Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 23 - Chase Through the Snowfields

Chapter 23 – Chase Through the Snowfields

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Chapter 23 – Chase Through the Snowfields

“Such dangerous poisonous creatures, are you really going to be alright?”

Wol-hyang had a worried face.

“Of course I will not be alright. But I have to catch those poisonous creatures to detoxify you and solve my own problem.”

Ju-seong said this and turned his head toward his master.

“Master, your humble disciple shall take his leave now.”

“Very well, if you learned martial arts from me and lose your life to a mere moth, I will not let you rest in peace.”

Honestly, the Divine Physician also seemed worried; he wondered whether his disciple at the first-rate level could hunt such bizarre and powerful poisonous creatures without losing his life.

That said, it was also not feasible to train longer until he became stronger before setting out.

First-rate was the limit of how far one could grow without real combat experience. After that, one had to advance by colliding one’s martial arts directly with the world.

So in the end, now was the right time.

Ju-seong suddenly recalled the words of Old Master Hwang, the troupe leader.

-You rascal, engrave these words. There is a good time for everything, and if you act without hesitation and do not miss that timing, good fortune will follow.

-Then did you, Old Master, firmly grasp life’s good timing and ride the auspicious flow?

-If I had, would I be sitting here on the street listening to your prattle? Huh?!

Anyway, if he did not hesitate now, good fortune would follow. Hesitating was something only commoners did.

Therefore, Ju-seong chose to part decisively rather than prolong the farewell.

‘It is not like I stole something Master cherishes and am fleeing with a guilty conscience.’

“Then Master, please take care of yourself until we meet again.”

Ju-seong placed both hands on the ground and performed a deep bow.

“Very well. Two years of study from a clown teaches you manners.”

Just as his master was expressing satisfaction, a square box fell from his bowing disciple’s clothes with a thud.

“Hmm, how clumsy of me. Master, your disciple shall take his leave now.”

Just as Ju-seong was trying to quickly stash the box and stand up, the Divine Physician’s chilling voice rang out.

“Freeze.”

“What is the matter?”

“Hand over that wooden box that just fell.”

“Master, this really is nothing.”

“That is why I am telling you to hand it over.”

“The road ahead is long. Your disciple shall now… Master. Please let go of my collar.”

After a brief scuffle, Ju-seong finally handed over the wooden box after being hit by a Fluttering Red Lotus Palm technique. When the Divine Physician opened the box and confirmed its contents, his beard trembled.

“This ungrateful disciple…!”

“Spare my life, please.”

Wol-hyang also peeked over with curious eyes. The moment she confirmed the contents of the box, she covered her mouth in surprise.

“Oh my! Young Hero, you were trying to sneak away with this? Heavens…”

“…”

The Divine Physician glared at Ju-seong with narrowed eyes, then eventually sighed and tossed the wooden box.

-Tak!

“Take it.”

“Your grace, Master, is high as heaven.”

Ju-seong hastily tucked the wooden box into his clothes and bowed again.

Honestly, if he was being sent out to face such ferocious poisonous creatures, was it not alright to take at least this much? Of course, since he did not want to get hit by another Fluttering Red Lotus Palm, he did not bother voicing this thought.

Ju-seong took in the modest courtyard and the two people standing before it. He felt he might never see this scene again.

The overlapping mountains were high today under a particularly clear sky.

A giant with a white beard sticking out every which way, and beside him a woman of slender build. Ju-seong felt that these two had become imprinted on his heart like a seal.

He turned and took in the winding path that flowed down the mountain. The trees lining the path waved and beckoned in the wind.

They looked like warriors drawing their swords and taking the sword salute stance.

Ju-seong walked down the mountain path feeling like a general who had submitted his memorial of campaign and was setting out to war.

* * *

“So you have finished your training and descended the mountain. They call it the martial world debut, do they not? It means leaving your master’s care to go out into the martial world. I think that is what they said in the martial arts serials.”

So said Brother Gu at the grocery shop. By now, even the villagers below knew Ju-seong was a martial artist.

They also knew that the Divine Physician, whom he had introduced as his uncle, was Ju-seong’s master.

Ju-seong nodded and grinned.

“That is right. From now on, Master will come and go to buy provisions himself.”

