Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 152 - Beijing's Heavyweights (2)
Chapter 152 – Beijing’s Heavyweights (2)
The atmosphere turned strange all at once. Yeo Hong-won, who had been hostile to me until now, suddenly found himself with nothing to say.
Of course, Yeo Hong-won was not an island here.
There was a reason Yeo Bul-jin currently bore the title Merchant King. It meant he was the most influential merchant in the Central Plains at present, and that he possessed a merchant company of matching stature.
“Ahem. It is certainly a fine thing for the Golden Sword to look after a promising junior, but there is no need to crush everyone else’s spirit in the process, is there?”
The speaker was Hong Suk-ui of the South Plains Merchant Company. The South Plains Merchant Company was also famous for owning the South Plains Escort Bureau in Jiangxi.
On top of that, the Hong Clan belonged to the newer clans of the Huizhou Fifteen Clans.
Among the Huizhou Fifteen Clans, which were divided into the older and newer clans, they could be called representatives of the newer side, so they could not just leave the Yeo Clan alone. “I too would like to cultivate friendly ties with the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company, but I worry that Senior Na’s way of looking after them may be a bit excessive.”
This time it was Son Chung-won of the Janggyeong Merchant Company.
The Janggyeong Merchant Company also belonged to the newer clans among the Huizhou Fifteen Clans. Considering that Son Chung-won had been one of the first to greet me, his claim that he wanted friendly relations with me did not seem false.
“I fail to understand. Are people saying they plan to persecute the Company Lord of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company right now? If no one is talking about persecuting him immediately, then why are so many making a fuss over my words?” Na Han-geol did not yield.
Rather, by showing his own displeasure so openly, he left the people who had just sided with Yeo Hong-won in an awkward position.
If it were Yeo Bul-jin himself, he could have directly challenged Na Han-geol’s words. But Yeo Hong-won simply did not have the weight to do that.
“I have no particular designs on the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company myself. Still, there is something I am curious about. If we oppose the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company, does that make us enemies of the All-Under-Heaven Merchant Company?”
Jin Deuk-myeong of the Qin-Jin Merchant Company spoke in a lukewarm tone. His words had a somewhat different meaning from the others before him, because unlike them, he came from one of the Shanxi Four Families just as Na Han-geol did.
What Jin Deuk-myeong was really asking was whether Na Han-geol intended to break the blood alliance of the Shanxi Four Families just to support some newly risen merchant company.
Even if the Huizhou Fifteen Clans were divided into newer and older clans, when an external enemy appeared, they still responded together. The Shanxi Four Families were much the same.
They might clash on smaller matters, but in the end they all came from the same region and the same blood alliance.
In the end, the problem was that the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company belonged neither to the Shanxi Four Families nor to the Huizhou Fifteen Clans. “The South Gate Merchant Company has no intention of involving itself in this discussion.”
In fact, the South Gate Merchant Company of Guangdong had no intention of joining this matter at all.
The commercial world of the Central Plains might currently be dominated by Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants, but naturally they were not the whole story. When people sometimes listed the three great commercial blocs of the Central Plains, Guangdong merchants were included among them.
However, Guangdong merchants focused on maritime trade, so their influence in the inland Central Plains was weaker than that of the Huizhou or Shanxi merchants. Moreover, because the sea-ban order was still in place, this was a time when their influence had already waned.
That was why they had no desire to get involved in this issue.
“Well? What do you think, Company Lord Na?” Jin Deuk-myeong pressed him.
Na Han-geol found himself pushed slightly onto the defensive.
With a merchant company from the same Shanxi Four Families taking such a crooked stance, the merchants around Yeo Hong-won regained a bit of momentum as well. “Senior Na’s desire to cherish a junior is admirable, but this time you seem to have gone too far.”
“You might consider speaking after sweating out some of your wine poison first.”
Now they were even making Na Han-geol out to be a man who let the drink loosen his tongue. The situation shifted into a peculiar clash of invisible pressure.
Even among the Shanxi Four Families, it was not as if they shared one fate.
So a clash between the Qin-Jin Merchant Company and the All-Under-Heaven Merchant Company was nothing particularly unusual. Still, Na Han-geol had to consider whether supporting me was truly worth provoking the temper of a Company Lord from the same Shanxi Four Families.
