Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 138 - Karmic Ties (2)

Chapter 138 – Karmic Ties (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Cheong-su employed a slight trick.

Even he felt uncomfortable about violating the rules directly from the front. As a result, the one who suffered was Cheong-hwa, the junior brother closest to Cheong-su.

Every time he went out into the Jianghu, Cheong-hwa went to the Jang household and delivered money.

Of course, he did not give it openly. He would go to the house at night and slip it into the crack of the door instead.

Naturally, the amount he slipped in was never large.

No matter how frugally Cheong-hwa and Cheong-su saved and spent their travel money, the remainder was pitiful.

While delivering money to Cheong-su’s house for several months, Cheong-hwa too felt sorrow at the fact that nothing changed. The drought called poverty hanging over Cheong-su’s house was not something that could be relieved with a few drops of water.

Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Cheong-su never asked how his family was living.

It seemed he was satisfied simply with sending them money. To Cheong-hwa’s eyes, Cheong-su desperately wanted to ask, but deliberately refrained.

It looked as though he believed he could not violate Wudang’s rules any further.

Whenever he returned from delivering the money, Cheong-su would reveal that conflict through his sunken gaze. As he endured that conflict, Cheong-su gradually grew more and more haggard.

Only then did Cheong-hwa understand why Wudang had made a rule forbidding Daoists from contacting the families they had severed ties with.

“Senior Brother. Don’t you think it’s about time to stop?”

After about a year of this meaningless support, Cheong-hwa finally said it. Unexpectedly, Cheong-su agreed easily.

It was because even Cheong-su had realized that by worrying about a family with whom his ties had already been cut, he could not focus on Wudang’s affairs or on his training.

“Yes. Then let this be the last time. I won’t ask this of you anymore.” “This is really the last time.”

With the thought that it would be the last, Cheong-hwa headed to Henan.

Henan and Hubei were close enough that with Cheong-hwa’s qinggong, it only took about a day to make the round trip. He always arrived at Cheong-su’s house around the third night watch.

This time was no different.

At the third night watch, the gate was naturally always closed.

This time, however, for some reason it stood open, and a faint lamp glow leaked out from within. And that was not all.

Before the gate stood a rotten little table holding three bowls of rice with chopsticks stuck into them, three bowls of water, and three coins.

What it meant was obvious. A messenger’s table…

A chill passed through Cheong-hwa’s heart.

The messenger’s table. It was a table set out during funerals for the messengers of the underworld, meaning please take good care of the departed.

The fact that this messenger’s table stood before the gate meant that someone in the house had died.

Who could it be.

Cheong-hwa too had seen Cheong-su’s father and mother in passing before. The two of them had been so thin and haggard that it would have surprised no one if they died at any moment.

With a bitter heart, Cheong-hwa wandered outside for a long while before biting his lip and stepping through the gate.

As expected, mourning banners were fluttering in the night wind inside the house. “So you have come.”

At that moment, a voice like a dying thing came from a place untouched by lamplight.

For an instant, Cheong-hwa’s whole body broke into gooseflesh and he nearly drew his sword. He had sensed no presence at all.

A person crawled out from the direction the voice had come.

The moment he saw that figure, Cheong-hwa realized he had misunderstood.

It was not that a martial artist had hidden his presence. It was that the person himself had so little vitality that it could not be sensed.

“At last I get to see the face of my benefactor. I’m glad. Thanks to you, I was able to place at least a single coin into my daughter’s mouth.”

Cheong-su, no, Jang Hae-won’s father, spoke in a voice that had gone completely ragged. Not in the rhetorical sense, but because he had truly cried until his voice had broken.

Just now, that father had said daughter.

In other words, the one lying in the coffin lit by the little lamp was none other than Jang Hae-rin, Cheong-su’s younger sister. “Judging by your clothes, benefactor, you really are a Daoist. Is Hae-won doing well?”

Before that overwhelming despair, Cheong-hwa could not even part his lips.

