Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 106 - A Confident Bet (3)

Chapter 106 – A Confident Bet (3)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Naturally, Namgung Hwi did not think he would lose. This merchant Company Lord named Muk Hui-yeong looked to be at most around his own age.

Namgung Hwi was someone who had defeated rising stars said to be among the best in the martial world. Even now, there were only a handful of rising stars his age who had earned a sobriquet. To earn a sobriquet meant being acknowledged by the martial world.

Even Myeong-yeop, Wudang’s first-generation disciple, still had no sobriquet. That was because he had not gone out into the jianghu much. Of course, this was also a peaceful era in which it was difficult to build achievements great enough to earn a sobriquet.

Lightning qi was clearly making its presence known amid the mist. That meant Namgung Hwi was decisively ahead in internal energy.

Muk Hui-yeong’s internal energy had become much stronger after taking the Supreme Clarity Pill and the Heavenly King Divine Pill, but there was no way to avoid a large gap between him and Namgung Hwi, who had consumed spiritual medicines like daily meals since childhood.

This was where the difference between a clan and a sect showed. A clan usually poured spiritual medicines into the young heir who would inherit the position of Clan Head, while a sect distributed them evenly among its disciples, so when they were young, the children of great clans usually had more internal energy.

Muk Hui-yeong had not even been a lay disciple for very long. There was no chance he could catch up merely by eating a few spiritual medicines.

“Huh!”

Gasps of shock spilled from people’s mouths.

Even the spectators were merchants who rarely got to see real martial artists.

The martial artists who had fought up to now had already displayed very considerable martial prowess, but Muk Hui-yeong and Namgung Hwi were on a different level from them.

The escorts brought by the Huizhou merchants were at most wandering fighters or martial artists from small or middling sects. Muk Hui-yeong and Namgung Hwi were from prestigious lineages, so the very bearing of their martial arts was different.

“Beautiful.”

Son Yeong-ui exclaimed in admiration. The other merchants nodded as well.

The Namgung Clan’s sword was domineering, while Wudang’s sword was graceful. In a sense, their subtle principles stood at opposite poles. Because of that, a natural pattern formed in which Namgung Hwi attacked and Muk Hui-yeong defended.

“Ah!”

The merchants all cried out in fright. It looked as though Namgung Hwi’s Azure Radiance was about to sever Muk Hui-yeong’s neck. But when they blinked, Muk Hui-yeong had already bent his waist backward in an Iron Plank Bridge technique to evade it. Their exchange of moves was that fast, beyond the speed ordinary people could follow.

‘Oh?’

Namgung Hwi was inwardly surprised. He had expected him to panic at the swift sword coming for his neck and duck his head, but instead he bent his waist backward.

The Iron Plank Bridge was a technique anyone could perform if they had decent external training and muscles. But using it immediately in urgent real combat was a matter of insight and talent.

If you lowered your head, no matter how much you rolled your eyes upward your field of vision narrowed. He had intended to limit his sight like that and finish the spar with linked techniques coming in from the blind spots, but it had not gone according to plan.

“Interesting.”

Namgung Hwi blurted it out before he knew it.

Muk Hui-yeong’s sword was mysterious. He had fought Wudang swords before.

In Namgung Hwi’s judgment, Wudang’s sword was frustratingly defensive and placed great importance on receiving and countering. That was a characteristic of Daoist sect martial arts, but Wudang stood at the extreme of that tendency.

Usually, the sword paths of young disciples did not deviate far from standardized forms or their master’s sword path. Yet although Muk Hui-yeong’s sword followed Wudang’s form, it did not remind him of anyone’s sword. If he had to say, its focus on efficiency made it feel like a merchant’s sword.

‘Talent.’

The people of Wudang surely had not taught him like that. That was something he had honed himself. The fact that he had created something of his own meant he had an extraordinary sense for the sword. And that was what the world called talent.

