Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 78 - Just Live Like Everyone Else

Chapter 78 – Just Live Like Everyone Else

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Ju-seong lowered his stance and waited for an opening.

At this moment, he was an honorary member of Wudang Sect.

Because to any man of the martial world, Wudang was another name for romance.

His mood had sunk endlessly from witnessing what had been done to people.

But in a fight, angry emotions, sad emotions, melancholy emotions were not good.

So he made an effort to calm his mind by steering his thoughts in an absurd direction.

Ju-seong gestured like an orthodox sect hero, beckoning.

“Come.”

The Vajra Pavilion Master let out a hollow laugh and murmured.

“A madman, is he…”

And then, as if granting Ju-seong’s invitation, he cracked the whip.

-CRACK!

A jet-black trajectory extended toward him.

Ju-seong moved his body back to dodge, but…

-SLICE!

A sword thread that suddenly shot from the tip of the whip targeted Ju-seong.

Sword thread was a technique one level above sword energy manipulation.

It was, in other words, a very rudimentary form of sword force made by condensing sword energy.

Ju-seong looked at the stone floor sliced through by the sword thread and felt the killing intent that had surged in his upper dantian quietly subside.

In other words, Ju-seong was apparently a man whose killing intent was well-regulated in front of the strong.

‘How embarrassing… Hey, aren’t you going to rise again?’

Ju-seong instead urged on his killing intent. In this situation, his killing urge should be surging to illuminate the path of battle for him.

That man was clearly stronger than Ju-seong.

‘But am I supposed to be intimidated just because he’s stronger than me…?’

-CLANG!

Ju-seong infused energy into his hand guards and deflected the incoming whip. It was a move containing the mystery of deflecting force, yet his joints tingled from the transmitted power.

Ju-seong’s eye corner twitched in irritation.

‘Damn it…’

He wasn’t cursing because of the force in the whip.

There was a reason he’d blocked with just one hand despite accumulating fatigue in his left hand.

It was to throw a needle with his right hand.

He’d thrown it with two curves in the trajectory, yet the left eye of the Pavilion Master whirled and tracked the needle’s path to the end.

Then he simply swung his soft sword to deflect the needle.

Just then, the trajectory of the black whip he’d been swinging momentarily left his field of vision.

-Whirl!

The black whip shot out viciously from his flank and coiled around Ju-seong’s right arm.

-CRACK!

The Master’s internal energy traveled along the black whip and constricted Ju-seong’s arm. But the body tempered through Samadhi Body Refinement wasn’t so easily damaged.

When Ju-seong tensed his arm and resisted, the Master tried to yank him in entirely and slash him with the soft sword.

But there was something the Master had overlooked. Ju-seong’s Heavenly Silkworm Silk.

Throughout the fight, five strands of Heavenly Silkworm Silk had been clinging to the whip one strand at a time…

But this material was almost weightlessly light and, in this dust-filled cavern, was nearly invisible.

Because this artifact originally only gained the rigidity of iron wire when energy was infused.

-HISSS…!

Ju-seong’s internal energy flowed into the Heavenly Silkworm Silk that was completely wrapped around the whip.

“Damn…!”

The Master infused internal energy and resisted, but…

The whip’s surface was a plane, while the Heavenly Silkworm Silk was a line.

Even if the Master’s internal energy was stronger than Ju-seong’s, Ju-seong could concentrate his energy on a narrow area.

Moreover, the Master couldn’t even retract the whip because Ju-seong was holding firm with his right arm.

“…”

The Master’s right eye rolled to glare at Ju-seong silently. Meanwhile, his left side, holding the soft sword, was motionless as if it had nothing to do.

‘Oho…’

Ju-seong filed the sight away in his mind and moved on to the next action.

He threw his body toward the enemy, riding the force with which the Master was pulling the whip.

Only then did the Master’s left eye roll, and the soft sword swung fiercely.

True to a swordsman wielding an illusory sword, fifty afterimages bloomed simultaneously like flowers, filling Ju-seong’s vision.

With his arm bound to the whip, Ju-seong’s hands weren’t free.

Instead, Ju-seong spun a flip in mid-air.

