Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 5 - With My Fists

Chapter 5 – With My Fists

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Anyway, it seemed the Divine Physician’s mood had improved thanks to Ju-seong’s colorful banter. In truth, whether he had really cheered up, Ju-seong had no way of knowing.

Perhaps the bewilderment from watching him act like a madman had suppressed the anger.

The chief manager lay face down and unconscious. Ju-seong looked at him for a moment, then turned to the Divine Physician and said.

“The goods to be offered at the Full Moon Black Market are probably stored in a secret vault, are they not?”

The Divine Physician nodded in agreement.

“That is correct.”

“Then we will have to interrogate the tower master.”

The Divine Physician turned his head and answered.

“Right, clown. But before that, there is something we must do first. From what I sense, the courtesans of the Full Moon Tower are hiding in a reception room on the third floor. We should find the debt contracts and free them first. We are performing righteous deeds, not satisfying personal greed.”

The tower had a reputation for kidnapping women from afar or forcing them into debt to make them work here.

“…Ah, yes. Righteous deeds. Indeed, that is admirable of you.”

Ju-seong thought this was rather unexpected. Despite his infamy, the old man seemed to have a desire to do good.

Ju-seong shook the chief manager lying on the floor like a rag and shouted.

“Hey, Chief Manager! Chief Manager! Wake up. How can a man lose consciousness from just that much beating? Clench your thighs and endure.”

The chief manager looked at Ju-seong with incredulous eyes.

The look that said, “You beat me to a pulp and now what?” But he ignored it and spoke to the chief manager.

“Bring me the debt contracts of the courtesans.”

“Understood!”

The chief manager quickly ran to his office and brought back the debt contracts. Ju-seong unfolded them and read, then asked.

“Are there only this many courtesans at the Full Moon Tower? They say a famous feast has no food, and you build a four-story tower but only have eight courtesans?”

The chief manager rubbed his hands together and said.

“There are eight prostitutes who were sold into debt or kidnapped and brought here, and ten entertainers who came voluntarily to earn money.”

Ju-seong felt puzzled. There were entertainers and there were prostitutes. Brothels were usually divided into red houses and blue houses depending on what kind of women worked there.

For Ju-seong, this was the first time he had seen both types existing separately within one brothel.

“You do not teach song and dance to the prostitutes?”

The chief manager nodded.

“Our Full Moon Tower operates differently from other brothels. If prostitutes learn song and dance, poetry, calligraphy, and painting, they become insolent. So the entertainers supervise the prostitutes, and if they do anything other than selling their bodies, they are severely punished.”

Ju-seong clicked his tongue at their wickedness.

In short, they divided the ranks between entertainers who sold dance and song, and prostitutes who sold their bodies.

The surface reason was that prostitutes would become insolent if they learned writing or songs.

But in reality, it was to prevent the same woman from accompanying a customer through the drinking party entertainment and then to bed.

If they spent such long time together, the customer might develop feelings and try to buy her freedom.

It was a terrible structure.

As humans are fixated on dividing ranks, the entertainers must have been the first to oppress and trample on the prostitutes.

The Divine Physician, being an old master with much experience in the martial world, also understood this structure and his expression hardened.

A smile bloomed on Ju-seong’s lips.

He stroked the chief manager’s head and laughed.

“Ha ha, what a brilliant idea. Did you devise this wonderful system yourself?”

The chief manager puffed out his chest with a somewhat proud look and nodded.

“Of course. I handled everything from planning to implementation. You know what? The customers who had feelings for an entertainer would actually be more aggressive with the prostitutes. Some thought they were making the entertainer they fancied jealous, and some would even imagine her while…”

Ju-seong immediately punched the chief manager in the jaw.

“Ouch!”

“Ouch, my ass.”

Ju-seong began beating the chief manager to a bloody pulp again, but the Divine Physician said nothing.

Ju-seong and the Divine Physician left the chief manager barely breathing and went down to the third floor.

When they opened one of the reception rooms, sure enough, over a dozen courtesans were huddled together, trembling.

But looking closely, they were divided into two groups.

The entertainers in silk clothes, and the prostitutes in plain cotton. Prostitutes had few occasions to wear clothes while working, so they were dressed like that.

The Divine Physician cleared his throat softly and spoke.

“I have destroyed all the debt contracts of the Full Moon Tower courtesans. Those who were held here against their will may leave freely. I will take plenty of money from the Full Moon Tower’s vault for you, so take it and go.”

