Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 3 - Toward the Full Moon Tower
Chapter 3 – Toward the Full Moon Tower
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The old man’s face revealed after removing the human skin mask was truly that of a general.
His piercing eyes resembled a tiger’s, and his white beard sticking out in all directions made him look more like a bandit or ruffian. His imposing physique was so broad that you would believe him if he said he was a divine general guarding the gates of heaven.
The old man looked at Ju-seong and said.
“From the moment I first saw you, I was certain you could kill all of these rabble. Your eyes were brimming with killing intent, yet your movements were nimble and cunning.”
Such insight came from layers upon layers of accumulated experience from the martial world.
The moment Ju-seong entered the premises, the old man knew the Black Dragon Gang’s riffraff were no match for him.
Ju-seong stared blankly at him and thought.
‘So that old man is definitely not the Black Dragon Gang Leader. Then where is the real gang leader?’
The old man seemed to read his thoughts, picking his ear as he said.
“As for the Black Dragon Gang Leader, I severed the tendons of his four limbs, destroyed his dantian, and threw him in the marketplace.”
“…That is good to hear.”
Ju-seong felt it increasingly difficult to maintain consciousness. While exchanging a few words with the old man, his tension had eased, and he was dizzy from the blood he had lost.
His legs trembled, and the old man’s image doubled and tripled.
‘Without ever having a proper romance with a beautiful woman… If I had known it would come to this, I would have at least shown some interest in Hong-bin who said she liked me.’
But Hong-bin of the acrobatic troupe was not a pretty woman, so Ju-seong immediately retracted his thought. She was always complaining that she did not like her dark complexion.
The problem was not her skin color, but he could never bring himself to tell her that.
Thinking of Hong-bin, who had finally gotten the pale skin she wanted now that she was a pallid corpse, made Ju-seong feel his insides twist for no reason.
The old man watched him and asked.
“The wind and the streets must have raised you all this time, yet you have loyalty for someone like that? Coming to avenge your family and all.”
“It was not the wind and streets that raised me, but people. A worthless troupe of clowns was my parents and siblings. The old gentleman should know that.”
Ju-seong was a man who said what he had to say even while dying.
The old man smiled slightly as if amused, then asked again.
“Do you want to live?”
A weak smile hung crookedly on Ju-seong’s lips.
‘I want to live.’
“If you have time, please save me.”
He muttered that and collapsed with a thud.
The ground drew closer. His consciousness cut off and his vision went dark.
“Ha ha ha! If you have time, save me? Ha ha!”
The old man laughed several times in front of the fallen Ju-seong, as if finding it amusing.
He looked at the back of Ju-seong’s head as he lay face down and muttered.
“I do not know whether saving you would be good for this martial world. But you are not yet evil, and I am a physician who has decided to walk the path of saving lives…”
This crazy young man’s talent was dangerous. A guy with internal energy no bigger than rat droppings was desperately using it at just the right moments to execute attacks.
He did not know even half a move of any martial technique, yet this riffraff had innate combat instincts.
He wondered if heaven had sent down an evil spirit to kill people.
Moreover, there was that killing intent…
The old man let out a small sigh and raised his head to look at the sky. The blue sky was heated under the blazing sun.
“Whose will is this?”
The sky did not answer. The old man sighed again and bent down. He wrapped one arm around Ju-seong’s waist, hoisted him up, and disappeared somewhere.
* * *
Ju-seong opened his eyes. Birdsong came from outside the window, and the morning sunlight shone yellow through it.
Indeed, how joyful it was to be able to see the morning again.
He closed his eyes, overcome by relief and contentment, and was about to stretch, when he suddenly stopped.
‘How am I alive?’
He quickly opened his eyes and sat up. Right next to him, the old man was sitting cross-legged on a bed.
Ju-seong was startled out of his skin.
‘Good heavens.’
He barely collected his shocked heart and opened his mouth.
“Good morning, Old Master.”
When he greeted politely first, the old man opened his eyes.
“Good morning, clown.”
It seemed his title had become fixed. Whatever.
Ju-seong realized that the wounds all over his body were closed, and his broken bones were mended.
He asked in a voice full of doubt.
“You saved me?”
“I infused my energy to heal your cut flesh and broken bones. I also replenished some of your damaged true energy. Since I am your benefactor, you should serve me respectfully from now on.”
“I am grateful for that, but… Who are you, Old Master?”
“As for me, I am a legend of the martial world, renowned for my medicine that reaches the heavens and my martial arts that would astonish the world.”
“…May I ask your name?”
“My name is Wi Ji-baek, and gossipmongers used to call me the Divine Physician of Life and Death.”
“I have never heard of you.”
At Ju-seong’s blunt response, the Divine Physician stroked his beard with a displeased expression.
