Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 88 - Black Water

Chapter 88 – Black Water

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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On a warm afternoon on the ship’s deck, Ju-seong and the two Emei women had boarded a merchant vessel heading upstream on the Yangtze toward Chengdu.

The two women, Ok-wol especially, were silent and gloomy because of what had happened in Chongqing.

However, Ju-seong didn’t feel the need to tend to her mood.

From the start, he was too busy sitting contentedly in a corner of the deck, reading a small booklet.

It was a harvest from this affair, the manufacturing method for Soul-Severing Sand which he had found in the dead Night Guest’s possession.

Soul-Severing Sand.

It meant sand that severs the soul.

True to its name, it was the artifact that had corroded and snapped Ju-seong’s Heavenly Silkworm Silk and even dispersed the combined palm forces of three peak masters.

Why had the idiot been carrying the formula on his person?

The answer was simple.

First, because he didn’t trust his comrades.

There were likely many in the Assassination Curtain who could move stealthily, and the Night Guests even more so.

There was a chance someone could slip into his lodgings undetected and steal the hidden formula.

Keeping it on his person probably felt safer.

“Stingy bastard… What’s wrong with sharing among fellow sect members.”

Ju-seong sneered and turned the page.

“Let’s see… Collect only the fine rootlets and simmer… Exactly one jin and five fen… Wow, this is really demanding.”

The second reason was above all that the manufacturing method was exceedingly difficult.

Martial artists tend to have better memory and cognitive speed than ordinary people.

Of course, it’s not that their innate intelligence changes. If it did, all the court’s ministers and officials would be martial artists.

But even for a martial artist’s memory, this formula seemed hard to fully memorize.

Though for Ju-seong, who had trained in poison and pharmacy, it wouldn’t be impossible…

“Still, this… is very helpful.”

Ju-seong licked his upper lip and muttered.

Ju-seong’s understanding of poison was not at a remarkable level. What he had learned was pharmacy and medicine; poison was a side branch.

To those without grounding in poison arts, this booklet would be merely the formula for Soul-Severing Sand, a deadly poisoned sand.

But for Ju-seong, it was more than that.

The processes of mixing, distilling, classifying, and extracting poisons… each step was an extremely advanced technique.

Reading this booklet, Ju-seong felt his expertise and insight in poison rising endlessly.

“Does fortune only come from finding a secret manual in some cave on a cliff? This is fortune.”

Ju-seong murmured idly, leaning back against the ship’s rail.

Since they had the generous travel funds of the Emei disciples, they received VIP treatment on the merchant vessel… no need to mind anyone.

As Ju-seong looked at the water beyond the rail, he blinked.

“Hm? Is there some thousand-year-old carp down there? Then again, where else but the Yangtze would spirit creatures live.”

Something unusually large was swimming in the water.

Though bizarrely huge, the way it swam was unmistakably a fish, so he hadn’t paid much attention.

Ju-seong tilted his head curiously and, for fun, grabbed a handful of dried grain and scattered it. The creature dove deeper, hiding beneath the surface.

“What a suspicious creature.”

Ju-seong muttered and quickly forgot about the large fish.

* * *

It was about three days after boarding the ship that Ju-seong heard about Heuk-wol’s past from Ok-wol.

As Ju-seong quietly gazed at the water beneath the crescent moon hanging slanted like a fingernail…

Splash… something dropped over the ship’s rail.

“Martial Senior, what are you doing there?”

Ok-wol was looking at Ju-seong from the opposite rail. She walked softly across the deck and spoke.

“There’s something I want to tell you, Young Hero.”

“Hm? What is it…?”

When Ju-seong examined Ok-wol’s face, her eyes were all puffy and swollen.

“Martial Senior, have you been crying?”

“…I want to tell you about my Senior Sister. It might be useful information for you as well.”

The senior sister she spoke of must be Heuk-wol.

Telling Ju-seong about Heuk-wol’s history was not strictly necessary.

