Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 142 - Karmic Ties (6)

Chapter 142 – Karmic Ties (6)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The Fang Estate, where the Onyang Bang Clan was based, was a powerful family of Luoyang.

At present, they did not have some high official of terrifying influence, but they were still a distinguished house that produced a Minister every five generations or so. When the imperial state was founded, the Founding Emperor confiscated the lands of the great landlords if there was even the slightest extralegal aspect in how they held them, and he imposed massive taxes proportional to the amount of land they controlled.

As a result, most great landlords fell into ruin, but the Onyang Bang Clan remained one of the great landlords of Luoyang even under such institutional pressure.

That meant the wealth they had amassed since before the rise of the imperial state was tremendous. And tremendous wealth meant the quality of the guest soldiers and martial artists protecting them was equally outstanding.

The Hall Master of the External Hall who oversaw the Fang Estate’s security was still the Wolf-Fang Sword King, and perhaps because of his strict self-discipline, though he was past seventy, he remained a transcendent peak master whose skill had not diminished.

Naturally, behind that stood the Fang Estate’s full support in both goods and money. “Hall Master.”

“What?”

“Why do we have to train? Who’s going to attack the Fang Estate?” The Wolf-Fang Sword King clicked his tongue.

He had originally been a famous wandering martial artist in the northern regions of China.

But when he grew sick of the life of a wanderer, he accepted a post as a protector of the Fang Estate for the sake of a stable life. Due to his influence, the Fang Estate’s guest soldiers were mostly made up of wandering martial artists from the northern regions.

That was why such men, mere hired blades, could speak so casually to the Wolf-Fang Sword King, who had risen all the way to the position of Hall Master of the External Hall despite having been nothing more than a hired expert himself.

“Rich men are always timid. And there’s a reason for that timidity. The ones who raid some little village are petty thieves at most, but the ones who raid a rich household are bandits ready to kill people. If we’re attacked once, we could all die, which is why we were hired.” “That’s the reason we were hired, not the reason we should train.”

“Wrong. Don’t you know how timid and miserly the rich are? The moment they think you aren’t earning your keep, they immediately throw you out and replace you. And this place is even worse. Don’t they mercilessly replace the tenant farmers too if the harvest is worse than last year?”

“That’s true enough.” The wandering martial artist nodded at the Wolf-Fang Sword King’s words.

Of course, even so, he didn’t actually think the Fang Estate would be attacked.

That thought was overturned by evening. The gate area seemed a little noisy at first, and then screams rang out.

“What? What’s happening?”

As one of the men of the External Hall had said that morning, no one had actually thought the Fang Estate would be attacked. And certainly no one had imagined that instead of thieves sneaking in by night, someone would come right through the main gate like this.

Even though the martial artists of the External Hall had already rushed to the main gate and surrounded the intruder, none of them dared rush him carelessly.

The attacker was unusual in that he held his sword in his left hand and wore shabby, completely tattered clothes that looked as though he’d picked them up in some alley. But none of that was the reason they couldn’t charge him.

The real reason was that the attacker’s face was too grotesque.

As though determined to never let his identity be known, the attacker had filled his face with slash marks. Judging by the blood still streaming from the opened wounds, it didn’t even look like he’d mutilated his face very long ago.

“…Who are you?”

At last, someone worked up the courage to ask. The attacker with the ghastly face swept his gaze over the gathered men and opened his mouth.

“Is the Clan Head Fang Su-un here?”

Astonishingly, unlike his executioner-like face, his way of speaking was polite. But two of the guard martial artists stationed at the gate had already been cleanly severed at the waist, so the answer couldn’t very well be polite.

“I asked who you are, bastard!”

“As I recall, the Fang Estate values time spent together as a family, so they usually gather for dinner whenever possible. Isn’t that just the sort of harmonious household this is?” Rage was mixed into the low tone.

Whatever the manner of speech, hearing it from a man whose face had been sliced beyond recognition made it horrifying.

What chilled the martial artists of the External Hall even more was the attacker’s bearing. To anyone looking, that attacker appeared to have come here fully prepared to die.

