Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 115 - Duality (3)
Chapter 115 – Duality (3)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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I currently had quite a lot of money on hand. The six hundred taels of advance payment Yeo Bul-jin had given me was nothing special. I had made more than ten thousand taels by selling the treasures I won from gambling with the salt merchants.
That was because there had been more merchants with a conscience than I’d expected, so they’d casually put up treasures. For the record, I didn’t extort them. Namgung Hwi had pulled them in on a whim because he wanted to make the stakes bigger, and I was simply the one who ended up taking the winnings.
So the merchants could only hand over their treasures to me without saying a word. Namgung Hwi had been watching with his eyes wide open.
“Heh heh heh.”
Money was like an adorable child. Just looking at it made flowers bloom in one’s smile.
Of course, spending money was far more important than collecting it. And I was in the process of spending it right now.
[ Heavenly Bones – Grade 5 ]
[ Price: 2,500 taels of silver ]
[ Body Arts Talent (Intermediate) – Grade 5 ]
[ Price: 3,500 taels of silver ]
[ Sword Talent (Intermediate) – Grade 5 ]
[ Price: 3,000 taels of silver ]
“Prices have gone mad.”
No shop in the world put items worth several thousand taels of silver on a display shelf for sale. At that level, it was usually an auction or a private transaction.
“This is unbelievable.”
Then again, this was the only place selling these talents, so it made sense that they could act so brazen.
“Bastards.”
People had said that to me plenty in my previous life too, but I never thought I’d be saying it myself.
It had been a long time since I’d had to make such a large purchase, so even I had to clutch my chin and think it over for a long while. But thinking over it wouldn’t change anything. If I wanted to practice martial arts and reshape my body to fit them, it really was about time to raise everything all at once.
Those three talents together cost nine thousand taels of silver. What sort of sum even was that? No matter how great a merchant I’d once been, paying that much at once made my hands tremble.
The most I’d ever spent on a talent before had been the Martial Talent Shop’s Grade 5 Indomitability. That had cost two thousand taels. Back then too, I had wondered why it was so expensive, but compared to this, that was still the easy side.
With tears in my eyes, I bought them. I could feel the heavy money pouch at my side growing lighter. I lifted my head because it felt like I was about to cry.
“Damn it.”
I gave my head a hard shake once. It was always regretful to look back on words already spoken and money already spent.
Since it had come to this, I’d use the talents I’d just bought as wildly as possible. Slowly, I began reviewing the martial arts I’d learned.
I linked Blue Cloud Steps into the Flowing Cloud Movement Art, then unfolded the Three Talents Sword, the Five Elements Sword, and the Flowing Cloud Sword Art in succession. I left out the Nine Nether Asura Sword because it didn’t suit the soft Flowing Cloud Movement Art.
After using them all, I sheathed my sword.
“It does earn its price.”
I clicked my tongue.
Nine thousand taels of silver. It was expensive, but I’d just earn more anyway, so there was no problem. Performance like this deserved recognition. The shop was expensive, but it had never betrayed my expectations.
I could now mix demonic qi with spiritual qi and use them together, and my movements and overall level of martial skill had both risen.
Every time I bought talents, I felt the same thing. The path I couldn’t see before became visible, and the step I couldn’t take before became possible. It was wondrous every single time. Then again, I had replaced my talent for swordsmanship, body arts, and martial arts all at once. Together, those three were producing more than triple the improvement.
“Good.”
Of course, it wasn’t all good. The shop had stripped my money clean away. I wondered whether I even had a hundred taels left at this point. My heart, once full, now felt hollow. Truly, the granary of the heart could only be filled with money.
Even so, the reason I said it was because I wanted to deceive myself that much. It was a crude and shallow method, but people were more susceptible to this sort of self-hypnosis than one might think.
“Hoo.”
There was one last thing left to test. None other than the Nine Nether Asura Sword. I gathered Primordial Mixed Qi into the Ancient Pine-Pattern Sword. For the record, Primordial Mixed Qi was the arbitrary name I gave to the mixture of spiritual qi and demonic qi.
The Primordial Mixed Qi settled inside the sword. To pour an energy mixed with demonic qi into Wudang’s Ancient Pine-Pattern Sword. For that reason alone, some strange sense of guilt crept up through me, but I ignored it.
I unfolded the Nine Nether Asura Sword once more. This time, from Asura Emerges through the second form, Ninefold Nether Returns.
Since it hadn’t been long since I first encountered the Nine Nether Asura Sword, I unfolded it as slowly as possible. First I needed time to communicate with the martial art itself.
I first created afterimages with Asura Emerges, then turned my body and swept the space before me clean with Ninefold Nether Returns. Since people were asleep now, I kept it as quiet and as slow as possible. Perhaps because I’d replaced all my talents, the condensation of energy that had been impossible before now became possible.
Whoosh.
And when the ground in front of me overturned and rose up, with a cloud of soil floating upward, I sensed that something had gone wrong.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-bang!
“…Uh.”
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
The trees collapsed under the shockwave with a great crash, and at once torches were lit all through Wudang, beginning from the buildings of Three Purities Hall.
“What is it! What happened!”
“It seems to be an attack!”
I could faintly hear people shouting in the distance. I could also sense a group drawing closer toward me. I covered my face with one hand.
“Ha ha.”
I’m doomed.
* * *
“I apologize.”
“You truly don’t have a single quiet day, do you?”
“I have no excuse.”
“What sort of martial art were you testing to create such chaos?”
I could see Cheong-hwa’s eyes widening behind him. He was shaking his head in a way meant to be hidden from the others, but I certainly wasn’t in a position to say anything.
