Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 100 - Huizhou's Nobles (5)

Chapter 100 – Huizhou’s Nobles (5)

===================

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

“…May I ask what august seniors you are, and from which quarter?”

All of a sudden, courtesy had seeped into the black-path man’s voice. If one heard that voice alone, one might have believed he was a Grand Secretary of the Imperial Cabinet.

“You should speak first. Are you ignorant of the etiquette of the jianghu?”

Myeong-yeop answered with a relaxed grin. It was a strange situation, with the black-path men acting courteous while Wudang lounged around carelessly.

The black-path men shrank even more before the calm ease of my Senior Brothers, Myeong-yeop included.

“We are disciples of White Crow Gate, from the outskirts of Huaiyin.”

“What kind of sect is a black-path gang supposed to be?”

Myeong-yeop openly mocked them. The faces of the White Crow Gate men reddened, but they could not say a word.

After all, not only Myeong-yeop, but even the children were emitting an unmistakably formidable aura. They might be cute only inside Wudang, but in the end they too were disciples of one of the Nine Great Sects.

Suddenly, I remembered all the hardship I had gone through at Wudang. They had been days filled with dissatisfaction and complaint. For a free-spirited merchant like me, life inside rigid Wudang had often felt stifling.

And so there had been frequent clashes, but in the final analysis, coming to Wudang had been an excellent decision. Those rigid, orthodox Daoists were now on my side. What a reassuring thing that was. In my previous life, a situation like this could only have been solved with money worth a thousand gold.

While I was grinning to myself at the thought, Myeong-gyeong suddenly turned to me.

“What?”

“I had the feeling you were just thinking something irreverent.”

“Come on, what are you saying? I was looking at you all with respectful eyes.”

“There’s no evidence, so I’ll stop at attempted deceiving the master and betraying the ancestors.”

As we even bantered with each other, the White Crow Gate men watched our expressions.

“Senior Brother. Let’s just go.”

“Yes. Well, as long as they return the money, that’s enough. We haven’t spent it yet.”

The White Crow Gate disciples whispered to the man standing in front. There was a truly enormous gap between them and us. The fact that they assumed their whispers could not be heard was itself proof of the difference in level.

Even so, the one acting as their leader still seemed to want to preserve the last traces of his dignity.

“Since we’ve given our names, isn’t it only proper jianghu courtesy for you to disclose yours as well?”

“It’s nothing special. We’re just people cultivating the Dao on a small sacred mountain in Hubei.”

Myeong-yeop said it with a smile. It seemed they lacked even the intelligence to immediately understand that much.

After standing there blankly for a moment, the faces of the White Crow Gate disciples turned ashen.

In Hubei, there was only one mountain that could be called a sacred mountain, Wudang Mountain, and if they were people cultivating the Dao, that meant Daoists. Combining those pieces of information, it was not hard to conclude that these were disciples of the Wudang Sect.

If they had possessed any real depth in martial arts to begin with, they would have sensed the Daoist aura radiating from us long ago.

“H-heh heh. So you were Immortals of the Wudang Sect. What brings you all the way from Jun County to Huaiyin?”

The ferocious-looking man who appeared to be White Crow Gate’s eldest disciple rubbed his rough palms together. His eyes, which had been full of force only moments ago, had turned meek as well.

“Are you saying you’re curious about Wudang’s business?”

“N-no, no! How could I dare take an interest in the affairs of one of the Nine Great Sects? I was only asking after your well-being. Jun County and Huaiyin aren’t exactly close. Heh heh.”

The disciples of White Crow Gate watching their senior brother struggle from behind did not look miserable in the least. Rather, they seemed to be hoping he would even fall to his knees if necessary to get them through this crisis. In a way, perhaps that too was black-path brotherhood.

“Since you’ve come such a long distance, I hope you enjoy touring Huaiyin. Hongze Lake is very good for calming the mind. Then we will just…”

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?”

The White Crow Gate man’s attempt to casually slip away ended in failure. I had blocked the doorway myself.

“You thought you could quietly leave after provoking the great Wudang Sect?”

“T-then what should we do? If you tell us to crawl between your legs, we’ll crawl. In case you didn’t know, Huaiyin is the hometown of Great General Han Xin, that peerless man of the nation. Crawling between the legs honors him, doesn’t it?”

