Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 191 - Martial Alliance (5)
Chapter 191 – Martial Alliance (5)
I recognized the Beggars’ Gang beggar thanks to intent. Intent referred to a person’s consciousness and thoughts.
Though the man disguised as a rumor-monger kept looking as if he were chatting up strangers, his intent repeatedly swept over the side where I and the people of the Mount Hua Sect were sitting.
The Peng Clan Head had said that hardly anyone in the Beggars’ Gang would know that my very existence was top-class intelligence. If someone was that well informed about information and stories and also knew my identity, there was a high chance he belonged to the Beggars’ Gang. And that prediction had been exactly right.
“How did you know I was a beggar of the Beggars’ Gang?”
“Let’s just say it was top-class intelligence. The same grade as the information of mine your side sells off, right?”
At my words, the Beggars’ Gang beggar made an awkward face. Right now I was jabbing at the act of investigating me behind my back and selling that information without my permission. The beggar was not so dull that he could not understand that.
“I apologize. But isn’t that the nature of the Beggars’ Gang’s work?”
“Selling other people’s information after secretly digging it up?”
“You could put it that way, but it is something absolutely necessary for maintaining the martial world in a stable state.”
“Maintaining it in a stable state?”
“We must know all information in the martial world. Only then can we root out the variables that shake the martial world. And if we possess information and supply it where it is needed, we can prevent chaos before it happens.”
The Beggars’ Gang beggar wet his lips with his tongue and went on.
“If we cared only about money, we would already have spread your information everywhere, young master, as a top-class younger-generation expert of the Wudang Sect. Then you would have suffered quite a bit.”
“So I am supposed to be grateful?”
“That is not what I mean. You are quite on edge.”
“Because there is no way I would enjoy someone digging up information on me behind my back.”
I answered in a deliberately sharp tone. Of course, only my tone was sharp. I was not actually angry. Information was a valuable commodity. I had traded information myself before, so I knew how important it was. If my information could be sold for money, then of course someone might scrape it up and sell it. That was my own fault for failing to judge how much value my information had and failing to guard against it.
Still, if I let things slide so easily, there would be nothing to squeeze out of this beggar. I had made a mistake and let all my information be stripped bare, but I still intended to collect at least a cut.
“Once again, I apologize to you, young master.”
“Fine. Then who exactly are you within the Beggars’ Gang?”
“I am Jang Ui of Nanjing branch of the Beggars’ Gang, the Branch Leader known as Iron-Heart Beggar.”
The beggar who introduced himself as Iron-Heart Beggar Jang Ui pulled out a filthy cord he had hidden between the legs of his trousers. Tied into that cord were three knots. Three Knots. In other words, it meant he was a Beggars’ Gang branch leader.
“A branch leader, huh. So they sent someone rather capable.”
“I am only Three Knots. I myself first received information about you in Tianjin this time.”
Jang Ui spoke modestly, but Three Knots in the Beggars’ Gang were no small figures. Nine out of ten Beggars’ Gang beggars were either One Knot or White-Robed Beggars with not even a single knot.
In any case, the part about receiving the information in Tianjin this time was worth hearing. Since Tianjin was where the Beggars’ Gang’s main branch stood, it seemed my information was at least being managed there.
“So why did you bother provoking the Mount Hua Sect Daoists?”
“It was what you might call an information update. We wanted the latest information on you, young master, whom the martial world treats as a very mysterious figure, on the Violet Mist Divine Sword, one of the Five Great Sword Masters, and on the Falling Blossom Sword Dragon, one of the top younger-generation talents.”
“You almost got your head cut off by the Falling Blossom Sword Dragon for running your mouth like that.”
“The Falling Blossom Sword Dragon is not the sort to kill someone he has called an innocent commoner, and your information is worth that much right now, young master.”
“So that information includes things like personality and sense of chivalry too.”
“It does. That is why someone at the level of Three Knots needs the ability to analyze people objectively.”
I clicked my tongue. The Beggars’ Gang’s information truly was high grade. Things like a person’s personal details or family relations could be uncovered by investigating, but matters like a person’s personality or reverse scale were genuinely top-grade intelligence. Hadn’t the Beggars’ Gang provoked those Mount Hua Sect Daoists just to update that sort of information?
Again I felt I had done well to confront a Beggars’ Gang beggar in person. In truth, when the Falling Blossom Sword Dragon had turned the atmosphere upside down, I could have stayed still.
In fact, Peng Chae-hyang, along with Cheong-ui, had told me to just stay put. But I had stepped forward because I wanted to speak with that Beggars’ Gang man directly.
“May I ask you one thing?”
“Anything at all, young master.”
“Could you distort my information before sending it to Tianjin? I can pay you well enough.”
“Haha. I must politely refuse. We are beggars who have no need for money.”
“Is that so? I hear my information sells for a high price in Beijing.”
“It does sell dearly. But we do not personally amass that money as private wealth. We return it all for the sake of the martial world.”
Jang Ui answered with a smile. So the Beggars’ Gang really was said to move by nothing but chivalric spirit. I could not simply believe him because he said so, but I had at least confirmed that money could not move him.
“Then may I ask you one thing as well, young master?”
“Not anything at all, but I will answer if I feel like it.”
“Haha. You truly are not easy to deal with.”
Jang Ui’s mouth was smiling, but his eyes did not waver. It likely meant that even now he was clearly updating his information on me.
“What I wish to ask is this. Did you answer that provocation on purpose?”
“That is rather high-grade information.”
“Is that so? Considering the rapport we have built through our conversation so far, I thought it was something you could answer.”
“Then if you confirm just one thing for me, we can call it an exchange. That is how rapport is shared.”
“A confirmation, hm. I will confirm it within the bounds of what I know. I should tell you in advance that if it is overly important information, I may not be able to answer.”
