Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 118 - When the Forest Grows Dense, Tigers Enter (3)

Chapter 118 – When the Forest Grows Dense, Tigers Enter (3)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“But what if the black-path men come after us for revenge?”

“The black-path men around here are all riffraff, so it’s fine.”

Yeo Hong-yang still seemed worried that I’d shaken down the black-path men. But that was needless worry. With two great mountains like the Mount Hua Sect and Zhongnan Sect looming over the place, how could any famous black-path figure ever take root here?

Our talk ended when Yeom Baek-gyu came into view in the distance. The moment he saw us, he broke into a broad smile and hurried over with quick little steps.

“Have you been well since I last saw you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? We just saw each other yesterday.”

“Isn’t the whole point of life that one never knows what lies even one inch ahead?”

Yeom Baek-gyu laughed. Without any need for further talk, I handed him the invitation to the black market. Yeom Baek-gyu accepted it naturally and tucked it away into his robe.

“Are you going to the black market too, sir?”

“I thought I’d just go take a look.”

“Ha ha. Since it’s come to this, why don’t we go together? If there are a few more people, it won’t be quite so dull.”

Just as expected, Yeom Baek-gyu stuck to us. I had no reason to object.

“All right.”

“Then let’s meet in front of the market.”

“Fine.”

After earnestly reminding me to come, Yeom Baek-gyu left. I waved until he disappeared from sight.

“You’re practically childhood friends already.”

Yeo Hong-yang snorted. From a third party’s perspective, it must indeed have been amusing. It was a contest to see who could put on a better false front. A spar of hypocrisy, one might say.

“Then shall we get ready for the black market too?”

“What kind of preparation do we even need?”

“Just follow me.”

Both Yeo Hong-yang and Myeong-il took on uneasy expressions.

* * *

A black market was truly a place only those with means could enter. A black market that required invitations all the more so. Ordinary commoners usually didn’t even know such places existed.

“Even so, this is a bit much.”

“I can barely see in front of me.”

Yeo Hong-yang and Myeong-il complained at the same time.

The way they were dressed right now was the very image of vulgar rich fools. Their entire bodies were hung with ornaments made from blue gemstones, agate, ivory, tortoiseshell, glass, and the like, and they even wore black tinted spectacles of the kind officials were said to use.

Of course, I hadn’t paid for all of it outright. I’d rented the pieces from a jeweler.

“You look great.”

“It’s already dark since it’s evening, and we really have to wear these too?”

“Yes.”

“Honestly. I’ve been to black markets a few times myself, but this is really excessive.”

“That’s how black markets are. You go a bit excessive.”

I too had visited black markets several times in the past. Normally, the things laid out openly on the stalls in black markets weren’t the real goods. The real ones were the items shown privately by the merchants.

And to see those easily, I had to prove I had money. Which was why we were dressed this excessively.

“Good. Let’s go.”

As we strutted proudly down the main road, I could feel everyone’s eyes turn toward us. Since we were draped in jewels so brazenly, no one even tried picking a quarrel with us. They must have calculated that anyone dressed like that absolutely had escorts with him.

And by the time we reached the outskirts where the black market was being held, many people had already gathered. Yeom Baek-gyu was one of those who had come in advance, and when he spotted us, he raised a hand.

“Ah, sir…”

Yeom Baek-gyu began to raise his hand, then faltered. He seemed to think our appearance was excessively overdone.

Even among the merchants who had dressed up to some degree, our excess stood out. The merchants were staring and whispering among themselves.

“Come now. What kind of merchant still wears rough cotton? Splurge a little.”

I immediately threw a line at Yeom Baek-gyu, and he only laughed awkwardly.

“Shall we go in?”

“Let’s.”

In front stood a man in black inspecting invitations.

When we approached and showed our invitations, the man in black examined them carefully. After some time, he allowed us through.

“This is a complete demonic realm.”

The moment we passed through, a bleak expanse of ruined houses came into view. Looking around, it seemed they’d converted an abandoned village into a black market. There were quite a few abandoned villages like this in the Central Plains. Sometimes some madman of the jianghu slaughtered an entire village, and sometimes bands of brigands swept through.

