Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 96 - Forget-Sorrow Arrow

Chapter 96 – Forget-Sorrow Arrow

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Forget-Sorrow Arrow, what should we do? Should we fire signal arrows and order a fire attack?”

The Black Dragon Gang’s chief, Huang Fang-yi, asked while carefully gauging the man’s mood.

“…”

The middle-aged man stroked his long beard and withheld an answer.

Huang Fang-yi was about to lose his mind with frustration. The man had suddenly attacked his river pirates’ lair, killed dozens with a single bow, and then dragged them here.

‘Goddamn bastard, so what if you’re from the Assassination Curtain? Not touching the river pirates is an unwritten rule of jianghu. Uncivilized bastard with no foundation…’

The Yangtze’s river pirates weren’t maintaining their territory because they were particularly strong. The average fighting ability of river pirates was below the jianghu norm.

Nevertheless, passing martial artists didn’t arbitrarily kill pirates.

Even so-called young heroes were usually warned by their sects not to touch them.

The pirates in the north of the Yangtze and the evil sects in the south… as well as the government… used the pirates like watchdogs.

They tolerated the more prominent gangs because they drove off the small fry.

Hence, paradoxically, river pirates were a protected species in jianghu.

Yet an assassin who killed people for money had suddenly barged in and broken this unwritten rule.

‘His title is weird as hell too… Is it even real? I’ve never heard of it.’

Forget-Sorrow Arrow.

The title referred to an arrow that makes you forget your worries.

But to Huang Fang-yi, he was nothing but a worry-inducing madman.

‘Why are there so many lunatics among the strong evil path guys?’

All he wanted was for this bizarre and freakish person to finish his business and leave.

Just then, Forget-Sorrow Arrow turned his head slightly and stared at Huang Fang-yi.

“Hey, did you just curse me?”

“What? No, I didn’t say anything, Senior.”

“You did it in your head.”

“Excuse me?”

“I can hear everything.”

Forget-Sorrow Arrow wiggled his ear as if to prove it. Huang Fang-yi wailed internally.

‘Shit, so he really is insane! I’m screwed. The Black Dragon Swimming the Yangtze is about to lose his head today. What a tragedy!’

But Forget-Sorrow Arrow didn’t fly into a rage like a madman and beat Huang Fang-yi to death.

He merely nocked a black iron arrow to his great iron bow and said.

“It’s noisy, so don’t even think. Whatever might pop out of that tiny head of yours won’t be anything impressive. Shut up and stay still.”

“…”

Huang Fang-yi clamped his mouth shut. He wanted to curse internally but stopped even thinking, fearing this crazy archer might actually hear his thoughts.

Forget-Sorrow Arrow narrowed one eye and drew back the bowstring.

His ears twitched like a dog’s, straining to catch every sound from ahead.

The bowstring extending with subtle force. The muscles of his back growing taut. Internal energy coursing through the pressure points he’d repeated dozens of times, transferring into the bowstring, into the arrow.

Through the sounds from the front, he pinpointed the location of his target in the fog…

And then the world sank into profound stillness.

The scenery faded away; only one archer and one target existed.

Forget-Sorrow Arrow loved this moment. All worries were bleached away.

This fleeting instant of silence, unreachable by all the damnable voices from outside, or from within his mind.

The one moment of stillness he could claim entirely for himself.

-Wwoom…

Just as a sword hums in an excellent swordsman’s hand, an arrow hums in an excellent archer’s hand.

A good archer knew when the moment had come, and had to release it then.

A heat-shimmer-like energy rippled around the black arrow.

-Bang! Shwaak.

Fog swirled in a spiral, sucked into the wake of the flying arrow.

And then…

-CRAAAAASH—!

A tremendous sound shook the Yangtze. Ripples spread across the water, and the shockwave pushed the fog aside.

The fog cleared to reveal the merchant ship’s form.

Two long trenches were scored into the deck, and at their end stood a fierce-eyed young man with both arms thrust forward.

The iron arrow he had barely blocked was rolling on the deck.

A smile bloomed on Forget-Sorrow Arrow’s lips.

From beneath his beard, a satisfied murmur escaped his thin lips.

“Wonderful. Just how many more can you block?”

* * *

“Crazy…”

Ju-seong stood with both arms thrust forward, staring at the iron arrow that had fallen before him.

That last shot was on a different level in terms of speed and power.