If he had intended to assassinate someone and survive, then rather than mutilating his face like that, a human-skin mask would have sufficed.

He had come prepared to die in this Fang Estate, and because he did not want to be traced afterward, he had torn apart his very face. “This one won’t listen. Attack!”

The martial artists of the External Hall rushed him.

The attacker flowed their blades away and cut through them as though performing a soft dance. The principles of his movement were so soft they could have been contrasted with newly created martial arts, but it was impossible to infer his identity from his swordsmanship alone.

The attacker seemed to want to conceal his martial arts as well, since he used only the stances of the basic Three Talents Sword Art.

And yet with only that Three Talents Sword Art, the attacker had enough skill to cut through the riffraff of the External Hall. Eight Directions Wind and Rain, Sweeping Across the Thousand Armies, Mount Tai Presses the Summit.

With those three moves, the martial artists of the External Hall were cleaved apart in halves.

“Aaaagh!” “Send word to the prefectural office quickly! He’s insane!”

In an instant, the courtyard of the peaceful Fang Estate turned into a painting of hell.

The attacker was, naturally, Cheong-su, who had come from Hubei. As most would have expected, Cheong-su had been thoroughly determined to conceal the fact that he was a man of Wudang.

In case anyone recognized him, he had slashed up his entire face, and he had even left behind the pine-pattern ancient sword bestowed upon him by the former Sect Leader in the office of the Hall Master, instead buying the crudest sword he could find from a Luoyang forge.

Cheong-su cut through the Fang Estate’s hired martial artists with the simplest moves he could manage. Since the Fang Estate employed an enormous number of them even by the standards of the Central Plains, more kept coming no matter how many he cut down.

Meanwhile, the blade he had bought from the forge developed chips after only some fifteen men.

“Tsk!” Cheong-su threw the sword at a martial artist leaping down to strike him from above and punched through his throat, then snatched up the sword that man dropped and resumed carving through the others.

No matter that he had spent years working as the Hall Master of Hall of Preserved Wholeness, which was not a combat post, and no matter that he couldn’t use his dominant right hand, Cheong-su was still a main-sect disciple of Wudang.

“You bastard, who are you! I am Cho Cheon-won, deputy hall master of the External Hall and the Heart-Stealing Blood Sword!” Cheong-su’s sword clashed with the man called Cho Cheon-won, deputy hall master of the Fang Estate’s External Hall.

Perhaps because he did bear the title of deputy hall master, unlike the others Cheong-su had sliced down in a single blow, he was fairly strong.

He’d never heard the vicious-sounding title Heart-Stealing Blood Sword before, but the man seemed to be around first-rate at least. “Unit B and Unit C of the External Hall, follow the Hall Master and go protect the Clan Head!”

Cho Cheon-won shouted while exchanging blows with Cheong-su.

The whole purpose of their existence was to protect the Clan Head in the end. And according to the code of conduct of the External Hall, if an attacker of unknown identity appeared, the Hall Master was to go directly to the Clan Head’s chambers.

There was no guarantee the attacker would only come from one direction.

Of course, Cheong-su had come alone, but naturally they didn’t know that. For Cheong-su, that was rather fortunate.

What would have become blades coming from eight directions had been reduced to perhaps four.

Thus even Cho Cheon-won, who had only barely been able to match Cheong-su by joining forces with the others, eventually had his throat cut and died. Cheong-su kept pushing forward.

As befitted a great house, martial artists were naturally posted everywhere, and there were many formations and mechanisms prepared against sudden attacks as well.

“Don’t let him enter the Clan Head Hall!” The martial artists of the External Hall screamed as they blocked Cheong-su’s path.

On Cheong-su’s body, wounds increased one after another.

Facing such an enormous number of formations, mechanisms, and martial artists was an immense drain on one’s stamina. His physical strength had long ago been exhausted, and what still kept Cheong-su standing on his two feet was his willpower alone.

Cheong-su permitted all the wounds to his body except to the left hand that still had to swing the sword.

