Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 21 - Registered (1)
Chapter 21 – Registered (1)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Once I won the proxy match, Ascending Thunder Gate fled in complete disarray, without even cleaning up after themselves.
All that remained were the amused spectators and the Shanxi merchants, now wearing expressions like they’d stepped in dog shit.
The Shanxi merchants had no choice but to sell the salt to us at a cheap price, however bitter they found it.
They had no idea when the frontier supply system would be abolished, and moving to a different market would cost them too much in opportunity.
They still had to buy something in Yichang and then return to Shanxi to continue their trade route.
Only after everything was over did I tell the curious Cheong-su what groundwork I had laid in advance.
From the part where I sought the help of lay disciples with many commercial ties, all the way to the end.
“So you bought it at a forty-percent discount. That’s an enormous gain.”
“You’re not going to sell it to the common people at last year’s prices, are you?”
“Wudang does not take outrageous profits from commoners.”
Once the frontier supply system was abolished, the price would drop by half, but taking into account that it had not yet been abolished, I had forced the price down by forty percent.
Considering that even an advance contract purchase at the maximum quantity would only cut off five percent, this was an enormous profit.
That was what pleased me most, but the disciples of Wudang focused instead on the fact that I had defeated a hall master of Ascending Thunder Gate.
“Did they say you’re a provisional main-sect disciple?”
“And that you haven’t even been learning martial arts for six months yet?”
“Your Azure Cloud Steps looked extremely clean.”
The five first-generation disciples of the Myeong generation, who had barely said a word on the way to Yichang, suddenly showed overwhelming interest.
“Ha ha… I suppose that’s how it is.”
“What incredible talent!”
“I’ve been in Wudang for twenty years, and I think this is the first time I’ve seen a lay disciple truly entered as a main-sect disciple.”
“If you become a main-sect disciple, do I have to call you Junior Brother now?”
I parted on warm terms with the first-generation disciples of the Myeong generation.
The mere fact that I had helped Wudang was enough to make them like me.
That meant that disciples of the Nine Great Sects identified themselves with their sects to that extent.
I had hardly managed to speak properly with Cheong-su because I had been talking with the disciples of the Myeong generation.
Only after we separated from them in the Hall of Preserved Wholeness could Cheong-su and I speak.
“Well done.”
“That was concise.”
“What, do you expect me to make a show of it?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Just follow me.”
“Where to?”
“The Three Purities Hall.”
At once my face twisted and my tongue nearly stuck out.
The sect leader, in my view, was a difficult man whose thoughts I could not read.
I did not want to get any more entangled with him.
“Ugh. Why are we going there again?”
“Irreverent bastard. Not only the sect leader but the spirit tablets of the founding patriarchs are enshrined there, and yet that’s your reaction?”
“That is that, and this is this. But really, why are you taking me? You’re just going to make a report, aren’t you?”
“That’s right. We returned, so we must report the results immediately.”
“Is there any reason I need to be there for that?”
“Shut up and follow.”
“Ah, yes.”
If he told me to shut up and follow, then I had no choice.
I jutted out my lips and went to the Three Purities Hall.
By now, I had reached the point where I could climb the cliff to the Three Purities Hall with my eyes closed.
When we opened the door to the meeting room of the Three Purities Hall, the sect leader was already there, as though he had known we had returned.
“So you’re back. I’ve already heard the broad strokes. That the Shanxi merchants got soaked and went back.”
“As expected, words have no legs, so they move faster than people.”
“Even so, I don’t know the details. Exactly how much did you cut it down by?”
“Would you like to guess, Senior Brother Sect Leader?”
Cheong-su chuckled.
Cheong-ui, the sect leader, narrowed his eyes.
He clearly did not like Cheong-su joking with him, but endured it because it made him seem magnanimous.
“Judging by the way you’re grinning, I would say you cut twenty percent.”
“Twenty percent? That’s too small-minded.”
“Then twenty-five percent?”
“Forty percent.”
Cheong-ui’s eyes shook sharply.
Frankly, even I thought it had been an absurd discount.
“…Is that really true?”
“It is. After buying three thousand seok of salt, we still had four hundred nyang of silver left.”
“Remarkable.”
Cheong-ui genuinely admired it.
No matter how much Daoists lived lives far removed from money, if one stood at the head of an organization, he had no choice but to be sensitive to finances.
Saving four hundred nyang of silver was undeniably a great achievement.
“None of the credit is mine. It belongs entirely to this boy.”
