Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 102 - Huizhou's Nobles (7)
Chapter 102 – Huizhou’s Nobles (7)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Myeong-yeop was looking at both Myeong-gyeong and me with a deeply unconvinced expression.
“Is this really right? Shouldn’t I be the one going?”
“It doesn’t matter. If you want to take Senior Brother Myeong-gyeong’s spot, then the two of you can discuss it yourselves.”
At my words, Myeong-gyeong’s eyes shook violently. If Myeong-yeop said to switch, Myeong-gyeong would have no choice but to yield. That was the hierarchy of the martial world.
Watching the uncertainty in Myeong-gyeong’s eyes, Myeong-yeop gave a bitter smile.
“Just because I’m the Senior Brother doesn’t mean I’ll steal a Junior Brother’s place.”
“Thank you!”
“Why are you thanking me when you’re the one who won and you’re the one going? That’s not something to be thankful for.”
Myeong-yeop laid a hand on top of Myeong-gyeong’s head. Then he swung back toward me.
“Take good care of Myeong-gyeong. He’s still young.”
“I’m the Senior Brother here.”
At Myeong-yeop’s words, Myeong-gyeong answered in a disgruntled tone. It seemed he really didn’t want to let go of that position of Senior Brother.
“Right. Then you look after Hui-yeong, since you’re the Senior Brother.”
“Yes!”
And so we set out. Returning River Tower, where the afterparty was being held, wasn’t very far away. Standing in front of Returning River Tower, Myeong-gyeong gaped.
“Waa.”
It was an impressive building, marked by a broad hipped roof, a thick foundation platform, and a heavy wooden upper structure. The banquet hall itself stood about three floors high.
“You’ve come.”
Since the banquet’s starting time was near, there were quite a few merchants we ran into right outside the main gate.
These were the same merchants we’d seen at the salt yard in the morning, but their clothing had changed so drastically that they were hardly recognizable. When they went to work, they wore comfortable clothes. When they attended a banquet, they wore the most expensive and finest clothes they could. I, too, had put on garments made from costly tribute satin, and Myeong-gyeong had been dressed the same way.
Several of the merchants we met came over and stuck to me, pretending to be close.
“It seems the disciple of Wudang must have stepped away for a moment to relieve himself?”
“He’s right beside me.”
The merchants glanced left and right, then their gazes shifted downward. Where their eyes landed, there stood Myeong-gyeong, his face full of irritation. He was annoyed that they hadn’t recognized him at a glance.
“What are these middle-aged men who look obsessed with money?”
Myeong-gyeong muttered sourly. Middle-aged men who looked obsessed with money. It was so accurate that I didn’t even feel the need to correct him.
The merchants’ expressions froze. They had clearly never expected someone to bring a child this young as an escort. And yet he was undeniably a disciple of Wudang, so they couldn’t treat him like a mere brat either.
“Oh dear, oh dear! My eyes must be nothing but knot-holes in wood. I failed to recognize a Daoist of the great Wudang Sect. Even if they were seared with red-hot skewers, I’d have nothing to say.”
“Same with me! What use are eyes if they can’t even see?”
The merchants each made exaggerated gestures as though they were about to pluck out their own eyes. Since Myeong-gyeong had never had many chances to see such overacting before, he became flustered instead.
“No, it isn’t that serious…”
“No, no. This lowly one has committed a grave wrong!”
Myeong-gyeong wasn’t the type to grow proud while watching such exaggerated displays of guilt. He immediately straightened his face and said,
“Stop it. I said stop.”
“Ah, yes.”
At his oddly weighty tone, despite his youth, the merchants stopped. Merchants were a breed with first-rate instincts for reading the room. They knew when to advance and when to pull back.
“Heh heh. Then shall we go in together?”
“Gladly.”
The merchants and I went up into Returning River Tower. Inside, many merchants had already gathered, and on the tables arranged in the shape of a rectangular enclosure, the dishes were all covered with domed lids.
The central seat was probably for the Chief Salt Merchant, and the seats to either side seemed to be taken by merchants freely. Chief Salt Merchant Son Yeong-ui had not yet arrived.
“Oh, you’ve come.”
“Sit here.”
“No, sit here.”