In fact, there were clues from which one could roughly infer the tragedy of this nameless village. The dried bloodstains crusted onto the village walls, and the large cremation pit in the center of the village, blackened with soot, were exactly such clues.

It was a place perfectly suited to a black market, but there was no helping how sinister it felt.

The merchants too had spread out their stalls outside the ruined houses and were doing business there. What made this black market different from an ordinary market was that there was no hawking.

A quiet market was a strange thing indeed, but there was a reason for it.

First, most people who came into a black market like this came with a definite purpose. Because of that, there was no need to hawk deliberately.

Second, if you made too much noise, a raid might happen. That was probably the biggest reason.

Third, black markets were usually held in gloomy places like abandoned villages or abandoned mines. Because of that, there was an unwritten rule not to stir up the lingering spirits.

“Ugh, it’s giving me chills.”

Yeo Hong-yang grabbed his shoulders and shivered. It was sinister, certainly, but it was also because night had fallen and the temperature had dropped a great deal.

“I heard somewhere that this village was destroyed because of a Daoist of the Mount Hua Sect.”

Yeom Baek-gyu said it. Myeong-il flinched slightly. Curious, I asked:

“Because of a Daoist of the Mount Hua Sect? How could that happen?”

“Qi deviation. Qi deviation. You know how it is, don’t you? They say martial artists go mad when qi deviation takes hold.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, the amusing part is this. Madness broke out inside the Mount Hua Sect, but because he was one of their own Martial Brothers, they couldn’t bring themselves to kill him and simply sent him down the mountain. And then that madman slaughtered the whole village.”

Yeom Baek-gyu laughed loudly. Myeong-il answered coldly.

“You think that’s funny?”

“Of course it is.”

The laughter vanished from Yeom Baek-gyu’s face.

“To unleash such a mad martial artist on ordinary commoners at their own whim. And while wrapping themselves in the hypocrisy that they couldn’t bear to kill someone who had once been their Martial Brother, no less. How arrogant martial artists are…”

Suddenly, Yeom Baek-gyu’s voice turned full of chill. Even I felt a shiver from it, and Myeong-il couldn’t answer right away.

“But that doesn’t stand for all martial artists.”

Myeong-il only barely continued. Yeom Baek-gyu suddenly burst out laughing. Since a black market’s nature was to avoid commotion, laughter that loud was enough to draw many eyes.

Only after many sharp looks gathered on him did Yeom Baek-gyu finally stop laughing.

“It seems the errand boy looks very favorably on martial artists. That’s unusual. Normally merchants and martial artists loathe each other.”

“So what?”

“Nothing.”

“Then answer me. Does that represent all martial artists?”

Myeong-il snapped at him. Yeom Baek-gyu’s eyes curved into crescents.

“Yes. Every martial artist carries the possibility of qi deviation, doesn’t he?”

At Yeom Baek-gyu’s words, Myeong-il could not reply. Because it was true.

“They’re effectively walking explosives. And yet these bombs talk about protecting the common people. Arrogantly, in place of the Empire itself! It’s hilarious!”

This time, there was heat mixed into Yeom Baek-gyu’s words as well. I listened silently.

“Who do you think kills commoners more often? Commoners killing commoners, or martial artists killing commoners? I suppose that may be too cruel a question for an errand boy.”

“…Even so, that doesn’t represent all martial artists. There are knight-errants too.”

“Knight-errants? Fine. But do you know this? Most famous knight-errants are often fabricated.”

“What?”

“Large sects aside, small and middling sects often stage acts of chivalry in order to make a name for themselves. In the end, even those martial artists who pretend to be lofty still have to live by eating rice, don’t they? They want to earn money. Yet they curse merchants for earning money. Ridiculous creatures.”

Myeong-il’s face reddened. It was something I broadly knew too. It was an age when even chivalry could be monetized.

“Let’s stop here.”

Unexpectedly, it was Yeo Hong-yang who said it.

“We came here to buy things, not to badmouth people.”

