Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 132 - Cleanup (3)

Chapter 132 – Cleanup (3)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The atmosphere in the room turned cold.

The pressure was coming from the guard standing behind Yeo Bul-jin. The guard seemed to know something about the merchant company’s affairs as well.

That was why he was reacting like that.

“Say that again.” “Starting next year, Radiant Crystal Merchant Company will be sending the procurement goods for Gansu. Using Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company’s distribution network.”

“So I did not hear you wrong.”

Yeo Bul-jin tapped the desk lightly with his finger. I beamed at him.

At times like this, smiling was the best way to make the other side burn.

The guard saw that and let his killing intent thicken even more. “Heh heh heh…”

Then Yeo Bul-jin lowered his head and let out a laugh.

For a moment I wondered if he had gone mad. Judging by the way the guard was looking at him, he seemed to think the same thing.

“Hahahahahaha!”

Yeo Bul-jin threw back his head and laughed loudly. It was loud enough to make the entire great room ring.

Yeo Hong-yang froze in shock, while Myeong-il and I looked at him as though we had encountered some strange person.

The laughter only stopped once he had gone so far as to wipe tears from the corners of his eyes with his fingertips. “Ah, this is amusing.”

“They say laughter is a cure-all.”

Yeo Bul-jin was still grinning, unable to completely stop laughing.

“Indeed. Many thanks. I think you have added a year to my life.” “That makes me proud.”

Yeo Hong-yang was staring at Yeo Bul-jin and me in utter shock.

The Yeo Bul-jin before him right now seemed very different from the father he knew. “You have some skill. If Prince Xian changed things like that without so much as a word to me, then something must have happened.”

“That isn’t what you were going to ask about, is it?”

“I am curious, of course.” “Who was it that said a merchant’s weapon is neither a blade nor a tongue, but secrets?”

I smiled.

It was Yeo Bul-jin’s own line, so there was no way he could refute it. Yeo Bul-jin nodded.

“I did not expect you to tell me anyway.”

“Then you should not have asked in the first place.” “Your edge is quite sharp.”

“This is normal for me. My edge is not that dull.”

At that moment, the guard behind him let his pressure crash down on me. For an instant, a tingling sensation ran down my spine.

I had roughly expected it, but as expected of a man strong enough to serve as the Merchant King’s personal guard.

“Mockery should have its limits. You are still wet behind the ears.” “Mun-won. That is enough. If we are speaking of who was at fault first, then it was I.”

At Yeo Bul-jin’s words, the guard called Mun-won withdrew his pressure.

He was a guard who listened well.

“In any case, I took a blow this time.” “We each took one blow.”

“Is that so? Very well. What Prince Xian has chosen is not something we can overturn. And since the distribution network was something I offered with my own mouth, I can hardly do anything about it.”

Yeo Bul-jin raised both hands with a smile. “This time, I admit defeat, young man.”

Yeo Bul-jin declared his defeat.

I smiled faintly. “Now that you have declared defeat, would you mind letting me take one piece of spoils?”

“You truly are a bandit. What spoils are you talking about?”

“There is simply something I am curious about. If you permit it, I would like to ask a question.” “Now I am curious what sort of question you intend to ask. Go ahead.”

“That item you gave me, where exactly did you obtain it?”

The question I asked was a fundamental one. The Taiji Wisdom Sword.

It was not the sort of martial art that should be circulating in the marketplace.

The Taiji Wisdom Sword was kept in an important place even within Three Peaks Pavilion. That meant it was the very essence and core of Wudang’s martial arts.

I needed to know how such a thing had ended up in the hands of Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company.

“That item. You are a thoughtful young man.” Yeo Bul-jin glanced briefly at Myeong-il.

He had realized that Myeong-il was the reason I was avoiding mentioning the Taiji Wisdom Sword openly.

From Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company’s perspective as well, there was no need to mention the Taiji Wisdom Sword unless they meant to turn Wudang into an enemy. So the two of us reached an unspoken understanding with our eyes.

“There are always, everywhere, people who need money. We simply find those who need it.”

