Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 84 - That's a Big Catch

Chapter 84 – That’s a Big Catch

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Heuk-wol thought she resembled the waning moon.

She was never waxing with white joy, only being eaten away inch by inch by pitch-black darkness until finally fading into nothing. That was the only end that awaited her.

Along the way, if she could repay her debt to the Holy Mother who had taken her in and exact revenge on Qingcheng and Emei, that would be enough.

She drove herself to her limits, training relentlessly, yet there were still nights when her heart softened. This was because the soft, warm period in her life had been long.

Whenever that happened, she would look at her face reflected in the mirror and the scar across it. Looking down at her hands, the ugly marks of fingers all broken and reset.

-The sword of Emei is reclaimed in the name of Emei!

With a thud, a heavy stone club came down.

Her hands were completely shattered, and Heuk-wol wailed like a child.

And before her, someone was clutching the hem of another’s robes and pleading.

-Sect Leader, no… Master… I will personally strip this child’s dantian myself…! Please do not inflict so much pain on this child all at once.

Those were the words of her master, Hye-jeong, who by now would have become a first-generation disciple.

Heuk-wol’s grandmaster and Emei Sect’s sect leader, Master Jeong-hwa, looked down at Heuk-wol with stern, fierce eyes.

She opened her mouth to say something, but the words wouldn’t register clearly.

That night, Hye-jeong came with tears and snot running down her face, hurriedly bundling up belongings and pressing them into Heuk-wol’s arms.

Hye-jeong had already protected her many times.

-Seon-ha, my disciple. Go! Hurry…! I couldn’t protect your hands, but at least I saved your dantian. I had wanted to give you the Buddhist name Ok-jin…

Heuk-wol’s old name was Seon-ha.

There was no time even for a master-disciple embrace. Hye-jeong pushed her away, and Heuk-wol raced down Emei Mountain under the dark moon.

* * *

Why on earth had Ju-seong suddenly appeared to help her?

The man who had gotten her thoroughly drunk last night and put her to bed.

Talking with him, she had felt her pent-up resentment slowly unraveling. So she had drunk a lot.

When she woke up, she was in her room with her shoes removed.

The child had said the man told her to take off the shoes because sleeping in them makes your feet swell.

Anyway, she had slept too long and gotten caught by the Ten Thousand Ears Gang. She had probably slept deeper because her feet were comfortable.

Otherwise, she would have changed inns or been heading down the Yangtze.

Of course, if she was in such poor condition that a few drinks knocked her out cold, she probably would have been caught soon anyway.

She was in trouble because of that strange man, but now she was also being saved from danger thanks to him.

Of course, seeing the face of the woman standing behind him made her blood run cold.

‘Ok-wol…’

Her martial sister.

Though she had sworn bloody revenge on all of Emei Sect, seeing an old face made her heart waver.

‘No. I have to fight now.’

Heuk-wol steeled herself.

Ju-seong realized for the first time that so many different emotions could flash through a pair of eyes in such a short time.

Because he had seen Heuk-wol’s eyes beneath the broad-brimmed hat waver several times over.

‘I’m about to get beaten up, so why is she suddenly getting sentimental?’

Ju-seong was slightly flustered, but she seemed capable of handling herself, so he decided not to worry about it.

Cheong-jin had already drawn his sword and assumed a basic stance, stepping forward.

“I’ll take that one. The rest of you handle the others.”

It seemed Cheong-jin intended to face the Night Guest. Ju-seong was grateful. The Night Guest appeared to be at a similar level to the Vajra Pavilion Master.

As a martial artist, one should throw oneself against stronger opponents to grow, but in this situation, where they had come to rescue a ten-year-old boy, he didn’t want to engage in such “jianghu behavior.”

Ju-seong carefully assessed the Assassination Curtain’s special-class and first-class assassins.

He slowly opened his mouth.

“Now… Looking at them, I can’t tell. Who here is a special-class assassin? Raise your hands.”

Of course, no one raised their hand.

Ju-seong curled his lips and said.

“Bunch of boring bastards, really…”

Heuk-wol came to stand beside Ju-seong.

“I don’t know why you’re helping me, but for now, I’ll consider you on my side.”

“Mm.”

“I’ll provide cover with the chain sickles while you go in and fight.”

“Works for me.”

Having quickly reached an agreement, Ju-seong drew the iron claws from both gauntlets and charged forward.

-Swish…!

Behind him, four chain sickles shot out to provide cover.

He intended to rush in as fiercely as possible so all the special-class assassins would focus on them. As he figured, the special-class assassins were peak-level or comparable forces.

