Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 41 - You Are No Longer a Sword
Chapter 41 – You Are No Longer a Sword
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Ju-seong suddenly shoved his nose into Red Beggar’s waistband and, sniffing around, snatched away a gourd.
Red Beggar called out in a flustered voice.
“Hey, hey, Brother.”
“Yeah, I know. This is the strongest one.”
“Huh? Brother, a beggar’s liquor…”
Ju-seong ignored Red Beggar’s words and immediately tilted the gourd upside down over the wound to disinfect it.
“Gaaaah…!”
Helian Qiu writhed and reacted violently.
“Good reaction. If you cannot feel pain, that is when things are truly dangerous.”
Ju-seong spouted words devoid of blood or tears as he pushed in a needle before the pain could even subside.
“Now, anesthetic powder would be nice, but I do not have any now, so you will have to endure it raw. There are limits to lowering pain through pressure point sealing, but this is the best I can do.”
Ju-seong tapped several points on his chest to lower Helian Qiu’s pain and began the procedure.
The index, middle, and ring fingernails had raked across his chest, leaving deep wounds.
Helian Qiu endured Ju-seong’s treatment with bloodshot eyes.
“Ah, you are bearing it well. Keep your wits about you. If you close your eyes once and wake up, that will be the ferry landing on the other side of the River of Three Crossings.”
He had lost a lot of blood. On top of that, miasmic poison had seeped into the wounds, making it hard to wash out the poison with strong liquor alone.
All the victims except Helian Qiu had died instantly. The surviving Yunnan martial artists charged after the sexual predator, filled with grief and indignation.
The Martial Alliance warriors also followed behind them, shouting for revenge, probably thinking their captain had died or was about to.
In the end, only those trying to save lives remained behind.
Ju-seong kept talking continuously.
“It is a bit awkward to say this to someone I am not close to, but your flesh seems to have a nice feel for stitching. The needle goes in crisply, you could say. For a physician, this is a delightful thing.”
“Gaaaaah…”
“Ah, of course. I am a man who was personally taught medicine by the one called the Divine Physician in today’s martial world. Three days from now, you will be up and about, dusting off your backside.”
“Haaaaaah! Hrrrrk!”
“Hey, stay still. Your pressure points are not holding well because you are a peak-level master. Think about it this way. When you go back with such a splendid scar, will your wife not fall for you all over again? They say women like dangerous men. Right?”
Yeo Hong-pa, who had been watching the process from the side, asked with a sour expression.
“Helian Warrior seems more likely to die from high blood pressure due to Young Hero’s glib tongue.”
“Hah, do you know how tiring it is to babble away while my hands are busy too? I have to keep talking to keep this man from falling eternally asleep… There. Done.”
“Well, already?”
A few dozen words in a short time, and he had finished suturing the three large gashes.
It was truly a ghost-like skill.
It was clear he was no one who had learned medicine haphazardly.
Ju-seong pulled out a small pouch made of oil-soaked cloth from his robes and applied something sticky from inside onto the wounds.
Instantly, a rich and elegant medicinal fragrance spread through the area.
Yeo Hong-pa raised one eyebrow slightly.
‘Is this not a familiar scent…?’
After applying the wound salve, Ju-seong pulled out a small wooden case barely two chon long from his robes and opened it.
Inside were three reddish pills lined up side by side, and Ju-seong licked his lips and muttered.
“Do not spare anything for those you have decided to save…”
It was a golden maxim his master had emphasized again and again while teaching him medicine.
In truth, it was a saying meant for the physician, not the patient.
A physician is one who will forever cherish in his heart the one patient he could not save, rather than the hundred he did save.
If, in a moment’s hesitation, he spared precious medicine only for the patient to die, the physician’s heart would become diseased sooner or later.
Thus, those words were a prescription for the physician himself.
Without hesitation, Ju-seong pulled out one Blood-Preserving Pill and pushed it into Helian Qiu’s mouth.