“Money…”

I let out a low sound. Was there really someone among Wudang’s Daoists who was short of money?

I had seen plenty of Daoists who felt aversion toward money, but none who were hungry for it.

I could not make sense of it at all. No matter how hard I turned it over in my mind, no one came to mind.

“Do you think you know everyone? That is an arrogant thought.”

“That is true.” This time, I could not help but acknowledge Yeo Bul-jin’s words.

No matter how experienced I was as a merchant, there was no way I could see through every person’s inner thoughts and lies.

“But why did you accept a request like that in the first place?” “It was a request from Prince Xian. How could a mere commoner refuse?”

“I think someone of your stature as Merchant King could have done so well enough.”

“Heh heh. You overestimate me.” “Did you never consider that if the righteous martial world was thrown into turmoil, the commercial world would also become unstable?”

At my question, Yeo Bul-jin tilted his head.

“For the first time today, you have said something I do not understand.” “Isn’t that so? Considering that the righteous martial world preserves public order to a certain degree.”

“Ah. So that is what you meant.”

Yeo Bul-jin laughed heartily. “What is that to me?”

“What?”

“If public order worsens, then one sells weapons. Is that not what a merchant is? Turning crisis into opportunity is a person’s task.”

I narrowed my eyes. Even in my previous life, I had never spoken at length with the Merchant King.

To begin with, we belonged to different generations, and by the time I saw him in my previous life, he had already declined.

So this meant I was hearing his values for the first time now. “So as long as something sells, that is all that matters.”

“Disappointed?”

“A little.” “This is how I rose to where I am. I sold the wagons I had prepared during floods, and the boats I had prepared during droughts.”

“I understand.”

I nodded. Yeo Bul-jin smiled with narrowed eyes.

“That is what you call resignation. No one would look at your eyes and think you truly understand.”

“In a broad sense, resignation is also understanding.” I rose from my seat.

Yeo Bul-jin looked up at me.

“I will be going now.” “It was a good conversation.”

“I think so too.”

I bowed my head. When I stood up, Myeong-il and Yeo Hong-yang also rose with me.

“Hong-yang, stay a moment. I want to speak with you.”

At Yeo Bul-jin’s words, Yeo Hong-yang’s expression fell.

Yeo Hong-yang looked at me like a dog drenched in rain, but even I could not interfere in a matter between father and son. “I’ll wait outside.”

That was all I could say as I left.

* * * The sound of footsteps echoing through the hallway gradually grew distant and finally disappeared.

“They have left the building.”

The instant Mun-won said that, Yeo Bul-jin slammed his desk with a bang. He did not stop there and rose to overturn the bookshelf leaning against the wall.

Books and documents spilled everywhere.

The collapsing shelf mercilessly shattered a decorative vase. In an instant, the company master’s room of Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company turned into a complete mess.

Yeo Hong-yang had gone rigid.

He knew very well that Yeo Bul-jin had a fiery temper. That was why he had been tense while Muk Hui-yeong kept provoking him.

For a moment he had thought perhaps this time was different, but it turned out Yeo Bul-jin had merely been holding himself back.

“Mun-won.” “Yes.”

“Send word for Hong-won to come down from Beijing at once.”

“Understood.” Mun-won glanced at the situation and then stepped outside.

Only Yeo Bul-jin, breathing hard, and Yeo Hong-yang remained in the room.

Yeo Bul-jin, one hand on his waist and breathing deeply while looking at the ceiling, suddenly whipped around toward Yeo Hong-yang. Yeo Hong-yang, still sitting in his chair, flinched.

“Were you with him when he met Prince Xian?”

“…No. Prince Xian did not permit it.”

“At least that is a relief. If you had stood by and watched our merchant company’s livelihood get cut off, I would not have let you go unpunished.” Yeo Hong-yang trembled slightly.

It was because Yeo Bul-jin was not a man who spoke empty words.

In other words, when he said he would not let him go unpunished, it was not a rhetorical expression. Knowing that, Yeo Hong-yang swallowed hard.

“Leave Wudang.”

