitely.

This was because Shennong, the Flame Emperor, was the one who had personally tasted a hundred types of poisonous herbs and spread medicine and agriculture to humans in the beginning.

Perhaps because of that, the Killing Buddha in Ju-seong’s mindscape held medical books, medicinal herbs, and long needles in its six hands.

In two of its hands, it held a sword and a torch, while the last hand held nothing, but instead, long, curved beast-like claws had grown from it.

Of its three heads, one was the form of a distorted killing demon, one the form of a benevolent Buddha, and the last the form of a benevolent Taoist.

“…What kind of monster has settled in my head?”

Ju-seong muttered disapprovingly yet experimentally moved the three-headed, six-armed Buddha statue.

Ju-seong knew that his upper dantian’s capacity had advanced significantly, and his ability to observe his own body had also greatly increased.

Thanks to that, Ju-seong sharpened his own energy like needles and began to circulate it through his entire body’s fine meridians to clean out the Zhen poison.

There was no need to forcibly expel it.

‘After all, it’s energy that came from my own dantian.’

He only needed to use the Flame Crow Six Stage Art to circulate through the meridians, gather the toxic energy together, and then use the Spreading Poison Incantation again to drive it back into his dantian.

‘Now… listen well and behave.’

The three-headed, six-armed monster moved its heavy footsteps along the energy channels, slowly beginning to gather the toxic energy filling the pathways.

-SCREECH! SCREECH!

The Zhen poison took the form of massive, pitch-black birds of prey. The three-headed, six-armed monster captured these fluttering birds at every junction and stuffed them into a large sack.

After a long while, when the sack was bulging, the Killing Buddha threw the full sack into a golden pond.

That was Ju-seong’s lower belly.

His dantian had turned golden thanks to the power of the Three Talents Five Elements Pill.

The Zhen poison that sank into the golden pond quickly found its place.

“Whew…”

When Ju-seong exhaled slowly, a haze wavering with auspicious golden light leaked out.

“Wait, what? Why is it like this?”

Ju-seong was startled and scattered the golden smoke he’d exhaled with his hand.

He pounded his chest and murmured.

“Did I swallow too much dust…?”

Opening the palanquin door and stepping out, dawn was breaking outside.

“Hmm, it wasn’t Tiger-Blood Manor, it was the Palace of Pleasure.”

Looking again, the mountain he had thought was the location of Tiger-Blood Manor was actually the headquarters of the Palace of Pleasure.

The red lanterns, being extinguished one by one as morning broke, were faintly visible through the dawn mist.

Ju-seong immediately thought of rushing up there and hacking to pieces all the bastards who harmed people recklessly, but…

“…I can hold it in if I try.”

Ju-seong murmured, looking down at himself as if he were a stranger.

Observing his mindscape, the benevolent Buddha face was looking forward, while the killing demon face had turned to the back.

Perhaps when the killing demon face looked forward, Ju-seong’s temperament would become violent again.

“…Still, that doesn’t mean I must hold back.”

Ju-seong murmured as he began to walk up the mountain.

* * *

The sixth sense he had awakened allowed him to roughly discern and pass through the various illusory formations surrounding the mountain.

Even if he encountered a formation, he could only sense that something was there; since he currently lacked knowledge of formations, it was impossible for him to properly break or neutralize them.

He glanced up at the wide-open main gate.

The gold-plated roof tiles exuded only frivolity rather than grandeur.

The gate, painted in many colors, seemed to have a quality that could unsettle a man’s focus.

Ju-seong stood before the gate with his hands behind his back and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Ahem…! I have arrived, so why does no one come out to see me!”

His voice rang throughout the entire mountain. After all, it was a roar infused with internal energy from a martial artist who had reached Three Flowers Gathering.

Courtesans with pale faces gathered and spoke urgently.

“Sir, please lower your voice…! The heroes of the Jiangxi jianghu are just heading to their beds.”

“To think they are going to bed now when the sun is rising… what lazy people.”

Ju-seong shouted sternly. Regular sleep is important for a martial artist. How could those who stay up all night with wine and women and only sleep in the morning ever become strong?

The dancers and courtesans shrank back in terror.

“S-sir, please, your voice… But who are you?”

Most of the Palace of Pleasure’s residents were women of the night. They sold their chastity and smiles to obtain men’s wealth and information.

Therefore, even though they were martial artists of quite a high realm by jianghu standards, they couldn’t treat Ju-seong, a sudden “guest,” recklessly.

Ju-seong stood with his chest out, scolding them in a voice that would suit a great master’s roar.

“Bah! You mean to say you don’t know who I am! What insolent things!”

“Well, if you just tell us who you are, we will do our best to serve you.”

“Enough! Bring the Palace Master here!”

When Ju-seong shouted thus, the courtesans looked at each other in surprise. To shout the Palace Master’s name without hesitation… was he more of a big shot than they’d thought?

A courtesan who seemed to hold a high position stepped forward and said calmly.

“Sir, I apologize, but the Palace Master is currently away on a journey.”

Ju-seong furrowed his brow and clicked his tongue.

“Ahem… To tell such lies. Your Palace Master is certainly here.”

“…Pardon?”

“She’s right here.”

Ju-seong flicked his left hand, which had been behind his back, forward.

-THUD, ROLL…

The head of the Palace Master of Pleasure rolled on the ground.

Her face had withered and aged to that of a fifty-year-old.

In fact, to catch up to her true age, she should have looked much older.

She was nearly eighty years old.

However, the Palace Master’s youth-preserving art involved taking essence from the blood of young women, so even after death, skin younger than her years was maintained.

Thanks to that, the courtesans and dancers could immediately recognize whose head it was. After all, there was only one woman in the Palace of Pleasure who wore a pure gold phoenix hairpin.

