Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 136 - Cleanup (7)

Chapter 136 – Cleanup (7)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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In the past, I might have simply shrunk back and been unable to say anything. But now it was different.

I too was a member of Wudang, and my merchant company as well had boarded the same ship as Wudang.

“Am I not allowed to see it?” When I answered boldly instead, Cheong-hwa flinched.

Our eyes met.

Soon, Cheong-hwa let out a deep sigh. “Forgive me. I only became needlessly sensitive. But I would rather you did not ask about that.”

“Is it something that must be hidden?”

“I do not have the confidence to explain it in a way that would satisfy you.” There was even a hint of regret in Cheong-hwa’s expression.

Perhaps that borrowing record was one of Master’s reverse scales.

If nothing unusual had happened with the Taiji Wisdom Sword, then I too might have let it pass and covered it over. But this time, I could not let it go.

“You will have to explain it.”

“You speak as though you have the right.” “Are we not Wudang? Do you intend to taint the word Wudang just as though the word family had been tainted?”

Cheong-hwa’s mouth closed.

Since they were words he himself had once spoken, there was no way he could say he did not remember. “…Even in a deep relationship, some secrets are necessary.”

“I need to know. I have my reasons.”

“If your reason convinces me, then I will tell you.” Without hesitation, I pulled out the copied Taiji Wisdom Sword manual and set it on the desk.

It was the copy I had taken back from Prince Xian.

Naturally, Cheong-hwa’s eyes widened as if they would split apart. His lips moved soundlessly, but no words came.

Then he snatched up the copied manual and began reading it at once.

“H-how…” “Even if I look at that manual, I can’t tell whether it’s genuine or false. I don’t know the original itself. But you will.”

Holding the copied manual, Cheong-hwa trembled.

Whether it was real or fake had practically already been decided by that reaction alone. “Where in the world did you get this?”

“I recovered it from people who were in the process of leaking the Taiji Wisdom Sword outside.”

“…Impossible.” Whether from the liquor or from the shock, Cheong-hwa even hiccuped.

I already knew well that Daoists were poor at acting.

Among those Daoists, Cheong-hwa was even worse than most. So the regret, shock, fear, and despair in his face right now had to be genuine.

And that, on the contrary, made me certain that Cheong-hwa was not the one who leaked it.

If he had leaked it himself, there was no way he would be reacting like this. Still, it was clear he was carrying something unpleasant regarding the Taiji Wisdom Sword.

“I have given you a reason that should satisfy you. The Taiji Wisdom Sword is being leaked outside, so as someone of Wudang, isn’t it only natural to find the culprit?”

“It makes, it makes no sense…” Cheong-hwa only kept muttering those same words with absent eyes.

“Master!”

I shouted sharply. Cheong-hwa jolted and looked at me.

“Are you not ashamed before your disciple?”

At my words, Cheong-hwa’s face reddened slightly. It seemed he knew he was behaving shamefully.

“…I need to return to a clear head.”

Muttering that, Cheong-hwa sat in lotus and expelled the drunkenness through regulated breathing. Warm energy streamed out of his baihui acupoint.

It was the heat-laden force of the liquor.

Soon, Cheong-hwa’s eyes snapped open. His gaze was as lucid and clear as Master’s usually was.

“Do you not need to expel the effects of the liquor?”

“I am more clear-headed right now than at any other time.” “I see. I showed you a shameful side of myself.”

“It’s enough that you understand that.”

Cheong-hwa gave a bitter smile. He probably wanted to thump me as usual, but now was not the time.

“Now it’s your turn to satisfy me. Why is your name in the borrowing record for the Taiji Wisdom Sword, which only the Sect Leader is supposed to be able to view?”

“That is no great secret, since it is right there in the record book. Sect Leader Senior Brother knows of it too. In fact, I only borrowed it because he gave me permission.” “So I assumed. But what I want to hear is what happened after you borrowed it. Looking at you, it seems you have some idea about the leaked copy as well.”

Cheong-hwa fell silent.

In this situation, silence was little different from an admission. After remaining silent, Cheong-hwa finally spoke in a low voice.

“Does Sect Leader Senior Brother know that leaked copies have spread?”

“He doesn’t. You’re the first person I’ve told.” “I see.”

Cheong-hwa nodded.

