Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 14 - Hall of Exhausting the Way (3)

Chapter 14 – Hall of Exhausting the Way (3)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Whether it was controlling the atmosphere or dealing with people, I naturally held the advantage over this little whelp.

The people I had met and the situations I had passed through while living as a merchant were surely several times greater than anything this little brat had experienced.

“Y-You bastard…”

When I suddenly came on this hard, Myeong-han stammered.

It seemed I had set the mood well enough for now.

‘What do I do from here?’

For the moment, the children had shrunk back, so I’d managed to reverse the atmosphere.

From this point on, everything would be improvisation.

“Senior Brother. A fellow who doesn’t even know basic manners should be educated by me.”

The child standing beside Myeong-han glared at me.

Myeong-han’s eyes became sharp in turn. It seemed he had decided that if his junior disciple was acting like that, he couldn’t very well keep looking cowed.

“No. I’ll personally educate this bastard.”

“Are you sure? You’ve spent a lot of strength…”

“Quiet. I said I’ll do it.”

At least the hierarchy among them was clear.

So if I became a main-sect disciple, I’d have to serve that brat the same way?

Just thinking about it made me feel like retching already.

Myeong-han thumped one foot against the ground.

Apparently he thought he could still take care of someone like me even in his exhausted state.

Myeong-han lifted his chin and glared at me. A chill spread between the two of us.

“If you kneel now and apologize, I’ll consider it the rashness of a lay disciple and let it pass.”

Myeong-han’s lips parted slowly. My answer, in contrast, was swift.

“Bullshit.”

“So you truly mean to refuse the cup of wine and drink the penalty wine instead.”

Well, would you look at that. A brat who’d never touched a drop of alcohol was using pretentious phrases like that.

Then again, children that age were always eager to parrot whatever adult expressions sounded impressive.

“And how are you planning to give me that penalty wine?”

“You bastard!”

At my sneer, Myeong-han’s outstretched fingertips shot toward my solar plexus.

Though he was young, his hand was certainly fast.

Those who had trained in martial arts since childhood truly were different.

If I had still been the merchant Muk Hui-yeong with a belly full of fat, that strike to the solar plexus would’ve sent me sprawling on the spot.

But right now, I was not merchant Muk Hui-yeong.

I was Muk Hui-yeong, provisional main-sect disciple of the Wudang Sect.

The moment I widened my eyes, I had the illusion that time slowed.

It was a sensation I’d never experienced before.

Even the wind brushing my skin felt exquisitely clear.

The first thing I read was Myeong-han’s footwork.

That was only natural, since it was the Azure Cloud Steps I’d learned.

Once I read the footwork, evading his technique was easy.

If you simply follow the feet, you can roughly predict where and how the strike will come.

Whoosh.

Myeong-han’s hand blade brushed past the tip of my solar plexus.

I had twisted my body sharply to the left.

Myeong-han immediately clenched his hand into a fist, halted the forward-driving arm, and bent his elbow to smash down at me.

But I dodged that easily too.

The performance of the Azure Cloud Steps I’d learned over two months was beyond question.

At the very least, my understanding of the Azure Cloud Steps seemed deeper than his.

I could see straight through Myeong-han’s footwork, while Myeong-han couldn’t follow my movements at all.

How could I possibly outdo an Azure Cloud Steps that he must have trained in for years with only two months of practice?

For a moment I felt puzzled, but what could I do if it was working?

“You bastard!”

After missing repeatedly, Myeong-han roared.

It seemed he was getting heated because I kept dodging by the smallest margins.

Even in the midst of that, my eyes were growing more and more accustomed to Myeong-han’s movement technique.

‘Can I actually do this?’

I decided to trust myself.

I had only been stepping backward, but the instant I stepped forward, Myeong-han looked startled.

His attack had missed so widely that his fist had extended past me behind my back.

That left Myeong-han’s body fully open.

I immediately drove my fist into the exposed left side of his torso.

‘I got him!’

That was what I thought.

Myeong-han looked at me, and I looked at Myeong-han.

His eyes too held the same incomprehension.

