Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 59 - Beware of Beggars

Chapter 59 – Beware of Beggars

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

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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

Ju-seong and Red Beggar began heading north rapidly as soon as they retrieved the moth’s cocoon.

The moth was indeed no ordinary creature, for it followed the two with busy wingbeats as they performed qinggong.

“That thing won’t eat people, right?”

Red Beggar glanced at the moth flying after them through the air.

When they left the affected area of the wildfire and placed it on a tree, the creature visibly slurped up the sap.

The tree bark where it fed turned gray and crumbly.

Ju-seong answered indifferently.

“Who knows. Could be omnivorous.”

“Brother, don’t you find that thing cute? Its looks are adorable at least.”

“What’s cute about a bug?”

Though he denied it, the moth’s appearance was indeed quite cute, with its comb-like antennae, round black eyes, and fluffy white fur.

But Ju-seong kept refusing to acknowledge its cuteness due to his memories of fighting to the death with its mother.

Except for eating, doing business, and sleeping, the two minimized their rest and performed qinggong continuously. They didn’t stop at any villages.

Ju-seong had stayed in Yunnan longer than originally planned and wasted time, and Red Beggar was likewise worried about the beggar subordinates he’d left behind in Henan Province.

Red Beggar lamented.

“There was a saying about this: clean up your own house first before you can pacify the world… something like that.”

“Cultivate one’s self, order one’s family, govern the state, and pacify the world. First care for yourself, then your family, then the nation, and finally the world.”

“Why does it jump straight from family to governing a nation?”

“Then should we cram in every step? The village where you live, the county it’s in, the province that county belongs to, then the central government apparatus? When you hear old sayings, just think ‘good words’ and memorize them.”

“Yes, yes. Anyway, watching what the Yunnan Province Beggar Sect guys were doing was driving me crazy, so I was busy smacking them around one by one, and I completely forgot about my own hometown. How embarrassing.”

“Even if you go there, they’ll slowly creep back over time.”

Red Beggar nodded.

“That’s why I have an ambition I’ve been thinking about.”

“What is it?”

“Uniting all the Beggar Sects across the martial world into one.”

“What?”

Ju-seong doubted his ears and asked again.

Did I mishear?

“Making it into one massive organization with a single leader and one headquarters. There’s already a similar organization in the martial world, isn’t there? Called the Ten Thousand Ears Gang.”

“The demonic faction’s intelligence network, you mean?”

“That’s right. There’s nowhere in the world without beggars, so if what all beggars across the world see and hear is gathered in one place, what do you think?”

“Hmm…”

Ju-seong nodded, then asked.

“The Beggars Sect… Or rather, the branches. How do you plan to communicate between branches? If you’re using messenger pigeons, the logistics would be endless.”

“I hear the Martial Alliance uses specially bred pigeons for communication between branches. Descendants of spiritual creatures, they say… I’m thinking of getting just one breeding pair and raising them.”

“You madman. Do you think they’ll give them to you just because you ask?”

“Ah, that’s why I need to earn merit. If I get about nine of these on my waist, wouldn’t I qualify to make that demand?”

Red Beggar pointed to his waist. It still had only three straw ropes, but if that became nine, it would mean he had taken down that many more evildoers…

Ju-seong nodded.

“Not impossible.”

If Red Beggar became a Nine-Knot Beggar, then he could finally become the Sect Leader of the entire Beggars Sect.

By the second day of Ju-seong and Red Beggar’s running, a village finally appeared on their route.

It was a large village with one side facing a sizable river, and its distinctive white walls wrapped around it were memorable.

It was actually too big to call just a village, and the blue river with white buildings made for quite a beautiful scene. However, it seemed trouble was brewing.

“Mm… Doesn’t look like we can buy a meal there.”

Ju-seong also nodded with a sour expression.

“What the hell are those people doing? Why are they fighting in front of a riverside village? Yunnan Province never has a peaceful day.”

Red Beggar nodded in agreement.

The area around the village was spread with wide rice paddies, but the people gathering toward the village had trampled them into a mess.

They seemed angry about something, shouting loudly in broad daylight while holding torches or stones.

Ju-seong could already hear the sounds from the distance.

“You damn Bai tribe bastards! You were in cahoots with the Southern Barbarians, weren’t you!”

“The southerners burned the forest and caused this disaster for us Han people!”

“Because of that damn toxic smoke, my wife is having convulsions and seeing things!”

“My father accidentally breathed in the smoke and has been coughing all day, spitting up bloody phlegm!”

The heated atmosphere led to fighting.

Martial artists among the invaders clashed with martial artists from the village, and commoners with commoners.

However, the white-clothed people from the village were clearly at a disadvantage.

They were outnumbered and not significantly superior in quality either. In particular, one tall martial artist among the invaders was performing exceptionally well.

Ju-seong twisted his lips into a crooked smile.

“…Sons of bitches.”

“What? What is it? What’s happening?”

“What do you think? Han people are venting their anger on ethnic minorities and persecuting them. How many times has this happened in Central Plains history?”

It seemed that village was a Bai tribe settlement.

From what Ju-seong knew, the Bai tribe was one that had formed the Dali Kingdom that once ruled Yunnan Province.

