Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 93 - Spring Dream
Chapter 93 – Spring Dream
===================
Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
===================
Ju-seong brought the young beggar inside the clinic.
“Elder Sister Yi-hwa, bring me a jar of cool water. To give to this kid.”
“Alright.”
Yi-hwa, now completely transformed from a troupe dancer into a medical woman, smiled and nodded.
The young beggar seemed hesitant to set foot in such a place with his grimy appearance.
A pleasant medicinal fragrance permeated the furniture and floors, and everything was neatly arranged.
“Here, come in and sit down. Rest easy.”
Ju-seong pushed the young beggar’s back with a light tap, seating him in a guest room chair.
“Here you go, Ju-seong. Where did you pick up that child? He has such clear eyes.”
Ju-seong lifted his head to look at the beggar’s eyes at her words.
He nodded in rough agreement.
“Thanks, Elder Sister… Looks like the kid has learned some martial arts.”
Ju-seong slid the small water jar toward the beggar.
“Drink.”
A small pine needle was floating on top of the jar. When the beggar looked up at Yi-hwa, she smiled warmly and said.
“You looked exhausted, so I was worried you’d drink too fast. Choking on water is scarier than you’d think.”
The beggar bowed his head in thanks, then drank the water.
Yi-hwa chuckled quietly, closed the guest room door and left. Ju-seong quietly read through his little brother’s letter again.
A smile spread across Ju-seong’s lips.
“Oh my… look at that handwriting. Are these letters or caterpillars? He’s barely escaped illiteracy.”
The letter was short.
-To Big Brother Ju-seong.
Brother. How are you? This is Red Beggar.
The Martial Alliance is holding a tournament.
A tournament for the rising generation of martial artists.
I got information early because my network has grown.
I’m telling only you beforehand.
Let’s enter the tournament together.
To make mincemeat out of all those show-offs.
The tournament is in late autumn this year.
Written by your little brother.
Ju-seong chuckled and muttered.
“This elegant bastard… Talking about mincemeat and all.”
The young beggar also laughed and nodded.
“He’s a pleasant person. I laughed when I saw the letter too.”
Ju-seong raised one eyebrow and looked the beggar up and down.
“You read this? What kind of messenger reads letters?”
This was a matter of organizational discipline. A messenger who peeked at letters was utterly useless. Such a person should be thrown out immediately.
‘The Red Beggar I know… wouldn’t entrust a letter to someone like this.’
Just as Ju-seong was thinking that.
The young beggar held up both hands and shook his head.
“No… It’s not like that. I know because I proofread the letters. Like if he used a wrong character that sounds the same, or if he left out a stroke. I’m teaching Sect Leader Red Beggar how to read and write.”
“Teaching him to read?”
“Yes, yes.”
Ju-seong looked over the young beggar again with different eyes.
“What’s your name?”
“Chun-mong.”
“That’s an interesting name. Who in their right mind names their child Spring Dream? It’s not a good meaning.”
Chun-mong smiled awkwardly.
“Maybe they knew my life would be harsh. Better to think of all this suffering as just an idle spring dream in a quiet garden…”
Ju-seong snorted and said.
“Kid, there’s a scholarly scent to your words. You didn’t learn your academics carelessly. So, do you have a family name?”
Chun-mong smiled serenely and nodded.
“Namgung. I’m called Namgung Chun-mong.”
Ju-seong stroked his chin and repeated.
“Namgung, Namgung… Just hearing it sounds like an ancient family name. You’re from a more established bloodline than I thought?”
Chun-mong grinned and shrugged.
“Of course, in the beggar gang I’m just nameless Chun-mong.”
“Right. When you first came running with Ten-Thousand-Li Roving Hound, I thought you might be Red Beggar’s martial brother. But now I see you’re a swordsman?”
Ju-seong had already caught the shape of the calluses on the beggar’s hands, his sharp yet weighty aura, and the scent of rice straw on his clothes.
The only ones who trained by cutting rice straw were swordsmen and blade wielders.
Chun-mong nodded, looking slightly surprised.
“Indeed… They said you have a startling side to you, and they were right.”
Ju-seong glanced at the long staff tied to Chun-mong’s back.
Chun-mong smiled awkwardly and nodded.
“That’s right, this is my sword. It’s a really good sword… but I destroyed the handle and scabbard and disguised it as a walking stick.”
Ju-seong folded his arms and leaned back against the chair, then spoke in a disinterested tone.
“Well, I get the gist. You delivered the letter to me, so you should head back soon, right?”
Chun-mong smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.
“Actually, the Sect Leader told me to return with you. He said to travel the jianghu with you, Young Hero Ju-seong.”
“…”
“Hehe.”
“You’re sitting here going ‘hehe.’ Get lost.”
“You have an excellent sense of smell, Young Hero, so poison doesn’t work on you, and your shrewdness is outstanding so you never fall for tricks, he said. He said just by assisting you, I’d learn a lot.”