At those words, the courtesans in shabby clothes opened their eyes wide in disbelief. The entertainers in silk looked troubled and confused.

One entertainer stepped forward and spoke. Her elaborate silk dress and heavy makeup suggested she was the highest-ranking among the entertainers.

“What kind of impropriety is this? Are you acting under orders from the authorities, sirs? Stealing the Full Moon Tower’s property by force, canceling the women’s debts on your own whim.”

“Hmm…”

The Divine Physician stroked his beard, half-listening to the entertainer. Ju-seong now understood the Divine Physician’s signal.

Stroking the beard meant, in short:

Let the clown go and handle the situation, he seemed to signal.

Ju-seong immediately stepped forward, looked the entertainer straight in the eye, and spoke.

“My, what a bitch.”

“Wh-what, what did you just say?”

“I called you a bitch. You may have applied makeup, but you cannot hide the fine wrinkles around your mouth. You may wear silk, but your foul heart gives off a stench.”

The woman glared at Ju-seong, but if he could be intimidated by that, his eighteen years of clown life would be wasted.

“You make others do the dirty work while you act high and mighty, strumming the zither and singing songs. Did that make you think you were something special? My philosophy is this: All people are whores, the only difference is which part of themselves they sell. You sold your human decency instead of your body, which makes you worse than those who sold their bodies.”

The woman let out an exasperated breath, put her hands on her hips, and retorted.

“You are the one who seems uneducated. Are you going to defend these dirty women? And I said it clearly. Stealing others’ property like this, arbitrarily destroying unpaid debt contracts. I will report this to the authorities immediately…”

Ju-seong watched her mouth as she argued point by point.

Then he suddenly thought that it was unreasonable for someone who had abandoned human decency to speak with human words.

They say a man should treat women with care.

But he decided not to hold back against beasts wearing women’s skin.

This woman had never been hit before, which was why she was so bold in front of those with power.

Ju-seong immediately infused internal energy into his forearm and slammed his fist into the mouth of the entertainer who was busy talking.

-Thwack thwack thwack!

Even, white teeth flew through the air, and blood splattered on the floor.

Ju-seong pulled a few white teeth from his fist and said.

“Any woman with backbone, step forward and try to refute our actions again. But I have no way with words, so I shall express my convictions with my fists.”

No woman stepped forward. Ju-seong nodded and said.

“This damn Full Moon Tower will burn to the foundations today, and you entertainers will not get a single copper coin. If you have complaints, come out and speak freely.”

No more complaints came. The Divine Physician was already nodding with a satisfied expression.

It seemed he thought he had picked up a useful hype man.

Ju-seong and the Divine Physician took the prostitutes down to the first floor and approached the fallen tower master.

The tower master’s dantian had been destroyed by the Divine Physician. He was now just a healthy commoner who could no longer use internal energy.

Given Ju-seong’s own tiny dantian, he had no reason to be intimidated.

‘I am stronger than him now, am I not?’

He slapped the tower master’s cheeks and said.

“Tower master, tower master. Wake up.”

The tower master’s eyes snapped open, and with his right hand he grabbed the wrist of Ju-seong who had been slapping him, and with his left he grabbed his collar.

Then he tried to sweep Ju-seong’s shins with his leg.

He was probably planning to trip him instantly and mount him.

‘I have the balance from walking on tightropes.’

Ju-seong was not so easy.

He leapt up with his free hand on the ground and dodged the tower master’s kick.

Since the man had lost his internal energy, even using martial techniques, he could not exceed the speed and power of a commoner.

Ju-seong whipped his head around in a full circle like a bucking colt to free himself from the collar grip, then headbutted him.

-Crack!

“Guhk!”

The tower master’s nose bridge caved in and he went flying. Ju-seong pounced on him savagely and began pounding his face. A rhythmic chant came out of him naturally.

“Who called you Three Steps One Kill! Or was it a hero of the martial world! Selling women, selling stolen goods, selling even human decency! Oh my, meeting the reaper at an unexpected hour, you shall cross the River Styx and meet the King of Hell!”

The Divine Physician, who had been tapping his foot to the rhythm without realizing it, quickly caught himself and pulled Ju-seong off.

“That is enough, clown. He still needs to be able to talk.”

“Yes.”

The Divine Physician asked the tower master.

“The vault should be in the basement. Where is the key?”

