Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 13 - Hall of Exhausting the Way (2)

Chapter 13 – Hall of Exhausting the Way (2)

===================

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

I felt like I roughly understood how this situation worked. Merchants too had many factions depending on region or background. There was no reason martial artists would be any different.

Whenever an organization forms, factions inevitably split off, and it seemed these children were no exception.

“They’re Martial Uncle Cheong-yu’s disciples.”

Someone explained that from beside me. It was one of the children standing next to Myeong-gyeong.

The children who had been beside Myeong-gyeong formed a ring around me.

The way each of them took up a direction made it look as though they were guarding me.

“Martial Uncle Cheong-yu and our Master don’t get along very well.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

Was it because Cheong-hwa had brought me here that they felt a sense of belonging toward me?

Even Myeong-seong, though he’d given me a hard time, seemed to be the sort who believed that if someone was his, then only he got to beat him.

To think I would feel reassured by a bunch of little brats. What a disgrace to my fifty years.

At any rate, if the adults didn’t get along, there was no chance the children would get along either.

That was probably why Myeong-han kept picking fights with Myeong-seong.

And in the middle of that, it seemed Myeong-seong hadn’t wanted to accept me but had been forced to because I gave them an excuse.

“Myeong-seong. Move aside. I intend to hold that lay disciple responsible for disrupting Wudang’s discipline.”

“He is a provisional main-sect disciple.”

“Same thing either way.”

Myeong-han and Myeong-seong were trading words.

To think a grass flute could rise to the level of disrupting discipline.

Then again, Wudang Mountain was so lacking in amusements that maybe even a grass flute was stimulating.

“Are you not moving?”

“He is someone who will become my junior disciple. If discipline is needed, then I will do it.”

“We may not serve the same master, but senior-brother and junior-brother relationships still exist between us, don’t they?”

“By convention, you don’t meddle with another master’s disciples.”

“No, if something is clearly wrong to anyone’s eyes, then guiding him is what makes a proper senior brother. If your junior disciple walked around with his hands in his pockets, would you just let it pass?”

“That is different.”

“Then explain to me how it is different.”

“If you take one more step, I’ll explain it with my sword.”

Even though they were children, the hostility between them was terrifying.

Seeing the sort of place they had grown up in, I could understand why they could look at ordinary commoners without a second thought.

“That suits me just fine.”

Myeong-han drew the wooden sword at his waist as well. The presences of Myeong-seong and Myeong-han collided sharply.

“Senior Brother Myeong-seong has fought Senior Brother Myeong-han 201 times. He’s won 108 and lost 93.”

The child beside me provided that explanation.

Even sworn enemies who could not live under the same sky would hardly fight over two hundred times. I supposed that was simply what came of hot blood at that age.

“Myeong-gyeong. Stand back.”

“Yes, Senior Brother.”

Myeong-gyeong, caught in the middle, was pulled clear by Myeong-seong. He quickly withdrew from the battlefield and came over beside me.

The fight began from that very moment.

Without anyone even announcing it, Myeong-seong and Myeong-han attacked at the same time.

The sound of wooden sword striking wooden sword was vicious. I couldn’t be certain, but if one of those blows landed squarely, it felt like serious injury would be unavoidable.

And yet their movements were fluid and airy.

I had heard that Wudang’s swordsmanship was described with the phrase softness overcomes hardness. Their swordplay certainly revealed that characteristic well.

When Myeong-seong received Myeong-han’s sword and struck it back, Myeong-han would receive it in turn and send it back again. That sort of exchange continued without end.

Young as they were, their swordsmanship was clearly already complete. Since they looked no more than ten years old, they must have trained at least five years.

Of course, it couldn’t even be compared to the Taiji Wisdom Sword Cheong-hwa had shown, but it possessed a kind of easy grace of its own.

I watched them fight in fascination.

When I was just a merchant, it would’ve looked like nothing more than a brawl, but now that I had learned a bit of martial arts, I could see the current of the fight.

The reason I could read that current was simple.

They too were using the Azure Cloud Steps.

Their movements did not deviate far from variations of the Azure Cloud Steps.

‘I can see their steps.’

Since I knew the Azure Cloud Steps, I could predict their next movements. It was strangely entertaining to watch them move exactly as I expected.

I felt as though I was beginning to understand why martial artists became addicted to martial arts.

The more one knew, the more there was to enjoy in a fight between martial artists.

