Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 7 - Have You Been to Sichuan

Chapter 7 – Have You Been to Sichuan

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Ju-seong was not a martial artist, so he did not know much about the levels of martial artists. He could only guess that the three before him were around third-rate.

Third-rate was treated as the lowest of the low in the martial world. In the serialized martial arts stories, they had about as much presence as background decorations.

But since Ju-seong had never learned martial arts, he was actually a nobody who did not even make third-rate.

‘Why do they look so strong?’

To beat them, he would definitely have to use underhanded methods.

Ju-seong threw a flying dagger at the same time he threw sand.

The throwing daggers he had found at the Full Moon Tower were finished with a blackened coating, so they were barely visible in the dark.

-Swish! Thunk!

With a chilling sound, the dagger embedded itself deep into the middle man’s thigh.

“Gahh!”

Normally, being martial artists, they could have deflected or dodged the dagger just by seeing Ju-seong’s shoulder twitch.

But right now, his sand throwing had momentarily blocked their vision.

Of course, he could not expect the other two to fall for it as well.

The two on either side charged at Ju-seong with drawn swords.

-Swish! Swoosh!

Seeing the pair of blades rushing at him like predator’s fangs, Ju-seong retreated without hesitation.

He had always thought his feet were quite fast.

But somehow, these men used a peculiar footwork and caught up quickly.

Watching their feet slide across the ground like snakes, Ju-seong thought.

‘So that is the footwork of martial artists.’

He did not know footwork, but he had become fairly skilled at handling internal energy.

According to the Divine Physician, this too was quite remarkable.

That someone who was not even third-rate could freely focus internal energy on any body part was unusual, he said.

Anyway, Ju-seong momentarily channeled internal energy into his calves. The calf muscles contracted instantly, extending his ankles and pushing off the ground.

He bounced backward while pulling out two flying daggers with both hands and throwing them.

Since he threw them purely with arm strength, the men easily deflected the daggers.

With distance opened between them, the men glared at Ju-seong and took ready stances.

Their left hands curved like tiger claws extended forward, while their right hands holding swords were drawn back.

The sword tips pointed straight at their opponent, brimming with killing intent.

Fitting for the evil Blood Sword Sect, there was a feeling of sinister viciousness and violence in their stance.

Ju-seong mentally calculated what movements could follow from that stance.

‘How terrifying.’

Various moves were drawn in his mind, and every one of them was a killing technique.

Watching them gather their energy, Ju-seong decided he needed to break their composure.

“You pathetic fools, look to the side. All your seniors have already become handfuls of blood and departed never to return. You should be running with your tails between your legs, yet here you are striking idiotic ready stances?”

One of them kept his eyes on Ju-seong and maintained his stance. But the other instinctively turned to look.

Seizing the moment, Ju-seong charged toward the one who turned his head.

Infusing internal energy into his thighs, Ju-seong’s form shot forward like an arrow.

While running, he leaned his body forward as if about to fall.

Just before his nose hit the ground, he channeled internal energy into his toes and propelled himself forward.

-Tap!

It was more like acrobatics.

Because of his extremely low stance, the martial artists’ swords slashed empty air, grazing the back of his head.

Ju-seong charged forward in a prone position.

“Kuh, this bastard!”

Ju-seong tackled the legs of the martial artist who had been distracted by his words and rolled with him.

“Ugh, uwaah!”

He had always been confident in his strength. No, he was better than average at anything physical.

When he tackled them with determination and wrapped up both their legs, even a martial artist could not stay standing.

As they rolled together entangled, the other man could not easily bring down his sword either.

Ju-seong maliciously reached out his hand and firmly grabbed between the legs of the man rolling with him.

This being a lowly warrior of an evil sect, he must have done something vile to some powerless commoner woman at least once.

It was the Hero Ju-seong’s punishment through presumption of guilt.

‘You pervert!’

Ju-seong squeezed with all his might at whatever he felt in his grip.

“GAHHHHHHH-!”

A wretched scream tore out.

‘I wonder if he has any children? If not, I feel a bit sorry.’

Without time to apologize, Ju-seong had to roll on the ground again. The other martial artist’s sword had finally come slashing down at him.

Ju-seong quickly stood up and jeered.

“You should have been a bit quicker. Thanks to you, your friend is now a eunuch. You destroyed his family line. Looking at his balls, I shared a few words with him, and he said he is the only son in four generations. You heartless bastard. Bringing extinction to someone’s family.”

“Damn it, shut up and fight!”

The man roared and charged. His sword, which had been aimed from behind, shot out like a viper toward Ju-seong.

But having already predicted that motion, he, a commoner, was able to dodge the martial artist’s attack.