Ju-seong tilted his head and said.
“Keep going.”
“He also said your martial arts skill is unparalleled among your peers, and you have the bearing of a hero…”
“You’re making things up now, kid. Red Beggar doesn’t know words like ‘unparalleled’ or ‘bearing.'”
“That’s true.”
Ju-seong let out a long sigh as he looked Chun-mong up and down, then spoke.
“Just don’t get in my way.”
“Yep.”
* * *
Ju-seong returned to the foothills of Jiulong Mountain with the hanger-on Red Beggar had attached to him.
As usual, he stopped by the Ilmi Inn to order chicken, at which point Ju-seong spotted a familiar face and smirked.
It was Cheong-rang, the Ten Thousand Ears Gang’s southwestern Sichuan district branch chief.
He looked even more haggard than before, and his fingertips were all red, as if he had been nervously chewing his nails.
When Ju-seong casually greeted him…
“Hey there, bed-wetter. Been well?”
Cheong-rang, who noticed him belatedly, shouted with bloodshot eyes.
“You bastard! Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting…!”
“…”
“Do you know? Haha. I waited until my neck was about to fall off.”
“You didn’t leave.”
“The higher-ups told me to withdraw, but I ignored them and disappeared. I’m not with the Ten Thousand Ears Gang anymore. If they catch me, I’ll probably be killed.”
“Really? Then aren’t you useless now?”
“Ah, Young Hero. Please.”
“Just kidding. Here, six months’ worth of medicine. Take the powder mixed in water, and chew the pills thoroughly before swallowing.”
“Oh my goodness. Thank you. My life has been extended. To be honest, I was at my wit’s end. My position in the Ten Thousand Ears Gang… Young Hero, I know it might not seem like much to you, but it was a position I worked hard for a long time to earn.”
“I never thought it was nothing. It was a position difficult to achieve without considerable ability. Overnight you went from being an executive of a major evil path sect to a nobody with no backing whatsoever.”
“Exactly. It feels like one long dream, or something.”
“Look on the bright side. It’s actually a good thing that you got out of such a place. Start fresh.”
“Easy for you to say…”
As Cheong-rang kept whining, Ju-seong cut in.
“While you were taking the medicine I gave you before, your internal energy was building up well, right? And you could even circulate energy to some degree.”
“…”
Cheong-rang’s constitution was Solar Spirit Meridian, a condition where yang energy overflowed excessively through his energy channels. This made it difficult for him to circulate energy or retain it within his body.
Despite this constitution, when they first met, Cheong-rang had managed to hold some internal energy in his dantian.
That showed how strong his obsession with learning martial arts was.
“You probably know this yourself, but… it’s best to cultivate yin-natured, cold martial arts. That will also help improve your constitution.”
Cheong-rang nodded.
“Given my position, I’ve been training in the best yin-cold energy art I could access. Though it’s nothing remarkable.”
“Good. Stay in this village for a while. You have enough money, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then take care.”
“Young Hero, wait a moment.”
As Ju-seong turned to leave after the greeting, Cheong-rang called after him.
“Is the Ten Thousand Ears Gang withdrawing from Sichuan because of something you did, Young Hero?”
Ju-seong glanced at Cheong-rang and raised one corner of his mouth.
“Who knows? Think whatever you want.”
Cheong-rang already looked convinced.
“You’re remarkable. But please be careful. The Ten Thousand Ears Gang… those people…”
“Cheong-rang.”
“Yes?”
“One thing I am certain of. What I’ve seen is probably more cruel and more horrific than what you know.”
Cheong-rang was merely a lowly pawn of the Ten Thousand Ears Gang. Though he had become one of Sichuan’s eight district chiefs at a relatively young age, he wasn’t significant enough to know internal secrets.
“…”
Cheong-rang couldn’t continue speaking, silenced by the depth in Ju-seong’s eyes.
* * *
“A Martial Arts Tournament?”
The Divine Physician’s face contorted bizarrely.
“Yes, Master.”
“Did you greet Wol-hyang before coming?”
“She was sleeping.”
“She’s been sleeping more these days. She only stays awake for long when you’re here…”
The Divine Physician muttered worriedly, then seemed to recall the matter of the Martial Arts Tournament and glared at Ju-seong again.
“Those orthodox sect types and their pretensions… how do you plan to suppress your killing intent there? Even I, who am not a Heavenly Killing Star, feel my fists trembling when I see their posturing.”
Ju-seong smiled calmly and countered.
“I’m not so twisted as that. I have no heart to find fault with the fine young people of orthodox schools for adding refinement to their conduct.”
“Ah, so I’m the twisted one, is that what you’re saying.”
“So it seems.”
“My disciple hasn’t been beaten enough lately.”
As Ju-seong prepared to execute his qinggong, the Divine Physician sighed and tapped his knee.
