Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 148 - Central Plains Merchant Union Council (3)

Chapter 148 – Central Plains Merchant Union Council (3)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Time passed, and the day came for Yu Cha-ryeon, Jo Chung-heon, and me to depart for Beijing.

During that time, I had been busy handling the company’s affairs and spending time with my direct Senior Brothers, Myeong-seong, Myeong-gyeong, and Myeong-jin. Though by spending time with them, all I really meant was sparring with them.

Master had told me before he was confined in the Cave of Repentance to take good care of my Senior Brothers.

Of course, even if he had not asked, I would have taken care of them well.

Naturally, for the ordinary disciples, the matter was explained away by saying that both Cheong-hwa and Cheong-su had gained a hint of enlightenment and entered closed-door cultivation. There was no good reason to let it be known that Cheong-hwa and Cheong-su were responsible for the leak of the Taiji Wisdom Sword, so from the standpoint of Cheong-ui, the sect leader, it had been the right choice.

The day before leaving for Beijing, I told them that I was departing, and Myeong-gyeong in particular caused an uproar, throwing himself on the ground and kicking his limbs around while insisting that he wanted to come with me.

It was fortunate that Myeong-seong, the eldest Senior Brother among them, managed to calm him down, or else Myeong-gyeong would probably have followed me by force.

Summer was gradually passing, and autumn was arriving. It had become the season when the rustling of leaves dyed red tickled the ears.

As befitted a daughter of a great family, Yu Cha-ryeon wore a green palace robe over a white gauze outer garment, while Jo Chung-heon wore light black traveling clothes with a cloak, and I wore blue martial attire with a brass-colored outer wrap.

“The young Daoists really like you, Branch Master.”

Yu Cha-ryeon spoke with mild surprise.

That was what she said after seeing Myeong-gyeong rolling around and crying on the ground until the very last moment before I descended Wudang Mountain, begging me not to go alone.

“I had heard that in the martial world, the line between lay disciples and main-sect disciples is very clear, but I suppose it is not always so.”

“Things just ended up like this somehow.”

I smiled awkwardly as I spoke. I did not know about the Cheong generation, but among the Myeong generation, I certainly had them all in hand.

“That too is all because of your ability, Branch Master.”

Jo Chung-heon slipped that in from behind. Ever since I had dramatically doubled his monthly wages, his sudden worship of me had only worsened.

If it were mere flattery, I could have let it slide, but because it was obvious to anyone that he meant it sincerely, it left me embarrassed as to how I should respond.

“Please stop that, Acting Head Steward. You are making the Branch Master uncomfortable.”

Yu Cha-ryeon read the situation quickly and said something to Jo Chung-heon, but Jo Chung-heon showed no hesitation at all.

“Once Young Lady Yu works together with the Branch Master, you too will come to see what an extraordinary person he is. It is not for nothing that his name contains the character for brilliance and the character for radiance.”

“That is a bit…”

No matter what, to revere the name my father had given me too was excessive. There truly were all kinds of ways to worship someone.

“By the way, Young Lady Yu, you know how to ride a horse as well.”

I hurriedly changed the subject. Usually, daughters of great families often did not learn horseback riding because it was considered lacking in refinement for women to ride. That made her rather unusual.

“My father wanted me to do everything at least above average. Father himself is an exceptionally capable man.”

“I see. Is your father perhaps…” “He currently serves as Vice Minister of Personnel.”

“I see.”

A vice minister was the deputy head of one of the Six Ministries. A high office of senior third rank. As expected, she was not from a great family for no reason.

“Then you will probably be seeing your father in Beijing as well?”

“I wonder. To be honest, I would rather not.”

“Ah, are you not on very good terms?”

“That is not it. But if he learns that I got divorced and am helping with merchant company work like this, he will probably faint.”

“He does not know you got divorced?”

“He should know by now. The Fang Estate would have sent a letter.”

Then again, Yu Cha-ryeon’s divorce had been decided on the spot. Thinking about it now, the marriage must have been arranged in some strategic manner between great families, yet she had still broken free of it and come away. That alone showed Yu Cha-ryeon was no ordinary person.

“That is impressive.”

I said it with genuine admiration.

Just like that, our idle talk continued, and before long we had entered Henan.