If Chun-mong hadn’t intervened and blocked the assassins’ coordinated attack?

Ju-seong would have given up his shoulder, couldn’t have used his right arm, and might have sustained internal injuries failing to block the arrow.

‘If not for Celestial Hearing, I’d have been seriously hurt.’

That’s how threatening the arrow emerging from the fog had been.

Because he could pinpoint its position precisely through the sound of splitting wind, he had managed; otherwise, he’d have been in trouble.

Through the fog momentarily cleared by the shockwave, he could see a gray-clad archer atop the black ship in the distance.

He was nocking another arrow and gave a low command.

“All boats converge and commence the attack.”

“Goddamn!”

Ju-seong muttered a curse as he pulled Heavenly Silkworm Silk from his robes.

-Flutter.

The startled moth shot high into the air and fled somewhere.

The escorts and bodyguards shouted in visible alarm.

“They’re coming!”

“Block the hooks!”

A dozen or so low-riding ships surrounded the merchant vessel.

-Hwung, hwung, hwung.

The pirates aboard whirled hook-tipped ropes over their heads, aiming for the merchant ship’s railing.

One of the pirates shouted in a wicked voice.

“Hook’s on!”

“Block them! Knock them all off!”

Pirates climbed up the ropes, licking their blades and cackling wickedly.

One escort whose clothes got snagged while trying to knock off a hook tumbled headfirst into the water.

“Ha, there’s no mess like this mess.”

Ju-seong irritably swept back his hair and shouted.

“Everyone shut up and take a nap! The water ghosts will hear the noise and all come climbing up!”

Then he shook his silk robe sleeves sharply.

-Paang!

Both sleeves puffed up instantly, and dozens of needles sliced through the air in a flash.

Of course, these weren’t the thousand-fold steel needles given by the Divine Physician… just extras he’d scraped from the All-Living Clinic’s storeroom.

Needles were precious items, yet here they were lying around in a warehouse. The All-Living Clinic truly was Sichuan’s premier clinic.

-Tatatatang!

Some needles lodged randomly in the railing, deck, and mast, but the rest all struck people.

Purple Golden Centipede paralysis venom. A reduced dosage that eliminated the pain and isolated only the numbing effect.

Having diligently trained the Poison Accumulation and Emission Methods transmitted from Five Poisons Valley, Ju-seong could now freely adjust dosages within his body.

Dozens of people collapsed limply, friend and foe alike.

From the start, no one on this ship had the eyesight and reflexes to block Ju-seong’s hidden weapons.

A voice came from beyond the fog that had crept back in.

“Impressive. You dislike noise too, it seems?”

‘Bastard, acting all cool.’

“Earlier you blocked my arrow filled with internal energy. That was the Great River Arrow technique.”

Meaning an arrow like a great river.

“Now try blocking Feeble Stream Arrow.”

It was a technique named after a weakly flowing brook.

The moment Ju-seong heard his words, he activated Celestial Hearing and heightened his hearing. Faint breathing sounds came from that direction. Among them was one particularly even, deep breath.

And then, the sound of its owner plucking the bowstring at tremendous speed.

Ju-seong raised both palms and prepared to deploy Fluttering Red Lotus Palm.

-Shushushu…

It was like a dozen archers firing at once… rapid fire. Each shot was weak, but enough to pierce an ordinary martial artist’s skin.

‘Fast. Good… this is perfect for practicing against consecutive attacks.’

Arrows targeting him alone came in a row, with almost no interval.

Ju-seong decided to treat this as training for the upcoming tournament at the Martial Alliance.

Fluttering Red Lotus Palm began unfurling from his hands.

Normally, Fluttering Red Lotus Palm was a technique where cotton wadding scattered all around.

‘Let’s see… like this.’

Instead of scattering cotton wadding in every direction, Ju-seong gathered all the cotton wadding and concentrated it in front.

A willful interpretation and modification of the technique.

It was possible only because he had fully comprehended the technique and deeply understood the underlying principles.

-Tok, tok, tok, tok…!

Sounds like arrows striking a cotton bag one after another burst out. His red palm shadows formed only to be shattered by arrows as fast as they appeared.

Of course, the arrows that pierced through his palm shadows also lost their power and fell to the floor.

From the fog came that same annoying voice.

“Good. Perhaps Feeble Stream Arrow was too weak for you. Then this time…”

In his grasp, the Kunlun Iron throwing daggers he had never used before were spinning.

