Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 189 - Martial Alliance (3)
Chapter 189 – Martial Alliance (3)
The Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans were all busy in their own ways. And naturally, none of them considered the Martial Alliance some higher authority standing above their own sect or clan. They merely afforded it mutual respect.
The Martial Alliance knew that as well, which was why it called full gatherings only with the greatest care. If it issued a summons every time something happened, the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans would only grow irritated and uncooperative.
“That’s why it’s been more than ten years since the Martial Alliance last summoned everyone.”
“What was it that happened back then again?”
“Eh? Have you forgotten already? It was when the Heavenly King Sect disappeared. Disappearance would be more accurate than dissolution, really.”
“Ah, right. That did happen.”
The Central Plains was vast. The Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans were powerful and influential, but they were by no means everything. A sect like the Heavenly King Sect had been evaluated as just one rank below the Nine Great Sects themselves.
For a sect of that level to vanish overnight naturally caused a tremendous upheaval. The people were gone, but their manuals, elixirs, and wealth remained. That was why the Martial Alliance had issued its summons, to keep chaos from breaking out in the orthodox martial world.
“At the time, the people in Qinghai couldn’t even start fights properly. There were more martial artists there than ordinary civilians.”
“You talk as if you were in Qinghai yourself, though you’re a Nanjing native.”
“Liveliness is what matters most in a story.”
The rumor-monger from Nanjing laughed loudly. Though only two men were talking in the inn, everyone else had pricked up their ears to listen. That was how interested they all were in the Martial Alliance’s full summons after so long.
The martial world really was a wonderful topic for rumor-mongers. It touched ordinary civilians more directly than the palace did, and things like who was the strongest under heaven or which sect stood first among the sects were topics that could never fail to amuse.
“I wonder who’ll stand out this time at the full summons.”
“Who indeed.”
Everyone listening silently agreed. It was not often that people from the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans gathered in one place. In fact, unless it was for a full Martial Alliance summons, there was almost no chance at all.
And where such people gathered, there would naturally be contests of strength. Because they didn’t meet often, there was no other chance to sort out the pecking order.
“Last time, it was of course the Tang Clan of Sichuan and Mount Hua that stood out.”
“Indeed. Wasn’t that when one of the Five Great Sword Masters and one of the Eight Exalts changed hands?”
And in gatherings like these, titles that shook the Central Plains, things like one of the Three Great Sabers Under Heaven, one of the Five Great Sword Masters, one of the Eight Exalts, often shifted from one person to another.
After all, it was an unspoken rule that if one of the Five Great Sword Masters lost to someone outside that ranking, the seat had to be surrendered. For that reason, a full summons was both a festival and a field of opportunity for the martial world.
“Do you know who’ll be coming this time?”
“No, but there are a few obvious guesses.”
“Oh? Such as?”
Several people in the inn visibly stiffened. The rumor-monger either didn’t notice or pretended not to, because he kept talking.
“The Namgung Clan will obviously send Namgung Hwi, the Azure Dragon Rising Hero. He’s at the perfect age to make his true debut on the stage of the Central Plains martial world, and he’s already known enough.” “So the Azure Sky Sword Exalt, one of the Eight Exalts, won’t come himself? Wouldn’t that make people suspect he’s avoiding the occasion?”
“If it were the Blue Moon Sword Exalt, who people rate at the bottom of the Eight Exalts, maybe. But who would suspect the Azure Sky Sword Exalt? There’s no need for him personally to show up. Besides, at full Martial Alliance summons, the heads of clans and sects generally don’t come if they can help it.”
Everyone nodded. Namgung Jin-hyeon, the head of the Namgung Clan, was already too grand a figure to go moving personally for something like this. Sending one elder-level figure together with the famed younger-generation swordsman Azure Dragon Rising Hero was perfectly reasonable.
“Naturally, Mount Hua will send the Falling Blossom Sword Dragon Mae Su-il. He suffered a narrow defeat to the Azure Dragon Rising Hero in a public spar a few years ago, so he’ll surely want to repay that loss. As for the elder-level representative, it’ll be the Violet Mist Divine Sword, who entered the Five Great Sword Masters last time. It’s been ten years since he took that seat at the previous full summons, and he hasn’t really proven it since.”
“Well, a lot of people do say the Violet Mist Divine Sword falls short of the Azure Sky Sword Exalt. So it is a bit strange for the Azure Sky Sword Exalt to be only one of the Eight Exalts while the Violet Mist Divine Sword is rated above the Eight Exalts as one of the Five Great Sword Masters.”
The stiffening around the room grew worse. A number of people were now looking at the rumor-mongers with openly anxious eyes.
One month had passed since the full Martial Alliance summons had gone out. It was just about time for people from the various sects and clans to begin entering Nanjing. To be tossing around words like that carelessly was dangerous. If they were unlucky, they could earn a real beating for it.
