Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 166 - I, Muk Hui-yeong (3)
Chapter 166 – I, Muk Hui-yeong (3)
Silence flowed between the old man and me. I could face that silence with confidence, but it had to be awkward for him.
“…”
“Why are you not saying anything?”
“To think my immortal arts would fail against a brat like this…”
The old man muttered. The bold voice he had used when he made the wager had not merely shrunk, it had practically crumpled.
“Stop whining already. You said you would answer what I was curious about.”
“W-whining?” The old man looked shocked, as if he had never imagined he would hear such a word directed at him. He really did seem like someone who had grown up pampered.
“Yes. Anyway, is this what you call immortal qi?”
“…It is. Do you not even know what it is you have learned?”
“The person who taught me did not say much.”
“The person who taught you? Who in the world teaches immortal qi, and who could possibly learn it simply because it was taught? If you met a Sword Immortal, did you also learn the Heavenly Evasion Sword Art?”
“You are coming at me awfully prickly over one little joke. A moment ago you were overflowing with leisure.”
The old man flinched. It seemed he too felt embarrassed that he had shown such a change in attitude to someone much younger than himself.
“Ahem, I lost my composure for a moment. My apologies.” “It is fine. Anyway, immortal qi. So it must be the sort of qi cultivated by Daoist practitioners?”
“That is right. Which is why it is usually cultivated by recluses detached from the mundane world. I have no idea what kind of fortuitous encounter came to you for you to be cultivating immortal qi.”
“I was lucky.”
I brushed it off vaguely. In truth, meeting Hyeon-wol had been a matter of chance, so it was not wrong to call it luck. But the old man still seemed to have further curiosity.
“But immortal qi is not some qi one can simply learn because another teaches it. It requires contemplation of nature, the universe, and oneself, along with deep understanding. Are you truly such a person?”
“I do not know about contemplation of the universe, but I am constantly reflecting on myself.”
“Hmm. From what I see, the one who taught you must be someone truly close to becoming an immortal. Might I ask whose legacy of fortune you inherited?”
“Was this not supposed to be my time to ask questions?”
The old man sighed as though resigned. “Very well. Ask whatever you wish.”
“You said the qi I learned is immortal qi. What happens if one polishes immortal qi to the very limit?”
“You truly know nothing at all about immortal qi. How such a person came to cultivate it, I cannot fathom.”
The old man clicked his tongue as if frustrated. Then he began explaining.
“What do you think immortal qi is? It is the qi of immortals. Naturally, if one continues to cultivate immortal qi, one becomes an immortal.”
“An immortal?”
“I mean ascension to immortality.”
“Is that not just nonsense?” “Tut. Such irreverent words.”
The old man frowned as though genuinely offended, but I had no intention of apologizing. Ascension to immortality? That was just the kind of absurd rubbish peddlers sold to fools, was it not?
“Are you saying ascension to immortality truly exists?”
“Of course it does. How could it not?”
“Then who ascended? Is there anyone I would know besides figures from myth?”
“Tsk, tsk. Listen, ascension to immortality means escaping the wheel of karma and fate. From the very moment one ascends, every human being is forced to lose their memory of that person. An immortal is an existence humans cannot perceive.”
“How convenient. So in the end, you are saying nobody knows anyone who ascended.”
“Perhaps I may once have known such a person. They merely ascended and were erased from my memory.”
At that point I began to feel genuine pity for the old man. From where I stood, he was someone who had gone mad while struggling against his obsessions. I should have realized it the moment he started making strange jokes about Peng Chae-hyang. I had no wish to speak further with such a madman, but since he might still give me a clue about immortal qi, I could not simply leave.
“I see. That makes sense.”
“That is not the face of someone who was convinced at all.”
“You misunderstand. In any case, I have been training immortal qi lately, but it feels as though I am making no progress.”
At long last, after circling around and around, the real point emerged. It had taken quite a while to get there. Once I brought up my sincere concern, the old man’s expression turned serious again.
“So that was what you wanted to ask.”
“The preface was rather long.”
“What sort of training are you doing, and how have you become stuck?” “I have been practicing becoming one with space. The one who taught me said I could not perceive everything at once, so I should widen it slowly. But I do not know how to widen it slowly.”
Fortunately, the old man seemed to have some idea of the problem, and nodded.
“Mm. So that is the issue.”
“Do you know the answer?”
“I know the answer, but it would not be the answer for you as well.”
This time it was my turn to frown. I had not expected to hear airy nonsense from a Daoist in the Hebei Peng Clan rather than the Wudang Sect.
