Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 131 - Cleanup (2)

Chapter 131 – Cleanup (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Going from Gansu to Nanjing in Jiangsu was practically like cutting clear across the Central Plains continent.

After all, Gansu was at the far western edge, and Jiangsu was at the far eastern edge. Even so, the schedule was not especially tight.

There was no deadline for reaching Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company anyway.

“Let’s rest a bit in Xi’an.” “We can just keep going.”

“The one next to us looks like he’s about to die.”

I jerked my chin toward Yeo Hong-yang.

Myeong-il and I had learned martial arts, so walking for this long was fine, but Yeo Hong-yang had his tongue hanging out like a dog in the heat, and even his pupils had gone unfocused. Even getting as far as Xi’an in Shaanxi without complaint was only possible because he had at least trained as a registered lay disciple.

“And I have something to do.”

“Something to do?” “Ah. It has nothing to do with Senior Brother. If you rest, I’ll take care of it and come back.”

“Do as you like.”

As soon as I reached Xi’an, I left the half-dead Yeo Hong-yang with Myeong-il and set out.

Following my memory, I headed for the inn where I had stayed before. The instant I entered the inn, a server hurried over.

“Just one person?”

“Yeah. Bring me a bowl of thin noodles. I like them undercooked, so leave the noodles just a little firm.” The server’s posture shifted slightly.

It was such a minute change that no one but a martial artist would have noticed it.

“I see. What vegetables would you like on top? Shredded scallions? Bok choy?”

“Top it with fleabane.” “Oh. Not many people ask for fleabane. And how would you like the egg?”

“Don’t break it. Leave the yolk intact.”

“Understood.” The server immediately went inside.

Not long after, an old man came down from the upstairs stairs with little groans.

Even though there were plenty of seats, the old man deliberately sat across from me.

“Young man. You don’t mind if I sit here?” “Not at all.”

It really was strange.

He was definitely someone I knew, and yet not only his face but even his voice and bone structure were different. It made me think, so this is what people who handle information are like.

Two bowls of thin noodles came out.

I picked mine up first and slurped them down. The egg yolk had indeed been left whole, and fleabane had been added, but it tasted unbelievably awful.

I had never liked fleabane in the first place.

Sometimes people say fleabane smells like lye, and I agreed with that completely.

“Still, this is a bit sloppy. Mister, you didn’t order any thin noodles.” After taking a sip of broth, I said it with a smile.

The old man chuckled.

“A good piece of advice. I’ll take it into account.” “Sure, sure.”

Both the old man and I finished our noodles.

The old man led me into a room deep inside the inn.

Beads hung long along the side of the room, so no one could see in from outside. “It has been a while.”

“It has been a while, Northern Pacification Commissioner.”

“Northern Pacification Commissioner? That is not exactly an appropriate way to address your superior.” Cracking sounds came from the old man’s body.

It sounded like bones straightening, and with every sound his body grew larger and sturdier.

Once his body had fully changed, the old man removed the human-skin mask from his face.

When the mask came off, the face I knew appeared. Baek Yu-gyeom, Northern Pacification Commissioner of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

He was the old man who had eaten thin noodles with me.

“Then what should I call you?” “Just call me Commissioner.”

“Fine, then.”

“Quite insolent.”

Baek Yu-gyeom said that, but he did not seem to care much. In any case, I was not a formal Embroidered Uniform Guard censor.

I was simply a martial-world man brought in by recommendation, so he seemed willing to overlook things to a degree.

“So then, did you report to Prince Xian?” “Yes.”

I thought about how much I should say.

Naturally, I said nothing at all about demonic qi.

Since the rebellion would only happen after Yeo Bul-jin handed the merchant company over to Yeo Hong-won, it seemed the Embroidered Uniform Guard still knew nothing about the staged rebellion. If so, there was no reason for me to tell them.

I merely dressed things up and said Prince Xian was governing the region without issue.

Still, there was one thing I had to mention. “Ah, but Prince Xian says he was not the one who removed the Embroidered Uniform Guard censors.”

“Is that so?”

“He says the Superintendent of the Eastern Depot in Gansu removed them without Prince Xian’s knowledge.” “Heh…”

Baek Yu-gyeom’s gaze turned cold.

From the start, though, there was something I did not quite understand.

“But even if the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard are enemies, do they really need to kill each other like that? No matter what, aren’t they both organs of the imperial palace?” “Hm. If you do not know the details, I can see why you would say that.”