Ok-wol was opening up now because she wanted to confide in someone.

In other words, this was meant to help Heuk-wol, not Ju-seong.

“Seeing you cry, it must be a sad story.”

To Ju-seong’s question, Ok-wol hesitated before answering.

“I pity Senior Sister… And that she changed her name to Heuk-wol, too.”

“It is a gloomy name.”

“Looking at the moon tonight reminded me.”

“Let’s hear it.”

Heuk-wol had been an orphan of Chengdu’s back alleys.

Hye-jeong, the chief disciple, discovered her, recognized her excellent physique, and brought her up Emei Mountain.

Heuk-wol’s childhood friends from her orphan days were left behind in those alleys, but…

“Senior Sister asked her master, Martial Auntie Hye-jeong, to send a fixed sum as alms every month so they could survive and grow without starving.”

“When circumstances improve, most people abandon their old friends from hard times. She has fine character.”

Ok-wol nodded.

“Senior Sister cared deeply for those children. She always felt guilty for being the only one chosen to enter Emei Sect.”

Raised with Heuk-wol’s support, those children pooled together and opened an inn.

“It was an inn on the outskirts of Chengdu’s bustling district… The business was good enough that they no longer needed support.”

They knew the ways of the streets and had made connections with beggar sect members since childhood.

So the inn quickly grew and thrived.

“So Senior Sister finally thought she could put her mind at ease.”

“This is usually when problems arise.”

Ok-wol nodded.

“The problem was that an inn managed by a Qingcheng lay clan clashed with theirs over commercial territory. The competing inn was protected by the local martial hall, which threw its weight around. On the other hand, Senior Sister’s friends’ inn was not an easy target, thanks to its cheap prices and the help of beggars.”

Ju-seong nodded, rubbing his chin.

“Beggars have a surprising amount of influence in the streets.”

In those neighborhoods, they already had half the game won. If they moved with purpose, even a local martial hall couldn’t easily touch them.

He thought of Red Beggar. If that fellow truly unified the beggars of the Central Plains as he said, the power would be formidable.

“The Mok Family Manor, a Qingcheng lay clan, acted like thugs to protect the inn under their influence.”

“The Mok Family Manor… that’s the kid’s family, isn’t it? What a bunch of degenerates from way back.”

Ok-wol nodded and continued.

“The conflict grew, and eventually the local beggars’ branch head seriously injured one of the martial hall’s disciples.”

Ju-seong sighed softly.

“So that’s why there are no beggars in Chengdu.”

Ok-wol nodded and went on.

“The beggars’ branch head wounded a Qingcheng lay disciple while protecting the inn, and so disciples from the main mountain came down to mediate. That was the start of the disaster.”

“Hmm…”

Two second-generation and five third-generation disciples came down ostensibly to mediate.

They received lavish hospitality at the Mok Family Manor and also took substantial bribes from the inn, then oppressed Heuk-wol’s friends.

“Senior Sister’s friends kept silent about having Emei Sect backing them, I’m told. They must have been afraid of causing trouble for Senior Sister.”

“Things have gotten awfully twisted.”

“The Qingcheng disciples seized the beggars’ branch head, severed the tendons of his limbs, and warned that if Chengdu’s beggars gathered one more time, the same would happen to them.”

“Emei didn’t intervene?”

Ok-wol sighed and shook her head.

“Our sect has always been cut off from outside news and avoided meddling in street affairs… The news simply never reached us.”

“Hmm…”

The problem with Emei Sect was precisely this insularity.

While the nuns of Emei Mountain polished their Buddhist ways, terrible things were happening in the streets below.

“Did Heuk-wol not hear the news either?”

“At the time, Senior Sister had left on a journey into the jianghu with Martial Auntie Hye-jeong. Traveling once with one’s master, once alone, and once with one’s disciple… that’s the Emei custom.”

“It was truly unfortunate timing.”

The beggars scattered.

