Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 50 - The Old Peddler

Chapter 50 – The Old Peddler

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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A tremendous crash was heard, but of course it was an auditory hallucination.

If such a sound actually came from a person’s groin, you would need to call the undertaker, not a physician.

Fortunately, it was not a real sound, so Red Beggar, who was meditating, did not wake.

Ju-seong vigorously rallied his internal energy, which had slammed into the perineum point wall and retreated like a defeated soldier.

‘Now, you incompetent bastards. Let us try one more time.’

Coaxing his internal energy as if soothing a child made him furious.

‘Those damn southern barbarians, why did they have to start a fire…’

When you thought about it, this was all the southern barbarians’ fault.

Come to think of it, was it not Zhuge Liang Kongming who long ago forgave the Southern Barbarian King Meng Huo with Seven Captures, Seven Releases?

If the Shu Kingdom had executed Meng Huo back then and ruled the southern barbarians with an iron fist, this would not be happening now.

By Ju-seong’s ignorant reckoning, that was how it was anyway.

‘Senior Zhuge, because of you, I might never get married.’

Ju-seong brimmed with fury toward Zhuge Liang, fury toward the southern barbarian arsonists, fury toward the Flower-Snapping Laughing Killer who had easily broken through peak level by killing people, fury toward the Black Dragon Gangs that were so commonly distributed throughout the martial world.

Anyway, sparks of fury flew in all directions without aim. Ju-seong was a man with much anger.

‘Ah… These bastards.’

I cannot die here.

The moment that thought arose, the internal energy Ju-seong was gathering began plunging toward the perineum point on its own.

‘Wha?’

Before Ju-seong could stop it, the internal energy struck like a lightning bolt and broke through the perineum point in one blow.

-Crackle…

A whooshing sound filled his head, and the internal energy that had scaled his spine like a ladder headed straight for the crown point. He had broken through the perineum point by luck, but if it burst at the crown, he would become an idiot.

‘Gu-chil…’

He thought of the fool Gu-chil. He still had much to do, and he could not become an idiot. Fools could only be happy in a peaceful world.

The internal energy was already beyond his control.

Ju-seong could only stoke more fury, unleash more poison from the poison sac lodged in his dantian to feed the flames…

And cheer with all his heart. There was nothing else he could do.

‘Go!’

-THUD… Crackle.

Then, a whooshing sound came from his crown too, and energy coursed refreshingly through his whole body.

Next, he felt something small near his heart. Still only perceptible for now, but Ju-seong knew this was the middle dantian.

‘Now, for real.’

Ju-seong closed his eyes gently and began running the Great Heavenly Circuit again with a much broader heart. Normally, having raised his level, he should rest and stabilize, but.

He had reached peak level to do something in the first place. When he ran the Great Heavenly Circuit rapidly while breathing, the heat rushed even more fiercely into his body.

Now the inside of the cave felt almost cool, so completely was Ju-seong blocking the wildfire’s heat.

-Crackle.

Ju-seong’s entire body was engulfed by the Flame Crow Six Stage Art’s flames.

The hallucinations triggered by the moth’s poison sac constantly beguiled him. To counter this, the killing intent in his upper dantian broke free of the Stillness-Bright Incantation’s seal and rose to disturb his mind.

Dramatic enlightenment, overcoming a crisis by a hair’s breadth, ascending in level, all the exciting events were now over.

From here on, it was purely a battle of endurance.

Red Beggar drowsily opened his eyes and, by the moonlight streaming in, realized a full day had passed.

“Brother?”

He immediately looked for Ju-seong, but he was not beside him. Raising his head and looking, he saw a silhouette sitting cross-legged near the entrance.

Moonlight slanted across his shoulder.

“Brother…”

Approaching closer, Red Beggar was startled by Ju-seong’s appearance.

A whole layer of skin had risen all over his body, looking like a snake shedding its skin.

Ju-seong exhaled a long stream of white vapor, and after gathering the energy throughout his body into his dantian with a hand motion, he reached up to peel off the shed skin. Red Beggar brightened at the markedly different aura about Ju-seong… it was clear evidence that his brother had broken through the wall.

But when Ju-seong peeled away the skin, Red Beggar could not help but be horrified by what was revealed.

“Brother! What happened to you! Did qi deviation hit you? Oh my, you are all swollen up. Did you become a toad?”

Ju-seong struggled to lift his puffy eyelids and spoke.

“…The Heavenly Silkworm Moth… The poison was vicious. I thought I had roughly managed it, but last night when breaking through the level, I lost control. At this rate, I might explode and die right after becoming peak level.”

It was this bad even after managing it. He had spent all night circulating energy and inhaling fire energy. But originally, even a martial art that accumulated yang energy should not absorb only one type of energy.

Accumulating energy that way was no different from a demonic art.

To be healthy, one had to eat a balanced diet, and similarly, one had to absorb balanced natural energy.

Last night, Ju-seong had greedily absorbed only hot energy to block the wildfire’s heat, and because of that, the Heavenly Silkworm Moth’s poison sac finally went berserk.

When excessive fire energy invaded all at once, it threw a tantrum not wanting to die.

As a result, hallucinations invaded his upper dantian, and in chain reaction, the killing intent rampaged.

By the time he held onto his faltering sanity, the poison energy rampaging through his body had spread beyond management.

“The silver lining is, my skin got completely burned by the wildfire but recovered thanks to the poison sac’s wood energy. How is it? Nice and supple?”

Ju-seong’s skin was past supple and on the verge of bursting.

“Is this the time for jokes? What should I do?”

“There is nothing we can do right now. For now… let us head to the Five Poisons Valley. Judging by the name, they probably handle poison based on the five elements. If they have a powerful poison carrying metal energy…”

At least he could maintain a fragile balance with three of the five elements: wood, metal, and fire.