He had to draw their attention and make them focus on him and Heuk-wol.

Only then could the two Emei women hold their own by combining their strength.

The first one he encountered was an assassin wielding a curved saber. Unlike a typical assassin, he didn’t give off a particularly sinister vibe.

Instead, his explosive speed in swinging his weapon was extraordinary.

-Scha-ack!

Fearlessly, Ju-seong thrust his hands forward to catch the curved saber. If he infused his gauntlets made of Heavenly Silkworm Silk with internal energy, there was little he couldn’t block.

But in the end, only the gauntlets remained intact while their wearer was sent flying backward.

“Ouch!”

Ju-seong yelped as he tumbled onto his back. The instantaneous force transmitted to his wrist and arm was truly powerful.

But the swordsman who had swung the curved saber wasn’t unscathed either.

“Damn…”

At some point, a long needle had embedded itself in his shoulder. While pretending to fall pathetically, Ju-seong had planted a hidden weapon.

He hadn’t had time to apply poison since he’d suppressed the throw’s force, but it was enough to hinder movement.

Then Heuk-wol’s chain sickle flew in.

-Swoosh! Thunk!

In an instant, the paralyzed saber master’s left shoulder tendon was severed, leaving the arm completely limp.

“Damn it! Plain Swordsman!”

The saber-wielding man called for help.

A swordsman who had been watching from behind intervened with rather weighty swordplay.

‘Plain Swordsman…’ It was a bizarre sobriquet, probably a code name they used among themselves. He disguised himself as a common vagrant swordsman wandering the jianghu, but in reality, he was a master of deadly swordsmanship.

The sword technique he used was the Heavy Sword style, commonly employed by orthodox sects.

But the evil path’s interpretation of the Heavy Sword was different.

Where the orthodox version contained the subtlety of subduing opponents, the evil path version was filled with sadistic desire to crush bones and organs.

Ju-seong moved his hands as if wielding a brush on a canvas. The second move of the latter half of the Three Yang Fist, the Red Lotus Palm, unfolded.

The Red Lotus Palm originally contained the principle of “grafting a flower onto another tree”—difficult to draw out power from without reaching peak level.

-Crackle…

The burning red flames on Ju-seong’s hands began tracing an elegant arc.

The heavy sword strike crashing down from above. He had to choose: dodge or block.

Dodging meant losing momentum and getting swept up in the Heavy Sword’s technique chains. Blocking meant accumulated damage to his body that would eventually lead to internal injuries.

A lose-lose choice…

‘I’ll redirect it.’

Ju-seong had no intention of dodging. His pupils dilated.

A sword weighted with internal energy using a principle similar to the Thousand-Pound Weight.

His hand gently cushioned the sword blade.

Internal energy from the Flame Crow Six Stage Art surged fiercely in his hand and forearm. The heat created some kind of repelling force around Ju-seong’s arm.

…The sword began to slowly push away.

-Hwoom, crash!

The sword couldn’t cut an inch of Ju-seong’s arm. The strike twisted and struck the floor instead.

Once the Heavy Sword technique lost its momentum, it was hard to regain the flow.

Ju-seong continued the Red Lotus Palm technique as the Plain Swordsman was withdrawing his sword.

-…Pff-uck!

With a sound like a drum tearing, the swordsman’s front lapel burst open and sparks scattered.

A dry groan escaped the Plain Swordsman’s throat.

“Guh…!”

The Red Lotus Palm lived up to its name, as a large lotus-shaped burn had appeared on the Plain Swordsman’s chest.

But as expected of a peak-level master, he refused to give up even with such a gruesome wound.

The Plain Swordsman dropped his sword and thrust out both palms, releasing quite fierce energy.

‘His palm technique is heavy too.’

At point-blank range, Ju-seong fired off palm techniques wildly, neutralizing the heavy palm force.

Though it was a fight between peak masters, the outcome was decided in a single exchange.

The Plain Swordsman lay sprawled, his skin charred and torn like rags.

“Hmm…”

Ju-seong slowly assessed the battlefield.

Everyone was deadlocked.

‘I’ll set up a small arrangement for later…’

Ju-seong quickly finished the work needed for what was to come, then decided to join Heuk-wol’s fight against the curved saber assassin.

Meanwhile, the remaining four first-class assassins were pressing the two Emei women, but…

“Damn it, why do these wenches keep holding on!”

Just two of them, one of whom was only second-rate… yet they were difficult to bring down.

The assassins held the advantage, but…

-Clang! Ching!

“Break through already!”