At this point, the White Crow Gate man seemed to be babbling any nonsense that came into his head. It had become almost pitiful.

Looking toward the stairs and second-floor railing, I saw that several of the people who had fled had come back and were now watching. Since no sounds of fighting had broken out, they must have grown curious enough to return.

“Did you hear? They said Wudang.”

“What? What’s Wudang doing here?”

“How should I know?”

“Hah. Then those White Crow Gate bastards are in real trouble.”

“Isn’t that a good thing? Heh heh.”

The onlookers had started chattering loudly, as though they wanted everyone to hear. Mixed in with their chatter was laughter as well, and White Crow Gate had been turned into a complete joke.

Myeong-yeop looked at me and gave a slight shake of his head. It meant he had no desire to get involved any further. Then again, Wudang people were lofty by nature. Naturally, they would dislike becoming entangled with such lowly black-path riffraff.

If the men had continued stubbornly picking a fight as before, that would have been one thing, but now that they had recognized their place and were trying to retreat, Myeong-yeop probably saw no need to continue.

In truth, we could have simply let them go. After all, as long as the merchants of Huaiyin, including these black-path men, became firmly aware that Wudang had arrived here, my objective was already achieved.

I cleared my throat.

“We do not kill people lightly. Failing to recognize Wudang is not a crime worthy of death.”

“R-right, of course! Naturally! If the Daoists of the Wudang Sect killed people easily, then how would they be any different from trash like us?”

At my words, relief bloomed across the faces of the White Crow Gate men. But there was one thing they were mistaken about.

“I’m not a Daoist, though.”

“Pardon?”

“I told you, didn’t I? I’m the Company Lord here, not a Daoist.”

They had probably assumed otherwise because I was carrying the same kind of sword as my Senior Brothers. Instantly, the expressions of the White Crow Gate men turned ugly. Even so, perhaps because the Wudang disciples were present, they did not immediately draw their blades.

“Why is some merchant dog interrupting while martial people are talking?”

“Yes. Hui-yeong. It looks like they’ve already repented of what they did, so let’s just send them away.”

Myeong-yeop, who had been quiet until now, cut in. It really did seem he hated getting mixed up with them. But that attitude was a little disappointing.

Maybe not the martial uncles, but at least my Senior Brothers needed to become members of the Wudang that I was changing.

“Senior Brothers. How can you think so weakly?”

“What?”

It was not only Myeong-yeop. The White Crow Gate men’s expressions also emptied out in shock.

“No, Great Hero. Why are you listening to some merchant dog like him? Even if you’ve taken on an escort job, isn’t this far too presumptuous?”

To White Crow Gate, the strange thing was that Wudang’s disciples were quietly listening to me. In truth, the merchant company staff behind me probably felt the same way. They were likely wondering who exactly I was to be ordering around those lofty Wudang disciples.

“What changes people is a proper system of punishment and reward. If someone does wrong, he must be punished. If he does right, he must be rewarded. But these men committed the wrong of provoking us, so why should they receive the reward of being allowed to leave without consequence? If that happens, then later on they’ll fall into the mistaken belief that if they provoke someone else, they can get away the same way by simply bowing their heads.”

My sudden passionate speech left my Senior Brothers dazed. Wudang’s martial uncles did not teach such things, so naturally it would be the first time they had heard this line of reasoning.

“If their target had been an expert, then perhaps they might have escaped. But what if their target had been an ordinary commoner? These men are exactly the sort who would suddenly turn vicious, skin that commoner, and hang the hide from the village gate archway.”

“We aren’t that kind of…”

“Senior Brothers. Can’t you hear it even now? The cries of the commoners who have already suffered at their hands, and the wailing of the commoners who will suffer in the future!”

My Senior Brothers seemed to be genuinely thinking it over now that I had spoken this forcefully. Even the White Crow Gate fellow who had tried to defend himself in the middle of it found himself unable to say anything.

“Then what exactly are you proposing?”

Myeong-yeop, who finished thinking first, asked.

“I already said it, didn’t I? In the end, what matters is a clear structure of reward and punishment. Do you think these sinister black-path men were born black-path men? We simply need to reform them. In the current situation, punishment is the only possible method.”

“I see.”

As my Senior Brothers were gradually drawn in by my words, the faces of the White Crow Gate men turned pale. Several of them even grabbed their sword hilts with trembling hands. That was how much pressure they were feeling.

