Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 176 - Embroidered Uniform Guard (3)

Chapter 176 – Embroidered Uniform Guard (3)

The Embroidered Uniform Guard’s sparring ground stood right in the middle of the encampment. It was tucked away where it could not be seen by the people on the outside. Then again, martial artists’ sparring grounds were often built in secluded places like this.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“I’m ready too.”

There was no referee in particular. All the guardsmen of the Embroidered Uniform Guard were spectators.

In a spar between martial artists, the referee had to be someone capable of stopping an emergency. In other words, the referee had to be stronger than the people fighting, and since there was no one here stronger than the Commander-in-Chief, this was only natural.

“Then shall we begin?”

“No such thing as yielding me three moves?”

“That’s just a useless rule hoodlums invented so they could put on airs.”

I nodded. I had thought the same at first. Of course, now I no longer believed that was always the case.

“Chae-hyang, where is Chae-hyang?”

Out of nowhere, the Commander-in-Chief looked for Peng Chae-hyang. She had the best seat among the spectators. The guardsmen had likely yielded it to her.

“I’m over here.”

“Since you’re a martial artist, I’ll ask you. Don’t you think teaching martial arts to a friend who can’t even last ten exchanges is meaningless?”

“…I don’t necessarily think so. If you consider the usual gap in skill between master and disciple in the martial world, then of course….”

Peng Chae-hyang immediately caught on to what he was saying and tried to speak on my behalf. But the Commander-in-Chief cut her off.

“This isn’t a matter of forming a master-disciple relationship right now. I at least want to teach someone who meets the standard I set.”

“That’s your choice, Commander.”

Peng Chae-hyang answered in a sulky voice, as if asking why he had bothered asking in the first place if he was going to steer things that way anyway. If I had spoken like that, the Commander-in-Chief would have glared at me with murderous eyes, but because it was Peng Chae-hyang, he only laughed heartily as though it were adorable.

“It seems you must like that fellow quite a bit.”

“What? That’s not what…!”

“As a person, I mean. What were you imagining? You only make it stranger when you react that strongly.”

Not just the Commander-in-Chief, but the guardsmen as well all laughed as one. Peng Chae-hyang’s face reddened as her mouth snapped shut. It seemed the people of the Embroidered Uniform Guard also knew she was easy to tease. “Anyway, if it ends before ten exchanges, then the matter of guiding your martial arts never happened.”

At those words from the Commander-in-Chief, Peng Chae-hyang did not even answer. She had realized that speaking up would only put her at a disadvantage.

Then the Commander-in-Chief seemed to glance at me, and the next instant he vanished.

“Let’s begin.”

Right after that, I heard the Commander’s voice in my ear. Going by the sound alone, he had clearly spoken from far away. So why was the Commander now glaring at me from right in front of my face?

In other words… he had spoken from where he had been standing and then moved over here, meaning that his body had arrived faster than his voice. Was that even possible? For the first time in a while, I felt a sense of estrangement from these creatures called martial artists.

“Hup!”

I did not even have time to draw my sword and instead raised the scabbard. The Commander’s sword slammed into it.

Bang!

There was no internal energy at all in that stroke, yet a sound like that came out from speed and force alone. I braced with the front of my foot, but being pushed back was unavoidable.

At that moment, the Commander stepped forward with his lead foot and spun sharply around it as an axis. With that motion, a lightning-fast roundhouse kick shot toward my solar plexus.

Usually, the sword forms orthodox-path martial artists cultivated were not accompanied by body techniques. So to me, who had vaguely expected another sword strike to come flying in, the kick was a startlingly irregular attack.

I immediately drew both elbows together in front of my solar plexus. The kick landed straight on my arms.

“…!”

As I blocked with my arms, I realized something. The sword had only been a preparatory movement, and the kick had been the true move. The fact that he had poured his internal energy into his foot instead of his sword said it all.

With a dull thud, I tumbled backward. I immediately tried to spring back up by bracing both hands against the ground, but my left arm could not support me and only swung uselessly. It was broken.