Of course, even doing so had its limits in terms of movement. The martial artist had used refined martial techniques, while Ju-seong had only used simple body movements.

It was actually a wonder he was still alive.

-Slash!

The sword blade cut deep into Ju-seong’s shoulder.

On top of that, as a follow-up, the man’s left hand extended toward Ju-seong’s head.

His hand, curved sharply like tiger’s claws, rushed forward to crush Ju-seong’s skull.

“Eek!”

The martial artist’s Grasping Hand failed to grab his head, but instead shattered his right collarbone.

But Ju-seong did not feel much pain.

This was his advantage: once his head got heated, he forgot all about pain.

And Ju-seong’s head always got heated when he fought.

Since he usually joked and clowned around during fights, few people knew this about him.

But occasionally during scuffles with ruffians, he would show excessive cruelty until his troupe family had to pull him off, and that had happened more than once or twice.

He did not know if it was a special constitution or what, but thanks to this trait, Ju-seong had never lost a street fight.

With a broken collarbone, he did not blink an eye and gathered spit to launch it powerfully at the man’s face.

“Ptui!”

There were different types of spit attacks.

This was not a single ball of phlegm, but spray-type spit that scattered in multiple directions.

The advantage was that it was hard to dodge. The disadvantage was that it was less disgusting than a phlegm ball.

“Damn it, fucking hell!”

It seemed even martial artists could not dodge spray-type spit.

The martial artist grimaced and waved his arms, offering high praise.

“Damn, you fight dirty, you filthy bastard!”

“You do it too, bastard.”

Ju-seong took advantage of the man’s lost vision and threw a flying dagger.

-Swoosh… Clang!

The moment he saw Ju-seong’s shoulder twitch, the martial artist nimbly deflected the dagger. Even with his attention divided by disgust, he was quite capable.

But Ju-seong had deliberately thrown the dagger to the man’s right.

The martial artist who swung his sword outward left his upper body exposed, and Ju-seong targeted that opening.

By inducing his movement and reading two moves ahead, Ju-seong suddenly thought he might have been born to fight.

Ju-seong rushed into the martial artist’s embrace in an instant. With one hand, he firmly gripped the man’s wrist to prevent swing the sword.

With the other hand, he grabbed the back of the man’s neck so he could not pull his head away.

Then he clung on with all his might, like lovers passionately kissing in the throes of passion.

-Crunch!

And bit off the martial artist’s nose.

It was a round, bulbous nose, perfect for taking a big bite.

The martial artist screamed in terror at having his face bitten off.

“Ah, aah, ah! Stop! Shit, ahhh! Stop! I am sorry!”

Ju-seong thought.

‘I am sorrier.’

Now this fellow would not be able to go outside in cold winters. Cold wind would whistle through his wide-open nostrils.

Everyone’s nose is precious. But perhaps it was okay to bite off the noses of men who transported people like cargo.

After Ju-seong subdued them, the Divine Physician silently approached, shattered their dantians, and set Ju-seong’s collarbone.

The collarbone, damaged by the Grasping Hand, was not cleanly broken but shattered into several pieces.

Yet the Divine Physician fiddled with it a few times, injected some kind of energy, and set the bone as if it were nothing.

“Only a master of my level who has also achieved mastery in medicine can perform such treatment. Know that ordinary people, let alone most martial artists, could never experience this in their lifetime.”

Of course, he did not forget to brag about himself.

He and the Divine Physician searched the unconscious Gu Yu-hwan’s belongings and found the key to the wooden carriage.

From inside the carriage, they could only hear tense breathing.

The Divine Physician looked at Ju-seong and said.

“Clown, I hear no breathing of injured or dying people inside. Do not worry.”

It must have been because Ju-seong’s expression was a sight.

Indeed, Ju-seong felt like his head might explode from all kinds of thoughts.

If his guess was right, his older sisters should be inside.

When the Divine Physician finally opened the carriage door, frightened little screams rang out, and the women inside scrambled to the far wall.

The Divine Physician cleared his throat softly and said.

“Please come out, everyone. We have dealt with the villains. I am a figure of the righteous path… well, not exactly, and my reputation is not great either… Anyway, I have no intention of harming you.”

It was an unnecessarily honest self-introduction, but the women must have heard what happened.

They knew for certain that Ju-seong and the Divine Physician had taken care of the Blood Sword Sect martial artists.

They shook off their fear and came out, stumbling, one by one.

Their health seemed alright, but from being crammed in the small carriage for so long, their joints seemed stiff.

“Ah.”

Among them, Ju-seong found three familiar faces.

Only then did he realize his face had been terribly tense.

