Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 16 - Light and Salt (2)

Chapter 16 – Light and Salt (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Cheong-su had always thought that he needed to rein in this insolent brat sooner or later.

He had even spoken with Cheong-hwa about it before, because Muk Hui-yeong had a strange tendency to look down on martial artists.

That sort of perception was not good for Muk Hui-yeong, who would one day become a martial artist himself.

To begin with, Cheong-su found it strange why such an attitude had taken root in him at all.

Ordinary people usually feared and revered martial artists.

‘Go on, have a taste of this.’

In truth, there had been no need to bring him all the way before the sect leader.

Why would the opinion of someone who was not even a main-sect disciple yet be brought before the sect leader for any real reason?

This was simply the method Cheong-su had chosen to crush Muk Hui-yeong’s spirit.

Muk Hui-yeong lacked both respect and fear toward the senior elders.

Even he surely would not dare behave so boldly in front of Wudang’s sect leader.

And even if he somehow managed to speak boldly, what he had said was groundless and would naturally be dismissed.

“Immortal. I was wrong. The sect leader is a bit…”

“I already told the sect leader that I would come together with you. Surely you don’t intend to make me look like a fool.”

“That’s not what I…”

Muk Hui-yeong was deeply flustered, just as Cheong-su had intended.

He always talked slickly, yet handled work so well that there had never been an opening to say much to him.

Seeing his face now, Cheong-su found it thoroughly satisfying.

Even while sighing, Muk Hui-yeong had no choice but to follow after Cheong-su.

When they entered the sect leader’s chamber at the Three Purities Hall, the elders of Wudang and the sect leader were already seated there.

Because the salt trade would have a major effect on the budgets of Wudang’s halls, they had all gathered.

As he entered, Cheong-su glanced sideways at Muk Hui-yeong.

Just as expected, Muk Hui-yeong had gone pale.

“Ahem. So a mere disciple said we should not do this salt trade.”

“And we’re supposed to listen to that?”

“I heard he’s not even a main-sect disciple, just a lay disciple.”

The elders voiced their complaints at once.

For a lay disciple barely around twenty to offer an opinion on an important matter of the Wudang Sect was absurd on its face.

“Senior Brother Sect Leader. I’ve brought him.”

At Cheong-su’s words, the sect leader, who had remained silent until then, looked steadily at Muk Hui-yeong.

Muk Hui-yeong immediately lowered his gaze to the floor.

Well, how many people would dare widen their eyes in front of Cheong-ui, the Taiji Sword Emperor and one of the Five Great Sword Masters Under Heaven?

“So this is the one.”

“Yes. He had a negative opinion regarding the salt trade…”

“Not that. I mean the one Cheong-hwa has his eye on.”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

Cheong-ui’s inner qi stirred slightly and wrapped around Muk Hui-yeong.

He was examining Muk Hui-yeong’s bones, meridians, and inner qi.

At this moment, Muk Hui-yeong was probably feeling as though he had been stripped naked.

“I still can’t tell for certain. But Cheong-hwa’s eye cannot be wrong.”

Cheong-ui withdrew his inner qi.

Muk Hui-yeong immediately let out a harsh breath.

Having been enveloped in that majestic inner qi, it was only natural that he would be short of breath.

“Very well. Let the Hall Master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness speak first.”

“Pardon?”

Cheong-su was taken aback.

This was supposed to be a setting where Muk Hui-yeong became the target.

“Explain why we must not buy salt at this Yichang market.”

“That isn’t my opinion…”

“In any case, it is an opinion that came out of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness, so its Hall Master must gather it and report it to me.”

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Cheong-su felt things beginning to twist the wrong way.

“If I judge it to be baseless, I will punish the Hall Master.”

The situation had suddenly begun moving in a strange direction.

At that moment, Muk Hui-yeong’s expression changed at once.

“I am not a person of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness.”

Cheong-su stared at Muk Hui-yeong with a stunned face.

Even he, though Cheong-ui was his junior disciple, did not directly contradict the sect leader’s words.

That was proper respect toward a senior elder.

But Muk Hui-yeong paid it no mind at all.

“I don’t know why martial artists are so fond of collective punishment, but this is not even a case where it should apply. As I said before, that is because I am not a person of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness.”

