Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 103 - Huizhou's Nobles (8)

Chapter 103 – Huizhou’s Nobles (8)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Naturally, the sparring matches split into a left-side versus right-side affair. But there was a problem. The number of people on the left and right was different.

There were eight on the left and six on the right. Even if the Chief Salt Merchant in the center joined the right side, it would still become a fight of eight against seven.

“Then Company Lord Muk can come to the right side.”

“Sure, why not.”

In truth, it didn’t matter very much who I fought. Right now, I wasn’t on anyone’s side.

“Good to have you.”

The merchants on the right had also clearly wanted to talk to me, and welcomed me warmly.

“The little Daoist looks quite adorable.”

“He seemed to be eating with gusto. Let him eat more.”

“I’m fine.”

Being treated like a child made Myeong-gyeong sulk a little. Sensing his displeasure, the merchants quickly shifted the topic back toward me.

“Ah, but then, I suppose your side won’t have anyone to send out.”

“Pardon?”

“Surely that little Daoist can’t be sent out. The people here are at least first-rate.”

Myeong-gyeong’s lips pushed out even further. That remark had apparently wounded his pride too. The problem was that the merchant was right. If the opponent was truly first-rate, Myeong-gyeong couldn’t handle him yet. Myeong-gyeong knew that too, which was why he stayed quiet.

I shook my head. I had never intended to use my Senior Brothers as cards in a gambling den like this anyway. It didn’t matter whether it was Myeong-gyeong, Myeong-yeop, Myeong-seong, or Myeong-jin.

“I’ll go out.”

“Hm?”

“I’m a disciple of Wudang too. A lay disciple, but still.”

“Ah, ah. Right. So a registered lay disciple really is different.”

That was what the merchants said, but their eyes clearly held no expectation. They must have seen far too many merchants from lay-disciple backgrounds swinging pitiful martial arts around.

“It’s fine. It’s not a fight you need to go out for.”

“Right. Why risk damaging your body for no reason? Your body and your time are both money.”

Several of the merchants were even worrying about me. It was almost funny. I had nearly forgotten for a moment, but these were the very people who had conspired to embarrass me. What they had wanted, of course, was the picture of the Wudang disciple I’d proudly brought along being unable to fight.

But the disciple I brought had turned out to be far younger than they expected, and that disciple had openly announced the nature of my relationship with Wudang. Their purpose had already failed.

Of course, every group had this sort of initiation custom, so I didn’t harbor much resentment. The merchant world was simply like that. If you reacted sensitively to every small thing, you’d miss chances to move forward. Sometimes you needed to widen your stride boldly.

“If things get bad, I can always surrender.”

“Right. Sure.”

“It’s fine if I lose, right?”

“What’s it to us whether it’s fine or not?”

“This is obviously a fight between the left and right sides. There’s nothing riding on it, is there?”

The merchants on the right flinched.

“So you really did come here knowing everything. What kind of information network do you have that you know such detailed things about us?”

“I just got lucky. I didn’t even know that the Huizhou Fifteen Clans were divided into the Old Clans and the New Clans.”

“Only Huizhou merchants know that.”

That was certainly true. If not for Yeo Hong-yang, I wouldn’t have known it. In fact, even I, who had reigned as a giant of the commercial world in my previous life, was hearing it for the first time.

The Huizhou Fifteen Clans. If you included even the smaller lineages, there were fifty-five in total. Among those fifty-five, the larger ones were called the Huizhou Fifteen Clans. I had assumed they were all united tightly together simply because they were Huizhou merchants, but it turned out they were not.

The Old Clans were the Cheng, Wang, Wu, Huang, Hu, Wang, Li, and Fang families, eight in total.

The New Clans were the Hong, Yeo, Bao, Dai, Jo, Gang, and Son families, seven in total.

The right side consisted of the New Clans, and across from us were the Old Clans. Son Yeong-ui and Yeo Hong-yang, as their surnames made clear, were both from the New Clans.