Ju-seong looked at Red Beggar and spoke.

“Now, my Red Hare horse. Let us go to the Five Poisons Valley.”

* * *

Myeong-il, no, now April, whose name had been taken, entered Yunnan Province and continued heading south. The terrain was rough and mountainous, but the weather had cleared, making the journey not too hard.

It was not that his internal energy had been taken; the external martial arts he had trained his whole life had not disappeared.

If the Divine Physician had completely crippled his dantian, the backlash would have weakened his body too.

But since the Qi-Scattering Poison had merely sealed his internal energy, his body was unharmed.

April thought about this strange mercy as he walked.

It was an excessively lenient punishment for an adversary in the martial world.

April somehow felt even that bizarre elder had steeled himself to show him mercy.

He could see from the man’s expression, gestures, and speech that he was not someone who usually lived so leniently.

‘He was a frightening elder.’

Someone with much blood on his hands, much experience torturing, anyway someone seasoned in harming people.

By contrast, he himself had gone on assassination missions barely ten times. He had been the secret weapon of a middling assassin group like the April Pavilion.

In terms of killing karma alone, he was just a rookie by comparison.

Why had that fierce elder spared him?

April pondered that as he walked.

Until an unexpected companion popped out at a fork in the road.

“Excuse me, young man. Are you headed south? Could you perhaps accompany this old man?”

“…Who are you, walking alone, Elder?”

Usually, someone walking alone was mostly a martial artist. Because an ordinary person could not defend themselves from beasts or bandits.

But the old man before him looked like a shabby peddler, and had no visible weapons.

His gait lacked the disciplined air unique to martial artists and was disorderly. Crucially, a martial artist of any level usually had bulging temples unless they had trained a special technique.

These were called the Sun Points, and this elder’s temples were gaunt and sunken.

“Heh heh… Well, I am but a wandering peddler. As you can see, my old bones cannot walk fast, so I travel alone.”

Peddlers usually traveled in groups over mountains.

They might not be as strong as martial artists, but carrying heavy loads on their backs and walking dozens of li a day, they were not easy marks.

If random bandits foolishly attacked a peddler group, they could be beaten and robbed instead.

But as one aged and slowed, one was naturally pushed out of the peddler group.

Normally, by that point one would have saved enough to spend their later years in peace, but.

This old man, perhaps having lost his home to gambling, was still carrying a load at this age.

“…Do as you wish.”

April pondered briefly and allowed the old man to accompany him.

Having lost his martial arts now, even a withered old man added numbers that were not bad.

In truth, April walking alone as a commoner was also out of his mind.

Having lost his martial arts, he had half given up on life. A sense of despair, perhaps.

Perhaps he had never once loved his own life.

Anyway, the old man and the young man walked like an awkward grandfather and grandson.

The old man narrowed his eyes and looked up and down at the young man walking beside him, who appeared to be around thirty.

‘…His gait looks like someone who trained martial arts, yet I cannot sense a speck of internal energy. Yet the killing intent ingrained in his body is terribly thick. A discharged soldier from the military who lost his martial arts and is returning home…?’

The old man, in his own way, had decided to accompany them because this strange man felt dangerous.

What if this person harmed innocent common people?

One of the chronic ailments of those called righteous faction figures was precisely this kind of meddling.

And the old man was the sort of person who embodied words like righteous faction, or wandering hero, or righteous person.

“So, where are you coming from?”

“From Sichuan.”

“Sichuan, you say. What reason would a man from the west have to come all the way down to the southern barbarian lands?”

Even Yunnan Province was technically the imperial court’s land, but to Central Plains people, Yunnan was still southern barbarian countryside. Meanwhile, Sichuan Province was a historic strategic point.

“No need to be curious. I am looking for someone.”

“A grudge?”

“No.”

The old man smacked his lips and resumed walking. He could not find out much.

That was all right. If he took his time traveling together, he would learn what he needed to know.

In his impetuous youth, the old man might have subdued this young man and interrogated him, unable to master his hasty temper.

Killing intent wafting from his body, what kind of person was he? What purpose brought him to Yunnan Province…

But now the old man was much more gentle and leisurely. Not because he was old, but because he had attained a skill level where he could go wherever his heart led without obstacles.

When they had crossed about halfway over Diancang Mountain, they encountered a group.

“Oh dear, the bold men of the Verdant Forest…”

The old man stiffened his expression as if flustered.

He could not reveal himself as a master here. By nature, people revealed their true selves before the weak.

If the old man openly displayed his martial arts, the bandits would instantly become meek as lambs. Then he could not know what kind of people they really were.

Deung-pyeong, the leader of the Diancang Stronghold, rested a large blade on his shoulder and called out.

“We will not harm you, so come over here!”

April and the old man stepped forward.

Deung-pyeong looked at the old man with a somewhat bewildered expression and asked.

“Is that your grandson beside you? Two ordinary men walking a remote mountain path alone. Are you not afraid?”

The old man smiled slightly and shook his head.

“He is not my grandson, just a fellow traveler heading the same way. How much should I offer you, then?”

Deung-pyeong shook his head slightly.

“Well, it would be a bit much to strip an old man down who has picked up a bundle in his old age because times are hard.”

“Heh heh… So the Verdant Forest too has its own principles.”

“If I robbed you, Elder, you might die of starvation in a week, and your ghost would cling to me, would it not?”

At Deung-pyeong’s joke, the old man threw back his head and laughed.

“Heh heh, I would become a very fearsome ghost indeed.”

If the Sword Saint of the Western Frontier, Immortal Hyeonsu of the Kunlun Sect, became a ghost, he would surely be the most terrifying of fearsome spirits.