Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 49 - Knocking on the Door of Peak Level

Chapter 49 – Knocking on the Door of Peak Level

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Ju-seong, who had traded night watch with Red Beggar and fallen asleep, suddenly twitched his nose and opened his eyes.

‘Is this bastard cooking meat without me…’

Something seemed to be burning, so he opened his eyes.

But there was nothing on the campfire, and Red Beggar was just quietly sitting at the shrine entrance, staring at the sky.

Ju-seong cleared his throat to loosen his sleep-raspy voice and spoke.

“Red Beggar. What is this smell?”

“Huh? You are up? There is still half a si-chen before sunrise. What smell are you talking about? If you are about to complain about my smell again, I will not take it. It is not fun anymore.”

“No, I mean something burning?”

“…Huh?”

Ju-seong came outside the shrine and narrowed his eyes as he looked south.

“…Is it already time for sunrise?”

“I told you it is half a si-chen until sunrise. What is wrong with you, Brother? If you are not fully awake, go back to sleep.”

“No, it is getting brighter over there? Get up and look.”

Red Beggar sighed and got up. Looking at the ridge beyond along with Ju-seong, surprise crept into his eyes too.

“…Huh?”

“Huh?”

It was brightening like midday over there. As if the sun had broken its covenant and begun to shine upon all things earlier than usual.

Of course, the sun, which had risen and set at fixed times for ten thousand ages, would never suddenly declare war on the moon, so that was something else.

“Wow, there is a fire. A really big one.”

“The wind happens to be southerly too. Ha ha. I cannot believe this.”

‘A southerly wind…’

This climate was humid and did not catch fire easily. A wildfire that large had to be intentionally set. And with the southern wind blowing.

‘The southern barbarian people must have set the fire.’

From their perspective, it had been frustrating too. Trade with the Central Plains had been completely blocked.

Yunnan, being a remote frontier even in the Central Plains, had almost no top-tier powerhouses.

Even if Yunnan suffered damage from the wildfire, it would be hard to complain to the southern barbarians, who were the trading partner and relatively stronger.

Anyway, verifying the cause of a wildfire was difficult. Ju-seong pondered the heartlessness of the martial world, then looked at the approaching wildfire and spoke.

“Red Beggar.”

“Yes, Brother.”

“…Let us run.”

A wildfire spread faster than a master’s qinggong. Though barely a quarter-hour had passed since they started running, Ju-seong could feel the flames flickering not far behind.

‘Why am I always running away like this.’

He had fled over the walls of the Black Dragon Gang in Fujian Province, fled from the moth, and now was fleeing from the wildfire.

Perhaps running away was his fate for life.

Actually, even when it was not this, Ju-seong struggled daily to flee from his own destiny.

‘If I become the best under heaven, I will not have to run.’

If he became the strongest man in the world, he would rarely need to flee. Being the best under heaven also meant being the freest under heaven.

But not now. He had to run until his feet caught fire, no, he had to run to keep his feet from catching fire.

Red Beggar was running for his life on all fours.

It was the technique called Ten-Thousand-Li Roving Hound… a house dog from Kaifeng, Henan Province, had run ten thousand li to Yunnan Province, only to find nothing but hardship.

‘Is this why they say leaving home is suffering?’

But a man of the martial world was one who gained more from hardship.

What he could gain from this experience of outrunning the flames was a sudden realization. “Fire is this fast. I did not know fire could run this fast.”

“Shut up and run! Control your breathing!”

Red Beggar’s words were completely correct, so Ju-seong kept quiet and focused on running.

Ju-seong saw all kinds of beasts fleeing madly around them.

Deer and wolves, leopards and squirrels were fleeing with one mind.

He could even see elephants trumpeting and running on a distant ridge.

‘No need to go all the way to the Tianzhu Kingdom.’

As he had heard, elephants lived in this land of Yunnan too.

“Red Beggar. Look at that. Elephants are running. They really are big creatures. Much bigger than the Heavenly Silkworm Moth.”

“…Run!”

Even so, Red Beggar’s qinggong was still above Ju-seong’s, but he was matching pace and running with Ju-seong.

Ju-seong glanced back.

The wildfire had climbed to about the eight-tenths point of the mountain right behind them. If the wildfire were an army, they were now slowly advancing over the peak and creeping downward.

“…We still have room though?”

Perhaps Ju-seong’s words provoked the wildfire.