The merchants who had arrived earlier crowded around me. It was only then that I took a proper look at the people seated to the left and right.
“Heh…”
Now that I looked, the arrangement of the seats on either side of the Chief Salt Merchant carried a subtle classification.
If Yeo Hong-yang hadn’t told me, I probably would have missed it entirely.
I cleared my throat and sat at the far left end. The gazes around me turned strange.
“Hm. You’re choosing to sit there?”
“Yes.”
“The right side has better feng shui. In Daoist thinking as well, isn’t the Left Way Chamber considered depraved while the Right Way Chamber is considered proper?”
One of the merchants seated to the right laughed heartily as he said it. Before I could respond, a merchant on the left flared up.
“Since when did you start talking like that just because you’re sitting on the right? Just two years ago, we were the ones sitting on the right.”
“We? Among Huizhou merchants, since when is there a we?”
At the taunting reply from the merchant on the right, the left-side merchant’s face reddened. That subtle battle of nerves only ended once Son Yeong-ui arrived. Beside him stood a sturdy man wearing a black bamboo hat pulled low over his face. He seemed to be the escort he’d brought with him.
“Looks like everyone’s more or less here.”
“You’ve arrived, Chief Salt Merchant.”
Even I stood and gave Son Yeong-ui a respectful nod. Son Yeong-ui looked at me and grinned.
“I told you, didn’t I? I don’t dislike spirited young men like you. You looked like someone who might very well run, but you actually came.”
“You invited me personally. If I didn’t come, that would be discourteous.”
“Good. I’m glad you came. And is the person beside you a Daoist of Wudang?”
Son Yeong-ui looked at Myeong-gyeong, who had by now come to stand next to me.
“He’s Hui-yeong’s Senior Brother, Myeong-gyeong… oh.”
Myeong-gyeong had tried to imitate the manner of a cool adult, but his words seemed to have tangled. Then again, it was hard at his age to imitate an adult’s manner of speech. All the merchants laughed at the sight, and Myeong-gyeong’s face turned bright red.
“But a Senior Brother, you say. As far as I know, Company Lord Muk is a lay disciple.”
“Hui-yeong’s different from the other lay disciples. He’s a registered lay disciple whose name is entered into the sect register.”
Myeong-gyeong dropped back into casual speech with ease. Not a single merchant minded that he was speaking informally. What interested them was the content.
“A registered lay disciple? Is there such a system?”
“Yeah.”
“Hah. And what makes a registered lay disciple different?”
“If someone bullies Hui-yeong, Wudang will move.”
At Myeong-gyeong’s offhand tone, everyone wore shocked expressions. Myeong-yeop might have worried a little more over polished phrasing, but Myeong-gyeong was still too young for that.
And his words created quite a ripple. The merchants hadn’t known that I wasn’t just some ordinary lay disciple. Nor that the relationship between Wudang and me was far tighter than they had thought.
“Ahem. I see. Thank you for the kind explanation.”
“It’s nothing.”
With that peculiar atmosphere hanging over everything, the banquet began. As one would expect, it began with eating and drinking. Once the lids were lifted, splendid dishes were revealed.
“Waa.”
Myeong-gyeong’s eyes shone as he looked at the food. For the moment, he had apparently forgotten all about trying to look cool.
“Daoist, please try this as well.”
“Ahem. That’s too stimulating. It’ll ruin the taste of what comes after. You should eat in order, starting with the lighter flavors.”
The merchants gathered around Myeong-gyeong and recommended dishes to him. Part of it was certainly because they wanted to get close to someone from Wudang, but it also seemed that simply because Myeong-gyeong was a child, their eyes were drawn to him. Merchants might be mad for money, but people were still people. They couldn’t help being weak toward a cute kid.
“You’re all really good people!”
On Myeong-gyeong’s plate, the dishes the merchants each brought him piled up like a small mountain.
‘He was just calling them middle-aged men who look obsessed with money.’
I suddenly thought back to the way Myeong-gyeong had savaged the merchants when he first met them, but children were simple by nature.
“That’s right. We’re good people.”
“Then why aren’t the people beside you feeding your escorts?”
