Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 161 - The Way I See You (4)
Chapter 161 – The Way I See You (4)
I am not a fool. A man who makes his living with words cannot fail to understand the power words carry. I had seen plenty of merchant companies and escort bureaus lose contracts worth thousands of nyang over a single slip of the tongue.
So what that meant was simple: my belittling the Hebei Peng Clan to the point of deliberately calling them “mere trash” had not been any kind of mistake at all.
It had been intentional.
“Black Elder, White Elder. The young lady over there could get caught up in this, so please protect her.”
“Yes.”
Even so, Peng Chae-hyang did not seem to be as much of a lunatic as her cousin Peng Jin-yeong, and she looked capable of telling right from wrong.
At Peng Chae-hyang’s order, Black Elder and White Elder took up positions at either side of Gwan Seo-ye. It looked like Gwan Seo-ye was saying something, but I could not hear her. I had already spread a qi barrier.
Peng Chae-hyang must have noticed the barrier as well, because she turned her face toward me.
“Then now, it seems all that remains is the reckoning between the two of us.”
“Please promise me just one thing.”
“What is it?”
“Please have the Hebei Peng Clan cover the cost of the damage to the boat.”
“Damage? What are you talking about?”
Peng Chae-hyang asked back blankly. She really seemed not to understand what I meant. I was about to explain it again, but then she seemed to catch on and burst out laughing. When she finally stopped laughing, she wiped away the tears caught at the corners of her eyes with one finger and said,
“I was wondering what nonsense you were spouting. Are you joking? Why would the boat get damaged just because you and I are fighting?”
“When martial artists fight, things get damaged. Your cousin already smashed this deck just moments ago.”
“I can’t believe this.”
Peng Chae-hyang stopped laughing and set her face.
“It looks like you happened to beat my cousin by accident, but I am a completely different person from him. I suppose you do not know because you are not a martial artist. My cousin is collateral kin, while I am direct line. On top of that, I even have a sobriquet.” “It was Moon-Shrouding Saber, right? You really are beautiful enough that the sobriquet makes perfect sense.”
“Ah. Thank you. No, that is not the point!”
Peng Chae-hyang’s face loosened and she smiled shyly at my compliment, but then she quickly returned to a serious expression. She seemed like the sort of person with wild emotional swings.
“Hmph. If you thought some oily flattery like that would get you through this situation, you miscalculated.”
“That was not the only reason.”
“Not the only reason? Then are you saying there was some intention like that in it too?”
Peng Chae-hyang snapped. I let out a quiet snort. Her emotions changed so colorfully that she was fun to tease. Still, I really had meant it when I said she was pretty. More than that, I had no intention at all of avoiding this fight.
“Let us put an end to the idle chatter now.”
Peng Chae-hyang drew the saber strapped across her back. The heavy saber case dropped with a thud and split the deck beneath it. Then again, if one wanted to store a saber of that size safely, the case had to be large and heavy too.
“…”
“I told you. Things were going to break.”
“Ah, fine. We will pay for it, so be quiet already!”
Peng Chae-hyang finally shouted. Smiling, I laid a hand on my sword hilt.
“Good. Then let us begin quickly.”
“You are the one who should be saying that. You are shameless too.”
The mood had begun to turn into something of a farce, and Peng Chae-hyang hardened her expression again. From her point of view, she had come to avenge an insult to her clan. It really was not the time for this kind of frivolous joking around.
“Make the first move. I will yield you three exchanges.”
“That is the thing I like hearing most.”
“What nonsense are you…!”
I kicked off the ground at once. The reason I loved hearing that I was being given three exchanges was simple. It meant I could focus entirely on offense without worrying about defense.
At a glance, Peng Chae-hyang was no easy opponent. She was one of the younger-generation experts who shared part of the same name as Namgung Hwi, whom I had fought back in Huaiyin. If there had not been special rules when I faced Namgung Hwi then, I would have lost.
Thinking of that, I could not let my guard down in the slightest.
As I drew my sword, I cut toward Peng Chae-hyang. I think someone once said it: drawing a blade from the sheath makes for the fastest quick sword, because the scabbard braces the blade from below.
Peng Chae-hyang immediately raised the Hebei Peng Clan’s characteristic great saber to block.
Bang!
My Songmun Ancient Sword collided with Peng Chae-hyang’s saber. From up close, I could see her face. There was no time to admire that beautiful face. All I saw was her surprise. It looked like the force carried in my sword had been stronger than she had expected.
“Hup!”
Peng Chae-hyang leaped backward to disperse the force. Even as she jumped back, the deck broke again. One could excuse the earlier damage from her dropping the saber case as an accident, but her bold claim that the boat would not be damaged during our duel had already been shattered in the very first exchange.
