Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 134 - Cleanup (5)

Chapter 134 – Cleanup (5)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Wait a moment. I think we climbed the wrong mountain.”

Myeong-il grabbed the back of my clothes. But we were not fools.

To begin with, there was no mountain this large near Jun County besides Wudang Mountain.

“Why?”

“From where I stand, this one looks fake.” “But it has a Wudang Sect signboard.”

I pointed at the Wudang Sect signboard.

There stood a huge gate decorated with costly gold-trimmed decorative paintwork, and the words Great Wudang Sect gleamed in gold.

“I think it’s a scam. Look closer. Maybe it isn’t Wudang Sect at all. Maybe it’s Wudyang Sect.” “…What kind of…”

Still, I could understand why Myeong-il was reacting this way.

Yeo Hong-yang beside us was standing there with his mouth hanging open too.

“Huh. Walnut wood is expensive. And they used whole timber for all of this. And what’s with the gold-trimmed decorative paintwork? That’s the most expensive kind of decorative paintwork there is.” Perhaps because he was a merchant, Yeo Hong-yang began by appraising the value immediately.

In truth, I had already finished calculating it myself.

They spent quite a bit. The reason I was not terribly surprised was because I was the one who had delivered the money to Cheong-ui.

The amount I had given Cheong-ui was one thousand taels of silver.

With a thousand taels of silver, not only could you renovate buildings, you could overhaul them like this outright.

The part I found strange was something else. At the place where this great gate now stood, Wudang disciples used to stand guard.

But there was not even the hint of a bird now, let alone any guards.

“Did they all go take a shit?”

“No. I told you, this isn’t Wudang Sect. It’s Wudyang Sect.” Myeong-il was still denying reality.

He simply could not believe his Wudang Sect could ever look this splendid and dazzling.

At that moment, I saw two people ambling down from far away.

When I looked closely, they were Myeong-yeop and Myeong-gyeong. Soon the two of them recognized us as well.

Myeong-yeop recognized me and smiled, while Myeong-gyeong came running straight toward me.

“Wow! Junior Brother!” “What the hell. Why did you get so tall?”

I picked up the rushing Myeong-gyeong and spun him around once.

Myeong-gyeong smacked my wrist.

“You should greet me properly. I’m your Senior Brother.” “But it’s fun, isn’t it?”

Myeong-gyeong could not say anything.

I had never seen anyone dislike this.

I spun him a few more times, then set him down once he started to look a little dizzy. “So you’ve come.”

By then, Myeong-yeop had also come closer to us.

Unlike with Myeong-gyeong, I saluted him properly with cupped fists.

“Registered lay disciples Muk Hui-yeong and Yeo Hong-yang, and third-generation disciple Myeong-il, have returned.” “Good. Welcome back. It took you long enough.”

“I suppose it did.”

I looked again at Myeong-gyeong’s great height. Looking closer, it seemed Myeong-il beside him had also grown some.

I had stayed with Myeong-il constantly, so I had never noticed he was growing at all.

“How long has it been since we set out?”

“A little over half a year, was it?” “Damn, time really flies.”

“It does. Just look at the signboard.”

Our heads turned toward the signboard.

It was so splendid that even Myeong-il could not believe what he was seeing. “I heard there was a heated argument among the Martial Uncles over whether it was proper for a Daoist sect to decorate its signboard this extravagantly. But Mount Hua Sect, another Daoist sect, is even more splendid than this.”

“That’s true enough. The robes and swords are well maintained too.”

After I brought in the craftsmen, the robes and swords had all become clean and high quality.

Myeong-yeop smiled in satisfaction. “Exactly. I don’t know how we ever lived the way we used to.”

“People are just like that. Once you start using good things, you can’t go back to bad ones. You only start looking for something better.”

While laughing, a question I had forgotten suddenly came back to me. “But don’t people stand guard here anymore?”

“Guard? Hey, hey. Why would we keep doing something that inefficient?”

“Pardon?”

“Look beside the pillars.” On the pillars to either side of the signboard hung something like geometric stone towers.

I knew at once what they were.

“A formation.”

“Right. Now we don’t need to waste people on guard duty. It’s better to spend that time training martial arts. If anyone comes or goes, word reaches our side. That’s the kind of formation it is.” “Oh. That’s fascinating. The world really has gotten better.”