Myeong-gyeong asked it with utterly innocent eyes. All the merchants flinched. He meant the escorts clinging to the merchants like shadows.
“Ah, ah. These friends will have time to eat separately later.”
“But this is delicious. Can’t they eat together with us?”
The merchants all looked at one another. The answer came from behind Son Yeong-ui.
“They’re going to fight soon. If they eat greasy food like this, their bodies get heavy.”
Everyone turned toward the voice. The one who had spoken was the man in the black bamboo hat, Son Yeong-ui’s escort.
Apparently Son Yeong-ui hadn’t expected the man in the bamboo hat to speak. His voice came out startled.
“Great Hero. Words like that…”
“Did I say anything wrong?”
In an instant, the atmosphere froze. And that included me: I was surprised as well. I didn’t know exactly who Son Yeong-ui had brought, but he was clearly no subordinate.
“Since it’s been brought up, let’s finish saying it. If we’re going to fight anyway, I’d rather do it quickly and get it over with. I’m not someone light enough for you people to use as play entertainment.”
The man in the bamboo hat said it in an indifferent tone. The merchants all watched their footing. Whoever he was, he was clearly some extraordinary martial artist. If even Son Yeong-ui, who had brought him, couldn’t treat him carelessly, then it was obvious.
‘So that’s why he brought him, because of the Wudang martial artists.’
That explained why Son Yeong-ui had invited me so insistently. He had brought an expert strong enough to defeat even disciples of Wudang.
But too bad for him. I had no intention of sending my Senior Brothers into such a vulgar fight. That would have been discourteous to my own sect.
The man in the bamboo hat gave me a glance and added an explanation.
“The young disciple of Wudang. The merchant at your side probably didn’t know that since this is his first time here. Otherwise he would have brought another disciple.”
“That’s not it. I knew they’d be fighting. Proxy matches, right?”
At Myeong-gyeong’s answer, everyone was startled. Even the man in the bamboo hat shifted ever so slightly.
“You knew?”
“Yeah. But my Junior Brother told me to just watch.”
At that, everyone looked at me with strange expressions. They had all assumed they’d fooled me completely, so it was only natural that they reacted this way when they learned I hadn’t been fooled at all.
“So you knew too.”
“I’d heard rumors.”
“Heh…”
The merchants gave awkward laughs. After all, not a single one of them had told me that there would be gambling by way of proxy matches. They had all taken part in my initiation, so naturally they felt awkward.
“In any case, it seems like the mood’s been spoiled. Shall we just move on to the next part?”
The man in the bamboo hat said it in a gloomy voice. The other martial artists looked as though they wanted the same. The man in the bamboo hat looked like that too, but the others also seemed to find the very fact that they’d been brought out here insulting to their pride.
“Very well.”
At last Son Yeong-ui spoke. The merchants looked dissatisfied, but since they didn’t know the identity of the man in the bamboo hat, there was nothing they could do.
“Since there are first-timers here, let me explain. You simply wager salt on the sparring matches of the martial escorts each company has brought. The winners of the wagers will take the salt placed into the pool.”
Son Yeong-ui explained it quickly. The looks from the merchants were sharp. Then again, this was the Chief Salt Merchant’s fault. Even if he wanted to bring a strong martial artist, what was he thinking bringing someone so prideful he’d smash the entire mood like this?
“Good.”
A smile touched the lips of the man in the bamboo hat.
What was strange was that the sparring ring was the empty space in the center of the tables. If even the slightest part of one’s body stepped outside the ring, or if a sword stroke disturbed the dining area, it counted as disqualification. No matter how wide the tables were, it was still a cramped space in which to use martial arts.
“It’s practically a nobleman’s game.”
The man in the bamboo hat sneered. From the point of view of a martial artist, the fact that they were being constrained like this was itself an insult to their pride.
But what could one do? No matter whether they won or lost, the martial artists who had come here would all leave with enormous sums of money. Though the man in the bamboo hat didn’t seem like someone who cared about that.
“Then let us begin!”
Ignoring the sneers of the man in the bamboo hat as best he could, Son Yeong-ui cleared his throat and shouted.
The proxy matches of sixteen merchant companies were about to begin. The merchant companies of the Huizhou Fifteen Clans, and the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.