“You’re capable. I really can’t afford to underestimate you.”

“You flatter me.”

“In any case, nothing’s actually riding on it. Whether the final victor is from the Old Clans or the New Clans, it only affects everyone’s mood.”

“That makes sense. Otherwise accidents would happen during the sparring.”

“Exactly.”

While we were making small talk, the first match was just about to begin. Of course, before the sparring began, there was one procedure that had to happen first.

“Now, now. Time to place money, no, salt.”

“I’ll put two hundred geun on the man in red.”

“Ahem. Isn’t two hundred geun a bit stingy? Since when did you become so timid?”

“It’s salt at two hundred geun, so of course it’s salty. Were you expecting it to be bland?”

As soon as the gambling board began, the whole atmosphere came alive. I could hear a sneering laugh of contempt from the man in the black hat who had spoiled the mood earlier, but nobody paid any attention.

“So how much will you place? Of course, you don’t need to bet at all. Since it’s your first time, just watching wouldn’t be a bad thing either.”

“No. I’ll put twenty thousand geun on the man in green.”

“What?”

Everyone was shocked. Even the man in the black hat, who had been dismissing the gambling, turned to look at me.

Twenty thousand geun of salt. That was the amount of salt one could exchange for a hundred salt certificates. And Wang Song had given me exactly one hundred salt certificates. In other words, I’d just wagered every bit of salt I’d gotten from this trip to the Huaiyin salt yard. And I’d done it on the very first bout.

“Ahem. I admire the youthful fire, but why not think that over once more? If the junior returns with empty carts, won’t it be a little regrettable?”

Words he didn’t mean in the slightest. In truth, the merchants were all twitching at the corners of their mouths, like they were trying to suppress laughter.

“Then I’ll put one thousand geun on the man in red.”

“Me too.”

“Five hundred from me.”

“Three hundred.”

In an instant, the salt piled up behind the man in red. Since if the skill levels were similar, the higher payout side had better expected value, it was only natural.

Son Yeong-ui, who was managing the wagers, clacked away at his abacus and then nodded. The odds couldn’t have been easy to calculate, but the speed of his calculations showed he was a capable merchant.

In the end, I was the only one who had bet on the man in green in the first round. There were many bouts left, and besides me, there was no one else bold enough to dump this much salt in all at once. In truth, they couldn’t be bold. They weren’t Company Lords the way I was.

They were merely the people from the Huizhou Fifteen Clans’ merchant companies who handled the salt business. Their rank might be high, but that still didn’t make them men who could throw all their salt into a bet and return with empty carts.

“Let’s begin.”

Everyone who wished to bet had bet, so the sparring started. The bout was quite gripping. Since their skill levels were similar, that was only natural.

The merchants all watched with sweaty palms and cheered for the man in red. Most of the merchants had wagered on him, so it couldn’t be helped.

But the match ended with the narrow victory of the man in green, the one I’d chosen.

“Aii!”

“He lost that?”

The man in red, who had lost by the tiniest margin, couldn’t lift his face. There was no need for him to live up to their expectations, but it was only natural that he’d feel embarrassed.

“Ha ha. What can I do? I won it all.”

“A beginner is always blessed by luck.”

That was what the merchants said, but discomfort showed plainly on their faces. It couldn’t feel very good to get beaten right away by a beginner who had only just arrived today.

But this wasn’t beginner’s luck. I hit the winner correctly every single time and kept taking salt. Even though people stopped piling onto the opposite side the way they had at first, the amounts added up, and I easily crossed ten thousand geun.

“Hey, young fellow. Salt is the sort of thing that’s very poisonous.”

“Come on. With only ten thousand geun, what poison could there be?”

People looked at me with eyes full of incomprehension. Those people would never understand, no matter how many times they died and woke again. I myself had only understood after barely dying and waking up once.

Martial artists and merchants lived in different worlds and saw different worlds. What merchants knew was only rough estimates of martial artists’ ranks. But not every first-rate martial artist was the same, and even among those at the Peak Realm, the differences were vast.