“Yes. It is nothing much.”
“Very well. Please say it.”
“That Violet Mist Divine Sword Gu Jinqing, he is a piece of trash, right?”
“…Pardon?”
Jang Ui’s face twisted with bewilderment.
For an Iron-Heart, he was shaken quite badly. It seemed Jang Ui had been given the wrong sobriquet.
* * *
“You piece of trash!”
In a deserted alley deep in Nanjing, Gu Jinqing’s palm whipped across Mae Su-il’s face. Mae Su-il’s body flew away like a kite with its string cut, slammed into a wall, and dropped.
“You could not even handle one nameless brat? And you call yourself a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect?”
As if his anger still had not been vented, Gu Jinqing kicked Mae Su-il, who lay on his side. Mae Su-il bit his lip hard and made no sound. He knew that if he made a sound, he would only be hit more.
Mae Su-il felt wronged. To begin with, he had not even wanted to fight that man who was supposedly a secular disciple of the Wudang Sect. He had not particularly cared about what that rumor-monger was saying either.
The one who had cared was his own martial grand-uncle, the Violet Mist Divine Sword Gu Jinqing. Unable to stomach hearing that he himself lost out to the Azure Sky Sword Exalt, Gu Jinqing had egged Mae Su-il on through voice transmission.
What was laughable was that after pushing Mae Su-il out there like that, he himself had behaved like some great hero. Mae Su-il found the sight utterly disgusting, but he could not offend the temper of the Violet Mist Divine Sword, the strongest master in the Mount Hua Sect at present and his martial grand-uncle.
‘This too shall pass. When you are leaping with joy, and when you are so sad you can do nothing at all, remember those words.’
The words his master had once told him rang in his ears. It was a voice he could no longer hear, yet it remained painfully clear.
‘Master. Will this time really pass?’
As he was being kicked by Gu Jinqing’s feet, Mae Su-il asked his master. Naturally, there was no answer.
* * *
“That is not exactly nothing much.”
“Is that so? Considering the rapport of the conversation we shared, I thought it was enough for an answer.”
When I returned Jang Ui’s own words to him exactly, his expression soured even more.
“…The personal information of one of the Five Great Sword Masters is top-class intelligence.”
“And I hear my personal information is treated as special-class intelligence. Then the exchange balances out.”
Jang Ui was left speechless. Since I had fed his own words right back to him as a counter, he naturally had nothing to say. This man who called himself a Beggars’ Gang branch leader had some ability, but it was still clearly too much for him to handle me.
“But why are you curious about that?”
“Well, it is nice to know at least one secret others do not.”
The Violet Mist Divine Sword was someone I would be seeing at the Martial Alliance. Few things were more important than knowing accurate information about a person one was going to meet.
“…Very few people truly know this, but your guess is correct, young master.”
“I see.”
I too had heard a few stories about the Violet Mist Divine Sword in my previous life. A man who had washed his hands in a golden basin with honor while still holding one of the seats of the Five Great Sword Masters. Even when he retired, many people regretted that a great hero like the Violet Mist Divine Sword was leaving the martial world and going into seclusion.
That likely meant the Violet Mist Divine Sword Gu Jinqing had hidden his true face very well. But I had been able to roughly sense it.
It was because of intent, just as I had recognized the Beggars’ Gang. In my experience, when someone used voice transmission, intent went along with it. Even if I could not hear the actual contents of the voice transmission, I could see the thoughts reaching the other person.
Mae Su-il, who really had just been sitting there eating quietly, got up when Gu Jinqing’s intent touched him, and every time that intent touched him again he said something provocative.
So I had roughly guessed that what Mae Su-il was saying was in fact effectively what Gu Jinqing was saying.
“This is information known only to Mount Hua’s elders. So please do not spread it anywhere, and do not say that you had it confirmed by me.”
“Oh, of course.”
Now that Jang Ui’s confirmation had made my chest feel clear, I smiled brightly.
Anyway, there really was no trash quite like him. To sell off his own martial nephew like trash for the sake of his reputation and fame. Since there was no one like that among my martial grand-uncles in the Wudang Sect, I felt grateful once more that I belonged to Wudang.
“And yes, I did answer the provocation on purpose. I wanted to speak with your side once.”
“As I thought. Thank you for the answer.”
Now information would probably be sent to Tianjin about what sort of calculations I made as a person. I actually thought it would be fine if that information was passed along. That way they would not approach me while taking me lightly.
“Shall we leave the conversation there? The people inside are waiting as well.”
“Let us do that.”
We went back into the inn. When we entered, the innkeeper was wearing a miserable expression. It seemed that the money Gu Jinqing had left behind was just a little short of covering the damage. Truly, he was a bastard right to the very end.
I casually took out a few pieces of silver from my pouch and handed them over. Not merely enough to restore the damage, but enough with room to spare.
“No, this much is not necessary, Great Hero.”
The innkeeper tried to decline, saying it was too much money, but I simply stuffed it into his sleeve by force.
“Once you consider the repairs, and the time you will lose while buying new chairs and tables and being unable to take guests, you will need at least this much more.”
“…You even considered that. This is the first time I have ever seen such a meticulous martial artist.”
I gave a bitter smile. It seemed I truly looked every bit a martial artist now. But the reason I knew such things was because I was a merchant.
“If Wudang Sect Daoists come to this inn later, please take good care of them.”
“What words are these. The Daoists of the Wudang Sect truly are different.”
The innkeeper looked deeply moved. That must be why the moment one stepped outside, one was said to represent the Wudang Sect. Because even the smallest thing I did ended up with the words Wudang Sect attached to it.
The innkeeper saw us off while thanking me again and again.
Now it was truly time to enter the Martial Alliance.