“…?”

My fist had definitely struck him squarely around the ribs.

But Myeong-han didn’t look hurt at all.

If anything, my hand was what hurt.

It felt like I had thrown a full-force punch into a boulder.

We both grasped the situation at nearly the same time.

I too had a rough understanding of the framework of martial learning.

Martial arts are divided into external arts and internal arts.

Orthodox sects usually train internal arts, but that doesn’t mean they neglect external arts altogether.

After all, external arts are what forge the vessel that holds internal arts.

So there was no way I could inflict meaningful damage on a disciple of Wudang who had been training his body for years.

“Die!”

From then on, Myeong-han abandoned defense entirely and went on the offensive.

Now that he knew any attack I made would be ineffective, he launched a total assault.

Sure enough, once Myeong-han poured all his strength into attacking, his movements changed.

His fist grazed my forearm, and the fabric of my clothes tore.

‘If that lands cleanly, I really might die.’

It was not uncommon for martial artists to kill commoners.

Surprisingly, relatively few of those deaths were done with actual intent.

Commoners were simply far too weak compared to martial artists, so they died from the slightest contact.

A single punch to the solar plexus could churn the innards to ruin and kill them.

All I had was the Azure Cloud Steps.

I knew neither external arts nor internal arts.

Of course, it was true that my body had improved from running all over Wudang and climbing cliffs for two months, but at best that meant I was strong by commoner standards.

The only reason I had managed to keep to dodging against Myeong-han was because my footwork was better than his.

If my stamina dropped, there was no telling what would happen.

I had to finish this quickly.

Myeong-han, despite unleashing a full assault, still couldn’t land a hit, and his face was growing redder and redder.

At that moment, I began to hear people’s voices drawing near from somewhere close by.

Come to think of it, this was the courtyard of the Hall of Exhausting the Way that everyone used.

I didn’t know who those people were, but I decided to make a gamble.

Could I really control my movement that precisely?

The thought was brief enough to border on instinct, and instinct soon turned into movement.

Myeong-han’s fist flew toward my jaw.

I jerked my face sharply to the opposite side.

Then I rolled across the ground as dramatically as possible.

A cloud of sandy dust billowed up, and I slammed my nose hard into the earth.

Something warm and thick surged up from my nose.

“What do you think you’re doing!”

At that very moment, a roar rang out.

I turned my eyes and saw Cheong-hwa and Cheong-su.

Myeong-han was frozen in the posture of having thrown his punch, wearing a dazed expression.

He must have been bewildered, since he hadn’t felt any impact, yet I had rolled away.

“M-Martial Uncle.”

At just that timely moment, the philtrum beneath my nose grew hot.

A nosebleed had burst out.

“Huiyeong!”

Cheong-hwa immediately ran over to me.

He pressed several spots around my neck and face with his fingers.

Amazingly, the nosebleed stopped at once.

This seemed to be the method murim people used called acupoint sealing.

“You wretch! What were you thinking, using martial arts on someone who hasn’t even learned any!”

At Cheong-hwa’s thunderous rebuke, Myeong-han and the two beside him froze stiff.

To them, he was a Martial Uncle as lofty as the sky.

They didn’t seem to have the courage even to open their mouths.

“B-But I don’t think I actually hit him…”

“Silence! Are you now trying to make excuses in front of me as well?”

Myeong-han lowered his head deeply.

The two disciples beside him did the same.

Even then, Myeong-han kept glancing at me with an expression that looked ready to kill.

He wasn’t a fool, so he must have realized he’d been played by my scheme.

“What is going on here!”

At that moment, a middle-aged man came striding quickly out from the Hall of Exhausting the Way, his Daoist robe sleeves flaring.

The moment Myeong-han saw his face, his own expression brightened.

“Master!”

Myeong-han and the other two immediately moved behind that man.

He seemed to be Myeong-han’s master, Cheong-yu.

“What is the meaning of this, Cheong-hwa?”

“Senior Brother’s disciple struck my disciple. He hasn’t even learned martial arts yet.”

Cheong-yu flinched when he looked at me.

