Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 140 - Karmic Ties (4)

Chapter 140 – Karmic Ties (4)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“How could such a thing possibly make sense!”

Cheong-hwa slammed his fist into the floor. The old floor, made of rotting wood, caved in with a crunch.

He hadn’t even struck it all that hard, and yet when the floor of the building gave way just like that, Cheong-hwa was flustered.

Even Wudang’s run-down buildings weren’t this bad. Embarrassed by his own fist, Cheong-hwa glanced at the middle-aged man.

The man showed no sign of caring at all.

Or perhaps he simply looked like he had no strength left even to care. “It’s all right. I don’t intend to keep living here anyway.”

“…Ah. Where will you go?”

“Anywhere. What parent wants to go on living in the place where his child died in resentment?” The middle-aged man lowered his head.

The burning lamp only cast his face into deeper shadow.

“And I think we need to go somewhere Hae-won can no longer find us.” “Why is that?”

“Do you think I didn’t look into it myself? I heard that once a great sect like Wudang takes a disciple in, not only do they never send him back, they even forbid him from meeting his family.”

“…That’s correct.” “I know well that to a lowly tenant farmer, even letting his face be seen by a child who has left home is greed. But the bond of blood doesn’t break so easily. Forgive me. Hae-won and you Daoists as well, you must have been helping us while breaking some rule of your sect. I don’t want to cause such trouble any longer. It’s far too late, but I want to carry all of it myself.”

Cheong-hwa thought he ought to answer something and opened his mouth, but no words came.

Noticing that, the middle-aged man let out a laugh thick with phlegm. “Daoist, please do not try to comfort me. Sometimes there is residue that no comfort can purify. And absurdly enough, the only thing I have to boast of in all my life is my despair, greater than that of others. So to speak of hope would only be trampling on my pride.”

“I understand.”

Cheong-hwa nodded. Because he had once come from the black path, Cheong-hwa understood the man’s words completely.

Those from the black path often bragged, when they had nothing else to do, about whose childhood had been more despairing and more wretched.

For them, the most humiliating thing was to hear words like, But still, there was some hope, or It wasn’t all so bad. In truth, when he saw such behavior, Cheong-hwa had always found it pitiable inside.

What was there to boast of in surrendering to despair and prostrating oneself before it?

But in the case of the man before him, Cheong-hwa changed his mind.

Even to his ears, the man’s situation truly was despairing. His son had been sold off for twenty taels of silver, and his daughter had been violated and then taken her own life in shame.

In such circumstances, it would be no easy thing to keep alive the will to go on living.

The only thing left to lean on was probably the thought that he had simply been born beneath a fate steeped in misfortune and despair. Worse still, the one who had violated the daughter was the son of a local notable, and so he had not been punished at all.

Since that notable and the prefect had studied under the same teacher at the same academy, it was, to some degree, the ending one would have expected.

Of course, Cheong-hwa could not accept such an ending, which was why he had smashed the floor. “I will go and meet that local notable and that magistrate myself. A man of a righteous sect ought to punish such evil people.”

“It likely won’t help. I heard there are tremendous experts in that notable’s estate.”

“I am a disciple of Wudang. I have nothing to fear.” With burning determination, Cheong-hwa rose and said to the middle-aged man,

“I can’t undo what has already happened, but I will avenge you.”

Cheong-hwa knew at once who that local notable had to be. In Luoyang, there was only one man grand enough to be called a local notable and to have close ties with the prefect, Fang Yu-seon.

Even Cheong-hwa, who had been through Luoyang several times, knew the estate of the Onyang Bang Clan.

It was just that prominent and just that extravagant. Without even waiting to hear the middle-aged man’s reply, Cheong-hwa went to the estate of the Onyang Bang Clan in the blue light of dawn.

To put it simply, his revenge failed.

As the middle-aged man had said, the Fang estate maintained many experts recognized throughout Henan as guest retainers. At the time, Cheong-hwa was a novice to the Jianghu who had not yet earned the title Boundless Divine Sword.

There was no way he could defeat several dozen expert drifters.

Had Cheong-hwa not belonged to Wudang, he would have been buried without a trace. But because the Fang estate did not wish to stir trouble with Wudang, they merely left him outside the gate with his life still intact.

“Ha…”

Cheong-hwa had only barely had his broken bones set before returning from Henan, and even then he still lacked the courage to climb Wudang Mountain. It was not shameful that he had been beaten in the Fang estate.