“The world was always like this. We were the ones who lived without enjoying it.”

“Is this formation from the Zhuge Clan?”

“Why would we use theirs? There are plenty of other famous formation houses.” “That’s true.”

Myeong-yeop smiled.

Now that I thought about it, both Myeong-yeop and Myeong-gyeong seemed to have grown bigger too.

Not that they had gained fat, but their bodies had been built up in a way that looked just right. “Anyway, everyone will be glad to see you. Let’s head up.”

Myeong-yeop led us up toward Wudang Sect.

From the outer compound and the Hall of Preserved Wholeness to the inner compound, the buildings gradually came into view one by one. It was obvious that they had not merely changed the signboard.

The entire place had been transformed.

They had not torn down the buildings and built them anew, but things like creeping vines and cobwebs had all vanished, leaving everything clean.

It looked as though they had hired people to repair the entire place. As we climbed Wudang Mountain, we ran into more and more disciples.

They all recognized me and were delighted.

“Oh, Hui-yeong! You’re back?”

“Yes, it has been a while.” “It looks like your skin got a little darker.”

“I’ve been roaming all over the place.”

“Hey, hey. Don’t say things like that in front of the Martial Uncles. Especially Martial Uncle Cheong-yu. He’ll lose his mind because it isn’t fit for a Daoist.”

Joking around with the Wudang disciples, I kept climbing upward. Wudang had definitely changed a lot while I had been away.

From the look of the buildings to the expressions on people’s faces.

As expected, money really was something worth having. Since I had returned after a long journey abroad, it was only natural to pay my respects to the Sect Leader.

Myeong-yeop guided us to Three Purities Hall.

Since Yeo Hong-yang had also learned a bit as a registered lay disciple, he was at least skilled enough to climb the cliff to Three Purities Hall.

Of course, he only just arrived by the time Myeong-il and I had already climbed the whole cliff and had time to yawn. When we entered Three Purities Hall and knocked on the door of the Sect Leader’s room, an answer came from inside.

“Enter.”

I opened the door and went in.

The instant Cheong-ui saw us, he smiled with benevolent warmth. “You have come. I heard just now that you had arrived.”

“That was fast.”

“It is the Sect Leader’s duty to have command of everything within the sect.”

That sounded exhausting. Then again, a company master was no different.

He too had to have command of everything that happened in his merchant company.

“Well then. Did things go well?” At Cheong-ui’s question, I rolled my eyes upward.

Come to think of it, the Gansu trip had been quite eventful.

Along the way, I had met the Northern Pacification Commissioner of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, met Prince Xian, learned the truth of Prince Xian’s demonic qi, secured the procurement goods for Gansu, and even made the Merchant King swallow a loss.

“Yes. I gained a fair amount.” “That is fortunate.”

“I saw it on the way up. Wudang has changed a great deal too.”

“Ha ha. If it had not changed after spending all that money, that would have been the real problem. Money truly is a wonderful thing.”

“That is not a very Daoist thing to say.” “Just now, I was not speaking as a Daoist, but as the Sect Leader of a sect.”

Cheong-ui rose and took hold of the teapot.

He merely grasped the body of the pot, yet steam at once began to billow from the spout.

That was how true experts heated tea. Since my Master was working, Myeong-il sprang to his feet and approached Cheong-ui.

“Allow me to help.”

“Then take out the cups beside you and lay in only the tea leaves.” “Yes.”

Come to think of it, Myeong-il’s Master was the Sect Leader.

Neither of them was especially talkative, so it felt as though their lessons must be very quiet.

And yet the silence flowing between them was not awkward at all. Myeong-il set tea cups before us and laid in the leaves.

Cheong-ui poured hot water over them.

Before long, the rich fragrance of tea spread through the Sect Leader’s room.

“These tea leaves are good too. They are Huangshan Maofeng from Anhui, aren’t they?” “Oh? You recognized it immediately.”

“If a merchant can’t even identify tea leaves, he might as well go die.”

“Ahem. Maintain the dignity of a Daoist.”

Though Cheong-ui said that, he looked half resigned already and did not say more. “And what about you, Myeong-il? Did you learn much?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me what you learned.” “The Jianghu…”

Myeong-il trailed off.

Even without looking at his face, I felt I knew what he was thinking.