“You still can’t see it very well yet, right?”

While I was watching in interest, Myeong-gyeong suddenly said that.

“Pardon?”

“I was like that at first too. I couldn’t follow the way the swords were moving.”

Myeong-gyeong straightened his little shoulders proudly as though to say that it was understandable.

‘I can see everything.’

Since I could clearly see through their footwork, I could roughly predict the path of their swords as well.

But Myeong-gyeong seemed to think I couldn’t see a thing.

“Once you learn martial arts too, your eyes will get better.”

“Ah, yes…”

There seemed no need to embarrass the little brat by saying that I could see it all.

Perhaps at the level of the lay disciples, not being able to see martial techniques was simply natural.

‘Has the Azure Cloud Steps I learned over two months really reached that high a level of attainment?’

I couldn’t say anything about sword arts or fist and kicking techniques, but as far as footwork went, neither Myeong-han nor Myeong-seong seemed all that amazing.

I felt as though I could move at that level too.

At first, I thought perhaps they were deliberately holding back because it was only a friendly spar, but looking at their expressions, they really were fighting with all their strength.

At that moment, the balance in the fight, which had been dead even, broke apart.

While they had been circling sideways as they fought, Myeong-seong suddenly stepped one pace forward.

If this were weiqi, it was a brilliant move that smashed apart the opponent’s territory. Of course, that too was an application of the Azure Cloud Steps.

“Hup!”

Only belatedly did the children, including Myeong-gyeong, react.

It seemed my eye for a fight was better than the children’s.

Well, I’d lived longer than they had, and in terms of experience watching martial artists fight, I had far more of it.

And not childish bouts with wooden swords like this, but life-and-death battles between first-rate experts.

Once the balance broke, the evenly matched deadlock rapidly collapsed.

I sensed instinctively that the fight was over.

Myeong-han’s footwork had started tangling in his panic.

‘If it goes on like that, his feet will cross and he’ll fall.’

The very moment I predicted it, Myeong-han’s feet tangled and he fell backward onto his rear.

Myeong-seong’s wooden sword stopped right in front of Myeong-han’s nose.

“It’s over.”

Myeong-seong, too, seemed to have driven himself close to his limits, breathing hard.

Myeong-han’s face twisted. The spar was Myeong-seong’s victory.

“Now get lost.”

“Why should we?”

The one who answered wasn’t the seated Myeong-han, but one of the children who had come with him.

“Myeong-un.”

The boy called Myeong-un drew his wooden sword.

“Would you please teach me a move as well?”

Myeong-seong frowned.

So did the children around him, including Myeong-gyeong.

To anyone, it was obvious that this was an attempt to exploit Myeong-seong while his strength was drained.

But Myeong-seong did not avoid it. He drew the sword he had just sheathed once more.

“Gladly.”

Myeong-han withdrew, and Myeong-un stepped forward. Though Myeong-un was Myeong-seong’s junior, he didn’t seem to hold much respect for him.

He rushed in immediately, without even waiting for any word to start the fight.

Unlike the swordsmanship expected of Wudang, Myeong-un pressed down with brute force. He was aiming at the fact that Myeong-seong had already lost a great deal of strength.

“Cowardly bastards.”

Myeong-seong ground out those words through clenched teeth.

Myeong-un merely sneered. That was because he was overwhelming Myeong-seong.

This was the world of martial artists.

The victor takes everything.

Whatever comes from the mouth of the loser is nothing but excuse.

That remained true even if the act itself had really been cowardly.

Myeong-gyeong and the others had their fists clenched tight.

Myeong-seong failed to block Myeong-un’s relentless offense and allowed the wooden sword to strike the back of his hand.

Myeong-seong dropped his sword, and Myeong-un’s wooden blade pointed straight at him.

Of course, no one would think Myeong-seong had truly lost a proper spar against Myeong-un, but that was a matter for later.

At this moment alone, Myeong-un was indeed the victor.

“Then let me request a lesson next.”

The next one was Myeong-gyeong.

Judging by age alone, Myeong-gyeong looked like the youngest, but I found myself thinking he might actually be in the middle. The hierarchy among martial artists wasn’t decided by age.

Myeong-un nodded. Given what they themselves had just done, he couldn’t very well refuse.

The fight between Myeong-seong and Myeong-han ultimately escalated into a factional clash between disciples of different masters.

In truth, it seemed Myeong-han had intended that from the start.

But the children under Myeong-seong were still only children.

