Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 159 - The Way I See You (2)
Chapter 159 – The Way I See You (2)
I had seen plenty of men like that before.
People born into great families who had never accomplished a single thing with their own hands. Because they had never truly done anything for themselves, they took possession of things far too lightly.
The man in front of me, Peng Jin-yeong, looked exactly like that type.
Expensive silk robes draped in ornaments, and an expression that made it obvious he’d never once considered being refused. And when I combined that bandit-like face with the surname Peng, his identity became obvious.
He was from the hegemon of Hebei. The Hebei Peng Clan.
“Bring me my blade!”
Peng Jin-yeong shouted. Before anyone could even ask who would go, Jin Su-gwan, who had evidently been waiting at the ready, shot into the cabin like an arrow and returned carrying a huge saber.
Was it about five chi long? It was big enough to be nearly as tall as Gwan Seo-ye herself.
The expressions of the onlookers became eager and entertained. They were likely the same crowd that always followed Peng Jin-yeong around, so they must have seen scenes like this quite often.
Peng Jin-yeong basked in their attention for a moment, then lifted the enormous saber in one hand and pointed it at me.
“I am Peng Jin-yeong of the Hebei Peng Clan. State your identity.”
Just as expected, Peng Jin-yeong was indeed from the Hebei Peng Clan.
He spoke in a booming voice, but despite being the one who had demanded my name, he didn’t even give me time to answer.
“Ah, of course. A mere bodyguard wouldn’t have a name or status worth mentioning. My mistake.”
Laughter broke out behind him. Birds of a feather truly did flock together.
I didn’t know whether the people behind him were actually from the Hebei Peng Clan too, but judging from the way they were dressed, they looked more like a crowd of nobodies eager to swagger under the Peng Clan’s prestige.
“Lady Gwan, what do you think I should do? I feel I ought to demand at least one wrist from this fellow for insulting the Hebei Peng Clan.”
“My guard only made a mistake because he wished to protect me. I’d be grateful if you would show some magnanimity.”
Gwan Seo-ye lowered her head. She was using the most proper and polite speech possible. She too seemed to have realized that this was a moment when she needed to be absolutely composed. But the water had already been spilled, and there was no way for her to clean it up now.
“Ahh. Lady Gwan is kind as well. To bow your head for the sake of some guard. Isn’t that right, Brother Jin?”
Peng Jin-yeong laughed as he looked toward Jin Su-gwan. Jin Su-gwan smiled awkwardly in return. No matter what, he was still from the same Shanxi Four Families, so a Shanxi merchant being oppressed couldn’t be entirely pleasant for him either.
“Then let me make you a proposal. If Lady Gwan spends tonight with me, I’ll let this guard’s offense pass.”
Peng Jin-yeong said that while openly eyeing Gwan Seo-ye’s body. Gwan Seo-ye’s face reddened. From the beginning, his aim had been her body.
The one who stepped forward in her stead, when she had lost her words to humiliation, was Jin Su-gwan.
“Brother Peng, there is something you’re mistaken about. That man isn’t a government bodyguard. He’s the branch master of another merchant company.”
“Hm?”
Peng Jin-yeong tilted his head. Jin Su-gwan smiled brightly. He seemed to think there couldn’t be a better move than to save a fellow merchant from the Shanxi Four Families while also using me as the shield.
“Is that true?”
Peng Jin-yeong turned to look at Gwan Seo-ye. I decided it was time for me to step in.
Until now I’d been holding back just in case any trouble might spill over to the Yunchang Merchant Company, but once Jin Su-gwan openly identified me as someone from another merchant company, there was no point in restraining myself. “No. Right now, he is my guard.”
But Gwan Seo-ye moved first. I looked at her in shock. Without so much as glancing at me, Gwan Seo-ye was staring up at Peng Jin-yeong, who was a full two heads taller than her.
“No, Lady Gwan. Now isn’t the time to force the issue. This is someone from the Peng Clan.”
Jin Su-gwan spoke hurriedly. But Gwan Seo-ye shook her head.
“It’s true that he’s the one guarding me right now. And beyond that, if I ignored someone who stepped forward to protect me, how could I call myself a descendant of Lord Guan?”
Gwan Seo-ye turned her gaze away from Jin Su-gwan and looked back up at Peng Jin-yeong.
“My guard may have gone a little too far in trying to protect me, but the one who first committed an offense was you. I can’t accept any talk of punishment. I’m sorry for spoiling the mood. We’ll disembark, so enjoy yourselves. Why don’t you pick one of the women behind you who keeps snickering and spend the night with her instead? Frankly, they look like they’ve been waiting for it.”