Things were flowing in a complicated direction.
Everyone had fallen silent and was reading the room. And at that moment, I sensed that this was exactly when I should speak.
“That is enough. I have no intention of becoming a friend of the All-Under-Heaven Merchant Company right now.” With a single sentence, I neatly cut through the ambiguity of the situation.
Na Han-geol, the other Company Lords, all of them looked startled at my words.
The picture had suddenly become very clear. The Radiant Crystal Merchant Company had rejected the hand of the All-Under-Heaven Merchant Company, so there was no reason left for them to keep testing each other like this.
“Puhaha! So the great Golden Sword has turned into a dog chasing chickens.”
Jin Deuk-myeong burst into loud laughter. That did not mean Na Han-geol was the sort of clumsy man to get enraged or go red in the face here.
He merely observed the situation calmly.
Na Han-geol may have been embarrassed, but the only one here with the standing to openly mock him was someone like Jin Deuk-myeong, another member of the Shanxi Four Families. Now the target instead became the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company, which had kicked away the roof called the All-Under-Heaven Merchant Company.
“A very young man, and terribly arrogant. The way he treats his elders is all wrong as well.”
Jin Deuk-myeong clicked his tongue as he said it. Once he moved first, Yeo Hong-won seemed to gain confidence as well.
The Shanxi merchants and the Huizhou merchants were bitter rivals, yes.
But in the end, both sides were merchants. In a situation like this, they would not remain stiffly hostile to one another.
When a common enemy appeared, merchants were the sort who could gather and part again in an instant. “Then, since Senior Golden Sword has already given his opinion, I too will offer an opinion on behalf of Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company. I believe it would be unreasonable for the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company to enter the Merchant Union Council.”
“Is that the Merchant King’s opinion?”
At Yeo Hong-won’s words, Gwan Yeong-sang of the Yunchang Merchant Company voiced his curiosity. They too had to know how much effort the Huizhou merchants had poured into trying to recruit the Wudang Sect.
So it was only natural that they were curious when Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company now tried to oppose the very Radiant Crystal Merchant Company that had successfully embraced Wudang.
“No. My father has entrusted me with full authority for this Merchant Union Council meeting.” “Heh heh. So your training as a successor is already beginning. Still, making such judgments for yourself is certainly good experience.”
Gwan Yeong-sang laughed heartily.
Yeo Hong-won thumped his chest proudly, apparently quite proud of having received full authority. “Yes. This is my personal opinion. I stake my honor on it.”
That was probably the truth.
The Merchant King was not so small a man that he would order his son to lie, and Yeo Hong-won was not so large a man that he would dare lie to everyone without his father’s knowledge. “I did not particularly care one way or another either, but that brat’s behavior is getting on my nerves, so I may vote against him.”
Jin Deuk-myeong, who had been watching, casually added his own remark. “For once, solidarity with the Shanxi merchants does not sound so bad.”
Yeo Hong-won responded immediately.
In a situation like this, there was no one left who would openly take the side of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company. At least, saying one wanted friendly relations was the sort of thing people said only when no risk was involved.
It was not something one said in a situation like this.
From then on, the gathering turned into a session for Yeo Hong-won and Jin Deuk-myeong to lead in tearing the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company down. “In any case, young people these days must think merchant company work is very easy. Just look at him, starting a merchant company without even beginning as an errand boy.”
“What I heard in Hubei is that he does not understand even the basics. He only got this far because he got lucky hoarding a certain item.”
To a degree, this had been expected. Whenever a newcomer arrived at the Merchant Union Council, there was always this sort of pressure from seniors, a kind of initiation.
So from one point of view, Jin Deuk-myeong and Yeo Hong-won were simply speaking as they always did, and it was Na Han-geol who had spoken out of the ordinary.
Still, it was a strange thing. I had suffered this in the past as well, and trading words and pointed barbs were an everyday thing among merchants.
Yet for some reason, this time it irritated me.
They were happily spitting as they went on and on about putting the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company in its place, and somehow I could not understand it. To be more exact, they simply looked pathetic to me.
I cast a rough glance around the room, then opened my mouth. “You there. Mister Yeo.”
“What? Mister Yeo? You cannot be talking to me right now.”