I could now see how strong my opponents really were. That was because I too had learned martial arts to that extent.

Which muscles were developed, what sort of aura leaked out, what martial art they used. I had information like that, while the other merchants did not. That was why this gambling was, in truth, a fight overwhelmingly favorable to me. I was a merchant, but I was also a martial artist.

“What the hell is this?”

“Isn’t this a scam? Do I look like some fool to you?”

The merchants had finally begun to suspect me. But if they thought about it, they’d realize it was an absurd suspicion. The host here was none other than Chief Salt Merchant Son Yeong-ui.

“Now, now. Quiet. He was just lucky.”

In the end, it led to the rare situation of Son Yeong-ui defending me.

“The next match is between the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company and the Oui Merchant Company. Do we count this as a win by default?”

“No. This young fellow says he’ll go out.”

“…Really?”

It seemed Son Yeong-ui had either not heard that I was going out, or hadn’t believed it, because he stared at me strangely. Of all things, the escort from the Oui Merchant Company was a giant who looked to be at least seven chi tall. His forearms were as thick as my thighs. Judging by appearance alone, if he caught hold of me, it felt like my ribs would shatter.

“Ahem, two thousand geun. Put it on the Oui Merchant Company side.”

“Mm, me too. That was a difficult decision.”

The merchants all began betting against me while watching my expression.

There wasn’t a single person betting on me except for a few with beastly hearts who wanted to chase the reverse odds.

“Then let’s…”

“Wait.”

Just as Son Yeong-ui was about to proceed with the match, someone stopped him. And there was only one person here who could stop Son Yeong-ui in that arrogant tone.

“Can I place a bet too?”

“Pardon?”

The man in the black hat’s words were entirely unexpected. Just moments ago he’d been scorning the gambling board and hadn’t even looked at it. What wind had suddenly blown into him to change his mind?

“G-Great Hero. This is something merchants do among themselves, betting salt…”

“Then change it so something other than salt can be wagered too. Let me have a little fun as well.”

The man in the black hat undid the scabbard hanging at his waist and set it atop the table.

“I’ll wager this.”

Everyone’s eyes widened. I narrowed mine. I didn’t know what that sword was, but from the decorations, the engravings, and the craftsmanship alone, the sword and scabbard were clearly no ordinary things. There wasn’t a merchant here who couldn’t see that at a glance.

“…Is that truly all right? A sword is symbolic to a martial artist…”

“If it’s going to be ruined anyway, wouldn’t it be less regrettable if it got some play too?”

“Then who would you like to place that sword on?”

“On that Company Lord.”

At those words, everyone looked like they couldn’t trust their own ears. To be fair, that included me.

“…Understood.”

In the end, there were now several thousand geun of salt stacked on the other side, while on my side there stood one magnificent famous sword as the wager.

‘Now I suddenly feel pressured.’

To be honest, for me this had originally been a match that didn’t matter much whether I won or lost. Under the rules, you weren’t allowed to bet on your own merchant company, after all. It seemed to be a rule intended to prevent deliberate match-fixing by making one lose on purpose.

“Then let’s begin.”

As the merchants muttered among themselves, Son Yeong-ui clapped his hands to call everyone’s attention back.

I lifted my head and looked at the escort of the Oui Merchant Company. But the moment he looked at me, the Oui Merchant Company fighter averted his eyes.

I smiled. No one noticed.

The Oui Merchant Company fighter had probably tried to measure me and failed. That was why he had become so intimidated.

At that moment, the outcome was already as good as decided.

“Begin!”

Bang!

Before Son Yeong-ui’s voice had even fully left Returning River Tower, the Oui Merchant Company’s fighter had his head buried in the floor. I had simply gone in leisurely, hooked his foot, and smashed the back of his head down.

“…What was that?”

That one line represented everyone present. Well, everyone except two people. Myeong-gyeong and the man in the black hat both had faint smiles on their lips.