Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 135 - Cleanup (6)

Chapter 135 – Cleanup (6)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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By the time I went to Three Peaks Pavilion, evening had already fallen dim.

Even so, there were many people around Three Peaks Pavilion.

After all, the annex of Three Peaks Pavilion was where the disciples came to study, whether secret manuals or scriptures. “What brings you here?”

The one I ran into immediately was Myeong-il.

Myeong-il, whom I had parted from earlier, had apparently washed up, because the grimy look he wore before had been transformed into something clean and fresh.

“Am I not allowed to come here?” “It’s because I’ve never seen you here once.”

“It isn’t as though you come every day, Senior Brother. I might have come while you weren’t around.”

“I do come every day.”

“…I see.” So there really was a reason he ranked among the best even within the third-generation disciples.

I could see many other disciples as well.

It was a pleasing sight, seeing disciples with such a great zeal for study.

Since this was a place for studying, we could not stand around chatting for long, so I exchanged a few brief words with each of them and then moved on. “I asked why you came here.”

Even while I was greeting people, Myeong-il still did not leave my side.

“There is something I need to look into.”

“What?” “An adult secret.”

“I’m your Senior Brother.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re an adult.”

For almost the first time, Myeong-il made an expression that looked truly aggrieved. There was a reason people said, if you’re upset about it, then you should have been born sooner.

I greeted Myeong-il as well and went into the main hall of Three Peaks Pavilion.

There too, there was someone serving in the role of librarian.

“Senior Brother.”

“Hm?” It was none other than Myeong-yeop.

Myeong-yeop too was sitting with a small desk before him, rolling a brush between his fingers while studying.

“What brings you here?”

Exactly the same reaction as Myeong-il. Was I branded within Wudang as someone who just loafed around?

It became a matter for serious thought.

“I thought I might study a little.”

“What study would you be doing?” “What, am I not allowed to study?”

“It’s not that.”

Myeong-yeop shrugged.

I looked around. There was no one else nearby.

“But if you came to look at a proper secret manual, you should have come with Martial Uncle Cheong-hwa. Until the distribution of the Myeong generation, people can’t directly view martial manuals in Three Peaks Pavilion. In the spaces open at all times, there are only lower-grade martial arts and scriptures.”

“Actually, I didn’t come to study.”

“I thought as much. Why, then?” “Do you happen to have records of who borrowed the manuals?”

Every secret manual in Three Peaks Pavilion was handled on a lending basis.

In other words, no one could take one away and keep it permanently as private property.

So there had to be borrowing records. That was my thinking.

“Borrowing records? We do. Why?”

At Myeong-yeop’s words, I clenched my fist.

But I kept my mouth relaxed into a pleasant curve.

“I just wanted to have a look.” “It isn’t exactly difficult to show them to you. But something about this feels suspicious.”

“Come on. What sort of person do you take me for?”

“As I see it, the most dangerous person in Wudang is you.”

“Those are harsh words.” When I hung my head as if hurt, Myeong-yeop gave a dry laugh.

“What is that? That pitiable, pure, and innocent pose fit for Xi Shi or Bao Si? It’s revolting, so cut it out.”

Even while saying that, Myeong-yeop rummaged under the drawer.

“Which borrowing record do you want to see?” “The Taiji Wisdom Sword.”

“The Taiji Wisdom Sword? That makes this even more suspicious.”

Soon, having found the lending record for the Taiji Wisdom Sword, Myeong-yeop handed it to me.

As I took it, I asked, “There isn’t anyone who gets to read this sort of lending record without it being recorded, right?”

“No. There is always someone in the main hall librarian’s seat.”

“How many shifts are there for the librarian’s seat?”

“A single day is divided into four. Four shifts, three shichen each.” “Are the people assigned to it fixed?”

“All the disciples take turns.”

“Really? Who makes the duty roster?”

“The Hall of Preserved Wholeness.” “Ah. So the Hall of Preserved Wholeness doesn’t only handle money-related matters?”

