Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 171 - Give Me Wings (1)
Chapter 171 – Give Me Wings (1)
Swaaak!
It sounded as though a massive ballista bolt had just skimmed past my ear. I twisted my head to the left and barely avoided it. If I had not been able to see intent, that attack might have wounded me.
‘Was she always this fast?’
Peng Chae-hyang’s gaze was not merely serious. It was solemn. She was clearly very different from when we fought aboard the boat.
Back then, she had looked down on me. That was not arrogance. Someone at Peng Chae-hyang’s level would know the faces of all the famous younger-generation experts, and especially all the famous people in Hebei. So of course she had looked down on me.
That was probably why Peng Chae-hyang had been helpless against my surprise attack at the time. But things were different now. Peng Chae-hyang was not letting her guard down against me in the slightest. If anything, she was giving it everything she had.
‘Then I cannot afford to be careless either.’
There was a reason Peng Chae-hyang’s name always came up near the top whenever people spoke of the younger generation of the Central Plains. This was no time to relax.
“Hup!”
Peng Chae-hyang’s enormous saber moved fast and wide. It was a large motion, and yet I could not see a single opening. That meant the completeness of her forms was exceptional.
Could I redirect that degree of heaviness and power with my Flowing Cloud Sword Art? I calculated for an instant, but it was uncertain, so I chose to fall back.
Naturally, a person’s forward burst has more force than the speed with which one retreats. Peng Chae-hyang stomped down with a shock step exactly where I had withdrawn from, then kicked off the ground again.
“You had better stay tense!”
Peng Chae-hyang shouted. In that instant, I saw five tigers behind her as she held the saber. That was Peng Chae-hyang’s intent. The five tigers pounced at me as though leaping on prey.
I did not even need to ask the name of the martial art. That had to be the Hebei Peng Clan’s hereditary art, the Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
The ground under my feet overturned first, and fragments began flying everywhere. Of all the martial arts I had faced since stepping out into the rivers and lakes, this was the most domineering. Just as Peng Chae-hyang said, if I failed to stay tense, I would be devoured.
A pale mist poured from my sword. I confined the five tigers in that mist. The tiger-shaped intent created by Peng Chae-hyang was savage enough to look as though it wanted to bite and tear the mist apart. But if it could be bitten apart, it was not mist.
I laid down cloud with the first form, Colorless Flowing Clouds, then immediately churned through the fog with Clouds Swirl in Midair. Peng Chae-hyang’s saber kept trying to cut me down, yet every time it missed, brushing past my sword-dance again and again.
“…Tch!”
It was not a full chon between us. It was the width of a grain of rice by which Peng Chae-hyang’s blade and my body missed each other. It might have felt regrettable to Peng Chae-hyang, but to me, that grain-of-rice distance was more than enough.
But that did not mean her saber was not dangerous. Even while avoiding it as if dancing, I could not easily close in to point-blank range. If I stepped in too far, it felt as though the tigers Peng Chae-hyang had summoned would bite me apart at once.
So I decided to use the same method as before. I would shift from the supremely soft Flowing Cloud Sword Art into the domineering Nine Nether Asura Sword.
“…!”
The moment I switched into the Nine Nether Asura Sword, the color of my intent changed from pale cloud-mist to red.
Peng Chae-hyang’s eyes flashed. There was no way she could actually have seen my intent, but she seemed to sense instinctively that something had changed.
First form of the Nine Nether Asura Sword, Asura Emerges. My sword trembled, and crimson afterimages burst outward. The lingering images spread like dye diffusing through a lake.
Even if Peng Chae-hyang responded to this technique, I expected her to probe at least a little. But instead, she closed the distance between us as though this were her opening.
‘She could get hurt.’
I immediately erased that thought. Peng Chae-hyang herself would know that possibility better than I did. It was not my concern. She charged in closer. Closer still.
Peng Chae-hyang swept her saber upward from below. The blood-colored traces of the Nine Nether Asura Sword swallowed around her blade as though gripping it.
“…!”