Once you entered Henan from Hubei, the next thing you had to do was cross the Dabie Mountains. Of course, there were ways around, but that was the fastest road to Beijing.

“But if these are the Dabie Mountains, does that not mean this is Green Forest territory?”

Once we entered the Dabie Mountains, Jo Chung-heon glanced around uneasily.

“That is right.”

“Our schedule is not so tight that we have to do this, so there is no need to…”

“Ah. There are roads watched by the Green Forest, and there are roads that are not.”

“You know such a road?”

“Of course.”

I proudly thumped my chest. This was elite information that, even among merchants, only seasoned and experienced traders knew. At this moment, Jo Chung-heon and Yu Cha-ryeon were receiving priceless field knowledge that could not be bought even with money.

“Kuhahaha! How dare you creep along like rats without even greeting the master of the Dabie Mountains!”

And the moment I finished speaking, we came face to face with a bandit carrying an iron club.

“…”

“…”

Jo Chung-heon and Yu Cha-ryeon looked at me as though they found this absurd, but politely chose to ignore it. By my memory, this absolutely was not a road where Green Forest bandits should appear, so I even felt wronged by the fact that they had.

Naturally, bandits were creatures that moved in groups. One after another, rough-looking men began appearing to surround us. “Heh heh. That woman there is quite pretty.”

“The stronghold master will like her.”

The Green Forest men took one look at the strikingly beautiful Yu Cha-ryeon and immediately began spewing vulgar remarks.

The level was bad enough to make even us frown in embarrassment, but Yu Cha-ryeon herself did not so much as blink.

“Great heroes of the Green Forest. If we simply pay the toll, will that not do? Ha ha.”

Naturally, I tried to resolve it peacefully.

Merchant companies and Green Forest bandits were, surprisingly enough, in a sort of symbiotic relationship. The Green Forest opened roads in the mountains, and merchant companies paid tolls to use those roads conveniently. It was a more rational transaction than one might think.

That was why I was not particularly hostile to the Green Forest. Leaving aside the fact that I could beat them if I fought them, I actually respected them to a degree. This was not because I was strange. There were in fact quite a few merchant company masters who shared drinking tables with Green Forest stronghold masters.

“Heh heh. Ordinarily we would have simply let you pass, but because of that woman’s looks, we cannot do that.”

“Mm. That is a bit inconvenient.”

It was an unforeseen variable. This was certainly something I had failed to take into account.

More than money, what Green Forest bandits liked was women. Because they lived shut away in the mountains, they had few chances to see them. In fact, if you visited a Green Forest stronghold, it would be filled, like some sort of formation, with the reeking smell of worthless old bachelors.

“I will pay well.”

“Then leave the woman behind and let only you two pay the toll.”

“That would be difficult.”

“Then you have no choice but to die.”

The bandit drew a broad saber and licked the flat of the blade with his tongue.

He seemed to be trying to create fear by rolling his eyes and licking the blade, but he simply looked like an idiot.

Yet despite that idiotic behavior, the aura coming from him was far from ordinary. Feeling a strange sense of incongruity, I removed the brass-colored outer wrap.

Jo Chung-heon quickly stepped forward and received it in both hands.

My Songmun Ancient Sword cut into the world with a light, crisp sound. At the sight of it, the bandit laughed loudly.

“Hahaha! So you have made up your mind that you want to enter your coffin early…”

But his laughter did not last long. The man beside him had seen the tassel tied to my sword hilt and had gone pale, whispering in his ear.

“…Hey, does that even make sense? I thought you said he was a lay disciple.”

“I do not know. Maybe he just tied it there.”

“Even you have to admit that a Wudang man pretending to be a Taiji Sword Guardian makes no sense.”

When I sharpened my hearing, I could hear their whispers. For Green Forest men of Henan, they seemed unusually knowledgeable.

Then again, Henan and Hubei were close, and Wudang’s Taiji Sword Guardians bore a mark that was easy enough to recognize. The men looked around uncertainly, and only then did I belatedly catch something strange in what they had said earlier.

“You there, esteemed elders of the Green Forest?”

“W-what?”

“Who are you?”

“W-w-w-w-what do you mean? We are naturally the masters of the Dabie Mountains!”

The supposed bandit was visibly flustered by my question. I found it absurd. Martial artists being bad at acting was hardly anything new.