Perhaps noticing my discomfort, the old man added at once,
“Words and terms limit meaning. Even if I express it in certain words, you will perceive those words differently. That is why my answer would not be your answer.”
That was a topic I had once discussed with Immortal Cheong-hwa too. The meaning contained in the word family. “I understand that much. Then how does one find the answer?”
“From the way you speak, it seems you understand the world through yourself. If that is so, then the power of perception extends from the inside outward.”
“Is that not how everyone does it?”
“No. I am the opposite. I understand myself through the world. Then the power of perception enters from the outside inward. I am not saying that is the correct answer. Everyone perceives in their own way.”
His words were hard to grasp. They sounded plausible and yet also like utter nonsense.
“Then now I shall ask you a question. Between principle and qi, which do you think matters more?”
All at once, it became a question out of Neo-Confucianism. Since I had read most of the classics worth reading, an answer came out immediately.
“Principle.” “And why is that?”
“Principle is that which ought to be so. A chair is made for sitting, and a bed is made for lying down. People did not sit or lie down by accidentally looking at the shape a chair or bed happened to have. Their purpose came first.”
“I see. Then do you believe you were born bearing a calling?”
“I was born to become a merchant.”
“Did you know that from the moment you were born?”
“No. But even if a rock is hidden by mist and cannot be seen, that does not mean the rock is not there.”
I was speaking without thought, simply letting the words rise from my mind as they came. This went beyond thinking.
It was the very way I lived.
The old man was drawing out the unconscious self within me. “I see. Then are you a merchant now?”
“Yes. I am the Merchant King of a merchant company.”
“Yet I heard you are also a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect.”
“That is…”
I stopped mid-answer and looked at the old man. With that one remark, he had revealed that he had approached me already knowing what kind of person I was. This meeting had not been an accident.
“So you know who I am.”
“That is not important right now. What matters is who you are.”
There was a strange power in the old man’s words. I found myself nodding without meaning to. “Yes. That is true. To answer your earlier question, I am indeed a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect, and also a martial artist.”
“Then were there two separate rocks hidden in the mist, one of a merchant and one of a martial artist? Or were there other rocks you still could not see?”
“That is…”
At that question, I found myself at a loss for words. I had lived believing in fate. I had never doubted that I was destined to become a merchant. That was why, even after regressing, I stepped once more onto the road of commerce.
But this was the part that had changed in my second life.
If I had truly been born with the destiny of a merchant, then where had the martial artist within me sprung from? If it too were fate, it should have appeared in my first life as well.
“It seems you regarded only the merchant as your fate, not the martial artist. Then why did you become a martial artist?”
“It just happened…”
“There is no such thing in life. Everything follows from your own choices.” Certainly, my becoming a martial artist had not been an accident. It had been entirely the result of my own choices.
And by those choices, there were many things I could have become besides merchant and martial artist.
That too was a mode of thought that had changed only after I became a martial artist.
That was right. Martiality had not only placed strength in my hands, it had seized hold of my entire life and transformed it.
“This is not an easy matter.”
“Is it not?”
Only then did the old man let go of his serious expression and smile.
I now knew what I had to do. I saw the world through myself. Then before widening what lay outside, I had to expand the vessel that was me. To enlarge that vessel, I needed contemplation of myself.
The me who had changed greatly after becoming a martial artist was not the same as the me of my previous life.
I bowed my head and saluted the old man with clasped fists. Since he said he was a man of the martial world, I offered him the proper courtesy.
“Then I should take some time to look back on who I am.”
“You have found the answer. Clever indeed.”
The old man laughed heartily.
This truly had been a fortuitous encounter for me. He had kept throwing questions at me, drawing out a koan for me to confront.
The answer was that I must first look inward before widening the outer world.
Had he simply told me the answer from the start, I probably would have circled around it instead. It was the sort of answer that meant nothing unless one arrived at it personally. “Elder, you are wise.”
“Ho ho. It is nothing special. I have merely grown old like everyone else.”
“No. There are far too many fools who grow old without ever becoming worthy of their years.”
I flattered him a little. No one dislikes praise. The old man’s mood seemed to improve somewhat.
“But how did you know about me?”
Digging more deeply into myself was work I had to do alone, so I asked what I had been curious about earlier. The old man smiled faintly.
“Because I was curious. Just how bold a liver does a man need to possess to stir up our Peng Clan all by himself?”
“Pardon?” Had he just said our Peng Clan?