Suddenly a fierce southerly gust carried the fire on the back mountain eight-tenths point leaping over to the next mountain.

“…Ah, damn.”

It felt as if heaven were deliberately tormenting him.

“Brother, if you have time to curse, run fast. Your feet are slow enough.”

As Red Beggar nagged Ju-seong again…

Looking around, there was nowhere to flee. The fire had bypassed through the air and landed on the front mountain, blocking their retreat.

“We need to change plans. This is not working.”

This must have been how Xiang Yu felt, surrounded by Liu Bang’s army… not by songs from all sides, but by flames. As Han soldiers had once sung Chu songs from all directions, now the sound of burning brush and exploding trees came from everywhere.

Ju-seong turned his head frantically. Dying from a sword as a man of the martial world was one thing, but being trapped and burned to death in a wildfire was unacceptable.

Before he knew it, the pathetic pride of a martial man had taken root in Ju-seong’s heart too.

He pointed in one direction and shouted.

“There! Do you see that? A cave.”

On the side of a fairly high mountain. On a cliff where the earth had been scraped away, baring it like stripped clothing, there was a small hole.

It was a height they could climb with a few handholds, within reach for Red Beggar and Ju-seong’s level.

“When we should be running forward for our lives, you want to go sideways? Is this right?”

“Once a decision is made, there must be no hesitation.”

Ju-seong immediately turned sideways and took off running. In this situation, coordinating opinions was a luxury.

Red Beggar also ran after Ju-seong, sweating profusely.

Red Beggar, who arrived at the cliff first, groaned at the fearsome heat radiating from it. Ju-seong, arriving behind, clicked his tongue and muttered.

“Hot as freshly grilled clams…”

“Is this the time for jokes?”

“Why so testy. Since when did my little brother become a swordsman with a blade in his heart.”

Ju-seong muttered, then snatched Red Beggar’s bundle containing straw rope and strode forward.

Realizing his intent, Red Beggar grabbed Ju-seong’s shoulder and stopped him.

“If your hands burn clean off, Brother, you will not be able to treat yourself, will you? Better I get hurt and you treat me.”

“Is that so? Then you go up.”

Ju-seong gestured forward like a guide. Red Beggar thought this was truly the most irritating concession in the world as he snatched back his bundle.

“Here I go.”

Red Beggar rubbed his palms together, clapped his hands a couple of times, then glanced at the rapidly approaching wildfire, leaped, and clung to the cliff.

Then he used front and hind legs to scuttle up the cliff like a lizard.

-Scrabble!

A short time passed.

“Ah, damn it. Hellishly hot. Brother. Come up.”

Red Beggar shouted as he threw down two straw ropes. Ju-seong wrapped the straw ropes around both hands and leaned back against the cliff, then shot upward as if performing qinggong on the cliff wall.

Red Beggar gripped the two straw ropes and retreated into the cave, pulling Ju-seong up.

“Urgh… hup.”

Ju-seong came into the cave.

Right on time, the base of the cliff where they had just stood was entirely engulfed by the fire demon.

It felt like being on an island in a sea of fire.

Ju-seong looked outside briefly, then approached Red Beggar and spoke.

“Let me see.”

Red Beggar silently held out both hands.

Ju-seong pondered for a moment, then said.

“The procedure is to wash the wound in running cold water, then disinfect it with alcohol, apply wound salve, and cover it with bandages. For now… We have no water or alcohol right now, so let us leave the wound open to breathe. Do deep breathing to manage the pain. Do not circulate energy. Qi deviation might occur.”

After saying that, Ju-seong felt the heat creeping into the cave as well.

Despite the cave being quite deeply recessed, the fearsome heat of the wildfire was barging in.

Ju-seong patted the shoulder of Red Beggar, who sat cross-legged, then moved toward the cave entrance.

“…Brother. Where are you going.”

“Stay where you are. The deepest part of the cave will be less hot.”

For a martial artist, the palm centers were vital points in a martial sense. With both of Red Beggar’s palms stripped raw from climbing the heated cliff…

Of course, it was the flesh that was damaged, not the meridians. But if aftereffects remained, there would be pain every time he used palm techniques.

If he took the full brunt of the wildfire’s heat on top of that, his chance of recovery would drop further.

Above all, the heat was truly alarming; if they did nothing, they would simply steam to death inside the cave.

Ju-seong sat cross-legged near the cave entrance. He became a boulder blocking the cave, and gazed quietly at the wildfire.