“Taiji Sword Guardian?”
As she retreated, Peng Chae-hyang stared at the tassel tied to my hilt in shock.
It seemed Peng Jin-yeong’s friends had never told her that I was a Taiji Sword Guardian. Whether that was because Peng Jin-yeong had insisted I was an impostor, or because they had been too flustered to explain, I could not say.
“I heard you were a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect, but what in the world…?”
Peng Chae-hyang also seemed confused about whether I was truly a Taiji Sword Guardian.
Most likely, she was caught between two conflicting truths: the fact that a lay disciple should not be able to become a Taiji Sword Guardian, and the fact that my skill was clearly enough to merit that title.
I had no desire to win off that confusion. Part of the reason I had provoked the Hebei Peng Clan was because I had wanted to show my strength properly.
Mist billowed from my sword. A man bearing Wudang’s Songmun Ancient Sword and the tassel symbolizing Taiji, while releasing mist from his blade, could only mean one thing.
“Flowing Cloud Sword Art! You really were a Taiji Sword Guardian!”
Peng Chae-hyang cried out in shock. Even the eyes of Black Elder and White Elder, who had been watching, went wide.
Some arts are exceptions, but the Flowing Cloud Sword Art always begins with its first form, Colorless Flowing Clouds. What that form signifies is a fortress of clouds. Laying cloud down like mist is the beginning of every form within the Flowing Cloud Sword Art. Which meant that, of the three free attacks I had been granted, two had already passed.
The Flowing Cloud Sword Art was soft and focused on receiving and countering. Under normal circumstances, the second form, Clouds Swirl in Midair, would naturally follow in sequence.
But this was the single chance in which I could attack without regard for defense. The elegant Flowing Cloud Sword Art did not suit the present moment.
Blurring her sight with the mist I had released was all the Flowing Cloud Sword Art needed to do here. I immediately shifted into the Nine Nether Asura Sword and changed the way I gripped the hilt.
Depending on what sword art one used, the meridians into which one had to focus one’s internal energy also changed. A sword art was not something performed with the hands alone, but with the entire body.
That was why martial arts from the same sect transitioned smoothly into one another. They generally shared the same underlying principles.
But to switch between two arts with such different natures like this, one’s skill in redirecting internal energy was crucial. This was my first time attempting it as well, but I was confident that the me of now could pull it off.
Among the offensive forms of the Nine Nether Asura Sword, there was one that focused on offense alone to the point of madness.
That form would bring the finale to the three free exchanges I had been handed.
“Hup!”
It was the third form of the Nine Nether Asura Sword, Heaven’s Ruin, Silent Extinction. A blood-red aura tinted my sword as a wave of force began to swirl.
That wave of force wrapped itself around the blade, then burst toward Peng Chae-hyang. It looked like a tornado that ought to have clung to the ground had instead latched onto my sword.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
As the tornado flew at Peng Chae-hyang, it smashed everything around it indiscriminately: the deck, the objects on it, tables, furnishings, everything.
Beyond the tornado, I caught a glimpse of Peng Chae-hyang’s serious face. She was pouring powerful internal qi into her saber.
Had it not been for the clouds I had spread with Colorless Flowing Clouds, she would have reacted sooner. But because she had expected a soft sword strike, she had delayed by a mere instant.
And for martial artists at our level, that instant was enough to bring eternal death.
Peng Chae-hyang raised her saber above her head to split the tornado apart, but to my eyes, she looked just a little too late.
“Haaat!”
Peng Chae-hyang needed that shout. Her internal energy was not fully in place, and her posture had not been completely set either, yet she had to force out her full power anyway. That meant strain on the body. Blood seeped from the corner of her lips. Ku-ku-kung!
Yet the tornado did not strike Peng Chae-hyang. Right before reaching her, it shot upward instead.
The force within the whirling tornado scattered through the sky with the sound of fireworks.
“…White Elder, Black Elder!”
Realizing what had happened, Peng Chae-hyang shouted in a voice full of fury.
The ones who had changed the course of the tornado were none other than Black Elder and White Elder, the guards who had been watching from some distance away.
I too had failed to see when they had moved in front of Peng Chae-hyang. That only proved how strong Peng Chae-hyang’s guards truly were. Then again, she was a precious daughter of a great house. There was no way they would have assigned weak people to protect her.
“This fight is over.”
“What? It is not over yet! I could have stopped that!”
“You would not have stopped all of it. Young Miss, you know yourself that you were a little late, do you not?”