“Where exactly did you hear that?”
In the end, just as everyone feared, someone rose.
It was a young man in a black cloak sitting over in the corner. He looked only a little older than twenty and was a rare sort of handsome.
“…M-might I ask who you are, sir?”
The rumor-monger who had been talking now asked with obvious tension. It was only natural. One glance was enough to tell the young man was giving off oppressive force.
“Enough. Sit down. Will you really react to every word ordinary people say?”
Another man from the same group said that. But the young man looked as though he had no intention of reining in his anger.
“My martial uncle was insulted. How could I, as his martial nephew, remain silent?”
At those words, the inn froze over.
So they’d insulted his martial uncle. That meant those people were from Mount Hua.
And sure enough, the young man flung his cloak back. The martial uniform beneath it was pink, with the character Hua written across the chest.
“Mount Hua!”
Someone recognized it and shouted. Seeming to relish the awed looks around him, the young man announced his identity.
“I am the Falling Blossom Sword Dragon, Mae Su-il. I shall call you to account for insulting Mount Hua.”
Once Mae Su-il’s identity was known, everyone was astonished. But even more than Mae Su-il, that meant the man still sitting there had to be one of the Five Great Sword Masters, the Violet Mist Divine Sword, Gu Jinqing.
Now that his identity was clear, the seated man finally removed his black cloak as well.
“I am the Violet Mist Divine Sword, Gu Jinqing. Please forgive my martial nephew’s fiery temperament. Su-il, sit down.”
“I cannot! A man who publicly runs his mouth like that has to be taught a lesson!”
Even though it was his martial uncle, and one of the Five Great Sword Masters at that, ordering him to stop, Mae Su-il didn’t listen.
“Draw your sword. The insult to Mount Hua must be paid for.” “I-I don’t have a sword, sir.”
“You wandered around wagging your tongue like that without even carrying a sword?”
“I beg your forgiveness. I apologize once again.”
The rumor-monger was sweating profusely. Gu Jinqing shook his head and sighed in a manner that seemed to say this couldn’t be helped.
Everyone watching was stunned. No matter how famous Mae Su-il was as one of the prominent younger-generation martial artists, for him to ignore even the words of his own martial uncle, a member of the Five Great Sword Masters, meant he had to be an extreme sort of unruly brat.
Mae Su-il looked arrogantly around at the gathered people before drawing his sword.
“My apologies to the guests of the inn. But this man insulted Mount Hua, and as a disciple of Mount Hua, I cannot simply let it pass.”
The innkeeper and the other guests all looked at Mae Su-il with anxious faces. When martial artists turned a place into a battleground, it didn’t end with the breaking of just one or two chairs.
At that moment, someone among the watching guests spoke quietly.
“Since he appears to be an ordinary civilian, perhaps showing him mercy once would be best.”
All eyes turned toward the source of that voice. There were four people sitting together in the corner, and because of their cloaks their faces couldn’t be seen clearly.
“And who are you, to say you’ll interfere in Mount Hua’s business?”
Mae Su-il growled toward the direction of the voice. One of the four there pushed back his cloak and stood up. He wore a blue martial uniform. There was no obvious marking showing his identity, but one onlooker took one look at the sword tassel and blanched.
“Wudang!”
“Wudang?”
At the word Wudang, people began to whisper. Mae Su-il wavered slightly.
The one who’d spoken first now explained to the rest.
“Look at the sword hilt. Isn’t that the symbol of a Taiji Sword Guardian?”
“Ah!”
Only then did everyone’s gaze shift to the blue-and-red tassel hanging from the hilt of the standing man’s sword. It clearly symbolized Taiji.
“Who could it be? Is there any especially well-known Sword Guardian of Wudang right now?”
“Hard to say. The most recent famous name from Wudang would be the Boundless Divine Sword, wouldn’t it? But among people of that age, I don’t know anyone.”
The man who had risen looked a little past twenty.
Because the current martial world was so peaceful, and because there were so few opportunities for real fighting, none of the Myeong-generation disciples had earned sobriquets. Of course, the presence or absence of a sobriquet wasn’t in itself a true measure of strength, but people in the martial world did tend to look down on those without one.
And apparently Mae Su-il thought no differently, because his expression visibly eased. He had tensed up at the word Wudang, but when he thought about it, there was no one among Wudang’s Taiji Sword Guardians of similar age with any real fame.
“So you’re a Daoist of Wudang. State your Daoist name.”
Mae Su-il said it. The young man hesitated briefly before answering.
“I don’t have a Daoist name.” “Are you trying to make a fool of me?”
Mae Su-il frowned. A tassel representing Taiji meant one thing only: a Taiji Sword Guardian. In the minds of the crowd, it made no sense for someone without a Daoist name to be a Taiji Sword Guardian.