Baek Yu-gyeom fished around beneath his seat.

From underneath came a red flask that I had not even known was there. When he pulled the stopper, the room filled thickly with the smell of liquor.

“Will you have a drink?”

“Gladly.”

The cups came from Baek Yu-gyeom’s travel bag. They were embossed with elaborate patterns, expensive-looking at a glance.

“You carry drinking cups around with you? You must be a great drinker.”

“People who deal in information, you see, are half the same as merchants. I’m saying this because you are a merchant too.” “Is that so?”

“It is. Where does information come from? Human relationships. Digging it out by force costs a lot of money, and it has limits. If you get close to people, they bring you information on their own. That is why you must maintain good relations far and wide, even if those relations are with my false identities.”

“I understand.”

Baek Yu-gyeom raised his cup, and I clinked mine against it. The clear liquor went hot down my throat.

“You asked why the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard kill each other. The answer is simple. We are people who cannot coexist.”

“Cannot coexist? What does that mean?” “Why, people who accumulate spiritual qi and people who accumulate demonic qi instinctively recoil from each other, do they not?”

“They do.”

“That is the relationship between the Eastern Depot and us.”

“Is it?” That still did not make sense to me.

I tilted my head in confusion, and Baek Yu-gyeom smiled as he spoke.

“The Eastern Depot is made up of eunuchs from the beginning, so they cultivate martial arts with yin-aligned energy. Among them, the experts can make coldness pour out with nothing more than a gesture.” “Then the Embroidered Uniform Guard mainly uses martial arts based on yang qi.”

“Exactly. Conversely, if one masters the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s martial arts to the extreme, one shines like sunlight and burns hot.”

Now that I thought about it, even this liquor had been heated so hot it startled the tongue. Whether that too had something to do with the martial arts they cultivated, I could not say.

“Still, that does not explain everything. There are many heart arts in this world with yang qi and yin qi, but when they clash, they do not all try to kill each other.”

“That is true. But extreme yin and extreme yang naturally recoil from one another.”

“So there is something more than mere aversion?” “There is. Normally this would be secret from ordinary censors, but since you are a martial artist, perhaps it is fine for you to know.”

“…Is it really all right for me to know?”

I was the sort of person who would rather not hear other people’s secrets. Even so, I was curious why the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot fought so fiercely.

“Well, once one reaches the rank of Commissioner, everyone knows this secret anyway.”

“Then please tell me.”

“The Eastern Depot’s martial arts are rooted in demonic qi. Ours are rooted in spiritual qi.” “Huh.”

This was the first I had heard of it.

To begin with, the idea that the imperial palace had created martial arts using demonic qi at all was astonishing. Then again, considering Prince Xian had cultivated demonic qi, it was not impossible.

If it was demonic qi and spiritual qi, then the story certainly made sense.

As I had seen even in the Taiji Sword Guardians test, a person with weak spiritual qi could react to demonic qi strongly enough to vomit.

“Of course, since they belong to the imperial palace, they could not put demonic qi on full display. It would be disastrous if it openly leaked out. Likely only those who master Eastern Depot martial arts to the highest level reveal demonic qi faintly.” “I see.”

I had fought two Eastern Depot men myself, and I had not sensed even a shred of demonic qi.

It was probably because their martial arts had not been advanced that far. “Still, I cannot understand it. Why would they deliberately create martial arts that use demonic qi?”

“It is said the Founding Emperor of the imperial state ordered it so.”

“Why?”

“Because groups that handle information are important, and he believed it would be dangerous if they conspired together. The reason he split them into two groups was also to set them into competition.” “Ah.”

I could almost understand it.

The imperial palace wanted the imperial dynasty to last forever. So it meant they would not leave behind even the smallest possible risk factor.

“Then if they had simply never learned those martial arts, they would have had no reason to oppose each other.”

“Probably. But what can one do?”

The more I thought about it, the more bitter the story became. They had no personal grudge, and yet because of the martial arts they had learned, they were forced into hostility with one another.

“In any case, that is how it is. Do you think the imperial palace does not know that the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard kill each other? On the contrary, they encourage the killing. To make them compete even more fiercely. People can always be replenished.”

“That is a cruel thing to say.” “The world is cruel at times. No, it is always cruel.”

Baek Yu-gyeom chuckled.

