Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 12 - Hall of Exhausting the Way (1)

Chapter 12 – Hall of Exhausting the Way (1)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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After hearing that the shop rank had increased, I summoned the Martial Talent Shop again.

“Ugh, my eyes.”

The moment I called it up, I squinted. There were so many tiny words packed together that my eyes hurt. It only seemed manageable because I was young right now. If this had been my previous life, there would’ve been no chance.

That meant the number of talents I could buy had increased greatly. Then did better talents unlock the higher the shop rank rose? There was some fun in browsing talents I’d never seen before.

[ Rebirth of Flesh and Bone – Grade 4 ]

[ Price: five thousand nyang of silver ]

Goddammit. Five thousand nyang of silver was money that even the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company in my previous life couldn’t handle lightly.

In any case, it seemed a lot of excellent talents had opened up, but there were too many of them. I felt like I would have to sit down and sort through everything thoroughly later, when I had some time to spare.

That aside, wandering all over Wudang Mountain really had been training my body properly.

When running through the mountains, it built my sense of balance, lightness skill, and muscular endurance. When climbing cliffs, it trained the strength of my entire body.

My abdomen, which I’d never even dreamed of having while I was a merchant, now had visible abdominal muscles. Not just there either. The muscles throughout my body were distinct enough that they looked clearly separated.

All of this had happened in less than two months.

I really had delivered every single message of the Wudang Sect for the past two months. If I didn’t do it, they beat me, so what choice did I have?

They were days when I couldn’t tell whether I’d become a main-sect disciple or just a laborer attached to the main sect.

For a provisional main-sect disciple, I’d expected at least some actual training together with others, but Cheong-hwa had simply left me in the Hall of Preserved Wholeness.

No, saying he’d left me there didn’t seem quite right.

He came to the Hall of Preserved Wholeness every day to check on my condition, after all.

Each time he came, I would ask how long I was supposed to stay in the Hall of Preserved Wholeness, whether he had brought me into the main sect just for this, and every time his answer was the same.

The time will come.

Only then did I realize that Cheong-su and Cheong-hwa were birds of a feather.

Now I also understood why Cheong-su had beaten me so desperately on the second day. At first I’d thought he was simply insane, but it turned out to be an acupoint-opening beating.

No wonder I kept getting up refreshed and clear-headed no matter how often he beat me. Who would’ve thought that what looked like a savage, indiscriminate thrashing in terms of both situation and momentum had actually been an acupoint-opening treatment to clear blocked qi and blood?

Cheong-su sometimes beat me on the excuse that I was slow, but that too was an acupoint-opening beating. So even through the pain, I gritted my teeth and endured it.

If my guess was right, I was being tempered right now.

Tempered in order to become a main-sect disciple of the Wudang Sect.

That guess proved exactly correct.

“At this point, I think we’ve at least shaped him into something passable.”

Today, Cheong-hwa and Cheong-su looked at me as though appraising some object and spoke.

If not for the Martial Talent Shop, those would have been bewildering words to hear.

“Why are you speaking of a person as if he were some object?”

“A martial artist is a blade. In that sense, calling one an object isn’t entirely wrong.”

Cheong-hwa said that with a benevolent smile. I wanted to ask how one could smile in a way that made people this angry.

“Anyway, is my service at the Hall of Preserved Wholeness over now?”

“No. People seem more satisfied with your work than expected. You will train, but during the hours when you are not training, continue serving there.”

“Did all the other couriers break their legs?”

“Those were herb gatherers from Hubei working temporarily. Now that the season for herbs has returned, they must go back to their proper work.”

“Then shouldn’t the wages that ought to go to those herb gatherers come to me instead? That’s the only way the accounting makes sense.”

“How could filthy money pass between a sacred sect and its disciple?”

These bastards were consistent, if nothing else.

They still scorned money exactly as before. I decided to give up on the idea of laboring for them and receiving wages.

“Then when are you giving me my one hundred nyang?”

“I said I would give it to you once your service in the Hall of Preserved Wholeness was over.”

“But you just said you’re extending my service because you’re satisfied with my work. It should have already ended under the original arrangement.”

“Even so, it hasn’t ended yet.”

“Don’t you even know that when more goods are delivered, you have to draw up a new contract?”

“I don’t know anything like that.”

“Then from now on, I’ll start taking dumps all over the message tubes. I’ll make sure you’re dissatisfied with the quality of my work.”

“If some ill-tempered fellow catches you doing that, you may end up with a body that can never defecate again. Are you alright with that?”

“The people standing in front of me seem like the most ill-tempered ones of all.”

“Heh heh. Surely not. There aren’t many people in this sect as virtuous as I am.”

“You’re saying that with your own mouth?”

It was so absurd I almost lost the will to react.

Still, I had no real choice. If they told me to do it, then I had to do it. All I could do was wait for an opening like a tiger in the dark.

An opening to escape this devilish Wudang Mountain.

“Come to the Hall of Exhausting the Way for now. You’ll be able to meet my disciples there as well. If you become a proper main-sect disciple, they will be your senior brothers.”