It was the very posture of flesh for bone, mutual destruction. Thus by the time Cheong-su cut his way through everyone and reached the Clan Head Hall, his right arm, which had already ceased to serve its function, had been severed off, and the blood that once only covered his face now dyed his entire body.

Cheong-su no longer had the strength to run with qinggong.

He had to preserve at least the absolute minimum strength required to kill the one he had come to kill. The strength to cut down one man.

That alone had to be saved.

Cheong-su moved through the Clan Head Hall, killing the people he found. Not everyone.

Only those who raised blades against him.

There were also servants in the Clan Head Hall who were not martial artists. Most of them fled with all the speed in their legs, but some collapsed because the terrifying aura around Cheong-su took all the strength from their limbs.

Cheong-su had no reason to kill even those.

He slowly moved through the Clan Head Hall, searching room after room. But even in the magnificent chamber that plainly looked like the Clan Head’s room, his enemy Fang Su-un was nowhere to be found.

Cheong-su trudged along the corridor.

He had lost so much blood that even his vision had already blurred into near-unconsciousness. As he walked through the Clan Head Hall, he felt the qi of a number of people gathered together.

Cheong-su made his way there and kicked the door open with his foot.

The fragrant smell of food hit his nose the moment the door flew open. “H-he’s here!”

Someone cried out in a shrill voice.

Looking inside, there was a fat-bellied man, a beautiful woman, and a little girl with braided hair huddled in the corner. And standing in front of them was an old man so tall he looked to be seven feet in height.

Cheong-su recognized him at once.

It was the Wolf-Fang Sword King who had driven him back when he came to the Fang Estate before. “Why are you committing such atrocities! What grudge could you possibly have against me!”

As Cheong-su had expected, the fat-bellied man was Fang Su-un.

Naturally, that meant the beautiful woman was Fang Su-un’s wife, and the little girl was his daughter. Cheong-su looked as though he might collapse at any moment, but collapse was the one thing he absolutely could not do.

To think that after driving his younger sister to such a death and suffering no fitting punishment, Fang Su-un had gone on to make such a warm family for himself.

It felt as though a great fire called rage burned in Cheong-su’s chest, but his head grew colder than ice. Cheong-su gave a grim smile.

When he’d come to the Fang Estate in his youth, he had not even gotten to see Fang Su-un’s face.

“Ah. It’s good to see you. I truly wanted to.” When Cheong-su smiled, bloody foam ran down his chin.

It was difficult even to breathe, as though a broken rib had pierced his lung.

“Answer me, you bastard! Who are you!” “How shall I put it. It’s a feeling hard to express in words. I feared that even after ruining this face, you might still recognize me, but now that you don’t, I find myself disappointed instead. Perhaps it’s because you’ve committed so many evils. Or perhaps because you think that kind of evil isn’t even evil. Or perhaps it’s both.”

“You won’t listen. Hall Master! Kill him!”

Fang Su-un screamed at the top of his lungs. The old man came forward slowly, dragging his great sword along the floor.

“I don’t know who you are. I only know that I am doing what I must.”

“I understand. Wolf-Fang Sword King. I too am only doing what I must. I bear no feelings toward you.” “You have no intention of telling me who you are, do you?”

“When you see this face, doesn’t it tell you? I’ve thrown away my name, my face, even my loved ones.”

“I see. I don’t know what twists your life have taken, but you’re past salvation. Because you’re going to die here.” “Those words don’t frighten me at all. I came prepared to die long ago.”

Cheong-su laughed roughly.

That broken laughter went on and on, then suddenly cut off. Then an explosive force burst from Cheong-su’s body.

It was the single blow he had been saving even while giving up arms and flesh.

The expression of the Wolf-Fang Sword King changed. There were few energies so dense and powerful.

It was the innate true qi said to be something a martial artist could unleash only once in his life.

“You bastard, are you really trying to die!” The Wolf-Fang Sword King roared.

Innate true qi was created by burning the dantian, the house built of internal energy.

