Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 185 - Return (4)

Chapter 185 – Return (4)

Seo Jong-haeng had told me this directly. My realization was high, but my technique was lacking. That was exactly the sort of thing a man who saw martial arts purely as killing techniques would say.

In truth, up until now I’d often been praised for possessing high realization while using martial arts, but it was the first time anyone had ever pointed out that I was lacking in technique.

Of course, it might also simply have been that Seo Jong-haeng was twisted enough to say such things out of spite. Even so, if I took myself seriously as a martial artist, then I had to take his words seriously too.

“Technique, huh.”

If my realization was the part of me I had carried over from my previous life, then strictly speaking, my technique was something I had purchased in this life through the Martial Talent Shop. If I appeared lacking in technique, then perhaps that meant my talent itself had begun to show its limits.

It was time to look back, for the first time in a while, at the talents I currently possessed.

Fourth grade Ghosts and Gods.

Fourth grade All Streams Return to the Source.

Fifth grade Indomitability.

Fifth grade Heavenly Bones.

Fifth grade Sword Talent, middle grade.

Fifth grade Body Arts Talent, middle grade.

Among these, Ghosts and Gods and All Streams Return to the Source couldn’t be changed. That was because once a talent reached the third grade and above, the price no longer appeared. Presumably something would only change if the shop’s grade rose, the way it did from time to time.

That meant the ones I had to replace were the fifth-grade talents.

Among those, Indomitability and Heavenly Bones weren’t really in the realm of technique. Indomitability worked on mental resilience, while Heavenly Bones affected physical strength.

“So in the end, it’s either sword talent or body arts.”

That made it simple enough to decide which talents I needed to replace. I currently possessed eighteen thousand taels of silver.

Given that Ghosts and Gods, another fourth-grade talent, had once cost nine thousand five hundred taels, I probably had just enough money to replace two talents.

Sword Talent, upper grade, fourth grade.

Price: eight thousand five hundred taels of silver.

Body Arts Talent, upper grade, fourth grade.

Price: nine thousand taels of silver.

Even while looking at those prices with eighteen thousand taels to my name, they were enough to make my flesh crawl. Fortunately, even together they still fit within my budget.

Just in case, I opened the strongbox hidden behind the hanging scroll in the Company Lord’s office. Once full to bursting, the strongbox now held only around ten sycees left.

“Whew.”

The emptiness of the strongbox made my heart feel empty too. But what could be done? If I meant to move forward, then I had to spend money.

If I wanted to forget this bitterness, then I needed training. I picked up the Ancient Pine-Pattern Sword leaning against the wall and then found myself startled. To think that I was trying to regulate my emotions through training. Wasn’t that the behavior of a true martial artist? For someone who’d always thought of himself as a merchant by nature, it was a surprising thing.

Just as I was finishing up and about to head out, the courtyard outside suddenly grew noisy. In the middle of that noise was a young voice I recognized well. I finished putting things in order and stepped outside.

“Junior Brother!”

The instant I opened the door, sure enough, Myeong-gyeong was there. The moment he saw me, he came running over at once.

“You came back and didn’t even come to see your senior brother first!”

“I was planning to do that as soon as I finished this.”

“Liar!”

Myeong-gyeong stamped his feet in anger, but the smile on his face never disappeared. More than feeling slighted that I hadn’t gone to him first, it seemed he was simply happy to see me.

And the same was true for me.

“You’ve gotten taller in just two months, haven’t you?”

“Mm-hm. I’ve grown a lot. The dignity of a senior brother….”

When I reached out and ruffled Myeong-gyeong’s hair, he puffed out his shoulders proudly.

“No, that’s not the point! How dare you touch your senior brother’s head!”

He immediately smacked my hand away and shook his hair free.

Laughing, I looked around. Myeong-seong, Myeong-il, and, looking more closely, even Myeong-jin were all there.

“It’s been a while, Senior Brothers.”

“Yes. If you’ve returned, then of course you should greet us.”

With his arms folded, Myeong-gyeong nodded in a haughty way.

As always, the moment I came back to Wudang, peace settled into me….

“By the way, who is this auntie?”

The dirty but artless malice of Myeong-gyeong’s childhood flew straight toward Peng Chae-hyang, who had been standing nearby blankly.

“…Auntie?”

The corner of Peng Chae-hyang’s eye twitched. That marked the end of my brief peace.

“Little Hero, you seem to be mistaken about something. I’m only twenty-one years old.”