“Young Master Muk!”

Peng Chae-hyang cried out in surprise. Of course, I had no leisure to look at her and say I was all right, so only then did I finally draw my sword.

“Oh? Your arm is broken and you haven’t even let out a groan. That much spirit is worth looking at.”

The Commander laughed heartily. The pain of a broken arm was something ordinary people found hard to bear. Yet whether because of Indomitability or because I had become a martial artist, it did not really hurt.

One thing was clear. This Commander had no intention of genuinely instructing me in martial arts. The fact that he had deliberately mentioned ten exchanges meant he meant to end it within ten, and judging by how he had used a kick as the true move, there may even have been an intention to humiliate me.

Ordinarily a sword had to be held with both hands, but with one arm broken, I gripped it in one.

I immediately unfolded the Flowing Cloud Sword Art. The Nine Nether Asura Sword was an aggressive, domineering martial art. It required force, so using it one-handed was difficult in the first place. The soft, wavering Flowing Cloud Sword Art was the proper choice right now.

“The Flowing Cloud Sword Art, which they say only the main-line disciples of Wudang can learn. And you still mean to say you didn’t deceive me?”

“It’s not as if I was the one who insisted on entering.” “You must have deceived that Wang fellow instead. I clearly told him to recommend someone hostile to martial artists.”

I frowned. Now I understood why Wang Song had recommended me to the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Because I was a merchant, he had assumed I naturally hated people of the martial world. Most merchants did.

To be fair, at the time I had still regarded martial artists as fools myself, so back then it had not been completely wrong. But now it was.

“I didn’t deceive anyone. I changed.”

“Hmph, an excuse!”

Shouting, the Commander vanished again. The Flowing Cloud Sword Art dominated space in the form of mist. In that sense, it had the advantage of letting me grasp an opponent’s movements a little earlier.

Unlike before, when I had missed his movement completely, this time I managed to block properly. Of course, if I had both hands free I could have done it more cleanly, but because I had only one, my right arm tingled when I received the strike.

“That’s your third exchange!”

There were still seven left. Come to think of it, I was now fighting the strongest opponent I had faced since becoming a martial artist.

Of course, I did not know whether the Fighting Exalt or the Commander-in-Chief was stronger, but back then the Fighting Exalt had clearly not been going all out. The Commander was.

The Commander going all out was definitely stronger than the Fighting Exalt holding back.

Can I do this?

Even with both arms intact it would have been doubtful, so there was no way I could endure seven more exchanges one-handed like this. That much was certain.

Which meant I had to make it possible. I had never used my Heart’s Eye together with martial arts before. Using the Heart’s Eye demanded a degree of concentration similar to using martial arts.

But right now there was no option of not doing it.

I circulated the Dual Intent Heart Art.

Originally, the Dual Intent Heart Art was mostly used when accumulating two different kinds of internal energy, but it could also be used in battle at times, such as when different sword arts were issued from the left and right hands.

But my left hand was ruined right now. I could not use it that way.

Instead, I split my mind into two. One part opened the Heart’s Eye, and the other focused on the fight.

With a cracking sound echoing through my skull, something came into view.

The moment the eye opened, a brilliant flash exploded before me. Golden light wrapped around my face. One glance was enough to know it was intent.

But usually I saw intent in the moment it stretched toward me. I had never been covered by it like this before. Which meant I was already too late to dodge.

I raised my scabbard toward my head and twisted my face aside.

Slash!

Even so, the blade grazed my cheek. I felt blood flowing from my cheek together with a hot sting. Judging by the pain, it had cut fairly deep. Though he had landed quite an effective wound, the Commander only tilted his head.

“You shouldn’t have been able to dodge that.”

“Says who?”

“It was an attack beyond what someone at your level should be able to evade.”

“How can you state that so confidently?”

“I’m not a fool. I know at least that much.”

“Could it be that you’re mistaken?”

“There is no way I was mistaken. In a fight, a mistake means death.”