“…You are truly a young man ignorant of the martial world’s news.”
“Does it make sense for a troupe that wanders the land to be ignorant of the world’s news?”
The acrobatic troupe did not only sell tricks; they also sold stories.
An eager request for news, one cup of wine for rising action, one bite of food for climax, one iron coin for the conclusion.
They were itinerant storytellers who traveled the land.
Moreover, what proper master of the martial world would so shamelessly praise himself like this?
‘Could he be insane?’
The old man seemed to read Ju-seong’s thoughts, glaring at him for a moment before speaking.
“Anyway, your situation looked pitiful so I helped you a bit. There is also something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
The Divine Physician pulled out a ledger from his chest and tossed it in front of Ju-seong. It was the Black Dragon Gang’s accounting ledger.
‘Even those rabble keep a ledger.’
He was quite surprised.
When he opened the ledger to the part the old man indicated, it said:
-Day of Gyeyu, three women from acrobat troupe, tributed to Full Moon Tower. One tael of silver.
A tael is a unit of weight. One tael of silver is 1,200 copper coins, and pork costs 20 coins per jin.
So the three women in the ledger were “tributed” for the price of 60 jin of pork.
The Divine Physician, pondering that bitter fact, looked at Ju-seong and said.
“You said you were from the acrobat troupe. I had something to look into personally, so I was going through the ledger and found this. Does anything come to mind?”
Ju-seong’s eyes went wide as if struck by lightning. If it was three women from the acrobat troupe, he could guess who they were.
Yi-hwa, So-yeong, and Yeong-ryeo.
These three were dancers of the troupe. When Ju-seong found the bodies of his family, they were not there. He had assumed they had escaped somewhere.
But the Black Dragon Gang had captured them and sold them somewhere.
If Ju-seong had died at the Black Dragon Gang, who would have looked for them, and who would have rescued them?
He thought.
‘It is truly fortunate that I survived.’
Ju-seong immediately prostrated himself and bowed deeply to the Divine Physician.
What did it matter if he was a madman or a braggart?
If it were just Ju-seong alone, honestly, he would not have cared if he got stabbed and died.
He had considered himself already dead from the moment he lost his family.
But because he had survived, he could now go rescue the surviving family members.
He owed the Divine Physician who saved him a debt he could never repay even with a hundred expressions of gratitude.
“Thank you, Great Hero.”
“Great Hero, what pleasant words to hear. How nice it is to see a rude clown showing manners.”
The Divine Physician picked up the Black Dragon Gang ledger and pointed to another section.
-Elixir pill. Effect unknown. Tributed to Full Moon Tower. Three taels of silver.
“This is the item I am looking for. Since I made it with my medicine and pharmacy skills that reach the heavens, how dangerous must it be? If it falls into the wrong hands, it will surely cause chaos in the martial world. I too must go to the Full Moon Tower with you.”
Here was a man who appeared to be quite a master, sharing a destination and purpose with him.
For Ju-seong, this could not have been happier news.
He prostrated himself again and cried out.
“This humble one will clear the way like a dog and horse!”
“Tsk tsk tsk.”
Seeing his sly laugh, it seemed he was quite satisfied with Ju-seong’s rapidly increased deference.
‘Once I rescue my sisters, I must part ways with him quickly.’
Ju-seong muttered to himself. He was grateful for the gratitude, but getting tangled up with such an eccentric would surely be exhausting.
The fact that he referred to himself as “This Seat” was already strange enough.
“Divine Physician of Life and Death, Elder Wi Ji-baek, whose medicine and martial arts both reach the heavens, I shall guide you to that damned Full Moon Tower.”
“Good. But let us eat first. Even climbing Mount Tai should be done after a meal.”
They were in an inn room. Ju-seong and the Divine Physician went down to the dining hall and ordered a generous spread of food.
While eating noodles, Ju-seong asked.
“Divine Physician Elder, why were you pretending to be the Black Dragon Gang Leader there?”
“That was part of a grand plan.”
“A grand plan…”
“I was going to pretend to be the Black Dragon Gang Leader, lead the lackeys, and attack the Full Moon Tower. Then the Black Dragon Gang’s dark path men would die, the Full Moon Tower’s dark path men would die, and I would just leisurely walk in, take my item, and come out.”
“With your skills, Elder, could you not just storm the Full Moon Tower alone and slaughter them all? Why use such a troublesome method?”
“How could a physician who has sworn to walk the path of saving lives harm human life? So if I make them fight and kill each other, I do not have to bloody my hands, and the good people around them benefit from fewer dark paths. It is good for everyone.”
‘What is good about it, you crazy old man.’
Ju-seong muttered to himself, aghast at the old man’s mental state.