“You are standing there because you are being treated as one.”

“I never asked to be treated that way.”

Cheong-ui’s eyes sank deeply.

It was a gaze bearing a weight that an ordinary disciple could hardly endure, but Muk Hui-yeong continued speaking.

“This salt trade will definitely fail.”

“What is your basis?”

“At present, I have none.”

“At present, you have none?”

The elders gave dry laughs.

But Cheong-ui did not laugh, and simply waited quietly for Muk Hui-yeong to continue.

“But I will let you know before the market opens.”

“Too late. I have already received a letter from Shanxi Prefecture. It says they will lower the price of salt this time, so we should buy as much as possible. With terms this favorable, other parties will surely try to pre-purchase the stock as well. There is no time to delay.”

“Advance contract purchase is something people do only when buying in large volume.”

Advance contract purchase meant paying a deposit, then paying the remainder and taking the goods.

Since it was a transaction tied to credit, it was tacitly used only in large-scale deals.

“I can state with certainty that the great merchants, such as the Huizhou merchants, will absolutely not involve themselves in this market’s salt trade. So there is plenty of time.”

“That too is a statement without basis.”

“This one can be proven right now.”

“How?”

Muk Hui-yeong’s eyes curved into crescents.

“I hear there is a son of the Merchant King among the lay disciples this time. If he is the Merchant King, then he belongs to the Yeo Clan, one of the Fifteen Clans of Huizhou. Why not ask him directly? In Hubei, the only people with enough capital to make an advance contract purchase of salt are the Huizhou merchants.”

Cheong-ui looked at Muk Hui-yeong, then turned his head toward the door outside.

“Call Cheong-hyeon. Tell him to bring the Merchant King’s son.”

“By your command!”

At once, the swift sound of a martial artist moving could be heard outside.

Until Cheong-hyeon arrived, the room was filled with a suffocating tension.

A youth barely around twenty was locking wills with the sect leader of the Wudang Sect itself.

Even Cheong-su felt dizzy watching it, yet Muk Hui-yeong seemed not to care in the slightest.

Soon Cheong-hyeon came hurrying in together with a young man who looked weak and delicate.

“You summoned me, Sect Leader?”

“Yes. Is the one beside you the Merchant King’s son?”

The frail-looking young man wore a timid expression that suited his face.

He surely had never imagined that a lay disciple of Wudang would be brought before the sect leader.

“I am Yeo Hong-yang.”

“Good. Hong-yang, I called you here because I have something to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Will the Huizhou merchants be participating in this Yichang market?”

Yeo Hong-yang trembled.

He truly did seem very timid.

It was only natural, since he had no idea what the sect leader intended by asking this.

“As far as I know, they will not.”

“Why? A market large enough to gather fifty trades is no small one.”

“I would need to return to the main family to hear the exact circumstances, but none of the Huizhou Fifteen Clans are entering the Yichang market.”

Yeo Hong-yang’s voice trembled, but a firm statement was still a firm statement.

The meeting room of the Three Purities Hall went silent as though cold water had been thrown over it.

If the Shanxi merchants were the great merchant group north of the Yangtze, then the Huizhou merchants were their southern counterpart.

If a market was large enough to attract the Shanxi merchants, then for the Huizhou merchants not to participate was plainly strange.

“…Very well. You may go.”

Cheong-ui, who had been unable to speak for a long while, finally opened his mouth with difficulty.

Yeo Hong-yang bowed deeply, but when Cheong-hyeon jabbed him in the waist with a hand, he switched to a martial salute and withdrew from the meeting chamber.

Murim had its own rules of conduct.

“How did you know that the Huizhou merchants would not be participating in the Yichang market?”

The moment Yeo Hong-yang left, Cheong-ui looked at Muk Hui-yeong.

“That’s a trade secret, so you really shouldn’t pry.”

“A trade secret?”

“Yes. In any case, I’m glad that my words seem to have gained at least a little more credibility.”

Muk Hui-yeong grinned as though he could not read the room.

Or perhaps he was doing it on purpose.

Even the elders who had been voicing complaints without pause could no longer speak now.

After all, Muk Hui-yeong had succeeded in proving at least one of his claims.

Cheong-ui spoke together with a sigh.

“We will not make an advance contract purchase.”