After the Dali Kingdom fell, most Bai people couldn’t endure the Han people’s pressure and moved to the Southern Barbarian lands.

The majority persecuting the minority was all too natural.

But some, like these, remained unable to abandon their homeland.

“Twisted logic. Southerners started a wildfire and the toxic smoke caused a disaster. But there are lots of Bai tribe people in the south. Huh? There’s a Bai tribe village by the river over there? Could they have plotted this because they hate Han people? Let’s go beat them up, steal their property, kill the men and rape the women.”

“Brother, surely they won’t go that far…”

“Why not? See those martial artists over there? They’re backing it up. Those bastards are planning to attack the Bai people’s martial faction to take their wealth and manuals, thinking they might find some martial inspiration from an ethnic minority’s techniques.”

Those local leaders who were essentially martial artists must have bribed moderately corrupt Yunnan officials and been promised a very small gift.

A gift called ‘turning a blind eye.’

And the locals blinded by rage and greed would have been guaranteed protection from the Bai martial artists in return.

“My, these sons of bitches. Truly amazing. Huh? Brother, where are you going?”

Red Beggar, who had been laughing in disbelief, called out to Ju-seong as he brushed past him.

“Where are you going!”

Ju-seong ran like a fifteen-year-old boy running out of the house, ignoring his mother calling him to eat.

While kindly explaining the situation to Red Beggar, he suddenly realized he didn’t have time to wag his tongue like this.

While running, he inhaled deeply and shouted with all his might.

A voice fully loaded with a peak master’s internal energy boomed across the rice paddies.

* * *

Geum Dae-bang was the sect leader of the Seven Star Sword Sect that dominated the region.

He was looking down at the enraged Bai martial artists before him with sunken eyes.

They had at best four first-rate fighters and a dozen or so second-rate martial artists. That level couldn’t possibly stop them now.

“What have we done wrong that you invade and persecute us like this!”

Geum Dae-bang sneered inwardly and retorted loudly.

“Oh my, look at these treacherous people! They refuse to acknowledge their sins to the very end!”

-Slice!

A Bai martial artist who had charged at him in fury had his arm cut off by his sword and collapsed.

“A pitiful wretch.”

Geum Dae-bang sneered coldly.

At seven cheok tall with a rough aura emanating from his face, Geum Dae-bang was accustomed to looking down on others both physically and in terms of power.

“Idiots.”

He let out a chilly sneer.

Those damned Bai tribe’s faction, White Crane Sword Sect. Their manuals and martial arts, and also…

Geum Dae-bang licked his lips, glancing at the maiden glaring directly at him from across the way.

Her fierce, cunning fox-like face rather stirred his heart.

“Lady Bai, it’s been a while. We haven’t met since you refused my proposal last time.”

“A proposal, you call that a proposal?”

“Haha, just because a man approached you without some formality, you rejected him so coldly.”

Geum Dae-bang laughed triumphantly, now fully in the dominant position.

Now, even if that woman accepted his proposal, he would refuse. Now she was just a flower to be walked over and plucked.

The woman called Lady Bai, Bai Li, stiffened her face and gripped her sword tightly.

“…Don’t think you’ll have your way. We Bai people would rather burn everything and kill ourselves than be defiled by you.”

“My, it would be a great loss to the martial world if someone as beautiful as you disappeared. That resentment might well fall upon the Bai tribe’s children and elderly… Would that be alright with you?”

Geum Dae-bang lowered his voice, saying the rest was too vicious to speak loudly. His Seven Star Sword Sect was, nominally at least, an orthodox faction.

Bai Li’s lips trembled, but she said what she had to say.

“You are truly a demon. Even if all our elderly and children die together, we will never bend to your will.”

“Hahaha! Your conviction and nerve are truly the finest in the world.”

Not just her beauty, but hands of skill that didn’t match her cunning face. If he could obtain Bai Li, whose reputation as a talented artisan exceeded her beauty, his faction could soar again.

Even if she said that, once the children and elderly were taken hostage, Bai Li and the White Crane Sword Sect martial artists would surrender.

Just as Geum Dae-bang was picturing the bright future ahead.

“You worthless bastard parasites-!!”

Suddenly, a tremendous voice made his eardrums hum, and Geum Dae-bang looked back in surprise.

Ju-seong was a figure suddenly popping out from between the rice paddies. Before Geum Dae-bang could even think who that guy was, one of his subordinates had been sent flying by a kick so embarrassingly basic it couldn’t even be called a technique.

-Crack! Thud.

The man crashed into a nearby paddy ridge, sent so far that his form wasn’t even visible.

Instantly, silence fell.

The Bai tribe people who had been resisting desperately also stared blankly at Ju-seong.

‘Good silence.’

There were several kinds of silences when people went quiet. The awkward silence of being unable to react to an unfunny joke was a bad silence.

But going mute upon witnessing powerful force was a good silence.

Ju-seong calmly placed his hand on his waist and surveyed his surroundings.

It wasn’t easy to gauge a martial artist’s level by sight alone, but there seemed to be at least a dozen first-rate fighters visible. There were dozens of martial artists below that level.