What he could not decide was whether he ought to tell Senior Brother Cheong-su the story or not, and if he did, how.

That was how cruel the truth Cheong-hwa had learned was to Cheong-su. Even now, when he closed his eyes, the wretched face of that middle-aged man, who had been robbed of everything in life and could do nothing at all, flickered before him.

“Damn it.”

“What’s damned?”

Someone from behind answered Cheong-hwa’s words. Startled, Cheong-hwa jumped and spun around.

And the one standing there was, cruelly enough, Cheong-su.

Cheong-su too started in shock when he saw Cheong-hwa’s face. “What the hell? Who beat you up?”

“…I fell off a mountain while using qinggong half asleep.”

“Bullshit. Anyone can see you got beaten somewhere. But who had the courage to touch a disciple of Wudang?” Clicking his tongue, Cheong-su took Cheong-hwa to the Medical Hall.

Since Cheong-hwa was still limping because his leg bone had only just set, Cheong-su lent him a shoulder.

Unfortunately, the physician of the Medical Hall happened to be away from Wudang Mountain for a while, so there was no one there to treat Cheong-hwa. “Just my luck.”

Saying that, Cheong-su sat Cheong-hwa down in the Medical Hall.

To begin with, martial artists, who carried injuries as part of life, generally knew at least how to provide emergency care. Cheong-su rummaged through the drawers of the Medical Hall, applied wound medicine, and splinted Cheong-hwa’s swollen joints.

Naturally, since he wasn’t a physician, his hands were somewhat clumsy.

And that very clumsiness was what shook Cheong-hwa’s heart. In the end, Cheong-hwa told Cheong-su everything.

Cheong-su sat there and listened quietly.

But Cheong-hwa saw that his hands were trembling. Because he was the senior brother, he was suppressing his agitation as much as he could.

As expected, Cheong-su still had not forgotten his family.

And not long after that, Cheong-su volunteered for a Jianghu journey to Henan. When he came back, though, he returned with bruises and broken bones just like Cheong-hwa.

To make matters worse, the Onyang Bang Clan even sent an official letter of protest to Wudang.

They claimed that they had done nothing at all, and that Daoists of Wudang had come to pick a fight. In that process, fortunately, the fact that Cheong-su had contacted his family was never exposed, but because of the incident, Wudang barred Cheong-su and Cheong-hwa from making Jianghu trips to Henan and even disciplined them.

From that point on, Cheong-su became obsessed with the Taiji Wisdom Sword.

* * * “I never should have given it to you then. I should never have trusted you, Senior Brother.”

“I kept the words I spoke then. I said that for the sake of Wudang and righteousness, I would lay down even my life, and that I would never use the Taiji Wisdom Sword for a personal reason.”

Listening to Cheong-su’s calm words, Cheong-hwa lifted the liquor bottle.

Before they knew it, the gourd that had once been full of liquor had been drained dry. Of course, it had been almost entirely Cheong-hwa who drank it.

In truth, Cheong-su had kept his word.

He had never used the Taiji Wisdom Sword on Cheong-hwa for a personal reason, and he had even gone so far as to protect the current Sect Leader by sacrificing the wrist with which a martial artist lived. But Cheong-hwa’s voice stabbed sharply into Cheong-su.

“To be precise, wasn’t it simply that you couldn’t?”

“That isn’t exactly wrong either.” Cheong-su admitted it.

In the end, his revenge had not succeeded.

The strongest guard in the estate of the Onyang Bang Clan, the Wolf-Fang Sword King, had been guarding Fang Yu-seon’s son, the very man who had violated Jang Hae-rin. At the time, the Wolf-Fang Sword King was over fifty and at the height of his powers as a transcendent peak master.

No matter how properly a Cheong-su just past twenty had mastered the Taiji Wisdom Sword, defeating the Wolf-Fang Sword King was impossible.

And unfortunately, although Cheong-su had possessed excellent martial bones, he had not possessed enough comprehension to truly master the Taiji Wisdom Sword. Then, while he kept postponing revenge again and again, he offered up the wrist that wielded the sword for the sake of the Sect Leader, and the road to revenge was blocked forever.

After that, Cheong-hwa had thought the story was over.

But to learn that the copied Taiji Wisdom Sword manual he had written several years ago was wandering the Jianghu, the sense of betrayal he felt was beyond words. Cheong-su did not evade the burning look in Cheong-hwa’s eyes.

He accepted it directly.

“As you say, it is a matter of family.” “Pitiful man. Have you still failed to sever your worldly ties even now?”