At that instant, I felt a chill spread through my body. It was not the sort of thing that could be explained as a sensation.

It was simple intuition.

I hurled myself backward and stuck to the wall. From there, I looked at Cheong-hwa.

Cheong-hwa was staring at me without having done anything at all.

To anyone else, it would have seemed utterly ridiculous. In the middle of a conversation, one person had suddenly sprung backward and plastered himself to the wall.

And yet Master’s gaze was sunk in calm composure.

“Disciple.” “Yes.”

“You have improved greatly. Senses like that are what save a martial artist’s life. This Master is proud.”

Not only was there real pride in Cheong-hwa’s voice, there was joy as well. “You are the fortune I hold in my hands. Truly. I do not know how fortunate it is that you came to me. You are my finest disciple. So…”

Cheong-hwa trailed off, then vanished before my eyes.

For a moment, I could not react at all. He was simply that fast.

“I trust you can forgive this inadequate Master.”

“You…” The instant I tried to spit out a curse, a powerful impact burst against my neck.

As my consciousness faded, I felt Cheong-hwa catching my body.

The words that had not even fully become a voice sank beneath sleep. * * *

Cheong-hwa headed toward Hall of Preserved Wholeness with swift steps.

He had just come from leaving Muk Hui-yeong in Nambam, the Southern Hermitage, a hidden place of Wudang. Ordinarily, when disciples went into closed-door training, they went to the Cave of Repentance.

But elders who wished to polish their mental image or work on alchemy went to a hidden place instead.

That was why disciples of the Myeong generation did not even know such a hidden place existed. So Muk Hui-yeong became the first person of the Myeong generation to enter a hidden place.

Though he had done so while unconscious.

“Is the Hall Master here?” Upon arriving at Hall of Preserved Wholeness, Cheong-hwa asked.

A disciple of the Myeong generation sprang upright, saluted with cupped fists, and bowed his head.

“My respects, Martial Uncle.” “Good. I asked whether the Hall Master is here.”

“Ah, yes, yes. But he’s handling urgent work right now, and he said not to let anyone in unless it was important…”

“This is not just any matter.” At Cheong-hwa’s serious tone, the disciple immediately bowed and entered the hall master’s room.

He soon came back out and said with an apologetic face,

“Forgive me for saying this to you, Martial Uncle, but the Hall Master said to pass this on exactly. If it isn’t important, then he says go die.” “Understood.”

Having received permission, Cheong-hwa entered the room of the Hall Master of Hall of Preserved Wholeness.

Rather than orderly, barren was the word that best suited it. At the center of the room sat Cheong-su with hollow eyes.

He looked as though he had stayed up all night again.

Naturally, Cheong-su reacted with prickliness. “What is it?”

“I just came because I wanted to see you, Senior Brother.”

“What?” Before Cheong-su could react further, a qi barrier spread over the room.

Now, no sound would leak outside.

Cheong-su felt the barrier too, and his expression grew strange. After all, putting up a qi barrier meant there were words to be spoken that must not escape.

“What is this all of a sudden?”

“Ha ha. Nothing much.” Cheong-hwa pulled a white flask from his robes.

At a glance, it was liquor.

“Let’s share a proper drink together as senior and junior brothers after so long.” “Have you gone mad?”

Cheong-su’s face twisted.

So the reason for putting up the qi barrier was to drink? “Didn’t the kid relay my message? If it isn’t important, then go die.”

“How is this not important? It’s a matter of deepening brotherly bonds.”

“Are you going to keep talking this kind of shit?” Ignoring Cheong-su’s words, Cheong-hwa even took out cups and poured the liquor roughly.

The liquor overflowed from the cups and soaked the documents.

Just as the enraged Cheong-su was about to speak, Cheong-hwa first drained the cup in one go and said, “Senior Brother. What exactly have you done?”

“What?”

Instead of answering, Cheong-hwa pulled the copied Taiji Wisdom Sword manual from his robes and all but threw it onto the desk. “Why is this here?”

Cheong-su’s twisted expression returned to calm.

There was even peace and rest in it. “So. It came back to Wudang after all.”

“I wrote this copy.”

“You did. You even used your left hand to try and be clever.” “And then I gave it to you.”

Countless emotions flickered through Cheong-hwa’s wavering eyes.