“All these miscellaneous tasks are handled by the Hall of Preserved Wholeness.”

Only then did an old memory come back to me.

I had heard that the Hall of Preserved Wholeness was looked down on because it handled money. “But why do you keep asking all this? It doesn’t seem like you want to become a librarian.”

“Why not? Am I not allowed?”

“You are obviously the kind of fellow who would hate this sort of thing. You like roaming around outside.”

Myeong-yeop stroked his chin and then made a horrified expression, as if he had realized something.

“Wait. You’re not planning to steal martial manuals, are you?” “What are you saying? Don’t say things like that. That’s serious.”

“No matter how much you like money, please don’t sell our manuals. I beg you. I don’t want to have to cut you down.”

“As if I would do that. What do you take me for?”

Myeong-yeop snickered. I looked over the lending record.

The Taiji Wisdom Sword.

It might be one of Wudang’s representative martial arts, but not just anyone could learn it.

That was why the lending record was practically empty. The person who borrowed it was almost always Cheong-ui.

No.

It was simply all of them.

Borrower. Cheong-ui.

Cheong-ui.

Cheong-ui.

Cheong-ui. Cheong-ui…

Even after I looked through almost three full years’ worth, it was still no one but Cheong-ui, so I raised my head and asked.

Myeong-yeop was smiling as though he had expected exactly this.

“Is the Taiji Wisdom Sword manual only allowed to be borrowed by the Sect Leader?” “Right. The Sect Leader personally teaches the Taiji Wisdom Sword.”

“Ha, honestly. You knew that and still handed it over?”

“Even if you keep looking, you won’t find anything.”

Staring at the same name over and over made my vision blur, as if my eyes had gone strange.

I shook my head, forced my focus back, and kept turning the pages. I was hoping there might be some clue.

That was how I kept flipping through sheet after sheet until I stopped at one point.

At last, I had found a name other than Cheong-ui.

I lifted my eyes slightly and looked at Myeong-yeop. He did not seem to realize I had found another name.

“Ahem. Here it is.”

“Heh heh. Nothing there, right?”

Laughing, Myeong-yeop took the record book back from me. One name burned itself deep into my mind.

It was a name I desperately wished had not been the one.

Cheong-hwa.

It was my Master’s Daoist name. * * *

I paced outside for quite a while before entering the Hall of Exhausting the Way.

Now that I had returned from a long journey abroad, I had to pay my respects to Master.

But I could not grasp what kind of face I was supposed to show him. If Master really was the one who had leaked the Taiji Wisdom Sword, then what was I supposed to do?

Still, it might not be so.

I corrected my thinking and headed inside the Hall of Exhausting the Way to Master’s quarters.

There was lamplight within. That meant he was not yet asleep.

“Master.”

“Tch.”

The moment I called out, the sound that came back was a clicking tongue.

“I’m coming in.” I did not wait for permission and opened the door at once.

Cheong-hwa was sitting there with his arms folded, facing the door.

It looked very much as though he had been waiting for me.

At once, Cheong-hwa’s hand edge flew at my head like a flash. No matter how much my martial arts had improved, it still seemed far beyond me to dodge that.

The strike landed squarely on my forehead.

“Ow.”

“I did not give you permission to come in.” “Wasn’t that what the tch sound meant? The sound you made.”

“How exactly did you interpret that in such a way?”

“So then, what has you so displeased?”

“Hm? What would I have to be displeased about?” Cheong-hwa turned his head away and fanned himself, but he looked deeply displeased.

“I can understand it, perhaps. You run a merchant company, and you’re busy. So after returning from your journey abroad, perhaps you might not come to see me immediately. Yes.”

So that was what it was about.

Chuckling, I moved behind Cheong-hwa and began massaging his shoulders. “Your unworthy disciple was in the wrong. I should have come to greet you right away.”

“Hmph. Fine.”

“Please calm your anger. I was in the wrong.”

