Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 26 - Sweating Pain

Chapter 26 – Sweating Pain

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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It was in Sichuan’s southwest, at a pleasure house in Mahubu.

“Keu.”

The strong liquor went down the man’s throat. All the frustrations of the world seemed washed away with a single gulp of alcohol.

“Excuse me, bring one more bottle here.”

The waiter hurried over with a bottle and hesitated.

“Um… Sir. When you have ordered more than five bottles, it is about time…”

There were occasionally those who ate and drank without paying, so he was hinting that payment be made in advance. The man stared at the waiter, then flicked a piece of silver from his pocket.

“Ah, thank you, Sir! I apologize for troubling you, I will bring out a plate of jerky as an apology.”

“Not necessary. Just bring the liquor quickly.”

“Ah, yes!”

The man drank and was lost in thought.

His sect, April Pavilion, which had received commissions from the Ten Thousand Ears Gang, had been annihilated not long ago. The April Pavilion Master had his limbs broken and dantian destroyed, and was killed by thugs in the slums.

The man’s name was Myeong-il. Originally it was Cheol Myeong-il, following the Pavilion Master’s name, but now he had abandoned the surname.

“Damn it.”

Myeong-il grimaced and downed his drink. April Pavilion had originally been a nothing-special assassin organization.

Only because Myeong-il, a peak-level swordsman superior to the Pavilion Master himself, completed difficult commissions had their reputation risen.

By chance, while Myeong-il was away on another commission, the Pavilion Master and other assassins were defeated by a mysterious master, and April Pavilion was annihilated.

It was truly futile and absurd.

Myeong-il too was at a loss, because he had never once acted on his own accord.

The April Pavilion Master received commissions from the Ten Thousand Ears Gang, and the most difficult and dangerous ones were assigned to Myeong-il.

-My son, I am counting on you again today. This time it is a master from the south of Huguang Province. I am proud of you.

-Yes, Father.

He had lived that way since birth and had never imagined any other kind of life.

He received orders from the April Pavilion Master and carried out commissions.

When he returned, he drank and ate at pleasure houses, and embraced women.

He spent days on end lost in pleasure and appetite, then resumed training and waited for the next commission.

It was a tediously repetitive cycle, but also a comfortable abyss. Myeong-il asked the waiter.

“Excuse me, do you have courtesans here?”

“Ah, our Plum Blossom House does not keep courtesans as such…”

“I see. Never mind.”

Myeong-il sighed and drank. After April Pavilion’s annihilation, he had learned the truth from the Pavilion Master’s study.

He found musty old ledgers and the Pavilion Master’s personal records.

-…And so the sword technique secrets of the Shooting Sun Sword House were given to me according to contribution. The great contribution of pursuing and killing the fleeing family head was heavily credited. I decided to leave the Assassination Curtain and establish an assassin organization under the Ten Thousand Ears Gang.

“Phew, damn it.”

The man he believed to be his father was not his father, but rather his parents’ enemy.

Among the assassin organizations partnered with the Ten Thousand Ears Gang, there was one called the Assassination Curtain. It was a very old assassin organization, rumored to have continued since the Warring States period.

Long ago, the Assassination Curtain had annihilated a sword house called the Shooting Sun Sword House.

The Grade B assassin of the Assassination Curtain who had participated in that operation joined under the Ten Thousand Ears Gang and established an assassin sect, which was April Pavilion.

As the name suggested, it was a place that modified and used the Shooting Sun Sword House’s sword arts as assassin techniques.

-The Shooting Sun Sword Art cannot be mastered without exceptional talent and insight. Moreover, the bloodline of the Shooting Sun Sword House is innately attuned to pure yang internal energy, giving them an advantage in training the Shooting Sun Sword Art. The Ten Thousand Ears Gang modified and bestowed the April Sword Art, but that is a half-measure martial art that does not lead to transcendence. An infant of the Shooting Sun Sword House survived, so I shall have him train in the original Shooting Sun Sword Art.

Myeong-il was the last descendant of the Shooting Sun Sword House. That he had quickly mastered and achieved success in swordsmanship was not simply because of his exceptional insight.

As a descendant of the Shooting Sun Sword House, he had inherited that bloodline and naturally found his family’s martial arts easy to learn.

He had now lost his sect and also lost his father. A man he had blindly followed who turned out to be his family’s enemy.

He was a man with no roots, who had lost his foundation.

What was unbearable was not his drifting existence, but the fact that he had no idea what to do next.

Until he was approaching thirty, he had been nothing but a puppet, and now that he had freedom he had never wanted, he was as empty as a blank sheet.

