Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 86 - Master of Shadows

Chapter 86 – Master of Shadows

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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At Cheongpung Pavilion, with the Pavilion Master and Assassination Curtain assassins gone, the remaining martial artists were nothing special.

Being merely lower-tier members of the Ten Thousand Ears Gang, they didn’t possess remarkable martial prowess.

Looking at it now, the Ten Thousand Ears Gang seemed to rely heavily on the Assassination Curtain for much of its martial force.

Perhaps the two served a single higher power.

‘One handles martial force, the other handles information.’

There were no horrific traces of human sacrifice here like at Vajra Pavilion. Probably that sort of thing was only carried out at each province’s general headquarters.

“But surely there’s something here… Right? Hm?”

Ju-seong said, draping his arm over the shoulders of the trembling steward beside him.

The second floor of Cheongpung Pavilion… the large dining hall had been completely emptied, and only Ju-seong and his party enjoyed the scenic view of the Yangtze while dining.

Cheongpung Pavilion’s martial artists lay scattered around their table.

Cheong-jin, seated at the same table, cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Ahem, that, Young Hero. Please don’t torment ordinary people who don’t know martial arts.”

“This man? He knows martial arts. My, look at him shaking. That won’t work on me, you bastard.”

At Ju-seong’s jeer, the steward’s gaze changed abruptly, and he tried to shove the table aside and flee.

-Crash!

Wine and food spilled everywhere, soaking the front and thighs of the seated party.

-Thwack!

Ju-seong grabbed the steward by the scruff and yanked him back.

“This bastard wasn’t taught table manners. What kind of behavior is this when people are eating? At a nice place? Want to die?”

He had simultaneously infused internal energy into the steward’s collar so the man couldn’t tear it and escape.

“Guh, ghk… Sorry…”

“You bastard… This won’t do. Safety first.”

Ju-seong rummaged in his robes, pulled out an unappetizing-looking pill, and pushed it toward the man’s mouth with a sweet tone.

“Open wide for me, steward. Say ‘ah’…”

The steward clamped his mouth shut.

Ju-seong lightly tapped the man’s Adam’s apple, then flicked upward at his lower jaw.

-Tap, smack!

Once the steward’s mouth was propped open, Ju-seong languidly shoved the pill down his throat.

“It’s a Qi-Dispelling Poison. That’s what you get for trying to flip the table when people are eating…”

Ju-seong patted the back of the now-powerless steward and asked again.

“Steward. Forget the Pavilion Master’s secret slush fund and all that. We already know everything.”

“Th-that…”

The steward trembled all over, feeling his internal energy completely drained. Unlike before, this time the shaking was real.

Actually, maybe it wasn’t the loss of internal energy making him tremble but the man in front of him.

From this half-mad-looking man leaked beastly ferocity.

“…I’ll show you the hidden vault.”

The steward closed his eyes and said. Information leaks were dealt with extremely harshly within the Ten Thousand Ears Gang.

The higher one’s clearance, the greater the responsibility.

‘I’m dead either way. Damn it…’

If he leaked this, the Gang might hunt him down, but if he didn’t talk now, he’d definitely die.

Ju-seong listened with satisfaction to the steward’s confession of secrets.

“Good… Let’s have a look at this vault.”

Surprisingly, the hidden vault was inside the ceiling of the top floor of Cheongpung Pavilion. When the steward operated a mechanism, a ceiling board dropped and transformed into a rope ladder.

Inside the vault were a small wooden box and a single ledger.

Opening the ledger, he found names of Sichuan Province’s magnates and power brokers.

Among them, the name of Emei Sect Leader Master Jeong-hwa was marked with a red dot.

“What is this? A death list?”

When Ju-seong asked, the steward repeatedly bowed his head.

“Yes, sir! I know nothing beyond this! Only the Pavilion Master would know…”

“Too bad… The Pavilion Master’s already dead. Anyway, why is there a jinxed red dot next to the Emei sect leader’s name?”

Ju-seong grumbled and opened the wooden box. Instantly, a deep medicinal fragrance filled the former Pavilion Master’s office.

“Mm, hmm… Quite the medicinal fragrance.”

Yang So-so sniffed curiously. Cheong-jin also nodded in agreement.

“It seems to be no ordinary elixir.”

While all the martial artists wore satisfied expressions savoring the fragrance, only Ju-seong’s face was grim.

Ju-seong grimaced and tossed the wooden box onto the desk, then grabbed the steward by the collar.

“Steward… Look me in the eye. You really don’t know what this is? You’re not involved?”

“Y-yes…! The steward is just the lowest lackey of the Ten Thousand Ears Gang!”

Ju-seong shoved the steward aside and poured the pills from the box onto the desk.

-Clatter-rattle.

Blood-red pills. Ju-seong pointed at them and said.

“Your noses aren’t keen enough to pick up anything but the lush medicinal fragrance… But I can smell the horrible blood scent hidden within. Many lives were consumed to make each one of these pills.”

“What!”

Ok-wol, who had been quiet, gasped in shock. Ju-seong looked at her curiously and asked.

“Martial Senior Ok-wol, what’s the matter?”