“Hm, hm. Then…” Cheong-hwa lifted his eyes upward, and they met mine.

“Where is my gift?”

“Pardon?”

“The gift. You said you would bring one back.” “…?”

For a moment I even forgot to keep massaging his shoulders.

Then I remembered that I had casually said I would buy him a gift on the way back.

Fortunately, I also remembered Cheong-hwa’s answer after that.

“I thought you said it was fine.” “Tsk tsk. You really understand your Master’s heart so poorly. Who is there that dislikes gifts?”

“They say a man in his forties can be especially nasty.”

“I passed forty five years ago, you brat.”

Cheong-hwa shook his head, then pointed at a chair with his chin. “Sit. Enough nonsense.”

“Yes. Though I think you’re the only one who was talking nonsense, Master.”

“Your head must be stiff from not being hit in a long time.”

“Ah, that actually hurts more than you’d think. Please don’t.” “I strike because it hurts.”

Trading nonsense with Cheong-hwa again after so long truly made it feel as though I had come back to Wudang.

As expected, a person needed somewhere to return to.

“So then. Nothing special happened in Gansu?” “Nothing much.”

“Meaning a lot happened and you don’t want to talk about it.”

“You’re sharp. More precisely, they’re matters I don’t want dragging you in, Master.”

“Very well. That is your judgment. I respect it.” Cheong-hwa pulled a small wooden box out from under his desk.

When he opened it, a white porcelain flask appeared.

The fragrant smell that instantly filled the room was a bonus.

I recognized what it was immediately. “Liquor.”

“Exactly.”

“You can drink even at the main sect now?”

“If you’re caught, it’s discipline.”

“Between the Nine Nether Asura Sword and this, you really have a lot of things that can earn you punishment.” Cheong-hwa laughed as he raised a fist.

I laughed along and changed the subject.

“If that’s the case, then why not just drink outside?”

“If I drink outside, something feels lacking. Is it because the taste of breaking a taboo is missing?” I flinched.

He probably had not meant it in that sense, but I suddenly wondered whether among the taboos Cheong-hwa had broken, something like secretly copying manuals might have been included too.

“Will you have a drink?”

“Gladly.” “But when you leave this room, you must expel the drunkenness before going out.”

“I don’t know that method.”

“The current you can do it. You circulate the Small Heavenly Cycle and expel the drunkenness through the baihui acupoint. It’s somewhat complicated to explain in words, so I’ll teach you in a bit.”

Cheong-hwa immediately took out two cups and swung the bottle through the air. The liquor scattered into the air and landed precisely in the cups.

Not a single drop overflowed.

“An incredible trick.”

“I wanted to drink with my disciple, but no matter what, I can’t very well drink with Myeong-gyeong or Myeong-seong or Myeong-jin, can I?” “Then you should be stripped of your qualifications as a Master.”

“Indeed.”

Cheong-hwa and I clinked our cups together.

When I drank, hot energy slid down my throat and struck my empty stomach hard. “Khh.”

“Excellent.”

Without saying much, we kept sharing cups.

Even without much conversation, this seat was comfortable.

It truly was a strange thing. In my previous life, I had never had any tie whatsoever to this man, and yet now I was tied to him this deeply.

Quietly, so that Cheong-hwa would not notice, I tried bleeding off some of the drunkenness.

He had said to circulate the Small Heavenly Cycle and expel the drunkenness through the baihui acupoint.

When I tried it a little, it worked. Cheong-hwa seemed not to notice because he was busy drinking.

So little by little, I guided Cheong-hwa toward complete drunkenness while bleeding my own drunkenness away.

When I felt things had ripened enough, I slowly opened my mouth.

“Master.” “Yes.”

“What did you do before you entered Wudang Mountain?”

“Hmph. Asking that is against the rules.”

“If we’re already breaking the rules, then let’s do it properly. Doesn’t liquor taste better when the flavor of breaking taboo is added?” “Your mouth truly is unmatched under heaven.”

