Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 40 - The Physician Who Kills

Chapter 40 – The Physician Who Kills

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Byeok Sa-un.

He could no longer recall when he had first begun to lust after the flesh of women with such intensity.

Once the young master of a merchant group that exerted considerable influence across the southern reaches of Henan Province, he had been cast out of his family overnight along with his mother.

The cause was a dark-skinned concubine of the Yi tribe. She had borne his father a son and, in doing so, had monopolized every shred of the man’s affection.

Though Sa-un’s features were handsome, he had inherited much from his mother’s side of the family. His mother, bitter and broken, often cursed him, claiming that it was because he failed to resemble his father’s face that they had been discarded.

“If you had resembled your father by even a single hair of his eyebrows, would you and I have been cast out onto the streets like this? You wretched boy! A son who is not even a scrap of help to the mother who bore him!”

Sa-un’s own thoughts on the matter were, naturally, quite different. His father had simply developed a taste for young and beautiful women.

His mother, though she remained beautiful, was no longer young. She had simply been replaced by something newer.

For some reason, following that period in his life, Byeok Sa-un began to feel a strange, uncontrollable impulse whenever he encountered women with dark, sun-kissed skin.

Possessing a reasonably sturdy frame, he managed to make a living for himself as a wandering warrior… a ronin.

But wherever he went, scandals followed in his wake. His rugged, wandering aura combined with his handsome features was often more than enough to dismantle the defenses of any woman he set his sights on.

Yet, even that did not satisfy him. Eventually, he began secretly scaling the walls of common households under the cover of night to indulge his depraved desires.

His misdeeds snowballed, growing larger and more monstrous with every passing day. Such is the nature of evil. While goodness must be cherished, protected, and nurtured to survive, evil possesses the uncanny ability to grow and flourish all on its own.

Ultimately, he returned to the family that had cast him out and committed acts of unspeakable horror.

A middle-aged man with a graying beard, now drenched in fresh blood, glared at him with bulging eyes, his teeth gnashing in a final, futile rage.

“You… you… how could you still call yourself…”

Byeok Sa-un replied in a voice as gloomy as a tomb.

“Human? I am no human, Father. Not from the moment you threw me out. Not from the moment my mother began treating me like a lump of misfortune and beating me. No, perhaps I was a devil from the very day I was born. You and she… you simply awakened that devil.”

His father died with a massive hole torn into his chest. His half-brother lay nearby, his neck snapped, his lifeless eyes staring into nothingness.

The concubine who had watched it all… the woman who had replaced his mother as the primary wife… sat collapsed on the floor, her hands pressed over her mouth in terror.

“Mother… or perhaps I should call you stepmother? The reason your son had to roll through the streets like a fallen leaf was, in the end, because of you. I have come to repay every bit of that humiliation.”

Perhaps, in the end, that was the only reason he had truly returned.

A demonic smile spread across his lips.

Leaving the burning mountain villa behind, Byeok Sa-un walked away with his hands clasped behind his head, a look of profound satisfaction on his face.

It was a massacre he had been able to perpetrate only because he knew his father retired to this secluded villa every winter for rest.

No one had witnessed his crime.

At least, there shouldn’t have been anyone.

“So, young hero, now that you have achieved your revenge, where do you intend to go?”

A wizened, elderly voice drifted into his ear.

“…Who are you?”

Sa-un immediately became wary. He knew better than to hostly antagonize the old man; the stranger had managed to deceive his senses and approach within arm’s reach, all while seemingly knowing his entire history.

The man stood barely five feet tall, with a small, unassuming frame. He had brittle white hair and wore the refined robes of a scholar.

He appeared to be an ordinary old man… the kind of face one might encounter on the street and forget before taking another two steps.

However, if one were to truly look at him… to face him and peer deeply into his eyes…

At some point, one would find themselves lost within those bottomless, abyss-like pupils. Their heart would sink.

And they would realize that they were standing face-to-face with something truly terrifying.

Without offering a word of explanation, the old man held out a book.

“It seems you are the rightful owner of this martial art, young hero. Read it once. If you find it distasteful, you may discard it without regret. I am merely placing the opportunity in your hands; whether you choose to wield it is entirely up to you.”

The old man spoke with a casual yet dignified air.

With every phrase, a strange aura of wisdom seemed to emanate from him, yet his eyes shone with a sinister light, like those of a persistent serpent.