It seemed that this father had already roughly guessed that the money had come from Cheong-su.

“…He is doing well. He worried about you all a great deal.” “That is fortunate. Now that I think back on it, it really was a good thing. At least Hae-won got out of this house.”

“How, how did this happen?”

Cheong-hwa asked with difficulty. The father gave a bitter smile.

“Promise me one thing before I tell you.”

“What is it?”

“Please do not tell Hae-won this story. I beg you.” No aching sorrow or desperate pleading remained in the father’s voice.

It was as though every feeling he might have put into his voice had already been wept away with his tears.

“I understand.” Without realizing it, Cheong-hwa nodded.

Slowly, very slowly, the father’s voice began to flow.

* * * I changed the way I thought about it.

Rather than trying to break out on my own, it would be faster to make use of Hyeon-wol.

Judging by his level of blending into nature, he was at least not trapped in the formation the way I was.

“Grandmaster. I want to get out of here, so couldn’t you perhaps help me?” “Why am I your grandmaster?”

“If you’re Master’s Master, then you’re my grandmaster.”

“You’re a lay disciple.” I let out a very shallow sigh.

At a glance, this stiff old man did not look easy to persuade.

But who was I? I was a veteran merchant who had turned plenty of things around.

“What does it matter whether a disciple is formal or lay? What matters is that Wudang took me in as its disciple, and I too think of myself as a man of Wudang.”

“Your tongue is slick with oil. You look like a sly merchant.”

“As expected of Grandmaster! However did you know I was a merchant? I can only marvel at your insight.” “You really are a merchant?”

“Yes.”

“That makes me like you even less. I dislike merchants by nature.” Hyeon-wol clasped his hands behind his back and walked slowly, and I trailed after him, chattering.

Prejudice against merchants was something I had overcome countless times.

But this old man named Hyeon-wol was not easy. Then again, most old men had hardened minds and were stubborn.

As I was inwardly pouring curses and mockery over Hyeon-wol by the bucketful, Hyeon-wol suddenly turned to look at me.

“That is an insolent look. It seems you think I’m just some irritating old man because I’m old.”

Old men were often this sharp as well. At times like this, I couldn’t stiffen up, nor could I get worked up.

I simply had to let things flow naturally.

“Ha ha. Whatever do you mean? It seems Grandmaster is of a rather suspicious nature.” “As befits a merchant, you seem skilled at hiding things. But you cannot hide from my eyes.”

Saying that, Hyeon-wol turned forward again and resumed his slow walk.

Following after him from behind, I experienced a strange sensation. Even while looking straight at him, I kept losing track of his figure.

It was as if he were half-straddling some spiritual realm.

The more I watched, the more I found myself coveting that technique.

“Grandmaster. Could you teach me that method of hiding your body in nature?” “Enough. That is not yet a realm you may covet.”

“You can’t know that until you see it. For all this, I’m the most promising genius in Wudang right now.”

“The fact that you say such things with your own mouth means your skin must be extraordinarily thick.” “I just happen to be the sort who speaks the truth even if it kills me.”

“Be quiet. I wish to enjoy my contemplation.”

Without even looking at me, Hyeon-wol kept circling the area around the hermitage. I did as he said and stopped talking to him.

Still, I kept following him.

There wasn’t really anywhere else to go around this hermitage anyway.

Everything else was hemmed in by the formation. I did not think Hyeon-wol was here because he could not leave the formation, but in any case, he only kept circling the same area around the hermitage.

Hermitage, brush, spring, hermitage, brush, spring, hermitage, brush, spring.

Until the sun high in the sky sank and the moon took its place, all I saw before my eyes was the hermitage, the brush, and the spring. And only when the moon too descended and the blue dawn began to strip the night away did Hyeon-wol finally stop.

“You. Are you a designated-name disciple?”

“Pardon?” “I’m asking whether you’re a designated-name lay disciple.”

I was slightly startled.