Meanwhile, the Bai tribe martial artists numbered less than half that, so had Ju-seong not come, their defeat would have been a matter of time.

It was obvious that several factions in the vicinity had poured considerable force into this ‘invasion operation.’

“These miserable bastards…”

Ju-seong glared at each of them as he spoke.

“At this opportunity, you gathered the masses as meat shields and planned to suck out some benefits in the chaos. You’ve been caught by me. You lot probably think you’re quite clever, right? Because those people seemed to be fooled by your instigation.”

He wagged his finger annoyingly.

“Fat chance. They’re all using you too. When the fighting’s over, it’ll be you martial artists who bleed more.”

In truth, the commoners were watching the martial artists’ fight and only maintaining a standoff, fighting as if not really fighting.

Either way, the martial artists’ fight would decide the outcome, so why stake their lives tangling with the enraged Bai tribe residents?

Only now seeing their behavior, the martial artists’ faces twisted.

Ju-seong continued with a sneer.

“Idiots. Especially you ringleader bastards. You think you’re something…”

Ju-seong was about to continue his abuse, but noticed the man who’d been kicked away earlier staggering back.

“You. The one who got hit and flew.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

-BOOM!

A crimson palm force burst from Ju-seong’s hand, struck through the air, and sent the martial artist who had been pointing at himself flying again.

“Anyone who thinks I was too harsh kicking that bastard, raise your hand.”

The area remained silent. Because a peak-level martial artist had just displayed his prowess.

Geum Dae-bang was flabbergasted enough to laugh.

A madman appearing out of nowhere was spouting nonsense, and judging by his ability to project energy, he was a peak-level martial artist no less.

Yunnan Province originally had almost no peak-level masters.

The Dali Kingdom factions that had traditionally built power in Yunnan were either destroyed or moved to the Southern Barbarian lands when the kingdom fell.

The Bai tribe’s faction, White Crane Sword Sect, was originally the premier sect of the Dali Kingdom, but all the martial essence had been taken by the immigrants to the south, and only husks of second-rate martial arts remained.

Moreover, decades ago, some demonic physician or whatever had caused the Yunnan bloodshed that annihilated all the major factions, drastically lowering Yunnan’s average martial level once again.

At least the Five Poisons Valley was producing peak-level martial artists thanks to its long tradition, but they weren’t interested in Yunnan affairs.

So that young peak-level martial artist was truly a powerful figure who had dropped from the sky.

Refusing to be swept along, Geum Dae-bang drew his sword and shouted in a stern voice.

“Which master are you! Should not one who follows the way of chivalry identify himself before using force!”

Ju-seong cackled at his words.

“Which master, my ass… I was doing performing art acts in Fujian Province, you bastard.”

“How absurd, this is someone beyond reason… We came to hold the Bai tribe accountable for the disaster caused by the Southern Barbarian arson. How can you persecute us without grounds!”

Ju-seong instinctively felt that letting that beanpole keep talking would be bad.

Facing a peak-level master yet raising his voice while risking danger.

With at least a dozen first-rate martial artists, he must have figured he could make a fight of it.

This kind of person was typically skilled at inciting and manipulating the people around him.

Ju-seong stared at Geum Dae-bang and said curtly.

“Beware of beggars.”

Before Geum Dae-bang could even furrow his brow in response, a milky-white energy rushed in from behind and struck him.

-BOOM…!

Red Beggar appeared, thin snake-like white energy trailing from both palms.

Geum Dae-bang had barely managed to block Red Beggar’s double palm strike with his sword face and stared blankly at the disheveled beggar who had suddenly burst in.

The beggar spat as he spoke.

“Hearing this, you bastard. I’ll crack your skull and make it my begging bowl.”

Ju-seong nodded.

“Then at last something of value would fill that head.”

* * *

Immortal Hyeon-su, traveling south with April, heard disturbing news at an inn.

That nearby martial artists were heading to hold a Bai tribe village accountable for the recent disaster.

The old man said to April, with whom he had exchanged names and grown closer over the past few days.

“April… Won’t you come with me there? I hear the Southern Barbarians started a fire and its toxic smoke caused a disaster. How can they blame the Bai tribe for that? It makes no sense.”

“…It may be unreasonable, but the powerless have no choice but to suffer, don’t they? That is the law of the martial world. What can the two of us do? I actually possessed considerable martial arts but recently lost them all. And aren’t you, Elder, an old man who can hardly even do a normal man’s work anymore?”

“Hehe… Still, there might be something to help if we go along the way. After the fighting ends, perhaps we could share some grain with the Bai people?”

“…We might get torn apart just for being Han people.”

April sighed, but decided to simply follow where the old man went.

Over the days they had traveled together, April had unknowingly become somewhat respectful of this unremarkable peddler.

Though a powerless commoner, his actions were unhesitating and confident, and he was courteous everywhere but never servile.

Yet a gentle smile always hung at the corner of his mouth, and though he was chatty like a gossip, when you thought about it, each word carried its own wisdom.

April had no idea of Immortal Hyeon-su’s true identity.

He merely thought that this long-lived peddler had brewed his own fragrance while navigating through life’s bitter seas.