“…KYAAAAAA!”

The young dancers fled in terror.

Even younger courtesans, appearing to be only in their mid-teens, fainted on the spot from the shock.

Ju-seong prepared to find and beat those who had fled, but…

“Wait?”

He realized many had neither fled nor fainted and tilted his head.

“Why aren’t you lot running? I killed your Palace Master and also all those girls who did ‘that long thing’.”

Since he couldn’t possibly remember the name of the seduction formation they had deployed, Ju-seong had no other way to describe it.

The courtesan who appeared most senior asked.

“Do you mean the Heavenly Splendor Twenty-Eight Enshrined Demon Soul-Scattering Formation?”

“Wow, that name is truly shitty… Yeah, that. Those girls seemed to be the Palace’s top strength. They’re all dead too. Drank some strange poison and… ack…”

Of course, the one who had released that poison was Ju-seong himself.

Ju-seong pointed at them and asked.

“I’m asking why you’re not running.”

The woman looked down fixedly at the Palace Master’s head on the ground and replied calmly.

“Sir, you may not believe it, but eighty percent of the Palace of Pleasure’s courtesans were nothing more than exploited livestock.”

“Fine-sounding bullshit.”

Ju-seong barked coldly, wrapping Sword Aura around his hand. Seeing the scarlet, razor-sharp Sword Aura, her face turned pale for a moment, but she barely recovered her composure and replied.

“The Twenty-Eight Enshrined Demons you killed, and the Palace Master… those twenty-nine top-tier forces are the true owners of the Palace of Pleasure. The rest of us are mere slaves who sell our chastity and smiles to obtain resources from men and offer them up.”

Ju-seong narrowed his eyes and examined the women.

He assessed them through his newly gained sixth sense. His sixth sense had such varied functions that he no longer needed to judge evil deeds through smell as before.

It didn’t matter how well the opponent washed.

Without smelling blood, he could easily detect the traces of evil karma.

And while these women were not without evil karma, it wasn’t that severe.

At most, it was the level of a petty thief or an unscrupulous merchant.

But one must verify what needs verifying.

“What is your name?”

“Senior Courtesan, Jang Hwa-yeong.”

“Right, Jang Hwa-yeong. How will you prove your words?”

At Ju-seong’s question…

Hwa-yeong unhesitatingly removed her top. A horrific scar, as if branded with a hot iron, remained on her chest.

Livestock.

It was the character for livestock (六畜). At her action, the other courtesans also unfastened their tops. The same character was written on their chests.

“After assessing talent and constitution, those judged unable to reach the peak-level are branded with this character and live as slaves.”

“…”

Ju-seong was lost for words at the extreme malice and heartlessness of this Palace of Pleasure.

“While alive, we sell smiles to obtain wealth and information to offer up, and just before our youth fades with age, we are slaughtered like pigs to be used as resources to maintain the Palace Master’s youth.”

“Why didn’t you think of escaping?”

When Ju-seong asked, Hwa-yeong shook her head.

“I do not know how you passed through the formations to get here, but the formations blocking escape are far more vicious than those preventing intrusion.”

“Mm.”

Ju-seong looked up at the luxurious pavilions packed onto the mountainside.

“This place was truly a demonic realm.”

He murmured thus, then slowly spoke, giving an order.

“Bring the key figures of the Jiangnan evil path staying here and capture them. This being the Palace of Pleasure, you must surely have something like Drunken Dream Acid.”

The women immediately obeyed his command as if Ju-seong were the new Palace Master.

A few martial artists reacted to the Drunken Dream Acid and woke up to cause trouble, but they were quickly subdued by the dancers of the Palace of Pleasure, which held a seat among the Twelve Evil Sects.

Ju-seong shattered the dantians of the captured evil path martial artists one by one.

Unconscious from the Drunken Dream Acid, they convulsed instinctively each time Ju-seong’s finger-force pierced their dantians.

‘With this, the strength of the Jiangxi evil path has been cut in half by me.’

He had killed the leadership of the Palace of Pleasure, one of the Twelve Evil Sects, toppled several small and mid-sized sects, and even rendered the leaders of the Jiangxi evil path who were enjoying themselves there permanently disabled.

Ju-seong rifled through the various secret manuals and treasures of the Palace of Pleasure that the women had brought out.

“Let’s see… The formation books are all written in an indecipherable way.”

To ensure only she could understand them, the characters were shifted or transformed.

In creating such a personal code and using it freely, she was certainly a remarkable individual.

“Tch… Using such a good brain only to torment others.”

Ju-seong shoved the formation books haphazardly into his bundle.

Ju-seong also had a sharp mind, so if he racked his brain and struggled for a few years, he might be able to decode and learn from those books.

However, since he had no intention of investing that much time right now, he planned to look at them much later.

Another notable harvest was disguise techniques.

“Let’s see…”

Methods for changing appearance, such as disguise arts, bone-contracting arts, and youth-preserving arts.

Among them was a method for smoothing wrinkles by pulling skin into the navel using the dantian’s suction power.

“The Palace Master of Pleasure was maintaining her taut skin with this method.”

That was why as the battle progressed, the energy that should have been used to maintain the dantian’s suction was diverted elsewhere, causing her wrinkles to increase.

“…Anyway, this is useless.”

Ju-seong had no intention whatsoever of uselessly stuffing perfectly good skin into his navel.

The secret art of maintaining youth by absorbing the blood essence of young women through the skin… naturally, he ignited Samadhi True Fire and burned it all to ash.

“But this is useful.”

Disguise arts and bone-contracting arts.

The corners of Ju-seong’s mouth curled up.

“I shall become the chaos of Jiangnan itself.”

He was more confident than anyone in properly playing with these techniques.