“I just happened to pick up what seemed like a decent martial art while going around the jianghu, so I tried using it once.”
“It was an excessively domineering martial art. You can tell from the traces. If I were your master, I wouldn’t have taught it. It does seem to match your nature, but…”
Cheong-ui clicked his tongue. This was surely the difference between Cheong-hwa and Cheong-ui.
Then Cheong-ui suddenly asked a question.
“Did you also just happen to pick up that unknown heart method in the jianghu?”
“Pardon?”
“The fallen trees and overturned ground are full of traces of your internal energy. But I can’t tell the origin of that internal energy. If it were Daoist, it should be Daoist. If Buddhist, Buddhist. If unorthodox, unorthodox.”
Cheong-ui tilted his head. Inwardly, I heaved a sigh of relief. Thankfully, the masking of my demonic qi seemed to be working well.
“That too.”
“You really do have a knack for finding peculiar martial arts.”
“Is that praise?”
“Does it sound like praise?”
Cheong-ui sighed.
“Since you’re a lay disciple, what martial arts you learn is your freedom. But since you’re not just any lay disciple, you should have discussed it with your master Cheong-hwa. If not me, it would have been something to make Cheong-hwa feel hurt.”
But it was Cheong-hwa who gave me the martial art. Still, I couldn’t say that. I bowed deeply toward Cheong-hwa.
“I’m sorry, Master.”
“Ah, no.”
Cheong-hwa cleared his throat awkwardly. It seemed that old man wasn’t suited to acting. Then again, it would have been strange if Daoists were good actors.
“In any case, I’m sorry to the Sect Leader and the elders as well. I caused a disturbance in the middle of the night.”
“No. If it was your first time condensing internal energy, that could happen.”
“Ah, could you tell that too?”
“A wave spreading this widely can only come from condensing it and then releasing it. You’ve made another advance. Congratulations.”
Looking at the faces of Cheong-ui and the elders, it seemed they were not displeased that their sleep had been disturbed so much as shocked that I had managed to condense internal energy.
“…Thank you.”
“You don’t seem to understand just how great a thing you’ve done.”
“Pardon?”
“Condensing internal energy is not easy. At present, it’s something only the first-generation disciples are just beginning to learn. To have awakened it on your own is an enormous talent.”
Behind him, Cheong-hwa was nodding with a proud expression. At this point, no one doubted my talent anymore.
“Now then, look. If you can condense internal energy, this sort of skill becomes possible.”
Cheong-ui drew his sword and raised his internal energy. Blue energy flickered at the tip of the sword, then gathered into the shape of a sphere. That sphere gradually increased in size.
Then, when the ball of internal energy had grown to the size of a man’s fist, he launched it into the sky.
Bang!
The sphere flew upward and dyed the night sky in a lucid blue light.
“…Ah.”
It was beautiful enough to draw out admiration.
Fireworks required spending a great deal of money. That was why even merchants didn’t use fireworks except on special occasions.
Yet martial artists of sufficient realm could produce such a thing in this way. They really were people of another world.
“What you just saw was a Sword Pellet.”
“So that was a Sword Pellet.”
“Yes. Sword Pellets and sword aura are both matters of internal-energy study. You’re still not at the point where you can display a Sword Pellet like that, but you’ve stepped into the entrance of it. It’s an extraordinary thing.”
Cheong-ui patted me on the shoulder. I had expected to be cursed out for toppling trees and overturning the ground, but instead I was being praised. My talent really was good.
“In any case, don’t become complacent about this attainment and strive all the harder. Though you were going to anyway.”
“Understood.”
Cheong-ui turned away and left first, and the elders too each came up to offer me a brief word of congratulations before leaving. Even Cheong-yu.
“It would have been so nice if you’d been a main-mountain disciple. Tch.”
Though, of course, he couldn’t help but express his regret as always.
And the moment everyone had left, Cheong-hwa put a hand to his chest and let out a long sigh.
“That really scared me.”
“I know.”
“Are you determined to get me thrown out of Wudang?”
“Of course not.”
“The condensation of internal energy overshadowed it, but if they’d dug into it in detail, it almost would have been exposed that it was a vicious martial art.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“You truly leave me no room to relax.”
Cheong-hwa tapped my forehead lightly with his fingers. It had seemed like a light tap, but it hurt, which was a remarkable skill in itself.
“My skull is ringing.”
“That’s because I put internal energy into it.”
“Did you just attack my brain?”
“Not your brain, but it probably reached the skull.”
“A frighteningly dangerous thing. What would you have done if I’d died?”
I burst into a grin. Watching me continue to laugh, Cheong-hwa could only shake his head.
“What is there to smile so much about?”
But when I kept smiling, Cheong-hwa eventually had no choice but to smile too. Laughter was contagious by nature.
That was how all my days of resting comfortably at Wudang came to an end. Even if that rest had all been martial training, simply being in a safe place with comfortable people to talk nonsense with had been rest.
That rest ended today. Because today was the day we departed for Gansu.
“Well then, have you two gotten a little closer?”
Before setting out, I checked on the assignment I’d given my two companions.
“…Hmph.”
“No.”
Yeo Hong-yang snorted through his nose, while Myeong-il answered flatly. Yet both of them turned their heads in opposite directions at the exact same time. Did that count as getting along?
No. Of course not. If anything, it felt as though they were on even worse terms than when I first put them together.
Well, I’d expected as much. Even so, seeing it directly still left a bitter taste in my mouth.
“There’s plenty of time.”
I forced a smile. But unlike with Cheong-hwa, no one was infected by it this time. Only my hollow smile drifted about in front of Wudang’s signboard.
And so the journey to Gansu began with a creak right from the start.