“I hope your master is a bit more flexible.”

Brother Gu chuckled and generously packed Ju-seong’s travel bag with the jerky and dried rations he had ordered.

After Ju-seong had cleaned up the Sichuan Black Dragon Gang, the merchants in the village below had all tried to give Ju-seong whatever supplies he needed for free.

But Ju-seong had firmly refused. If he kept accepting freebies from people he would be seeing for a long time, resentment would eventually sprout.

And it would be awkward to stop giving things away after giving them for free, so they would become uncomfortable with each other.

Ju-seong answered matter-of-factly.

“Master is even more inflexible than me, so do not count on it… Brother Gu, it seems like you put in more than I paid for.”

“Not at all. The area has had a good harvest this year, so meat and produce prices have dropped.”

“Hmm…”

Ju-seong looked at Brother Gu with unsatisfied eyes before accepting the travel bag.

“Thank you, Brother Gu.”

“Haha, safe travels. With your skill, you will make a living on this wherever you go, so no worries there.”

Brother Gu raised his fist and joked casually. Ju-seong smiled awkwardly as he took the bag.

To Brother Gu and the villagers, Ju-seong, who had cleaned out all those Black Dragon Gang fighters in one day, probably looked like a formidable master.

This place was a remote area in the southwest of Sichuan, and since the interests were not great, there were no notable martial forces.

How many martial artists would they have seen in their lives?

But Ju-seong knew the wider world and was well aware that he was not a great person.

As Ju-seong walked to the edge of the village, several villagers came out to see him off. Seeing him in travel gear unlike usual, they realized he was departing somewhere.

Ju-seong had no particular bond or interaction with them, but their coming out to see him off made him feel rather embarrassed.

“Go back to your business. What is this, gathering around as if some great person is leaving?”

Though Ju-seong grumbled curtly, the villagers only smiled and saw him off.

Hye-a, the woman he had saved, her family, the waiter Hwang-gu from the Ilmi Inn, its owner Neung Jo-hwan, and even Butcher Yi.

They were people whose ordinary lives had been restored by Ju-seong.

“Hmm.”

Ju-seong looked at them and seemed about to say something, his mouth moving, but then turned his head and quickened his pace.

Their faces had filled out and they seemed to have no particular worries, which was more than enough. So there was no need to add unnecessary words.

The people stood watching until Ju-seong had walked out of sight.

* * *

“Ah, so nice and cool.”

Ju-seong muttered, his face covered in so much snow he looked like a troupe performer done up for opera.

Most of northern Yunnan Province was a plateau connected to western Sichuan.

It was cool even in summer, so naturally it was colder than other places in winter. Ju-seong was currently engaging in mental victory to overcome the bone-cutting cold.

“In this great weather, you sent your disciple on his martial world debut to Yunnan Province, Master! Your disciple loves and respects you greatly! Ahaha!”

Ju-seong laughed like a madman and gnawed on frozen jerky.

With so many plateaus and mountains, it was not easy to find any homes.

While walking, Ju-seong continuously circulated the energy of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art through his body. Of course, this was not energy circulation but simply moving the energy.

Anew, this too was training. Moving the energy of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art to overcome the cold naturally made his energy release more fluid.

If he did not keep his wits about him, his fingers or toes could snap off like rock candy.

The key was to diligently circulate energy through his hands and feet without missing any.

But if he overdid it and circulated too much heat until his hands and feet sweated, that would be a disaster. If the sweat froze, it would become even more terrible.

So naturally, in maintaining that middle way, Ju-seong came to understand the delicacy of internal energy manipulation.

Thus, Ju-seong was growing stronger as he pushed through the snowfall.

“This too is Master’s arrangement… His grace is like heaven.”

Ju-seong gritted his teeth as he muttered.

Just then, Ju-seong spotted another figure walking on the ridge on the other side of the plateau.

“Oh my. Another traveler.”

Suddenly, the moment he looked at the traveler on the other side, he felt that person had also spotted him.

Soon that guess proved true. The unknown traveler suddenly began approaching Ju-seong.

“What? Why is he doing that?”

Ju-seong waddled on his snowshoe-clad feet and ran in the opposite direction. While doing so, he tried applying the principles of the White Phoenix Nine Heavens Movement Technique.