“So the masters of the Dabie Mountains were this interested in me. How did you know I was a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect? I have not spoken a single syllable of my name here.”

The men fell silent. Apparently, they had never imagined I would overhear them.

“Mm. Well, that is…”

The bandit scratched his head. His expression said the situation had become a complete mess.

“What do we do?”

In the end, the fake bandit even turned to ask the person next to him in a foolish tone. It was a truly ridiculous situation.

By now it had become clear that they had planned this ambush in advance. And since they did not seem to bear me any personal grudge, it was obvious that someone had hired them.

Before anyone could speak, everyone wound up watching everyone else’s face. The situation had become utterly tangled. Gathering some courage, I opened my mouth first.

“This is getting a little awkward.”

I said that.

As far as I could tell, this man was not even a Green Forest bandit. I had seen the Dabie Mountain bandits often enough to know them. Now that I thought of it, they all wore sleeveless clothing and branded the character for great onto their upper arms.

Perhaps encouraged by my words, the man playing the bandit also found his courage and shouted toward the back.

“Hey! You never told me the target was a Taiji Sword Guardian! The contract is void!”

That made sense. As expected, he was not a real Green Forest bandit. I had spent my whole life as a merchant, and never once had I heard of Green Forest men taking private contracts to attack people.

Then, from behind the fake bandit, a voice full of grievance rang out.

“You lunatic! No matter what, you were supposed to follow the plan! How did you manage to ruin it this badly?”

“Why should we follow the plan when we would obviously die if we charged him?”

“Give me a refund! You useless bastard!”

“Then I will refund it! But we did show up in disguise, so at least the labor fee stays. I will refund half!”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

“Read the fine print at the bottom of the contract! The refund policy is written there in small characters!”

The man disguised as a bandit and the voice shouting from behind started arguing among themselves. That voice from the rear had to belong to the person who had hired them to attack us. Leaving behind the dumbfounded Jo Chung-heon and Yu Cha-ryeon, I shot forward.

“Huh?”

In the blink of an eye, I had brushed past the disguised bandit, and a startled voice rang out from the dense brush.

“Let me see the face of the one who is trying to harm me.”

“Stop chasing me! I already said I was wrong!”

The man shouted and fled quickly. Judging by the fact that he was using lightness skill, he had certainly trained in martial arts to a decent level.

But in the end, he could not outpace me, and I caught him from behind. Once the distance closed, I hurled myself forward, caught him by the back of the neck, and rolled.

“Aaaah!”

We rolled several times in the direction we had been moving with our lightness skill before finally managing to lose momentum. I released the grip on the back of his neck and immediately grabbed him by the collar.

“Who are you?”

When I yanked up his collar, a smooth face emerged, one that looked like it had never known hardship. His thick eyebrows stretched toward his temples, giving him the impression of a hearty, manly figure, but there was still some baby fat in his face, leaving him with a youthful look.

“…Even if I die, I cannot tell you!”

“Then shall I kill you?”

“That would be a bit…?”

“Then what exactly am I supposed to do?”

“Could you not just pretend not to know and let me go? I really am sorry.”

The young man, who looked a little younger than me, closed his eyes. It was almost as though he believed that if he closed his eyes, I would disappear from the world.

I had certainly never seen this face before. And yet it felt strangely familiar.

Frowning under that odd sensation, I finally realized where I had seen it. I had looked at that face to the point of exhaustion in my previous life.

“Na Hyeon-wi of the All-Under-Heaven Merchant Company?”

“H-huh! How did you kno…, no, that is not me!”

And with that, Na Hyeon-wi very easily admitted that he was indeed Na Hyeon-wi.

Now that I thought about it, at this Merchant Union Council, I was going to meet many ties from my previous life. It was around this time that the merchants who had lived in the same age as me would start to come into prominence.

“So you were an idiot even as a boy.”

“What?”

“How dare you raise your voice.”

I let go of the back of his neck and smacked him once on the back of the head.

I crouched down and looked at Na Hyeon-wi, who had collapsed forward, then let out a sigh. To be honest, I had decided to go to the Merchant Union Council without much thought. But now it seemed it would become more important than expected. After all, it was a place I was going to in order to meet the connections of my previous life.