“Understood.”

After greeting Cheong-su, Cheong-hwa and I headed to the Hall of Exhausting the Way. I already knew where it was since I’d gone in and out of it several times as a courier.

The Hall of Exhausting the Way was the place where the Wudang Sect studied martial arts. It was certainly a fitting place for someone like Cheong-hwa, one of the top experts in Wudang, to reside.

Senior brothers, huh.

I found myself hoping they would be the sort I could at least speak with, like Jeon Oh-su.

“Oh! Grass flute!”

“It broke! Fix the grass flute for me!”

But all that awaited me before my eyes was a cruel reality.

Those little brats, including Myeong-gyeong, were Cheong-hwa’s disciples.

So that was why he’d bought the grass flute.

I crooked my neck and looked at Cheong-hwa.

“I have to call these kids Senior Brother?”

“That’s right.”

Blankly, I stared at Myeong-gyeong and the little ones.

Even within a generation name, there is usually a span from around twenty to thirty. If one generation includes first-, second-, and third-generation disciples, each tier usually differs by about ten years.

Since the Cheong generation were middle-aged people around fifty, the first-generation disciples should’ve been around thirty.

Yet who would’ve thought Cheong-hwa was the one in charge of the third-generation disciples.

“I’m already twenty.”

“So?”

“You’re saying I have to call children who look at least ten years younger than me Senior Brother.”

“That’s common in murim.”

Cheong-hwa said it as though it were nothing. Maybe it was common among people of murim, who treated generation order like their very lives. Ordinary people judged by age, not generation.

I barely swallowed down the fury that rose all the way to my throat.

“…I’m still only provisional for now.”

“Indeed. There’s no need to call them Senior Brother already. You’ll have plenty of days to do that in the future.”

I was absolutely going to get out somehow.

Having to spend my life serving kids whose hair hadn’t even dried yet, and not as a figure of speech but literally, was a truly humiliating prospect to someone like me who had lived outside murim.

“Still, in practice you will have to train alongside the third-generation disciples. Right now you have only built the most basic bones and muscles as a martial artist.”

Bones and muscles I’d built by running all over Wudang Mountain for two months.

Did I even sleep for two shijin a day? No matter how quickly I moved, taking charge of every delivery job had been that exhausting.

“Understood.”

“For now, you should at least get used to their faces. Greet them too. I have matters to attend to.”

In the time it took me to blink, Cheong-hwa disappeared.

Awkwardly, I looked at the children. There were three of them, including Myeong-gyeong.

Among them, the only one I’d sold a grass flute to was Myeong-gyeong. Myeong-gyeong had brought along disciples from other masters too.

“Hm. So you’re the one who’s going to become my junior brother?”

The one who looked oldest among them stepped right up. Of course, even if he looked older, he could only have been around twelve or thirteen.

For a moment I nearly blacked out, but somehow I kept my reason.

“It seems so.”

“It seems so? Don’t use that sort of tone in front of this Daoist.”

“…Ah, yes.”

“Ah, yes? That’s a tone full of dissatisfaction.”

As I stood there being harangued by a brat who looked barely over ten, my mind grew hazy.

Seeing that the others, including Myeong-gyeong, couldn’t say a word, this one seemed to be the eldest senior brother here.

Judging by the practiced way he was putting me through the wringer, I could roughly imagine how much Myeong-gyeong and the others had suffered under him.

“My Daoist name is Myeong-seong.”

“I’m Muk Hui-yeong.”

“So you haven’t even received a Daoist name yet.”

“That’s right.”

Myeong-seong clicked his tongue as if he found me distasteful. It was an impressively sharp tsk for someone his age.

I had wondered how such discourteous murim people were raised, and now I could see them growing right here.

He really was a fine young sapling of murim.

“So you’re the one who made grass flutes and gave them to the junior disciples.”

Myeong-seong said that while glancing at Myeong-gyeong. Myeong-gyeong hastily hid his grass flute behind his back.

“To be precise, I sold them.”

“You’ve really set your mind on throwing Wudang’s order into chaos.”

“Pardon?”

“Not only the junior disciples but even the other senior and junior disciples are playing with grass flutes instead of using that time to practice martial arts. What is Wudang supposed to become at this rate?”

Seeing how he couldn’t tolerate even a little rest, he really was a splendid young murim seedling.

But a young murim sapling cannot defeat a towering merchant.

“Everything depends on how it is used. Appropriate rest actually helps the efficiency of work. It’s true that I sold the grass flutes, but I never told anyone to neglect martial training in order to play with them. If one of your junior disciples went to the red-light district and played around with courtesans, would you cut off the courtesans’ heads?”

At the stream of words flowing from me like water, Myeong-seong looked flustered. He seemed to know he ought to refute me somehow, but had no idea how to do it.

I possess a tongue of iron, tempered by haggling with all manner of troublesome people in the marketplaces.

To a merchant, the tongue is what the sword is to a martial artist.

Even if he was a main-sect disciple of Wudang, to my eyes he was nothing but a simple mountain boy.

And coaxing such a boy was no difficult task.