They had perfect balance and a greedy affinity for yang energy absorption.

‘Let’s use them properly this time.’

Heavenly Silkworm Silk was connected to the dagger’s hilt ring.

Ju-seong spun once on the deck while holding the dagger.

Like a poisonous flower blooming, his green silk robe spread dazzlingly.

A crimson flash shot from the green flower and vanished into the fog.

Forget-Sorrow Arrow smirked at the incoming dagger.

“What good is throwing that? I’ll just shoot it down.”

He pulled a small iron ball from the pouch at his waist, nocked it to his bowstring, and flicked it.

-Paang…!

The iron ball was small, so transmitting internal energy used less effort.

It was something he used to knock down incoming projectiles without wasting energy.

The ball flew straight toward the incoming dagger, but…

“Oh!”

Suddenly that crimson dagger swayed in midair, arcing once before flying in.

Before Forget-Sorrow Arrow could react, the dagger wound tightly around his ship’s mast.

He narrowed his brow and moved his hand at invisible speed. He shot an arrow to catch the thread attached to the dagger… to sever it… with his sharp eyesight, but…

-Swak!

Whatever kind of thread it was, sparks flew instead and the arrow glanced off.

Then the thread pulled taut, and something large came flying from beyond the fog.

He flew toward the archer’s ship, accompanied by someone’s scream.

“…Aaaaaah!”

The target, Ju-seong, was flying toward him, holding some young servant by the scruff.

“Young Hero! No… Eldest Brother! Why did you bring me?!”

Chun-mong screamed and flailed.

Ju-seong glided toward the pirate ship and dropped Chun-mong onto the deck as casually as letting a passenger off a carriage.

“Play with those guys!”

“Ugh!”

Despite Ju-seong’s sudden action, Chun-mong didn’t panic but calmly rolled on the deck and got to his feet.

After all, Red Beggar was the master of sudden actions.

Having been trained under Red Beggar, Chun-mong could handle the antics of Red Beggar’s sworn brother.

The pirates were quick to assess the situation too.

Two of them charged at him with harpoons leading…

-Rumble…

In an instant, a dark blue sword energy flashed and a thunderous collision echoed.

-Crash!

The two pirates were rolling on the deck, their arms entirely broken. Chun-mong’s weighty voice escaped.

“The forgotten Namgung Family’s sword is…”

Chun-mong had already assumed a precise starting stance, sword raised and glowing with dark blue sword energy.

“It begins with Heavy, advances to Strong, and culminates in Dominance.”

The boy’s eyes sank with weight. A man with a curved saber, one with a long whip, and two more with harpoons all rushed in.

It wasn’t a systematic coordinated attack, but with five men charging at once… ready to hit or cut each other… it was threatening enough.

However.

-Crash!

A single vertical slash shattered the curved saber.

-Clang!

A single horizontal slash tore apart the chain linking the whip segments.

Then Chun-mong’s knee bent slightly and only his left foot stepped forward.

That single step was weighty and simple, yet held deep subtlety.

As Chun-mong pivoted, two harpoons thrust at him from front and behind.

As if performing a timed trick, the harpoons seemed to deliberately avoid his body.

When Chun-mong swept his sword downward, the unretracted harpoons shattered.

-Pazzik!

A strange sound like a dragonfly shaking its wings accompanied blue lightning sparks.

“Gurrrk!”

“Keurk!”

Those gripping the harpoons crumpled and collapsed, trembling as if struck by a sudden curse.

“Wh-what? How many got taken out at once?”

“What kind of kid is that…”

“Damn, did he even move from that spot?”

He had taken exactly one step.

From when he began engaging the pirates until now, the only step he’d taken was one. The last step with his left foot when dodging a harpoon.

Where his left foot had rested, a footprint was now pressed into the wooden planks.

He had a thin frame and was not fully grown, yet the martial art he wielded carried the weight of an emperor.

He pointed his sword at the pirates who were hesitating, eyes full of fear, and said.

“I have no intention of taking another step, so you come to me.”

For an instant, the enemies hesitated, overwhelmed by his presence.

“Wh-what the hell! Kill him, you bastards!”

“Uwaaah…!”

As if unable to defy an emperor’s command, the pirates charged with desperate battle cries.

Chun-mong’s eyes flashed with blue light, and a cold smile hung at the corner of his mouth.