A pill that replenishes lost blood. There were various kinds of blood-preserving pills in the martial world, but the Divine Physician’s was unrivaled in difficulty of manufacture, ingredients used, and efficacy.
When Seo-baek, called the best in Sichuan, first became famous, it was precisely because he had saved martial artists on the brink of death with that blood-preserving pill.
Ju-seong had made quite a significant sacrifice.
“Now, you have taken the blood-preserving pill, and you have passed the crisis, so sleep soundly. I shall stand guard.”
Red Beggar let out a small sigh and slumped down.
“Sigh, catching that sexual predator bastard is hopeless now.”
“We cannot catch him right now anyway. Clearly he boosted his latent power with some bizarre occult technique. Once the time passes, he will likely drop dead on his own.”
While the martial artists chased the evildoer, the physician’s disciple and the drunken beggar remained behind to guard the injured man.
Yeo Hong-pa watched them for a moment, then slowly spoke.
“Our Five Poisons Valley would like to host you, Young Brothers. If it does not trouble you, please come.”
Ju-seong shook his head.
“For now, I am staying here briefly to treat this man, but soon I must leave again to chase the sexual predator. Since I have set him as a target, I cannot stop until I confirm he is dead.”
Red Beggar also nodded.
“Indeed. I stopped because of Brother, but I must soon resume the pursuit.”
“Then… I shall have my subordinates take this man and continue his treatment at the Five Poisons Valley, so the two of you may go and chase the man now.”
Yeo Hong-pa told Red Beggar and Ju-seong the location of the Five Poisons Valley, then gestured for them to hurry on.
Ju-seong looked at him for a moment, then spoke.
“With this, consider the debt for saving your younger sister repaid.”
At his words, Yeo Hong-pa laughed as if incredulous and replied.
“Do you think the Five Poisons Valley would call a mere thing like this repayment of a debt? When this is over, come to the Five Poisons Valley. Whatever recompense you have in mind, I shall give you more than that.”
They were the hidden powerhouse of Yunnan, the foremost faction of Yunnan that reigns but does not rule. That name was weightier than Ju-seong and Red Beggar, being outsiders, thought. Moreover, having saved the Valley Master’s direct descendant, this was certainly not something to be glossed over with just this.
Ju-seong nodded slightly and extended a cupped-fist salute.
“Then, take care until we meet again.”
Red Beggar and Ju-seong moved their feet swiftly and disappeared over the mountain ridge. Yeo Hong-pa saw them off with his gaze.
“Truly rare men indeed.”
They were men half-detached from what multitudes pursue.
It had been so from the first meeting. They were unrestrained in word and deed, unhesitating in following where their hearts told them was right.
When the evildoer they had all but captured was escaping, rather than chase him, they saved the life of the injured man left behind.
“I look forward to meeting you again at the Five Poisons Valley, Young Brothers.”
Yeo Hong-pa quietly raised a cupped-fist salute toward the two young eccentrics who had already disappeared.
* * *
The Divine Physician quietly observed the violently trembling pupils of the assassin.
The well-honed blade-like aura that had emanated from the assassin had shriveled pathetically.
‘How could it not be pathetic.’
Aura does not come only from martial arts. Even without martial arts, would the emperor seated on the throne have weaker aura than some third-rate martial artist?
The stories one has accumulated and the hardships one has weathered shape a person’s aura.
A scholar who has long cultivated learning and attained enlightenment would have an aura that could make even masters who have reached the peak cower.
If one’s aura disappeared simply because one lost martial arts, what a pathetic life that would be.
“Tsk, pitiful fellow. You are rather better to look at in this state than before you lost your martial arts. At least now, without any inflation, you are purely yourself.”
“…Kill me, rather. What a truly vicious poison. You fed me such a thing and stripped me of everything, so what exactly do you want me to do! If you wished to use me, you should not have taken my martial arts!”