Cheong-hwa gave a rough laugh and continued.

“I was a nobody. A black-path street thug.”

“What? Really?” “Nothing all that grand. Just as now, for an orphan that age, there was little other way to make money.”

This was beyond anything I could have imagined.

Who would believe that the Limitless Divine Sword had once been a black-path street thug?

“Ah. Even as a thug, I was only six or seven then. I entered Wudang at eight.” “I see. Then you probably didn’t do anything too terrible.”

“Anything terrible? I did plenty. I begged, saying my nonexistent parents were sick. I lured people by saying they should come see my sick parents.”

“And once they were lured in, black-path men would come out, threaten them, and extort money.”

“Exactly. A shameful past.” I gave a bitter smile.

It was because I was reminded of the boy Myeong-il had killed.

What difference was there between that boy and the Cheong-hwa of those days.

They had merely been driven into the black path.

Yet one died, and the other became a master of Wudang. How utterly different the tracks of their lives were.

“While I was doing those black-path things, I was caught by the current Sect Leader Senior Brother. He must have been about twenty then.”

“I see.”

“He drove off all the black-path men, then suddenly threw me a sword and told me to swing it once.” “Really? That’s strange in itself.”

“Later I heard that even to the young Sect Leader Senior Brother, I looked like someone with an extraordinary martial frame.”

“So this turned into bragging about yourself.”

“Because it’s true, you brat.” Only then did I understand why Cheong-hwa carried a certain raw edge that set him apart even within Wudang.

Since he came from the black path, that was only natural.

“Then do you still meet any of the people you knew from those days?”

“Do you think I would? What would I even do if I met them?” “Well, hand them a little money maybe.”

“Money my ass. What do I have to give?”

Cheong-hwa burst out laughing, and I felt a little relieved.

Indeed, Cheong-hwa was the sort of man who had once been ready to place a hundred taels of silver into my hands without hesitation when I wanted to leave Wudang Mountain. A man like that did not seem to have any motive to sell the Taiji Wisdom Sword.

“Talking about the old days after so long makes a person sentimental.”

“There’s a reason people say liquor moistens old stories.”

“Exactly, exactly. Ah, would you like to see this too? Back then we had nothing to do, so we used to compose poems. I still have the collected writings.” “You lived wholesomely enough.”

It seemed Cheong-hwa had suddenly become deeply absorbed in old stories.

Of course, I myself was still perfectly sober.

I looked over the collected writings Cheong-hwa handed me.

The moment I saw them, I snorted. “These were written when you were young.”

“That’s right. Written from about fifteen up to around twenty.”

The poems written by the Martial Uncles were childish to the point of absurdity.

Then again, that was only natural if they had written them in their youth just to pass the time. As I looked through the collection, I found one very simple poem.

I want

to go home

It was only two lines long. Amusingly enough, the one who had written it was none other than Cheong-su, the Hall Master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness who was always so prickly.

The Martial Uncles too had once been children who wanted to go home.

As the two of us looked through the collection together and chuckled, I casually tossed out a question.

“But Master, do you study the Taiji Wisdom Sword?” “Hm?”

One of Cheong-hwa’s eyebrows rose.

“Isn’t that because you came from the Hall of Exhausting the Way? I heard the Hall of Exhausting the Way is where martial arts are studied and developed.”

“That much is true. But the Taiji Wisdom Sword is not a martial art to be developed further. It is already a sufficiently complete martial art.” “Is that so? Your name was in the viewing record for the Taiji Wisdom Sword, that’s why.”

I said it with a smile, trying as hard as possible to keep the atmosphere light.

This was something that needed to pass by under the influence of drink.

That was the only way it would leave as little trace as possible in Cheong-hwa’s memory. But when I looked at Cheong-hwa’s face again, the smile had vanished.

“Why did you look at that?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked why you looked at that.” Cheong-hwa’s expression had already turned too cold for my smile to recover it.