Then explosive power burst from Peng Chae-hyang’s saber. The qi of the Nine Nether Asura Sword clinging to her blade was torn apart and scattered outward.
That meant my Nine Nether Asura Sword was weaker than her Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber. The Nine Nether Asura Sword was a domineering martial art, and the Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber was also a domineering martial art.
Peng Chae-hyang had spent her whole life cultivating nothing but domineering techniques, while I, as a man of Wudang, had mainly practiced soft sword. The gap in proficiency was inevitable.
At that moment, in the corner of my vision, I saw Black Elder grin. Only then did I remember that Black Elder had whispered advice to Peng Chae-hyang right before the spar.
Having already seen my Nine Nether Asura Sword before, Black Elder must have expected I would use it again and told Peng Chae-hyang as much. And he must also have predicted that if she met it head-on with another domineering martial art without panicking, Peng Chae-hyang would not be overpowered. Otherwise, she could not have dealt with it this cleanly.
Of course, it was not cheating. That was merely advice. The one who actually shattered my Nine Nether Asura Sword was Peng Chae-hyang alone.
Her saber swept sideways toward me. I drove my sword down into the ground toward the side from which the strike was coming. If I met her head-on with raw force against force, I would lose. So I intended to borrow even the support of the ground to block.
Kwang!
Peng Chae-hyang’s saber struck my sword, which was rooted in the earth. My grip let out a cracking, tearing sound.
My sword was on the verge of being lifted from the ground, but I blocked it. If I blocked it, that was enough. Peng Chae-hyang’s expression crumpled slightly. It seemed she had intended to end it with that exchange.
I knew why. A domineering martial artist against a flowing martial artist.
Assuming both were at the same level, the long-term advantage belonged to the one with flowing martial arts.
Domineering arts consume a great deal of power and extend their forms in straight lines, whereas flowing arts relax the power in the sword and draw gentle curves. Naturally, the one using domineering arts would be at a disadvantage in terms of stamina.
I quickly accepted that my proficiency in the Nine Nether Asura Sword fell short of Peng Chae-hyang’s Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber, and switched back to the Flowing Cloud Sword Art.
Then I shifted to an extreme defensive stance and slowly read Peng Chae-hyang’s martial arts. At a glance it might have looked like Peng Chae-hyang was hammering away at my gates, but her saber was not landing on me in the slightest.
“Hoo, hoo.”
Peng Chae-hyang’s breathing grew ragged, and sweat ran down her forehead. Anxiety was even visible in her expression.
I could not quite understand it. This was a spar. She had no obligation to defeat me so desperately. I thought there was no reason to be that anxious.
It was a pity. As a martial artist, that was the pure feeling I had. If Peng Chae-hyang had simply not been so anxious, our battle would have lasted longer, and I would have gained at least one more thing from it. That was how much I stood to learn from sparring with Peng Chae-hyang.
But her forms had fallen into complete disarray from the moment she grew anxious. Then again, she was barely past twenty. She inevitably lacked the composure that comes with seasoned experience.
When Peng Chae-hyang made a mistake and stepped one foot too far, I went on the offensive for the first time. Right now, Peng Chae-hyang had crossed the line. She had invaded the territory where I could attack with full force. My territory.
Immediately, mist poured from my sword. The mist stretched all the way up to the sky. It was the sixth form of the Flowing Cloud Sword Art, Flowing Clouds Stretching Ten Thousand Li.
“…Ah.”
Peng Chae-hyang’s head turned toward the tip of the mist reaching into the sky. It was an exclamation of someone sensing defeat.
The mist immediately crashed downward and struck Peng Chae-hyang. Even the tigers Peng Chae-hyang had summoned lacked the strength to push through the mist crashing down like a wave.
“Ugh!”
Peng Chae-hyang dropped her saber, her palm seemingly torn wide open from trying to block my sword strike. I immediately withdrew my form.
“Miss!”
Black Elder rushed to Peng Chae-hyang and examined her hand. Peng Chae-hyang shook her head.