“Ha ha. That’s true enough. I was rude.”

Yeom Baek-gyu bowed extravagantly low in apology. Even that looked like mockery directed at martial artists.

As he said, merchants and martial artists were natural opposites. In that sense, there were plenty of merchants who disliked martial artists, but in Yeom Baek-gyu’s case it seemed rather extreme. He appeared not merely wary of martial artists, but openly hateful toward them.

Myeong-il could only clench his fists and tremble. He seemed terribly frustrated and resentful that he hadn’t been able to answer back.

Out of Yeom Baek-gyu’s sight, Yeo Hong-yang patted Myeong-il on the shoulder. It seemed that just by traveling together a little, he’d started taking care of him.

“Come on, let’s start looking around.”

I roughly broke the mood. There were certainly many illegal items.

Spears whose circulation had been banned by the authorities, animal corpses or bones used in sorcery, even the genitalia of Kunlun slaves supposedly good for virility.

Myeong-il apparently had a weak stomach. Every time he saw such things, he squeezed his eyes shut. For a moment I wondered if we should just leave, but this was exactly why I’d brought him. To show that the world was not as clean as it looked.

“Is there nothing in particular you’d like to buy?”

When I kept only looking around, Yeom Baek-gyu asked. I shrugged.

“I didn’t come to buy anything in particular.”

“So you truly came just to look around.”

“That’s right.”

“Then shall we go see the truly interesting part now?”

“The interesting part?”

“You know, don’t you? What the flower of the black market is.”

Yeom Baek-gyu smiled. The flower of the black market. Hearing that, I could tell where he wanted to go. Sure enough, it was written on the invitation. The time of the auction. Looking at the moon, it seemed the auction time was drawing near.

“Ah. Come to think of it, you did say a rare item was coming out this time. Usually, rare items come out in the auction hall.”

“Exactly.”

“That’s what you’re aiming for?”

“Of course.”

“It won’t be easy. There are so many wealthy men in Xi’an.”

“If I didn’t have confidence, I wouldn’t have come.”

Displaying confidence, Yeom Baek-gyu led us on. The auction hall was held at the largest estate in the abandoned village. The estate’s yard was large enough to hold at least three hundred people.

“There are already a lot of people.”

Just as Yeom Baek-gyu said, half the estate was already full. That meant there were easily over a hundred people there.

When the time came, an auctioneer with his hair slicked back in neat pig fat came out, looked in all directions, and offered his greeting.

“Thank you for coming to the Xi’an black market. Everyone here is busy with important affairs, so I won’t waste your time and will proceed quickly.”

The first item came out on a tray, covered by a cloth. When the cloth was pulled away, several dozen thick volumes were revealed.

“This is the Unified Gazetteer of the Great Empire. A copied version of an official compilation. With this alone, one can travel throughout the Central Plains.”

True to a black market, an illegal item appeared right from the start. The Unified Gazetteer of the Great Empire was a set of around a hundred volumes containing maps of the Central Plains. Because it was so detailed and precise, it was mainly used by government offices. Yet here it was being sold. Of course, it would be useful if one possessed it.

“We’ll begin at one hundred taels of silver. Bids will rise in increments of five taels. One hundred taels, one hundred and five, one hundred and ten, and now we’ll increase in increments of ten…”

The auctioneer conducted the auction skillfully. I stood there with folded arms, watching. Yeom Baek-gyu too remained quiet, apparently because this wasn’t what he wanted.

Several rounds of auction passed like that. Yeom Baek-gyu didn’t raise his hand even once.

I also remained quiet since nothing particularly appealed to me.

And then the item in question came out.

“This one will really surprise you all.”

Smiling, the auctioneer pulled away the cloth. Under it lay a single shabby book.

My eyesight was good enough that I saw the book’s title first. And I had no choice but to be startled.

“The Mount Hua Sect’s Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Forms.”

At those words, not only Myeong-il beside me, but everyone present froze.

“We begin at one thousand taels of silver. Bids will rise by one hundred…”

“Two thousand taels.”

And Yeom Baek-gyu raised his hand and called it out.