At that moment, Cheong-su suddenly placed a hand on my shoulder.
I was slightly surprised.
I had not thought Cheong-su would steal the credit, but neither had I expected him to go out of his way to mention me.
“Oh? Is that so.”
Cheong-ui’s gaze fell on me.
In truth, Cheong-ui seemed to have already expected as much.
Well, I was the one who had firmly declared that I could buy it cheaply, so he could probably guess easily what role I had played.
Cheong-su then told Cheong-ui what I had done.
Though it was my own story, hearing it from another person’s mouth made it sound rather interesting.
Cheong-ui seemed genuinely absorbed as he listened.
When Cheong-su described how I had moved the lay disciples, charmed the market superintendent, and had the brokers obstruct the Shanxi merchants’ trade, surprise appeared on his face.
When he described the expressions on the Shanxi merchants’ faces as they sold the salt at a discount, Cheong-ui laughed.
Whether intentionally or not, Cheong-su left the part about the proxy match against the hall master of Ascending Thunder Gate for last.
Until that point, Cheong-ui had been listening with a smile, but then his face suddenly turned serious.
“You defeated a hall master of Ascending Thunder Gate?”
“Yes.”
“Huh.”
Cheong-ui’s serious gaze pierced straight through me.
“How, exactly?”
Cheong-su described the proxy match.
It was so detailed it was almost like discussing sword theory.
He broke down movements I myself had not consciously registered, to the point that I found myself realizing, So that’s the intention I was moving with.
“I see.”
After hearing the whole course of the proxy match, Cheong-ui accepted it.
It seemed Cheong-ui could practically see the entire proxy match in his mind.
That was how exact Cheong-su’s explanation had been.
So this is what martial arts experts are like.
I found myself amazed all over again.
“So there really was a reason Cheong-hwa took notice of you.”
“Indeed.”
There was interest in the way Cheong-ui looked at me.
“To be honest, I did not think you would rise to my expectation. Even I knew the order I gave you was unfair.”
So you did know that.
I wanted to say that, but under Cheong-ui’s weighty gaze I couldn’t quite bring myself to let it out.
“But you handled the task magnificently, and you also proved your talent.”
At that moment, I suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.
It was the intuition I had honed as a merchant.
That intuition had almost never been wrong.
Just as I was about to speak, Cheong-ui continued.
“And so, as of today, I intend to grant you a Daoist name and enter you as a main-sect disciple.”
“…Ah.”
As always, that intuition had not been wrong.
But Cheong-ui seemed to misunderstand my sigh.
“Heh heh. You must be surprised too. The last time a lay disciple was entered as a main-sect disciple was fifty years ago. Lay disciples usually enter when their age is already far along, so unless their talent is extraordinary, Wudang does not take them in. You are now one of Wudang, and you may take pride in that. I, the sect leader, permit it.”
Cheong-su’s expression became awkward.
He knew that I did not want to become a main-sect disciple.
“S-Senior Brother Sect Leader…”
“And I would like to grant you one thing you desire. Saving four hundred nyang of silver is a substantial achievement. So long as it is not something utterly absurd, I will grant it.”
Cheong-ui glared at Cheong-su.
The look clearly meant, How dare you interrupt while the sect leader is speaking.
On the other hand, Cheong-ui’s final words were no different from a lifeline to me.
“You’ll grant me what I want?”
“Yes. I am not a man who speaks empty words.”
“Then please expel me from being a main-sect disciple. Just don’t cripple my dantian.”
At my words, Cheong-ui froze, blinking only his eyes.
Cheong-su covered his face with a palm.
He looked exactly like someone who had known this was going to happen.
“…What did you just say?”
“Exactly what I said. I have no intention of becoming a main-sect disciple of Wudang.”
Cheong-ui looked as though the world itself had collapsed.
It seemed Cheong-hwa had not told the sect leader about this.
Then again, there was no reason to tell someone who embodied Wudang’s pride that there was a lay disciple who had no desire for Wudang.
“This boy is a strange one, you see. He says he doesn’t want to be bound to Wudang by becoming a main-sect disciple. Ha ha.”
Cheong-su belatedly forced a laugh to ease the atmosphere, but the meeting room had already gone cold.
Still, I had expected at least this much.
If I didn’t say it here, I would be trapped as a main-sect disciple without any recourse.
“If you become a disciple of Wudang, you may learn superior martial arts, and anyone in the Central Plains will acknowledge you as a disciple of Wudang. And yet you dislike that?”