At White Elder’s words, Peng Chae-hyang fell silent. What White Elder meant was that she might have blocked it, but she would certainly have taken damage. That matched my own expectation. She too seemed to know perfectly well that she had been just a little late.
“Of all places, this is Hebei. And not merely Hebei, but its very center, Beijing. For the young lady of the Hebei Peng Clan to be injured here would be a disgrace to us as her Dharma protectors.”
“And you do not think ruining the fight like this is a disgrace to me?”
“More important than disgrace is preserving your precious body. Young Miss, you are not merely yourself. You are someone who represents the future of the Hebei Peng Clan.”
This time it was Black Elder speaking. Watching them, I let out a quiet sigh of relief inside.
To tell the truth, I had used Heaven’s Ruin, Silent Extinction with the intervention of Black Elder and White Elder in mind. Fortunately, they had moved just as I had anticipated.
Otherwise, Peng Chae-hyang would have been badly injured.
If I had not confirmed Black Elder and White Elder’s loyalty beforehand, I would never have taken such a gamble.
“Urgh…”
Peng Chae-hyang accepted what White Elder and Black Elder were saying, but that did not seem enough to erase the humiliation of nearly allowing me to land a fatal strike. “You there, what is your name?”
Peng Chae-hyang glared at me and asked. Sheathing my sword, I answered.
“Muk Hui-yeong. Merchant King of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.”
“What are you?”
“I told you already. Merchant King of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.”
“What kind of Merchant King is that strong? Do not talk nonsense!”
Peng Chae-hyang shouted. I was already aware that I had grown too strong to be called just a merchant.
But how else was I supposed to describe myself when my roots were those of a merchant?
“I am also Wudang’s Taiji Sword Guardian.”
“Was that even possible in the first place?”
“I asked the sect leader the same question. He told me it was his decision.”
“Haah.”
Peng Chae-hyang pressed a hand to her temple as if dizzy.
“Now I understand why you used the words ‘mere trash’ for the Hebei Peng Clan. You are, for all intents and purposes, a main-sect disciple of Wudang.”
I shrugged. As expected, Peng Chae-hyang was different from the other people of the Hebei Peng Clan, most of whom seemed to have muscles stuffed into their brains.
The reason I had deliberately said “mere trash of the Hebei Peng Clan” was simple. The Hebei Peng Clan truly could do absolutely nothing to the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.
If they openly tried to harm the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company, they would have to face the Wudang Sect head-on. That was how special and how close my relationship with Wudang had become. I had said it on purpose to show the position the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company held. Of course, there was also a part of me that had simply spat it out because I was annoyed.
“I admit that my cousin was the one who acted rudely first, but that was still far too insulting a choice of words.”
“I too believe the Hebei Peng Clan is one of the great famous houses. Had I seen you first, I would not have said such a thing.”
“Hmph. Now I am the only one left feeling embarrassed.” Peng Chae-hyang sighed as she picked up the saber case and returned her saber to it.
“I can hardly believe it. I have sparred with Wudang disciples a few times before, but I have never seen anyone like you.”
“That is because I am a lay disciple. It would have been awkward to match a direct descendant of the Hebei Peng Clan against a mere lay disciple, would it not?”
“Even so, a fine awl will always poke through the pouch. It is strange that someone like you is completely unknown in the martial world. It sounds a little odd for me to say this myself, but I am a rather outstanding younger-generation expert, you know.”
That was because I had only become a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect three years ago. Still, I did not say that. If I did, Peng Chae-hyang really might be mortified.
“Fight me again sometime later. That time, I will not bring my guards. Or I might just show up at the Wudang Sect without warning.”
Peng Chae-hyang’s eyes burned. It seemed the fact that she had nearly lost was humiliating enough to sting badly.
“If the chance arises.”
“You are insufferable.”
Peng Chae-hyang tossed out that harsh remark and turned to climb into her sedan chair.
“Wait a moment!”
“…What is it?”
Peng Chae-hyang turned back. Smiling, I said,
“Settle the matter of the damaged boat before you go.”
I pointed toward the pier with my finger. Standing there was the merchant who had rented us the boat. I did not need to see his face to know he must look like he was about to cry. After all, after all those tremendous crashing sounds from our boat, there was no way the vessel had come through intact.
“…Ah.”
Peng Chae-hyang shut her eyes and clenched her fists, trembling all over. After taking a moment to calm herself, she finally moved her trembling lips.
“All ri…”
“Young Lady! Refund our admission fees too! We did not get to enjoy anything!”
At that moment, Gwan Seo-ye, who had been watching quietly until then, shouted out. For that single moment, even I looked at Gwan Seo-ye with the same dumbfounded gaze as Peng Chae-hyang. It was, in every sense, the final strike.