Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 42 - Grand Scholar Ju-seong

Chapter 42 – Grand Scholar Ju-seong

===================

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

Ju-seong and Red Beggar deliberately took their time heading south.

In truth, calling it heading south was too grand an expression; they simply walked for about half a day.

Since they knew the sexual predator would not flee for long, they saw no need to hurry.

If the Yunnan martial artists or the Martial Alliance warriors rashly attacked and died?

‘That is their fate, what else.’

There was nothing Ju-seong and Red Beggar could contribute to those who accelerated their own deaths.

“That bastard has probably already entered the jungle by now, do you not think? He seemed completely out of his mind.”

Ju-seong nodded.

“Nine out of ten, probably. Whether there is a monster moth living in the jungle or a mountain spirit, he had completely lost the reason to consider such things.”

“Then I think we will soon meet martial artists returning empty-handed.”

“I think so too. Or we may encounter a pile of corpses.”

“But, what if that fellow really went into the jungle? Should we just consider him dead?”

Ju-seong waggled his finger side to side.

“How could we? Evil people do not die easily. Because they have survived by feeding on the mercy, hesitation, and carelessness of those who still have humanity in their hearts. The world is quite a spectacle.”

“I thought they lived long just because they get cursed a lot.”

“That might be right too… Ah, there they come.”

“Oh, it does not look like anyone died.”

The martial artists of the Southern Commerce Association, the Green Wood Lotus, and the Martial Alliance were coming down the rough mountain path in a line.

Those who had once bitten at each other and been wary now walked together like defeated soldiers, trudging along like beggars.

‘Is this the great unity of the martial world?’

After victory they turn on each other, yet after failure they forget their former hostility and walk together amicably.

It was a truly contradictory sight.

Ju-seong stepped forward, extending a cupped-fist salute and shouting loudly.

“So you let the sexual predator escape!”

Some people raised their heads to look at Ju-seong, then immediately looked back at the ground with gloomy eyes. At least one Martial Alliance warrior with whom they had become acquainted and fought alongside gave an answer.

“That madman went and crawled into the southern jungle. We could not chase him further. Those things live in the jungle now.”

They were Sleeping Demon Moths… moths that bring sleep demons. Since those creatures had seized control of the southern jungle of Yunnan Province, they must not have had the nerve to follow the sexual predator inside.

Fighting itself was nearly impossible in those creatures’ forest. If one inhaled even a little of that dreadful toxic powder, drowsiness would come, and if the toxic powder touched the skin, swellings would immediately rise.

Trade with the southern barbarians’ Yue Kingdom and the Wild Beast Palace had been cut off because of them, and Yunnan’s martial world had been split in two because of them.

“Well, thank you. We shall chase him a bit further. Who knows? He might jump out of the forest.”

“Those who enter that forest cannot come back out. It will likely be a wasted effort… But it is not our place to say anything.”

The Martial Alliance warrior slightly raised his shoulders and went on his way. Ju-seong did not bother to tell him where Helian Qiu was.

Perhaps the location of the Five Poisons Valley was secret to outsiders?

Moreover, those reclusive people did not seem likely to welcome the Martial Alliance’s visit.

Ju-seong and Red Beggar passed the martial artists and walked about another quarter-hour until they arrived near the entrance to the southern jungle zone.

In truth, the southern part of Yunnan was mountainous and heavily forested overall, so there was no specific place one could point to and call the southern jungle.

But the two men instinctively knew that this was the “boundary”—a jungle mountain region where the trees were generally taller and the shrubs were far more overgrown than outside.

All sorts of strange-leafed vines hung between the trees like curtains, and giant ferns waved their leaves bewitchingly as if beckoning.

“The atmosphere here…”

“Right? It is eerie. And there is some strange powder stuck everywhere…”

Red Beggar looked around, then scooped up some grey powder stuck on a tree trunk with his finger and immediately brought it to his mouth.

Ju-seong was horrified and immediately smacked the back of Red Beggar’s head.

“This crazy beggar bastard brings all sorts of things to his mouth. Spit it out, you bastard!”

What reckless gluttony. Red Beggar blithely spat out some saliva and said.

“Ptoo, ptoo, tastes awful. Oh, I am fine, Brother. I grew up eating all sorts of things.”

“Sigh… As if anyone did not? You do not even know what poison this is…”

Ju-seong irritably grabbed Red Beggar’s chin whiskers, opened his mouth, and examined the inside carefully.