“That is your problem. Why do you think I want to use you?”
The Divine Physician pointed at April and continued.
“You were nothing but a single sword from birth. A sword is an object made to be used, and when its edge is dulled, it has served its purpose. You are now a sword with a dulled edge. Those who used you as a sword will say you are now useless.”
“…”
April, having lost his wits, listened to the words of the one who had stolen his martial arts with unfocused eyes.
“But is a human being truly like that? No. If people existed only to be useful, would a physician who saves lives be no more than a craftsman repairing tools?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“April from the April Pavilion, listen. You are no longer a sword. The edge is chipped, and the blade is rusted…”
“Then what exactly do you want me to do! If you must, please use this sword, Elder! I cannot live without being used!”
“Is that why you also accepted the commission from the Ten Thousand Ears Gang? Because you wanted to be used? Pathetic fellow.”
-SMACK!
The Divine Physician was already powerful, and since April had lost his martial arts, the blow made stars flash in the younger man’s head.
“Keh heh heh…”
April let out a bizarre sound, neither crying nor laughing.
The Divine Physician squatted down in front of him and spoke.
“Normally, I would cripple the dantian of someone like you and sever the tendons of all four limbs, making you worse than a commoner. But seeing you at that age still not knowing your path was pitiful, so I have left room…”
The Divine Physician pulled out a pouch from his robes and threw it in front of April.
“The Qi-Scattering Poison you ingested is a secret of my sect. No one in the world but me and my disciple can make the antidote.”
“Is this that antidote?”
The Divine Physician quietly shook his head.
“No, it is an antidote missing the key ingredient. If you find my disciple, he will complete that antidote for you. April, do you want to regain your martial arts?”
“Of course.”
“I dislike your pathetic state and do not want to give your martial arts back. But my disciple might feel differently.”
In truth, adding ingredients to something already formed into a pill to complete the pill went against general martial world alchemy.
But the Divine Physician’s sect had techniques for leaving pills in an incomplete stage and adding ingredients later to complete them.
This was because the timing for obtaining necessary ingredients sometimes did not align.
If the first-obtained ingredient spoiled before the next could be procured, one needed to preserve it in pill form.
“You are telling me to find your disciple and ask him to complete this antidote?”
The Divine Physician nodded slowly.
“Correct. If you find my disciple and persuade him, you may be able to regain your martial arts. Since you cannot find any use for yourself beyond being a sword, you would do anything to re-sharpen your dulled blade.”
“…What if I find another physician to make the antidote?”
At April’s words, the Divine Physician burst into loud laughter.
“Another physician makes the antidote to my Qi-Scattering Poison? Who would that physician be, hm? The Imperial Physician? I guarantee, finding my disciple and asking him will be faster than any other method.”
“…Where is this disciple?”
“He has gone to Yunnan now. He uses the same martial arts as I do, and he is not the sort to stay quietly wherever he goes, so he will be easy to find. I shall even draw you a simple sketch of his appearance.”
No matter how April thought about it, he could not shake the feeling that he was being helplessly toyed with by this outrageous old man.
‘But is there any other option?’
He had no choice. He could not live without martial arts. Without martial arts, he was useless.
He had nothing he wished to achieve with powerful martial arts, nothing he wished to seize, yet he could not bear himself without martial arts.
“…I shall leave immediately. Please give me the sketch as soon as it is finished.”
The Divine Physician leaned in close to April with a slight smile.
“One thing I shall tell you: you should also fix that habit of speaking informally to elders. My disciple is not older than you, but he has a filthy temper anyway… much worse than mine.”
“…I shall bear it in mind.”
If he had a worse temper than this bizarre old man, he was not someone April particularly wanted to meet.
But since he had no choice but to go meet him, it seemed wise to be careful in his conduct from now on.
After all, he was now just an ordinary commoner, no longer the elite assassin of the April Pavilion.