I couldn’t believe it.
Those words and that behavior were absolutely not something the Gwan Seo-ye I knew would have done.
Of course, even the Gwan Seo-ye of my previous life would never have sold out a bodyguard and run. But the woman I knew would have broken through the situation more cleverly, by spending money or using connections.
Thinking of how much the Gwan Seo-ye I knew hated direct confrontation, her provoking him and scraping at his temper like that was completely unlike the woman I’d known.
I had to start admitting it. The Gwan Seo-ye in front of me and the Gwan Seo-ye I knew were simply different people.
Naturally, Peng Jin-yeong’s face flushed red. Not only had she insulted him, she’d also insulted his whole little crowd. That was enough to make anyone feel deeply humiliated.
“Ha. Merchants really do become unbearably arrogant after making a bit of money.”
Peng Jin-yeong sighed out the words and then stretched his saber across Gwan Seo-ye’s path, blocking her from leaving.
“This won’t do. I’ll cut down your guard, and you can come with me. I want you tonight.”
With his other hand, Peng Jin-yeong reached to seize Gwan Seo-ye by the front of her robe. Judging by the fact that he’d infused his hand with inner power, it looked like he intended to do something utterly despicable, like rip her clothes open outright.
Naturally, he didn’t get to. I stepped in and caught his wrist in a reversing qinna grip.
“I want you tonight too. What about me?”
I said that. The corners of Peng Jin-yeong’s mouth twitched with rage.
“The two of you together have no idea of your place.”
“Did you ask who I was?”
“What?”
“I’m Muk Hui-yeong, branch master of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company. If you want to use the weight of your clan to crush me, then try it. Though I doubt a mere Hebei Peng Clan could crush us.”
At my words, shock flickered in the eyes of everyone watching. What I had just said was far harsher than anything Gwan Seo-ye had thrown at him.
Gwan Seo-ye had merely humiliated Peng Jin-yeong personally, and even that was less than what he’d deserved. But I had scorned not just Peng Jin-yeong, but the entire Hebei Peng Clan. And I had done it in Hebei.
“So you really are insane. Do you even know who you’re saying that in front of?”
Savage qi burst out from Peng Jin-yeong’s body. It spread in every direction with no concern whatsoever for the untrained civilians around us. The faces of the people behind him turned pale. Of course, I stepped forward to stand in front of Gwan Seo-ye, so none of that pressure reached her.
“Say it again. The Hebei Peng Clan is nothing?”
“Looks like someone drove iron spikes through your ears, so I’ll say it again. Your clan can’t wipe out the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.”
“You truly can’t be allowed to live!” Peng Jin-yeong stomped down with a shock step and charged. Splinters flew from the ship’s deck. He was like a massive, agile bear, fast and huge at the same time.
“Die!”
Peng Jin-yeong leaped high into the air and chopped his saber down at me.
It was time for my Songmun Ancient Sword to see the light again. But I had no intention of drawing it to meet him.
The blade techniques of the Hebei Peng Clan were famous even among non-martial people for being heavy, domineering, and forceful. That meant they were naturally at odds with the Wudang sword principles that prized smoothness and softness as their deepest mystery.
With Water Current’s Brave Flash, the final move of the Five Elements Sword, I redirected Peng Jin-yeong’s saber. But simply redirecting it wasn’t enough to satisfy me. Using the subtle principle of shifting flowers and grafting wood, I returned his force directly back at him.
When his own power wheeled around and came back toward him, Peng Jin-yeong was shocked and hurriedly sprang backward.
“…The Five Elements Sword?”
Peng Jin-yeong frowned.
“Wudang’s Five Elements Sword. You’re a lay disciple?”
“That’s right. A lay disciple.”
“Could it be that because of that pitiful lay-disciple status…”
Peng Jin-yeong stopped mid-sentence. He’d seen the tassel hanging from the end of my sword hilt. His eyes widened, then he gave a disbelieving laugh.
“So you’re really a madman. A merchant and a lay disciple dares to impersonate a Taiji Sword Guardian? I’ll make sure to tell the Wudang Daoists about this.”
Naturally, Peng Jin-yeong immediately concluded that I was falsely claiming the title of a Taiji Sword Guardian.
It was an understandable assumption. The story that I was a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect and closely tied to them had spread only through the commercial world. Why would martial artists know anything about some merchant company master who started as a lay disciple?