Just as he was about to pour another drink, a scholarly-looking, seemingly frail man sat across from him.

“May I join you?”

Myeong-il glanced at the man across from him. He knew the face; it was the branch manager of the Ten Thousand Ears Gang’s Sichuan Southwest Branch. Though around the same age as Myeong-il, he was a man who had risen at a young age because he was a senior member of the massive organization.

Myeong-il was a man of faint personal likes and dislikes, but this branch manager was among those he particularly disliked.

The way he slithered around was utterly pathetic. But given the other’s position, he did not voice his displeasure and simply met his eyes.

“Haha, I hear you have been frequenting Plum Blossom House lately. I have issued instructions to charge you half price for your drinks. Did you know?”

“That is unnecessary. Just state your business.”

The branch manager’s eyelid twitched slightly as he swallowed a curse.

‘This bastard, so rude. One word from me and he would have his gut split open on a dark road, but just because his martial arts are good.’

But he was skilled at hiding his true feelings, so he burst into affected laughter and said.

“As gallant as ever! Who would think Cheol Myeong-il is an assassin!”

Myeong-il, disliking the surname attached to his name, scowled deeply and retorted.

“Just state your business.”

“Fine, fine. It seems I have found the whereabouts of the one who destroyed your sect. April Pavilion was an affiliate of the Ten Thousand Ears Gang, so we too must have our revenge. We could post it as an open commission, but is it not proper to give priority to one who lost his sect?”

Myeong-il had no particular attachment to April Pavilion or to the man who was supposedly his father. Even before he learned the man was not his true father, it had been the same.

Since the Pavilion Master had never considered him a son, it was perhaps natural.

But Myeong-il was a man who needed orders and instructions. Even if it was a commission from the detestable branch manager, he felt inwardly pleased.

He was like an ownerless hunting dog seeking a new master to give orders.

Myeong-il set down his wine cup and said.

“Very well. I will take it. Where should I go?”

The branch manager’s lips curled up crookedly.

* * *

Red Beggar and Ju-seong continued south. Yunnan Province was vast, and crossing it on foot was truly a long journey.

By the time winter ended and they entered the warm south, the two had pushed through the snowfields.

At night, they slept back to back, sharing a blanket. When snowstorms raged, they shared Red Beggar’s liquor.

Red Beggar was a beggar without money or provisions.

But he had gourds overflowing with liquor.

Ju-seong was amazed at Red Beggar’s drinking capacity, and even more amazed at his appetite.

“Red Beggar. Is your appetite not a bit excessive?”

Red Beggar was tearing at meat when he raised an eyebrow and retorted.

“I am not coveting your provisions, Brother Ju. Just leave me be.”

Surprisingly, Red Beggar was two years younger than Ju-seong. So Ju-seong spoke casually to Red Beggar, and Red Beggar called Ju-seong “Brother.”

Ju-seong looked at Red Beggar with pitying eyes.

‘How is that face…’

Anyway, Red Beggar had never depleted Ju-seong’s provisions. He hunted hibernating frogs, snakes, and the like, or got lucky finding deer.

For a first-rate master, hunting was not difficult.

Ju-seong chewed on the tough deer meat and brought up a topic.

“By the way, why did you come to Yunnan? From your speech, you seem like a northerner.”

Though they had been together for some time, neither had asked about the other’s background. They had exchanged endless trifling jokes, rumors of the martial world, and bottom-level commentary on the world, but neither had gone deeper.

They had intentionally avoided such topics.

Both had been cautious. Now Ju-seong was first to break the ice.

Red Beggar nodded.

“I came from Kaifeng in Henan Province. I was the beggar chief of a place called Nan-go County.”

“So you were the branch head of the Beggars’ Sect there? Where did you learn martial arts?”

The Beggars’ Sect existed in every county.

It was a self-governing body formed by local beggars gathering. Since government administration was insufficient to manage even beggars, such groups had naturally formed.

The nature of the Beggars’ Sect varied by region, but broadly fell into two types.

First, cases where they simply resolved disputes among beggars and petitioned the government over injustices the beggars suffered.

‘In such cases, they function as a loose association and shelter for beggars.’

Second, cases where they roamed about intimidating merchants and travelers, engaging in robbery-like begging.

At worst, they would kidnap children and force them to beg, not hesitating even to commit highway robbery.

So the Beggars’ Sect could be either dark path or white path depending on the region.

Ju-seong propped his chin and watched Red Beggar eat contentedly.

‘Given this guy’s personality, he clearly did not do anything dishonorable.’