Peng Chae-hyang forced a stiff smile as she tried to soothe Myeong-gyeong. But Myeong-gyeong was the sort of child who seemed like the personification of a wild young marten. There was no way he’d be subdued by such a soft tone. “Then that does make you an auntie, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?”

Myeong-gyeong turned to Myeong-il, Myeong-seong, and Myeong-jin for support. The unfortunate thing for Peng Chae-hyang was that those boys weren’t even fifteen yet. To them, anyone over twenty probably felt incredibly far away.

“Isn’t she?”

“Could be.”

Myeong-seong and Myeong-il nodded with complete seriousness. Peng Chae-hyang looked even more wounded by that. Myeong-gyeong at least obviously looked like a cheeky brat, but Myeong-seong and Myeong-il didn’t.

“Anyway, don’t take our junior brother away!”

Myeong-gyeong threw his arms around my waist and glared at her with hostility.

Only now did the real reason for his hostility come out. Myeong-gyeong wasn’t the sort of child who picked fights with just anyone. For whatever reason, he’d come to believe Peng Chae-hyang was going to take me away.

Naturally, Peng Chae-hyang looked utterly dumbfounded.

“Take what away?”

“I heard it all from the senior brothers. They said you and our junior brother are in that kind of relationship!”

I put a hand to my forehead. In a narrow place like Wudang, rumors naturally got warped very easily.

I could more or less guess how this nonsense had formed.

She was beautiful. Why had she come with Muk Hui-yeong? Perhaps they were lovers. If they weren’t lovers, then why would she follow him all the way here? Therefore, they must be lovers.

The logic unfolded as smoothly as Taiji Fist. I asked in disbelief,

“What kind of relationship?”

“They said you even have a child together in Beijing.”

Peng Chae-hyang’s face turned bright red. Easily twice as red as the usual blush. I had expected some rumors, but since the Daoists of Wudang were so entirely inexperienced with women, it seemed the rumors had grown even more absurd than I’d imagined.

It had gotten too ridiculous, so I was just about to step in when, unexpectedly, Peng Chae-hyang took a step forward first.

“I-if that’s true, then what are you going to do about it?”

“…?”

I looked at Peng Chae-hyang, but she wasn’t looking at me at all. Her gaze was fixed entirely on Myeong-gyeong. Perhaps the word auntie had hit her that hard. Right now she was willing to use any means available if it meant defeating Myeong-gyeong.

But I’d only been in Beijing for around two months. By the laws of life itself, such a thing was impossible. And yet both of them were confronting each other over it with complete seriousness.

“T-to think it was real.”

Myeong-gyeong took a step back as though he hadn’t expected her to resist that fiercely. But Myeong-gyeong was not the kind of child to end there.

“Then….”

Watching both me and Peng Chae-hyang, Myeong-gyeong seemed to be grinding his gears. I felt a bad premonition. When people were cornered, they tended to do unreasonable things.

“Then kiss each other right here!”

Sometimes children struck at the essence of things.

Peng Chae-hyang was precisely the sort of person who, even if she died and woke again, still wouldn’t be able to kiss me in public. The fact that Myeong-gyeong had already grasped that made him frightening in his own way.

“…Haa.”

But then Peng Chae-hyang let out a deep sigh and turned to glare at me. I flinched.

She began walking toward me with a grimly determined expression.

Are you really going to do it?

Without meaning to, I moved my lips in question. But Peng Chae-hyang gave no answer. She simply kept coming toward me.

The staff of the merchant company who had been going about their work now stood around watching this absurd situation with fascinated faces.

Peng Chae-hyang came right up to me and looked up. Standing somewhere around my collarbone in height, she stretched out both hands, grabbed my head, and turned it toward her.

I’d never been in a situation like this either, so naturally my head went blank. Her fine, delicate features filled my vision all at once.

“…Ha.”

Her warm, sweet breath, heated by tension, brushed beneath my nose.

By the time the taut air between us had grown thick enough to feel sticky, Peng Chae-hyang suddenly let go and collapsed onto the spot, covering her face.

“How am I supposed to do this….”

“Hahahaha!”

Myeong-gyeong deliberately walked right up to the broken Peng Chae-hyang, planted his hands on his hips, and laughed loudly. The sense of defeat made her shrink in even further.

How exactly had it come to this? The whole flow of events had been bizarre, but in any case, Myeong-gyeong had somehow defeated Peng Chae-hyang.

“Young Lady Peng, please get up. You didn’t do anything wrong. In the first place, we’re not actually in any kind of relationship.”

“T-that’s true.”