“What a waste. If you’d become a main-sect disciple, Wudang might have gained a swordsman to represent it.”

“I’m a registered lay disciple, so I learn everything I need.”

“You still can’t learn the Taiji Wisdom Sword, can you? That’s a martial art permitted only to the Taiji Sword Guardians.”

“That much is true.”

Even while speaking, Namgung Hwi felt something strange.

And soon he realized what that strange feeling was. Muk Hui-yeong’s manner of speaking was no less steady than his own.

He had thought Muk Hui-yeong was barely avoiding him and had been controlling his strength as much as possible, but now he considered that Muk Hui-yeong might have been doing the same.

“Do you perhaps have some leeway right now?”

“No, I don’t.”

“That sounds like a lie.”

Namgung Hwi’s Azure Radiance vanished in an instant, then thrust in from a blind angle toward Muk Hui-yeong’s waist. It was such a rapid changing stroke that the watching merchants did not even see it.

“Hup.”

Muk Hui-yeong held his breath and lifted his body slightly into the air. The sword grazed his waist by a hair.

The flesh split and blood gushed out. Even so, Muk Hui-yeong did not blink once. Compared to the pain he had felt when first absorbing demonic qi, a laceration like this was nothing if one possessed the talent of Indomitability.

As he spun his body, Muk Hui-yeong thrust out his sword. The sword flew in as one, then split apart and drew two arcs as it sought to strike Namgung Hwi’s body. It was Flowing Clouds Twin Peaks, the third form of the Flowing Cloud Sword Art.

Using the recoil from blocking one strike, Namgung Hwi sprang backward and evaded the other attack.

“So it really was a lie.”

“What was?”

“When you said you had no leeway. Your belly was cut, yet you let it slide away. Before, you really were only dodging efficiently.”

“Can’t you see I’m hurt?”

“An injury like that happens all the time during sparring.”

Namgung Hwi spoke as though it were nothing. Since that was in fact true, Muk Hui-yeong did not add anything. Of course, part of the reason was also that he had no room to spare for speaking.

‘There will only be one chance.’

Muk Hui-yeong was keenly feeling the difference between himself and Namgung Hwi. Namgung Hwi was indeed as strong as his reputation as the foremost rising star of the age suggested.

Of course, the very fact that he was exchanging moves like this after training in martial arts for less than two years was absurd. What had made it possible were the Martial Talent Shop, several fortuitous encounters, and the insights born from the experiences of his previous life. His merchant’s insights had converged into a martial artist’s insights through the law of All Streams Return to the Source.

“Good.”

Namgung Hwi admitted it. The merchant before him was stronger than many martial artists. That was not merely a matter limited to martial prowess. Some people themselves were strong. In Namgung Hwi’s view, one must never let down one’s guard against such people under any circumstances.

‘Hwi. A martial artist must have proper eyes. Do not become the foolish sort who believes only what is visible.’

He remembered the words of his respected grandfather. When he first saw Muk Hui-yeong, he had thought him merely a slick, commonplace merchant, but that judgment had been mistaken.

“This isn’t a place where I’m testing you. This is a place where I’m sparring with you as an equal.”

Lightning qi flared brightly from Namgung Hwi’s sword. The blue light of Azure Radiance grew all the more vivid.

“It’s the White Lightning Sword Art!”

Someone recognized it and cried out in amazement. The lightning qi of the White Lightning Sword Art resembled thick branches spreading through a dense forest.

“Can you take it, Company Lord?”

“There’s something I realized while selling goods.”

“And what is that?”

“That there is no merchandise in the world that cannot be sold.”

“Why bring that up all of a sudden?”

“It’s my belief that there is likewise no sword path in the world that cannot be received.”

Namgung Hwi let out a dry laugh. Had there ever been someone his own age who said something so arrogantly to his face? Usually, most only flattered him in hopes of becoming close to him.