“Hmm… It seems to be the toxic powder of minor moths. Just dabbing a bit on your lips should not make the poison rise.”

He had heard that the Sleeping Demon Moths had one individual that acted as the leader, and small ones that controlled the entire forest.

Ju-seong also dabbed some toxic powder on his fingertip, felt his fingertip itch slightly, and circulated internal energy to burn it away.

“Indeed, the toxicity is weak.”

He turned his head and examined the jungle floor.

On the thickly layered humus, grey powder was thickly scattered like a garnish.

“Toxic powder that carries wood energy… So it becomes nourishment for trees.”

There was a reason only this area of the moths had such lush grass and trees.

“Then Brother, why not just set this place on fire?”

“Mm…”

Wood creates fire.

Wood energy feeds fire energy. In effect, fire energy grows by feeding on wood energy.

Even without grandly invoking the mutual generation and conquest of the five elements, it was common sense that fire spreads by burning wood.

Add to that the wood energy-rich poison of the heavenly silkworm moths, and the fire would blaze wildly.

Naturally, the moths living inside would all die too.

Ju-seong pondered for a moment, then spoke.

“First, if fire spreads from here, the whole of Yunnan’s southern mountain region and even part of the southern barbarian lands could be devastated. It is not as if the southern jungle and other areas are neatly divided like knife cuts.”

“There might be some casualties then.”

“Not some, but massive casualties. You bastard do not know the terror of wildfires. When I was young, there was once a big wildfire in the northern mountains of Fujian Province, and it was so huge that all of Fujian was abuzz. When you are trapped in a wildfire, martial artist or not, you are just roast meat.”

“Mm…”

“And the smoke from burning that toxic powder? It would surely be infused with fearsome toxicity too. If that spreads on the wind throughout Yunnan? Would only one or two people die?”

“Mm… Then what should we do?”

While Ju-seong was fingering his chin and pondering, rain began to fall in drops.

“Oh dear, of all times it rains.”

“It is cool and nice. I shall get washed for the first time in a while.”

“Red Beggar. Normally, taking off one’s clothes and properly scrubbing the body is called washing. What you are doing is not washing but just getting wet.”

Red Beggar snorted and replied.

“Whether one washes in a bathhouse or gets rained on in the street, getting wet is the same. Foolish beings who do not know that everything depends on the mind.”

“Are you adding monk to beggar now? Quite a range. Is picking things that do not make money your hobby?”

“Why does being a monk not make money? Look at Shaolin Temple. How many acres of fields do they have?”

Once two men who lived by their mouths started their banter, there was no end to it. This was hard to stop even for the two of them, so the slightly older Ju-seong had to cut it off firmly.

“Shut your trap and let us go that way. This should be adequate for a brief shelter from the rain.”

“Oh my, there is even a shrine in a place like this. But it looks like it has not been used for decades.”

A small stone shrine quite different from those of the Central Plains was hidden among the thick ferns and vines.

Exotic patterns seemingly influenced by the southern barbarians were painted on its surface, and the roof also jutted oddly upward, diverging from Central Plains architecture.

“Ugh, the atmosphere is quite gloomy. A hundred centipedes must live here.”

Red Beggar made a quip as he entered, and after him, Ju-seong followed, shaking off the rain from his hair.

-RUMBLE!

A thunderclap sounded and lightning flashed, illuminating the inside of the shrine.

In that moment, Red Beggar saw a hideous shape highlighted by the lightning and screamed in fright.

“Holy shit, that startled me!”

In the center of the shrine sat a strange stone statue in a cross-legged position.

Red Beggar, having calmed his startled heart, squinted at the statue and spoke.

“Oh my, it has horns on its head? Any idea what that thing is?”

“I wonder. It is not a god worshipped in the Central Plains. It is smiling unpleasantly. What an ugly son of a bitch.”

“You should not judge by looks. Our faces are not exactly outstanding either.”

“Ours?”

Red Beggar, looking at Ju-seong’s face as he turned to look at himself, spat to one side and muttered.

“What a filthy world.”

Ju-seong examined the statue carefully. The smile at the corner of its lips seemed at first glance as peaceful and gentle as the Buddha’s, yet it seemed a ferocity capable of overturning the world lay dormant within.