At our words, Myeong-gyeong only looked more delighted.

“I knew it! Our junior brother’s far too good for you!”

“That’s enough. Enough.”

I stepped in to stop him. Peng Chae-hyang, who only managed to stand with difficulty, looked utterly bedraggled. Now that she’d realized what she’d almost tried to do, she looked so flushed and feverish that she seemed on the verge of collapsing.

“Young Lady Peng, go inside and get some rest.” “All right….”

I called over one of the servants and had him guide Peng Chae-hyang to the inner residence within the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company. Thoroughly defeated by a child nearly ten years younger than herself, she shuffled off like a ghost.

“Anyway, have you all been well, Senior Brothers?”

“Of course.”

Only then did I finally get to exchange normal greetings with Myeong-gyeong. I greeted Myeong-il, Myeong-seong, and Myeong-jin as well.

I’d always thought two months was too short a time for people to really change, but that saying didn’t apply to children. Astonishingly, even in just two months, they’d all visibly grown taller.

Then again, they were all now approaching the age of knowledge. Myeong-gyeong was probably thirteen now, and the others were around the same. They were at the age where children shot up.

“Let’s head to the Bow Hall. I should greet the other senior brothers too.”

“We should!”

Myeong-gyeong grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.

Because it was free time after training, we were able to run into plenty of senior brothers even on the way to the Bow Hall.

After that, all my time was spent simply going around and greeting people. It was a side effect of becoming closer to Wudang. In the old days, I could disappear for a long stretch and still have plenty of people I didn’t need to greet upon returning. Now, if possible, I had to greet nearly everyone.

By the time I finished with all the greetings, it was already night. I could manage, but the younger senior brothers were yawning already. It was clearly time for them to sleep.

“I was going to ask you to take a look at my martial arts.”

Myeong-il, who’d been quiet until now, muttered it in a small voice. Right, Myeong-il had wanted to learn martial arts from me.

Apparently he’d expected me to start looking over his progress once the greetings were more or less finished, but now it was simply too late.

“I’ll look tomorrow.”

“All right.”

But Myeong-il was always dry in manner. He didn’t seem especially more disappointed than that. Myeong-seong, Myeong-il, and Myeong-jin all went off to sleep, and in the end only Myeong-gyeong remained. He was nodding off with his eyes nearly shut like a sleepy little bird, yet for some reason he still had no intention of leaving my side.

“Senior Brother, you should go get some sleep now.”

“…Ah, but I don’t want to.”

“If you sleep today, you’ll see me again tomorrow.”

“That’s true.”

Myeong-gyeong was immediately convinced by that and stood up.

“Junior Brother.”

“Yes?”

“Are visits to the Cave of Repentance allowed?”

At that question, a faint shadow crossed Myeong-gyeong’s face. There was only one reason we would mention the Cave of Repentance. Our master, Cheong-hwa.

Two years. Long, if one called it long, short, if one called it short. But however it felt to me, to children like Myeong-gyeong it had to feel very long indeed.

“Not for us, but maybe for you.”

“Really?”

“Go and ask. If they let you in, then tell him Myeong-seong, Myeong-jin, and I are all doing well.”

“All right. Go on now.”

“Mm.”

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Myeong-gyeong disappeared into the dark corridor of the Bow Hall. Only after seeing him enter his room did I head outside.

The Cave of Repentance, huh. I’d been locked up there once myself. It was the place where I’d had that sword match with Myeong-il.

As I headed that way, the memories came back to me one by one.

Like all halls at night, the Cave of Repentance had someone on duty. Unfortunately, tonight it was Martial Uncle Cheong-yu, who still found me rather difficult to stomach.

“What brings you here at this hour?”

Cheong-yu threw the question out in his usual curt voice. I smiled. To be honest, even without that awkward smile, Cheong-yu already knew perfectly well why I’d come.

“Cheong-hwa is doing well.”

“Can’t I see him in person?”

“The martial nephews can’t. It would only give him worldly disturbance and make their longing worse.”

“That may be true for the children.”

“And you aren’t one?”

“I’m old enough to marry.”

“I see. So the girl you brought back was that kind of matter, was it?”

“No. It’s not that.”

At that point I began to feel this wasn’t going to be easy. If it’d been another martial uncle I was close with, I might have been able to ease my way through. But it was Cheong-yu, and he was exactly the difficult sort.

I was already considering whether I should just try another day, or perhaps try to coax the Sect Leader into allowing it tomorrow instead.