“That pill… Something about it felt familiar, and I was wondering when I’d seen it. The blood-red appearance is definitely that thing.”

“What thing?”

Ok-wol looked around uneasily. Her gaze lingered on Cheong-jin for a moment before she drew a deep breath and spoke.

“The elixir the Sect Leader took… It’s the same thing.”

“Hmm…”

Ju-seong’s mind raced. His innate killing intent stimulated his upper dantian, enhancing his comprehension and enabling rapid thought.

The name of Emei’s sect leader in the secret ledger was marked with a red dot.

The item Hye-jeong, the first-generation disciple, had presented to the sect leader was in fact something processed from commoners’ life essence by the Ten Thousand Ears Gang.

The red dot in the ledger must indicate that the item had been successfully delivered to the Emei sect leader.

Once the sect leader recovered, Qingcheng Sect, having lost the Heavenly Bone Fruit Wine, pointed to Emei as the culprit and the conflict began.

The Ten Thousand Ears Gang hired Heuk-wol to kidnap Mok Yeo-woon, which deepened the two sects’ conflict.

From here, two outcomes emerged.

Either Emei wins, or Qingcheng wins.

If Emei wins, these bastards would inform Emei what the sect leader had consumed.

Internal strife would erupt within Emei, and the sect leader’s authority would crumble.

If Qingcheng wins?

They would leak the rumor that the Heavenly Bone Fruit Wine was with Ju-seong and the Divine Physician, proving Emei’s innocence.

If it became clear that the conflict started from Qingcheng’s misunderstanding, Qingcheng’s reputation in Sichuan would plummet.

On top of that, they could use Qingcheng’s hands to eliminate the Divine Physician as well… killing two birds with one stone. As for why they wanted to eliminate the Divine Physician, the picture wasn’t entirely clear yet.

In other words, the strategy was to pit the two sects against each other, then deliver one more blow to the winner, ultimately weakening both.

As a result, the two sects that firmly maintained order in Sichuan would suffer massive losses in combat power and influence.

In the process, eliminating the Divine Physician was also possible. No… given that Qingcheng held a slight edge in absolute martial force, they had probably bet on Qingcheng’s victory.

Anyway, this was no ordinary elaborate scheme.

Only now, after gathering fragment after fragment of clues, could Ju-seong finally grasp the big picture.

From the cause of the incident to the deepening of the conflict.

The narrative was smooth and flowed like a well-made play.

They were people who wielded information as a weapon to manipulate reality as if it were an opera.

‘What the hell are they trying to gain with this?’

Ju-seong’s thinking accelerated further. The Flame Crow Six Stage Art began circulating on its own, and his upper dantian felt aflame.

‘Vajra Pavilion.’

Ju-seong recalled the battle in the underground cavern beneath Vajra Pavilion.

He hadn’t been able to properly chew over what the Pavilion Master had said during the fight, getting swept up in the Min River immediately after the explosives blew.

Recalling the man’s words now…

‘The Cradle of the Demonic Path.’

The Pavilion Master had probably set up the explosives with the intention of dying alongside Ju-seong if things went south, then descended into the cavern.

Realizing time was running out while fighting Ju-seong, the Master divulged the organization’s secrets to an opponent he thought would die with him.

People are prone to losing rationality as the end nears.

Of course, even then, the leaked information wasn’t significant, but Ju-seong did obtain a clue about whoever was running the Ten Thousand Ears Gang from the very top.

‘One of the Four Venerables of the Cradle of the Demonic Path… Hundun.’

He had heard the term “Cradle of the Demonic Path” before. From the raving of the lecherous scum he had killed in Yunnan, delirious and rambling.

-To Xinjiang, to the Cradle of the Demonic Path…

Suppose this organization called the Cradle of the Demonic Path actually existed.

If so, they were very likely the superpower above the Assassination Curtain and the Ten Thousand Ears Gang.

Expecting great credibility from the ravings of a lecherous madman was hard, but if those bastards’ base really was in Xinjiang?

A plausible hypothesis.

Xinjiang was a no-man’s-land where the imperial court had no reach, a place where all manner of ethnicities mingled and lived.

It wouldn’t be surprising if some den of evil lurked in that vast land.

If so, why did they want to weaken Sichuan’s martial world?

‘Advancing into the Central Plains…’

Ju-seong’s expression hardened as he muttered inwardly.

Ju-seong was still nothing more than a small catfish in the jianghu. It was laughable for someone like him to speculate about hidden powers scheming against the Central Plains martial world…

‘I need to keep this in mind and investigate.’

Now that he knew what the Ten Thousand Ears Gang was doing, he had to start swimming in bigger waters.

‘…Then I can wipe out all these damned bastards.’

While Ju-seong was busy thinking, Heuk-wol’s eyes glinted dangerously. Her gaze was fixed on the blood-red pills.

‘So that thing… the Sect Leader took it. And from what I hear, it was made in a horrific way.’

Ok-wol approached her and spoke cautiously.

“Senior Sister… What on earth have you been doing all this time?”

Jolted back to her senses by Ok-wol’s words, Heuk-wol ignored her former martial sister and turned to Cheong-jin instead.