Byeok Sa-un glanced at the title of the book and realized it was a cultivation method. A flash of greed flickered in his eyes.

A proper cultivation method was not something easily acquired.

Ultimately, if a human wished to overcome the limits of their birth, the power of high-level internal energy was essential. And to build that internal energy, one needed a high-level cultivation method.

The methods known to common ronins in the market were predictable… usually second- or third-rate scraps that had trickled down from some long-extinguished unorthodox sect.

Sa-un scanned the title once more.

[Mystic Yin Qi-Absorbing Formula]

“…I will take it for now. I do not know your purpose in giving this to me, old man, but you were the one who said I could use it as kindling if I chose not to learn it.”

“I may not be a hero who commands the winds of this dusty Jianghu, but how could a man of character go back on his word? Do as you wish, Fated One.”

The old man chuckled softly as he spoke, but the term he used to address Sa-un had already changed to “fated one.”

It was as if Sa-un had already become the master of the technique. As if to emphasize that he was a lucky man who had stumbled upon a grand opportunity.

The old man’s words were always like that. They possessed the refined air of the ancients, but those elegant sentences eventually twisted into a serpent that coiled around and constricted the listener.

Once trapped within that coil, the victim would have no choice but to be crushed.

As Sa-un backed away warily, preparing to turn and leave…

“Ah, wait a moment.”

The old man called out again. When Sa-un turned back, the old man offered a self-deprecating smile.

“As I age, I find I often forget the most important things. Here, take this as well. You may find you need it someday. The world’s eyes will not be kind to the martial art you are about to learn…”

The second book the old man offered was quite thin compared to the first. Its title was:

[Poisoned-Heart Blood-Boiling Art]

*To boil the blood with a poisoned heart.* At the time, Byeok Sa-un had no idea what such a title could possibly mean.

The old man continued. For an instant, the air grew heavy, and time seemed to slow down. Sa-un’s pupils suddenly went slack.

“If you learn these arts, and if you manage to survive even after achieving success… then I shall show you a new path to walk. When that time comes… come to Xinjiang. Seek out the Cradle of the Demonic Path.”

The Cradle of the Demonic Path?

What on earth did that mean?

Before Byeok Sa-un could even voice his question, the old man made a small gesture.

A veil seemed to pass over Sa-un’s vision for a split second, and when it cleared, the old man had vanished as if he had never been there at all.

“Was I possessed by some ghost trickery?”

Sa-un bit his lower lip and turned to hurry down the mountain. His steps were frantic. He felt as if something dark and ill-omened was reaching out to snag the hem of his robes.

The talk of Xinjiang and the Cradle of the Demonic Path sank into the furthest corners of his consciousness, becoming completely forgotten.

But this memory would one day resurface to lead him. Deeper into the darkness, and deeper into the ultimate evil.

* * *

The sounds of the Yunnan martial artists bickering with Helian Qiu echoed through the air. No one paid any mind to Sa-un, who had been reduced to a cripple after suffering qi deviation and was now bound tightly in ropes.

Before his eyes, countless vengeful spirits appeared.

Women and men.

There were so many of them. With pale faces and hollow eyes, they stood behind the nearby rocks, perched on distant tree branches, and lined the slopes of the opposite mountain.

All at once, they opened their mouths and spoke in a single, unified voice.

[Go to Xinjiang! Go to the Cradle of the Demonic Path!]
[Go to Xinjiang! Go to the Cradle of the Demonic Path!]

Byeok Sa-un’s pupils, which had been dilated into black voids, suddenly shriveled, revealing the whites of his eyes.

The pupils shrank until they were nothing more than tiny black dots on white marbles.

“Xinjiang… to the Cradle of the Demonic Path.”

A fragment of speech, like an unholy incantation, spilled from his cracked lips.

—RUMBLE!

The blackened veins on his face bulged even thicker.

The wounds scattered across his body charred black, as if seared by a hot iron, losing all sensation.

His severed tendons began to wriggle and twist on their own, knotting themselves together like loops of rope.

A terrifying burst of energy erupted from him, flattening the large tropical fern leaves in a perfect circle.

“Gwaaaaaaaah!”

“Wh-What is this!”

“Warrior Helian, I thought you said he was subdued!”