And the fact that Wudang had stepped into commerce was only a shocking story in the commercial world. In the martial world, it wasn’t something people would care much about.
“I’m not impersonating anything.”
“Don’t spout such nonsense. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever heard of Wudang giving the title of Taiji Sword Guardian to a lay disciple.”
“The world you know isn’t the whole world.”
“I hope you’ll keep up that confidence when I speak to the Wudang Daoists directly. If you’re caught impersonating a Taiji Sword Guardian, not only will your dantian be crippled, you’ll be stripped even of your disciple status.”
“Go ahead. Then I’ll go tell your father that you’re vermin.”
“You dog!”
Peng Jin-yeong charged again. He looked as though his brain had been paralyzed by anger. He still didn’t seem to understand my level. That much was obvious from the fact that he hadn’t reflected at all on how cleanly I’d redirected the saber using one of Wudang’s most basic defensive Five Elements Sword forms, nor on how I’d even turned his force back on him.
I knew after only that single exchange. The gap between Peng Jin-yeong and me was large.
When his saber thrust toward my solar plexus, I rotated my body and slipped straight inward. It was such a fine movement that it almost looked like I was riding the blade itself in.
“What!”
Peng Jin-yeong’s eyes widened as he watched me lightly evade the strike and close in on him. With the hilt of my sword, tassel still dangling from it, I struck hard at his dantian.
“Uggh!”
The dantian is the vital point of a martial artist. Since I’d struck hard with inner power behind it, Peng Jin-yeong’s internal energy must have scattered in an instant.
And when a martial artist’s internal energy scattered, that meant the strength throughout his body went with it. Peng Jin-yeong’s legs gave way and he started to sink to his knees, but I didn’t allow it.
I immediately grabbed him by the hair at the back of his head and knocked his saber from his hand. There was only one reason I disarmed him. It was in the way of punching him. His head was forcibly yanked upward. I then began driving my clenched fist into his face one blow after another. This was no longer at the level of a mere rebuke, so naturally I was putting inner power into every strike.
Each blow sank an eye socket in or shattered part of his nose, and I felt it all clearly through my fist.
“Uggh, aah, ngh! Uuugh!”
Every time my fist buried itself in Peng Jin-yeong’s face, skin split and blood splashed across the deck. The clatter of broken teeth rolling away was just a bonus.
Because I was hitting him with inner power behind every strike, he didn’t last many blows before he started screaming.
“Stop, stop already!”
At that, I paused for a moment. Peng Jin-yeong’s face was already swollen beyond recognition.
“Apologize.”
“I am sorry! I am sorry! I didn’t realize I was dealing with an expert and dared to attack!”
As a martial artist himself, Peng Jin-yeong had evidently already felt the absolute gap between my level and his. His speech slurred because some of his teeth were gone, but the important thing was that his tone had noticeably become more respectful.
“That’s not it.”
“Th-then what is?”
“You need to apologize to Gwan Seo-ye, the one you insulted. Is Gwan Seo-ye some roadside willow or wallflower?”
I said that while forcibly suppressing my fury. Peng Jin-yeong must have felt the anger in my tone, because he immediately started apologizing.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry to Lady Gwan! I won’t do it again!”
“Good. Well done.”
At my words, Peng Jin-yeong let out a sigh of relief. That made me laugh in disbelief.
“Who said this was over?”
“…What?”
“The apology is obvious. But getting beaten is obvious too. It’s not over yet.”
“What does that even mean!”
Peng Jin-yeong couldn’t finish. I’d started punching him again.
“Ugh, stop, stop!”
Naturally, I didn’t stop. I meant to pound his face until it lost all recognizable shape.
Only after I’d beaten him nearly half a gak and reduced his face to a ruined mess did Peng Jin-yeong finally drop the saber he’d been clutching, tremble violently, and go limp. Only then did I let him go.
At the wet splashing sound, I looked down and saw that Peng Jin-yeong had pissed himself and collapsed right in it.
“Take this bastard away. He’s ruining the taste of the wine.”
I nudged the unconscious Peng Jin-yeong with my foot and looked toward Jin Su-gwan.
But Jin Su-gwan, along with everyone else who had been watching, seemed unable to move easily. Apparently my momentum had overwhelmed them. I barked,
“Now!”
Only then did Jin Su-gwan and the others behind him scramble over and start hauling away Peng Jin-yeong’s unconscious body. The men who had come with Peng Jin-yeong fled the boat without even looking back. The sight of them was exactly like a defeated army.