It had horns on its head, and its face bore every physiognomic feature commonly called unlucky in the Central Plains: triangular fierce eyes, a tapered and sunken lower jaw, an extremely narrow forehead, and thin lips.

On top of that, the body was gaunt yet the belly was bulging, making it unpleasant to behold.

“Whoever made this statue deserves a few good smacks.”

Ju-seong scratched his head and muttered. No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand why anyone would build a shrine to worship such a hideous being.

Red Beggar felt around the platform where the statue was set and spoke.

“Let me see… Brother. Please read this. I am illiterate.”

“If you are illiterate, how on earth did you memorize martial arts verses? How did you memorize the energy channels?”

“My master made me memorize them by repeating them to me. The eight extraordinary meridians I memorized from drawings on the ground…”

That was quite impressive in its own way.

“Forget it. My head hurts. What do you want me to read?”

“This here, see? This thing. Try reading this. It seems like some ancient script, and if you can read it, I will truly acknowledge you. I shall address you as Grand Scholar.”

Ju-seong pulled up one corner of his lips into a crooked smile.

“You bastard, call me Grand Scholar from now on.”

Remarkably, Ju-seong could even read bronze script to some extent.

Bronze script was an ancient Central Plains script from before the Spring and Autumn Period, an area that even fairly learned scholars did not delve into deeply.

If a conventionally educated scholar saw Ju-seong, they would probably throw an inkstone at him, scolding, “How dare a fellow who can barely read the Four Books and Three Classics dabble in miscellaneous studies like bronze script.”

But as his master had said, opportunities come to those who are prepared.

-What if you found a legendary secret manual that would shake the world, but could not recognize it because you had not studied bronze script? Would that not be laughable?

‘You are right, Master.’

Ju-seong smiled gently, recalling the Divine Physician who had ruthlessly pounded bronze script reading into his head. All while thinking that someday he would first learn Sanskrit and get his revenge the same way.

“Now, let me see.”

Ju-seong wiped away the dried moss and water stains and traced the incised bronze script. It was cracked and faded by time’s weathering, but bronze script was originally simpler in shape than Chinese characters, making it easier to read.

Ju-seong narrowed his eyes and murmured.

“Taotie…?”

“Taotie? What is that?”

“You know, the Four Fiends from legend… evil gods.”

“Ah, I think I have heard of them. Is this one of them? Its name is Taotie? Looking at its belly, that fits.”
Ju-seong had never heard of any place in the world that worshipped such a malevolent being as a god.

The statue’s belly was bizarrely protruding. ‘Tao’ denotes gluttony, and ‘tie’ signifies greed. A deity for those who plunder, steal, and deceive.

The statue’s belly was bizarrely protruding. Tao for coveting, tie for coveting. A deity for those who plunder, steal, and deceive.

Ju-seong had never heard of any place in the world that worshipped such a malevolent being as a god.

“Ugh, seeing bronze script, this is no ordinary old shrine. This is making me feel uncomfortable.”

Ju-seong raised his head and met Taotie’s eyes. From those triangular eyes that seemed to repel all fortune, greed and hatred seemed to flow in streams.

He licked his lips and muttered savagely.

“You son of a bitch. What are you looking at?”

What he did next was pure impulse.

-CRAAAASH!

He kicked the Taotie statue and smashed it to pieces.

Stone dust flew everywhere.

The tremendous crash shattered the sacrilegious solemnity that the silence had held.

Red Beggar scratched his filthy hair and complained.

“Really now! You will jinx us! Why did you do that! Have you finally gone mad? Have you lost it?”

“I just did not like it. Creatures this sinister need to be smashed.”

“Someone who uses hidden weapons saying that…”

“It is not about fighting style but about attitude toward life. Do not take the civil service examination. The examiner will try to crack your skull with an inkstone.”

“I have no interest in that anyway… Hey, wait, what is this…”

-Clatter.

A peculiar cylinder rolled to Ju-seong’s feet. It seemed to have been hidden inside the statue.

A bronze cylinder sealed with wax, apparently containing some document inside.

Ju-seong silently looked down at the cylinder and thought.

‘Is this a fortune or a curse?’

While he was pondering, Red Beggar suddenly stepped forward and said.

“If you are not going to take it, can I have this?”

“Freeze. Beggar bastard, your wrists will fly off. You will not even be able to beg.”

After all, the finder is the keeper.