“Then let’s do this.”

“Yes.”

“We’ll discipline them, so long as we don’t take their lives.”

“Excellent.”

I smiled. That was exactly the line I wanted to keep. If we killed the White Crow Gate men here, the situation might become more serious than I intended.

“Then come out one at a time. I’ll deal with you personally.”

Myeong-yeop stepped forward, cracking his neck. All the White Crow Gate men flinched and looked at one another.

“If any of you are considering rushing me all at once, you’d best reconsider. I’m still not skilled enough to spare your lives if you do.”

With Myeong-yeop’s calm words, his aura spread outward. Wudang’s distinctively gentle energy filled the entire inn. A first-generation disciple of the Myeong generation was, in effect, one of Wudang’s reserve main forces. In Huaiyin, where there were no significant sects to speak of, such martial talent was difficult to encounter.

The internal energy filling the inn was more than enough to break the fighting spirit of the White Crow Gate men. The man who had stood at the front came out hesitantly.

“You promised not to kill us.”

“Don’t worry. Wudang keeps its promises.”

Before those words had even finished, the White Crow Gate man rushed Myeong-yeop. Myeong-yeop only smirked.

…

Wudang was not a place where the petty tricks of black-path thugs could work. All of them were now sprawled on the floor, bruised and bleeding, doing nothing but twitching.

“Black-path men really are a little different.”

Myeong-gyeong, who had gone out last, sheathed his sword and returned to us. The reason even Myeong-gyeong had gone out was because of me. Originally, Myeong-yeop alone could have disciplined all of them, but I had proposed that it would be better to give the other Senior Brothers practical combat experience too, and Myeong-yeop had accepted.

In effect, I had orchestrated this entire situation, but Myeong-yeop had approved it all, so there was no reason for anyone’s pride to be hurt.

“Make sure you don’t bully people anymore. If I catch you doing something like this again next time, I’ll cut off an arm from each of you.”

“Ugh… y-yes.”

Myeong-yeop growled. Having lost several teeth, the White Crow Gate man gave an idiot’s answer, then gathered up his people and fled with all possible speed.

“Then now that that’s over, the rest of dinner…”

“Waaaah!”

“That was amazing!”

Just as I was about to wrap things up, the merchants on the stairs and upper floors erupted into thunderous cheers.

I took one step back for my Senior Brothers’ sake. My Senior Brothers looked awkward, yet still waved to the merchants. The sight was so unnatural that it made me laugh.

***

Son Yeong-ui received an absurd letter from the White Crow Gate master. The White Crow Gate master’s letter was filled with curses asking why no one had informed him that Wudang martial artists were present. But if one did not know, how could one possibly have informed him?

“Why is Wudang suddenly involved in this at all?”

Like the Nine Great Sects generally, Wudang in particular did not interfere in the commercial world. At most, they came out a few times as escorts when markets were held.

It was not as though merchants had never tried to drag Wudang into the commercial world before. That a merchant company’s value would shoot upward if it formed an agreement with Wudang was too obvious a fact.

But Wudang had always loftily kept to its own place. It even deliberately avoided large sums of money and accepted only small fees for its commissions.

And now a Wudang that had reacted to money with something close to a moral obsession was suddenly helping a merchant company. It was an incomprehensible course of action.

“Are you sure they didn’t mistake them?”

“That doesn’t seem likely. Rumors are already flying all over Huaiyin that Wudang martial artists have arrived.”

One of the foremen at his side answered. Son Yeong-ui already knew that much. It was not as if the White Crow Gate master were the sort to lie. He simply did not want to believe it.

“Damn it.”

Son Yeong-ui began biting at his short nails again. He bit so deep that he tore the skin beneath them.

“Send a letter to Hefei.”

After a long moment of thought, Son Yeong-ui finally spoke. The foreman flinched. Hefei was Anhui’s provincial capital. And when Huizhou merchants reached out as far as Anhui’s provincial capital, there was only one place they meant.

“The Namgung Clan… you mean?”

“Of course. Where else!”

Son Yeong-ui suddenly roared. The foreman immediately bowed his head and hurried outside.

Still seething, Son Yeong-ui sat back down and resumed biting his nails.

If one wished to deal with the Wudang Sect of the Nine Great Sects, then one needed the Namgung Clan of the Five Great Clans. That was Son Yeong-ui’s calculation.