The subtlety of the footwork was hard to manifest because of the snowshoes, but at least the technique of making his body lighter was effective. His footprints were very faint, and Ju-seong’s body shot forward relatively quickly.

He had no particular desire to encounter an unknown traveler in the wilderness.

The traveler behind him shouted.

“Hey, friend! Wait! Wait a moment!”

Ju-seong replied without looking back.

“Why am I your friend! Go on your way!”

“What are you so afraid of!”

“You are chasing after me even though I am fleeing using movement techniques! I hate martial artists!”

“Ah come now! I have no food, that is why! Would it not be safer to travel together! If we hug each other to sleep, we will not freeze to death either!”

The mysterious man’s last words triggered Ju-seong’s fear even more strongly.

“Damn it, no! Please go away!”

As they were chasing back and forth, suddenly a group of people burst out of a shrub that had been covered in snow.

Naturally, Ju-seong stopped in his tracks, and the unknown traveler who had been chasing using lightfoot technique also stopped beside him.

The men who had popped out of the snow like moles brushed the snow off their bodies, each grumbling.

“Phew, I nearly froze to death. Working the winter shift, heaven is truly heartless.”

“Even the stronghold chief is out here, so what are you lot complaining about? We have to eat to live. We are all doing this to eat.”

“Ah, I am saying this because it is sad, because it is sad. These days the road to the Southern Barbarians is blocked too, so merchant caravans barely pass through…”

“Shut up for a bit. Let us receive our guests first.”

Listening to their exchange, they were clearly bandits. No, could there be a stronghold affiliated with the Green Forest Organization in such a remote place? They were more likely just simple bandits.

Green Forest bandits and common bandits were essentially the same, but their conduct differed.

Green Forest bandits maintained a certain mutually distant relationship with government offices and various martial forces. They did not rashly kill people, and if you just paid the toll, they let you pass.

Occasionally, if they discovered particularly tempting goods, they would take them, but they generally avoided killing.

But simple bandits who were not like that often went to extremes and were dangerous.

Ju-seong first clasped his hands in greeting. A polite man never got beaten to death out of nowhere.

“Ah, renowned heroes of Crane Mirror Mountain whose fame resounds throughout the martial world, this humble surname Ju pays his respects to the heroes of the deep mountains.”

Ju-seong had no surname and was simply named Ju-seong, but he introduced himself as having the surname Ju anyway.

One of the bandits tilted his head and said.

“This is not Crane Mirror Mountain, it is Diancang Mountain.”

“Ah, I must have traveled further down than I thought. Thank you for letting me know. Anyway, since you are on Diancang Mountain… Diancang Stronghold? Diancang… Sect? Anyway, pleased to meet you.”

“This bastard sure talks a lot. Hey, take out everything you have.”

Ju-seong scratched his head. Snow piled on his head cascaded down. Irritation suddenly surged.

They were both suffering in the snowfield, so if he had been polite first, they should also show some courtesy, should they not?

Why were these bandit bastards so rude?

“Hey, you deaf? Is Zhangfei blocking up your ear holes? Words are not getting through or what?”

Ju-seong ignored the bandits’ blathering and glanced to the side. The mysterious man standing beside him.

His face was covered in snow, so it was hard to see his exact features.

His hair was disheveled and his beard shaggy; he was the very picture of a beggar.

‘What is that around his waist?’

Instead of a leather belt, he had two strands of straw rope wrapped around his waist.

Wasting straw rope, which could be useful somewhere, as just a belt. He could just get any string and use that.

It was an appearance he could not understand.

Anyway, Ju-seong thought this place was full of people he did not like for one reason or another.

Just then, the mysterious beggar standing beside him suddenly bellowed thunderously.

It was a shout befitting the character for ‘shout’ (喝).

“You insolent vermin!!!”

‘Ah, fuck, you scared me.’

Ju-seong flinched and stepped aside. It was the loudest voice he had ever heard in his life.

It was a pure yell without a drop of internal energy, yet it seemed to echo through all the mountains.

The beggar-like man, who had been quiet the whole time, was suddenly getting angry. Ju-seong thought about this with a sour expression.

‘That is what you call a sudden acceleration.’