The flames he could produce with his martial arts were truly no more than a spark compared to the fire demon raised by heaven and earth.

‘This is how I learn humility.’

Ju-seong closed his eyes humbly like a scholar.

…And began knocking on the wall of peak level, breathing in harmony with heaven and earth.

‘I must be quite a madman myself.’

A reckless act beyond urgent.

Attempting to break through a martial artist’s wall by inhaling all the smoke and heat of a raging wildfire.

Ju-seong was in many ways an unprepared vessel. But for him now, there was no other choice. The world by nature did not always give time to prepare.

Ju-seong inhaled deeply, drawing in the pressing heat.

He filtered the fierce heat within and confined it in his dantian, then exhaled the cooled air back to the world.

Meanwhile, the Flame Crow Six Stage Art’s circulation began, different before and after obtaining the Karmic Fire Demonic Art, and different again before and after obtaining the Heavenly Silkworm Moth’s poison sac.

Internal energy strode briskly along the meridians, then slowed to a crawl, then ran violently like a wild boar struck by an arrow.

Such capriciousness was ultimately the nature of flame. Meanwhile, the Heavenly Silkworm Moth’s poison sac emitted wood energy to amplify the power.

Heat inhaled from outside kept accumulating in the dantian.

Ju-seong decided to attempt the Great Heavenly Circuit right here.

Because to overcome the wall of peak level, he ultimately had to succeed in the Great Heavenly Circuit.

Heavenly Circuit meant the stars in the sky orbiting along their paths, and since what martial artists did to their own bodies was similar, they borrowed the name.

Circulating energy through the five viscera and six bowels was the Lesser Heavenly Circuit, and circulating energy greatly along the Governor and Conception Vessels from head to groin was the Great Heavenly Circuit.

Following the body’s central line, drawing a line down the front of the body was roughly the Conception Vessel, and down the back was roughly the Governor Vessel.

‘If I circulate too forcefully, might I split the person in half along the Governor and Conception Vessels?’

He wondered if somewhere in this ancient martial world, there was at least one person who had been halved from overly vigorous Great Heavenly Circulation.

Ju-seong, even in this urgent moment, had stray thoughts and tried to let go of himself.

The abdomen holding the five viscera and six bowels corresponded to earth, and the head corresponded to heaven. If the Lesser Heavenly Circuit was movement within the earth, the Great Heavenly Circuit was a grand movement encompassing heaven and earth.

‘With the heart of encompassing heaven and earth…’

Ju-seong slowly began circulating the Flame Crow Six Stage Art’s energy along the Conception and Governor Vessels.

The pressing heat gathered around Ju-seong and did not encroach further into the cave.

In truth, that was more important than reaching peak level.

Because Red Beggar was sitting back there.

Ju-seong, with eyes closed, began guiding the violently rampaging energy along the Great Heavenly Circuit path of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art.

Energy starting from the dantian approached the perineum point.

The Life-Death Gateway… for a martial artist, what was called the gateway of life and death was the crown’s Baihui point and the perineum point between the legs, which joined the Conception and Governor Vessels into one. Once the Life-Death Gateway was penetrated, that was the true starting point of transcending humanity and elevating one’s level.

Conversely, if you attempted penetration and failed, you could die on the spot.

Even sitting still, a martial artist could suddenly meet the King of Hell. In a way, they were more fragile than ordinary people.

‘It is the perineum point. I must focus. If I fail here, I cannot do my business properly. I will probably piss blood until the day I die.’

Ju-seong encouraged himself. A moment demanding steely resolve.

If he failed here, aside from losing his martial arts, he might never marry and would suffer terrible agony every time he relieved himself.

‘That cannot happen. What man would…’

Truly a life-or-death moment. The moth’s poison sac served as firewood, making Ju-seong’s internal energy blaze fiercely.

Ju-seong stoked the calmly burning campfire in his belly, turning it into a calamitous blaze that could burn down a house.

He sensed intuitively that he could not dawdle here. If he hesitated weakly before the perineum point, the internal energy would pile up at the blocked blood vessel and burst.

Like a lightning bolt, like a raging tide, like a waterfall, like an avalanche, like Master’s slap, he had to strike fast and hard.

‘Now, let us go! Damn it, let us go!’

Ju-seong felt himself become a single bolt of fiery lightning and gathered his internal energy to strike decisively.

-CRAAASH…!