Yet this merchant Company Lord, not even a martial artist, was saying such things. He felt as if the words Myeong-gyeong had spoken about Muk Hui-yeong were beginning to make a little sense.

Namgung Hwi felt good, as though he had found someone he liked for the first time in a long while.

“Excellent!”

Muk Hui-yeong slowly drew up his qi. To Namgung Hwi’s eyes, even the outflow of his qi was unnatural. It seemed he had recently either encountered some fortuitous event or consumed some spiritual medicine that had sharply increased his internal energy.

Even so, Namgung Hwi waited. This was not a fight to the death.

What he had learned in his clan was that sparring was the moment when a martial artist had to respect another martial artist the most. In any case, Namgung Hwi was just as curious about Muk Hui-yeong’s full strength.

Dense mist and branching lightning qi. The merchants watched in a daze. Martial arts of this level were not something one could easily witness anywhere. Normally, masters and great lineages disliked showing their martial arts, so they fought in closed or restricted spaces.

In that sense, the merchants watching this spar were incredibly fortunate. And they realized why Namgung Hwi had tried to make fools of them. Those who possessed martial arts like these had every right to take pride in themselves.

Muk Hui-yeong and Namgung Hwi stepped forward at the same time. They were already seeing each other’s world and reading each other’s breath. In other words, they were silently sharing with each other the moment when they had to advance.

In the silence that made even breathing feel burdensome, a single gust of wind blew. It was an invisible opening signal.

Namgung Hwi moved first. Thought was replaced by instinct. If thought was the self, then at this moment he was in a state of no-self.

The moment Namgung Hwi and Muk Hui-yeong closed the distance was but an instant. Until then, Namgung Hwi had not doubted his own victory.

That was until he met Muk Hui-yeong’s eyes. For some reason, they held a faint gray cast.

At that moment, Namgung Hwi felt as though he were suffocating in the mist surrounding him. The mist had suddenly thickened into something unpleasant. It was no longer mist rising from a clear mountain lake, but mist rising from a marsh where corpses rotted away.

Sinister. Chilling.

His intuition rang a loud alarm that danger was near. Namgung Hwi immediately kicked off and twisted his direction.

Namgung Hwi slid backward, sweeping the floor with one hand. When he lifted his head and looked at Muk Hui-yeong, the gray light had already vanished from his eyes.

“…?”

Not only the merchants, but even Myeong-gyeong had no idea what had happened. It looked only as though the two had been about to collide and Namgung Hwi had turned away. And that was not greatly wrong.

“What in the world…?”

But Namgung Hwi himself was equally puzzled.

He had been in a state of no-self just a moment before, so even his own actions had not occurred within rational thought.

But the chilling sensation, as though his spine were being scraped with a sickle, still remained vividly.

Even so, a spar was a spar.

“T-the winner of the spar is Company Lord Muk.”

Son Yeong-ui said it with a stammer. Namgung Hwi looked down at his own feet. He had been so shocked that he had stepped far outside the small space designated for the spar. Until just before, he had even been taking care to keep his lightning qi within the bounds of the sparring area, but under that terrible pressure, he had forgotten the rules in an instant.

“Huh…?”

An exclamation, from who knew whose mouth, spread through Returning River Tower.

Son Yeong-ui had just declared Muk Hui-yeong the winner, but no one accepted it immediately. Ah, except for one person.

“As expected of Junior Brother! I told you I believed in you!”

Myeong-gyeong immediately latched onto Muk Hui-yeong from behind and started choking his neck. Exhausted from the spar, Muk Hui-yeong could only cough and wheeze, unable even to shake him off.

“Is this really right?”

Everyone’s heads turned at once in one direction. There, piled up, were the miscellaneous wagers including the wine Oh Jong-yo had staked, along with several treasures.

And naturally, people’s gazes shifted to Namgung Hwi’s hand. To the Azure Radiance he was gripping tightly.

Only then did Namgung Hwi grasp the situation, and his face turned as blue as Azure Radiance’s blade.