“You think it’s that easy?! Why don’t you push through with that axe of yours…”

The two women’s coordination matched each other like one person, their attack and defense allocation near perfect.

Training under the same sect, learning the same cultivation methods and martial arts, living together and sparring, practicing sword formations to synchronize.

The strength of famous major sects wasn’t just in their renowned cultivation methods, but in their united sense of belonging and martial artists who had matched their breathing for decades. When just two peers from the same sect joined forces, their strength multiplied not twice, but four or five times over.

The curved saber special-class assassin realized he couldn’t expect anything from the first-class assassins.

For now, subduing Heuk-wol before him was the priority.

-Clang-clang-clang…!

He was skillfully deflecting all four chain sickles with just one hand.

The witch of Guizhou who originally wielded this weapon could masterfully control not just the sickle blades but the chain portions as well.

This woman wasn’t yet at that level.

‘She originally trained in Emei’s swordsmanship before switching. Her martial arts haven’t matured. I’ll end this fast. With the Pavilion Master dead and the Night Guest showing up, something’s off. If I wrap this up well, the money will be…’

His eyes glowed red as he swiftly swung the curved saber twice, sending out a cross-shaped blade energy.

To the enemy, it would look like two streams of blade energy attacking simultaneously, but…

-Clang… Clang!

“Ugh!”

There was a subtle gap between them… a technique that caught the opponent off guard by deceiving their timing.

Heuk-wol fell for the trick and took a long cut to her left upper arm.

With two of the four chain sickles she controlled with her left hand now disabled…

Sensing his chance, the saber master smiled triumphantly and swung his blade.

Blood-red blade energy rampaged forward, then split into five streams as if unable to contain its own force.

-Crackling!

It was instability from impure internal energy, yet he had transformed that weakness into a unique finishing move.

Alarm flashed across Heuk-wol’s face.

She had planned to deflect the blade energy with her right hand, but now five streams were flying at her.

With her left arm disabled, she couldn’t move fast enough to block multiple times.

That’s when Ju-seong awkwardly wedged himself between Heuk-wol and the rampaging blade energy.

“Nice to meet you.”

It was a split second.

The five streams of blade energy reached right in front of Ju-seong and swelled in size, making him look vulnerable.

But.

“Exactly five streams. Perfect.”

As Ju-seong gathered all the internal energy in his body and crammed it into his right hand, the formerly black Heavenly Silkworm Silk gauntlet glowed red-hot.

-Ssshaaat!

A chilling sound shredded the air, and five streams of crimson claw energy collided with the saber master’s blade energy.

-Boom!

“Goddamn it…!”

The saber master cursed and swung his curved saber horizontally, but having overextended with his ultimate technique, a proper form couldn’t emerge.

Ju-seong burst through the cloud of dust raised by the energy clash.

What he had launched didn’t seem like much of a finishing move, given how perfectly fine he looked.

Ju-seong’s form charged forward, trailing the dust cloud like a tail.

-Swish!

Below him, blade energy grazed past. It flew into the dust, vanishing fruitlessly.

Ju-seong’s left palm touched the assassin’s forehead.

He muttered quietly.

“How well do you handle motion sickness?”

-Thud…!

Palm force emitted through direct contact to the forehead rattled the saber master’s brain.

The saber master collapsed, foaming at the mouth, but unlike the Plain Swordsman, he was still alive.

The Plain Swordsman had died long ago with a red-and-black lotus blooming on his chest.

When holding an overwhelming advantage, there was no need to kill needlessly… keep them alive for now. That was Ju-seong’s principle.

Next, Ju-seong and Heuk-wol exchanged glances, then rushed the first-class assassins fighting the two Emei women to mop up the situation.

Watching this, Cheong-jin twisted his lips slightly and said.

“Hmm, it seems the Martial Aunt misjudged. Young Hero Ju-seong’s martial arts are far more exceptional than expected.”

“…”

Before him, the Night Guest tossed aside his chipped sickles and spoke.

“Well… I’ll just kill the kid and go.”

Immediately, the Night Guest’s form shot straight upward.

Cheong-jin also widened his eyes and tried to follow, but his instantaneous burst speed couldn’t match the Night Guest’s.

However, the Night Guest, rocketing upward at tremendous speed, spotted something glinting and immediately braked mid-air.

He dropped back down, furrowing his brow.

‘…Fishing line?’

From below, Ju-seong had been watching him.

When he yanked his left arm back sharply…

-Clatter…!

From all directions, threads too thin to see began rapidly constricting.

Watching the scene, Ju-seong smiled crookedly.

“That’s a big catch.”

The fish that had leaped was now caught in the net.