Red Beggar wiped the grease from his lips and spoke.

“I learned martial arts from my benefactor through a chance encounter. He was an eccentric obsessed with liquor and gambling… Anyway. Thanks to that, I could beat up most bad guys in my county and beyond in Kaifeng.”

“Indeed, you have the skill for that.”

“Anyway… I am a beggar at heart, so when I was not beating villains to death, I begged.”

“A branch head going out to beg… Sounds like you.”

“There was a young lady who occasionally put a piece of silver in my begging bowl. She was so beautiful and kind-hearted. I swept the alley she passed through every day. I kept other beggars away.”

Ju-seong chuckled.

“You were smitten. Fallen in love. Like Diaochan and Lu Bu, like the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid.”

“A beggar daring to? Love is for two. Loving alone is like a single shoe.”

“So it was unrequited love. Ah, how heartrending. But truly, a real man is solitary. Alone and lonely.”

“Clown talk. Anyway, to me she was beyond reach, a dream I could never have.”

“Still, if you are a branch head, you are not entirely an unsuitable match.”

A branch head overseeing a county’s beggars, if a decent county, was usually a hereditary position, and brought in considerable wealth.

“She was from too noble a family. And even if she were a common girl, how could I flaunt my title as beggar chief? A beggar is the very bottom of the world. Forget that, and you are no longer a beggar.”

Ju-seong looked at Red Beggar with an absurd expression. There seemed to be some philosophy of a beggar, as it were.

Red Beggar’s eyes began to deepen around then. Ju-seong shook off his thoughts and focused on the story.

“One day she stopped appearing, which I found strange. I thought she must be busy somewhere, but about seven days later, a notice was posted.”

Red Beggar’s eyes grew bloodshot and tears welled up. Tendons bulged in his jaw as his teeth ground together.

“The Flower-Snapping Laughing Killer… that was his alias.”

“Ah…”

Ju-seong could not continue. Just from the alias, he could understand the situation.

Flower-Snapping Laughing Killer.

He was one who snaps flowers and laughs while killing.

The woman Red Beggar admired had been violated and killed by a sexual predator. So Red Beggar had chased the Flower-Snapping Laughing Killer from Henan through Huguang Province and Guizhou Province all the way to Yunnan.

“…That bastard kept snapping flowers throughout his travels. He left fallen petals in his wake. I chased him, following the petals he dropped.”

Ju-seong understood those feelings.

The days when he knew not a single move of martial arts. The day he scraped together even his family’s travel money for the afterlife and bought blades.

Hanging them from his body like armor, like ornaments, climbing that hot uphill road.

What had his heart been then?

Red Beggar had held that same heart as he crossed several provinces, chasing the culprit for over half a year.

That steep uphill road that Ju-seong had climbed for barely half an hour in the heat of summer.

Red Beggar had been climbing for months with a heart festering to the extreme, sweating pain.

Red Beggar was climbing toward his own Black Dragon Gang.

Ju-seong kept all these impressions unexpressed in his face or words, gazing at Red Beggar with an impassive look.

Red Beggar also glared back. Ju-seong stared back for a moment, then spoke.

“Red Beggar. As I said, I have trained a peculiar technique, so my nose is as good as a dog’s.”

“So you are like a dog, Brother.”

“Yes. You little punk. This dog will be your hunting dog, Red Beggar. From the look of it, that sexual predator also seems to have fairly high martial arts. You cannot catch him alone. I will help.”

Red Beggar shot back.

“Then I will help catch that crazy monster moth or whatever. I do not understand why you want to catch it.”

“What can I do? Master told me to bring it. If your martial world debut theme is hunting villains, then mine is collecting poisonous creatures.”

“It would be good if we help each other’s goals.”

“Good. Flower-Snapping Laughing Killer… That bastard of the world, donkey’s son, turtle spawn, who should be enlisted as the eleventh member of the Ten Regular Attendants, that damn bastard, let us catch him together.”

Under the moonlit night, two men pledged their cause together.

Red Beggar slept deeply for the first time in a long while with his back against Ju-seong’s. It seemed to be because he had unloaded some of what was inside.

Ju-seong listened to Red Beggar’s snoring and looked at the night sky. Stars so numerous they seemed about to spill down were all looking at him.

Ju-seong had thought of the Blue Flower Acrobatic Troupe members as flowers, even if they had bloomed on the street. He also thought of the flowers the predator would have snapped. They too must be in that sky.

So the stars were flowers blooming in the night sky.

Ju-seong looked at his own flower garden and drifted off to sleep. The beggar’s snoring sounded as pleasant as a lullaby.