By now, the phrase designated-name lay disciple had almost become a distant memory even to me.

Most people did not know what it meant even if I said it, and there was no reason to explain it, so I had simply left the term buried. I had not expected it to come up here.

“How did you know?”

“How should I know? I figured it out when I saw you slamming your head against the formation earlier. The Flowing Cloud Movement Art isn’t something an ordinary lay disciple would learn.” “So you were watching.”

“You were so noisy that I came over. One must shout within reason.”

I felt my face heat a little.

I had been yelling because I thought I was alone, and to think there had been someone listening. “Still, you know about the designated-name lay disciple system. The current people of Wudang don’t seem to know much about it.”

“The ones living now live in an age of peace, so there is no need for them to know. I think that is for the best.”

“Ah, right. I believe the designated-name lay disciple system originally arose in order to more efficiently block the rise of the Demonic Cult.” “Yes. More precisely, after its rise, they also took in many of them in order to rebuild the martial world.”

Deep regret was mixed into Hyeon-wol’s voice.

The last great war between the righteous and demonic paths had been more than a hundred years ago. Yet Master Cheong-hwa had only just passed forty.

So how old was Hyeon-wol?

Judging only by appearances, he looked to have passed ninety at least.

“When Grandmaster was in the Jianghu, was it not already an age of peace? Would that not have been after the righteous-demonic war?” “Even the aftermath was full of confusion. Countless martial arts were lost, and the middle generation who should have taught them had all died.”

“Ah. So that’s why designated-name lay disciples were taken in.”

The worst thing for a sect was for those who had learned its martial arts to vanish entirely. When extinction threatened a martial art, they must have spread it among those who seemed to have talent.

“So it makes me uneasy. A designated-name lay disciple seems to say that another age of chaos is coming.”

“If you put it that way, it makes me sound like the source of the chaos.” “That wouldn’t be too wrong, would it?”

I almost retorted, then stopped.

In truth, I really was the source of the current confusion.

Because I had regressed, Wudang had entered the commercial world, and its relationship with the Zhuge Clan had worsened. If not chaos enough to cover the entire martial world, I was at least standing at the center of the confusion in Hubei’s martial world.

In the end, I admitted it meekly.

“Your insight is sharp.” “At this age, there are things one can see even with one’s eyes shut.”

“Then I suppose you can also see how to get out of this formation.”

“Every formation is made with a life gate.” “Would you tell me? I have urgent business outside.”

At last, I forced out the true point.

But Hyeon-wol looked at me and gave a small laugh.

“Why should I?” “Pardon?”

“Cheong-hwa must have left you here because he had his reasons. If I were to undo that, what meaning would there be in it?”

“Master has made the wrong choice.” “You have no respect for your Master. In my day, we served our Masters as though they were heaven.”

“And even heaven sometimes develops holes and lets the rain through, doesn’t it?”

Hyeon-wol looked at me and shook his head. His expression showed extreme disapproval.

“How did he come to accept a disciple whose mouth alone is alive?”

“Let me correct that. It seems your insight isn’t all that sharp after all.”

“What?” One of Hyeon-wol’s brows rose slightly.

I was changing tactics.

Being obedient hadn’t worked, so now I would go with provocation instead. That approach suited me better anyway.

“I’m not someone whose mouth alone is alive.”

“Heh heh. How disrespectful.” Hyeon-wol, who had kept walking while looking only forward, finally turned all the way around.

For the first time, I stood facing him directly.

His body looked much smaller than mine because his waist was bent, and yet he did not feel small at all.

“Then would you like to make a wager?” “Gladly. What sort of wager?”

“I’ll give you one full day and night. Try and find me. I won’t leave the formation.”

“No, but that’s…” Without even hearing the whole of my answer, Hyeon-wol scattered into the air and vanished.

I stared blankly at the place where he had disappeared.

Silence descended around me at once. And so it became an unexpected game of hide-and-seek with an old man.