Naturally, the inn also shut down under the pressure of Qingcheng disciples.

With Mok Family Manor’s martial artists openly glaring and driving away passersby, there was no way to do business.

Among Heuk-wol’s friends, there was one man with an especially short temper.

The inn’s head cook, he had charged off to the Mok Family Manor to confront them and was beaten nearly to death.

A fortnight later, he died of beatings-related poisoning.

There was a young woman Heuk-wol had cherished especially.

Her lover was the dead man, and as soon as he died, the martial hall’s martial artists did unspeakable things to her.

One by one, Heuk-wol’s friends either met wretched ends or were left in states worse than death.

The beggars’ branch head whose limbs were crippled was also a neighborhood friend Heuk-wol had known since childhood.

Heuk-wol returned from her jianghu journey to find all the childhood friends of her youth dead or irreparably broken.

“The expression on Senior Sister’s face then was something I will never forget.”

“I can imagine.”

Heuk-wol went straight to the inn backed by the Mok Family Manor and set it on fire.

She subdued the Manor’s martial artists who came running, severing the tendons of their limbs.

Finally, the main mountain disciples gathered to subdue her, and even the second-generation disciples had to struggle against her.

“I noticed her talent when she reached peak level at that age… She must have been quite the prodigy.”

“That’s right. Senior Sister was the best among us, already a mature first-rate by then and a candidate to become the youngest Grand Lai Sword.”

“By any chance, did she receive that large scar on her face then too?”

Ok-wol nodded.

“Her face was badly cut by one of Qingcheng’s second-generation disciples at the time. That man lost his head to Senior Sister’s sword.”

“Good heavens. She even killed a main mountain disciple.”

Afterwards, martial artists from both sects who had belatedly grasped the situation rushed in and stopped them.

“Qingcheng’s disciples were expelled from the main mountain to lay clans for disgracing themselves as Taoists and orthodox martial artists… accepting bribes while unjustly meddling in street affairs.”

Ju-seong raised an eyebrow, showing his skepticism.

“That’s a light punishment.”

Ok-wol shook her head.

“Mok Family Manor’s martial artists who did those terrible things to Senior Sister’s friends were all executed by Qingcheng Sect without exception. The Manor’s steward, who was in charge, was also beheaded and his head displayed publicly in the marketplace.”

“Wait, public execution? The government office would never…”

“The steward was personally handed over to the government office by Qingcheng, who watched until a death sentence was pronounced. Officially, the government performed the execution and display.”

“…I see. What happened to Heuk-wol, then?”

From Qingcheng’s side, they argued that since they had meted out such clean punishment, Emei should also punish Heuk-wol, who had killed a Qingcheng second-generation disciple.

“…On moral grounds, Heuk-wol did nothing wrong.”

“I thought so too. No, every disciple thought so and pleaded for Senior Sister’s release, but… the Sect Leader’s will was like iron.”

Ju-seong nodded.

“I suppose so, given she’s rumored to be the Blade of Extinguishing Evil.”

“That wasn’t all. Looking back now… The martial aunties of the Hye generation who felt threatened by Senior Sister’s rapid rise also raised their voices demanding she be punished.”

“My… There are always people who wish others ill, everywhere.”

“Senior Sister lost her precious friends overnight, lost her beauty, lost her sect, and lost her martial arts when her hands were shattered.”

“It seems she recovered her martial arts by joining the Crimson Spider Sect.”

Ok-wol nodded.

“Actually, we lost track of Senior Sister’s movements after she fled Emei Mountain. Sometimes I stayed up all night thinking of her…”

Ok-wol gazed at the moon reflected on the water and let out a long sigh.

“Perhaps it’s actually a relief that she became the adopted daughter of that terrifying ‘Holy Mother.'”

Ju-seong said nothing and stood beside Ok-wol, staring downstream where the Yangtze flowed.

The Yangtze flowed east, ever east.

Heuk-wol must also be traveling down this river.

It was a sorrowfully black water.