“Go in quietly and come out quietly. Don’t say you saw him. I’ll pretend I didn’t.”

To my surprise, Cheong-yu simply closed his eyes. It was clearly his way of telling me to go.

“Is that really all right?” “You know perfectly well it is, and yet you still ask like a sly merchant. I dislike that side of you.”

“…Haha. It’s a habit.”

“Even so, that very side of you is changing Wudang now, and you too are one of Wudang’s people. Among the people of Wudang, the relationship between master and disciple is like that between parent and child. How could I truly ask you to abandon such bonds?”

“Then couldn’t you let the other martial nephews see him too?”

“They’re still too young. Don’t try to look after everyone and end up losing your own chance. Just go in quietly.”

“Wise words.”

I cupped my fists toward Cheong-yu in thanks. He had his eyes closed, so he couldn’t see it, but it was my own sign of respect nonetheless.

Quietly I entered the Cave of Repentance. It was carved into the mountain itself, a cave cell dug deep into the rock. Any rooms without occupants had their doors propped open for the sake of air. Only one door was shut.

I reached out to the latch on that door. The fact that it opened from the outside made my chest ache.

Before undoing it, I knocked.

“Master.”

No answer came from within. At this hour, he might already have been asleep. The moon was already high.

Just as I thought that he might truly be asleep, a faint response finally drifted out.

“Hui-yeong, is that you?”

At that faint voice, something rose abruptly inside me. Why? Was it really as Cheong-yu had said? Did I truly think of my master as a father?

“Yes.”

“You shouldn’t come in. Go back at once.”

“No. I received permission from Martial Uncle Cheong-yu, who’s on duty.”

“From Martial Uncle Cheong-yu?”

Cheong-hwa sounded as though he couldn’t believe it. Then again, even though Cheong-hwa and Cheong-yu had supposedly reconciled, their relationship had once been so bad that his surprise made sense.

“Yes. So I’m coming in. Please keep your eyes closed. It may be night, but the inside of the cave is bright with torchlight.”

“…Very well.”

Carefully, I undid the latch and opened the door to the Cave of Repentance. His beard, already long before, had grown longer still. Cheong-hwa had his eyes shut, just as I’d asked.

“Master. It’s been a while.”

“What’s this talk of a long while? It’s only been a little over two months.”

“That’s long enough.”

I smiled, then opened my travel bag and took out a small pouch from inside. I placed the pouch into Cheong-hwa’s hand. Startled by suddenly finding something in it while his eyes were still shut, he gave a little start.

“Good heavens. And what’s this?”

“Candied sweets. I bought them in Beijing.”

“What sort of nonsense is this all of a sudden? I’m not a child.”

“It’s a gift. Last time, when I came back from Gansu without a gift, you complained about it.”

Cheong-hwa chuckled softly. It was the first time in a while I’d heard that laugh.

“That had only been a joke.”

“It wasn’t a joke at the time.”

“True enough.”

Cheong-hwa didn’t even open the pouch. He simply set it down behind him.

“Aren’t you going to try them? Living on Fasting Pills all the time, you must miss sweets.”

“How could I eat something precious given to me by my disciple so casually? I’d rather save it and eat it little by little.”

“It’s not expensive. Just eat it.”

In truth, for sweets, it was expensive. I’d bought them from a sweetmaker in Beijing, after all. For mere sweets, they were costly enough to be paid for in silver. But that was something I didn’t want to tell him.

“No. Come here. Let me embrace my disciple for once.”

When Cheong-hwa opened both arms, I stepped into them. His arms wrapped around me.

“While sitting in the Cave of Repentance, there isn’t much I find myself thinking of eating. But from time to time, I do miss the warmth of my disciples.”

“Is that so.”

“Yes. This is the gift that pleases me more.”

Cheong-hwa laughed. Yet for some reason, I felt as though tears might spill from me in a most shameful way. I really had become a man of Wudang.

Only after hearing Cheong-hwa’s laugh did I truly feel it in the depths of my chest. I had finally returned to Wudang.

“By the way, have your martial arts improved at all?”

“It’s only been two months.”

“And yet I can feel that something about you has changed.”

Sharp as ever. Then again, I had just upgraded both my Sword Talent and Body Arts Talent by one grade, and on top of that I’d learned the Dragon Splendor Soaring Wind Dance from the Commander-in-Chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

“I really should take a look at your martial arts after so long. Get up.” As Cheong-hwa pulled me to my feet, he slowly opened his eyes. At the same time, the force of his qi swept through the Cave of Repentance.