“I’ll be frank. I’m originally a second-generation disciple of Emei Sect, and I bear a grudge against both Qingcheng and Emei. I won’t explain the long story. But there’s one thing you need to know.”

Heuk-wol raised a finger and continued.

“I am the third adopted daughter of the Crimson Spider Sect Master. If you harm me, the Blood Flower Crone’s fury will turn toward Qingcheng. If you think you can fend off an attack from the Crimson Spider Sect while facing Emei Sect, go ahead and try.”

Cheong-jin’s expression sank deeply.

‘…The Blood Flower Crone’s affection for her family is legendary.’

The Crimson Spider Sect was the sect of the red spider.

About two decades ago, it was the name of the sect that toppled the cheaply named Heroes’ Society of Guizhou and seized control of Guizhou Province.

The Twelve Sects of the Evil Path were the strongest dozen powers of the unorthodox world.

Among them, the four strongest of Zhejiang were considered formidable, but the Crimson Spider Sect, having swallowed Guizhou Province alone, ranked above them.

In terms of elite martial force, evaluations placed it at the very top of the evil path.

Especially the Crimson Spider Sect Master, the Blood Flower Crone, was a peerless martial artist who still held an undisputed seat among the Ten Supreme Masters of the World even at nearly seventy years old.

Cheong-jin fingered his sword hilt and glared at Heuk-wol across the table.

Mok Yeo-woon was calmly eating in between them.

Cheong-jin stared at Heuk-wol for a long while, then sighed and removed his hand from his sword.

Mok Yeo-woon also let out a relieved sigh, subtly relaxing his body.

Observing this, Ju-seong spoke up.

“Now I’m certain I wasn’t seeing things. Kid, you’ve got quite the attachment to Heuk-wol. It hasn’t even been a month since you were kidnapped and traveled with her… There must be a story. What is it?”

To his question, Mok Yeo-woon awkwardly turned his head away, feigning ignorance.

Ju-seong looked back and forth between Heuk-wol and Mok Yeo-woon and continued.

“Heuk-wol, a child as clever as that wouldn’t have been completely won over by his kidnapper… What’s the story here? This is giving me a headache. Why are there so many people with baggage at this table?”

Heuk-wol replied quietly while nursing her wine bottle.

“The esteemed lay clans of the great Qingcheng Sect have a tendency to treat young children rather harshly.”

At the snide remark about his sect, Cheong-jin raised an eyebrow. Heuk-wol continued regardless.

“That child is indeed brilliant, but he isn’t a once-in-a-generation genius in martial arts as the rumors say. The Mok Family Manor, a Qingcheng lay clan, was working him day and night without rest.”

Cheong-jin hesitated a moment before countering.

“…Hard training is a characteristic of the famous sects, isn’t it?”

“Every time he made a mistake in a form, he was beaten until he bruised. And under the pretense that his vital essence must be kept pure, this young child was made to fast and eat nothing but fasting pills. If he didn’t memorize something after hearing it once, they hit his ears because his ears were the problem. If he talked back, they hit his mouth because his mouth was the problem.”

“…”

Cheong-jin fell silent, and Ju-seong rose from the table without a word and went to lean on the railing, gazing at the distant mountains.

There was nothing more off-putting than letting killing intent leak at the dinner table.

“At Qingcheng, they hold the Qingyun Assembly every five years to gather young talents from the lay clans. This is how the once-in-a-thousand-years prodigy, the Young Master of Qingyun, Mok Yeo-woon, was born.”

Heuk-wol continued.

“When I arrived, one of the Mok Family Manor’s martial artists was pouring cold water on the sleeping child at dawn because he was late getting up. Children need their morning sleep, you know.”

Ju-seong turned back and asked.

“So, are you letting him sleep properly these days?”

Heuk-wol nodded.

“I let him sleep a full four and a half hours every night.”

“Well done.”

Heuk-wol had been letting him sleep properly even while fleeing with the kidnapped child. She must have carried the sleeping child on her back many times.

A child lives each day as if it were three. It made sense that he had quickly grown attached to Heuk-wol.

Heuk-wol looked back at Cheong-jin and continued.

“When I saw that guy’s face, I realized I knew him… Still vicious, still lacking in skill. To think a former disciple of Qingcheng’s main mountain had been demoted to a lay clan… Ah, you know who we’re talking about, don’t you? The dead guy.”

Cheong-jin furrowed his brow slightly, then his eyes widened. Something clicked in his mind.

He recalled the incident from ten years ago that Qingcheng had tried to bury.

“So you’re the one who…”

“That’s right.”

Cheong-jin squeezed his eyes shut, then, as if making a lame excuse, forced out his voice and asked.

“…If you joined the Crimson Spider Sect Master’s ranks, you could be living large in Guizhou. Why did you walk into such danger with your own feet?”

Heuk-wol chuckled.

Then she lifted her broad-brimmed hat slightly to reveal her blazing eyes and swept her gaze over everyone present.

“Does a shadow ever lose its master?”

The shadow of Qingcheng and Emei had returned to Sichuan for revenge.