“I really don’t have one. I’m Muk Hui-yeong, a lay disciple of Wudang.”
The one who had stepped forward was Muk Hui-yeong. He spoke politely as he cupped his fists, but Mae Su-il looked so dumbfounded he didn’t even bother to return the greeting.
“A lay disciple? How can a lay disciple be wearing Taiji’s tassel?”
“What can I do about what the Sect Leader gave me?”
Muk Hui-yeong said it, and when he put it that way, there truly wasn’t much Mae Su-il could say.
“There seem to be some Wudang Daoists among your companions as well, so why don’t they speak up. This man claims to be both a lay disciple and a Taiji Sword Guardian. Is that actually true?”
Putting force into his voice, Mae Su-il addressed the others. One of the figures in the corner pushed back his cloak. A stern-looking middle-aged man appeared, already frowning as though even this was annoying him.
“I am Cheong-yu of Wudang. There is no falsehood in what that child says.”
“My respects to Immortal Cheong-yu. I am Mae Su-il of Mount Hua. Is it really true that he is a lay disciple and yet also a Taiji Sword Guardian?”
“Are you accusing me of lying?”
At Cheong-yu’s sharp tone, Mae Su-il flinched. A member of the Qing generation held the same generation standing as his own martial uncle. That meant he had just committed a slight discourtesy.
At once he cupped his fists and lowered his head.
“Forgive me for doubting you, Immortal.”
“Enough. Don’t do it again.”
Cheong-yu waved his hand dismissively and sat back down. It didn’t seem as though he had any intention of stopping Muk Hui-yeong either.
Turning his gaze away from Cheong-yu, Mae Su-il faced Muk Hui-yeong again. He still couldn’t make sense of how a lay disciple could be a Taiji Sword Guardian, but Cheong-yu’s attitude itself made a certain sort of sense.
Because he was only a lay disciple, Wudang didn’t pay him much attention. In the first place, Mae Su-il didn’t even know why a lay disciple had come all the way to Nanjing, where the Martial Alliance was, but he decided not to waste time thinking through details.
What mattered was simple.
He was the renowned younger-generation talent Falling Blossom Sword Dragon Mae Su-il.
And that man was a nameless lay disciple.
“I was in the middle of carrying out a justified response to an insult against Mount Hua. If you intend to stop that, then I find it deeply unpleasant.”
“I was only asking you to let it slide once. Is that really such an unpleasant thing?”
“It is. If you want to break my will, then speak with your sword. Even if you’re a lay disciple, you’re still carrying a blade, so doesn’t that make you a martial artist?”
Mae Su-il said it with a sneer. In his mind, he was a renowned younger-generation talent, and the other man was a nameless lay disciple. Naturally he assumed the other wouldn’t dare accept.
And in truth, everyone watching shared the same assumption. “Sure. Why not.”
But unexpectedly, Muk Hui-yeong nodded.
Mae Su-il stared at him as though he couldn’t trust his own ears.
“You mean that seriously?”
“We’re not fighting to kill, are we? Only to exchange blows.”
“That’s true enough, but you’ll likely get badly hurt.”
There was real sincerity in that warning. But Muk Hui-yeong only shook his head.
“I don’t think so.”
“…Hah.”
Mae Su-il’s brows turned sharply upward. He’d spoken out of concern, and now this fellow was only responding with arrogant insolence. It was genuinely infuriating.
“Then I’ll make you understand what a mistake you’ve made.”
“Do that.”
Muk Hui-yeong let out a yawn as he spoke. The way he drew his sword was so loose and casual that it hardly looked like a martial artist’s bearing at all.
“Still, fighting inside another man’s inn isn’t ideal, so shall we take it outside?”
Mae Su-il flinched. But after a brief pause, he shouted angrily,
“What does that matter? It’ll end quickly either way.”
“True enough.”
“I’ll yield you three moves. Attack as much as you like until then.”
Taking his stance, Mae Su-il said it. Muk Hui-yeong’s eyes shone slightly.
“It’s been a while. Someone yielding me three moves. Are you really sure about that?”
“Why would I lie to you over something like that?”
“Then I’ll gratefully accept.”
With those words, Muk Hui-yeong’s figure vanished. Mae Su-il’s eyes flew wide open. Muk Hui-yeong, who had disappeared, suddenly dropped from directly above him.
Bang!
Mae Su-il barely managed to block the descending strike. Such enormous force was packed into it that the floor of the inn caved in under his feet in the shape of footprints.
With their swords locked together and their faces close, Mae Su-il could see the smile on Muk Hui-yeong’s face.
“Two moves left.” At Muk Hui-yeong’s quiet words, a chill ran down Mae Su-il’s spine.