“What?” Yeo Hong-yang jolted in shock at Yeo Bul-jin’s words.

“Have you not already become close with everyone there that was worth becoming close with?”

“B-but I still have some time left on my term as a registered lay disciple.” “The reason I sent you to Wudang was because I thought that through you, Wudang might find an opening into the commercial world. But that path has now gone up in smoke, has it not?”

His father truly was his father.

Yeo Bul-jin was not speaking in the heat of anger. Even now, Yeo Bul-jin was making a cold judgment.

One could see that from how he had hidden his fury with laughter even in front of Muk Hui-yeong, who had mocked him directly.

Yet Yeo Hong-yang could not easily open his mouth. He had always followed Yeo Bul-jin’s words.

That was only natural.

Yeo Hong-yang had also wanted to inherit Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company. “Why no answer?”

Yeo Bul-jin pressed him.

Yeo Hong-yang clenched his fists and trembled.

Muk Hui-yeong’s words flashed quickly through his mind. Right now, he was inferior to his eldest brother Yeo Hong-won in every way.

Even now, though Muk Hui-yeong had taken something away from Yeo Hong-won, it had not been Yeo Hong-yang’s doing.

Instinctively, Yeo Hong-yang realized something. Among all the things to be gained at Wudang, the greatest one was the person called Muk Hui-yeong.

Even if he was the man who had mocked his father, that much was certain.

Muk Hui-yeong already had deep ties with Wudang’s main-sect disciples. If Yeo Hong-yang stayed attached to Muk Hui-yeong, then at the very least he too would be able to benefit from those connections.

Had he not even built a certain degree of bond with Myeong-il on this trip?

“…I refuse.” “What?”

Yeo Bul-jin’s eyes widened to the size of lanterns.

It was the first time. The first time Yeo Hong-yang had ever defied Yeo Bul-jin’s words.

To begin with, among Yeo Bul-jin’s children, there had never been a single one who had disobeyed him even once.

“I believe there is still more for me to gain at Wudang.” “What, exactly? Surely you do not mean Muk Hui-yeong?”

“Yes. That is exactly what I mean.”

“Did you not just see what that bastard did to his father?” “That is one matter, and this is another. Even you had no choice but to smooth it over with laughter after he got the better of you.”

Even as Yeo Hong-yang spoke, it felt as though he could hear his own heart pounding.

Speaking against Yeo Bul-jin was that difficult for him.

But he could not stop here. “In that regard, our side has decided to cooperate in the distribution of Radiant Crystal Merchant Company’s procurement goods. Since they are using our distribution network, it will obviously be far more efficient if we help them. Of course, this is not charity. It is a business arrangement done in return for proper compensation.”

“How admirable. You mean you will help the enemy who stole what was ours?”

“This was not Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company’s failure. It was Elder Brother’s failure. He failed to keep Prince Xian under his control to the very end. I am merely trying to recover some part of Elder Brother’s mistake.” Yeo Bul-jin fell silent and glared at Yeo Hong-yang.

Yeo Hong-yang desperately wanted to look away, but this was not the time to do that.

“…So being at that fellow’s side really is of some help.” At last, Yeo Bul-jin let out those words with a sigh.

Yeo Hong-yang was dazed.

It was the first time. The first time he had heard words from Yeo Bul-jin that sounded almost like approval.

To be acknowledged through his first act of resistance.

It was a strange feeling. “When you leave Wudang, you may decide that for yourself. But if I ever conclude that you are harming the merchant company, I will cast you aside without mercy.”

“Even if I died and came back to life, I would still be a man of Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company.”

Yeo Hong-yang said it in a trembling voice. He wanted to say it in a cool and confident manner, but somehow it did not come easily.

“Get out…”

Before Yeo Bul-jin could finish speaking, an enormous crash sounded from outside. The building shook so much it could be felt.

Yeo Bul-jin and Yeo Hong-yang hurried outside.

When they reached the source of the sound, the ground nearby had already been torn up and thrown into complete disorder. And there, Mun-won and Muk Hui-yeong stood with their swords drawn, glaring at each other.