The moment he saw them, his expression relaxed and his face ached as if stiff.

Ju-seong pulled up the corners of his mouth and grinned.

“Elder Sisters, it has been a while.”

The three women with dead eyes who had been descending saw him, opened their eyes wide, and came running.

“Ju-seong!!”

Yi-hwa, So-yeong, and Yeong-ryeo.

Yi-hwa was just before her twentieth year, while So-yeong and Yeong-ryeo were in their mid-twenties.

Yi-hwa in particular had personally carried and raised Ju-seong when he was an infant, so they were especially close.

She was already being pushed around by the older dancer sisters and had a hard life. Having an infant attached to her like a growth must have doubled her burden.

Even so, Yi-hwa took care of him devotedly.

About thirty percent of why Ju-seong grew up healthy was thanks to Yi-hwa.

“Oh, Ju-seong…”

Yi-hwa stroked Ju-seong’s face as if she were a mother caressing her child.

Sister So-yeong and Sister Yeong-ryeo also wiped their tears and embraced him.

Seeing all three with their limbs intact, Ju-seong was quite happy.

Then the Divine Physician interjected.

“Clown, I get nauseous when I see heartwarming scenes, so stop it there.”

Yi-hwa saw the Divine Physician and immediately recognized him as the master who had subdued the martial artists.

After all, it was just Ju-seong and the Divine Physician. Surely Ju-seong had not done it.

‘He looks a bit scary, but he seems like a good person.’

Yi-hwa muttered to herself and quickly bowed in greeting.

“You must be the one who helped Ju-seong. Thank you so much.”

At her thanks, Ju-seong suddenly became serious and stroked his chin.

‘Come to think of it, he really did help me.’

The Divine Physician’s goal was to recover his pill. Finding the three women was entirely Ju-seong’s affair.

With this, he owed this crazy old man a debt he could never repay even with his life.

Originally, he had planned to run away as quickly as possible.

‘But now I cannot, unless I am a beast.’

Even an animal knows gratitude, so for a human to run away with his mouth shut was absolutely unacceptable.

‘So now I become the hype man and personal con artist of a mad old master?’

Whether Ju-seong was thinking such things or not, the Divine Physician was unconcerned.

He raised his fist and punched holes through the windowless wooden carriage.

Seeing this, the women recognized him as a formidable master and showed signs of fear. Even when dealing with a benefactor, superhuman power was to be shunned.

The Divine Physician turned and said.

“Now, the Blood Sword Sect martial artists we subdued had considerable wealth. I will divide it among you. Those who wish to return home may do so. Those who have nowhere to go, I will help.”

Most of the women except the three troupe sisters were commoner daughters. They chose to return home.

The remaining women who seemed to have nowhere to go also chose to just take the money and leave. It was understandable.

Having been kidnapped once, they must have lost trust in people.

The seven women except for the three from the acrobatic troupe.

They bowed repeatedly to Ju-seong and the Divine Physician in gratitude.

Ju-seong scratched his cheek.

As with the Full Moon Tower, being thanked by someone was unfamiliar to him.

As he scratched the back of his head, the Divine Physician grinned and said.

“How does it feel? Doing good and receiving thanks is quite pleasant, is it not? This is what it means to fulfill human duty.”

Indeed, the Divine Physician was not wrong. If both evil and good brought joy, why choose evil?

The women got into the carriage, and Ju-seong sat on the driver’s seat with the Divine Physician.

“Is it alright to just leave those martial artists like that? If they report to their sect, it could be troublesome.”

At Ju-seong’s words, the Divine Physician’s eyes sank slightly.

“Clown, a martial artist who has lost his power cannot dare return to his sect. They would rather choose suicide than endure the humiliation, shame, and danger.”

If low-ranking evil path followers returned after losing their dantians, what would the sect do? It was simple.

They had failed their mission and lost their dantians, so they were useless. Yet they knew the sect’s internal information.

Silencing them was the only option. Ju-seong enumerated these thoughts and nodded.

“I see.”

“Besides, even if they figured out who I am, what could they do about it? Fight me over a few dead lackeys?”

It was an arrogant statement, but coming from a master of the Divine Physician’s level, it was plausible.

The horses of the carriage were reluctant to move, perhaps because a stranger held the reins. The Divine Physician sent out a red palm strike to smack the horses’ rumps.

-Neeeigh!

The poor horses cried out in distress and charged forward. Ju-seong watched them for a moment, then asked out of curiosity.

“By the way, Elder.”

“I permit your question.”

“Where are we going now?”

The Divine Physician looked at Ju-seong and raised the corner of his mouth.

“Have you been to Sichuan?”