Myeong-gyeong collapsed helplessly before Myeong-un even though Myeong-un’s swordsmanship and footwork weren’t all that dazzling.

As Myeong-seong’s face hardened, Myeong-han’s brightened. To them, saving face for their master probably mattered more than anything else.

“When you’re busy playing around with grass flutes, of course your junior disciples will turn out like that.”

Myeong-han mocked Myeong-seong, and Myeong-seong couldn’t say a word.

That damned grass flute.

I couldn’t understand how a grass flute had led to this.

Of course, I knew it was only a pretext. But when they kept making an issue of something I’d sold, it naturally got on my nerves.

In the midst of all that, the last remaining child on Myeong-seong’s side barely managed to defeat Myeong-un.

Now that left one disciple under Myeong-seong and one under Myeong-han.

But at a glance, Myeong-seong’s direct junior disciple had clearly lost a lot of strength in beating Myeong-un, while Myeong-han’s disciple was still fresh.

Judging by physique alone, it looked like Myeong-han’s disciple would win easily even if both had been fresh, so there was no need to speak of how unfavorable it was.

It seemed both Myeong-han and Myeong-seong had already guessed the outcome.

Though he’d lost the leading match, Myeong-han was all smiles, while Myeong-seong looked as if he’d swallowed poison.

I looked at Myeong-gyeong, who had already lost and returned to my side.

He wore such a deeply humiliated expression that it made me think even a child could make a face like that.

“Daoist Myeong-gyeong.”

Since I wasn’t his junior brother yet, I called him that.

“…What.”

“It’s alright. You can lose.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“No. I mean it.”

It was sincere advice born from a merchant’s experience.

I too had been pushed aside by countless merchants.

I had been driven out of market spots while peddling goods. There were times when the merchants of another region obstructed me so thoroughly I couldn’t sell a single item.

But I overcame all of that and became the Merchant King.

In the end, what matters most is the last result.

Defeat in the present is merely nourishment for the final victory.

“As long as you don’t die, the chance for revenge always remains.”

“It’s so unfair.”

Myeong-gyeong said that.

As expected, he was still too young for my advice to truly reach him.

Still, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with being faithful to his feelings right now. Those too would become nourishment later.

In the end, Myeong-han’s disciple defeated Myeong-seong’s last disciple, and the fight was over.

Individually they had lost here and there, but taken as a whole, Myeong-han’s side had won. Their expressions stated the result more plainly than words.

“Now then, it should be alright if I discipline that lay disciple a little, yes?”

Myeong-han said that.

Ah.

I had momentarily forgotten how this whole fight had started because I’d gotten too busy watching martial arts.

Myeong-han had been trying to punish me, and Myeong-seong had stopped him.

Now that Myeong-seong had fallen, there was no one left to stop him.

And indeed, Myeong-seong was trembling but couldn’t say anything.

He clearly recognized himself as the loser.

Myeong-han approached me in high spirits.

Of course, no matter how large he was, he was still a full head shorter than me. I was still an adult of twenty years, after all.

“Wait.”

I said that.

Myeong-han stopped mid-step.

Sorry, but I too was a man with his pride.

And because I was older, my sensitivity to humiliation was even greater than theirs.

For someone my age to be scolded by children of about ten was something my pride simply could not permit.

“Please teach me a move as well.”

At my words, not only Myeong-han but even the children on Myeong-seong’s side widened their eyes.

Myeong-han paused for a moment, then sneered.

“Ha. How dare a mere lay disciple challenge a main-sect disciple?”

“Hey.”

At the sudden shift to casual speech, Myeong-han stiffened. It seemed the brat was flustered that someone he thought was beneath him, whether as a junior disciple or a lay disciple, was now speaking down to him.

“Did you just drop honorifics?”

I’m not your junior disciple yet, so I can speak casually if I want. The strange thing is a kid like you chattering informally at an adult.

Of course, I had no intention of saying that aloud.

The more one explained in a battle of momentum, the more pathetic it became.

Instead, I stepped forward until I stood right in front of Myeong-han.

My shadow, taller than him by a full head, fell over his body.

“Want to die?”

I said in a cold voice.

Perhaps because he felt the pressure, both of Myeong-han’s eyes shook for an instant.

No matter what, I was an adult a full head taller than these little brats.

I had crossed swords of nerves with troublesome people countless times in the marketplaces.

Subduing little brats was nothing.