Whether you make them kill each other through manipulation or kill them yourself, what was the difference?
‘No, isn’t the former actually more vicious?’
After all that, blathering about a physician’s duty was rather frightening.
Just as he was inwardly deciding to run away as fast as possible once this was over, the old man spoke up.
“Yesterday.”
“Yes.”
“For someone whose killing intent was shooting up to your crown, you fought quite coolly. You do not seem mentally unstable right now either.”
“Even if my killing intent is boiling, if it ruins my revenge because of it, it would all be for nothing. I gripped my sanity and held on.”
“Even as people were spurting blood and dying, you could keep your composure?”
“And death is a common thing for those who wander the streets.”
“Have you seen much death?”
At the Divine Physician’s question, Ju-seong let out a sigh and recited.
“I have seen plenty if I have. Dying from cold wind in the lungs, beaten to death by ruffians, dying from eating something wrong, slipping on a mountain path. Is that not simply what life is for a wandering troupe?”
“Then how did you handle the bodies?”
“We are not beasts either, so we at least bury them shallowly by the roadside and build a stone cairn. Then the passing peddlers, porters, and wanderers add one stone each.”
“So even among wanderers, there is affection.”
“It is not that. They believe that if they do not do it, the spirit of someone who died away from home will cling to them and torment them.”
“Did you do the same for your family?”
“Why would they be any different? They would have wanted to be buried that way too. All the family members who passed before them also became stone cairns.”
The old man looked at Ju-seong for a moment, then continued his meal.
Ju-seong also buried his head in his bowl and wolfed down the food greedily. You have to eat well whether you live or die.
A serving boy sitting in the corner kept nodding off, probably having stayed up all night at a gambling den.
Is living not about the pleasure of eating, sleeping, and relieving oneself?
In that sense, the martial artists who set aside all of that and devoted everything to martial arts were madmen.
Suddenly, Ju-seong looked at the old man before him.
If this old man claims to dislike killing people, why did he learn martial arts?
Why do people of the martial world sharpen their martial skills when they know their lives will be stained with blood?
‘…How many must a man with a blade harm to establish his purpose?’
Ju-seong asked the old man.
“Old gentleman, you seem to dislike harming people, and judging by your title, you appear to be a physician. How did you come to learn martial arts?”
“If I am murdered by robbers on the road, would not the women of the world be heartbroken? As a man, I cannot make women weep, so I learned it to protect myself.”
‘Figures.’
Ju-seong let out a deep sigh. What could he expect from a madman?
“…The Full Moon Tower is in the neighboring Haizhou County, so I shall guide you there.”
* * *
The Full Moon Tower was a large four-story building. Located in a place called Haizhou County, it was one of the most famous brothels in this region.
Of course, it was not just a place that sold song and dance; it also housed courtesans who sold their nights.
That was not all. The tower master was a famous expert called Three Steps One Kill.
There were also rumors that the Full Moon Tower itself was a subordinate branch of a large evil path sect.
On the way, Ju-seong asked.
“Elder, I hear the tower master’s alias is Three Steps One Kill. Will you be alright?”
The Divine Physician snorted dismissively at his words.
“He kills one person every three steps? That is his alias? He is truly a pathetic fellow. I bet he made it up himself and paid gossipmongers to spread it around.”
“Even so, he is a fairly famous expert around here. Can you handle him?”
“Look at this insolent clown. Handle him? You truly crave my touch.”
The Divine Physician quickly moved his hand and struck Ju-seong’s back. The shock rattled his bones, and he decided not to run his mouth carelessly.
Now as ever, a beating is an excellent way to correct an insolent tongue.
Of course, just because he shut his mouth did not mean his doubts disappeared.
Ju-seong kept stealing sidelong glances at this strange old man as if he could not trust him.
The Divine Physician snorted, then casually waved his hand and sent out something like red energy.
Looking closely, it was a red palm, a palm strike.
-Crash!
A large crack formed in a roadside boulder, and it split apart.
If the Divine Physician had failed to control his strength when hitting Ju-seong’s back just now, he would have already been split in two.
Ju-seong preferred his current body, still in one piece.
“…I shall guide you, Elder.”
* * *
They walked for about half a day. Ju-seong was drenched in sweat, but the Divine Physician showed no sign of feeling the heat.
Arriving at their destination, Ju-seong opened the door of the Full Moon Tower and looked around. Being a brothel with shady dealings, there were few customers during the day.
Ju-seong slightly twisted his lips.
‘Tower Master, consider today’s business a total loss.’
To drive out what few customers remained, he took a deep breath and shouted.
“Tower Master, you son of a bitch! The Divine Physician of Life and Death has arrived to punish you! Get down here immediately and receive your judgment!”
It was truly the spirited roar of a fox riding on the tiger’s might.