“…Flower Rain Kick.”

The first of the latter five moves in the Three Yang Fist.

The first ten moves of the early to mid segments had already been nearly erased from Ju-seong’s mind.

After Ju-seong reached the peak level and internalized the Karmic Fire Demon Art’s movements, they had long since blended and transformed on their own.

But the latter five moves were each high-level mysteries. Not yet trivial enough for Ju-seong to modify and adapt at will.

Flower Rain.

If the illusory sword was pouring out one huge flower, the dozens of kicks Ju-seong was firing were like flower rain.

Among those many petals the sword was creating, which was real?

One thing was certain: every single flower in the rain Ju-seong was sending out was real.

-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD…

A sound like thousands of war horses stomping their hooves echoed through the cavern.

Soon the two absolute techniques couldn’t overcome each other’s recoil and exploded, scattering projected force everywhere.

The Master had retreated about two steps, while Ju-seong had been thrown six zhang and lay sprawled.

This was because Ju-seong had poured all the internal energy he could have used to anchor himself into the Heavenly Silkworm Silk. Thanks to that, Ju-seong had managed to neutralize one of the man’s weapons.

“You’re quite the nuisance… But know this. You won’t leave here anyway.”

The Master spoke indifferently, tossing aside his shattered black whip.

Ju-seong was thoroughly sick of this bastard who talked like a soulless husk.

He didn’t think he could shake that wax-like mentality with some war of words.

How had such a person come to exist?

When you cross blades, you come to sense each other’s lives.

From this man’s brushstroke-like swordsmanship and fierce, forceful whip technique, Ju-seong felt only endless detachment.

This right here was the ruthless martial world that people spoke of.

“If I beat you to death, I can get out just fine. Isn’t your confidence a bit excessive?”

“Well…”

The Master twisted his thin lips, then released a powerful palm force from his empty right hand.

It was hard to believe this was the same swordsman wielding illusory swords… a straightforward palm technique.

At the same time, his left hand moved chaotically, projecting sword shadows.

Three sword shadows. Two came slashing in an X pattern, while one pierced straight through the center.

Illusory swordsmanship was psychological warfare.

Some sword shadows carried strong energy, while others held only enough to barely maintain their form.

Yet the one receiving had to be unable to tell the difference until hit.

Ju-seong naturally assumed the single thrust was the real strike.

But the moment Ju-seong blocked the thrust, the sword shadow wavered and broke apart.

-SLASH!

“Ow! You cowardly son of a bitch!”

Ju-seong screamed, his forearm now bearing a large diagonal cut.

He managed to tear apart the palm force that followed with the Kunlun Iron Claws wreathed in internal energy, but the damage from the soft sword cut was already significant.

The Master flicked the blood-stained soft sword to the floor, watching Ju-seong’s blood droplets smoke, sizzle, and boil.

“I see you handle extreme yang energy… My internal energy leans heavily toward earth nature, so it’s also unfavorable to you by elemental match. Why not accept death, and I’ll send you off painlessly… ”

Ju-seong smirked even while bleeding from internal injuries caused by the slash.

“You’re talking about the Five Elements in a fight. What you’re spouting sounds just like some quack fortune-teller. Hearing that makes me think I might be able to win after all.”

The Master shook his head as if giving up on communication, then simultaneously released another palm force and illusory sword.

Ju-seong, having retracted his Heavenly Silkworm Silk, devoted both hands entirely to blocking the projected force the Master was sending out.

-THWACK! BOOM! CRUNCH…!

Sword shadows filled the cavern like willow leaves, with straightforward palm techniques flying heavily between them.

Ju-seong desperately countered with hand gestures, foot movements, and even Carp Strikes the Boat, while sensing a strange beauty.

Pervasive willow leaves curved through the air while arrows of straight trajectories flew between them…

But that beauty was soon losing its balance.

“…Come closer and fight!”

Ju-seong stubbornly blocked and deflected the sword shadows and palm forces, pushing forward relentlessly.

Trading only energy projections at range like this was no different from a contest of internal power.

In the end, Ju-seong, who had trained for a shorter time, was bound to be disadvantaged.