Yeo Hong-won stared at me in disbelief. I nodded.
“Look at this, everyone. The brat really is this disrespectful. Unless the commercial world has turned upside down, is there any reason to give wings to a fellow like this?”
Even now, it felt strange. In the past this would never have bothered me.
I could have simply laughed it off.
So why did Yeo Hong-won grate on me like this? After a brief thought, I realized the answer.
“Why are you yapping so much?”
I shot to my feet and walked over to him. Yeo Hong-won had been smiling in triumph as I approached, but soon started to panic.
I had gotten too close.
“W-what are you doing?” My face came so close to Yeo Hong-won’s that only a fist could fit between us.
I looked down at him, since he was just a little shorter than I was. “If it bothers you that much, then we can settle it with a bout.”
“…W-what?”
Yeo Hong-won looked completely flustered, as if he had never expected me to come at him like this. There was only one reason he had irritated me.
I was no longer a complete merchant.
I was a merchant with part of a martial artist’s heart mixed into me. When there was such a simple way to solve things, with a fist or a sword, all this circling around with words and endless yapping felt suffocating and irritating.
“I have learned a little martial art, so pressing you outright would be unfair. Call one of your guards. Or, if you want, I will not use inner power, so you can fight me yourself.”
“W-what kind of bastard are you? Are you some black-path thug?” “Black path? That is a harsh thing to say to a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect.”
The merchants stared at Yeo Hong-won and me in utter disbelief.
Then again, in the Merchant Union Council, in a place where only heavyweights had gathered, no one could have imagined anyone would behave so tyrannically. But from a martial artist’s perspective, it was rather natural.
Why else would inns be counted among the top three places martial artists most often fought?
If someone picked a quarrel or insulted you, martial artists in the jianghu simply drew their blades. So what was drawing attention here was that I was acting among merchants like a man of the martial world.
And merchants had always been fated to lose to martial artists. The truth that fists were closer than the law had been with us since antiquity.
The murderous aura rolling off me shut the mouths even of the merchants who had been happily chattering just moments before.
When a threat came right up before a person, there was no choice but to grow small. “Mm. Company Lord Na. This young brat is pressing us with his meager force. What should we do?”
In the end, Jin Deuk-myeong quite pathetically asked Na Han-geol for help.
After all, the only person here who could stop me was Na Han-geol, one of the Five Great Sword Masters Under Heaven. But asking for help from the very man he had just mocked was clearly an ugly thing.
Jin Deuk-myeong seemed to know that too, because his face reddened.
“Heh heh. That is enough, young man. I have swung a sword a bit myself, so I would be fine, but these men have only ever touched paper and brush.” “Is that so?”
I merely shrugged and stepped back.
The moment I did, the taut tension filling the room loosened all at once. Only then did the merchants realize they had danced exactly as I wished, and they trembled with rage.
By making that single display of force, I had naturally handed Na Han-geol the initiative.
At the same time, I had helped Na Han-geol out of a situation where his response was becoming awkward, while also giving a proper answer in my own way to the All-Under-Heaven Merchant Company’s offer of friendship. Na Han-geol was far from dull, so he understood that much and laughed heartily.
Jin Deuk-myeong and Yeo Hong-won, who had lost the flow without being able to do anything, simply trembled. And they could not say anything more to me now.
If they tried to bully me again, all I had to do was show the temper of a martial artist once more.
At that moment, someone suddenly leaped to his feet in indignation. “B-Brother Muk! I believe your behavior was improper. This is a place for merchants, not a place for martial artists.”
I turned toward the back.
Absurdly enough, the one protesting was Na Hyeon-wi, who had come here as part of my own party. “Since I must teach you proper respect before my seniors, come out and have a bout with me!”
Na Hyeon-wi raised his momentum.
Contrary to his fierce words, he wore a face on the verge of tears. I naturally turned my eyes to Na Han-geol.
Na Han-geol had been moving his lips, but when our eyes met, he suddenly looked away and pretended not to know anything.
He had been using voice transmission and got caught by me. It seemed Na Han-geol was the one who had stirred Na Hyeon-wi into this.
And I thought I could guess why. It seemed Na Han-geol had become curious not only about me as a merchant, but about me as a martial artist as well.