“…Here.”

The tower master knelt and pulled out one black iron key and one copper key from his chest. Black iron was a precious metal.

Not enough to make a weapon, but apparently enough for a key.

Ju-seong voiced his guess.

“Elder, it seems this black iron key is for the secret vault, and the vault that opens with the copper key probably holds less valuable items.”

After knocking the tower master unconscious again and going down to the basement, his words proved correct.

Behind the wooden door opened with the copper key were cash like silver ingots, expensive liquor, silk, and fabric.

Ju-seong and the Divine Physician divided it all equally and distributed it to the prostitutes.

They made the entertainers wait on the first floor so they could not leave, and sent only the prostitutes out first with their share of goods.

This way, the entertainers could not chase after the prostitutes to steal their property.

He and the Divine Physician then opened the iron door with the black iron key and examined the secret vault.

Ju-seong, half dazed, lightly clutched the Divine Physician’s sleeve and said.

“Elder, we are rich now.”

The Divine Physician yanked his sleeve away and grumbled.

“Why is it ‘we’ all of a sudden? I am the one who subdued the martial artists and the tower master.”

Inside the secret vault were small chests packed full of gold ingots, all kinds of weapons, and various expensive-looking herbs and spiritual plants.

It was truly worthy of being called the best black market in this region.

Ju-seong thought to himself as he looked around.

He spotted a saber with a white blade and immediately picked it up.

Did not the heroes who made their names in the martial world all have their own beloved weapon?

Ju-seong was not yet a hero of the martial world, but a man’s dreams should be big.

A blade that lights up the night.

‘I shall conquer the martial world with you.’

The moment of first discovering one’s cherished weapon.

Was it not said to be like fate? It surely felt that way.

Ju-seong opened his mouth, his voice trembling.

“From now on, your name is White Night Blade…”

-Clang!

A finger wind from the Divine Physician struck the center of the blade he was holding, and in an instant, Ju-seong’s cherished weapon was cut in half.

He stared blankly at the half-remaining blade, and the Divine Physician said.

“Swords, sabers, spears, and such ominous bladed weapons are forbidden. However, I shall permit hidden weapons, so you may take those.”

He had no idea what the standard was. Hidden weapons were also bladed, yet this was allowed and that was not.

You have to know the rhythm to clap or dance to it, do you not?

While Ju-seong was pouting and fiddling with throwing daggers and such, the Divine Physician let out an exclamation as if he had found something.

The Divine Physician picked up a small wooden box, opened it, let out a sigh of relief, and tucked it into his chest. Then he muttered savagely.

“Shadowless Divine Thief, you son of a bitch…”

Ju-seong tilted his head at the familiar alias.

“Was it the Shadowless Divine Thief who stole your pill, Elder? If it was stolen by that famous Gentleman on the Rafters, why would it end up in a place like this?”

Gentleman on the Rafters. It means a gentleman on the crossbeam, which is a euphemism for a thief.

In this way, the title of “gentleman” was sometimes attached ironically, as a term of contempt.

The so-called “Three Great Gentlemen Under Heaven,” who were given such mocking titles, included the Shadowless Divine Thief as the Gentleman on the Rafters.

The other two were the Gambling Mother Gentleman and the Lizard Running Gentleman, a famous gambler and a gigolo respectively.

The Divine Physician sighed and answered.

“That fellow is an old friend of mine. He happens to have a strange habit of stealing things and selling them cheaply anywhere when he gets drunk. We were drinking together, and when I woke up the next day, this item was gone.”

“That is quite a peculiar habit.”

“Anyway, he must have felt guilty because he went into hiding somewhere and will not show himself. When I meet him, I plan to beat him just short of death.”

Afterwards, the Divine Physician began sweeping all the precious herbs from the shelves and drawers into his bag, and his hand movements were indeed worthy of being the Shadowless Divine Thief’s friend.

Ju-seong was momentarily dumbstruck watching the Divine Physician sweep up items so fast his hands were invisible.

“Ah, this is not the time for this.”

Ju-seong quickly came to his senses. He turned and gathered high-quality flying daggers.

He also scooped up handfuls of bright yellow gold coins and stuffed them into his own bag. The heavy weight of gold. It was something Ju-seong had never felt in his entire life.

A smile naturally bloomed on his face.

“I will put this to good use, Great Hero Three Steps One Kill.”

Surely he would use it better for the world than that guy?