* * * In any case, that was how I paid back the ten thousand taels of silver.

I did feel a bit guilty about clearing ten thousand taels’ worth while still not speaking honestly about Prince Xian, but Baek Yu-gyeom seemed to consider the fact that the Eastern Depot had killed the Embroidered Uniform Guard censors sufficient payment in itself.

After leaving my meeting with Baek Yu-gyeom behind, I was given a means to make contact in confidence.

Since the Embroidered Uniform Guard was also an information organization, they truly had safe houses everywhere. “We’re finally in Jiangsu.”

Myeong-il said.

For Myeong-il, who ordinarily did not express his opinions much if he could help it, to say that much, the journey from Gansu to Jiangsu really had been long and tedious. Besides, we had not used qinggong to hurry.

Since Yeo Hong-yang was close to an ordinary person, we had no choice but to alternate between riding horses and walking, so of course it had been slow.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“I wasn’t.” Yeo Hong-yang answered Myeong-il in a curt tone, but Myeong-il kept pretending ignorance.

Even so, the relationship between the two of them had improved quite a bit.

After all, if people stayed glued together for months like this, even resentment would eventually grow into a kind of bond. Compared to Gansu, where they had hardly spoken at all, it was truly huge progress.

Yeo Hong-yang would sometimes crack jokes at Myeong-il, and though Myeong-il replied as if annoyed and kept his answers short, the conversation somehow continued anyway.

We went straight to the main headquarters of Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company.

At the main gate, someone was already there who recognized us. “The Company Master has been waiting for you.”

They had probably sent a letter hawk to Jiangsu when we set out from Gansu.

We entered naturally. It was my second visit.

But my companions were different this time.

Instead of Senior Brothers Myeong-yeop, Myeong-gyeong, and Myeong-seong, it was Yeo Hong-yang and Myeong-il.

“Please, go in.” At the door to the company master’s room, our guide opened the door.

Inside were Yeo Bul-jin and the guard I had seen before.

Yeo Bul-jin was sitting, and the guard stood close behind him. “Heh heh. So you have come.”

“Yes.”

“You did not offend Prince Xian, I hope?”

I thought about that for a moment. Had cutting off the guard’s arm and threatening him offended him?

No. He had tried to kill me first, so if he took offense at that, he would only be petty.

“It was a very comfortable meeting.” “Hm, hm. I am sure it was. So then, did you sell it?”

Yeo Bul-jin asked me with a smile.

I glanced briefly at Myeong-il. I could not mention the Taiji Wisdom Sword here.

“I did. There was no way not to.”

“Indeed. Indeed there was not. Heh heh heh.”

Yeo Bul-jin’s laughter was loathsome. He had put the Taiji Wisdom Sword in my hands and told me to sell it, and now he wore that smile.

Then again, it was not as if I had not underestimated the Merchant King too much.

I stepped closer to Yeo Bul-jin and handed him the money pouch. “Here is the amount from the sale.”

“Mm.”

Yeo Bul-jin took the pouch and looked inside.

“Four thousand nine hundred taels? That is an oddly specific amount.” I had originally received five thousand taels, and I had given one hundred to the girl, so it became four thousand nine hundred.

Yeo Hong-yang and Myeong-il, who knew where that one hundred had gone, both turned to stare at me.

Apparently they had never imagined I would give money meant for the Merchant King to a young girl. I shrugged.

“I had a personal use for the other hundred taels.”

“Bold, are you not.”

Yeo Bul-jin laughed in disbelief. “Still, from your position, I suppose you have a right to be angry. I apologize.”

“So you knew that much. That is a relief.”

“Of course. Even so, do not worry. If you get to borrow the distribution network for three years, it is still a profitable deal for you, is it not?” Yeo Bul-jin nodded.

It was the smile of a man deeply satisfied that he had managed to make me swallow a loss.

“That is true.”

“Then may I ask what you intend to distribute through that network? If possible, I would prefer it not overlap too much with our own items.” “Ah. I suppose I should say it now. This may be rather unfortunate news for you.”

I smiled.

At my smile, Yeo Bul-jin’s own smile stiffened slightly. “Starting next year, Radiant Crystal Merchant Company will be handling the procurement goods for Gansu.”

“…What?”

The corners of Yeo Bul-jin’s raised mouth flattened into a straight line. At that moment, my own smile only deepened.