At that moment, I heard his bones cracking as his body began to grow larger. It was the art of shrinking the bones. Once the compressed body unfolded fully, there appeared the broad, thick build characteristic of the Hebei Peng Clan.
“Could you possibly be…”
Before I could finish asking, I sensed someone hurrying toward us from the distance. When I turned my head to check, I saw a familiar face.
And for the record, among the Hebei Peng Clan, there was only one familiar face to me.
Peng Chae-hyang.
I thought she had come to see me again, but that turned out to be my mistake. The moment she arrived, she shouted at the old man.
“Grandfather! I told you not to go!”
“Ho ho. When my granddaughter shows interest in a man for the first time, is it not only natural for her grandfather to take a look?” “What interest? Stop being ridiculous and come back!”
Peng Chae-hyang grabbed the old man’s wrist and dragged him away. In her other hand she was holding what looked like a bundle of documents, so it seemed she had come in a rush while in the middle of some task.
The old man merely laughed as he let himself be pulled along by Peng Chae-hyang.
Everyone in the guest dining hall, including me, could only stare blankly at the farce.
“That was the Supreme Elder, was it not?”
“Indeed. It has been a while since I last saw him.”
Judging by the comments of those who looked like they had been staying here a long time, the old man’s identity became even clearer.
I had just been speaking with the Hebei Peng Clan’s Supreme Elder. Then it made perfect sense for him to say he held Peng Chae-hyang in his heart. No grandfather fails to hold his granddaughter dear.
“So I was the only one who ended up looking like the oddball.”
I scratched my head.
I had no idea why the Hebei Peng Clan’s Supreme Elder had helped me. But there was probably no more worthless act in the world than prying apart a good deed to uncover the hidden intention behind it.
I decided I would simply accept the teaching with gratitude.
I had finished eating.
Now it was time to go back and reflect on myself.
* * *
“Ho ho. That child is interesting, is he not?” Peng Su-il smiled. But Peng Chae-hyang only stuck out her lower lip and made it obvious she was sulking, not even bothering to answer.
“Hyang-ah. Are you going to leave your grandfather talking to himself?”
“Ah, what?”
“I was wrong. Let your anger go.”
“I told you not to bother him for no reason. I was only curious about him as a sparring opponent.”
That was why Peng Chae-hyang was angry. She had clearly warned her grandfather, Peng Su-il, who liked to wander about leisurely as the Supreme Elder, not to take an interest in Muk Hui-yeong, whom she had brought in.
But a grandfather who turned soft at anything involving his granddaughter had ultimately gone to meet Muk Hui-yeong, even using the art of shrinking his bones.
To be fair, Peng Su-il had only planned to observe from afar because he did not want to be scolded by his granddaughter. But once he looked at Muk Hui-yeong closely, he was astonished to find such a young man already possessing immortal qi, and curiosity got the better of him.
And after actually speaking with him, it became clear that the young man named Muk Hui-yeong, though somewhat prickly in speech, possessed insight beyond his years.
On top of that, despite being a lay disciple of Wudang, Muk Hui-yeong used the Flowing Cloud Sword Art and was even a Taiji Sword Guardian. At a glance, his background was clearly anything but ordinary.
That was why the Hebei Peng Clan did not demand that Muk Hui-yeong answer for smashing Peng Jin-yeong to pieces, and instead put Peng Jin-yeong under disciplinary confinement.
Of course, it still bothered them somewhat that he had insulted the Hebei Peng Clan, but they judged that much to be something young men could say in the heat of youthful blood.
“Putting that aside, are you truly not interested? He seems like a perfectly acceptable partner to date. He seems deep as well.”
“Date? Do not talk nonsense.”
“And if it turns out he is not right, you can simply break it off. Who would dare point fingers at the daughter of the Hebei Peng Clan?”
“Enough!” Peng Su-il probed carefully, but Peng Chae-hyang recoiled in horror. Clicking his tongue, Peng Su-il shook his head.
“What am I to do? A girl who has never even met a man by the age she has reached. It must be her father’s fault for leaving her in the hands of Black Elder and White Elder since she was little.”
“That is not true!”
Peng Chae-hyang snapped.
Peng Su-il laughed heartily. Now that he was old, teasing his granddaughter had become one of his greatest pleasures.
As she fumed, Peng Chae-hyang glanced unconsciously toward the guest lodgings.
‘It is true that he is more comfortable than other men, though.’
Peng Chae-hyang herself did not know why she felt that way toward Muk Hui-yeong. Peng Su-il only watched his granddaughter with a smile.