“Pitiful? I’m a worm who sold off the pillar of the sect.”

“That part is true enough.” Seemingly forgetting there was no liquor left, Cheong-hwa turned the bottle upside down again.

After confirming it was empty, he sighed.

Seeing that, Cheong-su said, “Shall I give you another bottle?”

“You had liquor too, Senior Brother?”

“I found that if I took a drink now and then while working before dawn, things went more smoothly.”

“So you’ve been breaking every rule there is.” Cheong-hwa smiled bitterly.

It was because he knew there was not much time left for them to joke like this.

Cheong-su bent down and rummaged beneath the desk. He had hidden it quite well, because it took him some time to find it.

Soon he pulled out a blue bamboo canister.

The scent of bamboo mixed with the scent of liquor into something pleasant. “Since when have you been drinking good liquor like this by yourself?”

“For years.”

“What, from before Hui-yeong even came?” “Yes.”

At some point, Muk Hui-yeong had become the measure that divided Wudang’s generations.

That was because many of Wudang’s rules had changed after Muk Hui-yeong arrived. Naturally, before Muk Hui-yeong came, the rules had been far more conservative and strict.

So the fact that Cheong-su had already been drinking even back then was genuinely astonishing.

“Anyway. You too have a rather sinister side to you.” “Which is why I sold the Taiji Wisdom Sword, wasn’t it?”

“Exactly. Who could’ve known you’d be such trash.”

Even while listening to Cheong-hwa’s insults, Cheong-su still poured him liquor. Cheong-hwa drained the cup in one go as soon as he received it.

“Of course I was in the wrong too. Saying I was young doesn’t excuse that I violated the rules far too gravely. Once the sun rises, I’ll go to Three Purities Hall and report the matter in full to Sect Leader Senior Brother, and I’ll receive discipline along with you. You’re not actually thinking of running, are you?”

“I don’t lack a conscience to that degree. I should take responsibility for what I did.” “That’s a relief. You know what happens when one leaks the sect’s martial arts, don’t you?”

“Immediate execution. Do you think I don’t know that?”

“Depending on how Sect Leader Senior Brother sees it, I might die too.” Cheong-hwa chuckled.

Even while speaking of death, their tones remained flat.

“You haven’t committed a sin worthy of death. At most, you’ll probably be locked in the Cave of Repentance for a few years.” “Wow. That’s serious. Someone will have to watch over the disciples for a while. Hui-yeong does fine on his own, but the others are still too young.”

Cheong-su and Cheong-hwa clinked their cups together.

But Cheong-su only touched his cup and did not drink.

“So what did you do with the money you got from selling it?” “My mother has long neglected her stomach reversal, so the medicine costs were considerable. I likely spent it all on that.”

“How cheaply did you sell the Taiji Wisdom Sword?”

“I only needed enough to cover the medicine costs. There was no reason to ask for more.” Cheong-hwa shook his head.

All this time, Cheong-su had still been keeping track of his family’s situation.

The blue sky was gradually stripping away the night outside the window. And just then, the liquor in the bamboo canister too was exhausted.

Cheong-hwa braced his hand on the desk and rose.

“Let’s go. To die.” “Yes.”

Cheong-su rose as well.

Watching Cheong-su stand with a smile, Cheong-hwa bit his lip and said, “If I happen to live, then I’ll look after your parents as best I can. At least that won’t count as a violation of the rules, will it?”

“That’s true enough.”

Cheong-hwa nodded and was about to cross the room toward the door. But before he could even reach it, a dizzying sensation swept through his head and he collapsed.

As he pressed a hand to the ground and tried to rise, Cheong-hwa realized that his body was no longer listening to him.

He hurriedly tried to summon his inner energy, but even that would not rise. “I mixed a qi-dispersing poison with a sleeping drug. You’ll sleep soundly for a full day and night.”

“Senior Brother, even to the end…!”

Cheong-hwa growled. Cheong-su replied in a cold voice.

“I’ll die on my own terms. I simply refuse to die having done nothing.”

“You’re going to Henan? You still haven’t forgotten!” “Isn’t repaying grudges and favors the virtue of one who walks the martial world?”

Cheong-su left the office of the Hall Master of Hall of Preserved Wholeness.

Cheong-hwa fought with all his might against his drooping eyelids, but in the end had no choice but to close his eyes. …And at that very time, Muk Hui-yeong was in Nambam, right in the middle of searching for Hyeon-wol.