“…It is not a serious wound, Black Elder.”
“Are you alright?”
I sheathed my sword and walked over. Looking closely, her entire palm was drenched in blood, the wound quite deep. Of course, for a martial artist at Peng Chae-hyang’s level, it was a wound that would quickly heal with golden wound medicine applied, but I felt sorry regardless.
“…Yes. I am fine.”
Peng Chae-hyang lowered her head. She did not look at me. She was watching Peng Gyeong-seung’s reaction from the side.
Peng Gyeong-seung, who had been quietly standing with his arms folded, walked toward us. Seeing that, Peng Chae-hyang’s shoulders trembled.
“F-Father…”
“Well done. What was your name again? Muk Hui-yeong, was it?”
Surprisingly, Peng Gyeong-seung brushed past Peng Chae-hyang and approached me.
“Yes.”
“For a merchant company lord, you are an exceptional martial artist. Now that I look, you even bear the tassel of a Taiji Sword Guardian. My apologies for not recognizing you sooner.”
“Not at all.”
The praise made me feel awkward, and I glanced at Peng Chae-hyang. Shadow fell over her downturned face.
Right now, I was the one who had injured Peng Gyeong-seung’s daughter. Even if I had won the spar, I thought that as a father, he naturally ought to look after his daughter first.
“Just what are you. To think someone trained in Wudang’s Taiji Sword Guardian arts would also have mastered the unorthodox faction’s Nine Nether Asura Sword. As far as I know, Immortal Cheong-ui is not the sort of man to allow that.”
Peng Gyeong-seung laughed heartily and clapped me on the shoulder. I was slightly surprised. He had recognized the Nine Nether Asura Sword, an unorthodox sect’s sword art, on the spot.
“It is a martial art my Master, Immortal Cheong-hwa, passed down to me personally.”
“Ah. I believe I heard that the Boundless Divine Sword once defeated the One-Sword Asura. He must have retrieved the art at that time.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“That is certainly a plausible thing to teach, given that you cultivated a separate energy suited to the Nine Nether Asura Sword through the Dual Intent Heart Art. The Boundless Divine Sword has taken in a fine disciple.”
As expected of a master, Peng Gyeong-seung saw right through to the foundations of my martial arts. He had pierced through the fact that I wielded the Flowing Cloud Sword Art with spiritual qi and the Nine Nether Asura Sword with Primordial Mixed Qi.
Hearing an elder of the martial world praise my Master felt good. Looking at him, Peng Gyeong-seung was certainly a good martial artist and a worthy senior. Even upon personal consideration, I did not think the Saber Emperor Peng Gyeong-seung’s fundamental character had ever been disputed.
But while he might be a fine senior and martial artist, he was by no means a good father. I hesitated for a moment. The relationship between father and daughter was something deeply personal. For me to meddle was presumptuous.
And yet, Peng Chae-hyang’s dark expression kept weighing on my mind.
“Do you have nothing to say to Miss Peng?”
I finally asked. When I brought up Peng Chae-hyang, Peng Gyeong-seung looked at me with an expression of genuine confusion.
“What would I have to say? I already know all of my daughter’s martial arts. It was you who surprised me.”
“But she is still your daughter.”
“I fed and raised her past twenty; is that not enough? What more is needed?”
Peng Gyeong-seung asked as though he truly did not understand. Peng Chae-hyang’s wounded expression overlapped with the haggard face I had worn as a child when my mother passed.
It was a sad thing. This was not something that would change just because I said a word. Because this was simply how Peng Gyeong-seung thought. And Peng Chae-hyang herself was taking his words as natural.
The rift between them had been growing for too long; it could not be filled in a single moment.
In times like this, I knew the solution from experience.
“May I offer one word to the esteemed Clan Head?”
“What is it?”
“I would like to take Miss Peng with me.”
“…?”
Peng Gyeong-seung’s eyes filled with puzzlement, and Black Elder, White Elder, and Peng Chae-hyang all turned to stare at me with their mouths wide open.