“From the limited wisdom of a fool like me, I can see only one method by which Senior Brother can properly guide his junior disciples onto the right path.”

“…What method?”

“That method is to lead by example.”

I took out a grass flute from my travel bag. I’d kept one for myself because I thought it might be nice to play it when I was bored, but I hadn’t expected to use it like this.

Myeong-seong’s pupils shook violently. Only then did I realize it. Looking at him now, he clearly wanted a grass flute himself.

He couldn’t very well seize one like a child now that he was the senior brother, so all he could do was sulk.

To a merchant, a customer whose desires have been exposed is like a rabbit baring its neck before a tiger.

I immediately played a tune on the grass flute.

It was one of the Ten Great Famous Melodies, The Eighteen Beats of the Barbarian Reed Pipe.

A true master does not blame his tools.

When one reaches my level in the arts of entertainment, it becomes possible to play one of the Ten Great Famous Melodies even on a grass flute.

At my splendid melody, the children of the Myeong generation could only listen in a daze.

When I finished playing, Myeong-gyeong looked down at his own grass flute. It was plainly the same kind of grass flute as mine, yet his eyes were filled with the question of how it could produce such a sound.

I wiped down the flute I’d played with my sleeve and then handed it to Myeong-seong.

Still standing there blankly, Myeong-seong accepted it. In the process, he almost dropped it and fumbled to catch it, which had a strangely cute quality to it.

“If Senior Brother uses that grass flute only when resting, and concentrates only on training when it is time to train, then naturally the junior disciples who follow him will do the same, will they not? How could a junior disciple rest when his senior brother never rests? In a prestigious sect among prestigious sects, one of the Nine Great Sects, such a thing could never happen, correct?”

“Mm, that seems right.”

“Then please take that grass flute and use it to keep the junior disciples under control. Consider it a gift.”

There was no point in me keeping it anyway, since I never had time to use it.

Every day I was carrying messages around, and there was no such thing as spare time to play a grass flute.

Even when I did get a bit of time to rest, I thought of alcohol before I ever thought of a grass flute.

“…Then perhaps I shall accept it. Ahem.”

At Myeong-seong’s reaction, his junior disciples, including Myeong-gyeong, looked at him as if dumbfounded.

Only now that he had accepted the grass flute with a beaming face did they realize that Myeong-seong had wanted one all along.

And we weren’t the only ones to notice that.

“I came because I heard some vulgar tune, and what do I see but Myeong-seong’s eyes rolling over a grass flute.”

When we looked toward the source of the voice, several children with builds too large to believe they were only around ten were staring at Myeong-seong with mocking eyes.

“Myeong-han.”

Myeong-seong spoke with a frown. He seemed to be one of Myeong-seong’s peers.

There was one child on each side of Myeong-han, and they each added a word toward Myeong-seong.

“You should be ashamed, Myeong-seong.”

“Aren’t you embarrassed in front of your junior disciples?”

Myeong-seong placed a palm over his forehead.

Judging by that thoroughly sickened expression, this clearly wasn’t the first or second time they’d picked a fight with him.

Myeong-seong chose the wise method. He chose not to engage with them at all.

Myeong-han kept trying to needle him, but Myeong-seong didn’t even answer back.

Wearing a sulky expression, Myeong-han kept at it for a while, then finally noticed me.

The arrowhead turned my way.

“So you’re the peddler bastard who’s been going around selling grass flutes. Selling things like that in Wudang, are you looking to have your wrists cut off?”

“That’s right. My junior disciple got chewed out by Martial Uncle because of that grass flute too.”

Myeong-han and the others began pressing in on me.

As much as I hated to admit it, those children of around ten years old were physically intimidating. Kids born as martial artists really were different.

“No, that’s not…”

I was just about to make an excuse.

Then someone stepped in between Myeong-han and me.

It was none other than Myeong-gyeong, who had been watching until now.

“S-Senior Brother. I-I will discipline my junior brother properly.”

Unlike when he had been oppressing the lay disciples before, he looked cowed now. He really was still just a little brat.

But those words only provoked them further.

“Junior brother? Juuunior brotheeer? This peddler bastard is your junior brother?”

“Not yet, but he’s provisional…”

“Provisional?”

The eyes of Myeong-han and the others swept over me closely. Then, as though they had figured something out, their eyes curved like crescents.

“Aha. So you’re that guy. The fellow from the lay disciples who’s trying to be entered as a main-sect disciple. I heard about you from Master. A lay disciple becoming a main-sect disciple? And at your age too?”

These little bastards were talking about age now?

Their eyes were like those of predators that had found prey. They slowly approached me, and only Myeong-gyeong, standing between me and Myeong-han, had gone pale.

At that moment, someone appeared beside Myeong-gyeong.

It was Myeong-seong, wearing an expression that said he wanted no part of this at all.

Myeong-seong drew the wooden sword at his waist and pointed it squarely at them.

“Do not come any closer. He is my direct junior disciple.”

A smile spread across Myeong-han’s face.

His eyes said he had been waiting for exactly this situation.

A stifling tension spread among the little brats.