“Sect Leader!”

The elders were startled.

They feared the salt would be snatched away.

But even in Cheong-su’s view, it was a rational judgment.

Muk Hui-yeong’s words that, without the Huizhou merchants, there would be no major buyer to make an advance contract purchase of the salt, were an accurate insight.

Among the elders gathered here, the only ones who knew even a little about the commercial world were Cheong-su, as Hall Master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness, and Cheong-ui, who received Cheong-su’s reports.

“Buy it directly at the market.”

“Yes.”

Cheong-su answered.

As expected, the Wudang Sect was not such a slipshod place that it would overturn its entire policy because of the words of a mere lay disciple.

“However, take that child with you.”

At the end of Cheong-ui’s pointing finger stood Muk Hui-yeong.

Muk Hui-yeong wore a bewildered face.

“This child must train at Wudang.”

“The salt trade is a matter that determines Wudang’s entire year. Can you say it is less important than that?”

At Cheong-ui’s stern words, Cheong-su lowered his head.

That was certainly true.

In truth, if a few days’ absence was enough to prevent someone from becoming a master, then he was never destined to become one in the first place.

At that moment, Muk Hui-yeong, with no sense of timing whatsoever, cut in.

“What exactly am I supposed to do if I go?”

“Buy the salt.”

“Pardon?”

Even Cheong-su found that statement baffling.

Until now, Muk Hui-yeong had been the one insisting that they must not buy the salt.

“We are not conducting this salt trade simply to make money. We are ensuring a stable supply of salt throughout Hubei Province so that the people may live in stability. No matter what, we must buy salt.”

“Which is why if you just wait a little…”

“That much, I cannot trust.”

At Cheong-ui’s words, Muk Hui-yeong’s mouth shut.

If someone said plainly that he could not trust you, what more was there to say?

“You must bring back salt. You cannot return empty-handed. However, you seem to be skillful, so bring it back cheaply.”

“What kind of tyranny is that?”

Muk Hui-yeong burst out at last, unable to endure it.

Even in Cheong-su’s view, there were parts of Cheong-ui’s words that did not line up.

Ah.

Only then did Cheong-su understand.

Cheong-ui, too, was trying to discipline Muk Hui-yeong right now.

By giving him a task that could only end in failure.

“Hall Master, please say something. Isn’t this completely unreasonable?”

Muk Hui-yeong immediately clung to Cheong-su, but Cheong-su had already finished his calculations.

“We will do so.”

“Hall Master?”

“Good. Let us move on to the next matter.”

Muk Hui-yeong’s cry was ignored, and the meeting passed straight on to the next agenda item.

Unable to say anything more, Muk Hui-yeong was driven out of the meeting room.

Cheong-su saw the resentful look in Muk Hui-yeong’s eyes, but in the end pretended not to notice.

***

“Those damned hooked-nosed bastards.”

I let out a sigh.

I had always disliked the irrational and impractical way martial artists thought, but only now did it occur to me that I had no need to charge in and needlessly earn their ill will like this.

I had pushed too hard for nothing.

As far as I could tell, I had definitely fallen out of favor with Cheong-ui.

Otherwise, there was no way he would have assigned me something this ridiculous.

He had openly told me to drive the price down.

At least if we had made an advance contract purchase, there would’ve been room to bargain due to the volume.

If we went head to head on the spot, those ruthless Shanxi merchants would never lower the price so easily.

Still, perhaps I should count myself lucky that I had spotted the Merchant King’s son among the lay disciples.

If Yeo Hong-yang had not been there, things could have turned even worse.

“…What do I do now?”

Before heading down to the Hall of Exhausting the Way, I sank into deep thought.

Then, all at once, an idea flashed through my mind.

The Outer Court.

The Outer Court was where the lay disciples stayed.

And when a merchant ran into difficulty, naturally the right thing was to seek the help of other merchants.

I immediately turned and headed down toward the Outer Court.

The Outer Court was full of people connected to money houses, escort agencies, and merchant companies.

And if they had entered Wudang as lay disciples at all, they were likely to be people from regions south of North China.

“Jeon Oh-su!”

The moment I went down into the Outer Court, I saw a ray of light.

That was none other than Jeon Oh-su, son of the Wuhan Money House, wearing a startled expression.