Among them, the greatest was betrayal. “Where did you get that?”

“Is that really what’s important right now?”

“It is. We need to know where it was leaked to, don’t we?” “Hui-yeong brought it. He says he recovered it before it could be leaked.”

“Then it wasn’t leaked after all. That’s a relief.”

“Are those the words of the one who leaked it?” “They can be. Hui-yeong really is something. Just where did he find it so neatly?”

Cheong-su laughed heartily.

Cheong-hwa’s face darkened past red into something almost black. The blood rushing to his head in rage had done that.

“I truly cannot understand. You too are someone who loves Wudang, aren’t you? Didn’t you even give up your own wrist to save Sect Leader Senior Brother?”

“That was only me doing what I ought to have done.” Smiling faintly, Cheong-su snatched up Cheong-hwa’s bottle.

Then he filled his own cup to the brim.

The right hand pouring from the bottle was trembling. He looked normal on the outside, but Cheong-su’s right hand had long since been ruined.

Several years ago, when they went to capture a public enemy of the martial world, it was Cheong-su who had saved Cheong-ui, who had nearly died in carelessness, by sacrificing his own wrist.

He had deflected the path of the blade aimed at Cheong-ui’s neck with his own wrist. Afterward, the Life-and-Death Divine Physician had sewn the wrist back together and made normal daily life possible again, but holding a sword was impossible.

The muscles and nerves had all been destroyed.

That was something the Myeong generation disciples did not know, and even among those of the Cheong generation, only a few did. Cheong-hwa knew it especially well because he had been there to see it happen.

As a martial artist, he knew how much harder than death such a decision was.

Cheong-su was a man who had offered up his own right hand, the equivalent of his life, for his senior brother. After seeing that, Cheong-hwa had thought his own judgment had not been wrong.

He had copied the Taiji Wisdom Sword for Cheong-su, who had not been chosen as one of its inheritors.

He had barely borrowed it after pestering Sect Leader Senior Brother for months. He had thought the Taiji Sword Guardians suited a man like this, one with such a sense of justice, more than it suited talent itself.

But when the manual he himself had copied emerged from Muk Hui-yeong’s robes, he had nearly fainted from shock.

Because it was the very copy of the Taiji Wisdom Sword he had written ten years ago. And the owner of that copy had been Cheong-su.

“Where did things go wrong, Senior Brother? Do you still regret having come to Wudang in the first place?”

“I told you. Wudang is my home.” “Is this because of your mother after all?”

Mother.

It was a word that sat awkwardly in a Daoist’s mouth. It was not a word suited to Daoists who had severed their ties to the secular world, nor one that ought to be spoken.

It was a violation of Wudang’s rules as well.

Cheong-su said nothing. He only drank with his trembling hand.

After drinking until his face was flushed, Cheong-su slowly opened his mouth.

* * * “That damned Master!”

I shouted that as I snapped my eyes open.

It felt refreshing to finally spit out the words that had been stuck in my throat like a fishbone. “What kind of place is this now?”

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in an extremely tiny room that would feel full with just one person lying down in it.

I immediately rushed outside. The moment I opened the door, a fierce wind blew.

Fitting the size of the room, the building was only a tiny hermitage.

“…Ha.” I let out an empty breath.

The existence of a tiny hermitage itself was not all that surprising.

There could easily be places like this within Wudang. What mattered was its location.

This hermitage was perched on a sheer cliff so steep it might as well have been cut away.

The cliff at Three Purities Hall was nothing beside this one. It was the kind of sky-high precipice where the height and angle were so severe that the cliff at Three Purities Hall no longer even looked like a cliff.

The spot where the hermitage stood was a hollow in the face of that cliff, and both above and below it dropped almost vertically.

With mere qinggong, there was no way anyone could budge from here. When I looked across, I could dimly see Heavenly Pillar Peak, where Three Purities Hall stood.

Even though it was the same Wudang Mountain, it was so far away that it looked blurred.

Just in case my voice might carry, I immediately shouted. “Hey!”

Before the sound could even reach another peak, it came back to me as an echo.

As expected. It seemed a formation had been set up here too, one that would not let even sound escape.

There was no question who had put me here.

“You crazy bastard of a Master!” Tilting back my head, I roared with all the force in my belly.