“I trust you know what I’m saying. There are bastards everywhere in the world, aren’t there? Orthodox sects are full of people too, and among them are those with rotten characters. Bastards are everywhere. Humans are beasts born with demons in a corner of their hearts.”
“That’s true.”
“Harming evil path villains caused no particular problems. But harming orthodox martial artists… especially famous ones from the Seven Sects or Three Great Families… is an entirely different matter. The orthodox path values order, so they’re organized.”
“You mean if I provoke one, I’ll get beaten by many.”
The Divine Physician nodded. He took a sip of fragrant medicinal tea, then slowly spoke.
“I originally took you as my disciple to find a way to suppress the killing intent in your upper dantian. Not to raise a strong martial artist.”
“…I know.”
“The Martial Arts Tournament is a continuous battle. It will make whoever participates into stronger martial artists. Even more so given your five senses…”
“I understand your concern, Master.”
Some might feel hurt that their master was hesitant to send them to the Martial Arts Tournament for fear they’d become too strong.
But Ju-seong understood his master’s heart.
Ju-seong’s killing intent had already come close to uncontrollable once during this journey.
This was especially true after what happened in the underground cavern of the Vajra Pavilion.
If Ju-seong lost control of his killing intent and became a killing ghost, how much guilt would the Divine Physician feel for having nurtured him into a strong martial artist?
But Ju-seong had his reasons for needing to become stronger.
“Master, the Ten Thousand Ears Gang was grinding up human lives to make pills.”
“…”
At Ju-seong’s words, the Divine Physician’s eyes darkened immediately.
“It turns out the most dangerous people in the current jianghu aren’t the evil sects of Zhejiang, nor the Crimson Spider Sect of Guizhou, nor the sects beyond the frontier. It’s them. The entire jianghu dismisses them as mere gossipmongers and ignores them. That makes them more dangerous.”
“The Ten Thousand Ears Gang, the Ten Thousand Ears Gang… So it’s those people. Indeed it is them. But once again they might just be puppets.”
What the Divine Physician meant was that even the Ten Thousand Ears Gang might be marionettes being manipulated by shadowy forces.
That was how the organization had destroyed the Five Medicines Tang Clan back in Yunnan all those years ago.
They achieved this by stirring up and cleverly manipulating Yunnan’s powerhouses to attack the Five Medicines Tang Clan and the Five Poisons Valley.
But Ju-seong thought this time he had truly caught the tail.
“The facility that made the pills was hidden beneath the Sichuan Province Headquarters. Moreover, the headquarters chief ranted about being a ‘venerable of the Cradle of the Demonic Path’ or something. That is to say…”
“The organization’s direct subordinates have been planted in key positions of the Ten Thousand Ears Gang. Even if you haven’t caught the core, you’ve at least grabbed an arm.”
Ju-seong nodded. The Divine Physician pondered deeply, then suddenly furrowed his brow and whipped his head up.
“Wait, what? The Ten Thousand Ears Gang’s Sichuan Province Headquarters? Underground cavern? You crazy bastard, how much did you stir up? I thought you were just going out to investigate why the Heavenly Bone Fruit Wine fell into our hands.”
“It seems the time has come to explain my long journey to you, Master.”
“Haah…”
The Divine Physician sighed and stroked his beard. Then he spotted Chun-mong standing behind Ju-seong and called out.
“Hey, beggar. Go to the storeroom and fetch some liquor. Any kind.”
“Excuse me? Me?”
When Chun-mong looked baffled and pointed at himself, Ju-seong whipped his head around and growled.
“‘Me?’ He says. Yes, you. Get moving.”
“Ah, yes.”
Chun-mong silently cursed the sect leader who had sent him to such a place as he ran off.
Ju-seong turned his head back and asked.
“By the way, Master, did you even know his name before giving him errands?”
“Why wouldn’t I? He’s that little beggar kid.”
“His name is Chun-mong.”
“Ha!”
The Divine Physician laughed and downed his scalding hot tea in one gulp.
“That’s what life is. A nice spring dream you sleep through for a season.”
“Buddha said life is a sea of suffering.”
“He lied. What if he’d said the world is paradise? People would take happy days for granted and feel wronged on hard days. By saying the world is a sea of suffering, people feel grateful for the occasional happy days.”
The Divine Physician quietly set down his teacup. He scooped up the tea dregs stuck to the bottom with his index finger.
He murmured as he stared at the dark green dregs.
“Being alive itself is a good dream. Those who try to steal others’ dreams just because they want to dream a better dream…”
-Crackle.
Samadhi True Fire ignited, and the tea dregs wisped away as white smoke.
The Divine Physician’s tiger eyes stared straight at Ju-seong.
“They are fellows unworthy to even hold a fleeting spring dream in their hands.”
Ju-seong met the Divine Physician’s gaze and raised the corner of his mouth.
“The martial arts I learned from you, Master… I’ll use them to kick all those fellows in the ass and wake them up from their dreams.”