That meant the end of one’s life as a martial artist, and because it forcefully burned one of the body’s key points, it could even take one’s life itself. “Didn’t I tell you. I came prepared to die long ago.”

Cheong-su lifted the sword he’d been holding low and began taking one step at a time.

The explosive energy he could no longer control stamped itself into the ground with each step, cracking even the floor. “Then I’ll grant your wish!”

The Wolf-Fang Sword King let out a roar and brought his sword down.

Though his body was old, the sword wind he pressed down with was savage and heavy. Ordinarily, with his right arm gone, Cheong-su could never have received that one-handed.

But the innate true qi he had ignited made it possible.

“Urk!” Of course, that didn’t mean Cheong-su escaped the shock.

The moment he received the Wolf-Fang Sword King’s blade, backed by that deep internal energy, Cheong-su immediately spat blood.

But he did not step back. As he himself had said earlier, Cheong-su had abandoned everything to come here.

There was nowhere left for him to retreat to.

Cheong-su kept advancing toward Fang Su-un, slow but unceasing. Even swung without technique, the sword carrying innate true qi was powerful.

Cheong-su, as a disciple of Wudang, also possessed deep internal energy of his own.

As he blocked the sword Cheong-su swung, the Wolf-Fang Sword King coughed up blood in a rush. Cheong-su’s innate true qi had begun to invade the other man’s internal energy.

“You truly are insane!”

At last, the Wolf-Fang Sword King decided to change tactics. The orthodox way to deal with a martial artist who had ignited innate true qi was, after all, to wait for him to self-destruct.

The powerful energy gained by burning one’s dantian.

Naturally, once there was nothing left to burn, the fire would die out on its own. The Wolf-Fang Sword King turned entirely to defense.

“Wolf-Fang Sword King. I promise you. I’ll kill only Fang Su-un. I’ll spare the wife and the daughter. So step aside.”

“You think that makes any sense!” As Fang Su-un watched Cheong-su coming at him while still fighting the Wolf-Fang Sword King, he ended up pissing himself.

For a man who had lived as a pampered lord, that killing intent was far too naked and vicious to endure.

For fifty exchanges, Cheong-su and the Wolf-Fang Sword King crossed swords like that. With every clash, the Wolf-Fang Sword King’s internal injuries grew worse, and the color of the blood he spat gradually turned pink.

It felt as though only a few more blows would be enough to break him.

But then Cheong-su’s knee buckled heavily. The innate true qi had at last burned through his dantian entirely.

Some lingering heat still kept even Cheong-su’s mind alive, but his body now refused to move.

Only then did all the pain that rage had been holding back come flooding into him like a tide. The pain of the face he had cut open, the pain of countless large and small gashes, the pain of his severed right arm, and the pain of his burned-out dantian all came together to torment him.

“Ugh… ah.”

Under that destructive pain, Cheong-su curled in on himself and couldn’t even properly scream. When Cheong-su collapsed, the Wolf-Fang Sword King spat blood and laughed.

“At last you’re dying, madman.”

“Ugh, aaaargh!” Cheong-su screamed.

Not because of pain.

It was a scream of injustice. Though he had cast everything behind him and come here, he still could not make his blade reach where it needed to.

“I don’t know what grievance you carry, but it’s time for you to die.”

The Wolf-Fang Sword King approached the curled-up Cheong-su slowly. “Farewell.”

Standing over him, the Wolf-Fang Sword King raised his sword high.

The sword fell fast and merciless, as though determined not to allow even the smallest gap for the collapsed Cheong-su to breathe. Fang Su-un, who had felt as if tension, anxiety, and fear would strangle him, was just about to let out a sigh of relief.

Bang!

“Hold on a moment.” The Wolf-Fang Sword King’s eyes flew open.

When the tip of his sword was only an inch from Cheong-su’s heart, another blade blocked it.

“Let’s take a second. I need to catch my breath first.” And the one holding that blade was none other than Muk Hui-yeong, drenched in sweat after racing from Jun County to Luoyang in a single breath.