“It isn’t so much that I dislike it. I simply have something else I need to do.”
“Something more important than becoming a main-sect disciple of Wudang?”
Cheong-ui asked the question as though demanding an answer.
As the sect leader, his pride was clearly deeply wounded.
Naturally so.
Who would ever refuse to become a main-sect disciple of Wudang?
And to think the one doing so was the son of a farmer with nothing at all.
“Yes. I want to make money.”
“Money?”
“I like money, you see.”
I felt not the slightest shame in saying that, not even after my previous life.
My goal was to live as I had before.
My only real regret from that life was taking the request from the Martial Alliance Leader to safeguard that Divine Demon Pill or whatever it was called.
If not for that wretched commission, I would have spent the last years of my life living in full luxury.
I had expected Cheong-ui to be disappointed by my answer.
In truth, I had spoken that bluntly because I wanted him to be disappointed.
But Cheong-ui’s expression was unexpectedly serious.
“I do not think earning money is a bad thing. Our Daoists of Wudang possess no private wealth, but with Wudang’s money we buy goods, eat food, and tailor our robes. Even theft has its own way, so how could there be no way to earning money?”
“I think so too.”
“But you have already learned the Azure Cloud Steps. If you are to be expelled as a main-sect disciple, then either your dantian must be crippled, or your ankles cut off before you leave.”
I flinched.
That was the point that had troubled me most, even as I pleaded with Cheong-ui.
Still, there was an unfair side to it.
I had only climbed a cliff.
What was I supposed to do if I ended up learning the art from that?
“I’ve never even considered a case like this before. It leaves me rather at a loss.”
“I do feel sorry for saying such a thing.”
I spoke honestly.
At least toward someone who recognized the way of merchants, I had no desire to come at him aggressively.
Silence fell over the Three Purities Hall.
Cheong-su and I stood there awkwardly, while Cheong-ui wore the expression of someone considering something carefully.
“There is a system called the registered lay disciple.”
At last, after the long silence, Cheong-ui opened his mouth.
“The main-sect disciples of Wudang place their names upon the register that descends from our founding patriarchs. It is a report to Heaven, saying that this disciple is being accepted before the founding patriarchs. Yet even after one’s name is recorded, one may still remain a lay disciple.”
“There is such a thing?”
The one who asked was not me, but Cheong-su.
From the look of it, even Cheong-su had not known such a system existed.
“Naturally, you wouldn’t know. This was a system used during the time when the Demonic Cult ran rampant, in order to raise the martial strength of the Central Plains in a short period.”
The last great war between the righteous and the demonic had taken place well over a hundred years ago.
It was no surprise that people of the Cheong generation would not know of it now.
“I had no idea such a system existed.”
“Even I only learned of it after examining the records of previous sect leaders. It is natural that you wouldn’t know.”
Cheong-ui turned his face toward me.
“A registered lay disciple may learn Wudang’s martial arts and bears the duty to answer Wudang’s summons, but beyond that no compulsion exists.”
“…That sounds good.”
To be precise, it could hardly have sounded any better.
Wasn’t that just saying I could use Wudang’s name for what it was worth while still conducting my merchant ventures as I pleased?
“However, since the Demonic Cult is not rampant in the present age, we may be setting a bad precedent if we do this.”
Just as I thought.
There was no way such a convenient system would pass easily.
Even I felt shameless just listening to it.
“I will place this before the council of elders. It is difficult for me to decide something that may leave a precedent by my own authority.”
“And if the council does not approve it?”
“Then you become a main-sect disciple. And you will receive a Daoist name.”
“Well then.”
Seeing my face crumple, Cheong-ui let out a dry laugh.
“To think someone would wriggle so hard because he doesn’t want to become a main-sect disciple of Wudang. Truly, one must live long to see all things.”
“There are all kinds of people in the world.”
That was something I felt every day while traveling in trade.
People never became tiresome to meet, because every one of them was different.
“Even so, I will not place it before the elders immediately. I will give you a grace period of three months.”
“A grace period for what?”
“A grace period for you to win over the elders.”
“…!”
I was genuinely surprised.
I had not expected him to make things this easy for me.
“You have brought great profit to Wudang, so think of this as the sect leader’s recompense for that. However, if it does not pass through the elders’ council, then even I can do nothing.”
“Yes. Understood.”
At those words, I bowed deeply, then left together with Cheong-su.
The elegant mountain ranges of Wudang spread before us.
How exactly was I supposed to persuade the elders?
The future before me felt hopelessly blocked.