“I saw him suffer qi deviation and vomit blood with my own eyes! I even severed the tendons in his limbs!”

Helian Qiu and the Yunnan martial artists panicked, drawing their weapons in haste.

But the demon, having lost all reason, thought only of Xinjiang and the Cradle of the Demonic Path.

For that place was to be his cradle, and his grave.

Helian Qiu rallied his men, shouting to the Yunnan martial artists.

“We must form a perimeter and pin him down! Help me!”

The Yunnan martial artists gathered, but they continued to eye one another warily.

Among them were members of both the Southern Commerce Association and the Green Wood Lotus.

When the ‘Flower-Snapping Laughing Killer’ had been at his peak, they had forgotten their differences and fought together to catch him.

But now that he was captured, their individual interests resurfaced.

Who would be the one to officially arrest and escort the sexual predator? Who would be the one to behead the villain in the market square and earn the fame for it?

After all, the power of the government meant little in Yunnan. It was a place where the maxim of non-interference between the state and the martial world was observed to the letter.

In other words, the man before them was a shortcut to achieving hegemony in Yunnan.

Even as they moved to surround him, they remained preoccupied with their subtle power struggles.

Ju-seong’s party watched the scene from a distance, frozen.

Ju-seong, feeling his instincts scream in warning, spoke slowly.

“This… isn’t good.”

“What did you say?”

Red Beggar, who had been on the verge of rushing forward, stopped and asked.

“I don’t claim to have great insight, but there’s a high probability we’ll die if we go near that. Red Beggar, let’s just stay right here.”

“No, the man suffered qi deviation, how could he possibly… ”

Before Red Beggar could finish his sentence, a deafening explosion tore through the air.

—BOOM!

A burst of black palm force erupted, and three or four Yunnan martial artists on horseback were instantly pulverized into fragments of meat.

“Holy mother of…!”

Red Beggar, Ju-seong, and Yeo Hong-pa scrambled backward to put distance between themselves and the slaughter.

Yeo Hong-pa, his face pale with shock, shouted to Ju-seong.

“Young Hero! What on earth is happening?”

“How would I know? Just run!”

—BANG! BOOM! CRUNCH!

The demon fired two more palm strikes and swung his nails once, unleashing five massive streaks of claw energy. In an instant, a dozen more people were slaughtered, and the perimeter was breached.

Byeok Sa-un, now appearing as a complete demon, burst through the gap and sprinted away.

“Kieeeeeeeee!”

“Wow, he’s turned into a complete beast.”

Ju-seong muttered, his face blank with astonishment.

The man was fleeing south. Having been chased in that direction for a full month, his body seemed to be moving purely on muscle memory.

“Xinjiang… to Xinjiang…!”

The man’s mutterings reached Ju-seong’s sensitive ears.

“Xinjiang is in the opposite direction, though…”

Ju-seong realized that the man had no shred of sanity left.

Red Beggar gripped his bamboo staff tightly and shouted.

“Brother, right now…!”

“No. That man is no longer the sexual predator we were chasing; he’s become something else entirely. And since he’s headed into the southern jungles… catching him will require a much higher level of preparation. Even if we ran until our legs gave out, I don’t think we could match that speed.”

The qinggong the demon was using was far faster than before. It was as if he were burning through every drop of his remaining true energy all at once.

Ju-seong’s judgment was swift and cold.

“For now…”

Ju-seong walked over to Helian Qiu, who had collapsed with his chest torn open by the claw energy.

“We should tend to the one who’s walking around with his skin peeled off first.”

A needle and thread snapped out of Ju-seong’s sleeve. He rubbed the needle, concentrating his ‘Flame Crow Six Stage Art’ energy into his fingertips.

The needle instantly glowed red-hot.

“Normally, objects harbor residual energy that is harmful to the human body. That energy can be driven away with intense heat. This is what we call ‘disinfection’.”

Red Beggar watched in slight admiration before asking.

“Oh… then shouldn’t you disinfect the thread too? If you’ve been carrying it in your sleeve all this time, wouldn’t it have that ‘harmful energy’ too?”

“…”

“Brother?”

“It really should be boiled in water… but we don’t have time. Now, let’s begin the procedure.”

“Man, you really are a physician who kills.”

Helian Qiu, clutching onto his fading consciousness, stared up at Ju-seong with trembling eyes.