The blood from my nose had already dried, but the bloody streak running from my philtrum down to my chin had not disappeared.

More importantly, it hurt like hell. It even felt like the bridge of my nose might have sunk a little.

Cheong-hwa looked at Cheong-yu as if he wanted to devour him whole.

Cheong-yu gave a dry cough.

“Ahem. So this is the boy you took in from the lay disciples.”

Judging from the way the two spoke, Cheong-yu seemed to be the senior brother here, but Cheong-hwa showed no sign of being cowed.

If anything, he looked murderous.

“Yes, that’s right. What do you intend to do? Senior Brother’s disciple seems to have caused serious harm to the one who is to become my disciple.”

Myeong-han could only open and close his mouth without speaking.

Even with his master beside him, he seemed too afraid to argue with a Martial Uncle whose status was as high as the sky.

“What should be done, then?”

“What should be done? I think I ought to receive a sincere apology.”

“Honestly. Children can fight sometimes. And over that, you want an apology? Aren’t you disregarding your Senior Brother’s face too much?”

Cheong-yu ground his teeth.

In contrast, Cheong-hwa’s expression was blank.

Those two really did seem to have a poor relationship.

Cheong-yu glared at Cheong-hwa for a moment, then sighed.

“Fine. Myeong-han.”

“…Yes.”

“Apologize.”

At Cheong-yu’s words, Myeong-han clenched his fists and trembled.

He plainly had no desire whatsoever to apologize to me.

But with both his master and martial uncle watching, there was no way he could refuse.

“S-Sorry.”

“Good. Then that’s settled.”

I put on a magnanimous expression.

Myeong-han’s face, in contrast, rotted away.

“Is that enough?”

Cheong-hwa seemed satisfied and nodded.

“No.”

All eyes turned toward me.

That was only natural, since I was the one who had spoken.

“What do you mean, no? What are you saying?”

Cheong-yu said that.

I wiped away the trace of blood with my sleeve and answered.

“Maybe Immortal Cheong-hwa’s matter is finished, but mine isn’t. Common sense says it ends when the one who got hit has his demands met, doesn’t it?”

At my words, Cheong-yu’s expression twisted grotesquely.

The faces of Myeong-seong, Myeong-gyeong, and the others watching behind Cheong-hwa also filled with shock.

“You’ve received an apology already, so what more could you possibly demand?”

“Medical expenses, of course.”

“Medical expenses?”

“Yes. Since I won’t be able to do anything while I recover, compensation for that should also be paid.”

Cheong-yu glared at me as if he wanted me dead.

But with Cheong-hwa and Cheong-su here, he couldn’t kill me on the spot.

I was counting on that.

“…How much do you want?”

“I think two nyang of silver would be appropriate.”

“Doesn’t that seem a bit excessive?”

For a mere nosebleed, it was excessive, true enough.

One nyang of silver was a thousand copper coins.

And in truth, I hadn’t even been hit. It was extortion by self-injury.

But a merchant must know how to be shameless.

“To think someone of Wudang’s Cheong generation would call two nyang of silver excessive. I’m almost afraid someone else might overhear.”

Cheong-yu’s face turned red.

It made sense, since I had openly mocked him for being small-minded.

I could see Cheong-hwa and Cheong-su behind him struggling not to laugh.

Cheong-yu took out a money pouch from his bosom.

Cheong-hwa had once said a Daoist wasn’t supposed to possess private money, but of course that was never going to be truly observed.

Cheong-yu irritably rummaged through his pouch, then soon handed me two finger-sized pieces of silver.

I bit one of them with my teeth once.

It might have been counterfeit, after all.

They were definitely genuine.

“Payment confirmed.”

My expression brightened at once, but Cheong-yu’s face remained stiff.

“What is your name?”

“Muk Hui-yeong.”

“Very well, Muk Hui-yeong. I shall remember it.”

Cheong-yu spun around sharply and quickened his pace.

Myeong-han and the other two hurried after him.

I rolled the silver in my palm with a satisfied expression.

Cheong-su and Cheong-hwa looked at me as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.