He was probably remembering the boy he had cut down and that boy’s older sister. Soon Myeong-il finished his answer with a sigh.

“It is difficult to explain. In the past, I thought it would be easy to explain.”

At Myeong-il’s words, Cheong-ui smiled faintly.

“Whatever happened, it seems you learned well.” “In truth, something like this happened, Master.”

Myeong-il told him what we had been through.

How the boy had first tried to swindle us, and even pulled a sword on me and was cut down, and how we then met the older sister waiting for him at the edge of the village.

Cheong-ui listened to it all and then nodded gravely. “So such a thing happened.”

“That boy was certainly of the black path. But I hear he was paying for his mother’s medicine. He also had an older sister waiting for him. In such a case, what should one do?”

“There is no fixed thing called what one should do. But when measured against the teachings you have learned, you must not become someone who is ashamed before himself.”

Cheong-ui gave a bitter smile. “They say there is no grave without a story behind it. We too are only human, and cannot weigh every person’s circumstances.”

In the end, even Cheong-ui could not give a clear answer to this problem.

That was only natural. It was a question with no answer.

That was how we spent time catching up after not seeing each other for so long.

Only when we had finished all the tea did Cheong-ui send Yeo Hong-yang and Myeong-il away.

“Shall I pour you another cup?” “No, thank you. If I drink more, I think I’ll have to piss.”

“You truly are far from being a Daoist.”

“And to think you only realized that now.”

Cheong-ui shook his head and filled his own teacup with hot water again. “So, is there something you wished to say to me?”

I asked.

There had to be a reason he had sent Yeo Hong-yang and Myeong-il away first.

Cheong-ui nodded. “Have you run out of money?”

“No matter how much I may have acquired a taste for money, I have not fallen so low as to say something like that to you.”

“Come on, how is liking money some kind of corruption? Then what would that make me, some sort of demon?” “You do seem to require purification.”

Cheong-ui cleared his throat.

It seemed to say the joking ended there.

“What I am about to say is confidential.” “Ah, yes.”

“I heard that Mount Hua Sect’s Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Forms were circulating on the market. I do not know whether it is true, but that is what Mount Hua Sect itself claims.”

I pinched my thigh so I would not show surprise.

It was unquestionably true. I had seen it with my own eyes.

Fortunately, Cheong-ui did not notice my alarm and continued.

“So we too have gone on guard. If even the Taiji Wisdom Sword were taken outside, would that not be disastrous? That is also why I am telling you. Since you are a man of the commercial world, look into whether righteous-sect martial arts have truly leaked out, and if so, by what route.”

Cheong-ui said it. It felt as though a bead of sweat ran down my back.

But I could not exactly say, It has already leaked from here.

Even if I said it, I intended to investigate some things on my own first. I steadied my pounding heart as much as I could and said,

“I understand.”

“Yes. They say that besides Mount Hua Sect, the secret arts of several other sects have also leaked outside. According to the Martial Alliance’s investigation.”

“Then we really do need to be careful.” “We do. Which is why the Martial Alliance will likely summon the sects.”

“Why?”

“They will probably teach things like ways of managing sect libraries or formations that can help with vigilance. And they say there will be some major announcement as well, though I do not know what it is.”

“So the Martial Alliance handles things like that too.” Then again, if the Martial Alliance did not do such things, what exactly would it do.

In a peaceful age like this, it had to do at least that much if it wanted to prove its existence.

“Yes. And I am thinking of sending you and Cheong-hwa to the Martial Alliance.”

“Me?” “Yes.”

“Why?”

To me, it was a bewildering thing. There were countless main-sect disciples, yet he intended to pass over all of them and send a lay disciple instead.

Cheong-ui opened his mouth.

“Because I want other people to know that you are one of Wudang’s people.”

“I am one of Wudang’s people.” “Other people only know you as a lay disciple.”

Ah.

So that was what he meant.

He wanted to show that I was not merely a simple lay disciple of Wudang, but that my ties to Wudang were deep and firm. That I welcomed as well.

It was something necessary for running my merchant company too.

“Then let’s do that.”

“Good. You must be tired, so go and rest.” I saluted with cupped fists and left the Sect Leader’s room.

I wanted to rest too, but I could not.

Because I had to find the person who had leaked the Taiji Wisdom Sword. It was the last piece of cleanup from what had happened in Gansu.