He needed to get into close combat to find opportunities to seize the upper hand by striking at openings.

The Master knew this too. To deny Ju-seong any chances, he operated his internal energy even more fiercely.

“Ugh!”

Ju-seong grimaced as if fed up.

He used a Fluttering Red Lotus Palm technique to blanket the front while bouncing backward.

Crimson and yellow streaks filled the cavern walls.

“Giving up on closing in?”

When the Master sneered slightly, Ju-seong spoke from where he was embedded in the wall, looking straight at the Master.

“You okay?”

“…What?”

The Master furrowed his brow as if he hadn’t heard correctly, then felt blood suddenly surge up his throat.

“What the…”

He hastily circulated internal energy to examine his body. Before he knew it, various points of his meridians had become slightly twisted.

Blood vessels and organs along the meridian pathways had swelled up on their own.

“…Poison.”

“Correct.”

Ju-seong nodded and stood up, brushing off stone dust.

“My blood is itself poison. From now on, you’ll have to be careful when touching my body. Cut me in the wrong place and you’re really going to… You know?”

Ju-seong bluffed casually.

His entire blood wasn’t actually poisonous.

When he was cut by the soft sword earlier, Ju-seong had deliberately drawn out the Heavenly Silkworm Moth’s poison from his dantian and circulated it to his forearm.

The Fire energy of the Flame Crow Six-Stage Art and the Wood energy of the Heavenly Silkworm poison had met and created a mutual generation reaction, which was why the blood had sizzled and boiled.

And the Master had inhaled that smoke.

Thoughts raced rapidly through the Master’s sharp mind.

Did he deliberately push forward and distract me? Then was bouncing back while pretending he couldn’t manage also an act? How much internal energy does he have left? Does he have any more tricks? He seems to use Heavenly Silkworm Silk. He seems fairly proficient in hidden weapon techniques too. Could there be hidden equipment?

Ju-seong, meanwhile, didn’t seem to have many thoughts. Even though he was the one who had already won one round in the mental game.

He asked like a hospitable cook.

“So… How does it taste?”

“Not enough to affect the outcome.”

“How much internal energy do you have?”

Ju-seong felt slightly flustered that the Master stayed relatively fine after drinking the Heavenly Silkworm poison.

It was foolish to factor the Five Elements into a fight, but…

‘Wood overcomes Earth, doesn’t it?’

Wood energy suppresses Earth energy. Since the Master’s cultivation seemed to handle Earth energy, Ju-seong had thought it would certainly be suppressed.

He decided to observe the progress a bit more while speaking. Ju-seong wanted the poison to spread, and the Master wanted time to manage the poison.

So their interests happened to align.

“What is this place for? Why are the people… It’s disgusting to even say aloud.”

Ju-seong asked, managing his expression to appear composed. He didn’t want to show emotional agitation.

The Master surveyed Ju-seong’s expression with one eye, and the cavern in disarray with the other.

“…Certainly, from an ordinary person’s perspective, it’s just horrifying. But if you’re truly extraordinary, wouldn’t you be curious what great thing could be achieved by sacrificing all those worthless lives? Aren’t you curious?”

Ju-seong struggled to marshal his thoughts and exhaled deeply. Whether it was his anger taking physical form or the Flame Crow Six-Stage Art healing his internal wounds…

White steam billowed long from Ju-seong’s mouth. He asked in a deflated voice.

“Can’t you just… Please just live like everyone else? Is that so hard? You can live without stealing other people’s lives, property, sons and daughters, wives and husbands.”

The Master tilted his head as if genuinely unable to understand Ju-seong.

“Look. It’s pointless to talk to me… I’m merely a tool in this grand plan. The one who truly intends to gain supreme power and ascend to the heavens is someone else. That person is indeed worthy of it…”

Ju-seong noticed the Master’s emotions rarely rising and thought this was his chance to ask.

“And who is that?”

“The foremost among the Four Venerables of the Cradle of the Demonic Path.”

“How am I supposed to know who that is from that?”

At Ju-seong’s complaint, the Master smiled quietly and said.

“The one called Hundun Venerable.”