I did not answer further. My cheek was split open, so every time I spoke, my facial muscles moved and more blood spilled.

Instead, this time I charged first.

Not expecting me to strike first, the spectators let out shocked cries.

With one hand, I executed Flowing Clouds Twin Peaks. Two streams of sword qi flowed out from a single sword and stabbed toward the Commander.

“Interesting.”

With a single slash, the Commander cut down both peaks I had made at once. Of course, that was not the end on my side either. The true move had been hidden behind those two soft sword strokes.

It was similar to the trick I had used on Peng Chae-hyang earlier, but more advanced. Back then I had switched from the Flowing Cloud Sword Art to the Nine Nether Asura Sword midstream. This time, I had hidden the Nine Nether Asura Sword inside the Flowing Cloud Sword Art itself.

The moment he cut the peaks, the domineering sword stroke Asura Emerges drove itself toward the Commander’s chest.

“Oh!”

Apparently the spectators found the move worth seeing too, because cries of admiration rose from them.

Even the Commander, who had been pressing forward and whipping his sword continuously, seemed startled this time and retreated as he blocked my blade.

His expression twisted at the fact that he had taken a step back without meaning to.

It seemed my guess had been right. He had arranged this match to humiliate me in front of Peng Chae-hyang. He wanted to show me ending in an unsightly heap before I could even last ten exchanges.

The scheming was so obvious that a sneer escaped me before I knew it.

“What’s wrong? Things not going as you intended?”

“You’re in that condition and still trying to provoke me. How laughable.”

“It is laughable. It’ll be even more laughable if you try to end it in ten exchanges and fail.” “Do you think that will happen!”

The Commander shouted and came at me furiously. But because he had already been going all out from the start, he was no more threatening now than before.

If anything, attacks like that became practice for me. Naturally, I could not defeat the Commander. But in an absolute disadvantageous situation like this, I was learning how to give up flesh instead of bone, how to evade while minimizing the damage.

Just as I had against the Wolf-Fang Sword King, I actively used the energy of nature as well. I erased my presence with natural energy, read his intent, and used the Flowing Cloud Sword Art, which was suited for defense, so the Commander’s sword drifted farther and farther from me. Of course, even if it drifted away for an instant, he still bent the stroke back with variations and sliced my flesh open.

The speed of the Commander’s intent and blade was nearly identical, so I could not defend against both.

“You brat!”

The Commander’s sword kept cutting into me, but since none of the wounds were fatal, he was the one growing impatient instead.

Of course, stab wounds and slashes could become lethal with only a small accumulation. If I were really fighting the Commander to the death, I would have died in less than half a quarter hour.

But the Commander had said it with his own mouth. He would finish this within ten exchanges. That gave me the basis to move like this while accepting some injuries.

Eight exchanges.

Nine exchanges.

Ten exchanges.

Even through the tenth exchange, I managed to fend him off by giving up only a shallow wound at my waist to his blade. Of course, after being cut and stabbed throughout those ten exchanges, the pain was beginning to rise to a dangerous level even for Indomitability.

And as I gave up my waist at the tenth exchange, I charged forward instead. Because now the next attack was not supposed to come.

At once I unleashed Heaven’s Ruin, Silent Extinction from the Nine Nether Asura Sword. The same attack I had used when I first fought Peng Chae-hyang on the boat. A spiraling shockwave shot rapidly toward the Commander.

“…!”

The Commander reacted quickly and stepped back, but he could not possibly block the entire shockwave that had erupted from such close range.

Slash!

The Commander’s shoulder was cut about an inch deep.

I grinned at the Commander, who wore an incredulous expression.

“I can’t live my life just taking hits.”

And with that, the ten exchanges were over.

The guardsmen of the Embroidered Uniform Guard fell silent, apparently never having imagined the Commander would lose the wager.

“Wow! Young Master Muk! You won!” In that quiet sparring ground, a clear and lovely voice rang out. Naturally, the one shouting without any regard for the guardsmen’s reactions was Peng Chae-hyang.